K: Return of Kings

By: Robert Murphy

Life in Shizume City is relatively normal to on the surface but right beneath the surface there are groups of people with magnificent powers given to them by their kings of various color. Despite their massive power though there is a relative peace among them all thanks to the overwhelming dominance of the Gold King and his control of the Dresden Slates that gives all of the kings their powers. This is all about to change however as the news of his death brings many powerful kings clamoring for a new world order and the return of the first and immortal Silver King Adolf Weismann must return again to stop them. But, most of you all know him as Shiro.

When I initially watched the first season for K the concept of what it exactly it means to be a "king" and where all their powers came from was a big mystery to me. Now however the story delves much deeper into these areas with the death of perhaps the most powerful king, the Gold King Daikaku Kokujoji. It has rested solely on the shoulders of this man to keep to power of the Dresden Slates from growing since they were discovered by Daikaku and the Silver King all those years ago. Without him suppressing the powers of the Slates new kings may spawn and many humans may develop their own powers and creating a new world order, at least this is what the formerly silent Green King Nagare Hisui hopes to accomplish.

Right away it was as if the show is filling in all of the pieces that were missing from it's story the first time around, it's not that the first season's story was bad it just focused more on the mystery and the situation at hand with who Shiro was and only briefly hit on the backstory. This was a solid move because side stepping in a 12 episode series would have eaten up valuable episodes and here there was more room to deal with the questions viewers had before while telling a new story with it by having the formerly forgotten kings return to action. K could also not have done a better job in selecting a character to fill the lime light either when they cased the role of "bad guy" on the Nagare.

His is a character that isn't necessarily bad, he just has his own ideas and wants everyone to share in the powers that only a select few get to have and really why should that be when everyone can have it. It's a good idea but these powers work well in small doses with Kings to dictate and control those they lend their abilities to, without that there would be mass chaos. Nagare though is just one of those idealist characters that I just couldn't help but love as he has amassed his army of green clansman in a unique way and has been planning to take control of the Dresden Slates for years, right down to the last detail. His clansman amount to nothing more than thousands of people in Shizume City that think they're playing a game. They log into a system called JUNGLE and gain points by performing missions and basically earn powers under the green clan. It's ingenious and leaves only a select few people with the rank of "J" to be close by him.

This opens up the docket for three other exceptional characters that join the cast of K too. The people closest to Nagare are Yukari Mishakuji who is a swordsman that is searching for a beautiful future and seems to have found it among the green clansmen. He also has an interesting history with Kuroh and studied under the same teacher years ago making for some interesting dynamics in the show. Then there is Sukana Gojo who is your average gaming loving kid with plenty of immense raw potential that is used well under Nagare to demolish anyone in his path, not that Nagare needs it as you will see later on. Finally there is Tenkei Iwafune who is a virtually unknown sort but seems to have been with Nagare since the beginning as a care taker but plays a much deeper role later on. 

The rest of the cast also returns to the series as well and are just as spot on as they were before and some breaking out into new better roles. Shiro for instance has much more screen time to show off the abilities he possessed all those years ago when he first discovered the Dreseden Slates as well as show of his powers as the Silver King. Anna too also gets a much more satisfying role as I never understood what she was really doing in the show, now it seems she may have been being groomed to be the next Red King. And while there was once again a multitude of other exceptional characters placed throughout the story there isn't time wasted on all of them, but enough time is granted to each to let you know about them as characters and just simply enjoy them for what they are. 

This cannot be said for everyone however as some ambiguous moments for the story still pop up at the most random times. The subjects of Strains and where exactly they fit in still doesn't quite get explained and there was a poor attempt to remedy that with the Nagare who has his own Strain companion just like Shiro and Neko. Nagare appears to have some understanding of Neko but when the time came to explain it all it was shoved in with a poor excuse in the very last episode. It would have simply been better to write off the fact that there are things called Strains rather than try to incorporate them in any further but the show made a point to bring it up here. Neko herself continues to be my only real issue as far as characters go, especially since she is just used for the minor fan service along with a certain blue clan member, but in the grand scheme of things she is completely minor.

Still there is a great deal of fun to be had mixed in with all the fights and seriousness of this season and that mainly comes from Shiro, Neko and Kuroh. Shiro had disappeared at the end of last season but with his return the three became inseparable from one another and share a great bond throughout the show. It is great to watch as they still all cram together into one tiny room in order to do all their business, especially since the Blue, Red, Gold and even Green King all have these grand hideouts and bases, even better when the Blue and Red King cram in the room to try and discuss battle plans. 

