The Animation Fan

When it comes to animated works, I usually prefer the happier ones to the more dramatic. Having said that, there are some notable exceptions, and while I initially hesitated at going into something that, say, wanted to deconstruct or put a darker spin on the magic girl genre of anime, I must confess to being well and truly engaged by it. I felt so bad for these characters and what they went through, and the many twists and turns we as an audience saw along with them took me by surprise more times than I can say. I can’t recommend stories like this for everybody, but I can at least guarantee that it’s something you’re unlikely to forget 😊

Avatar had a lot of great battles, but it must be said that not all of them had the effect of making me feel that the kids were actually in mortal peril. This one, where they face the indomitable Combustion Man for the first time, is definitely one of the more intense conflicts they had. Everything they threw at him was able to simply be blown apart by his counterattacks, and you really felt that, had he scored a direct hit, these children would have been finished then and there. And kudos too for making the moment completely devoid of music, which really adds to the seriousness of it 😊

Being my all-time favourite video game, it’s probably no surprise that Super Mario Galaxy also has one of my favourite boss fights. True, Kingfin might not be especially difficult or have any interesting mechanics on how to fight him (aside from the obvious issue of having to do so with limited air), but it was just a really fun level to get through. And hey, he’s a giant, alien, zombie shark, so that’s just cool by default, right? 😉