Book Review: The Fellowship of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

 hat an amazing novel. This is why fantasy is awesome. So beautiful written, so overwhelming beautiful. Words are meaningless describing the novel. IF you ask, will I Love it? Well, it will depend on your tastes. If you are expecting the same pace of LOTR the movie then no. You will hate. There are very few action scenes. So few you barely notice them. Slice of Life, Drama, character driven & landscape top tier.

There is a reason why it's the most loved novel or at least revered. Tolkien "invented" the genre. He didn't create fantasy but he made it available for everyone. He worked on his world for 60 years. He created languages, not random words, vocabularies with logic and such. There hasn't anyone that will ever go to it's steps. The pure dedication is without parallel. We are talking in a time fantasy/sci-fi was seen as a weak genre, a thing people did for gaining a quick buck. Tolkien created the genre, and thousands of authors were inspired on him. Even today...

Now about the story... well go watch the movie :) I kid you. There are better reviews here. It's about a quest, it's about a fellowship, it's about the world building, it's about honour and doing the right thing.

Book Review: Uzumaki - Junji Ito

Author: Junji Ito
Book: Uzumaki
Year: 2000
Pages: 653
Part of Series: Omnibus 1/2/3 
Reading Time: 18 days (2021)
Rating: 10 stars

Enter Uzumaki.

This is the first manga I've read from beginning to end in paperback. And one of the fewest I've really enjoy it. I've seen the japanese movie and then the anime featuring Junji Ito stories. So I tried and I love it.

This is a 650 page story. Each chapter it's a independent story but reading them all makes more sense than reading a isolate chapter (apart from the last which will have no purpose reading isolated).

Basically the city Kurouzu-cho is being plagued by spirals pattern (uzumaki em japanese).

In the beginning people start being fascinated by spirals and have really no consequence but then it turns into obsession - and then deathly.

As the chapters progress we see more of this uzumaki and then it changes from being a plague to entity in itself. It's very subtle this changes but every few pages you get that feeling.

In this tale we follow Kirie and the first person to notice the spiral plague and her boyfriend Shuichi.

After the last chapter there is a lost chapter that deals with the uzumaki in a parallel universe but with the same consequences and instead of being focused on a town is more widespread.

There were things I really didn't get it, like why Kirie didn't become affected by the spirals like everyone else did? I've got to read more about this.

Edit: https://uzumaki.fandom.com/wiki/Kirie... for more information about Kirie and Uzumaki in itself.

Overall, I really love it. Love the black art and the colour as well. Nice contrast. Going to buy the rest of his work.

Anime Review: Summer 2019

This season has some interesting shows like Vinland Saga - What if there was anime focus on the vikings? Yeah- it would be perfect and magnificent. I really hope to see a second season. You start rooting for someone and then in the next scene you are hating and in the next you are rooting again. I doubt anyone watching this, start hating Askeladd and then as the episodes advance you starting rooting for him and even crying in some instances.. This is how you make a show. This is how you make characters. Full of flaws but still worth rooting.

My second ten was Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2. This is romance in the making. In this show we follow two characters both pre teens. The boy only wants to tease Takagi san but she outsmarts him every time. But this show is not only about that. It's about growth, love, discovery.. It's perfect.

Then another famous one was Dr Stone. A second season is on the making. This story it's about two boys and a girl who after a mysterious light transforms everyone into stone. As time progress the landscape changes and we are thrown into the future. As humans began to awake they are thrown into the stone ages but a boy with a mind that rivals Einstein and everything changes. I really enjoy the show. From the making of stuff, discovery, some romance and even ideals that are against one andother it's very interesting.

Given it's a bit odd. I start hating it and then end up enjoying. It's a story about a boy discovery himself. Basically he is a musician and gay and he's got some problems from before and we discover as the story progress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YND9-kErbQc Please watch. No doubt the best song I've heard coming from an anime. Full of emotions.

Kanata no Astra is one of those animes that started a bit slow and to be honest just "okish" but as the episodes went you get to know more of the characters and plot and why everything was happening. Really enjoy the last episodes. Didn't saw it coming. Good characters.

Enen no Shouboutai it's a very good TV Series. It's now on season 2, each one with 24 episodes so there's that. It's a Shounen and full of mythology behind. There is a lot of story behind the characters and world. Really enjoy it. It has some ecchi but nothing really that would put off some people. It's not a ecchi driven show but a show who has some ecchi. 

Wasteful Days of High School Girl is a show about nothing. It's a counterpart of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou. It's like Asobi Asobase. It's about several teens and their life outside school and at times in school as they pick on one another.  It's very interesting and each episode let me smile a bit more. I even started watching the TV Show but the subtitles ended on episode 2. 

O Maidens in Your Savage Season - This show was really a hoot. It's about a bunch of girls in a coming of age and discovering what is sex. Each episode you laugh and smile because you understand their plight.In terms of visual it probably one of the best in this season.

Is it wrong to pick up girls in a Dungeon Season 2. Well this season it's not as good as the first BUT it's still a solid anime. We get more maidens for his harem and plently of fight scenes.

