tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19331969118340542572024-03-13T16:05:42.431-04:00Toku Warriors: Toku Word This is a blog for the podcast called Toku Warriors where the members of the podcast write down what is on their mind when we aren't podcasting. I hope you enjoy and please subscribe, like, and follow our related pages
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05410664012304275273noreply@blogger.comBlogger239125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-84380370668640486452024-02-26T20:33:00.000-05:002024-02-26T20:33:33.957-05:00Supernatural Season Four: Bad Moon Rising<div style="text-align: left;">Season four takes place about 4-ish months after season 3's finale so I kind of have to talk about that. Surprisingly (back when I first saw it anyway), Sam wasn't able to get Dean out of his deal. Thats right! Dean died trying to kill the demon that held his deal and went straight to Hell. I can't imagine many shows these days actually going through with that plotline. How do you even top a finale like that? Well the answer is actually pretty simple: You start walking down the path to the apocalypse.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjAyMjAwNTk5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTk3NzU5MQ@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjAyMjAwNTk5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTk3NzU5MQ@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dean wakes up in a pine box and digs his way out of his grave. He is beyond freaked out and drops by Bobby's place to let him and Sam know he is back. After Bobby and Dean try everything they can think of to see if Dean is still human, they think Sam sold his soul to get Dean out of the pit. The problem? Not only would no demon do the deal, they don't have the power to do that anyway. So Dean and Bobby decided to try to summon the thing that did it. What exactly had the juice to pull that shit off? Its an angel named Castiel. Thats right, an angel! A goddamn angel of the lord! Its the perfect oh shit moment and shows just how big of a problem whats coming is if Heaven itself wanted Dean plucked out of Hell. So that clears up the how but not the why...well, lets just say that heaven has plans for Dean Winchestor.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjM0NDMwMTE5NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjIyMDg5MQ@@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="500" height="208" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjM0NDMwMTE5NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjIyMDg5MQ@@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Every episode of this season is fantastic. They're so consistently good across the board that its legitimately hard for me to pick one. So I'm gonna go with one that kinda breaks the mold for the show. The episode "Monster Movie". The episode is basically the show's attempt at Universal monster movie, right down to the sets and sound. Essentially Sam and Dean come to a town during Octoberfest after catching wind of a weird death. Victim was seemingly sucked dry by...Dracula? No not a vampire and I'm not being snarky, it was Dracula. While in town, they hear about a dudes getting killed by the Wolfman and the Mummy. Sam and Dean are kinda baffled and the case just seems to be getting weirder and weirder. So what exactly is going on in the town? Its a shapeshifter with a fixation on the classic movie monsters and a bartender. Yeah, its fairly simple in terms of how it plays out and all-in-all its really kind of a mundane threat for the brothers but what makes this episode my favorite is the Universal style inspiration and classic monster movie feel.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The main plot of the season is about Lilith (the demon who held Dean's contract) trying to crack the locks on Lucifer's cage to bring hell on earth. There are hundreds of locks on the cage but she doesn't need to crack all of them. How could things possibly get worse? Well...it was Dean who cracked the first lock for her by being a good man who broke from being torn apart in Hell and agreeing to put other souls on the torture rack to make it stop. To this day, that reveal managed to chill me down to the bone even though I knew it was coming! While its true that Dean is the only one who can stop it, lets just say that the angels aren't being entirely truthful. Despite having all the power of Heaven trying to stop her, somehow Lilith is always one-step ahead. Its such a bizarre situation that even the loyal soldier Castiel starts having doubts because things aren't adding up. How could the host of the almighty Lord possibly be losing to some cloud of smoke from the pit?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This season is fantastic and like seasons 1 to 3 make for extremely engrossing TV. Seeing the Winchestors fight tooth and nail against monsters and stopping them while still losing because the seals are cracking is harrowing. Now something I didn't touch on is exactly why things aren't adding up on the angels' end of things and why Lilith is somehow always able to keep breaking locks. Well...thats a story for season 5.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-84157565707313371302023-12-30T01:03:00.001-05:002023-12-30T01:04:51.187-05:00Setting The Stage: Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger<div style="text-align: left;">A show's first few episodes are important. They set up the characters, introduce the world, and give you a rundown of the show you're about to watch. There are a ton of great first episodes in Sentai so I figured I should do a series on talking about some first episodes. Lets start this off with the first episodes of a Sentai show I adore and one thats very topical at the moment since not only is it the show's 20th anniversary, it got a movie this year. If you've spoken with me about Sentai, you've probably seen me gush about how much I adore Abaranger. I absolutely adored this show when I saw it 8 years ago and it still remains my 3rd favorite Sentai. So now, lets talk about its first two episodes. Say it with me: ABARE! ABARE! ABARE!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aba01.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="350" height="264" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aba01.png" width="350" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The show opens in one hell of a spectacular fashion. A lone warrior traveling a desert wasteland on a raptor and when the enemy base shows up and starts blasting. The opening theme kicks in right as we get this cool raptor-back fight scene with Masaki Endoh belting out "ABARE! ABARE! ABARE!" at the top of his goddamn lungs. Then he gets knocked off and the throw down gets started properly all while the opening theme keeps blasting.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Thats just the first few minutes of the episode. The rest of it is basically a 30 minute old school kaiju flick. The only thing its missing is the old spotty film grain. I'm not kidding, you've got a pretty great sequence of Tyranno, Tricera, and Ptera rampaging and just absolutely tearing Tokyo a new asshole with really damn creative shots with the CGI dino models. All of this is while they're begging anyone who can hear their voices to stop them by any means necessary until the chosen heroes hit the scene and snap them out of it. Once thats done, we get less of fight with the mooks and more of an awesome slaughter with the Abarangers just going absolutely ham during the whole damn thing. After thats all taken care of, it ends on a really damn ominous shot of another dinosaur approaching. Its one hell of a first episode for the show.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The second episode is pretty good. We get a bit of needed breathing room from the balls to the wall pace of the first episode. They meet up at the Dino Curry spot and take a breather while getting to know each other. Ryoga and Ranru are all up for kicking some alien ass and defending the planet. Yukito on the other hand is not enthused that the job doesn't pay so he walks out. That one little scene perfectly sets up the dynamic between the main 3 Abarangers. Yukito is basically the straight man for Ryouga's and Ranru's personalities. After that we get a good look at all the damage that the fight in the first ep caused. The rest of the episode is a really sweet plot about Yukito finding the need to fight by helping a kid recover a cherished race car that was a gift from a friend from the remains of some of the buildings that were destroyed in episode 1. The mecha fight is great and ends on an amazing shot of Abaren-oh plowing through an Evolian ship drill first.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And thats the first two episodes of Abaranger. Honestly they're a great start to the show and just pile on the awesomeness and high energy kickassery. The show just goes absolutely balls to the wall from the start. They're just missing the surreal stuff thats also apart of the show. These first two episodes are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to how cool Abaranger is and I can't recommend the show enough. I'm glad to see the show getting even more and more love as time goes by. Its one of my absolute favorites and these first two episodes are a solid reason why.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-549440221208854482023-10-26T16:46:00.004-04:002023-10-26T16:46:43.983-04:00"Ressha sentai Toqger" or "The Shadow Line saga, featuring the Toqger"? <p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ekQuydJndpfFHRLgs4YpRsCTWLgq2SVVdk9mEmWU-uynEK_OMES_9vP_seNztAIaoE0-p0EknZ28y2T2ZKEb5Wtymly4YStRNo5fDjC9h0h1NcZ0b-6l9-nXm8MKVD2y84pegE2yG2ckRWaBuJd4Q5_yvj_c9LO4nh_Z9nfSWv6HotQkj8MRnvo2aUI/s1192/toqger___shadow_line_by_yaiba1_d7t7ap6-pre-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="1192" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ekQuydJndpfFHRLgs4YpRsCTWLgq2SVVdk9mEmWU-uynEK_OMES_9vP_seNztAIaoE0-p0EknZ28y2T2ZKEb5Wtymly4YStRNo5fDjC9h0h1NcZ0b-6l9-nXm8MKVD2y84pegE2yG2ckRWaBuJd4Q5_yvj_c9LO4nh_Z9nfSWv6HotQkj8MRnvo2aUI/s320/toqger___shadow_line_by_yaiba1_d7t7ap6-pre-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmB6EWzp3c2xKBcP-VFxtuKeh8jG3iM2oHbEe-wRscmKA3M7VleWJ7kjx5NWbVa1WDjcg24dURSPW4oN0hfAM7xsXC1OKa1NyXyJTkP99haeBlg04Xr2tOQ-Sgzwx4sRPuvkbSMxuJ9wdNmGSD-fW22SCF46JkJ2LvluxNkWzPE51Z2p7tXqPNRdjKwiQ/s526/10325557_10152259041274862_6704771305004287708_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="526" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmB6EWzp3c2xKBcP-VFxtuKeh8jG3iM2oHbEe-wRscmKA3M7VleWJ7kjx5NWbVa1WDjcg24dURSPW4oN0hfAM7xsXC1OKa1NyXyJTkP99haeBlg04Xr2tOQ-Sgzwx4sRPuvkbSMxuJ9wdNmGSD-fW22SCF46JkJ2LvluxNkWzPE51Z2p7tXqPNRdjKwiQ/s320/10325557_10152259041274862_6704771305004287708_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Hello</p><p>It's been a while since I've posted here, notably since I stopped watching toku during a long time. However, I've been watching some again, notably Toqger. A few years ago, I have written a review in which I was VERY critical about that show http://tokuwarriors.blogspot.com/2014/12/toqger-review-and-why-that-show-sucks.html. However, even then, therewere elements I enjoyed about Toqger, and, rewatching it, I realized I have grown fond of that show. Now, I'm gonna explain why I enjoy it now. It doesn't mean that the issues I've mentioned in my previous review don't exist any more. But I think that Toqger is the kind of show that needs a rewatch to really understand it. </p><p>And the most fascinating element of that show is how much the story seems to be about Shadow Line rather than the Toqger themselves. Of course, the Toqger are the heroic characters, but sometimes, they feel more like hero antagonists who stop the Shadow Line's evil; but they mostly have the focus in fillers episodes, when the core plot episodes are much more about the Shadow Line, and when the heroes are pretty much sidelined </p><p><b>The Toqger plot</b><br /></p><p>Why does it happen? Because the Toqger's plot is pretty straightforward, even if it's revealed throughout the season ; they are children ended up in the Rainbow Line when their town was covered in darkness by the Shadow Line; they ended up in adult bodies and with a partial amnesia. Right/Toq1go having the additional complication of having ended up in a Shadow Line train (Kuliner) before joigning the others. Thanks to the power of Imagination, they can become Toqger and fight the Shadow Line to protect the world. Their story is also their quest to discover who they are, and to find their town and families. It's a very compelling arc. We see those children who, suddenly, have undergone a awful ordeal, and who are forced to grow up to face it; the fact they have adult bodies to fight the Shadow Line is a great metaphor. But their biggest strength is their friendship, which they still remember from their lives as kids, and which is, in my opinion, the most interesting element about them. However, they aren't the most memorable heroes in sentai. Right/ Ichigo is the hot blooded leader, Tokachii/Nigo the awkward one, Mio/Sango the nice girl, Hikari/Yongo the grumpy one, and Kagura/Gogo the cute one. Another element that harm the Toqger's story is the fact that Wagon, Ticket and the Conductor who make their support team areVERY annoying. And did they really need to give the boss of the RainbowLine this stupid bunny head?</p><p><b>The Shadow Line</b><br /></p><p>However, the Shadow Line are undoubtedly the characters with the more interesting plots, the more diverse characterizations, and the more complex dynamics between them. The fact that the sixth Toqger Akira/Rokugo was himself a former member of the Shadow Line add an additional layer of complexity. </p><p><u>Nero and Morc </u><br /></p><p>Nero and Morc are the most typical "sentai villains" with their classical plot to take over the world with darkness. Moreover, Morc is also somewhat of a mother figure for Emperor Z, and the one who tried to fill the void of leadership due to Z's obsession with shining and light which distracts him from the goal of covering the world in darkness. Nero is the lieutenant who wants to serve the general who will lead the war he desires so much to fight. Besides, he's the smart one who see through the traitorous members of the Shadow Line. They're typical villlains, but they work well and their presence highlights even more the more complex members of the Shadow Line. </p><p> <u>Madame Noir</u><br /></p><p>Unlike Nero and Morc, who are loyal towards their emperor, even sacrificing themselves to make him stronger during the final fight against the Toqger, Madame Noir's main goal is to take over the Shadow Line. To achieve that goal, she groomed her daughter Gritta to marry Z, knowing that once she became his wife, she would eat the Emperor, absorb his power and become the Emperess of darkness; as such, Noir would be the leader of the Shadow Line through her daughter. Even if Nero was suspicious about her, going as far as trying to kill Gritta to twart Noir's plans, he wasn't able to stop the wedding. The fact that Z was fascinated by Gritta's shiny eyes only made it easier for the treacherous noblewoman. While Noir's plan seemed to work at first, it ended up completely backfiring when, after a big fight against the Toqger, Z ended up taking over Gritta's body, keeping her spirit trapped in the Emperor's body. Disgraced, Noir was now reduced to a status of servant, bossed around by Morc to collect darkness.She had only one hope : after realizing that her daughter was still alive within Z's body, she decided to do everything she could to rescue her, so she could take back her position of leadership. As usual, Nero keeped an eye on her. However, she still managed to free Gritta from Z's body, with the help of Schwartz and Zaram/Akira, at the cost of her own life. But while she died, she was happy to see her daughter free at last, displaying that while she used her daughter for her own goals, she still loved her sincerely.</p><p><u>Schwartz </u><br /></p><p>General Schwartz is also very interesting, because of the character development he shows during the show. At first, he's a typical evil military leader who wants to conquer the world as a warrior. He's somewhat an outcast amongst the Shadow Line because he's more interested in fighting with trains than in collecting darkness, and, unlike Nero, he believes that the fact the Emperor is more interested in shiny stuff than in conquests served his ambitions. In his plans against the Rainbow Line, the Shadow Line general revealed himself as a good fighter and a very cunning and competent strategist : he caused a lot of trouble to the Toqger. Schwartz was aware of Gritta's feelings towards him, and while he genuinely appreciated them, he was still ready to betray her if it could serve his ambitions. Schwartz had formerly Zaram as a fellow warrior, and he was furious when the rain Shadow monster decided to quit the Shadow Line to work for the Rainbow Line. Besides, he didn't understand the motivations of his former comrade.When Gritta became the Emperess of Darkness, Schwartz could at last fulfill his ambitions, attacking the Rainbow Line with Kurainers and even taking over some of the heroes's trains. He almost managed to defeat the heroes. However, the Toqger managed to defeat him, and he only managed to avoid death thanks to Gritta's sacrifice, who protected him from Cho Cho Toqdai Oh final attack. Schwartz was deeply moved by the young girl's actions, especially since he knew he had deceived her. The General was further shocked when he saw Z seemingly kill Gitta by taking over her body. The Emperor who already knew of Schwartz's traitorous actions, got rid of him pretty quickly, seemingly killing him.</p><p>Schwartz survived, but was changed forever. He couldn't forgive himself for his role in Gritta's doom, and he had only one goal : avenging her by killing Z. Branded as a traitor in the Shadow Line, he couldn't come back any more. When he discovered that Gritta was still alive in Z's body, he realized he wanted to save her. For the first time, Schwartz was caring about someone else than himself, putting the well-being of Gritta over his own. He still used treachery to achieve this goal, stealing the Toqger the Drill Ressha, only giving it back after blackmailing Akira/Zaram into joining him again. However, even the Shadow Line warrior turned ToqRokugo knew that Schwartz had changed. When he joined him again, they both shared hearfelt conversations showing that they both could understand each other much better than before. Zaram and the General managed to become a great team against Z, and his Shadow Line lieutenants. Sadly, while Schwartz cared a lot about Gritta, he didn't understand her, and didn't listen when Mio told him that the former Emperess didn't wish to be freed from Z's body. At the end, with Noir's help, he managed to free Gritta, even managing to put her in his Kurainer before being killed by Z. His feelings for Gritta have shown that underneath the ruthless general, there was an honorable heart that shone inside his body, something Z could notice. At the end, even the Toqger realized that they had a opponent who deserved their respect, even lighting a candle in his honor, and Akira giving his former general the grave a true warrior deserved. </p><p><u>Zaram/ Akira Nijino/Toq6go</u><br /></p><p>The changes Schwartz experienced had happened much earlier in Zaram's heart. But unlike the Shadow General, it was the beauty of the rainbow that moved the Shadow Monster's heart. Ironically, he's in a way responsible of the creation of rainbows, since it's created by the shining of the sun going through the drop of rain. Anyway, that event awakened in Zaram a desire to protect beauty instead of conquering it. So, he left the Shadow Line and joined the Rainbow Line. He was still tormented by his past and the sadness he caused because of his powers, even if one must admit that he's overreacting, because most people see rain as a natural event. That's also the reason he was pretty a loner at the beginning, having trouble befriending the Toqger, keeping a suicidal spirit, always thinking his next battle might be his last. However, the five heroes could count on him to help them against the Shadow Line. Besides, the heroes managed to reach his heart, as shown when they managed to find him a new name : Nijino Akira. As a former member, he knew about their evil, and it motivated him to fight them and give the Toqger any info he could about his former clan. However, he's also a man of honor, and when Schwartz blackmailed him to join him in exchange for getting back the Drill Ressha. Fortunately, since the general was mostly targeting Z, he was mostly able to avoid confronting his comrades. And after Schwartz's death, he at last allowed himself to be closer to the other Toqger. And in the finale, he managed to overcome his suicidal feelings. In a lot of ways, Akira/Zaram's arc is about letting go of the past, and embrace who you really are. And the fact he witnessed his former general, Schwartz, live a similar experience helped him, in a way, because he had someone who could at last really understand him. </p><p><u>Z</u></p><p>Emperor Z is probably the most atypical "Big Bad" seen in sentai, because of how reluctant he is to embrace that role. The first time he appears, he looks like an awkward young man with a childish personality, who seems to discover the marvels of an amusement park, especially everything that shines, and tries to make friends with Right. Who could imagine that this strange person who absolutely loves light would actually be the Emperor of Darkness himself? And very quickly, we see the tragedy of that emperor, who lives light, but can't stand being exposed to it too long, because he's a creature of darkness. Z's story arc is his desire to catch that light that fascinates him, and make it a part of himself. However, to his frustration, he seems unable to succeed. He wants the light, but can't get it. </p><p>His fascination to the light is also what makes him attracted to Gritta, who seems to have that shine within herself. That's the reason he plays into Madame Noir's plot. But while Z is obsessed about light, he's far from an idiot. He's perfectly aware of his subordonates's plots, and even if he let them do what they want, he makes sure he stays one step ahead of them. Besides, he knows how powerful he is and that he can thwart any plot against him. Even when he ended up sucked into Miss Gritta's body after marrying her, he manages to use it for his benefit, since he manages to absorb his bride into his own body after a while, in order to get her "shine". But Gritta manages to survive inside him, and because he's so fascinated by her "shine", he doesn't find the will to destroy her, even if he could. Besides, Gritta is probably the only being he's pretty fond of, because she's the only one who tries to understand him. A striking element of Z is that he's brutal with everyone, his enemies and especially his fellow Shadow Line. He has no problem hurting them, and treating them disrespectfully. However, there is one exception : Gritta. He behaves very calmly with her, he often talks to her with an affectionate tone. Even when she frustrates him, he stays respectful towards her. It's telling that, outside Gritta, the person he seems to feel the closest is ... Right/ Toq1go, his worst enemy. Gritta becomes pretty much Z's voice of reason, almost his conscience, who manages to make him keep in check his darkest impulses. It's telling that Z constantly spared her, even if he ends up destroying all the other Shadow Line generals : Schwartz, Noir, Nero and Morc. Even when he seemingly killed her, it ended up he let her live. And this atypical kindness ends up saving his life at the end. <br /></p><p>Z's relationship with Right is also a fascinating arc of Toqger : when they first met, Right didn't know he was the Emperor of Darkness, but as soon as he learnt, he saw him as an enemy. However, because of his power, Z didn't see Right as a threat, but more as someone who fascinated him because of his "shine"; Z's antagonism against Right was mostly motivated by his desire to possess inside him his light. But he didn't hate him far from it; actually, Right was, with Gritta, the only person Z took a real interest. It's very telling that the emperor seemed disappointed when he saw the young Toqger embrace darkness during the final arc. At the end of the series, a link between Z and Right is revealed : the young Toqger became an adult thanks to the power of Z's darkness, and at the same time, Z came in contact with Right's "Shine" : the symbol of that link is the "Twinkle Twinkle little star" song that the Emperor heard from the five future Toqger when he invaded their town.