It’s a tale as old as time: throughout a new wave of anime seasons, one you’ve never heard of catches your attention with near unanimous acclaim from everyone who’s looked its direction. This once happened to me with Jujutsu Kaisen. Then, with Blue Box. Now, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has finally presented itself to me, after much vouching from several close friends. I’m happy to report that Frieren has passed the test with flying colors. This beauty of this series cannot be understated, and here’s why it’s important for you to catch up before its third season premieres in October of next year.

Frieren presents itself as another anime with RPG elements following a party of various classes on a quest. However, the important plot beats lie in the characters’ interactions with each other and how they both learn, the pacing showing both sides of this growth. The party the series follows is actually the mage Frieren’s second party, following her first whom she accompanied to slay the Demon King. As we’re shown throughout her travels with the second party, there was much about humanity Frieren took for granted in the moment. Being an elven mage with a lifespan of over 1000 years, the way Frieren processes a regular human interaction or even just views it works much differently from someone with a normal mortal lifespan. When Himmel, the first party’s hero, passes away, Frieren vows to spend the rest of her time understanding humanity now that she’s lost the chance to better understand the ones she’d already grown close to. Now joined by her fostered apprentice Fern and the young Stark, a mage and a warrior respectively both looked after by former party members, Frieren begins her journey to Aureole. Said to be every soul’s final resting place, Frieren travels with the two to look back on her expeditions with the hero party in hopes she may see Himmel one last time.

That may have been a mouthful, and admittedly sounded like a bloated story to follow even for me when I first picked up the series. However, you as a viewer are never thrown right into the madness from the start of any given episode. The whole rhythm of Frieren never feels frantic or fast-paced, which is fitting given the setting of the mage looking back on the land she’s already come to know through the hero party’s triumphs. Every episode takes it slow, letting the viewer get to know the party as the party gets to know each other. This is by no means a boring approach, as each aspect of Fern, Frieren, or Stark explored in a given segment keeps the viewer engaged with just how human it makes them feel, even the elven mage. I’d argue her strides are the most important, not just because of her main character status. Setting out on this journey to understand humanity, the viewer gets to watch as Frieren shares much more with the human race than she ever thought possible.

Going back to Blue Box, Frieren has probably the most consistently beautiful visuals that elevate its emotional stakes since the sports anime wrapped in March of last year. Each strand of hair moving in the wind, every subtle change in a character’s expression is something a viewer will pick up. No matter the surface-level significance of one of these cuts, the emotional resonance in the show can be enough of a slow burn that you’ll pick up a habit of watching all intently. As the show progresses, the dynamic between the party feels less like a dynamic and more like each of them is a moving cog that requires each other to function. It’s far from the clearest-cut example of the found family trope I’ve seen in a show like this, as each member of the party has their own complicated history with a family. Fern and Stark were both raised by different members of the hero party when they were young, though both were orphans of war.

Both seasons of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End are now available to stream on Netflix, Disney+ with Hulu, and Crunchyroll.

Nintendo’s newest collaboration with Illumination took form in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie this Wednesday, the sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie that’s already taken the record for best opening night of 2026. For a series that doesn’t often focus on characters’ feelings beyond a surface level, I thought the first movie was better than expected. Though there was room for improvement, my expectations for a new and improved sequel were very high (along with many others) when Nintendo announced its title in a direct presentation last September. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was unveiled as the centerpiece of the Super Mario Bros. series’ 40th anniversary, named after one of the most celebrated titles in the Mario series, one of the highest-rated games for the Nintendo Wii, and a favorite title from gamers the world over.

When choosing to name a video game adaptation movie after a specific entry in its respective series, there’s a level of expectations people want met. In most cases, it’s been a numbered sequel that fans argue needs to incorporate what that sequel to the original game added. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 adapted the rest of the games from the original trilogy, with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 focusing on the fan favorite Sonic Adventure duology. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 may not have been everything everyone wanted, but it at least remained focal to the second game in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series with toy animatronics and the exploration of the Afton family tree. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie leads with Rosalina and the Lumas, but wanes off pretty quickly in favor of reframing the narrative on the main Mario cast; Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, and Bowser.

