ANI-MOVIES, *Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie

Gege Akutami's hit manga-turned anime series, Jujutsu Kaisen, was at first a one-volume manga titled Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School which was later renamed Jujutsu Kaisen 0 as it was a prelude to the ongoing series. The original 2017 was adapted as an anime movie instead of making it part of the official show, so you can view this prequel to the TV series separately on its own without first having watch the show, even though there are some hints that appear throughout the film that make you want to explore the rest of this universe. The film is an adaptation of the entire one-shot comic, so you can see how this plays out as sequence of chapters instead of a steady 3-act movie as some it does suffer from pacing issues and entire concepts get brought up that are completely dropped later on to keep the film under 105 minutes. The story focuses on a completely different protagonist instead of the TV main character Yuji Itadori and how this other character was introduced into the world of the Jujutsu Society. TV series director Sunghoo Park is also the head of this film, and it is still under the studio Mappa's production.

Yuta Okkotsu is a timid teenager that gets constantly harassed by bullies, but what they didn't know is that he is cursed by the spirit of his childhood friend Rika who manifests as a raging demon whenever Yuta is threatened. This gets the attention of the secretive Jujutsu Society made of sorcerers who use their powers to keep mankind from the lethal Cursed Spirits that plague Japan, and they have Yuta enrolled in Jujutsu High in the first-year class of their up-and-coming students. Yuta's new classmates are strange enough including a bad girl with a blade, a strange boy who only speaks using rice ball ingredients, and a talking panda, although it's later revealed that each of them is under their own curse that they've managed to weaponize. Yuta learns to use his curse and bond it to a katana sword to help him attack rogue Cursed Spirits that haunt vacant places throughout the country. Suddenly, the story shifts into a completely different direction when a rival school of sorcerers lead by Geto, a dropout from Jujutsu High who formed his own school, and now his students are planning a turf war by unleashing an army of curses upon the country on Christmas Eve. Yuta's teacher Gojo who regularly covers his eyes with sunglasses or a headband leads the strike against Geto's forces, but it turns out the entire attack was a ruse for Geto to lure all the Jujustu High alumni away from the school so he can absorb Yuta's spirit of Rika. Geto however didn't really count on how quickly Yuta had adapted to his curse and eventually defeats the egotistical villain leaving Geto to supposedly be finished off by Gojo as it turns out the two of them were classmates long ago. There is a post-credits scene where Gojo later on meets up with Yuta in Africa setting up potential plots.

Jujutsu Kaisen O is a fair enough single feature on its own that doesn't demand you to have extensive knowledge of the anime series, although it doesn't hurt much either. The TV series probably did a better job introducing the world of Jujutsu sorcery then the movie did because the film is more focused on Yuta's PTSD and how he's getting used to new teachings. Mappa added a little taste of their own brand of humor that wasn't in the original manga adding some more fan service and heightens up the fight scenes. The battle sequences are amazing and is one of the most shonen of all shonen power battles in anime movies, leagues above anything out of Dragonball. The casting is okay, especially Lex Lang(the best Dr. Doom!)as the charismatic pantomime antagonist Geto who gives his most Machiavellian performance. Existing fans of the TV show were more than content with the movie's backstory of some of the secondary characters who take center stage in this production. If this film is your introduction to the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, then it's a good enough first step into a larger world.

Yet another indie animated pilot set in a Hell of some kind!

 