<br /></p><p>During most of the show, Z doesn't bother leading the other members of the Shadow Line, to the great frustration of Nero or Morc. He cared too much about the light to bother covering the world with darkness, even if he let his generals do the job. Even when he ended up involved, he was more tagging along than anything else. It's telling that when he managed to sneak into the Rainbow Line during the Christmas arc, he didn't attack anyone there, only getting there not to be bothered by his fellow Shadow Line. Only at the end, when he realized he couldn't get the "Shine" he craved so much that he finally embraced his role as emperor of darkness and become a classic "invader of the world". But even then, it was more despair than a desire of conquest. When he defeats a darkness filled "Right", he seemed annoyed. When the Shadow Line seemed victorious, Z was just sulking on his throne, bored. But when the Toqger managed to pull themselves together, and when light came through the darkness, suddenly, Z seemed alive again, moved by the "shine" he wanted so much. And unlike Morc and Nero, who were furious that the Toqger managed to destroy the Castle Terminal and bring back light, Z felt almost happy to see at last Right shining more brilliantly than ever. After a last showdown, during which Z took the darkness of Nero and Morc, he's finally defeated. But at that time, he's not furious against his enemies because he lost : instead, he looks at a rainbow and is amazed by its beauty, like Zaram did before him. And, unlike most sentai Big Bads, he survives his final confrontation with the heroes, because Gritta comes to save him and bring him back to the darkness. At the end, there is a real hope that Z will find at last peace with Gritta. </p><p><u>Gritta : perhaps the real heroine of Toqger</u><br /></p><p>Gritta is one of my favorite characters in the sentai franchise, despite her ugly design. Why? Because she shows an amazing character development, and because, despite being a member of the villain group, she ends up being the most sympathetic character of the show. At the beginning, she's shown as a spoilt brat, but very quickly, her feelings for General Schwartz are revealed, and she does everything she can to help him in his confrontations against the Rainbow Line. Besides, it's very soon revealed that her mother wants her to marry the Emperor of Darkness, even if it goes against her daughter's wishes. When she encounters Z for the first time, she's so scared of him that she tries to flee her home, and she even made a weak attempt to kill him, but her soft heart made it impossible for her to succeed. Because of the shine in her eyes, Z ended up attracted by her, and was ready to marry her. While Gritta could see that Z's obsession with light made him suffer, she was still horrified to become his wife, even (or likely especially) after her mother told her the truth about the marriage, and she tried to escape again, but this time, with Schwartz, the man she loved. She even stole Mio's body to succeed. Unfortunately, the General cared mostly about his career, so he told Z about her attempt and the Emperor brought back his future bride. During the wedding, Gritta ended up absorbing Z and his power, and her personality changed. Z's darkness gave her red eyes, a cold and ruthless personality, and she fought directly the Toqger as the new Empress of Darkness. However, a handkerchief which previously belonged to Schwartz reminded her of her feelings towards him, and she was at times able to overcome her new darkness. At the end, when Schwartz was about to be defeated by the Toqger, she sacrificed herself to save him, having her Kuliner taking the heroes's attack. As she was lying, close to death, she revealed that even if she knew Schwartz had betrayed her, she still loved him. She knew that her mother was using her as a pawn to get power, and her feelings for the general was the only thing she could claim as her own decision. At that moment, her body burst, and soon afterwards, the Emperor came back in a new, more powerful form, having absorbed Gritta in his own body.</p><p>However, she was still alive inside Z, even if she was trapped in his body. However, she was able to somehow keep Z's darkness in check, even revealing herself at time to stop Schwartz's attack on the Emperor or even saving Light from being absorbed by Z. Even if the Emperor knew that Gritta was interfering with his powers, he never had the heart to erase her, because he still saw her shine as something too precious to destroy. At that time, Gritta had become a completely selfless character, doing everything to protect others, and even being ready to stay in Z's body if by doing so, she was able to protect those she cared about, especially Schwartz. Even the Emperor was impressed by her selflessness. During Christmas time, the Emperor's power had weakened enough for her to take over again, and at that time, she decided to ask the Toqger's help to stop Schwartz from freeing her. Unfortunately, the General wasn't able to listen, and, with Madame Noir's help, she ended freed from the Emperor's body. Unfortunately, at that moment, Z's darkness wasn't held back anymore, and he became even more powerful, easily killing Noir and Schwartz, who had just the time to put Gritta in safety in his own Kuliner. But at that stage, Gritta was wise enough not to feel any hate or desire of revenge after losing the two people who mattered the most to her. All she wanted was to stop the violence, and she decided too ally herself with the Toqger to bring back the Castle Terminal into the darkness. At first, she succeeded, but she was soon discovered by the other members of the Shadow Line. Z confronted her, and she explained him that she didn't do it against him. On the contrary, she wanted to help him, explaining the Emperor why he wasn't able to shine, because shining had to come from within. Unfortunately, it only made Z so disillusioned that he decided to have the whole world overcome with darkness. But despite that, he still couldn't bring himself to kill her, and, at the end, after he was defeated by the Toqger, she was here to save him.</p><p>What an amazing character arc! And how fascinating that in such a dark background, surrounded by people who either want to use her, or kill her, she managed to keep her innocence. She undergoes the worst ordeals, but they make her even more selfless and caring of others than before. She sees her mother and the man she loves brutally killed, but she didn't hate the man who was responsible for that violence ; instead, she despised violence itself. It's incredible to see how this young girl ended up with such a mature and kind spirit. During the whole show, she displays an incredible bravery, in order to protect those she cared about. She ends up as least as much, if not more, heroic as the Toqger. </p><p><b>Additional feelings about Toqger</b></p><p>Another reason I ended up fond of Toqger is its train theme, and the way it uses it. As a fan of trains, I was thrilled to see a story where the characters lived their daily lives in trains, and were travelling through Japan to search for their town. And of course, I loved the design of the trains, especially the Kuliner. But mostly, this huge railroad trip brought an atmosphere I enjoyed a lot. It's telling that the train theme of Toqger gave me inspiration to write a story involving a very special train. </p><p><b>Conclusion </b></p><p>It's telling by the length of the chapters I wrote about the Shadow Line members that I feels that they're the best part of Toqger. They have all an amazing design : the mooks, the MOTW, the Kuliner, and of course, the main members. Even Gritta, with her seemingly grotesque looks, ends up feeling pretty cute (her voice actress helped, to be fair). But, more importantly, they're incredibly fascinating characters, with very different personalities and evolution. Their storylines, more than the Toqger's, is the driving force of the show. Despite being "darkness", they make "Ressha sentai Toqger" shine, despite its flaws. And they're the reason why I enjoy much more that show now than when I've watched it for the first time. <br /></p>live jetabarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06791321310256635632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-13806874358279228682023-05-17T22:01:00.001-04:002023-05-17T22:01:21.750-04:00Supernatural Season Three: Highway To Hell<div style="text-align: left;">Season two ended on an incredibly ominous note and a fantastic setup for season three. Just so we're up to speed, here is a quick recap for season two's finale: Yellow Eyes wanted to use psychics like Sam to open the gates of Hell. Sam was killed by another candidate so Dean sold his soul to bring him back. The brothers put a bullet in Yellow Eyes and got their revenge. However, all Hell has broken loose and I mean that literally. Now that we're caught up, lets get into season three.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGJkYWMzMDctMmM2ZC00MTA1LTgwZjgtM2IyZTEzMTc2ZTY4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjg2MTMyNTM@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="800" height="212" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGJkYWMzMDctMmM2ZC00MTA1LTgwZjgtM2IyZTEzMTc2ZTY4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjg2MTMyNTM@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">First up on the hunting docket this season: The fckin' Seven Deadly Sins! Thats right, those things. Some of the most powerful evils in certain mythologies and they're a one and done motw. They make an amazing introduction to just what the demons that were trapped behind the gates can do and they throw the brothers a few curve balls. The entire episode is them sieging the house the brothers and Bobby are holed up in. They're saved by some quick thinking, some well placed traps, and a strange woman with a knife that can kill demons.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are quite a few episodes this seasons that come close to season one's episodes so I'm not really able to pick my absolute favorite this time so I'll just go over a handful. "Sin City" is a pretty good episode. The brothers roll into town tracking down rumors of people suddenly changing so they think demons are in town and...they're not wrong. There are demons operating in the town but they're not doing the things you'd expect. All the demons really did was have a conversation with a local rich dude about all the money he could make if he sets up certain businesses in town. Its people's own vices getting the better of them thats the problem.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">"Mystery Spot" is fantastic. Essentially the brothers show up in town to investigate a disappearance tied to some crummy tourist trap. Dean dies in the process and Sam essentially gets caught in a timeloop living the same day over and over. Sam racks his brain trying to figure out whats causing it and the twist is...well...its not the tourist trap. Remember how I said that season two wasn't the only time the Trickster showed up? Yep, its the Trickster. And the Trickster's reason for doing this? Well, its hard to tell if he is just bullshitting or not because well...its the Trickster but he says it was to teach Sam that Dean can't be saved. Its a stellar episode and some of Dean's deaths are pretty damn funny.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGY0YzgzYjMtODY2Yi00ODQxLThmOTgtZTYyMjk5YWZiMDk3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDQ2MTMzODA@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGY0YzgzYjMtODY2Yi00ODQxLThmOTgtZTYyMjk5YWZiMDk3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDQ2MTMzODA@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">"Ghostfacers" features a ghost-hunting reality show team stumbling onto a case the Winchestors are working. This also isn't the only time they've have met these two chuckleheads. They met them back in season one in the episode "Hell House". The episode itself is honestly the scariest episode out of the 6 or 7 seasons I saw back in the day. It gave me nightmares the night I saw it and it still made me scream during the rewatch. Its a pretty simple plot, basically the Winchestors are raiding a haunted house that only lights up for one night every four years. They came looking for one ghost but find a lot more ghosts reliving how they died there and then shit gets terrifying. The episode flips between the standard tv-show style footage and the ghost hunting footage. It is pretty unsettling at points when the switch occurs so it works really damn well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The drama portion of this season revolves around Dean's deal to bring Sam back. The rub is that he only gets a single year, not the usual ten. Dean isn't too eager to try and get out of the deal at first because the second term is that Sam drops dead on the spot if he does. A scene in the episode "Dream A Little Dream of Me" gives a pretty damn sobering look at just how much the hunting life has drained Dean. He beats a dream version himself to death just venting and letting out all the pent up frustration from everything his dad burdened him with.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What makes the drama this season work so well is that the hunting life isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. Its not a question of if you'll die, its merely a question of when. If that werewolf you're tracking doesn't maul you, whatever else you hunt might end you. On top of that, once you're in, you're probably not getting out even if you survive. Hunters know too much of whats out there and the ones who've been doing this a long time have tangle with pretty much every conceivable thing that goes bump in the night. Some hunters can probably take solace in the fact that they'll never know when their number is up. Thanks to the deal, not only does Dean know when the bus is gonna pull up, he knows exactly which stop he is getting off at. Overall, season 3 is fantastic and builds on all the good points of season two and avoids most of its pitfalls.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-85346723378832350192023-05-04T01:00:00.007-04:002023-05-04T01:27:05.283-04:00Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Once And Always<div style="text-align: left;">If you know me, you know I've fallen out of love with the franchise over the last few years. My interest just dried up due to how much I've really disagreed with the direction the franchise has been heading. Due to that I was just going to wait and watch this whenever I felt like it, then a friend of mine who isn't big on Power Rangers said he enjoyed it and that I'd probably get a kick out of it. He was right.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWRkNGJmYTktYWY0NC00NWU5LTgzOTAtN2RiYzhiZWRhMTE1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAxNzQ1NzI@._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWRkNGJmYTktYWY0NC00NWU5LTgzOTAtN2RiYzhiZWRhMTE1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAxNzQ1NzI@._V1_.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">I could go over how much this feels like Power Rangers, all the small easter eggs and callbacks, the rebuilt sets, the sheer level of threat Robo Rita poses, etc but first I'm gonna talk about one simple thing that I really held my interest about this special: It is exactly what I wanted from a more adult Power Rangers story. Its just a story about friends mourning their comrade and trying to do their best to take care of her family. Its about a daughter who lost her mother wanting revenge, having to be stopped before she actually gets herself hurt, and learning what it actually means to be a ranger. Its the characters going through all of that while trying to kick the villains in the teeth. Best of all, it manages to keep to the spirit of Power Rangers while doing that. Sure, the franchise has done this already once or twice to a degree but it imo its never really tackled it in the way this special does.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ok, now for all that other stuff. First, even though I saw the juice bar in the trailer, I was still somehow surprised they recreated it as a set. Its admittedly smaller than I expected but I'm still impressed they went that far for it. The jokes and quips felt very much like something the 90s era of PR would've done so kudos for that. Robo Rita feels like a damn good threat. I knew they'd be hyping her up because she is the villain for the special but it still surprised me. Hell, her obliterating Trini was in the friggin' trailer and that still hit like a truck. I kind of expected Minh to annoy me but she was fine. Her lashing out at Billy hurt to see and it was really unfair to a degree but I totally get where her head was at. She missed her mom and really wanted to stop RoboRita as a way to avenge her. She took her anger too far and pretty much admitted how cruel she was. Thats a pretty adult way for a teenager to look at a situation.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Overall, this was pretty solid special. Did it rekindle my interest in PR? Not really. Did I enjoy it? Yes, very much so. There are some minor things that feel like they should create continuity issues but they really don't impact the special at all so I won't bother mentioning them. It feels a little off and like an unintended insult to say that MMPR has grown up but thats its exactly what this special feels like. Normally I'd end a post like this by saying whether or not I recommend this to people but this time, I'm not going to bother doing that. Why? Well...because its Power Rangers, its lasted 30 years so the audience is there no matter what I have to say about it. People already know if they want to see this or not. So uhhh...yeah, thats a weird point to end this on but here you go. I don't think that my word matters much given my current relationship with the franchise but I enjoyed it and thats pretty much all I can ask for these days.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-86036673062398340392023-02-07T21:50:00.003-05:002023-03-22T22:11:10.909-04:00Supernatural Season Two: Hell's Bells<div style="text-align: left;">Given how much the show uses classic rock and specific songs to highlight certain scenes, I'm going to give each post the title of a song that I feel is thematically appropriate for it. With that out of the way, I forgot to mention in season one's post but I consider Supernatural's first season to be one of the best first seasons of television in general. But thats just it, its the first season. No matter how good it is, its a starting point. The real question is if they can keep it up? Season two does well in that regard.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/In-My-Time-Of-Dying-supernatural-2375903-624-352_1643.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="350" height="197" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/In-My-Time-Of-Dying-supernatural-2375903-624-352_1643.jpg" width="350" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The first episode of season two kinda sets the tone for the brothers' emotional state for the rest of the season. So in order to properly talk about the season, I'm going to have to spoil it. Here goes: The first episode of season two continues on from the end of the first season, specifically from a pretty bad car wreck the Winchestors got into at the hands of a demon. Dean is in a coma and his spirit is wandering around the hospital looking for something thats killing patients in the place. The twist is well...its not actually a thing that needs to be hunted. Its a reaper just doing its job and Dean is on its list. The parts with John (their dad) and Sam make it look like John is just eager to find the demon that took their mother and he is, but not for that reason. He trades his soul and the gun that can kill it for Dean's life. On top of that, part of the price tag is John dying. I still remember seeing this episode back in the day and that twist left me with a lump in my throat. Before he dies, John also alludes to the demon (Yellow Eyes) that started all this having big plans for Sam.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The monster of the week episodes are pretty good this season even if a lot of them don't really hit the same level of memorable of season one's. Now, with that being said, there is one absolutely fantastic episode in this season that really lives up to the first season's motw quality and its easily one of my favorite episodes in the show. Its the episode "Tall Tales". Sam and Dean roll into town to investigate a death at a college linked to a supposed urban legend. They find nothing in the college's or town's history even remotely fitting said legend. So they get stumped and then things get weirder. A dude gets abducted by aliens and another dude gets mauled by a gator in the sewer. Just what the hell is going on in this town? <b>Spoiler: </b>Its not ghosts, aliens, or even sewer gators. Its all the work of one charismatic son of a bitch simply known as the Trickster just screwing with arrogant people for the hell of it as well as doing minor things to cause Sam and Dean to annoy each other so the can't figure out whats actually going on. The Trickster is probably my favorite monster of the week in the entire show or at the very least the 6 or 7 seasons I've seen (and this won't be the only time he shows up). I just can't properly express the level of charm the Trickster brings to the episode and the actor does great job.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The drama portion of this season is about Dean coming to terms with John's sacrifice. John isn't just gone on some hunting trip, he is never coming back. John's death still hits kind of hard these days but for different reasons. Its mostly because of Dean's reaction to finding out his father gave his life and soul to save him. Normal, snarky, confident Dean just goes dead silent for a solid minute and legitimately considers selling his own soul to bring him back when a demon makes the offer. Its downright chilling to me. Dean isn't the only one getting an arc this season, Sam gets one centered around why he was having visions in a few episodes of season one. Yellow Eyes is actor is great in this. Dude practically oozes menace to the point where he can convincingly threaten to show someone what their family's intestines look like with a big ol' smirk on his face.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This season seems to have switched the quality of the monster of the week episodes with the dramatic bits. Like I said earlier, they're still good but the drama just ended up more compelling this season. Its kinda of understandable why tho since it was about time to give the characters more depth than they had in the first season. As good as Supernatural's motw episodes have been these first two seasons, that can only take a show so far. The monster lore portions of the episode are still pretty sweet. Like I said in the opening, its a pretty good season that carries the torch well enough even if its motw episodes don't quite hit the level of season one's.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-8588954540000631612023-01-17T19:51:00.000-05:002023-01-17T19:51:14.922-05:00Cyberpunk Edgerunners<div style="text-align: left;">Normally I wouldn't talk about a show like this because I am not well versed in the genre or the table top RPG that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on but I couldn't stop thinking about it for a week after I finished it. I'm going to approach this post from two ways: 1. How the anime itself worked out for me and 2. Just how much it uses stuff from 2077. This isn't going to be a full-on review in my usual style and will be me just talking about how the show did its thing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a29a87a9_8906_4bb8_8d71_32f74cb07e4b.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a29a87a9_8906_4bb8_8d71_32f74cb07e4b.png" width="256" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise: </b>David Martinez is having a really bad time. A poor kid getting bullied at a corpo school and whose mom is just barely keeping everything together in order to raise the scratch to cover his tuition. On top of that, during one really bad day, he and his mom get caught up in a gang shootout and she dies. Pushed to the edge by the city's madness, David falls in with a crew of Edgerunners just to survive and feel some semblance of control or purpose.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I had a blast with this show. I started it only planning to watch the first two episodes and before I knew it, I was on the final episode. The fights in this show are absolutely insane looking which is to be expected from Trigger. The way the show visualizes how the Sandevistan works is absolutely gorgeous and beautifully done. It left my jaw on the floor every time David used it. The show looks stunning across the board. This show is one hell of a trip.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Night City is rough if you're not working for a corp and thats putting it mildly. If you don't get killed as collateral damage in some gang attack, you just might run into some random spaced out psycho in a back-alley who'll blast your head off at a moment's notice. Thats not even getting into the amount of gonks on the street who might try to mess with you as you go about your day. The only way to survive as a runner is to chrome up so you don't fall behind and the more you add, the more your clock ticks down. I figured out how the show would most likely end by the halfway point and I was still on the edge of my seat.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm not gonna lie, I've spent way too much time roaming Night City in 2077. In all honesty, I've spent more time than I should have farming Night City's mooks for item drops. Its basically my go-to game these days when I'm not playing stuff on the Switch. However, it did not occur to me just how long I've spent playing it until I saw this show. I knew exactly where every scene was taking place just based on minor background details. It more than did the city justice. Even the show's soundtrack is pulled from the game and I'm almost certain I heard a few sound effects from the game here and there. I think I may have also seen a few quickhack menu displays from the game fly by at one point.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Do I recommend the show? Definitely. Everything else aside, its a Trigger anime and it goes hard on the spectacle. I honestly think it would be worth a recommendation on that aspect alone. Overall, I had a great time with the show. I don't see any way to continue the story from this season but if there were another season and/or anime spinoff, I'd like it to be sort of a season long anthology type of show. I'd love to see a season centered around the gangs of Night City and how they interact. Maybe also a season about corporate power struggles and skullduggery.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-28832212413227646032023-01-10T21:16:00.007-05:002023-01-10T23:14:40.247-05:00Samurai Sentai Shinkenger Review: Coming Full Circle<div style="text-align: left;">I finally decided to go back and finish the first Sentai I ever saw. I was watching it on youtube back in the day before the toku purge happened. I remember just being in awe of what I was seeing. I finally got the chance to get back to it. Back in the day I got into the late 30s before everything got hit. So lets take a look at the show that got me into Sentai. Without this show, I probably wouldn't be active in the Sentai fandom if not the toku fandom as a whole. Note: There will be spoilers for Shinkenger's final arc because I need to talk about the overall arcs of two characters. Without further adieu...To the field!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shinken_bd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shinken_bd.