I knew about this campaign since it was announced but I forgot that it existed until when it was happening. For one day only on July 9th, if you ordered from the McDonald’s app, you could snag some Jujutsu Kaisen themed Special Grade Garlic Sauce. Why it is garlic-themed? No idea, but when I realized that today was the day it went live, I thought “Why not?” I had vivid memories of the Szechuan Sauce fiasco and I expected a similar rush to grab this sauce, so I expected nothing to be available at my store.

So to my surprise, they had plenty. My girlfriend and I went onto the app, saw it was available at our store, put in an order, and then grabbed it. I know that may sound banal, but after dealing with the hellscape that was collecting Amiibo, I was prepared for the worst. But no, we ordered a burger, fries, some nuggets, got our sauces, and then drove back to our home.

After we sat down (and after my girlfriend tricked me into thinking that my burger already had two bites taken out of it because I’m gullible as hell), I was ready to try it. After separating the Gojo-themed label, which I got a laugh out of, I was surprised at how dark the sauce looked. It didn’t look like a garlic sauce but more like a BBQ sauce. It was about as thick as a BBQ sauce too, but that may just be the consistency of all McDonald’s sauces. I could easily see the black pepper chunks in it and it smelled like pepper more than anything else, but it was the taste that mattered to me.

My goal was to try the sauce with each of the three main McDonald’s staples and see how they stacked up. After taking a single bite of a nugget drenched in this sauce, the first thing that hit me was pure garlic. It overpowered everything about the nugget to the point where it didn’t even taste like one of their nuggets. McDonald’s nuggets have a specific taste I could only taste oozing garlic. As for the pepper that I smelled, I weirdly didn’t taste any pepper. I guess there was a light tang at the end of each bite when I let it sit for a while, but it was less peppery and just tasted like more garlic.

The same situation happened with the fries. The saltiness of the fries helped to weaken the garlic, but the garlic had complete and total control over each bite. And look, I like garlic a lot, so I wasn’t too upset by how potent the garlic was here, but those who are only mild fans of it may be immediately turned off by it. What was universally a bad idea was putting the sauce on the burger. I don’t know if anyone normally puts McDonald’s dipping sauces on their burgers, but after securing a part of the burger that my girlfriend didn’t bite, I spread some sauce on, took a bite, and instantly regretted my decision.

I know that there are people who will mix mayo with ketchup, but the garlic sauce didn’t blend at all with any of the ketchup, onions, or pickles that were on it. It was like mixing oil and vinegar and the ketchup and garlic fought in my mouth but never came together. It just left a bad aftertaste, but considering I’m probably the one person in the world who thought to put Jujutsu Kaisen Special Grade Garlic Sauce on a burger, I don’t think anyone else will make the same mistake.

Look, I can’t say that I approve of the method McDonald’s took to make this marketing stunt work but at the end of the day, I didn’t care about any of that. I just wanted to know if the McDonald’s Jujutsu Kaisen Special Grade Garlic Sauce tasted good. For what it’s worth, it was pretty alright. If it was available on their menu normally, I’d probably order it, though it wouldn’t replace my beloved sweet and sour sauce. My curiosity was satisfied, and now I can sit back and watch people try to flip these sauces on eBay for ludicrous sums of money. Because of course people are already doing that.

What Happened in Tower of God’s Season 2 Premiere?

If you forgot what happened at the end of season 1, don’t worry, Tower of God will remind you of the only thing that mattered. The season begins with Bam getting pushed off the tower by Rachel and falling to the bottom. Bam picks himself up and is determined to climb the tower, not for Rachel but for him to discover his own answers, with a young woman named Hwa Ryun tagging along for the ride.

We then cut to Yuri (one of the Princesses of Jahad who had acquired the Green April and Black March swords towards the end of season 1) traveling to a massive castle where she meets some of the other princesses. While she briefly has a curt conversation with another princess, Maschenny, over the control of the 13 Months Series swords, Yuri’s main goal is to meet with her sister, Repellista. Yuri wants help finding Bam, who she believes did not die during the test, unaware of Rachel’s betrayal. Repellista agrees to help Yuri on the condition she finds something for her, although we don’t learn what that something is.

It’s during these opening scenes that I think it’s pretty evident the show’s animation has seen a significant jump in quality. The first season’s animation was never consistent and, at times, was a bit too haphazard and scratchy. Now, the shift in studios between seasons from Telecom Animation Film to The Answer Studio looks to be paying off almost immediately.

Ja Wangnam & the E-Rank Exam

We cut to some time later on the 20th floor of the tower. We’re told via narration that this floor of the tower is a bustling metropolis serving as the hub for E-Rank exams, a test that prevents anyone from going beyond the 20th floor until they pass. However, due to the test’s difficulty and the sheer cost of it, most Regulars (aka people trying to climb the tower) stop there and make lives for themselves, turning this floor into a hub of activity and crime.

It’s here we meet a new character, Ja Wangnam. Ja has been attempting to pass the E-Rank exam for quite some time but has failed each attempt, with his most recent failure coming at the hands of a “flamethrower girl.” He’s despondent but eager to try again. However, his home is broken into by the loan shark funding Ja’s E-Rank test attempts and demands payment. Ja says he doesn’t have the money, which causes the loan shark to try to make Ja sign a contract saying he’ll pay him back by selling his organs. Ja freaks out over this, but the loan shark gives him one last chance before he starts harvesting Ja’s organs for cash.

After a brief conversation with a girl, who delivered him ramen, about their respective situations on the 20th floor, Ja is ready to attempt the test one more time. The test is akin to the Royal Rumble, where entrants will enter an arena every few minutes and have to survive until the timer runs out, which will only begin once all the combatants have entered. Ja is raring to go, but, upon entering the arena, he’s confronted by a silent, long-haired man who had just brutally defeated his opponents. Ja immediately realizes he can’t win a fight against this man and attempts to negotiate with him, suggesting they just sit to save their strength against later challengers. The long-haired man neither refuses nor accepts Ja’s offer, instead just sitting down and doing nothing.

A Brawl in the Arena

After that, four more entrants enter the arena and opt to sit alongside Ja and the long-haired man. Some of them already know each other, while most are complete strangers. But tensions begin to rise when the final entrant, a silver-haired man, enters and speculates they should weed out weak people because future tests may require them to work as a team. Ja says they should expel the silver-haired man for calling others in the group weak. The long-haired man then speaks for the first time, saying there won’t be a need for teams, and attacks the silver-haired man.

This leads to a brawl between the long-haired man and two other entrants as Ja looks on in awe. The long-haired man is impossibly strong, and it’s revealed that not only is he a Wave Controller (a person who can naturally control water-like energy called Shinsu) but he’s also a member of FUG, a crime syndicate that is in opposition to Jahad. Ja realizes that they’re completely screwed if someone this strong is in their room, and he attempts to run.

With only seconds left before the test ends, the long-haired man tries to attack Ja, only to be stopped by flashbacks of Rachel, confirming that the long-haired man is Bam. Ja then throws firebombs at Bam, which injures him despite how weak the bombs are. Before Bam can land a mortal blow on Ja, the test ends and all six competitors pass, with Bam proceeding to the elevator for the next trial alone, reflecting on the visions he saw of Rachel.

