Dinostephen

@stephenweirdy8.bsky.social

Video Editor for @animenewsnetwork.com

Elio (6/10) If the kids had to watch one dollar store lilo & stitch that year, I’d rather it have been this instead of the live action. The idea that this kid wants to solve his own loneliness by proving there’s aliens is ok, but the signs of rewrites are visible every 15 mins.

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Demon's Souls (8/10) Definitely my least favorite Miyazaki Game (haven't played Sekiro or DSII), but undeniably a game changer. The lack of bonfires, the 50% life point penalty, and enemy placement being further away definitely explains why a mage build is recommended.

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Barbarian (7/10) I liked it better than Backrooms This puzzle sequence in the attic actually feels like something that was missing from his Resident Evil. You really get a sense of how the whole house is structured and how to get past all the traps along the way.

Forgotten Island (10/10) Yeah, I cried more than once during this film. It's hard to write friendships that don't feel like they're just tolerating one another, but that's exactly how Jo and Raissa feel: BFFs in the truest sense of the word.

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Unfortunately had to drop the new Keroro. I wanted to give the new voices a shot, but they're missing the SPIKES of anger that made the gentler moments with the original cast iconic (at worst, they sound mildly annoyed).

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Dead Space Remake (7/10) A lesser rendition of one of my favorite games. Don't like how they nerfed the Plasma Cutter to make the Pulse Rifle valuable, and I prefer the OG asteroid shooter. Kendra is a more fleshed-out character, but Mercer got too much attention for less aura.

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Kaiju Girl Caramelise (8.5/10) This really shouldn't work. The side characters were a mixed bat, and it only fully utilizes the kaiju gimmick at the end. But they nailed the chemistry between a girl afraid of her own body and a pretty boy with just as much sunshine inside.

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Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia (10/10) Very few topics can be described as truly foreign to anime, but the Mongol empire is very much one of them. To paint such a nuanced picture of all its surrounding culture was one of the most daring undertakings in this medium's history.

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False Memory (10/10) My mind is spaghetti, but my heart is full. If FLCL was about growing up too fast, this is about reckoning with past regrets rather than disassociating from reality. It's easy to feel lost or run away, but only by reaching your hand will you be remembered.

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Dinostephen@stephenweirdy8.bsky.social · 2mo ago

3 eps in, Chinese FLCL really fits the tin here. FALSE MEMORY understands that FLCL isn't just Robots with TV heads, guitar blades, and The Pillows: It's witnessing someone's inner struggle bursting onto the screen, set to the soundtrack of their life.

Resident Evil 4 Remake + Separate Ways (10/10) The OG will always remain a groundbreaking classic, but tying this story closer to RE 2 and giving Ashley & Luis more humanity while introducing parry mechanics turn what could've been an unnecessary cash grab into a masterpiece.

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Hope (10/10) Korea now has its own Dune Pt 1. I actually dig how the Monster VFX don't look TOO realistic (reminiscent of Ang Lee's Hulk), as their unnatural nimbleness and broken frame-rate makes them genuinely unpredictable.

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