Animation

The Dangers of Nightclubbing on Lazarus

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews , , , , , , , , ,

Lazarus Ep 4 Review

Thanks to Lazarus’ efforts in the last episode, they managed to get a few leads on Dr. Skinner. Axel and Leland managed to track down Skinner’s grandmother in Istanbul and got a better idea of what the man behind Hapna is like. Meanwhile, Eleina managed to discover that the one responsible for covering Skinner on cameras everywhere is another hacker, Dr. 909. The bad news is that not even the FBI knows who 909 is. The good news, though, is that Eleina has a plan to catch them. However, to pull it off, they have to go to his contact at a swanky nightclub. Lazarus is going clubbing, and that in and of itself carries a number of risks!

Time to Go Clubbing

Thanks to getting 909 to take Eleina’s bait, Lazarus has learned a few things about them. Firstly, that they somehow knew ahead of time that Hapna stocks would crash. Secondly, they worked with a stockbroker to make a ton of money off it. The good news is that they know who the stockbroker is; they’re the owner of a popular nightclub.

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The bad news? This guy, Sam, is a creep, a sexist, and just cringe. The Lazarus team even admits it! Unforutunately, the only way to get to him is by having the girls dress up and get picked up by him at his weekly party. Though, in this case, that means Chris…and Leland dressed as a girl.

Club at Your Own Risk

Clubbing is often a high-energy, potentially high-risk activity. On the one hand, the bright lights, thumping music, and party atmosphere can suck people in. On the other hand, if you’re not careful, bad things can happen to you. Lazarus does a great job of capturing both aspects of the nightclub, and capture them well. The background art alone is praiseworthy and eye-catching, but it’s the smooth animation of the club-goers that makes the place really entertaining. It’s very much like the kind of club that you would expect the young and hip to attend…and for creeps to try and take advantage of people.

From the start, Sam and his guy posse are portrayed as nothing but one-dimensional sleazebags trying to take advantage of women. Sam himself drugs the women he brought with him, which is morally reprehensible and disgusting! His hired DJ, Visionary, is no better, trying to hit on a disguised Leland. Not to mention how the man has no respect for his craft, leaving it up to AI to do all the heavy work for him! And, as Eleina figures out, he’s also the hacker they’re after.

A High-Stake Helicopter Chase!!

The entire experience at the nightclub is capped off by something that is a staple of many a good action film: an honest-to-goodness nightclub shootout. Axel and Doug make short work of the guards, while Chris gives Sam some well-deserved karma for being an enemy of all women.

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And Watanabe continues the trend of beautiful women who can kick men’s asses. All of this culminates in yet another staple of the action film genre: a high-speed chase on a helicopter with Axel flying a drone after them like he’s the Green Goblin!

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Hapna is the Real Deal, and Really Dangerous

Sadly, their efforts prove to be for naught. Neither Sam nor Dr909/Visionary/Donald McDonald know nothing about Skinner. They were just taking advantage of the chaos to earn money, like the wastes of space they were. The one consolation is that these events confirmed that Delta, a medicinal company, was aware of the dangers behind it. Only 24 days remain before Hapna becomes lethal, and if people were doubting this fact, the episode gives major proof otherwise. In the final scene, we see a group of monkeys in a lab that were likely used to test Hapna start to die. In other words, this drug is the real deal.

This was a fun episode in a series that, thus far, has been fun to watch. People seem to love Lazarus so far!

I Give “Don’t Stop the Dance” a 4/5

Zenshu Gets a Happy Ending! TAKE THAT, HAG BIRD!

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Crunchyroll , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zenshu Ep 12 Review

And thatโ€™s a wrap, people! After three months, twelve episodes, and a ton of shout-outs to great anime and the people who made them, Zenshu is over! And what an ending it was! At the end of the last episode, it looked as though Kametaroโ€™s horrendously depressing ending was going to come true. In his grief over the loss of Natsuko, Luke had destroyed the final Soul Future, heralding the arrival of the Ultimate Void. Yet, thereโ€™s something that that old bag of a director never understood about humanity: that no matter how bad things may get for us, we keep looking for a light in the dark. In this case, that lightโ€™s name is Natsuko Hirose.

Don’t put too much stock into Destiny

Picking up where the previous episode left off, the transformation of Luke into the Ultimate Void helps us to understand why the mindless monsters are called Voids. In a nutshell, theyโ€™re the personification of the despair that people can hit when they begin to think that nothing they do matters. Itโ€™s something that everyone will experience at some point in their lives, and theyโ€™re left with two options. They can either give into despair like Luke, or they can do what Natsuko does: roll up their sleeves and tell despair to shove it. And does Natsuko tell despair and hopelessness to shove it.

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Even as the entire world begins to fall to pieces and everyone gets the Thanos dusting treatment, Natsuko refuses to give up. She draws harder than sheโ€™s ever drawn anything before. She draws an army of Lukes and throws them at the personification of hopelessness and despair. Thereโ€™s probably some sort of deeper meaning behind it, but itโ€™s hard to find over the sheer amount of awesome animation.

Despite being the last one standing, Natsuko gets some unexpected aid from someone she thought was gone for good: QJ! Memeln and her friends gathered the fragments of his body and rebuilt him just in time for him to come to Natsukoโ€™s aid. And together, the two of them manage to do the impossible. They change the ending of the story.

Not the first time I’ve seen a world remade

Some people might complain about how Natsuko effectively rebuilt the entire world into one where the Voids no longer exist. They may take Kametaroโ€™s side and say that itโ€™s a lame cop-out that makes no sense. I, on the other hand, think that itโ€™s the right kind of deus ex machina. Then again, this isnโ€™t the first time Iโ€™ve seen a protagonist recreate the world from nothing, nor will it be the last.