DC League Of Super-Pets

"How Not To Do A Superhero Adaptation..." would be the title of any book warning people about the colossal clutter that is DC League Of Super-Pets. First created in the Silver Age, the concept came from a quartet of super-powered animals all adjacent to the Superman Family called the Legion Of Super-Pets who would sometimes team up for a fun little comic short. This was brought back in the 2010s in a series of children's books done by Art Baltazar titled DC Super-Pets featuring some of these pets along with other standard animal sidekicks like Ace The Bat-Hound and Wonder Woman's alien kangaroo Jumpa. This led to more appearances by various Super-Pets in animated shows like DC Super Hero Girls, Justice League Action, and a series of DC Nation shorts. So, since Dwayne Johnson was on a massive vanity project to pimp his live-action Black Adam movie, he thought it would be a great idea to hitch the kids into it by making a theatrically released DC animated movie, although this has almost none of the original Super-Pets. Krypto and Ace are starring in it, but they only brought in a pair of obscure characters for it, one of which isn't even a pet as he's an intelligent alien squirrel who's part of the Green Lantern Corps. This was also the first fully-CGI animated film based on a DC Comic coming out in 2022 a few months before the Super Sons direct-to-video movie, as well as being the last film on the roster for Warner Animation Group before their name change. Warner Bros. made more than twice their money back for this, partially due to some toys, but DC Super Pets didn't leave a big mark among children or animation fans and was totally forgotten about after Black Adam bombed and failed to live up to the Henry Cavill cameo at the finale. Like most big-budget cartoon projects, the studio hired celebrities to do the characters, both human and animal, aside from merely hiring professional voice actors, so basically the characters get completely rewritten to fit the methods of whichever star is playing them. Johnson plays Krypto with his glues at the hip cohort Kevin Hart as Ace which really says they did this whole thing for another big paycheck and didn't care at all about the original source material.

In this version of the DC Universe, Superman arrived on Earth as a baby with his dog Krypto instead of meeting him years later. Krypto acts as Superman's sidekick and faithful pal but begins to grow anxious when he notices that Superman is planning on marrying Lois Lane, making it like the hundredth time he's done this in the last few decades. Lex Luthor's latest scheme to stop Superman is to bring a meteorite of orange Kryptonite that he believes it will give him superpowers. Superman and the Justice League stop him after Luthor finds out the Kryptonite doesn't affect humans and gets arrested. Meanwhile, one of Luthor's former guinea pigs named Lulu pulls a Pinky And The Brain and plans to take over the world after gaining a portion of Kryptonite which gives her telekinetic powers. The radiation also gives all the other pets in the shelter powers too along with Ace whose now invulnerable, a size-changing pig named PB, the chipmunk Chip who can shoot electricity, and Merton the turtle that gains super-speed. Lulu gives a bunch of other guinea pigs their own superpowers from the Kryptonite and they wipe out the entire Justice League plus leaving Krypto powerless after he consumes some green Kryptonite. The former super-dog teams up with the newly powered pets to stop Lulu who launches the Justice League and Luthor into space which of course they foil. Lulu takes the remaining orange Kryptonite and turns into a giant psychic kaiju which only Krypto can stop after a super-punch that he could kill him. Krypto of course doesn't die, and Lulu is defeated with the other pets getting adopted by the other Justice Leaguers. This would've been a fair ending but there were so many unanswered questions like why does an Earth squirrel with lightning powers also get a Green Lantern ring, or does Lulu still have powers, and how are the pets able to communicate with humans even though it's been shown that they can't understand their barks and squeaks? And of course, they had to end it with a gratuitous stinger by Black Adam also voiced by Dwayne Johnson as well his own super-pet that we learn nothing about.

DC League Of Super-Pets was a flash in the pan flick overstuffed with pop culture references, inappropriate jukebox selections, and pointless celebrity casting. Even having Keanu Reeves as a Batman with way too much caffeine falls flat. The comedy is just going through a rolodex of catchphrases and poop jokes that no one is quoting and even had to mock Paw Patrol probably because that's the only other competition for this franchise. There's been no plans for a continuation, making it the only saving grace from this ungodly jumble that was created solely to inflate Dwayne Johnson's already bloated ego.

MISC. MANGA, *Spy x Family

Being the basis for the hit anime TV series, Spy x Family was written and drawn by Tatsuya Endo who had previously created Blade Of The Moon Princess based on the legendary Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter. His next title was a one-shot titled I Spy which was not as deep in Japanese folklore, and this led into expanding the idea by turning it into an action sitcom. Spy x Family has a man, a woman, and a little girl all pretending to be a family to complete a secret mission, and while this is the main goal of the series, the thing that got fans hooked was the chemistry between the main characters. Endo illustrates this with some swinging action and sincere but stern facial expressions as each of them deal with their own personal conflicts and motivations.

