Batman & Superman: Battle Of The Super Sons 4K (2022/DC Comics/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Humanity Has Declined (2012)/Peter Grill & The Philosopher's Time (2020/both Sentai Complete Collection Blu-ray Sets)

4K Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B/C/B+ Sound: A-/C/C+ Extras: C/B/C Main Programs: C+/B+/A-

Now for some animation that includes mature audiences...

Batman & Superman: Battle Of The Super Sons 4K (2022) is a feature length DC animated movie that has debuted on the 4K UHD format. While the film has some cutesy moments, it is entertaining from start to finish and gives us a different perspective of Batman and Superman, this time as parents.

At the start of the film, Superman's son is just discovering in his teen years that he has super powers and is unaware that his father is The Man of Steel. He thinks that he is just a glorified news reporter along with his mom, Lois Lane. When red laser beams shoot out of the Kid's eyes when he gets upset, Supes and Lois decide it's time for the talk.

Superman takes his son to get analyzed by Batman in Gotham and ends up meeting his son, Damian, who Bruce Wayne had with Talia al' Ghoul. Damian has taken up the mantle as Robin and is a tech savvy pain in the butt and constantly challenging anyone who comes in contact with him. When Starro (a mutant one eyed starfish monster of sorts that was seen in James Gunn's live action blockbuster Suicide Squad), gets control over Batman and Superman; it's up to the two kids to step up to the plate and save the world as its being dominated by these alien beings. The boys have a journey of self discovery whilst becoming very good friends (and super hero partners) in the process.

The animation isn't bad and in the opening sequence, it attempts to replicate the look of old Superman comic strips from yesteryear. It just seems like the first ten minutes of the movie isn't really needed. Everyone knows Superman's origin story and they beat us over the head with it from quite some time before transitioning to the film's present day world. There's some fun moments in the film and the harsh transformation that the Starro Aliens take on people is reminiscent of Ridley Scott's Alien.

Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons 4K features the stellar voice cast of Jack Dylan Glazer (Shazam!, Luca, It) and Jack Griffo (The Thundermans) lead the voice cast as Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne, respectively. The supporting cast features Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Batman: The Long Halloween) as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Travis Willingham (Critical Role, Sofia The First) as Superman/Clark Kent, Laura Bailey (The Legend of Vox Machina, Naruto: Shippuden) as Lois Lane, Darin De Paul (Overwatch, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge) as Lex Luthor & Starro, Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) as Green Arrow & Penguin, Zeno Robinson (Big City Greens, Pokemon) as Jimmy Olsen & Melvin Masters, Nolan North (Uncharted video game franchise, Young Justice, Pretty Little Liars) as Jor-El, and Myrna Velasco (DC Super Hero Girls, Star Wars Resistance) as Wonder Girl & Lara.

The only special feature is the featurette: Rival Sons: Jonathan and Damian.

Humanity is now the endangered species. Humans have become so dependent on technology they have forgotten how to work, take care of things, all they know how to do is pass the work onto others. Now, they can only survive by depending on 'fairies' which can cause 'miracles', our heroine is the 'mediator' between humans and fairies, and she helps solve and answer all the village needs in Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection (2012).

Our heroine is an unnamed female who mediator/assistant to her 'grandfather', while she researches the technologies left behind by humans, humans now dependent on 'fairies' to operate and fix the machinery and the fairies are in turn dependent on our nameless heroine because she is the only one who can make sweets for them. All the fairies are super cute and 'moe', but our heroine is not alone, she supported by a silent boy call 'Assistant' who saves her whenever she gets into trouble.

This anime's title sounds a little depressing, but it is exactly the opposite. This fantasy world is like a fairy tale like world where cute 'fairies' somehow solve all the world's problems, you just have to know how to 'bribe' the fairies. Each 'story' takes about 2 episodes in telling and the sets up for one-line jokes or odd morale at the end. Extras include clean opening and closing animations, story digests and trailers.

Episodes include:

The Fairies Secret Factory (Part 1): Our heroine is sent to find food after the village chickens run away. So, she goes to the fairy's factory.

The Fairies Secret Factory (Part 2): Our heroine discovers the factory is being taken over by hyper intelligent raw chicken who secretly trying to take over the world, that is until Assistant show up and turns them all into food.

The Faires Subculture (Part 1): Our heroine is reunited with her friend Y who discovers yaoi doujinshi and want to revive the manga subculture and starts a doujinshi convention.

The Faires Subculture (Part 2): Our heroine, Y and Assistant are trapped in a manga world where in order to get out they must make their manga exciting.

The Fairies Homecoming (Part 1): Humanity wants to gather free electricity from 2 still functioning satellites and has a festival and she meets a mysterious girl named Pion. Our heroine explores an ancient human city and gets lost and chased by acidic slimes until Pion saves her.

The Fairies Homecoming (Part 2): Our heroine and Pion meets Oyage and discover Pion and Oyage are actually the cores of the satellites and they don't want to be alone in space any more, but they wanted to return to Earth.

The Faires Time Management (Part 1): The fairies want more sweets and our heroine gets stuck in a time loop where she meets multiple versions of herself to help make sweets.

