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Double + NaNo

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:34:13 GMT

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NaNo seems to have become an unmitigated failure for me yet again. I did start well, and got several thousand words in, but I'm just nowhere near the goal. And in the process of thinking things over, I finally realized the problem, both for this year and for back in 2007: trying to force myself into a deadline is killing the fun. I'm a procrastinator by nature, and so I hate deadlines, and I equally hate the feeling of franticness that results.

Proof of this is the fact that, a few days ago, when I basically told myself "F*** it" and stopped trying to write to hit 50000, I started writing again almost immediately without any real sense of agitation. I'm definitely not going to hit 50K at this point, but at least I'm having fun with what I'm writing again.

So basically, I'm not doing the process now, and I probably won't try it again. I'll keep writing where I will, and since Cowpocalypse is already going fairly well, I may start posting chapters of it to fictionpress.com soon. But NaNo itself is just not for me.

Toku Review o'Doom

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:38:06 GMT

Downside to working a midnight to 8am shift on early Saturday morning: when I get home, I set my alarm to wake me up three hours later for Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, and then I turn around and just turn the alarm off without even thinking when it goes off. I should probably just start not going to bed until noon.

Of course, since I ended up missing Shinkenger when it aired thanks to having to run the roommate down to the metro station, it didn't matter in the end.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 32: "Advent Master Returns" - Still amazed at how awesome an actor William O'Leary is.

ALLEZ CUISINE!!!!!!

Awwwww. I was hoping Adam would have a goatee or something. Then again, this is a flashback.

...Roswell. Are they serious? XD

Wait, WHAT IS THIS? The No-Men have spent the last 7 episodes trying their hardest to FUCK UP what the good guys were doing, and now they're all "help us plz"?

Oh! So this isn't a flashback. So Adam has no goatee. Awwwww.

Oh daaaaaamn.

Heh. He's a bit more furious about the transformation calls than Kit. Better fighter too, when he deigns to stop getting bumrushed repeatedly. Same goofy Final Vent cry though. :(

And so Lacey gets temporarily written out of the show. XD At least they actually explained it away, unlike Aunt Grace's disappearance.

I already know Trent's not gonna choose to go to jail, so. This finally explains the suit he's wearing in his profile at kamenrider.com. (and makes me think at some point, JTC will come back from the Advent Void and take the offer like he should have, since he's wearing a suit in his profile too)

XDDD

Oh wow. Okay, that's a sort of sensible explanation for the Advent Void. It's pretty deus ex machina, but what can you do?

lololol. Well, at least we got also got a sensible explanation for "Maya's an instant ninja".

Wow. Advent Void's kind of pretty. I guess if you're "forever" trapped, at least having some nice scenery is a plus?

Oh god, that's hot. The sudden personality change is kind of ridiculous though.

One hit kills? o_O

You know, I wonder what happens when Kase comes back.

UH OH, XAVIAX IS 'BOUT TO FLIP HIS SHIT

...Japanese footage switch; how random.

Oh, good choice of footage though.

Next week: Torque, Strike, and Axe all return, at the least. Maybe more; don't know yet. And for that matter, I'm not even sure if these are the Earth or Ventara versions of them. Probably the latter though.

Spider-man Toku 37: "The Secret Emissary from Hell, the Enma Devil" - I wonder if this is an actual tarot pattern or if the producers were just like "HAY GUY, MAKE A CARD CIRCLE WHILE YOU PUT A FREAKY LOOKING EXPRESSION ON YOUR FACE"

Well, the fact that he was holding The Death card upside down at least makes me think there was some effort at research.

lol. Also, now I know where Sen (and, thus, Bridge) got that thinking pose from.

I was kind of disappointed the lightning striking that tree in half didn't reveal Kamen Rider Zeronos standing behind it.

Man, it's like a 10 year old Kai from Magiranger.

I will forever lol at using a CB Radio to contact Interpol.

That kid is MAAAAAAAD. He certainly has an excuse though, considering his Dad died because Spider-man didn't believe him. "I'm sorry" ain't gonna cut it, Takuya.

So apparently hell is a random cave where all the monsters Spider-man blew up are hanging from nooses on the ceiling and Enma Daioh uses OBVIOUSLY LIVING EARTH TECHNOLOGY to extract a green liquid from their bodies that he drinks to regain energy. Good to know.

YAY BELLA AND RITA (I know saying yay when they've been ordered to assassinate a kid is bad form, but I doubt they'll succeed)

What the fffuuuuuu

lol. Okay, that was cute.

...holy shit! Spider-man KILLED BELLA AND RITA. He got in an epic fight with them that ended with him literally KICKING THEM OFF THE ROOF OF A 10 STORY BUILDING. On the other hand, Enma Daioh's potion from 5 minutes ago that can bring dead people back to life may make it so that they don't stay dead long. But still; that was pretty damn brutal.

Hahahaha. Enma Daioh just walked up and brought them back to life, like, 30 seconds after they'd died. I expected them to come back by episode's end, but not nearly that fast. XD

...what the HELL are you doing crawling up to landmines and WIPING THE DIRT OFF THEM?

HOLY SHIT MAN, that grunt hiding in the dirt TERRIFIED me when he popped up!

DO DO DO DOOOOOOO

You know, mecha fights in this show are pretty boring. The monster never actually attacks. He just sits there and soaks up damage from Spider-man in rapid succession.

Hooray!

Wait, why did the focus in on The Lovers card? That's a tad bit icky, considering the circumstances.

Next week: Jesus, how many detective clubs are gonna get all up in Spider-man's business?

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 33: "Powers Combined: Wyvern Cannon Go Forth!" - Oh, hunh. So the enemies have hologram training too? Neat.

Wow, Ukaen really has a hard-on for the possibility of defeating Tatsuya.

lololol

Wyvern Cannon?

That alarm better not be false.

Ah, it's not.

Ooh, that transformation with the reflection was HOT.

WHAT AN ASSHOLE

.......HE'S TRADING THE X-BASHER FOR THEIR LIVES!!!

Oh thank GOD.

Man, that kid is dumb.

JESUS, KID, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE AND STOP TAKING PICTURES

...that kid may be dumb, but damn if him crying his heart out because he couldn't find his camera made ME want to cry.

GO GAIALEON (ow)

...wow. So Wyvern Cannon is basically Great Wyvern without FireDragon, used as a giant-ass gun.

Awww, poor kid. His grandpa gave him the camera? And it got cracked in the battle. But apparently Tatsuya's gonna do something for him.

Next week: Jokaen steals the vehicles, and apparently TAMA-CHAN transforms into Fire-3. HOLY CRAP.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 38: "The Gunnery Showdown" - I love how Genta can always get a reaction out of Takeru.

CHIAKI, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN WEARING MAN

I mean, Jesus, it's like an infant toy block factory threw up all over him.

Oh god, what are they planning.

WHAAAAAAAAAT XD

...Kotoha, I love you. (but not really, cause, you know. pedo) Also, I think Ryunosuke and Genta's baby would be adorable. If it could ever actually exist.

Firing squads. Man. If Shinkenger ever did make it across as a PR season, you know this ep would be tossed.

I take it he's finally being honest with them about his feelings. That's about the only thing I can think of that would make him realize what he admitted at the end and be like "BUT NEVERMIND, IT WASN'T REALLY THAT IMPORTANT". And everyone's just smiling like "we totally see through you now".

Hey, why is Takeru's hair flattened in the eyecatch but never in the show? His hair wasn't even like that when the show started.

HOW DO THEY NOT SEE A FIRING SQUAD WALKING RIGHT AT THEM

lol, they're low on kuroko

GENTAAAAAA

Ooh, neat.

!!!!!!!! FUCK YEAH JII-SAN

Matrix flips. Haven't seen that in a while.

...if giant enemies hold up a giant cannon pointed at your face, YOU DO NOT STAND STILL IN FEAR.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Next week: Pretty epic looking ep, though I already expect the Takeru/Mako haters to come out of the woodwork. And I'm totally looking forward to their outcries. I'm already basking in the outcries over that faceslap that came the fuck out of nowhere. Although I also see talk about how that might not have been a slap. I guess we'll have to see. It better not be, that's all I'm saying.

Kamen Rider Double 10: "S Terror/The Great Detective's Daughter" - Wow. Terror's rocking the blob. And when I say "wow", I mean "DISGUSTING".

Man, everyone in the Sonozaki family is obsessed over Double. XD

Uh oh. "tousan". Is this heading where I think it is?

BADASS FLASHBACKS

Hahahaha

Uh oh. PIECING IT TOGETHER.

WHOA! Old man Sonozaki is freaky as hell.

XD

$50 says that girl isn't the Sweets Dopant and Akiko is just horribly wrong. (or wait, is she even pegging her at all?)

I love how half the Sonozakis are all like "man, Akiko is awesome"

SUWEEEEEEEEETZ

SECRET'S OUT

Oh Jesus. Married couple attack!

Is she just jealous of their cooking skills?

NEW VEHICLE! I wasn't expecting anymore combinations.

.........ow. That's what happens when your wife wears the pants and you fail.

GO AKIKO

Oh, hi Philip. Not sure why you did the catchphrase on your own, but I kind of forgot you were there for a sec.

...oh wow. New finisher too. So all nine forms have Maximum Drives, not just three. Guess that answers my old question of "how are they gonna make all his attacks last without whoring them out until Rider #2 appears?"

Wakana: lol, you failboat
Saeko: bitch, I'll kill you
Wakana: I'M SORRY DON'T HURT ME D:
Kirihiko: *ZANKI</b> NASCA ASS*

Yeah dude. Now they know where you live.

Next week: obligatory "driving my motorcycle on top of a car" episode.

Toku Review o'Doom

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:24:34 GMT

Apologies for anyone who may have been confused by some of the comments in my last few reviews of Rescue Fire. It turns out that Fire-6 doesn't exist. It was just the fandom seeing scans of Dash-6 and GaiaLeon and jumping to conclusions.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 31: "Xaviax's Wrath" - FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

WING KNIGHT SURVIVE

STRIKE VENTED

DRAGON KNIGHT SURVIVE (WASTED)

DRAGON KNIGHT VENTED

WRATH VENTED

XAVIAX STILL ALIVE

FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

There's not a lot more I can say without further falling into coherency. The episode was amazing FOR ALL THE MOST HEART-WRENCHING REASONS. The ep actually kind of reminded me of Chrono Trigger. Of course, just like Chrono Trigger, I'm sure there's actually a way to bring Kit back, cause there's no way they'll leave him in the Advent Void.

I have to say, the ending was amazing though. I was a little annoyed at yet the third "Len goes rushing for someone as they're vented" scene, but Maya's reaction totally sold it. Michelle's interruption at the end was also annoying in terms of acting, but in terms of plot it's fantastic, as it's pushing us into "war overdrive" territory. Next episode will clearly feature the appearance of ~~ALLEZ CUISINE~~ the Advent Master, who can apparently reset deck DNA, because MAYA TURNS INTO SIREN NEXT EP. (though I think I call bullshit on her being an instant ninja untransformed)

Interesting things that happened but weren't nearly as insane as the major stuff: Xaviax took Kit's deck. $50 says this ties into Adam and the real Onyx somehow. Also, how the hell did Michelle find out about the Advent Master? And what does that say about the Advent Master if he teamed up with the US government on purpose instead of being captured? And I was delighted that we got to see Wrath's Final Vent because, like his Sword Vent, it's something that never actually got shown in Ryuki. Finally, I lol'd at the Dragon Knight Survive transformation, taken from footage when Shinji and Ren were about to beat each other's asses. Here they just tried to make it look like Len was totally captivated by Kit's upgrade, but it didn't really work.