Sadly, the happy ending is mired by the fact that Natsuko returns to her world, with Luke vowing to come find her, somehow. No explanation as to how the film was capable of creating an alternate world given, nor any explanation as to why Natsuko got summoned to it or got her powers. Nor do we get a chance to see Luke and Natsuko kiss. In fact, the only proof that this wasnโ€™t a dream brought on by a near-death experience is that Natsuko kept Unioโ€™s horn as a hairpin.

That being said, this is still a monumentally better ending than what A Tale of Perishing was in the film version.

Top-Tier Ending for a Top-Tier Anime

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Debunked dream theories aside, I was right about this whole experience changing Natsuko for the better. The ending has her adopt a more open nature towards her coworkers, symbolized by the fact that she no longer hides her face behind her hair. And because sheโ€™s learned how to work in a team, her rom-com film becomes a massive success. However, the ending leaves things ambiguous regarding whether or not Luke finds his way to her world, which is a little frustrating. But not enough to take away from the fact that this was a good ending. A bit cliche, maybe, but still a good ending!

And with that, Zenshu has come to an end. It may have had its ups and downs at times, but as whole, it was one of the great shows of 2025. You can tell that Studio Mappa put a lot of love into this original creation of theirs. It pays tribute to the Isekai genre in a unique way. It pays tribute to the people who make anime possible. Most importantly, though, it shows a great deal of respect for the fans that drive entertainment forward and how they can find ways to improve on what has come before. In this case, that means taking a terrible ending by a woman who didnโ€™t  know what she was doing and make it into an uplifting story about first love and daring to hope in the face of impossible odds.

Also, it proves that sometimes the fans can do a better job than the creators!

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I Give “Zenshu” a 4.5/5

Watch ‘Murder Drones’ for Halloween!

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Blog Music, Halloween , , , , , ,

Why Murder Drones is a Perfect Watch for Halloween (and Anime Fans)

As an anime blog, we here at D&A Anime tend to talk about anime and anime-related topics. That being said, whenever we find a show or something else that’s interesting enough, we don’t mind bringing it up. And with the Halloween season now upon us and the need to find creepy, kooky, spooky and scary stuff to watch and play, now’s a good time to talk about one of the best indie horror comedy shows online: Murder Drones.

Produced by Australian-based indie studio Glitch Productions, Murder Drones debuted on YouTube back in October 2021. It ended its run in August of this year, racking up eight episodes with an average of 28 million views per video. The series and its line of merchandise have proven to be extremely popular, and while it’s not an anime, if you look hard enough, you can find some anime influences in it. More importantly, though, it can get genuinely scary; TV tropes even points out how each episode outside the finale pays homage to a different famous horror film.

So, why not talk about it?

The Basic Plot

A thousand years from now, humankind’s spread out across the stars to create an intergalactic society. And to help them run it, they’ve created autonomous robots to serve as an easy source of labor, the Worker Drones. Then one day, on the exoplanet Copper 9, the core collapsed and left the planet a frozen wasteland devoid of organic life.

After that happened, the Worker Drones managed to form their own society and become self-sufficient and free. However, in what seemed to be a reversal of the “man vs. machine conflict,” the rest of humanity decided to destroy the remaining Drones using Disassembly Drones. AKA Murder Drones, AKA the gun-toting, sword-wielding, nanite-acid-injecting robots that feast on Drone oil like vampires do with blood. So the Drones all decide to hide behind three massive doors to survive. Then one day, Uzi, a young, angsty, and rebellious teen Drone decides to venture outside to fight the Murder Drones, only to discover that they’re part of something much, much worse.

Uzi Reminds Me of Eren Yeager, but Angrier

While Murder Drones isn’t an anime, I should point out that the initial plot has many similarities to Attack on Titan. A group of people hiding behind giant barriers from a seemingly unstoppable enemy. A rebellious youth that wants to free their people and wipe out their enemies. Even the part where they discover they have an eldritch power that’s both a blessing and a curse. The main difference is that unlike Eren Yeager, Uzi Doorman quickly abandons her “kill the Murder Drones and then all humans” mentality. She’s got bigger fish to fry.

I think Uzi Doorman is what everyone thought people who liked anime were like before it went mainstream. She’s an angry, rebellious goth who likes wearing Hot Topic, listening to nightcore, and pirating anime. Like I said, what people thought of those who liked anime before it was cool. But as the show, other characters, and even herself point out, a lot of her baggage stems from abandoment issues stemming from losing her mom at a young age and her dad neglecting her.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have N, the Murder Drone that Uzi befriends. Despite being supposed to kill the Worker Drones, N is easily the nicest character on the show. It doesn’t take much for Uzi to get him to quit his so-called “mission” after she points out how he’s just being used by whoever sent him. The two of them form that odd “opposites attract” friendship that serves as the heart of the show and provides much of its comedy.

Murder Drones is a Homage to Horror

Do not be fooled, though. Underneath the witty one-liners, jokes, and fights that wouldn’t look out of place in RWBY or a shonen series, Murder Drones is still a horror series. As stated at the start, almost every episode runs the gauntlet of horror films. We’ve got Alien, Carrie, Friday the 13th, and The Exorcist, and there are a ton of other horror tropes in effect. And that’s not even including the mystery surrounding the origin of the Murder Drones. And the more that gets uncovered, the more you start to realize that it goes beyond a man vs. machine conflict. It crosses the border into cosmic horror on a Lovecraftian scale.

All eight episodes of Murder Drones are now up on YouTube. If you’re looking for something that’s got clever writing, great action, a deep mystery that will keep you on your toes, and will downright scare you, then you should watch it. It’s good for a binge session during the day!