#goku needs to stop being the hero and let other people get a chance
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(HEY !! DRAGON BALL SUPER SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED IT !!!)
Two things I REALLY wanna see happen in the general future of dragon ball but probably won’t ever happen are:
- A lighthearted arc where Goku goes full ultra instinct, but because of how much he struggled to reach that level / hold it, its power is completely out of his control and he just kind of gets stuck in that form. But because of how ultra instinct works — how it separates his mind from body movements and basically stops him from thinking — he basically just becomes super vague and stares into nothing without talking like, AT ALL. So Goku is just a fully charged up blank slate while everyone in his family + friends are trying to snap him out of it. But whenever Chi Chi or someone gets frustrated and tried to hit him he just perfectly moves out of the way and nobody can catch him to try and break his trance. They’ve got a completely automated Goku that they just CANNOT get through to.
- An arc where Goku becomes the villain !! But not in the way that happened with the whole Goku Black situation, I mean our Goku. Like. Imagine Goku fighting some horrible evil as per usual, but as he’s fighting he doesn’t realise that this horrible evil has slowly been corrupting him, until there’s a big classic dragon ball explosion and Goku is COMPLETELY changed. Like this evil is wedged into his brain and has corrupted how he thinks completely. It’s not someone else / some other consciousness using Goku’s body, but instead it IS Goku, just corrupted. suddenly Vegeta, Gohan and whoever else is fighting, need to somehow beat Goku without killing him, in hopes of getting him back.
I think that would be awesome I would really love that.
#dragon ball#dragon ball super#goku on my brain#goku needs to stop being the hero and let other people get a chance#goku should become the villain against his will and be forever changed because of that#this would also be the perfect opportunity to keep pushing Gohan to get stronger#everyone’s like ooo gohan has the potential to be the strongest#MAKE HIM THE STRONGEST MAKE HIM FUCK UP GOKU !!!#ok I’m done#thanks
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Another Sunday, another episode of Digimon Adventure: (how tf do I do punctuate??). It is a good time to be a fan of Yagami Taichi.
I remember being 11 years old, the last episode of Digimon Adventure made be bawl my eyes out, and although I was excited for 02, really I just wanted more of Adventure. I guess I’m just slow to like new things (well, I am), but I would have super happy if the producers had been like, “02 will be a reboot for Adventure with the same characters and similar storyline.” And then do the same thing for every new Digimon season xD I’m sure I’m pretty damn alone in that opinion and don’t get me wrong, I love 02, and I think Tamers was good. And yet xD
^The screenshot that sums up the episode: Greymon gets his butt kicked while Taichi hangs on for dear life
I know the bond between children and Digimon is what powers them, and I’m kind of wondering if having a physical connection improves that in this show, because these kids are always riding around on their partners. (Not able exception - Togemon, because ouch. But I expect to see Mimi on her boxing glove at least lol) I have to rationalize it that way because otherwise it’s like why would having an elementary school kid on your head while you rush into the line of fire count as a battle strategy
This ep picks up pretty much where we left off, which means it’s probably only been hours since Yamato joined the group at the fortress. Already the atmosphere is completely changed.
I can see them, but they can’t see me... Ishida Yamato’s modus operandi
more below
Here is a very Digimon-esque tableau: everyone gathered around Koushirou and his computer. Yamato still being standoffish. I imagine he jumped at the chance to stand guard at the entrance so he doesn’t have to get too close to anyone.
Agumon’s fight with MetalTyrannomon went... not so great. Yamato coolly tries to explain to Taichi that evacuating was the only way, otherwise they’d risk all being destroyed, and that would be the end of everything.
Taichi’s fist tightens and begins to shake...
... he doesn’t look like he totally agrees with Yamato’s reasoning, but he doesn’t have a better idea. But, being Taichi, he can’t just let it rest.
Yamato talking to Taichi’s back while Taichi frantically starts to sort out his Feelings is just how they communicate. This is a common shonen anime trope for the hero and his foil. Yamato’s pushing, Taichi’s not exactly hiding, but he doesn’t want to face him until he can face him with resolve.
Yamato: Look at me. Look at me!
Taichi: *sweating* It feels like a hole’s burning in the back of my neck, so... I’ll pass
Taichi finally explains out what’s got him so knotted up: he regrets Ogremon’s death. Like we saw last episode, the battle that began as revenge turned into a battle of samurai pride. And Taichi is evidently a samurai. He wanted to see that battle to the finish, out of mutual respect for the opponent (who he’d never met before and who had been trying to kill him previously... but y’know when you’re kindred spirits that’s all water under the bridge)
Yamato doesn’t really get it. This is where these two are fundamentally different. Taichi attac, Yamato protec, then everybody gets a FIGHT!
I mean, not 100% of the time, but the bottom line is Yamato’s not so big on this pride thing, although he does have pride of his own. But he’s definitely not into taking unnecessary risks, especially if it puts his friends in danger. The trouble is, Taichi doesn’t think he takes unneccessary risks either... just necessary ones ;)
The other kids can already feel the tension increasing and Taichi and Yamato haven’t even raised their voices at each other yet. Lol buckle up kiddos
Jou wonders if he should make them stop, and Mimi instantly turns around and begs him to try. My Joumi heart LEAPT.
TBH I was surprised she did anything at all, I was expecting Jou’s “Should I break them up?” to just end there with nothing happening. Instead we got an adorable Joumi moment where Mimi shows that as much as she teases him, she already somewhat relies on Jou (to be fair, I do think Mimi’s the type to rely on anyone who offers when she’s not sure what to do herself). Jou, being Jou, is unprepared aaaaand wigs out.
Jou: Oh no oh no oh no she actually expects me to get between them?!?! But but I flunked Tough Guy school! That’s literally why I’m a nerd! This girl’s trying to throw me to the wolves!
Fortunately for Jou, he has a redheaded savior.
Sora: Stop it. He’ll wet his pants again and I don’t have any more extras.
Sora shows her insight into people’s hearts and understands that Taichi and Yamato need to hash things out. It’s not dangerous... yet. But the way she’s more or less frozen in place along with the others says she’s... maybe a bit on her guard, at least, lol.
Koushirou, being Kousihrou, is completely oblivious to all of this and focused on his computer.
Oh yeah... the real reason Taichi turned his back to Yamato earlier - whenever they look directly at each other, they suck each others souls out. I CALL BODY SWITCH
I mean jogress
I mean marriage
They spend like the entire first half of the episode arguing omg get a room.
