One Piece 934 Review: Off-Screen Happenings

One Piece, Chapter 934: Hyougoro, the Flower

[insert rant about how amnesia is a stupid plot device]

Anyway, I'm in too much of a good mood about this chapter to let the silly Big Mom amnesia plot bother me. The first scene is pretty interesting as we see the Big Mom crew talk about Big Mom's disappearance. The Vivre card tells them that Big Mom is at least still alive, and I do like the brief argument between Perospero and Oven about who should be crowned leader if Big Mom should die -- Perospero nominates himself because he's the oldest, but Oven notes that it should be Katakuri based on merits.

Meanwhile, we get to briefly see the tengu dude again as he screams at O-Tama for working together with Chopper and Big Mom. Big Mom, complete with a new hairdo, is just hanging out with Chopper, Momonosuke, Tama and Kiku as they go off to Udon and she's... she's all nice and happy, hungry glances at Chopper notwithstanding. Chopper lampshades that Big Mom's talking hat (how does Chopper know, though?) hasn't said a word at all, which is a neat little nod to a question that I had in the previous chapter.

We also get the first real map of Wano-kuni, which is nice! It helps to put things in perspective, and it also limits the story from randomly introducing new locales every chapter, which is something I found tiresome in the early parts of Wano (and honestly, all throughout Whole Cake Island as well).

The most interesting bit in this scene, though, is Momonosuke training in his sword-fighting, and one of his battlecries is "Snatch". Apparently, Momonosuke learned it from Zoro, a yell that outsiders do while practicing swordplay as a way to strengthen one's heart, but everyone -- even the goddamn giant crocodile they're riding on -- glares at Momonosuke when he yells that. Kiku warns Momonosuke that it's not something that Momonosuke should say, as it means something rather... rude in the old Kuri dialect. It's definitely kind of interesting, because this leads to Zoro's backstory of all things, since he apparently knows old Kuri language or something. I could go on and on about theories on Zoro's backstory, but honestly, at this point the "Zoro might have ties to Wano" actually seems to be something taht the story might legitimately lead towards.

Team Robin (Robin, Brook, Nami, Shinobu, Kanjurou) have regrouped at a random well in a cemetery after the chaos they caused, and I absolutely love the scene where Robin laments that all she managed to do is... a long, long list of great information she managed to figure out. Oh, Robin, you hyper-competent woman, never change. Interestingly, Kanjurou brings up another name, that the most famous yakuza was some dude called "Hyougoro the Flower", which ends up tying in into the next scene in the prison.

Also, Brook has apparently also been doing something off-screen, which is hunting for poneglyphs. Brook notes that because he entered the locked room in his ghost form (that's honestly something Brook really needs to use more) he could find a poneglyph in the basement with weird wooden human figurines -- something that Shinobu recognizes as Kokeshi dolls. They basically surmise that Kaidou's road poneglyph is in Onigashima.

We get a brief recap of the local uproar when we cut away to Team Law (Law, Sanji, Usopp and Franky) and it's... it's basically just a brief recap of them reading the local news, and Sanji bemoaning Komurasaki's death and really, really wanting to go do the public bath, something that the ladies in Team Robin has also wanted to do. We also learn from the news that, off-screen, Kid has apparently broken out of prison. Lots of things are happening off-screen, huh? I don't really mind, honestly. I also like how Law and Usopp lampshades how Kid and Hawkins seem to have different standings despite supposedly being in the same alliance.

Meanwhile, in the prisoner mine, Luffy is interrogated by one of the wardens, the Alpaca-Man, who keeps spitting on Luffy's face. Alpacas are funny, and I approve of using one as one of the SMILE users. Luffy claims that he knows nothing. Meanwhile, another pair of wardens, an elephant and some dude with multiple legs (scorpion? He does have a stinger-hair thing) is beating up on poor Grandpa Hyou, correctly assuming that he's technically cheating the system because he's getting the food coupons from Luffy. Hyou refuses to rat Luffy out, and he continues to stuff the dango into his mouth because he refuses to let a single one of it go to waste out of respect to his benefactor.

We then get the revelation that Grandpa Hyou is actually Hyougoro the Flower, and that he's all about that chivalry. A fun little revelation... is Hyougoro one of the Ten Scabbards or whatever? It's honestly kind of interesting. And everyone out there seems to be speculating that Komurasaki is an aged-up Princess Hiyori, but considering how this chapter brings up a connection between Hyougoro and Kyoshiro, maybe Komurasaki is saving up money to free his father Hyougoro from prison? Or maybe I've just had Order on the Stick on my mind. I dunno. Whatever the case, Luffy attacks the wardens, just at around the same time that one of Kaidou's top dogs, Queen, shows up.

Definitely an interesting chapter, and honestly, my interest in the Wano-kuni arc has been on a huge peak over the past couple of chapters. I've been pretty vocal at my apathy for Wano's earlier chapters, but it's at this point that I genuinely believe that Wano is starting to actually live up to its hype.

Arrow S07E10 Review: Return of The List

Arrow, Season 7, Episode 10: My Name is Emiko Queen

I've been sort of holding off on reviewing Arrow because I... wasn't the most interseted in the series after its tiresome mess that is the Ricardo Diaz storyline, but I did watch episode 10 back when it first aired. And it's... it's a decent episode, but man, it does feel pretty rushed.

Let's talk about the main bulk of this episode, which is the revelation and exposition dump that the mysterious Green Arrow impostor in this season is, in fact, Oliver Queen's half-sister Emiko, born out of Robert Queen's affair with a mistress. And Emiko's apparently working on what is basically Oliver's season one mission -- complete with secret base, ominous monologues, brooding vendetta and a list. Hell, we're just a silly catchphrase and a club short of being a re-enactment of the first season.