Man, after a few episodes of meh, where the hell did all this "shit I'm about to die from overexcitement" come from?

Spider-man Toku 36: "The Onion Iron Mask and the Youth Detective Club" - Yay, Bella and Rita are still there!

OH GOD, IT'S PHANTO; MARIO PUT THE KEY BACK DDD:

Man, that kid talks loud at night.

Takuya's brother and sister sleep in a bunk bed in the same room? o_O

lol. Professor Monster called a new chick in to kill Spider-man since his own peeps kept failing. And now Amazoness is all pissy.

Why is Amazoness surprised that she beat the shit out of all the Iron Cross grunts? They get the shit beat out of them in masses every episode!

Ahhh, shapechanger. So not a woman by default, just a woman to trick people into underestimating him/her/it. Slick. But significantly less cute in the TERRIFYING PHANTO MASK.

....what. That bike launch scene was hilarious. XD

Three boys and a girl have formed the MAN MAN DETECTIVE CLUB. Delicious.

THE BOY IS NAMED GENTA

Why is Dr. Miracle dropping onions in Genta's house? o_O

MIRACLE GORIRRA

lol. How do Takuya's siblings not know he's Spider-man when he's screaming stuff like "I DETECT SOMETHING WITH MY SPIDER-SENSE" in his bedroom in the middle of the day?

Dr. Miracle from Planet Miracle. -_-

And then Spider-man climbs up some pipes just to turn around and climb back down them before jumping at the enemy.

Wait, are you telling me that bee poison was bullshit? XD

Uh oh. These kids are going to screw everything up, aren't they?

WHY ARE THE POLICE NOT WATCHING THE BACK, JESUS

lololol, Hitomi

!!! BEE POISON AGAIN

Oh god.

"HIDE!" And so they ditch the bikes in the middle of the road, as if Amazoness isn't gonna wonder where those four bikes came from.

...well, she didn't. Lucky guess.

lol, how convenient. It's like Shinkenger's "out of water" deal all over again (in the past).

Is Dr. Miracle's actress even Japanese? I can't tell. Sometimes she looks vaguely European. Not quite as blatantly American as Amazons Bella and Rita though.

And so he's suddenly able to bear the pain because of an immunity to bee stings that didn't kick in half the episode ago? What?

Hahaha. Amazoness: "You're on your own, bitch." AND THE THEME SONG STOPS JUST FOR THAT, AND THEN PICKS UP AGAIN AFTER SHE DRIVES OFF.

I love how Marveller has a rotary phone on its control panel.

Well I'm glad he could restore his credibility with the kids too, but what about the POLICE?

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 32: "Ritsuka's Overwhelmed: The Proud GaiaLeon" - I'm sorry, but this opening just does not hold a candle to the first one in terms of epic awesome JAM Project-ness.

......TATSUYA, WHAT

..............this is beautiful. GaiaLeon's just like "._."

Tsubasa and Jun's portion made me lol outloud. Everyone was all "OHCRAP" and fell into battle stances, it was delicious. XD

YUUUUMMMMAAAAAA!!! About time Yu Kawada used his world-class yoyo skills in-show.

Wish I knew what Q-suke was saying. Whatever it is, it seems to be pissing GaiaLeon off. That thing's got some good AI.

I really need to stop constantly saying "I WISH I KNEW WHAT XXXXX WAS SAYING/I NEED SUBS" in these posts.

STARING CONTEST

lol Tama-chan

LOL YUUMA

LOL RITSUKA

LOL YUUMA (ow)

Oh thank god. Sakaen gets a break this week!

OH GOD THOSE KIDS WERE SO CUTE

And GaiaLeon hops onto the battlefield and then sits where it lands, doing nothing. XD

Oh my god Ritsuka is fighting these guys in the middle of a lawn and WHAT DID THEY JUST RUN THROUGH SOME RANDM DUDE'S HOUSE

FRIGGIN AMBUSH totally not fair.

Okay, my Japanese is rusty (AKA nonexistant), but I'm pretty sure all she said was "GaiaLeon, NOW" and the mecha just immediately rushed in and started whooping ass. That was pretty damn epic.

Oh god, that scene with all the people crying as their town gets buried in flames by Ukaen. D:

Hey, where does FireDragon's ladder/trailer go in Rescue King?

Ritsuka is so hot. XD

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 37: "The Epic Glue Battle" - lollerskates

You know, Ryunosuke would make a good kuruko with some training.

Wait, were people runing away from that Ayakashi on the ROOF?

...this is beautiful.

Man, Genta sure loves those "hey, you guys distract the Ayakashi and I'll hop in 30 seconds later for an epic dynamic entry" tricks.

THEY'RE SO OBVIOUSLY JUST WEARING SWEATBANDS

Mako is going to RUIN them.

Or maybe they'll ruin themselves first. XD

lolol, that low-voiced "chiiiiiiaaakiiiiiiiiiii"

DANCING

The bathroom will not end well.

I was kind of disappointed Daigoyou didn't shout out their final numbers of attacking like a high score.

That was SO OBVIOUSLY a trap. Way to go, guys.

You know when the backing guitar kicks in that shit is about to GO DOWN.

SLICK TRANSFORMATION. HILARIOUS POSING. BADASS BATTLE.

Hahaha, Mogyu-Daioh starts walking through the explosions while Daikaioh and Daigoyou are like OSHI and jump out the way. And then Mogyu-Daioh basically finishes the battle by itself.

I have to say though, that mecha battle kind of sucked, since it was basically a "buy our toys!" extravaganza that Ryunosuke and Chiaki were just watching from a street corner, which kind of just completely derailed the episode's message.

Wow, I've gotten so used to Takeru laughing with everyone there to see that it barely even registers anymore. Now that's what we call character development.

Next episode: FUCK YEAH JII-SAN

Kamen Rider Double 9: "S Terror/Look at the Maid Detective!" - Oh goddamn it, that last week preview was a STINKING TEASE.

How much longer is Shotaro not gonna tell Akiko her father's dead? Cause seriously, that's being kind of assholish. And probably breaking some laws if he and Phil haven't told anyone (assumedly if the Japanese police/government was aware of his death, she would already know).

Oh wait, technically he's only "missing" because his body got blasted down that hole, so they don't have a corpse to prove his death with. I guess that might be why.

That sounded like Gedoshu music at first, playing while they were eating at the ramen shop.

So boss Narumi ate dinner with the Sonozakis at some point?

Wakana is thinking what we all are, clearly. "WTF IS THIS"

She is so going to get her ass caught.

o_O ENERGY WAVE

What is this, Clue(do)?

SINGLE WOMAN WAIL MUSIC (I love that song)

Oh god Akiko.

OH GOD AKIKO XD

Wait, why did THIS book have words in it when most of what Phil reads doesn't?

oshi, Kirihiko!

lol, she's so failboat sometimes.

Oh GOD, that's disgusting.

AMBUSH

TERROR DOPANT

lol

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:07:02 GMT

Finally watching Kamen Rider Amazon ep 1. It's amazing how ridiculously weak Decade!Amazon's henshin call is compared to the original's badass screaming.

THE SHIRT IS HERE

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:03:16 GMT

You all remember that post I made about the t-shirt I won five months ago? Well, Ms. Sanchez finally sent it. She was pretty angry at herself for forgetting to send it like that, but I assured her it was alright; as long as I got it eventually (and by eventually I mean before this year's MAGfest), I didn't care overly much. XD

Anyways, pictures! It's a size M, and I would've preferred an L, but again, Capcom only made 300 of these, so I'll just have to suck it up. I'm definitely going to be washing this separately to keep the colors.

IIRC, the kanji on the front says "Hadoken" (which is ridiculous since he's doing a Shoryuken here), and the kanji on the back says "Bird go!".

NaNo Story Info

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:09:24 GMT

So, NaNo. (here's my account info there, btw)

Thanks to that 16 hour shift yesterday, there was no chance I could do my daily 1667 words, but I'm about to start now and get two days out of the way, since none of the assignments for my orientation class are due until tomorrow at the earliest. Possibly more words than that, because my story has three major parts to it, and part 1 is already completely outlined, so I won't have to worry about getting lost with what comes next right away. With luck, I can get 50000 out of just that part alone. XD

Also, thank god that orientation class is all I'm doing for college most of this month. I may actually be able to NOT worry about NaNo interfering with classes.

Anyways, as a result of that last poll, I decided to write a story I got the idea for years ago and that's been sitting in the Purgatory section of my fic repository. The story's called Cowpocalypse. It's about a world where there are six races/countries all at war with each other, and a seventh race that serves as slaves to the other six. The kicker here is that each of the six races are actually farm animals (horses, cows, chickens, sheep, dogs, and ducks), and race #7 is humans that are forced to tend their farms. Meanwhile, there is a legendary sword named Excalibarn (see what I did there) that caused the last major world war several centuries ago to end almost instantly with a victory by the group that found the sword. So not only are the six races at war with each other, but they're all clamoring to find the sword first.

The story will focus on eight characters altogether, though three of them don't even appear until Part 3. One male horse, one female sheep, and two sibling chickens (male and female) that all serve in their respective countries' armed forces, along with a male human slave under the sheep's family. Part 1 of the story is basically scenes about their lives, both at home, during downtime, and fighting, interspersed with action from random battles between the countries.

Part 2 involves all five of them being forced or choosing to go AWOL and join the Sapien Underground, which is about what you would expect if you know your American history: a dangerous path that leads oppressed people of any of the seven races (but primarily humans, obviously) to an island offshore of horse/sheep territory that's been secretly claimed as a new country. Part 3 involves these five joining the final three viewpoint characters in a single party and being sent out by SP Country along with several hundred other 5 to 10 men parties to find Excalibarn. They know the other six countries would never really give them legitimacy, and by finding the sword, they could end the war and force their existence to be accepted. By this point in the story though, the other six are all actively looking for the sword as well, via a series of Operation Overdrive-ish clues, so it's a grueling race to the finish with world domination on the line.

So overall, the story is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, and because of that, I'm totally excited to write it. I even have an idea for a sequel called Cattleclysm, but I'd better finish this one before I figure out for sure whether a sequel could even work. XD

Toku Review o'Doom

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:35:26 GMT

The post is up a bit late because I got home from work at 9am Saturday, set my cell phone alarm to wake me back up for Dragon Knight, and slept right through it. An encode was up by nighttime, but then I had to pull a 16 hour shift on Sunday from midnight to 4pm (for the record, they needed an extra person, and I offered cause extra money in my paycheck is always a plus; I knew exactly what I was getting into). Naturally when I got home from that, I did my half of the Spandex Report and then immediately went to sleep, and only just finished watching that Dragon Knight encode about 30 seconds before I posted this.

Double got pre-empted by golf for anyone who didn't already know; episode 9 airs next week. YEAH. YEAH.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 30: "Swan Song" - OH SHIT, SURVIVE! That's interesting how she got them though, plotwise. It implies that all 13 Riders had Survive Modes, and that the only reason Kit and Len are the only two to get theirs is because they were the only two Survive cards Kase was able to snatch on her way out before Xaviax blew up the KR homebase in Ventara. I know the Japanese toy designers did do what-if Survive modes for several more Riders, though I've only seen Raia/Sting's, which made sense anyway since he was the one who gave Ren the card originally. On that end, I suspect Odin/Wrath would definitely have a designed form too, since it was Shiro Kanzaki who gave the second card to Shinji. Either way though, I've not actually seen more than Raia's.

