Chronos Ruler Series Review: Cool Concept Does Not Equal Good Story

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Overview:

Time eating demons have stolen Victor’s time leaving him looking younger and without memories of the past 12 years. Together with his son they are hunting the demon that ate his time in order to get it back.

Review:

This actually should have been kind of fun. Two guys with weapons that can slow down and speed up the time of particular objects (Kiri uses water and Victor uses a deck of cards) to fight horologues (time eating demons) that target people with regrets who want to turn back time. It all sounds like it should be kind of fun to watch.

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Then we get the reality where Victor is the particular kind of annoying protagonist that is ridiculously cocky in his own abilities so acts like a complete fool almost 100% of the time. Never taking anything seriously, drinking, hanging out with girls, teasing his son, he’s basically incredibly annoying in every single scene. That I could probably overlook given a lot of the early focus in on Kiri who plays the straight man of the duo. The son forced to deal with the fact that his father barely remembers anything about him and to also deal with the fact that his father acts like a three year old fairly continuously. Except that the series then wants us to take Victor’s plight seriously and the entire final arc asks us to start seeing Victor as a good guy. Sorry. Too late. I have no empathy for the character and I want him to get eaten.

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This is kind of the problem with the whole show. It wants to have those serious emotional moments but the characters have not been presented to the audience in a way that makes them plausible. It wants the villains to have weight and feel threatening but has spent too long with the characters playing the fool for us to actually believe the villains they fight are any kind of real threat. There’s no balance between the comedic moments and the more serious moments and the writing doesn’t lend itself to having the audience really looking for much from this series given the plot just kind of drifts along with no sense of urgency at all and villains appear for no reason other than to inject a fight sequence and then disappear with no consequence.

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Basically this show is built around an idea that is very cool and could be really fun to watch. The group of Chronos Rulers could have been really awesome and we could have had a nice and simple linear narrative fighting some opposing force. Instead we follow Victor and Kiri, and later Mina and Blaze, as they wander about looking for a character’s memories when they’ve given us no reason to be invested in that quest. We learn nothing about the greater war that is going on or any of the other characters, though their brief appearances suggest that knowing less in this case is probably a good thing.

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For most of the season this show dropped into the They Made This category and I stand by that placement. Though this show could have built something quite interesting it was held back by poor characters and writing and ultimately wasn’t all that enjoyable to watch. Even the time manipulation element which at first was kind of interesting, never went anywhere as characters just used the same basic attacks over and over again.

I’d love to know your thoughts if you watched this show last season.


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Summer 2017 Final Thoughts

summer 2017

This is my final week on Summer anime and I’ll be getting around to series reviews very soon with Sagrada Reset coming out next week (it was the first one finished so only fair really). I still have my best and worst of the season posts to come out and on that note remember that the poll will close tomorrow so if you haven’t voted hop on over and have your say. Links for the best and worst anime of the Summer 2017 season. Write in votes are allowed so if I missed your show, please feel free to add it (the write in votes are almost winning for worst anime of the season so your vote will count).

As always, I’d love to know your thoughts on the shows of the season so please leave me a comment below.

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Must Watch

My Hero Academia (Finished)

A great way to keep us all waiting for the next season. The thing is, this would be a terrible way to end a season except that we already got an announcement for the follow up so not too concerned that they left us hanging. This was great fun this season and I’m looking forward to more of it.

Princess Principal (Finished)

Alright, with an inconclusive ending this might not be a must watch for everyone, but comparatively for this season, this has been such a fun show to watch. Ange and Princess remain the highlight of the series right to the end and they do at least end the current mission/plot so while there are plenty of loose ends we aren’t left completely in the dark.

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Usually Entertaining

Sagrada Reset (Finished)

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Okay, I Guess

Gamers (Finished)

This final episode was actually highly amusing just to listen to. Visually it was pretty dull. I guess those who enjoy the game DLC debate will have fun listening to some of the arguments whereas anyone else will just wonder why they even made this final episode.

In Another World With My Smartphone (Finished)

Okay, this show actually fully embraced the harem cliché and somehow it just works. There were definitely some questionable episodes along the way but all and all, I’m kind of hoping that was actually sequel bait and the end because I wouldn’t mind some more of this. It is stupid, and incredibly lame at times, and every character is a trope pulled from many other anime, but this show is still fun and manages to do something with all those clichés.

Fastest Finger First (Finished)

This finished the tournament nicely but left us with a lot of questions about the characters and the team and where they will go next. As we are unlikely to get any more of this series, that’s kind of a shame. This was a fun watch but has almost no rewatch value.