But the way the episode explores Emiko's backstory -- that her mother Kazumi was essentially abandoned by Robert Queen to live in the Glades, and was murdered by someone she thinks is William Glenmorgan. We basically rush through this information in quick succession as Emiko ends up looking for the only person in the show she can trust, and that's apparently Rene. Rene is all for a team-up and trying to understand Emiko's motivations and backstory, but the way Emiko basically warms up to Renee and tells her basically her life story feels awkward and shoehorned in. After a brief 'no, I work alone' bit, all it took is a commercial break for Emiko to recruit Wild Dog in her vendetta.

And... and I really do like the ideas being told to us in this episode, I really do. Wild Dog being unable to find a way to properly help the city other than being a vigilante is a great way to take the character (who's honestly became kinda stale over the past season). Emiko's backstory, told form both Emiko's own words and Oliver's investigation, is compelling on paper, and if it had been properly built up over multiple episodes instead of the rush job we got, it would've been far more interesting.

Anyway, Rene brings in Curtis to help out as the 'guy in a chair' for their impromptu team-up, and Wild Dog and New Green Arrow assaulting Glenmorgan's compound and fighting him and his silly Star Trek gun is pretty neat, but, of course, it turns out that Glenmorgan is being framed for the whole crime, and Emiko's back to square one, more or less, although she now has allies. It honestly feels rushed, and while part of me is kind of glad that we're hopefully moving straight into more interesting territories, it also feels like they really just wanted to get this over with.

Oliver and Felicity finding out Emiko's backstory and the fact that Moira covered it up by locking up part of Robert's will in some vault somewhere is... it's interesting and completely fitting with what we know of Moira, but it honestly feels utterly anticlimactic. I dunno. I do like that Oliver has a moment of 'should I even interfere in Emiko's life?' moment, but it honestly feels just kind of poorly done and rushed in general. I absolutely love Moira's hypocrisy, by the way, for basically condemning Emiko and her mother to live without financial support and hiding the letter away from Walter Steele (great reference there, too), while she herself has had Thea out of wedlock with Malcolm. Oh, Moira, you damned hypocrite.

The B-plot is... it's basically the formation of the NEW Suicide Squad, this time named the 'Ghost Initiative', which is... it's honestly quite hilarious that after being forced to write out the Suicide Squad in season whatever because Warner Brothers can't share their toys, we're getting them back but rebranded. It's a fun bit with Diggle and Lyla where Diggle tells a superior that Ricardo Diaz is their first recruit for the Ghost Initiative, but he does this without consulting with Lyla first, causing some friction between the two. Because there's always drama between this couple. I wouldn't call this quite out-of-character for Diggle just yet, I guess, but at the same time, he has been the most vocal about Oliver maintaining his no-kill rule. So.

It's some fun build-up, and basically leads to Diaz with a bomb in his head. Everything's moving pretty quickly, though, and this honestly makes the episode feel like the start of a retooled season or whatever more than anything. I dunno.

The future storyline is... it's a bit interesting for the fun parallels it draws to the present day scenes involving Rene. Apparently while in the present-day Rene is someone idolized by Zoe and is willing to help anyone out, in the future, Dinah's attempt to recruit Future Mayor Rene to their ranks ends up with nothing but bad blood. Future Rene is a dick who hates Star City and basically only cares about the Glades, and while he seems disturbed that Felicity's been apparently killed, he's also has no real qualms to continue working with the mysterious man that is behind the 'blow up Star City' plan. I still don't really care all that much about the flash-forwrad stuff, although at least they're trying to remain narratively consistent.

Overall, in a bubble isn't not a bad episode at all. All the storylines have some narrative cohesion between them, with Rene and general 'losing your own moral compass' as the shared theme between all of the different plot points, with Future Rene, the Queen parents, Diggle and Emiko all facing this theme in some way or another. But I really do have some issue with just how breakneck everything's been going on. It's definitely preferable than the alternative of slogging on at the pace of a snail, so I'm definitely willing to give this a chance.

DC Easter Eggs Corner

• Santa Prisca, where Walter Glenmorgan was apparently held captive for the past couple of years, is best known as the island prison where Batman's villain Bane was born and raised. 
• Kazumi Adachi is identified as Robert Queen's mistress and Emiko's mother. In the comics, Emiko was the daughter of Robert Queen and Shado. Since this is kind of impossible to do in the TV show, Kazumi Adachi, Shado's grandmother in the comics, became Emiko's mom instead. 

Movie Review: Dragon Ball Super Broly

Dragon Ball Super: Broly [2018]

It is honestly impressive how well Dragon Ball Super: Broly did as an anime movie, but I really think I have to state just how impressive it is not just as a money-making movie, but also as a part in an ongoing franchise. It not only acts as a canonical continuation of the Dragon Ball Super anime, it also is faced with the somewhat daunting task of adapting not one, but two of Dragon Ball's more controversial plot points that have remained ambiguously canon. The first is the titular Broly, who is... a controversial character that has only appeared in movies but has been one of the most popular characters in the franchise. The second is the adaptation of Dragon Ball Minus, an alternate backstory for the Saiyans that is in stark contrast to the very much beloved Bardock special. If this sounds like Greek to you... yeah, Dragon Ball canon is kinda in flux and there are a lot of stuff that exist outside of the main anime/manga canon that is sorta-kinda canon but might be contradicted at any time. 