As for the animation and music, Return of Kings once again brings back the classic K art style that it had when it first started out. Everything is incredible sharp and detailed on the screen making it all a delight to watch especially when the battles break out and clansmen's powers start to fly this way and that. I especially enjoy the flame details on HOMRA's (red clan) abilities and each battle is capped off by one particular catchy beat that was impossible not to notice as I bobbed along, eyes glowing and mouth open.

By the end of things I felt wholly satisfied with the amount of story I received from yet another 12 episode season for the series. There was plenty of action, fun and excellent animation to keep me coming back for more and not only that but the story also delved further into the Dresden Slates and how all of these Kings, abilities and people came to be. Shiro and many others continue to be likable characters and along with the addition of the Green King and his clan I can see no reason that people will not continue enjoying this second season of K.

Good:

- Spot on animation and music

- New and old characters alike are stellar

- A much stronger story that delves deeper into the lore

Bad:

- The subject of Strains might as well be dropped at this point

-Minor fanservice

Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist

Robert Murphy


Suggestive themes in anime has always been a hot button issue for people, I know I have spent hours talking to my friends about it and whether or not it is really needed or if it ruins the show entirely. Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist stands out from all other anime in this grey area of viewing though by jumping right in front of the bus on the whole situation. Yes, it is without a doubt the second most lewd anime that I have watched this year but it does so in a more humorous way than you would expect.

The story follows Tanukichi Okuma who is about to start at a new school with the highest decency ranking across Japan and he aims to dismiss all the negativity surrounding his family name after his father was sent to jail as a Ero-terrorist (erotic terrorist). This is due to the fact that the world of Shimoneta has gone in a different direction entirely by effectively outlawing all public forms of nudity, obscenities and foul language. Yep, you can't even swear in this universe and it is monitored by advanced government agency as well as PM's (Peace Maker) devices worn by everyone to make sure the law is enforced. You can't even use the correct syntax for medical purposes either, it's completely ridiculous, so it wasn't at all surprising to find that there were organizations known is Ero-terrorist hell bent on fighting back. Okuma would find himself set on an entirely different path than the one he originally planned on because of all this when a woman known as Blue Snow recruits him for her group called SOX.

The idea may be a completely ridiculous one but it does have it's layers to it in more than one way and the show brings this up. Blue Snow reveals herself as Ayame Kajou who is vice president of Okuma's student council and is the last person you would expect to be in a Ero-terrorist group, let alone running it. She has a special program on her cellphone which allows her to disable her PM in order to make lewd gestures and express her inner most self to Okuma. This is where the ridiculousness kicks in as Kajou slips in her own twisted metaphors into just about everything she says which often is laid at the expense of Okuma. As the story progresses Shimoneta finds a number of other ways to express itself though by using things like an Eel given to Okuma in order to express certain male functions along with finding a way to make lewd drawings and stories by painting with your teeth, a function used by one of my favorite characters Saotome.

Behind all of the jokes and witty banter there is an underline message to the story being presented and that is how censorship can negatively affect people. Our story is innocent enough when it first begins, the kids at Okuma and Kajou's school are curious and get flustered at the slightest sexual conduct and it is hilarious to think about trying to explain all these functions to a generation that knows nothing about male and female relationships. The negative points begin to add up when we meet Anna who is Okuma's love interest and main reason for joining this particular school in the first place. She is far more oblivious than any of the other students and even hangs up a picture of a "mushroom" in the student council office because that's legitimately what she thought it was. 

Due to certain events in the story however, Anna becomes insanely infatuated with Okuma, super insanely incredibly infatuated! Her character basically stalks Okuma for the entirety of the series and more than once takes him against his will, she offers him water that is in no way water and threatens to kill anyone who is female that ever touches him. The scenes are all censored of course and despite the undertone they had me bursting out in laughter just by the sheer ludicrous circumstances behind it all. Shimoneta may take it to the extreme with some of themes but the point still remains and that is you can't have people be completely oblivious to all things sexual, you will end up with a world of repressed and confused kids like the one presented here who can't even express their feelings to someone they like. Again, it's still a bit of an extreme here but it's more humorous than harmful. 

Shimoneta creates an interesting dystopian society of people and one where I truly hope that SOX and the other Ero-terrorist win in. The story takes a fresh new approach in how certain fan service ideas are presented but at the same time there's actually a great underline message to be found buried underneath the mountain of obscenities. Everything isn't perfect especially when you meet the stories main bad guy and his obsession with cloth undergarments, they're used by the way. Still, if you can get past the one or two extremely obscene moments then you will be laughing your way all the way through.

