This fifth season of 'Game of Thrones' seems to be something of a transitional season, setting things up for future events and sees many changes for some of its characters. In King’s Landing Cersei continues her attempt to retain power making some decisions that will cause events to slip out of her control while in the north John Snow also has trouble with the new responsibilities he gains. Meanwhile Arya arrives in Braavos to begin her service to the Faceless God whilst Tyrion and Verus attempt to travel to Daenerys’ court where the Mother of Dragons herself is having trouble controlling her subjects and her children.

While probably a little more low-key than some of the previous seasons, this fifth season of 'Game of Thrones' nonetheless remains thoroughly absorbing and entertaining. As I said before, this season seems to be more about setting things up for the future than anything with the overall series plot not advancing all that much while the personal plotlines of the various characters advance far more. There is a little action in the series with the battle in episode 8 ‘Hardhome’ being great and probably makes that episode my favourite of the season. Of the various character arcs in the season, Arya’s and Tyrion’s probably remain my favourite with Daenerys’ being a close third.

The CGI of the series remains very good for a TV series and although some of the fight choreography is a little lacking, most of it is very good as well.

For special features, the box set includes the usual commentaries and deleted scenes as well as four or five interesting featurettes.

Overall this season was quite entertaining and leaves things in a very interesting place for the sixth. I feel that season five is worth a good four, if not four and a half stars.

This second volume of 'One-Punch Man' continues the entertaining story of the highly overpowered Saitama as he continues to be a hero for fun. The volume begins with Saitama and his new and unwanted student, the cyborg Genos, tracking down the source of the creatures that had attacked them, the House of Evolution, only to run into its most powerful creation. The second half of the book sees Saitama deal with a group of terrorists as well as coming to an awful realisation.

This volume continues to have a somewhat episodic, monster-of-the-week nature to it but it is still fun to watch Saitama deal with the situations that he is put in. The interactions between Saitama and Genos are quite entertaining and the volume also sees the introduction of a couple of new recurring characters to the series, the hero Mumen Rider and the ninja for hire Speed-O’-Sound Sonic. While Mumen Rider doesn’t get much focus until a bit later in the series Sonic has a great introduction that shows off how powerful he as and has a very humorous ending.

The artwork for the series remains very good with Sonic’s action scenes in particular being particularly good. The translation of the series also remains relatively good (keeping Mumen Rider to keep the Kamen Rider parody rather than using License-less Rider as I have sometimes seen it translated as) and includes some very brief translation notes at the end.

The volume leaves things in an interesting position that will advance the plot a little with the introduction of the organisation that oversees professional heroes. Overall this second volume is worth a solid four stars.

The 'Deathworld' trilogy follows the professional gambler Jason dinAlt as he travels to some of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy. This omnibus edition collects all three Deathworld books in a single volume with each of the books detailing Jason’s time on one of these planets.

The first book sees Jason hired by natives of the world of Pyrrus to acquire a lot of money using his psionically enhanced gambling skills before travelling to the planet itself where everything is trying to kill humanity. This was a very entertaining, if short, story that does a marvellous job of developing the world of Pyrrus, its society and its deadly inhabitants. Unfortunately, due to the length of the narrative, there is little time to develop the characters in the story beyond the main characters Jason, Mana and Kirk. As well as this the plot could have used a bit more time to develop as some events do seem to happen a bit quickly but this is a relatively minor complaint.

The second story in the omnibus sees Jason kidnaped from Pyrrus by a religious fanatic who wants to put him on trial for crimes that even the planet he committed them on don’t want him to go on trial for. Jason’s attempt to escape results in him and his captor stranded on a primitive planet where slaves and slave-holding are the norm. This second story is a bit of a change in pace as it is the society that poses the threat rather than the wildlife with Jason forced to use his wit and knowledge to survive rather than his Pyrrus honed physical abilities. While I think I enjoyed this first story slightly more than I did this second one, it was still entertaining to read and was quite interesting due to Jason having to put more thought into his plans and survive due to his intelligence. There are only two real problems that I have with this story. The first is that the narrative is quite repetitive while the second is that Mikah, the person who initially kidnaps Jason, is very annoying and Jason is far more forgiving of him than he really should be.