Then... Agumon wakes up!
And even though it’s a cartoon, it’s clear to see the way Taichi’s body fills with relief. I wonder if Yamato didn’t realize or didn’t think Taichi was that worried about Agumon. 99 Yamato tended to feel that Taichi was insensitive to others. But while he can be, Taichi also doesn’t express his emotions in the same way as Yamato. They’re both wont to hide how they feel, but while Yamato goes quiet and aloof, Taichi just acts like everything’s normal. So maybe here, Yamato really thought Ogremon and MetalTyrannomon were the only things on Taichi’s mind. Just a guess.
Awwww montage of cute...
a boy and his dinosaur!!
Maybe to Yamato’s surprise, Agumon totally echoes Taichi’s feelings about Ogremon. “I wanted to settle the score with him.” Weird as it sounds, they made a manly bond with Ogremon and running away just doesn’t sit right. Agumon’s raring to go...
... but his stomach isn’t quite ready yet hahaha.
Yamato’s probably used to Gabumon’s appetie but I suspect Agumon’s tummy growl has errr exceptional resonance
Glad to see the return of the Digimon’s bottomless pit aka stomach. I think it was just last week I complained about that not really being a thing so far. This time it was the other Digimon who went gathering, but I hope to see the human kids rushing around in a frenzy to care for their partners’ appetites soon lol
While the others eat, Taichi and Yamato decide they haven’t finished vampiring each other’s souls and sneak out to the mouth of the cave. Sora follows them to see if she can watch any hot yaoi action.
Lol but I do really like the framing heart. All we can see of the boys is their shadows. Sora keeps her distance but she’s watching them intently from a distance. I assumed she was just gathering more data on how short a leash she needs to keep them on.
Turned out that was not quite correct... reluctant to interrupt though she’d been before, once they start talking about what to do next she adds her input. We’ve got Yamato on Taichi’s one side and Sora on his other side. It’s the beginnings of TAIORATOOOOO *more airhorns*
^I can’t see anything but Goku and Vegeta bahahaha. Also why is eleven-year-old Yamato SO broad-shouldered, between that, his deeper voice, and his perfeclty coifed hair Taichi must seem like a toddling infant to him bahahaha. Like come on Yamato is not a child you must be kidding
Already Yamato is getting into the habit of Looking At Taichi while Taichi Looks At Literally Anything Else.
These two don’t need words. They talk with their vampiric eyes.
Koushirou’s hyper focus on his computer finally pays off and they all gather back around. Everyone starts cheering when the hologram appears even though they don’t know what the heck it is. This is Koushirou, so it must be awesome!
It turns out to be a map of much usefulness.
And it turns out Ogremon was telling the truth about the path to the holy Digimon being straight ahead, while fires Taichi up even more.
^Obligatory ‘Gomamon is cutest Digimon’ cap
Koushirou also gives Taichi special data on MetalTyrannomon, including his weak point. Taichi is THRILLED. He’s happier about this than he is about finding the route to the holy Digimon. This is the difference between Taishiro and Taito guys. When Taichi gets a reckless idea, Yamato tries to talk him down, or at least be sensible about it. Koushirou? Koushirou is a FREAKING ENABLER.
They wait with baited breath for Yamato’s reaction. Though he seems underwhelmed, Yamato admits Koushirou’s information “does seem reliable.” That’s all the permission Taichi needs to go back to freaking out over how awesome Koushirou is.
They come up with a plan to lure MetalTyrannomon away so Taichi can fight him while the others take the chance to escape and head towards the path to the holy Digimon.
^Obligatory ‘Sora is best girl’ cap
Yamato waits for the others to get away before following after... he stalls for a minute as if unsure whether it’s really alright to leave Taichi on his own. In the end he joins the group... All things considered, I think he’s pretty thrown off by Taichi, tbh.
Yamato’s group doesn’t make it far before they encounter a very suspicious looking lake.
^More evidence that Yamato is not really an elementar school kids. He’s clearly at least 15. He’s been routinely failing every year in order to get held back until he can be in the same class as Takeru. That’s the extent of his overprotectiveness
It sure is fortunate that Koushirou’s genius extends to fluency in English or they’d have no idea this lake of dark mist is bad friggin news.
Or... maybe they would have:
Mimi sneaks behind Jou and pulls his middle school exam workbook out of his bag.
And immediately chucks it into the lake.
Where it disintegrates.
This is how Mimi’s mind works. She’s smart! They need to know what would happen if they went into the lake without actually going in it. So they need to put something else in first. So far so good. What should she throw? A stick? A rock? One of Sora’s endless towels?
No, Jou’s workbook. Duhhh.
She probably felt she was killing two birds with one stone here x’D Experiment complete, and Jou prevented from anymore whining about not having time to study. Mimi is chaotic good.
gosh I love Joumi
Jou is lawful neurotic
Greymon shielding Taichi is just soooo cute even if it still feels weird that he has to be up there in the first place
The battle rages between MetalTyrannomon and Greymon, who just won’t quit even though he’s losing... pretty bad... I mean...
He just grabbed a missile with his bare hand...
Taichi: Now I know what it’s like to be a firework
Loop-de-loop! Taichi’s suction cup shoes strike again.
Courage going UP!! Reaching a fever pitch! The evolution that’s been looming for two episodes finally happens!
MetalTyrannomon: Eat my dust!
Woooooooo, MetalGreymon is just as freaky as ever. Always my least favorite evolution in Agumon’s line, but the glowy purple wings are cool.
Also, nipple missiles.
MetalTyrannomon: I can’t believe I was beaten by some meddling kids!
So yeah, we are back to killing Digimon willy-nilly. None of this “but what about their hearts?” shitck. Always found it amazing in 02, a children’s cartoon, that said “Yeah the characters you loved last season were totes murderers but it was justified and sometimes you just have to kill.” And fourteen-year-old Taichi is just like, “Yeah, I’m a murderer, and you should be too.” XD And Miyako hits LadyDevimon with a skateboard. Priceless
This scene is adorable but Taichi’s butt looks so saggy.
