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anime cartoon Hipster Hotline Wakfu

Wakfu: The Animated Series [Season 4 Episode 5 Review]

Invasion of the Wakfu Snachers!

What I love about this episode is watching both world-wide and interpersonal drama jamming together in dub-step harmony.

For example, the episode was almost bookmarked by the invading Cape Necros—first with their appearance in the World of Twelve and last with the group summoning a giant monster. But then, at the very end, we’re shown a quick shot of Yugo traveling to the Sadida Kingdom in order to help Amalia, defying his mother’s request to abandon this world. The main plot is slowly affecting our main characters in a natural and interesting way.

I talked about the beginning and end. Now, let’s get into the middle/meat/vegan alternate option part of the episode.

Armant and Amalia return to Sadidia after the World Leaders meeting. Armant, of course, is being a prick—concluding that the Eliatrope Goddess is a threat while also trying to gaslight Amalia into thinking she’s blinded by her feelings for Yugo because she doesn’t agree with him. What a royal pain in the tofu bird Az!

P. Necros be wanting to party, and you gotta tell them no.
Categories
Manga One Piece

Forty-Five Reasons You Love This Chapter [One Piece 1129]

I’m too busy to review this chapter.

Raise your hand if you wanna review One Piece chapter 1129 for me. I’ll take anyone!

…Yes. You, sir! Yes, you. The weird guy. Go for it.

Can you imagine your child goes to ninja school and they don’t even call you and they change the sex of your child.
Categories
anime Hands Off Review video games

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero [Hands-Off Review]

The best Dragon Ball fighting game since the last one!

Just look at those amazing graphics and impressive gameplay. There’s even a story mode with What If scenarios. As a long time Dragon Ball fan who’s only played Dragon Ball Fighterz for five minutes during a free trail, I’m so excited to one-day play this game for at least an hour before deleting it out of frustration over losing every online match to fighting game experts with months of gameplay experience and high cholesterol under their belt.

At least I was until I found one glaring problem with this otherwise fantastic game:

Where are all the characters?!

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero currently hosts a measly 182 character roster. Are you kidding me? Where’s Super 17 from Dragon Ball GT? The Farmer from the first episode of Dragon Ball Z? Mr. Popo? Jaco? Android 8? Dende? Grand Elder Guru? Gine? Dr. Briefs? How could Bandai Namco forget about them?!

Also, why are there so few Goku alternate characters? Where’s Heart Disease Goku and Recovering In Medical Pod On Namek Goku? What about Pink Shirt Vegeta, Baseball Star Yamcha, Cell Egg, Mildly Depressed Tien, and Pregnant Videl? They’re all nowhere to be found. What the hell’s going on here?!

And you can just forget about playing as a guest character. No Arale from Dr. Slump, Beelzebub from Sand Land, Mihawk from One Piece, or Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon. Ghostface from the Scream franchise was such an obvious pick I’m flabbergasted he still hasn’t been announced at the time of this review. Even freakin’ Superman from DC Comics is nowhere to be seen.

I can only hope these characters and more will become available in future DLC. Although, it’s a shame another video game developer has potentially gatekept hundreds of fan-favorite characters just to make an extra buck.

Shame on you, Bandai Namco. Grow some dragon balls and stop giving in to corporate greed.

Categories
Manga One Piece

Adventures In Legoland [One Piece 1128]

The ASPCA isn’t gonna like this chapter.

And neither do I.

Full disclosure: I liked the beginning of the Egghead Arc. And despite my overall feelings, I liked Wano and Dressrosa’s first chapters too. As far as I can remember, there hasn’t been a new One Piece arc I didn’t enjoy at the beginning (The “beginning” as I define it is the first three to five chapters).

Unfortunately, I’m just not vibing with Elbaph’s story right now. I care little about the current mystery and most of the Straw Hat’s interactions aren’t doing it for me. Right now, I’m just waiting for everything to be explained and for the prominent Elbaph characters to be introduced so we can move on to this arc’s main conflict.

So…are we just gonna pretend the Straw Hats never fought giant characters before? Oars? Who’s that?
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Manga

Do I Know You? [Jujutsu Kaisen 271]

It took awhile, but I’ve finally found a new manga series to review!

With My Hero Academia gone I had to be careful to find a series that was both interesting and has long-lasting potential. I’ve never read this series before, but I know it’s popular and think it’d be fun to just jump into it cold. Here we go! My first chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen!

I gotta say, it’s a good chapter, even if I don’t know what’s going on. Not surprising since it’s 271 chapters in so far. I like the comradery between Itadori, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro. They seems like good friends/co-workers. Not to mention, Kugisaki’s a cutie. She’s a girl, right? Hard to tell with the art. Oh, well. Call me!

“And gifted you two Twitch subscriptions!!”

I love the down-to-Earth situation the main characters (they’re the main characters, right?) are getting into. It’s cool seeing them use their…powers(?) to help people. I guess they have powers. Fushiguro summoned that giant wolf. Either that or he’s a Pokémon trainer.

Categories
Hands Off Review video games

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom [Hands-Off Review]

It had to happen eventually.

Nintendo made a Legend of Zelda game starring Zelda. In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, you take the role of Zelda, Princess of Hyrule. Why?

Because Nintendo supports monarchies.

Oh? It’s fun living in a country under a dictatorship when you can just turn it off when your thin-crust pizza arrives, huh? Well, I say if we have to pay taxes, so does Princess Zelda!

Categories
Manga One Piece

Babe In Toyland [One Piece 1127]

It’s that time once again.

That’s right. It’s a new start to a new One Piece arc where everything is new and confusing. I’m pretty bad at guessing what’s gonna happening this early in an arc, but let’s try anyway. …Besides, there’s not much else to talk about.

First thing’s first: Nami & Friends are probably on Elbaph. It was mentioned last chapter the Giant Pirates’ ship should’ve arrived by now. Illusion devil fruit powers at work? Maybe.

Reminds me of a cat video I once saw. But instead of pirates, it knocked over a wine glass over someone’s head.

What I find very interesting is how Oda put the Monster Trio on the same team—at least for the moment. I assume something big and violent is about to go down requiring all Trio hands on deck. It’s also interesting how the first five members of the Straw Hat Crew were separated. Could that be a sign more illusion shenanigans are coming? Perhaps East Blue related? Hmm… Probably not, unless I’m right then I called it!

Categories
2D News Eiichiro Oda One Piece

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Won’t Join One Piece Live Action Due To Failed Contract Negotiations [2D News]

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Netflix’s One Piece Live Action showrunner Matt Owens both recently confirmed the superstar actor and wrestler will not be joining the cast in season two as Miss Monday, a member of Baroque Works. While no official reason has been given, 2D News sources have uncovered two big reasons as to why negotiations concluded.

The first reason being Dwayne Johnson’s insistence that Miss Monday had to win against Zoro in their battle. Most fans of The Rock know the actor hates losing fights on film, so it’s no surprise that was a non-negotiable requirement to joining the cast. Apparently, Matt Owens—during a conference call—asked Eiichiro Oda (creator of the One Piece manga of which the Netflix show is based on) if he’s okay with Zoro losing to Miss Monday.

Categories
Hipster Hotline

Iron Chef (Japan Version) [Hipster Hotline]

If memory serves me right, I’ve never talked about this series before.

Question: What classic tv show is now legally available for free on YouTube? No, not Dancing With the Stars? I think. (I haven’t’ checked actually.)

The answer is Iron Chef.

Iron Chef was a Japanese cooking competition television show where two cooking experts each have one-hour to make as many delicious meals as possible centered around a “theme ingredient”. The food is then presented to a panel of judges who give comments and then points for each meal. After that, a winner is decided. Simple, right?

But—like the food—the show truly shines through its unique flavor and presentation. Iron Chef is an experience. The host is theatrical. The commentators, sassy. The cooking stadium, grand. The challenger and Iron Chefs’ entrances, bombastic. And, the food, amazing.

…Well, it looks amazing. Enough, I get hungry watching every episode. Warning: Never watch Iron Chef on an empty stomach!

Categories
Manga One Piece

This Barto Club Is Closed, Forever [One Piece 1126]

You mess with the red-haired bull, you get the pistol horns.

I know what Bartolomeo was thinking.

He’s on a personal mission on Gartel Island (located in Emperor Shanks’ territory) showing Luffy’s dominance by burning Shanks’ flag. And, I bet he thought his barrier-barrier fruit would protect him from any Red-Haired Pirate attack. Too bad for him, strong haki messes up many seemingly overpowered devil fruits. Not to mention, I doubt old Bart thought that Emperor Shanks himself (along with his senior officers) would pull up to confront little ole him.

That punk, Bartolomeo, actually burned an Emperor’s flag then waited for someone to show up. What the hell was he thinking?!

He’s lucky the only things he got for his transgression was a butt-whooping and his ship destroyed. But, you know? I get the sneaky suspicion Oda had Bart’s ship destroyed by Yasopp only for him to get a new ship that’s a tribute to the Thousand Sunny. And, maybe the Barto Club washes up on Elbaph? Nika fanboys + Luffy fanboys = A good time for all!

Let’s talk about how differently each Emperor is approaching finding the One Piece in this chapter. Yes, I know Chief Shanks wasn’t looking for One Piece here, but he was pretty passive about going to Laugh Tale until recently. I think his desire to find One Piece is less about want and more about keeping it from less savory people.

They’re fine. I can see their parachutes!
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