The third and final story of the trilogy sees Jason and a band of Pyrrans travel to the world of Felicity to create a mining settlement on the mineral rich world, the only problem being that the barbaric natives are aggressive to the extreme and hostile to the idea of permanent settlement. This is a very entertaining story that is better than the second but probably still not quite as good as the first. Jason’s plans for the planet are quite interesting and the help of the Pyrrans are nice elements that stop the story being a repeat of the previous two and the action scenes are entertaining. The main problem with this final story though is that the ending of the story is somewhat abrupt and could have used a little more build-up.

The stories are relatively well written with the author having a relatively easy to read style. The action scenes are easy to follow and, although the narrative tends to be a little short, the stories themselves are all very enjoyable to read. Of the three stories, the original is the best but the other two are well worth reading as well for anyone who is a fan of classic sci-fi. Overall this omnibus as a whole is worth a strong four and a half stars.

In the aftermath of the Second World War and the ‘death’ of Captain America, Peggy Carter is has become an Agent for America’s secretive Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) but finds herself underappreciated due to the attitudes towards women at the time. When Howard Stark is accused of treason and goes on the run however, he recruits Peggy to help clear his name with the help of his butler Jarvis while her colleagues in the SSR attempt to bring Stark to justice.

This two disc set includes all eight episodes of this entertaining but unfortunately short series. The series has the usual mix of action and comedy that you would expect from a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the writing of the series as a whole also being of good quality and I personally see it as being slightly better than 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' with a far greater feeling of cohesion. The action of the series is well choreographed, the period elements of the series are very well done and the special effects are generally great for a TV series. The only real problem that I have with the series is that the lighting can be a bit poor in places forcing me to raise the brightness of my TV at points to see what was going on.

All the actors involved in the series gave very nice performances throughout the series with Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper doing great, reprising their roles as Peggy Carter and Howard Stark respectively. James D'Arcy’s performance as Edwin Jarvis and Enver Gjokaj’s role as Daniel Sousa are also done very nicely.

For special features there is a bloopers reel which is as amusing as most of the Marvel bloopers.

'Agent Carter' was a very entertaining series with a great plot and was very entertaining to watch and overall I feel it deserves a low five stars.

'The Land of the Green Man' is an interesting book that explores the countryside of the British Isles and the folklore connected with them. The book retells a number of tales of the supernatural, how these tales fit into the landscape as well as exploring some of modern media that have been inspired by these myths and legends.

While I am a great fan of folklore and mythology, I have never really explored British folklore all that much and I found this book to be a good introduction to the subject. The book travels the length and breadth of the British Isles visiting from the Zennor in Cornwall to the stone circles of Shetland. The book also includes a map, on the inside of both the front and rear covers, of all the major locations mentioned. The book is split into six chapters, each exploring the legends associated with a different subject such as Lust & Love and Continuity & Change. I found all these chapters to be interesting and fun to read with the authors writing style leading to an easy narrative to follow. The main problem that I had with this book was that it doesn’t really go into any great detail about some of the stories, sometimes giving only a brief overview of the story and how it relates to others of a similar type.

This was an interesting book to read, even if it is a little basic in some details. It is easy to dip in the book and I am seriously considering visiting many of the places mentioned in the book after reading about them. Overall I would probably give this book a solid four stars and would recommend it to anyone who is developing an interest in British Folklore.

‘Beyond the Boundary’ (‘Kyoukai no Kanata’) is the story of Akihito Kanbara, a half-human high school student with a glasses fetish, who meets the bespectacled Mirai Kuriyama, a Spirit World Warrior with the ability to control her poisonous blood. The two begin to get to know each other while fighting the monstrous youmu and they begin to realise how similar they are to each other.

While it probably wouldn’t be to everyone’s tastes, ‘Beyond the Boundary’ is a very entertaining series with a sweet story, nice humour and some very well done action sequences. The show is based on an ongoing series of light novels of the same name but, unlike many such adaptions, the series does manage to have a reasonably good resolution of the plot by the end of the twelfth episode. I haven’t read the original light novels so I don’t know how closely the anime follows them but I do know that there are a couple of anime original characters added to the plot but they are fitted in relatively well. The plot of the series itself is entertaining, as is the developing relationship between Akihito and Mirai.

