'Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island' Is an Unwarranted Sequel to a Classic

Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island is a sequel to both Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, which is the most recent Scooby-Doo! direct-to-video movie prior to this, and Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, which is the very first Scooby-Doo! direct-to-video movie.  In it, Shaggy wins an all-expenses-paid vacation in a tropical island, and he’s allowed to bring with him three friends and a pet – i.e. Fred, Velma, Daphne, and Scooby.  It’s obviously a sham, and as they learn later, the “tropical island” turns out being Zombie Island – the setting of a past case they had which involved zombies and immortal, life-force-sucking cat people (see Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island).  Apparently, somebody wants the Scooby Gang back in it.

'Static Cling' Brings 'Rocko's Modern Life' to the 21st Century

Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling is a 45-minute web TV special continuing where the 90’s Nickelodeon animated TV series left off.  It follows Rocko, his pals Heffer and Filburt, and his dog Sparky returning home to O-town two decades (around the same time the show has been off air) after a rocket launched Rocko’s house into outer space and left them stranded there (in the episode “Future Schlock”, which is considered by the creator as the finale).

The 'High & Low' Franchise Is Brimming with Swag

One day, I was browsing through my Facebook News Feed when I stumbled upon a sponsored post on a trailer for this Japanese movie called High & Low: The Worst (that’s just how these algorithms work; it’s both amazing and scary how they can point you toward something you may potentially like).  I found it intriguing, so I further looked into it, and I learned that it was a crossover film between the High & Low franchise and Crow/Worst manga.  That brought me to become interested on what High & Low was, so I checked it out. 

Six Teams I'm Rooting for This 2019-2020 NBA Season

NBA tip-off is just two days away (as of writing), and although there’s still a bitter taste in my mouth regarding the league’s display of hypocrisy and cowardice over the Daryl Morey-China issue, I’m excited for the 2019-20 season (I think you are allowed to enjoy NBA basketball but be disgusted of NBA’s politics; the two matters aren’t mutually inclusive.  Besides, I’ve been long aware how pretentious these NBA people are).  Going into the new season, there are six teams that I feel are going to be my favorites to watch, and whom I will be perfectly happy of seeing win the championship.  Here they are, arranged in my ascending order of preference:

Houston Rockets

This pairing of ball-dominant, stat-generating ex-MVPs is an utter curiosity.  But being so somewhat compels me to wish they will prove their skeptics – including me – wrong.  Thus, I’ll be honestly thrilled if they win the title.  That being said, I will equally relish it if they end up imploding.

Guesting on Care 104.3 DWAY FM

Last October 17, the school I'm a teacher in -- Global Two Wings Foundation School of Legazpi -- conducted an Honors' Day Out for the Honor Roll students of the first semester.  Part of the itinerary was dropping by the local Christian radio station, Care 104.3 DWAY FM.

Upon arriving, I was asked on the spot to be interviewed.  In all my life, I had never experienced anything like it before, so I was quite nervous and tense (which is very apparent from how my voice shook, as you can hear from the video below).  Yes, it was terrifying and stressful, but at the same time, it was nice and exciting to go through something like that for the first time.

In the end, I feel that such different and noteworthy experience deserves to be archived in this domain.

Below is 16 minutes' worth of footage out of an hour-and-a-half show, ripped from their Facebook page's livestream.  It compiles all the segments I had a hand in: my interview, the closing prayer, and the finale performance of my students (whom I trained).

click here for more videos

My First Impressions on 14 New Anime Series of Fall 2019

My fall season anime watchlist is packed.  First of all, the summer season’s Big 3 – Vinland Saga, Fire Force, and Dr. Stone – are all continuing into fall.  Second, there are new seasons of My Hero Academia, The Seven Deadly Sins, and High Score Girl.  Third, and most importantly, the fall season boasts a ton of notably fun and intriguing new anime series – of which I’m currently sold on 10 and on the fence on four.  Yep, this time around, I have no dropped anime after just watching the first episode.  The pilots did enough to at least convince me to watch a few more episodes.  That means I could end up following 18-20 anime shows this season (also, on top of that, fall is also peak season for American TV shows, of which I’m also following a bunch.  Yikes!).

So, yeah, I’ve picked up a total of 14 new anime shows at the start of the fall season, and as usual, let me enumerate them from what I’m currently enjoying the most to the least…

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

In a nutshell:

Suzuki Iruma is sold by his scumbag parents to a demon.  The demon takes him to the netherworld, and then adopts him.  Apparently, this demon just wants to play the role of a doting grandfather to him.  Iruma is then enrolled into a demon school, wherein he’ll likely get eaten if ever it’s discovered that he’s a human.

Number of episodes as of writing: 2

My initial thoughts:

I’m enjoying everything about it so far.  The upbeat OP.  The quirky 90s-ish tone.  The humor – it’s one of the funniest show this season.  Most particularly, it’s highly amusing to see Iruma desperately trying to keep a low profile and constantly failing at it.  Hilariously, he keeps on unwittingly increasing his notoriety by the day. For even though he’s a powerless human, he somehow comes out on top of every deadly challenge thrown at him due to a remarkable stroke of luck.