18if (Finished)

My final impression of this was always going to depend on how they wrapped up the plot and to be honest the close was pretty lacking. Admittedly, we do talk Eve into not destroying the world, but there’s so much still unexplained and Haruto just kind of goes with Eve/Lily and that’s kind of it. Really wanted more from the end of this.

Vatican Miracle Examiner (Finished)

For a show that has quite a few low points and bits of silliness in what should be a fairly serious story, it actually became one of those rare anime that finished on a significantly higher note than the earlier episodes would have you believe. Thoroughly enjoyed episode 12 and now I just need to write my overall review.

Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight (Not finished – But I Am)

Since it was pointed out that the show was rerunning old material, and that then made me think I should just go rewatch the former seasons given I don’t really remember them, I’m out from this show. I’m still going to review though because I watched the new material.

Clean Freak Aoyama Kun (Finished)

Well, this show ended more or less how it started which was okay but nothing particularly exceptional. I am pleasantly surprised I made it through a whole season of this, but there were some funny moments along the way. Okay, there was also a lot of stupidity and one or two groan inducing episodes, but overall, still better than anticipated.

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They Made This

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu (Finished)

Well, at least they realised the only good thing in this show was how visually interesting the fights were, because you are going to be watching half an episode of fights once the show gets over its token attempt to give the characters some resolution. It is pretty and all, but given there’s no real purpose it all just becomes an exercise in seeing how many slow motion shots of good looking guys wielding swords they can throw at us in a ten minute period.

Knight’s & Magic (Finished)

Can I say thank-you now that this is over. This is my single greatest disappointment this season as I really wanted to like this show. It just never did manage to get itself together.

Chronos Ruler (Finished)

After a not-my-true-form second last episode we get a trust-your-friends plan as well as a that-should-have-killed-him-but-it-doesn’t-because-reasons moment for a final episode. As I get to the end of this show I think I was well justified in asking why was this even made.

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Tried and Dropped

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (Episode 13)

Restaurant to Another World (Episode 1)

Centaur’s Life (Episode 1)

Convenience Store Boyfriends (Episode 1)

Saiyuki Reload Blast (Episode 1)

Battle Girl High School (Episode 1)

Hina Logic (Episode 1)

Tsuredure Children (Episode 1)

Fox Spirit Matchmaker (Episode 1)

Aho Girl (Episode 1)

The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (Episode 1)


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Chronos Ruler Episode 13: At Last The End

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Review:

As the final episode comes around I wonder if this show has accomplished anything? Victo/Victor (subtitles changed mid-series) still hasn’t got his time back and in point of fact now knows it should be impossible to ever do so and yet apparently feels it could still happen. Kiri is still trailing after his useless amnesiac of a father and enduring the absurdity of being put down for not being able to eat pasta through his nose. The only real change is they now have Mina and Blaze also tagging along, whenever the writers remember they should be relevant.

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This wasn’t a satisfying final fight. Last week the horologue revealed his true form and this week unleashed a barrage of attacks that really should have just annihilated the team. However, Victo then decides he can work with the others and trust them in order to achieve victory and for some reason this also means he doesn’t die when he very clearly should have.

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Honestly, this was no worse than any other episode in this show but all and all the writing and characters have been terrible and literally the only reason I’ve stuck with it was I was kind of interested in the time manipulation element. Too bad they never did anything with that. Will write a final review soon.


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Chronos Ruler Episode 12: Obvious Symoblism Before A Final Form Reveal

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Review:

Chronos Ruler hasn’t exactly been great. In fact, the writing and characters have been pretty terrible and these final episodes are certainly cementing that point. Episode 11 was basically a series of extended mini-fights with the side characters before we got back to the main boss and episode 12 pretty much screams boss fight from start to finish with a minor character moment mid-episode just in case they haven’t convinced us yet that Victo (Victor) is actually a really great guy (something they decided in the second half of the season because in the first half he was scum).

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But hey, chain symbolism. Haven’t seen that in… Never mind.

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If that wasn’t bad enough, we then get all the good guys together and they start overwhelming the bad guy. Who of course then does a final form reveal right before we cut to the end credits. Why don’t villains ever use their ‘true’ form from the start of a fight? It would save us a lot of time.


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Chronos Ruler Episode 11: What is a Fight Without a Twist?

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Review:

Last week set up three separate fights for this week and episode 11 delivered but my question becomes, why bother? When all three fights follow the exact same pattern of one guy gets the upper hand and monologues about their amazing technique before they go for the kill and the other guy does the exact same thing with a smug self-satisfied look, it all just becomes pretty tedious. Not to mention, we don’t know enough about how any of the powers in this show work to know whether or not what the villains are doing is even vaguely plausible so there is no shock factor in these twists.

