By: Fletcher Pike

‘Shirley’ is a movie that was recently released on March 15th, 2024. This film shows the story of congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (Regina King), and her effort to become the first female president of the United States.

Shirley Chisholm was a real American politician who was the first ever African American woman to be elected to the United States Congress in 1968. Shirley was born in 1924, a time period where people of color faced harsh discrimination and received little opportunities for jobs or places of power. But this didn’t stop Shirley from becoming the first African American female candidate to run for president of the United States.

This movie showed Chisholm’s accomplishments and determination to win the votes of the people to become president. She ran a strong campaign to convince the people that they should vote for her. She recruited a team of people that would help her spread the word around in order to gain more votes, some of which included Robert Gottlieb (Lucas Hedges), Arthur Hardwick Jr. (Terrence Howard), Stanley Townsend (Brian Stokes Mitchell) and Barbara Lee (Christina Jackson).

Due to this unfortunate time period for people of color, Chisholm faced several setbacks that threatened her place of power and her campaign to gain votes. Many people thought that she would not be eligible enough to even be a congresswoman. Even stated by her own fellow congressman, “Why [does] she makes the same money as the rest of us”, in which Shirley quickly defended herself and stood up to him.

I thought that this movie was amazing at incorporating the story of Shirley Chisholm and I found it interesting to watch Shirley’s campaign progress throughout the film. I liked the soundtrack that was used and thought that it did a good job of showing the years of the 60’s.

Overall, I thought that this movie was really good and I would recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning more about Shirley Chisholm’s story and how she led a strong campaign in an attempt to become the first African American female president of the United States. I think that this movie deserves a 10/10. You can watch ‘Shirley’ on Netflix.

For more info on Shirley Chisholm’s story, please visit:

• https://www.biography.com/political-figures/shirley-chisholm.

By: Julia Yang

These will be based on the anime and not the game since I’ve never played, but you saw the title, let’s just get into it.

Number 10, Pancham

When I say Pancham, I’m talking about Serena’s Pancham from ‘Pokémon XY(Z)’.
I love his personality. He’s sassy, stubborn, bossy, and reserverved. Well, now that I’ve said it like that, he doesn’t seem like the best Pokémon— but I swear he’s an angel.

Pancham’s glasses, his moves, his charm, there’s nothing to not like about this Pokémon if you ask me.

He may be last on this list, but that’s only because I like the 9 others on this list more than him, not because he’s my least favorite of all time.

Number 9, Plusle and Minun

These Pokémon are old but gold. They’re just little Pichu’s with more color and cheer. They’re adorable cheerleaders to support you along the way. You can’t have one without having the other, isn’t that cute?

In the anime, there’s an episode where a trainer is sick and his Plusle and Minun are just on his hospital bed trying to cheer him up by doing their little cheer routine.

This is so impossibly heartbreaking, I love them.

Number 8, Popplio

Popplio is just an outstandingly skilled and talented Pokémon. They’re the destined entertainers of their world, not to mention how charming they are.

Lana’s Popplio from ‘Pokémon Sun and Moon’ is just so fun and bubbly to watch. Popplio usually have a fun, silly, and cheerful personality which makes everyone love them.

The power to create basically indestructible bubbles is also an awesome power to have, like, who thought of that?

Number 7, Grookey

Grookey is basically literally just a monkey with a stick and it’s perfect, I couldn’t ask for anything more from this Pokémon. All Grookey does is just hit things with their stick, and cause trouble. A pretty good Pokémon if I do say so myself.

Number 6, Sobble

Most people either don’t like Sobble or they hate them, but I love Sobble. Sobble are just silly little Pokémon who want to go home all the time, who want to do no harm. They cry and cry, waiting for someone to make them happy again.

The thought of an extremely overpowered move to cry and force others in the area to cry is just a funny thing since Sobble are the scaredy-cats of Pokémon; so emotional, timid, nervous, and all of that with zero confidence.

