End of 2022 Quickie Review Roundup

Throughout 2022, I've had the pleasure of checking out a variety of things, but not enough time to devote full articles and/or reviews on what I had the pleasure of watching. To close out 2022, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a lot of quickie thoughts (a lot of these are copy and paste from snippets that I shared on Facebook) on those said TV shows and films.

You should be warned that there are a few spoiler-rich comments in these quickie reviews below.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

BABYLON

Release Date: December 23, 2022

I took three hours out of my day during the week before Christmas to treat myself with a viewing of this film to a theater that was occupied with easily less than five people - myself included. While most media outlets are talking about how much money a film like this set to lose after failing to reach its estimated profit margins at the box office, I'm sad that we're in an age that films like this aren't looked upon fondly anymore. When I undertaking film studies as my major in college, I could have EASILY seen this film as required viewing on any of my classes' course curriculum. It serves as both a period piece for the time period and a respectful homage to the evolution of the film going experience as a whole, especially with the montage and sequences that are the cornerstones of the film's ending.

Without spoiling too many details, the film follows several protagonists who are either on the cusp of acquiring fame in Hollywood, contributing to the evolution of the artform that is the cinema, or struggling to maintain that fame and fortune.

BARBARIAN

Release Date: September 9, 2022

This is up there in my personal top five as one of the wildest, craziest things that I have had the pleasure of viewing this year in 2022. What starts off as your typical horror film setup that has started the memes and trends of horror stories about buying/renting an AirBnB (something that we'll see pop up in Adult Swim's Yule Log later in this write-up), quickly turns into one of the most unpredictable horror films that I have seen in a very long time. There is absolutely no way anyone could guess the highs and lows of how far this film is willing to go in terms of horrifying and shocking viewers. And I'm not talking about your typical cliched jump scares either.

This was definitely a film that dwelled heavily on my mind well after viewing it for the first time. It definitely deserves the amount of praise that it accumulated this year.

BULLET TRAIN

Release Date: August 5, 2022

I had a day off from work and even though I spent most of that day cutting the grass and cleaning up the house, I treated myself to an afternoon showing of the premiere of BULLET TRAIN.

I was intrigued when I saw the trailer(s) for this a few months ago when I saw Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, so I made a mental note to check this out when it did release in theaters and I gotta say I wasn't disappointed in the least. I have NO idea why the early reviews and Rotten Tomatoes scores were low for this before yesterday (at the time of writing this after the premiere), but I had a great time enjoying this from start to finish.

The best way to describe it is by just saying this movie is WILD. There's some clichéd parts to this story that's to be expected for a film/story like this in the genre, along with a lot of predictability but that's what simultaneously makes it fun too as it's a film that's completely aware of what it's doing to add to comedy of it all too.

DOOM PATROL, SEASON FOUR (ONGOING)

Release Date: December 8, 2022 (Currently streaming exclusively on HBO Max)

This show remains to be as what I describe it to a lot of people, "the best superhero show that most people aren't watching." I don't know if their reasons for not watching it stems from homophobia, closed/narrow-minded thinking, or simply the fact that they don't have HBO Max, but if this ends up being another casualty among many due to the Warner Bros./Discovery merger, then I'm going to be sad. At this point into this show's shelf life, I don't even care whether or not this is comic book accurate or not anymore. The writers of this show has created something that is a remarkable psychological piece on not just body horror but the damages to one's psyche that having these assorted superpowers could have on the normal human mind. Let's not forget that these were all damaged people prior to gaining their unique abilities, so their powers merely magnified that mental trauma. If that's not compelling enough, all of the members of the Doom Patrol have come together as some makeshift family due to their shared trauma in hopes to heal each other from their own psychological pain(s).

As of this posting, I've only seen four out of the current five released episodes in this season so far.

DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO

Release Date: August 29, 2022 (USA)

Just finished watching DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO and I have to admit that this isn't really "must-see" unless you're a big Gohan and Piccolo fan. The entire adventure is treated like a sidestory/filler of sorts when it should have been a MUCH bigger deal, especially when dealing with the revival of the Red Ribbon Army for like the second time since the death of Dr. Gero at the hands of Androids #17 and #18. Without going into too much spoilers, it's not hard to figure out what former DBZ villain is revived here from these plans that are set into motion, but I was VERY disappointed on how this played out going into the final battle of sorts. This entire movie just serves as a minor distraction/side quest to give an excuse to give both Piccolo and Gohan a new transformation and/or power-up, both something they should've gotten BEFORE the Tournament of Power arc to help Universe 7 hang better IMHO instead of relying on Goku, Vegeta, Android 17, and Frieza to carry most of the weight.

Speaking of Goku and Vegeta, their appearances are this are EXTREMELY minor as they are off training with Whis and Beerus, along with another familiar face that I won't spoil.

There's a point in this in terms of how one character acquires their new power-up that's so laughably absurd that I had to laugh at the fact that NO ONE else thought of getting a power-up in this manner until now. I'm sure someone had to bring that up to Toriyama in a memo or something.

At the end of the day, this movie is just a HUGE neon sign that continues to point out vividly that Piccolo has been and STILL is a much better father-figure (better yet FATHER period) than Goku has EVER been to Gohan. It's not even a joke worth laughing at anymore. It's just sad at this point.

And for the record, I wanted to choke Toriyama on how he did my boi Vegeta after the credits. That shit ain't even funny.

GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY'S PRIMAL, SEASON TWO

Release Date: July 21, 2022 (Adult Swim, HBO Max)

Some recaps of my thoughts and live-tweet reactions while watching the show:

• If you don't feel any compassion during this week's episode of #Primal (their slaughter of the Viking village) then I don't know what to say about you. This is the first time I think both Spear and Fang made a grave mistake killing without abandon and it's going to cost them down the road.

• After that flashback of the Vikings slaughtering and enslaving Mira's people, Spear and Fang killing their entire village is kinda justified.

• This (Egyptian?) queen has to be the most ruthless, savage, and yet most badass character that Spear & Fang have encountered to date. Good Lord, I dunno to hate her or love her. This season has definitely knocked it out of the park on all levels.

• (Whistles) At least the Egyptian Queen went out swinging, this episode wrapped up a great 3-part arc. This cartoon continues to impress me more and more every week. Yet people try to act like American animation can't compete with anime. Bitch please.

• I don't know why but when Mira was introduced, I was thinking she was Asian. As this season went on, I realized that couldn't have been the case and we get the confirmation here that she's African.

• I need to rewatch the Mira-related episodes of this on HBO Max and see if they translate whatever language that is spoken by Mira and the villagers in the previous episodes. Interested in what they are saying to Spear. After taking the time to check those out I can confirm that it's a VERY interesting choice that they don't even translate the spoken languages on HBO Max either for those episodes of Primal.

• Spear's daddy went out like a G. Now we see where Spear gets his savagery from. We knew Fire Viking was going to show up sooner or later. Like father, like son. Spear went out like G beating the hell out of Fire Viking.

• Can we talk about Mira essentially dry humping a corpse though?

While I was sad to see Spear and Fang's journey come to an end, I have to agree what Tartakovsky said in an interview after the season finale aired where he admits that if their adventures continued, it was going to get increasingly difficult to continue believing their survivability rate, especially after all that they have endured up to that point. Besides, I would love to see the show follow some of the other races and people that were introduced in this season, such as the Africans, Vikings, and Egyptians. I don't see the need to focus on Mira and Spear's daughter either as it's a happy note to end their story on. Their legacy lives on and it's time to see what other individuals in this crazy world has done to survive in it.

GREEN LANTERN: BEWARE MY POWER

Release Date: July 22, 2022 (Home Video)

After I got home from seeing Bullet Train, I made dinner and treated myself to another film in the same evening - this time checking out DC/WB's newest direct-to-video animated movie, GREEN LANTERN: BEWARE MY POWER. I was already sold on this after hearing that it would be featuring John Stewart as the protagonist instead of tired-and-true Hal Jordan, but the icing on the cake was knowing that John Semper, producer/story editor of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, worked on the story for this too.