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That isn’t to say the action itself isn’t good. The fights are decent enough. Not exactly something to rave about but there have certainly been worse fight animations in anime.

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And at least the fight that Kiri has jumped into seems to have taken a more serious turn. I wish I could actually be invested in that fight but there’s pretty much no way they are actually going to kill Kiri so I assume Victo will get over his issues next episode and save him.

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I am kind of glad they’ve stopped translating Victo as Victor, but for the purpose of consistency I’m not changing his name in my reviews. That said, one of the final lines this episode makes no sense unless you realise his name was supposed to be ‘victor’.


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Summer 2017 Week 11

summer 2017

Another week of anime watching and as we approach the end of the season for most shows I start thinking about all the shows out this season I didn’t watch. Not the ones that I dropped or the ones I can’t access, but the ones I just never got around to trying or tried an episode and put on hold but never got back to. I’m kind of hoping that when I get some time in the near future that I can check some of these out before the new season kicks into gear. But for now I have my current list for Summer 2017 and there hasn’t been a lot of movement. Things are pretty well settled into their spots at the moment and I have to wonder if any of the endings will be dramatic enough or bad enough to shift things. Gamers is of course the exception having dropped back out of usually entertaining due to a fairly lackluster episode and plot development.

On that note, I have opened polling for the best and worst anime of the Summer 2017 season so if you’d like to vote, jump on over. The polls will close on the 2 of October with results announced soon after. Write in votes are allowed so if I missed your show, please feel free to add it.

As always, I’d love to know your thoughts on the shows of the season so please leave me a comment below.

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Must Watch

My Hero Academia (Episode 35)

The exam is in full swing and the students are facing their weaknesses. It is amazing how cliché that sounds when writing it and yet how fun it was to watch because it is the characters we’ve learned to love over 35 episodes and because this show continues to remember that primarily it is meant to be entertaining us so even the emotional moments are high energy and full steam ahead.

Princess Principal (Episode 10)

Here we go. After two episodes of a fairly nice character episodes we return to a legitimate mission and they really step up the drama this episode. Truly a great watch and hopefully a sign that we can expect good things as this season draws to an end.

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Usually Entertaining

Sagrada Reset (Finished)

Okay, the final episode of this show wasn’t great when thought about objectively, but it did provide some closure on the characters finally and very much gave us the sense that we’d come full circle with the three characters coming back together only each one has changed so much by going through the events of the past two years. I’ll get around to a full review of this show soonish, but I know I can’t easily recommend it given some of its more interesting choices. Still, it has ended up in the usually entertaining because I found it oddly satisfying.

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Okay, I Guess

18if (Episode 10)

After the incredibly disappointing episode last week (ep 9), episode 10 pulls out all the stops to remind us what this show actually does well and gives us some hope that this show might even resolve before it ends. So let us count ep 9 as an anomaly and hope for a good end.

In Another World With My Smartphone (Episode 10)

Beach episode. After episode 9 which I didn’t much like, a follow up beach episode was just a little bit painful. Hoping this show can turn it around given up until the last few episodes this was actually surprisingly fun.

Gamers (Episode 9)

While I still quite like this show, recent episodes have taken a noticeable drop in quality in writing and appearance. It is like now that the audience is hooked into all this teen drama they aren’t even really trying and are just keeping the balls up in the air long enough to get to the end of the season.

Fastest Finger First (Episode 10)

This week’s quiz was really fun, though they kind of disappeared the annoying character or at least sent them to the sidelines for a bit. It kind of looks like they’ll come back next episode so we’ll see how this goes then. Still, some fun questions and another quiz format to play with this week.

Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight (Episode 9)

Well, we hit a slow episode and one that was kind of lacking in satisfaction. Still, Fourth Twilight has so far been mostly positive given I’m only luke warm on the series in the first place, so an episode or two like this isn’t really a problem.

Clean Freak Aoyama Kun (Episode 11)

Oh wow, I hated this show this week. Amazingly that wasn’t enough to drop it below any of the shows currently under it, which says a lot about their quality, but I really didn’t like watching this episode. I’m really hoping to not have to endure a similar episode next week.

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (Episode 11)

We end on a cliff hanger which is probably the only reason I’ll start the next episode. This show has been consistently disappointing in everything it has done and this final story was actually shaping up well and then mid-episode it was like the writers got bored trying to actually build up tension and just threw ideas around until they’d filled up the requisite time. Then they attempted to get back into the more serious mystery but by then any tension was gone.

