Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (The Irregular at Magic High School) Review

Get used to seeing this picture peeps, you'll be seeing it A LOT in this review...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back with a brand new review. Before we begin, let me take a few seconds to explain to the ill-informed what a light novel is. A light novel is a type of Japanese novel targeted mainly towards young adults (Thanks Wikipedia). I bring this up because in recent years, these have been the choice for new anime, manga, and live action movie adaptations in Japan. Some of these have been very fun and entertaining

This is the only Light Novel anime I've seen from start to finish...still good though.

Others...have been...

I don't care what the fanboys say, this show's best arc was mediocre at best...

The series I'm talking about today is another light novel adaptation. One that was one of the most talked about and praised anime of the spring season this year. This series is none other than the Irregular at Magic High School. But is the series a Fate Zero level light novel adaptation, or a Sword Art Online level adaptation? Let's dive into this sucker and find out. 

Synopsis:

You know, this pic really makes me wonder how a James Bond anime would play out...

The Irregular at Magic High School takes place in a world where magic isn't magic in the traditional sense, but more technology based. It focuses on our two main characters: Brother and Sister Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba as they're enrolled in the Magic University originally titled First High; a school used to train the best magicians. Those students in the school who excel at the 'technical' magical skills are Course One Students or 'Blooms', as they're called by their peers. Those who are lacking in this department are Course Two students aka 'Weeds'.

Speaking of Weed, you'll need it if you want to finish this snoozefest. Unfortunately, I don't smoke. Nor do I recommend it to anyone...

The Good: The magic. Seeing as its the biggest draw to the show, it HAS to at least leave an impression on viewers. The series succeeds on that front. When a character uses magic in Irregular, it just looks and sounds cool. 

Speaking of sound let's talk about the soundtrack. This series in certain scenes such as their "action" sequences, uses electronic like music and it fits pretty well with the series. Undoubtedly, the one thing I took away from watching this show was how nice the music was, it just stood out to me and I found myself bopping my head along with some of the tracks. This, of course, also applies to the show's two openings  Rising Hope by Lisa and Grilletto by Garnidelia (If you're into J-Rock/pop/whatever genre these two songs would classify in, listen to them). This was the only thing that I was actually looking forward to with each passing episode, as you're about to read when I dive into...

The Bad:

Oh my god...where do I begin?

First of all, let's go into the designs of the series. The character designs, while fitting the more "realistic" look the show's going for, are very...VERY generic. There aren't a lot of characters that really stand out from a visual standpoint in this series, hell I'd even go as far as to say that a lot of the characters look alike and aren't very distinguishable; and the ones that DO stand out do so only because they COMPLETELY RIP OFF OTHER SERIES!! 

Masaki Ichijou from Irregular

Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass

Speaking of characters (or lack of), let's talk about our two main characters. First, there's our leading man, Tatsuya Shiba. When Tatsuya's introduced, he's seen nuking sh*t. Quite Literally. This is where my first problem comes with Tatsuya: He's Overpowered as all hell. Now admittedly, I don't mind OP characters as long as they're given some sort of challenge or conflict (whether that's internal or external, it's up to the author). Tatsuya is given NEITHER of these. When we see him in high school, we find out he's a course 2 student because he lacks practical magic skills to be a course one student. Now with this, you would assume that the story would be about him having to overcome his handicap and prove himself to the Course One students.

In this series, Tatsuya doesn't have to overcome anything; as a matter of fact, I'd go as far as to say in this series: HE.IS.GOD; The show even goes out of the way to say it!! Why would I say something as ridiculous as that? Well for one, we never...NEVER see Tatsuya in a situation he could lose. Every fight we see him in, he's curbstomping his opponents. Whenever it seems like the opponent has the upper hand, a minute later,  we see them on the ground because of Tatsuya. The prime example of this is with Masaki, the guy in the picture I showed above when speaking of character designs. In the end of the first opening, we see him with his gun pointing at Tatsuya and the two are ready to shoot one another down.  

You have to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk? 

When he's properly introduced into the series, he's talked about and presented as someone who could be a threat to Tatsuya. This lasted for two to three episodes. When they finally face off? Tatsuya had a counter for Masaki's ENTIRE strategy. No-sells what would have been a fatal blow and beats him with one move...

When you watch the Irregular at Magic High School, you will continuously see the story bend over backwards just so we can see an "Awesome" moment from Tatsuya that makes him look "cool". Changing the rules of a tournament at the last minute so he could be included? No problem. Have almost EVERY character praise him and talk about how his tech surpasses everyone else's? Absolutely! Having him repeatedly bend the rules of magic (like him inventing flying magic and bringing the dead back to life)? On a motherf**kin' whim!! The worst part is people see all this happening and they see it as badass. This, a flat, stale character who is ALWAYS right, NEVER struggles, is considered badass? HELL NO!!