The bordering nations of Ostania and Westalis are constantly at odds, and the secret agent Loid Forger known as Twilight is given a special assignment to investigate the enigmatic chairman of a government party who only makes appearances at the private school of Eden Academy where his son goes to. The only way to get close to his target is for Loid to put together his own family within the span of a week to get his new foster child admitted into Eden, so he first gets the darling little Anya from a local orphanage. What Loid doesn't know is that his adopted daughter is actually telepathic as the result of a science experiment that she managed to get free of, and she knows that Loid is really a spy from reading his mind, so she sets out to help him in his endeavor. To fill the role of the mother, Loid happens to come across the lovely Yor who has a job at City Hall but is really a highly trained assassin codenamed Thorn Princess that agrees to pretend to be Loid's wife when the academy enrollment tests begin. From this point on, Loid and Yor are totally unaware of the other's background, even though Anya knows all about them and strives to keep her new family together no matter the social or domestic struggles they have to go through.

Spy x Family has gained more progress as an anime, especially with their first movie in 2023. The manga however should not be overlooked, even for otaku who mainly only sample the anime adaptations and don't bother with the original source material. Viz has done an exemplary job translating this series and if the TV series caught your eye, then give the manga a look as well. It's the right blend of action, comedy, and romance that people have been looking for in a mature series.

ANI-MOVIES, *Rio 2

Aside from Ice Age, the only other Blue Sky Studios film to receive a sequel was Rio. Rio 2 came out three years after the original, which was met with box office success, although the makers tried to pack too much into a single suitcase with numerous plots baked up for one a single film since they weren't sure there was enough gas in the tank to warrant this franchise being a trilogy, at least at the time. Carlos Saldanha returns to direct this installment which was dedicated to writer Don Rhymer who wrote the script for both Rio films and passed away before the sequel was released. The entire cast of celebrities from the original are back along with some new additions including Miguel Ferrer in his penultimate performance before he departed. Whereas the first film had a streamlined objective, Rio 2 suffers from an overload of plots that called for the film to be even longer than the original.

Happening the exact same amount of time in real life later from the first film, Blu and Jewel now have a trio of children and live in the Rio bird sanctuary. Blu's owner Linda along with her new husband Tulio believe they've discovered a hidden colony of the blue parrots that Blu and Jewel were thought to be the last of. Blu finds out about this and flies with his entire family along with a few of their other friends from Rio, and of course eventually locate an entire flock of blue parrots. Turns out this is where Jewel originally came from, and her father Eduardo is the head bird. Blu begins to become jealous of Jewel's old childhood friend Roberto, but tries to adjust to the wildlife of birds in the jungle. Meanwhile, Linda and Tulio come across a gang of illegal foresters who are striping the Amazon of its trees. To add even more onto the plot, the bad bird Nigel finds out about Blu's trip although the former smuggler can no longer fly after getting run through a plane engine, but gets help from his lovesick poison frog ally Gabi and a silent anteater who gets roped into Nigel's plan of revenge. Blu fails to help impress his new father-in-law, especially after losing a parrot socker game to the neighboring red parrots. Things pick up though when Blu frees Linda and Tulio from the crooked loggers and leads the other jungle animals in a strike against them which saves their home. Nigel finally gets to have a small tussle with Blu but is ultimately defeated and set back to Rio along with Gabi who turns out to be not poisonous. Blu and his family decide to stay in the jungle with the other blue parrots.

Rio 2 has a contradictory title for a sequel as like the Madagascar sequels, it doesn't all happen in the place it's named after as most of it is deep in the Amazon. There was just an overlord of story ideas that some of the characters get completely removed from the film for long periods of time, including Blu's kids who you think would get more screentime. Way more scenes were given to Nigel who keeps plotting vengeance with at least two musical scenes to himself, and one for Gabi voiced sung by Kristin Chenoweth, and dedicating all this for characters who barely interact with the main story is merely filler which what killed the momentum of other animated sequels like Frozen 2. The first Rio had a satisfying singular objective, but Rio 2 stumbles around trying to find which direction to go to.

Happy Easter, and BITE MY SHINY METAL TAIL!

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Smallfoot

Starting a troika of animated movies featuring yeti, Smallfoot had a foot up on Abominable and Missing Link by about a year when the Warner Animation Group released it in 2018. Being the first non-Lego movie from WAG, this was based on an unpublished book by Klaus producer Sergio Pablos and directed by Over The Hedge's Karey Kirkpatrick. Being a Warner Bros. production, Smallfoot was of course casted entirely by Hollywood celebrities instead of professional voice actors. It was entirely done in CGI with a slightly jukebox musical score using older tunes with altered lyrics, so basically copying off DreamWorks battle plans. The movie did bank enough on its own making over 200 million in its theatrical run, even though no plans for a sequel have been made since then, not even you're average made-for-TV holiday special.