'Anna' Is Plot Twists Galore

I first saw the trailer of Anna when it was shown prior to John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and it really got me anticipating for the movie.  First, the trailer prominently pointed out that the film was from the creator of Lucy and Léon: The Professional.  Now, I didn’t care much for the former (thought it was okay), but the latter is an amazing, earnest action thriller that I immensely enjoyed.  Second, there was footage of a badass action set piece showcasing the heroine pulling off some John Wick-ish kills.  Thus, by the way the trailer marketed the film, I was made to expect that it was going to be a cross between Léon: The Professional and John Wick – and that sounded awesome in my mind.  At the very least, I was put under the impression that it was going to be the female version of John Wick that Atomic Blonde was not.

However, as it turns out, Anna is more like Atomic Blonde than John Wick – and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Anime of Summer 2019, Ranked

The summer season has come and gone, and the fall season – the last of the year – is already upon us. But before I get into what fall has to offer, let me first recap how my summer anime watching went. My watchlist was composed of three leftovers from the spring season and 11 of the 15 new shows I gave a try at the start of the summer season – in which, from the five shows I was on the fence about, I ended up watching all but one, increasing the number of shows I dropped to four from the initial three (if they aren’t in this list, it means I dropped them). Here they are, arranged from worst to best:

Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love with a Pervert, as Long as She’s a Cutie?

Click here for my full review.

If 'Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest' Manages to Entertain, It's Mostly in a So-Bad-It's-Good Way

Among all the isekai shows I’ve decided to watch for at least a full season, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest is easily the worst.  For the record, I also initially watched new isekai shows Isekai Cheat Magician and Demon Lord, Retry! at the start of the recently finished summer season – the same season Arifureta debuted in – and they were pretty underwhelming, too.  But I had to drop them after a few episodes because I – even though I consider myself a fan of this already over-saturated genre – only had time to follow one bad isekai (and another passable one) for the season, and I went with Arifureta.

The Premier Imouto: A Definitive Case for Why Nezuko Is Best Girl

'Carole & Tuesday' Is a Decent Showstopper

Carole & Tuesday was on my radar as soon as it debuted in the spring season.  But I didn’t immediately add it to my anime watchlist because I felt it was crowded already.  But midway through the season, I learned for the first time that it was being directed by Shinichirō Watanabe.  Thus, I promptly proceeded to catch up with it.  For surely, if the legendary director of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Kids on the Slope, Terror in Resonance, and Blade Runner Blackout 2022 was the one behind it, it must be worthwhile.

The 24-episode anime series is set in Mars in the future, wherein the red planet is already terraformed, populated, and well-off, and follows two aspiring young musicians, the runaway rich-kid Tuesday Simmons and the orphaned street performer Carole Stanley, who cross paths one fateful day and immediately click with each other.  With the former on the guitar and the latter on keyboards, the girls proceed to make their own songs to sing – a novelty, since songs are now usually created by efficient AIs.  Supported all the way by their self-appointed manager Gus Goldman and initial fan Roddy, the songwriting-singing duo embarks on an uphill battle to make a mark on the current music scene.

'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba' Is a Masterpiece

Mad props to Ufotable.  Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – the studio’s first venture in adapting a shonen manga into a full anime series – ends up being an anime masterpiece.

However, this wasn’t really apparent at the start.  In fact, I even contemplated of dropping it after watching the pilot.  It took a few episodes before I was convinced to watch the series all throughout.  It indeed got better and better with each passing episode, but even though I’ve already come to like it at the end of the spring season, I wasn’t convinced yet that it was going to amount into something special.  Going into the summer season, I even wrote that I was “a bit doubtful it will be able to compete against the new season’s crop of strong, new shonen anime series.”  Boy, was I ever so wrong.  Not only was it able to hold its own against the summer season’s Big Three (Dr. Stone, Vinland Saga, and Fire Force), but it utterly surpassed them.  The second half of its 26-episode debut season leveled up to heights I didn’t expect it would go.

'Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?' Is Notably Hilarious on Occasion; Just Passable as a Whole

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? looked to be the most distinctive new isekai show at the start of the summer season.  It has common genre elements, but it probably has the weirdest isekai premise I’ve ever encountered.  Thus, from the get go, I decided to watch this anime all throughout.

The main character, Masato Oosuki, is a high school student who does care for his kind, young mother Mamako, but is frequently annoyed of her being over doting to him.  One day, Masato is chosen to participate in a beta test of a revolutionary, experimental video game, wherein the players get transported to the game world itself.  Familiar of the idea and implications of being in an isekai, the teenager becomes excited of going on his very own power fantasy adventure as an isekai protagonist.  But his enthusiasm quickly deflates when he learns that Mamako is also transported to the fantasy world with him.

'Hensuki' Is a Cringe Fest

Keiki Kiryuu is a high school boy who laments about the fact that he hasn’t had a girlfriend since birth.  But, one day, he’s surprised and delighted to find an anonymous love letter addressed to him.  Excited of the prospect of finally getting his very first girlfriend, he sets out to investigate the identity of his secret admirer, whom he codenamed “Cinderella.”  However, instead of a glass slipper, the clue that his Cinderella has left behind is a pair of panties.

That synopsis alone should make for an intriguingly bananas ecchi premise.  But it doesn’t end there.  It actually gets wackier.  So, Keiki looks into his suspects one at a time, and to his horror, he discovers that every single one of them – whom he initially thought were sweet, wholesome girls – is harboring a particular fetish.

'Beside Himself' Isn't Peak Jeff Dunham

I’m a big fan of Jeff Dunham.  He’s one of my all-time favorite standup acts.  Thus, I was really looking forward to watching his new Netflix special, Beside Himself.  However, after finally getting to watch it, well, let’s just say I’ve seen him do better.