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">A horde of monsters appear from a gap in a wall to terrorize a child. In what is probably my favorite introduction to a red, a man appears and effortlessly cuts them down. He is the 18th head of the Shiba: Takeru Shiba. After noticing that the Gedoshu attacks are becoming more and more frequent, his advisor Hikoma suggests finally calling Takeru's 4 retainers into service.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e1aef0b20b8b4678579a022e20a09eae.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="496" height="216" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e1aef0b20b8b4678579a022e20a09eae.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Takeru Shiba/ShinkenRed: Takeru is a take on the stoic red but is also very uncomfortable with his position as Lord. Mostly because he doesn't like the idea of his team potentially sacrificing their lives for him for a very good reason: He isn't actually the Lord, he is a decoy. The man was just a kid from a regular family raised to take the Lord's place. Dude's only role in life was to fight the Gedoshu until the actual lord mastered a way to banish their leader completely. Being ShinkenRed was his entire reason for living until that point and he was so lost once the true Lord returns that he finally accepted Juuzo's offer to duel to the death because he thought he had no other purpose.</li><li>Ryunosuke Ikenami/ShinkenBlue: I don't think I've seen a blue like Ryunosuke, ever. Dude is a serious guy but is loud, energetic, and extremely expressive while he does it. He just seems so enthusiastic and Hiroki Aiba does well in the role. He does Ryunosuke's whole schtick in a way that keeps the character from crossing into annoying territory. Ryunosuke's passion is kabuki which definitely explains his overly dramatic way of doing things. As for his arc, Ryunosuke is extremely loyal and devoted to his duty. The dude devotes himself to serving Takeru with his whole heart so naturally when he finds out Takeru isn't the Lord, he is torn between his duty to the Shiba clan and his duty to the person who has lead him into battle all this time. All of that combined makes him my favorite Shinkenger and potentially even my favorite Blue in Sentai as well as one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise.</li><li>Mako Shiraishi/ShinkenPink: Mako's dream is just for a normal life. She wasn't allowed to have a childhood because of her samurai duties. She kind of takes on the team mom role because of that. Mostly confronting the others when she notices something wrong and lending an ear. It kinda didn't actually hit me until her last focus episode that she was hiding her own issues that went beyond her dream of a normal life. It honestly makes me think that her samurai training costing her time with her parents is probably the biggest reason for why thats her dream. That realization and seeing her crack like that honestly made me tear up a bit.</li><li>Chiaki Tani/ShinkenGreen: Chiaki is a bit of slacker but is also pretty self-conscious and a bit frustrated about his skills since he is the least trained of the main five. Dude has to think fast and improvise because of that. He uses his frustration as the drive to improve and attempt to outdo both Ryunosuke and Takeru. The man is legitimately improving in each focus episode he gets and I love it. Heck, even when he admits to Ryunosuke that he isn't as good as him or Takeru, Ryunosuke straight up tells Chiaki that he brings something to the team that they can't: His ability to improve and as cliche as that trope is, I dig it.</li><li>Kotoha Hanaori/ShinkenYellow: Kotoha was not supposed to be a Shinkenger, her older sister was until she got sick. She is a sweet, kind girl who calls her self clumsy and useless early in the show to the point where she is convinced the only thing she had to offer the team was her life. That coupled with the insult monster episode really hurt more this time around. Just hearing her say "It doesn't hurt me because its all true anyway" hurt me because I've been in that position myself more times than I want to admit. Her episodes are fine tho episode 22 just kinda does nothing for me. Her ultimate arc is her learning to accept that she is not just her sister's replacement, she IS ShinkenYellow.</li><li>Genta Umemori/ShinkenGold: Takeru's childhood friend. Genta is loud, energetic, and goofy. His more goofy antics work well when used to balance out Ryunosuke's serious antics. Due to not being from a samurai family, he adds a nice bit of normal guy dynamic to the team. His dream is pretty simple: He wants to own his own sushi restuarant. When Takeru was revealed to be figurehead, Genta didn't change much if at all. Yeah, he was shocked like everyone else but he wasn't blinded by or conflicted with his duty to some fancy Lord like the others were. Genta is just some regular dude loyal to his best friend. It made Takeru being sad when Genta had to leave town as a kid hit even harder in hindsight because Genta was probably one of the few people in Takeru's life that saw him as a regular person.</li></ul><div><b>Villains:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/84a81b13_bf69_4adb_bd9e_bec8cfd4591a.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="350" height="250" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/84a81b13_bf69_4adb_bd9e_bec8cfd4591a.jpeg" width="350" /></a></div><div>The villains are fine though I wish Doukoku did more. He spends most of his time drinking and being angry. I get his whole deal is that he is a heavy hitter who can't leave the boat, I'm just more used to this type of villain being a background fixture or springboard for other villains to do their thing instead of being constantly hyped up as a major threat. Granted when he does finally do something, it feels like an earth-shattering moment. Shitari is interesting in that he basically plays the same advisory role for Doukoku that Hikoma (called Ji by the Shinkengers) does for Takeru. The main difference being that Takeru cares about the people under him while the only one Doukoku seems to have a soft spot for is Dayuu to the point where he can tell her mood by the subtle difference in that one tune she plays. Dayuu was betrayed in life by the man she loved who took another woman as his wife, then she burned the entire family alive and fell to the Sanzu River, taking his soul with her. Her story is actually pretty damn chilling to the point where went I wide-eyed at her accepting her situation and finally letting go of everything: Her regrets, her anger, her past, and her very humanity. Thats probably the biggest "Oh shit!" moment in the show for me. So...uhh...yeah, Dayuu is my favorite villain in the show. She is pain, regret, anger, and every other negative emotion all wrapped up in a big ol' box of denial.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/badb68bc_5b38_4155_abe0_3b928547adea.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="350" height="196" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/badb68bc_5b38_4155_abe0_3b928547adea.jpeg" width="350" /></a></div><div>If you had asked me which Shinkenger villain was my favorite way back when I started the show back in the day, I would've said it was Juuzo. Juuzo is a man who lives for battle and I mean that literally. He wants nothing more to find an opponent that can satisfy his bloodlust to the point where he decided to become a monster instead of letting a disease kill him. All he wants in the world is to find that one opponent who can potentially kill him so he can feel the joy of fighting for his life. The man got so engrossed in his final duel with Takeru that he forgot his sword (Uramasa) was sentient and thats the only reason Takeru didn't die. Villains who live solely for battle are usually hit or miss for me but Juuzo is definitely a hit. The man is arguably more of a monster than Doukoku to the point where its kinda terrifying. His duels with Takeru were definitely the most tense moments in the show.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mecha: </b>The origami are fine but the ones outside of the main five kinda fees like they lack any impact outside of the "Oh hey, we got a new mecha!" aspect of their debuts. Maybe I'd feel different about Squid and Lobster if they interacted with Genta like the main five's do with them. I find it amusing that the only thing Kyoryu Origama adds to ShinkenOh's arsenal is a new sword and hat. I don't like Samurai Ha-Oh and its probably one of my lead favorite final mechs in Sentai. The robot itself is fine but the other half of the combo is just a platform for it to stand on. Ideally since it can't move that well, it should be used solely for the beam finisher instead of trying to choreograph around its bulk.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Music: </b>The opening theme goes hard, a bit harder than it needs to but its still an amazing song and the opening sequence just gives me chills to this day. Its a fantastic hype machine and I always end up singing along with it. The ending theme is a great tune to close the show on and I've caught myself humming it more than the opening theme. The battle theme "Example" is a banger of a song even if its not one of my favorite battle themes and I wish it had shown up more than twice. However, my favorite piece of music in the entire show is easily that tune Dayuu plays on the shamisen. It perfectly captures her sadness and its a fairly haunting tune. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/78/50/f9/7850f97e3993d764c193947bd7daef53.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/78/50/f9/7850f97e3993d764c193947bd7daef53.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><b>Final Thoughts:</b> I feel a bit like I've come full circle with this show in more ways than one. Not only did I finish the show that got me into Sentai but I finished it in the same place I started it. It was good to go back and finally finish the show. I've changed so much over the years and grown in regards to being a reviewer and how I analyze and talk about these shows. Back in the day when I first saw Shinkenger, I thought "Oh, I'll just watch this show to see what its like", I never expected to end up having seen at least 799 episodes of Sentai and thats only counting the Sentai I've finished. It just blows my mind to think about all the shows I've seen since that day. I'm a sucker for sword fights so naturally Shinkenger's action was and still is my jam. I knew the reveal with Takeru was coming ahead of time since I've been in the fandom for so long but it still hit like a truck regardless. Shinkenger is fantastic and while I don't do top 10s anymore due to stuff after fluctuating pretty frequently after number 5, for now Shinkenger is my number 6. It occurred to me while writing this post that Shinkenger is now technically both my 1st and 16th Sentai.</div></div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-82145131256361017632022-12-22T00:15:00.003-05:002023-01-11T21:05:30.120-05:00Kamen Rider Ryuki Review: The Start Of A Journey<div style="text-align: left;">You're probably wondering about that title...well, it actually has nothing to do with the show. It has everything to do with me since this was the toku show that I consider to be my official entry point into the tokusatsu fandom. Sure, I had seen Dragon Knight before-hand and I've been a Power Rangers fan my entire life but I don't really count them for this since I wasn't active in the fandom at the time. I remember exactly what I was doing when I first stumbled across this show. It was 2011-ish and I was sitting in the college cafe bored out of my mind while waiting for my next class to start. I was looking up Power Rangers clips on youtube when I noticed this little show had snuck its way into my recommended feed and I couldn't resist giving it a shot. It probably sounds weird that a Rider show was my entry point into the toku fandom at large when I'm such a big Sentai fan. So please indulge me while I take this little walk down memory lane for its 20th anniversary. Since I'm going all out for this and its an old show: <b>SPOILERS AHEAD! </b>Without further adieu...TATAKAE!!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/31bc971f_0183_43a7_acd4_f6fdcd5ae3f2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/31bc971f_0183_43a7_acd4_f6fdcd5ae3f2.jpeg" width="277" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Shinji Kido is an intern for the ORE Journal. While investigating a series of missing persons incidents, he finds a strange deck. He is attacked by a dragon from inside a window and manages to escape. While trying to save a friend from another monster, he falls into Mirror World. He gets saved by Ren (Kamen Rider Knight) and contracts with the dragon when it shows up to eat him. From there, he gets embroiled in the Rider War while vowing to use his powers to save people from the monsters on top of trying to solve the mystery of this man who only appears in mirrors.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/kamenrider/images/1/12/Ryuki_-_13_Kamen_Riders.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120907212730" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="800" height="155" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/kamenrider/images/1/12/Ryuki_-_13_Kamen_Riders.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120907212730" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The show features a lot of Riders and its probably got the most (well except for maybe Gaim). Its actually something I find pretty fascinating about the show is that most of the Riders pretty much have their own reasons for fighting in the Rider War. It shows what can go wrong if the wrong person gets ahold of that kind of power. Shinji and Raia are the only ones who aren't out for themselves and even then Raia wants to stop the war out of revenge for the death of his friend. Kanzaki purposefully picked people who would be willing to fight and kill each other just to get their one wish. Because there are so many riders in this show, I'm only gonna go over the major 4 so this will pretty much spoil who the top contenders are in the show.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/81/1b/f5/811bf58b3d4f06a0c30ffb83049c9fc3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="551" height="320" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/81/1b/f5/811bf58b3d4f06a0c30ffb83049c9fc3.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Shinji Kido...where to begin...the man is my kind of hero. Dude just goes out of his way to help people when he gets the chance. He even outright tries to reason with the other riders and talk them out of fighting each other despite them telling him to fck off. He just can't help but throw himself into a situation that he feels needs to be resolved. On top of that, he can't even bring himself to kill someone in the Rider War. Just the impression of having killed someone was enough to devastate him to point of not wanting to transform again despite the risk of Dragredder eating him. Dude wears every single thought going through his head and every emotion he feels on his sleeve. Its his greatest strength and greatest weakness. You'd better believe that a lot of other riders take advantage of this fact too.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ren_akiyama.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ren_akiyama.png" width="177" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ren is fighting in the war because his girlfriend is in a coma thanks to Kanzaki's experiments. The man is also...well kind of a dick in early Ryuki. He makes your modern asshole secondary riders look nice by comparison. The man nearly beats Shinji to death in the second episode to take him out of the fight. He is seemingly only stopped from killing him by Yui breaking a window to get his attention and has the nerve to say Shinji owes him the money he spent replacing the window. Despite all his crowing about how Riders can't co-exist, it feels like his heart isn't in it early on so his story is one about finding his resolve.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shuichi_kitaoka.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shuichi_kitaoka.png" width="239" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kitoaka is a hotshot lawyer who is fighting in the war for one simple reason, he is dying from an incurable disease. He starts out valuing money, luxury, and his own desires because he knows he doesn't have a lot of time left even without the Rider War being a factor. Over the course of the show, he eventually grows and becomes a little more selfless, especially when Asakura gets involved in the Rider War. Something I really dig about how him is how he butts into fights. Its never some flashy or ominous entrance, he just straight up announces his presence by shooting people in the back. Its pretty fitting given his situation, he doesn't have the time to make a show of it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/takeshi_asakura.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/takeshi_asakura.png" width="177" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Asakura is just straight up cold-blooded and he honestly kinda scares me. The idea that someone this unhinged became a rider is terrifying. The man joined the rider war just so he could fight and kill people. He was specifically chosen by Kanzaki for that purpose. He holds a particular dislike for Kitoaka because he played a direct part in putting him in jail. The man makes for a great villain because out of all the riders in the show, he is the one that Shinji absolutely can't even remotely reason with. The man loves dropping bodies too much. The show itself doesn't say what he could wish for but Episode Final (the movie) does. His goal is to wish for the rider war to never end because he is enjoying it that much. I'm so tempted to track down his jacket. Its one of the most iconic looks in Rider imo.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ryuki has a decent amount of timelines and quite a few endings. You've got the series timeline, two timelines branching from the ending of the 13 riders special, Episode Final's (the movie) timeline, and the Rider Time special continuation that basically ends Ryuki's story. I love this aspect because well...everything in Ryuki seems to be canon in a sense. In the last episode of the tv show, Kanzaki outright says "No matter how many times I do this, it will always end the same". All of the endings are rather bleak except for the tv series ending where the existence of the Rider War itself is undone. Thats probably why the Rider Time special continues from the tv ending instead of simply rebooting it for a new timeline. The Rider Time special is honestly the most fitting ending Ryuki could hope to have. There is no way the Rider War could really end without a lot of death. Its about as "happy" an ending as Ryuki could expect to given the 13 rider special and Episode Final have even bleaker endings. Rider Time's ending is downright chilling once you've seen everything Ryuki related.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> Ryuki just has this kind of magic to it. Its engrossing from the first episode though I'm not sure how much of it is from the show itself or if its from the fact that except for two episodes, every episode ends on a cliffhanger that blends into the next episode. Either way, its was addictive for me at the time and it still is today this day (I rewatched a chunk of it as a refresher for this review since I've already seen the show twice). I legitimately had to force myself not to binge it. If you haven't seen this show yet, I give it a whole-hearted recommendation.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-24124370230809180442022-11-29T23:35:00.006-05:002023-01-04T21:44:38.868-05:00Supernatural Season One: Wayward Son<div style="text-align: left;">It was only a matter of time before I touched this show. This is probably one of those shows that may or may not need an introduction depending on who you ask. I'll be honest, I tapped out of this show around season 6 or 7 and caught a few episodes here and there afterwards. I've been curious how well it plays out given some of the things I've heard so I figured I might as well start from the beginning as a refresher. This isn't going to be too detailed and is going to be more of an overview of how the season went down for me. Note: I don't know how often these posts are gonna come out because in addition to working late, I've been rewatching this show in bursts in-between various korean dramas on netflix. Now, lets take a look at the first season.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px-1-01_pilot_5013.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="350" height="233" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px-1-01_pilot_5013.jpg" width="350" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The premise synopsis for this is gonna be tricky because the series goes places after the first season that would sort of render that pointless. As you'd probably expect from a show that managed to last 15 seasons, where it starts certainly isn't where it ends up. Anyway, even though I just said all that, here goes: Basically Sam's brother Dean finds him at his college and ropes him in to looking for their father who hasn't come back from a "hunting trip". Sam agrees to help out this one time. The twist? They hunt monsters. They do their thing, kill a ghostie, and Dean drops Sam back off at college only for Sam find his girlfriend pinned to the ceiling before the place catches fire. So Sam goes back to the hunting life to find their dad and whatever the hell did this because its not the first time this has happened to them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This season is something I like to refer to as "Demonic Scooby-Doo" and I absolutely adore it even though I'm a known wimp when it comes to horror. They use their dad's journal as a way to retrace his footsteps and that leads to said Scooby-Doo-ish shenanigans. I was unable to tear myself away from the screen during pretty much every episode even though I've seen them all before. I think that says a lot about how well this season holds up for me. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hell_House1_6797.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="320" height="212" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hell_House1_6797.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">My favorite episode out of the entre season is the episode "Hell House". Its a pretty damn good ghost story with a twist. Essentially the brothers investigate a haunted house covered in odd symbols and when their usual tricks don't work on the ghost they start digging into the symbols. <b>Spoiler</b> (for this 15 year-old episode of a tv show): They find out through researching one of the symbols that the ghost in question isn't a ghost...its a Tulpa. A Tulpa is basically an idea given form when so many people focus on it that it suddenly pops into reality. Due to the Tulpa taking the form of an urban legend that two bored teens in town literally made up two weeks prior, it becomes a game of telephone (as urban legends tend to do) and the creature evolves as the tale changes. So its effectively one of the few things they've hunted that they can't actually kill.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm a sucker for monster lore so every episode's breakdown of how the monsters do their thing was always pretty interesting. One particularly funny thing of note to me is how the show handles vampire weaknesses. It outright says the classic lore is bullshit and that only two things can harm a vampire: 1. Injecting them with deadman's blood to weaken them and 2. removing the head. That second one makes me laugh every time I remember because barring ghosts and demons (and a few other outliers), pretty much every single thing the brothers hunt can effectively be killed if they remove its head.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Peppered throughout the first season is drama about Sam working out his issues while looking for their father as he goes about returning to the hunting life. If I'm being honest though, that part is pretty much unnecessary. Let me explain: The show's monster of the week episodes are so good that they overshadow the plot related ones. In that sense, them following the notes in their dad's journal in hopes of finding him really just kind of feels like a way to get them into those situations. I don't really have much else to say about this season other than that it is downright fantastic and its no surprise to me why the show took off.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-19407324188675882022-09-02T23:43:00.007-04:002023-01-04T21:45:53.509-05:00Isekai World Tour: Sword Art Online: Aincrad Arc<div style="text-align: left;">Lets rip this bandage off and talk about SAO. I'm going to handle this differently than my other posts in this series. I'm going to split this show up by arc as opposed to season so each arc will get its own post (also because there is only so much Kirito I can handle in one viewing). This mostly because the first arc of SAO ended up being more enjoyable than I remembered and its really in Alfheim where my issues with it as a whole start cropping up. Welcome to the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sword_art_online_full.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sword_art_online_full.png" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> The hottest and most anticipated new mmo has dropped. 10,000 lucky players log in to get a feel for the game and everything is going fine...right up until they log out. Suddenly they're transported to a town square as the sky goes red. The Game Master appears and tells them that they're stuck here until they beat the game and if they die in the game, the nerve gear will fry their brains. He congratulates on playing his little game and wishes them luck.