In this regard, it’s great someone like Luigi finally gets more screen time. I found myself agreeing with many others who felt his presence in The Super Mario Bros. Movie was surprisingly sparse given the “Bros” in the name. But even though Mario and Luigi work together again like with street-level affairs in the first movie, the writing does feel a bit less grounded here. The brothers’ Brooklyn heritage felt key to how they reacted to this new world around them, so seeing them already so comfortable with their surroundings (especially with the fate of the universe now being at stake) does kill the immersion a bit. I also felt this way about Yoshi’s integration with their dynamic, finding the dinosaur in a pile of rubble and soon after living alongside him like he’s a third brother. It’s not like he can’t be that—I think sort of a watchful caretaker role would have worked well given the Yoshi’s Island influence—but I feel we as an audience are thrust into that dynamic way too soon without showing how the brothers got to know Yoshi that well. This is even lampshaded by Toad early on, questioning how Yoshi “just shows up” as a part of the team.

Peach and Toad’s journey across the universe was something I found myself drawn to more than I expected, having an equal balance of urgency and fun easter eggs to spot. Luis Guzmán’s performance as Wart was a highlight for me, and I loved the way the entire sequence recontextualized both the underground levels and the roles the characters from Super Mario Bros. 2 would play in a universe like this as opposed to just a dream like in the original. Though, the impact from a lot of these sequences in Peach and Toad’s plot doesn’t often linger longer than a couple scenes. There is a greater narrative being told that’s ultimately more important to Peach than anything else (and some diehard fans may not like the resolution), and if anything in her plot maintains momentum, it’s that. Even with what’s at stake for her, I felt there probably should have been a more emotional side of the story being told. Peach already tackled a threat with confidence in the last movie, and it would have made much more sense if she took a moment to be vulnerable, like Mario did in the first movie during the final fight in Brooklyn.

There’s plenty of cameos, references, and easter eggs to spot even for Nintendo fans unfocused on the deeper cuts in the Mario series. Many question if this is leading up to a Super Smash Bros. film adaptation, and if you go and see the film, it’s probably just going to reinforce the speculation even more. As inevitable as that sort of thing feels, I personally felt like putting that in the back of my mind during scenes that had that kind of air to them. Super Smash Bros. is a celebration of video games as a whole, and in a way The Super Mario Galaxy Movie feels like another kind of celebration in regards to the medium. Like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it directly takes inspiration from many more games in the series than the one it’s named after. No matter which Mario game you remember fondly growing up, there’s going to be something for you here.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is now playing in theaters worldwide.

This month on our sister site Galxy, we’ve got a brand new slate of movies for all our readers (and viewers) to check out, spotlighted from April 1st. No tricks here, as our lineup is headed by an Easter holiday special, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, among heartwarming stories like Nargesi and the classic Brief Encounter. Here’s our full list!

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter

The 2001 Canadian cult classic explores a horde of vampires terrorizing Ottawa—but this time, they can take the heat of daytime! Calling upon the lord (Phil Caracas) to be their savior, the people of Canada put their faith in their last resort against the vampiric hordes. Joining forces with wrestlers, superheroes, and Mary Magnum (Maria Moulton), Jesus Christ seeks out every sinful vampire he can in this fast-paced horror black comedy.

The Big Boss

Better known over in the states as Fists of Fury, this film stars Bruce Lee in what was at the time his biggest role yet as Chen Zhen. When he and his family reunite in Thailand after he departs from China, Zhen swears not to fight anymore. However, when his workplace turns on him in a shockingly gruesome manner, he returns to his combative ways in an effort to avenge the ones he loves.

Undefeatable

In this Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Godrey Ho, Kristi Jones (Cynthia Rothrock) often gets in street fights with her gang to bring home money for her sister’s education. When her sister doesn’t come back one day, Jones teams up with police detective Nick DiMarco (John Miller) along with his partner and her sister’s tutor to get justice.

One-Armed Boxer

After fighter Yu Tien Lung’s (Wang Yu) school is ambushed by a gang, he loses his right arm in the damage done to the property. Though, his resolve does not falter in the slightest. Instead, he chooses to train his remaining arm harder than ever before, increasing the concentration and focus he stresses on the side of his body that now yearns to fight more than ever.

Yes, Madam!

Cynthia Rothrock is back, starring as Inspector Carrie alongside Michelle Yeoh as Senior Inspector Ng. When a few burglars loot the wrong hotel room, it’s up to Carrie and Ng to catch up to them and retrieve a stolen microfilm. This was Rothrock’s debut role, and Yeoh’s first major role in a feature film!

