Book Review: Scarlet Rose #1: "I Knew I'd Meet You" (Graphic Novel)

Scarlet Rose #1: "I Knew I'd Meet You" by Patricia Lyfoung

Publishing Date: November 28, 2017
Publisher: Charmz
Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Maud, a dreamy young woman, who loves justice, lives in France in the 18th century. The incomprehensible murder of his father forced him to rejoin Paris where his grandfather, a noble whose existence she was unaware, saw. It crosses the road of the Fox, a brigand of the highways that she admires. But she still does not know anything about the secret that her father bequeathed to her and that a mysterious individual covets. 

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I rated it 5/5 "it was amazing"

Thank you Papercutz for the copy via NetGalley.

This Graphic Novel is fun, easy to read, and has a good sense of humor.

It starts with the murder of Maud's father, a past revealed to her and thus she travels to live in Paris. Her huge crush on a bandit calling himself "The Fox" has lead her to a conclusion of becoming a bandit herself - Scarlet Rose.

Guilhem is quite cute but I can't really tell of his age based on the drawings. Their facial expressions are right and I love how they change to impossible human faces to exaggerate an emotion.

I believe the english translations have just begun and I can't wait to read the next installment. This is my first Graphic Novel series so I'm not very familiar with the slang. Is it called an 'installment', an 'issue' perhaps?

Book Review: Beowulf

Beowulf by Jacqueline Morley

Publishing Date: October 1, 2010
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series
Synopsis from Goodreads: 

This retelling of the first great epic poem in the English language recounts the story of Beowulf, his heroic struggle against the monster Grendel, and his final fight to the death with a ferocious dragon. Barron's " Graphic Classics " offer easy-to-follow retellings of immortal literary works. They introduce elementary and secondary school students to many of our culture's great plays, novels, and epic poems, and encourage boys and girls to discover the joy of reading the masterworks in their original form. "Graphic Classics " titles tell absorbing stories with high-quality color illustrations complemented with short narrative sections and dialogue balloons that capture the spirit of the originals. They also present background material to help young readers understand when and why the literary work was originally written. " Graphic Classics " titles are available in both paperback and hardcover editions.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I rated it 5/5 "it was amazing"

This was a fun read. It works for all ages.
I always wanted to know the story of Beowulf but I didn't want to read a really thick book for it. This comic book was very helpful as it has great art with synonyms for words that are less familiar.

If you need to write an essay on a classic, choose comic books especially from this publisher because it's easy to read and it has a lot of pictures.

Movie Review: Wonder Woman (2017)

Release date: May 15, 2017 (Shanghai)
                      June 2, 2017 (United States)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright
Running Time: 141 minutes
Language: English
Budget: $ 149 million
Box Office: $ 591.6 million


IMDB Blurb:

Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true identity.

Review:

5/5 stars

Diana, Goddess of the Amazons.

The words that best describes this film are “GIRL POWER”. I have so much love for the Amazonians now. I wasn’t their biggest fan because I somehow see them as girls of the wild and like female versions of Tarzan. The film portrays them as civilized women who despite lack the interaction with other people - especially men - and the exposure to the world beyond their island, they are quite educated to the ways of the people beyond.

The film is filled with beautiful women and girls. Diana is a hero who stands for what’s right and doesn’t care if she’s out of line. If she sees or hears something wrong she speaks her mind. Her goal is to save the world. Such an achiever! To stop the war, she needs to find Ares and kill him. Well that sounds simple enough too. If you set your mind to something, you’ll reach it no matter what.

I really want to know when and how she got her superhero name “Wonder Woman”. I’m too lazy to read the comics, I hope it’ll be revealed in the sequel though.

There was never a moment of boredom in the film. All conversations meant something and are always game changers. 

I really hate it when men die before the girls. It seems really unfair for me. Steve was great, Steve was hot too. I mean come on, Chris Pine, hello! His sacrifice gave Diana the push she needed and unleashed her full power. So the plot for the first film was in order for someone to be completely strong, the factor that makes them weak must be removed. There’s just no words for this film. It’s the best. Gal was the perfect Wonder Woman, she did a really great job even though she was pregnant during shooting. This has been one of my most anticipated films of 2017 and it did not disappoint.

Movie Review: Barbie: Video Game Hero

Movie Trailer

Release date: February 1, 2017

Cast: Erica Lindbeck, Siena Bohn, Shannon Chan-Kent

Barbie is a video game designer and she’s making her own game called “Cupcake Cavern” with her friends and her sister Chelsea helping her in testing out the game. While playing Cupcake Cavern with her friends, they find that there’s a glitch and they can’t finish the game. 

Taking a break from the game and trying to figure out how to fix it, Barbie’s tablet keeps on beeping until she picks it up. When the screen tuned on, Cutie - the tutorial or video game narrator - came up and asked if Barbie would like to play the game. When Barbie pressed “Yes”, she was instantly sucked into the game. Cutie tells her that there’s a virus spreading and they’re taking over the game. Barbie must win all levels of the game to save everyone and fix the game.