Number 5, Diance

Diance is just such a stunning Pokémon, and her abilities are incredible. Imagine being able to make diamonds. Isn’t that insane? No wonder why people were trying to track her down. Diance is such a sweetheart in the movie, she just wants to make everyone happy whilst trying to keep herself safe.

Another thing, have you seen her mega evolution form? It’s extremely ethereal.

Number 4, Mew

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always taken a liking to Mew ever since I found out Mew was a Pokémon. Mew is just an overpowered baby if you really think about it— like Jack Jack from ‘The Incredibles’ movie. If you don’t know for some reason and are reading this article, Mew’s power is to become any Pokémon of its liking. Mew has every single Pokémon DNA in its body, allowing it to become the Pokémon and do/use whatever the Pokémon does.

This counts for legendaries and mythicals too. Now you get the scale of its power, right? Insane.

All of this power given to this playful and unintentionally dangerous Pokémon— and don’t even get me started on its passive abilities. This Pokémon is such a danger, I love it.

Number 3, Chespin

I want to make this very clear. When the name ‘Chespin’ comes out of my mouth, I’m only talking about Clemont’s Chespin, I couldn’t care less about any other Chespin.

Clemont’s Chespin is like Grookey, but 10x better.

He’s effortlessly funny, he’s sarcastic, he’s relatable, he causes trouble, and he’s expressive. We have all of this information about him, but he can’t even say anything other than his name. That’s how expressive he is. I’ve loved him since day one.

The best Pokémon personality to ever exist.

Number 2, Zeraora

Zeraora’s backstory is what gets me— its purpose for wanting to live is what gets me.

Zeraora— in the movie ‘The Power of Us’— is the guardian of the surrounding forest. Swearing to protect the nature and wild Pokémon inhabiting it due to humans/trainers burning it down in the past.

As long as Zeraora had lived, that forest would never be touched by mankind.

Zeraora is a Legendary Pokémon, making it extremely rare and difficult to catch. Throughout the movie, we see Zeraora getting hurt as a result of Pokémon hunters wanting to catch the all-powerful Pokémon of the forest. They never catch Zeraora of course, but they always get close.
Anyways, Zeraora is a fantastic Pokémon with a fantastic story, I’d highly recommend watching ‘The Power of Us’.

Number 1, Hoopa

Words cannot describe how much this Pokémon means to me. I believe Hoopa was in the first Pokémon movie I had watched, so it holds a very special place in my heart.

Hoopa is an extremely playful Pokémon with a curse of having its larger and more powerful form have an evil presence in it. Hoopa shows throughout the movie, it doesn’t want to hurt trainers and Pokémon, all it wants to do is impress everyone and have fun.

Hoopa has the ability to make portals with it’s hoops, isn’t that fun? I’d enjoy having Hoopa around anytime. Hoopa could turn big after the curse is gone, and we’d have a jolly time together.

Hoopa just seems like an extremely fun and exciting Pokémon to be around, and I think we all need a Hoopa in our life.

I believe fun and troubling Pokémon are the best, but I think we both have figured that out by now.

I hope you enjoyed reading my ranking with reasons.

BY: Hermekay Dehaney

As we step into April, there are a bunch of movies to look forward to. This includes a wide range of different genres that you can watch at the movie theater and at home on streaming apps. 

Start marking your calendars because in this article I will tell you all the movies to anticipate coming in April. 

1. ‘The First Omen’ (April 5)

Horror/Mystery/Thriller – 2 hours 

‘The First Omen’ is released in theaters, and is a prequel to the classic horror film ‘The Omen’, released in 1976. It’s the sixth film in ‘The Omen’ franchise. 

The movie stars Nell Tiger Free who plays Margaret, Tawfeek Barho who plays Father Gabriel, Sônia Brags who plays Sister Silva , Ralph Ineson who plays Father Brennan, and Bill Nighy who plays Cardinal Lawrence. 

