THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS FOR RECORD OF RAGNAROK

Plot Synopsis:

Should mankind go extinct? That is the question that leads us to Ragnarok, the 13 vs 13 Tournament between gods and mankind. Every 1000 years, all gods from various religions and mythologies (Norse, Greek, Hindu, etc.) come together and discuss whether they should annihilate humans once and for all. We enter the story when the gods all make a unanimous vote... annihilate humanity. However, Brunhilde (a Valkyrie) proposes to the gods, Ragnarok? They accept, and Ragnarok initiates. As the tournament moves on we get introduced to more and more characters, leading to a bunch of conflicts even outside of the tournament.

Review of Story:

For this section I'll be reviewing every fight individually and have a separate mini-section for outside conflicts

Fight #1

Lu Bu vs Thor was an amazing introduction fight, this fight established how cruel the gods or even humans can be to anyone and everyone, and seeing Thor slowly but surely crushing Lu Bu into submission showed that these 2 respected each other and their techniques throughout the whole fight. The artwork is exquisite as well, every line is drawn prestigiously and really sold us on how good every fight in the series would be from here on out. 8.5/10 Fight

Fight #2

Adam vs Zeus… I don’t think I have to explain why this fight was so good but here I go. Adam, the father of humanity, the man the gods hated the most, was fighting Zeus, the king of the gods. Already the amount of impact this fight was gonna have was off the charts. Then the fight begins and we see this (comparatively) scrawny boy fighting this massive muscular man, we think “No way will Adam beat him”. Adam then lands dozens of blows to Zeus, and says the iconic line “Is there any man that needs a reason, to protect his own children”. That line moved not only every reader, but everyone in the story itself too. It was truly an emotional sucker punch. Eventually Adam knocks out Zeus and we think it’s over, we think we’ve won due to Adam’s courage and his ability “Eyes of the lord”. However Zeus wakes up and goes into his final form, Adamas… this was terrible. The god king had woken up and Adam, losing his ability slowly but surely, dies. This leads to the gods’ second win and our despair, Adam was our father, and he couldn’t pull through. This battle was amazing and the artwork was godlike, I never thought any fight ever could top this, but then Fight #4 pulled up, but that’s a topic for a different time. 10/10 Fight

Fight #3

Sasaki vs Poseidon was a revolutionary fight, giving humanity it's first ever win. However the road to get that win wasn't easy. When Sasaki is first summoned we see an old man, who I doubt upon first inspection all of us thought would win. Whereas the god representative for this round was Poseidon, the god of the sea and explicitly called of the strongest gods. As the fight starts up we see Poseidon constantly doge Sasaki and his attacks, out maneuvering him and getting quite a few counter-attacks in. Showing that in terms of evasiveness, Poseidon could quite possibly take the cake. However his arrogance is what got the best of him. Sasaki was cool and calculated, and towards the end of the fight used his ultimate ability to it's fullest. This lead the arrogant Poseidon to go all out, but it was too late. Sasaki already foresaw all outcomes, and much like Dr. Strange in Avengers, saw only 1 premonition where he would win. He then took that chance and won against Poseidon, and gave us all satisfaction.

Unrelated Story Beats

These are my thoughts on the story that aren't involved in fights:

What makes RoR's story so compelling is how simple yet effective this form of storytelling is. There are massive stakes at hand but to overcome those stakes we have to win in a tournament, a relatively simple format but can be elaborated in so many ways. Take HxH for example, in the final stage of the Hunter Exam there is a tournament with only 1 loser, except that tournament allows participants that have worked hard more chances of success, compared to participants who've more or less mooched off of others. This is the type of manipulation in tournaments I enjoy, and RoR takes the fullest advantage of this by allowing unique matchups and team switch-ups such as Buddha fighting for humans. Speaking of Buddha, he's probably the most relevant character outside of fights, he gets into a fight with Loki and the Lucky Gods and he brings some of our favorite characters with him such as Sasaki. I love how this series is MAINLY focused on tournaments yet still strays away juuuuuust enough to keep us interested.

