fireweed

Title: An American Tail, and the sequel: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

Type: Western animated movie

Year: 1986; 1991

Country: United States

Genre: Kids/comedy/action

Appropriate for 30+?: Unable to judge

My rating: N/A

Note: IMO it's impossible to give a piece of your childhood a fair review (nostalgia and dozens of rewatches heavily warp one's perception of a work), so I decided to go in a different direction from my typical reviews and focus on the rewatch experience instead.

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (hereby: FGW) was one of my favorite movies as a young kid. I watched it so many times I could practically recite the dialogue from heart. After learning that it was actually a sequel I watched the original 1986 movie (hereby: AAT) once or twice, but didn't like it as much. I remember feeling that while the sequel was a laugh-a-minute romp with engaging action scenes, the original just wasn't as fun and was instead a bit of a downer with some scary/creepy moments (especially the climax when the cats attack and the Mouse of Minsk is released).

Several decades since my last viewing, I decided to give the two movies a watch to see how they held up. I started with AAT and found it somewhat rougher around the edges than I expected, but still above-average for a kid's movie. I then watched FGW, and wowza I was not wrong as a child: the sequel is such an improvement on the original. It's the kind of sequel where they basically go through the plot of the original again with a different setting (ala The Hangover), but FGW is such a superior movie that it was more like watching a wildly successful reboot. The animation, soundtrack, pacing, dialogue, humor, and villains experience a huge improvement over the original. There is mild value in watching AAT first (as it explains a few confusing parts of FGW, like why Fievel is willing to risk his life for a hat, and why his father is confident he'll survive getting lost by himself in the desert), but 99% of FGW stands up on its own.

One major difference between the two is that FGW is infinitely goofier, and is possibly one of the best examples of Looney Tunes-style slapstick humor out there. I haven't been a fan of slapstick this side of elementary school, and had I had been introduced to these movies as an adult this aspect might have put me off to the sequel, however whether through the power of nostalgia, quality choreography, or the fact that the slapstick is intertwined with other types of humor, I did not mind the slapstick segments much. Additionally, it was quite fun whenever a joke or bit of dialogue came along that made me go, "aha, I'm pretty sure I didn't catch that as a kid!" I know I didn't properly appreciate the performances of John Cleese and James Stewart! FGW runs at a mile-a-minute, and there's so much nonsensically-brilliant dialogue, tight choreography and cinematography, and easy-to-miss details that elevate the movie beyond just a kid-pleasing goofy romp.

I walked away from this exercise in nostalgia relieved that AAT and FGW still hold up over 30 years later (there are some racial stereotypes in both that probably wouldn't pass muster today, but they're mild compared to the stuff from that era that didn't age well). I was impressed with how effortlessly AAT and FGW were able to portray "the American story" in a way easily digestible for young children while still including subtle real-life details (like the pogroms that pushed the Mousekewitz family out of then-Russia-now-Ukraine). I don't know if an adult watching the movies for the first time would enjoy them, but I definitely had a blast.

I've frequently read that a good rule of thumb for many vegetables is that plant starts are ready for transplanting into the ground once they've "developed their second set of true leaves." However I'm unclear as to whether this means "once the second set of true leaves begin to emerge" or "once the second set of true leaves have grown to full size" or something in between.

I usually let the weather dictate when I plant out, but this spring has been mild enough that I've found myself with a huge window of opportunity. When do you all know your starts are ready to go in the ground?

Title: Spy x Family

Type: Anime TV

Year: 2022-2023 (Seasons 1 & 2)

Country: Japan

Genre: Comedy with some thriller/action

Status: Ongoing? (Movie forthcoming, and sequels likely)

Platform: Crunchyroll (watch here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Somewhat

My rating: 3/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

Watching Spy x Family can feel like rolling a roulette wheel: is this week's episode going to be a spy thriller? A gorey action sequence? A goofy comedy of misunderstanding? A slice-of-life? A heartwarming tale of family? All of the above smooshed together? At its core, the series is a sitcom: the premise rests heavily on the unique traits of each cast member, so the plot almost always revolves around how those characters interact with each other and resolve a variety of situations that get thrown their way, usually in an humorous manner (so yeah, situational-comedy).