The storyline follows an American woman who is sent to Rome to work in a church who soon discovers a terrifying encounter with some sort of darkness that makes her question her faith, and leads her to uncover a sinister conspiracy aiming to unleash evil. 

Here is the trailer for ‘The First Omen’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmN1Op8ygno

2. ‘Monkey Man‘ (April 5)

Action/Thriller – 2h 1m 

‘Monkey Man; is being released by Universal Pictures. The movie is directed by Dev Patel who also stars in the lead role along with Sharlto Copley who plays Tiger, Pitobash who plays Alphonso, Adithi Kalkunte who plays Neela, and Sobhita Dhulipala who plays Sita. 

The movie follows an anonymous young man who goes on a journey to take revenge on the corrupt leaders who are responsible for his mother, Neela’s, death. 

Latest trailer for ‘Monkey Man’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqa3YTtwvaU

3. ‘Civil War‘ (April 12)

Action/Sci-fi – 1h 49m

‘Civil War’ is set to be released by A24. The movie stars Kirsten Dunst who plays photographer Lee, Wagner Moura who plays a reporter Joel, Cailee Spaeny who plays Jessie , Stephen McKinley Henderson who plays Sammy, and Nick Offerman who plays the President. 

The movie plot is about a group of reporters that travel around the United States trying to reach Washington D.C. before it turns into a dystopian dictatorship. 

‘Civil War’ trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA4wVhs3HC0

4. ‘Abigail’ (April 19)

Horror/Thriller 

‘Abigail’ is based on the 1936 film ‘Dracula’s Daughter’. This movie features  Angus Clouds, and this was his final acting role before his passing last July. 

This movie focuses on a group of kidnappers who kidnap Abigail, played by Alisha Weir, who is the daughter of a very powerful underworld figure for ransom. They quickly realized that this girl is not an ordinary girl but is a vampire who starts to hunt people down. 

This movie will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures. 

Trailer for ‘Abigail’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsP8MFH8p0

5. ‘Challengers’ (April 26) 

Sport/Romance – 2h 11m

‘Challengers’ is a movie directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes. The movie stars Zendaya who plays Tashi Donaldson, Mike Faust who plays Art Donaldson, and Josh O’Connor who plays Patrick Zweig. 

The premise of the movie is that after Art Donaldson experiences a series of losses, his Grand Slam champion wife, Tashi, enrolls him in a challenger event where he will compete against her ex lover. 

The movie will premiere in theaters. 

Trailer for ‘Challengers’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VobTTbg-te0

I hope this article gives you a little more insight to these upcoming movies, and something to look forward to in the month of April. 

By: Julia Yang

I had just recently watched season 1 of the new live action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (ATLA), and I have some things to say about it.

Some things were odd, and some things were really good. For reference, I had already watched the original ATLA a long time ago, and it’s outstanding. When I heard that it was going to get a live action, I was ecstatic; it was one of the most exciting things I was waiting for. When I watched the live action, I was a little dissatisfied with some changes they made, but at the same time, it was a fun experience. I’m here to tell you my thoughts.

One of the larger things I’m confused about is why they decided to make all of the past avatars extremely hard on Aang about having friends, especially Aang’s best childhood friend Bumi.

In the cartoon when Aang and Bumi meet up after 100 years, Bumi is dangerous, fun, and playful. In the live action, he’s just dangerous, cocky, and apathetic. I heavily disliked this change— because Bumi was a fun-loving soul and was changed to having Aang choose between killing him or himself.

Back to the past avatar reincarnations: they’re so mean and hard on Aang. I get the past avatars were working alone and that’s all they know to do, but that’s not at all what happened in the cartoon. In fact, if I remember correctly, Aang didn’t even meet all of the past avatars.

I don’t know, I just find it weird how Bumi and all of the avatars are basically saying “Abandon your friends, or allow the world to be destroyed.”

