Toon Talks

  Overview Puss in Boots is back with a new look! I know that I am late to this film, it's been on my watchlist for a couple of years now. While scrolling through Netflix, I ran into it and remembered that I needed to watch it and write a review on something, so I'm killing two birds with one stone right here! This story takes place after the first Puss in Boots and follows the story of Puss as he literally runs from Death. He is on his last life of nine, and is searching for a way to get his lives back as to not die from his Puss stunts. He isn't the only one searching for this wish, however. Be truly fearless This movie begins with Puss declaring that he is fearless, but once he is informed that he is on his last life, the embodiment of Death begins chasing him. Instead of facing his fears, he chooses to run from Death. He hides away and makes a plan to wish for more lives. This isn't the only conflict that he has, however. Softpaws is angry with him throughout the mo...

  Overview If you have not read last week's review of Season 1 of Hit Monkey, I'd recommend you go do that. In terms of what's new for this Season, Hit Monkey has started a new career in America after the finale of Season 1 requires for him to leave Japan.  What's Changed For this review I will simply give my impressions of this Season compared to Season 1 instead of another character analysis. I will admit that the action, to me, has improved. I cannot quite put my finger on it, whether that was the animation improving or it simply growing on me, but the action scenes seem a whole lot cooler to me now. I also will say that the comedic moments, compared to Season 1, hit less often and less frequently. The overall story is also a bit less compelling than Season 1. I've found myself having to force myself to finish episodes. This is something I did not need to do in Season 1. I enjoy the new cast, however. They are fun characters and have different ways to get your at...

  Overview This is a show that I had zero clue existed, honestly. Background on how I ran into it, my girlfriend and I were scrolling through shows to watch (which is typically how I end up choosing a show to review) and ran into Hit Monkey. Funnily enough, though I have not heard about the show, I already heard about the character through talks of him joining Marvel Rivals. Hit Monkey begins when a hitman is nursed back to help in Japan by a troop of monkeys. This hitman is being tracked down by criminals and when they finally catch up to him, they kill not only him, but the troop as well. Little do these criminals know, one of the monkeys has been learning about the art of killing from the hitman. Now this monkey is coming for revenge. It's a crazy premise, I know. A Monkey, or a Hitman? Honestly, normally a theme comes a bit naturally to me when it comes to these stories, but for Hit Monkey it was a bit different. Though his ghost companion is a bit easier to read, I wanted for ...

  A long break The One Piece anime has been on hiatus since October, this is due to two main factors. One being the anime quickly approaching the manga, which affects things such as pacing and "filler" episodes. In Anime, the shows are typically based off of their comic counterparts which normally have chapters released weekly. Most anime have weekly episodes released and cover more than one chapter's worth of content. This is not a problem for seasonal anime, which have several month-year gaps between seasons that allow for the manga to get significantly ahead of the anime. One Piece, however, is not a seasonal anime and traditionally airs a new episode every week. This makes for the pacing to get a little bad in order for the manga to stay ahead. Once the anime gets close, they historically begin making episodes cover one chapter's worth or even a little less. This makes for dragged out episodes as one chapter is not a lot of content to put into one episode. This br...

  AI Is Taking Over If you've been on the internet at all over the past 5 years, you'd notice the increase of AI in all sorts of forms. From search engines to picture editing, AI has made itself a valuable tool to many everyday people as well as creators. The kid sitting across from you in class and even Disney have both used AI in their work at some point, and the internet is full of AI personalities and bots. AI is now something that you cannot avoid and has proven itself a valuable tool to many. The question arises then, does it belong in animation as well? Ethical Concerns Many artists do not like AI, and this is for good reason. AI art does not just appear from nothing, those machines are not creative. They get inputs and mimic those. The ethical concerns around it is the fact that AI takes real people's work and makes something from it without their consent for less money and quicker. Ultimately, it costs many artists potential money and steals their work. Many artist...

 Overview Transformers One is the origin story of the Transformers' story that many know and love. I finally got to watch it on Netflix when I had some free time. With the fate of their world on the line, a few low class miners on the planet Cybertron set out to find an eternal source of energy for their planet. It proves to not be easy when they learn that there are forces out of their control at play as well. Growing Pains (SPOILERS!!) In this movie, you watch as Optimus Prime and Megatron grow apart throughout their journeys. They begin as close friends and run into more and more conflict as Optimus grows into a leader of hope and Megatron grows into a ruler of power. Both of them are in the direct way of the other becoming the person that they want to be. Megatron for the worse, and Optimus for the better. Ironically, right at the climax you see Megatron quite literally "let go" of Optimus, letting him die in order to become Megatron. It is after this that Optimus Pri...