Happening atop a tall mountain in the Himalayans lives a tribe of yetis who have sealed themselves off from the rest of the world thanks to an elaborate system of lies told to the populace and a big steam machine that blocks both the view of the yetis of the world below as well from any humans. The yetis believe the sun comes up because one of them rings a giant gong, and eager young Migo is the son of the gong-ringer. Migo's world view is totally shaken when he sees a plane crashes on the mountain along with its human pilot which the yetis refer to as a smallfoot. The pilot parachutes away, so Migo has no way to prove his wild claim which gets him banished from the village until he conforms to the rules of their leader, the Stonekeeper. A few of their kind believe smallfoots exist, all of which are led by Stonekeeper's rebellious daughter Meechee who gets Migo to go explore the world below. Migo ends up finding a human named Percy who is trying to save his nature documentary show from getting cancelled and sees this as the opportunity to put him back on top. Migo escorts Percy up to the yeti village and blows everyone's minds, but a chat with Stonekeeper clues Migo in on the real reason their kind isolated themselves from mankind because they are seen as monsters to the fearful humans, even though the yetis are at least three times bigger than them. Meechee decides to take Percy back to the human city since he can't survive in the higher altitude, and she blows the yetis existence, even though Percy first manages to cover them up pretending the whole thing to be a publicity stunt. Migo comes clean on the real history of his people, and they decide to make peace with the humans which is first made with some hesitancy, although they eventually put aside their differences.

Smallfoot is up to scratch as far as animated films of the 2010s with some fair original songs and some good-natured cartoon frolics. It's fine enough to be a family feature, although most parents might find it not worth rewatching. The animation quality fits the specs well with slightly original character designs even if they look like they were taken out of a Dr. Seuss book. For the first of a trinity of sasquatch shenanigans, Smallfoot carries its idea adroitly and has a sizeable amount of originality in its setup which most animation devotees should be pleased by.

ANI-MOVIES, *Earwig And The Witch

Being the second Studio Ghibli movie based on a Diana Wynne Jones novel, Earwig And The Witch was also Ghibli's first fully-CGI feature-length movie, as well as the third one directed by Goro Miyazaki. Big daddy Hayao only acted as a planner for this film until he came out of "retirement" to do The Boy And The Heron. Yet another Ghibli entry that delves into witchcraft, this one brings it down from the sweeping fantasies like Tales From Earthsea or the family friendly Kiki's Delivery Service. Earwig And The Witch played out more like a sitcom with a young girl getting used to the magical new lifestyle she's been thrust into, so mix in Sabrina with a Brothers Grimm viewpoint and you'll get some idea what Goro was going for. Since this wasn't the traditional 2D animation that Ghibli is known for, it didn't really set well with your standard cartoon connoisseur, least of all ones who grew up on classics such as Totoro. This was more than evident as the movie earned less than a million dollars throughout its initial theatrical run.

Set in England, an infant named Earwig is left at an orphanage and is renamed Erica Wigg by the caretakers. Ten years later she gets adopted by an unusual middle-aged duo, the stout Bella Yaga and the tall moody Mandrake. Bella took in Erica to act as an extra set of hands as it turns out the old lady is really a witch, but more of the potion-making type instead of the generic broom-riding kind. Erica is tasked with helping Bella mix together the right ingredients used for different potions that Bella makes for the locals such as love spells and lucky charms. The Mandrake on the other hand is a reclusive demon that runs everything and is usually secluded in his room writing mystery novels or occasionally jamming away on an electric organ. The regularly silent Mandrake sends out his miniature bat-winged demons that spin away and steal food from all over the neighborhood to provide the housemates with food. The house they all live in is constantly shifting the entrances to certain rooms as Erica tries to find the other two occupants' rooms and finds she's the only one there with their own bathroom. Erica wants Bella to teach her magic, but the old crone just keeps the little girl busy with various chores. To get back at Bella, Erica allies herself with her familiar Thomas, a talking black cat that gets Erica to concoct a potion that makes both of them resistant to Bella's special brand of magical punishment, evil gummy worms! Along the way, Erica finds out that Bella and Mandrake were in a band together, an ex-member of which was really Erica's mother, even though this never comes up in the movie. The addition of Bella and Mandrake's past as musicians and their association with Erica's mom was exclusively added to the movie and were never part of the original source material. Why Erica's mother abandoned her as a baby and who was chasing her away at the beginning of the movie is never revealed, even though she shows up at the end of the movie at Christmas after Erica has made peace with her adopted parents. The finale is very abrupt with Erica's first meeting with her mother leaving you wondering where the rest of the story is. It's almost like this was just covering the first part of a continuing story that would be followed up in a sequel or TV series of some kind, but aside from the closing credits which show Erica growing closer with her foster family, nothing was ever picked up when the film slammed on the brakes to early.