One thing I love is the fact that they casted actual children/teenagers that aligned with the cartoon characters’ ages. This is something that people tend to complain about when they’re talking about their issues with the live action ATLA, but I find it super fitting. Visually and verbally seeing that Aang’s actor was actually 12 when they were filming is a really nice touch.

Another maybe smaller thing I didn’t really like, is that the Face Stealer (Koh) doesn’t steal peoples’ faces when they show emotion.
That’s a really weird change?? That’s like Koh’s whole schtick. When he sees you make an emotion, he takes your face, otherwise he can’t (emotions is what allows him to take a face).

Alternatively, in the live action, he makes you hallucinate then takes you for later? What does he do with them? Why doesn’t he just take their faces now? Does he have a cooldown or something? Is he picky?

One of the things I loved the most about the live action was Zuko’s actor: Dallas Liu. Throughout the live action ATLA, Dallas was one of the few people that really delivered lines. He showed body language, he said lines with much emotion, and his acting overall was really good. Another reason why I like him is because of the sass he puts into his character.

Some people may deny this, but Zuko was a real baby in the first season of the original ATLA: yelling at Uncle Iroh about the avatar, constantly talking about his honor, always in a bad mood, wanting to chase the avatar no matter the circumstances— it’s pretty crazy, and Dallas delivers it flawlessly.

I’m not trying to put down any of the other actors, but you can’t deny that Dallas stands out.

I believe the live action ATLA will be one of the most grand adaptations of an animated series, but as of right now, there is progress to be made. I’m okay with the current season as they were most likely figuring out how they want to plan out the plot, so I don’t find that there’s anything truly wrong with the live action.

With my personal experience with the live action and original show, I’d rate the live action a solid 8/10. Obviously, you won’t feel the same about the live action ATLA as I do; to me, there are slight imperfections, but most can be ignored.

I highly recommend watching both versions for the full experience, and because they’re both incredible in their own ways.

You can watch both on Netflix.

By: Hermekay Dehaney

‘Bob Marley: One Love’ is a biopic film released on February 14 that tells the life and legacy of the iconic Jamaican reggae musician, Bob Marley. The movie aims to show us more about his journey, impact, and his legacy on the world.

Bob Marley is played by the British Actor, Kingsley Ben-Adir who is known for  playing Malcolm X in ‘One Night in Miami.’ There have been lots of discussions online of people being skeptical as to why they chose a British actor instead of a Jamaican actor. I was also skeptical as well because the Jamaican accent is complex to non-native speakers.

However, it’s important to note that actors are trained professionals who have the time, and the ability to practice different accents so that they can immerse themselves into who they’re playing. Kingsley has also said that he had a language team of 7-8 people on set at all times, he also had friends and family of Bob Marley who were able to help him. That much commitment to a role is very noteworthy, and I think he did a decent job portraying the accent.

A unique feature I love about this movie is that it tells the story of Bob Marley through three years of his life from 1976 to 1978 instead of the typical birth-to-death type movies that a lot of other biopics like to portray. During those 3 years, we saw an important part of Bob Marley’s life, from when he got shot in 1976 to the time he spent recording his album.

The movie does show a little bit of random flashbacks of Bob Marley from the past which I didn’t like as much because it felt a little bit unnecessary in my opinion.

During the movie, we saw a brief appearance of Cindy Breakspeare played by Umi Myers, the Canadian-Jamaican beauty queen who Bob Marley had an affair with. They didn’t give it a storyline, the only time we see her was when Bob Marley was in London calling his wife Rita Marley, played by Lashanda Lynch, where we got a little close-up glimpse of her.

They made it seem like it was some sort of little thing which is shocking because their “relationship” lasted from 1976 to his death in 1981; they even have a son together, Damian Marley. I understand that the movie’s primary focus was to show his music, and his message of peace and love, but if you’re going to add that, make it an actual storyline where people who might have not known about that point in his life have a little context to understand.

