Quarantine Control #179: Dragons and Rabbits Are Unbreakable

DC Staff | September 7, 2023 | Animation, Features, Movies, Reviews, Television | No Comments

The lack of COVID-19 coverage in the mainstream media lately was covered in the ledes and conclusions of recent Quarantine Control posts, despite cases rising yet again. But it’s tough to blame them. There’s way too much competing for their attention. It’s been extremely hot in certain parts of the United States, at a time when the summer season should be winding down. We’re also deep within Hurricane Season, with many eyes being on where Hurricane Lee could end up on the East Coast. Hopefully it stays out to sea, alongside others that will manifest over the next couple of months.

Geoffrey Barnes

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Source: Amazon Prime Video
Episodes: 1 movie

Memories of the original Dungeons & Dragons movie from 2000 swirled through my mind just before I sat down and watch Honor Among Thieves. The former film deserved its reputation as a poor adaptation of the tabletop game despite having a little potential, and a bad movie overall — often hilariously so. (It even got a low-budget, Syfy Original-level sequel.) This was not fair to the new movie, one made and funded in part thanks to the game’s resurgent popularity. D&D has expanded to plenty of outside media over recent years, including streamed gaming events like Critical Role and other media like The Legend of Vox Machina (itself an adaptation of Critical Role) and the long-awaited Baldur’s Gate 3. Honor Among Thieves had to justify its existence as the newest live-action shot. To say this attempt was successful, however, is putting it lightly.

The film focuses on bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), who tried to live an honest life as a member of the peacekeeping Harpers with his wife Zia (Georgia Landers) and daughter. But an army of Red Wizards tracks the family down and kills Zia in the aftermath of Edgin’s skirmish with them. This leads to Edgin becoming a thief while living and eventually adventuring with barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), and con artist rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant). The team’s efforts to try and find the Tablet of Reawakening are in vain, with Edgin and Holga being arrested for potential thievery. After breaking out of prison, Edgin and Holga try to reform a team to search for the tablet again and revive his late wife, with the former also trying to rekindle his relationship with his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman).

It’s worth describing the story in detail, because it sounds like the most generic plotline imaginable for this film. It’s not too dissimilar from the synopsis a D&D fanfic writer could concoct. Yet, it’s all extremely entertaining, far more than I would have expected from a new D&D movie before going in. That’s even after all the positive reviews from critics and fans.

Honor Among Thieves is another entertainment work showing how the execution of a concept can often be more important than the concept itself. The movie is entertaining because of solid writing and direction throughout. The main team, which involves the aforementioned party with tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) taking Forge’s place, venture across the Forgotten Realms in a briskly-paced quest to find the tablet, battling several enemies and solving puzzles throughout their journey. The movie takes full advantage of its 134-minute runtime with solid pacing, ensuring that it didn’t feel that long. Its writers were skilled at merging serious themes with humorous moments, pulling the concept off even better than a couple of the Guardians of the Galaxy films.

It’s, specifically, the combination of the writing, overall direction, and acting talent that puts this movie over the top. Chris Pine is a joy as Edgin, an actor who knows how to jump between humor and seriousness when the script calls for it. There are still too many people who believe that Michelle Rodriguez is a bad actress. She doesn’t need to prove otherwise now, but Holga is another one of her good roles. She is, to no surprise, skilled at playing the tough lady. The role I was most skeptical of was Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar, an actor I’d only seen (in clips) through his extremely popular role in Bridgerton. He’s not heavily featured in the film, but makes a big impact as a paladin with little sense of irony (humorous in itself) who can handle himself well in battle. I’m having trouble thinking of any bad acting talent in the film.

I’m not having any trouble thinking of actors who I wish were in this movie, though. I may be among the few who wanted Bruce Payne in a role here, after playing Damodar in the original 2000 film and being the only actor to return in lower-budget sequel Wrath of the Dragon God. He was one of the few bright spots in the best-forgotten original movie alongside Jeremy Irons hamming it up big time, the latter of whom also could have used a role here. They wouldn’t have needed to play the same roles, but would have shined regardless of where they were in the film. Considering how often Vin Diesel talks about playing D&D, it was a shame he wasn’t here either. But he’s a busy man, and might have been occupied with production for the recent Fast & Furious movie during filming.

