The Starbird Files

I imagine a lot of reviews might be starting this way, but I’m not a big anime fan, nothing wrong with it but I just haven’t seen much. My experience is limited to a few Studio Ghibli movies, Akira, the first season of One Punch Man and a Hokusai biopic on Netflix, I am a fan of Japanese culture though and love Akira Kurosawa, the aforementioned Hokusai and Japanese folklore. So my excitement for the series, especially given the inspiration George Lucas took from Japan, was high and rose even higher following the trailers. So here is my episode-by-episode review of the anthology series which was released yesterday. Ep1: The Duel I was excited for this episode from the art style we saw in the trailer and it did not disappoint. I really loved the aesthetics which looked like a black and white Kurosawa epic complete with graininess crossed with a Hokusai painting. The inventiveness of the classic Star Wars designs of stormtroopers, aliens and droids brought into the samurai era was perfec...

So the first season of The Bad Batch is over, my expectations weren’t the highest, I hadn’t really got attached to Clone Force 99 in the seventh season of The Clone Wars and found them very one dimensional. But as we got the trailers for the show my excitement had gradually crept up, and it’s fair to say the show exceeded my initial expectations. The first few episodes of the season did a lot to give the Batchers more character, expanding them from one note cartoon characters entirely based off their one trait to feel more fully formed, I really took to Tech and Wrecker, as I’m sure most did, as they often provide the comic relief. But I was disappointed with a lack of further development of most of the central characters during the series, Wrecker and Tech don’t seem to develop anymore in the circumstances they find themselves in, and Echo barely exists most of the time. Hunter does develop a bit in his role as father figure to Omega, mostly learning the same lessons over and over. Cr...