Vatican Miracle Examiner (Episode 9)

Another mystery begins and we’ll see how this one plays out. This show seems to have settled after that initial mystery where it just went a little bit crazy and hopefully this new mystery resolves well.

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They Made This

Knight’s & Magic (Episode 11)

Yep, I was right to drop this one down here. The narrative issues continue as does the absence of characterisation. This one is strictly for people who like watching robots go boom while a cute looking boy cackles gleefully.

Chronos Ruler (Episode 10)

This could potentially get interesting, or it could just be another in a long line of ideas that should be interesting but just gets lost in the mess of writing that this show has delivered so far. Still, I definitely started to think that maybe, just maybe, this show might pull off a reasonable end of season.

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu (Episode 11)

This was at least a good attempt at building some drama. So there is the possibility that this could at least end on a high note even if the overall narrative is still pretty nebulous as they haven’t bothered to deal with it, instead focussing on the personified swords working out their issues.

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Tried and Dropped

Restaurant to Another World (Episode 1)

Centaur’s Life (Episode 1)

Convenience Store Boyfriends (Episode 1)

Saiyuki Reload Blast (Episode 1)

Battle Girl High School (Episode 1)

Hina Logic (Episode 1)

Tsuredure Children (Episode 1)

Fox Spirit Matchmaker (Episode 1)

Aho Girl (Episode 1)

The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (Episode 1)


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Karandi James.

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Chronos Ruler Episode 10: Let’s Experiment

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Review:

Hey, this show might actually get to a plot before it finishes. We’re finally finding out about Mina a bit and Victo’s past and we’ve finally actually met the Horologue they’ve been trying to find since the beginning. While it isn’t doing all that much different this week as we still have the group fighting in the forest while random stranger taunts Victo by explaining in detail how it has been using his home town as the site for various experiments, somehow, it felt more satisfying this time round.

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I’m not saying this makes up for week’s of mediocre to poor storytelling and characterisation but at least it made me happy I didn’t drop it as it might end up being okayish.

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Plus, the villain here is kind of interesting. I actually do want to see where they go with this. Of course, if they just cut him down next episode in about two seconds, I’m going to be a bit put out by that.


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Summer 2017 Week 10

summer 2017

At this point I’m really feeling like I’m chasing my own tail around in circles for all that I’m very busy but don’t seem to be accomplishing much. Hopefully that changes soon but in the meantime, this anime season is drawing to a close and with a few exceptions, I’m not even upset by that. As much as I have found some ‘okay’ shows to fill my down time if these had disappeared I probably wouldn’t have been all that upset. Still, the Autumn season is coming and I know there’s a couple of titles that I am particularly hoping come out on something I can watch.

As always, I’d love to know your thoughts on the shows of the season so please leave me a comment below.

yuri10d

Must Watch

My Hero Academia (Episode 34)

Not the best episode this week but clearly setting up where we are going for the end of this season so a workable episode. Overall, season 2 of this show has exceeded all of my expectations and been a thoroughly fun ride. Hopefully it ends on a high note and also hopefully season 3 isn’t too far away.

Princess Principal (Episode 9)

After last week being a strong character story with a weak case, episode 9 kind of follows suit but for different reason. Chise narrates this episode and as an outside (we’ve gone back in time a bit again) she isn’t really in the loop for the case, but in this episode it doesn’t matter because she’s given her own role and story that works well with the team’s case. I continue to really enjoy this show and find the characters quite delightful.

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Usually Entertaining

Sagrada Reset (Episode 23)

Episode 23 was pretty satisfying and now they just have to not totally stuff up the ending and this series will be pretty good. Odd though that pacing and characterisation are pretty terrible and the narrative takes twenty something episodes to come together and yet somehow this show has nearly made me feel that all of that wait was worth it.

Gamers (Episode 8)

This continues to be an amusing enough mess of teen drama that kind of appeals to me. If nothing else, this show has kept me highly entertained this season if for no other reason than wondering what about it is actually appealing.

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Okay, I Guess

In Another World With My Smartphone (Episode 9)

Pretty sure this was the worst episode of the show yet, even including the slime episode. Another couple like this will see this show tumble a little in its standing, and that would be a shame. Cliche driven though it is, it has been amusing up until now. I think they just need to figure out what to do now that they’ve made Touya completely untouchable.

18if (Episode 9)

If we get another episode like this one, 18if might even get dropped and it will certainly fall lower on this list. I really didn’t like episode 9. The subject matter aside (though that is certainly questionable), the story itself was incredibly lackluster.