The series' elevator pitch: because of circumstances, a super-spy undercover in enemy territory, a secret assassin, and a child psychic (and later a dog with precognition) form a fake family that slowly becomes real as they spend time with each other, while frantically keeping their secrets from each other. The series introduces various side characters, like the sis-con brother who covertly works for the secret police, who also have amusing traits that interact with the main cast in funny ways (that's the idea anyway). And sure, there are some funny scenes and moments that result from these interactions. But like most sitcoms, both character and plot development are horribly stifled by the fact that the entire series revolves around each character's set bio, and any change to that would disturb the series' delicate balance. This removes a lot of tension from any action scene or occasion where a character's identity might be found out, because we the audience know that any major plot development would spell the end of the series, thus encapsulating everything that happens in a thick layer of plot armor. It also results in repetitive situations (how many times can you joke about the sis-con brother's unhealthy obsession with his sister before it gets stale?) because there's only so much material to work with without changing the base dynamic, and as nothing can be taken seriously in a series with such a preposterous premise, the wacky-hijinks factor is quite high. It can feel like watching Saturday Night Live: some skits are haha-funny, some are heh-funny, and some are not funny at all (and feel like a drag to get through). There are some cute and hearwarming moments and I'd say that this was at least a turn-your-brain-off wholesome-comedy series, if it weren't for the sporadic fight scenes, which are sometimes "TV-Y7" levels of violent, and other times quite bloody.

One of the difficulties with being a long-time fan of anime is that the cliches really start to wear on you after a while. While Spy x Family has some novelty to it, it also has jokes (so many jokes) about how the mother character's cooking is terrible to the point of inducing severe illness. Throw in the complete lack of character development among the 2-dimensional cast, multiple boring "skits" (there's an episode where the entire plot is two characters look for a lost cat and surprise! hijinks ensue, 'nuff said), lackluster plots revolving around the spy/thriller/action sequences (while there is a TON of room for political drama and nuance given the setting, the series is way too frivolous to include any), stir it all together and you get a series that's just okay.

Despite all this I'm not surprised Spy x Family is a popular series; I'm sure I would have enjoyed it quite a bit had I watched it as a teenager, especially because anime has historically struggled with making comedy that's actually funny—part of this is the lost-in-translation factor, part of this is just the vast heaps of mediocrity out there—and Spy x Family is undeniably funnier-than-average when compared to other comedy anime. But it's not funny enough (or consistently funny enough) to be a pure comedy series, it falls horribly flat when judged by any other genre, and it overall has a feeling of immaturity of plot and premise. It's not a show that couldn't be enjoyed by adults, but I definitely felt like I was watching a show aimed at the teenage demographic. At least the parts I found cliche were boring rather than grating, which saved the series from getting a much lower rating.

As always, this review is nothing more than my personal opinion. Anyone familiar with this work is encouraged to express their own in the comment section. Or submit your own review… it’s a free ~~country~~ fediverse.

Title: Gravity Falls

Type: Western animated TV

Year: 2012-2016

Country: United States

Genre: Mystery/adventure/comedy/fantasy

Status: Completed

Platform: Cable TV

Appropriate for 30+?: No

My rating: N/A

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

I discovered Gravity Falls through numerous Reddit threads where self-identified adults swore up and down that despite being a kids' series it was still thoroughly enjoyable for the older crowd too. Intrigued I downloaded both seasons, trudged my way through season one, then went back to the internet because... really? "It gets so much better in season two!" "The ending is fantastic!" I was assured. So I trudged my way through season two, right through to the ending.