Vinland Saga - 10 Stars
Takagi San - 10 Stars
Dr Stone -8 Stars
O Maidens in Your Savage Season - 8 Stars
Enen no Shouboutai - 7 Stars
Is it wrong to pick up girls in a Dungeon Season  - 7 Stars
Given - 7 Stars
Wasteful Days of High School Girl - 7 Stars
Kanata no Astra - 7 Stars

Anime Review: Happy Birthday: Inochi Kagayaku Toki (1999)

Well this anime sure is dark. Asuka is a girl who is bullied day after day at school and at home her mother beats her and even says she wished she hadn't had a girl. By the ancient gods this is depressing...

In this show they talk about a lot of things usually anime doesn't talk about. Disable and handicapped people. They even try to make us understand people in japan are not all perfect like in most animes.

It's a dark show I really can't advise to anyone who gets sensitive with this kind of situations. But it's a nice input and different anime.

Damn.. I am not crying you are. No you. Damn it... we are all crying. This is dark as hell.

Damn this show made me cry like a ninja onion cutter...
Spoiler Alert:







It has a happy ending - if not I would probably stop watching animes for today. I have to watch now something cute and funny PLEASE!

Anime Review: Madoka Magica (Winter 2011), Parasyte (Fall 2014), Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (Spring 2012)

Madoka

I've got to watch three horror shows in a short time. One was Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika. the second was Kiseijuu (Parasyte) and the third was Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. And all were very different.

The first really drove a punch to my stomach. It was something I was not expecting, althought I had heard before about being a bit dark. I've read a bit about the show and at the time they hide it pretty well. They say it was another moe magical girl and then at the third episode they jab a knife in your heart. At each passing episode you get more and more anxious and depressed. Please don't watch this tv show if you are feeling depressed. This will probably kill you a bit more. This show is like warhammer 40k. As I watch it I kept reminding me of it. Grimdark. No hope. It's suffice to say I really enjoy the take and it was the first I take that dealt with this magical girl turn dark. There are have been death's in Magical Girl - Sailor Moon is one. But here all the show is dark. This year Mahou Shoujo Site was really alike Madoka (but it was far less interesting - althought it was more dark).

Parasyte

Then you got Parasyte. It's horror in a sense it deals with parasytes becoming humans and killing other humans to feed. Then the show turn a bit about this and become more about psychological effect on our main character and the parasyte itself. The gore, action scenes and other stuff were pretty good and they had good animation. This show has some underlying tones about humanity ruining the planet and the parasytes role in killing humans.There are some other interesting tones about humankind, enviroment and life itself. I really enjyo the show.

The last one was Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. The show has some spooky factor but there is also romance, slice of life and ecchi scenes. It's about a ghost who is unaware that because she shuts her darkest secrets and feelings created a shadow ghost. It's about acceptance that life has his good moments and bad and someone who loves another loves not only the good but also the bad part. Most of all it's very interesting choice of characters (4) and their interactions. In the beginning they are trying to solve the mysteries in the school and the rest of the show is focus on our main ghost and character. All in all very good. 12 episodes long and you wanna watch all in one go.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

Three different types of horror. Undoubtly Madoka is the best (but it's art can keep people away); Parasyte is also very good show while Amnesia is more about Romance. All of them have "True" endings.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica - Winter 2011 - 12 Eps
Mal 8.44 / Shaft / Drama, Magic, Psychological, Thriller
I give 10 stars

Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu - Fall 2014 - 24 Eps
Mal 8.51 / Madhouse / Action, Sci-Fi, Horror, Psychological, Drama, Seinen
I give 8 stars

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Spring 2012 - 12 Eps + 1 Ova
Mal 7.93 / Silver Link / Horror, Mystery, Romance, School, Shounen, Supernatural
I give 7 stars

Top 20 (or so) Animes (After 500)

Lets talk today about my favourite anime after watching 550 animes... Some will be review here for the first time.

It's hard to pinpoint a top 10 but let us try... Some I would advise to you but others I cannot.

Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku (Now and then , Here and There) made by AIC it's I made a review previsouly and you can read it here but if you don't have the time - this anime earns high marks for pessimism, melancholic and despair factors. It was one of the first Isekai made in 1999 where a boy goes to another world to help a girl. His mind is bend on doing everything good no matter what. He gets beaten up time and again. If you want an anime that afterwards you are going to gaze into a wall deeply then this is anime for you.

After watching it try  Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. This anime is also way depressing as hell. It's slow pace compare with the first but if you want an anime to connect to your characters try this one. You will cry.

Afterwards we've got the movie Hotarubi no Mori e. It's a tale about friendship and old times. Really interesting take on romance and the division between two worlds and at the same time about two people who cannot be in love. Don't know if it makes sense... In terms of art style is way better than the above BUT since it's a movie of 45m you will get attached more to the other tv series characters. Nevertheless - very good. So beautiful and sad.

Violet Evergarden is an orgasm to your eyes. It's beautiful slice of life with some interesting story behind it. You will cry. I cry at least in 4 episodes (the latter ones). It's a story about war and about the ending of a war and the impact they have on people. In this case in a girl that only knew her benefactor who she took orders and to kill. Now she must return to everyday life. It's a story about learning your place and one that most military man who fought in wars go through....Very interesting.

In the other hand if you want romance then Toradora , Rec or Tsuki Ga Kirei are three good choices. One is more comedic feel and it's about the discovery of love, the second is more mature love about two adults living in a adult world while the third is the discovery of the first love. I must say I would prefer the first of the third but cannot choose one of them.