Tower of God Season 2 Is off to a Strong Start

With the foundation now laid for season 2, Tower of God is off to a strong start. Focusing on a new protagonist and offering a mystery around Bam’s circumstances between the first and second seasons was a smart choice, making this a fairly compelling watch, helped further by the upgrade in animation. For the first time in a long while, I’m actually interested in what Tower of God is offering, and I look forward to seeing if it can keep it up in the following episodes.

Tower of God is available to stream on Crunchy Roll.

What Are the Best A24 Horror Movies?

Horror is an entirely subjective genre, filled with plenty of different niches and methods to scare audiences. But when put through the lens of A24’s auteur-focused lens of production, they seemingly elevate each genre into something more. A24 has made a lot of horror movies in the past decade, and while some of them have been less than amazing, plenty are worth your time.

This past weekend, A24 released MaXXXine, the conclusion to Ti West’s X trilogy, which has found commercial and critical success since its release in 2022. With people eager to see the conclusion of this horror series, some people may be itching to see more horror movies like MaXXXine after they see the credits roll. Consider taking a look at these five other excellent horror movies made by A24. While I can’t guarantee they’ll scare you, I can guarantee that you won’t forget them.

1) Hereditary (2018)

Considered by many to be one of the scariest movies of the past decade, Hereditary is an unnerving look at a family that is slowly falling apart. To say any more would spoil the numerous twists and revelations in the film, but Ari Aster’s debut horror feature shows an eye for cinematography that most other directors lack. He would go on to make Midsommar, another excellent A24 horror movie, but Hereditary manages to leave a long-lasting impression, mostly thanks to Toni Collette’s amazing performance. It’s a slow-burn horror movie, not dissimilar from something like Rosemary’s Baby, and thanks to the myriad of shots that will leave you disturbed, it’s going to be one that the viewer won’t forget anytime soon.

2) I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

It may be a bit presumptuous putting a movie like I Saw The TV Glow on this list so soon after its release, but the technicolor nightmare that it brings is hard to ignore. The film follows Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as socially awkward teenagers who bond over a supernatural show called The Pink Opaque. At first, what seems like a 90s-inspired coming-of-age story slowly descends into an amalgamation of Buffy, Twin Peak, and a whole host of mid-90s Nickelodeon shows. That may seem like a weird combination, but the show’s unnerving blend of surrealism and horror creates an experience that, by the end, will leave you questioning everything you saw and saddened by the conclusion. This is a depressing movie that will leave you nostalgic for an era of popular culture that we’ll never get back, yet hollow thanks to the fate of its cast.

3) The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017)

If you saw Poor Things last year and thought that the director, Yorgos Lathimos, was weird, then The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is just for you. It’s the story of a doctor, played by Colin Farrell, as he becomes more and more familiar with a young man played by Barry Keoghan. Like most of Yorgos’s films, it’s an odd watch at first, but you can’t deny the terror that begins to overtake everything as the movie begins to pick up speed. It’s a movie that will leave you asking a lot of questions, but the ideas it has about evil and the nature of the devil are wonderfully handled, mostly thanks to a breakout performance by Barry Keoghan. More than any other movie on this list, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is not for everyone, but for those who can vibe with its weirdness, you’ll find a lot to admire.

4) The Lighthouse (2019)

Much like Ari Aster, Robert Eggers is a director who got his start making horror movies with A24 and has found critical success ever since. However, while Aster has more modern sensibilities surrounding horror, Eggers uses a lot of classical imagery and mythology to make his horror movies pop. Take The Lighthouse for example. The film follows Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as two lighthouse keepers who can hardly stand each other, forced to live with one another on a stormy island for an unknown amount of time. Between the abuse that Dafoe puts on Pattinson and the tight cinematography, sometimes literally, it makes a film that makes you feel almost as deranged as the two men themselves. Add in some truly bizarre moments and an ending that will sear itself into your brain, and you too will be spilling your beans and regretting ever criticizing Dafoe’s lobster.

5) X (2022)

It stands to reason that if this list is in celebration of MaXXXine’s release, we should probably talk about X and its homage to 70s low-budget horror movies. Taking influence from exploitation films of the era and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the film follows a group of adult filmmakers as they rent out a barn on the property of ultra-religious geriatrics as they try to secretly make their movie without alerting their hosts of what they’re doing. What follows is a gory look at religious fundamentalism, the allure of fame and regret, all propelled by the performances of Mia Goth, who does double duty as both the film’s protagonist and antagonist. Mia Goth owns this movie and elevates what should normally be a middle-of-the-road slasher into something special. It’s funny how Mia Goth’s characters want to be a star and this is the film that put this scream queen on the map and into the hearts of so many horror fans. If you watch X, you’re coming for the slasher bits, but you’re staying for Mia Goth.

What Happened At the End of The Bear Season 3?

For the majority of the season, Carmy and the rest of the staff at The Bear were trying to figure out what direction the restaurant should take and what they should do in their individual lives. Almost as a reflection of the show’s theme, the third season of The Bear was a confusing, meandering, and at times dull look into the restaurant’s future now that it’s actually opened. All of this should have been building to something, yet the end result was ambiguous and unclear.

The two major plot threads that the season focused on were how Carmy was putting too much pressure on himself to succeed, thereby pushing everyone else away in the process. He forces unrealistic demands on his staff and quickly spirals into debt due to buying extravagant ingredients, only for the menu to change every night. To add to that, he becomes absolutely obsessed with an upcoming review of his restaurant that may sink the entire enterprise if it’s bad.

The other major plot thread focuses on Sydney, who has become increasingly disillusioned working with Carmy. She was promised to be Carmy’s partner in the restaurant, but she has no say in the menu or any of the decisions, with Carmy treating her more like an employee than a partner. She drags her heels on signing a contract solidifying her as a partner in The Bear, but what conflicts her even further is how she’s offered to join a new start-up restaurant as their Chef De Cuisine, or CDC. Before the ending of The Bear Season 3, she even finds out that the terms of the position are better than the ones that Carmy is offering her as a partner.

This all comes to a head in the season finale, where Carmy and Sydney attend the funeral service of one of the most respected fine dining restaurants in Chicago, Ever. While there, Syndey hears from other world-renowned chefs how to best enjoy their craft, good business decisions, and how they make positive work environments, all of which are counter to her experiences working with Carmy this season. Meanwhile, Carmy confronts David Fields, his abusive former boss, and tries to chastise him, only for Fields to say that Carmy wouldn’t be as good as a chef if it wasn’t for his abuse. Carmy can’t really counter his claim and begins to cry.

Related: Bradley Cooper’s Character from Burnt Is Canon in The Bear

After the service, Sydney invites the staff from The Bear and Ever to her apartment for a party and has a panic attack, thinking about all of the good times she’s had with them and how devastated they would be if she left. Because of this, she’s unable to make a decision on whether to go or not. Carmy, who doesn’t attend the party, instead heads home and checks his phone to see several calls from Cicero, who told him earlier that if the review is bad, he would have to pull out and stop funding The Bear. All of those calls are because The Bear’s first review got published, and it appears to be a mixed one. Then, without any closure on any of the main character’s arcs, the words “To Be Continued” pop up on the screen, ending the season.

It’s a frustrating finale, one that doesn’t really tie up any of the major loose threads from the season and instead serves as set-up for the fourth season. Neither Sydney nor Carmy have resolved either of their issues, and most of the supporting cast hardly factored into any of the events of the season. When Season 4 starts up, it’s gonna have to work extra hard to justify the glacial and meandering pace of the third season.

And that’s the ending of The Bear Season 3, explained.