Operation Luchador

In this war dramedy mockumentary, L’Ange Doré (Carlos Valderrama) is recruited by the U.S. during World War II to sniff out and snuff out Nazi spies, his unconventional warfare strategies even bringing him face to face with the commander of the Third Reich himself, Adolf Hitler.

The Four Feathers

Based on the 1902 adventure novel of the same name, The Four Feathers follows soldier Harry Faversham (John Clements) following his resignation from his troop’s impending expedition to Sudan. Sent feathers by his peers as a show of cowardice and dishonor, Faversham goes undercover as a native and later saves his troop captain in an attempt to rebuild his reputation.

Brief Encounter

In this rare romantic tragedy from 1945, the meeting of two strangers on a train played by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard makes more of a splash in both of their lives than either would have anticipated. Following an increased volume of visits between the two after the train ride, they must weigh their options. Is the impact both have on each others’ lives worth the way their changed lives affect those they care about?

Nargesi

Nargesi is the heartwarming story of an Iranian man’s quest to find love and, his willingness to try nearly everything in that pursuit. The world, however, does not seem to have a place for him until a gift completely turns his life around.

GUNHED

In the not-so-distant cyberpunk future, a scavenger team travels to the site of a former killer AI called Kyron-5 to harvest its technology. This film makes brilliant use of practical effects to immerse you in its world, stakes, and characters. Will any of the scavengers make it off Kyron’s island alive without the GUNHED units to save them from Kyron one last time?

Plan Z

After a zombie outbreak has ravaged the world, a photographer named Craig (Stuart Brennan) has a plan to fight it off. Complete with the director, producer, and writer in the starring role, this low-budget UK zombie flick is the star example of a passion project in the genre.

These spotlighted films for the month of April can all be viewed now on Galxy. Safe travels!

Creatively, many have had their doubts with Pixar’s output throughout the 2020’s. I personally fell in love with Soul, and remember Luca having its following around when it released. Though, the wider majority of their original releases this decade haven’t had the best reputation. Turning Red often serves as the talking point many bring up when trying to pinpoint a definitive downturn, though I personally feel Lightyear was the beginning of the studio having a harder time gathering an audience. The studio often swapped between releasing 1-2 movies a year, but since Lightyear underperforming they’ve kept it strictly to once a year. This change in timeframe makes their fans hope for a more focused production pipeline and more developed narratives/animation as a result, and while Elemental was a success commercially, the studio went back to underperforming with last year’s Elio. Now, though, it seems Pixar is onto something again both critically AND commercially with Daniel Chong’s Hoppers.

Since the broadcast of Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears and its prequel series, those following animation have known Daniel Chong knows his way around a talking animal or two (or three—there are three bears). Talking animals have long been a staple of animated features, especially for Disney, with talking critters even getting nominated for Academy Awards as recent as Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot. Hoppers does have similar pacing and plot beats to The Wild Robot, but clearly dances to the beat of a different drummer. While Roz successfully integrates herself into nature and serves as an orphaned duck’s mother in the heartwarming Dreamworks film, Hoppers chronicles Mabel Tanaka’s journey as she tries to do the same thing, shaking up all nature’s means of production in the process.

The chaos that snowballs in Hoppers keeps the film engaging from start to finish. Mabel being introduced as a rebellious, unruly girl passionate about nature sets the perfect tone for how the tale will unfold, but even then the film surprises you in ways I haven’t seen a Pixar film do in a while, maybe ever. The way the meeting with “the council” of the animal kingdoms unfurls is a beautiful example of all the film’s moving parts, and that’s all I can say without major spoilers.

The fast-paced chases throughout ponds and pines reminded me of The Son of Bigfoot, a title you can watch on our sister website Galxy. The kinship Mabel feels with nature also feels similar, a passion so infectious the viewer wants her to get everything she wanted and more. While the film does sway away from what a full win for Mabel would be, rumors from a while back suggested this was how the film originally was meant to end before studio intervention. However, director Daniel Chong insists Hoppers still gets its point across in its final form. In said final form, I found a movie that was at once cute, emotional, silly, and confident. I highly recommend it to anyone interested, as it’s one of the first movies of the year I can tell will be an Academy Award contender in at least one category.

Hoppers is now playing in theaters worldwide. If you like films about humanity mixing with nature, make sure to check out The Son of Bigfoot on our sister site, Galxy!