If you want more in terms of action you've got Attack on Titan,  Ushio and Tora (the new), Kill la Kill or Youjo Senki. They are all different. Kill la Kill is the strangest one with very interesting art style with a bit of comedy. If you don't mind a bit of surrealism you are in for a treat. Ushio and Tora is a shounen where a boy and a demon fight alongside against even more evil beings than the demon. They have a bit of comedy but the story is about friendship and strength. Attack on Titan is more action, mystery and more global (since it doesn't focus on a single or two characters but a lot of them. Youjo Senki is a Isekai but your main protagonist is a middle age cold business man transformed into a young 11 year old girl in WW1 worrld with the brains and coldness of the former guy. It's a fight between her and X-Being (God). I know it sounds strange but watch it. You will enjoy it and you will be cheering for her. Btw, you can try Overlord. Another anime where your main protagonist is a evil guy. This second and third season got a lot of attention.

Straight more adult mystery you've got Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. It has a great tv adaption (netflix). If you want a more relaxed gorgeous mystery anime you've got Hyouka. If you ware like me an enjoy Black Metal then watch Detroit Metal City. If you are into a more epic with a lot of background, tactics and such you've got Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu. If instead you want a slice of life you've got Sora yori mo Tooi Basho or Fune Wo Amu.

If you enjoy great artwork and deslike SAO but enjoy that kind of anime with a fantasy setting I would advice Hai to Gensou Grimgar. A Bit darker than other isekais with a hint of slice of life. The artwork is perfect. If you want something that makes you think then you've got Steins Gate or Made in Abyss.  If you just want to laugh you've got Asobi Asobase, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou or even Saiki Kusuo no y-nan. But my favourite is Konosuba.


This is it from me. As you can see my top list is not ten but probably 20 or so. I would never advice anyone to watch an anime sorely on my taste. I would like to know what you want and I will search it. Maybe it was not for me but I can understand the value and suggest something different for you.

There are also three interesting movies Koe no Katachi, Byousoku 5 Centimeter or Kimi no Na wa. if you don't have the time for a 12 or 24 episode tv series. All three are great and high praised even for non-anime people. The first one is probably my favourite and the one show I would suggest to anyone who never watch any anime but wanna try.

Let's be back at 1000.

Anime Review: Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows (Winter 2016)

I am writing as I watch the show... first time...

Only the japanese to make a history that we see through the eyes of a neko (cat).
First of all it sounds boring but its awesome. I have a cat (and a dog) and always wondered what would they think if it was possible. I don't know. People who loves animals think their cat are special and "think" and such. I can relate to that.

Daru has a simple way of thinking (probably to make it simple for us to understand). From the start she adopts her (and she doesn't care about the cat - even trying to abandoning him) to her days of school to work searching. Throughout her teen life he was there. His "miaus", his ears always searching and such. 

It was very funny to see at times they both say the same thing. The show is so simple yet so pure...

Then he became sadder and sadder - I am sleeping more and more each day...  My body doesn't move as well as it use... Damn this is depressing as hell... I am going to cry I think. I don't want!

Damn you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am depress now...

Anime Review: Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (Winter 2018)

"A place further than the universe..." This is it one of the anime of the year. Not season but year. I have no doubt (although it's just the beginning) that this one and Violet Evergarden will be on top 10 or top 5 of most people. Mahoutsukai no Yome as well but unfortunately this one began last year so I don't know where will it be - unfortunately (again) for the awards Boku Hero Academia is coming and probably will take the prize (even without airing), oh and Steins Gate and Attack on Titan... But original works? This three will be on top 10 no doubt.


So why this anime is good? 8.66 on Mal but I bet will get higher as months and years pass.This is how you make Slice of Life with a great lesson. There are dozens upon dozens of youtube videos that really talk about this better I will ever will.. Here 5 reviews I enjoyed in these videos.

So basically this is a story about 4 new-friends who want to travel to Antarctica. Each one for different reason but they ally with one another to go there.

Shirase (voice of Kana Hanazawa) is trying to go to Antarctica because she wants to go where her mother was lost 3 years ago. Mari wants to go because one day she wake up and was bored of her monotonous life. Yuzuki a child actress (Saori Hayami) needs to go because of some work. She is the main reason all other girls go and Hinata a curious and friendly girl always playing tricks on her friends. As the serious develop, so the characters themselves develop. We learn more about each one, motivation, fears and such.

There are a lot of other side characters, each one pretty well developed since they are only side characters (from the cook, to the girl who left her boyfriend and is afraid of him leaving to the captain (and close friend of Shirase's mother Toudou.


The first 6 to 7 episodes is setting the mood and what they are making to go to Antarctica -this anime went so far to make an episode in Australia and other south east Asia country. We've go to learn about the conditions on what they are doing to achieve that and the last episodes is about the Antarctica expedition as a all plus the culmination of the girls dreams (most of all Shirase).

This anime is a wake up call to people who are standing still and don't know what to do. Don't go to Antarctica BUT start living. This anime took the anime community by storm. IT look like another Cute Girls doing Cute Things but it's a serious anime full of drama.

Prepare to cry in the 12 episode... You will.

Then the last episode (The 13) really was the culmination of a perfect series. It's about realizing what it meant "Antarctica" and what it means to have friends. 

No doubt 10 out 10 and a top 10 of my favorite animes without no reservation. Wish for a new anime - about this girls trying to return to their everyday life. Sure seems hard to return from a journey of our life. After an fantastic holidays it's always hard to return...