Without any spoilers, this holds up to the high standard that these DC Animated Movies have been held up to of late, even though I had my concerns when they "rebooted" their shared animated movie universe following the events of Justice League Dark: Apokalips War with Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Justice League: World War II, and Batman: The Long Halloween.

That being said, this story plays it pretty safe and goes for a rather predictable story for the most part, highlighting the Thanagar/Rann war with the Green Lantern Corps drawn in the middle as peacekeepers. Things go awry with both sides suffering numerous casualties. This gives the film the perfect excuse to include Hawkgirl and Adam Strange into this film as Stewart's unlikely allies as they join with Green Arrow (for some reason Martian Manhunter and Vixen decide to stay at the Watchtower) to peace together the mystery of who wanted all of these beings to wind up destroying each other. The movie is supposed to be Stewart's origin story of sorts, but comes off a little awkward as Stewart doesn't get any proper training with the Lantern ring outside of its "built-in" exercises to kill time on their space flights between planets - not to mention that he spends a good deal of the film ranting about how he didn't ask for the ring in the first place and want nothing to do with it.

(Laughs) I did get a good laugh about Stewart's comment about how lame the Green Lantern's oath sounded when Ollie told him about it.

While I did enjoy the film, I wish it spent a little more on Stewart's origin story than the Thanagar/Rann war mystery plot. It felt like that whole ordeal took over the narrative when Stewart became a fifth wheel to his own origin story by the end. One would think that the Thanagar/Rann war would be a big enough of a crisis to call in the ENTIRE Justice League given the scope, but nope, we'll just send the one dude without any powers with a bow & arrows along with an amateur Green Lantern in training to deal with it. WTF? There's a lot of head scratching moments that I won't spoil here, but I was a lot more forgiving on this last night while watching before bed. Maybe the writers kept it intentionally vague in order to come back to everything that they left on the table in a follow-up story and/or movie, so I won't be too quick to judge right now.

If anything I was more happy to see John Stewart get the spotlight for once over any of these other Lanterns in an animated movie/series.

HARLEY QUINN, SEASON THREE

Release Date: July 28, 2022 (HBO Max)

When this season started, I thought that Harley was far too clingy, bordering on annoying in her and Ivy's newfound relationship.

The hook for this season was seeing how the tables turned for Harley and Ivy's lives going forward. Harley is discovering that she's actually a good person and wants to do good instead of continuing a villainous career while Ivy is discovering her knack for villainy when she was pretty indifferent about it in the past. I'm glad that they didn't go the predictable route and split them up because of these differing mindsets, but

I should wait until the next ep of #HarleyQuinnS3 before commenting on this, but seeing Poison Ivy as a villain is so goddamn boring. I like to think that character has realized that humanity is as important to Earth's survival as nature, kinda like how Master Asia did in G Gundam.

Plus after finding that relationship with Harley, you would think that both of them would realize that the "paradise" that Ivy wants to create isn't something that they need to create but it already exists in their hearts.

Also, don't come at me as I don't read the comics.

While I'm still not really keen on the villain route for Ivy, I'm anxious to see how this plays out for her and Harley being on different sides of the hero/villain dynamic. And how fucked up was it that Joker of all people had to point this out for them? Oof.

PEACEMAKER

Release Date: January 13, 2022 (HBO Max)

This is definitely worth the watch whether you liked The Suicide Squad film or not. John Cena's performance in this spin-off TV series is well worth your time. I had my doubts going into it, but definitely the most I've laughed watching one of these superhero shows this year until She-Hulk came out on Disney+.

From start to finish, the show serves as a redemption story of sorts for the titular character following the events of The Suicide Squad. It's definitely the adult superhero-themed live-action comedy that we didn't deserve from DC Comics' neck of the woods. Showrunner and director James Gunn was in his element here, cramming in as many obscure and lesser known DC Comics characters into prominent roles and cameos throughout this series and knocks it out of the park with one hell of a major cameo in the season finale that I'm still surprised that they were able to pull off.

With James Gunn acting as co-chairman of DC Studios going forward, I would love to see more of this character since they did confirm that a second season is on the way, but I have to wonder how that fits into their plans going forward if they are axing the DC Extended Universe/Snyderverse going forward.