The Fairies Time Management (Part 2): In order to break out of the time loop, our heroine must find 'Assistant' and break the pattern.

The Fairies Survival Skills: Our heroine gets stuck on an island with fairies and they survive together.

The Fairies Earth: Our heroine recalls the first time she befriended the fairies and what they can do and they mistake her for 'God'.

The Fairies Secret Tea Party (Part 1): Our heroine recalls her days in school, learning about the world, fairies and making friends.

and The Fairies Secret Tea Party (Part 2): Our heroine learns the truth and how all her 'friends' were not what they seem and why humanity is on the decline. Our heroine learns her class were the last class of humans to finish school and the schools were forever shut down after they graduated.

Peter Grill has just earned the title 'the strongest warrior in the world,' but he now faces the greatest danger ever ...girls. He now wanted by the girls of various race to be the father of their child ...and they will do ANYTHING to get his 'man juice'. Peter may be the strongest warrior out there, but when it come to the opposite gender ...his sword and armor can do little to protect him from feminine wiles in Peter Grill & The Philosopher's Time: Complete Collection (2020).

All Peter Grill wants is to marry his childhood friend Luvellia, that's why he became the strongest warrior in the world. But now, he is the prize for every girl who wants to acquire his 'superior' genes, including two sexy Ogre sisters, one flat chested Elf girl, and a sexy Orc girl. For personal reasons or the sake of their race/tribe all the girls are after Peter's genes. And it doesn't help Luvellia's father doesn't like Peter and is looking for any excuse break up their engagement. Peter every night finds naked girls in his bed, but how will he be able his virtue AND keep it a secret from Luvellia?

This was a harem comedy about one guy and monster girls who are after his 'seed'. All the female characters have no absolutely no inhibitions and the comedy is to see the main character try to resist (and fail) and the next morning his expression when wakens to find a girl (and himself) naked together. My only complaint is each episode is only about 15 minutes long. Extras include clean opening and closing animations, storyboards and trailers.

Episodes include:

Peter Grill and the Ogre Sisters: After becoming the world's strongest warrior, Peter wakes up the next morning next to 2 naked Orge sister Lisa and Mimi, who want to breed with the strongest male in the land.

Peter Grill and the Future Father-in-Law: Peter is engaged to Luvellia, but her 'father' is the guild master and will do anything to make sure Peter doesn't marry Luvellia. Can Peter keep his secret affairs from Luvellia and her father?

Peter Grill and the Relationship with Elves: Vegan Eldoriel, a flat chested elf girl show up in Peter's bed and demands Peter to make love with her and puts a hex on his manhood.

Peter Grill and Bathing Etiquette: After Peter saves Luvellia from a monster he ends up in the bath with her, but the curse cause by Edoriel causes Peter to end up with Eldoriel instead.

Peter Grill and Blind Date with an Orc: Luvellia's father tries to arrange a marriage for Peter with a member of the Orc tribe, Miss Pigette who turns out to be super cute (but ugly by Orc standards).

Peter Grill and the Orc's True Character: Peter spends a night with Piglette. Piglette is slipped with an aphrodisiac and she goes into heat with Peter locked in the room with her. Peter tries to resists, but he can't seem to resist her luscious boobs.

Peter Grill and the Battle of the Fates: Lisa, Mimi, Eldoriel and Piglette fight over who get Peter's 'seeds', but after a night of drinking they end up having a group orgy instead.

Peter Grill and the Secret Treaty: All the girls decide to share and take turns having sex with Peter, will Peter ever find any time to be alone/private time with Luvellia?

Peter Grill and the Treaty's Aftermath: Peter learns there is basically no rules for the girls having sex with him, they can do it anytime and anywhere they want. Peter is about to run away when he gets some advice from an Orge warrior, however....

Peter Grill and the Megaton Axe: Lisa's childhood friend Spartacos comes into town to discover Peter with Lisa and he challenges Peter for Lisa.

Peter Grill and the Dueling Manners: Lisa tells Spartacos he need to defeat her if he wants to be considered one of her suitors. Spartacos begs Peter to train him.

and Peter Grill and the Warrior that Shouted Love: Spartacos is distracted by Lisa's boobs in battle and he loses. Peter tells Spartacos he has no immunity against girl's charms and that he needs to 'sleep' with a girl so that he would not get distracted by their wiles, but it backfires when Spartacos ends up with Mitchy, the guild's assistant. The girls continue to follow and hound Peter as he goes off on another adventure with Luvellia.

Now for playback performance. Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with HDR10, an HEVC / H.265 codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and an audio track in English, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1. Also included is a Blu-ray in 1080p high definition with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and an English, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. The animation is similar to other DC animated films and translates very cleanly to 4K UHD disc. The difference between it and the Blu-ray is a bit more detail and depth in the image. Overall, a solid and satisfactory presentation.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on both Sentai releases offer different results. Humanity was originally issued in 2013 by Sentai and the transfers have not dated well, but Grill looks much better and more in line with what we expect now. Both sets also offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Japanese Stereo lossless mixes and again, Humanity has not aged well sonically, but Grill sounds good, though why no 5.1 mix? It does add a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English dub, but it is weak and is best ignored.

- Ricky Chiang and James Lockhart (4K)

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/