I’m kind of wondering how evolution works in this show. They jumped right to jogress in like episode two or something, but we haven’t seen it since (I would sort of expected Taichi to think of it when it was clear MetalTyrannomon was too strong, though I would also expect Yamato to nix that idea both because he doesn’t want to and because to him it’s a pointless fight and not the priority). Since then, the Champion level evolutions went similar to 99 Adventure, with everyone getting their special episode, and I’m sure that’s how it’ll go down with the next level too, but there was no gap at all between going from one level to the next. I’m trying to say, they seem able to reach the next level awfully fast. They didn’t need to meet Gennai and collect the tags and Crests, the Crests appear already uploaded in their Digivices. I’m not complaining, as always I’m glad this show is not just a carbon copy of the old one, but I am curious if evolutions are easier to attain in this series, or if there are going to be more of them and that’s why they come so quick, or if the series just won’t run long enough for there to be significant gaps of time between evolutions.
Episode ends with the group deciding, like I predicted last week, to split up and try the Left and Right routes, since the Straight one is blocked. Gays go right and lesbians go left, of course. :P
This episode was pretty fantabulous, I loved it, Digimon is awesome.
Next week it’s no surprise what we’re gonna get.
WeeeeereGarurumon! Also my least favorite evolution of Gabumon’s line but still cooler than MetalGreymon hahahaha.
I’m also totally stoked for the grouping of Yamato, Jou, and Sora. There’s tons of potential for Yamato and Sora to bond, although my prediction is that while he’ll pretty much like her (even if he won’t admit it to himself), she’s going to find him a little difficult. But she’ll have an easier time talking to him than the others do. I also fully expect Jou to drive Yamato out of his mind lol.
This also means the other group is Taichi, Koushirou, and Mimi. I assume we won’t see too much of them next week, but I hope that means they’ll get their episode the week after, because I am dying for some Taishiro moments. Practically salivating. Also, Koumi fans can probably look forward to Mimi and Koushirou Not Getting each other too, lol
#digimon adventure 2020#digimon psi#digimon adventure reboot#psi spoilers#digimon#fizz watches digimon 2020
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Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Wrath of the Dragon
Kind of wild that I made it to Movie 13. I want to call it the last movie, but it’s not. “Path to Power” was released several months later, and while Movie 13 used to be the final film under the Dragon Ball Z branding, it was eventually followed by “Battle of Gods” and “Resurrection F” in the 2010′s. Kind of wild how the 2010′s are nearly over. I was just getting used to it being the 2010′s.
I’m tempted to think of this movie as a finale in some sense, because it’s set after the Kid Buu fight, but DBZ doesn’t end there. There’s a three-episode epilogue set ten years after Kid Buu. Really, this movie is just the first in what became a long list of Dragon Ball projects set during that ten-year period.
This was, I think, the last DBZ material released by Funimation before they started re-dubbing things for the Orange Brick Sets and Dragon Ball Kai. I remember attending a Funimation panel at a 2006 comic convention where they talked about this movie, and some of the voice actors were kind of sad that this would be the last time they would portray these characters. At the time, it certainly seemed that way.
So this movie premiered in Japanese theaters on July 15, 1995, after Episode 270 of the anime, and before 271. So if you were a fan in Japan, you could watch Vegito and Super Buu in hot vore action, then go see this movie a few days later, and then watch Super Buu turn Vegito into candy, which strangely isn’t hot vore action.
The release chronology kind of surprises me, because I just got so used to thinking of this movie as an epilogue to Dragon Ball Z. It kind of is, in a way, because the Dragon Ball manga had already finished up in May 1995, which is probably why this movie lines up so well with post-Buu continuity. Everyone who’s supposed to be dead is dead, and everyone who’s supposed to be alive is alive.
This one is my second favorite movie after Fusion Reborn, so I kind of wanted to consider what makes it the second best. I mean, it’s a matter of taste, really, but I think it’s a question worth asking.
So let’s get down to business. This one opens with a kid holding a sword. He had an ocarina, but he dropped it, and he looks like he’s in some trouble.
Then a giant monster steps on him, and he’s dead. A mysterious voice declares that Earth is next. Ominous!
Unlike every other DBZ movie, this one doesn’t feature the opening theme music, just a title card, which looks bad-ass by the way.
And here’s the title of the movie, which in Japanese was “Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Goku Can't Do It, Who Will?”
In lieu of a theme song, the credits roll over the next couple minutes of the movie, which I’ve always found to be a really nice touch. All along, I’ve been admiring the looming sense of finality in DBZ, and this is a good example of what I’m talking about. It’s July 1995. The manga is over, which means the anime will be over soon, and as far as anyone knew, this would be the last movie, and it just sort of quietly proceeds with its business. Z stands for the end.
This scene is mostly just to establish the Gohan and Videl are fighting crime as a team now, with Gohan as Great Saiyaman and Videl as Great Saiyaman Mark 2. Not sure why Gohan stopped wearing a cape, or why he still has that bandana and sunglasses. He only switched to that because his Saiyaman helmet was illegal in the Tenkaichi Budokai, but that’s long over. Videl got a helmet, so why can’t he wear one to match?
The weird thing is that Videl’s costumed identity is public knowledge, but Gohan’s isn’t? They go back to class, and everyone just seems to know that Videl is still fighting crime like always, but as Great Saiyaman 2, or Great Saiyawoman, or whatever. But Gohan pretends he just went to the restroom, like he used to do in the Great Saiyaman Saga.
Weirder still, everyone knows Gohan is the Great Saiyaman. He unmasked at the tournament, after all. I thought this movie might have forgotten about that, except Sharpner even points it out when Gohan returns to class.
Incidentally, I’m not sure it makes sense for Gohan and Videl to still be in high school in this movie. It’s set after the Kid Buu fight, but they use the Dragon Balls in this movie, which means it must take place one year after they wish for Shenron to erase everyone’s knowledge of Majin Buu. So wouldn’t Gohan and Videl have graduated by this point? They’d both be about 18, wouldn’t they?
Then Videl gets another call on her radio watch, and the cops want the Saiyaman duo to deal with a strange old man who climbed Raenzel Tower. Videl seems to think that sort of job is beneath the Saiyamen, but they hang up on her, so she’s stuck.
So Gohan has to ask to use the restroom again, after he just got back. He says he ate bad frog meat, like that does anything but raise further questions. Erasa seems really confused, like she doesn’t know what’s going on. Also, it kind of looks like Sharpner, Erasa, Gohan, and Videl are all sitting apart from each other in this movie. Maybe there was some falling out?
