Monsters

Jin-woo Washes an Army of High Orcs

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

Solo Leveling: Arise from the Shadows S2 Ep 6 Review

This was one of the episodes of Solo Leveling that I was looking forward to seeing! When we last left off, Jin-woo had gone into an A-Rank dungeon so he could see what they were like. However, his plans to be a simple porter went south when the Hunting party got captured by an army of High Orcs. Now, they’re face-to-face with the boss of the Dungeon who’s ready to rip them to pieces. Little do the High Orcs know, but they’ve merely prepared their own execution, with Jin-woo being the one to carry it out.

Kargalgan the High Orc Lord

To clarify how bad this small army of High Orcs is, the Hunting Party members say that if the Dungeon breaks, they could flatten a few cities. Their mere presence is enough to make the women quake and the men want to wet themselves. Worst of all, their leader, Kargalgan, manages to keep the Hunters paralyzed with just his Haki.

As if to emphasize how dangerous the leader is, he uses the Force to throw the party leader Kihoon around like a rag doll! In fact, the only reason the Hunters were brought to them alive was so he kill and eat them for his army’s entertainment! He was playing with his food!

How does Jin-woo respond to this? He saves Son Kihoon, takes care of a High Orc that tries to attack, and asks him one question:

“Want me to take care of these guys?”

Kihoon says yes. And what follows is Jin-woo’s biggest flex to date as he summons his growing Shadow Army.

Kargalgan is a Victim

In the manwha, the fight between Jin-woo and Kargalgan was the biggest fight up to that point. While some criticisms can be levied against how the Shadow Army was animated fighting in the background (it looked pretty stiff), few, if any, criticisms can be found with the actual fight. Karglagan is an effective fusion of the best kinds of bosses in video games, complete with multiple stages and strategies for fighting opponents. Despite knowing that Jin-woo is inevitably going to win, he shows why he was the leader of the High Orcs. He’s the kind of boss that, were he in a game like Dark Souls, would make most players want to tear their hair out in frustration.

The real highlight this time, though, isn’t even the fight itself; it’s how those watching react to it. The other Hunters go from thinking they’re going to die to being utterly dumbfounded as Jin-woo single-handedly wipes out the High Orcs. While this isn’t the first time Jin-woo has flexed in front of others, the context makes this different. The public still doesn’t know that Jin-woo’s an S-Rank Hunter yet. Thus, seeing the man who served as their porter be stronger than all of them is absolutely surreal. It gets even stranger when Jinchul from the Hunters Association shows up and tells them not to speak of what they just saw. That alone is enough to tell them how important Jin-woo is! And while they don’t fully get it, they’re all happy to be alive and thank him.

Yeah, Cha is into Him

The character whose reaction is the most important, though, is none other than Cha Hae-in. Out of curiosity, she went back to the Dungeon on her day off, only to learn what had happened. She proceeded to run into the Dungeon, armed with only a pick-axe, hoping that she can somehow help. Instead, she gets a front-row seat to Jin-woo showing off his power.

Ultimately, Jin-woo kills all the enemies and adds them to his army, including Kargalgan, now renamed Tusk. Everyone leaves the Dungeon in one piece, and Jin-woo is happy. But his days of pretending to be an E-Rank are over, and he knows it. It’s only fitting that the episode ends outside the Hunters Association on the day Jin-woo’s status becomes official. Reporters are there for a celebrity getting his own Hunter Rank, but after they hear about Jin-woo, he’s the only one they’ll pay attention to.

Get some popcorn ready, because this next episode will be all about the hype of Jin-woo.

I Give “Don’t Look Down on My Guys” a 4/5

Kaiju No. 8-Like MHA, but With Giant Monsters

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

Kaiju No. 08 initial review

What’s the one thing cooler or scarier than giant monsters? Getting to fight giant monsters, that’s what! For decades now, Japan has been enamored by the idea of giant monsters, or Kaiju. From the early days of Godzilla and Gamera to Attack on Titan, Kaiju has been a big part of Japan, and so are series that revolve around fighting them. And with Japanese culture becoming more popular than ever worldwide, now is the perfect time for a new anime about fighting Kaiju to come out. And that’s where the newest Shonen anime, Kaiju No. 8, steps in to fulfill all our monster-fighting needs. Or does it?

Yes. Yes it does.

I’m RJ Writing Ink, and after watching the first two episodes of the new Shonen series, Kaiju No. 8, here’s my initial review.

An Unconventional Power-Up

The premise behind the series is similar to that of My Hero Academia. In a world where Kaiju regularly attack and destroy everything they can, some people stand up to fight back and protect those who can’t. In Japan, that task falls to the Anti-Kaiju Defense Force. But while they fight the Kaiju and get all the glory, others have to haul the guts and parts away. And unfortunately for him, that’s where our protagonist, Kafka Hibino, is stuck. 

As a kid, Kafka and his friend, Mina Ashiro, promised to join the Defense Force and fight Kaiju together. While she got in and became Captain of an entire division, Kafka failed several times, like Naruto or Deku. Then, just as Kafka decides to give it another try before it’s too late, he swallows this parasitic Kaiju, and it turns him into a Kaiju.