Before I get into the characters themselves let me just say that the character designs in this manga are gorgeous, Buddha for example looked nothing like what I thought he'd look like but oh my god, his design fits with his spunky personality so well. And characters like Zeus who has a robe to make him feel royal, or someone like Poseidon who's hair and posture signify his arrogance really are amazing. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the specific characters:

Brunhilde & Goll: These 2 are our main characters, who oversee and basically commentate every fight (unlike in the anime where it seems that commentating is Odin’s birds’ job). Brunhilde is a strong, sexy, and super woman who takes charge and tries to outwit the gods into losing, saving humanity. Her ideals and thoughts on sacrifice for the greater good make her a really compelling character in my opinion. Goll on the other hand is a shy, timid and caring young girl who just wants the very best for all her friends, and that makes her a great contrast to Brunhilde.

Lu Bu & Thor: Lu Bu was introduced as the strongest man alive, and it’d be hard to argue otherwise, he’s big, strong, muscular and loves fighting. He was an amazing contrast to Thor, both of whom have never lost a fight in their life and got pushed to their limits in their match. Lu Bu having his army and his horse, Red Hare, supporting him throughout the fight was touching and made you feel for this super powerful overlord. Thor is also someone who was looking for someone to go all out on, leading to him respecting Lu Bu, a human, which Thor probably never assumed he’d do. It’s all quite cool to see these 2 giant oafs berating each other with attacks and eventually thinking “If only you weren’t a (god/human) we could’ve been friends."

Adam: Adam was a great father figure, literally. Adam showed us that we don’t need reasoning to protect the ones we love. He was an inspiration and a powerhouse, beating up Zeus to protect his children, and that is something the whole human race could get behind.

Zeus: Zeus is a great antagonist type character. He never does anything explicitly evil, he just does what he needs to do and that’s admirable. Zeus is the definition of don’t judge a book by it’s cover because we see this scrawny old man turn into this mean fighting machine, and the banter he has with Hermes and Ares is great as well.

Sasaki Kojiro: An absolute king, he completely took me by surprise in his fight, and also may be the most calculated fighter other than Jack the Ripper. His backstory was also the best of the first 3 fighters in my opinion (I haven't read the Lu Bu spin-off however. If only there were TRANSLATIONS). Seeing him lose over, and over, and over, and over, and over again was sad to see. Even at his death he lost, not even a tie. But seeing him finally win a fight and having the crowd go wild, to be honest brought a loving tear to my eye.

Poseidon: I hate Poseidon with all my being, but that's why he's so compelling. He is the perfect example of an arrogant god and has a massive ego. This also led to us feeling so satisfied about his defeat, as we hated this man for all he's worth. His backstory was one of the weaker ones in my opinion, but seeing him absolutely destroy Adamas, showing his power, was astonishing.

The art in this series is, in one word, godlike. The art-style feels extreme and over the top but also impactful. And, I mean this in the best possible way, "messy". The rough art-style provides plenty of room for dynamic shots and intimidating poses. Every character looks badass and the thick lines add to their personality and boldness, for example check out Jack The Ripper in this panel:

Even if you haven't read this series you can tell how menacing this character is just from the intricate artwork and line manipulation, the artist (Chika Aji) really knows how to emphasize how important and grueling a scene is. I cannot wait to see what she works on in the future

I myself am a massive fan of tournaments and fighting series. One of my favorite anime of all time is Dragon Ball, known for its martial arts tournaments and superpowers. And this series is a love letter to everything a tournament should be, it’s got amazing fights, amazing pacing and amazing characters/character interactions. I was never bored or even phased out of this series when reading it and there hasn’t been a single bad fight. Amazing read.

Record of Ragnarok is an amazing manga, filled with gorgeous artwork, wonderful character designs, and godlike fights. I love a good tournament series and this is the best tournament series I've ever experienced, please have a read of Record of Ragnarok.

Favorite Character: Jack The Ripper
Favorite Panel:
Favorite Quote: "Phew! I guess winning for once feels pretty good, huh?" - Sasaki Kojiro

Final Score: 93/100
Recommendation Level: 5/5

This review is a work in progress

I will be editing this review after every fight is completed to make sure my opinions on said fight are presented, keep an eye out!

Thanks for reading and please leave any criticisms you have on my Profile!

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PIKMIN SHORT MOVIES AND POSSIBLE GAME SPOILERS (WHICH I'LL MARK WITH A ^ AND ELABORATE ON AT THE END)

Plot Synopsis and Review of Story: "Pikmin Short Movies" consists of 3 short but very charming Pikmin related stories.