Also, nice explanation as to why they won't be able to use them often or for long, something that never even got a cursory explanation in Ryuki. Although most Ryuki fans just assumed this explanation used in Dragon Knight was the case anyways; it's what made the most sense.

!!! Wow, that was random. Also, epic. Also, foreboding, cause I'm 99% sure what's going to come out of this is JTC getting the other thing that, like Survive, showed up in Ryuki 15 episodes ago and hadn't been used yet: merging his contract beast with Raia/Sting's and Gai/Thrust's.

...I wasn't expecting Michelle to be right behind them like that.

lol, Japanese footage. Been a while since I've seen that. God, the ADR during battles suck though. Attack cries have gotten better, but to this day, I can never hear what anyone's saying when they're trying to have conversations during battle. Also, the location switches could've been better. XD

XD I like how they didn't bother to explain why Metalgelas just came out of nowhere and bumrushed Strike. I imagine it's much the same explanation as in Ryuki though; JTC was the one who vented Brad, and so Brad's contract monster was trying to kill JTC in revenge.

And now Siren's suddenly doing 50x worse against Wrath than she was JUST LAST EPISODE. D:<

Oh, she ran. That was actually kind of smart, though I'm not sure why he lost her so easily.

"Mantabeast"? I guess it's accurate. :P

THAT MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE. He used an Advent/Attack Vent card to CALL Evildiver, and then used a Contract card to CATCH him? When a Rider catches a beast, THE CONTRACT CARD BECOMES THE ADVENT CARD. My brain is melting.

Okay, thinking about that a little more, it just hit me that maybe he used Chris's Attack Vent card to call him, which admittedly probably wouldn't work to get Evildiver to attack things FOR him, which is why he then had to turn around and Contract... to get his own Strike-themed Attack Vent. I guess that makes sense, but it's pushing it a little.

Wow, this episode has a hell of a lot of Kit and Len getting their asses whooped.

HAHAHAHAHA! Metalgelas was just like "GET OUT THE WAY HONK HONK"

...Wrath vs. Siren with Strike walking up. And now we come to the part the episode was named for. :(

DDDDD:

Wrath can feather teleport with someone else along for the ride?

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD:

God, that ending. The only good thing that came out of it was Len's "I AM SO GOING TO FUCK STRIKE UP" expression. I look forward to the fallout from that.

Spider-man Toku 35: "The Mummified Beauties of the Uncharted Amazon" - Yeah, I'd be concerned about a random mummy theft too, I suppose.

So the people who subbed this translate "ya" as "hey", while TV-N prefers "yo". XD

"And from what I can see, they're quite the beauties!" THEY'RE DEAD, THEY'RE MUMMIFIED, AND THEY'RE WRAPPED IN BANDAGES; YOU CAN'T SEE A DAMN THING! I lol'd when Amazoness was like "...beauties?" with this horrified look on her face though.

Spider-man toku's main aesop: everyone in the 70's were assholes who lied to get others in trouble.

I can already see where this going. The boy's going to try to tell adults what he saw, and nobody's gonna believe him. It'll be like last week's ep all over again!

...Takuya seriously uses a CB Radio to get info from Interpol?

If someone dressed in red and blue spandex jumped into my bedroom window, I'd be a little bit more freaked.

Somehow I get the feeling there weren't homo sapien Amazon warriors around to be mummified ten million years ago.

Why are they dressed in nun habits again?

lol. Now they REALLY look anachronistic. And they're named Bella and Rita. And Bella's shooting arrows while Rita's firing from a rifle. Also, they're lily white. And wearing bikinis with flowing gauze over it. And they have makeup stars on their cheeks.

ARROW IN THE LEG. lol, and he just rips it out; that's smart. On the other hand, what did I expect? He was climbing a tree in plain sight, rather slowly at that, so it's silly of me to expect him to truly know what he's doing.

HE MADE A TOURNIQUET WITH GRASS!

lol. Let's see the two Amazons go up against a CAR WITH SEMI-AUTOMATICS IN THE BUMPER.

...and then he jumps out of the car to fight everyone hand-to-hand.

I still can't believe that monster is named Tiger Pump.

Well, I wasn't expecting that. Bella and Rita lived to see another day, which means they'll actually show up again! Kind of a waste though; there's only 6 eps left. Would've been nice if they'd showed up, like, 10 eps ago.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 31: "The Blue Pearl's Secrets: Completed, Seven-Piece Combination!" - lol. They're like "...you're not supposed to be this serious Tatsuya. Stop scaring us. o_O"

...I swear to god. This tablet better just be giving them secrets about Donkaen and nothing else. Cause if they end up using tablet secrets from thousands of years ago to get this seven-piece mecha from the present day working, I'm going to scream.

Q-suke sits with Asuka. So cute.

Wait, what happened to Donkaen?

!!! TAMA-CHAN, NOOOOO

Oh wait, he was just finding out where Tatsuya went.

...well, at least he powered up Chukaen too this time. But STILL. Poor Sakaen.

What. How many mystical blue glowing dragons ARE there in this world?

Wow, they merged!

Awww yeah, Fire Phoenix returns to the skies. XD

EPIC SAVE.

ONORE DICKEIDO

Okay, so the seven-piece, Great Wyvern GX, is pretty much just Great Wyvern with a bigger ass. And a pretty slick Final Rescue that seems to be a hyper powered version of Ritsuka's, with all five cars getting shot out at the end.

ONORE DICKEIDO

Is Asuka trying to find a way to let him handle Fire-1 X's power better?

Oh cool, Ritsuka focus next week. Been a while since one of those.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 36: "The Curry Samurai" - I missed the usual bit before the opening. :(

...Ryunosuke. "uuuuuuMAAAAIIII!!!"

Such a fake sunset.

THE PITFALLS OF FAME.

Holy shit! If this were PR, that building would've been an abandoned warehouse though. XD

Genta, c'mon now.

He broke Chiaki's Shinkenmaru! D:

lol. He got low on water. HOW CONVENIENT.

Genta looks constipated in that TV show.

Award? Franchising? One of the two, I think. Probably the latter, which would explain his sudden reversal. He's got responsibilities, obviously.

But I can't figure out why this affects Kotoha so much. For that matter, I can't figure out why Super Shinkenyellow's first going to appear in a GENTA focus ep. :(

I need suuubbbbbbbbsssss. Obviously the convo went well, though. Although I'm kind of disappointed Genta said no to his own Joyfull Restaurant, cause that's totally what it looked like.

..."TONO-SAMA, THE INROMARU, PLEASE" "THANK YOU VERY MUCH" I lol'd.

Okay, I'm still kind of pissed that it wasn't her focus episode, but damn if her battle with the Ayakashi wasn't friggin BADASS. Seriously man, it was BEYBLADE ELVIS MODE. That wins awesome points BECAUSE of the ridiculousness, and then it was awesome on its own beyond that too! XD

SAMURAI CLUSTERFUCK

Toku Review o'Doom

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:16:53 GMT

Man, I had no idea the gunslinging cowboy narcotics officer from Spider-man toku ep 31 three weeks ago was Hiroshi Miyauchi, aka Kamen Rider V3. Showa actor recognition fail. (EDIT: aka Ao Ranger and Big One as well! Super recognition fail. But thanks Mariko for setting me straight)

Well, at least he wasn't Amazon. Skyrider. WHATEVER.

Also, man, thegirlwriter gave me a meme to do forever and a day ago, but it needs ten entries of a certain thing, and I'm stuck on seven! XD

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 29: "Calm Before the Storm" - All throughout this episode I had to deal with the roommate in the living room on an important call, so I wasn't willing to turn up the TV's volume, and thus missed the opening and a heck of a lot of context throughout. But from what I can tell from just what I was watching, I didn't really need the context anyways: it was clearly another episode along the lines of "The Many Faces of Xaviax" where everybody chats about the consequences of the last few episodes with a clip show interspersed. And it was just as boring as it was before, though at least this time we don't have a 15 week break to look forward to until the next ep. Literally the only interesting thing that happened in this episode was at the very end, when Michelle tried to lead a squad of No-Men in to take the three Riders and three civs, and all six of them escaped through a mirror. I found that interesting simply because it's the first time Trent and Lacey have traveled to Ventara. I doubt the six of them would stay any longer than it takes to find another mirror away from the bookstore to transport back, since Xaviax could possibly find them significantly easier while there, but at least Trent and Lacey would finally be able to see mirror monsters now.

Anyways, I'll watch the ep again when dekabroken's inevitable encode goes up, but it's probably going to bore me out of my skull. Next week's ep looks 500x better. And 500x potentially sadder.

EDIT: Oh, I guessed I missed something in the intro about JTC's deck getting energized. Okay, so I can watch the intro and the ending and skip the rest then. XD

Spider-man Toku 34: "Candid Camera Murder Incident" - I find it amusing that random neighborhood boys knew who Hitomi was.

Holy crap, they almost beat the shit out of that kid! D:

Awwww. But as sorry as I feel for the kid, that doesn't make the fact that he lied to everybody any better.

They actually translated sensei as master in these subs. It's certainly accurate (enough), but it still makes me lol.

Wow, for a roughly 10 year old, he's a damn good photographer.

"pretentious"? Seriously?

!!!

Hahaha, Amazoness. "Don't point that gun at me."

Saw. That. Coming.

lol. "I took a picture of your murder!" And so the president has this "OSHI, SOMEBODY BOUT TO DIE" look on his face whenever nobody (but the camera) is looking at him.

AHAHAHA, HITOMI

Wow, he sure changed from "completely drenched Takuya" to "clean and dry Spider-man" really quick.

Oh damn, he blew up his own man!

ONORE DICKEIDO

Her hair is still black. XD

That kid is stupid, and he's totally going to get himself killed. Okay, no he won't, Spider-man will save him, but still.

How in the world did nobody SEE Spider-man with him standing in open view on a high ledge like that?

Oh, heh. Somebody saw him, at some point, apparently.

"Don't move. Don't make a sound." WELL THEN SHOULDN'T YOU STOP TALKING?

Well, Hitomi and Shinko walking around with the boy will make it certain he won't be killed, at least. Since they couldn't possibly get killed, he can just stay inside their overlapping plot armor.

Or that's what I thought until the two of them tried to get out of it. XD Their fear of the Iron cross Army is totally understandable though. They've both been individually threatened before, though Takuya got them out of it, of course.

Man, does he have any idea how long this echolocation is gonna take if he's going to slam a wrench against the ground every two feet throughout the entire warehouse area? Er, well, there's only six minutes of airtime left at this point, so I guess it won't take too long after all.

Or maybe not! Maybe he'll just get attacked first and make it a moot point. :P

...what perfect timing.

Wow, that company President is certainly willing to get his hands dirty. The whole battle, he's hanging around the area taking potshots at Spider-man with his silenced pistol while Spidey's off fighting the Mr. Scrapman.

...OW. What a horrible way to go out.

lol, what an awesome shot that last picture would be.