Good:

- Solid main cast of characters especially Blue Snow/Ayame Kojou

- An interesting dystopian society where lewdness is banned

- Hilarious all the way through

Bad:

- Some of the themes go too far even by the shows standards

Scully Rating: 8.2 out of 10 

The Transporter Refueled

By: Robert Murphy

It's often hard to tell just what makes a movie work when it comes to the category of action since they can often be seen as nothing more than nonstop adrenaline fueled rampages, but for some reason they end up being great. When it comes to The Transporter series, I always felt that it was leading man Jason Statham that brought the certain charm that the films needed to be worth while. Now though a new leading man aims to take his place and continue forward without him at the helm of the classic Audi and introduce a fresh young face to the game with Ed Skrein (former Game of Thrones actor for Daario Naharis). But, whether or not he has the chops to knock the big guy off of the throne that started Statham's early action career was something I was determined to find out. 

The story starts off with a brief introduction to the main villains that you will be "hating" throughout the majority of the film. In a hail of bullets three men usurp themselves as the top dogs of the French Riviera by killing of their competition and replacing them with their very own call girls. Flash forward some fifteen odd years later and an odd plot for revenge begins to take place with one of the downtrodden girls from the beginning of the film. Where Frank Martin (Skrein) comes into play is with the first phase of the operation doing what he does best which is drive and drive really well. This along with the fighting scenes are the only true moments that continue to transfer over from Statham's day as the illustrious transporter. We see a fast paced chase scene through the streets of France with cops hot on Frank's tail but with some excellent maneuvers and a clever use of fire hydrants, he makes his escape with the former call girl and her two partners in the back seat.

This made for a wonderful turn of events as the first half hour of Refueled left little to no resemblance of the former series left to be enjoyed. Ed Skrein failed to pull off the same dead pan style of delivery that his counterpart had given in the earlier films but he did have what it took to make some enjoyable action sequences. The first and by far the best of which was during the night club scene where Frank took down three goons that were ten times his size with some rope and clever use of some drawers down a narrow corridor. Then it was outside to knock some guys out while the car enters some sort of auto pilot mode. When it came to revamping things, the car was what benefited the most from some fine tuning. The resident favorite Audi makes it's return with all new gadgets to show off such as self opening doors, interchangeable license plats and finger print recognition on the wheel to name a few. Not that The Transporter car ever needed these James Bond spy tools before or to such a degree but they were nonetheless an appealing on to be sure.  

In terms of overall appeal however these moments of action and excitement were short lived as things pushed forward. Outside of Ed Skrein, dialogue for the story moved along at a snails pace and was never worth the reward of not knowing what exactly our former call girls were up to. The ringleader of the four girls, Anna (Loan Chabanol), put together this payback scheme against her now former bosses for tormenting her for years and sentencing her to a life of prostitution. Her group oddly is modeled after some deranged version of The Three Musketeers (they even say, "All for one and one for all at," one point) and without Frank it would all fall apart. This leads to them kidnapping Frank's retired father Frank Sr. (Ray Stevenson) in order to make sure "Junior" stays with them to the end. 

Excluding the various junior jokes, Frank Senior was perhaps the most engaging among the cast and even made Ed Skrein shine for his role too. The two had great chemistry with one another as they both secretly know that there is more to the other than meets the eye. Frank Senior was supposedly a former retail salesman that just so happened to go to the most dangerous parts of the world for work. The fall of the Berlin wall and the Korean war to name just a few that were mentioned. His obvious history as some sort of spy though does not explain why he gets kidnapped not once but twice throughout the story. After Frank finally gets away with his father in one piece, the main bad guy finally shows some gumption and decides to kidnap Frank's father to get the money that Anna and her friends had stolen.

Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic) Arkady Karasovplays another lack luster cast member who never seems to have any real drive to catch the people responsible for stealing from his partners. Every portion of on screen time the actor had was spent silently brooding over each scene that Anna and her team left for him to find. There was a decent attempt to try and make his role more prominent as it turns out that Frank has some sort of history with Arkady but this to leads nowhere, even when the two meet face to face and confront one another, it amounts to them basically growling at one another. There was no build up at all to the films final concluding moment where the two battle on top of a rock with their fists like something out of Highlander where Frank is left standing victorious at the top saying "There can be only one!!"

