☕︎REVIEWS☕︎

Hello Everyone!

Today, I'm going to be discussing one of my favourite animes called Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba). It was adapted from a shōnen manga, and this category primarily focuses on action and adventure, that's why this show's genres are Adventure, Dark fantasy and Martial arts. It's theme is historical.

The anime's synopsis (from My Anime List):

Ever since the death of his father, the burden of supporting the family has fallen upon Tanjirou Kamado's shoulders. Though living impoverished on a remote mountain, the Kamado family are able to enjoy a relatively peaceful and happy life. One day, Tanjirou decides to go down to the local village to make a little money selling charcoal. On his way back, night falls, forcing Tanjirou to take shelter in the house of a strange man, who warns him of the existence of flesh-eating demons that lurk in the woods at night. When he finally arrives back home the next day, he is met with a horrifying sight—his whole family has been slaughtered. Worse still, the sole survivor is his sister Nezuko, who has been turned into a bloodthirsty demon. Consumed by rage and hatred, Tanjirou swears to avenge his family and stay by his only remaining sibling. Alongside the mysterious group calling themselves the Demon Slayer Corps, Tanjirou will do whatever it takes to slay the demons and protect the remnants of his beloved sister's humanity.

It started airing in April, 2019 and since has 2 seasons and a movie (every episode is around 23 minutes). The first season is mostly about the protagonist and his new friends trying to figure out how they can use their powers and fight the enemy after they successfully survived the Final Selection, a so to say entrance exam for the people, who want to join the Demon Slayer Corps. Prior to this, Tanjiro had to go through a long and hard training, lead by Sakonji Urokodaki. We get to see the Corps members too, the 9 Hashira from whom some people help the rookies every season (like Tomioka Giyuu and Tsuyuri Kanao in the first one). We also encounter the main villian of the story, Kibutsuji Muzan.

In Fall 2020 came out Kimetsu no Yaiba Movie: Mugen Ressha-hen, where Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke - with the help of the Flame Hashira, Kyoujurou Rengoku - have to go to a train, where msyterious disappearances happened. Not trying to give spoilers, but here we can see one of the toughest and most heartbreaking fights in the anime so far.

Hello Everyone!

Today I will write about a slightly different topic than before. So far I have presented series, but now I will talk about a musical group called Forestella.

Forestella is a South Korean crossover male vocal quartet. The group was formed in 2017 through JTBC's singing contest Phantom Singer season 2. They were the winners of that season and became the most famous quartet throughout the whole show (3 seasons + All Stars). Sadly, I haven't seen their season yet, as English subtitles are not available anywhere but I will watch it either way, after finishing season 1 (which I stopped watching, because that too, only had English subs in the first half of the episodes). Since August 1, 2021, they've been under Beat Interactive, along with the K-pop band A.C.E, who I'm also a fan of.

As you can guess, the group consists of four members: Bae Doo-hoon (배두훈, tenor, 36), Kang Hyung-ho (강형호, countertenor, 33), Cho Min-gyu (조민규, tenor, 31) and Ko Woo-rim (고우림, bass, 27). Woorim and Mingyu are opera singers and the latter is the leader of the quartet. Doohoon is a musical actor, he studied acting at Korea National University of Arts. Hyungho is probably the most well-known of the four, the video of him singing both Christine's and the Phantom's part in the song Phantom of the Opera really blew up, many international youtubers have reacted to it. It's also worthy of note, that he hadn’t studied music before going on Phantom Singer, showing that he really has a natural talent for singing. He’s an amateur rock singer, who used to work as a chemist.

The name Forestella comes from two words: forest and stella (Italian for star). The Italian touch really comes in handy when we think about how many languages Forestella has sung in. They mostly sing in Korean, Italian and English, but songs in French, Spanish and other languages are found in their discography too. They currently have four albums; Evolution, Mystique, The Forestella and The Beginning: World Tree.

Forestella has appeared on Two Yoo Project and Immortal Songs, a competition where each episode features singers or bands who perform their reinterpreted versions of (older) songs. Currently, they are filming their youtube series called Forrecipe In The Woods.

In my opinion, Forestella is 100% worth to stan. I'm pretty open-minded about music, so I gladly listen to classical songs, but this group was the one that made me really interested in opera pieces. The members have fun personalities too, and they might be the most talented musicians I have ever known.

I hope I peaked your interest with my review. Take care✨

Sources:

https://kprofiles.com/forestella-members-profile/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestella&ved=2ahUKEwjr8KKA1I37AhWGhP0HHWzOCVgQFnoECHAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3aSjvc470V7nHG1Tw6YSaJ

Hello Everyone!

The second show that I'm gonna be talking about is The Penthouse which is quite popular in South Korea. The show has 3 seasons as of now but I have only watched 2 so far. The reason for that is my short attention span, every episode is like 1 hour and 20 minutes long.

A short introduction to the series (from MyDramaList): The residents of Hera Palace, a luxury penthouse apartment with 100 floors, have many secrets and hidden ambitions. Shim Su Ryeon, who was born into wealth, is the queen of the penthouse apartment. Cheon Seo Jin, the prima donna of the residence, does all she can to give everything to her daughter. Oh Yoon Hee comes from a poor family background, but she strives to enter high society by becoming the queen of the penthouse, the pinnacle of success in her eyes. A battle for wealth, power, and prestige at Seoul’s most coveted penthouse begins.