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I surprisingly enjoyed this arc more than I did the last time around. Its not bad but its not amazing either (well, outside of two episodes) and I have a few minor issues that don't break the arc for me. Kirito is still op as hell tho. The first half of the arc was really good but honestly, it gets kinda boring when Kirito and Asuna get together. Its one of those things where the constant time skips makes me not believe their relationship because its not shown on-screen until they get together. I legitimately said "WTF!" out loud when Asuna tells another player that Kirito is her reason for living. The arc is at its best when its just Kirito bumping into people and helping them out. Easily the best episodes in the arc for me are episodes 5 and 6. They're a pretty sweet murder mystery about players somehow getting PK-ed in safe zones. Its a fantastic episode that gives a decent amount of insight into how certain aspects of the game work. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kirito is a weird protagonist for this kind of story because the people he meets are more interesting than him. I would've loved to see an episode centered around Klein or the merchant guy. Outside of Asuna, the supporting cast isn't there consistently. I honestly would've preferred if this arc had been an anthology following Kirito as he helps people out during his traveling because the relationship with Asuna and her guild don't really add anything until the final two episodes. Actually now that I think about it, this show might have been better off if each episode had a different pov character in general.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm torn on the Yui episode, its an ok episode but its also a bit manipulative. <b>Spoilers:</b> Kirito and Asuna find an amnesiac girl while on vacation and adopt her while they try to figure out who she is and if and she has any family. She isn't a player, she isn't even human. She is a mental health algorithm designed to study and help people acclimate to SAO. The system admin forbad her from doing that so she could only watch on in horror at the players' mental anguish until her code bugs out and she seeks out the only two happy players in the game: Kirito and Asuna. See the problem yet? Yui is designed to poke, prod, and study people's mental state and because of that, she inadvertently sort of controls the responses people will have to her. So I'm not sure how much of their "family" was legitimately Kirito and Asuna liking her and how much was Yui's programming accidentally causing them to react that way. It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth the more I think about it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> All things considered, the arc is ok and it held my attention well enough. As mentioned earlier, the second half of the arc is a let down compared to the first. The show makes a point of saying a few times how emotionally scarred and terrified the player base is due to being stuck in the game but it only really shows it in one or two episodes thanks to all the timeskips. Sadly from what I remember of the next arc of the show, its all downhill from here.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-40332351584318854832022-08-24T01:39:00.003-04:002023-08-14T22:38:08.335-04:00Air Gear: The Power Of One Fantastic Idea<div style="text-align: left;">Lets get this out of the way: I love Air Gear. Its honestly one of my favorite anime and not because of the plot, characters, or really any event that happens in the show. Thats not to say its a bad show, its just rather standard and nothing to really write home about. What makes the show stand out for me all comes down to one simple and admittedly fantastic idea. This is gonna be more in-line with how my Isekai World Tour posts work instead of it being a full on review.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/air_gear.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="350" height="281" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/air_gear.png" width="350" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">What is that fantastic idea? Its one simple part of the show: The Air Treks. Air Treks (ATs) are these sweet rollerblades with an exceptionally powerful motor thats both small enough to fit in the skates and powerful enough to let the user ride up the sides of buildings and jump far enough to fly through the air. They are amazing and add really give the show its own distinct feel. They're basically the backbone of the show imo. I'm gonna be honest, I don't like sports anime. I find them to be insincere and can't get into them due to not finding the love of the sport believable. However, I whole-heartedly believe every single second of Air Gear. When the opening theme (Chain) kicks in while a character describes what their first time riding was like and how ATs changed their perspective on life or let them forget their troubles, it legitimately feels like they've found their wings. I get hyped every time the show pulls that trick. Hell, I suck at rollerskating in general and have a massive fear of heights but I'd probably be willing to risk breaking neck just to feel what its like to fly. I want to be able to feel the wind on my face, take off like a rocket, soar through the air, and scale buildings with nothing but wheels attached to my feet. Thats how well the show sold the idea of ATs to me.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As mentioned earlier, the rest of the show isn't much to write home about. The main character and his friends are about what you'd expect and they don't really go outside of that. They're slackers when it comes to everything accept ATs and one is pretty pervy for the sake of a joke. The dub itself is 2000s as hell to the point where I'm pretty certain the reason it makes some of the jokes it does is because they were certain it wouldn't air on tv. The plot is as a bog standard as it gets for a sports anime as well. Despite what I said about it being a good mood setter for flying scenes in the show, I'm not really that big on the opening theme, it just works really well in those scenes Its not bad, its merely ok. The ATs are what push the show from ok into great for me. In fact, after rebinging it all, I desperately wanted more Air Gear content. The way this show treats the ATs alone is enough for me to give it a recommendation. As of right now, my only option is to read the manga and oh boy from my research into that thing does the manga get stupid. Honestly, I think the show was right to end where it did but I wouldn't be opposed to a season two.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-17673209381796691562022-06-28T23:27:00.003-04:002022-12-10T01:42:53.550-05:00Isekai World Tour: Konosuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World Seasons 1 and 2<div style="text-align: left;">I know I already covered this show on the blog before but I reread my original review and I really didn't say much about the show other than that I liked it so it was due for a redo. Like the other posts in this series, this post is probably gonna be kinda short. Welcome to the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/konosuba_key_art.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/konosuba_key_art.png" width="217" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> After a tragic and frankly pretty embarrassing death, Kazuma Sato appears before the goddess Aqua. She insults him and laughs in his face about how he died and then "graciously" offers to bring him back to life in another world with a single boon to take with him. Kazuma is the petty and vindictive sort so he chooses to take the goddess herself as his boon.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">How do I describe this show? Back when I first watched it, I was just testing it out as this kind of comedy can be very hit or miss with me. It took a few episodes for me to get a feel for the show but by episode 4, I was on board with it. I absolutely adore this cast. They're just one big lovable catastrophe of an rpg party. This party only has 2 braincells between the 4 of them and Kazuma has one of them. You have the overpowered but basically useless arrogant idiot (Aqua), the hyper focused mage obsessed with one spell (Megumin), and my favorite: Darkness. Darkness is the best of the trio for me. She is a crusader specifically because she likes getting hit and she can't hit back due to her low accuracy. Thats something she basically admits to in the show. I don't usually enjoy characters like her but man, this party and show really makes her work. All 3 of them combined makes for one enjoyable headache for Kazuma. It is never a boring day for the man with these 3 ladies. I can't really go into much else about the show because imo, how the party plays off of each other and the shenanigans they get into because of it is the main draw. There isn't really much an overarching plot at they just happen to luck into fighting the evil generals. Saying anything else about it would also basically require me spoil the jokes and thats not really something I should do for a comedy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts: </b>I started typing this before season 3 got announced. I miss these lovable idiots and I'm really looking forward to season 3. The show somehow manages to side step the cringe aspects of its characters' comedy. It manages to do it so well that I actually found myself laughing about Darkness'...tendencies. Not just any laughs for that matter, minute long deep laughs. For real, if you asked me which character I was certain I would've hated when I first saw this show, it would've been Darkness. This show managed to leave me a smile on my face with each episode. Its is easily one of my favorite isekai anime to the point where I actually want merch from it. However, its not a show I can easily recommend, mostly because if the comedy or characters don't click with you, you're probably gonna be bored or annoyed.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-73892033394401539612022-03-22T00:47:00.004-04:002022-07-26T22:29:20.733-04:00Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Ultraman Powered) Review<div style="text-align: left;">I naturally decided to watch this after Ultraman Towards The Future. Like that show the Ultra is only ever referred to as Ultraman in-show so I'll go with his official name in the franchise. It is also a 13 episode show so like last time, this review might be shorter than usual. Yeah, uhhh...I don't really have much else to say as an opener so...Here we go!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/o0673085213466837842.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/o0673085213466837842.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise: </b>The Baltans have launched an attempt to invade Earth. In order to fight them off a strange alien fuses with WINR officer Kenichi Kai. With Powered's well...power, Kai is able to fight off the Baltan. However, Powered knows the Baltans aren't finished so he sticks around to help out.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c9/e7/3a/c9e73a637c289510fec2d3d2ffe2924e.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c9/e7/3a/c9e73a637c289510fec2d3d2ffe2924e.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kai is fine as a protagonist but kinda lacking in character outside of him joking around with the team in one episode. Kane Kosugi does an alright job in the role. Thats sadly all I can really say for the character. WINR in general is an alright defense team and thats all there is to them. They do their jobs perfectly fine but they don't get much character to them and honestly, none of them really clicked with me. The closest to a favorite I have is Sanders but thats purely because of his snark.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Favorite Episode: </b>This is a bit tricky because I kinda realized something 8 episodes in. Aside from episode 3, episode 7 (the Dada episode), and episode 12, most of Powered's episodes are remakes of episodes from the original Ultraman. The episodes aren't bad but it gets kinda distracting once you realize that. Due to that, I kind of have to pick episode 3, mostly because Jeffrey Combs is in it and his performance as a slimy film producer is a treat.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Effects and Action:</b> I knew going into this show that the kaiju fights weren't going to be much of anything. This is mostly because of the material Powered's suit is made from. It was both fragile and expensive. The designs are stellar across the board (my favorite being the gnarly looking Red King in episode 3) but the lack actual action in the show really costs the suits points. I just do not get why they did all that if the suits were unfit for the purpose they were designed for. As for the effects, they're fine, sort of a stepup from Great's. The only exception would be episode 8. Something about it just makes them seem fake and the building Jamila gets tossed into it very clearly a painted cardboard box given how it crumples instead of breaking. Jamila's design is also a wide miss compared to Powered's overall designs. Nothing about it reads like Jamila to me. Episode 12 probably has the best fight in the whole show and its sadly pretty standard as far as Ultra fights go. The only reason its notable is because Dorako keeps swinging his razor sharp claws around so Powered can't get close enough to do his whole shoving thing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts: </b>Powered is an odd show. I can't actually decide if its better than Great or worse but its definitely a less good OG Ultraman. With that being said, the show is honestly just kinda ok but its biggest problem is that it doesn't really feel that distinct due to the aforementioned remakes of OG Ultraman episodes. The show doesn't really have its own feel to me other than it trying its hardest to be OG Ultraman. Its japanese theme song is killer tho so give that a listen. It actually makes me wish the show was better. Unlike Great, I don't recommend this even if you're morbidly curious or bored...watch OG Ultraman instead, you'll probably get more out of it. The only reason I can think of to recommend this to someone is if they say it as a kid and want to revisit it and even then its a maybe.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-72148817032001340162022-03-22T00:47:00.003-04:002022-07-26T22:28:54.816-04:00Ultraman: Towards The Future (Ultraman Great) Review<div style="text-align: left;">The Ultra kick returns somewhat with a show you probably weren't expecting. I mainly started watching this because well...it was short. They just refer to him as Ultraman in the show but I'm going to call him by his official name in the franchise for the sake of simplicity. Its a 13 episode show so this review might be a little brief. I don't have a clever line to start with so lets get to it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/towards_the_future.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/towards_the_future.png" width="234" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> Two astronauts surveying mars are attacked by the alien Gudis. A giant shows up to fight Gudis and the two try to flee. One is killed when Gudis blows up their ship and after seemingly defeating Gudis, the giant fuses with the survivor. However, Gudis' cells have fallen to Earth and thus begins the show proper.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jack_shindo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="234" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jack_shindo.jpg" width="156" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Jack Shindo is smug...and weirdly its not the character's fault. The actor just kinda uses the exact same tone no matter whats happening and he always has this big ol' smirk on his face even when he should be scared or serious. The character is ok (though he just kinda reveals stuff to the team whenever they need a lead) and its interesting seeing him talk to Great in a few a episodes and asking him what he should do mostly because up until that point, the show kinda made me think Great was the one running the body, not simply being a part of Jack's mind.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">UMA as a whole are fine and I was honestly a little surprised how active they were as a defense team. They're decent characters and their actors are fine. They're pretty capable as a team even if the show doesn't go into them much during its run. They just kinda do their jobs and that really all I was expecting from them. The team's scientist (Charles Morgan) kinda reminded of Ide from the original Ultraman, just without the dramatic moments. Charles is probably my favorite member of the team because the guy made chuckle a bit here and there. On top of that, he carried his personal episode pretty well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Favorite Episode: </b>I'm gonna have to go with episode 9 "The Biospherians". What can I say? I love stories about sentient plants trying to wipe out humanity. Its a trope I've always found interesting and the way the plants were capable of wiping out humanity was interesting on top of being kind of scary. Its the only potentially world ending threat in the show beyond Gudis and the monsters in the final two episode. Honestly, its better executed than those threats for me. Thats not to say the main threats of the show are bad, they're just a tad underwhelming for me. Unfortunately, the kaiju in this episode probably has the weakest design in the show. The episode also features a quickdraw fight with the kaiju complete with shotgun reloading sounds after Great's blasts and I honestly can't say I've seen that in Ultra before.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Effects and Action:</b> The effects are iffy for the first 4 episodes. They don't look too bad but they're not too good either. After episode 5, the shows budget seems to have gotten bigger and the effects improve. I can't think of a single effect that stood out to me. The creature designs are fine but well, the kaiju themselves feel off. They don't feel like they're alive or exist in the world outside of the episodes they appear in. The kaiju feel more like props that are just there for Great to fight. The fight choreography isn't great either. A lot of it is just Great occasionally blocking and punching in-between laser blasts with the kaiju not moving much either. Once or twice he manages to follow up a punch with a point-blank blast and that was neat. The is an amusing scene in the final episode where Great swings a tower frame at the monster and the monster just catches it and proceeds to beat him with it. Its a small thing but it was a neat bit of set interaction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts: </b>I don't really have much to say for this. Great's japanese opening is leagues better than the english one. The show has an environmental message to it and its perfectly fine, its not heavy-handed. Its an ok show with two really good episodes and thats about all there is to it. If you're looking for a decent MOTW show thats also rather short, go for it but only if you're morbidly curious or really bored as I don't expect anyone to get much out of this show.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-62286207895417761472021-12-21T09:45:00.000-05:002021-12-21T09:45:16.724-05:00Kamen Rider Zi-O Review: Changing An Unstoppable Fate<div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, yeah, I know I'm way behind the fandom on this particular season but hear me out: The last rider show (other than Amazons) I finished was Gaim back when it first aired so I figured I was due for another one after so long. I was curious about what I was hearing regarding Zi-O back when it was airing so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm also going to talk about the ending so be warned...<b>SPOILERS AHEAD! </b>Without further adieu: Rejoice for the birth of a new king!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zi_o_ultimate_poster.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zi_o_ultimate_poster.png" width="242" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise: </b>Sougo Tokiwa is an ordinary high school student whose one dream in life is to be king. One day, he is approached by a girl from the future who tells him that he will indeed become one. The catch? He will be the king whose rise leads the world to destruction and his iron-fisted rule, Oma Zi-O. On top of that, a man from the future is trying to put an end to him. As if all that wasn't enough to fill the life of a wannabe king, some other mysterious people are also intent on screwing with the past to try and change the future for their own gain.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sougo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sougo.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sougo was honestly kind of meh for me early on but I actually grew to really like him as the show progressed. He is the usual optimistic type of hero that modern rider tends to use. At first he took on Zi-O's powers with the intent to use them to become king like he always dreamed. Naturally, his tune changes as the show goes on and once he sees the future Tsukuyomi and Geiz say he will create, it is devastating to him to the point where he is willing to give up his dream altogether so no one will suffer by his hand. It was great seeing him come to terms with that and fully develop his own idea of what a king should do in order to protect his friends.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/geiz.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/geiz.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Geiz is the man from the future seeking to stop Oma Zi-O's rise even if it means potentially putting Sougo down. He tries to be this really stoic man with a mission character but the man gets rather goofy. At one point, he outright tried to stab Sougo with a piece of bread. As you'd expect he eventually grows to value Sougo as a friend and a person. After Sougo discovers that he will indeed destroy the world one day, Geiz swears to Sougo that he will put him down when that day comes so Sougo can't hurt anyone. He even admits at one point that he was rather eager to see what kind of future this Sougo would create. For some reason he gets a few secondary rider watches which is weird because he pretty much just uses the watches of the main riders like Sougo does.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tsu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tsu.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tsukuyomi's goal is to stop Oma's rise by monitoring and guiding Sougo so he doesn't become Oma Zi-O. Other than that, she doesn't have any memory beyond the day she joined the fight against Oma Zi-O. Without getting into that little mystery (gotta keep some things hidden in this review), her plot line is sort of what you think it would be. I find it fascinating that at about the halfway point both she and Geiz ended up swapping positions on whether to kill Sougo or change him and it felt pretty natural given how his powers were escalating. Eventually tho, she realizes there isn't much point in worrying about Sougo going dark and goes right back to being on his side.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/woz.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/woz.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Keisuke Watanabe is fantastic as Woz and he honestly turns in the best performance in the show. Woz's enthusiasm is downright infectious to the point where around ep 15, I was doing the pose and mouthing the line myself as he does it to the point where it kind of got engraved in my muscle memory. The character just loves what he does and the actor gets that across perfectly. I can absolutely see why he became a meme during Zi-O's run. The man is utterly dedicated to Sougo and the arrival of Oma Day even if it ultimately doesn't turn out like he originally thought it would. His existential crisis in the Hibiki episode was great. The man was devastated by the thought of not being able to celebrate his overlord's birthday properly.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/masahiro.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/masahiro.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">This show pretty much confirms a feeling I've had about Tsukasa since Kamen Rider Taisen. He is much more enjoyable outside of his own show. Something about Tsukasa's schtick just irritated me during Decade itself. He just feels different in his appearances out of Decade. I used to think he was just a dick but now...well...he is still a dick but a more charismatic dick. It helps that the actor likes the role a lot. Its rather fitting that the last rider to have to gather rider powers was there to see the Heisei era out. I'm curious to return to Decade itself at some point to see if how much I like him now changes how I'll see his show.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Villains:</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEwEYRmOCD7FPY4Bec_9sQu70y9BzygF9ZGsHWhz6EMAYRCrJsHsPlE740WorKnB6pPZw-JXLXdnIpla4_exmq2rO2nwWZmG7sFSzFVm9Yb3U0LYG9stYlWrVMRsh-Sr8RyixgSl8unnps/s1440/Kamen-Rider-Zi-O-Time-Jackers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEwEYRmOCD7FPY4Bec_9sQu70y9BzygF9ZGsHWhz6EMAYRCrJsHsPlE740WorKnB6pPZw-JXLXdnIpla4_exmq2rO2nwWZmG7sFSzFVm9Yb3U0LYG9stYlWrVMRsh-Sr8RyixgSl8unnps/s320/Kamen-Rider-Zi-O-Time-Jackers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The main villains in the show are the Time Jackers and like Geiz and Tsukuyomi, they want to stop Oma's rise. However, they want to replace him with a king of their own choosing, hence the creation of the Another Riders. They're kept pretty mysterious for the most part and that honestly might have been a mistake. The show never really goes into much about Uhr and Hora other than that Schwartz plucked them from another timeline. They also don't seem to understand why Schwartz can do things they can't with their powers either after they find out he can grant people the powers they have. Meaning, Schwartz might have granted them their powers and messed with their memories. With that being said, they're alright villains. Schwartz however is the heavy-hitter of the group and the man with the plan. His actor is great and handles the power hungry maniacal bad guy part extremely well once Schwartz gets to cut loose.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fb_img_1545763175449.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fb_img_1545763175449.