Review:

If all the other characters and the design of the virus weren’t cute, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie. But that’s a Barbie film for you, there’s always that cute character. The story line isn’t that good, but then again this is a kids movie so it shouldn’t be complicated. It was pretty basic, there were no plot twists, there was only one point of view. Reading other people’s comments, they agreed about the decrease in the story lines and animation/design of the Barbie films because we always compare them to the Second Generation of films (Rapunzel, Swan Lake, Nutcracker). I myself also compare the new films to that generation but I really cannot expect much for the new films since the old films were based on classic stories and not originals.

The Barbie film franchise needs to release 2 to 3 Barbie films in a year and there isn’t much time they have to write a killer story. When writing a story they also need to consider about a lot of aspects where they can’t make it too complicated and kids the age below 10 need to understand them. They also cannot add characters that aren’t common knowledge to kids or professions that they don’t see everyday.

The animation was okay, I liked the idea where the game designs per level was different. In the first part it was a bit glitchy like a lag in the game, then came the simple looking designs, followed by the super high effects, and now to the hip game design like tiny pixels looking like Minecraft. Barbie’s main in-game character design was very cute and it felt kind of nostalgic. Her long pigtails and the shape of her eyes, there was really something about the animation and design.

I am a super huge fan of Barbie and I swore to myself that I will watch all Barbie films to my last breath. I will grow up with Barbie and I will die with Barbie too. I just hope they’ll be able to make better story lines. Does anyone know where I can send out suggestions to Barbie stories or if they ever accept any?

Angel Beats

Enjeru Bītsu!

Teens who have unfinished business or who didn't get to live their life to the fullest end up in a high school somewhere in the Underworld. Otonashi woke up with no memory at all and a girl named Yuri recruits him to the Battle Front - a group of people like him who fights against the student body president named Angel. They're not the only students of the high school, there are other students called NPCs that don't have souls and go to school everyday but the Battle Front are not required to attend classes. In this world no one dies, if you don't fight you'll get obliterated, if you take your classes too seriously you'll get obliterated. The Battle Front believes that Angel has a direct contact to God and since they have unfinished business, they are seeking for answers from Him.

Directed by: Seiji Kishi

Written by: Jun Maeda

Original Run: April 3, 2010 - June 26, 2010

Number of Episodes: 13 + 2 OVA

Review:

If you enjoy sad stories that make you cry ugly, at the same time make you laugh uncontrollably, and you also like gun action, then this show is for you. No news has been brought up about a season 2 but considering it's been 6 years already then I don't think there ever will be. But it's a good watch, the back stories portrayed in the series make you wonder about how other people are living their life right now. It's sad, but it makes you appreciate your life even more.

Spoiler Alert

I wasn't hooked by this series, a friend recommended it to me but it wasn't that interesting or maybe that's just because I watched the English dub and we all know that's very different from the English sub because subs don't leave out information during conversations. When the show ended I was left with a lot of questions and I thought it was my lack of attention but I asked others who have seen this show and they have the same problems too. Back stories of a lot of people wasn't even told, the ending was very confusing. I thought Angel was an NPC since she has special powers and she's like a robot but I don't understand how she was able to move on.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Kōtetsujō no Kabaneri

A deadly virus has spread over Japan and once you get bitten you turn into a zombie called "Kabane". They can't be killed by ordinary guns because their hearts are protected by iron. People built stations and put up huge walls to protect themselves against the Kabane and they wait for trains to deliver food and water.

Ikoma and his friend have been experimenting to create guns that could kill a Kabane by using a huge amount of preassure and also a study to prevent the virus from turning into one of them. When Kabanes attack their station Ikoma lures a Kabane and ran to his house to finish his gun and successfully kills the Kabane. But unfortunately the Kabane bit him before he was able to kill it. Using their research Ikoma was able to prevent the virus from reaching his brain and thus he was turned into a Kabaneri. Half human and half Kabane but people don't know about their kind nor does Ikoma until he meets Mumei who is also a Kabaneri. They get on their train and set forth to stations where they can seek refuge and on their way they fight Kabanes and strive to survive.

Directed by: Tetsurō Araki 

Written by: Ichirō Ōkouchi

Network: Fuji TV

Original run: April 8, 2016 - June 30, 2016

Review:

Spoiler alert

I wasn't satisfied by how the series ended. At first it was so cool and when it got to the second half of the season I was losing a bit of interest. There was so much conversations and things became a bit predictable. When they both turned back to humans that was just it, the title of the show would be meaningless now since they're no longer Kabaneris unless a plot twist happens where there are other experiments. I have yet to watch the two compilation films when it becomes available. A second season is being made and will be released on 2018.