Nirvanna the Band the Show is a mouthful on its own, and not a name most based in America would be familiar with. For those up north, though, Nirvanna the Band is a comedy mockumentary series following Matt and Jay, two fictionalized versions of the show’s creators, fruitlessly trying to score a gig at a nearby bar, the Rivoli, despite their lack of a musical catalog.

The premise is so simple to understand that it blindsides almost every new viewer with the execution. From an early point in the series’ history, it seems “how did they do that?” could be a common question used to describe any number of Matt and Jay’s escapades, being filmed in public with only the two having the knowledge of their personas and scripts. Every interaction feels so authentic, with the way the characters interact with the world around them that much more grounded in reality as a result. So it’s no surprise that the series’ creators must be pretty sick of the same question being asked of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, although my first question leaving the theater was indeed wondering how any of this film was shot.

And shooting aside, the amount of references, allusions, and loving tributes paid throughout the film must have made for, as Matt Johnson puts it in a clip, “a copyright nightmare.” The name drops are all over the place, too, whether as well-known as a series like Back to the Future or the obscure Orbitz drink discontinued in 1999, a cornerstone of Nirvanna the Band’s shtick. Matt Johnson’s previous film BlackBerry chronicling the titular line of cell phones had a much wider draw, while NTBTSTM feels so niche and specific comedically and artistically, and yet so fresh as a result. There’s so much context that would make the experience even better going in—I myself have been watching the whole of Matt and Jay’s original webseries and Viceland series following the screening I went to. However, the movie doesn’t shut you out if you’ve never heard of Nirvanna the Band before, in fact, I recommend you see it that very same way. The movie serves as both a fleshed-out introduction and an all-too convincing tale of two friends’ chemistry remaining after nearly 20 years.

The lengths taken in this film to make the audience suspend their disbelief and feel the time travel elements work are astounding. The cameras used have authentic grain all throughout the period, with the Toronto the band has known having transformed into a place where emo is alive and well and convicted former comedians still headline the newspapers. Matt and Jay’s minds move a million miles an hour as they realize the situation they’ve gotten themselves into, and the audience is along for the ride as they experience the chaotic search for a solution in real time. The comedic interactions between Matt, Jay, Matt, Jay, Matt, and Jay kept me glued to the screen, as any generation of their mixed-and-matched banter has this earnest feeling to it. Despite how unsolvable and frantic their situation seems, the moments of pause they take to riff against newer or older versions of themselves is charming and puzzling—though again, in a good way. A way that makes you wonder whether they had plans for this movie when shooting old footage of themselves, or if they sold their souls to an omnipotent being in exchange for a work ethic I haven’t seen any other filmmaker utilize the way they have in NTBTSTM.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is still in theaters nationwide. Please go out and see it, whether 5 miles away or 20.

As a bit of meta-commentary here, we first added the entry for Kane Parsons’ Backrooms to this site in June of 2023. Now, over three years after the film’s reveal, we finally have our first visual on what to expect. Though, for those familiar with the Backrooms as a concept, this plain poster is everything we’ve come to expect.

To anyone with better things to do, this poster seems like an MTA advertisement printed without text. To those in the know, however, this is the unmistakable yellowed hue of the walls of the original Backrooms image. All that’s missing is the hum of fluorescent lights above and the stink of old carpet. While Spy Kids 4D took the smell-o-vision with it, we may just yet have a first look at the former as soon as tomorrow.

“> tomorrow”, A24 captions the poster on their Twitter account, linking to an external webpage—backrooms.mov—where those linked will find an adhesive version of the poster for purchase. While the tweet’s context is left ambiguous, the release date of May 29th very heavily implies we will see at least our first teaser trailer for the film tomorrow, a little over three months ahead of release.

Parsons’ final upload to his YouTube channel was a little over a year ago, fittingly with another video in his Backrooms webseries. However, the series is unconfirmed to have any links to the A24 film. The two could be set in two different universes, or be two different accounts of the titular location. Only time can tell, and it won’t be long now until we see Kane Parsons’ new vision for the internet’s favorite liminal space.

Backrooms has many big names attached, with producers such as James Wan of Saw, director Shawn Levy, and Dan Levine of Arrival. In the acting department, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve will star in currently undisclosed roles. Ejiofor recently reprised his role as Mordo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Reinsve is currently up for an Oscar for her performance in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is in theaters May 29th, 2026.