Folks, I was duped. This is just a kid's show, nothing more. Sure, it's better than the average kid's show, and sure if I found myself in a situation where I was hanging out with children and we needed to pick something age-appropriate I wouldn't object if that's what they really wanted to watch (but I would probably push them toward something else, like Avatar TLA or any Pixar/Dreamworks film). The truth is Gravity Falls is very painfully geared to a pre-teen demographic: the characters are annoying, the jokes are immature, the plot is grossly lacking (it's literally X-Files for children), and most of the drama/predicaments are about pre-teens dealing with pre-teen problems in a mildly-spooky fantasy setting. There isn't even enough here for a session of "hey let's get really drunk/stoned and watch some kids animation!"

I did not give this series a rating because it's no more appropriate for me to do so than when Roger Ebert had to write a review for the first Pokemon movie, which he begins by stating that he's "plain in over my head" and ends with the acknowledgement that "I may have completely bypassed the point and misinterpreted crucial Pokemon lore" (he ended up giving it two stars). I am, after all, completely outside their target demographic for this show.

Not recommended for the 30+ crowd.

As always, this review is nothing more than my personal opinion. Anyone familiar with this piece of media is encouraged to express their own in the comment section. Or submit your own review... it's a free ~~country~~ fediverse.

Title: Cursed Princess Club

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2019-2024

Country: Unknown (English-speaking Western World?)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Status: Completed

Platform: Webtoon (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Perhaps not, but don't let that stop you

My rating: 4.5/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

Yes, Cursed Princess Club is a series for teenagers/young adults (of any gender). The characters skew young, wacky antics abound, and the series is basically an illustrated self-help book for struggling youngsters trying to figure out who they are as they transform into adults. I'm sure many 30+ readers will be bored by this series, especially in the beginning. However it potentially has a lot to offer in the right context.

First off, the series gets much better with time. The art improves (albeit from bad to tolerable), the jokes shift from quantity to quality, and the plot gets much more engaging, even exciting. Two of the series' greatest strengths take time to pay off but do so in spades: plot and character development. I don't know if the entire series was pre-planned or if the author is just really good at working with what they've already thrown out there, but little details from dozens if not over a hundred chapters back become critical plot points on many occasions, culminating in a satisfying ending. The primary cast of characters is pretty sizable, and the minor cast even bigger, but they're almost all memorable and endearing, and most experience notable if not tremendous change over the course of the series. The "good guys" make missteps, and the "villains" have redeeming qualities (or at least make some good points now and then).

Second, the lessons and morals in the story are actually really good, not just in what the lessons are but in how they're portrayed. I usually bristle at attempts at "lessons" that come off as naive, ham-fisted, condescending, or absolutist, but I found Cursed Princess Club to skillfully handle all sorts of complex and nuanced topics, from self-hatred to burnout to abusive parents to forgiveness and making amends. I won't say it gets everything right all the time, but the series at least acknowledges that people are complex, best intentions can backfire, platitudes are insufficient to resolve personal issues, and "happy endings" are not always as planned. Topics covered are diverse and contemporary; even the "incel" phenomenon makes an appearance!

Cursed Princess Club isn't a series for everyone in the 30+ crowd, but consider bookmarking it for a rainy day. Unfortunately the series is a slow burn where the first half setup doesn't start to pay off until the second half, which means that before it can really start getting good many readers will have probably dropped it for not living up to the hype. I recommend saving the series for "sick day" reading, an occasion when you could use a wholesome pick-me-up, or perhaps as a pre-bed quiet-time activity (this is how I read most of the series, until the last third or so when it takes a turn toward drama/mystery/action).

As always, this review is nothing more than my personal opinion. Anyone familiar with this piece of media is encouraged to express their own in the comment section. Or submit your own review… it’s a free ~~country~~ fediverse.

Title: Covenant

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2020-?