So here’s Raenzel Tower. I don’t know that the scenery in this movie necessarily resembles any particular real world city, but this all feels a lot more like Japan than the world of DBZ. That’s been kind of a gradual trend since DBZ began. You’d see fewer and fewer animal-people in crowd shots, and by the Majin Buu arc you almost see none at all. Now that I think of it, Satan City looks and feels a lot more like a “real” city than West City ever used to. That car at the start of the movie had wheels, for example.
Anyway, this red dude has climbed up the tower and he’s threatening to jump, because he’s so despondent. Gohan tries to talk him down, but he won’t cooperate, and Videl gets fed up and dares him to jump.
So he does, much to Videl’s surprise, and then the guy complains that they almost didn’t save him in time.
For some reason, Videl is just irritated with this whole segment of the movie. I guess she really didn’t like getting called out for this mission, and she probably doesn’t appreciate this guy pretending to be a suicide jumper just to get their attention. Also, she really wants to get back to school for some reason. Maybe she just really digs whatever book they’re reading in English Lit.
Aw, look at that dog!
So this red dude is named Hoi, or Hoy, I forget which spelling Funimation went with, but the subs call him Hoi. Climbing the tower was just a ruse to get Gohan’s attention so that he could enlist his aid in freeing Tapion, the great hero who saved Planet Conuts in the South Galaxy 1000 years ago.
Gohan wants to meet the guy, but he’s stuck inside a music box and can’t get out. Hoi wants to release Tapion, because he claims that there’s going to be a terrible crisis on Earth. That’s why he’s spent the past thirty years searching for this music box, because he thinks it’s the only way to save the Earth.
To open the box, you just have to turn the handle to play its song, but the handle won’t turn, no matter how hard Gohan tries to force it. Tapion then explains that he wants to make a wish to Shenron to open the music box, and that’s why he came to Gohan, because he found out that Gohan’s circle has had dealings with the Dragon.
So Gohan takes the box to Bulma’s house, where she scans it with her... whatever all this stuff is. This kind of looks like the bridge of the Enterprise, now that I think about it. Anyway, she can’t make heads or tails of it, and Goku can’t force the handle either, so they decide to gather the Dragon Balls.
As they head out to search for the Balls, Hoi expresses gratitude for finding this kind of help on Earth, which prompts Goku to ask him if he’s not from this planet, and he kind of backpedals and acts like he lived here his whole life. Seems to me that if he already knows about the Planet Counuts in the South Galaxy, then he must not be from Earth at all. And even if he is an alien, why would he feel the need to hide that from Goku? He’s an alien too, after all, so I don’t think that would make him suspicious.
For some reason, Videl is now really excited to see Tapion now, becase she’s “so interested in heroes.” Did she decide Hoi’s story is on the level, or is she just warming up to the idea?
Krillin searches for a Dragon Ball in a carnival haunted house. This is his only real contribution to the film.
So in no, time, the gang finds a bunch of Dragon Balls. I’m not sure how they could split up like this, though, unless Bulma made multiple Dragon Radars.
The seventh ball is in a lion cage at the zoo, so Goku just jumps in and takes it, because Goku does whatever he wants. That lion’s lucky Bulma promised him shish kebabs later, or otherwise Goku would have just eaten this guy raw right in front of everyone.
I can’t figure out Videl’s outfit in this movie. From the back, it looks like shorts, but from the front it looks like a skirt.
Anyway, Shenron grants the wish and zaps the music box so hard that it shocks Hoi.
At first, it doesn’t seem to have had any effect, but then the handle starts to turn and it plays its song.
Okay, so this is a weird place to bring up continuity, but isn’t it odd how Shenron only granted the one wish? Dende upgraded him to grant two or three, depending on the wishes, so he should have at least asked if the gang wanted something else before he split.
Anyway, there’s a big light and sound spectacular while the box opens, but Hoi’s eyes glow red and he has this extra-sinister look on his face. Hmmmm...
Then Tapion comes out, and he’s kind of pissed that they released him. He draws his sword and demands to be put back in the box, but the box fell apart when it opened, so it’s impossible.
What I don’t understand is that, later in the movie, Tapion acts like he knows Hoi, which implies that he recognizes him on sight. If so, why doesn’t he just kill him here, while he has the chance? Or would killing him not accomplish anything?
Then he leaves in a huff. Trunks thinks Tapion is awesome, but everyone else is kind of puzzled, because he didn’t even thank them for getting him out of the box.
Later, Trunks and Goten track Tapion down to... a junkyard I guess? Goten isn’t sure this is a great idea, but Trunks wants to meet this guy and hear all his hero stories.
You know, this is really a beautiful shot. Watching this again, I guess the main difference between this and Fusion Reborn is that this movie is much more grounded. There were colorful shots like this in Movie 12, but they were mostly fantasy scenes of heaven or hell, or those extra-cartoony shots of the city. Movie 13 achieves similar beauty in the mundane. Instead of a mountain of needles surrounded by crystal jellybeans, we have a crane looming over a rusty storage tank.
Inside, Tapion’s just sort of brooding and freaking out. When Trunks peeks in on him, he’s kind of taken aback by what he sees. Maybe this isn’t a tank. I’m not sure what this place is. Maybe a derelict factory?
Hey, it’s a barbecue! Goku was a good boy for not eating those lions, so he gets shish kebab. Or whatever this is called. There’s like a cocktail weenie and a shrimp and a pickle on the thing.
Everyone wonders where Hoi went off to, and Master Roshi starts drunkenly blathering about how he’s harassing women, just like he’s about to start doing. Why are Roshi and Oolong even in this scene?
Gohan knows which way the wind is blowing, so he heroically puts himself in front of Videl so Roshi has to go through him to molest her. It looks like Roshi’s poking Gohan in the dick, though. Master Roshi belongs in jail.
He gets fresh with Bulma, so she smacks the shit out of him. Why does she keep inviting him to these things?
There’s a cute moment here where Goku notices the boys trying to swipe food off the grill, so he scoots some closer so they can reach it. Again, this is down-to-earth stuff you can’t get in Movie 12.
Okay, maybe this is a junkyard, what with all the wrecked cars here. In any case, Goten and Trunks are taking food to Tapion’s lair.
Tapion keeps telling everyone to get away from him, so Trunks leaves the food behind and promises to come back tomorrow with more.
So then there’s a monster attack, and wow, these are some great scenes. Again, very real-life-y, compared to early Dragon Ball material. The only distinct Dragon Ball imagery here are the Royal Military uniforms on the soliders. Otherwise, it would be very easy to mistake these for some other anime.
