Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 223

Spy X Family Episode 4 Review

‘An Interview at a Prestigious School’ is the title of Spy X Family episode 4 and it’s probably my favorite one on the show so far! It perfectly encapsulates the theme of the manga/animation series, where protagonist Loid Forger finally arrives at Eden College, for an interview with his adopted daughter Anya and fake wife Yor.

The episode grossly exaggerates the admission process of the school, which makes it a hilarious watch. Forger family pretend to be as perfect as possible, so that Anya can get into the school, and Loid can finally begin his spying mission. But will they be able to impress housemaster Henderson?

(Read Spy x Family Episode 1 Review if you have no clue what the show is about)

I love the growing dynamics between little Anya, Loid and Yor… the three have already grown mildly fond of each other and pass off as a family. The episode brilliantly parodies the kind of tests posh private schools put for candidates, along with the kind of scrutiny parents are put under. Some viewers might find the whole admission process a tad bit prolonged and tedious. It’s as if Anya is a candidate to marry the next king of some country, and not just another pre-teen trying to get into a good institute.

The episode ends with a solid cliff-hanger, and even though one can guess what’s going to happen next without having read the manga, I cannot wait to watch the next one!

Stream Spy X Family on Netflix.

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Ep 75 – Girl A by Abigail Dean Explained

Girl A by Abigail Dean – Ending Explained

‘Girl A’ by Abigail Dean is a crime-fiction novel centered around child abuse. The plot keeps flitting the past and present in random paragraphs, often leaving readers a little confused about what’s happening. So we explain the ending of the book in ‘Episode 75’ of our podcast.

Listen in and please subscribe to the channel.

The Visit Review – Begins Well, Then Slips

“The Visit” by acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is a standalone short published under ‘Amazon Originals’. It starts off great – a Nigerian protagonist is watching the American President on the news. She is a woman, who is talking about a man’s right to pleasure himself and how spending one’s seed without any motive to reproduce should be illegal. Yes… It’s an alternative universe, where women rule the world and men look after the children.

While the first few pages are witty, intriguing and fun, the novelty of this alternate world wears of quickly. And despite being less than 25 pages long, the short story quickly gets boring. It’s literally just an average story, where all expectations/responsibilities/moral codes piled on women, are instead imposed on men. So while biologically it’s still women who get pregnant, the men are expected to marry quickly, be house-husbands, care for the children, dress modestly and turn a blind eye to their wives’ transgressions.

The protagonist is Obinna, an aspiring poet, who puts his writing dreams on the backburner to marry th woman he falls in love with. In some bits, it feels like the writer is trying to parody the styles of literary stars from the Victorian era, where instead of the heroine, it’s the hero who dwells seriously upon the choice of his clothes and the colors of his curtains. It would definitely make a very insightful read for men, who don’t understand just how sexist/patriarchal our world still is. For women readers, this fiction story doesn’t have a lot to offer. ‘The Visit’ reminded of a different book called “In Other Worlds” by Sarah Rees Brennan, where a certain clan is women-led, and Brennan does a hilariously entertaining job of reversing power balance between the genders.

Chimamanda’s writing style is engaging, but the charm wears off soon too. Due to an intriguing cover picture, I was expecting some sort of a twist in the end, but nothing really happens. It was a pretty flat climax that leaves you disappointed.

It’s a 2.5/5 from me.

Thermae Romae Novae Review

A Roman architect from 128 A.D finds himself mysteriously transported to a bathhouse in modern day Japan while taking a dip in a public bath of his time! That’s the plot of the 2022 Netflix animated series “Thermae Romae Novae”, which is based on the manga series by artist Mara Yamizaki.

This genre-bending plot would appeal best to viewers who are interested in history, and even then, it might feel like it takes time for the story to get interesting and entertaining. The Roman hero is called Lucius Modestus, who is extremely proud of his heritage, but becomes confused when he keeps slipping into a future Japan; the technological achievements there make him question if Romans are as progressive as they believe themselves to be.

The series explores the bathing culture in Japan and juxtaposes them with the Roman public baths. So in each episode, Modestus slips into a different kind of bath in Japan, then tries to recreate them when back in Romen. For ruminative viewers, the series is a reminder of how we take bathrooms for granted, while a lot of people around the world still don’t have access to clean toilets and have to defecate in the opening; a nice shower is a literal luxury to them.

The animation is engaging, even though it keeps manga-like exaggerations to a minimum. A lot of situational humour is infused throughout the show, making it a fun watch. Maybe they could’ve shortened the series by one episode.

Lucius is like a Roman era example of a nationalist and his character has little growth over the episodes. Even though he does become an extremely famous Thermae architect. His little time-travel trips to Japan is the best thing about the series and shows viewers a very unique glimpse into the country. It might even make some people want to take their on their own hot-springs vacation.

It’s a 7/10 from me.

Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles Ep 1 Review

Teenager Yuichi, a teen rabbit who happens to be the descendant of a great warrior called Miyamoto Usagi, vows to become one of the greatest Samurai of his time. The first few minutes of this 2022 Netflix animated series just felt disappointingly underwhelming.

Created by Stan Sakai, episode 1 is all about establishing Yuichi as a spunky teen hero, who lives in a quaint village with his grandmother and decides to move to the big city to fulfill his dreams. The animation has more of a gaming interface look, with the scenes at a pace that appear like your internet is buffering. Yuichi reminds you of Lola Bunny (from Loony Toons and Space Jam) and for some weird reason has a giant lizard for a pet, that looks more like a baby dragon. The texture of the lizard is markedly different from rest of the characters in the series, as if it was a strange anomaly, which might have been intentional, but just looks silly onscreen.

The show however has some fantastic comic-book style transitions in between, that are visually a lot more appealing than the rest of the animation style. Like the still pictured below.

With a 7+ rating, this show is cute enough for pre-teen kids, but not so much for adult viewers. It made me nostalgic about Kung Fu Panda, but in a ‘I would rather watch Kung Fu Panda movies again’ way. The background music is pretty forgettable and the color palette gets very repetitive towards the end of the episode.

There’s a little twist towards the end in an effort to keep viewers invested in the show. Hopefully it might get better.

It’s a 6/10 from me.

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Episode 74 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #13thEdition

Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge – Review

“Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge” is a biographical graphic novel about Cambodian painter Vann Nath, one of the only seven adults who made it out alive from the notorious security prison 21, where 20,000 Cambodians are estimated to have been tortured to death under the Khmer Rouge regime.

Like a lot of foreigners, I wasn’t aware of the Cambodian genocide that occurred during the 1970s, not until I visited the country a few years ago and was reading up about its history. So to be able to read a survivor’s tale in graphic novel format interested me immediately.

Created by Matteo Mastragostino and Paolo Vincezo Castaldi, the panels are drawn in mostly sepia tones, and Castaldi’s art has a sketch-book-journal style touch to it, which gives the pages a hauntingly nostalgic tone. For an international audience that’s unfamiliar with the Khmer Rouge regime, this graphic novel is a great place to begin, even though it’s largely limited to just Nath’s experience. So readers get only Nath’s view of the regime, without much political context as to what exactly was unraveling in the nation.

It takes a little while for the story to get visceral, and when it does, some parts do hit you right in the gut. The brutality, paranoia and sheer sadism of the personnel in-charge of prison camps are akin to the Nazis who exterminated Jews. Miraculously, it was art that saved Vann Nath from becoming just another unrecognizable casualty in some unmarked mass grave, and the book chooses to present that tale. How the ghosts of his experiences followed, and how he chose to speak up through his paintings is spine-chilling and profoundly tragic… and yet, he was the lucky one… the one who got out alive.

If you are a graphic novel fan and a history nerd too, definitely check this graphic novel out. It’s a 4/5 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Episode 74 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #13thEdition

The Tuxedo Review – Nothing Fits In This Series

The 2022 Thai series ‘The Tuxedo’ is about a rich obnoxious man called Nawee, who bullies his peers and the makers try to justify it by showing how he has a traumatic childhood. Except for the fact that Nawee is a handsome young man, there’s literally nothing worth liking about him. So basically, this series is just about two good-looking people falling for each other, whatever else is peddles as ‘story’ is boring and makes you want to sleep instead.

Actors Chap and Green do make a visually great looking couple, but it’s not enough to make you invest in the barely there plot. Green plays Aioon, a clothing designer/tailor who sells to an exclusive clientele and takes care of his two younger brothers. All the situations in the series are too forced and cosmetic, like accidental pecks between the leads. One time is okay, more than that only shows the writing team’s lack of imagination – “hey we don’t know how to slip in consensual romantic moments in since the characters aren’t in love yet, so let’s make them fall on each other’s lips a couple of times, accidentally…”

The romance is not convincing, the jokes are not funny, and it’s hard to understand if the leads cannot act, or it’s just the terrible script which doesn’t give them enough scope to display their talents. And Nawee’s personality is just toxic, he literally hits an employee at one point and later viewers are given childhood flashbacks of how his childhood was rough. But a traumatic childhood is no excuse for being a monster to others. Towards the end, there’s a weird personality reversal between the leads and things just don’t make much sense.

It’s a 4/10 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Episode 74 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #13thEdition

The Midnight Library – Book Review

By @Arcana_Reads

You know how sometimes you meet a person who is absolutely sweet, nice, gentle and kind and you wish wonderful things for them, but you don’t want to really be friends with them because you’re too cynical and hard and don’t want to exchange your ash-and-anger-stained glasses for their rose ones because your lives are very different and you know it’s not going to work out?