Country: United States

Genre: Action

Status: Ongoing (review as of chapter #77)

Platform: Webtoon (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Not especially

My rating: 2.5/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

Covenant is by no means a bad series, and has very little that's wrong with it, but it also doesn't have a lot of strengths either. The pacing is fine, the art is erratic but generally acceptable, the supporting characters are more interesting than in most series (but that's a very, very low bar), the action scenes are decently choreographed (but so are hundreds of other action webcomics), and the dialogue isn't brilliant but definitely avoids being cringe. I didn't find the plot that engaging, and despite being low-key bored I stuck with the series for way longer than I should have because based on the premise, I kept expecting the series to at some point dust off the cobwebs of the setup and take off.

The premise has potential: a secretive sect of Catholicism where humans form pacts with angel patrons to gain special abilities, primarily the wielding of holy weapons, so they can fight any demons that might make their way to Earth. On the plus side, this is a breath of fresh air among the sea of "monster gate," monster dungeon," and "generic superhero" series that currently dominate the fantasy action genre. However Covenant simply does not live up to the high standards set by using Christian mythology as a setting; there are, after all, thousands of years of media using this as inspiration, and it's pretty difficult to bring something new to the table at this point (especially with the recent uptick in demonic-themed media: Lucifer, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, etc). Not that Covenant doesn't try, however the problem is that at the end of the day, the Christian mythology theme is little more than an aesthetic: you could easily replace all the Biblical references to generic fantasy/JRPG gibberish and barely affect anything.

Covenant is a very queer series, in an "everyone's apparently gay and no one gives a shit" kind of way, so at least the series adds representation to the sub-genre, but romance is a very minor part of the series so this too feels mostly aesthetic (with a few subtle gender swaps, you could make all the characters straight/cis and have almost no impact on the plot or character development), plus we're a good 15 years out from having an LGBTQ+ cast alone be a notable quality (and again, they're currently in good company; the previously-mentioned Hazbin/Helluva world is also very queer, and WAY louder about it).

While the series generally lacks the worst of young adult fiction cliches, Covenant is definitely YA fiction. Which is fine, but I don't think there's much here for the 30+ crowd.

Title: SSS-Class Revival Hunter (Original title: SSS급 죽어야 사는 헌터)

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2021-?

Country: South Korea

Genre: Action

Status: Ongoing (review as of chapter #114)

Platform: Tapas (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Sure, if you like this kind of thing

My rating: 3/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

After watching Gigguk's latest video on the rise of "regression" series, I thought I'd give a few that he mentions a try. First on the docket was SSS-Class Revival Hunter, which I was honestly underwhelmed by given Gigguk's glowing review. The series is basically on par with Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader, which does put it head and shoulders above most "a gate/dungeon/tower opens up in the real world, some people get superpowers, and the loser protagonist somehow gets a super-OP skill and now heads off to level his way up to the top" series. Frankly I could end this review right now with: "if you liked those series, go read SSS-CRH, but if not, don't."

Warning, spoilers ahead

SSS-CRH's biggest flaw is that it doesn't offer much we haven't seen before. Sure, there are enough distinctions (especially in the beginning) that it feels like we're not just reading a clone of similar series that came before, but the similarities overwhelm the differences (especially as the series goes on). Most of the series' novelty comes from the protagonist's ability: he goes back in time 24 hours every time he dies and it's stackable, allowing him to rewind the clock as far and as many times as needed. This means that rather than the cliche of the hero facing impossible situations and somehow just barely eeking out the necessary power to overcome them, the hero gets unlimited redos; the challenge isn't even about winning anymore, it's in seeking the ultimate outcome for the situation. So while this is an infinite-leveling power fantasy, there's a puzzle/strategy element to it with a heavy dose of unwavering persistence (the protagonist will die hundreds if not thousands of times and as excruciatingly or painfully as needed to accomplish his objective). This twist also allows the protagonist to be kind and caring rather than ruthless because the entire premise is about how many other people he can save and how many missions he can clear with an "optimal ending." Unfortunately this is undercut somewhat by how calculating and cunning he acts, because once the series becomes a puzzle of how to obtain the best ending, the characters he meets inevitably become little more than chess pieces he can utilize to obtain said best ending.