Earwig And The Witch is a decent enough CGI-animated movie, even though Goro Miyazaki received no help from the rest of the Ghibli veterans and had to seek outside help to produce it. The character designs are mixed between imagery you would see in a Akira Toriyama or Eiichiro Oda manga and considering there is a limited cast it's bizarre as they are constantly shifting from one bizarre facial reaction to another. The story plods along with no definitive direction other than a trio of housemates learning to become a closer family as they carry on. This was more faithful to Diana Wynne Jones' other movie adaption of her work that Ghibli previously did, Howl's Moving Castle which seriously went off the beaten path, although aside from the backstory of Erica's mother, nothing new was added to the canon and actually helped put an extra layer of likability to it, so Goro's originality along with his songwriting talents genuinely helped make the film more bearable. It's hard to say how the future of Ghibli might go if they will produce more fully-CGI animated features or if they'll just fallback to their typical caliber of 2D animation like they did with The Boy And The Heron, mostly because Hayao Miyazaki remains very indecisive when it comes to his retirement. Hopefully, Goro will be able to break out of his father's shadow and earn the recognition he deserves.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Road To El Dorado

For DreamWorks' third theatrical animation release as well as their second traditional animated production, The Road To El Dorado was a mostly original story inspired on the old Road To... movies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Written by former Aladdin screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, plus directed by former Asterix animator Eric Bergeron, the film already had a fair pedigree behind it. The musical score was composed by John Powell and Hans Zimmer, along with original songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, so the soundtrack was real humdinger. Despite all this, the film underperformed at the box office not even making all its budget back. The musical comedy adventure went on to become a favorite among families and animation fans when it was later released on cable and video.

During the 16th Century, Spaniards Miguel and Tulio end up stowing away on Cortes' campaign to South America, but they make off in a lifeboat along with Cortes' horse Altivo. The three of them finally find land and use a map they happened to swindle that is supposed to lead to the mythical city of El Dorado. After a melodic trek through the jungle, Miguel and Tulio locate the outer gates to the city as a lovely young native named Chel was making her escape from El Dorado with the city security chasing her for stealing a divine treasure. The natives mistake the two Spaniards riding a horse as gods and guide them through a watery tunnel which is the opening for the secluded city of gold. Migel and Tulio plot to use their godly ruse to make off with a bunch of loot and return to Spain rich, although the priest Tzekel-Kan is trying to use the presence of these "gods" to steal the thunder of the kindly chief, and Chel wants to leave with the newcomers by loving it up with Miguel. Tzekel-Kan learns that the men aren't really gods and uses his unexplained but genuine magic to attack them with a giant jaguar statue, but they manage to trick the wicked priest into falling into a whirlpool that conveniently streams him to outside the city where he comes across Cortes and his men searching for El Dorado. Knowing that conquistadors are coming, Migel, Tulio, Chel, and Altio use the boat they were going to use for their trip back to Spain with their treasure and block the underground entrance which leaves Cortes free to pillage the rest of Mesoamerica and conquer the Aztec Empire. The surviving adventures ride away on horseback to find their next journey, setting the way for a sequel that never happened.

