2019 Wrap-up, See You in 2020.

Hey everybody: how was your Christmas? I got a copy of The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition, DVDs of Star Trek V and VI, a Blu-Ray of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and my personal favorite, a Sega Genesis Mini console. Overall, the last one of the decade was a "merry little Christmas" like the ones I used to know; if you'll pardon the parlance.

I also note that I'm glad the experiments I've done seem to have worked fine, even if I am still formally retired from doing recaps. While "Alita: Battle Angel" didn't "save anime movies" as it was expected to, I am at least glad that it wasn't an unmitigated disaster like other adaptations have been.

I am much more pleased with how "Pokémon Detective Pikachu" turned out: it took 26 years to make a good live-action movie about a hit anime and video game franchise; and I'm glad it was this one. With a box office take of $144 million in the US alone, it's surpassed 2001's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" as the most successful live-action video game adaptation domestically. Depending on the estimate you go with, it's also potentially surpassed 2016's "Warcraft"  worldwide. Regardless, making upwards of $430 million worldwide has generated more talk of potential follow-ups being made, as well as the upcoming sequel to the video game on Nintendo Switch. Whether the next movie uses existing material or writes an entirely new story, I welcome it.

I still would like to do a review of "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution" after its official release domestically. While it would have been ideal to do it for the 20th anniversary of the US release of the original, I will be glad to see it get an English dub in the near future; hopefully.  There are also other CG anime adaptations, and while not every one works; there is potential in both artistic and storytelling standpoints for the medium if the success of "Lupin III: The First" (a reimagining of the title character's origins) is any indication. As long as they're better than the infamous 2016 "Berserk," I'm fine. I'm not the biggest fan of that series (more into its distaff counterpart, Claymore); but it was laughably bad.

That said, I would also like to do reviews of other episodes and individual series; as well as give some thoughts on story, characters and art from some of my favorite works. The Akira recap a year ago was a test run for that, and I'm most likely going to be approaching them with a structure that's a bit different from the previous work I've done here. Similar to my old style, but not exactly the same. The movie reviews and my look at "Snow Way Out" were kind of test runs for that. I still mean it when I say that I'm done with more recaps, but that still doesn't mean I'm totally abandoning this blog. I'm 27, soon to be 28; I intend to keep this up and hopefully write professionally one day. None of the events of this decade will change that plan, just so you know I'm not just watching Toonami and playing my Switch to close out this year (though that's admittedly also true).

As for Yo-Kai Watch: I explained this in much greater detail in my postmortem and its follow-up; but whatever happens next with the series I cannot say for certain. I can say that "Yo-Kai Watch 4" hasn't been doing too great, selling only in the range of 300,000 copies to date; with its expansion launching outside the top 10 in Japan and the PS4 port not even cracking the top 30. This is well below what fellow Switch titles Pokémon Sword and Shield and Super Mario Maker 2 have sold to date.

While the first episode of the Yokai Academy TV series was decent (a moment in the ending aside), the movie has continued to underperform; having made roughly the equivalent of $2 million USD amid competition from "My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising" and the Japanese release of "Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker." Even people who are fans are starting to wonder about the future of the series. The series will be re-entering reruns starting on January 4 (after being dropped in favor of "Inazuma Eleven Ares") on Disney XD, though no word of a fourth season or other material such as Shadowside being dubbed has surfaced (though the latter has a subtitled version on Animax Asia in some territories). I also don't know what this means for The Snack World, Ushiro or Megaton Musashi; let alone a potential "Yo-Kai Watch 4" localization (the only thing that's been said so far is a leaked 3/31 date for Finland, which has yet to be confirmed as of this writing).

Live action coverage will continue, even though the "Akira" remake has again been shelved (with Taika Waititi currently pursuing other ventures); and the long-rumored "Voltron" and "Gundam" adaptations have still not announced a filming start date, cast or directors; and I'm not entirely sure the same screenwriter is involved with the latter. There is supposedly some announcement coming 1/1, but we'll see.

That will be all for now, I hope you all have a happy new year as the new decade approaches! Later.

"Snow Way Out" Review (Pokémon Indigo League)- Winter Solstice Special

Hello everyone: happy winter solstice.  First off, Star Wars was great. Second, given the recent success of “Pokémon Sword and Shield” and the new anime; I think I will review something that gives me a chance to say: and now for something completely different! Yes, I know I’ve talked about individual episodes before, but here’s one I haven’t that’s a rather curious piece for how it’s aired. More on that later, but for now: let’s open up “Snow Way Out!”

We open on a fork in the road that leads to a mountain range, with everyone getting caught in the cold. I have a bad feeling about this…

Also, Ash addresses Pikachu as “Pik.” I’ve nicknamed my Pikachu many things over the years: “Pik” is not one of them. Rather than turning back, they decide to “stay the course.” Ha! Never heard that one before.