His family was also a big part of making this movie, so they were probably trying to protect his legacy by not adding too much information on his personal life. I felt that might’ve limited the movie from reaching its full potential.

One thing they did get right was the music, and the impact it had on Jamaica and around the world. I do think this movie is a perfect homage to Bob Marley music wise, but for the other things? Not so much.

I would give this movie a 6/10. You can see it in theaters.

By: Julia Yang

*Note: This article will contain potential spoilers for the show

When I say ‘Wakfu’, I’m referring to the anime-influenced French animated show— not the game.

Before we start, I’d like to say that I’m not the best at explaining things.
So, the story in short, ‘Wakfu’ is all about a special boy named Yugo. Yugo travels through different realms, saving the universe and his race alongside his friends.

The End.
Now, let’s actually start.

The show begins with Yugo, the boy I mentioned earlier, who first shows up as a baby with a newborn tofu— tofu is a species of bird, small, round, yellow, and harmless. Yugo is an orphan given to his new found father by a dragon named Grougaloragran in his human form. Grougaloragran tells Yugo’s new found father, Alibert, about Yugo’s past and origin through the tofu, Az.

Yugo, Az, and Alibert grow up together enough to the point where Yugo looks like he’s 12 years old. From this point on, this is where Yugo’s adventure begins.

An Iop— a race with ginger hair and not the best intelligence— named Dally, or Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, barges into the restaurant that Yugo and Alibert are working in. This Iop is being possessed by his sentient demon sword called a shushu. Dally isn’t strong enough to fight back the possession, so he’s basically just destroying the place without meaning to. Ruel, Alibert’s old friend, explains to Yugo that he needs to take the demon’s eye out of Dally’s forehead to get rid of the possession. Yugo uses his powers and newfound knowledge to take down the possessed Dally, to which the demon resorts back into his sword form.

Yugo’s current powers— as of this episode, allows him to use blue portals to travel to nearby places. Yugo, Ruel, and Dally become friends.

Whilst this is happening, the village breaks out into an unusual disease where if anyone is touched by a black, gooey, strange creature, they’ll be turned into moss. Yugo, Ruel, and Dally leave the village to find the cure to this odd virus.

They run into two girls named Amalia and Evangeline.
Amalia is a sadida. Sadida have the ability to talk to, grow, feel, and bend plants. Evangeline is a craw. Craw’s have the ability to create magical arrows for a bow.

Amalia is traveling with Eva (Evangeline) to find out what’s wrong with the forest since sadida have very good senses for the world.

Of course, they all travel to the source of the disease.
Skipping the adventure so I don’t waste your time, they cure it and everyone who got turned to moss turns back to their normal selves.

They all go back to Yugo’s village where they get ambushed by a xelor named Nox. Xelor’s are time wizards— they look like humanoid robot people. Nox stops time and says he came to get information about Grougaloragran from Yugo.

Yugo, being an infant when he “knew” Grougaloragran, has no clue what Nox is talking about. Nox pulls a special feather off of Az that tells Yugo a message to find his true family. Nox threatens to hurt Yugo if he doesn’t tell what he heard, which sets Alibert off and Alibert breaks through the time stop and harms Nox. Nox, before anything worse had happened, teleports away, resuming present time.

Yugo and his friends leave the village in search for his true family.

Their search ends up with an island in the middle of nowhere where Yugo meets his strange brother. Yugo’s brother is a dragon.
The dragon’s name is Adamai. Adamai explains that dragons and eliatropes— the race Yugo is, are born from dofus’— dragon eggs.

Yugo and Adamai are born from the same dofus, meaning Adamai and Yugo are brothers.

Adamai explains how both Yugo and himself need to find a thing called an eliacube. The eliacube is basically a cube of an extremely large and powerful amount of wakfu originating from the eliatropes.

Long story short, Nox has the eliacube in order to go back 20 years and see his dead family. Yugo and friends need to obtain it from him because in the wrong hands, the eliacube can, and will, be very dangerous.