......what. Next week's ep preview. Two mummy nuns (both lily-white as far as I can tell, even though they're supposed to be Amazons) resurrected as guerrilla huntresses to kill Spider-man? That's a head scratcher, but it oughta be a fun ride at any rate.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 30: "Captain's Past: Gaia Leon! Scramble!" - Ooh, new opening! Taiga's brother and niece get short scenes too, so I guess they're sticking around.

This is obviously a nightmare.

Hunh. So Taiga was originally Fire-1?

Hahaha, training with Taiga, and Ritsuka is the only one that doesn't get sent to the floor. Came close, but at least she still stayed up.

Dash-6!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

BUNKI! He's probably gonna show them Gaia Leon stats.

Oops, no. Profile sheets... of Taiga in EVERY Fire suit.

I suspect this explanation would be a lot more heart-rending if I knew what the hell they were actually saying.

Jokaen and gang happen to be right where Taiga was heading. How coincidental.

GO TAIGA

DAMNIT JOKAEN, CUT THAT SHIT OUT (poor Sakaen)

lol, Taiga

Ow. D:

Rescue Soul for rlz, man.

lol, Sakaen's just sitting there watching the fight.

Oh hi, Hyper Sakaen.

!!! Taiga just red shelled his ass! And then did blue sparks the next second.

...Gaia Leon just jumped ON TOP OF FIRE PHOENIX. Hilarious.

Gaia Leon looks a lot like Rescue Drill and Rescue Crane just attached wholesale to a mecha lion.

lol

OH GOD WHAT THE NEW ENDING IS SOME BULLSHITTY TEAM DANCE

.....................Rescue King and Gaia Leon were dancing to it.

Next week: Great Wyvern gets eclipsed by the inevitable six piece gattai. I'm surprised Fire-6 isn't going to show up right away.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 35: "The Eleven Origami, The Complete Combination" - wtf is that dude dropping on the ship's deck?

...Ryunosuke, is that supposed to be casual wear? Cause seriously.

Oh wow, people be PISSED at him. I assume it's because becoming a Shinkenger forced him to run out on kabuki duties.

Oh, that meant his "casual wear" was a disguise. Oh Ryunosuke. It was already bad enough that the actors couldn't dress in RL.

!!!!!

God, Takeru is so friggin badass with his choreography.

YAY JUZO AND DAYU

I'm assuming he just can't do his acting very well without HIS BUDDY RYUNOSUKE beside him.

PIMPSLAP

(Terrier) I like Takeru's shirt
(Arrow) Hahahaha
(Arrow) The one time Takeru dresses well, Ryunosuke dresses like shit

...I can't believe that shit even worked.

Well, it would've worked. But I'm never going to complain when Dayu and Juzo play distraction.

I'm sure I would consider this kabuki scene far less ridiculous if I had more respect for Japanese culture beyond superheroes in spandex. I do fully admit that it's aesthetically rather beautiful though.

!!! I didn't expect him to know that was Ryunosuke.

O_O Not expecting that one.

HOORAY IT'S SAMURAI CLUSTERFUCK

I feel really bad for poor ol' Hirofumi Fukuzawa, stuck in that massive suit. This thing is bigger than Engine-Oh G12.

Actually, I'm just assuming it's him, since Shinkengold's suit actor plays Mougyu-Daioh, and Doukoku's plays Daikai-Oh. But Fukuzawa was all the major starting mechas in the last few seasons, and most of the giant combo ones too, including G12. So it's probably a safe guess.

Wait, Shinkengold is Mougyu-Daioh and Doukoku is Daikai-oh? That sounds pretty damn counterproductive.

HOLY SHIT, SHINKENYELLOW ELVIS MODE NEXT WEEK, ABOUT FUCKING TIME BIRCA WON THE RACE

(shame the episode doesn't look nearly as awesome plotwise as Mako's last week)

Kamen Rider Double 8: "Find the C/Dancing Hero" - Oh, that HeatMetal switch was hot.

OH SHIT, did he take ALL the Gaia Memories?

lol, Pip is still writing. I hope that's not ink, or they'll just have to repaint.

...Shotaro gets hit with the slipper, starts screaming at Akiko, and then IMMEDIATELY goes back to trying to act suave.

Okay, the dancing is retarded, but watching the guy and girl just start dancing in the middle of campus for no reason put a smile on my face.

Lover's spat? NEED SUBS.

OFF TO THE MATRIX LIBRARY

Santa-chan gave Shotaro a manga? How random. XD

(SpideyWing) What was it, Kamen Rider Spirits?

Oh wow, the Cockroach Dopant is a mangaka, that's why.

Wait, did they seriously make the OTAKU the Cockroach Dopant?

Sure is obvious who wears the pants in THAT family. It's funny; thegirlwriter tagged him as an alpha male... and he totally is. But he's still whipped.

Okay, this is getting freaky.

Hahahaha, they LOCKED THEM IN THE REVOLGARRY. I guess it makes sense; the office doesn't seem to have a closet to lock them into.

Poor stag.

Awwwww.

POOR STAG. D:

And now they're randomly dancing for Pip and Akiko. o_O

OW.

Oh shit, that's cool. Video via rapid page flipping.

Ah, so only four Memories got stolen; they still had Cyclone and Joker.

Oh god, now Double's dancing WHILE fighting.

YEAH

And boy joins him. It's like watching Zack Taylor from Power Rangers on acid.

YEAH

YEAH

Okay, that last move was pretty cool.

YEAH

So of course the Cockroach Dopant runs away and gets shot in the back, and we're not supposed to care cause he's just an otaku. XD

Pip, you are crazy.

YEAH

YEAH

YEAH

Sorry, I'll stop now. XD

HOLY SHIT ARE YOU SERIOUS

Seriously, I have no idea what's going on next week. Sweets Dopant? Maids? Akiko? I think I did see Godfather Sonozaki turning into Terror Dopant though; that's pretty straightforward, if nothing else.

Which NES game should I get?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:29:36 GMT

Okay, so. For people who originally purchased the Internet Channel for 500 Wii Points, Nintendo's offering a bit of an instant rebate. The IC is now free, so from now until New Year's Eve, you get to instantly download one free NES game via Virtual Console. Problem is, I have no idea which to get.

My initial preferences are probably Castlevania 1, 2, or 3, Final Fantasy 1, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gradius, Kid Icarus, Kirby's Adventure, Legend of Zelda 1 or 2, Mega Man 1, 2, or 3, Metroid, Punch-Out, River City Ransom, or StarTropics 1 or 2. Super C and the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy are also good titles to choose from, but I know I'd yank all my hair out playing any of them. Note that I am a horrible gamer and have not actually played anything on the aforementioned list other than Final Fantasy 1 (beaten), Legend of Zelda 1 and 2 (beaten both), Mega Man 1-3 (got far, but never beat any of them), Metroid (beaten), and StarTropics 1 (got really far, but never beat). Metroid's on shaky terms right now as well because I can play that game via the emulated copies on Metroid Prime and Zero Mission at any time, so downloading it would probably be a waste.

If anyone wants to suggest another title on that list that I'm not giving a fair shot, feel free, though don't suggest SMB2JP/Lost Levels, as that's the one NES game I've already downloaded in the past. But otherwise, someone tell me which of those games I should get cause I'm too wishy-washy to decide for myself; that's basically what this post comes down to. XD

EDIT: I ended up going with Castlevania 3, which was already high on my potential list anyways due to having fun with its spiritual successor, Dawn of Sorrow's Julius Mode. Thanks to everyone who suggested something!

Toku Review o'Doom

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:31:23 GMT

I actually could've had this post up immediately after Double yesterday if I wasn't so lazy that I waited till today to watch Spider-man and Aaron Stone. XD

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 28: "A Dragon Caged" - Wow, that was a much more awesome episode than last week. I may be showing my instinctive male love for action in that opinion though; most of the reason I liked the ep so much was because the action just never stopped. From the moment Trent and his crew found Kit's location, it was just 20 minutes of fortress storming, No-Men getting their asses kicked, and Kit getting ambushed by Wrath and Strike once they got away.

One thing that annoyed me was how well Siren held off Wrath in that final battle. Not because she did; I was pleased by that. But the fact that she did fine here when two episodes ago she was getting her ass whooped (by Strike, not even Wrath) clearly means Siren is supposed to be excellent, but only when the writers want her to be. I do realize it would make the show resolve itself too easily if all the good guys whooped bad guy ass in every single battle, but it's a little too random for my tastes.

The nerd's reaction to the sleeping girls at the start was amusing, if slightly degenerative, and I was also glad to see Xaviax show up outside Wrath's body, though only for a minute. Kit's escape was well played.

Interesting how the "Advent Master" name dropped, but then Len and Kase didn't want to explain who he actually was (I know it's a he because this is the role Mark Dacascos is reported to play when he inevitably shows up). Obviously he's gonna have to be the guy who created the Advent Decks just based on that name. $50 says he'll also give Kit and Len their Survive modes. Anyways, I'm curious as to how long it takes for him to actually appear; we've only for 12 eps left.

Aaron Stone 18: "Dreamcast" - Man, been a while since there's been a new ep of this show. Also, that episode name is already giving me a good idea what'll happen, but damn if it doesn't give me happy memories of the good ol' Sega days.

Wow, epic opening. Abner gets ambushed, Aaron and Stan get him out, but Aaron gets shot by something.

Hahaha, Stan.

Hahaha, Jason. XD

Trank is pretty damn freaky. And a little silly looking at the same time, but still freaky.

...what the hell? Oh yeah, "Dreamcast". And now the freaky ass dreams start.

Oh, that blackboard kick was a cool effect.

OSHI-

Hahaha, what.

lol. "There's no sleeping on my watch." And then she falls asleep.

XD Stan and Emma are trashtalking each other. Beautiful.

......disgusting.

OH SNAP, "JASON"

Awwwww yeah, it's on like neckbone!

HE WENT TO THE HALLOWEEN PARTY AS AARON STONE.

Spider-man Toku 33: "The Incredible Wild Girl Who Bullies Boys" - OH GOD STOP POINTING THE CAMERA AT THE SUN FILMERS ARGH

lol, damn right. That's the fakest smile I've ever seen.

And then five seconds later, she's all into it, with real smiles. That was quick.

Holy shit! I want her aim.

...oh wow. That bird is real. And they're really letting the girl whack the shit out of it. Almost as bad as the dog episode; I'm curious as to whether PETA knew about this show.

AMAZONEMA'S HAIR IS BLACK AGAIN

lol, she really is a bully. That crow was pretty lucky since it could actually fly away from her assaults.

Well, I guess that's an affective way to convince a girl to let you see her pendant. Show up as Spider-man and offer to play with her for a while.

!!! She challenged him to an outright fight!

HOOOOOOLY SHIT. I just watched a 10 year old girl grab Spider-man by the arm and FLING HIM 30 FEET AWAY.

Hahahaha, she is beating the shit out of him!

I'm sorry, I know that death scene of the girl's father was supposed to be sad, but that was so obviously a stuntdoll falling those eight stories that I burst out laughing.

Also, blaming the dad's death on the daughter's failure to remember to leave a food offering for their village god that day? Her mom was an asshole. Though having her die shortly after as well makes me feel even worse for the girl.

Fox monster! Meanies!

Though that battle scene with Spider-man just constantly running and jumping away from a monster with a blowtorch in his hand was hilarious.

I love how the Iron Cross grunts always go down in one hit.