THIS GUY is a Badass

THIS GUY is a badass

THIS GUY is a Badass (It don't matter if he's a video game character!!)

Tatsuya Shiba has no personality, and no: being calm all the time and protecting Miyuki doesn't count. Having a personality means you can make more than one facial expression all the time. Every time I see that emotionless look on his face, it just takes me out of the story. He is nothing more than a self-insert Gary-Stu. Plain wish fulfillment. Fans of this character overlook the blandness of his character and all the bullshit that he pulls and only pay attention to how great he looks, his intellect, the way he beats everyone no problem. The way he garners attention from everyone, and all the praise that's showered at him and they say: 

Tatsuya fans: Why can't WE be like the one true god Tatsuya?!?!

I know anime fans are tired of the young, naive and sometimes stupid male characters who get beaten  a majority of the time, but are characters like Tatsuya Shiba, and  Kirito from sword art online better substitutes? Short answer: No. They're not. They're invincible characters who in-story never have to work hard for ANYTHING. You don't have the thought that maybe they might lose 'cause you know for a fact that THEY WON'T. It just makes you want to cheer for the bad guy to win.

Anyways, I'm done talking about Tatsuya. Let's talk about his younger sister, our main female protagonist, Miyuki. Miyuki...well...she loves her brother...no you guys don't get it, she LOVES her brother. How much?

So what, if we have the same Motheeeer? Tonight, I'm gonna fuck my brotheeeeeeerrrrr!

Okay, this scene isn't what people think it is. But you can bet that every night before she goes to bed that Miyuki wished, and then probably dreamed about, her "ONII-SAMA!!" becoming her daddy for one night. I know Japan has no problem with showing incest in their anime, but that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable for me to see how excited this girl gets whenever her brother touches her or even looks her way...

You guys are probably wondering why I'm spending so much time talking about Miyuki's love for her brother and not about her other character traits. Well that's because she DOESN'T HAVE any character traits outside of her love for her brother. I dare anyone reading this to go watch any two episodes of this show and pick out ANY line of dialogue Miyuki had that didn't in SOME way revolve around Tatsuya. Seriously, Diddy hyping up Biggie Smalls doesn't even compare to how much Miyuki goes around and says "How great her brother is" or how "No one could beat him". And that's not even going into the fact that she's as much of a sue as Tatsuya is a Stu...As for our secondary characters? Well we have everyone's favorite high school anime character archetypes:

The muscle-headed comedy relief

The Red Head

The Big tittied shy girl

The beautiful upperclassman that teases the main character

The Emotionless Girl

And I'm not even sure I got them all. Now let's tackle the story shall we? The series opens up with a narration of how magic became a technology that was used as a tool to bring an end to World War Three. This is where my first problem with the series (which admittedly might be more of a personal nitpick) comes from: The Irregular at Magic High School completely glances over the fact that A THIRD WORLD WAR HAPPENED!! Seriously, that's not something you can just sum up in thirty seconds. If you ask me, the events that led up to WWIII then seeing magic being discovered and weaponized to win the war would've made for a more interesting story to tell. Then, if you want, you can have the next seasons be about how people find uses for magic after the war THEN you go the high school route. 

Although, one of my biggest issues with this show is its handling of magic. The Irregular at Magic High School somehow manages to both Over Complicate and not explain magic at the same time. There are a lot of different types of magic in this series, and because of that, the show takes time to tediously explain how these spell works. Meanwhile, as these explanations are going on, I'm sitting in front of my laptop like:

The phrase 'It's Magic' in fiction is frowned upon by people as a lot of the time, it's used as a cop out answer so that an author or a show doesn't have to explain itself when certain events happen. This is a method I feel Irregular could have GREATLY benefited from when it comes to their version of magic. When it comes to certain aspects of storytelling, I'm a straight forward guy. In a show about Magic, I don't need a third of an episode to go into detail about how a spell depends on the inertia of an object or crap like that. All I need is two sentences that sums a type of magic, then proceed to see characters blow shit up. 