The animation for the series is very good and the action sequences in particular being very fluid and entertaining to watch despite not, strictly speaking, being an action series. The DVD collection includes both the Japanese and English version of the series and I must say that the English dub is very good. The dub retains the word sempai and, although the names are in Western order, characters still call each other by their surnames in the Japanese way. All the voices for the characters are performed nicely with none of the voices seeming out of place. Of particular note are Krystal LaPorte as Mirai Kuriyama, Caitlynn French as Sakura Inami and Luci Christian as Akihito’s eccentric mother Yayoi Kanbara who all give great performances.

For special features the collection includes trailers (for ‘Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the dusk sky~’, ‘The Familiar of Zero F’, ‘Magical Warfare’ and the brilliant ‘No Game, No Life’), as well as clean versions of the opening and closing sequences. The collection also includes the ‘Beyond the Boundary Idol Trail!’ ONA shorts but unfortunately doesn’t include the Episode 0 OVA or the ‘Mini Theatre Specials’.

Overall ‘Beyond the Boundary’ is a sweet and entertaining series that is well worth a high four stars.

This twelfth, four disc collection of the 'One Piece anime' contains a further twenty-four episodes (276 to 299) of the greatly entertaining series. The episodes in this collection include some very nice action, as well as the usual humour and some nicely emotional moments as well. This is also the point that the series drops the end credits animation in favour of an extended opening credits sequence. One minor problem I have found with the collection however is that the episode list inside the case is slightly wrong as to which episodes are on which disc (they are all still in order though).

The first three episodes of this collection finish off telling the story of Robin’s heart-breaking background, revealing why she is being hunted by the World Government and showing the power of a Buster Call. The final of these episodes sees the action return to the present as well with the Straw Hat Pirates showing just how far they are willing to go for one of their friends. This is probably my favourite part of the collection with Robin’s emotional backstory being one of my favourite of the crew. The declaration of war at the end is also one of my favourite parts of the series as a whole.

The next five episodes of the collection are flashbacks for the various members of the Straw Hat Pirates, each including a comedy short at the end. These are relatively entertaining episodes and it is interesting just how much the animation has improved over the course of the series. The comedy shorts are also quite entertaining with such things as Chopper-Man and What if the Straw Hats were middle aged women.

The next seven episodes return to the main plot with the Straw Hats engaging the assassins of CP9 in an effort to rescue Robin. This section of the series sees some great action as the Straw Hats are pushed to the limit to defeat the toughest opponents that they have yet faced with some very interesting abilities on show. The action here is very enjoyable with the usual comedy thrown in as well. The highlight of this section of the collection has to be the fight between Chopper and Kumadori

The following two episodes see the return of the Boss Luffy feudal Japan filler which are always entertaining.

The final eight episodes of the set continue the fight against CP9 with the beginning of one of the best fights in the entire series, Luffy vs. Rob Lucci, and also includes Spandam making a great mistake. The battles against CP9 continue in this final section with some great action once again as even Nami gets to show what she is made of.

The animation of the episodes in this collection is generally as good as usual for the series, although there are some rough moments here and there. The main problem with these episodes is that the series was still catching up with the events of the manga at the time so there are a lot of repetitions as well as some scenes being overly drawn out. The English dub of the series is as good as it always is with Stephanie Young in particular doing a great job of voicing Robin’s mother Olvia. The original Japanese version is included as well of course.

For special features the collection includes the usual clean opening and closing songs, commentaries and behind the scenes featurettes.

Overall this was another brilliant instalment of the 'One Piece' anime that is well worth a full five stars.

As Peter continues to get used to his new position as a CEO he helps the new Ms. Marvel confront Doctor Minerva while Silk looks for a new place and a new look. In the year 2099 however, Superior Spider-Man Otto Octavius is lost in time when he discovers that powerful beings are hunting the Spider-Men and Women of the multiverse and so attempts to create an army of Spiders to combat them.

This second volume of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' is another entertaining instalment of the series that begins the Spider-Verse storyline that was what got me interested in starting to read the series in the first place. The book is a very enjoyable read with some very nice action presented with some brilliantly dynamic artwork. The time and dimension hopping nature of the story also shows some very nice character and world design such as Assassin Spider-Man and Spider-Cyborg. I had been meaning to read the Superior Spider-Man series at some point and this book has only increased this desire as much of the action of this book takes place during the events of Superior Spider-Man #19, I didn’t feel too lost though so it is possible to enjoy the book without much prior knowledge of the previous series.