And it does so... beautifully. I have been pretty vocal in that I have never been a big fan of Broly. Having experienced a majority of the Dragon Ball franchise as an adult without the benefit of nostalgia, I saw Broly for what he honestly is -- a fun, throwaway movie-exclusive villain that was decent for the one movie he's in, but ended up getting two particularly shit sequels made. Broly was a decent rampaging monster villain, but he was a far cry from being an actual interesting character -- and that is using the standards of Dragon Ball villains, where villains are honestly more of a huge, extended boss fight than actual fully-fledged characters. 

Thankfully, Dragon Ball Super: Broly delivers not only in integrating Broly into a modern-day era of Dragon Ball, but also in actually making him a proper character. This movie basically jettisons every single one of the previous movies, but updates some key aspects of Broly's origin story into this movie. And it's done amazingly well.

My big complaint with Dragon Ball Super: Broly when I went to watch it in the cinema is that it feels... truncated. Particularly in the first half. It's essentially two movies, with the first thirty or so minutes acting as a huge prequel, but it's from this prequel that I do feel that there are things that genuinely felt rushed. We get some genuinely fun bits of backstory that both adapts and alters parts of the Bardock: Father of Goku prequel OVA, showing in a pretty badass moment how Freeza first came to power after King Cold's retirement in a quick display of power. 

We also get a surprisingly amazing combination of various plot threads -- Freeza's tyrannical rule and eventual genocide of the Saiyan race; Bardock deciding to send his son to space and lead one last desperate stand against Freeza; and Broly's backstory. Without going into too much details, we do get a genuinely fun integration of multiple plotlines, and working it all into a cohesive backstory by using the Saiyan's disdain of Freeza as a backdrop is pretty well done. Hell, even Freeza showing up and introducing Scouters for the first time even works into the power level comparison that King Vegeta did with the babies. Sure, there seemed to be some truncated scenes between Bardock sending Goku to space and Bardock seemingly leading a futile resistance against Freeza's Death Ball attack, but you get the gist of what's happening. 

We get to see how three Saiyan fathers -- King Vegeta, Bardock and Paragus -- react to the Freeza rule. King Vegeta, despite all his talk about pride and strength, is far too willing to bow the knee to overwhelming force, and ends up launching baby Broly essentially to his death for the crime of having a higher power level than his own son. Paragus ends up going off to rescue his son, but ends up being driven more out of spite and anger at King Vegeta's betrayal, and all his talk about Borly being the salvation of the Saiyan race gets symbolically thrown out the window when he shoots the other Saiyan that went with him. Bardock, meanwhile, a lowly grunt, ends up putting the pieces together and figure out that something's amiss, and ends up sending his son to space. Honestly, Bardock gets more depth to him in the brief ten or so minutes we see him in this movie than two entire specials did for him, which is nice. 

I'm not convinced that the parallels are truly there, but the little opening sequence of three Saiyan children -- Goku, (Prince) Vegeta and Broly -- as they grow up is an amazingly pretty sequence. And while Goku and Vegeta ended up growing and maturing in their own different ways, poor Broly ends up basically stranded on an island but still continues to train in the pursuit of strength, something that all Saiyans are shown to do. 

And then we get to the real meat of the episode, which takes place in the present day. Freeza was last seen in Dragon Ball Super brought back to life and re-gathering his army, the Freeza Force, and it seems to be building up to something big. He ends up being more of a catalyst for that goes on in this movie more than the actual Big Bad, though, because... well, this movie wants to tell a story about Broly and how he comes into conflict with our heroes, and less about 'Defeat The Big Bad Of The Movie', which is definitely well-done. 

And Broly's easily the star of this movie. We spend a not-insignificant amount of time with Broly in this movie, and comparisons between Broly and Tarzan is... apt. The relationship between Broly and Paragus is also pretty interesting. Sure, Paragus is only a man, and they have been trapped on a feral island for upwards of 40 years. Throw in Broly's uniquely high power levels and how Paragus has barely been able to control Broly, and it's... it's not right, and pretty damn evil what Paragus did, but you can sort of understand the cold logic reasoning of what Paragus did. 

When two of Freeza's goons (which are more irate part-timers than actual soldiers), Cheelai and Lemo, basically rescue Paragus and Broly from the hellhole planet they are stranded in. And we actually end up following Cheelai and Lemo as they go around basically discovering Broly for the first time. Paragus is grizzled and tired, but is still pretty obsessed about getting his vengeance against Vegeta -- the son, this time, now that King Vegeta's dead. But the way that Paragus demonstrates his control over Broly, and just how poor, poor Broly freaks out at the sight of the remote for the shock collar around his neck... man, it makes you really feel for Broly. He might be a rampaging monster, but throw in the genuinely heartbreaking performance that the voice actor did for him when the shock collar gets triggered, little bits of dialogue and animation of Paragus basically telling Broly to not talk to anyone else... and the later story about how Paragus shot off the ear of the only animal he ever befriended just because it distracted Broly from training... yeah, poor Broly's backstory is delved in a far, far better way than the movie trilogy ever did. Also, Cheelai and Limo quickly take to befriending Broly, and one of the acts that Cheelai ended up doing -- which would influence the eventual final act of the movie -- is to steal Paragus's control remote. That's cute. 

And while Freeza's excuse to go to Earth is honestly quite petty, the fact that he's just willing to sic Broly onto Vegeta just for shits and giggles is honestly quite in-character for him, especially after the development he's gotten in the later arcs of Super. The little juxtaposition between Bulma's desire of wishing that she grow younger by five years and Freeza's desire of wishing that he gets taller by 5 cm (it makes sense in context) is also hilariously petty and I honestly love it.