POWER RANGERS: DINO FURY, SEASON TWO - Part I & II

Release Date: Part I - March 22, 2022 (Netflix), Part II - September 29, 2022 (Netflix)

I binged all of Season 2 (Part I) as soon as it dropped on Netflix and enjoyed every moment of it. I was anxious to see where they are going to end the story with Void Queen after Void Knight's many sacrifices, especially since we still don't know what happened to Lord Zedd after Season 1. About six months later, we'd get our answers as Lord Zedd was tied into another (minor) crossover with Grid Battleforce (Beast Morphers) after Part II debuted on Netflix with the remainder of the episodes in this season. As for the ending, I had a feeling that Amelia was going to be tied to Void Knight and Void Queen's past as more and more references to her "lost" parents was becoming prevalent to the plot. This season gets a lot of props for bringing the Morphin Masters heavily into this season's plot. I LOVED the Dino Knight morpher/battlizer upgrade for this season, along with the new set of Zords that gave the Rangers a new Ultrazord to take on Void Queen's increased powers. At first I was disappointed that the ordeal with Zedd was resolved a little unceremoniously but the tease at the end of this season made up for it as he's being set up for being the major antagonist for the 30th anniversary season coming up. I'm anxious to see what liberties that the writers are going to take for the next season given the fact that they are going to allow the Dino Fury cast to stay on board for the next season, Cosmic Fury, and aren't going to be adapting any previous Super Sentai series for it outside of using the zords from Uchu Sentai Kyuranger.

That's pretty awesome that they are essentially bringing back everyone from the tail end of the MMPR era for the 30th anniversary, along with confirming that rumor about Trini's daughter being cast.

The Dino Fury cast are already great on their own so this is just sweetening the deal for Cosmic Fury since they already confirmed that Lord Zedd is going to be back.

STARGIRL, SEASON THREE

Release Date: August 31, 2022 (The CW)

This is going to be brief as I feel that I owe both Batwoman's final season(s) and the last two seasons of this show a full blown review in its entirety their own separate reviews since I thoroughly enjoyed these shows from their two unique corners from the Arrowverse. Season Three marks the final season of Stargirl before its announced cancellation, but Geoff Johns was wise enough to film two distinct endings for this seasons in the events of its possible cancellation. This season, like the two before it, worked off of an ongoing theme, with this season being dubbed "Frienemies", with the JSA learning to trust and work together with their former adversaries turned allies, specifically the Crock family (Sportsmaster and Cheshire with their daughter Artemis) and Shiv (Dragon King's daughter, Cindy Burman). That along with the mystery surrounding the murder of the reformed villain known as the Gambler who returned to Blue Valley in search of his estranged daughter set the tone for a lot of the tension in this season.

By the time this season is over, the show ends in a pretty strong position for the potential spin-off it sets up while simultaneously ending the JSA's story while managing to leave the door open for future adventures if the show were to continue. Out of all of the Arrowverse properties that have been cancelled over the past year or two, this cancellation hurts the most as I went out of my way to check out this show and follow it since it's debut and enjoyed it from start to finish. It even inspired me to pick up a few of the Stars and STRIPE comics to read too. This is one of the few superhero shows that took the challenge of legacy in terms of honoring established heroes and made it work within the confines of this high school/teen drama setting where it can be easily off-putting when presented in other previous attempts.

STAR WARS: ANDOR (SEASON ONE)

Release Date: September 21, 2022 (All Episodes Currently Streaming Exclusively on Disney+)

I've seen people call this show the single best thing to come out for the entire Star Wars franchise and in that regard I have to completely disagree. I will admit that this is their best television drama to date that isn't tied to The Mandalorian's popularity in any capacity. The spy-thriller vibe works for this show, but I thought the 3-4 episode build for each of the "arcs" was pretty boring. I don't blame that on this show's writing at all when Disney+ could have released these episodes in 3-4 episode chunks or mini-movies. When those arcs hit their high points, those were the strongest moments of this series to see in action.

