Writing About All Things Pop Culture
So, you know how they say “don’t judge a book by its cover?” That’s a very important lesson to know. Even the biggest and scariest person in the world can end up being a total sweetheart underneath. Case in point, we learn that Goodwin, the leader of Oasis, may look like a tiger, but he’s a total kitty. At least, for some people.
Do you know which character from the Wano Arc I hate the most? Orochi Kurozumi. Yeah, I feel sorry for how the Kurozumi Clan got hunted down because his grandpa tried to take over Wano, but that’s no excuse for what he’s done. He ran Wano into the ground, he knows he did so, and he doesn’t care. So when it looked like Kaido outright killed him, I felt robbed. I wanted to see the Kurozumi Clan brought to justice for their crimes against Wano. However, I had a feeling that Oda wouldn’t kill off a villain like Orochi so casually. As it turns out, I was right. This week, the Kurozumi Clan returns with a vengeance!
It’s been more than a year since the end of the last season of My Hero Academia. From the perspective of 2020, though, it might as well be a lifetime. Thankfully, the vaccines are rolling out, which means that we can slowly start returning to a new normal. And the arrival of spring brings MHA’s fifth season! And while I may be writing more now than I was at this time last year, I can’t resist wanting to get in on the anime. Granted, I will simply be reviewing rather than recapping like I did last year in order to conserve time, so it balances out in the end. However, with that out of the way, we can dive into the season premiere. How was it, you may ask?
So, remember that robot that got created in that factory in the Season two premiere? The one that followed the Plantar’s all the way across Amphibia as a running gag? Well, the episode where Mr. Frobo finally joins the Plantar’s has come at last!
It’s never easy to accept when someone new steps into an iconic role. No matter how good people say the new person is. There’s going to be the critics and naysayers who say “You’re not good enough”. I’m of the opinion that its best to reserve judgement until we see the new person in action. And having seen New Cap (that’s what I’m calling John Walker, the new “Captain America” until further notice,) in action , I can safely say…that this isn’t going to work out. At all.
I never thought that I would see the day when a pair of unholy dog monsters would attack the guests at a dinner party, eat them, and then poop them out as bottles of wine. If that sounds like something I made up, it’s not. It’s a plot point from the new season of Solar Opposites. And it’s still hilarious!!
What do you do when you’re an evil robotic overlord who wants to make robots the masters of the universe? You start a war, turn everyone against your kind, and then wait for the robots to flock to your side while the other side reacts like you expect. That’s basically a summary of what Demon King Ziggy’s done in the Aoi Cosmos. As a result, Shura, the bloodthirsty son of the ruler of the Aoi Cosmos, plans to wipe out all machines. And the only ones who can stop the madness are Shiki and the Edens Zero. But getting to Shura will require a trip to a certain desert planet, and seeking out an oasis from Laguna’s past.
Two things to know about Season Two of Close Enough: there’s a lot of parodies of movies. And that there are a lot of voice actors that guest star in it!
It’s been two weeks since the end of WandaVision. The show that took the world by storm and ushered us into Phase 4 of the MCU. In this post-Endgame MCU, everyone’s trying to find their way in a world without the Avengers, no Iron Man, and Steve Rogers an old man. A world where 3.5 billion came back after five years of being dead and loved ones died or moved on. And amidst the great action of the opening to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, its clear that finding a new normal’s easier said than done.
You know what I love about my generation? The fact that we tend to wear our love of the pop culture we grew up with on our sleeves. And Matt Braly makes it no secret his love of video games and RPG’s like The Legend of Zelda. I’m not that big a fan of Legend of Zelda, but I appreciate its importance to video games. And with the quest to find the temples to recharge the music box about to begin, this episode’s going to have plenty of Legend of Zelda oozing out of it.
You guys ever seen the Terminator films before? In that franchise, an AI the military created becomes sentient and, due to its lack of morals, turns on humanity. The end result is Judgement Day, an event in which the evil AI takes out a good chunk of humanity. Why am I bringing this whole thing up here? Because that’s about happen in Edens Zero, but in reverse. This time, Judgement Day is coming for the machines!
At it’s core, DuckTales isn’t about adventure. Well, it is, but there’s something much more important. Family. Family has been at the heart of DuckTales from the start. Whether it’s the family that you’re born in, or the one you choose, family is what makes DuckTales great. And even amidst a finale that’s not afraid to give payoffs to things we didn’t even know know had payoffs, it never forgets that.
If you’ll recall, several chapters ago, Queen unleashed a deadly virus that turns people into ice zombies. And that he didn’t care if it would end up hurting his own men in the process. The virus has been kept at bay for a while, but unless Chopper creates a cure, everyone will die. Fortunately, we all knew that Chopper wasn’t going to fail. Queen’s in a big surprise this week on One Piece.
Trust. It’s one of the most things that a person can learn about in life. We need learn to trust in others, or else we won’t get far in life. Why am I bringing this up in a review about Amphibia? Because trust and honesty is the underlying theme behind this week’s episode. Keep reading some more, and you’ll see what I mean.
Back in September, South Park tried to make us laugh at just how bad things got for us in 2020. Their solution? An appopriately named “Pandemic Special”. While it was a good idea in concept, it was trying to cram everything bad about 2020 into sixty minutes of TV. In other words, it ended up falling flat in its execution. I still don’t know what the Aesop for it was! Thankfully, the world’s gotten marginally better in those six months. We got vaccines rolling out, Trump’s out of office, and things are slowly returning to normal. Which means South Park had to follow up with a vaccination special.
Pop quiz: do you guys know why sports movie or anything that involves a lot of training includes a montage? Because if we had to sit through all the training, then we’d get bored super fast. Also, given how risque some of the training the heroes of Edens Zero is, it’s for the best. This week, Edens Zero finishes its training, gets back on the road, and back on the hunt for Ziggy!