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Keisuke Watanabe is one of the few actors I can gush about twice in the same review. He plays a dual role for an entire arc. Granted his other role is an alternate timeline version of Woz with all his mannerisms/enthusiasm and a really neat sinister undertone to him. This version of Woz (White Woz) is a supporter of Geiz thanks to a shift causing an alternate timeline to come into being. While he claims the new timeline is said to be a paradise, White Woz himself pretty much implies that its only preferable to Oma's timeline for a chosen few. The implication gives off the sense that if Oma's timeline is pure chaos, Geiz Revive's timeline is more on the pure order side of things.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Miraiders: </b>There are 4 riders from alternate timelines that show up in Zi-O: Shinobi, Quiz, Kikai, and Ginga. They're really neat what-ifs that fit perfectly well in a time travel show and I love them overall as a concept. Though two of them are meh and one is mostly only interesting to me because he got a miniseries during Zi-O's run. Fittingly, their suits are also made from reused parts of other Heisei rider suits. Three of the four are also portrayed by past Sentai actors.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shinobi_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shinobi_2.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The one who is only interesting to me because of the special would be Shinobi. As the name implies, he is a ninja-based Rider. I like his design but after seeing his miniseries, I kinda wished I hadn't. Mostly because it was basically a 3-part episode of a show already in progress. So it introduces some stuff that never actually gets resolved in the miniseries because we'll probably never see the character again. It also says that they passed a law called the Ninja Act as a way solve humanity's environmental impact...by teaching people to throw fireballs for some reason. Its fine for what it is just, I dunno, it teases too much about Shinobi's world even tho Toei likely won't make an actual show for him in 2022. I would've preferred an hour long done-in-one special or movie instead of an episode in 3 parts of a show already in progress. He is played by StarNinger from Ninninger.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krquiz_2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krquiz_2019.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Quiz is the rider of 2040 and he is easily my favorite even though I'm not a fan of his design or powers. His helmet is a Ghost helmet, his chestpiece is from an Exaid Rideplayer suit and I think the rest of his suit is too. His powers are just weird and I'm not sure why they went with this design and motif as his quiz show schtick doesn't really have anything to do with his character. The writing for his character is fantastic. He is a man who can't let go of the father he never met. His story is one of seeking closure claiming its so his mother can find peace when really, he needs to know why his father left just as much as she does. I would've loved to get a mini-series for him just to see what his world was like. He is played by Red Buster from Gobusters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kikaider_2121.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="350" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kikaider_2121.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kikai is rather meh as a character and I can't really think of much else to say about him. He basically exists for two reasons: 1. To show Sougo's powers are becoming strong enough to bring new riders into existence and 2. White Woz's plan to try to end Oma's timeline requires 3 Ridewatches that shouldn't exist. His suit is a retooled Guardian suit from Build. Unlike Shinobi and Quiz, his actor previously portrayed a Sentai villain, Zamigo from Lupinranger vs Patranger. Kikai's human outfit is also one big Kikaider homage. He is pretty much the only future rider (except for Shinobi in his mini-series) whose world is actually expanded on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krzio_ginga.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="213" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krzio_ginga.png" width="89" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ginga is just pure power incarnate and from way in the future, thats about it. The show doesn't really go into much of anything about him. The closest thing the show gets to saying something about him is one character speculating that he might the universe's counterpoint to the power Zi-O has (Zi-O having the power over time and Ginga having power drawn from the cosmos). He is the heavy-hitting big threat that requires the heroes and the Time Jackers to work together which I suppose is all he really needs to be. His helmet is from a Mage suit from Wizard and the rest of it is from Fourze Meteor Fusion States. I'm really not big on his design though I do like the ufo hat. He is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (Kivat) which makes him right at home in the Another Kiva episodes of Zi-O.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Ending: </b>I'm talking about the ending here because it fascinates me. <b>SPOILERS AHEAD!</b> The show gives this feeling that Oma Day (the day when Oma Zi-O ends the world) is inevitable...and to my surprise, it actually was. Oma's rise could be delayed, it could be sped up, but it could not be stopped. It had to happen and the best case scenario was to change Sougo just enough to shift it to less of an apocalypse and more of a rebirth for the world and multiverse. The ending winds up being less about trying to stop Sougo from outright becoming Oma Zi-O and more about him deciding to use that power to save those precious to him instead of using it as a way to rule over others. In the end, it all came down to what kind of king Sougo wanted to be.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> It takes Zi-O about 13 or so episodes to get going and after that, it gets good and I had a lot of fun with it. Once the show finds its footing, it becomes an enjoyable anniversary show. It homages elements and themes of what it was tributing in the first few episodes, follows up some past loose threads, gives closure to some shows that needed it, and most importantly for an anniversary: It made me want to see shows I hadn't seen before. As a matter of fact, the Ghost episodes made me want to revisit the show and give it another chance (which I do plan on doing at some point). It even made me want to check out Kabuto's first few episodes (that one didn't go so well). While not one of my absolute favorites, I enjoyed it quite a bit. This show pretty much managed to change my opinion of Shirakura.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-17139043495125224362021-11-26T07:33:00.003-05:002021-11-26T07:38:30.436-05:00Isekai World Tour: In Another World With My Smartphone<div style="text-align: left;">You know, there are so many other light novel adaptations I should cover in this series but for some reason I really just have the urge to vent about this one. Its not something I'd consider bad, its just really meh. Also, this is specifically just going to be about the anime, not the novels as I haven't read them so if any of my complaints are rectified there, I won't know. Now, join me on the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inanotherworldwithmysmartphone_v2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inanotherworldwithmysmartphone_v2.jpg" width="229" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise: </b>God screws up and accidentally drops a lightning bolt on 15 year old Touya Mochizuka. He is surprisingly chill about being dead all things considered. As an apology God brings him back to life in another world and grants Touya's one request...to bring his smartphone with him.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First off, I really don't like the title. It sounds like the setup to a joke that never comes, which honestly sums up the show itself imo. The show's whole setup makes it sound like it should be a parody but its not. Furthermore, God also grants Touya a few other gifts he didn't ask for. He enhances Touya's physical abilities and (this part is a sticking point I have with it), he grants him complete magical affinity with all the elements. Due to this, Touya can learn every spell in that world, including custom abilities that are effectively rng-ed into people at birth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All of that wouldn't be much of a problem if anything in the world could touch him. Between him being so broken and his chill nature, there is absolutely no tension in the show whatsoever. So the show just feels like a sequence of things that happen. I can't even call it a power fantasy (ugh...I hate using that term due to it being a tad too broad imo) because of all that. Its an odd case where the story is too chill for its own good. Maybe that changes as the novels go on but the anime doesn't have any really draw to it imo. Even the characters didn't manage to grab me. I know I keep complaining about this but Touya is way too chill to be interesting. The show doesn't go much into the female cast either so...yeah, there is virtually nothing to this cast at all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> Yeah, this post is kinda short given my usual lengths.This show just strikes me as a way to kill time and thats about all there is to it overall. Its way too chill for its own good. It doesn't go beyond what you'd think it would and doesn't really do anything interesting with the semi-comedic premise. Its not bad but there really isn't a big draw to it. It kinda feels like the only reason this was adapted was because of the Isekai boom. I can't even recall anything about the world he was dumped into. I dunno, maybe the novels fix my problems with it as they go on but I can't really say this made me even want to check out the novels after seeing the show. Thats really all I have to say about the show since it basically gave me nothing.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-65241219196590201452021-11-25T02:41:00.004-05:002022-01-26T13:37:04.888-05:00Isekai World Tour: .Hack//Sign<div style="text-align: left;">Isekai is a genre I'm rather fond of even if a lot of it comes off as same-y. I have found some I really dig but I've never done a deep dive into the genre before. There are so many I should cover at some point: Log Horizon? Re:Zero? SAO (ugh)? Konosuba (ok I already did a post on that but still)? There are so many Isekai to choose from these days (and I really should experience just how much the genre has to offer) but I figured before covering anything new-ish, I'd go back to the first Isekai-ish show I've ever seen. This is going to be less of a review in my usual style and more my thoughts on the show in general so its not going to be in-depth. Welcome to the first stop on the Isekai World Tour: .Hack//Sign!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d8/Hack-regular-6a.jpg/220px-Hack-regular-6a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d8/Hack-regular-6a.jpg/220px-Hack-regular-6a.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> A player of an mmo game awakens after passing out in a dungeon. He can't remember exactly what happened before he passed out. To his surprise he also can't log out and even then, he doesn't particularly want to. In addition to that, he can now do things that outright break the game's rules landing him in the sights of a few other players in The World. If that wasn't bad enough, strange unkillable monsters are starting to pop up. Only one thing seems to be (relatively) certain: The mysterious Key of The Twilight just might be the lynchpin of it all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Full disclosure...I went into this show with relatively fresh eyes cuz it had been so long since I'd seen it that my memories were hazy at best. I was pleasantly surprised with the show. There was a lot more talking than I would've figured going into this and quite a bit of meandering early on. With that being said, its actually a pretty solid character study and has a decently intriguing mystery. Tsukasa learning that while his mind is trapped in the game he can feel everything happening to him but can't actually die because the entity keeping him there won't let him was downright horrifying. The man has an existential crisis wondering if he is even real at all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While Tsukasa is the main focus of the show, I dig the supporting cast. They all get some nice moments and in the case of BT and Bear, we get a look at their lives outside the game. Bear's focus episode is great because it asks the question of how much of his desire to help Tsukasa comes from his desire to make up for failing to be apart of his own son's life. He eventually comes to the conclusion that he legitimately does want to help the kid. Pretty much thinking that no matter how bad the real world is for a person, its healthier not to spend it all in a world of fantasy. As for BT, well...she just straight up prefers the virtual world to the real world. Its not really delved into but I kinda got this vibe that her irl life was kind of sad, hence her insistence that reality is reality and a game is a game and that the two should never mix. That basically implies that the game is all she has in her life. Its even more apparent because she makes friends with a former member of the Crimson Knights (Crim) while chasing down the mystery of the key and when she wants to meet up irl to hangout and he shuts her down because he has the same mentality she does. There isn't much to Mimiru because she never wrestles with the question the others do. That being if they should help Tsukasa even if its not what Tsuaka wants. Mimiru is all in for trying to help him really early on and she doesn't really back down from that. There are three other characters in the show (Sora, Crim, and Silver Knight) who I can't really talk about for reasons. Sora's overall plot isn't finished until the video games and Crim and Silver Knight tie into Subaru and I can't really talk about her.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm not going to get into the main mystery because well, gotta leave some mystery to the show. I will say this, if you're going into it for the first time, you'll probably figure out what the key is at about the halfway point of the show as thats when Tsukasa does even if he doesn't say it out loud. Because of that, I also can't talk much about Tsukasa and by extension Subaru. I will say that in the end Subaru basically becomes Tsukasa's rock and helps him take that one step forward.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Music:</b> The only thing I remembered from my first viewing of the show is the music which is still fantastic. Its actually even better than I remember and its downright haunting. Yuji Kajura pulled out all the stops for this soundtrack. I swear if I could mute everything except the music, I would totally have it on in the background as a I go about my day. Its easily one of my favorite soundtracks from any show I've seen. It gives me goosebumps every time I hear it and I wish I could track it down just so I can play it as I go about my day.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> I uh...don't really have much to say as a closer. There was a lot about this show that I did not remember. I know there is a contingent of folks these days who hold the talk-y bits against it but honestly, I don't see the point of the hate. Even the non-plot talk-y bits are important because its character interactions letting them get closer to each other so that they can build to the eventual moment when all of the cast comes together for Tsukasa's sake. The change brought on by the talk-y bits are entire reason BT sides with Tsukasa in the end despite only caring about the mystery of the key itself in the beginning. Its not a show I can easily recommend but if you haven't seen it, give it a look if you're curious. You might get as much out of it as I did.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-77102768455834438622021-04-25T23:40:00.007-04:002021-11-01T00:17:15.582-04:00Mashin Sentai Kiramager Review: A Very Simple Shine<div style="text-align: left;">The last time I had seen a modern Sentai in full was back during Kyoryuger. Furthermore, the last time I saw more than one episode of a modern Sentai was back when I got halfway through ToQger while it was airing. As you've probably guessed by all the Sentai reviews I've done so far, I've been making my way through older Sentai for a while due to the modern stuff having trouble catching my eye these last few years. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me combined the fandom's hype so I decided to check out this show. Without further adieu...Kiramai Go!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/201912260257381.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/201912260257381.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">When the kingdom of Crystalia falls to forces of Yodonheim, princess Mabusheena flees to Earth. Knowing that Yodonheim has their sights set on Earth next, she goes to look for 5 dazzling people to partner with the KirameiStones.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters: </b>The team is fine overall and their actors do fine jobs. I don't really have too many complaints with them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d7632af4_fa4d_4f5f_a699_e0439493ccef.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="350" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d7632af4_fa4d_4f5f_a699_e0439493ccef.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Juuru Atsuta/KiramaiRed: Juuru is the artistic type, the man loves to draw and has the greatest imagination out of all of them. I like his style of leadership. His approach is that he doesn't feel the team can fight at their fullest if something is bugging them or they're not having what they enjoy as a priority. The kid is just a wholesome, loveable character overall and he really just wants his team be at their best and most dazzling.</li><li>Tanemoto Imizu/KiramaiYellow: A pro gamer and the team's sharpshooter. He tends to be the calm and collected type. He is also a pretty good tactician. Its honestly kind of cool because I don't think I've seen too many yellows fill that role. When the dude gets serious, he is actually kind of scary. Dude actually managed to make a Marrskman straight up quit because he kept using the Marrskman's timeloop ability to curbstomp him over and over.</li><li>Sena Hayami/KiramaiGreen: A track and field star. She is usually the straight forward type. Sena overall is fine and I particularly like how one of the later episodes reveals the entire reason she can rush into things and make split-second decisions so easily is because she is running all the possible outcomes in her head at once. Its something rather cool about her character because the show really never forgets about her speed aspect.</li><li>Shiguru Oshikiri/KiramaiBlue: A young actor. I like Shiguru because even though he tries to act like this cool dude, the man is actually a goofy dork. That entire schtick could've gone so badly but his actor seemed like he was really into it. He was the only one who actually thought of trying Juuru's imagination trick to try and enhance his swordplay. I was actually surprised that the show remembered he could do that when it got near the end.</li><li>Sayo Oharu/KiramaiPink: A genius surgeon. Sayo's focus episodes are alright but the show kind of forgets about her day job and doctor skills for a bit. I can only remember it coming up two or three times outside the band episode. I kind of remember her more for her parts in other episodes, particularly in Takamichi's debut. She isn't bad, I just kinda don't have a lot to say about her.</li><li>Takamichi Crystalia/KiramaiSilver: Takamichi seems like the lone-wolf type at first but he isn't actually a brooder. He just wanted to do stuff on his own in his first 3 eps because he thought it was more efficient that way. I like the guy well enough but once the curse thing is done with and Kiraful mode shows up, he kind of starts getting sidelined during the ground climax fights unless an episode focuses on him. I'd have liked to see him do more outside of his focus episodes.</li><li>Mabusheena: The princess of Crystalia. While she believes in the team, she can't help but worry about them. She also feels guilty about her inability to help a few times. She does her best to power through those moments so as not to worry the team. She kinda has the funniest focus episodes out of the main characters. Her drunk episode was surprisingly pretty fun and its honestly a testament to how the show's comedy is written because I was laughing the entire time.</li></ul><div><b>Villains:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/msk_galza.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/msk_galza.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div>Garza is the one who betrayed Crystalia. He is the one I have issues with. Mostly because we only really get his backstory in the 3rd to last episode. Its just not hinted at much because for most of the show, he is the standard gruff serious villain type with brother issues and then its all just info dumped in one episode. The reveal of him being evil because of Yodon's influence as a child should've been a big earth-shattering moment for me, but it wasn't. Thats a big shoe to drop near the end without a lot of buildup and it felt kind of rushed. The man also kind of flips between being Juuru's rival and Takamichi's rival to the point where its sort of unclear for a bit. He isn't particularly a bad villain, he is just kind of ok imo and I dug the way he just kept shredding on his guitar in the band episode even after the kaijuu was summoned. Dude looked like he was having so much fun and I would've liked to see Garza act more like that. If I had to guess, I'd say a lot of his development was crowbarred in at the last minute because of the show being 4 episodes shorter than usual due to the pandemic.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/msk_carantula.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/msk_carantula.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div>Crunchula reminds me Michela and Voff from Abaranger. The artistic creator who makes Yodonheim's monsters. His reasoning for making a few Marrskman is fascinating and it leads to a few interesting villain plots. I quite like his little back and forth with Yodonna about his monsters being needlessly strange instead of just being powerful and threatening. It was pretty cool seeing the guy insist that a Marrskman's style was just as important as whatever powers he gave them. It was nice seeing him and Juuru bonding over art when he was suffering from creative burn out.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yodonna.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="332" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yodonna.png" width="133" /></a></div><div>I like how cold and detached Yodonna feels. She acts so emotionally dead to everything that I'm willing to speculate it even weirds Garza and Crunchula out. She also does this tongue thing that the fandom goes crazy over and licks her lips a lot. She kinda sends a chill down my spine. She doesn't even understand emotions in general to the point where she will do this really creepy dead-sounding laugh just because she thinks it might be the right time to do it. I would've liked to see her take a more active role and fight the Kiramagers more often. Her attempted rivalry with Tametomo kinda goes nowhere.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Favorite Episode:</b> Surprisingly my favorite episode is episode 19 ("Partners"), a mind swap episode. This episode somehow manages to avoid the overall cringe that mind swap episodes tend to entail. What helps is that the show just kind goes all in and focusing on the machine's having control of their partners' bodies instead of them trying to pull some kind of ruse to keep the swap a secret. Seeing the Kiramagers cheer on their partners during the fight was nice and heart-warming. Its a nice little episode about just how quickly people can grow and improve with just a little encouragement.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mecha: </b>The Machines feel like Kiramager's answer to the Bakuryu from Abaranger which is pretty fitting since they're both Arakawa shows. This show actually managed to surprise me with some of the auxiliary mecha combos. Before this show, I never would've thought a garbage truck turning into a vacuum cleaner would've been a viable option. Kiramazin is nice looking and I quite like the sparkling crystalline look of the thing. Having each Machine's part glow when they talk is a nice touch in a few episodes. Its combo sequence feels a bit Abaranger-y to me since Fire makes up about two-thirds of the mecha. Mach unfortunately feels a little tacked on for Kiramazin, he just forms a shoulder pad and the head. Granted Jetta himself just forms the sword but because of that he gets more use in the combo than Mach. Gigant Driller is fine and I find it kinda neat that it requires Takamichi himself to become a stone in order to transform. Its a decent way to set it apart from the other mecha in the show. Dashark Express is neat. I kinda like how Dashark himself stands out from the rest of the KirameiStones given his animal characteristics. Its a nice contrast to Garza's Smog Steamer in that regard. Grateful Phoenix feels a lot like a Magiranger mecha to me. It brings back memories of that combo Kai had with that unicorn. I'm also very thankful that there is no cluster final mecha.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Music:</b> The opening theme is alright. Its a not a bad hype machine but its kinda generic sounding. It actually reminds me of Kyuranger's opening (Lucky Star) so much that I end up transitioning into that whenever I try to sing Kiramager's opening theme. The ending theme is an alright way to close out the show but personally it does nothing for me. The character songs are all passable...well except Takamichi's and maybe Sayo's. Takamichi's singing is a bit too low for the style of song he is going for compared to the others. Sayo's is a nice attempt at a jazz sound but something about her singing is off. Mabusheena's is probably my favorite of the bunch as it is wonderfully happy sounding and addictive.