Awwwwwwwwww.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 29: "Heated Man: Tsubasa's Kindness" - Okay, so I guess today's episode is the standard "here's why the team's ass isn't really an ass" setup.

Haha, ojichan. First Double, now this.

Chukaen! D:

She's kind of freaky when she's doing nothing but laughing maniacally nonstop.

Weird how Tatsuya went out in the Fire Dragon along with everyone else's vehicle, instead of immediately calling X Dragon.

Don't tell me the entire reason Jokaen's attacking this spot is just to take out those kids' flower garden. o_O

Oh, and NOW he forms Rescue King.

HAHAHA, the way he was stampeding that thing.

Wait, they took her out with Super Jet Falcon? What was the point of even forming Rescue King?

Cute ending. But the episode did feel a little boring over all. Might possibly be because I kept getting interrupted by family while it was airing; I don't know.

...why are they showing commercials for the next mecha? Way to spoil, guys!

Oh, okay, this mecha appears next episode. Kind of quick, what with X Dragon only showing up four eps ago.

Speaking of next ep, looks like it consists entirely of Taiga being a badass.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 34: "Fatherly Love, Girlish Innocence" - Hahaha, did Kotoha ask Mako's dad if he was Shinkenpink? And now he wants to take her to Hawaii. (EDIT: Apparently he's asking her to quit so he can move the family off to Hawaii for a work transfer)

Hahaha, Chiaki. And Takeru. XD

I don't quite understand. Is he trying to convince her to quit being a Shinkenger? Did he bring her mother up to guilt her into it? Or is it her mother who wants her to quit?

THEY'RE KIDNAPPING CHILDREN

Oh, that was smart.

It's funny how I originally didn't like Captain Falcon's appearance for how cliché it seemed, how he was coming in to be the true evil or something. That may still happen, but at the moment it looks more like he's an underling who wants to twist things to benefit himself (vaguely like Long, actually), and he's doing it by snatching Doukoku's own major forces, Dayu and Juzo (not that Juzo was ever really under Doukoku's control anyways). So basically, it turns out that Captain Falcon is actually the boost the show always needed to make the enemies actually interesting, which they originally weren't at all. He was a blessing in disguise.

lololol

Takeru talks on the phone way too fast for Jii to actually be telling him anything.

And I'm really suffering from language barrier here. I can't wait for this ep's subs.

D:

Wait, where's Kotoha and Genta?

Oh.

Jesus, her Dad's gonna get himself killed trying to keep her safe.

Man, they just did this crap last week? Stop with the heart-to-hearts when there's enemies trying to kill you two feet away! XD

Though I wish I understood what that one was about, and what exactly happened to her mother. I'm getting the idea that she was injured because of being Shinkenpink, and that's why her father wants her to give it up. Obviously her reply to him was about how being a samurai was more important than anything.

Also, she's fucking badass here. I wish Kotoha could've gotten a focus ep like this.

SHINKEN-OH IS RIDING ON A ROLLERSKATING OX. THIS EPISODE IS BEYOND INVALID.

YAY MIKI! I was about to say that the only downside to this ep was that Mako's mother didn't actually show up in person. And then she appears. XD

BRB, need to go cry

Commercials for Samurai Clusterfuck already? Well, at least the spoilers are only one week in advance on that note.

Did Ryunosuke smack Chiaki across the face in that preview?

(Terrie) I'm waiting for Kotoha's sister to come and take her right as ShinkenYellow
(Terrie) and for Kotoha to go, "HELL NO, BITCH."
(Arrow) XD

Kamen Rider Double 7: "Find the C/Philip Can't Stand It" - Wakana's really amusing in her contrast of personalities.

Shotaro is so HILARIOUS when he gets angry.

I wonder why Pip got so angry?

Man, the wait for Nov. 11 for the Double theme to get its full release gets longer every day.

...THE SHINKENGERS WERE JUST AT THIS SCHOOL.

lol.

KAMEN RIDER BLACK WAS JUST FIGHTING AT THIS CROSSWAY.

what the holy shit why did he turn into Ryutaros

Mick! Or Mikku if you prefer the TV-N spelling.

Yuck!

JOE-KAAAAA

Holy crap, that dude is fast.

(Terrie) YOU CAN'T SHOOT COCKROACHS
(Terrie) GET A HUGE SHOE

God, I can't even watch scenes with Wakana and her father alone together anymore. All thanks to episode 5.

Oh snap.

Oh, here's those two idol girls or whatever.

WHY IS HE DANCING

WHILE WEARING A TUPAC SHIRT

!!!!!

No time for Pip to transform!

...oh god, they're gonna jump. XD

Oh, that transformation was hot. Nice to know he can transform into Double without actually using the CycloneJoker base.

!!!!! Way to get pwned there, guys.

lololol

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:22:14 GMT

Song #1
At 1:11, you will shit bricks.

Song #2
At 2:01, you will WHOOMP THERE IT IS.

Hmm.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:39:26 GMT

http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/kamenriderdragonknight/video/6233233/kamen-rider-dragon-knight-official-trailer

(Ryulong) so
(Ryulong) Arrow
(Ryulong) it's a port of Climax Heroes
(Ryulong) with Ryuki characters
(Ryulong) and the Subspace Emissary
(Arrow) ...good description

Kind of hate how PlayStation 2-ish it looks. On the other hand, it's nice to see they're including all the cards. I cheered when I saw Spear/Imperer's Final Vent, which they never used in KRDK. To be fair to KRDK, they used Wrath/Odin's Sword Vent, which was never used in Ryuki either.

(Sting/Raia Survive would be a hilaaaarious unlockable though)

!!!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:27:16 GMT

MIKI FROM GEKIRANGER (well actually her name will be Kyoko here) IS MAKO'S MOTHER

Mildly confusing though. As her mother, I suppose that would make her Shinkenpink #17, but I was under the impression that the entire group #17 died. Then again, we only ever saw them collapsing; Red's the only one we know for a fact died. Ryunosuke's father is alive, and Chiaki's dad is a trained samurai too, so maybe they were Shinkenblue and green #17 as well, which means Kotoha's mom could still be around too.

Eh, IDK. Guess I'll find out next week!

Toku Review o'Doom

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:31:12 GMT

niav's review for Shinken 32 and a random discussion during Thursday night's OCR Toku Viewing Party prompted this, in case you're curious.

Also, you know we as a fandom have got too much stuff to watch when I notice this weekend only had five episodes to review and I think that's a slow week.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 27: "Attack of the No-Men" - Hmm, not too bad an episode. Not as good as ep 25 again, but not bad either. I had some minor issues of course; how stupid Kit was to not realize the open cell was a trap for one. But overall it was pretty fun.

Nice usage of Ryuki movie footage with the Siren vs. Strike fight. Meanwhile, the Wing Knight vs. Wrath fight was much fun, especially since it was one of the few times American footage of a Rider fight used attacks besides just Sword Vent. I'm glad they did make use of Odin's teleportation trick! I still don't expect to ever see Time Vent though.

The subplot with Trent's backup was amusing, if a little patronizing to nerds the world round. Nice WoW reference though. I was also pleased with Michelle confronting Maya at the start, even if "the government has the safety of its citizens in mind" translates to "we're gonna keep Kit in jail until we can figure out how to use his powers".

My only real question was that octupus mirror monster; it obviously wasn't a coincedence that it showed up when it did, but how did the No-Men get it to appear in the first place?

Spider-man Toku 32: "The Sweet Whisper of the Enchantress" - Amazoness really is quite beautiful when she's not gloating/laughing/trying to tear Spider-man's face off his head.

Or when she's convinced a poor fool to fall in love with her so she can dig into his engineering/family secrets and then betray him and his two children. D:<

lol, she's back to her pink hair ALREADY. She's like Astronema! Or I guess I should say Astronema's like her.

Wow, what a bitch. She accidentally killed him before she could pump him for the information he needed, so now she's secretly tailing his daughter.

...but his daughter's a BADASS, so I'm not sure her plan will work in the end.

lol. "Maybe they went to a coffee shop nearby." Meanwhile, they are at a disco club DANCING THE DAY AWAY.

Wow, she's sneaky.

lol. YOU GOT OUT-THOUGHT.

What confuses me is how everybody refers to "Dr. Sugimoto's disappearance", when all Amazoness did was toss his body off a high level in the transformer floor, and then immediately ran away so she wouldn't get implicated. So nobody stumbled upon an obvious corpse that should've been lying on the first floor this whole time?

Wow, the Iron Cross army goes after Kyoko in broad daylight? And nobody else in the mall does anything!

And he holds her hostage by holding a silenced pistol to her throat... like a knife. With the barrel helf perpendicular to her throat. Not actually pointing the gun AT her. Genius. XD

Arc Turn! Haven't seen that in a while.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 28: "All-Important Colleagues" - Hahaha, poor Yuuma.

Well, based on his attitude in the cafeteria, maybe this is more than just "his car broke down" like I initially thought. Either that or he's just feeling frustrated over guilt at not being able to help out when he wanted. idk.

Jokaen chose Sakaen AGAIN? That boy's gonna be catatonic by the end of the month.

...great. Now I'm going to have "ICHI NI ICHI NI ICHI NI" running through my head for the next week.

Awwwww. Those kids are awesome.

Right. And now we reach the point in the series where the main hero uses his upgraded form all the time, whether he needs to or not.

Two weeks ago I was talking about how Transformerish X-Dragon Robo and Rescue King looked, but then I was just talking about the finished product. It wasn't until I paid more attention that I realized how much the transformation itself literally looks just like something out of the recent Bay flicks. Clearly Japan's hopping on that trend, kind of like everybody used bullet time back in 99.

FUCK YEAH YUUMA (I love his Rocky-ish theme music, on that note)

Haha, Tatsuya's, like, six inches shorter than Yuuma. But Fire-1 is every so slightly taller than everyone when transformed. It's like Sky in Power Rangers S.P.D. all over again.

Hahaha, that ending. So cute. Figures Tsubasa wouldn't be in the marching line.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 33: "Great Bull King" - So the Rekka Daizantou is best used for lighting rings of candles. Thank you Shinkenger commercials, I'm glad I know that now.

DAYU!

CAPTAIN FALCON! (he will never be Vegeta to me; always Captain Falcon)

...the hell is he scheming?

JUZO!

Goddamn stock Tyrannosaur roar.

Oh, that's smart. And cute.

(Terrie) I THINK IKA-CHAN SHOULD GO TOO
(Terrie) Ika-chan doesn't get out much :/

$50 says Captain Falcon's trailing Dayu so he could find where Juzo was.

KINDRED SOULS.

CUTENESS OVERLOAD.

See, this is why I wish Kotoha (and Mako) would stand up for herself more. She's constantly figuring out crap when the team doesn't know what they should do next. She'd be an awesome character with just a tad bit more confidence.

TAKERU IS WEARING THE WING PANTS AGAIN.

Damnit, I wish I knew who the hell Kanji Tsuda is portraying. Takeru's Dad? Takeru's guardian after his Dad died? One of the two, clearly, but the show still hasn't explained which.

ONORE, DICKEIDO

And now he's got a new sword? And Dayu's shamisen is fixed!

oshi, Hiro!

Oh, so the Ox wouldn't work without a double disc?

Haha, heart to heart talk while Takeru's fighting for their lives not even two feet away.

(Terrie) NEVER FEAR, ELVIS MODE IS HERE

...the ox can FLY?

