Favorite 2014 Anime

To be completely honest, there wasn't much I was looking forward to coming into the year. Compared to last year where many great shows wrapped up, such as Attack on Titan and the rarely discussed Arpeggio of Blue Steel (which I will eventually get around to reviewing, by the way).

However, like anime tends to do, there were a lot of cool shows that took me by storm. Some long and some that only lasted for about twelve episodes. This year also served as something of a precursor for what next year looks like: a whole bunch of season 2s. You had SAO II, Fate/Stay Night unlimited blade works as some of the bigger ones.

Top 10 Trailers/ Teasers From 2014

By now a lot of people have put up what their favorite movies, moments, comics, or TV shows of 2014 were. And yeah, I know IGN did a little Top 14 list of their favorite trailers, but I've had this idea since October and don't know which of us had the idea first. I doubt my list is going to be the exact same as theirs anyway, seeing as how I have two anime on my list.

Oh, I should mention something about that, too. This is a list including both movies and TV shows. The catch? It's only the ones I saw purposefully, the ones I remembered. So even if there was this mega awesome trailer that came out, if I didn't see it, it's not on the list. That said, I do think I'm able to cover several awesome trailers in this list, including a few extras.

Favorite 2014 Movie

2014 was a year of great movies. Many of them matched the hype, such as big hits like X-Men and Cap 2. Others fell below the hype, disappointing some even, such as hits like the second Amazing Spider-Man film and new teen craze, The Maze Runner. Animated movies continue to move forward, the most noticeable being The Lego Movie, sheerly off of a surprise factor. Who knew a movie about Legos would be so cool? Even spawn a franchise.

A real treat this year was the mainstream return of DBZ to theaters with "Battle of Gods" premiering for American audiences. I do and don't count it as a 2014 movie, though. On the one hand, yes, it did release this year in the English dub. On the other hand, several people had already seen it last year when it premiered in Japan. Still, it was a fun time to see.

"Dragon Ball Z Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan" Review

Hot off the heels of yesterday's discussion, let's talk about a quaint little movie featuring our favorite Z-Warriors being kindly summoned to a brand new planet, made just for them, by a one-eyed man named Paragus. It's a very soft-hearted DBZ movie, one that you wouldn't really expect. So with all of that said, let's just sit back

Relax

And enjoy

A simple little family movie...

JUST KIDDING IT'S DRAGON BALL Z BROLY: THE LEGENDARY SUPER SAIYAN.

So...who wants to go a round with him? I'll be over there...

I love this movie. It's nothing but a humongous fight scene. Plot? Oh you mean that little ploy to get Broly to kill Vegeta? Who cares?! Let's have every Super Saiyan (and Super Namekian) in DBZ try and fight this one guy, and see how long it lasts for!

Favorite Christmas Movie

There are a lot of things to enjoy about the Christmas season, and many reasons to enjoy these things. Religiously, it's a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus and the wonderful story surrounding his birth and circumstance. Socially, it's a time for people to gather and give thanks for everyone around them that has supported them throughout the years. Or, if you've just met them, to show appreciation for a new found friendship.

Christmas is the season of giving. Sure, being thankful is a Thanksgiving thing, but it seems so few people even remember Thanksgiving is a holiday anymore. Christmas is a time for families to come together, wherever they may live or whatever the circumstance is, to remember just what it is that makes them a family (besides lawful and biological reasons, those are a tad unavoidable).

So, what's there to do when the family is gathered? Well there's the obvious choices: Christmas shopping, make gingerbread cookies, play a family football game (or is that just me and my family?). To bank on these possibilities, of course, there are Christmas movies, played over and over again maliciously on ABC Family :-).

I struggle deciding whether I like the movies that around shown around Halloween or Christmas. On the one hand, you have such psyhological and thrilling movies like The Shining and Nightmare on Elm's Street. Or you have such heartwarming classics as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Elf.

That's why I like Nightmare Before Christmas, it's the best of both worlds (and even features Thanksgiving!).

Both sets of films/ genres have their ups and downs. For Halloween, it's certainly that it's gory and horror filled to a nauseating degree. So few horror films are good and suspenseful unlike the old ones, just going for cheap jump-scares. Similarly, it feels that most Christmas movies nowadays are just banking on the cliche that everything will turn out well for the family around Christmas time.

That's why I feel there are only a handful of really good Christmas movies, ones with a unique feel to them. The Charlie Brown Christmas is an example of that, accumulating everything we've come to love about the Peanuts and even giving a wonderful message about what Christmas is all about. Elf is just a funny little movie about a human in the guise of an elf, featuring Sonny from The Godfather. Seriously, every time I watch elf, Sonny comes to mind and makes the movie weird, like if he hadn't (spoilers for Godfather, but if you haven't seen it you haven't really watched a movie) been mowed down at a toll-booth--what a way to go--book publishing is where he would have wound up.

And yes, I know there are several other good "holiday" movies that come out, but, there are far more Christmas movies and frankly I won't call A Year Without Santa Claus a "holiday" movie because it's clearly a Christmas movie.

So then, what is my favorite Christmas movie? Nightmare Before Christmas? Home Alone?

No, but, those are good movies. See, I'm a man of simple tastes. I like joy, and Christmas spirit...and good musical numbers! Do you know what all those things have in common? They're clay.

Alright, tried riffing the Joker from The Dark Knight and it barely worked so I'll just say it: Santa Claus is Coming to Town of course!

It's a simple little tale about the origin of Santa Claus--a believable one at that--with its own bits of excitement that culminates perfectly into the Santa Claus mythos. I like the idea of Santa Claus originating as a small-town guy, then going off on his own and basically discovering the meaning of Christmas on his own. It makes him relatable.