And then we get fight scenes as both parties arrive on the Ice Continent in search for the final Dragon Ball! Paragus ends up mostly just being utterly confused at Freeza's expectations of all these 'Super Saiyan' forms, and while Broly ends up being pretty much a match for Vegeta, he ends up breaking out the Super Saiyan, and then the Super Saiyan God form. The animation for the Vegeta-vs-Broly fight is absolutely majestic, particularly Vegeta's God transformation, which is the first time we ever see it animated. And... and I am just going to note that even if you don't really give a shit about the story, the animation for this entire movie is just... it's just BEAUTIFUL. Everything moves smoothly, and the big budget that went into this movie is pretty damn great. The fight between Vegeta and Broly isn't just repeated punchy-punch animation followed by a Final Flash, but an actual, visceral and simply amazing fight to watch. 

It's then followed by Broly being enraged and entering a bulked-up Hulk-like state, leading into a fight between Broly and Goku and it's... it's not as spectacular as the preceding Vegeta fight, or the final climax of the movie, but I really do like how Goku quickly realizes that Broly is not like any of his previous (canon) enemies, in that... Broly is being forced to fight. He's neither evil nor willing, and it's a nice little touch from Goku that kinda addresses many of the complaints thrown his way during Super's multiverse tournament arc. Broly isn't being receptive, though, just reduced to roaring in anger. Paragus actually compares this to the Great Ape/Ozaru transformation, and it honestly is a pretty great little nod to earlier Dragon Ball stories while also providing an explanation to Broly's animalistic rage. At one point during this fight we get a genuinely neat bit of Broly just wailing on poor Goku, grabbing him by the leg and just smashing him to the ground repeatedly.

Oh, and Freeza, again, seemingly just for shits and giggles, ends up wanting to experiment. Remembering what triggered Goku's transformation into Super Saiyan on Namek, Freeza shoots Paragus to death and fake-acts about "oh no, how terrible, your father was killed by a stray blast!" Paragus was an asshat who deserves to die, but this does still trigger the Super Saiyan evolution in Broly, which... which is way too much for anyone there to handle. 

We get Goku going into Super Saiyan Blue, which is a pretty badass sequence, but it goes by quickly as he and Vegeta figure out that it's not enough to stop Broly, and basically lead Broly's rampage towards Freeza before Goku teleports the two of them away, leaving Broly to basically wail on poor, poor Freeza. Who, again, also deserves it. I thought that the sequence with Vegeta and Goku learning the Fusion Dance honestly went on for way too long, and if nothing else, was probably something that should've been left for the Director's Cut. 

Regardless, though, we get the birth of Gogeta, the always not-quite-as-canonical alternate fusion. And it's... it's pretty cool. I've never been a huge, huge fan of either Gogeta or Vegito, since it's honestly just another power-up with a slightly more intricate way of reaching it, but the way this movie portrays it? It's pretty cool. The subsequent fight is... it's basically a huge curb-stomp in Gogeta's favour, where Broly is just barely keeping up with Gogeta as they fight through the lava-encased hellscape and eventually briefly through some psychedelic landscape. It's pretty and exciting, in any case, and while some 3D animation 'cheats' are used, it's nowhere as obvious as this movie's predecessor, Resurrection F. Some particular standout bits of animation is Gogeta's... "Stardust Breaker", I think it's called? As well as that rain of laser beams. 

Anyway, I do love that unlike most one-shot movie villain outings, this fight isn't just about "okay, how do the good guys beat up the bad guy?" It's not like Old!Broly or Janemba or Cooler or whatever, or even Freeza from Resurrection F. As the audience, the intended reaction is to cheer for when Gogeta is beating the bad guy and stopping him from killing everyone, but at the same time, we are privy to something that neither Goku nor Vegeta really knows -- that Broly is a victim of circumstance, and while he is rampaging like a wild dog, he doesn't really mean what he's doing. 

Which is honestly what leads to the real climax of the movie. Gogeta and Broly fight on seemingly equal terms, and then Gogeta gains the undisputable upper hand when he activates Super Saiyan Blue... and then Broly is straight-up about to get vaporized by Gogeta's blast. But Cheelai and Limo have been running around in the background stealing the Dragon Balls from Freeza's other lieutenants, and use the dragon ball wish to basically send Broly back to the planet where he was, putting the poor, tortured soul back where he belongs. Hopefully he meets with his Baah-baah friend again! Goku, eventually, ends up finding Broly on that planet and basically giving him and his buddies living essentials, understanding and comprehending Broly's real nature and being glad that there's another Saiyan out there. After years of denying his Saiyan heritage, it is also interesting that apparently this encounter had made Gokue embrace the name 'Kakarot', which... I dunno. Something I'm somewhat ambivalent about -- I feel like we're lacking a scene where Goku uses Broly as his own stepping stone to embrace his past. 

Ultimately, it's a pretty great ending in that it made me really care for Broly as a character. He's a villain, yes, but he's a misunderstood beast and one that genuinely doesn't want to harm anyone but ends up doing so due to the uncontrolled temper issues. The movie ends with Broly alive, basically buddies with Goku, and me walking out of the theater actually liking him and wishing that he'll be a recurring character in whatever comes next. 