All of that being said, I still think that it was poor choice to go with Cassian Andor as the main protagonist when he was the least interesting character to come out of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. For Christ's sake, this same show has Saw Guerra in it! Between his appearances in Clone Wars, Rebels, and finally Rogue One, there's tons of stories to tell about the battles that he has managed to survive until that point. To say that people complain about Cassian's "plot armor" (along with Obi-Wan's in his series), Saw would have had a bit of the same, but at least we could see how his body got so mangled up by the time we got around to seeing his last appearance in Rogue One.

By the end of the first season though, I don't think that we can really even call this Cassian's story alone anymore. We're witnessing the birth of the Rebellion on multiple fronts while getting a first-hand glimpse of the Empire's tyranny on a street level.

STAR WARS: TALES OF THE JEDI

Release Date: October 26, 2022 (Disney+)

Dave Filoni reminds us why these animated computer-generated stories are the apex of Star Wars storytelling on the small screen. These stories follow the early years of both Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano, following their early years as Jedi. Dooku's story follows his time as a Jedi before turned to the Dark Side while Ahsoka's follows her early life before fast-forwarding to her training with Anakin Skywalker and ending with her time on the run following Order 666.

STRANGER THINGS, SEASON FOUR - PARTS I & II

Release Date: Part I - May 27, 2022, Part II - July 1, 2022 (Streaming Exclusively on Netflix)

"On the Duffer Brothers creating production company in preparation for Stranger Things spin-off(s) and Death Note adaptation for Netflix..."

I have a LOT of issues with Stranger Things S4 (despite me fighting the urge to review the entire thing but fuck rewatching that marathon) that I will more likely cover in a quick spoiler-filled rant post, but I'm just shaking my head at the news that Netflix wants to greenlight another Americanized attempt at Death Note. Just no. ALL kinds of no.

Stranger Things is one thing and we got to see what they could do in S4 with a bigger budget, but I don't trust them with a goddamn thing that's not full of pop culture nostalgia and tongue-in-cheek X-Men references/metaphors. They are GREAT at cinematography though, so I'll give that much. The best advice that I can give them is to hire some more actors that can act their asses off like the Stranger Things cast for most people can EASILY overlook the shortcomings of their writing.

The Stranger Things spinoff news doesn't surprise me one bit when Stranger Things is one of the last few cash-cows that Netflix has left in terms of their original IPs. They aren't going to let that go much like AMC with The Walking Dead.

"On the topic that more characters (including the main cast members) should have died in Season 4..."

I agree. That's my biggest issue with Stranger Things S4 - more people should have died (including main cast members). The ending felt like a massive copout, especially given they encountered their most powerful foe to date - Vecna, only for him to kill new characters that we barely had time to care about and the only major death happens to a character that shouldn't have died in the first goddamn place since they had the stupid task of them all concerning the "final battle" in the last episode.

If this show ends with the power of love and friendship overcoming all next season, I'm gonna barf. The Duffer Brothers are setting this thing up like everyone's gonna hold hands and beat this thing next season with the goddamn Carebear Stare.

THE BOYS, SEASON THREE

Release Date: June 3, 2022 (Amazon Prime Video)

The introduction of Soldier Boy as a R-rated take on Captain America was amusing in the first few episodes, but once they sprung the reveal that he is Homelander's biological father, that's where I had to facepalm. Much like the "Evil Superman" trope that a lot of comic book fans are tired with in general, I'm tired of this show laser-focused on just Homelander. I think that they have beaten this dead horse enough.

The whole concept of temporary Compound V to give normal humans powers was the interesting thing to come out of this season, especially when both Hughie and Billy Butcher got into the action until Starlight found out that it was killing them with repeated usage. That revelation pretty much kills any hopes of that being reused again unless Butcher wants to head to the grave earlier than he's already on the way to.

I thought it was a copout NOT to give Queen Maeve a heroic death as a martyr after taking the full blast of Soldier Boy's blast that strips supes of their powers. Instead, they write her off as a survivor to be able to go live a peaceful life with her girlfriend. (Sighs) I guess they were stuck in a corner in what to do with her when it was a lose-lose situation no matter what. If they killed her off, then people would point at that as another contribution to the "bury your gays" trope and the option what they went with wasn't much better either as it robs viewers of the emotional impact.