The Bear is streaming now on Hulu.

What Happened In The Season 2 Premiere of Oshi No Ko?

The season begins several months after the events of the first season. with a look at a stage play Aqua and Akane are in called Tokyo Blade. The show is an adaptation of a popular manga and is being put on by the Lala Lai Theatrical Company, who were attempting to seek new talent in order to revilatize their pool of talent. Aqua decided to audition for the role, but not because he wants to hone his acting abilities. Rather, he suspects that the director of the production, Toshirou Kindaichi, may have some knowledge or involvement of the murder of his mother, Ai Hoshino. Akane auditioned because of the opportunity it presents for her career, and because she’s dating Aqua.

Meanwhile, Aqua’s sister Ruby visits Ai’s grave and lets her know about how her former Idol group, B-Komanchi, is doing. Since their revival at the end of season one, the group has steadily been growing more popular by putting on smaller shows and releasing a steady stream of videos thanks to Mem-Cho. Ruby confides to her dead mother that her goal is to put on a dome show, something Ai was never able to do, to make her mom happy.

The episode doesn’t really focus on Ruby though as we spend more time on the rehearsal process of Tokyo Blade. Akane narrates some of the behind the scenes business of the rehearsal process for shows like Tokyo Blade, namely that there’s only around a month or so of rehearsals before the show begins. Most of the cast members usually have other jobs and come in whenever they’re able to, but rehearsals are usually from around noon to evening. The cast of Tokyo Blade is a fairly large one, filled with newcomers to Lala Lai like Aqua, Akane, and Kana, who is pulling double-duty not only in acting in Tokyo Blade but also starring in B-Komanchi, and veteran Lala Lai actors like the disheveled yet brilliant actor Taiki Himekawa.

It’s during these rehearsals that we see Kana, who is usually restrained in her acting abilities, able to fully let loose with her co-star Taiki’s bombastic flair. Since most of her acting performances have been with subpar scripts and actors, being able to go all-out and be rewarded for it is an enthralling experience for her, made all the better by Taiki matching her energy. It’s a performance that’s literally exploding with color and personality, with Kindaichi speculating that all of the actors who witnessed their rehearsal will probably strive to better their performances.

Aqua is not one of them though. Aqua never viewed himself as an actor and is merely playing the part required of him, biding his time until he can get the information he needs from Kindaichi. Because of this, he isolates himself from the rest of the cast. Akane tries to invite him to interact with his cast members, but his dour and gloomy vibes make it difficult for her to break through to him. Besides, he’s more interested in Kana and how she’s grown as an actress, something that Akane grumbles about since they’re supposed to be dating.

As for Akane, she struggles to really work with the part she was cast as. Her role in the play is as Princess Hime, the central antagonist of the manga. While she has no problem playing a villain, she slowly begins to realize that she’s having difficulties developing her character. Akane is a method actor and likes to learn everything about a role she’s been cast as. After reading the Tokyo Blade manga, she comes to the conclusion that Princess Hime is a soft-spoken woman, but Kindaichi is having Akane play Hime as a brash and kill-crazy warlord instead of the conflicted ruler she’s been basing her performance off of.

She confides this in Aqua, who approaches Kindachi and the lead script writer of the play, GOA, and lets them know of Akane’s problems with the script. Much to her surprise, GOA agrees with Akane and gives her an insight into his scriptwriting process. Given that the show is only 2 hours long, cuts had to be made and characters arcs and motivations had to be simplified. He wanted to keep the main plot of the story intact, but if he tried to insert Hime’s personal conflicts into the script, then the show’s runtime would balloon, leading to problems with other scenes. So he had to take her complicated thoughts and simplify them into simpler dialogue, which Kindaichi then interpreted as he did. Akane accepts this answer, which helps her better refine her performance.

Shortly after this, the author of the original manga, Abiko Samejima, enters the rehearsal. Abiko is incredibly shy and can’t make eye contact with any of the cute male or female actors, but she’s accompanied by the author of Sweet Today and her former mentor, Yoriko Kichijouji, who is all too happy to be reunite with Kana and Aqua after working with them on the live-action adaptation of her manga. Once the actors begin to perform, Abiko is enamored by them, but assertedly says to Kindaichi and GOA that she wants a change to be made – she wants the entire production rewritten.

Seeing Oshi no Ko dive headfirst back into what it does best – examinations of numerous elements of the acting industry with rich character drama – is a welcomed return to form for fans who loved the first season. It certainly isn’t newcomer friendly and those who watched the first season may struggle to remember the numerous players and their relationships, but this is a strong premiere that is a great reminder why the show has earned the positive reputation it has today.

Ranking Shadow of the Erdtree Bosses From Worst to Best

In our last list, we took a look at the most difficult bosses that the DLC threw at players and now we’re building on that with a ranking of all of the major bosses. What constitutes a major boss in Shadow of the Erdtree is a bit unclear statement . There are 10 bosses that drop Remembrances, signifying a major encounter, but there are also several major bosses that don’t drop Remembrances that would be rude to leave off. Not only that, but then there are mandatory bosses that don’t drop Remembrances and are unique encounters, so where do they factor in?

For this list, we decided to limit our focus not only to bosses that drop Remembrances but also boss encounters that are either required to progress the story or cap off major sidequests. That gives us 13 encounters to rank based on their overall quality. Difficulty is a factor when ranking these foes, but it also comes down to their overall design, the arena you fight them in, and the ease of learning their patterns.

With that in mind, here is our ranking of every major boss from Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree from worst to best.

13) Commander Gaius

Calling Commander Gaius the worst boss of the DLC isn’t an unpopular statement. Outside of blatant input reading, Gaius lumbers around the ring with his boar and thanks to his tricky timing and frame-perfect dodges, is one of the hardest fights in the game. He’s an entirely optional foe and most players won’t even encounter him, making him feel all the more irrelevant. He’s the one boss in the game that feels broken to fight against, whether it’s on foot or with Torrent, making him more frustrating than fun. It’s rare for a community to unite around hating one particular character, but Gaius accomplished that. Nobody likes Gaius and it should stay that way. If only he wasn’t blocking the way to a fistful of Scadutree Fragments.

12) Divine Beast Dancing Lion

The problem with Divine Beast Dancing Lion is the same as a lot of other large enemies you have to fight in close environments: their speed is too great for their size and the confined space leads to camera issues. This is the first boss that most players will find in Shadow of the Erdtree and his wild movements will almost certainly frustrate returning players. The phase shifts where he uses different elements make the fight more interesting and fun, but even when fighting him again in the late-game, dodging his chaotic movements feels like it boils down to luck. Awesome music, though.

11) Golden Hippopotamus

Take a lot of the issues that the Divine Beast Dancing Lion had and you’ll find that they’re the same criticisms of the Golden Hippopotamus. The confinement of the arena leads to camera issues, but thankfully his larger size and how he’s a beefed-up version of a miniboss you faced before helps to make his moves more readable and familiar. His second phase is perfectly okay, with him sprouting golden spikes that give him some ranged attacks, but the core mechanics of the fight are still the same. Get up close, hug his side, and keep hitting him until he’s dead. He’s not a bad boss, but a fairly unremarkable one.