But fine, we have this techno babble of a magic system. Here comes my second problem with it, the show doesn't explain the things that SHOULD be elaborated on. If you're going to do your own thing with Magic show, take the time to explain the basic concepts and terminologies. I don't need a two to three minute explanation of what a flying spell or a sorcery boost is; those are self explanatory. What I need to know is what's a CAD? I can assume it's a tool you summon using your magic, but then what are the requirements of summoning CAD? If a CAD is something that can be calibrated, can it be built from scratch? What's a Psion? I can assume its the energy used to perform magic, but then what are the drawbacks of using too many psions? Can they be transferred to other magicians?

But the show's version of magic is just a small part of a much larger problem of the series: Expositions and info dumps. There are WAY too many scenes where the characters are just sitting around and explaining something; it got to the point where when it happened, my mind just blanked out and wandered to other things. It feels less like world building and story progression and more like padding out an episode cause 'hey, we need twenty minute episodes.'. Too many times, I've finished an episode of this series and asked myself: 'Did anything happen that moved the story forward?'

Conclusion: The Irregular at Magic High School is BORING! Mind numbingly so. When it isn't using the same old tired tropes in high school anime, it's having its head up its own ass with its convoluted yet vague magic system that either takes too much time explaining things or not taking enough time to explain things! I made it to episode twenty before I finally couldn't take it anymore and bailed out. The plot's generic, the main characters, when they're not being perfect living gods among us, are just walking, talking pieces of wood; and the side characters are painfully one note. Now when it comes to this series, the common defense I hear is: 'This make more sense in the light novel' or 'The light novel did it better'. To which I respond with: This is an adaptation of the light novel! The point of an adaptation is to take the source material and successfully transfer it to whatever it is its being adapted into. I shouldn't have to go read a novel to get the full story in the animation, that's just a job badly done. This is an uninteresting, uninspiring, un...some third word with the 'un' prefix that means boring, that people should avoid like the freaking plague!!!   

That's all I have to say about this "series". Till next time, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying:

Take Care...

Why CW's 'The Flash' is Awesome

Rollin' Around at the Speed Of--Damn it! Wrong Fictional Speedster...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation with a brand new Topic. Back in May of this year, after the Season 2 finale of Arrow, we were treated with a teaser trailer for a new Superhero show that would spin off from Arrow: The Flash. When I saw the first teaser to this show, I rolled my eyes. From the dark suit to the actor playing Barry Allen, the show just seemed like it was going to be another Arrow...and no Superhero show should EVER be like Arrow.

But when the very first trailer made its way online, it actually gave me hope for the show. It had the tone and feel I want out of something Superhero related. Then, the series premiered, and after two episodes, I was completely hooked on it. But, it's simple to say that it's a great show. What I'm here to do is tell you WHY I feel The Flash is the best superhero show on TV right now and convince the naysayers why it's worth watching.

First Off:

A Great lead character

The Key to any good story is a main character the audience can get behind. To me, Barry Allen is that main character. While Grant Gustin doesn't have the look that most would associate with Barry Allen, his portrayal more than makes up for it. He's pretty much like any guy: A man with every day issues and problems that he has to deal with who by mere chance (Or was it?) gains superpowers. He stands out amongst the dark and brooding characters that make the majority of the DC superheroes represented in live action media nowadays. When he gains his powers, he doesn't sit around and mope about how he'll be alone and no one will understand him. No, he does what anyone who gains superpowers does: he has fun with them. He uses them in scenarios that could help him out, even if it's in the most mundane ways; and he's more than ready to use his new gifts to help people.

Barry Allen, much like Peter Parker in Sam Raimi's Spiderman movies, is the underdog. He's the guy who has to balance using his powers for good, while still being there for those closest to them and handle the situations that his personal life hands out to him. Hell, he's a better Peter Parker than the guy who currently plays Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-man movies.

Sorry Andrew Garfield. You're still a great Spider-man though...

What else makes The Flash a great show is:

The Show fully embraces the weirdness that comes with Superheroes

One of the biggest reasons I was initially against the Flash was because I feared that the show was going to try to make the Flash 'more realistic' like the show it spun off of, thus making it very boring in the process...

Maybe one day, I'll actually talk about this show. But that would require me to sit down and watch more than two episodes of it...Excuse me while I shudder at that thought...

The first five minutes of this series, we see Reverse Flash, the Flash's arch enemy, killing Barry's mother when Barry was a kid. At the very end of the first episode, we see this nice little picture.

Pay very close to the details in this picture...

To those who don't know, The Flash is no stranger to time travel. As a matter of fact, he's rearranged time itself and in the process created a brand new universe/timeline (Don't believe me? Watch the animated movie Flashpoint Paradox) What the pic. above and the Reserve Flash moment I just described have in common is that it guarantees that at some point or another, we WILL see the Flash get into some time traveling shenanigans.

