April 26, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Anime, Uncategorized
anime, Gundam, HLA, Hugh Likes Anime, Mecha, review, War never changes
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Bandai/Sunrise
Streamed via Crunchy Roll
With science fiction credentials that date back just as far as “Star Wars,” the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise has gone through its ups and downs across every conceivable kind of media. From anime and manga, to literally hundreds of games, to more toys and models than even the most hard-core collector could hope to assume. These offerings have varied wildly in tone, from the shocking, gritty depictions of war in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, to the “Street Fighter”-Inspired G Gundam, to the downright kid-friendly SD Gundam.
As the 40th anniversary of the franchise approaches, Bandai’s latest offering, “Iron-Blooded Orphans,” may be the most shocking and adult iteration of the series to date. Nearly all of the Gundam series’ protagonists are in their teens or early twenties, but IBO certainly goes the farthest with a harrowing depiction of the child soldiers.
Set on a terraformed and colonized Mars, the series takes place about three hundred years after a catastrophic war that depleted Earth’s resources. When teenage heiress Kudelia Aina Bernstein begins calling for Martian independence, she becomes a target of Gjallarhorn, Earth’s theoretically independent peacekeeping force. She turns to paramilitary army CGS, and their unit of indentured child soldiers for protection. After reviving one of the long-lost Gundam Frames, the children stage an uprising and form their own company, agreeing to take Bernstein to Earth, the one place where her voice can produce results. As they travel, she begins to really learn how desperate the lives of these ‘human debris’ children really are, and grows close to Gundam Barbatos’ laconic pilot, Mika.
While Gundam has not shied away from serious issues before, this is probably the most consistantly dark and serious entry in the series, but it does an excellent job, for the most part, in addressing the themes of the show. The character and mech designs are well drawn, and the plot, for all its darkness, is engrossing. Season one recently finished and can be found streaming on the Crunchy Roll streaming service.
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April 22, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Video Games, Uncategorized
Broforce, HLV, Hugh Likes Video Games, Indie Game, Playstation, review
Broforce
Free Lives/Digital Devolver
Steam & PS4
Broforce is a fun and frantic action game that combines the military run-and-gun platforming of games like Contra and Metal Slug with the try-and-fail puzzle gameplay of Super Meat Boy. An over the top sendup of 80’s and 90’s action movie cliches, it provides steep challenge but the amount of variety, and the speed with which hte game resets after you lose a life make for an addictive combination. This is a game that I often started intending to play only a few rounds, only to find that several hours had passed without realizing.
The player controls a small army of ‘bros,’ each of which is a parody of a recognizable 80’s or 90’s action move hero, with part of their name replaced with ‘bro,’ such as “Commandbro’ and “Brogeiver.” Each has some kind of projectile, a melee attack, and some kind of special ability. The goal is to navigate levels filled with Terrorists, Satan (yes actual Satan,) and Xenomorph-like aliens. Players can free caged prisoners to get extra lives, but each time they do their player character changes to a new Bro, who plays slightly differently. So if you are playing with a character you really like, rescues present a neat little risk/reward. The goal is to reach the end of the level, which is sometimes difficult because just about every bit of 2D pixelated ground is destructible, meaning you can easily blow up ladders and bridges you need by firing wildly, which the game encourages with the hoard of enemies you’re up against. You are rewarded with blasting guitar riffs and flashing red white and blue lights on the PS4 controller as your Bro flies to safety hanging from a helicopter, as you do.
Broforce is so commuted to its bro-tastic, jingoistic stance that, much like Paul Verhoevens “Starship Troopers,” I’m only mostly sure it’s a parody. The general who gives you command briefings says things like “I’m pretty sure this is a country.” and “Explode them with Freedom!” And there is a dedicated button which makes your little pixelated character flex. There is also a local and online multiplayer function, so you can play this game solo, or with your own bros.
Broforce is a downloadable video game from Steam and Playstation network.
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April 17, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
CCR, Chrononaut Cinema Reviews, hugh, JRD, Long Chaney Sr, Opopinax, Podcasts, review, Rich The T T, Silent Film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Chrononaut Cinema Reviews crew tackles 1923’s silent adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel. Come for the pretty goats, stay for the pointy hats.
Click HERE to listen!
This podcast was originally posted at Skinner.FM on April 10, 2016.
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and Way of the Buffalo, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
April 13, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Uncategorized
D'israeli, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Ordinary, review, Rob Williams, Titan Comics
Ordinary
Written by Rob Williams
Drawn by D’Israeli
Published by Titan Comics
What would the world be like if everyone had super powers? If anyone could do anything, what would you do? At what point does the extraordinary become commonplace? “Ordinary” is the story of what happens when everyone in the world wakes up to discover they have superhuman abilities. Everyone, except perennial loser Michael Fisher.
Written by Rob Williams, the story is a wonderful little gem. WIlliams does a great job of reducing a vast high-concept down to the smallest, most discrete story possible, and tells it with poignancy and humor.