They decide to keep going to the peak, but the iron in the mountains is throwing off the magnetism of Brock’s compass! I guess it would be a while before they came up with Nosepass (whose nose always points to magnetic north), let alone other monsters that evolve in a magnetic field.

Misty then demands Ash do something to get them out of the mess they’re in, and Ash sends out Pidgeotto as a sentry to find a way down the mountain! Pidgeotto finds one, and they continue on their way.

Elsewhere, while Meowth and James are bothered by the cold; Jessie is not. We then get a flashback to when she was a little girl: due to her mother being missing, presumed dead on a mission, one of the foster homes she was in was so poor that they had to eat snow because of the low food budget; a “snowgasboard” as she calls it. Though the episode order in canon may be debated, this element is still canon.

Puffing up their balloon, they decide to go catch up with the “twerps” before it gets dark. However, it takes so long to say their motto that it floats away as the clouds roll in and a snowstorm kicks up!

As Team Rocket chases their errant balloon, our heroes must find shelter from the storm before it consumes them all! Brock gets the idea to start digging a bivouac in the snow, but Pikachu is nearly blown away by the strong winds!

Pikachu almost falls down the cliffside, but Ash sends out Bulbasaur to hoist him up with Vine Whip! Unable to find their way back to the others due to the storm, they then take shelter in a cave until it passes!

With the help of Charmander, they’re able to get inside the cave just in time! As for why Charmander is there as opposed to Charizard: there is a reason for that, and it’s related to the airing order being shuffled because of the “Electric Soldier Porygon” incident. More on that later, but for now: Squirtle and Bulbasaur help seal off the door of the cave until morning. 

As they all huddle around Charmander for warmth, elsewhere; Team Rocket isn’t doing as well. Also, on top of roughly 24 seconds of footage being cut from this scene (maybe they’re somewhere with the old man from Scene 24), 4Kids redid Meowth’s matches into candles; somehow glossing over you’d need something to light the candles as well as showing the used matches anyway in the next part. Remember: only YOU can prevent wildfires and continuity errors!

Now, comes the most-recognized part of the episode: as the storm rages on, Ash orders everyone back inside their Poké Balls; but Pikachu refuses! Not only that, the others pop back out to help Ash stay warm through the night! While I will discuss how the airing of this episode has led to some confusion about its place in canon; I can’t deny how much emotional weight this scene has, further compounded by Ash confiding in his Pokémon and subtly crying as “Tears After the Cloudy Weather” plays in the BGM.

The sun rises the next day, and the storm has broken as Ash reunites with Brock and Misty. After sharing some banter about their respective nights; they continue down the mountain pass.

They find the Meowth balloon blown near them; so they set about fueling it up so they can ride it down the mountain! Well, I guess it’s only one step above “borrowing” a bike.

So, with Vulpix’s help, Ash, Brock, Misty and Pikachu ride the balloon back down the mountain into the next town. We then close on Jessie, James and Meowth resting in a hot spring in the mountains.

As an added bonus, the Pikachu’s Jukebox segment is the title track from the “2BA Master” album! Finally got it on a digital sale earlier this year, been listening to it a lot lately.

While many elements from this episode were canonized in later ones (notably Jessie’s foster care and Ash’s night in the cave); the airing order is a strange one. In both the Japanese and English airings, the episode was to be a companion piece to “Holiday Hi-Jynx”; but both ended up being postponed due to the “Electric Soldier Porygon” incident, not airing until way later than intended. Hence why Ash has a Charmander and not the Charizard it became, and why Misty’s Togepi isn’t present yet. This has also caused some confusion on official home media releases and digital streaming. Though the Pokémon TV service puts it in between “It’s Mr. Mime Time” and “Showdown at the Poké-corral,” I am one of many who sees the episode’s numbering as apocryphal. Oxford defines the adjective as “of doubtful authenticity, though widely circulated as being true” or “belonging to the apocrypha.”

As for the episode itself: while it’s not my favorite one, “Snow Way Out” is an overall solid experience with some good animation for its time and surprisingly heartfelt moments. It may not be in rotation as much as some others, but I do like to put it on once every so often; so I can recommend it for that at least. What else can I say: “it’s rock climbing, Joel.” I hope you all have a good winter’s tidings, and I will see you all again soon.

Yo-Kai Watch Postmortem Followup: "Yo-Kai Watch 4++," "Jam Project" Flop in Debut, Potential Consequences for Series and Level-5.

