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Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

Various Thoughts

Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

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  • Tag Archives Thriller
  • Munou na Nana & Yuukoku no Moriarty

    Posted on February 7, 2021 7:04 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

    Taking the standard murder mystery setup and flipping it on its head, Munou na Nana introduces you to the killer in the first scene and revolves its (early) mystery elements around wondering how she’ll get away with it. As it progresses and more is revealed about the protagonist the focus shifts to a broader conspiracy-minded framework without losing any momentum whatsoever.

    I’m particularly fond of the ending, though most will probably be more pissed off about the show wrapping on an arc’s climax with no sign of a continuation in sight.

    Also told from an antagonist’s point of view, though one more morally ambiguous than Nana‘s, Yuukoku no Moriarty tells the story of Sherlock Holmes through the lens of his greatest rival. It’s less a mystery series and more an almost episodic revenge drama, one populated by surprisingly likable characters and consistent thematic framing.

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2021 - Spring Anime Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Mystery School Life Series Televised Thriller Urban Fantasy
  • I⊃:INVΛ⊃≡⊃ & Inception

    Posted on August 26, 2020 10:21 am by Offkorn Comment

    ID: Invaded is a series in the vein of Psycho-Pass if Psycho-Pass readings resembled Inception‘s dream-diving. It’s far more of a mystery-thriller than an action series however and unfortunately gets weird in a manner similar to King of Thorn toward the end (the Akane stand-in being made even smaller is another oddity).

    Speaking of Inception, that happens to be a movie I’ve referenced a time or two in the past in relation to newer works… yet, I never actually saw the whole thing. I had only seen the trailer and read the Wikipedia summary.

    Having now watched it, it doesn’t appear I was missing much. It’s not as mind-bendy as you would think (Doctor Strange gets weirder than it does) and in effect just ends up a variation on the standard heist movie formula popularized by movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job. Which doesn’t make it not worth watching… just that the description evokes something more innovative than the reality.

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Winter Anime Related Movie & TV Related and tagged Anime Original Funimation Movie Mystery Romance Science Fiction Series Televised Thriller Workplace
  • LEGIⓧN & THE ALIENIST

    Posted on August 21, 2020 11:35 am by Offkorn Comment

    Based off of a Marvel Comics’ character, the 3-season television series Legion is a study in high-concept insanity. It takes guts to make something so deliberately incoherent, to essentially thread together one concept episode after another until you have a consistently inconsistent schizophrenic tapestry… that I can’t deny. Doesn’t mean it’s worth watching though.

    The Alienist is something quite a bit different. A Victorian era thriller with police procedural elements set in New York City, its first season mainly busies itself with highlighting police corruption and reminding people that prostitution is a gender-neutral profession. I’m not at all surprised that it had a middling reception (though I liked the first half or so), especially since the narrative basically falls apart once the focus shifts to ‘the west’.

    The second season, subtitled Angel of Darkness, puts a greater focus on Sara and women’s suffrage in general with the murder victims being babies this time rather than adolescents. The corruption elements here come across as excessive/overwhelming and the work as a whole almost feels less like a thriller and more like soapbox preaching. Meaning I can’t really recommend watching this series either.

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    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Drama History Marvel Comics Mystery Novel Adaptation Paranormal Romance Romance Series Televised Thriller Urban Fantasy
  • WITCHBLADE & HOMELAND

    Posted on August 6, 2020 1:42 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The turn of the century TV adaptation of the comicbook series Witchblade begins with a movie. Being almost entirely an action-drama (there’s some supernatural mystery in there as well), it suffers rather severely from the fact that the action scenes are mostly ridiculous. More than anything they bring to mind a super sentai series… making it prohibitively difficult to take the drama seriously.

    Homeland is also a TV series, one which thankfully doesn’t appear to suffer from unintentional comedy (just frontloaded gratuitous nudity). The first season is a combination of thriller and familial drama which comes across something like “Hex: The Early Years”. On the face of things that shouldn’t have been much of a problem, but the early ‘fuck people’s privacy!’ theme is taken to Stalker-ish extremes and almost ends up a deal-killer.

    The second season is a continuation of the first, following a timeskip, which slows things down with more of a focus on secret-agenty behavior and personal trauma. The third picks up shortly after and amps up the personal drama quite a bit. At this juncture the re-occurring psychiatric issues subplot (and accompanying mental institution committals) becomes actively aggravating. It also happens to be the point the series starts focusing a hell of a lot more on Saul than Carrie.

    Season 4 is something of a soft reboot which makes the odd choice to replace the adultery-related drama with childcare drama only to almost immediately drop the topic completely, while also going well out of its way to shoehorn in more psychiatric issues. Seriously… what the fuck? And if that weren’t bad enough, the 5th season (picking up two years after S4’s conclusion) goes completely off the rails.

    It’s strange… the show makes so many odd choices and sends so many conflicting signals that it’s tough to get a read on it. The early seasons are both good and bad. Regardless, if you do decide to give it a chance, you should definitely stop watching at the end of S4 (if you can make it that far). Maybe go watch Jormungand after for the Hex/Bookman parallels.