Seeing the evolution of the Santa Claus mythos is also really, really interesting. The fact that it isn't just a way to enter a house creatively but rather had to in order to spread joy to the children, who were rather oppressed by the Burgermeister, added a cool element to the movie. The fact that Kris Kringle never gave up helped show us the true meaning of Christmas, and the true meaning of Santa Claus.

Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Higher, Further, Faster Review

Alright so I never found out the reason why I'm reviewing this trade other than the fact that I got it recently and really liked it. But I think that's a solid reason.

I guess you could say that I'm closing out my comic-reviewing year with a bang. This trade is pretty darn amazing. I'm sure by now most people know that Captain Marvel, more than likely Carol Danvers but still unconfirmed, is getting her own movie. All the more reason to pick up this trade, so, I did. It was just after the announcement, too, and I saw that this would be probably the comic that would still be running through to the movie.

Akame Ga Kill! Review

Well, at least one of the regularly sized summer anime shows has wrapped up. In the middle of December no less, but here we are regardless! While looking for shows that either weren't sequels or weren't going to get sequels (I'm already watching two sequel anime, I don't want/ probably can't sustain any more information already), I finally stumbled across one that peaked my interest. I also saw a lot of discussion, a little early on in the show, that it was pretty darn good, maybe even the level of Attack on Titan. Of course I thought, "Well that's a lie, but let's see the hype."

Blog Update 3: New Year, New Rules, New Reviews

So, yeah, my schedule for blogging has been sort of whack the last month. Reminds me a lot of how it was before I even developed a schedule. But that's only because school got hectic and then having to review Arrow and The Flash often meant I was writing/ posting things all in one day as well as working on Wednesday nights. Not only that, but I'm sure you noticed that I stopped blogging weekends (including Friday) and "Blue Nexus" has been gone for the whole month of December. So, what the heck bro?

Arrow "The Climb" Review

FULL SPOILERS FOR EPISODE AHEAD

Dang, there goes my theory that Tommy killed Sara...

Dang, there goes the potential for Katana to be a part of the TV JLA

Dang, there goes...Oliver down the mountainside...

Oh.

Green Arrow #9 Review

As much as I would love to review a Christmas comic, the fact is I won't because that's too gimmicky and I don't currently own any Christmas comics. Sure, I could buy the Harley Quinn Holiday Special, but money's always tight and spending five bucks on a single comic is never something I look forward too. Maybe in February I'll get around to more holiday/ themed pieces, but nevertheless, the comic I'm reviewing has some relevance. Right?

I mean there's snow. A guy has a beard. And, uh...

Okay, look, I looked back and saw that pretty much every month I've reviewed at least one Green Arrow comic and I decided that since this one was the most "winter-y," I would review it. Sadly, though, it isn't one of the good Green Arrow books.

The Flash "The Man in the Yellow Suit" Review

FULL SPOILERS FOR EPISODE AHEAD. 

I definitely left tonight's episode of The CW's The Flash way more confused than when I entered. A lot happened, so much so that I may have difficulty going about the episode in my normal, sequence-of-events way. There were three main subplots, of which only one pertained to the plot of the episode, one teased major events in the next few episodes, and the other only made for awkward filler. I won't say which are which, I'll leave that up to you. Because that's the fun part.

I'll discuss the elephant in the room, to get us started: Reverse Flash was amazing. Definitely the best villain we've seen on The Flash and probably the best villain we may see the entire season barring the return of Captain Cold and non-appearance of Gorilla Grodd.

Arrow "The Brave and the Bold" Review

FULL EPISODE SPOILERS BELOW

And so, onto part two! Huzzah!

Man was this episode great! I know I usually say this after a few more context sentences, but yeah, it was great! In my opinion, it was even better than the episode from yesterday, from The Flash. Part of that, I'm sure, is that there was little need for the characters to adjust to each other. But another part of that was the increased amount of comedy, and the terrific Arrow action that we saw. Captain Boomerang was fantastic (sadly not Australian) and I hope he comes back, because he was not only a cunning villain but an adept fighter as well.

Supergirl #36 Review

Supergirl is a character, at least in the New 52, that seems to be struggling to find herself. Mostly because her writers have not planted her anywhere. From various escapades with Superman against He'l to her time as a Red Lantern and her most recent quarrels in the "Superman: Doomed" event, it doesn't seem that Supergirl has really had her own book. It's more like Superman 1.5. If she wasn't a Kryptonian, it's almost like she would be irrelevant.

The Flash "Flash vs. Arrow" Review

You can argue for days about which show, The Flash or Arrow is better. I'm sure there are hundreds of message boards and forums online discussing that very thing. Regardless of your opinion, though, it should be unanimous that these two shows excel at what they do. Arrow brings the dark, hard elements of comic books that we see nowadays while The Flash has more heart and spunk that most people think of. They are two very different shows that almost feel like they're out of two different eras, almost like it's two different genres.

Fate/Zero VS Fate/Stay Night (ubw)...So Far

I was one of those people that watched Fate/Zero without any context to the original Fate/Stay Night. And I am one of the many people that loved Fate/Zero. It is, in my opinion, not only one of the best anime ever, but one of the greatest television shows ever. Seriously people, watch it, it's amazing.

This year, much to my happiness, they announced that another version of Fate/Stay Night would be released. If you don't know, F/SN is a visual novel and takes several different routes, or different events occur with the choices you make throughout the journey. This show, this F/SN [unlimited blade works] if you will, follows a different route than the previously released show.