The movie is, perhaps, a little over-hyped by fan response. But it is definitely a very solid movie, and I genuinely like it. It fixes a lot of my complaints with the previous movie outing (although since this review's gone on for some time, I'll probably talk about Rez F versus Broly as movies in another article), and even fixes a lot of my problems with Dragon Ball villains in general. Sure, Broly is basically just kind of a fusion of Tarzan and Hulk, but that honestly ended up with a character that I genuinely care about. I do have some gripes with the movie, but ultimately? It was such an exciting, fun romp and such a fun little standalone story that I don't actually have the heart to do so. 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S04E11 Review: Arachnophobia

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Episode 11: Narancia's Aerosmith

We continue with the Narancia/Formaggio fight and reach its conclusion, and it's actually a pretty fun bit! It's not as creative as the previous two episodes' usages of Little Feet, I think, but it's still a pretty fun action sequence nonetheless. The fight starts off with Formaggio returning back to normal size while Narancia's still small, leading to a rather pretty horrifying bit as Formaggio just pours water from a bottle to drown Narancia.

And then, of course, just like Abbacchio and Mista before him, Narancia finally gets a flashback of his own. It's interesting how long this fight ended up being -- three episodes -- because both Narancia and the Squarda both get flashbacks. We learn that Narancia's mother died at a young age, and he was raised by a very distant father. He fell in with a bad crowd, and his "big brother" convinced Narancia to dye his hair blonde... but only so that Narancia will get framed and take the blame for a crime that his "big brother" did. And at age 15, Narancia ended up having given up on life until Fugo and Bucciarati find him, give him some spaghetti and treatment.

It's actually pretty heartwarming considering how much Fugo and Narancia bicker all the time in episodes leading up to this -- this actual brotherly relationship between Fugo and Narancia is something that completely went over my head in the manga, and I'm not sure if it's just the fantastic voice actors that made the scenes memorable, or if they actually added new scenes.

Also a big fan of how Bucciarati and Fugo refuse to let Narancia join a gang, telling him to finish school first. And Narancia does -- although, rather ironically, we did see in the first episode that Narancia still doesn't have arithmetics figured out. Idolizing Bucciarati, Narancia went off and went through Polpo's test on his own to obtain Aerosmith.


It's not the most elaborate backstory, if we're being honest, and it is sort of a combination of Abbacchio and Giorno's backstories, but it's a neat story nonetheless. And then we get tiny-Narancia being shoved by Formaggio into a bottle with a fucking spider, and we get a pretty horrifying description of how spider venom works. Did... did JoJo's author do the same sort of research with spiders as Rohan Kishibe did in Part IV, I wonder? I mean, hearing those clinical JoJo Fact lines delivered by Formaggio makes me seriously wonder.

Of course, Narancia ends up getting a petty badass action scene, stabbing the spider with a shard of glass, and then using Aerosmith to fly around and basically shoot at the largest source of carbon dioxide -- the car that was shot up a couple of days ago. The resulting explosion burns Formaggio... and I actually do like the pretty fun usage of Formaggio's ability, slashing his wrist to cause a huge torrent of blood, and then shrinking himself -- but not the blood -- so that the blood will put out the fire.

And with Formaggio having seen Narancia's map and unable to be detected by Aerosmith due to the gigantic amount of CO2 produced by the flames, we get Narancia's elegantly simple and hilarious solution -- BURN EVERTHING, as the restored Aerosmith just straight up napalm-bombs the entire street, with Narancia delivering a pretty badass line about how he's actually willing to burn down the entire city if he has to. We actually get a pretty badass Mexican standoff, leading to Narancia shooting through Little Feet and killing Formaggio, and you know what? Formaggio is a scum, but the way he went out is actually not bad, considering JoJo villains.

With that fight over, Narancia returns back to the vineyard, and we get a bit of an argument between the members of Bucciarati's cell about their next move. Giorno rightly predicts that the Boss would have prepared a contingency escape route, and that Narancia did the best he could do under his circumstance. And, of course, the Boss does contact Bucciarati and lead the team to their next objective -- go to the town of Pompeii and retrieve the key to an escape vehicle.

I did think that the pacing of the actual Narancia/Formaggio fight is a bit hurt by the flashbacks, although admittedly I'm not sure how to get around that. It's all right, all things considered, and I do enjoy the fight for having a lot of fun set pieces thanks to the usage of Little Feet's ability. Overall, it's definitely one of my favourite Stand battles in Vento Aureo, and I'm pretty sure that's going to be a huge point of why I love this Part so much -- the battles. 

The Flash S05E14 Review: XSive Physics Breaking

The Flash, Season 5, Episode 14: Cause and XS

It's a very Nora-centric episode in that, well, Barry quite literally gets written out of the episode while Nora has to deal with the crisis basically single-handedly. This episode... honestly feels more like a gimmick episode than anything, and it's like we are obligated to have one of these every season or something? I really wished I could say that I really enjoyed this episode, but... there were way too many genuine moments of confusion in the story that made me stop short of thinking of this episode as anything beyond 'nice concept, messy execution'. The easiest thing to compare this to is an episode from Legends of Tomorrow's last season, "Here I Go Again".


I don't think I have a problem all that much with the spotlight being on Nora. I know I have complained about Nora before, but that's mostly because they keep drip-feeding us this character development that honestly ends up making Nora feel more dense than anything. And apparently, throughout this episode, Nora has to reverse time 52 times to attempt to stop a crisis from happening. And we get to see a couple of the timelines that Nora has to go through during Barry's "I will be gone for one hour, what could go wrong, right?"