About the art and animation? This is Madhouse jewel without any doubt. Perfect little anime. Great music, beautiful Intro and Ending. This is one anime I would without any reservation suggest people who never watch an anime. 

Book Review: Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Light Novel Vol. 1 - Ao Jyumonji

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Light Novel Vol. 1 by Ao Jyumonji
My rating: 10 of 10 stars



I really enjoy this book. Everything in it felt really dark and gloomy.
After seeing the anime (You can check my review here) I had great expectations on the series since I know that no season 2 is on the making but I wanted to know what happened to all those people...

In this book it depicts probably the first 6/7 episodes. The first 150 pages - the group forms (There are some differences here from the anime) the group train, first goblin kill, the death of a friend (Manato). The second part of the book deal with the loss of Manato and how everyone coop with it and the coming of a new priest Merry.


Haruhiro is the main character and almost everything we see or know its true his eyes.

Ranta is the same in the anime and book (snarky / brash / arrogant and troublemaker), Moguso (is a bit different - in the anime they all band together but in the book Moguso join another group that stole all his money), Shihoru (is almost the same but in the anime there is no indication that she is in love with Manato - but in the book Haruhiro hints at it) but Yume it's all different. In the anime she is very brave and energetic (same as book) but in the book she talks like... "Yume thinks that is wrong." - "Maybe Yume don't want to learn that" - "Yume don't have tiny tits" and so on... in the anime she is quite normal lol Strange... Then we got Merry/Mary which is a new healer totally different of Manato. But very equal in the anime and light novel.

Basicaly the story follows a band of people that awake to be in another world (isekai) but have no recollection of their previous world/life. They know same words of things that don't have there (Cell Phone, australia, tsundere, game and other words). what's odd is that they never try to figure that out and basically accept with resignation their lives.

They are to in a group of trainees where everyone will follow a path (fighter, rogue, ranger, magician, priest and Dark Knight among others) and band together to stop some evil guy that might come out. Most of the book it deals with this struggle of first battles - what I really enjoy is that in the beginning even a single goblin is difficult and not easy peasy like per example "In Another World with My Smartphone". It's really grim(gar) with the loss Manato but there are moments of comedy (not like Konosuba bear in mind) - well basically everything Ranta does).

Really enjoy the novel and going to buy the next ones...

View all my reviews

TV Series Review: The Night Manager (2017)

This was a fantastic server.  An adaptation from Le Carré novel it's a story about a night manager turned spy after he witness some woman beaten to death because he sent some confidential papers to someone in the British intelligence. Afterwards that woman is killed by Roper's man.

Roper, Night Manager, Jed, Angela and Corky

The night manager, then retreats to Switzerland, to work there are escape everything. (Btw he is called Pine) but after 4 years a woman called Angela Burr makes him a spy - to avenge Sophia (The woman kileld and to stop a arms dealer).

From this moment on, we follow Pine trying to enter Ropers tight group. There is crossing, double-crossing, love and death. Each episode makes your ass tight as you are eagerly waiting what is going to happen. I must say Roper (Hugh Laurie) is a very very interesting character. Hugh Laurie really outdone himself here.

We travel from Egypt to Switzerland and then to Spain, to Turkey, To Monaco, To Syrian Border and back to Egypt (and lets not forget England). Great scenarios, landscapes. Everything is really perfect. 

There is no waste of time or scenes just to fill the time. Everything is important. This is a series to watch an EP per day to really take advantage of all information you are given. If you watch back to back, which you could, probably your attention and focus will not be ideal. 

Advisable to anyone. 6 hours of pure thrill and drama.

I give this series 10 out 10 - That's how much I enjoy it.

Book Review: Dark Gods by TED Klein

Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein
My rating: 10 of 10 stars

What an amazing book. Why did the writer only wrote one book and two novellas? For what I know they were well received by the critics. Maybe he is lazy, like Wikipedia says he is.

Now you've got four stories in this anthology. Each one with, around 60/70 pages. Believe me when I say each story has a Lovecraftian theme or characteristic.

The first story is Children of the Kingdom. New York City blackout of 1977 is the setting. The sewers and ghettos of Manhattan conceal a race of faceless mutants connected to the Gnostic Gospels and MesoAmerican lore. Only the last pages brought a feeling of dread. The rest of the tale is the bulding but unfortunally it felt short.

The second story was Petey a tale about a haunted house. A couple have a party with some friends to show them their new big house and we start learning some of it's secrets. In the beginning I thought "-Unfortunally it ended way short. What?? Who was..? No, what? Darn time lost for a weak finale. I thought that it was missing a page somehow..." Now that I think back I thought it ended like the first. You really have to think about it. It's not those tales of horror or not that it ended, good or bad. No, here you have to think about it and draw a conclusion yourself. Nevertheless the weakest story of the bunch, nevertheless way better than most writers out there.

Black Man with a Horn the third story. Here not only has some Lovecraftian theme but also as a protagonist of some sorts. This tale is told in first person perspective. The writer even say that "There is something inherently conforting about the first person past tense. it conjures up visions of some deskbound narrator puffing comtemplatively upon a pipe amid the safety of his study, lost in tranquil recollection, seasoned but essentialy unscathed by whatever experience hes about to relate. its tense that says: "I am here to tell the tale. I lived through it."