The series' negative qualities really drag it down into the realm of forgettable: the setting is super generic, the art is good but also super generic, and the abilities the protagonist gathers are nothing new (and in some cases, practically identical to those of other series). The protagonist is also pretty bland, and I worry about how long the series is going to go for (114 chapters in we just cleared floor 25 of 100). But the biggest problems with the series are shared with its genre brethren. For example, all characters other than the protagonist are mere two-dimensional pawns: either challengers to defeat, or potential allies to win over (in the case of SSS-CRH, it's almost always the former leading to the latter). This is extremely common in infinite-leveling series, especially when the protagonist has an ability they must keep secret from every other character, however it's not inevitable (Hand Jumper's protagonist also has a time-leap ability she must keep secret, however the series still manages to have decently fleshed-out secondary characters, and Hero Killer has the OP protagonist getting treated as a pawn rather than the other way around). Another example of a cliche weakness: every challenge in SSS-CRH is overcome with the protagonist as the UMVP (ultra-most-valuable-player). The side characters help out here and there, but their help was always orchestrated by the protagonist in the first place. After all, the protagonist never needs saving if he can go back and try again as many times as he likes (or use the time loop as a means of grinding until he obtains enough strength to solo the challenge). Even the most cliche Shonen Jump series at least have moments where the protagonist's efforts are insufficient and the day is saved by someone else (or the day isn't saved at all).

I'm not terribly bullish on the direction of the series; SSS-CRH was at least entertaining until we hit the library arc (tower levels 21+), then a few things started going wrong. The pace slowed way down, the dialogue weakened significantly [note: I did not realize there was an official translation so I read a fan translation; perhaps the official translation does not have this issue], and the "solutions" to challenges began to feel very hand-wavy with a lot of "the plot dictates the action, rather than the reverse." Mostly though, by creating a scenario where the characters have to travel into books of different genres, this was an opportunity for the series to refresh itself by breaking out of the tropes and cliches of the "monster gate" genre and explore a fresh setting. Instead I felt like the series just became worse, by first being a weak martial arts series, and then an absolute flop of a romance series. (To be fair, there are some redeeming moments during the martial arts arc, but the romance arc read like an unintentional parody of some of the worst examples of the genre.) I'm still not sure what to make of the latest few chapters... the protagonist actually falls in love with and marries a character in a book in the tower? She's essentially a double-NPC! And the way the protagonist goes from being completely clueless about love and dating to "taming a shrew" in a matter of chapters... Plus now the deeply-in-love married couple are just going to part ways and live their separate lives except for occasional meet-ups? I think the concept of having two lonely regressors meet each other and fall in love because they're the only people in the entire world who understand each other is actually quite brilliant, but the new regressor starts as a psycho crazy bitch then shifts to compliant useful chess piece fast enough to give you whiplash. This series was never great at character development, but it really stumbles hard during the romance arc.

There's nothing in the series that's explicitly offensive to the older crowd: no sexualization of minors (there are hardly any minors to speak of), no "teenage antics" (again, most characters seem to be in their 20s-30s and act their ages). So if you enjoy the infinite-power-leveling genre, you should feel confident in starting this one. Just don't expect it to break beyond the well-established limits and weaknesses of the genre.

"Dragon tongue" mustard with four cotyledons (seed leaves)

Germinated outdoors so pardon the slug damage

Title: In the Bleak Midwinter

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2020-?

Country: Unknown (Western World?)