A Kaiju with super-strength, transformation, and can pee out of his nipples. 

No, really. I’m not making this up.

Despite all of this, though, Kafka also discovers that he’s kept his human mind intact and, with effort, can transform back-and-forth between Human and Kaiju. 

So, despite the massive target on his back, Kafka and his new friend/junior, Reno Ichikawa, still decide to try and join the Defense Force together. And that’s where the anime stands at the time of this writing. 

Kaiju No. 8’s Subversion of Shonen Tropes is What Makes it Good

Right off the bat, Kaiju No. 8 sets itself apart from other Shonen series by subverting a big trope: the protagonist. Instead of starting off as a young boy or teen like Goku, Denji, Luffy, Yuji and more, Kafka is 32. He’s already experienced what it’s like to have your youthful ambitions turn into letdowns, and as someone whose closer to him in age than I’d like to admit, that hits pretty close to home. I don’t want to give up on any of my dreams, but as you get older, you can’t help but wonder if you’ve met your limits or are living your life to the fullest. Kafka was going through that when the anime starts, and right when he decides to give things one more shot, he becomes a Kaiju! A humanoid Kaiju with super strength and speed, but one that will get hunted by everyone except for Ichikawa. The brutal irony.

Speaking of which, Ichikawa is also a bit of a subversion himself. At age 18, he’s closer to the Shonen demographic. He has both the never give up attitude you’d expect from a Shonen protagonist and the coldness of a typical rival (at first), yet he’s not the hero. It’s a strange sight to behold, made even stranger when you consider that his English VA is Adam McArthur, the voice of Yuji from JuJutsu Kaisen! 

I don’t really know if this series is going to be any good, but given what I’ve seen in the first two episodes, it looks pretty solid. It balances the comedy with the action quite well, and the premise itself is interesting enough to give it a shot. Alas, due to time constraints, I won’t be able to review it episodically. I simply have too have much on my plate as it is. Having said that, I do think that this show is worth watching. This looks to be one of the heavy hitters for the Spring 2024 season!

‘Monsters’ Finally Adapts Eichiro Oda’s One-Shot Manga

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

Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review

Before he became the man who created One Piece, Eichiro Oda was a young man who aspired to become a mangaka. In the 1990s, he cut his teeth in the industry with a series of one-shots that would be published in a collection after One Piece started, but one in particular stood out. So much so that Oda would eventually incorporate it into the overall story of One Piece itself. Almost thirty years after it was published, this one-shot has been adapted into an ONA on Netflix. While Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation doesn’t reach the same levels of action and silliness as One Piece does, it demonstrates the groundwork for what would later become Oda’s massive success. 

A One Piece Prequel

Taking place several hundred years before the events of One Piece in an unknown location, Monsters revolves around Ryuma, a wandering swordsman with a few eccentricities. Chief among them, he’s constantly begging for food, always repays his debts, and considers anyone who bumps into the scabbard of his sword as challenging him to a duel. That seemingly comes back to bite him when a passing con man frames him for trying to attack him and uses a horn to summon a giant dragon. However, there’s more to the story than people realize…

The main that should stick out regarding this ONA is how familiar the main character, Ryuma, feels. With his appearance, wandering nature, and skill and dedication to the sword, one would assume that he’s the prototype for Roronoa Zoro from One Piece. They’re not wrong, as Oda would refine many of Ryuma’s traits into Zoro. It’s more than that, though. After the end to the Wano Country Arc, Oda confirmed in an OBS that Zoro is, in fact, a direct descendant of Ryuma. This only makes the events of the ONA all the more important to the greater lore of One Piece. In addition, the special ends with the moment when Zoro bested the zombified Ryuma during the Thriller Bark arc, earning his sword and (unknowingly) the right to call himself his descendant.

Not that Zoro would ever care about something like that. 

The Seeds to Oda’s Success

Look closer at Monsters, and one will also find some of the concepts and ideas that Oda would incorporate into One Piece. Besides the dragon, there are two main villains. One is a hammy bandit that wouldn’t look out of place next to Buggy the Clown, while the other acts like they’re the good guy, only for it to be a facade. One is a card-carrying bad guy, the other is more insidious, but both are bad news. And both are the kinds of enemies that the protagonists usually fight in One Piece. 

The special itself is short, only clocking in at about 25 minutes. However, it makes up for it by capturing the anachronistic feel of the original one-shot, the art style of the anime, and Oda’s sense of comedy. Getting to see a creator’s early work adapted and comparing it to what they’re most famous for is an interesting experience. And while Monsters isn’t as grand, silly, or epic as One Piece would become, you can see the seeds of what Oda would one day create.

Overall, Monsters is less of a must-watch for 2024, and more of a gift for longtime fans of Eichiro Oda. If you ever wanted to see more of what Oda did in his youth and how it would help shape the mangaka he would become, though, I’d recommend giving Monsters a watch.

Also, if you want to read the original one-shot, Viz Media just published it onto their website. Click this link to see it for yourself. 

I Give “Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation” a 4/5