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiramager_cute.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="350" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiramager_cute.png" /></a></div></div><div><b>Final Thoughts: </b>Surprisingly, episode plots that would usually make me cringe, had me hooked. This is mostly because well, the show quickly sidesteps the cringe parts with a joke (Takamichi immediately blowing Juuru's secret identity in front of his classmate) or having the characters genuinely get invested in the ruse (going all in on the fake play for Mabusheena's mother). The show is actually funnier than I expected with just a dumb moment or two here and there. The show actually managed to surprise me with the Kiramagers' problem solving abilities, particularly in the Reset Button and Glue Marrsk episodes. Its ToQ's imagination schtick done right imo as the answers the Kiramagers come up with are ones that only they could've come up with. Overall, while nothing really wowed me or left my jaw on the floor, its a pretty decent show that gets the job done perfectly fine. Its actually kind of amazing how consistently this show managed to leave me with a smile on my face. I think that in and of itself says a lot about how much I enjoyed it. Its a show made with quite a bit of love and understanding of what Sentai is imo. I'd have liked to see what the show would've been like if it hadn't lost 4 episodes of its run to the pandemic but I'm rather happy with the show. I'm honestly glad this was my reentry point for modern Sentai. Without getting too much into my personal life, its a show that I desperately needed right now.</div></div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-3678765853575649782021-04-04T23:22:00.001-04:002022-03-26T01:59:16.820-04:00Ultraman Gaia Review<div style="text-align: left;">For this entry on the Ultra kick, I'm going back a bit to cover a non-New Gen Ultra show. Part of the reason I picked this next is because I wanted to watch an older Ultra show and it was on Crunchyroll at the time. The other reason was because a friend of mine was raving about it. I don't have much else to say in this section. I'm going to do my best not to spoil the show. Its definitely worth checking out for yourself. Sadly, as of the time of this post, it is now gone from Crunchyroll. I don't have a decent intro reference from the show to make so...lets get into it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gaia_blue_ray.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="394" height="320" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gaia_blue_ray.png" width="255" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> Gamu Takayama is a member of a group of highly intelligent people known as the Alchemy Stars. While working on an experiment, Gamu's mind is transported to a strange dimension where he witnesses a giant fighting a monster. Shortly after, another monster attacks and Gamu contacts XIG asking if this was the scenario they had been preparing for. Gamu falls through a strange portal and meets the giant himself. The giant gives him the power to fight off the monster and protect the Earth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gamu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="350" height="181" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gamu.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Gamu Takayama is a pretty smart dude even if a lot of what he says feels like techno-babble to me. He actually built the propulsion engines for XIG's fighter jets and their base. I love how his response after his first battle as Gaia is to immediately ask to join XIG so he can help the team fight off the monsters as more than just as an Ultraman. I also liked how he didn't have a henshin device at first and had to build it himself. It was a great way to show off his technical skills. His ideological clash with Fujimiya was great and pretty well written. Both make great counterpoints to each other, even though I tended to always side with Gamu because of his more optimistic approach. I rather like how episode 26 brings up just how much Gamu brings to XIG beyond Gaia's power. The team admits how valuable his analysis is when he keeps sending them information after they've briefly kicked him out. Overall, dude is a pretty nice protagonist who does his best to make sure humanity doesn't keep making mistakes that could potentially devastate the planet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/d4/07/7ed4077edbf5e97620f7e458770eb555.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="569" height="211" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/d4/07/7ed4077edbf5e97620f7e458770eb555.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">XIG is absolutely massive and I love the scale of it. Its got about 6 different teams on its payroll. It ends up having a pretty large recurring cast and I'm amazed I could keep track of them all. Teams Lightning, Falcon, and Crow are the fighter pilots, Team Seagull is the rescue squad, Team Hercules is the ground assault squad, and a sea-based squad called Marlin handles the underwater stuff. Tho team Marlin sadly kinda only gets one outing due to their underwater specialization. It was actually rather amusing when they got called in because one of their members was ecstatic about finally getting to do something. XIG even their own paranormal/mystery investigation team code-named Lizard. Another cool thing about episode 26 is that once Commander Ishimuro realizes that Gamu is Gaia, he doesn't report it to XIG. He just tells Gamu to rest up and heal because the real fight is about to begin.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/team_hercules.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="350" height="215" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/team_hercules.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">If I had to pick my favorite team, it would probably be Team Hercules. They just seem so nice and they're legitimately worried about Gamu not getting enough exercise. They were also not even remotely afraid of the idea of taking on a dragon with nothing but their blasters and a machine gun once their tanks were out of ammo. Their appearances also feature some of the most detailed models in the entire show imo. Team Crow is a close second because I like their style and how coordinated they are. They're the most in-sync of all the fighter teams and their whole drive to prove themselves was great plus they had a nice confident hotshot entrance with some killer music.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fujimiya.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="350" height="196" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fujimiya.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fujimiya is a former member of the Alchemy Stars who became disillusioned with how they wanted to achieve their goals. He is the host for Ultraman Agul and wants to protect the Earth. However, while Gamu views Gaia's power as a way to protect both humanity and the Earth, Fujimiya believes that Gaia and Agul exist to save the Earth itself, even if that means humanity goes extinct. He also believes that its pretty much the Earth's will for humanity to disappear so the planet can recover and he only focuses on the damage humans do to the Earth. It gets really heavy for him and I love his character arc. Seeing him question his entire purpose when he founds out exactly whats going on was great. Under the circumstances, I do see his point of view even though Gamu is right about him taking the easy way out by just wanting humans to disappear. His character arc throughout the whole show is fantastic and its great seeing him and Gamu finally team up near the end of the show. I love the way Agul fights and its a pretty cool first outing for a blue Ultra. Him having a light rapier for a sword was a perfect touch to set him apart from Gaia.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reiko_2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reiko_2.png" width="187" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Reiko and her news crew give a nice look at the civilian perspective on all these monster attacks. Its fantastic because like XIG they're looking into whats causing the attacks and eventually whats driving the monsters to do what they do. It was a surprisingly gripping and unexpected angle to see in the show. Reiko herself gets embroiled into Fujimaya's stuff and she helps keep him grounded when he becomes conflicted about what his power is for. She is so integral at keeping Fujimiya from losing it that she gets targeted herself a few times. Her boss Tabata even gets some pretty nice self reflective moments and awesome action to himself. The man's drive and dedication to reporting is amazing and it helps contribute to some great moments. I'm glad they got so much focus as it really helped the show feel even bigger than it already did.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Favorite Episodes:</b> This is a really tough call as there are quite a few contenders for this spot and I honestly don't think I can pick one so get ready for a list. A lot of the plots with Mezard (this creepy jellyfish monster) involved are pretty good with "Fourth Symphony Of A Nightmare" being my favorite of those episodes. "When The Rain Stops" is a fun little scifi episode involving cloned organs getting mutated into monsters by green rain. Episodes 23-26 are fantastic and they legitimately feel like a finale in and of themselves. "The Accursed Eye" and "The Future Seen Before" are an interesting pair of back-to-back episodes cuz they're both about fighting destiny but one is a little more literal in that regard. There a lot more episodes that I love but if I listed them all, this section would be way too long. The sheer amount of episodes that spring to mind when I think of Gaia says a lot about how well done the show is.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Action and Effects:</b> The show has a high budget and oh man, it makes such good use of it. The creature effects look absolutely amazing with some great designs, puppetry, and suit-work. You also get to see them get blown apart piece-by-piece a lot in the show. The models cities are fantastic if a little less detailed here and there than I expected. The Ultra vs Kaiju action is fun, the choreography was good, and the miniature fights were nice and tense even if some of the jets maneuvering was a bit iffy due to cgi. My favorite effect in the entire show is from episode 50. Agul gets blasted and slides across the entire city while everything he crashes into just collapses beautifully. The action overall is excellent with everything feeling nice and heavy. The fights between Gaia and Agul were nice and tense. It was pretty cool seeing them slug it out at human-size inside the Aerial Base during one episode. I like just how much of a change Gaia Supreme's fighting style in is compared to regular Gaia. Supreme tends to prefer tosses and throws alongside energy attacks compared to base Gaia. It also makes Gaia look buffer.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/96/f0/7796f00d58cf958cedcac9c9073cdaeb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="443" height="200" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/96/f0/7796f00d58cf958cedcac9c9073cdaeb.jpg" width="197" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> I was a bit worried about the show being able to hold my interest over 51 episodes (due to me watching so much New Gen Ultra before this) but the show was amazingly consistent. There wasn't a single episode I disliked. The show handles its theme of how humans affect the Earth and how the Earth affects us in turn rather well. It even acknowledges that the monsters themselves as being part of the planet's natural ecosystem. I'm not sure how accurate the science in the show is but I was on the edge of my seat wondering what countermeasure Gamu would come up with each episode. I was surprised just how many times Mezard showed up. I was rather surprised to see the deliveryman from Wolfgas episode show up two more times and that he got attacked by another werewolf, thats some bad luck. Its also some nice minor continuity because he still has the scar from that first attack in his other two appearances. Its a fantastic show overall and I highly recommend checking it out. Its definitely up there with Orb and R/B for me and this show probably has my favorite final arc out of the Ultras I've seen so far.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-16656820238721406022021-02-27T12:54:00.039-05:002023-01-10T20:51:34.441-05:00Choujin Sentai Jetman Review: Love And Tragedy In The Skies<div style="text-align: left;">Now we come to Jetman. This probably one of the more known/watched pre-Zyu Sentai shows as far as the western fandom goes. I'd hazard a guess that even newcomers have heard of it after a good amount of time in the fandom. This was one of the shows I had started back in college but had never gotten around to finishing (I think it was like the 3rd or 4th Sentai I had started at the time) due to stuff getting in the way. I will definitely have to spoil chunks of the show to talk about Black Condor and some other stuff so, <b>SPOILERS AHEAD!</b> Without further adieu...Jetto! Jetto! Jettoman!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/5a/2c/3a/5a2c3a3f4c2df8f851792c76c686a253--power-rangers-avatar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="236" src="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/5a/2c/3a/5a2c3a3f4c2df8f851792c76c686a253--power-rangers-avatar.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> Ryu Tendo and his girlfriend Rie are two of five people chosen by Commander Aya of Sky Force to become superhumans in order to better protect the planet. Just after Ryu undergoes the experiment, interdimensional invaders known as Vyram launch their attack destroying the base, killing Rie in the process, and causing the machine's birdonic waves to hit 4 civilians. Now Ryu and Commander Aya must bring them all together in order to combat this new threat as the planet's last line of defense: Jetman.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b> They're all pretty well acted and the cast plays off of each other pretty well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ac/62/34/ac6234dbbe51f9328400bc3b1aa4bfb7--power-rangers-kaiju.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="736" height="240" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ac/62/34/ac6234dbbe51f9328400bc3b1aa4bfb7--power-rangers-kaiju.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Ryu Tendo/Red Hawk: Ryu is a member of Sky Force and the only survivor of the official candidates. He is totally dedicated to beating the Vyram and I kind of think its due to both his sense of duty and not wanting Rie's death to have been in vain. He struggles when it comes to getting over her death and its because of that that he is initially unable to acknowledge Kaori's feelings. It leads a pretty surprising blow up between him and Gai in episode 22 after he tries to set Kaori up with Gai instead. When he finds out that Rie is not only alive but is a member of Vyram, it gets rough. The dude has a breakdown and shuts down to avoid processing the idea that Rie was one of the people he was fighting the whole time. That scene with him swinging in the park and introducing Rie (who isn't actually there) to Gai and Kaori will be forever burned into my memory. It does result in a pretty sweet scene where he and Gai finally come to an understanding.</li><li>Kaori Rokumeikan/White Swan: Kaori is an heir to a rich family who longed to leave behind her boring life. She may be a refined lady but she definitely isn't afraid to slap someone around when she needs to. A great example of that is the episode "Laughing Diamond" because she gets kinda rough with Ako in order to break the spell on her after trying to overload her greed. She falls in love with Ryu and her eventual vow to outdo Rie seemed a bit selfish to me at first (and admittedly it was selfish of her after Ryu just explained everything) but then I realized that it was likely just as much about helping Ryu move on from her death as it was Kaori trying to get with him. Sadly it leads to one of the things that causes Ryu and Gai to come to blows in ep 22 and it feels like the team is close to breaking apart. The episode "I Can See!" is a fantastic episode for her that has nothing to do with the love subplot. Its pretty much an episode about her fighting against her supposed fate and coming out stronger through sheer force of will.</li><li>Raita Ooshi/Yellow Owl: Raita is a kind-hearted farmer. Its pretty cool seeing someone of his build be a Sentai hero and the show really emphasizes his strength when he fights. I feel bad for the guy, he loves Kaori too but he doesn't feel like he has a shot with her. Due to this he just wants to protect her happiness. The cavemen episode even twists that knife deeper because he finds a prehistoric cavewoman who looks just like her and is actually into him but he has to leave her behind to fight Vyram. With that being said, he really doesn't get many episodes to work with.</li><li>Ako Hayasaka/Blue Swallow: Ako is a high school student and is initially obsessed with money. In order to get her to join, Kaori immediately cut a check for her, tho Ako did return it once she saw how dangerous the Vyram are. She also has this snappy and snarky tone to her that I just love. Out of the entire team, her life was impacted the most by becoming a Jetman. Whenever the Vyram attack, she has to immediately drop what she is doing and run off to fight them. The episode "High School Student Warrior" makes it pretty clear how much this has affected her and actually leads to some friction between her and a friend from school. The episode "Walking Garbage" showed a surprisingly sentimental side to her.</li><li>Gai Yuuki/Black Conder: If you've spent a good amount of time in the fandom, you've probably already heard of him. Gai doesn't start out like your typical Sentai hero. He smokes, gambles, drinks, and is pretty abrasive with a soft side that tends to show itself when something happens to Kaori. The dude is a pretty fantastic character and I'll be going more into him later in the review because I'm going to be talking about his entire arc.</li></ul><div>I had originally picked the title of this review mainly because of the Ryu, Gai, and Kaori thing but it surprisingly applied to the people from the Reverse Dimension rather well. <b>Slight spoilers incoming!</b> They're from a dimension invaded by Vyram and it did not go well for them to put it mildly. The 3 survivors (Ray, Kanna, and Dan) made a robot called Jet Garuda and chased the Vyram to Earth in order to put a stop to them. You can probably guess how that goes for them given how this section started. Its a great what-if scenario of a team failing to protect their world and how handle it. The image of their home world being nothing but a deserted wreck filled me with dread and it showed just what the Vyram are capable of if Jetman wasn't there to stop them. Thats pretty much all I'm gonna say because I'd rather you watch the episodes yourself. The 3 give some nice performances and their death scenes were pretty tragic. On top of that they are played by Blue Flash (Ray), Pink Mask (Kanna), and Dan's actor ended up playing Triceraranger in Zyuranger. There are two other survivors (Duran and Ru) revealed later from the Berserk region and thankfully their ending isn't as much of a gut punch. I think its partially because well, Ryu's entire thing in the episode is about making sure he saves them is due to him still missing Rie and wants to spare them that pain. He straight up makes them promise to never let go of each other when the team sees them off.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Villains: </b>Vyram are a pretty cool group and they have a lot of presence to them. I particularly like how the commanders have a habit of showing in these half-corporeal ghost-like forms (usually Tran tho) when its time to do their thing. It really helps give them this other-worldly feel. I quite like how their main goal besides conquering this dimension is trying to figure out who deserves the spot at the top of the food chain as their emperor. Their dimension beasts are probably my favorite MOTW designs so far. They're pretty striking and they hit that perfect mix between humanoid and monstrous so well that they kind of scare me. They even start mixing animal DNA with the dimension bugs to create even more powerful animal/object hybrids. Their plans are also pretty cool and I certainly wasn't expecting a lot of them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/18/c2/22/18c222de823c2b4ec92a64c045aac286.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="236" height="200" src="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/18/c2/22/18c222de823c2b4ec92a64c045aac286.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div>Radiguet is pretty cool. The dude is not afraid to get his hands dirty when the time comes and he is definitely not someone you want to screw with. He can also be pretty brutal as shown in episodes 22-24. Him spitting a sword into Ray's chest was chilling. The Juuza episodes are a pretty good example of his ambitiousness. I felt bad for the man when he got his memories back during those episodes. His time as a human was brief but he looked so happy. His actor is pretty good and the dude legitimately looks like he should be playing a hero. I couldn't help but think he looked like Kamen Rider Black's actor. He takes a pretty hard fall in the second half of the show and its great seeing his pride finally fail him. He manages to lose a fight with a dove and then gets curb-stomped by Tranza a few episodes later. Somehow the curb-stomping from Tranza was more humiliating. The feud between him and Tranza is fantastic, especially when he manages to stop Tranza's ultimate robot out of sheer of will. Given his level of cruelty over the course of the show, its rather fitting that its Maria/Rie's final act that ends up ultimately bringing about his end.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/88/90/db/8890db39c6e098b06bc9029f46185ea3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="235" src="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/88/90/db/8890db39c6e098b06bc9029f46185ea3.jpg" /></a></div><div>Tran is probably my favorite of the Vyram. This kid is crazy and downright sadistic. He legitimately scares me. His plans are pretty unique and I wasn't expecting a lot of them. I love his aesthetic because he manages to look retro and high tech at the same time. He even has a modified power glove. The dude even fights like he has god mode on. They put this weird echo effect on his laughter and that just makes my skin crawl even more.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjXsQiOZYyh3ALR9eA9VUxMXukEgQ3JuWq8r7k1T3emAjbZXmbU0r90eCdmjc3ZgfMbSLK0cmPms1p75cwO1t01mVe60odN5leuq3ENTIPffZsaik7OHFj9bWDLl0mBKR85tGtrzg8gUr6udH9wVjQApMhpTq53WRYALWRGkUp_v3k4FMX1R73_=s369-p-k-no-nu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjXsQiOZYyh3ALR9eA9VUxMXukEgQ3JuWq8r7k1T3emAjbZXmbU0r90eCdmjc3ZgfMbSLK0cmPms1p75cwO1t01mVe60odN5leuq3ENTIPffZsaik7OHFj9bWDLl0mBKR85tGtrzg8gUr6udH9wVjQApMhpTq53WRYALWRGkUp_v3k4FMX1R73_=w301-h320" width="301" /></a></div><div>Tran gets an adult form in the episode "The Birth of Emperor Tranza" purely because the other members of Vryam made him angry enough. Tranza is played by Yutaka Hirose and the man's performance is fantastic as usual. Tranza's debut is fantastic as not only is he a massive threat, he is also exceptionally petty. He beats the snot out of Ryu while he is training, he out-golfs Gai to embarrass him in front of some ladies, and out eats Raita. He does all of this purely because he can. The man is also petty enough to actively save the team from one of Radiguet's plan when Radiguet was about to win. The way he goes out is amazing as Radiguet finally gets his vengence on him for all of the humiliation.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/774845896822489104/813153711202238505/2021-02-21_156.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/774845896822489104/813153711202238505/2021-02-21_156.png" width="320" /></a></div><div>Grey is fun and there is just something cool to me about a robot with an interest in classical music and wine. The dude feels like a walking powerhouse and his suit actor does a great job in the role. He develops feelings for Maria after hearing her play the piano and I just find that really sweet. Grey even steps in between her and Radiguet at one point when Radiguet loses his temper and tries to strike her with his sword. The man has a pretty sweet scene in episode 42 where he saves Maria and all he wants is to hear her play music for him. Its also followed by a heart-breaking moment where he laments the fact that he is a robot purely because he can't keep her warm and has to rely on Red Hawk to keep her from freezing. That entire sequence and episode in general felt like one big long punch to the gut for me. He really loved her in the end to the point where begged the team for help when he found out what Radiguet's ultimate goal for her was. His final duel with Gai has this undertone of sadness to it because well, once Maria is gone, he devotes himself to a warrior's death. Gai actually really does not want to fight him at that point of Grey really gives him no choice. Even at the end, he tells Gai to go because he didn't want the man to see his finally moments. It was honestly a pretty bitter end to his character but it was pretty fitting at the same time as I couldn't see it playing out any other way.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/52/be/fd/52befd65596c371d0e13fc314d57b44d--monster-kaiju.