Not only that, the show pulls no punches when it comes to the metahumans we see Barry battle. So far, we've seen people that can control the weather, make copies of themselves, turn everything they touch into a bomb and my personal favorite, a dude with a gun that can freeze people.

What killed the Dinosaurs? THE ICE AGE!!!

My final reason for why the Flash is so great is that seeing The Flash's speed is just plain greatness. The Flash shows that Television shows have come a long way showing super speed since the days of Smallville. Every time I see Barry suit up and take off as the Flash, it's exciting to see. Don't believe me? Here's just SOME of the Flash's speed on the show

Skip to the 50 sec. mark to those that don't want to watch this whole scene.

At the end of the day. The Flash is a show with a lot of heart put into it. It's use of special effects, mysteries (All two of them) and it's extremely likable hero make it the best Superhero show on the small screen today. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you watch tonight's episode. I know I will. 

Till next time, I'm The Shaman of Animation saying that there needs to be a scene in the Flash where Barry's at a Karaoke Bar. Why? Because someone on twitter linked this and I now want to see Grant Gustin singing on The Flash.

Viewers of The Flash can never unsee this now: Which means I've done my job...Take Care everybody.

WWE:Survivor Series 2014 Review/Discussion

WHOO!! OH MAN...I'm still getting off the high of this moment...

Greetings Ladies and Gents, it is I, the Shaman of Animation here with something new: A wrestling topic. Tonight, I'm here to discuss the latest WWE Event: Survivor Series.

Now to be perfectly honest, I missed the first hour of the PPV. So I couldn't really comment on it, all I know was that The Miz and Damien Mizdow were crowned the new Tag Team champions. This makes sense considering how over Mizdow is with the crowd. There was also a traditional survivor series tag team match for the divas... although, from what I've heard about it, the less I talk about it, the better...

The Lunatic versus The Eater of Worlds!!

Next up is the first match I actually saw: Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt. This was hands down one of my most anticipated matches on the card....and they kinda pissed it away just for build up to the next PPV. Which is a shame cause I thought that the match started decent and I was beginning to really get into it right as they cut it off...The scene where Ambrose got disqualified dragged on a bit...

Next up, Slater Gator vs Adam Rose and his Bunny.....Spidey?

Thank You...

Next up, Nikki Bella vs AJ Lee...which was like a two minute match, that consisted of Brie Bella kissing AJ and Nikki hitting AJ with her finisher. There's not really a lot to talk about here. I can just imagine during the Brie/AJ kiss that Daniel Bryan and CM Punk were both at home thinking:

Dude.... Orgy...

Next up is the Roman Reigns interview...where he said the same thing he said, the last two times he was in an interview, except now, he's given an announce for when he's returning to which he answered: a month. Guys, I know you want to make Reigns the next guy and I agree he's got the look. But you need to actually let him be off TV, no interviews or anything like that, just let him heal up and keep him off TV so that fans will miss him.

Now for the main event: Team Cena vs. Team Authority. My God, this match was AMAZING!!! Without a doubt, the best part of Survivor Series. The match was creative with the ways a lot of members of each team was eliminated, it did a good job showcasing the future guys (Seth Rollins, Rusev, Harper, Rowan.) But the real MVP of the match is this man:

It ain't showing off when you can back it up...

Dolph Freaking Ziggler. He was simply phenomenal in this match up. From his selling to the way he was booked. After Cena was knocked out by the Big Show (who turned heel for the trillionth time), Dolph was the last man standing in Team Cena and was facing off against  three members of Team Authority. He did a terrific job presenting himself as the underdog in the match and when he finally won the match, it was a great sight.

Now let's address the elephant in the room here and talk about the biggest shock of the night:

For years, the closest fans got to this stare down was the video games, but to see it actually happen is beautiful...

When no one expected it, the Icon, the man to never jump ship from WCW, STING, made his WWE debut to help out Dolph Ziggler. There isn't a lot to say here other than it was awesome seeing Sting in a WWE ring and I'm excited to see what he does. Here's hoping we're close to this match happening:

We're now closer to it than ever!!!

If I can be perfectly honest, this Survivor Series overall was just bad. Aside from the main event and Sting, everything felt like a throw away segment. Let this be a lesson for the guys at the WWE: Don't focus on just ONE part of your PPV event, otherwise you hurt the entire show as a whole. If I were to grade Survivor Series, I'd give it a C-, once again just for the main event and Sting.