  Overview If you have not watched Seasons 1 & 2 of Invincible, go catch up then come back here! If you're insistent on not doing that, though, there is a Season 1 & 2 review on this page as well, tune in to that to learn more about the plot. I'm not going over it again lol. This season threw me for a loop, however. I watched Season 3 with my girlfriend as I did with Season 1 & 2 and I must say that this time it feels like we're getting to the meat and potatoes of this story. This is the real Invincible, everything before was just a warmup. We had to pause through the episodes so much just to process what it was that we've seen, or just vent about how whatever character just made us mad. This season had a lot to unpack, but I love where the story is heading. Human or Hero cont. I'm sorry if you were expecting a different little rant, but I love Mark's progression through the Human vs Hero conflict that I had discussed in my Season 1 & 2 review an...

  Overview Originally, at least to me, known as the "Anime made by the same guy that made One Punch Man", Mob Psycho has evolved past being in it's creator's previous work's shadow. I started this anime back during the pandemic and watched each episode of Season 3 as it released. I did this rewatch with my girlfriend, who has never seen it, so I had an excuse to watch and take notes for you all to read! The story of Mob Psycho follows a middle school boy called Mob who has physic powers. These abilities make him close to all-powerful in their world. However, he chooses to live a regular life thanks to the teachings of a local conman, Arataka Reigen who he does exorcisms for. As a secret organization of physics try to take over the world, Mob and his friends must stop them all the while balancing their regular lives and growing up in middle school. Nobody is Special If you were close to omnipotent, what would you do in life? Become a superhero? Try to take over the...

  Overview I'm going to be doing something a bit different this week. As the 5th post of this blog (may not seem like much, but that's five weeks of my life), I wanted to give my recommendations of the Top 3 Must Watch Anime of 2025. This isn't necessarily the "Best" anime, but rather anime that you cannot die without watching. I believe these will round out your experience and ultimately have satisfying stories. There are the kinds of anime I would recommend to anyone, and if you give them the proper time you'll find yourself different coming out of them. So without further ado, let's get into the list! Attack on Titan This anime was ridiculously popular back during the pandemic and for good reason. Without giving any spoilers, all I can say about this anime is that it is mystery after mystery and plot twist after plot twist. The thought that went into this story is out of this world, and it can be binged in under a week but will touch you for the rest of...

  Overview     This anime gets a lot of chatter, for better or worse. If you're someone who actively watches anime and searches for new ones to find, then Your Lie in April has probably been mentioned to you before. For most people watching for the first time (me included), the only thing they've heard about it is that it is ridiculously sad. As someone who never cries, I needed to test this out for myself. My girlfriend (who cries quite easily) also joined me for this one. Whether or not I cried is something that I'll save telling you all for the last section.      Your Lie in April is about a retired middle school pianist named Kousei Arima. He was actually a very big deal in his prime. Kousei would get first place at every piano competition due to his mother's abusive teaching that made him follow the score to a T. It got to the point where he was called a human metronome (a device in music that keeps the beat). He gives up on piano once he begins to be ...

   Overview     I believed Invincible to be a piece of shock media for a while. The first season premiered back in 2021, when I was coming out of high school, and I watched it all with my brother. Once getting past the animation (I was used to the more flashy animation of mainstream anime titles of the time), I found the story to be, while interesting, more so of a chore to watch at certain points. By the time season 2 came around, I wasn't too interested in continuing to trek through more episodes. Fast forward to 2025 and my girlfriend wanted us to binge both seasons so we could watch the new together, so guess who had to finally watch Season 2. What I watched was a pleasant surprise, however. Invincible is the story of Mark Grayson, son of essentially Superman. His superpowered, alien father came down to Earth and started a family with his mother, thus making Mark half-alien himself. Once his superpowers kicked in, Mark decided that he wanted to become a super her...

  Overview       I've been hearing about Dandadan for at least the past 3 years as a manga. I had zero clue what the story was about or what a Dandadan even was (still have no idea what the name means). What I can say is that after watching this first season I can understand what all the talk was about, for better or worse. Dandadan is the story of two friends and their experiences with the supernatural. Momo Ayase is a popular highschool girl, and Ken Takakura (nicknamed "Okarun") is nerdy loner. After meeting each other for the first time, they have a bet about whether or not ghost and aliens are real, with Momo believing the former and Okarun believing the latter. This bet consists of Okarun visiting a well-known "haunted" place in Japan and Momo visiting a spot where aliens have been sighted. They each have their own encounters with paranormal beings at those locations, resulting in Momo activating latent  physic powers and Okarun becoming cursed (also comes...

Chapter 1 Welcome to Toon Talks!!      As a new blog, I wanted to take this first post to tell anybody reading about myself as well as what we'll be doing in this blog.       I've been watching cartoons, like most, since I was a kid. I never quite outgrew that medium and as I grew older I began to appreciate it more as a medium. Things like anime, adult animation, and most cartoons in general have always been a big part of my life. Anime specifically has become quite popular since COVID here in the States, but I've been a fan since before I can even remember. Some of my earliest memories are my Dad having me watch Dragon Ball and Naruto on our little box TV in the living room.       I not only find animated shows to be interesting, but I also find good storytelling and writing to be particularly interesting. Writing has always been a hobby of mine and I love to dissect the stories that I interact with for deeper themes, characteriza...