The Road To El Dorado might not have been the best seller DreamWorks was hoping for, even though it did become the sleeper favorite of Gen Zers. There is some gorgeous animation, catchy songs, and comedy gold, especially the bromance between Miguel and Tulio which is a first for an animated feature where the two main leads are both human males, neither of which are princes. Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh are humor incarnate with their Crosby/Hope homage, and Rosie Perez is alluring as Chel, plus voice acting veteran Jim Cummings plays multiple roles including Cortes. The movie might have been a bigger hit upon its initial release if they had geared it slightly more towards younger viewers and merchandised the heck out of it like Disney.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Nut Job

Even though screenwriter Lorne Cameron previously worked on Over The Hedge, the similarly themed animated feature The Nut Job is its own separate entity as it is based on the short Surly Squirrel created by former-Disney animator Peter Lepeniotis which came out a year before Over The Hedge. Released somewhat independently by Open Road Films as their only animated franchise to date, The Nut Job is another funny animal movie with cartoon nincompoopery, but unlike DreamWorks they manage to keep the pop culture references to a bare minimum. With a trio of animation studios behind it, The Nut Job managed to make four times its budget back, as well as a sequel three years later, even though much of the funding for this was provided by the South Korean government. The movie of course decided to forego the hiring of professional voice actors and just filled out the cast with whichever celebrities that would sign up for it, even though this doesn't completely work against it.

In a small town during the 50s, a wily outsider squirrel called Surly along with his silent partner Buddy get kicked out of the park they live in after accidently setting fire to a tree containing all the other animals' food for the winter. Surly and Buddy then find a nut shop which is really the front for a gang planning on robbing a bank by a tunnel they dug under the safe. The outcasted rodents plot to making off with a huge bundle of nuts, but the power-hungry Racoon who runs the park animals sends the fairer female squirrel Andie to go out searching for food along with the well-meaning squirrel Grayson who sees himself as the hero type. Surly works out a deal with Andie to split the nuts loot with the help of the park animals. There are several parallels going on between the humans' bank heist and the animals plot to steal the nuts, and there are numerous misunderstandings as well as betrayals between all the characters, both critter and criminal. Racoon continuously plots to keep control over the animals in the park even if that means having some of them killed off in the literal nut job which comes back to bite him in the tail as Surly is one of the few ones that notices how much Racoon is trying to screw everyone over. There is lengthy chase between all the crooks in the end and Surly managing to reveal what a jerk Racoon is. Grayson is seen as the hero supplying the park with enough nuts and made the animals' new leader while Surly and Buddy decide to live in the city secretly helping Andie out, sort of like their own personal Batman.

The Nut Job is a funny enough movie which is more than just taking an old Looney Tunes short and stretching it out to feature-length. The animation is moderate for fully-CGI, although not entirely up to Pixar's level of quality. The voice actors are adequate with Will Arnet doing yet another talking animal, Liam Neeson as the corrupt Racoon, Katherine Heigl as Andie, and Brendan Frasier reworking his Dudley Do-Right impression as Grayson. Most of the other characters are forgettable, especially the humans and the pug Precious who gets unnecessarily involved and was thrown in merely for filler material. The most unforgivable sin of the film is how the American producers caved into the urges of their Korean investors by turning the closing credits into one big music video set to Gangnam Style complete with an animated version of rapper Psy dancing along with the other characters despite the fact that the movie takes place during the 1950s.

How Anime Influenced My Adventures With Superman: Season 2 Edition

The second season of My Adventures With Superman carries on its anime inspiration that it did from Season One. Season Two picks up with more otaku references and eye catchers. Studio Mir is still behind the stellar animation and focusing on the anime genre like they did with Legend Of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender. This season brought the bigger menace of Brainiac, and the addition of Superman’s only known living relative, Supergirl.

Season Two sees Clark learning more about Krypton by a memory of his father Jor-El while Amanda Waller learns about his vulnerability to Kryptonite. Lois and Clark grow closer after he helps break her father General Lane out of prison. Luthor allies himself with Waller and supplies her with a robot army while Superman contacts his equally powerful cousin Kara who previously made friends with Jimmy. The youthful alien is really under the influence of the genocidal android Brainiac who is the one responsible for the destruction of Krypton. Kara kidnaps her cousin Clark, although he manages to get through to her after she learns the truth of Brainiac’s galactic crusade to bring all life under his mechanical empire when he’s not destroying whole civilizations. Waller sets up the Human Defense Corps to protect Earth from aliens as Lois and Jimmy head to space with Brain and Mallah who just happen to run into Kara as she was planet-hopping. Brainiac takes over Superman’s body and begins his assault on Metropolis. The HDC fail to stop the psychotic robot even though Lois and her friends break Clark free. After various standard anime power-ups, Superman and the new Supergirl demolish Brainiac in a final battle at the sun along with the help of some reformed villains from Intergang and Task Force X. The door is left open for more trouble from Luthor as he sets up his own business with Slade Wilson.