Haha, cool; Hiro and his grandpa are hanging out in the control room with Takeru. XD

WAVE MOTION GUN

(Terrie) KOTOHA IS LIKE THE PERFECT LITTLE WIFE
(Terrie) "Here Tono-sama I'll hold that!"
(Arrow) Hahaha
(Arrow) So Mako wants to grow up to be Kotoha

So how many more episodes is it until the inevitable Samurai Clusterfuck combination appears?

FUCK YES, MAKO BACKSTORY NEXT WEEK! Looks like we might possibly finally find out WHY she wants to be a bride so bad.

Kamen Rider Double 6: "Girl... A/The Price of Lying" - Hahaha, Shotaro is hilarious when he's pissed. He's such a big kid!

Didn't really get Asuka's explanation. Something about her dad being a "masked person like her doll who will always protect her and the city"?

Haha, that guy is fucked.

Okay, maybe not. And if they're BOTH gonna fight Double, maybe it's Shotaro and Pip that are fucked.

...so Santa-san is gonna be a regular character?

I would so totally watch THE MISADVENTURES OF AFROMAN AND SANTA-CHAN. Who's with me?

Oh god, he's trying to tell her what really happened.

LOL, he couldn't do it!

...wow.

JOE-KAAAAAA

IT'S NAKED MAN

...OW. On the plus side, I didn't expect to see HeatTrigger this ep.

What happened to Pip? D:

GOD, I want this soundtrack so bad.

DDD:

Hahaha, what a way to wake him up.

AWW YEAH, HEAT SEEKING SHOTS

Holy shit, what?

Ooh, we get to see the final Machine Hardboilder combo too?

THAT GUY IS THROWING BRIDGES AT HIM

TRIGGER FULL BURST, FUCK YEAH

Awwwwwww.

Hahaha, that ending.

Next week has Pip focus, Ryuutaros, and idol girls?

lol

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:43:31 GMT

Courtesy of some kind souls at 4chan, Rangerboard, and various other places, I have increased my personal collection of "wtf" images from the count of 0 they were at when my HDD crashed. They are available under the cut in case anyone else comes across a situation where they really need to drive home how mindboggled they are.

If any of these came from people on my f-list and I forgot to give credit, I apologize. Comment and I'll fix that. Conversely, if anyone has images they want to share, comment with that too, cause I could totally use more.

YETI

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:28:29 GMT

Hahaha, AMEN man. AMEN.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this guy, he comes from this game.

And now, time to go to bed, even though I just woke up 30 minutes ago from eight hours sleep. I really wish I had looked in more detail at the box for this Sudafed knockoff to realize in advance that it makes you drowsy. :(

Toku Review o'Doom

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:32:09 GMT

Kind of depressing that Spider-man will be over by the time R.P.M. comes back on, and then two weeks later, R.P.M. will be over too. Actually, if there's no more breaks, Dragon Knight would be over five weeks or so after that as well.

Power Rangers R.P.M. 27: "Control - Alt - Delete" - Good ol' "Red Ranger trying to hide his problems" routine. Also, I "love" how they've totally ditched the whole toxicity scanner from the premiere and that everytime they go into the wasteland, they never check the air anymore. XD

OH GOD, SCOTT

Wow, the key bit got resolved ridiculously fast.

OH GOD, ~~ASTRON~~TENAYA

That fight scene was alright, but the ending with Scott's helmet flying off was bitchin.

"His robotics will be the foundation of my new form." I SEE EXACTLY WHERE THIS IS GOING. Here comes Yogopapa.

BURN. Poor Ziggy.

Speaking of Ziggy, I love how he's FINALLY pretty good at fighting morphed and unmorphed (aka no stupid flailing anymore), and it took 27 episodes to get to that point.

Oh damn, what a choice to have to make. Poor Dillon.

DDD:

Good ep, but I'm honestly starting to get annoyed by how much of a retread of the Andros/Astronema saga this is. If the finale ends up having the Rangers blow up Venjix and his base, and Tenaya seeming to die from it, only to wake up in Dillon's arms with a beautific smile on her face, I swear to god I will throw my TV at the wall.

Power Rangers R.P.M. 28: "Run Ziggy Run" - Parkour + that music = hilarity. Somewhat less hilarious is how Ziggy never attempts to morph. It's not like he can't claim self defense, even if all he would do is scare them off.

Oh, and then he FINALLY teleports.

~~KANKANBAR!~~ RAIL SABER!

...lol.

YOGOPAPA

"What a bustling little city!" He says when there's all of 7 people in front him.

Why the hell do they keep fighting these bots BEFORE morphing?

IT'S CHRISTMAS

I would really like to know what's in that briefcase.

OH SNAP, K SLIPPED.

Hahaha, Scott. "WHOA! THE RAY-AHL SABER!" It almost sounded like he had a southern accent for a second.

You can always tell whether it's Adelaide Kane or a stuntwoman based on how shapely Tenaya's ass is.

So Corinth has both the Statue of Liberty and the Tokyo Tower. XD

Delta Formation = EVERYONE DROPKICK

THE FINAL STRIKE CAN NOW BEGIN. In 10 weeks.

lol, that ending

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 26: "Kamen Rider Wrath" - Man, it's just a twist a minute with this show.

Obviously the big deal was Xaviax taking over Wrath's body to fight with, which was cool to see in action, primarily because he used Sword Vent more times in this one episode than Odin did in all 50 eps of Ryuki. I wonder if Time Vent will ever get used though; probably not.

Maya forgave Lacey pretty damn quick, but I suppose it's in her nature, and at least Trent had the balls to basically say "don't ever do that again or else". The disguise scene was mildly amusing.

The bookstore fight was insane, man. I loved how the feathers went all over the place when Wrath hit the chair.

Kit getting apprehended was some crazy stuff though. I wonder how long it'll take before Trent and his buddies manage to get him out?

It's ironic that for all I liked individual sections of the episode, though, the entire thing fell a little flat. I guess it just wasn't as jawdropping as the last two eps, but not every episode can be that amazing.

Spider-man Toku 31: "No Tomorrow for the Detective and Son" - Hahahahahaha, are you serious? COWBOYS IN MY SPIDER-MAN

Though it already put a frown on my face how the first two minutes of episode was all silent tomfoolery between a loving father and his son, with calm ranch music playing in the background, and then the title "No Tomorrow for the Detective and Son" flashes on the screen. Downer much?

what the fffuuuuuuuuuuu

Actually, there are two wtf's about that scene. Not only does some college student suddenly go insane out of nowhere and randomly attack Shinko just because she told him good morning, but he's wearing a Playboy bunny sweater!

Also, I'm curious as to why Shinko was at the college. We never really see her anywhere but at home taking care of the family. It's easily possible that she does go to college, since it looks like both the older sibs are in their early twneties at the most (though Takuya didn't seem to have much of a job even before he became Spider-man), but if that's the case, it'd be nice if they showed it. On the other hand, I have missed a good 15 episodes of this show (half the series!), so they certainly could have mentioned it in the past and I just didn't know. I really need to catch up.

......Amazoness's hair is randomly black now, without even an attempt at an explanation. Now I really need to catch up, cause I will laugh my ass off if they never gave an explanation when she started wearing that pink wig and tiara in the first place.

DISCO, YEAH

disco, no D:

lol, here's that same building Spider-man loves to climb up at night. How many times have we seen this scene?

And here comes the cowboy! He and his son drive up to the scene of a hit-and-run, he hops out his top-off Jeep (Wrangler?), tattered off-white cloak flowing in the wind, rough-spewn hat on the top of his head, and pushes his way through police offcers to identify the traces of illegal drugs on the corpse's body. What. The. HELL. XD

...the cowboy is a special narcotics detective. ::facepalm:: The best part is how Hitomi knew exactly who he was and didn't even blink, while Takuya was as "WTF?" as I am now.

!!! And then Detective Tachibana enters some random place and starts beating the shit out of office employees WITH HIS ACOUSTIC GUITAR. WHILE HIS SON WATCHES CALMLY FROM THE DOORWAY.

Okay, apparently his son can recognize people involved in the illegal trade, so he's not just there to watch.

HE THREATENS PEOPLE WITH FAKE DYNAMITE!

Aww. Origin stories in this show always involve death. :(

How did Spider-man suddenly get on the other side of the car after giving the detective his keys?

Damn, that guitar song scene was sad. ;_;

Oh god, Amazoness.

Hahahaha, that shit was straight out of Looney Tunes.

!!! MACHINE GUN IN HIS GUITAR

Awww. The ending was significantly less of a downer than I was expecting with an episode title like that.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 27: "Unknown Powerful Enemy: Jokaen" - Okay, so Donkaen isn't actually dead after all, just so reduced in power he has to sit around in a tiny little stone shrine/house.

JOE-KAAAAAen

:((( Tatsuya. I take it being Fire-1 X was just too much for his body to handle for the first time?

Jokaen's kind of weird. But at least this doesn't seem to be as oddballed a villain switch as Daaen to Maaen was. I guess we'll see.

Tatsuya, lol.

THERE IS BONDAGE IN MY RESCUE FIRE, WUT

HE KICKED A TRUCK, WUT

I can't even act stupid anymore, cause what he did to Sakaen was pretty horrid.

Sakaen is blowing up his own Jakasts. XD

Ooh, how interesting. Anyone on the team can call and control the X Dragon?

Totally dig that transformation. It's pretty Ryukendo-ish, so I hear.

Wait a minute. Why is he forming Rescue King? I don't see any Fire Majin. Also, AREN'T THERE CIVILIANS INSIDE X DRAGON?

Oh, okay. Still doesn't answer my question about the civs though.

Time limit! I assume they added that after the fact to prevent anymore of what happened at episode start.

Amusing that Jokaen's name comes from the Japanese word for "top" (to match the others' left, right, and center I guess) when he so obviously reminds me of Joker from Batman with his diametrically opposed emotional states.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 32: "Ushi Origami" - HIRO. DOES HE HAVE TIME TRAVELING POWERS? (sorry)

Random interesting note: Akumaro's voice actor is also Vegeta in the Dragon Ball series, Edward and Zeromus in Final Fantasy IV DS, and Captain Falcon in the Super Smash Bros. series. And now everytime the guy appears on screen, I have no choice but to yell "FALCONE PAAAUUUUUNCH!"

!!! (not that I had any doubt he'd show back up eventually)

I take it the Ayakashi is looking for Hiro.

FAMILY STRIKE but I wish I knew what the hell they were saying.

lol. Why is everything bad known to man stored in that one cave in Japan?

It's an OX on ROLLERSKATES. XD

Man, that was a rough battle. :(

Well, look who else is back!

Kamen Rider Double 5: "Girl... A/Papa is a Kamen Rider" - lol, Makura's snerk.

Hahaha, that girl.

God, that was so obvious where the shots probably came from. One giant screenshot of Shotaro standing above a bunch of pools. XD To be fair though, the double meaning of the A in the title is both the little girl Asuka and Anomalocaris, which is a type of shrimp. So maybe the fact that I already knew this arc was likely to feature the Anomalocaris Dopant tipped me off early to the water.

Wait, why is he at the police station? Does she think he's a culprit? XD

.......trash can on the ass. That is BEAUTIFUL.

THAT IS DECADE!BOARD.

Giant lake. Someone's about to get SHOT.

Hmm, so Kirihiko took Sonozaki as his family name.