Its a tale about a old writer, like many others out there than are told in the same way of what this writer says... "So this is what I was reduced to - a lifetime work shrugged ff by some blurb-writer as "Worthy of the Master Himself," the creations of my brain dismissed as mere pastiche. And the tales themselves, once singled out for such elaborate praise, were now simply - as if this were commendation enought - "Lovecraftian." Ah, Howard, your triumph was complete the moment your name became an adjective."

It's a funny because the writer creates a satire about the pastiche by creating one. Almost every horror writer knows Lovecraft. It's impossible not to know him. Most of our contemporaneous writers of horror have written something with a lovecratian theme. King, McCammon, Little, Lumley, Robert Howard, Ramsey, Frank Belknap Long, Charles L. Grant, Clark Ashtom Smith, Robert Bloch and many many others. So did they create something or merely copied? My belief is that they create. They use a theme to their purpose. What's so wrong about that? Any fantasy writer created anything after Tolkien? And even Tolkien created something or simply used Folklore and Myth Tales or even Lord Dunsany tales? Sci-fi? Any writer created something after Verne or HG Wells? I think so.
They use but create something new. That's life. Everything in life works that way.

Now the tale itself. A elderly man talks to a priest on his way back from Malasya where he learns of his discoviries of an ancient race living there that was the backbone inspiration of something Lovecraft created. Maybe the tales by Lovecraft were not merely fiction. Then the story change to a kind of detective tale and the ending was equal to many the master created. The unease - the unknown. Are we losing sanity to think things that are not really there? Excelent story.

Nadelman’s God is the last story and it ends with a BANG. Excelent. What are we? Our thoughts exist? Yes. So when I put something on paper does it exist? Yes. So what is written down is it real? Are we all creators? Gods? What are myths and legends and religion? Either based on a book or told from father to son. So what makes it more "real" than a horror writer creating a being and setting loose on a world? Excelent premises. Excelent execution. TED Klein should have written more because he is a excelent writer and creator.

Overall, the writing is similar to pulp fiction from the thirties. Some people will be upset with the characterization of black people. Don't forget that Racism always existed but in 1920/1930/1940 this kind of behavior was accepted.

The characterization of the main characters is at times lacking but wasn't Lovecraft doing the same? What's important is the tale. The horror behind. The atmosphere od fread and the sense that the story was moving to something that will make you crazy if you would understand it.

Would I advice this anthology? YES. Undoubtly YES. To anyone who wants to enter the horror genre or likes Lovecraft writing style but modernised.

This book will stay with me and I bet I will be reading it again after ten or twenty years.

View all my reviews

Anime Review: Now and Then, Here and There (Fall 1999)

Now and then, Here and There is another "transported to another world" kind of anime. Probably one of the first to be made. Whereas the ones I've see have some comic relief, others have some challenges but nothing is very hard or difficult... am I making myself clear? Hmm I think the word I am trying to say is that most of all have not a dark theme. This one does... and does it a lot.

I am very torn of what to make of this... 
Did I enjoy it? Yes. 
Do I think the main character and all other characters are one dimensional? Again, yes.
Did I cry? Yes
Etc...

This show is one you watch and then you wanna curl up in your room and stare at the blank wall mumbling and cursing everything and everyone.

This show is dark that I can't even recommend it to anyone NEVERTHELESS is one I want to say It's my favorite. It's dark and gloomy and should not be watch to the faint of heart or people that are easily upset with the dark side of humanity.

You've got your main character Shu which is not an hero like most other "transported to another world" kind of guys. He wasn't given any super good weapon, intelligence or wits. No he is the same guy.

He is transported to another world after trying to save a your girl. From this moment on we realize he is not the "Hero" you expect. He is very happy, easy-going kind of guy who jumps immediatly into danger without thinking twice.

He is gone to another world and becomes another victim of a world gone mad and througouht the series he is almost broken several times (beaten physically and beaten psychologically) but due to his almost stubborness he refuses to fall to a state of hopelessness that much of the other characters are.

Each episode he is stairway into misery and anguish. From the first episode you know no-one is safe and by episode 3 I was cursing and cursing the evil guys. That's a new to me. Usually I preffer the evil guys instead of the good guys (mainly because the good guys are always the same white knight and the bad guys are more diverse and they are given a backstory to why they are evil...) 

In this Anime I must say I preffered Shu. He sees the glass always half-full instead of empty or broken for that matter. 

This is very hard to watch. We see children suffer and die. We see them fall into despair. We see them giving up hope and do evil things. 

Besides the atrocitous the main characters suffer, there are other characters who suffer as well. Rape, Starvation, Hummilation, murder, kidnapping, child labour and war-children... This is a soul-draining anime. This is anti-war anime. After watching this I must say I cried.

But not everything is good in this anime. The characters are one-dimensional (no-one "grows") with the experience. And Lord Hamdo? He is bat-shit crazy. I mean crazy as wacko. Sometimes he is talking with his swift voice of command but most of the times he is falling to despair screaming with everything and everyone.

You've also got Lala-Ru (the girl who can make water with her pendant but she is so distant that rarely you've watch her speak). She changes a bit mainly because of Shu personality but she is thousand years old and most of the time because of her power people abuse her.