This was another very entertaining instalment of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' that sets things up nicely for the Spider-Verse story in the next volume. Overall this volume is easily worth four and a half to five stars and I am very much looking forward to the next instalment.

When regular schoolgirl Illyasviel von Einzbern gets tricked into becoming a magic girl by the talking stick Magical Ruby she is drawn into the world of magic and battles. Illya must now collect the mysterious Class Cards by fighting against the manifestations of the Heroic Spirits that they represent alongside fellow magic girl Miyu and supported by the Magi Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt.

This set includes all ten episodes of the first season of 'Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya', as well as the OVA. The series is an adaption of the manga of the same name that takes place in an alternate magic girl version of the 'Fate/stay night' universe that is a little lighter than the original series but still includes a few dark elements here and there. It is also considered by Kinoko Nasu, author of the original 'Fate/stay night' visual novel, to be the Illya route. This first season does a relatively good job of mixing the slice of life, action, fanservice, yuri and humour of the series, something later series struggled with due to trying to pad things out. The anime does a reasonable job of adapting the source material even if it does leave out a little foreshadowing and adds some things here and there.

One of the notable things about this series is that it gives a lot of 'Fate/stay night' characters their first outing in an anime with Rin’s rival Luviagelita Edelfelt, the Kaleidosticks Magical Ruby and Magical Sapphire from the 'Fate/hollow ataraxia' visual novel, an alternate version of Saber and (only a cameo in this first series) a certain a redheaded Enforcer of the Mage Association amongst others all being animated for the first time. In fact the only people with any significant number of lines at this point of the series, except Illya’s friends and Miyu, are from part of the 'Fate' franchise.

The animation of the series is generally excellent with some truly wonderful action sequences whenever things get serious. The battle in episode six in particular is not only one of my favourite fights from the 'Fate' franchise but probably one of my favourite fights in any anime. On the downside there are a few moments where the animation leaves something to be desired, such as the poor CGI when Berserker was bound in the final episode but the series then went on to more than make up for that with the animation for the final attack which was brilliant.

The DVD contains both the Japanese and English version of the soundtrack with the Japanese being the default option. Personally I would say that the original Japanese is far better than the English version due to the Japanese keeping the same cast from previous Fate series whereas the English version has a new cast. In respect to the English cast most of them gave reasonable, if unspectacular, performances with only Allison Sumrall’s performance as Taiga Fujimura sounding somewhat wrong (I feel she sounded too old for the character). The best of the English voices had to be Joanne Bonasso and Molly Searcy as Magical Ruby and Sapphire respectively, who I quickly came to like very much.

As well as the OVA, the DVD contains a trio of trailers and clean versions of the opening and ending animations. Unfortunately the DVD doesn’t include the short specials that go with the series which is a shame.

While it definitely won’t be to everyone’s tastes, I find the 'Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya' to be very entertaining with this first season being the best of the three that have been made at this point. I feel that this season is easily worth a full five stars.

This first collected edition of the 2014 'Amazing Spider-Man' series collects issues one to six and seems like a great place to start for those relatively new to Marvel such as myself (this is only the second Marvel graphic novel that I have read). The story sees Peter Parker get a new start after months of having his body taken over by Doc Ock. Peter now finds himself head of his own company but as Spider-Man he discovers that Ock has considerably ruined his reputation and he must now win back the trust of the populous and the other heroes. While getting back into the swing of things Spider-Man also discovers that he wasn’t the only one to gain powers from the radioactive spider that bit him and his reaction to this sets in motion events that could spell disaster for both of them.

This book was a very entertaining read with some great dynamic action as well as some nice humour and an interesting plot. There is enough of a recap of previous events that someone new to the series, such as myself, shouldn’t feel too lost but it has intrigued me enough to go back and read the 'Superior Spider-Man' series that precedes this one as the events seems quite interesting. For villains, the story sees Electro and Black Cat team up to take revenge on Spider-Man for events that happened while Ock was in charge and they work quite well (although I have read online that many people don’t like Black Cats change in character much). The new character introduced in this book, Silk, seems quite interesting and I will definitely be looking forward to seeing how she develops.

The book also includes an amusing 'How My Stuff Works' comic strip, beautiful textless cover art and some concept art.

Overall this was an entertaining start to the series and I will defiantly continue reading. I feel the book is easily worth a good four stars.