One month ago, I posted my postmortem of the “Yo-Kai Watch” franchise on this blog. Many fans of the series have been dismissive of this mentality: why are so many people quick to declare the franchise dead just six years in? Surely the fact they’re still making content and releasing games means it’s no reason to worry, right? With a new movie and animated series coming, as well as the fourth game having released an expansion ahead of a planned English localization; things will turn around, right? Well, not exactly. Quite the opposite: things are so dire for the franchise that not only will the series be impacted; but the disappointing returns of the new content may cast a shadow over Level-5 as a whole. I am still not going to be doing anymore recaps, but the Jam Project will also be addressed for both the movie and its TV series making a High School AU after the fact. So, here is my followup to my Yo-Kai Watch postmortem.

Let’s start with the performance of “Yo-Kai Watch 4++” in sales. When this expansion of “Yo-Kai Watch 4” launched on December 5, many hoped this would kickstart sales of the game; especially after the title being the first to release on the Playstation 4. This hasn’t happened: on the contrary, “Yo-Kai Watch 4++” has only sold around 10,000 copies at launch on Nintendo Switch, with the PS4 port selling just under 3,000 copies; placing that version outside the top 30 on Famitsu’s charts.  To date, the Switch version has only sold 20,000 copies for this expansion; with sales for the PS4 version yet to be confirmed. These are absolutely abysmal numbers for consoles that have respective install bases of 41 million units and 100 million units as of this writing. By contrast, “Pokémon Sword and Shield” have sold well over 6 million copies since their launch; becoming the fastest-selling Switch title to date, surpassing “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” from last year. This expansion only brings the sales of “Yo-Kai Watch 4” to a meager 303,000 units as of this writing for all versions, and the sales of the Switch remaster of the first “Yo-Kai Watch” haven’t had concrete numbers to report since its launch. In many ways, this reminds me of when Sega tried to release three different consoles in three years one after the other: the Sega CD, the 32X and the Saturn, all of which being met with mixed reception and mediocre sales. Though Level-5 still intends to give the game an English localization, it remains to be seen how that would work. He also wants to localize some of the movies that have yet to be released, but that also hasn’t been made clear how it will work. The second has only seen a release on Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries, and the TV series has been dropped from Disney XD as of this year. My guess is that putting them on digital streaming would be the way to go, given how the anime never became the ratings success the English dubbers hoped it would; which makes a good segue into my next subject.

On December 13, “Yo-Kai Watch Jam Project The Movie: Yokai Academy Y (Can A Cat Really Be a Hero?)” was released in theaters in Japan with an absurdly long title. Much like Shadowside before it, the film is essentially the feature-length pilot for the anime of the same name. I will also note that with the Shadowside’s underperformance, and the outright failure of the Forever Friends movie last year, Level-5 said they would not be making more spinoffs that did not feature characters already established beforehand. Now, they’re releasing something that fills a loophole in that edict by making a High School AU; a la My Little Pony Equestria Girls, and also piggybacking on the success of My Hero Academia (both series I actually prefer, but I digress). So, how did this fare upon release?

Well, despite heavy promotion, the film has outright flopped at the Japanese box office; opening at number 4 behind the Japanese releases of “Frozen II” and “Jumanji: The Next Level” as well as “Shijin-sou no Satsujin,” making just over the equivalent of $1 million USD in its opening weekend. This is also roughly half of what the fifth film made in its opening, leaving an uncertain fate for this part of the series; let alone the franchise going forward. This was a Hail Mary pass that ended up being judged a safety, and though the TV series will be starting on the 27th; I don’t know how it will do given the movie’s underperformance.

This also casts a shadow over Level-5’s other plans; with a localization of “The Snack World” in 2020 for English-speaking regions and the development of “Megaton Musashi,” “Ushiro” and the new “Inazuma Eleven” being chief among them. It’s truly ironic that the third “Yo-Kai Watch” game, a title that was deliberately developed to appeal to Western audiences ended up having the lowest sales in the entire franchise; selling just 4,000 copies at retail in NA amid competition from Kingdom Hearts III and the remake of Resident Evil 2; as well as the 3DS slowly but surely making way for the Switch. There is talk of most of Level-5’s branches outside Japan closing, though this has yet to be confirmed as I type this. It wouldn’t surprise me personally, but it is another thing to consider going forward.