Instead of building up to Brainiac like he was the final boss of a video game, this season went straight to making him the main source of conflict with Kara acting as his willing agent. This streamlined the story considerably and left just enough time for Clark and Lois relationship to flourish. They continue to grow as individuals and as a couple with all the shonen action tropes added in to the plot.

Speaking of shonen stereotypes, Season 2 is weighed down with way more of these than Season 1 did. Superman and Supergirl both gain new outfits and unlock different powers such as projecting a force field during moments of great stress. Like how he was written in the Silver Age, whatever power Superman needs to have to resolve a certain situation like manifesting freezing breath. He even gets a fiery glow around himself just like Super-Saiyan mode. Season 3 will probably have the Man of Steel shooting out rainbow beams from his hands creating disposable miniature versions of himself.

The DC Universe gets somewhat expanded here too as we’re introduced to other alien races. Hawkman’s people from the planet Thanagar are shown to be nearly extinct thanks to a brainwashed Supergirl. We’re also introduced to a hint of the Green Lantern Corps when Superman must fight a hologram of one. This is supposed to lead into an upcoming spinoff animates series titled My Adventures With Green Lantern starring Jessica Cruz that will be produced by co-showrunner Jake Ryatt.

The character of Brainiac is a tipping of the hat to 80s anime as his form is totally different in this series as opposed to his prior designs. He regularly looks like a green-skinned human with wiring on his bald head, but now he appears as a fully mechanical android much like the Paranoids from Gall Force which were gelatinous lifeforms living inside robot bodies like the Daleks. Instead of being a cold emotionless AI, Brainiac here takes a cue from the MCU’s version of Ultron and added more of an actual personality to the emotionless villain who is voiced by Michael Emerson. After previously playing an older Joker in The Dark Knight Returns animated feature, Emerson portrays a more sadistic and malicious Brainiac like his character on Lost as he is motivated to saving Krypton’s culture by eliminating all other life in the universe to preserve his world's way of life, even if that meant destroying the all the Kryptonians to do so.

The characters still maintain their anime-influenced look, most especially Kara as her disguise for blending in on Earth was taken directly from Dragonball Z as she’s dressed exactly like Android 18. Supergirl’s original outfit even gives off the look of an Evangelion Unit with huge shoulder mounts. There is also a greater sense of body shape diversity as Batman’s occasional girlfriend Silver St. Cloud here is a tall muscular woman, plus a gender-flipped version of Flash’s enemy Heat Wave is a muscular woman who carries on a lesbian relationship with Livewire who oddly helps Lois in her mission to reach Superman and defend Metropolis against Brainiac. Slade Wilson remains a disappointing blue-collar take on Deathstroke, and Luthor is just a young preppy teen who's just waiting to get his hair blown off. Jimmy evolves a little bit too as he leads his new Flamebird news crew and jokingly goes through his initial five-million-dollar investment throughout the course of the series.

The mecha designs in this season are also reflections of various anime titles. The transforming sentries working for Brainiac appear as simple android droids capable of causing problems for two Kryptonians, but very angular in form void of any real humanity. Most of the alien weapons also shoot out missiles inspired by Macross and other space anime.

The greatest anime homage in this are the fight sequences which are right out of Dragonball, My Hero Academia, and Demon Slayer. The animation takes full advantage of the fact that these are fighters with powers like super-speed and flight while firing heat-vision from their eyes. It’s very crisp and sharp containing and great attention to detail aside from how fast they might seem to the naked eye.

Season Two of My Adventures Of Superman digs even deeper into the otaku mindset. There are plenty of callbacks to recent and classic anime titles. Supergirl especially does her best as an alien first visiting Earth as a fish out of water which has been used in several otherworldly girlfriend scenarios. Anime fans can watch this without seeing Season One if they have a basic enough idea of the Superman mythos, although since each season is only ten episodes each, it wouldn’t take too long to get through either set in a short amount of time.

R.I.P., Val Kilmer

 

Avengers: Doomsday. What about Bob?