THE BOYS PRESENTS: DIABOLICAL

Release Date: March 4, 2022 (Amazon Prime Video)

I'm all for more stories in the Boys universe as long as we don't have to dwell on Homelander. I think they've ran that into the ground enough as is for 3 seasons in that show and this will be a much needed breath of fresh air from that. (On "Gen V" spin-off and this)

If you're a fan of this universe, this is definitely worth a watch to see these animated shorts play out from various animation studios. Homelander only appears in about two of these, with one serving as a prequel to the events of the main series.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, SEASON ONE

Release Date: September 1, 2022 (Amazon Prime Video)

I'm not a fluent on the lore of Tolkien's novels in any capacity. I just simply enjoyed watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy with my older siblings as a holiday tradition when they originally released in the theaters and then later at home when the extended editions came out on DVD.

You can EASILY tell that Amazon Prime dumped a lot of dough into this show's budget from the visuals alone. I can't determine whether it was this show or Disney+'s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law that stood as one of the most divisive television shows to come out this year.

I saw complaints coming from all angles, saying that the show was "too woke" from its casting choices to depict more of the races in Middle-Earth with diversity in mind to centering the story mainly around its female lead, Galadriel, who many hardcore fans cited as being written as marginally uncharacteristic to her roots in the source material.

As a newcomer and outsider looking in, I saw Galadriel's arrogance like this: I see it as THIS Galadriel hasn't matured yet nor had the character defining moments that made her the wise person she is in the LOTR and Hobbit trilogy. As for the "too woke" commentaries/opinions, it's nothing but the same neckbeards talking out of their asses when the Star Wars franchise did the same thing with their newer projects. Let's face facts, people. The days of mainstream media, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, of being dominated by primarily white, Caucasian males and females are over. If you can't accept that then maybe a lot of this stuff isn't for you at all. I understand that diversity is oftentimes used as a marketing ploy by modern media, but at the same time, don't other races, religions, and cultures deserve something to identify with in these works too? The diverse cast never bothered me at all; if anything it enhanced the narrative at several points. This is a world defined by multiple different races learning to work to do good to conquer a great evil on the horizon. Maybe just maybe, there's something that we can apply to our own lives in real life from this story...

The revelation and mystery about Sauron's identity is the main bit of intrigue that kept the show interesting for the entire season. I'm anxious to see how this plays out in the next.

TITANS (SEASON FOUR, PART ONE)

Release Date: November 3, 2022 (HBO Max)

I honestly don't get where they are going with the whole horror-theme for this season for reinventing Brother Blood's origins, even though I can honestly admit that I'm not a DC Comics savant so I don't really know his comic book origins. The stuff with Kory and Raven seems like they are retreading the same territory again with them either losing and/or gaining new powers or tied to a higher calling. I don't get why they are making a big deal about Kory and Dick being an item when we all know that they fucked in the first season, so it's not that much of a stretch to say that Dove is out of the picture now.

I'm up in the air with how I feel about Superboy's "heel turn" to be more like Lex Luthor. The whole thing about Superman being off-world so that he couldn't meet Connor just feels like a bit of reaching as they could have made a better excuse why he couldn't swing by to meet him by now. I mean, c'mon. They squeezed in Bruce Wayne in last season with a ton of appearances in that season, so it feels like they aren't doing Superboy's story justice without Lex Luthor's greatest nemesis and the other half of Connor's DNA in the picture.

Can't say that I care much about the stuff with Beast Boy, even though I appreciate the efforts in making Gar's transformations look a lot cooler this season, along with him getting a snazzy costume. Speaking of costumes, I LOVE the outfits for this series. I raved about them since Season 2 and I think they really found their knack for NOT making them look like a step above cosplay.

YASHAHIME, SEASON TWO

Release Date: Oct 2, 2021-Mar 26, 2022 (Hulu, Crunchyroll, Funimation)

This technically started airing at the tail end of 2021 and continued throughout the first few months of 2022. They start things off right off the bat with wasting no time in reviving Setsuna in the first episode as Towa wields the Tenseiga after Sesshomaru offers it to her.

