Strawberry Loft

  You’ve heard it once and you’ll hear it a million times more, never judge a book by its cover. Even if the book is a team of monstrous villains being held in a secret government prison for crimes of various severities. Creature Commandos is another installment in the ever-expanding Suicide Squad universe, this time another animated expansion. A fun short run with a cast of characters who don’t always see eye to eye, but they’re criminals just trying to survive partnered with a stoic beacon of justice. Heads were bound to butt. Creature Commandos was a cool seven episodes with a finale that felt rushed and sort of let me down. My big problem with the final episode of Creature Commandos was the suddenness at which events played out with zero follow through. It felt lack luster compared to the rest of the show that moved swiftly, but with purpose. With flashy fights that often change location as they punch along to the interesting soundtrack. It’s a clever way to change scenes witho...

  After ten years of waiting that felt endless, Dragon Age: The Veilguard was finally released to extravagant fanfare, love, and criticism. I felt like it almost came out of nowhere. I had just lost all hope for another Dragon Age entry when suddenly the trailer appeared during an Xbox showcase. The excitement was instantaneous. Dragon Age: Inquisition had a complete hold over me when I played it. It was one of those rare games I couldn’t put down, and anytime I had a free moment, I started playing. I really felt like a part of the story with the dialogue options that regularly showed up. It felt like my story. I thought the story of Dragon Age: Inquisition flowed naturally as you slowly collected companions and learned about what they’d accomplished through various forms of intelligence gathering. It was very much a "friend of a friend" type of companion gathering. Everyone received a proper introduction, and slowly, the Inquisition grew. It felt exciting to see more and...

There are two approaches to making a remake: recreating the same story or retelling it with a twist. Sometimes, writers borrow the name of a previous work to attract an audience and then create something entirely different. The Brothers Grimm fairy tales have been famously adapted by Disney, which smooths out the dark, gritty edges of the original stories while retaining recognizable features to create a new, family-friendly narrative. Other notable retellings include the 2011 TV show Once Upon a Time , the 2005 film The Brothers Grimm , and the latest addition to the legacy, the 2024 anime The Grimm Variations . The Grimm Variations is an anthology series written by Clamp, an all-female Japanese manga group. It consists of six stories inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, each running between 30 and 40 minutes. The stories, penned by Michiko Yokote, use the famous titles more as prompts than direct adaptations. Each story features recognizable elements of the fairy tales, suc...

Animation can be breathtakingly beautiful, transporting you to worlds you could only see in dreams. Beautiful landscapes that exist among the stars, or maybe closer to home. When I think of gorgeous animation, I think of anything created by Makoto Shinkai—the creator of most recently Suzume , but most popularly Your Name . Other people may think of Miyazaki. Animation can also be unsettlingly skin-crawling, with horrifying monsters and bleak, desolate scenery fueled by nightmares. Animation lends itself well to body and psychological horror. When I think of the best anime that bends reality in a terrifying way, I think of Satoshi Kon. Recently, I watched Tokyo Godfathers , and for the most part, it was a very down-to-earth film. It’s a story of three people who are homeless for different reasons, scraping by to survive in a world where they may no longer feel they have a place. It’s a movie about found family and taking care of that found family. It’s also surprisingly funny given the ...

  Farming is hard; you have to plant seeds, water, weed, and rely on a bit of luck to keep the plants alive. It’s especially difficult when done by hand on a hot summer day. You wouldn’t think that farming games would become the kings of all cozy games. Yet, when news of another farming game spreads across the web, cozy gamers are there waiting on day one with dreams in their hearts. A professional cozy gamer will have the farm of their dreams in a week, with perfect rows of crops and a beautifully decorated home. I’ll use their posts as inspiration for my own mess of a farm. My biggest struggles come in the form of remembering what I planted and using sprinklers efficiently. With Fields of Mistria releasing, I figured, why not go down memory lane? The wide world of farming games awaits. I purchased Harvest Moon from the Wii shop years ago, not sure what to expect. My first impressions were soured by the fact that I had to not only ask for the game but also found out that I neede...

       Summer has a reputation for being filled with potential. Warm sunny days that stretch on forever causing motivation to run high. People start dreaming on cool summer nights sitting under the stars. Summer is often seen as a transitional period as people step away from work and experience new things. Who will you be when summer ends? In Summer Ghost three strangers take the chance to chase a ghost on a warm summer night not knowing they would become bound by fate under those stars. Summer Ghost was an unexpected treat as well as a tearjerker. When I pulled it from the shelf of the barns and Noble, I never realized I’d find a manga that would leave me speechless. I picked up the complete manga collection and it came in at 389 pages. This ghost story is not for the faint of heart. Our story begins on a ghost-hunting forum where three strangers decide to trust each other enough to chase an urban legend. Our ghost-hunting trio consists of a girl named Aoi, and two ...