Short #1

Olimar is seen eating something but unknowingly makes it seem as if he is eating Pikmin. A Blue, Red, and Yellow Pikmin walk in and see Olimar using a Juicer to make fruit juice with the "Pikmin". The 3 Pikmin get terrified and slowly walk back as Olimar approaches them while drooling, and reaching out. The Pikmin imagine what kind of horrific meal they'd be turned into by the Captain Olimar and get backed up into a wall, bracing for impact they hide their faces and Olimar makes the grab.... for some carrots^, we breath a sigh of relief and the short ends. This short is charming yet horrific, and the plot twist at the end was quite alright (not really one if you've played the games though).

Short #2

The second short doesn't feature Olimar at all, rather relies entirely on the Pikmin to provide comedy, and it delivers. We follow a Red Pikmin who finds some treasure in a bottle (presumably treasure to get and give to Olimar) and through a series of events ends up stuck inside of the bottle itself. Some fellow Pikmin friends try and help the Red Pikmin, including a Yellow Pikmin using a bomb rock^ to blow up the bottle. However by the end a bunch of Pikmin form a "rope" using the THICC Purple Pikmin as the root and pull free the Red Pikmin. The short closes off with the Red Pikmin on top of the bottle, being carried by other Pikmin, and a THICC Purple Pikmin following. This short is possibly the cutest short as we get to see how Pikmin act with each other while a Captain isn't around.

Short #3

This final short is the longest and most gruesome one yet. We see Olimar guiding an army of Pikmin in and around an Earth Bulldozer, getting parts to (presumably) earn money for Hocotate Freight^. We see some Yellows activate electricity and a bit of comedy. Now lets get to the D E A T H S. A White Pikmin (probably) dies by getting launched into space by a THICC Purple Pikmin. A Red and a Blue Pikmin die to a Bulborb attack, and a Blue Pikmin dies to electricity. For a light hearted series, that's quite dark, especially hearing the Bulborb crunch up the Pikmin. It DOES die at the end though, giving us justice. We get to see so many cute Pikmin interactions and at the end we see Olimar make over 1 trillion Pokos^. This was my favorite short in this collection and I had so much fun watching all of the characters' interactions.

Olimar: We don't really see any development in our intrepid explorer hocotatian Olimar, but he still provides a good characteristic to contrast with the Pikmin. (I wish we could've seen Louie, President, or the Koppaietes though^).

Pikmin: These lovely little plantimals add so much charm. They are the cutest Nintendo characters don't @ me (I wish Rock and Winged Pikmin made an appearance though).

Nintendo needs to make things like this more. This 3D animation works PERFECTLY for these shorts and all the surroundings look exquisite.

Amazing sound design, all the Pikmin "heave ho" sounds are so cute and the enemies sound great as well. And the Pikmin Death SFX are quite frankly, horrific.

I wouldn't be making this review for a niche anime/series if I wasn't invested, so if course I enjoyed every second of my time here. I deducted one point because there wasn't a real "story" but that's hardly a problem, Pikmin as a whole always puts a smile on my face!

This short has so much charm and personality, and lets us dive deeper into the Pikmin's personalities that we couldn't get from a game, if you love Nintendo, and especially if you love Pikmin, you'll love this short series. Also Nintendo give us Pikmin 4.... please.

Message: Go buy Pikmin 3 Deluxe so that us Pikmin fans can get a Pikmin 4 please, kthxbye.

Favorite Character: Olimar (He is also the only proper character)
Favorite OST: The Forest Of Hope
Favorite Quote(s): "Good", "Great", "Excellent" and "Perfect" (Apparently the Pikmin say these, although not without proper teaching)

Final Score: 95/100
Recommendation Level: 5/5 (If you're a Pikmin Fan), 4/5 (If you are not a Pikmin Fan)

Thank you very much for reading, please leave any feedback you have on my Profile!