Basically, in this fateful one hour is when Cicada decides to make his move, apparently having investigated Iris after their meeting in the previous episode (which... actually is kind of smart of Cicada and kind of stupid for the rest of the cast for not realizing this) and going off to kidnap Iris in order to draw out the superheroes. When our heroes show up to help, Cicada launches his dagger like a boomerang and it stabs Killer Frost in the back. In her shock, Nora speeds up and ends up reversing time, but in this alternate timeline, when Nora forces Iris to stay in STAR labs, it's an investigating Sherloque that gets captured, and now it's a teleporting Vibe that gets stabbed and killed. In another timeline we see where everyone is forced to stay in STAR Labs, it's Cecile that gets captured and killed.

And, sure, we get the additional caveats that Nora can't rewind time back any further than briefly after Barry disappeared into the Speed Force because of handwaved reasons. Sure. She also can't access the Speed Force, which... sure, also fair.

But honestly, this episode is so full of random weird nonsense that I am genuinely baffled that Nora fucked it up so many times. Like, sure, maybe she gets surprised once, twice, three or five times, but you'd think at turn ten or eleven she would just try to stop pretending everything is fine and hunky-dory and just try to explain the time loop to the STAR Labs crew and not wait until poor, poor Cisco ends up vibe-ing 51 alternate universe versions of him who gets stood up at that date. Honestly, the fact that apparently everything seems to hinge on Cicada's stupid boomeranging dagger really made it kind of hard for me to swallow that, really? Nora with her super-speed can't properly watch the arc of the weapon and just push people out of the way? It's not like the Legends of Tomorrow episode where the ultimate threat is that the time ship that everyone is in will explode at a set point in time, and Zari has to figure out what is causing the time ship to blow. It's not like it's rocket science -- at this point, Cicada is just a dude throwing a magic dagger! Or, y'know, maybe bring Iris with her little kitchen knife, that seemed like it did quite a bit against Cicada. Also, isn't Killer Frost, like, immune to Cicada's dark-matter-sapping dagger or something? It's been some time since I watched that episode, but isn't that a plot point?

And the way that everyone eventually beats Cicada is... getting Cicada out of the building, having everyone rush Cicada, and then Nora rewinds time and... yeah, I'm not really trying to make sense of the actual physics of this show, but just how this ends up with Cicada running into his own dagger is something that I just don't really get. Honestly, a small part of this is caused by me being just annoyed at how the show oscillates and alternates on whether Cicada is a serial killer with a power-dampening dagger or a god-like being that can escape any time he wants to. It's kind of annoying.

I mean, the episode does have its charming moments. I do appreciate Nora getting the screentime, and she is the type of person to impulsively try and cover up her own mistakes. And seeing poor, poor Cisco trying so hard to masquerade as 'science businessman' to try and woo Kamilla Huang offers some genuine laughs. Also appreciate that we're actually using Cisco as the person to figure out the alternate futures that did not happen, the same way that he did in the first season. At least Cisco finally gets his date by naturally being himself, in true sitcom style.

Anyway... ultimately a throwaway filler episode, although Nora apparently updated his journal enough during his 52 time-travel fuck-ups that Sherloque has enough to work with to decode her entire journal. It's... it's progress on that part, I guess? Eobard seems to be helping Nora stop Cicada for... for some reason, but I honestly don't really even buy that Eobard might be contributing anything positive for the good guys at all. Nora still seems to implicitly trust the man despite him suddenly screaming about sticking to the plan, so... I dunno. Nora's just very dense, I guess.

One small little detail I'll say before I end this review? Apparently Jitters has drinks named after Zoom and Cicada. And... in-universe that has to be insanely insensitive, isn't it, since those super-villains are respectively a terrorist and a serial killer respectively. That's like naming a drink in real life "Osama bin Latte" or something. I dunno. That just seems like a weird thing to me. 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S04E10 Review: Dude (Looks Like A Lady)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Episode 10: Hitman Team

A pretty interesting episode, and one that ended up giving me enough to talk about even if we're still not over in the Narancia-vs-Formaggio fight. In fact, this episode actually ends up feeling split into two parts -- an opening act with Narancia fighting Formaggio, an episode that feels like it takes up the bulk of the episode, and then it ends with a final act with Narancia fighting Formaggio again. And I'm going to talk about the present-day stuff first, which I feel is a wee bit less interesting due to mostly being a fight.

And a good chunk of the episode's first act is just Narancia being a bit of a moron as everything shrinks around him and he just... well, we have established that Narancia is kind of stupid, but this sequence really feels like it's playing up Narancia's stupidity when he keeps insisting that "this is not my car, and, no this is not my shoe!" It's a hell of an interesting way to explore a bit more of an ability that shrinks other people, and we get a particularly wince-inducing bit where Narancia gets his neck trapped by an automatic door, although thankfully everything, it seems, can be temporarily solved with Aerosmith shooting things.

And while it does kind of stretch credibility a bit, Narancia eventually realizes that Formaggio is hiding in his back pocket, and very damn well nearly kills Formaggio when he "turns back" a shrunken pen whose repulsion instantly sends him flying. We quickly get the internal monologue that apparently reverting a person back to his original size would take longer. Okay, if you say so? Formaggio does the trick again later, using Little Feet to slice a wheel and then get blown away with the air into the sewers. It is kind of ridiculous how accurate Formaggio can chart out courses with the repulsion from things, but eh.

In an actually cool bit, we actually get to see "figure out the enemy's unknown ability" from Formaggio's bit. Formaggio runs into the sewers, chased by Aerosmith, which apparently has some sort of tracking ability, and Formaggio ends up figuring out that Aerosmith is able to detect breathing, which explains why it's been shooting up rats. And we cut away to see Narancia with a little pop-up radar over his eye, which is simultaneously adorable and ridiculous and awesome all at the same time.

