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.
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