(Game Spoilers/Relations, ^):

^1: The Carrots were Pikpik carrots which we know are the carrots Olimar named the Pikmin themselves on
^2: Yellows were the only ones who could carry Bomb Rocks in Pikmin 1
^3: Hocotate Freight is the company Olimar and Louie work for and the company the President runs
^4: Pokos are the money system used by the planet Hocotate
^5: Louie is Olimar's partner, the President runs Hocotate Freight and is Olimar's and Louie's employer, and the Koppaites are the protagonists of Pikmin 3

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DEATH NOTE

Death Note Rules: The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Plot Synopsis: Those are the rules of the Death Note, the magical notebook that grants the user infinite power over death. Well what happens with the Death Note throughout the story? Let me explain. At the start of the series we meet the Shinigami Ryuk, who spends his daily life gambling and pretty much nothing else in the magical realm called the Shinigami realm, one day after facing extreme boredom he drops the book into the human world where a teenager named Light Yagami picks it up. He tests out the note book and finds out that the power this book contains is real. Soon he gets visited by the Shinigami Ryuk who is just there to spectate Light's mischief. We then soon meet L, the world's best detective. L is assigned to find and defeat Kira (Light's anonymous name given to him by the people), which he eventually (sort of) does. However with Light's clever schemes, and the forceful help of Misa Misa's Shinigami Rem, we see him defeat L and soon face off against Near, L's successor, after a time skip. Near eventually uses his deductive skills to bring down Light once and for all with the help of his team and his friend Mello.

Review of Story:
Death Note’s story feels concise and everything feels as if it happened for a reason. The story begins because a literal God of Death was BORED. Quote from Ryuk: "You've eased my boredom for quite a while, haven't you?". Ryuk’s boredom caused this whole story to occur and no one who soon died from the Death Note, would have to die. L could've lived for decades longer as the world's best detective, Near and Mello could've lived normal lives and not have had to take up L's position, and Light could've lived as one of Japan's brightest. However, due to one god's boredom, the course of history changed. Light could've seen the Death Note but just brushed it off as a silly prank, but his curiosity got the best of him. Although it makes sense as he is a very cautious and crafty person. Characters like Rem die because of Light but not undeservingly. Everything happens due to an action and that is the charm of Death Note. Justice is also a massive theme in Death Note. Light’s moral compass is all over the place and his sense of justice wouldn’t be viewed as “righteous” to the majority of people. Nonetheless, he believes in his actions and takes charge with his sense of justice, killing bad people and sparing good people who don’t come after him. L on the other hand (and even Near to a certain extent) has a very different sense of justice, wanting to catch evil doers and nothing more. Just protect the people. The show leaves us with the question as to who's sense of justice do we align more with, we have to pick a side, and this… this is the dilemma... of Death Note.

Cons: No “Pros” section because pretty much everything is a pro except this next section I’m going to be talking about.

Post-timeskip. Post-timeskip Death Note is generally received worse than regular Death Note. I understand that and quite frankly agree, Near felt like he got lucky multiple times and the plot was WAYYYY too inconsistent at times (such as Sayu getting kidnapped and side plot involving a nuke... what?). But overall it still felt coherent with the overall story and the Death Note itself. That’s really my only complaint about this show.

Light: The perfect character to focus on, he has a wrong sense of justice and is truly evil, yet believes in what he believes in. He is shown to go to great lengths to accomplish what he believes in. Although he is shown to have some restraint as to not killing his sister when she got kidnapped (reason as to why he WOULD kill her is because her death would cause less suspicion on him and it'd just be another convenience out of the way). But events like him killing Watari, the agents L hires, and killing the Yotsuba Corporation members even THOUGH, they wouldn't have caused too much of a hassle to him after L's death, truly shows his despicable nature.

L: The perfect opponent for Light to face, his deductive skills brings him to Light time after time yet doesn't QUITE get Light convicted. His death was a tearjerker and seeing him use his skills to the absolute fullest was a joy to watch, such as when he deduced that Light was a student because of the times of the killings AND when he realized the student had access to police information when the killing times changed. L truly is remarkable.

Ryuk: BIG LAD RYUK

(Actual Ryuk analysis: Ryuk is a spectator and never TRULY chooses sides. He watches, looms over everyone, and doesn't get in the way of anything anyone does UNLESS it's for his own personal gain, such as helping Light find locations of the cameras so that Ryuk can eat his oh so precious apples again. And when he is the one to kill Light at the end of the story by writing Light's name in the Death Note, the amount of emotion and payoff in the scene was ecstatic. Especially after Ryuk said to Light at the start of the series that once Light's time has come, his name will be written in the notebook by Ryuk.)