That’s not a bad thing, by any means, because I’d say all these realistic city scenes help make the characters stand out more.
So it’s not actually a monster, but half of a monster. The lower half, to be specific. Gohan wonders if this was the terrible crisis Hoi warned about earlier in the movie. I guess when you’ve lived Gohan’s life, you really can’t be sure if a creature like this is related to Hoi’s warning or not. It could be some completely different crisis starting up.
Videl wants to do their usual routine on the creature, but it attacks them during their pose. For some reason, Videl is super into the poses in this movie. Other than one episode of the TV series, this is the only time we see Great Saiyaman 2 in action, but I guess it makes sense she’d dive into the role. If she was eager to wear the costume, she must be up for the whole nine yards.
So Gohan fights this thing for a bit, and he discovers that it’s intangible most of the time, and it’s only solid during the moment when it’s attacking something else. I don’t think I ever noticed before that Gohan figures this out so early in the film.
So Gohan seems to do pretty well against the creature...
And Videl thinks he’s won, but Gohan’s not convinced.
The monster has a knack for vanishing and reappearing, kind of like Janemba, but without the pixelation effect. It’s more of a fog kind of thing. But then it seems to disappear for good, and when Gohan and Videl search for it, they find Tapion playing his ocarina.
They also spot Hoi lurking nearby, but I doubt they’d recognize him in his ninja getup.
Later, Trunks brings more food to Tapion’s hideout, but he hasn’t eaten the last meal he left, and Tapion still won’t talk to him. Later that night, Tapion falls asleep and drops his ocarina, and then he’s attacked by the top half of a monster...
It nearly kills him, but he manages to pick up his ocarina and play it, and this makes the monster fade away.
The next morning, Trunks finds the place shredded from the monster attack, but he’s relieved to see Tapion is still okay, so he leaves breakfast for him.
Then we get this scene where Videl and Bulma are washing dishes together, and she tells Videl how Trunks is sneaking food to Tapion, because he looks up to the guy like a big brother figure. Trunks is an only child, you see, and he envies Goten’s relationship with Gohan. Videl’s an only child herself, so she can relate.
What I don’t get here is when Bulma replies “But you’ve been so keyed up lately”, and Videl seems unnerved by this and says “It’s Trunks’ power that is keyed up!” I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Videl’s reaction almost resembles how she acted when Chi-Chi asked her if she had thought about marriage in Movie 12. Was Bulma trying to imply that Videl has a thing for Tapion, and it got mistranslated? I dunno.
On Trunks’ next visit to Tapion’s place, Hoi intrudes and tries to steal Tapion’s ocarina, but Trunks manages to get it instead. Hoi unmasks and asks Trunks to give him the flute, because Tapion is the danger he had been warning about earlier on. He claims that Tapion is connected to the monster that Gohan fought the other night.
You know, one thing that never really gets clarified in this movie is where all of this is happening. I would assume Tapion’s lair is in West City, since that’s where he escaped the music box, and why would he go to another town to find a junkyard? But Gohan and Videl always did their superhero stuff in Satan City, so I assume that’s where they fought the monster.
Anyway, I never understood why Hoi expected Trunks to trust him in this scene. Initially he told them all that Tapion was supposed to save them from a crisis, and now he’s accusing Tapion of being part of the problem.
Then again, I guess Trunks might be somewhat conflicted, since Tapion’s been acting very mysterious and moody this whole time. But Tapion asks Trunks to trust him, and after a tense moment, Trunks does. He gives Tapion the flute and Hoi leaves empty-handed. I guess you could say that Trunks went with his gut. From the beginning, Trunks saw something he liked about Tapion, and he decided to trust that first impression over Hoi’s exaggerated warnings.
Trunks prepares to leave before Tapion chews him out again, but instead Tapion invites him to stick around and join him for dinner. Awwww.
Later, Bulma informs Videl that Trunks has invited Tapion to spend the night at their home. Speaking of which, doesn’t Videl have her own home? Why is she spending all her time at Capsule Corp. these days?
So Trunks shows Tapion all of his toys, but a toy robot catches Tapion’s attention. It separates into two halves, sort of like that monster. Hmmmm...
Later, Tapion tells Trunks about his little brother, Minotia, but Trunks falls asleep during his story.
As he watches Trunks sleep, he can’t help but be reminded of Minotia, and just so there’s no misunderstanding, that was the kid we saw die in the opening scene of the movie.
So Tapion leaves Trunks to sleep, only to run into Bulma in the hallway. She’s wearing this shawl, or maybe it’s a blanket or something. It looks cute, is my point. It also looks very different from what we usually see Bulma wear.
She just looks a lot more like a regular person instead of some genius billionaire inventor. She kind of reminds me of the older Chi-Chi from the History of Trunks special. Anyway, she invites Tapion to stay at Capsule Corp. all the time, but he’s afraid of what might happen if he does.
She wants to know what he’s talking about, but it’s a long story, so she puts on a pot of coffee. I always thought it was tea, but that looks like a coffee pot to me. Also, there’s an entire fruit basket just in case anyone gets hungry in the middle of the night. Speaking of Vegeta, imagine if he’s in this room, just out of the frame, sullenly chewing on an orange while Tapion tells his gloomy origin story. Vegeta eats oranges with the peel because no one ever told him not to. Bulma can’t tell him now because it would be awkward after all this time.
All right, so here’s the deal. One thousand years ago, on the planet Conuts, they had this totem that absorbed all the evil will on the planet. I don’t know if that’s legit, or some kind of superstition, but the totem was this big stone sculpture. One day, this “sect of warlocks” from some other place showed up and turned the totem into “phantasm��� named Hildegarn, or Hirudegarn. Then they turned it loose on Conuts’ population. Hoi was one of the warlocks.
Man, I love this shot of Bulma. This is really the difference between Movies 12 and 13. 13 has it’s share of fantasy stuff going on, but there’s a certain distance to it. In Movie 12, the characters are right in the thick of it all, but here, it’s an ancient tale being told to a regular lady over coffee. There’s a certain weight to all of this that none of the other movies really achieve. For one thing, Bulma now realizes that she was deceived by Hoi, and their fun afternoon of summoning Shenron to meet a hero was actually part of Hoi’s plot to destroy their world. So if things go badly from here, she’s at least partly responsible for whatever happens next. You don’t get that complexity in the earlier movies.