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi (sort of)

Status: Ongoing (review as of chapter #74)

Platform: Webtoon (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Maybe

My rating: 2/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

Warning: spoilers ahead

In the Bleak Midwinter has a big problem with expectations: from chapter one it sets up a string of mysteries and secrets, but keeps its cards so close to its chest that it's impossible to tell if we the audience are ever going to actually be privy to what they are. The series is over 75 chapters and four years in, and yet all we've gotten thus far are crumbs. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if 1) the subjects of the secrets weren't so fantastical that it's hard to believe the authors actually have a good explanation, 2) the secrets weren't so integral to the setting and plot, and 3) the secret-dependent setting weren't the only thing carrying the series. Elaborating on these three points:

1. The two biggest mysteries of the series are introduced early on: the first is that (most? nearly all?) people have a timer on their wrist that counts down until the moment that they'll meet their soulmate, and the second is that the protagonist is apparently immortal for some reason. Being a "sci-fi" series you'd expect/hope to receive some kind of explanation to both of these, but so far we've gotten almost nothing for either, and by now it's hard not to suspect that either there isn't an explanation, or it's a wholly unsatisfactory one (strong Lost vibes...). But on top of this there are so many other unresolved mysteries it's getting hard to keep track: what happened in the "accident" that killed Anya's sister? How was Delta & co's mother killed? How exactly did the war start? Why is Anya's soulmate an android (android hybrid?)? How human are Omega and his siblings? What is the current state of humanity (characters repeatedly say "millions" were killed, but humanity seems to be at the brink of extinction)? How did Anya's brother come to be in charge? How did they make the air chemically toxic to humans only (and why did it backfire since it was supposed to target androids)? What exactly is Dramaxil? It starts to get overwhelming once you realize the author keeps piling on mysteries without ever providing more than fractional answers to the mysteries that already exist.

2. The plot, setting, and characters' personalities and actions are all a direct result of things that happened in the past (all the mysteries listed above). Normally when a series has a mystery it's something to fill in the blanks, to explain a setting/plot oddity or character quirk, not literally the entire explanation/motivation for everything that happens and everyone it happens to. The series feels empty, similar to a dreamscape where things just are they way they are and just happen the way they do without any underlying rhyme or reason. This makes the series sci-fi in aesthetics only, because if the author has anything to say about humanity's relationship with technology, it's completely buried under the ever-growing pile of secrets and unsolved mysteries.

3. While it appears decent quality at first glance, broken into its components I don't think the series has much going for it. Hardly any of the characters are memorable or even likeable. The art is mediocre. The action scenes are dull. The dialogue is bland. The pacing is slow. Realism is lacking (e.g. every trained killer insists on talking before taking the point-blank headshot (resulting in their wasting just enough time for something to interrupt it), the weather is constantly snowing yet there's only ever a few inches on the ground, how are everyone's hideouts and scouting parties not instantly discovered by their footprints in the snow? etc) All of the sci-fi elements are tropes that have already been thoroughly explored by other series, usually better (The Matrix and The OC just to name two). At a certain point I realized I gave zero fucks about the plot and was just reading out of a (fading) hope that the series would start providing answers to its many mysteries.

While there's not anything specific in In the Bleak Midwinter that would be off-putting for 30+ readers, I struggle to imagine someone who's not a teenager actually enjoying this series simply because I'd expect anyone with decades of media exposure to have read/watched too many similar series that were much more interesting/thought-provoking/entertaining, and thus struggle to find any value in this series by comparison. In the Bleak Midwinter isn't bad so much as unnecessary, with little to say, nothing novel to offer, minimal entertainment value, and heaps of frustration over unresolved mysteries and perpetual secrets.

Title: Everfallen

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2022-2023

Country: Unknown (presumably the English-speaking Western world)

Genre: Fantasy

Status: Cancelled(?)

Platform: Webtoon (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: No

My rating: 2/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity))

Everfallen is a bit of a mess. The art wavers from mediocre to distractingly bad, the pacing is uneven, the plot is confusing at points, and worst of all, the predominantly adult characters all talk like they're desperately trying to sound smarter than they actually are (and bombing badly at it), while acting like a group of high school girls hopped up on energy drinks at an anime convention. There's a lot of cringe and not a lot of maturity here, but unlike most cringe young adult works it doesn't read like it's written for teenagers so much as by a teenager.