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="236" height="200" src="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/52/be/fd/52befd65596c371d0e13fc314d57b44d--monster-kaiju.jpg" width="143" /></a></div><div>Maria is cool and she delightfully takes none of Radiguet's bs and is more than happy to rub his nose in his failures. Its rather obvious to the audience but...she is Rie under Radiguet's control. Oh boy, I knew it was going to rough for Ryu when that shoe finally drops but it was even rougher on both of them than I thought. Seeing her beg Ryu to tell her whats happened because she can't remember hurt a lot. It hurt even more when Ryu couldn't bring himself to tell her that she hurt people under Vyram's control. This entire subplot builds to a heartbreaking conclusion because while Ryu manages to snap her out of Radiguet's control she ends up remembering the things she did as Maria and feels extremely guilty. This pretty much leads her to tricking them so she can get one last stab in at Radiguet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/7f/b1/0c/7fb10c9f7322b95163a78809ec999bf1--theme-song-power-rangers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="236" src="https://i.pinimg.com/236x/7f/b1/0c/7fb10c9f7322b95163a78809ec999bf1--theme-song-power-rangers.jpg" /></a></div><div>Now I'm going to talk about Gai in detail because he is that well written. Odds are folks in the fandom already know how things play out with him but this is just in case someone stumbles on to this post: <b>SPOILERS INCOMING! </b>Even though I knew Gai's reputation going into the show, he still managed to surprise me. He acts like this suave lone wolf womanizing playboy at first but he really does love Kaori. Granted this comes in the form of only focusing on wanting to make Kaori his at first. His exact words at one point after she rejected him were "Hate I can handle. I'd rather you hate me than feel nothing.". He straight up hunted Maria down just to beg her to give Kaori back when she got captured by Photo Dimension. Maria even demands Ryu's head as the price for Kaori's return and for a second, Gai is desperate enough to consider it. Seeing him breakdown and crash his bike after Kaori confessed to Ryu after all that kind of hurt. I didn't even notice until the shadow doppelganger episode that Gai has the Jetman logo on his gloves. He totally loves being on the team more than he lets on. He utterly despised Ryu's whole act for half the show. He and Ryu managed to come to an understanding when Ryu has that breakdown. He basically tells Ryu to take all the time he needs and that the whole team will be waiting for him. All of that animosity disappearing and them intending to drink together afterwards were a nice touch as its made clear pretty early on that Ryu is not usually the drinking type. Now for the big thing, his arc ends with his death attending Ryu and Kaori's wedding. Gai being able to do that says a lot about just how much he changed in his relationship to both Kaori and Ryu even setting aside the 3 year timeskip after the final battle. I knew it was coming beforehand, I knew exactly what would happen...and it still hurt. Thats not even the only time he technically died in the show. He died briefly during the Juuza two-parter when he was turned to crystal and again when Radiguet stole his soul. Something I quite like about how Gai and Kaori's relationship is portrayed is that well, after they briefly get together, they don't seem too comfortable being around so often after a while (or at the very least, Gai isn't). Gai's little outburst at dinner in one episode pretty much gets across that he got more than he expected. Toshihide Wakamatsu is fantastic in the role and his performance was perfect.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Favorite Episodes:</b> There are quite a few contenders for this section (as usual, endgame stuff is not up for this section). I'm torn between "The Hellbound Bus", "I Can See!", the demon 3-parter, "Ryu The Traitor", "Sneak Into The Commander's Body" and "Spin, Roulette of Life". Its a pretty tough call but I'm going to have go with "Spin, Roulette of Life" and "The Hellbound Bus" due to how unexpected they were.</div><div><br /></div><div>In "Spin, Roulette of Life" everyone but Gai gets turned into statues and Gai has to save them in his own way while he effectively walks away from that fight with Grey's heart circuit. Its a pretty tense episode and the most tense points in the episode isn't actually the fight with the Bio-Dimension Beast: Its a game of roulette with the lives of the Jetmen at stake and the only thing Gai has to bet is Grey's heart. Its a fantastic episode because we see Gai getting incredibly frustrated and losing his cool because he can't figure out how Grey is winning so consistently with a 50-50 shot. Grey isn't even actually cheating either. Gai gets so desperate that he is willing to put his and Commander Aya's lives as the stake for the final bet. He ultimately resorts to cheating himself to win but in a nice bit of fair play and gambler's honor, he gives Grey back the last piece of his heart.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Hellbound Bus" is a fantastic mystery episode. The team has some time off so Kaori and Raita decide to take a bus to visit Raita's home town. As they go into a tunnel, one of the passengers goes missing and from there they have to figure out who the guilty party is as they start getting picked off one by one. Its fantastically tense and the mystery itself is pretty good. I was legitimately surprised at the outcome when I thought I had it figured out. Kaori is great in the episode as she manages to keep everyone calm despite their impending doom. Raita is so amazed that this is where he kind of falls in love with her himself. It also features a neat little cameo from Pink Flash as one of the passengers.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Mecha: </b>Jet Icarus is a pretty sweet looking mecha and I love how the team has to train to get Jet Hawken and Icarus itself. It also has a surprising array of weapons. Jet Garuda is a nice mecha and I think its pretty cool that it doesn't have a humanoid head. Its introduction episode was pretty cool. I was honestly surprised at how much solo use Jet Icarus and Jet Garuda got after Great Icarus' debut. That pretty much shows that they're both still a key part of their arsenal. Tetraboy is pretty cool and it is also the most hyper robot I've ever seen. It was literally running circles around the monster in its debut and it has no chill whatsoever. I love that instead of combining with the other mecha, it just becomes a 4-barreled cannon finisher.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Music: </b>The opening theme is pretty exciting and really gets me hyped. I couldn't help dancing to it or mimicking the poses in the opening sequence. Its also a nice ear worm of a song and I've caught myself humming it a lot. I wasn't expecting to like Kokoro Wa Tamago as much as I do. I've listened to it at least 20 times while I was writing this review. Listening to this song after seeing the final episode hurt a lot. I don't usually go into the visuals when talking about the music but I absolutely love the retro look of the ending sequence. It feels like a brief history of aviation and I love when Sentai does stuff like this for its ending sequences. The show's bgm is pretty good and Vyram's theme is nicely creepy and unsettling. Honoo No Condor (Black Condor's theme) is great and plays over a pretty awesome fight in the episode "Marriage Vacuum Cleaner".</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Final Thoughts:</b> This is the third time I have inadvertently covered a Sentai during its anniversary year, the other two being Dekaranger (during its 10th anniversary) and Timeranger (during its 20th anniversary). Its interesting how the show opens up with a 3-parter and immediately goes into a 2-parter. Given how the episode "Walking Garbage" ended, I was a bit surprised at how the Dryer Dimension episode ended because I was expecting another gut punch. I've had issues with Inoue's writing in the past cuz some of it irritated me a lot (namely Kamen Rider The First, The Next, and Kiva) but this show is him at some of his best imo. That slugfest in episode 22 between Gai and Ryu over Ryu trying to set him up with Kaori made it feel like the whole world was about to come crashing down, especially when Raita jumped into the fray. All of that was before Vyram even attacked in the episode. I'm amazed this show had me that interested in a love triangle. Overall its a good show and well worth your time so if you're curious about it, give it a watch.</div></div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-18108394628250653612021-01-29T21:15:00.008-05:002022-07-18T22:05:41.650-04:00Ninja Sentai Kakuranger Review<div style="text-align: left;">So I got Kakuranger as a Christmas present since I wanted to add it to my collection. I got a lot of the show and I wasn't even expecting most of it. What even is this show?! I mean this in the most positive way possible. Nothing I've seen in Sentai feels like this show. Without further aduei: Hiding among the people and punishing evil! Ninja Sentai Kakuranger has arrived!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/85/a3/8e/85a38e464e376141d81058066896a62d--nerd-cave-rodrigo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="424" height="245" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/85/a3/8e/85a38e464e376141d81058066896a62d--nerd-cave-rodrigo.jpg" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The show opens with a flashback showing how the Yokai were sealed. Then it cuts to the present day where two friends see a man getting robbed on the street. They help him out and he hands them a bag begging them to take it to an island. They get to the island and end up being chased by ninjas leading them to inadvertently opening the door sealing the Yokai in the process. The two are saved by a ninja clad in all white and told they must take up their ancestor's blades and stop the Yokai.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/b7/8c/77b78cdac95ac0b9aba2ab1ba8885de9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="620" height="193" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/b7/8c/77b78cdac95ac0b9aba2ab1ba8885de9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Sasuke/NinjaRed: He was actually a lot calmer than I thought he would be. He is a laidback goof so I expected him to be a bit reckless in a fight. However, the second he gets into trouble he actually starts to think before deciding on a course of action. Even when he was distraught about a kid under his protection potentially dying in episode 20, he still managed to stay calm and think things through. Coincidentally, that also happens to be my favorite episode for him.</li><li>Tsuruhime/NinjaWhite: She is the most cool-headed member of the team as she doesn't seem to be frazzled by much. Her father died when she was young so she had to step up and take his place as a Kakuranger. She gets some pretty good episodes to herself, the best of which tend to revolve around a subplot regarding her father. Outside of that subplot, I really liked the episode where she meets her childhood friends again. It was nice seeing her kickback a bit.</li><li>Saizou/NinjaBlue: A lot of his moments tend to be more comedic than the others but he does get some nice dramatic bits to himself. He is also a bit girl crazy like Seikai. The two actually felt so similar to me their until about their scroll episode that I would get them mixed up for about a minute of any episode that was not one of their focus episodes. Needless to say, that stopped after that episode. My favorite episode for him is either the Amikiri episode or the one where he falls into a Yokai plot by trying to help save a ninja dojo. "New Year's Manga Hell" is also a good episode for him.</li><li>Seikai/NinjaYellow: He is obsessed with girls and food. He also tends to be the most reckless. He does have some pretty good comedic moments and one of my favorite gags is when he gives a great speech to a girl he likes about the heart of a hero and why he has to fight then he immediately undercuts it when she is out of earshot by basically saying "I may have gone overboard with the drama". The scroll episode he shares with Saizou is pretty good because he randomly attacks Saizou in order to try to get Saizou to kill him so at the very least one of them can escape the kappa curse. I think those two bits sum him up rather well. However, my favorite episode for him is "The Stray Ghost". Its a nice, heartwarming episode where Seikai helps a kid learn to move forward and become stronger after the death of his grandfather.</li><li>Jiraiya/NinjaBlack: His whole style makes him the standout member of the team for me. Kane Kosugi's action skills are top notch and he has gotten the most out-of-suit action seems out of the whole team. Jiraiya's father was murdered by a Yokai when he was a kid so he was taken in by his dad's best friend and trained in martial arts. Without a doubt, his best episodes are 28 and 29 (the Gali episodes). It leads to a pretty gut-wrenching dramatic moment and performance but I will probably cover that later in the review.</li><li>Ninjaman: He is pretty reckless and full of himself while single-mindedly focusing on fighting the Yokai in his early episodes. He was an apprentice of the Three God Generals before getting sealed away after being tricked into hurting humans by Daimaou so he has a grudge against him. The dude was straight up willing to potentially let himself be killed during the DaraDara episodes if it meant stopping Daimaou's plan. Overall, I think he is alright and I don't have many complaints with him other than him showing up a little late (even compared to TimeFire).</li></ul><div><b>Villains: </b>The Yokai in general have a style all their own. Their monster forms are fantastically designed. Their human forms all expertly played by their respective actors and they manage to make themselves creepy with even minor gestures and movements. Its pretty obvious they were having fun the roles. Even when they have a goofy personality they still manage to get across a level of menace.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/774845896822489104/790039034470203423/junior2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/774845896822489104/790039034470203423/junior2.png" width="320" /></a></div><div>I love Junior's style. Kenichi Endo plays the role well and gives him this big goofy rockstar energy while also getting across that Junior is not to be taken lightly. It fits Kakuranger's tones as a whole. Junior's music perfectly captures his personality. He can play this sweet controlled music one minute and just move seamlessly into chaotic wailing on the instrument the next. The dude is pretty much a powerhouse in general and the show always makes sure to get across that the Kakurangers are in big trouble whenever he shows up. I was sad when he was defeated in the show for a status quo change up. Thats how much I dug the character and Endo's performance.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gogalactic/images/6/61/94hana01.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20120518191608" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="340" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gogalactic/images/6/61/94hana01.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20120518191608" /></a></div><div>I quite like the Flower Kunoichi-Gumi. The choice to put pink and purple on the same team was interesting plus their designs are really sweet looking. These ladies are nasty piece of work and episode 20 is a great example of the kind of threat they pose with how they managed to push Sasuke into a corner. They went so far as to try and run over a kid knowing Sasuke would help him and then goaded Sasuke by saying its his fault the kid is caught in the crossfire. They even tortured Sasuke with the thought of the kid dying as a result. I would absolutely love to see a team of evil ranger-like beings again (as far as I'm aware, its just these ladies and the Nezirangers from Megaranger). Also thanks to these ladies I can officially add "Ninjas riding a missile while shooting machine guns" to the list of stupidly awesome ways to try to kill someone I've seen in toku. They don't get much development or characterization outside of being the Yokai's hit squad but honestly they don't really need it. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't some kind of climactic battle with them in the show.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/galactic-creatures/images/f/f3/Master_Vile.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20190403162615" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="340" height="200" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/galactic-creatures/images/f/f3/Master_Vile.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20190403162615" width="200" /></a></div><div>Daimaou is great. Something I especially loved is that despite him calling Junior a fool, he still laments his death and vows to make the Kakurangers suffer for killing his son. It would've been so easy to make him the type of villain that takes joy in the death of a commander whose own foolishness was their undoing but I'm so glad he wasn't like that. He is also not easily fooled. Dude saw a betrayal coming and immediately factored it into his plan instead just trying to stop it. The reveal of what he is and how they had to beat him left my jaw on the floor because I was not expecting that at all.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Favorite Episodes:</b> My favorite episodes are episode 28 and 29, the Gali episodes. They're a pretty good dramatic set of episodes for Jiraiya. Its also when we first learn his backstory. The bulk of the two parter features a ton of out-of-suit action so Kane Kosugi really gets to shine here. All of that makes for a really amazing and heartbreaking set of episodes when you find out how his dad died and why he was killed. They're so good that I'm not even gonna do my usual plot-breakdown for this section. Basically if you like Jiraiya than you will most likely love these episodes.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mecha: </b>The show features a lot of mecha. Its got the 5 Beast Generals, Muteki Shogun, the 5 Jusho Fighters, Tsubasamaru, the 5 Super Ninja Beast, and Kakure Daishogun. Thats a total of 17 and that feels like a lot for a show from the 90s. It has Dairanger's fast mecha fights which felt odd going back to since I finished off Timeranger before this. It really fits the hectic nature of the show. I like that Kakure Daishogun has a 5episode entire arc dedicating to bringing it in. It helps that the entire arc leads up to one of the biggest status quo changes I've seen in a Sentai show and ends up giving its debut a lot of weight.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Music: </b>The music is pretty good. The opening theme is a fantastic hype machine. I was singing along and even dancing by episode 4. That shamisen solo sounds fantastic and it gives the whole opening its own unique feel to match Kakuranger's feel as a whole. Ninja Matenrou Kids (the ending theme) surprised me. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I was practically dancing to it by episode 6.The show also uses a slower, more mellow, instrumental version of it during the more somber bits of the show and it works really well. Hoshi Yo Nijimura is a pretty killer insert song that plays in episode 44 when Sasuke is raiding Daimou's place. That song made the entire sequence even better. The show's bgm is great and I'm pretty sure I was able to pick out a few pieces from Dairanger in the mix which is fitting since the two shows have the same composer.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Cameos:</b> The show features a ton of cameos from past Sentai actors which just manages to add to its already surreal and weird vibe for me. Its nice seeing a lot of these actors again. This section is pretty much just gonna be me listing off the ones I noticed and ones that friends pointed out to me. Burai (DragonRanger and he was also ChangePegasus), Kaori (White Swan), and Lady Ring's (Dairanger) actors all cameo in episode 9. Radiguete's (Jetman) actor and Byakko's (Dairanger) voice actor show up as Yokai in episodes 5 and 6. Dora Sphynx (Zyuranger) plays the rag Yokai. Rumi (FiveYellow) plays Sakura in the Flower Kunoichi-Gumi. Lami's (Zyuranger) actress plays Amikiri. Mei (PteraRanger) shows up in episode 25. Tsuruhime's father is played by the second VulEagle. The facestealing yokai went on to play MegaRed's dad. Tsuruhime's two friends were her co-stars in Shushutorian (a Fushigi Comedy series). Kirinranger's actor and his twin brother play Taro and Jiro. While he hasn't actually been in Sentai before (as far as I know), I'm adding Gali to this section because he is played by Kane Kosugi's father. Its not really a cameo since he plays the Red in Kakuranger but Sasuke's actor went on to play Black Knight Hyuuga in Gingaman. So yeah, there are a lot of familiar faces in this one show and there are probably more that I didn't recognize.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Final Thoughts:</b> I really like how the team is usually doing their own thing and they just stumble onto a Yokai in town. Its also a nice world building detail that since the battles usually take place in some out of the way place, not even urban legends surrounding Yokai and the Kakurangers pop up in-show. It gives the show a real "war in the shadows" feel, so every civilian ends up reacting like each Yokai appearance is the first time its ever happened. I would of loved to see more of the ancestors in the show since I dug how instead of going on and on about how grave the situation was, they just gave them life advice or snarked it up when they met their descendants. I love how lowkey most of the ninja stuff is. Most of it feels doable and the only thing I'd outright call magic is mecha summoning, the elemental attacks, and the transformation jutsu. The episode "The Great Snow Woman's Snowball Fight" has the single best Jiraiya action setpiece for me. His actor really gets put through the ringer in that episode. I don't usually comment on fashion choices in toku but man the Kakurangers' outfits sure are something else. It says a lot about a team's fashion choices when the guy who debuted dressed up as a cowboy managed to look the most normal. They get new outfits later in the show so they end up looking a bit more normal...well except for Sasuke. Who lets this man dress himself? Overall, I had a lot of fun with the show. If you're looking for some good ol' 90s Sentai fun with a surreal vibe, great monster designs, and some good dramatic bits, then I can't recommend this show enough.</div></div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-6835380914524725712021-01-27T12:15:00.013-05:002021-02-11T20:10:03.189-05:00Ultraman Geed Review<div style="text-align: left;">The next entry on the New Gen Ultra kick is Ultraman Geed. This was actually the very first New Gen Ultra I watched since it was streaming on Crunchyroll at the time. I was watching it weekly while it was airing at the time and then fell off of it to let the episodes pile up. Sadly I then forgot to go back to it until now. This time however, I got so in the groove that at one point, I ended up watching 11 episodes in one sitting and forgetting to eat during the binge. Without further adieu...Standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/8/8c/UltramanGeedPoster.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20170709025906" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="340" height="320" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/8/8c/UltramanGeedPoster.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20170709025906" width="226" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> Riku Asakura was found on the steps of an observatory as a baby after a near universe destroying event that came to be known as the Crisis Impact. Strangely, the only thing the public seems to know about the Crisis Impact is that the visage of a horrible monster was spotted shortly before it happened. When a giant monster starts rampaging in his town, Riku and his alien friend Pega stumble on to a base beneath the observatory and there Riku is given the power to transform into Ultraman Geed. From there Riku protects his home town while dealing with the fact that Geed happens to look a lot like the creature that caused the impact.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riku_4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riku_4.jpg" width="138" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Riku is straight up just a wholesome character. He can be kinda naive and a bit dumb at times but the dude has a really good heart. When the giant monster first attacks the city, he jumps at the chance to stop it once he learns he has the power to do so. This is because well...what he wants more than anything in the world is to help people and make them smile. He came fast friends with an Alien Pegasa (Pega) in middle school after letting him stay in his shadow so both he and Pega would never feel lonely. I love his journey of dealing with Belial's legacy, having to find a way to defy his own fate, and becoming his own person while finding his own family. His parallel with Kei is fantastic and leads to some pretty awesome yet gut-wrenching moments.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raiha.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raiha.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Laiha Toba lost her family during a monster attack because the monster was after the little star inside of her. Due to this, she is out for revenge against the man who became the monster. She is so engrossed in her revenge that it takes not only a child begging Geed to stop her but a mysterious light and a voice coming from nowhere pleading with her to keep her from straight up killing someone. Her whole deal becomes about getting over the urge for revenge and her ground scale fights have the some of the best choreography in the show. Its a pretty good story since her goal changes to give the guy a send-off so he doesn't die alone once his world collapses. Its a rather kind take on a revenge story imo.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reito_5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="350" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reito_5.