D’Israeli’s art is a real standout in this comic. His art captures the chaos and grandeur of the story, while filling the background with an astounding variety of super-powers, both wondrous and wacky. This isn’t your stock Big-2 super-powered world, and D’israeli really nails that home.
“Ordinary” is a thoughtful little graphic novel that is by turns funny, awe-inspiring, and heart-breaking. If you’re looking for something with superheroes that falls outside the usual punch-outs, this is for you. I received my copy as a part of a package from Comic Bento, a curated graphic novel delivery service. You can also find it on Comixology or in your local comics shop.
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April 4, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts, Uncategorized
HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, Maximum Fun, review, The Flop House
The Flop House
Dan McCoy, Stewart Wellington, and Elliott Kalan
The Maximum Fun Network
It should come as no surprise to regular readers that I’m admittedly kind of a podcast hipster. I love shows about nerds telling jokes about bad movies. I’m even a member of one. It’s a nerdom that for me goes all the way back to watching MST3K on the Sci-Fi Channel Saturday mornings. There are a lot of bad movie podcasts out in the wilds of iTunes, but The Flop House is special because it brings so much more improvisational humor, lightness, and camaraderie to the recording.
Hosted by veteran Daily Show Producer Dan McCoy and writer Elliott Kalan along with their friend Stewart Wellington, each episode examines a different commercial bomb. They talk about the aspects of the film and decide whether or not the flop is as bad as it seems or if it deserves another chance.
What sets The Flop House apart is the second half of the show, in which the hosts open up the mail bag, accompanied by an improvised and surprisingly long song by Elliott. I can’t think of a way to appealingly describe it, and they seem like they should be terrible, but they are in fact delightful and charming. That’s the best way I can explain the podcast as a whole. The hosts are knowledgeable, funny, and have a real sense of friendship that is brought to the fore. The Flop House is a podcast that seems like it shouldn’t work on paper, but is in fact a wonder that is more than the sum of its parts.
It also has a huge back catalog. The Flop House recently celebrated its 200th episode, so there are plenty of old episodes to go back and find a movie you’d like to hear them discuss.
The Flop House is hosted by the Maximum Fun Network and can be found online at flophousepodcast.com. It can be downloaded from iTunes and other podcatching services.
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March 28, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Podcasts
Bob Mackey, Gaming, HLP, Hugh Likes Podcasts, Jeremy Parish, Podcasts, Retronauts, review
Retronauts
Hosted by Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey
Retronauts.com
For a long time, video games have been trying to rise as a medium from frivolous entertainment to serious art form. Some notable successes have been achieved, but also success hasn’t been universal. Something similar can be said for video game podcasts. While many gaming podcasts fall into the ‘bro-gamer’ subculture that seems to permeate the internet, Retronauts rises above the field by mixing intelligent analysis with nostalgia.
Nominally hosted by gaming news site USGamer.net , Retronauts covers games from the dawn of the medium up to about ten years ago. Hosted by two veteran game reviewers and bloggers, the cast is in-depth and smarter than it needs to be. It not only provides a dose of heady nostalgia, but historical analysis and design critique as well. The main show updates every two weeks considering topics such as specific games or series, but also topics like a retrospective on the career of Final Fantasy score composer Nobuo Uematsu. These episodes go in-depth with three or four guests, running one to two hours.
Alternate weeks update with shorter microsodes that focus in deeper on more obscure, but none the less interesting topics like the groundbreaking but often overlooked survival horror adventure ‘Clock Tower,’ or the music of the SNES port of Sim City.
Host Bob Mackey and Jeremy Parish, who is also the talent behind Game Boy World, really know their stuff, and have plenty of anecdotes and inside information that really sheds a light on the game design and development process.
As someone who spent much of his childhood with an NES controller in hand, but usually couldn’t afford the latest generation system, I am a dyed-in the-wool retro gamer. This podcast is my jam. If you prefer pixelated nostalgia over the latest shooter, Retronauts might just be the gaming podcast you’re looking for.
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March 26, 2016
hughjodonnell
Podcast, Uncategorized
Bad movie, CCR, hugh, JRD, Opopinax, Podcast, review, Rich The T T, The Gorilla
Hugh and the rest of the Chrononauts endure 1939’s “The Gorilla.”
Click HERE to listen online.
This podcast was originally published at Skinner.fm on March 15, 2016.
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and Way of the Buffalo, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
March 16, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Uncategorized
DC, Gotham Academy, HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, review
Gotham Academy Vol. 1
Written by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher
Drawn by Karl Kerschl
Published by DC Comics
“Gotham Academy” is a boarding school mystery set in the DC Universe, and with Batman appearing in atmospheric, gothic offerings like Scott Snyder’s run on the book and the Arkham Asylum video game franchise, it feels like a perfect fit for his world. Much like the well-beloved “Gotham City Central,” this comic rarely features the Dark Knight, but his shadow falls heavily over the book. And while a YA take on the gritty police drama seems bizarre at first blush, it works very well.