Sesshomaru has a bigger role in this season as his methods behind his madness are revealed in terms of his actions up to this point. The curse of the Dream Butterfly was put on Setsuna to halt the curse that was placed on Rin by Zero to keep her in suspended animation within the Tree of Ages. Sesshomaru destroys the Dream Butterfly to break the spell that prevented Setsuna from sleeping for a decade since it was fruitless to do anything to Zero since their fates were tied together. Setsuna's new naginata allows her to sever the threads of fate from anyone, so she was able to free her mother from Zero's silver-scale curse once and for all. Zero's actions were all from her deep regrets from feeling that she was responsible for the Great Dog-Demon's death.

The last half the season shifts into a race to get to the Windmill of Time before Kirinmaru to have the means to return to the modern era for they can destroy the Grim Comet. On the way, Moroha reunites with her parents, Inuyasha and Kagome, that Sesshomaru trapped within the Black Pearl for their safety from Kirinmaru's wrath. The final battle isn't one against Kirinmaru's incarnation, Osamu Kirin that spawned from Kirinmaru's severed arm that he dropped into the Bone-eater's Well, but against Kirinmaru's own daughter, Rion, who is adamant to use the Grim Comet's power to create a world where she doesn't have to suffer in anymore, even if it means she has to wipe out all of the demons from Earth completely - including Inuyasha and Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru gives his daughters a chance by fighting Kirinmaru single-handedly and easily overpowers him. Towa offers her body to Rion out of her good nature and purges herself from both Osamu Kirin and the power of the Grim Butterfly, losing her mind in the process. Rion and Kirinmaru are reunited briefly and apologizes for their actions after seeing the error in their ways before dying peacefully. Towa's mind and body are restored in the process.

This gives off a strong portrayal of the bonds of family, but the best moments of this anime are seeing the OG Inuyasha cast back in the action, especially when the entire gang reunites for the final battle to help the Half-Demon Princesses. The ending sets things up for the girls to explore the lands of their grandfather, the Great Dog Demon as somehow Riku is still alive after Kirinmaru's demise. He informed them that the balance of power has shifted following Kirinmaru's demise, so that leaves the door wide open for another season.

I was left feeling that they could have ended this anime right after the ordeal with Kirinmaru and Rion was resolved, but if they want to do more adventures with this trio, then I'm not complaining.

YOUNG JUSTICE: PHANTOMS

Release Date: (HBO Max)

This technically came out during the tail end of 2021 while the last half of the season dropped in the spring of 2022. Ever since Young Justice has been revived on HBO Max, it seems that the fans are split between two camps. One side is enamored with anything and everything this show does, while the other is consumed with how "woke" the show has gotten from its sheer amount of diversity and representation (mostly LGBTQ+ themes) and think that is to the show's detriment. I don't think I fit in either camp as I love a lot of things about this show, specifically how it manages to be a sampler platter of all things in the DC Universe and giving the spotlight to as many characters from that universe as possible. At the same time, I feel that this show is a little "in your face" a bit at times in terms of the representation (something that they should be very careful about crossing the line between pandering or tasteful representation) and how many characters they attempt to shoehorn into every season like this as it makes these stories not have the attention that they need.

On top of that, ever since the second season, I felt this show has repeated the same tropes and patterns in almost every season, whether it's the "who do you trust (the mole)?" or faking someone's death like they did with Superboy/Conner Kent here. It just feels like the writers are going through the same narrative circles over and over again and don't even notice that they are doing it. I've adored Greg Weisman's work with Gargoyles and Spectacular Spider-Man in the past, so I don't doubt his narrative talents, but I just wonder if he's not aware of his work recycling the same material over and over. All of that being said, I did like the multi-arc theme for this season before all of the storylines converged together into one main plot by the end. The strongest thing in this entire season was attention to Beast Boy's mental health following the "death" of Superboy and the ensuing therapy sessions with Black Canary after his friends and peers saw that he needed an intervention before he was a detriment to himself. It's easy forget that these young superheroes are still people underneath the masks and superpowers who are experiencing traumatic events on a regular basis. It's no surprise that some of these heroes can develop mental health issues that need to be addressed.