Conuts was able to defeat Hirudegarn eventually, thanks to a pair of swords and flutes that were empowered by “God” to control the totem. I think the idea is that the Kami of Planet Conuts was in charge of this, sort of like how Dende, the Kami of Earth, oversees the Dragon Balls. But they might actually mean a higher power besides a DBZ-style Kami.
Anyway, Tapion and Miotia played the ocarinas, which had the ability to immboilize Hirudegarn, and while they did that, a priest cut the monster in half with one of the swords. The subs suggest that there’s only one special sword involved here, but Tapion and Minotia are both equipped with them, so I think that means there are two. Maybe Minotia’s is just a regular sword.
Here’s the priest, by the way. I kind of like his design better than Tapions? Anyway.
So that put an end to Hirudegarn, right? Well, not quite. I guess they couldn’t just kill the thing, so they did the next best thing and sealed each half of the phantasm in Tapion and Minotia. Tapion got the top half, and Minotia got the legs. But even that wasn’t good enough, because the warlocks kept trying to attack the brothers to take back Hirudegarn.
So they ended up getting sealed inside music boxes. I think that may be the Kami of Conuts there in the background. The one with the multicolored halo. As we’ve seen, these must be special music boxes, since Goku couldn’t even turn the handle on one.
Then they shot the music boxes into space, just to make sure they would be as far apart from one another as possible. And that’s how Tapion ended up on Earth, and why Hoi came to Earth. He told Dragon Team that he wanted to free Tapion to save the universe, but he actually wanted to get Tapion out of the box so that he could get the top half of Hirudegarn out of Tapion.
Aw, man this shot from the aquarium is awesome. This really is a great movie. I think it’s a matter of taste. Critics would probably complain that the battle at the end is kind of short and disconnected from the rest of the story, but this movie is telling a quieter, more emotional story. I think Movie 12 is better, because I prefer the louder, goofier tone it has, but it really is a matter of personal taste.
Anyway, it’s a safe bet what happened to Minotia. At some point, Hoi tracked him down, managed to release the lower half of Hirudegarn, and used that to kill Minotia, as we saw in the beginning.
So it’s up to Tapion now to make certain Hoi can’t gain control of both halves, or else Hirudegarn will destroy everything. And as we’ve seen, he can’t go to sleep, or the monster will emerge from his body. That worries Bulma a great deal, so she offers to build him a chamber to serve as a replacement for the music box. At least, she thinks she can do it, since she still has the pieces from before, and she believes if she analyzes them that she can whip up a substitute.
I like that about this movie. Bulma hears out this poor kid’s story, and she’s like “Well, I’ll build you a box that’ll let you sleep!” and it won’t even take her very long. Tapion’s supposed to be this magical hero, but Bulma has a bit of that same aura herself.
All she asks in return is that he spend some quality time with her son, and he’s happy to do that. Also, Majin Buu’s dog is here for some reason. At least, I think that’s Bee.
Then she steps outside to tell them it’s ready, and she’s still in her pajamas, so I think this means she was up all night working on this thing. Bulma’s awesome.
So this thing looks ridiculous, and I have no idea how it’s supposed to work, but I guess the idea is that she reverse engineered whatever mojo the original music box had, minus the part where a grown man could fit inside it. Why did she bother adding the gold trim to the sides? Because Bulma, that’s why.
Meanwhile, the lower half of Hirudegarn is attacking somewhere else, and I guess his tail can open up to reveal dozens of tentacles.
I guess this is how Hirudegarn feeds? It’s pretty gross. It suddenly occurred to me to search for Hirudegarn fics on AO3, but I’m pretty sure I don’t wanna know.
Then Tapion gets some sort of psychic feedback, maybe? I’m not clear on what’s going on, exactly, but it blows up the bedroom Bulma built for him. So did it just never work to begin with, or is Hirudegarn becoming powerful enough to overload it somehow?
So Bulma calls in Goku, Gohan, and Goten. Goku acts like he’s searching for clues, but let’s be real here, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He only picked up that gear because he thought it was made of chocolate.
Then Tapion stumbles back into the house, and he explains that the upper half got loose again, and he’s having more trouble controlling it. He somehow got it back inside his body, but he asks the others to kill him before it gets out again. Bulma offers to build a sturdier room for him, but he seems to think we’re past that.
Then Hoi shows up with the lower half of Hirudegarn, and they attack. Trunks gives Tapion the ocarina, but it doesn’t work this time.
I don’t think this ever really gets explained properly. Is Hirudgarn getting too strong to contain, or is Tapion’s power over him weakening? Or is this because Hoi is doing something to help get Hirudegarn loose? Or is it because Minotia is dead?
Anyway, now Hirudegarn is finally reunited, and Hoi is convinced that he’s now become invincible. In the dub, Hoi explains that he’s the sole survivor of a species called the Kashvar, who believe themselves superior to all other forms of life. The subs never get into this, but it’s a bit of lore that I enjoy.
Hoi’s a pretty cool bad guy. I like how he suckered all the good guys. I like how he resembles Babidi but not too closely. And I like his naughty red color.
So there’s not much Tapion can do from here, so Trunks moves him to a safe distance an tells him to let them handle things from here. Magic ocarinas and music boxes worked pretty well for a while, but now it’s time to do this the DBZ way, which means throwing down, mang.
There’s a trailer for Movie 13 that was included in the video file I downloaded when I first watched the fansub of this movie. In it, Masako Nozawa as Goku explains the premise of the movie, and how there’s this monster who’s going to wreck the world, and then she screams “I WON’T LET ANYONE DESTROY THE EARTH!” It’s awesome.
So there’s a couple of issues with this fight. First, the elephant in the room is that Gohan’s the strongest guy in the movie, but Goku’s the one who makes the big save at the end. The movie does a decent job working around this, but that leads into the second problem....
Which is that nobody can actually touch Hirudegarn now that he’s reunited. I guess he’s stronger and faster than he was when Gohan fought the legs, so even though Gohan knows he can only hit him while Hirudegarn is attacking, it’s a lot harder to pull that off this time. But what you end up with is a lot of footage of the Saiyans punching trails of mist, then getting clobbered. It’s good for building suspense, but it’s not very inspired compared to some other movie fights. Movie 8 was pretty one-sided, but at least the gang could hit Broly. It just never hurt him, which indicated how tough he is.
At one point, Hirudegarn turns solid so he can grab Gohan, but this sets him up for an attack by Vegeta, who finally shows up in this scene to bawl out Hirudegarn for attacking his house.