‘The Midnight Library’ was that wonderful, sweet experience for me. I liked it the way you like seeing a something nice from a distance. Its beauty soothes the slightly burnt edges of your mind, but you don’t take it home with you because it doesn’t work in your life.

Nora Seed has been torn down by life and she decides to die by suicide. She ends up in a library that allows her to pluck those moments from her life in which she made a choice and abandoned an alternate path.

She gets the answers to her “what if?” moments. The end of the book is quite predictable – but this isn’t a mystery novel. It is meant to be a lesson about how you view your past and your decisions in context to the future.

I almost didn’t want to rate this book because it felt like a moral conundrum – do you not give 5/5 to a book just because you didn’t think it was mind-blowing when obviously it’s meant for bigger things? I don’t know. But I also thought I’m a tiny account with 65 followers, so my rating doesn’t really matter.

I can see why it won the Goodreads 2020 fiction prize – I can see thousands of people reading this book during their lockdown and gaining a measure of solace from its pages.

It’s a beautiful book of life and hope.

She Who Became The Sun – Book Review

By @arcana_Reads
Sometimes, very rarely, I stumble upon books where I love and hate the characters equally. There are many books with grey characters but in this book, Parker-Chan doesn’t do grey. She runs this rapid, unpredictable and awe-inspiring zigzag between bad and good – so turbulent that by the end, you’re still trying to figure out what you **really** feel about the lead players.

SWBTS is about Zhu and Ouyang (yea, I know she isn’t Zhu, but she’s Zhu to herself and to me, and that’s that). A starving peasant, Zhu assumes the identity of her brother – fated to be great – after he gives up and dies. Her will to survive, to assume her brother’s mantle of greatness, sees her become a monk… and more. Ouyang is a eunuch general in the emperor’s army. Imprisoned by his past, he marches on, blind to everything except the inevitability of his choices.

The book is hauntingly beautiful. Parker-Chan’s writing digs its claws in your mind making you experience Zhu and Ouyang’s pain, the angst of gender dysphoria, the desperate drive to achieve something that was never supposed to be yours, the aching hope to have someone, anyone, by your side. It’s heart-rending.

I wanted to bookmark (and I think I did) half this book. But here are some of my highlights:

“Most strong-willed people never understand that will alone isn’t enough to guarantee their survival. They don’t realize that even more so than will, survival depends upon an understanding of people and power.”
And
““Learn to want something for yourself, Ma Xiuying. Not what someone says you should want. Not what you think you should want. Don’t go through life thinking only of duty. When all we have are these brief spans between our nonexistences, why not make the most of the life you’re living now? The price is worth it.””

SWBTS has no heroes. The undercurrent of this book is choices – our past dictates what we choose. Yes, we understand there’s good and bad but majority of people follow the grey path – because IRL you can’t always stick to the good.

But here’s the thing. Greatness, any greatness, should be forged in the fires of goodness. If your path to greatness is by destroying others, there’s nothing great about you. Fulfilling duty without paying heed to wrongness of choices, isn’t inspiring. Ah, I digressed. I’m sorry but this book makes you feel. So, so much.

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝟰.𝟱/𝟱

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

pisode 74 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #13thEdition

Spy X Family Episode 3 Review

And the ‘Spy X Family’ training begins! Well… sort of. Episode 3 of the 2022 Netflix anime show titled “Prepare for the Entrance Exam” begins with the three primary protagonists finally moving under one roof, pretending to be a ‘real’ family – the Forgers. But the hero, Loid Forger, isn’t very sure if he can accomplish his mission with his clueless new ‘wife’ Yor, and the impish ‘Anya’. The immediate goal is clearing the parent-interview round to help get Anya into a premium private school.

(Read Spy x Family Episode 1 Review if you have no clue what the show is about)

Those who’ve read the manga already know to expect, but to those who haven’t – if you were expecting this to be an action packed thriller, it isn’t. Like the title suggests, the primary theme is ‘family’ and how three strangers unwittingly form a bond. The Forgers know very little about each other, but their interactions are progressing at a warm pace. The third episode is filled with funny little homely moments, and a hilarious outdoor excursion, where Loid hopes to practice what it feels like to be a family. And yes, there is a sprinkle of action to break the monotony of a ‘good family day out’ too.

Up until now, there has been no clarity on Loid’s past, but we are slowly getting glimpses into his current personality – he is neat, organized, knows how to cook and is basically the perfect home-maker. The slow unraveling of these character personalities might not appeal to all viewers, however, it’s engaging to watch and bigger adventures are definitely in store.

The smart little Anya, who has cleverly managed to hide her mind-reading abilities from her super-spy step-dad and assassin step-mom, is turning out to be my favorite character already! ‘Spy X Family’ is still on a good streak. Stream it on Netflix.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Listen to Ep 66 – 5 Things That Make “All Of Are Dead’ Entertaining