What particularly hurts with those chances is how Honor Among Thieves may be the last live-action D&D film for a while. This movie’s box office returns were well below what it should have made. I’m not helping here, a person who waited until the movie hit streaming before partaking in it, but it’s difficult not to feel bad at how it performed. It, perhaps, wasn’t the best idea for Paramount to sandwich this in between John Wick 4 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It will nevertheless stand as a solid film that shows how a person’s D&D campaign is perfectly adaptable to a full-length film if given the right talent to assemble it.

Joseph Daniels

In many of the shows I’m likely to mention in Quarantine Control in the coming weeks, rabbits are pretty much background characters only. This week, though…

Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles (2022)
Source: Netflix
Episodes: 20
Rabbits?: Yuichi, Miyamoto
Tigers?: Flashbacks only

Samurai Rabbit is the tale of Yuichi Usagi, descendant of comic book hero Miyamoto Usagi, who travels to Neo Edo in order to become a samurai like his ancestor. However, when he gets there, he learns that Miyamoto may have tarnished the family name and much of season one teases a big reveal. Season one then ends with a portal opening which would let a cybernetic menace loose in Neo Edo that threatens to wipe out all life. The season is significantly better paced than the first season of Star Trek: Picard, which also ended in pretty much the same way.

The first season also begins with Yuichi taking on the mission to fight Yokai, having accidentally freed them from their captivity in Neo Edo’s keystone. However, he gradually comes to realize that the Yokai are not his enemy and even studies with one of them in order to fulfill his samurai ambitions.

Season two sees the cybernetic threat continue, as Yuichi and his friends try to save Neo Edo once and for all. They make some new friends along the way and unite the city in ways the city has never been united before. In a way, it’s a complete story in twenty episodes, but I would’ve liked to have seen where the series might have gone in the future. A third season is unfortunately not in development, which is a shame.

There’s not really a lot to say, either. Not from me, anyway. I thought the series was cute and liked the characters, but it’s definitely children’s entertainment. I didn’t find anything too deep here, but I wasn’t really expecting to. Not that children’s entertainment can’t be deep, but in this case, it doesn’t need to be. Samurai Rabbit is fun to watch, and sometimes that’s all you need.

This Week’s Short Film
Blue Orb (2018)
Rabbits?: Yes

Angela Moseley

It’s been four weeks since my surgery. I’m feeling well enough to sit at my PC for a few hours at a time. It’ll probably be a few more weeks before I’m anything close to 100 percent. On the upside, the extra sleep has been nice. After this experience I’ve developed a strong distaste for hospital stays. During my time there I was in too much pain to do anything beyond attempting to sleep, and watching HGTV. I learned more about house renovation than I cared to. Needless to say, I needed a palate cleanser after returning home from four days in the hospital.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable (2016)
Source: Blu-ray, Crunchyroll
Episodes: 39

I originally saw JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable during its 2016 stream on Crunchyroll. That viewing predates Quarantine Control, and no one wrote much about the anime. I marathoned the entire series after getting out of the hospital, so how could I not write about it? I found my rewatch to be just as enjoyable as my first viewing, sans the big reveals.

Unmarked spoiler warnings for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders:

A decade has passed since Jotaro Kujo and his grandfather, Joseph Joestar set off in 1989 to Egypt to find and destroy the immortal vampire, Dio Brando. On the way to Egypt they were joined by Muhammad Avdol, Noriaki Kakyoin, Jean Pierre Polnareff, and the dog Iggy at various points. Their final battle only saw Jotaro, Joseph, and Polnareff surviving. Come 1999, things are much calmer. Now, Jotaro finds himself in the small Japanese town of Morioh to speak with Josuke Higashikata. Some time in 1983 Joseph cheated on his wife, and had an affair with a woman named Tomoko Higashikata. Unknown to the elder Joestar, she had his son. The affair turned the estate upside down. Being too old to easily travel to Morioh himself, Joseph sends his grandson.