10) Metyr, Mother of Fingers

Metyr, Mother of Fingers is another boss that most players may not even fight, given how it’s at the end of a lengthy and obtuse sidequest. The fight against this fingered freak is in a wide open arena, which works for players fighting at a distance, but its weak point is the juicy spot right in its front, tempting more aggressive players to target it. Its weird movements are justified given its freakish design and its large AOE attack to initiate the second phase may be a bit too cheap given its large size, but Metyr is a boss that’s fairly forgettable and over a bit too soon if you play it aggressively.

9) Promised Consort Radahn

Look, Promised Consort Radahn is, at points, a great boss. He’s undeniably the hardest boss in the game, but in its first phase, it’s because of how well he controls the fight. His large moves and gravity magic will keep you on your toes and his combos are never too long to memorize. If this ranking was just based on his first phase, then Radahn would be much higher.

But then Miquella brings his frail self to the party and all the goodwill goes down the drain. Phase 2 is marked by massive AOE attacks, rapid attacks that hit for chunks of damage, moves that obscure his attacks, and, of course, all of the brutal moves that players learned from the first phase, only with aftereffects that prevent you from staying close. Fighting Radahn and Miquella is straight-up not fun and is the definition of self-inflicted punishment. This is the breaking point of FromSoft making each of their games harder. Radahn is just unreasonable, and the only things keeping him from the bottom is his role as the final boss and the enjoyable first phase.

8) Putrescent Knight

Another boss that most players may not even encounter, the Putrescent Knight gives me Orphan of Kos flashbacks in all of the best ways. While he’s not as aggressive as that nightmare of a boss, the Putrescent Knight and his horse are highly mobile and can lay down some punishment, either while he’s riding his steed or when they separate for some combos. It’s when the knight splits that he becomes more annoying, mostly from how his steed can summon itself from the goopy waters, making this a fairly stiff boss fight, but nothing too taxing. A perfect midgame challenge.

7) Needle Knight Leda and her Allies

This penultimate fight is probably one of the most interesting fights in the game since it’s a massive PvP fight against Needle Knight Leda and several allies backing her up. You can have allies supporting you depending on how many sidequests you’ve completed, as well as whittle down her forces depending on your actions in certain sidequests. No matter what, it’s probably the best PvP fight in the game, thanks to Leda’s own spread of holy attacks and the sheer variety of combat styles you have to deal with during this skirmish. The longer the fight goes on, the harder it becomes, but as a way to wrap up the stories of the major NPCs in the DLC, it’s a great way to go.

6) Rellana Twin Moon Knight

As the first mandatory boss fight in the game, Rellana Twin Moon Knight will quickly humble players with her odd attack movements and range. At first, she’s not a particularly hard fight, but her second phase really does embody a central problem with Elden Ring bosses in general: chaotic second phases. With a flurry of magical attacks being thrown out at a speed that’s almost impossible to avoid, Rellana’s fair difficulty becomes much more unfair once she decides to channel her inner Pontiff Sulyvahn. It’s still an enjoyable fight and one that feels like an accomplishment to overcome, but because of her magical attacks in the second phase, it’s kept just out of the top five.

5) Romina, Saint of the Bud

Romina, Saint of the Bud is a boss that feels oddly easy given how she’s encountered late in the game, but that doesn’t diminish her skills or overall challenge. Her centipedal body may lead to some odd movements, but distinguishing between the head and the tail will help cue you to her attacks. She also has access to Scarlet Rot, making players debate whether to fight her from a distance or up close and personal. Her arena is absolutely gorgeous and her beautiful AOE attacks are deadly, yet easily dodgeable. In a game that seems dead set on killing you at every chance, Romina is the first boss in a long while that feels like it’s readily possible to overcome her, leading to a thrilling fight.

4) Scadutree Avatar

It’s odd saying that a giant sunflower is one of the best bosses in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, but the fight against the Scadutree Avatar is a smartly designed encounter. The large open arena is a double-edged sword, leading to some very far-reaching yet easily dodgeable attacks, but hitting the flower up close will deal the most damage. Its health is paltry, but once you realize you have to kill it three times for it to stay dead, then the fight gets more interesting. Each resurrection adds new attacks, like a huge rush across the arena or a projection of lasers, but the fight’s core doesn’t change. In fact, each time the Avatar dies, it gives the players just enough time to heal and apply buffs, giving you somewhat of a breather. It’s just a well-designed fight, one made all the better by the changing score as you keep killing this decayed sunflower.

3) Bayle the Dread

The top three bosses are all excellent for their own reasons, but Bayle the Dread is something special. Serving as the climax of a huge ascent up Jagged Peaks, Bayle is a spectacle of a boss, complete with fire-based lightning attacks, massive rushes, and the now legendary screams of Igon. Hitting Bayle is no easy task, especially when your sole lock-on point is his tiny head, but it’s a marvel just watching this fight play out. For theatrics alone, this fight is top-tier. However, what keeps him off the top spot are the camera issues that plague most agile large enemies and how actually reaching him to attack is cumbersome. Still, for the challenge and scale of this fight, Bayle the Dread is one of the best bosses in Elden Ring, DLC or otherwise.

2) Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame

The fight against Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame is, again, one that many players will miss, but I implore you to find him in the Abyssal Woods. As far as humanoid fights go, Midra has plenty of obvious tells and easily read attacks, giving you opportunities to either punish him or heal. How he can inflict Madness on the player keeps you on edge, which forces you to play cautiously or risk taking huge amounts of damage. Get too cautious though and Midra will start to combo you, made all the worse by the flames that he starts to use in the second phase. There are plenty of opportunities to stagger him, so players who can learn his tells will have a great time fighting this wonderfully memorable boss. The only thing keeping him from the top spot? The first phase just kind of… exists.

1) Messmer the Impaler

It should come as no surprise that the DLC’s poster boy is the best boss of the game. Messmer the Impaler is a thrilling fight from beginning to end. He’s the definition of a tough, yet fair, encounter. His moves all have easy-to-read tells and he’s never aggressively fast, unlike other bosses. Even when he brings out his inner snake for the second phase, it never feels too chaotic, with plenty of opportunities for you to get in hits. He’s not the hardest boss in the game, but that’s arguably a point in his favor since he’s not a boss that feels like an insurmountable challenge or a damage sponge with absurd HP. He’s exactly the kind of boss you want from a FromSoft game—tough, with just the right amount of spectacle, an easy-to-learn pattern, and one that encourages split-second decision-making. Without a doubt, Messmer is the best boss of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is available now.

Top 5 Hardest Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Bosses

If we’re counting all PvP battles, bosses that drop remembrances upon defeat, and numerous “Great Enemies,” there are approximately 78 bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree. Some of these are repeated multiple times, like the Death Knights, but as long as an enemy has a health bar that pops up beneath it when you approach it, then it’s valid for this list. Also, keep in mind that difficulty is subjective, so the bosses on this list are ones that generally give people the most headaches, to the point where we begin to question our sanity. With that said, here are the Top 5 hardest Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree bosses!

5) Needle Knight Leda and Her Allies

Leda is an interesting fight because the difficulty of it is entirely contingent on how many side quests and NPCs you’ve befriended on your quest, which has her fall to the fifth rank in our hardest bosses in Elden Ring list. At the beginning of the DLC, you meet Leda and her allies and slowly learn their motivations and desires once Miquella’s spell breaks. If you’re just barreling through the DLC without bothering to explore, then this fight becomes absolutely brutal as you have to fight against seven opponents PvP style as they’re gradually summoned into the ring. It can be completely overwhelming at times, given each of their unique spells and attacks. However, if you’ve done a handful of quests, then you can reduce the number of enemies significantly and even bolster your own forces. When I fought her, I had three allies and her small squad was reduced down to four. It still led to a thrilling fight that kept me on my toes, but the potential to make this fight a solo blitz is frightening.