However, the real tragedy is that the series actually had potential. Somewhere in the mess is a surprisingly intriguing setting and premise, and with a better artist and an actual dedicated editor (not the overstretched rubber-stamp "editors" that Webtoon provides) to help rewrite the dialogue and clean up the more confusing chapters, this could have been an okay if not good series. Everfallen is definitely weird and at times off-putting, but at least it feels somewhat original. By the end of the series the author had dangled enough unsolved mysteries and incomplete lore that I found myself thoroughly plot-committed to a series that by all accounts I should have dropped chapters ago without a second thought.

Unfortunately, it would appear the series was cancelled by Webtoon; there was never an official announcement from either Webtoon or the author, just a cliffhanger final chapter with "series finale" stamped on the title. Rumor has it that Everfallen suffered in popularity and engagement from the get-go following a marketing flub on Webtoon's part where they tried to compare the series to Fullmetal Alchemist (which apparently enraged FMA fans and gave the series a bad reputation before it had even started). So now we'll never know if the author was actually building up to anything worthwhile underneath Everfallen's many flaws, or if we were unknowingly spared from another 1-2 seasons of sub-par quality culminating in utter disappointment of an ending.

Title: Hand Jumper

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2022-?

Country: United States(?)*

Genre: Action/Thriller

Status: Ongoing

Platform: Webtoon (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Yes

My rating: 4.25/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity))

*The series is written in English, takes place in South Korea, and the author is reportedly Korean-American

Hand Jumper may be yet another entry into the over-saturated "super-power dystopia" genre, but so far it's proving itself a superior series to most of its peers. It features plenty of exhausted tropes (the protagonist has an OP-yet-difficult-to-master superpower, the setting is "super-power boot camp," only the cream of the crop will succeed, the "good guys" aren't actually good, etc), but despite all this Hand Jumper still manages to feel fresh. The overall quality of the series has a big role in this: the pacing is great, the characters are (mostly) interesting, the art is unique and striking, the plot is engaging, and most importantly, the series is showing signs of actual depth (at least, for its genre).

One of my biggest gripes with a lot of South Korean action series is that they don't seem to actually have anything to say: the violence serves no purpose other than to be entertaining, the villains only exist to advance the plot, injustice is present only as an obstacle for characters to overcome, and the setting has little depth beyond "imagine a world where [premise], wouldn't that be cool/shitty/terrifying?" This is especially true for dystopias, for any dystopia story lacking any kind of underlying message is just torture porn. Hand Jumper is only ~50 chapters in and is still developing its world, but the seeds are planted for some interesting thematic exploration in future chapters. It reminds me a bit of the X-Men series: humans without powers fear those with powers, so discrimination, human rights violations, and terrorism inevitably follow. I also suspect the author is crafting a subtle critique of modern South Korean society—where students are expected to throw themselves into an academic battle royale with other youth to compete for corporate jobs, just for those corporations to treat their employees like disposable resources—however perhaps that's just my interpretation. I highly suspect that Hand Jumper's status as a hybrid series (the author is Korean-American, so while the series is set in South Korea and fits squarely into the Korean action genre, it bares a distinctive western flare) gives it an edge in this regard. Also rare in SK works: the protagonist recognizes from the start that the world she lives in is fucked up and wants to fix it, at first by being part of the system, and then after recognizing how broken it is, by blowing it up from the inside. I can't help but assume the discourse over the last few years in the United States about our broken police and judicial systems is a clear influence. I fully expect a "seeking power to change a corrupt system is itself corrupting" theme to emerge at some point. The series also succeeds where most fail at having a cast of strong female characters (the gender balance is actually somewhat female-skewed, very rare for a non-exploitative action series), and body proportions for both sexes are refreshingly restrained (no beach-ball-boobs or cheese-grater-abs here!)