You've got Sara that is a innocent girl that is also kidnap from "our" earth because she is very alike Lala-Ru. She loses her innocence both literal and metaphorical sense. Throughout the series she cannot cope with Shu unwavering resolve attacking his beliefs losing hope througouht the way. In the end we learn that she is pregnant (because of a rape) and she tries to commit suicide Again Shu comes out and says her word... Everything will be alright. Sometimes I want to spank him myself.

Then you've got Nabuca and Boo, two war-childs who kill and do awful things with the prospect of returning home someday. Throughout the series they often thing but rarely do the right thing. In the end Boo is killed protecting Nabuca (boo is around 5/6) and Nabuca afterwards is also killed doing the right thing... He is around 13 (?).

Then we've got Abelia. We never see her going against Hamdo's choices but she doesn't approve some of them. In the end after Hamdo is killed Abelia transports Shu back. We never learn about her fate. One thing that I did not enjoy was Why did she put with him? She could have killed him and probably the troopers would follow her instead. 

In terms of music, it's very dark ambient and througouht melancholic tunes.

In terms of art, well it was made in 1999 so it's very old from today standards but in my opinion no more worse than Captain Tsubasa or Dragon Ball. 

My thoughts

Story (Plot) 10/10
World Building 8/10
Character Building 4/10
Art/Animation 8/10
Sound 10/10
Enjoyment 10/10 (not that kind of enjoyment you are thinking)
Score Overall 10/10

Why give 10 stars when I didn't enjoy character building? Because it torn my heart out. It made me think, it made me suffer, it made me upset and sad. It made me realize how lucky my life is. It made me realize we are blessed with our lives (well at least I am). I always have been a optimistic guy but sometimes I fall... This anime made me feel like few have made me feel. It will always be a favorite...



I cannot in good faith recommend this anime to anyone. This is dark. Truly dark. Some people I know would break watching this even if they are "only" anime characters.

If you are ignoring me and going to watch it. Well good luck with that and I bet you will grow a bit. You will learn that humanity is capable of horrible things if they need or want to do it. 

In times, we were like this. Even now, there are people and countries who are almost savages, where the rule of the strong prevails. I cannot phantom other realities because this is my reality. I can read and learn but it's not the same you know? 

Watch it if you want. But you've been warned.

Book Review: The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderon

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 10 of 10 stars

What a terrific book. After a day of reading it I am still thinking about it. This book remembered me why do I keep reading and the thrill it gives me. A deep philosophical book with an depth descriptions of two characters and an interesting and unique magical system.

For what I could understand this book is set on the same world as Elantris but which doesn't need any previous notion.

The poscript of this novel Sanderson talks about how he conceived the magical system and it gave me something more to understand the full lenght an author must go to write a good story.

Almost all tale is set on a room where our main character (Shai) tries to create a soulstamp for its captors. The Magical system (The Forgery) is told not in descriptions but in conversation between Shai and one of her's captor Gaotona.

The ending of the tale was excelent.

I advice this book to anyone who wants to read a good novel, or doesn't understand why people reads fantasy. Poetic, subtle, philosophical, psychological fantasy....

6 Stars book. And now I have to start reading Brandon Sanderson larger books... because this one had only 175 pages. Elantris has 675 and Way of the Kings (the first of a ten part series) is 1200 pages.

One Word: EPIC!

View all my reviews

TV Series Review: Stranger Things

So Stranger Things... so much have been said about it.. The series draw elements from several films from the 80's but mainly a couple of movies - Jaws, ET, Alien and The Goonies. There are also references to a dozen Stephen King novels, Predator and even an anime called Elfen Lied.

But before everything - I trully trully enjoy this series. So nostalgic to a person who was born in 1980 (things appear in Portugal couple years later eheh)... I Trully love this series. I didn't felt this way for a long time...

And another thing.. Did you know the Brothers try this script with other fifteen companies and they all turn it down?? FVCK THEM.. Netflix did it and $$$ enter their account. It also reminds of some movie, well book... DUNE by Frank Herbert. Reject fifty times and now it's the most important ecological sci-fi novel of all times.

The Characters

Mike, Dustin and Lucas are based on The Goonies and mix it with ET characters.  In the start of the series they are playing D&D like in ET - I remember one line Steve said like when his mom asks him how do they win he says something like "There's no winning, it's like life, you don't win in life..." - Awesome...

Only Mike's parents appear in this show (Lucas's appear but only at the funeral) and they are like all parents in the world... oblivous of everything.

I will talk about Will in a bit...

Winona Ryder plays Will's mother - Joyce. She is a single mother with two boys. In ET it's the same, and coincidentally both are roughly the same age as in this show. Joyce is the first feel something was not right. She reminds me, at times, with Carol from Poltergeist  with Stephen King's character Jack in The Shinning (the all axe wielding thing and both see things that to others feel like they are going crazy but they are real supernatural phenomena). Winona is an excelent actress, well here she was - vulnerable and strong. In poltergeist both mothers say they can feel the presence of their son (daughter in poltergeist) and nobody believes them at first.

Jonathan Byers is Will's brother and from the start he is trying to find his son. He is an outsider in school (quiet - hearing not that main stream music and such). Also in The Groonies there is a character He loves Nancy Wheeler. He is part of something in the last episode that made me laugh. I will get back to it...

