TagWeekly Shonen Jump

Posted July 10, 20195 Comments Anime suggestions

Dr. Stone: S01 E01 | Stone World (recap)

I’ve never heard of Dr. Stone before it’s release this month, but if every human turned to stone and centuries passed before my stone cast broke away and I was intact, I’d want a friend like Senku awake too.

There was not a lot of character development in this first episode, but we at least know that if you stayed conscious during your petrified stone state, eventually you would crack open fully aware of what happened.

Season 1, Episode 1 – Stone World

We meet two important characters right away, including Senku (a scientific genius well above his high school years) and Taiju (a standard high school boy with a mega crush on Yuzuriha – a girl he plans to express his feelings to outside of school).

Unfortunately, before Taiju can express his feelings a bright green light spreads through the land and petrifies every human alive. Doesn’t matter if they are inside a building or outside, they turn to stone.

“The date is October 5, 5738” – Senku

We follow Taiju through the seasons and years that pass after the green light flooded the earth. The animals take back territory and nature reclaims the structures that were built during the human-dominated era.

Taiju managed to stay conscious during the centuries that he was petrified due to his obsession with confessing his love for Yuzuriha. Eventually, his stone cracks away and he is miraculously okay.

He has drifted quite a ways away from the schoolyard where he planned to confess his love, but he manages to make his way back to the school’s previous location. Luckily he finds Yuzuriha still there in her petrified state. He also sees a messaged etched into the tree behind her.

“Follow the river idiot” – Senku

Senku Ishigami and Taiju Ōki, Dr Stone, Crunchyroll

Senku leaves a message scratched into the tree behind Yuzuriha’s head. The message prompts Taiju to meet up with Senku who has been awake for 6 months and managed to stay awake by counting the days to prevent himself from going unconscious.

First of all, can we just take a moment to appreciate the trust that Senku had in his friend Taiju?

He expected his friend to be alive. We see that he has those high expectations at the beginning of the episode as well. Senku offers Taiju a love potion to win Yuzuriha’s heart, but Taiju says no.

Turns out the potion was actually gasoline, but Senku had no doubts that Taiju was going to say no. We’ll probably see that same expectation through out the entire series until something drastic happens and trust is broken.

Maybe.

Turns out Senku, being the scientific genius we know him as, has figured out a way to de-petrify humans from their stone state. Senku and Taiju create the formula and test it out on birds until they get the combination correct!

Finally, the bird is freed of the stone!

Posted June 22, 20191 Comment Anime suggestions

One Punch Man S02, E10 | Justice Siege (review)

Oddly enough, this episode of One Punch man left out Speed-O-Sound Sonic’s monster cell dinner completely. We didn’t get a follow up about him or the actions he took in the previous episode. I was kind of looking forward to seeing what would come of the cooked cells.

Will they enhance Sonics powers more? Will the monster cell enhancement be moot because the potency was cooked out of it? Will Sonic’s metabolism play a part in whether or not the cells even make a difference?

We don’t find out. But, it’s still a pretty good episode.

Spoilers ahead

Saitama doesn’t play a part in this episode, except that he and King are too busy playing video games to hear a distress call from the Hero Association.

Speaking of which, the Hero Association was infiltrated by a transforming monster in the previous episode. This monster brings a message from the Monster Association in the form of one of Gyoro-Gyoro’s eyeball vessels.

They propose a cease-fire and living in harmony with humans. However, that’s just a horrible joke because moments later, the monster holding Gyoro-Gyoro shoots one of the Monster Association executives dead.

In reality, the monsters want the Hero Association to send it’s best heroes to City Z, the Monster Association headquarters, to battle for complete control. They offer a rescue of the kidnapped son of the Hero Association’s financial backer.

This battle is at the request of King Orochi. The plan is to bait the Class S heroes in with the hostage and then go for the kill. While Gyoro-Gyoro explains the plan to the monsters, King Orochi starts pointing our weak monsters and eating them. Do-S is almost the next victim, but Gyoro-Gyoro vouches for her skill set.

One of the monsters at the association meeting kind of favored the Menos from Bleach. I’m just saying.

Child Emperor tries to come up with a plan of action to storm the Monster Association and save the hostage, but Metal Knight just wants to bomb everything to get rid of as much of the monsters at once. They are at an impasse when we cut away.

The news outlets report on the Monster Associations demands and as a result, the entire city is in terror.

Next, we finally get some time with Garou. He’s just waking up from the kick Saitama gave him last episode. He limps to a nearby shed to recuperate but is followed by Death Gatling and a group of other heroes.

One of those heroes kind of looked like Gohan from Dragon Ball Super. He had the same hair cut, glasses and the green jumpsuit. I’m just saying.

Glasses, One Punch Man
Gohan, Dragon Ball Super

Garou is still very injured when he is surrounded by Death Gatling’s group of heroes. He puts up a good fight, but when the episode comes to an end, he is completely surrounded and out of options.

Before the heroes arrived, Garou was talking to the little boy who always lets him read his Heroes Almanac. So perhaps in the next episode, the little boy will step out in defense of Garou, since he doesn’t know him as a villain.

Review: One Punch Man S02, E09 | The Ultimate Dilemma

Posted June 13, 20191 Comment Anime suggestions

One Punch Man S02, E09 | The Ultimate Dilemma (review)

I was a little underwhelmed with the latest episode of One Punch Man. It’s for the same reason as always. As soon as I think Saitama is about to show out, he doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, The Ultimate Dilemma set up a lot of plot information this week. But, this week I think we missed out on something that had the potential to be epic.

Spoilers ahead

We pick up where The Resistance of the Strong episode left off. Suiryu on the ground half alive and Saitama looking like the savage that he is. Bakuzan is still in the arena and recognizes Saitama without his disguise on.