Most characters are in the 18-to-20-something range, however they generally act with maturity, and the series is devoid of grating "teenage hi-jinks," so I think it's still enjoyable for the 30-and-up crowd. The series has little sexual content to speak of, but does include some brutal violence. However the violence feels proportional to and appropriate for the setting and plot, and isn't flippant or gratuitous. I would give the series a 16+ rating. I struggled between giving the series 4.5 stars (for being great at what it does) and 4 stars (because despite having some fresh takes and twists, it still suffers from being part of a tired, well-trodden sub-genre), so I gave it a rare 4.25 stars as a placeholder until season two shakes out and the series has a chance to really show us what it's got.

Title: How to Become a Dragon (original title: 합격시켜주세용)

Type: Webcomic

Year: 2020-2024

Country: South Korea

Genre: Fantasy

Status: Completed

Platform: Webtoon (read here)

Appropriate for 30+?: Yes

My rating: 4/5 stars

(Rating scale: 5/5 = masterpiece, 4/5 = quite good, 3/5 = mostly good, 2/5 = bleh, 1/5 = I regret ever being exposed to this series, 0/5 = affront to humanity)

How to Become a Dragon is a charming series about Korean mythical creatures and spirits forced to intermingle with humans in the modern world for the sake of a shared goal. Despite drawing heavily from Korean fairy tales, traditional culture, and history, the author presents the story in such a way as to be not in the least off-putting to international readers; far from it actually, I found the series' use of these greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the series by providing something unique I hadn't read anything like before.

I rated this series 4/5 stars because it is quite solid in all elements, but doesn't stand out as especially exemplar in any of them. The art is visually pleasing and consistent, the pacing is generally good (while the story probably could have been told in less than its 200 chapter length, at least it never drags), the characters are likeable, the plot is engaging, the premise is original, etc. However I think the series' greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: How to Become a Dragon reads like a modern-day Korean fairy tale. The themes and takeaways are timeless and often classic in a way that would fit right in with the traditional stories it draws upon (forgiveness, overcoming regret, generational karma, respect and honor, perseverance and personal growth in the face of adversity, importance of family, the pitfalls of immortality). However I felt like there was something missing from the series given its the modern setting: despite major plot points relating to 21st century problems (human-caused pollution, toxic work culture, income inequality, etc), there isn't much critique from the series of the status quo, even as it shows clear disapproval of negative aspects of historic Korean life (arranged marriage, the caste system, the unfairly harsh judicial system, etc) and has characters fighting back against these historic inequities both in the past and present. Given the severe societal issues faced by South Korea today (as evidenced in their high suicide rate and low birth rate), this felt like a gross omission, especially given the generally pro-human theme of the series. Perhaps this would have cast too much negativity on what is a generally positive and uplifting series, however I cannot help but feel like it was a lost opportunity to a degree that this lack of reflection on the 21st-century condition undermines the overall humanitarian messaging. Despite this complaint, it is still a thoroughly enjoyable and undeniably charming series, and still one I would generally recommend.

I would definitely recommend this series to older fans of comics, if for no other reason than it's so rare to find series appropriate for older audiences that aren't steeped in mature content. Quite the contrary, How to Become a Dragon is in many ways an all-ages story: its heavy use of classic themes (and the frequent appearance of ageless/immortal characters) allows it to generally avoid getting pigeon-holed into a specific age demographic, even though the story's premise of "pass an exam to successfully start your career after years of training" is undeniably targeted at young adults. The series thankfully lacks many of the more grating young adult fiction tropes and cliches, so even though most characters are around their 20s (either in actual age or appearance), I think it's a perfectly enjoyable and relatable series for 30-somethings and up. The series has very little in terms of sexual content, and while there is some violence it is mostly on the milder side. However suicide does play a major, recurring role in the plot, although it too is presented as if it were part of a Korean fairy tale, which somehow softens the impact. Overall I would give the series a 12+ rating, but it's probably most enjoyable for a 14+ or 16+ audience.