Nancy Wheeler - is Mike's sister. She is always fighting with her brother. She fells for the jockey and the most looking guy in school (like most movies of the 80's) but then something happened that I will be back to it.

Steve is the cool guy in school and recently seduced Nancy Wheeler...

Now about this trio... Usually in this kind of stories we've got the cool guy seducing the angelic figurine and then act like a beast and making the girl cry and at same time the other misunderstood boy (or possible best friend that loved her since forever)  confort them and they would be together. Until episode 7 everyone would ship them together - Nancy & Jonathan but the last episode the producers said "fvck this, we are doing a homage to the 80's but we want something ours" and in the last episode we saw Steve redeeming himself - being a hero and Nancy staying with him in the end. How cool is that? AWESOME guys. Truly mindblowing... I bet noone saw that coming. We all thought, yeah they are going to kill off Steve and so Nancy will be with Jonathan but no... Mindblowing I tell... But who knows what happenned in season 2. Nancy still cares about Jonathan.

Barbara - Tragic girl and totally inspired in a girl from the Goonies (Stef) Look her up here

Now lets go to Chief Hopper - another great character. So good... He is undoubty based on Chief Brody from jaws... (big city cops who go to a small village, both have beasts to fight, both  have problems with high authorities, both beasts are drawn to blood, both are protecting their children (one of the interesting addons is the small people complaining in the background about absurd non-related plot things)

Eleven or El... WOW - She is a mix of several characters. First of all Stephen king's main protagonist in Firestarter & Carrie (powers and such), then we've got Elfen Lied an anime, you should check this scene here - it's 1.14... Awesome 

- What are the similarities you ask? 
a) They both are young girls with psychic abilities,
b) both were experimented on, 
c) both have father figures (that abused them - in the experiments) 
d) they can both killed with their mind - (The scene with Elfen Lied escape is truly awesome.. 
e) Both have a boy who trust her and other friends do not.... 
f) They are both weirdos & unstables
g) The name - Elfen - Eleven (Btw, did you know El means deity(god?) - interesting no?

There is some similarities with ET, even the dressing up costume... but in ET the main boy say gross and here he says - pretty....

And Will he only appears in a couple of episodes but it's one of the central characters and probably our main character from season 2 which leads us to the first couple of minutes of season 1 episode 1

From the beginning we are introduced to D&D and we understand that those first few minutes  are a image to what will happened in the series....

Is Will's turn and  Demogorgon appears. He decides to launch a fireball and missing. Later on he is attacked by the creature (which they later will call it Demogorgon) and he also fires a rifle and misses. They  say that the Demogorgon is drawn by blood which it's the same as Shark in Jaws

A bit of fluff. The Demogorgon, in D&D, is a powerful demon prince. He is known as the Prince of Demons, a self-proclaimed title he holds by virtue of his power and influence, which, in turn, is a title acknowledged by both mortals and his fellow demons. Demogorgon was also named as one of the greatest villains in D&D. His title as Prince of Demons is contested and somewhat misleading in that in the chaos of the Abyss there are no official titles and positions. He holds this title through sheer power and the fact no other demon has been able to prove themselves his superior and wrest the name from him. Demogorgon is also known as Lord of All That Swims in Darkness (Swims = Water = Eleven?)

Talking about the beast itself... He is a Xenomorph from Alien (the egg and probably the way he reproduces - Will), Predator (his body), Freddy Krugger (coming from other dimension and the moving walls - which can also be from Poltergeist) Tremor (look at his face by god... tulip-shaped head) & Jaws (drawn by blood). IT reminds me as well as a monster of the week from x-files (The Host)

And we can't forget the other more evil guys who experimented on El... MK-Ultra it existed from the 50's until the 70's... Much of it was destroyed by CIA. CIA was conducting in four objectives:

(1)   discover a means of conditioning personnel to prevent unauthorized extraction of information from them by known means
(2)   investigate the possibility of control of an individual by application of special interrogation techniques
(3)   investigate memory enhancement

(4)   establish defensive means for preventing hostile control of agency personnel


They are the true evil of this series and they will return for season 2 undoubtedly.


The Story itself

Again this is basically a mash-up of several stories... Nightmare in Elm Street and ET and the Groonies (a bunch of boys must confront an evil and nobody believes them).


Remember the scene where they are being chased in the bikes? It happened in ET as well. But in ET he makes the bikes fly and in the Stranger Things the van flew. 

The story changes a lot also for Jonathan, Nancy and Steve. It's almost two series in one... first the teeneage movie of cheesy scenes and then the arm themselves to catch a monster. 

Chief Hopper is another character who has so much development. From the beginning we know that he had a child who died and in the last episodes he is so obessed to find Will as he wants to do that for him because he couldn't do for his own child. The last episode when Will comes to life he is seeing flashbacks it's almost as a curse being lifted from him.  But there are something as well - When he is playing with his child she was looking at somewhere and was scared shit? What was she looking at? This is something probably will see in Season 2... I even think that she is not dead at all...


Talking about the Upside Down. What a heck is that place? They say it's like a interdimensional place but I got some doubts the origin... First I thought it was the future because, in the last episode we saw Hopper and Joyce looking for Will and I don't know but it felt it was the future after some cataclysm or else everything would be the same. If a building would fall in our world how would it behave in that Upside Down?