But that's all I have to say about this so I'm signing off. Till next time, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying:

 I just wanted a vid that said Ta Ta For now: But THAT was too hard for YT apparently 

 

RWBY Volume 2 Review

Oh...This is Gonna Ruffle Some Feathers, isn't it? 

Two Steps forward, Two steps back. That's more or less this volume summed up in a nutshell. Greetings Ladies and Gents, It is I the Shaman of Animation here with my review of RWBY Volume 2. 

Synopsis: RWBY is an anime inspired web series created by Monty Oum (of Dead Fantasy and Haloid Fame) for Rooster Teeth (The same studio that brought Red vs Blue) in 2013. The show follows four main characters: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long in the World of Remnant, a world filled with magical elements such as the Monsters known as Grimm. Our four main characters are enrolled in Beacon Academy, a school that trains young adults into warriors known as huntsmen/huntresses in order to combat the Grimm.

I thought that Volume one of the show, while VERY rough around the edges, was an adequate effort by Rooster Teeth and gave viewers enough to want to continue on and keep watching to see improvement. Now that we're here, has Rooster Teeth improved on their shortcomings in Volume One? Well if my first sentence signifies anything: no. But let's take a deeper look and see why, shall we?

 The Good: RWBY Volume two has given a major overhaul to its backgrounds. The first volume featured a lot of black shadows for people and its big city backgrounds seemed very barren. This volume has fixed this problem. The backgrounds are more dynamic, and the previous ghost towns have more in them which helps give the settings more life.

                                

ZOMG! ACTUAL BACKGROUND CHARACTERS!!!

The fight scenes continue to be the best part of the show. If you haven't seen any of Monty Oum's work in the past, then you'll get a kick out of the fights here in RWBY. This Volume cranks up the fight scenes to where they're seen more frequently and they are even more over-the-top as the previous volume (You'll believe me after the first episode of Vol. 2)

Your eyes do not deceive you. This girl is holding a swordfish like a weapon. The scene in which this is happening is as awesome as it is ridiculous...

The voice actors from Vol. 1 reprise the roles of their characters and you can tell that they feel a lot more comfortable in their roles this go round than they did in Vol.1 which adds for improved performances from the main cast. The episodes in Volume are also at least 12 minutes long, which seriously helps the show as it no longer feels like you're watching part of an episode on a weekly basis and gives satisfying conclusions to episodes...or at least it should...

The Bad: Oh boy...we made it here. Before I begin this, let me say that I DO like RWBY. I think it's a show with a cool concept, character designs and has GREAT potential. What is going to be said in this section is being said in hopes that the writers of the show will see this, and take this as suggestions for the next volume...season...whatever.

One of the biggest problems in Vol. 1 of RWBY was the constant missteps in the writing. That problem...hasn't been fixed in Vol. 2. RWBY is not aware of the phrase: 'Show, don't tell.' It throws out all these concepts without ever really taking the time to explain or develop ANYTHING. You will spend a good chunk of watching this volume asking the questions:

WHO?!

WHAT?!?

AND WHY?!?!?!?

For example, this Volume has our antagonists: Cinder Fall, Emerald, Mercury, and Roman Torchwick collecting Dust (A type of energy in the RWBY world) for...reasons...what those reasons are? It's never explained. Just like it's never explained who exactly Cinder, Emerald, or Mercury are. We just know they're bad because they're bad, which I'd be fine with if I had any sort of idea what their motives were. I can't exactly be against the bad guys if I don't know WHY I should. Even something as mundane as world domination would help...

Which brings me to their next action, the next episode Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are seen, they are disguised as students in Beacon Academy to watch the students to add to 'the list' and pull up old Beacon files? I put a question mark because the shows never says WHY they're there infiltrating the academy, or why there's "A list". I suppose the show is purposely doing this to build some sort of mystery around these characters, but it's just not working for me. It's just making me care less about them.

It also doesn't help the fact that the writers more or less FAIL at making the villains seem credible in their plans. Throughout ninety-eight percent of the Volume, the main characters are pretty much seen kicking the villains' asses in battle. The villains never have a big win under their belts which hurts their legitimacy. The only times someone on the villains' side was able to beat a member of team RWBY (Yang to be exact) was when a girl who before her first fight, we've only seen ONCE, curb-stomps Yang, and this was followed by some no name mook with a chainsaw beating Weiss.

You'd think a giant Robot like this would provide a challenge to the main characters, but nope. One of these gets taken out by a F**KING CORGI!!!!