4) Rellana Twin Moon Knight

There are only a few mandatory bosses that Shadow of the Erdtree makes you fight, but Rellana may be the first boss to appear like an insurmountable challenge. At first, the rhythm of her twin blades may be hard to grasp. But with enough practice, you’ll be able to weave in between her strikes to land some blows of your own. It’s when the second phase starts that all sense of balance gets thrown out the window as she launches two different elemental attacks your way with absurd speed and range. At times, these moves feels next to impossible to avoid, leading to numerous deaths for many players. It might even feel like certain moves are almost impossible to avoid, like her Twin Moon attack that sends two moons slamming into the ground with a shockingly large AOE. If you gave up at Rellana, I wouldn’t blame you. But it’s better to learn how to parry her fast attacks and jump her special moon ability, instead.

3) Commander Gaius

There are bosses with balanced difficulty, and then there’s Commander Gaius. Gaius one of the few bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree that I would call unfair. Between his charge attacks that start the moment you enter his arena, his fast-paced combos, trying to avoid damage from Gaius is a tall order. You may think that, due to the large outdoor arena, you should use Torrent for the fight. But that’s a trap that will lead to your untimely demise. Gaius is too mobile for a boss with such a small hitbox, and he can easily kill you in a combo that requires you to not only dodge his lance but his boar’s charge, kicks, and headbutts, too.

Add in some blatant input reading, and you have a boss that feels cheap at best and broken at worst. The five Scadutree Fragments that he was guarding sure would have been useful to grab beforehand…

2) Bayle the Dread

There have been plenty of dragon fights in FromSoft games, but the battle against Bayle the Dread is arguably the best dragon fight in the series and probably the best fight in the DLC, clutching him the fourth spot in our hardest bosses in Elden Ring list. And the buildup to his arena adds to the atmosphere and anticipation.

Bayle’s massive size and fierce attacks can decimate your health if you’re not prepared, but like most dragons, they’re all easy to read and easy to dodge. The challenge is hitting Bayle in the head to do reasonable damage. Because he only has one leg, you can’t take many cheap shots from behind.

The second phase is a natural evolution of the first, adding in more flaming lightning strikes in a fairly large arena with a stunning transformation sequence. The main thing to keep in mind with Bayle is that he looks intimidating, but keep your cool, and you’ll realize that he’s no different from most other dragons. Also, summon Igon for some of the best lines in the game.

1) Promised Consort Radahn

And then there’s Radahn.

I don’t think it’s a surprise to call Radahn the hardest boss in Shadow of the Erdtree. The first phase is tough, with his large, sweeping attacks and gravity magic allowing him to control the pace of the fight. Getting hit even once might even one shot you, depending on how many Scadutree Fragments you have.

But the second phase, when Miquella decides to join in, is beyond cruel. While his attack patterns are mostly the same, the sheer speed Radahn gains, combined with his relentless AOE attacks and new combos designed to stun lock you, is FromSoft going too far. Radahn and Miquella creates a boss that is most certainly difficult but hardly fun to fight against. Yes, you’re fighting a literal god, but with how relentless his onslaught of attacks are, it’s too hard at points. Even veterans are finding him impossible to beat. There is no shame in using whatever tricks you have to win. And the first thingt you should do is get as many Scadutree Fragments as possible.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is available now.

What Happened In Demon Slayer Season 4’s Finale?

Before getting started with a recap of “The Hashira Unite,” looking back on the season, if there was one thing that was abundently clear, it’s that even though this season was an arguably shorter one given its eight-episode length. One of the biggest criticisms of the season was its bland padding. Most, if not all of the episodes were padded out with either lame moments of character development or with dramatic flourishes meant to show off the animation budget. It made the season a frustrating watch, but “The Hashira Unite” is probably the most frustrating for how it pads out virtually every moment.

The episode runs 40 minutes, but the first three minutes are spent playing the same dramatic montage of Muzan walking through the Ubuyashiki compound from the end of last week’s double-length episode. After that, Muzan and Ubuyashiki begin to have a conversation wherein Muzan repeatedly voices his disdain for Ubuyashiki and the Demon Slayers.

It’s here that Ubuyashiki reveals that Muzan and him are actually distant relatives. Muzan has existed for over 1,000 years and was an ancestor of the Ubuyashiki family. Due to their connection with Muzan, they’ve been cursed with poor health that has resulted in their children being born frail and sickly. If they didn’t die during their infancy, then it’s a certainty that no one would live beyond 30. Given how the manga – and one would assume the anime – explains Muzan’s origins, the nature of this “curse” is somewhat puzzling, but that’s neither here nor there. In any case, a priest an ancestor of Ubuyashiki visited said that if the family tried to fight against the demons, the curse would be lifted, which led to the foundation of the Demon Slayer Corps.

Muzan doesn’t care about any of this. He feels no emotional connection to Ubuyashiki other than disgust and all that Ubuyashiki’s speech is doing is boring him. Ubuyashiki then asks Muzan what his ultimate goal is, which he guesses is eternal life. Muzan doesn’t refute this and says that once he finds Nezuko, he’ll be able to walk in the sun again and gain true immortality and he’ll wait as long as he needs until he finds her. Muzan’s enhanced smell indicates that Ubuyashiki already smells like a corpse, so Muzan also tells him that he’s already dead.

To his credit, Ubuyashiki admits that he knows he’s not long for this world and has only survived as long as he did because of his hatred for Muzan and his death ultimately doesn’t matter. The Demon Slayers Corps will still fight and hunt down demons regardless of if Ubuyashiki is alive or not. He does remark that it’ll only increase the drive and passion of the Hashira to kill Muzan, with Ubuyashiki content with the knowledge that when the Hashira kill Muzan, then all demons will die. And with that, as Muzan prepares to end Ubuyashiki’s life, Ubuyashiki detonates a ton of explosives in the mansion, annihilating him and his family in an effort to injure Muzan.

Muzan reforms, but the explosion did a lot of damage to him and delays his regeneration enough for Tamayo to appear and use a Blood Demon Art to immobilize him. As Muzan attempts to absorb this Blood Demon Art, he also absorbs an antidote developed by Tamayo (and most likely Shinobu) that turns demons back into humans. It doesn’t appear to have any immediate effect on him, but his immobility allows Gyomei, who was hiding alongside Shinobu, to use his weapon to decapitate Muzan.

Gyomei reflects back on his time with Ubuyashiki and we learn that Gyomei was the only person who knew the extent of Ubuyashiki’s plan. Ubuyashiki wanted to use himself as bait to lure Muzan out, giving the Demon Slayers the best opportunity to defeat him. Ubuyashiki speculated that if Muzan was as strong as he believed, then decapitating him wouldn’t kill him. The only method to kill Muzan would be to expose him to sunlight, hence Tamayo’s immobilization in an open space like Ubuyashiki Manor. As Muzan’s head begins to grow back, he lashes out at Gyomei, who deflects all of the attacks and confirms Ubuyashiki’s hypothesis that sunlight is the only way to kill Muzan. This isn’t going to be an easy battle anymore. It’s a war of attrition to keep Muzan in place until the sun rises.