So, let’s see how all this fares. Even with “The Snack World” having an English dub in production by 3Beep (best known for the dub of the series “Winx Club”), there has yet to be confirmation of an official airdate since its debut at Anime Expo this year. The video game will also be launching on the Nintendo Switch on February 14, forgoing its release on the Nintendo 3DS. It remains to be seen how it will perform, as reception to the changes made to the English release has been mixed. “Inazuma Eleven: Ares” aired on Disney XD after “Yo-Kai Watch” ended its run, and hasn’t pulled the same ratings on the Anime Block its fellow series “Pokémon” and “Beyblade Burst Turbo.” The video game for that has been delayed so much that its title has been changed. “LBX: Little Battler’s Experience” stumbled out the starting gate, which it never recovered from. “Dragon Quest” was never fully theirs to begin with (despite some work on a few entries, generally more Square-Enix’s doing). “Dark Cloud” and its sequel are currently entangled in rights issues with Sony preventing a third game or even remasters of the first two (though they are available on PSN store under the “PS2 Classics” banner). “White Knight Chronicles” was a nonstarter that the company has distanced themselves from. The only franchises that have succeeded outside their homeland are the “Professor Layton” and “Ni No Kuni,” largely thanks to having proper promotion to their target audience and grassroots support from fans. Most importantly, they didn’t try to puff them up into something they weren’t. Even series creator Akihiro Hino admitted the success of “Yo-Kai Watch” surprised him, which may be why the franchise has yet to find a real identity beyond “charming” and “yokai cause hijinks, hilarity ensues.” With the newest game and movie being outright bombs even in their native Japan, that’s not a good sign for the future.

I mean, other franchises in a similar vein have been able to figure this out. Despite not everyone liking all versions the same, each iteration of “Pokémon,” “Digimon” and “Yu-Gi-Oh” has a distinct style and tone. Before any of them get released, the creators typically have a long-term plan for what they want to do and how they want to do it for the stories they tell. Even other Level-5 IPs I mentioned earlier were distinct for the developers, both released and in development. From my understanding, “Yo-Kai Watch” didn’t really have any long-term plans beyond each individual iteration. Six years in, this business model may not be sustainable for the series or the company. On top of the branches outside Japan potentially closing, there are also reports of tumult inside the main branch; ranging from an exodus of development staff and failure to bring in partners for other projects. Again, these have yet to be confirmed; but even Hino himself admits he wants to win back the confidence of fans and audiences. In order to do this, he himself has admitted that he wants to release more content on schedule that gets players excited for what comes next. So far, none of the company’s current or future projects are off to a good start for meeting any of these criteria.

Using “Shadowside” (which I prefer to the main anime and its 2019 revival) as a yardstick, after the film released to decent but not spectacular box office amid a decline from the previous movies (and the Japanese release of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”); the TV series debuted in 2018; lasting one season after its main story arc concluded (though its characters do play a part in the fourth game’s story). With the “Jam Project” starting its airing in Japan on December 27, I can expect something similar; though it’s going to have an uphill battle given how the games and movie are doing as of late. It also doesn’t help that as opposed to more modern J-Pop acts, the film’s song was performed by Pink Lady, who are nowadays more known for a series of scandals and starring in a terrible variety TV show that was intended to save their careers; but instead ended their popularity and killed that genre in the process. (Note: For more information on that last one, see TV Guide’s “50 Worst Shows of All Time”, the Agony Booth’s recaps of the complete series, and its entry in the book “What Were they Thinking: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History” by David Hofstede. The show was also notable for being a factor in NBC’s then-head Fred Silverman being ousted in favor of Brandon Tartikoff replacing him; who subsequently rescued the network from bankruptcy after Silverman’s failures.) I still think digital streaming would be the best outlet for future anime content outside Japan, especially given how Hino wants to localize the fourth and fifth movies alongside the upcoming Western localization of “Yo-Kai Watch 4” so as not to confuse audiences who haven’t seen them.

As for the games, that’s harder to guess. Given how the series never achieved the success that was expected outside Japan, I’m thinking that releasing “Yo-Kai Watch 4” as a digital-only title on the Nintendo eShop and PSN store would probably be the way to go. By that same token, I don’t know how “The Snack World” will perform when it launches. There hasn’t been an announcement yet about the TV series airing or the toys, special treasures known as “Jaras” (that function kind of like Nintendo’s Amiibo figurines for unlocking special content), and the game has an interesting place for its launch next Valentine’s day. On one hand, “The Last of Us Part II” has been delayed to May 2020 to help polish the game more before it ships. On the other, there are numerous other titles in the same launch window competing for attention in Q1. These include, but are not limited to the highly-anicipated remakes of “Final Fantasy VII” and “Warcraft III,” but also new titles in established series such as “Ori and the Will and the Wisps.” “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” and “Doom Eternal.” Bringing up other anticipated games such as “Cyberpunk 2077” and the remake of “Resident Evil 3: Nemesis” would just be overkill. I also think that the mecha game “Megaton Musashi” and the horror-themed “Ushiro” could work; with Hino openly admitting the case of the latter game it allows him to do things he can’t with Yo-Kai Watch.

Given how vastly the series has declined and the current situation with the company, the potential consequences at hand are immeasurable. So this isn't a total downer, I will state this: if and when "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution"  releases an English dub; I will review the movie here in full. I know that there are people working on subtitling the JP movie; but I try to support the official release every chance I get (I will probably watch the subs when they come out though). One last thing: I may have a surprise ready for the winter solstice, and I will begin work on it before I go see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker this evening. That will be all for now. Later.