Speaking of non threatening, let's talk about the Grimm, you know, the things that our heroes are trained to fight and are considered to be the biggest threat to mankind in the RWBY universe? They show up in the last third of the volume and are about as threatening as the care bears. There was a picture perfect way to make the Grim a credible threat in the penultimate episode of the volume as they've broken out into the city and are chasing after humans. They even manage to heavily outnumber our main heroes. I'm sure you're thinking that there's nothing wrong with this so far, it's creating tension and helps build to what could be some dark material.

Well guess what? The very next episode, ALL the Grimm are killed. Almost effortlessly by the secondary characters of the series who show up right on time, and four random @$$holes who we only saw just ONCE (One of them who only had ONE line of dialogue the entire volume) ; these guys end up curb stomping the Grimm, not our heroes, not the secondary team that's already been established, it's these guys!! The most damage that happened was the show SAYING a lot of people got hurt and SAYING there was a lot of damage. The Grimm are the textbook definition of canon fodder!! How would you all feel if the Titans from Attack on Titan were all taken out in one shot? Or if the Akatsuki from Naruto were all beaten in five minutes? That's how you're gonna feel with this last ep. of volume 2; you'll look at it and at the end of it, you'll say:

In the process of finding this Spider-man meme, I found several others on Google & had a good laugh. You could spend all day reading those Spidey memes. Good time all around...

A lot of fans defend the poor ending as 'just setting up for the next volume.' To which I call BS on. Setting up for the future doesn't excuse a weak finish in the present. You wanna know how Book 1 of Avatar the last Airbender ended? With our heroes finally getting to the North Pole, stopping the Fire Nation from destroying the North Pole, Katara becoming a water bending master (thus ending her character arc of that season), the Gang continuing their journey for Aang to master all four elements and a brief glimpse at Azula.

But oh wait, it's "not fair" to compare a "professionally made" series like ATLA to a web series like RWBY. Then here's this for a "better" comparison: You wanna know how the first season of TOME by Chris Niosi (which you should totally check out by the way) ended? With our main protagonists beating the Forbidden power followed by a short that went into detail about the villains with an amazing twist that tied it all together, and then ending it by showing that the forbidden power wasn't gone for good.

You know what ATLA and TOME had in common? A very strong season finale that wrapped up the events of that season while foreshadowing what was next in the series. Something that RWBY fails to do and decides to sweep that fact under the rug by saying and I quote: "Not every story has a neat and tidy ending."

I want you all to go to YouTube, type in RWBY volume 2 episode 12 and search for the comment with the most thumbs up (Which is mine) What I'm about to say here is the same as what I said there: That line, that one. single. line. Was essentially the show in the kindest of ways giving every single viewer a middle finger and saying we don't have to explain anything to you, you're gonna tune in next year anyway. Yet they made sure that all the Grimm were taken care of in the final episode and our heroes were sitting and starring off into the sunset...That's not foreshadowing... that's plain lazy writing.

RoosterTeeth, something is seriously wrong when fanfictions and an Alternate Universe comic made by your fans tell a better story than your actual show.

 Speaking of, Check out RWBY Henceforward by kumafromtaiwan on Tumblr. It's not a bad read...

I've talked about the villains and the ending enough. Let's talk about some of the other issues I found with Volume 2. This volume used two of the biggest cliches I've seen...the first being the villains in the same school as the heroes cliche. Now granted, that's nowhere NEAR as bad as say, the other cliche. The School Dance... 

*Sigh* Oh God, we've made it here...

This subplot...this stupid...stupid... subplot, has to be one of the biggest two and a half episodes I've seen in a show ever. This subplot takes place after, IMO, one of the best episodes of the Volume, and continues for another two. I've seen people defending this subplot, saying that: 'It gives time to develop the characters and take a break from the actual story and all the action.'

Now to be fair, those fans would've had a point there...if the show deserved the right to actually take a break from the plot when in reality, they had JUST STARTED getting into the plot. There were literally TWO episodes of the main plot of the volume before the writers decided now was a good time to take a break...Before the end of episode two of volume two, the characters were just jacking around getting into food fights and playing Yu-Gi-Oh rip-off card games!!

Look how INTENSE and plot heavy this is!! Next they're gonna start playing with Beyblades!!!

The main focus of this arc was that character 'A' wanted to go to the dance with character 'B' but character 'B' wanted to go with character 'C'. Meanwhile Character 'D' likes character 'A' but he's too busy focusing on character 'B' to notice and this sounds very annoying to you doesn't it? Now you know how I felt when I watched this. It's one of the most painful things to do in a show about teenagers.