By this point, the other Hashira and Tanjiro have made it to Ubuyashiki Manor and see it in flames. Gyomei quickly informs everyone present that Muzan can only be killed by sunlight and everyone launches an all-out assault against Muzan. It’s at this point though that Muzan reveals his hand. Using Nakime’s ability to draw people into another dimension, now known as the Infinity Castle, he summons every Demon Slayer to it. Tonight is the night that either Muzan is killed or the Demon Slayer Corps is eradicated. As every character we’ve known in the Demon Slayer Corps begins to fall into the Castle, Tanjiro calls out to Muzan that he’ll be defeated before the night is out. Muzan fires back that all of the Demon Slayers will die here as a five-minute credit scroll begins to play, ending the season.

And that’s it. Over the course of nearly half an hour of episode runtime, we spent half of it watching Muzan and Ubuyashiki talk, followed by the detonation, Gyomei decapitating Muzan to no avail, and then the Demon Slayers being thrown into the Infinity Castle for the final arc of the season. It’s a remarkably brief synopsis and really makes a lot of this season feel even more pointless. We don’t get any follow-up on Zenitsu’s development (for those who care at least), the amount of actual fight scenes can be counted on one hand, and the season ends on a cliffhanger to tease the trilogy of movies that will conclude the series.

I know I’ve said before that the Swordsmith Village Arc of Demon Slayer was the series at its worst due to it indulging its worst tendencies. The Hashira Training Arc, and “The Hashira Unite” to a lesser extent, is the show at its most pointless. This is a season that could have been summarized in three or four episodes and didn’t need multiple double and triple-length runtimes. Nearly all of this was set up for the series finale, which I suppose is okay, but that just makes the Hashira Training Arc feel like the bland vegetables you had to eat before getting to the delicious steak. Even then, given the amount of padding that Demon Slayer is all too eager to indulge in, who can say if those three movies won’t drag things out further with an additional film to formally wrap up the series?

This season was subpar at best, but as has become commonplace in these recaps, I can only hope and pray that the next time we see Demon Slayer, we’ll get back to the stunning action and fast-paced narrative that made me fall in love with the show all those years ago and not the bloated melodramatic series it has become.

And that’s what happened in “The Hashira Unite,” the finale of Demon Slayer’s Hashira Training Arc! Thank you all who read these recaps week after week and I’ll see you next time for the Infinity Castle movies!

As is always the case, this list offers up some recommendations for new and original anime that look promising for one reason or another. While there are plenty of sequels coming out this summer that are worth watching, like the highly anticipated second seasons for Tower of God and Oshi no Ko, this list is solely about the new shows that you probably haven’t heard of that should be on your list. There are some shows I wish I could talk about, like The Elusive Samurai, but given how that show has not been picked up as of this writing, I won’t be able to talk about it here.

With that being said, here are our most anticipated anime of Summer 2024!

Suicide Squad Isekai

With the first three episodes of this show already released on Max and Hulu, starting the summer 2024 anime season off with a bang, I can say with certainty that Suicide Squad Isekai is a pretty entertaining show. It’s not exactly rich on plot, but seeing the Suicide Squad, with members like Harley Quinn and Clayface, thrust into a magical world and set to try and defend it while also trying to do it fast enough so the bombs in their neck don’t explode is fun in just the right ways. The animation is bright and colorful, mostly thanks to the folks at Wit Studio, and after giving its first three episodes a chance, I found the show to be a slick action series that isn’t afraid to have some mindless fun.

Pseudo Harem

There was a time when harem comedies were the go-to genre in the anime community, but their groan-worthy tropes put off a lot of audiences. Therein lies the twist with Pseudo Harem — it’s a harem anime … but what if the entire harem was just one girl?

In Pseudo Harem, the story follows a teenager named Eiji Kitahama, a high-schooler who always wished to have a harem. Enter Rin Nanakura, a junior in the drama club who offers to use her acting abilities to pretend to be every girl inside said harem. Rin claims that this is to help practice her acting chops, but the reality is that she has a crush on Eiji and is going to use this as an opportunity to get closer to him. It’s a cute little concept that can lead to a lot of hijinx. Plus, given that this is based on a six-volume manga, this show will almost certainly tell a complete story by the end of it, which is a rarity in the world of anime. Pseudo Harem has potential, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Pseudo Harem is set to premiere early this summer on July 5, 2024.

Plus-Sized Elf

Alright look, you all trusted me with Gushing Over Magical Girls and that turned out to be a sleeper hit in the winter. Trust me on this.

In a season filled with seven new or returning isekai series, a reverse isekai-like Plus-Sized Elf will satisfy that crowd as well as possibly deliver a solid gag comedy series. The central premise is that a bunch of magical creatures like elves and mermaids have entered our world and got fat from enjoying the food here, so comedy ensues as they try to lose weight and interact with one another.

Outside of the very obvious fanservice, which you’ll either be all for or against, there actually is a solid amount of dietary knowledge the show has about eating healthy and exercising properly. Yes, it’s in the guise of watching a bunch of voluptuous anime women be … voluptuous anime women, but the comedy elements are in place, and there’s a good chance that Plus-Sized Elf can deliver on its expectations.

Plus-Sized Elf will premiere this July.

Related: Our Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2024

My Deer Friend Nokotan

Have you ever fallen asleep watching Toonami and woke up during Adult Swim only to see the most bizarre and out-there comedies imaginable? Previously we’ve had anime like Ghost Stories and Pop Team Epic fill that void, but now it’s My Deer Friend Nokotan’s turn to make us question our sanity.

The show is centered on Torako, a model high-school student who has to deal with a new transfer student, Nokotan. Nokotan has deer antlers and is flocked by live-action deer. Why are they live-action? I have no idea, but that’s only the beginning of the questions I have about the show. This is a show where logic comes to die and animation styles change on a whim. This feels like a mad experiment of just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. For some, that sounds like an unfocused nightmare. To me, it makes me eager to see just what kind of insanity Wit Studio can throw at us on a weekly basis.

Another early summer anime, My Deer Friend Nokotan will premiere on July 7th, 2024.

Mayonaka Punch

From Shu Honma, the director of criminally underrated Ya Boy Kongming, and animated by P.A. Works, comes the story of two girls who are trying to find success on a platform that is YouTube in all but name. It’s a tricky business, especially given how fickle YouTube is, but they have a goal of reaching one million subscribers, and to do so they’ll have to find bizarre and eye-catching ways to drive up their hits and views.

Mayonaka Punch is an enigma of a show. Outside of the director, studio, and a trailer, barely anything is known about it given that this is a completely original anime. I’ve always been interested in finding something completely new to showcase, and Mayonaka Punch looks to be an exciting comedy that should stand out from its peers. Granted, there are a ton of other comedies coming out this summer with potential but Mayonaka Punch deserves at least a three-episode watch.

Mayonaka Punch will premiere on July 8, 2024.

And those are our most anticipated anime of summer 2024! Many of the above shows will be available to stream this summer on CrunchyRoll.

Between seminal works like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, FLCL, Gurren Lagaan, and of course, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gainax was an institution. They pumped out some all time classics and were defined by their absolute love of the weirdness that was anime. And yet, their closure wasn’t a surprise in the slightest to me. In an era where more and more anime titles were being pumped out each season, Gainax became a relic of a bygone era.