Then I thought more about it and it's either an alternate reality where things went out of hand or some imaginary placed created by Eleven psychic powers - after all it was her who created the portal and before that she only saw this beast in a black place with water... I really think that in some way that place is Eleven's creation...

Oh, Demongorgon could be Eleven again because in the fluff of D&D demongorgon had two heads and they hated each other and at war. One head is destructive and the other is deceptive and clever but could not live one without the other. In this movie we've got Eleven and Demogorgon and they both disappear at the same time... At some point when they are battling they both raise their hands one at each other and she even says... "I am the monster".

The place itself reminds me of Silent Hill (the movie) and Insidious - an horror movie from the 2010 and the video game Last of Us. - The metal rope they used to send the guy through the gate? - There is one in Poltergeist (and Jaws).

The Ending

The comic Will won from Dustin was June 134 of X-Men which was about rising of the Dark Phoenix - which reminds us of what? Jean Grey who has the same abilities as Eleven. Both have some bad men who lied to said girl and want to use her for nefarious purposes; and a monster has been awakened because the men tampered with her mind. - Curiosity. One of Mike Trophies in second episode his a... Phoenix statue - oh yeah

And the end of this story is Jean decides to kill the monster by sacrificing herself, because she knows that every minute she continues to live is a risk to innocent lives. She dies in front of her love, Cyclops - With Eleven is of course different but she also sacrifice herself. Like Jean, she knows the monster she’s brought into this world won’t stop killing. She’s the only person who can stop it. So she has to kill it. She wants to protect her friends ... even if it means killing herself and breaking Mike’s heart...

ET guys playing D&D

After seeing Eleven pwoers and reading the comic X-Men No. 137 which I search and read it - Uatu the Watcher — a cosmic character in charge of watching our world — makes a keen observation. He tells us that Jean’s Eleven sacrifice is what makes us all human. Both characters could have moved on with their lives and started anew. But that would have meant abandoning the people who showed them love. "Jean Grey could have lived to become a god," Uatu says. "But it was more important to her that she die … a human." The same could be said of Eleven no?

Oh about that sling shot in the end is the same idea the kids on Stephen King's book called IT had.

In the same line, Grey return so Eleven will too... ( I Hope)


After the Ending
There is some interesting bits of it... first of all

First, the boys are yet again in a D&D marathon - 
- The monster Thessalhydra - Very interesting... new creature? - Or an indication that if you cut a head of a hydra two will come out?
- It was a campaign too short - for us it was too short...
- About lost knight? - Sherrif Hopper (In the end we see that he leaves food for El and previously we saw him enter a car with some Goverment guys - so he is still a very interesting light+dark character)
- About the proud princess? Eleven reference, no doubt
- Weird flowers in the cave? The eggs they found out in the Upside Down (plus the slugs Will is vomiting - Alien yeah...)

Then we've got Will

1. He was found out with something in his mouth (Alien reference) and he later wakes up in the hospital and the first thing he notices... his brother was cut in his hand which was a bit hidden... (Smelling blood mayhaps?)
2. At Dinner time Will vomits a slug (and he doesn't look that preocuppied - I would be freak out by it) and for a second or two he goes to the Upside Down returning to the table like nothing had happened... So what a heck? Is he a monster controlled freak? Or is he changing into a new beast? A vessel... mayhaps?

And we never later understand what happened to Eleven and who the monster was... Was he a previous test subject? Evil side of Eleven? Doctor Brennan was not that worried when El tells him he met a monster... He knew it was there...

What about the portal? Is it there? What a heck... Too much questions...

The Nostalagia Feeling

1. The Poster is Star Wars (Jedi anyone?
2. Title Sequence is a heavy 80's synthesizers and B-Horror movies (and Stephen Kings novels at the time)
3. Each Chapter reminds of Choose your own Adventure kind (like Fight & Fantasy)
4. Each character is a hero in Dungeon and Dragons
5. Bikes from the 80's...
6. Should I stay or Should I go (says something... go hear the music from the Clash)
7. The Levi's jackets
8. The vintage nike sneekers
9. The dial rotary phones..
10. Puffy vests so Michael J Fox in Back to the Future
11. The posters with the movies Evil Dead or The Thing
12. The Tom Cruise poster (I bet nobody has those nowadays...)
13. The Junk food...

References to movies 

(besides the ones I previous talk about - taken from one website I watch )

Under The Skin (2013)

In Under the Skin, Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who masquerades as a human, using her feminine wiles to lure  men to their doom. Whenever she lures a man into her van, the film shifts to an abstract “black room” where the victims are consumed in a liquid darkness. Stranger Things puts Eleven in a similar netherspace whenever she’s dunked into the sensory-deprivation tank. She, too, is supposed to be used as a weapon against men — in this case, Soviet targets in the Cold War — but the mission backfires

The Last Starfighter (1984)
I've watch this movie on youtube (yeah sue me) and it's about a guy who uses his geek and over the top ability to play videogames to go into interstellar warfare. I think this kids are the same. They even mention as Upside Down as The Vale of Shadows in D&D. 
Geek Power!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
I've watch this movie so much time ago but one of the few things I remember was the blinking lights on the farmacy and I remember Joyce Ouija board on the wall.. Its the same thing. 

Ranting
This review took three of four hours but it was worth it. Probably only a couple of people will see it but most important I will see it... This series is truly awesome. Thank you Duffer Brothers

This is series are going to be there in 50's years as the great of this decade...