Sophmore Olive Silverlock is returning to Gotham Academy with some problems. The first is a mysterious incident over the summer that left Olive with a spotty memory and unfocussed anger at Gotham’s resident superhero. The other is her freshman mentee ‘Maps’ Mizoguchi. Maps is inquisitive, obsessed with gaming, and the kid sister of her boyfriend Kyle, who would likely be her ex if she could work up the nerve to speak with him. When Olive gets caught in the middle of a ghost-hunting mania sweeping campus, will she find answers to her own mysteries, or just more trouble?
“Gotham Academy” is a great comic for new readers and hardcore Batman fans. An original story that needs no prior knowledge, it is also littered with tantalizing easter eggs for observant fans. Such as 60’s villain Bookwork working as school Librarian. Fletcher’s art, and the lush, shadowy coloring seal the deal. This is an all-ages mystery filled with likable characters and believable high school drama. Of course, it can’t fully escape the towering fantastical elements of Gotham City, but it arrives as a refreshing antidote to DC’s ‘New 52’ sturm and drang. You can pick up Gotham Academy digitally from Comixology, or in trade paperback and single issues from your local comics shop.
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March 8, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Fiction, Uncategorized
Catherynne M Valente, HLF, Hugh Likes Fiction, review, Sci-Fi
Radiance
Written by Cathryne M. Valente
Published by Tor
Where does cinema end and the real world begin? Can a camera really film the truth? And which is more real? Life, or the film that captures it? These are the questions that overshadow the life of documentary filmmaker Severin Unck. Filmed from the moment she appeared as a baby in a basket on the doorstep of Gothic director Percival Unck, she has constantly rejected his brand of fantasy in favor of the truth. Living in an alternate reality where movies never advanced past black-and-white silent films and every planet and moon in the solar system is both habitable and welcoming, she documents food riots on Mars, end of the world parties on Neptune, and of course, her own larger than life childhood. But when Severin disappears on an ill-fated voyage to document the destruction of a Venusian settlement, the truth may be the one thing that is indistinguishable.
Compiled from witness interviews, abandoned film treatments, and radio transcripts, Radiance is an ambitious and strange epistolary novel about the life of a realist documentarian in a fabulist universe. The novel rarely follows a conventional prose format, and when it does, the authenticity of these sections is explicitly suspect. But the fascinating worlds that Valente creates make sifting through the story puzzle she creates a sheer delight. The walls between the events of Severin and her associates’ lives, and that of their film counterparts jumble together in an epic spanning a night flower-carpeted Pluto to a tropical Venus that is home to the Callowhales, island-sized aquatic creatures whose milk is essential for long-term survival in space. But of course, they aren’t really whales, and their milk isn’t really milk.
In this novel, Valente invites us into an editing booth and lays out all these pieces in a lush, fantastic sci-fi mystery. Like Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, It leaves the challenge of constructing a linear narrative to the reader, and leaves the reader not with the satisfaction of a completed story, but the wonder of a messy, complicated, and beautiful life. This novel is not to be missed.
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March 2, 2016
hughjodonnell
Hugh Likes Comics, Uncategorized
HLC, Hugh Likes Comics, Iron Fist, Marvel, Power Man, review
Power Man and Iron Fist #1
Written by David Walker
Drawn by Sanford Greene
Colored by Lee Loughridge
Published by Marvel Comics
I haven’t read much of the original Power Man and Iron Fist comics from the ’70’s, but I’m a big fan of the concept, especially the way the characters relate in modern Marvel comics. So needless to say, I’m onboard with Power Man and Iron Fist’s 2016 incarnation.
In the Marvel tradition, this is a getting the band back together sort of story, but while it builds on older continuity, it didn’t leave me lost. Years ago, Jennie Royce was the office manager for Luke Cage and Danny Rand, the Heroes for Hire. When she was tried for killing her ex-boyfriend, they did everything they could to help, but she was still convicted. Released from prison, the former partners reunite to meet her at the ferry. Luke has moved on since then, and has started a family. Danny is still fighting crime by night as Iron Fist. When Jennie asks them for a favor, the return of a necklace she says was stolen by gangsters, they get pulled back into street-level crime-fighting. And while Danny is happy to relive his glory days, Luke is less enthusiastic.
While Walker is setting up a nice little crime story, what really sells it is Greene’s art. He uses design and body language to give reinforce the plot and sell the characters. Even something as simple as putting Danny in his Iron Fist jumpsuit while leaving Luke in his vest and collared shirt says volumes about where these characters are and what they want. I particularly like the way flashbacks were drawn. They hover in the negative space above the figures, and it is both unusual and effective.
Power Man and Iron Fist #1 tells a nice little crime tale, while setting up a larger story to come. Check it out on Comixology or in your local comics shop.
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