While it may be somewhat easy to just point at one thing and say that was the sole reason why Gainax collapsed, the truth is a lot more complicated. I do think most of their problems stem from one singular event, but even then, there wasn’t a singular moment it all went downhill for the company. Then again, as someone who has followed anime for most of my life, it’s not too hard to see how Gainax slowly died. Here’s the story of a company that started off as a passion project between a group of devout animators, only to eventually lose that drive and become a walking corpse.

Make no mistake, when Gainax began, it was full of nothing but drive. The original founders of Gainax, before forming the company, all cut their teeth making shorts that violated all kinds of copyright laws but they made them because they just wanted to create anime. Their most famous short from this time was probably the short they made for DAICON IV, which illegally sampled Electric Light Orchestra and featured an anime girl fighting Darth Vader and more or less forced their way into the market. But that’s just the kind of company they were. They didn’t care about measly copyright laws because they had a passion to just make solid anime.

Because of the quality of their animation for these shorts, they were able to establish Gainax in 1985 as their own company. For the better part of a decade though, they were in flux. Sometimes they would create profitable works, like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and Gunbuster, but other times they would produce commercial failures like Wings of Honneamise, despite how nearly all of their titles were critically acclaimed.

By the mid 90s, Gainax was on the verge of shutting down. The studio needed money to stay afloat and needed a big hit. Then Neon Genesis Evangelion happened and you better believe that Gainax made bank off of it. Hideaki Anno, the studio’s founder, apparently didn’t want to make the series at Gainax give how strained the company’s coffers were (something that could easily be seen in the last few episodes of the series). But with Eva’s success, Gainax was ready for a whole new era of production to begin from the ludicrous amount of money they now had.

But with that came a double edged sword. Sure, the company was able to put out a lot of great anime and hire new talent like Hiroyuki Imaishi, a lot of shady corporate dealings were taking place. Thanks to the massive influx of money from Evangelion, the head of the company, Takeshi Sawamura, was arrested for tax fraud due to the money earned from Evangelion. Basically, because Gainax was financially unstable in the early 90s and there was no telling how long Evangelion would be profitable, Sawamura saw this as an opportunity to secretly stash some of that money away for a rainy day so to speak in case the company needed it. That’s the charitable reading of the situation, mind you, since the uncharitable one is because Gainax finally had a hit, Sawamure wanted to cash out before the company went belly up when the Eva horse was beaten to death.

Throughout the 2000s, while Gainax was producing critical hits, none of them ever reached the same heights as Evangelion. Titles like Gurren Lagaan and Mahoromatic were successful, but they weren’t Evangelion. In a somewhat lucky stroke of fortune around this time, Anno wanted to remake Evangelion, only this time as a film series. Given how the original series faced production issues, some from budgetary constraints and others from Anno facing several bouts of depression, Anno wanted to create a new version of the series, not dissimilar from what remakes like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood or Hunter X Hunter did. But, in a move that began to spell the end of Gainax, Anno opted to do the remakes at a new company that he would create, a studio called Khara.

Anno opened up a few years ago about why he did this. First of all, he thought that if he did the series at Gainax then all of the artists would just be yes-men to him and not challenge him whatsoever. More importantly, due to the heads of the studio’s previously shady behavior, as well as the fact that most of the animators working at Gainax were hardly getting a salary, he wanted to ensure that the staff working on the film would receive fair compensation for their work.

And with that, Anno was gone. Gainax would still profit from some of the merchandise produced in relation to Evangelion, but Khara would get the royalties. Combine that with a string of failures like *checks notes* The Mystical Archives of Dantalian and talent like Imaishi leaving to create companies like Studio Trigger, Gainax was in a pinch. They were back to being unprofitable and producing fewer titles than ever before. By the early 2010s, anime streaming became more prevalent around the global and Gainax simply didn’t have the manpower, talent, or money to keep up.

And so came the begging. Gainax begged Khara/Anno for money in order to keep the company afloat, which Khara did, only for Gainax to then sell off the rights to many of the series like FLCL to other companies, as well as selling original concept art, storyboards, and production materials of their earlier series for profit. This resulted in Khara suing Gainax for not paying back the initial loan, which Anno was originally going to ignore until he learned about the the production materials being sold off. Plus, the negative publicity that Gainax was receiving from everything happening at the time was damaging the Eva brand, which only reaffirmed Anno’s actions to make it clear that Khara was now the home of Evangelion, not Gainax. Khara won that lawsuit, plunging Gainax even further into debt.

By this point, Gainax was hardly producing anime. The last series they ever made was in 2015 and it was an anime collaboration with Suburu of all companies. Shock of all shocks, it was a financial failure and Gainax struggled to find funding ever since. They made a second company called Fukushima Gainax and sold it off to another company for quick profit, but without a steady stream of money coming in from anime productions and merchandise, the money dried up. The death blow came in 2019 when a member of the board of directors had “indecent acts” against an aspiring voice actress, permanently blackening the name of the company in any investor’s eyes. And from there, it was only a matter of time until they declared bankruptcy.

Obviously, there’s a lot of things that I didn’t really get into here, but understanding Gainax’s collapse isn’t simple. This was a company that struggled to survive even in its early days, hit it big, then slowly began to make a lot of shortsighted and greedy decisions that ruined the goodwill that it had earned in the anime community. Of course, not making an anime in nearly a decade definitely didn’t help matters, but that was only systemic of the larger instability the company eventually developed. However, if you were to ask me what the really caused the death of Gainax, it all comes back to Evangelion.

It’s hard to not look at everything that happened to Gainax and not trace everything back to Eva. I don’t begrudge or hate Evangelion – it was the hit that Gainax needed to survive – but it’s success led to the numerous poor decisions to try to replicate its success. It’s what made Anno leave Gainax. It’s what led to Gainax selling off production materials and cutting off the financial support they needed from Khara. It’s what led to the tax fraud. All of their problems, in one way or another, all come back to Anno’s magnum opus.

Gainax certainly has a place in anime history, but its relevancy was almost nonexistent even a decade ago. The passion that made Gainax the hub of animation that it was still lives on in studios like Khara and Trigger as they become more and more preoccupied with financial gain. When the quality titles dried up, that was it. Their last notable hit was Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt in 2010, but even then it was a polarizing title that not everyone loved. Gainax has a place in anime history, but that time passed decades ago. It’s not shocking at all to me that Gainax died. It’s been a walking corpse for a while.

What Happened in Suicide Squad ISEKAI’s Premiere?

The show begins with Harley Quinn and the Joker on a rampage. They killed a whole host of hostages and are driving around what we can only assume is Gotham City, destroying anyone in their way. Joker rants about his desire to create a new world, one that Harley is all too eager to help create if it means she can spend time with him. A brief pitstop at a bar turns into an ambush, however, and the two are separated while Katana captures Harley in a surprisingly low-key fight.

While this is happening, Amanda Waller is inside an A.R.G.U.S. facility attempting to open up what she calls a “Gate.” She’s successful, and after a six-month time skip, Waller is looking to send people into the Gate. Of course, she opts to send the Suicide Squad. This is apparently the first time the Squad is assembled in this continuity, and the team consists of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Clayface, and Peacemaker. Waller says that there’s a fifth member joining them, but she doesn’t get a chance to say who that is.

What she does say to them is the general premise of the team. They’re all criminals who are going to receive a reduced sentence if they are able to accomplish a task, and if they fail or don’t check in remotely for 72 hours, the bombs that are implanted in their necks will detonate and kill them. With that, Waller gives the team their first mission – to create and maintain footholds into a newly discovered region. With that generally vague and complicated task set forward to them, the Squad knows their mission, but everyone, especially Deadshot, begins to complain about it.

