It seems everyone has this bizarre desire to see Samus teamed up with someone. The games like giving her a mission support like the much contested Adam or the less contested U-Mos. However, the various books decide to go a different route and give here a partner or partners of some sort. The Super Metroid comic had the very weird Houston Armstrong,while Echos gave us the GFS Boring team. The Zero Mission manga,which we'll get to soon,teams her up with some random guys as well. To me telling a story about Samus would be a great opportunity to do some silent story telling as it's something the games have done well. I guess I'll just have to wait for that to happen,till then here is another team up book called Samus and Joey.
Samus and Joey is a 2003 manga by Kouji
Izuki,who's only other noted work are a few Megaman manga. If the
quality of this manga is any indication then I'd say that those are
worth a read. If this book was caring about canon then it's supposed
to be slotted between Metroid and Metroid Prime. However it's really
not so that last sentence was just me being a nerd. So moving on
let's talk about why this manga actually works.
Those characters I mentioned before all
tend to have one major problem. They're boring, or in Houston's case
silly. They seem to tend to suck up panel time with their blandness.
However the time is taken to make Joey a likable character. The fact
that he is a young kid will probably turn some people off the series
but there is a lot of care to make him not just another brat. He does
have his bratty moments but what little kid doesn't. He actually does
try to better himself through Samus' minimal guidance and they give
him ways to not be a burden. He's trying to grow up and this becomes
the central point of the stories. He's a believable character that
endears himself and makes the time with him enjoyable.
This brings me to the second point of
why this work: Samus is set up a supporting cast member. The Echos
manga almost seemed ashamed that it had to be about Samus and pushed
her to the back. Here she is treated more like a mentor to Joey,
helping him on his journey and doing the more heavy fighting that
Joey simply can't do. She is a bit tough on Joey but does genuinely
care for him and she is never gone from the plot too long. She does
try to drop Joey off somewhere away from her but it's more due to the
nature of her missions than any actual dislike of Joey.
The plots themselves are typical
adventure plots involving pirates (it is a Metroid manga), killer
creatures and robots. They are not that bad if a little run of the
mill. It is nice however to see the pirates keep there canonical(at
least to me) lack of foresight. The second story does lack a proper
resolution between Joey and his mother which sort of irks me. However
the stories do let Joey grow as a character so most of this can be
forgiven. As a side note the book does acknowledge how powerful and
devastating Samus' weapons can be,it's a nice touch
The art is pretty okay on this one
with a much more animated look. Everything wouldn't look out of place
in a Saturday morning cartoon. Samus has a cool character design and
the pirates all look goofy. The other enemies look terrifying
especially the penguins in the Rescue operations arc. I'm still
having nightmares about the damn things.
So I kind of went into this with mixed
feelings and wound up pleasantly surprised. It treats Samus with more
respect than Echos and gives us a few more interesting characters to
boot It is probably one of the better of the Metroid manga and
definitely worth checking out.
After the success of the first season of Slayers in 1995,we had the not without it's merits Slayers Perfect. A very different beast form the relativity lighter TV adaption that played with tone and atmosphere. A year later and we have the second season known as NEXT and it too had a movie to accompany it:Slayers Return. Like NEXT,Return takes what was a pretty good predecessor and builds a product that blows it out of the water. Everything works,my problems with Perfect are washed away,and it's insanely funny.
Return is almost a pure comedy compared to Perfect and even when things get serious the film is still laughing. It's keeping up Slayers usual schtick of parodying fantasy cliches and anachronisms while taking the piss out of Perfect as well. It takes a one core joke:What if the villains were highly incompetent and runs with it. Admittedly most Slayers villains that aren't major ones use this joke. However here it's taken up to eleven and they really do expand on how bone headed evil can be. Even the super weapon that gets awakened half way through is single minded and stupid. If for nothing else to poke fun at the fantasy genre's high regard for elves as peaceful and wise.
They also have some subtle jabs at hero tropes with only the protagonists being anywhere near competent. The townspeople hold there own against mercenaries,who are slightly competent due to them not being really evil. It takes the main villain doing a face heel turn to make him even close to useful.In the end it even subverts his side switching for a joke. The whole set up leads to quite a few big funny set pieces that I will not spoil but are up there with some of the funniest Slayers moments.
The plot is pretty typical concerning aforementioned super weapon,Naga and Lina's failed attempt to stop it's revival and failing that destroying the beast. It's noting special but most Slayers plots aren't really that ground breaking anyway. The plot is more a backdrop to the comedy and as mentioned above that's where the movie and series in general shine. Perfect took itself a bit more serious and suffered for it with a plot holes. Return keeps the plot simple and benefits greatly for it. I'll admit that it still gives no real explanation for who Naga is and why she's with Lina but even that gets a lampshade hung so it's all good.
This time around editing is much smoother and even gets in on the jokes with some very clever misdirection that leads to a hilarious reveal. The film is shorter and moves at a faster clip which is fine because Perfect did faff about a bit before really getting to the main plot. Gone are random scene ends and replaced with smooth transitions and a much lighter color pallet. It feels more like a Slayers movie,something Perfect didn't quite feel like.
In the end is this movie worth your time:Oh hell yes it is. A vastly improved sequel released alongside a vastly improved second season. Highly recommended for anybody who wants a great comedy. As a side note this is the first of the films to have the author,Hajime Kanzaka, write it. I'd say more on that but that's another review.
Till Next Time:Stay Positive