The genres of the series are Suspense, Drama, Crime, Revenge, Thriller and Mystery. It can be also called as a Makjang drama (exaggerated drama) because of the out of control happenings, unrealistic and abnormal situations, that are being portrayed as normal. Some of the most common storylines for this genre include absurd birth secrets, murders and crazy revenge plots. As you may have already thought, all of these are present in The Penthouse. A lot of K-dramas have elements like the theme of rich vs poor, hierarchy, the elites' influence and power, however, this show takes that to the next level. All the secrets and continuous plot twist make sure that the viewer won't get bored.

The characters in The Penthouse are surely interesting. Everyone does the thing that's the best for them, acting really selfishly, but there's something that always kicks in, in crisis situations. And that is their parental instincts. All families in the series have at least one child. The parents have a lot of work to protect their children and to cover up for their crimes. But don't get me wrong; the kids are not the villains here. It's the people, who taught them to act this way, who showed them the worst possible examples, who were only driven by money and success. The people who have brought them up. The adults are completely rotten characters -apart from rare exceptions-, who try to solve their problems in the worst ways possible. The parents do hate one another (openly or secretly) but different situations make them work together.

Some people in the show are close to psychopaths and sociopaths. It portrays really well how the longing for success can make people go insane. The constant yelling doesn't do this justice either. They are incredibly smart though, always trying to one-up each other.

The person I hate the most in this series is probably Joo Dan-tae. He's truly a mastermind, a very abusive one at that. He's one of the few that doesn't care about his children, only himself. Backstabbing is his speciality if it means that he can safely stay in his penthouse, whether that involves betraying his wife, beating someone up or using people for his benefit.

My favourites are Shim Su-ryeon and her stepson Joo Seok-hoon (who is also Joo Dan-tae's son). Family is the most important for them, Seok-hoon always protects his sister from their abusive father, and Su-ryeon acts as a great mom for both of them. The boy doesn't care about status and falls in love with the main character's daughter, Bae Ro-na, who is bullied by his friends from the penthouse. Su-ryeon also becomes friends with Ro-na's mom, Oh Yoon-hee, and in my opinion, she is undoubtedly the most intelligent character of them all.

What I really like about this series is the use of classical music. The kids are attending Cheong-ah Arts School (Cheon Seo-jin('s father) is the head of it) where they learn classical singing, but this kind of music also plays an important role in making the show more suspenseful.

All in all, I think The Penthouse is great if you love angst but it's not exactly for the faint of heart. It can be a little overwhelming sometimes but it's pretty addictive. Once you start watching, you just want to know what will happen next.

Hello Everyone!

The first series that I'm going to be reviewing is called 'Penny Dreadful'. As I love watching movies and series with a lot of twists in them, after watching this show, it surely became one of my favourites.

What the series is about (from Rotten Tomatoes) : Many people are familiar with classic literary characters like Dr. Frankenstein and Dorian Gray. "Penny Dreadful" brings those and other characters into a new light by exploring their origin stories in this psychological thriller that takes place in the dark corners of Victorian London. Sir Malcolm is an explorer who has lost his daughter to the city's creatures, and he will do whatever is needed to get her back and to right past wrongs. His accomplice, seductive clairvoyant Vanessa Ives, recruits charming American Ethan Chandler to help locate Sir Malcolm's daughter and slay some monsters. Oscar-winner Sam Mendes ("American Beauty") is one of the series' executive producers.

Penny Dreadful aired from 2014 to 2016, it has 3 seasons. Its genres are: drama, gothic horror, thriller, psychological thriller, dark fantasy and historical fantasy but some say that the best one that could describe it would be gothic romance. The show has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (season 2's rating is 100%), which I totally agree with.

The first thing that makes this series incredible is the story of it. It's really interesting especially as it's set in the Victorian era. It's really thrilling, you never know what's going to happen. But of course, there's no good show without heart-wrenching scenes. I first watched Penny Dreadful with my sister and one episode she started crying during a happy scene. She told me, that I'll understand the reason for it at the end of the show. I surely did and while watching the last episode, I bawled my eyes out.

The other aspect that makes this one of my favourite shows, is the acting and the characters. Eva Green stars as Vanessa Ives, the main character. She's a truly powerful heroine, who has been through a lot and has to battle with not just different creatures from the underworld but herself too. As I have already written, there are also quite a few literary characters in Penny Dreadful. Victor Frankenstein and his Creation, Abraham Van Helsing, Henry Jekyll and Dracula make the plot special with their own backstories and complex characters. However, my absolute favourite of them is Dorian Grey (Reeve Carney), who is ageless and immortal. He's really unpredictable and in my opinion has a personality that can really grow on the audience.

In conclusion, I think that Penny Dreadful is certainly worth to watch. It is an emotional rollercoaster but its exceptional story makes it unforgettable.

I hope I peaked your interest with my review. Take care✨