Near: L's successor didn't charm me in the same way L did, but he was certainly an interesting character to see, it was fun trying to figure out what he'd do next to try and finish off Light. He did feel like he got extremely lucky/cheated sometimes though. Teru Mikami was shown on TV for 1 interview and Near suddenly figures out Teru is in cahoots with Light? Seems kinda weird. Still enjoyed him quite a bit though.

Misa Misa: She was annoying at first but later on became integral to the plot, her Shinigami and her charms made her delightful to watch. Seeing her being used as Light's pawn was terrifying and made you feel bad for her, such as when she was obviously going to be caught by L unless Rem killed herself for Misa's sake. And especially when Light passes away and she commits suicide, after losing all her memories from the Death Note…. oh boy was that a kicker.

Mello: Eh, I liked the way he ate chocolate.

The Kira Task Force: As a whole they were a great squad, particularly Aizawa and Matsuda. They were shown helping and eventually turning on Light, and seeing Matsuda realize Light was Kira all along and delivering the final blow was heart wrenching, as he was the only one who never thought Light was guilty.

Animation and Quality: This will probably be the shortest segment as there isn't a lot to say other than the animation is fairly good, Studio Madhouse always delivers on good animation and this is no difference, from the tennis scene to Light writing in his notebook every scene looks smooth. Some talking scenes look a bit sloppy but nothing intolerable.

OPs and EDs

OP1: OP 1, "The WORLD" by Nightmare is a fantastic opening song that helps bring Light (no pun intended) to what the story is about. I won't go into detail as there are plenty of articles and videos online breaking down this OP but here are my thoughts. The OP has a punchy feel to it and slows down every once in a while to showcase the slow paced parts of the story but also the fast paced parts. 9/10 OP

OP2: OP 2 "What's up, people?!" isn't as good as OP 1 in my opinion, especially the song, but the visuals are definitely still great. We see L and Light's final stand off before the time skip, where we see Near, Mello, and all the other important post time skip characters. The vibrant colors help us see what's going on and we see how the story moves forward as Light faces off against his final foe, Near. 7/10 OP

EDs 1-2: Now these I don't have much to say about other than, they're cool, the first ED is a pretty chill song and is overall just kinda soothing. 7.5/10 EDs

ED 3: The final ED, "Coda ~ Death Note", is a somber track, it plays when Light is shot and killed, halfway above the stairs, representing how he can neither go to heaven nor hell for eternity after he passes. Its soothing, showing us Light's final moments in the human world before getting killed by Ryuk writing his name in the Death Note, closing off the story in a delightful way. 9.5/10 ED

Soundtrack: 11/10, do I really need to say more? L's and Near's themes are my personal favorite themes, they have this ominous vibe that gets interrupted by guitar (being Light) in their plans, and of course every other theme is amazing but I can't stay here all day explaining so please just have a listen for yourself, it's godlike.

Voice Acting

Amazing, both in Sub and Dub every character has amazing voice acting. I personally prefer the dub for this series and my favorite character's voice is probably Light. Ryuk and L are my other 2 favorites as well as everyone else. You can tell that the VAs had lots of fun performing and played their parts with all their hearts. The lip-syncing was pretty solid as well.

Personally, this show was a blast. I love psychological type stories that make you think, with lots of back and forth & twists and turns. And of course the actual Death Note concept itself was amazing, I really enjoyed this show and I can recommend it to anyone even if they aren't an anime "fan"!

In conclusion, I love his show. yes it DOES get weaker after the time skip but it's still a fun and enthralling time. Seeing how the characters all outsmart and outplay each other is a joy to watch and I would recommend this show to anyone, even if they aren't an anime fan.

Favorite Character: L
Favorite OST: L's Theme
Favorite Quote: “Learn to treasure your life because unfortunately, it can be taken away from you anytime.” – L
(Yes, I know all 3 of my favorite's are L related things, now shut up)

Final Score: 94/100
Recommendation Level: 5/5

Thanks for reading my first review, I know its a bit sloppy and I'll probably redo this one in the future when I grow as a reviewer but please leave any feedback or criticisms on my profile, have a nice day!