Nox invades the sadida kingdom to obtain wakfu from their Tree of Life and gain more wakfu for the eliacube. The Tree of Life quite literally holds all the lives of the sadida in it. If that tree dies, so does a whole race. Stakes are incredibly high.

Yugo and Adamai manage to stop Nox and get the eliacube in safe hands— their hands.

This is basically the end of season 1 of ‘Wakfu’. I won’t be saying anymore as some may wish to watch this later and I don’t want to spoil anything further.

I’d personally rate this season a 7/10. Although I may not like this season as much as the other seasons, it’s still a good watch.

The original dub of the show is in French, but I watched the first 3 seasons in English. The English dub is of lower quality than the French, so that’s most-likely why I dislike the first season. If you’re watching it in English too, I promise it gets better in later seasons.

Again, this is a very bad representation of what actually happens in the show, so feel free to add ‘Wakfu’ to your list of things to watch.

Overall, I find the show super good, and I’d highly recommend giving it a chance.

‘Wakfu’ can be found on ‘Netflix’ as an original series.

By: Hyde Moua

There are a lot of new and exciting upcoming anime that are a MUST watch if you already enjoy watching anime, or are just starting to watch anime. These anime are released within the time of January through April 2024. By the time this article is released, there will be a few anime still unreleased. All anime in this article are available to be watched on CrunchyRoll and Netflix.

1. ‘Solo Leveling’: ‘Solo Leveling’ was a highly anticipated anime which was based on a popular Manwha also named ‘Solo Leveling’. Our protagonist, Sung Jinwoo, is preparing to enter a powerful dungeon with his team despite being nicknamed “The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind”. Being on the verge of death, a mysterious notification appears and Jinwoo accepts. Now granted the ability to level up, he sets out on a journey as he battles against all kinds of opposing men and monsters. For more information, click the link: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt21209876/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl
2. ‘Delicious in Dungeon’: ‘Delicious in Dungeon’ begins with our protagonist Laio, battling a massive crimson dragon with his party. Suddenly, his little sister pushes him out of the way, with Laio dodging the dragon’s mouth but ending up with his sister being eaten. With her last few words as she hangs out the dragon’s mouth, she casts a spell that sends Laio away with the other troops. He makes it his mission to save her before she gets digested due to crimson dragons having slower digestive systems. He makes new friends and adds new people to his party in order to reach his end goal: to save his sister. For more information, click the link: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt21621494/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_delicious
3. ‘Chained Soldier’: ‘Chained Soldier’ takes place in a world where female super humans dominate. Our main character, Yuuki Wakura, is selected to join a group of monster hunters who will reward him for his servitude. For more information, or if you want to watch this anime, click the link: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://m.imdb.com/title/tt16156736/__;!!LSatmg!5DaE344SgND6dAWRqonNeEpbHJKT9fpq_JytIJUPvBOCvVkGec5VItJNigZnblxhg8zRqiYXEzdesy-DC4bdD9uu0XU$
4. ‘A Sign of Affection’: Our main character, Yuki, has always been deaf. She is comfortable communicating using sign language and her phone, but she’s not used to English. She nearly panicked when a tourist from over seas asked for directions, until a stranger steps in and helps. They both feel drawn towards each other and plan a romantic winter date night, although she is afraid if her feelings are real or not and is afraid she might end up getting hurt. For more information, click here: https://kodansha.us/series/a-sign-of-affection/
5. ‘Whisper Me a Love Song’: Our main character, Himari, is a first year high school student. She awakens feelings that she doesn’t understand after hearing a girl named Yori sing. They become friends and grow a strong and secure relationship, while also growing their feelings for each other. For more information, click here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/WML/whisper-me-a-love-song/__;!!LSatmg!6WflV_9Np-7fi7ul7QoUinqIPyJHc-jOxYzK0 RzohIdYzR7bWImG3kIfpfmEQoDUxthVyrZKELsB50Z8Tv2NfR8CE54$