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    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Drama Movie Mystery Romance Series Televised Thriller Urban Fantasy Workplace
  • THE BOYS, WATCHMEN

    Posted on February 6, 2020 6:55 am by Offkorn Comment

    The Boys is an adaptation of an ~adult~ comic of the same name, which is to say it features graphic violence, sex, cursing, and dark themes. It’s not a 1:1 adaptation though, making a number of changes which (after having read the original’s synopsis) I think end up significant improvements. Homelander and Butcher are fantastic, the majority of the other characters are solid, and only Hughie seems miscast. His acting is perfectly on point, it’s just that its highly visually discordant to see him grouped with everyone else.

    Considering how the first season ended, with a massive departure from the source material, I’m not sure how things can be believably resolved considering that Homelander is not altruistic in the slightest. At the very least I hope they have a different ending in mind for Butcher, since the way the original story plays out is incredibly dumb.

    The Watchmen TV series is also related to a comic, though in this case it’s a sequel rather than an adaptation. With the earlier Watchmen movie being my only previous experience with this franchise I didn’t really have any expectations going in, yet considering the bizarre combination of rural anachronisms and dystopian cosplay on display it doesn’t seem familiarity would’ve helped. It’s strange. Very strange, skipping between being a period piece, a murder mystery, a police procedural, a psychological thriller, and a romantic drama. Heavy on violence, both physical and otherwise, with little counterbalance.

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    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Adaptation Comic Relief DC Comics Drama Mystery Paranormal Romance Romance Science Fiction Series Televised Thriller
  • Assorted, Mostly DC, Movies

    Posted on February 2, 2020 2:39 pm by Offkorn

    Went on a brief movie kick recently in a fit of boredom (though I watched the first two on the list below at the time they were released):

    • Detective Pikachu: Reynolds and the pokémon are good; the humans are all extremely cringe.
    • Avengers: Endgame: Does a fantastic job wrapping up all the disparate plotlines featured across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Surprisingly, a good chunk of it leans strongly toward comedy.
    • Mad Max: Fury Road: Most of it is quite strong… if a little odd in places. The third act however (revisiting the citadel) is a disaster.
    • Suicide Squad: The prologue bits (before they’re captured) are pretty good and the visuals are stellar throughout, but the rest is pretty meh and I wasn’t feeling the ‘forced to fight for the government’ angle.
    • Wonder Woman: Eh. The first two Captain America movies do something similar far more competently.
    • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: This is a very strange movie which plays out like a TV miniseries for the first two-thirds, featuring more thriller elements than action. But then Doomsday appears and holy shit. It’s like night and day; an insanely strong finish worth the price of entry alone (and Wonder Woman is better here than she is in her own movie).
    • Justice League: Not sure what this was supposed to be. An imitation Infinity War? It doesn’t succeed. It’s closer to the first Avengers movie… which is not a good thing.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Batman Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief DC Comics Drama History Marvel Comics Movie Paranormal Romance Romance Science Fiction Thriller Urban Fantasy
  • Bungou Stray Dogs: DEAD APPLE

    Posted on July 2, 2019 5:42 pm by Offkorn Comment

    With gifted individuals around the world falling prey to a mysterious serial suicide phenomenon, the Armed Detective Agency is tasked with investigating a man known as ‘The Collector’ who may somehow be related. A man whom Dazai just so happened to have encountered 6 years earlier at the tail end of the bloody Dragon Head Conflict.

    An original story taking place sometime before the TV series‘ third season featuring a similar genre composition. Brief character descriptions and assorted background information is provided during the opening sequence, allowing it to be watched as a stand-alone.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Wikipedia

    Continue reading → Post ID 8950

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    This entry was posted in 2018 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Bungo Stray Dogs Comic Relief Crunchyroll Movie Thriller Urban Fantasy
  • Keisatsu Senshatai: TANK S.W.A.T. 01

    Posted on April 13, 2019 3:45 pm by Offkorn Comment

    When a member of the New Port City Tank Police gets taken hostage, Leona Ozaki faces the tough choice of either letting them die or risking the lives of the rest of her team on a chancy rescue attempt.

    A CGI police-themed action thriller with minor comic relief elements. It’s part of a different continuity than the previous two Dominion OVA series.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Wikipedia

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2006 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Dominion OVA Science Fiction Thriller
  • INGRESS: THE ANIMATION

    Posted on January 5, 2019 1:49 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Back in 2013 an exotic form of matter was discovered at the CERN facility in Geneva. Dubbed ‘XM’, the substance has always existed alongside humanity and has a not fully understood effect on the human brain. Now in 2018 the world is split between two factions, the Enlightened and the Resistance, who each have very different ideas about how XM should be used.

    An action thriller with a few bits of comic relief and a minor romantic subplot. It assumes you have not played the related game.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Netflix
    Wikipedia

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Finished Netflix Science Fiction Series Televised Thriller
  • HERO≠MASK

    Posted on December 9, 2018 8:11 am by Offkorn Comment

    Though James Blood rarely fails a mission for the SSC police force, he plays fast and loose with procedure and tends to cause more than his fair share of collateral damage in the process. Traits which result in constant lectures from others in the department. Traits which may be required in order to get to the heart of a conspiracy involving the creation of biotech soldiers.

    A mix of conspiracy thriller and character drama featuring a large number of action scenes.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    MAL (1, 2)
    Netflix
    Wikipedia

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Drama Finished Netflix Science Fiction Series Thriller

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