The Transporter Refueled should have stayed in the garage where Statham left it in the concluding trilogy to the original series. This new revamped story doesn't do much of anything in expanding upon the work of the original films and in many ways it is a step backwards when it comes to image of the gruff and fearless transporter that people have seen before. There were some excellent action sequences and fight scenes, seeing Frank drive his car through a boarding platform and through an airport was perhaps one of the best car scenes I've seen this year. But, outside of the sparingly placed action moments, Refueled is not the successor or the retooled film it should have been. 

Good:

- Ray Stevenson as Frank Senior

- Fighting sequences

- The Audi's new look and wonderful gadgets

Bad:

- Poor acting across the board

- A flimsy story that somehow realize on an unreliable lead actor

- Dialogue is flat and you can hardly believe this people act or behave as they do

Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10

A Million Ways to Die in the West

By: Robert Murphy

All the old westerns we know and love with big names like John Wayne, always will tell the story of how the west was not a safe or easy place to live because there were dangers around every corner waiting to get you. This is still true for the new Seth MacFarlane comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West but there is a bit of a twist as the story isn't told from a big hero who ain't afraid of nothing, no more of the opposite. Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) is the focus of our story and he is by all definitions what you'd call a coward and they aren't looked at to kindly in the old west. Albert's character though seems to be the only logical speaking one half the time as he notices all the dangers around every day life and the ridiculous nature of life in his home town of Old Stump. People die quite frequently around this little town and Albert is the only one who sees just how messed up that is with the combination of outlaws, Indians, disease, wild and vicious animals and so many more things to be afraid of, it makes you wonder why people now think it was so great.

Albert's cowardice in the film almost can be perceived as a defense mechanism to all the insane things going on around him but mostly it's just because he is a coward. This cowardice is what also drives the main story when Albert loses his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) to the towns most successful and handsomely mustache business man Foy (Neil Patrick Harris). Due to the fact that Albert has a low self image about himself he feels that he was so lucky to be with Louise that he'll do anything now to get her back and help comes from an unlikely place. A new stranger comes to town named Anna (Charlize Theron) and she comes to the aid of Albert in his time of need but proves to be more of the woman he needs and actually appreciates him. The two even share the realization and the horror of life in the west and how ridiculous it is for them just to survive, they're more like 21st century people living in an 1800 kind of life. It is overall a very interesting sort of take to life in the west to say the least but interesting is about all you're going to say about it.

A Million Ways to Die in the West is one of those movies that had all the funny portions in the commercials for the film and only had a splash of humor for the rest of it. While I was watching it I couldn't help but feel that things were just listing off the dangerous things that happen in the west and trying to make each of them funny like a random cut away in Family Guy. In fact the whole experience probably would have been a lot better if it was animated, it would have been much more enjoyable and made more sense especially during a trippy moment where Albert does some Indian peyote and goes on a weird psychedelic trip.  It's really disappointing considering the terrific supporting cast that surrounds Albert and his quest to impress the blonde idiot that dumped him. Liam Neeson takes on the role of the resident baddy Clinch Leatherwood who in true fashion makes a great bad guy and provides shine to an otherwise dud of a film. Charlize Theron also provides a stellar role as Anna who for some reason likes the sheep herding Albert, she's deadly and more of a man than most people in the west as she can out shoot and out drink most anyone she comes across.  

Albert or rather Seth MacFarlane was really a major fault with the film for me as he really isn't what you would call a wealth of acting experience. He definitely does not aid the lack of substance in the writing by trying to add his brand of comedy to the main role of the film and shouldn't be the one in the spotlight the entire time. I understand that he wanted to try his hand at acting in his own film but that's the thing, it is his own film and that's the reason he is in the spotlight here. I'm not saying it was a conceded decision on his part but it wouldn't be one that any other director would make. Where you see the shining moments as I said before is with the supporting roles of the rest of the cast here. 

In conclusion, Seth MacFarlane should stick to the background and writing of his films and not be the center of attraction unless he's a talking foul mouthed teddy bear. All of A Million Ways to Die in the West's funniest moments were included in the commercials for the film so as you got geared up for a humorous story about the old west you get screwed over. Many of the supporting roles do deserve a tip of the hat, Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron and Neil Patrick Harris all performed top notch in their roles and provide a glimmer in the dust of a bad film. I think I will be sticking with the more serious kind of westerns in the future, it will be a safer bet I think. 

Good:

- Great supporting cast of characters

- The funny bits were still funny even though they were in the commercials 

Bad:

- Seth MacFarlane should probably stick to the background 

- Very weak story that lacked substance

- Really just tried too hard to make itself be funny, trying to pile on joke after joke with little to no substance

Scully Rating: 4.0 out of 10