But he gets the same treatment as everyone else. Hirudegarn flings him into a nearby office building, and Vegeta expends the rest of his power just shielding himself and the bystanders from Hirudegarn’s fiery breath.
Goku tries to help him, and he just gets clobbered for his trouble.
So Goten and Trunks try to turn the tide with fusion, and for a hot minute, Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks seems to have an edge.
After a volley of ki blasts, it looks like Hirudegarn just keels over and dies. Oh, hey, that’s the same tower Hoi was climbing on when he first showed up. So I guess this whole movie takes place in West City? Only we saw Gohan and Videl in Orange Star High. Ah well.
So it looks like Hirudegarn is dead or dying, but...
It turns out he was just molting. Did Tapion have any idea that he could do this? I wonder.
So Gotenks is the first to fall. One swat from Big H knocks him down to the ground so hard that he de-fuses on the first bounce.
Gohan and Videl are next. I’m not sure why this thing keeps trying to crush Gohan, unless it’s because he’s the strongest one in the group. Maybe that was their way of acknowledging this.
So that leaves Goku to hold the line on his own, but he doesn’t last much longer. Just when it looks like there’s no one to defend West City...
Tapion returns with his ocarina. He hasn’t exactly had a winning track record with this lately, but it’s the only card he has to play, so he’s giving it all he’s got.
With a herculean effort, Tapion manages to seal all of Hirudegarn into his own body. Trunks runs over to congratulate him...
... but this was only a temporary measure. Tapion hasn’t beaten Hirudegarn. He’s just holding him for a moment, long enough for someone to kill him before Hirudegarn can escape again. And since Trunks is the only one on his feet, its up to him.
It’s an impossible choice. Trunks is just a boy. This is too much for a kid like him, but there’s no other way. If he doesn’t act now, Hirudegarn will escape, and there’ll be no way to stop him. That’d be hard enough, but he loves Tapion like the older brother he never had. It’s too cruel that he should have to do this. And yet, what else can he do?
But before Trunks can decide, Hirudegarn busts loose, and the ocarina breaks. So Tapion won’t be able to try that stunt again. I’m not sure he’d be able to stand the strain even if he could try again. Hirudegarn is just too powerful like this.
So yeah, it looks like a total shut-out for Hoi. Yessir, looking pretty rosy for the last Kashvar...
OH SHI--
HAHAHAHAHA HOI’S DEAD! I love this part! Did Hoi ever really have any control over Hirudegarn? I mean, he wasn’t exactly telling him to do anything he wouldn’t have been doing anyway. Nice knowin’ ya, you sorry bastard.
But everyone else is still screed. Hoi couldn’t conrol Hirudegarn and Tapion can’t contain him and the Z-Fighters can’t beat him, so what does that leave. Yeah, Trunks didn’t have to kill Tapion, but it looks like he’s going to die here no matter what. Z stands for the end.
But not yet.
Yeah, now I see why I had so much trouble telling what city this was. It’s not West City or Satan City. Hirudegarn needs to update his GPS, because he somehow ended up taking I-65 straight into Goku Town, population: get wrecked, son.
Hirudegarn goes to attack Goku, but before he can do that, Trunks jumps in and chops off his tail with Tapion’s sword. Yeah!
That got him good, but Goku wants Trunks to stay out of this one. Gohan tries to tell Goku that Hirudegarn has a weakness, but Goku’s already figured it out. He needs to goad Hirudegarn into attacking, and then use that moment to hit him with everything he’s got.
Fortunately, Hirudegarn is happy to oblige, and he starts punching Goku, while Goku doesn’t do much about it. He just no-sells each blow, taunting Hirudegarn to try again.
Maybe this fight’s better than I gave it credit for. The mistake the Z-Fighters made earlier was that they kept trying to strike Hirudegarn, which only left them wide open to his counterattacks. The key here is to stay on the defensive, and lull Hirudegarn into remaining solid.
Of course, you’ve still got to be sturdy enough to weather this kind of storm, but that’s why Goku’s using Super Saiyan 3. Gohan could have done this himself, but he got beaten up before he could come up with this strategy. Goku can make it work, but he can’t stay in this form for very long, so he probably only has one shot at this.
But if he doesn’t do it, who will?!
Hirudegarn goes for one more punch...
But this time Goku jumps over his fist and...
DRAGON FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!
AAAAAAAGH! His punch exploded!
And it turned into Shenron this is nuts!
Hirudegarn knows he’s done fucked up now!
Yeah, say goodbye to your kidneys, asshole! You thought you could just step on Capsule Corp.! That’s where Goku gets his shish kebab, idiot! There’s gonna be hell to pay now.
OH YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE? Guess what, now the ki dragon that shot through you is gonna wrap around you and strangle you to death!
Also, it explodes again, so yeah, that’s the end of Hirudegarn.
Victory for Goku! And the moral of the story is, don’t send a flute to do an exploding punch dragon fist’s job.
Later, the good guys reassure Tapion that they’ll wish all of Hirudegarn’s victims back with the Dragon Balls. Well yeah, but it’ll be months before they can make another wish, so that’s kind of awkward.
As for Tapion, Bulma has apparently built her own version of the time machine used by Future Trunks in the Androids Saga. Either that, or she refurbished the duplicate time machine Cell used to arrive in this timeline. This movie doesn’t play too well with Dragon Ball Super continuity, but fuck the Zamasu arc, it was stupid and this movie rules.
So I guess Tapion’s going to go back in time to when everyone he knew and loved was still alive on Conuts. I think the dub indicated that he was going to prevent Minotia’s death somehow, but I’m not sure how that would work. Anyway, Trunks is sorry to see him go, but Bulma says they can just use the time machine to visit him. Wait, so does she mean she has a second time machine? Becase I don’t think they’re getting this one back.
Before he departs, Tapion gives Trunks his sword, saying he won’t be needing it anymore. So that’s pretty cool.
And as the time machine fades away, Trunks watches it go with his new sword on his back, and the credits roll...
... with scenes of Future Trunks in action. Clearly, Toei wanted to connect these two versions of Trunks. I think a lot of fans have mistakenly assumed that this movie is trying to suggest that this is the origin story for Future Trunks’ sword. Maybe Future Trunks met some alternate version of Tapion, but I think this story was just making the point that Kid Trunks would admire a hero who resembled Future Trunks in a lot of ways, including the sword and the stoic, selfless personality.