Josuke is shocked to learn that his father is the head of the Joestar family, and that the older Jotaro is his nephew. Despite learning the news, there’s nothing that Josuke wants from the Joestar family, and is content to go about his life. Except, there’s nothing normal about Josuke’s life. Jotaro discovers that his teenage uncle has a stand named Crazy Diamond, and it’s almost as powerful as his Star Platinum. Jotaro has second reason for coming to Morioh, though. He’s there to catch a serial killer named Angelo who was recently given stand powers, and he wants Josuke’s help.

Josuke eventually comes into conflict with Angelo and his stand, Aqua Necklace. The serial killer manages to murder Josuke’s grandfather before he’s ultimately stopped. He reveals that he was given his stand powers after someone shot him with an arrow on the night before his execution in prison. Josuke and Jotaro vow to find the person using arrows to create more stand users. Along the way, they learn there’s a much deeper evil that has been secretly plaguing Morioh for nearly two decades.

Out of all the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure I’ve watched since 2012, Diamond Is Unbreakable sits near the top of my list. Unlike the first three parts of the series, there’s no urgency to save the world. There are no globe-trotting adventures, just a small, bizarre town. Episodes are just as likely to be battles as they are slice-of-life affairs. This part of the series is a strange, but enjoyable take on the slice-of-life genre that also succeeds at being a horror thriller series at times. It’s also notable that the true villain of this part doesn’t want anything more than to murder, and to live his life comfortably in Morioh. Yoshikage Kira is a far cry from the ambitious Dio and even the Pillar Men from Battle Tendency.

Speaking of Kira, he is actually weaker than much of the main cast. His power comes from the ability to turn anything or anyone into a bomb, not raw physical strength. The characters don’t get stronger to defeat him. Kira is a man who lives in the shadows, doing his evil, and manages to live an otherwise affluent, unremarkable, and uncombative life. His strengths are his cleverness, how he manages to evade Josuke and crew, and the horrible lengths he’ll go in order to stay hidden. His full name literally translates to “lucky shadow killer.” The thrill of this series comes from everyone working together as a team to outsmart and outmaneuver this unrepentant murderer.

As for the protagonists, Josuke and Jotaro share the spotlight. However, like past parts this is an ensemble crew and the rest of the cast also get their time to shine (including Kira). Some might find it disappointing that Josuke doesn’t get more time to stand out in his own part, but he still makes for a very memorable JoJo. He’s much kinder than Jotaro, but is still a badass in his own right. Where sheer brawn won’t solve a problem, he has plenty of brains. His stand’s ability to heal instead of destroy makes him an excellent combat medic– and a great foil to Kira. His hair trigger temper stemming from insults, perceived or real, about his pompadour never get old.

On a pop culture note, Persona 4 takes a lot of inspiration from Diamond is Unbreakable. The manga had its original run from 1992 to 1995. Parts of the plot, iconic imagery, and even the game’s color palette pay homage to this part of Araki’s long-running series. Without this part of JoJo, there wouldn’t be Persona 4 as we know it.

Rewatching Diamond Is Unbreakable on Blu-ray was quite the treat. The animation has been touched up and everything looks cleaner. I also noticed dust particle effects in some scenes that I don’t remember in the original broadcast. It was also nice being able to switch from Japanese to English any time I felt like it, or vice versa. My only complaint would be the volume was a bit low for the English dub. It was also great to have scenes uncensored, though I think I’ve had my fill of severed hands shown in gruesome detail.

I’m sure most of you reading this blog have seen JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable. If you haven’t, you owe it to yourself to check it out especially if you’ve enjoyed Persona 4, or you’ve watched other parts of JoJo. My stance is to watch JoJo from the beginning for full context, like when I recommended JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean in QC #144. Still, this part can be enjoyed as a stand-alone venture.

It’s going to be hot over the next week, and COVID is perhaps something we’ll have to watch out for in perpetuity. But let’s hope it doesn’t get too stormy over the next week too thanks to Hurricane Lee. Until next Thursday.

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