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Leito is a timid office worker who becomes the host for Ultraman Zero in this show. Leito basically tried to save a kid from getting crushed by debris only to slip and get run over by a truck. The kid ended up being saved by the Little Star inside him but Leito's drive to help is why Zero chose him. He and Zero make one complete mentor figure and its really nice to see Zero kind of learn to chill out over the course of the show. I particularly like Leito's speech about how Riku has to find the things precious to him while is protecting the world. He is probably the best acted character in the show. His actor perfectly captures Leito's timid/goofy nature and wise fatherly side as well as Zero's over the top movements and energy. I love the little detail of him removing his glasses whenever Zero takes over.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4FrMGKuSe18/YBOBGC3FkhI/AAAAAAAAAeU/Sk7LCp5S22IxrPV_nhv9oDT5yarQdSVfQCPcBGAYYCw/s1496/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1051" data-original-width="1496" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4FrMGKuSe18/YBOBGC3FkhI/AAAAAAAAAeU/Sk7LCp5S22IxrPV_nhv9oDT5yarQdSVfQCPcBGAYYCw/s320/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The AIB (Alien Investigation Bureau) is basically the Men In Black without the neuralizers. They're an organization made up almost entirely of aliens and their job is basically keeping alien activity under wraps so as not to cause culture shock among the earthlings. Due to the nature of the show, we only really get to know Riku's childhood friend Moa and her partner Zena (an Alien Shadow). There is also a minor member, an Alien Pitt named Tri-Tip who shows up twice. The AIB has a pretty vast information network even though we don't get to see many of the members and they're pretty crucial to finding out what Belial is up to and coming up with the eventual plan to stop him.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Villain:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fukuide.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fukuide.jpg" width="164" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fukuide Kei is a fantastic villain. The dude is utterly obsessed with Belial and gaining his favor. He sees Riku as inferior and sees himself as being the only one truly worthy of Belial's legacy. Its a rather sad thing because he outright said at one point that Belial gave him purpose even though Belial was very obviously just using him. His entire world crumbling around him made me sad because its a fundamentally broken person going mad and desperately clinging to what he felt was his purpose. His actor does an amazing job in the role and gives every single line some level of menace and gets the inherrent sadness near the end perfectly. The "act" with Leito on the lecture stage gave me chills because how well the two did it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Action and Effects: </b>As usual, both are top notch. The show makes great use of the Belial Fusion Monster's combined traits in a fight. The show manages to give every form its own distinct way of fighting and shows off the powers of the individual Ultras that make them up really well. My favorite form is probably Acro Smasher because of how slick and smooth the fights look or Royal Mega Master because of how elegantly it moves and fights. I also particularly love how the suit actor's mannerisms change when Riku swaps forms. The human scale action is pretty good too. The standouts in that regard are Laiha's sword skills and Leito when Zero takes over. Sakamoto's fingerprints are all over this show and it is fantastic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Favorite Episodes: </b>My favorite episodes are probably 14 (Shadows of Shadows) and 15 (Child of Battle). Its an amazing two parter for both Moa and Zena and it features some neat worldbuilding. I'm going to try to go into as little detail as possible because I'd rather the folks reading this watch the episodes themselves. Basically it opens with Zena supposedly working on another case and a new Alien Shadow (Kuruto) becoming Moa's new partner while he is busy. I love the idea behind how Alien Shadows operates. They're basically guerilla fighters who infiltrate other planets and taken them down from the inside in order to get what they need. Its a pretty tense and heartbreaking episode that gets to the heart of who Moa is and deals with Zena's lingering feelings and regrets about raising young soldiers to do nothing but die for the glory of their home-world.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts: </b>This is the 7th Ultra show I've finished (I watched Z weekly) and I enjoyed Geed quite a bit. A small detail I like is how the henshin sequence for Royal Mega Master uses Ultraman King for the "I go!" part instead of Belial. In a sense, its King representing Riku in that form instead of his father. That one change says quite a lot imo. I like its theme of defying destiny and forging your own path. There is also this other theme about dealing with legacies that have been left to you and how the older generation affects the younger ones. That theme is something encapsulated by Leito's speech in episode 6 about how having a kid made him care more about protecting the planet. Kei and Leito were the best acted characters in the show even if Kei does get hammy here and there. I didn't cover Belial in the villains section because well...he is what you'd expect if you've seen Zero's movies and I felt like looking at the series itself in isolation. Overall I enjoyed the show and I'd put it just above Ultraman X. This marks the temporary end of my New Gen Ultra kick as I've got the urge to cover an older Ultra show. I highly recommend this, Orb, and R/B as an entry point for newcomers to the franchise. While Geed does basically mark the end of Belial and Zero's feud, its not something you really need to know a lot about as the show fills in the basics of the backstory as it goes along.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-24884007223973128572020-12-13T17:03:00.012-05:002021-12-25T19:17:18.493-05:00Ultraman X Review<div style="text-align: left;">The next show on the Ultra kick is Ultraman X. Like Orb, this was a show I originally decided to check out earlier this year because some friends of mine kept raving about it. I had a lot of fun with it. Yeah I don't really have much to say beyond that. Lets get down to it, but first...Unite!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/2/23/UltramanXvisual.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20170624193916" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="340" height="320" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/2/23/UltramanXvisual.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20170624193916" width="205" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> 15 years ago, a strange solar flare (dubbed the Ultra Flare) covered the earth and caused objects called Spark Dolls to come to life resulting in the appearance of giant monsters. At the same time, a young boy lost his parents in a freak accident caused by the flare. The organization Xio was created to deal with them the rising threat of monsters. During a monster attack, Xio officer Daichi Ozora gets caught in the path of a fireball and gains the power to turn into a being known as Ultraman X in order to combat the monsters.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/6/61/Daichi_Oozora_2.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20200406022952" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="340" height="200" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/6/61/Daichi_Oozora_2.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20200406022952" width="133" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Daichi is a cool protagonist. He strives to actually understand the monsters and wonders if humanity can coexist with them. It was that drive for coexistence that caused him to dedicate himself to studying spark dolls. He also does this in order to make cyber monsters as a way of completing his father's work. He got kinda overzealous with studying them at one point and he not only fell into an aliens trap in one episode but he also ignored his own health in the process during another episode. He is so dedicated to understanding monsters that its revealed in episode 16 that he recreated their natural habitats as model sets for the Spark Dolls to live in so that they'd be happier. Thats a small detail and it only shows up in that episode but it really says a lot about Daichi.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultra/images/f/ff/XiO.png/revision/latest?cb=20150531044756" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="800" height="157" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultra/images/f/ff/XiO.png/revision/latest?cb=20150531044756" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Xio is a pretty neat team. I quite like the Three Musketeers angle with Asuna, Hayato, and Wataru. Those three get some pretty cool teamwork episodes together, usually when there are multiple enemies involved or X is out of commission. Episode 15 is a really good episode for Captain Kamiki because we see just how much his job has strained his relationship with his family due to it requiring him to put his duties at Xio before anything else. Lieutenant Tachibana gets an episode to herself and its pretty good. Like Kamiki she wrestles with her duties at Xio and worrying about her daughters. Its makes for a pretty cool parallel with Kamiki's episode due to how each of them ends up being able to handle the situation. I quite like how the vehicles are handled in this show. They basically just plug into one set of jet wings for different 3 configurations: The Sky Musketty (a jet formed by combing with a car called Athos), Land Musketty (a tank formed by combining with a truck called Porthos), and Space Musketty (a spaceship formed by combining with a van called Aramis). Its a really neat way to handle it because even tho only one vehicle can be plugged in at a time, it still gives their arsenal a nice variety of options. Plus it continues the Three Musketeers allusion since Hayato (Athos), Asuna (Porthos), and Wataru (Aramis) pilot them. The science team of Dr Gourmand, Rui, and Mamoru are fun and they provide a nice bit of comic relief. Rui's episode is pretty good since Alien Knackle praises her on her ability to build weapons but Rui immediately shuts him down by telling that she joined Xio to help people with her inventions. I would've liked to learn more about Mamoru and Gourmand but ah well, its to expected with a 22 episode show. Hayato also didn't really get an episode to himself so it feels a little odd to me since Asuna and Wataru got one (though you could argue that Wataru's episode sort of doubled as one for Hayato). I just would've like to learn more about him.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Effects: </b>This section is probably gonna be shorter than my past reviews, mostly because I'm starting to sound like a broken record after covering R/B and Orb's effects. As usual the effects are good and everything is nicely detailed and the city destruction looks great during the fights. With that being said, unlike R/B and Orb there wasn't a simple effect that blew me away.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Action: </b>The action is fantastic as usual. The fights have a lot of weight to them and they always manage to be interesting. The MonsArmor is a pretty cool touch and it makes X's action feel totally different compared to the other Ultra shows I've seen. Each armor changes how X has to fight and they give him a nice variety in regards to what he can do. If I had to pick my favorite MonsArmor, it'd either be Bemstar or Zetton since I tend to love defensive powers. The action gets even better when they eventually succeed in realizing Cyber Gomora so we get some sweet two-on-one and even some two-on-two fights. The Ultra cameos also add to this and there is a stellar three-on-one fight in episode14 that shows off Ginga and Victory really well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Favorite Episode:</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gargorgon.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gargorgon.png" width="150" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Its a really tough call since I'm torn between the Gargoron episodes (episodes 6 and 7) and episode 16 (as usual, I'm not counting the show's finale for this section because it would require spoilers). The Gargorgon episodes are a pretty intense two parter and they're a good example of the show's theme of coexistence and understanding. It was also the first time the show put this theme in the fore-front imo and it just kept emphasizing it from then on to the finale. Gargorgon in general is just really cool concept for a monster. This thing looks and feels like a force to be reckoned with. Basically the plot is that an amnesiac refugee from Planet Gold fled to Earth looking for a Spark Doll with enough power to stop Gargorgon. Everyone is afraid and suspicious of him because they think he is initially trying to invade Earth. Gargorgon finds its way to Earth and the refugee has to team up with X and Xio in order to stop it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Episode 16 is one of the most unique episodes I've seen in toku in general and its one I'd absolutely love to see something like it happen again. The whole thing feels like an episode of Cops. Its basically a tv crew getting permission to follow Xio around for a day, get interviews, and giving civilians a look inside their day-to-day operations. The whole on-the-ground feel works fantastically. On top of that, it manages to be plot relevant too. I've never seen an episode of toku that feels quite like this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> It handles its theme of trying to coexist and understand each other rather well. Its got some pretty meaty episodes with some punch to them that encapsulate that theme perfectly. I legitimately felt sad in episode 19 when it looked like they might actually have to kill Gomora. I find it funny that even though Exceed X gets its power from a rainbow, it somehow has the darkest color palette of any Ultra I've seen so far, barring Belial of course. The defense team and dogfighting kind of threw me off briefly because the most recent Ultras I had binged prior were R/B and Orb. I had gotten used to a smaller cast and a more personal style of Ultraman story. I didn't expect to see so many Ultra cameos in this show but they were welcome additions. My personal favorite cameo was the Nexus episode because I'm a big fan of Ultraman Nexus in general. I geeked out when that good ol' Nexus bgm played and the music started swelling during the fight. It was also good seeing Komon's actor so long after seeing Nexus itself. Overall, its a solid show even if it doesn't quite hit R/B or Orb levels for me.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933196911834054257.post-47207048649186507012020-11-25T11:01:00.014-05:002021-02-11T22:58:48.730-05:00Ultraman Orb Review: Lighting The Dark Night<div style="text-align: left;">I'm on an Ultra kick after binging all of Ultraman R/B in only a few days so I've decided to go back to the New Gen Ultra shows I started but never finished. First up: Ultraman Orb. I originally started watching Orb earlier this year because a friend of mine was raving about it and I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I should note this review is only going to cover the series itself, not Orb Origin Saga or the Orb movie. Also, I will probably have to spoil some stuff in this review. Without further adieu...Fusion Up!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/a/a5/Ultraman_Orb_Poster.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20171007031110" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="340" height="320" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ultramonsters/images/a/a5/Ultraman_Orb_Poster.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20171007031110" width="230" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Premise:</b> A wanderer arrives in town inside a refrigerator truck. Soon the town is besieged by tornados seemingly caused by a mysterious giant bird. A group of friends investigating these occurrences get caught up in a monster attack and are saved by a strange giant. The giant is revealed to be the wanderer, Gai Kurenai, and from then on he protects the town from various monster attacks.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Characters:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gai_kurenai.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gai_kurenai.jpg" width="131" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Gai Kurenai is a wanderer initially unable to stay in one place as he travels the world fighting monsters. This is mostly because he lost someone he cared about in a battle. He blamed himself for it and started drifting from place to place to avoid getting attached to people again. Gai kind of feels like a lone cowboy to me with the way he enters to save the day complete with that awesome yet sad harmonica tune. Even his musical cues make him feel like he stepped right out of a western. I'm actually rather curious if Gai is an homage to Kaiketsu Zubat because I kept getting a similar vibe from him here and there. Thunder Breaster's arc leading straight into Orb Origin's debut was the perfect choice. The entire time we get to see Gai struggling with the fact that Juggler might be right about him. It basically sums up Gai as a whole while being perfectly touching once he truly accepts himself. I'll be going into more detail in the favorite episode section.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NYY07nNDosk/YBOaReMfKWI/AAAAAAAAAfk/IBC7onaBPDkdnK1YtK1sOa0gyBfqt0B0ACPcBGAYYCw/s450/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="360" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NYY07nNDosk/YBOaReMfKWI/AAAAAAAAAfk/IBC7onaBPDkdnK1YtK1sOa0gyBfqt0B0ACPcBGAYYCw/w160-h200/image.png" width="160" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The SSP are basically a group of friends (Jetta, Naomi, and Shin) who investigate stories of seemingly supernatural/alien events for their website. They're a pretty fun group and they play off each other rather well. Naomi is the leader of the group and tends to work other jobs to keep the group funded since their website doesn't exactly bring in the money. She started the group due to strange dreams about a giant of light she had as a child. I can't get into the specifics around her because it requires a rather large spoiler that I'd really rather let people experience on their own. I'll just say that she effectively becomes Gai's rock. Jetta is the driver and camera guy. Jetta starts out as if he is just in it for the scoops and potential popularity but episodes 3 and 9 show he is doing it because at his core he really wants to help people. Shin is the tech guy and a self-proclaimed genius. The Galactron episodes reveal his dream is to basically build robots that help people and thats why he is always trying to discover new things.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/officer_shibukawa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="333" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/officer_shibukawa.jpg" width="178" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ittetsu Shibukawa is a member of the show's actual investigation/defense team VTOL and he is Naomi's uncle. He worries about the SSP when they do their own investigations and he'll accompany them when he can just to make sure nothing happens. He tends to get played for comedy for the most part and he works well for that but episode 18 is a really good episode for him that shows off his skills as an investigator and as a fighter. Its a rather touching episode that centers around his daughter thinking he is useless and then getting to see him in action when she falls into an alien's plot. Its was a surprisingly tense episode overall and it kind of gave me Dekaranger vibes.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Villains:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/juggulus_juggler.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="258" height="200" src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/juggulus_juggler.png" width="164" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">Jugglus Juggler (I absolutely love that name) is just plain creepy. I'm not kidding, when I say that the dude kinda scares me. From his choice of words to his mannerisms and movements, the dude sends a chill up my spine. Every single thing he does is to attempt to prove that Gai isn't the hero he says he is. He took great joy in seeing Gai go berserk when he was forced to use Thunder Breaster for the first time. It really felt like Juggler might have been right about them being the same in the Galactron episodes. Him saying that takes on a whole new meaning by the time the final episode rolls around. Takaya Aoyagi plays the role really well and gives every single line the right amount of menace while getting across a hint of underlying sadness. His exasperation and frustration at always losing to Gai somehow makes him seem even scarier.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>Favorite Episodes:</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fd/UltramanOrbOrbOrigin.jpg/220px-UltramanOrbOrbOrigin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="219" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fd/UltramanOrbOrbOrigin.jpg/220px-UltramanOrbOrbOrigin.jpg" /></a></div><div>There will be some spoilers in this section. This is going to be cheating a bit but I'm picking episodes 11,12, and 14-17. These six episodes cover Thunder Breaster's debut, the Galactron episodes, and run right into Orb Origin's debut so they basically feel like one big multipart episode to me (I didn't include episode 13 because its a clip show). Its the main arc of the show and one of the hardest hitting stories of desperation that I've seen in toku. Gai's desperation hits a heartbreaking point starting from Thunder Breaster's debut. The Galactron episodes just push that knife in deeper when he goes nuts again from Thunder Breaster's power to the point where Naomi ends up in the hospital. He legitimately begins to question if Juggler is right about the darkness inside him and even begins to think that his very presence is causing the people around him to suffer. Its a pretty heartbreaking moment and it straight up lasts until Naomi tells him that she believes in him and to stop blaming himself. I was on the verge of tears by that point and Gai breaking down after finding a picture of the person he thought he lost and finding out what actually happened to her was enough to break me. Its a great moment because thanks to Naomi, that guilt gets lifted off his shoulders and he is finally able to accept himself for both the good and bad. Its a fantastic arc that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time from the sense of dread around Thunder Breaster to the hopeful acceptance that is Orb Origin.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Effects: </b>The effects are top notch as is to be expected from this franchise and the sets are fantastic. The model cities are insanely detailed. They even added in the sound of car alarms when Orb gets slammed into the ground and its brief but the cars' lights go on and off. The city destruction during a few episodes is mesmerizing to look at, particularly in Thunder Breaster's initial episodes before Gai gets a handle on its power. One of my favorite simple practical effects in the show is from episode 18. Bemular slams Orb into the ground and the street under him just shatters. It was such a beautifully done effect that I had to rewatch that shot a few times. It completely sold the weight of that impact.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Action: </b>The kaiju action is pretty good as usual and the show gives them the appropriate heavy feeling needed to make them work. The fusion angle gives Orb a nice variety of powers and abilities. The show keeps every fight interesting whether its the monster of the week or Orb using his powers in cool and unexpected ways in the early episodes, like having Specium Zeperion make a polished shield of light to reflect a strong laser or using Burnmite's explosions to snuff out a fireball. Thunder Breaster's early fights give a great sense of dread given the sheer amount of power that form has. Orb Origin's elemental abilities are pretty cool. The ground level fights between Gai and Juggler are great. They're pretty energetic and nicely choreographed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0a/31/57/0a3157299af807da7ad8786c3417b81e.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0a/31/57/0a3157299af807da7ad8786c3417b81e.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Final Thoughts:</b> My favorite line in the show is from episode 15..."You can't snuff out the darkness. You have to embrace it and shine within it. So no matter where you look, there will be no darkness". It sums up the Thunder Breaster arc pretty well as well as Orb's theme as a whole. It also puts a new angle on Gai and Juggler's relationship. Everyone has darkness inside them, its all a question of whether or not you let it consume you. In the end, Juggler was actually right about him and Gai being the same, just not in the way he thought. I also really like the message behind the episode "Imposter Blues". Its rather fitting that Orb Origin's bgm is a cheerier sounding version of the harmonica tune. That tune sounds so sweet yet sad when played normally so hearing a cheerier version of it alone made it feel like Gai had overcome what was holding him back. Orb Origin is a pretty neat take on the idea of an ultimate form since its not technically an upgrade, its actually Orb's original form. Overall, Ultraman Orb is a pretty good show. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. I'd also say its a pretty good entry point if you're new to Ultraman as you don't need to know much about the past Ultras that show up as cards.</div>GekiZoldahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832254536829705538noreply@blogger.com1