After a few words of banter, Bakuzan finishes hyping himself up and begins to attack Saitama. Saitama is taking his time to survey the area and notices a few fighters that he met during the tournament passed out.

Saitama takes a few punches from Bakuzan, but it does nothing to him and with one punch Bakuzan is headless. He actually loses part of his chest too.

Suiryu tries to stop Saitama from going after Gouketsu because he’s overpowered and almost killed him. This only intrigues Saitama more and he goes to find Goukestu.

Earlier I mentioned that we missed out on something epic. This is what I am referring to. The audience does not see Saitama and Goukestu’s confrontation. I guess we are supposed to assume Saitama ran up on him and punched his head off, but I highly doubt it.

Saitama has been looking for a challenge all season long. Are you trying to tell me that he wouldn’t have at least given Goukestu an opportunity to try and fight?

No way.

I did not expect Saitama to no-sell both the Dragon Level Monsters. Plus, the disrespect of not even letting us see the encounter between Goukestu and Saitama is really confusing. He’s supposed to be a former martial arts master.

Should we assume that Saitama’s inevitable confrontation with Garou will be anti-climactic as well?

Something cool did happen though. Suiryu decided he wanted to be a hero and asked to be Saitama’s apprentice!

Oh, joy!

After the events at the arena, King and Saitama run into each other on the barren streets of the city. The Monster Association has retreated to their base and Saitama starts to complain about being bored.

King actually has some very encouraging words for Saitama. They are meant to make him examine himself and understand he still has untapped potential. King is right! Goukestu confirmed that there are stronger monsters out there in the last episode. It was great, even if it was regurgitated from a manga he read.

Garou makes an appearance in this episode.

He has just finished his fight with Watchdog Man and is wounded. When he sees King, he regains some stamina and charges at him full speed. He’s so focused on King that he doesn’t see Saitama, but Saitama sees him and kicks him to the side.

This is the second time Saitama has encountered Garou and he still doesn’t realize that he is the self-proclaimed Human Monster with unmatched martial arts skills. He keeps putting him on the ground with no effort, so why would he?

Garou is left laying in a hole in the wall as a result of the kick from Saitama.

At the end of the episode, Speed-O-Sound Sonic is offered a chance to join the Monster Association by some old acquaintances. He decides to take them up on the offer so that he can rival Saitama.

I wish someone would tell these people consuming monster cells that they won’t gain ultimate power. They should know that they will still be mediocre.

Sonic decides to cook the monster cells so that they will taster better.

Smart.

In the midst of Sonic cooking monster cells, the Monster Association sends the Hero Association a message via an infected human. Monster antenna burst out of his skull and that’s fin.

We’ll see how this progresses next week.

Last episode: One Punch Man S02, E08 | I Need A Hero

Posted June 12, 2019 Anime suggestions

Review: The Promised Neverland after 7 episodes

I am really intrigued by The Promised Neverland series. It took me a while to sit down and watch it. Initially, I was disappointed in myself because I was instantly hooked and knew that I should have watched it sooner. But, I quickly got over it because I was able to binge seven episodes to catch up. So that was a plus!

Story:

The Promised Neverland revolves around a group of orphaned children who live carefree in an orphanage being loved, fed, and educated by their house mother, Isabella. Emma, Norman, and Ray are some of the oldest children at the orphanage and they are also the smartest. All of the children dream of getting adopted into loving families. And their house mother assumingly makes that happen for them.

All is well until it is time for the adoption of a six-year-old girl, Conny. Conny always carries a bunny. When that bunny is left behind, it sparks concern for Emma and Norman. They run after Isabella and Conny to return the forgotten bunny. However, they find out that Conny has been murdered and put on ice to be sold to monsters. Monsters who want human flesh and brains to eat. What’s worse is that Isabella is involved with this horror. She is raising them like cattle to be harvested and eaten by monsters.

Terrified at what they’ve found out, Emma and Norman hatch a plan to escape from the orphanage and bring the rest of the children with them to an unknown world that is full of unknown horrors.

Using the help of Ray and two other children, Don and Gilda, they plan an escape. But, they are thwarted by Isabella from the shadows as she bides her time until the next big harvest of children to offer up to ‘The One’.

Why you should watch this:

This anime is insane. In the first three episodes, I was so uneasy. As if selling children isn’t bad enough, we meet a character named Krone who clearly has some sort of personality disorder. She wants to be a “mother” on the farm orphanage and is willing to do anything to get it, including selling these children after using them as allies. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve referred to her as nuts while watching this anime.

The coolest thing about this anime is the main characters ability to strategize and plan their escape while gathering information. Norman is the most level headed protagonist I’ve encountered while watching anime. He constantly finds out negative information and is able to use it to his advantage for the betterment of the escape plan.

Emma is so naive, poor girl. She wants to save every child. I sympathize with her the most. I really do not want to see her soul get crushed if they can’t save everyone.

Ray disappointed me the most. I won’t spoil it, but I haven’t been able to trust him. Even though Norman is still able to make the most out of the situation, Ray is still the wildest card they need to deal with.

Expectations:

I honestly don’t know what to expect. There is still so much information that hasn’t been explained. And this is a 12 episode season and even though season 2 has been announced, I’m going to need some resolution! I suspect we will find out actual information about ‘The One’. The only thing I gathered so far is he/she/it runs the children harvest operation.

I also would like to see how Krone’s help, if she is able to help, comes in to play while Emma, Ray, and Norman attempt to escape. But for some reason, I get the feeling this isn’t a happy ending kind of anime. Then again, there is time for everything to work out.

It’s available on Crunchy Roll, Hulu, Funimatio, and Toonami (weekly) if you want catch up on this show and share your opinion with me.