 I'm just gonna call a spade a spade and say what this whole dance arc was: Shipping fuel.It was just there to give the people who loved drawing fan art of their favorite pairings material to draw and also draw the ire of the fans of certain ships. I'm not gonna sit here and say I don't take some pleasure in shipping characters, but this whole arc gave me flashbacks to two of THE WORST shipping wars I've seen: The Narusaku/Naruhina war from Naruto and the Makorra/Masami war from Legend of Korra...I should never be reminded of those two shipping wars...

The only good to come out of this was that we FINALLY got some backstory to one of our four main characters that also answered a question that had been asked for a while. Back story that we SHOULD have gotten in the first volume, which in turn makes the payoff to the long awaited answer of that question very unsatisfying...

Which leads me to this: In ep. 5, we see Jaune, one of the secondary characters (And The best developed character in the show) worrying about not using his aura (some mambo jumbo I don't really care about explaining right now). So why not have the next two episodes that followed it not be about some dance, but about Jaune learning to use his Aura while Team RWBY investigate what's going on with the villains. That way, we have character development while STILL focusing on the main story.

Speaking of the title characters, let's move on to Team RWBY themselves. This volume...they're actually a well oiled machine. They have team formations (Which is really just pandering to shippers), they work well on the field and they, outside of one scenario, communicate greatly with each other...and that's where I have a problem. I feel that a good chunk of develop for the team was just skipped over. The last volume revealed that Blake was a Faunus (A human with animal traits) and a, a species that Weiss hated for all the damage  they did to her family. In the last volume, that arc was wrapped up in two episodes and NEVER touched upon again in this Volume...

This is where I feel RoosterTeeth missed out on a great opportunity. They could have ended with Blake and Weiss coming to mutual terms in the final episode of volume one and in Volume Two, there was still some Animosity between the two; that the trust between them isn't fully there, which could have expanded on the inner conflict that was established on in Volume one. Instead, we get the team worried about Blake not going to a dance...

The Rock questions your story choices Monty Oum.

Conclusion: 

Everyone, I want you to watch the opening for RWBY Vol. 2

Now I want you to watch the trailer for it...

These two clips were shown two months before the Volume premiered online. You all have no idea how excited I was when I saw these. It seemed as though RT and Monty had gotten their feet wet, understood what worked and what didn't in Volume 1 and were ready to go for Vol. 2. Not to mention the promises they made that this volume would be more "character based" and be more serious than the previous  So you guys would have to imagine my utter disappointment when the Volume finished.

I cut RWBY volume 1 a lot of slack as it was a fairly new and experimental project that was trying to find its footing. But now it's been over twenty episodes.... and I ran out of kindness. All this volume is is set up for the next one as nothing really gets resolved in this volume. It seems that for every positive the show has going for it, there seems to be twice the negatives that hold it down. The plot just seems to meander around and take a back seat for cliches and inconsistencies (Like the awesome trailers before the series first premiered that had no meaning to the show actually having a meaning suddenly).

I could forgive shoddy animation along with not so great production as long as the writing's good. That's the one thing that both Monty and the RWBY fanbase needs to understand. Not being a "big time professional studio" does not excuse poor writing...

During this volume's duration, I came to a realization. The RWBY fanbase (and even Monty to an extent) treats the series like it's a big name show until it gets critiqued like a big name show. They praise it and say it's better and more original than a lot of anime, but when it gets compared to a series like Kill la Kill, they retreat and use the defense "It's just a web show." Well guess what? If RT wants to sell merchandise like DVDs and figurines, get licensed and dubbed over in Japan, and get promoted on Crunchyroll like it's a big name anime, they better be ready to be judged as such.

I'm coming down on RWBY as hard as I am because unlike other critics, I do see the potential in it. I want Monty and RT to succeed and show WHY this show deserves to be up there on Crunchyroll along with series like Madoka Magica and Fate Zero. But as it is right now, it's just a show that's hyped to the sky because of the names attached to it, and as it is, I can only like the show in concept...

If you're at all interested in RWBY...just go find the fight scenes. They're uploaded separately from the show itself so they shouldn't hard to find. Here's hoping next Year, the guys at Rooster Teeth manage to wow me with volume three...or Season 2 volume one...or...oh who cares...

Till next time, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying that if you made it this far and read this ENTIRE thing...

Take Care...

How to Make Marvel and Star Wars WORK in Kingdom Hearts 3

I wonder how many blogs have used this pic for a KH3 topic...

Greetings Ladies an Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation with a new topic discussion. To those uninformed, I am a HUGE fan of the Kingdom Hearts Franchise. I remember watching that very first cutscene from the first game as a kid and being completely hooked on it. Its strange combination of Final Fantasy and Disney along with awesome game play and...an admittedly convoluted story turned me into a fan of it to this day.