He's looking up "antiquity creature teeth"?

Haha, okay, so Phil figured it out before the episode even ended. So I'm not THAT much smarter than he is then. XD

CYCLONE TRIGGAAAAAA

Oh slick, they can use their normal Gaia Memories with their Memory Gadgets.

Oh wow, that ending. So was that a Gaia Memory copy?

TAKUYA!

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:58:02 GMT

lol, I didn't see that coming. G.U.I.S. released episode 1 of Metalder yesterday, and upon watching it, one of the first things I run into is Shinji Todo, the actor who played Takuya (aka Japanese Peter Parker) in the Spider-man toku. He's 9 years older here (so early 30's I guess), and is essentially playing what became Karl Ziktor in VR Troopers: the human form of the big bad.

A quick run to Wikipedia shows he also played General Hedrer, the villain second-in-command, in Denziman/Denjiman/however Toei wants us to pronounce it. He did that role only 2 years after Spider-man.

Speaking of Karl Ziktor, it's kind of neat how the general idea of "businessman with human spies turns into this demon-looking thing and runs a secret empire" didn't change between Metalder and VRT.

Hunh.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:50:01 GMT

So apparently Kinuyo Yamashita, a roughly 43 year old woman who is best known as an employee of Konami from 86 to 89 who composed the soundtrack to the original Castlevania on NES and Mega Man X3 on Super Nintendo, also did the soundtracks for several Power Rangers games. She definitely did MMPR on SNES, Lightspeed Rescue on Game Boy Color, and Dino Thunder on Game Boy Advance. The company she was working under an independent contract with at the time, Natsume, also developed Time Force for GBC, and Wild Force, Ninja Storm, and S.P.D. for GBA, but I have no idea whether she did the soundtracks for those four or not.

You learn something new everyday. XD

Toku Review o'Doom

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:03:41 GMT

This post was late because Saturday was such an extensively tiring day; I went to a job fair in the morning and had to cut the grass with a weed-wacker in the afternoon (which, unlike a normal lawnmower, requires you hold it up the whole time). That + two hours on the metro due to delays back and forth + forgetting to eat before I even left the house that morning + only getting 5 hours of sleep the previous night due to insomnia + Freshverse acting up again = I was too damn tired to watch anything come evening, analog or not. So I fixed some dinner and went to bed early, figuring I would just wait for the raws to hit Megaupload the next day.

Also, woo boy, that Shinkenger sexism discussion. I've commented elsewhere about it, but the short version of my opinion mirrors that of most of those on my own f-list who have already commented on it: I see the sexism, though I admit that Mako and Kotoha have received a bit more characterization than people seem to remember offhand (it's just a lot rarer than the guys). The fact that others don't see the sexism or choose not to due to cultural differences is something I respect. Others telling people to shut up about it so that they can enjoy the show (or worse, telling people to shut up because "it's a kids show" so they shouldn't overthink it) is something I don't respect.

What amuses me the most is that a lot of the people who are claiming the sexism complaints are ruining their enjoyment of Shinkenger this year are some of the same folks who were complaining last year about how much Go-onger sucked, which totally ruined the enjoyment of the folks who did like it.

Power Rangers R.P.M. 25: "Key to the Past" - lol, I saw that coming. Although I'm kind of surprised they all fell for her claim that easily.

lol, the dual key ceremony was SUCH a blatant foreshadowing. "LOOK CLOSELY DILLON, THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT."

And a bot attacks RIGHT THEN; figures.

ZIG.

Hahaha. "TAKE A BREAK GUYS! AND LET US HAVE A TURN!" And then Gem gets flattened.

!!!!!

Wow, he just tore right out of there! And everybody else is as "WTF is he doing?" as I am.

Oh lol. That's awesome. He totally went out their on purpose banking on her being the one to show up, didn't he?

BOMBSHELL DROPPED

Oh snap, she Frankensteined him! Which is hilarious considering how much this episode is treating her like Cammy from Street Fighter: a brainwashed enemy of the agent.

Awwwwww.

KILOBYTE!

While I'm sure she'll be alive and well and a good guy by season's end, I didn't expect the episode to have her trying to STOP the process of going back to her brother because she'd put too much time and effort into Venjix's plans to quit.

....wow. That whole battle was insane. ESPECIALLY the ending.

lol, how random.

Haha, I knew she'd show up the minute they said they were looking. I love the "I don't trust this" look on Scott's face at the end there, though.

Power Rangers R.P.M. 26: "Beyond A Doubt" - lol, Dr. K.

Well, it seems Judd's clearly got no problem with continuing the whole Dillon/Summer thing. Not that I thought he would anyways. Judd was behind Andros/Ashley and Wes/Jen/Alex; he has no problem with making canonical relationships in his PR.

$50 says Dillon being captured is a trick.

Yeeeep. Also, I thought Dillon was sitting on a toilet at first.

Awww.

Ooh, canonical use of "Fury" as the name of Dillon's car!

This looks familiar. XD

Haha, look at all those people walking across the street while they morph, not even paying attention. WHILE THEIR CITY IS BEING ATTACKED BY TWO ROBOTS.

"All 12? That sounds a little crazy." THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ALL THOUGHT WHEN WE FIRST SAW THIS COMBO IN GO-ONGER. Thank you, Ziggy, for having your finger on the pulse of the fandom.

"Activate weapons" = punch. Glad I worked that out.

Damn, that ending.

All in all, this two-parter in disguise was pretty fantastic. My only issue was Scott getting hit with Shifter's key; they continued using the Sentai footage for that... and then at the end of the episode, nothing happened. Are they going to make use of that later or are they going to completely forgot it happened?

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 25: "Dropping the Axe" - wtf? Also, how is Wing Knight now able to keep up with Dragon Knight? Len's always been a better fighter than Kit.

!!!

More movie footage. Hot!

lol, I forgot about that scene. That had to hurt.

OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE. Cool nightmare, but if nightmares are the only use they're going to get out of the Onyx suit, I'm gonna have to choke a bitch. Put Adam in that piece!

...Frank and Kit played football in the same location Chris protected? A+ for mythology gags.

Wow, what a trip. I love how Frank actually talked that whole thing through. I also appreciate how it's Kit basically realizing he can't fall in with Xaviax just to save his Dad; that was a neat way of making him understand it.

OSHI!

Why do Len and Kase spend all their time on rooftops?

lol, Strike. I swear to god, he's totally becoming my favorite character.

Hahahaha, Trent.

Lacey spilled!

LET'S GET SERIOUS

WRATH, OSHI!

Spider-man Toku 30: "Fight On, Police Woman" - Hahahaha. Takuya gets arrested because he broke too many traffic laws when trying to chase two members of the Iron Cross Army. Beautiful.

Sad origin story for her. :(

Interesting that the detective department apparently trusts Takuya, despite not actually knowing he's Spider-man.

Man, things are just not going well for her, are they?

She's playing chicken with him! She's got some balls. XD

...wow, he took that guy out quick.

Shame the episode doesn't actually say what happened to her. Twice she disobeyed orders. Is she still under probation? Or what?

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 26: "Wake-up! X Basher" - Q-suke. :(

Looooove that music.

Oh wow, Q-suke! That little bastard has balls!

...so does Asuka, for that matter.

DRILL MODE

Oh god.

lol! Nice entrance.

...RYUDOKEN. I assume that's some kind of Ryukendo shoutout?

Ow. Curbstomp battle.

I knew the moment Q-suke jumped in the away that the sword would react. XD

FIRE 1-X. I TOLD YOU.

Wow. Episode 26 and already he's fighting Donkaen directly? Then again, they were already fighting Daaen arouind this point.

WHAT. Why did they add PORN GUITARS to the background music when Rescue King finished combining? That completely ruined the mood.

DDD:

Epic Final Res... lol! His brother stole the catchphrase.

That fainting would've been more believable if there wasn't a hint of a smile on his face.

Interesting. So Donkaen got legitimately offed in this episode, and now next episode, some dude named Jokaen who rebelled against Donkaen centuries ago is going to take over? Shame he looks so butt ugly.

Wait a minute. JOE-KAAAAAen.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 31: "Kyoryu Origami" - You know, this looks like the same set Wolzard was at in that late episode of Magiranger. Not sure though.

DDD:

lol, Genta

HAHAHAHA!

HOLY SHIT, RYUNOSUKE

Wow, that went to pot real fast. XD

JOE-KAAAAAA

Movie monsters! Or at least, some that were left after most of the group in the actual movie got offed.

Oh snap, they about to get Solid Snake up in this piece! Also, I get the feeling she's leading them into a trap against her will.

Yeeeeeep. But I like how the five (six) [seven] of them are all like "Hey, screw that; we'll fight anyways cause we're that awesome."

Holy shit! DDD:

It's ELVIS MODE + UGLY ASS SWORD time!

lol. Nice entrance AGAIN.

Love how they mixed up the rollcall, and had Takeru go last.

...okay, the sword is ugly as sin, but it's also pretty hot in action when it's not just flabbing around like styrofoam.

AWWW, HE SMILED

(Terrier) IT'S A FUCKING OOOOOOOOOX

Kamen Rider Double 4: "Don't Dabble with M/Play With a Joker" - Man, that sub of ep 3 is confusing me. Is it Million or Millenium Colloseo?

Philip. D:

God, that guy's hair is so UGLY. But it's also totally Dick Tracy, so I can kind of dig it.

I'm also digging how useful Akiko is actually being this week. Maybe the people who hate her guts will feel a little better about her if she keeps actually being an important resource for the guys like this in the future.

OH GOD, DON'T FALL FOR IT

MONAAAAHHHHH

DDD:

I love how Philip was just like "lol, that girl"

Hmm. Family intrigue! Though I'm just assuming it's another test of his skills. Also, I really want to know what Terror and Nazca Dopants actually look like.

...what in the world did Philip say?

lol, random Santa.

Ah, that answers that. It's Million.

Oh shit, he's about to bet on all their lives? With their own Gaia Memories?

NO!

Man, Japanese sure love Western style weddings, don't they?

JOE-KAAAAA

...wait, are they seriously playing Old Maid for the final round? XD

Wow, a kiss onscreen on Japanese TV? On the other hand, we're lucky we had a wedding that didn't end in somebody dying, like your generic Fangire wedding. Also, that answers my question about what the Nazca Dopant looks like.

HERE WE GO

Oh wow, Luna Metal was hot.

Awwwww.

Well, we've seen all the forms up to this point. I take it Trigger will appear next week, at which point we'll have the last three to see.

lol, Double's on the radio.

:o

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:23:17 GMT

Well I'll be damned. I didn't realize Motoko Nagino was the woman with the baby at the beginning of the Power Rangers R.P.M. episode "Ranger Red".

Motoko, in case you've forgotten, is Koichi Sakamoto's wife and a stunt actress in her own right. Her primary roles were in S.P.D.; she played Z's in-suit stunt actress, and A-Squad Pink's physical and stunt actress. She shared in-suit duties for Tori, Kira, and Madison with (male) Namihei Koshige. (all the other Disney-era female Ranger roles were played by guys in-suit)

BIRF

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:52:05 GMT

Happy belated birthday etapa! Happy birthday No Pink Spandex! Happy birthday cmar/cmar_wingnut! Happy birthday metroid_games!

...wait. That last one was a community. DAMNIT, LIVEJOURNAL.