We get a bit of an advantage switch back and forth as Formaggio appears to have masked himself from Aerosmith's "radar" by riding a rat (!!!), and then Narancia realizes that one of the rats is breathing a bit harder than before, forcing Formaggio to return back to his full size to prevent taking full damage from Aerosmith's bullets... and then it's Formaggio who has the advantage now because Aerosmith's size has decreased a whole lot.

Overall, it's a very great sequence of cat and mouse (actual mice are, in fact, involved!) between both players as they try to figure each other out. Aerosmith's just kind of cool all around, while Little Feet has so much going on with the intricacies of using the otherwise-simple ability that I really do buy into Formaggio's talk about "it's how you use the Stand".

The rest of the episode, the middle act of the episode, ends up building up La Squarda Esecuzioni, Passione's "Hitman Team" (it literally means Execution Team, though, as you can probably tell) through a flashback to two years ago, which accomplishes two things -- it helps to build up the dread of the members of the Hitman Team that we'll be facing in the future, including Formaggio himself, but we also get to see just how far-reaching this enigmatic Boss really is. The flashback is also significantly extended from its original version, and I can only say that this is definitely to the improvement of the storytelling. This is something Vento Aureo does well, and with the exception of Diamond is Unbreakable, I don't think any other JoJo parts actually tries to develop any of their lesser antagonists as well as Vento Aureo.

Granted, mind you, a lot of La Squadra's flashbacks ended up being heavily expanded on by the anime, particularly in this episode (but as well as certain scenes in the future of the anime). It's a huge, huge boon to the series for sure, and while I don't care enough to do a one-to-one anime-vs-manga comparison, I really do like it that the anime really makes La Squadra feel more like a proper team, like a darker version of the Bucciarati bunch, with their own camaraderie and quirks and what we'll find is the fact that they're mostly driven by revenge against the Boss.

First, we get to see an execution actually take place, which... we've seen pretty horrifying deaths throughout JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but this adds an extra layer of horror, with Formaggio dropping a little shrunken car into some poor schmuck's drink, and the way it slowly expands and rips out of the poor dude's stomach is just... it's just horrifyingly well-done.

And in that scene, we sort of get to learn a bit more about the other members of the team. We've got the broccoli-necked Pesci, who's a squeamish dude who honestly doesn't have any business being associated with the mafia, let alone the Execution Squad, and he doesn't even drink coffee! We've got a Kira-lookalike dude, Prosciutto, as well as Melone, a half-naked pervert with a mask that makes even other gangsters repulsed. There is the 'home base control' guy, Ghiaccio, who stays at the base with his laptop and complains that they don't get the attention they deserve, and appears to have a One Piece devil fruit as his hair. We've also got Illuso, who's just... the long-hair guy, and Risotto, a dude wearing a BDSM webbed shirt and completely black eyes.

And I do like how we move quickly through all of these colourful designs without trying too hard to highlight their personalities and powers. In fact, the scene ends up introducing how they operate as a group more than anything. They end up having to look for two missing members -- Sorbet and Gelato, a gay couple (it's a lot more ambiguous in the manga, but they straight-up say it here) who have been missing meetings.

And then... apparently Sorbet and Gelato have been trying to rebel against the boss, and have been dealt with. The execution squad find Gelato's body dead, seemingly suffocated on a mouth-gag with an expression of pure terror on his face. And then La Squarda Esecuzioni ends up having 36 picture freames... and they realize that those 36 frames are the pieces of Sorbet's body, having been cut up and turned into artwork as a message from the boss. It's just such an insanely brutal sequence that I am surprised was actually left in the anime relatively untouched. JJBA has never shied away from censoring blood or death, but this particular bit could've been implied more than explicitly shown, and I'm actually impressed that they did it.

Anyway, this "punizione" sequence ends up really setting up just how dangerous the nameless Boss is, functioning as a pretty damn well done buildup, while at the same time giving the La Squarda Esecuzioni a significant amount of backstory and motivation in what they're trying to accomplish, and why they are so desperate to hunt down Trish.

Overall, it's a pretty damn well-done episode, with a great flashback that explores and builds up a group of antagonists, while the framing fight sequence is beautifully animated and executed.



The JoJo Playlist: 

• The remaining members of La Squarda Esecuzioni have had their names revealed, and, of course, they all mostly borrow names from Italian food. Pesci means fish in Italian, Risotto Nero literally means black risotto (a style of Italian rice dish), Melone means melon (duh), while Sorbet and Gelato are named from styles of Italian ice cream. 
• Not so much a naming reference, but the idea of a pair of gangsters being attacked, with one killed and butchered while the other watches in horror and elects to kill himself by swallowing his mouth gag is taken straight out of the Godfather novels, where mafia hitman Luca Brasi does the same thing to a pair of rival gangsters.

Gotham S05E02 Review: Burn The Witch

Gotham, Season 5, Episode 2: Trespassers

Kind of... a weird episode? We get two distinct plots split between the Bruce side of things and the Gordon side of things, and neither are super interesting. I wouldn't call this episode a bad one, it's just... it just kind of feels like an utterly pointless side-quest, is all. It's like watching someone Let's Play a very story-centric game, but then they devote 45 minutes just showing themselves grind for potion ingredients or whatever. I dunno. I definitely wasn't in love with this episode at all.

Let's start with the Bruce side of the story, which is... it's kinda self-contained, and both picks up and immediately resolves the whole 'witch' mystery and the crippled Selina story set up in the pilot. The enigmatic 'witch' isn't a new character, but rather just Poison Ivy. And I do admit there's something very classic Batman when Bruce walks up and sees the corpses of humans choked to death and basically being used as fertilizer by Ivy's vines, and the whole set-up for this is pretty cool.