So when Kingdom Hearts 3 was finally announced, you can bet that I was STOKED. My exact reaction was something along the lines of this:

Of course when the game was announced, myself, along with the rest of the KH fanbase, were going wild just thinking of what movies from the Disney Library could be made into worlds for the newest KH game. This in turn caused a certain topic to rise among fans: Should Marvel and Star Wars be in KH3?

To those who don't know, back in December of 2009 Disney bought the rights to the comic book and Movie making company Marvel. Then, in 2012, they bought Star Wars; meaning that Iron Man and Darth Vader all live in the same house as Mickey Mouse (Sadly not Spider-Man...one day webhead...one day...)    

The majority of Kingdom Hearts Fans felt very opposed to the idea of seeing something like this in the third (except not really third) installment of the KH franchise, thinking it would ruin the feel of Kingdom Hearts:

I wonder how many blogs have used THIS pic for a KH3 topic...

But, I'm going to be the one guy in the minority to say that yes, Marvel and Star Wars CAN indeed fit in Kingdom Hearts 3. When people here think of this notion of Marvel and Star Wars, they think about Sora, Donald, and Goofy going into actual Marvel and Star Wars Themed Worlds dressed as Superheroes/Jedi and having one of The Avengers/Luke Skywalker in your party. My ideas are MUCH smaller than that, and they can be easily weaved without being jarring at all.

For my first idea, If you go on Youtube and search for D23 Expo Japan 2013 (try saying that three times fast) footage shown for Kingdom Hearts 3, you'll see a small clip of Sora, Donald, and Goofy on a roller coaster battling the Rock Titan from Disney's Hercules.

CHOO CHOO MUTHAFUCKA!!!

Now fans of the franchise will know that this isn't the Rock Titan's first appearance in Kingdom Hearts. He first appeared as the final boss for the Hades Cup in the first game. This leaves me to my first idea for Marvel and Star Wars in KH3: Have a few characters from Marvel and Star Wars as optional bosses. Just picture it, you're in the Hades Cup, you've gone through 49 of the 50 battles, you've beaten Hades, Cerberus, and whatever Final Fantasy characters that show up for a paycheck. And now, for the last boss, a giant pillar of light appears from the sky, the light dissipates, the final enemy appears, and then this fight is happening...

     

Man, the awesome things you can do with Photoshop...

It's very easy to do; Much like Sephiroth in the first Kingdom Hearts, have a few mystery cups to do at Olympus Colosseum, when selected, you're fighting Loki or whatever Star Wars villains there are (Sorry, haven't seen a Star Wars movie, I'll hand in my nerd badge at the end of this...) Or if you don't want to go for the Olympus Colosseum route, you can go for this:

Say, for example, in KH3, they have a world based on the Buzz Lightyear cartoon. After you battle and defeat Zurg, you come back to the world for an extra mission or something like that. Then, you discover a secret area that was previously locked. Once you go in that area, you discover an enemy that hasn't been seen before by Buzz and you must battle him. That enemy...Ronan the conqueror from Guardians of the Galaxy!!

A hidden boss in a world you've traveled in before is nothing new to the series. Time and time again, it's created great Shock Value for fans and what better way to do that than with a character from Marvel or Star Wars.

Another option to go with are weapons!! With this, you have the influence of these two big companies without any of the characters. You could go to your hub world, go to your weapons shop and on sale you see Captain America's shield as a weapon for Goofy and Thor's hammer as a weapon for Donald. To once again go with my Olympus Colosseum option, say after you beat the entire Hades Cup with just Sora. What do you get as an award? A light-saber styled keyblade!

      

The ability to use The Force Not included...

My third and final option is a very simple and easy one: The Gummi Ship. How easy would it be to have a gummi based on the Millennium Falcon or Star-Lord's ship from GOTG? Not to mention, you can have a gummi ship mission based on Star Wars where you can blow up the Death Star by the end of it.

These are all the options I have for implementing Star Wars and Marvel into Kingdom Hearts 3. My idea for the game is to stick mainly to pure Disney related content and  not go all out with the two properties, but just have small sprinkles here and there that won't have the Kingdom Hearts fanbase up in arms ready to strangle someone. Now whether Tetsuya Nomura and the rest of Square Enix go through with this idea, it's all up to them. All I know is I better see a Sora and Kairi kiss in KH3...

Make it happen Nomura. MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!

Until next time Everyone, I'm the Shaman of Animation handing in his nerd badge for never seeing a Star Wars movie...