Toku Review o'Doom

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:34:56 GMT

Nice of Freshverse to be working again perfectly for Rescue Fire, and then blow up just before Shinkenger. D:<

On the plus side, it was fixed by the time Double finished. Well, a temporary fix, at least. So maybe it'll be good to go by next week.

Power Rangers R.P.M. 24: "Ancient History" - At first I thought that was Mack's helmet, but it looks like a simulacrum; the details are a little different. Or maybe they took an extra mold of his helmet and made changes to it after the fact.

She has a USB port in her finger, lol. I kind of want to know what happened if she stuck her finger into Kamen Rider Double's belt. TENAYA JOKER?

lol, Flynn. You're so naive.

Man, I'm impressed with Olivia Tennet's acting here. K's as relatively calm as usual, but you can tell she's clearly bordering on panic.

Interesting. Now that Judd Lynn's EP, we're actually hearing the Rangers call out attack names.

PALEOMAX!

THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN.

!!! K, you're so smart. Well, you're definitely as smart as Cam, that's for sure.

HAH, the record skipping was on purpose. XD

Although now I'm kind of worried whether she was a hologram the whole show. I'd like to think she's broken out of her shell enough by this point that that isn't the case, and that she only used the hologram now to escape. But still...

lol, Ziggy

Wow, what a tedious battle. Two minutes and 24 seconds of the Rangers fighting Grinders one Ranger at a time, morphing, then fighting Grinders one at a time again, before Scott FINALLY goes after the attack bot. And he only fights him for about 30 seconds before the Rangers all do a one-at-a-time "HOLY CRAP WHAT IS THAT" double-take straight out of Sentai-ville.

Hahaha, I love K. Seriously.

Oh god, did Colonel Truman find her hiding place? And are they insinuating her hiding place is that satellite at the top of the dome? Cause I'm curious how the hell she even got up there. XD

...oh, wow. That satellite is where the Colonel's command center is at!

STALEMATE

Wow, that bot just pimpslapped/kicked the shit out of Summer and Flynn!

In an unrelated note, it's kind of annoying how every cry out of Summer's mouth sounds the same, whether she's attacking or getting smacked.

What the hell was she even saying? XD

OUCH. (both at Scott getting smacked and at K's rebuttal)

lol, Scott's "whoaaa?" as if he was about to get run over.

The ending was BEAUTIFUL.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight 24: "Dark Temptation" - EPIC OPENING. I can't remember if that CGI footage actually comes from the movie or special or not.

...lol, just a dream? That kind of sucks. Onyx better not be nothing but a dream in the end, I swear to god. That would be a complete WASTE.

Hmm, interesting. Xaviax clearly trusts Strike beyond a certain extent that I didn't expect.

Poor Danny. :(

Well, I guess that answers my earlier question. This is definitely footage from Ryuki's movie, Episode: Final. That's interesting, considering Saban only used Sentai movie footage twice in PR's history (during the Zeo/Alien Rangers and Lightspeed Rescue/Lost Galaxy teamups) due to the huge expense over and above just purchasing season footage. I wonder how much Adness had to shell out for that?

Then again, there's apparently footage from the movie used in Dragon Knight's opening, for Onyx and Siren's sections. And possibly the part midway through where Kit and Len are in Survive Mode, riding their contract monsters. So I suppose it wasn't like Saban, where they bought them separately; Adness must have purchased all the series footage at the same time.

Hahaha, Lacey, wtf. SO UTTERLY TRANSPARENT.

That's some ghetto laptop software.

lol, Lacey, you are so fucked. But at least you're very obviously regretful for what you did, now that you realize what a shitstorm you caused.

...Siren's supposed to be better than Wing Knight, but she sure got her ass randomly whooped by a bunch of grunts for no reason.

I have to say, Kit is kind of acting like a jerk. :(

!!! ...the hell is Xaviax doing?

Hooooooooly shit. I kind of expected this when it started bouncing around my head a few episodes back, but that didn't make the bomb drop any less devastating. (although it was kind of odd how Kit just immediately figured it all out)

Spider-man Toku 29: "Hurry, GP7! Stop the Time!" - God, I love Engrish. What a crazy title.

Wait, so Interpol is asking Spider-man to run missions for them now?

Oh god, those poor kids.

OH GOD, the boy was there to watch the explosion? D:

Although I did kind of have to laugh at how bad the film cut to the explosion was.

Man, Amazoness and the gang really need to start LOOKING AROUND when they walk, if Spider-man's gonna be crawling on the ceiling right above them all the time.

Oh wait, lol. It's a trap. But that's still no excuse for the last 28 episodes of them not watching the area around them. :P

!!!!! That was useful, but it was also totally disgusting.

Man, this is totally like early Power Rangers. I can't figure out how Hitomi doesn't just realize that he's Spider-man.

Wait, Spider-man's had machine guns on his car all this time? HE NEVER USES THEM!

Not exactly a good ending, but at least those kids didn't die.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire 25: "Stand-up Tatsuya: With a New Vehicle" - NEEDS MORE MOTTO.

...I'm 100% straight, and yet that Tatsuya training scene was terrifyingly arousing. I GUESS I'M NOT 100% THEN?

HAHA, what? He was wearing a fake mustache and beard the whole time?

Mmm, and so UFDA finally learns of the existence of Donkaen.

OH SNAP IT'S HIROSHI FUJIOKA, BITCHES

lol, what? He just invites Tatsuya to a mountain retreat? And he's all like "Yo." And then he sits with Q-suke!

Love the Rocky-ish music.

...wow, he took Q-suke away until Tatsuya could properly chop wood? XD

!!!!! The rebuilt school! Looked pretty damn awesome.

IT'S LIKE TAKERU VS. JUZO ALL OVER AGAIN. Except without the 10 minutes of choreography, just condensed down to a single stroke battle.

Man, why is Ritsuka the one knocked over on her side about to get sliced up by the knight majin when Tatsuya arrives for the rescue? :( (other than the shiptease of course)

Hmm. X Dragon Robo looks a lot more Transformers film series-ish than Rescue Max, what with all the rough mechanics sticking out.

HAHAHA! ERUPTING BURNING FINGER

Yep, Fire-1 gets his upgrade next week. Without even looking at Wikipedia, I bet you $50 he'll be called Fire-1 X.

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger 30: "Manipulated Academy" - Awwww--OW. Goddamn, Ryunosuke. XD

Wait, when did Ika and Evi Origami get added to the sponsors opening?

lol, what is up with Chiaki? Is he just worried about Ryunosuke and Kotoha? Or is he angry at the earlier battle?

HAHAHA, Kotoha took Daigoyou with her. XD AND SHE CLAIMS HE'S A BENTO!

Aww, she made a friend.

THAT DUDE IS PLAYING THE PIAN... oh, wait. He's controlling all those humans like puppets, isn't he?

It still looked like he was playing the piano.

Chiaki and Genta are AWESOME. And Mako just completely ignores him.

I take it Ryunosuke is actually supposed to be something like an assistant/intern teacher? That certainly makes a lot more sense than him either being a full out teacher, or worse, a student. (at his age? lol)

...he totally suspects her friend now.

lol, he's ticklish!

And here's mom and dad being worried about their kids.

GENTA!

They're all totally doing the Macarena. SO CRUEL.

THAT NIGGA KNOCKED TAKERU OUT OF THE WAY LOLOL

Awwwwwwwwwww lol. Ryunosuke you nutcase.

Ahh, so the movie powerups finally appear in the show next week.

Kamen Rider Double 3: "Don't Dabble with M/How to Get to Heaven" - Ah, so they only do the flowchart opener in the second half of an arc duo. Makes sense.

Wait, evil rich girl's a radio DJ?

Hahaha, did he tell them to shut up so he could listen to the radio? XD Oh, he has a crush on evil rich girl's voice?

lol. Millenium Colloseo, I believe they said. And, having watched Double 2's TVN sub last night, it occurs to me they subbed it as Millenium Cloth.

what WHAT WHAT'S GOING ON

Hahaha. I can sort of see why "everyone" hates Akiko, but the whole idiocy of everybody in this entire show when she's around is just absolutely hilarious and adorable to me, and contrasts well against the "we're trying to be depressingly film noir" aspect.

This is starting to remind me of that Spider-man toku episode a few weeks ago where everybody wins big in the casino owned by the villains and then suddenly lose everything. But in that case, the casino kept mysteriously moving. I'd be surprised if they did that here.

404 Pip's brain is not found (I hope that doesn't happen when they're in the middle of a battle, but it's kind of inevitable at this point)

lol. MONAAAYYYYY

Bet you that was naked guy.

Ah, so they can talk to each other telepathically as long as they've got the belts on.

Yeeep, I was right.

Hahaha, Akiko. So I guess she's going to make a habit out of this, going with Shotaro on cases and barging in when he's trying to be sneaky. I hope they play with that some, cause if they do that week after week with no variety, even the people who love Akiko are probably going to get tired of it.

darkesword was right; that is the awesomest backscratcher ever.

Awww, he got her autograph for Pip.

HAHAHAHAHA. How can you not love Akiko after she pulls shit like that?

Heh. The battle music isn't bad, but it totally doesn't fit the atmosphere of the show either. Kind of a jarring switch there.

PIP! D:

yarrrr

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:30:44 GMT

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the Windows version (sorry Wii owners) of Tales of Monkey Island chapter 1 is free to download and install until Sunday 12:00am PDT.

GO DOWNLOAD THIS RIGHT NOW.

EDIT: I'm told by powerlord that if you already have Chapter 1, you're allowed to download any one chapter of the game's five in its place.

Oh, thank god.

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:01:30 GMT

Finally got Freshverse working again. For anyone who's still having issues (primarily the "black screen of no video, but audio works fine" deal), the problem is your copy of Adobe Flash Player, not your browser. There's a bug in Flash Player 10.0.32.18 that causes any page playing H264 (HQ) video to not function properly.

Until they put out a new version, your best bet is to downgrade. Download the uninstaller as well as a copy of Flash Player 9, close your browsers, and run both. You'll need to unzip the proper installation files to run from the second one, as that one's a giant RAR that contains every version of FP9. Best choice, obviously, is to run the requisite files (flashplayer9r246_win.exe and flashplayer9r246_winax.exe if you're on Windows) from the 9r246 set, which was the last version of 9 to come out before the upgrade to 10.

Anyways, once you've reinstalled 9, everything should be functional. Should be. For me, Firefox is still crapping out with it, though in that case, I don't get a player window at all, so no audio or video. Google Chrome I can't check at the moment, because I'm encountering issues even logging into websites with that browser. But Opera and Safari are both now running Freshverse perfectly for me. (EDIT: Got Chrome functional with logins again, and yes, it works fine there too. Now if I can only fix it in Firefox)

Time to finally watch HQ toku again!

EDIT 2: Found a Firefox fix. Actually two fixes. Fix one is to downgrade from 3.5.2 or 3.5.3 back to 3.0.14. Fix two is to right click in the area where the flash player would be, click "This Frame", then click "View Frame Info". Once the property window appears, so will the flash player. The person who suggested that fix in Freshverse's forums claims the flash player will disappear if you close the property window, but it stayed put for me. Though if you close the tab, you will indeed need to do it again.

Obviously fix two is just a temporary one, and fix one is "permanent" at least until a future version of Firefox comes out with a proper fix (sort of like the Adobe Flash Player fix itself, really).