But then Bruce meets a group of... of genuine random people who apparently managed to lock Ivy in a basement with the aid of salt. All fine and good, but for some reason, despite being in a full "BURN THE WITCH" mentality, they're not doing so? I'm honestly kind of confused, and this is honestly just to set up a conversation between Bruce and Ivy to get Bruce to be duped by Ivy's sympathetic story. Ivy, of course, is faking the whole 'the plants are evolving and are out of my control' bullshit story, kills everyone once she's let loose... and I'm genuinely not sure at what point in that conversation when Defiant Bruce ends up causing Ivy to relent and decide to give Bruce the magic spine-restoring seed. Which I am genuinely surprised is an actual thing, and not a bullshit lie Ivy concocted.

And, yeah, Ivy holds a grudge against Selina over the whole Lazarus water thing last season (I legitimately forgot about it until she brings it up), but as Selina later notes in her monologue, apparently Ivy still has a heart. It's... it's honestly an all right plot when read on paper, a neat little character moment for Ivy that has roots on Gotham's own five-season-long history, while giving Bruce an important lesson in not being easily duped by pretty ladies and sob stories... but in practice, getting from point A to B to C is honestly just utterly random.

Anyway, the final shot of the episode shows that after a bit of a seizure freak-out, apparently the deus ex plantae ended up working and Selina can walk around, but the ominous stuff Ivy says manifests when Selina's pupils become cat-like. Which... eh? Never been a fan of Catwoman actually having cat powers, personally, but we'll see.

The Gordon stuff, though, really feels like a minimal-effort side-quest in an RPG game. After the random enslaved kids walk up to Gordon at the end of the previous episode, Gordon brings Bullock and a bunch of policemen to basically mount a rescue mission. Very admirable and simultaneously stupid, but that's honestly on par with what you expect from James Gordon. Everyone is gunning for Gordon's head, but instead of actual characters we care about (even the second-stringers!) we get... a bunch of random gas mask dudes who are so stupid that they think digging a tunnel under a river with pickaxes and shovels will work, as well as another gang with neon skull face paint or some shit. I do love the sheer ridiculousness, but at the same time, I just can't bring myself to really care about the Soothsayers or whatever they are called.

Honestly, this ends up being entertaining mostly because Bullock apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed and is just super sassy throughout this episode. He's never straight-up an ass, but he's just so sassy about the many, many things that Gordon does this episode. I'm not sure if it's intentional that Gordon is basically a robot saying heroic cop things throughout this episode, if that's meant to be his way of coping or something, or if this is basically what Jim Gordon is for the rest of the season or what, but... I am entertained. Bullock's overacting and Gordon's single-mindedness is pretty fun, I have to admit, in an episode that's honestly kind of sub-par. "It's a freaking arrow, Jim! A FREAKING! ARROW!"

Anyway, we get some shoot-outs with Fallout enemies and reject extras from Batman and Robin, before Bullock, Gordon and a couple of the slave kids get separated from the rest of the group and end up in this bizarre horror house where poor Bullock finds a bunch of severed fingers, teeth and a burning skeleton, while Gordon meets with a creepy kid. This is the Mother and the Orphan and it's... it's kind of a rushed introduction, honestly, that wouldn't make me think that they are any sort of important recurring villains if not for my own DC knowledge. All they amount to do other than having a pretty creepy house is lock Gordon and Bullock in a room with some fancy strobe-flash filming, which is... it's kind of a cool direction for the episode from a technical standpoint, but ultimately it's not the best intro for Mother and Orphan. The setup and concept are cool and creepy, but the execution leaves me shrugging.

They get out from this side-quest within a side-quest, and face off against the Fallout dudes and the neon skull dudes again... and Barbara Kean decides to end this silly plotline by showing up in an armoured vehicle with a goddamn machinegun and murders everyone. I kinda laughed at that. Barbara and Gordon basically sort of have a non-committal partnership to kill Penguin, I guess, which is... kinda neat? We also get Lucius Fox, MVP of the show, to have apparently set up a great living block while everyone is away, and it's apparently so great and idyllic that we use a pretty bright camera filter for it. Honestly I really wished that we have any sort of hint at Lucius even working at this project, as this feels like a bizarre "oh by the way this really good thing happened" offscreen event.

Anyway... yeah, it just feels like a huge, huge side-plot as the whole missing kids subplot gets resolved, while we get an honestly not particularly impressive debut for Mother and Orphan. Penguin sits this episode out, but Riddler gets his own B-plot where... despite seemingly finding that chaining himself to bed seems to work, apparently Edward's Jekyll-and-Hyde moment has, in the span of a single night, interrogated a poor thug from the Street Demons gang, left him tied up in a bath tub, walked to the Demons base, killed everyone within, left graffiti claiming Penguin did it, and then tied himself up to the bed just to be a dick to Riddler. It's... it's kinda fun because Cory Michael Smith is a fun actor, and I'm fine with this Riddler stuff being kept as a B-plot for now.

Overall, though, it's still kind of a weak episode that feels like it belongs more in a video game and not as an episode of a final season of a TV show.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• During the No Man's Land portion of the comics, Poison Ivy was also de-powered and captured with the aid of salt, although in the comics she was captured by Clayface. 
• There's also some Arkham City vibes with her whole situation, having warpped up an entire building with vines - including a prominently placed angel statue, and working begrudgingly by directing Batman to find a special plant required for Batman to save someone.