joelnova93

The first 12 episodes of Dororo are spectacular, but at the start of Episode 13, reality starts to kick in as the quality starts to go down, and you wonder how they are going to manage fitting in another 12 episodes in to resolve the conflict that was already so close to ending in the first half.

The 2nd half of the Anime does this poorly, as it feels less of a fluid arc and more of an episodic "monster-of-the-week" sort of affair, as the side adventures feel more like filler. All of it nearly became unbearable at Episode 16, when the show LITERALLY JUMPS THE SHARK. I almost skipped straight to the last two episodes, but Episode 17 was a change of pace and allowed me to finish the anime.

With all the down time Dororo and Hyakkimaru had in the show, it was really disappointing for the show's ending to feel rushed and uncharacteristic. It even ends with the closing outro theme instead of an extended epilogue. The story itself has such a great premise and it's no wonder it's been adapted so many times, but please save yourself and move along from this one.

I appreciate the effort to include a complex story along with great Martial Arts, so the genre doesn't appear as meat-headed as many other films make it seem, but it truly fails to deliver here.

"Sentimental Swordsman" is another Gu Long novel-to-film adaptation, with Ti Lung playing Li Chin-Huan, a very solemn character with interesting skills and weapon choice. An added appeal to this film is that it weaves in some other characters that appear in related films, specifically Ai Fei, played by Derek Yee, who's older self appears in "Pursuit of Vengeance", referencing Li Chin-Huan as he meets one of his future students. Ti Lung also stars in that film, but obviously as another character.

The film's story is supposed to spell out one of distress for our hero Li Chin-Huan, as he is framed as the very person he intends to kill, the Plum Blossom Bandit. But following this story's logic through all the twists and turns will not lead you to a satisfying end. In return, my favorite fighting moments were definitely the ones where

1) the real Plum Blossom Bandit meets Ai Fei 2) Ai Fei vs. Mr. Iron Pipe 3) The Final Duel, where I was very impressed with Ti Lung's stunt performance, and the overall swordsmanship and intelligence from the choreographers.

If you don't mind skipping ahead if you get bored, you may be able to salvage something from this film. I also hear the sequel is far better.

I discovered that this was a sequel to "The Magic Blade", and decided to give Fu Hung-Hsueh (Ti Lung) another shot, as I still thought he was an interesting character to watch.

"Pursuit of Vengeance" fixes a lot of the problems I had with "Blade", as I felt Fu was too smart, with his allies never catching up. We get a lot more input this time around with his co-star characters Ye Kai (Lau Wing) and Lu Xiao Jia (Lo Lieh), with all three of them combining for a hilarious and competent trio, solving the complex murder mystery they were unfortunately invited into.

Like "The Magic Blade", Fu Hung-Hsueh continues to appear to have a hand in every corner of the world with how much knowledge he has, which made me long to know more of his backstory, and "Vengeance" provides us with a little bit on Fu's history.

While the film starts off incredibly strong with creative dialogue at the tavern scene, and continues with it's eerie suspense of what exactly the Wan Ma School wants with the mysterious strangers, including Fu and Ye-Kai, that entered the town recently, the overall plot starts to degrade rapidly. The only saving grace was the very relieving comedy from the three co-stars, especially when Lo Lieh's character enters the fray.

I could no longer take getting jerked around by the mystery our characters were supposed to solve, and skipped to the end. I don't recommend this film, but if you can get to the end with a little bit of context, that would make it worth it. It's pretty funny.