They don’t have much time to argue, though, as the plane that’s transporting them is shot down, and the Squad learns that the land they’ve been sent to is actually a magical kingdom removed from their reality. Clayface instantly realizes that they’ve been isekai’d – or transported to another world – and jumps at the opportunity to relish this new environment. That is after they deal with a battalion of orcs that targeted them. With the help of the fifth member, King Shark, who decided to eat a few of the orcs, the Squad kills most of the orcs, and they’re approached by a group of knights. The knights can’t understand what the Squad is saying due to the language barriers, so they decide to arrest the dangerous people who just killed an entire battalion of orcs they were struggling against.

In the aftermath of the battle in Suicide Squad ISEKAI, we cut to the queen of the kingdom the orcs were fighting against. While the advisors are sycophantic and willing to praise the queen for every decision, the head knight who was present at the fight, Clive, says that the queen’s focus should be on trying to end the famine that is afflicting the kingdom. The queen quickly ignores Clive, instead saying that her focus should be on destroying the attacking Empire and how pathetic it is that a strange group of nobodies (aka the Suicide Squad) were able to beat the orcs when her trained knights couldn’t. Meanwhile, the princess, Fiona, is taken aback by Harley since the two of them are virtually identical and asks Clive to bring the Squad to her since she sees them as the best chance to stop the Empire’s invasion.

Meanwhile, now imprisoned once again, the Squad realizes that with no way for them to contact Waller, the bombs in their necks will detonate in a little over two days. With that new panic set in, Clayface is able to slip through the bars to free them, but given how he’s an overdramatic and vain narcissist, as well as the loud bickering between Deadshot and Harley, the guards are almost immediately made aware of his attempted escape and hit him with some magical handcuffs that restrict his abilities. After a brief brawl that results in the Squad being put into solitary confinement, they encounter someone else imprisoned who can speak their language – Rick Flag. Flag knows instantly that all five of them are a part of the Suicide Squad. How? He used to be the head of it.

This incarnation of the Squad isn’t actually the first team to enter this magical realm. Flag led the first group a few months ago, but once the original version of the Squad arrived, they abandoned Flag and left to join the Empire, which gave them all high-ranking positions in their military. This is why Waller decided to implant bombs in this Squad’s neck – to prevent them from going rogue like the first group. Flag got captured, and he strikes a deal with Harley and the gang – if they can break him out of jail, Flag can take them to the Gate and reset the timers in their bombs since that should theoretically be within range of Waller’s signal.

Related: What Are the Suicide Squad ISEKAI Opening and Outro Songs?

Given that Clayface is still handcuffed and unable to shapeshift, the team manages to wake up King Shark, who had been napping after his orc snack. Still hungry, Flagg convinces King Shark that a bunch of delicious food is outside of his cell, so he breaks it down and is able to also free Clayface. With Clayface now free and somehow able to manipulate all clay-based matter, the Squad manages to stage a prison break, complete with a rainbow light show and dance number. With the prison now under their control, the Squad is content to just drink and relax with their new convict buddies, much to Flag’s ire, but it’s at this point Clive arrives to bring them to Fiona.

Clive is hostile to the team in Suicide Squad ISEKAI, made all the worse by Deadshot repeatedly insulting his balding head. However, Flagg was able to learn some of the language of the kingdom and attempts to negotiate with Clive. This mostly results in Flagg calling Clive a stank-ass, but Clive brings the Suicide Squad to the queen only because Fiona asked him to. The queen casts a language spell that allows them to communicate, and it’s at this point that Flagg reveals how the Empire’s generals are all former Suicide Squad members. The queen says that all this proves how incapable of a leader Flag is, which leads to his imprisonment yet again.

Peacemaker says that they’ll fight for the queen if they’re given the ability to travel throughout the kingdom, which she accepts. They’re then brought by Clive to a fort that is under the control of the Empire and guarded by an army of lycans. These lycans are strong, but Harley points out that they seem almost devoid of all sensibility and reason. They’re fighting despite serious injuries, they’re not communicating, and these appear to be under mind control. Deadshot finds this familiar and says that this sounds like the work of a friend he knew in prison – Ratcatcher.

Clayface, who looks a lot like Muzan Kibutsuji, then tells the team that since entering this fantasy world, he’s gained minor magical abilities, like being able to somewhat control all forms of clay. With this info in mind, they sneak their way into the castle despite Clive’s wishes and confront Ratcatcher. While Deadshot is all too happy to say hello to his old friend, Ratcatcher absolutely hates Deadshot and wants nothing to do with him. While Deadshot thought he was being friendly to him in the slammer, making Ratcatcher watch rat porn and eat rotten cheese isn’t friendly behavior, so Ratcatcher sicks some lycans on them.

Thanks to some quick thinking by Clayface and Deadshot, the Squad is almost able to kill Ratcatcher, but he’s saved at the last second by Katana. It seems like she was a part of the first Suicide Squad and is now loyal to the Empire. She manages to escape with Ratcatcher and chastises him for his failure. Meanwhile, despite destroying the fort they promised to take, the Squad calls their mission a success and prepares for their next adventure.

As far as premieres go, this was a pretty enjoyable, if harmless, one. The animation and character dynamics are all fun, but the general humor and plot feel somewhat conventional, not just as a Suicide Squad story but as an isekai. I like how the premiere never takes itself seriously, which is a fun change of pace, giving the show more time for some action setpieces, but it does make the overarching plot feel a bit slow. I’m interested in seeing where Suicide Squad ISEKAI goes, even if it is just for some mindless dumb fun.

Suicide Squad ISEKAI streams weekly on Max and Hulu.

How is Scadu Altus Pronounced?

If you’re seeing the word Scadu for the first time, there’s a solid chance that you’re pronouncing the word like “ska-doo.” To be fair, that’s a fair estimation given the spelling and fantastical setting of Elden Ring, which features characters with names like Messmer, Miquella, and Thollier. However, that would be the incorrect way to pronounce it, as the word “scadu” is actually fairly common — albeit from an old tongue.

The word “scadu” that is used in Elden Ring traces its roots back to the Old English pronunciation of the word “shadow”. In Old English, what we now know today as “shadow” was spelled “sceadwe”. “Sceadwe” evolved into “shadwe” in the Middle Ages thanks to associations with the word “shade,” eventually leading to the modern-day spelling of “shadow”. Granted, there are a few different regional dialects of how “shadow” was originally spelled, with the Dutch writing it as “schaduw” and the Saxons writing it as “skado”, but the meaning and pronunciation haven’t changed.

To say “scadu”, a person would simply say it like we normally say shadow. In “scadu”, the “sc” creates a “sh” sound, much in the same way that “precious” or “vicious” have a “sh” sound in them, while the “du” sounds much like how we would say the word “owe.” When you combine them together, we get “Sh-A-Dowe”, aka, how most English speakers would say “shadow.”

With that in mind, the correct way to pronounce “Scadu Altus” is “Shadow Altus.” The Old English origins make sense given the focus on medieval imagery and iconography that Elden Ring appropriates for its setting. Just be glad it doesn’t go full Old English with all of its words, or we would be referring to yellow as “geoluhread.”

And that’s how you correctly pronounce Scadu Altus in Elden Ring.

Elden Ring and its DLC Shadow of the Erdtree are now available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms.