Pokémon Horizons: The Series will be available to stream on Netflix on February 23rd, right in time for Pokémon Day. While I am sad that the series will no longer follow Ash and Pikachu, I am excited about what direction the new series takes. The series will Liko and Roy as they brave new Horizons in the first new anime series in 25 years.
The OfficialSynopsis:
A new adventure is beginning within the wide world of Pokémon! Arriving at Indigo Academy, a girl named Liko receives her first partner Pokémon, Sprigatito. But she soon finds herself pursued by the Explorers, a mysterious group that’s determined to take the pendant necklace she wears. Liko isn’t on her own, though, as Friede, Captain Pikachu, and the other Rising Volt Tacklers offer her protection aboard their airship. Meanwhile, a boy named Roy dreams of becoming a Pokémon Trainer, unaware of the secret hiding within the Ancient Poké Ball he carries. As Liko, Roy, and the Rising Volt Tacklers set sail for new horizons, what kind of discoveries await?
Sneak Peak
A sneak peek of the first episode is up on the official YouTube, and I recommend you check it out if you can’t wait till February.
I wasn’t going to watch this series, but I just love the animation and character design to let it pass me by. Pokémon has never been a genre-defining anime, but it has always been a comforting one. For an anime that is designed to sell toys to kids, I can’t deny that it has its moments. I am sure this series will be just as cheesy and silly as the rest, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Whether you throw it on as background noise or sit down to watch it with your kids, this is looking like an adventure you aren’t going to want to miss.
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I am honestly surprised by the string of good luck I’ve been having with content I have been streaming on Netflix lately. After a season of terrible original series that nearly broke my spirit, I’ve found a few good animated series that made my Netflix subscription a bit more justifiable. Most of these discoveries were by accident, but I will not complain when I know how terrible the alternative can be.
I started watching Mech Cadet because it was the first thing to pop up when I opened up Netflix. I didn’t have high hopes for the series because it looked cheap and clunky, but was surprised when it turned out to be a solid series about Giant robots that wasn’t Gundam. The series isn’t perfect. Mech Cadets was made for a younger audience. There is a general cheesiness to the writing, and the animation is clunky. But if you can look past the flaws, the series is entertaining.
Stanford Woo is a janitor at Sky Corps Military Academy. The academy trains future Robo pilots. It has always been Stanford’s dream to become a pilot but didn’t get into the program. Only a selected few can join the academy, and even fewer become pilots. Stanford finds himself expelled from the academy, and his dreams crushed. But fate has other plans. When Stanford is at his lowest, a Robo falls from the sky and bonds with him, making him a pilot. But what should be a happy day is marred by danger. Deep in the vacuum of space, an ancient enemy inches closer to an unsuspecting Earth. Will Stanford and this new generation of pilots have what it takes to save the world?
I liked this series, flaws and all. It was a fun little sci-fi series with enough action, solid storylines, and decent character development. It is cheesy, but the cheesiness gives the series its charm. This series has a unique art style that grew on me the longer I watched. I like how everything looks like a painting. The animation is a bit clunky but does enough to tell its story. The voice acting is fantastic, even when the writing isn’t great.
What I liked most about the series is that the stakes felt real. I knew who was going to survive and where the story was going, but it didn’t matter because it felt like there was a chance that I was wrong. There was enough suspense, tension, and build-up to make the story exciting. Mech Cadets may not be the best sci-fi story, but it is entertaining.
If you have kids, throw this on. It is a solid cartoon, and you won’t hate having to sit through it. If you need some decent background noise, you might end up watching more of this than you think. Mech Cadets is a solid option if you have Netflix and are looking for something to watch.
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I just watched Blue Period on Netflix and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It can be a bit pretensions and cheesy when it comes to its obsession with the artistic method, but the themes it deals with and the story it tells make up for it. If you enjoy slice-of-life anime and enjoy art even a little, this is a great series to get into.
Yamaguchi is a rough character who is good at school but feels unfulfilled by his lack of ambitions. He discovers his love for art almost by accident when he is made to join the art club. For the first time in his life, he feels the threads of ambition forming within him. He sets his eyes on one of the hardest art programs in Japan and puts all his time and efforts toward making it happen. But the path to art school won’t be easy. Yamaguchi has never taken art seriously and must learn the skills many have taken years to perfect in a shorter amount of time. Will Yamaguchi’s hard work and passion be enough to get him into art school?
Blue Period is a stressful anime that will often deal with themes of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Consider how big of a trigger these themes are for you before watching this anime. Blue Period handles these themes respectfully and successfully captures the mounting stress of trying to get into a very competitive field. By the end of the series, I felt relief that the whole process was over, even though I wasn’t the one taking the test or trying to get into art school. This is a clear testament to how good the storytelling is.
Watching the physical, mental, and emotional toll the process is on the characters makes this anime hard to watch at times. The close the characters get to the exam, the darker the anime gets. This anime can be draining, but it is also inspiring to watch Yamaguchi grow through the process.
What I love most about this anime is that Yamaguchi isn’t a genius at the start of the anime. He has to learn skills that people either have naturally or have had years to learn. He will fail at times, but always learns and grows from these failures. Despite how tough he may seem about everything else, he has low self-esteem in his art. Most of the tension that exists in this series is from Yamaguchi’s apprehension. Is he really good enough for art school when there are so many talented people? What makes him more qualified than any of the other applicants? Watching Yamaguchi live with this anxiety and depression is hard, but it makes his growth inspiring to watch.
If you are looking for new anime to watch, Blue Period is a solid one to get into. The story is cool, the characters are memorable, and it makes getting into art school seem exciting. It is a little too stressful to watch if you are just trying to relax on your day off, but the journey is worth it. Go check out this short series on Netflix.
There is English dubbing available, but I could only find the Japanese trailer.The English dub is solid.
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If you haven’t watched Romantic Killer on Netflix, I strongly recommend you do so now. This series should at the very least be on your watch list, especially if you like anime. Romantic Killer is a cute anime with a lot of heart and exactly what you need if you are looking for comforting anime.
Anzu is a girl obsessed with video games with no intentions or time to find love. Unfortunately for her, a wizard appears and uses their powers to make her life into a dating sim. Anzu suddenly finds herself surrounded by hot guys and forced into situations that will decide her romantic future. Will this wizard succeed in their mission to help Anzu find love, or is she really as incapable of falling in love as she believes she is?
This series was originally intended as background noise as I built my gunpla kit. But my gunpla went unfinished as I quickly became absorbed into Romantic Killer’s silly and quirky plot. This series has a delightfully charming story with fun characters and a vibrant art style. I love how resistant Anzu is to the situation, but she is still willing to learn and grow from it. I love the awkward and hilarious situations the wizard puts her in. The only thing I don’t like about this series is that there isn’t an end yet, and I need to know what happens. I don’t want to get too detailed with this review because there is a bit of mystery to the plot that leads to its heartwarming resolution. The resolution and how all the pieces of the narrative connect is what makes this series special. I’ll admit that some of the plot points are a little forced, but it doesn’t matter when the result is this cute. I should go without saying that I love this anime.
Regardless of what you think of anime, you should watch Romantic Killer at least once. It is cute, dumb, and very entertaining. It can be slow, especially during setup, but it is worth the journey. If you have Netflix and need something fun and comforting to watch, this is your answer.
I couldn’t find the trailer in English, but there is English dubbing and it is solid.
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I almost didn’t finish watching this series, but I powered through for the review. The Crowded Room isn’t the worst show in Apple’s catalog, but it is boring. I’ll be honest. I didn’t have the highest hopes for this series going in. The trailer was boring, so I wasn’t surprised when the series was too. I am more disappointed by the fact that I wasted my time watching this than I am with the quality of the series. Do yourself a favor and go watch anything else.
Rya is an ambitious psychology professor who is asked to help Danny after he shoots up Rockefeller Center. Danny is a troubled kid who hears voices and needs help. Rya is the only person who understands Danny’s condition and can get him the help he needs. But with his trial moving ever closer, Rya is running out of time. Can she help Danny so that he can start healing before it’s too late? Can she convince the world that he needs help, or will he be sent to rot in prison for something that he has no control over? I feel like I have been saying this a lot lately, but this could have been a lot shorter. I believe it was meant to be shorter. This series has a lot of filler, and it took everything I had to not skip around. You can watch the first and last episodes and get the whole story, the rest of the episodes add nothing to the narrative. The Crowded Room spends so much on emotional speeches, psychology lectures, and showing the audience how diverse the cast is that it forgets to tell its story. It’s hilarious that the series is advertised as a thriller when it is missing everything that would make it one. The writing is worse than the pacing. Someone took everything they learned from their Intro to Psyc class, mixed it with some of the laziest emotional speeches, sprinkled in as many cliches they could think of, and threw it together to make this script. I can’t believe they wasted such a talented cast on something more fitting of a high school production. The Crowded Room is a slow build-up to one of the most boring and poorly written trials you will ever have to sit through, and then the series just ends abruptly. While I am happy that they didn’t sequel bait, they should at least have the decency to try to finish the story. The trial magically ends, and you get some meaningless epilogue and the empty feeling that you just wasted precious time you will never get back.
The longer I think about this series, the angrier I get about having sat through it. You can stream it on Apple TV if you have a subscription, but you have better things to do.
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If you have been enjoying my content and want to support what I do make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and share this with your friends. You can also buy me a coffee
I just finished binging Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts and loved every minute. It is the perfect coming-of-age story, full of adventure, action, and humor. If you are looking for a new cartoon to get into, or simply looking for something to watch with your kids, this is a great solution.
In a dystopian future, society as we know it collapses. Animals have mutated and become sentient and form warring factions that fight over control of what remnants of civilization. The few surviving humans live in underground burrows, hidden from the chaos. Kipo is a burrow girl with big dreams and a bigger heart. She gets separated from her home and ends up in a land full of wonder and danger. Kipo must find her way home, but her journey won’t be easy. Luckily, she finds friends who help her. What will Kipo discover along the way? What will she help others discover?
What I love most about this series are the characters. Kipo is quirky without being annoying, which many shows get wrong. She is a capable teenage girl who will win you over as she does many of her friends. She has her flaws, but the series does a fantastic job of showing her work through them. She is an excellent protagonist and one of the major reasons you should be watching this series.
Kipo’s friends are amazing. The cast is full of fun and memorable characters who also go through an incredible journey. I loved watching the characters grow as they learn from their experiences. I gushed hard at moments that lasted seconds because of how pivotal they were for a character’s development. The attention to detail in this narrative is phenomenal. The series also has some fantastic villains who have great motivations and help mold the story.
This series isn’t perfect, but it’s close. The voice acting is mostly great, but there are a few awkward lines reads. The writing is fantastic, although there is a general cheesiness throughout that is hard to ignore. That said, I believe the flaws give the series its charm.
Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeats is a rollercoaster of emotions that you need to experience once. I was so invested in the story, characters, and moments that I cried a few times. This series has a lot of laughs and some cool action, but when it needs to get serious, you better be ready. The story is fantastic, the art style is fun, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. If you are looking for a cartoon to watch, it needs to be this one.
You can stream Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts on Netflix.
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If you are looking for a dumb and fun series to get into that doesn’t check out Jury Duty. This quirky and wholesome show is sure to put a smile on your face.
Ronald is summoned to jury duty where he will serve with a collection of quirky characters. What Ronald doesn’t know is that there is no trial, and everyone else there is an actor. Ronald will sit through one of the most ridiculous court experiences ever held, but he also makes some friends along the way.
Ronald thinks he is in a documentary, the series is cut like a very silly one. The actors all do a fantastic job of staying in character, although there are a few moments in the series that almost break them. The concept is interesting, and surprisingly, it works great. The characters are quirky and fun, the situations are awkward and hilarious, and Ronald is a wholesome guy that brings it all together. As good as the actors in this series are, this show wouldn’t have worked without Ronald. He is kind, easy going, and he rolled with whatever wacky scenario they threw at him. The show will throw some ridiculous curves at Ronald, but he rolls with them in the best possible way.
The unpredictability of Ronald gives this series its charm. In other shows, you can kind of guess the direction the jokes and plot will go. In Jury Duty, you never know what hook Ronald will take, how he is going to react to the situation, or if he will figure it out. I enjoyed this spontaneity because it created some hilariously dumb moments.
This series is dumb good fun in the best way. If you haven’t watched it yet, check it out on Prime Video if you have a membership.
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I finally found the time to sit back and watch Citadel on Amazon Prime, and I am upset at how much time I wasted on this series. It was a struggle to finish Citadel and an even bigger struggle to find the strength to not skip around when this series got boring. Don’t watch this series. There is nothing for you here.
Citadel is about two spies forced into hiding by an evil organization hunting them down. One spy has lost his memories and is struggling with his identity. Is he a father and husband from Iowa, or is he the deadly spy everyone else knows he is? But he must decide quickly. The world is about to end, and only he and his generic female spy ex-lover are the only ones who can save the world. Can they do it?
I don’t know where to start with this series because it is so bad. The plot is terrible, but I would argue that the writing is worse. There are lines in this series that are so bad that I had to pause the series so that I could reevaluate my decisions. I took a lot of breaks trying to get through this series, and it almost broke me. The writing is so bad that I can’t tell you how bad the acting is. There are actors in this series that aren’t trying, but others, like the lead, are trying their hardest to make this terrible series work. Gods bless them. I hope they can find something better after Citadel.
This series tries to have this overarching mystery as you are trying to figure out who the mole is. It doesn’t work because it becomes obvious the moment they walk into the series. This was only a few minutes in, and For the rest of the series, I had to sit through terrible attempts at misdirection as the series built up to the dumbest big reveal you can’t possibly fathom. This series is so boring that I could only sit there and over-analyze every terrible plot point, overthink every plot hole, and scrutinize all of the science. I can suspend my disbelief in action thrillers, but they have to be good at distracting me with big explosions and fun action. Citadel had nothing to distract me from how terrible it is.
Citadel is the most boring to come out this year. There were a few decent fights, but not enough to be worth your time. Most of the run time is spent on relationships no one cares about and pointless filler. Had this been a movie packed with more action, it would have been better.
I don’t want to spend any more time on this series. You can stream it on Amazon, but I wouldn’t waste my time.
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I just sat through one of Netflix’s newest animated series Mulligan, and it was okay. While I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would, it isn’t a series you should be rushing to watch.
After a failed alien invasion, society as we knew it has crumbled. Only a few survivors are left. The success of society’s reconstruction lies in the hands of an idiot, a beauty queen, a scientist, a historian, and a corrupt politician. Do they have what it takes to shape a better world?
The series makes a lot of obvious quips about the current state of American politics and culture that have been done better in other shows. While the series does earn a few solid chuckles, most of the jokes are easy. The best part of this series is its cast. There are some genuinely funny people behind these voices, but I wish the series was better.
There isn’t much more to say about this series. The concept and story are fine, but you will forget you watched it. There are definitely worse series on Netflix than this, but I wouldn’t go rushing to see this either. Mulligan is a show you throw on in the background when you don’t need to pay attention to what you are watching, or just need a dumb comedy.