Fastest Finger First (Episode 9)

Not so sure about the last episode. The introduction of a truly annoying character definitely hurt my enjoyment of a show that has otherwise been consistently entertaining. Will have to see how this develops and hopefully the show can maintain its fairly even enjoyment until the end.

Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight (Episode 8)

The formula continues and once again a very satisfying conclusion as yet another horrible person goes to hell. It is hard to even worry about the fact that the one pulling the string is also going to go to hell in most cases as you genuinely cannot think of what they should do by the time they get to the point of pulling the string. Certainly, there are points earlier on where they might have made different choices, but eventually they all end up cornered.

Clean Freak Aoyama Kun (Episode 10)

Another fairly average episode. Then again, this show continues to feel better than it is simply because there are so many other shows doing worse this season. This one is at least pretty consistent in its delivery of content even if that content isn’t particularly great.

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (Episode 10)

And the mess of tones and ideas continues while the writing remains pretty poor. This show’s biggest flaw is that it is boring but that just makes you notice that the narrative hasn’t been going anywhere and that the tone is inconsistent. At least if the show were interesting I wouldn’t be so focussed on its flaws.

Vatican Miracle Examiner (Episode 9)

Another mystery begins and we’ll see how this one plays out. This show seems to have settled after that initial mystery where it just went a little bit crazy and hopefully this new mystery resolves well.

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They Made This

Knight’s & Magic (Episode 10)

I’m not making anymore excuses for this. Ernesti’s enthusiasm aside, the story in this is utterly broken and poorly delivered. Not one of the characters has more than a one note personality and as of episode 10 I still have no idea what the actual conflict in the story is. They keep finding various things to fight against but the initial set up seemed to be about beasts that needed to be kept at bay and now we’re in some random fight with a Kingdom we didn’t even know about until episode 9.

Chronos Ruler (Episode 9)

Absolutely no story this week, just Victo dealing with family issues while everyone else played with a snake in the forest (true story). Anyway, this didn’t get any better or worse, but my tolerance of cute sword guys with no plot kind of gave out which is why this one is no longer on the bottom of the watch list.

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu (Episode 10)

And Katsugeki is not dropped but only because I’m kind of in the habit of watching it. There really isn’t any other reason why I’m still holding this one on my watch list.

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Tried and Dropped

Restaurant to Another World (Episode 1)

Centaur’s Life (Episode 1)

Convenience Store Boyfriends (Episode 1)

Saiyuki Reload Blast (Episode 1)

Battle Girl High School (Episode 1)

Hina Logic (Episode 1)

Tsuredure Children (Episode 1)

Fox Spirit Matchmaker (Episode 1)

Aho Girl (Episode 1)

The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (Episode 1)


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Karandi James.

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Chronos Ruler Episode 9: Victo Finally Got Slapped, by Himself

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Review:

So this week the Kiri, Blaze, and the maybe wife of Victo are running around the forest fighting a snake. That is literally the entire part of their role this week because they just kind of drag it out intercut with scenes of Victo dealing with his family issues. The snake runs, they chase, short confrontation, continue.

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While there’s some okay dialogue between the group, there’s zero plot development happening here until the end of the episode where they discover a wall. So basically this whole episode could be wrapped up in about two minutes if they’d just done it.

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But Victo is still playing house and ends up involved in a situation where young Victo has to give his mother blood for a transfusion because it is a super rare blood type and so young Victo misses an exam and blah, blah, blah… Once again, I would care more if they hadn’t spent the majority of this show making Victo a complete jerk. And young Victo is worse. Not even a little upset when older Victo slapped him sideways, though not supporting violence against children.


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Chronos Ruler Episode 8: Playing in the Past

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Review:

Well whoever is doing the subs on this one finally decided that Victo was meant to be Victor and so we now have the name change. Unfortunately this coincided with the episode that decided it also wanted the audience to start taking his character a little more seriously as we delve into his past, quite literally. Yet, it is a little bit too late to ask me to care about Victo/Victor or whoever else he might be given he’s been a flake and pain all the way throughout the series.

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Basically the group finally made it to Victo’s home town and of course for some reason time has reversed and there are Victo’s parents and himself as a five year old, pre-tragic fire and back story that they’ve only just bothered to tell us. Wasn’t it enough that he lost all his adult memories we now learn his few childhood memories are of tragedy? No wonder the guy acts the clown all the time but that doesn’t make him any better to watch. More importantly, Kiri has had to put up with Victo as a father and you have to admit an amnesiac who looks and acts younger than you isn’t exactly a glowing role model.

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All and all, this episode tries for a more serious tone at times but doesn’t hit the mark and then ruins its own attempt by a few incredibly lame gags. It is watchable but that’s about all you can say for it.


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