But yeah, that’s Movie 13. It’s not as flashy as Movie 12, but it never comes close to being dull, and the Super Dragon Fist at the end is the cherry on top.
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Plus, you’ve got the excellent ending theme, “Ore Ga Yaranakya Dare Ga Yaru” by Hironobu Kageyama.
#dragon ball#2019dbliveblog#dbmovieliveblog#wrath of the dragon#movie 13#goku#gohan#trunks#goten#vegeta#bulma#tapion#hoi#hirudegarn#videl#master roshi#oolong#krillin
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https://vanillo.co/v/T2piRZ5GCS
You know, I actually respected your video on RWBY beforehand, even if it had issues...
Now I see that trust was misplaced.
Before he even makes a point, he goes onto explain why he’s making this video.
The reason being and I quote-
“Why? Because I know it’ll make the RWBY fans made that I dare to consider something better than RWBY or because I want to make a legit comparison between two shows, both came out in the same year, both have themes of oppression, both involve fighting monster, have a focus of fighting within, have unique weapons and....ect ect.”
Yeah, this has two major issues.
1. If MangaKamen is doing this to piss off RWBY fans then why should we trust anything he says? One of the quickest ways to piss off a fan is to lie about their series and misrepresent them so how do we know that the mistakes in the video are due to honest overlooks or he did it on purpose to be a disingenuous troll? Not only that but this immediately paints all RWBY fans (and yes, all. He didn’t make any distinction) as irrational and fanboyish so no RWBY fan can argue against his video in good faith, even if they have legitimate grievances with the content. Right off the bat, he’s already put himself in a point where everything he says will be taken with a grain of salt.
And 2. You notice something about the list of things MangaKamen gave for similarities? Let me bullet it point them:
* Same year
* theme of oppression
* fighting
*fighting monsters
* unique weapons
Yeah I bet you’ve caught on now: all but one of these are INCREDIBLY vague.
First off, fighting is a common conflict resolver in media so that shouldn’t even count/
Second, fighting monsters is only barely more specific than just standard fighting and even then there could be any number of differences between the monsters and what they could represent in the story so...no dice.
Oppression is a very common theme in media, ranging from slavery to racism to classism to any form of unfair system stifling freedom. It can be almost anything.
Being released in the same year...I have no idea what that has to do with anything and thousands of pieces of media are released every year. This...is just weird.
And I only discount ‘unique weapons’ because there is no MENTION of how the weapons are unique nor do I know enough about GAIM to debunk this so I can’t say anything.
This isn’t even getting into how important each piece here is to the show as a whole, like how the theme of oppression isn't a major focus in the show and is limited to one character while the monsters are just one part of the antagonistic force of the show. So… Yeah. This comes across as reaching.
And sadly, this is a reoccurring theme.
And now we get into the main point of this video apparently: the basic plot.
And right off the bat we have a problem.
MangaKamen talks about the main characters of RWBY with him zooming on Yang;s breasts as he talks about ‘supposed’ elements of Yang and makes a laughing gif when he describes Weiss as ‘A selfish and self centered girl who becomes kinder and nicer’ in a mocking way. He’s presenting this as a serious basis for the show while also apparently trying to be a troll which just makes him come across as untrustworthy. Again.
There’s also the issue with how he portrays the main plots of the series.
RWBY: ‘A fictional world with Dust, Fanaus and Grimm were humanity fought for survival against the Grimm and eventually came up with the Huntsmen to fight the Grimm. The series follows the four girls in their adventures.’
GAIM: ‘This is a AU version of our world in the massive city of Zawane, built around the Yggdrisill Corporations’ tower, where we have these dance team composed of youths called Beat Riders who instill joy into the citizens. Mixed with them is a Pokémon-esque game called The Inves Game where they summon the Inves with items called Lockseeds. One day, Kouta Kazuraba’s former team loses to someone who invites him to come look at something. This is the Sengoku Driver where the Driver’s first wearer can transform into a Rider with a Lockseed. The mystery of Yggdrisil, the Driveers and the Lockseeds envelop Kouta and the cast.’
… I feel like explaining why these two don’t work would be insulting my readers but it’s what I gotta do.
First off, Remnant is a completely separate world from our own and thus would logically have quite a few differences with our own in how they view things, how things operate and how their governments and such work. Meawhile, Zawame is based on our world with minor differences which means these people’s values should be extremely similar to our own, how things operate should work similar to our world and their governments and such should be akin to ours. This is just a few aspects of what makes these different hut you get the picture: Remnant and Zawame have almost nothing in common aside from the basic inherent elements inescape to human fiction since fiction ahs to be based on something.
Secondly, Dust is basically elemental gunpowder, Fanaus are just people with animal traits and the Grimm are basically those endless RPG mooks. They are nothing like what MangaKamen states Drivers, Lockseeds and Inves are. They are nothing alike once again so it just drives home for the THIRD time how bizarre the comparisons are.
Third: What a Huntsmen is and what a Rider/Beat Rider is have a very fundamental difference. A Huntsmen is an official profession and thus carries with it an inherent sense of duty and honor to the audience, similar to a firefighter or a police officer. A Beat Rider is basically an unofficial entertainer, who is closer in nature to being a YouTuber which carries a very different connotation to the audience. Now you could argue that the comparison isn’t fair and that I should be using Riders as the counterpoint...except that beinga Rider has no definition other than ‘person who transforms using a Driver and a Lockseed’. It’s more like a Semblance in nature: a power rather than a profession.
Fourth: It sounds like Kouta just so happened to stumble upon the Driver through this one person rather than seeking it out or training for it, like Ruby or really everyone in the main hero cast of RWBY. These carry very different meanings and feelings in fiction MangaKamen, and they serve very different end goals for the heroes on the story as the first begins a story of an unlikely hero into a more ideal hero while the other is more a story about being honorable and doing the right thing. These aren’t mutually exclusive and can work together, like in the case of Spider Man, but you didn’t communicate this.
Fifth: There really isn’t a mystery element in RWBY, at least not until the fourth of so Volume with Salem whereas it seems like the mystery of the Lockseeds, Drivers and Yggdrisil are all ingrained into the story of GAIM.
Really, at this point, MangaKamen should have stopped and really thought about what he was doing at this point because when you have this many issues of this severity in the very beginning of your video, you should probably consider whether or not this is a good idea. Sort of like with MatPat and how he should have reconsidered his many wrong theories when issues started rising in them.
I mean, when I catch myself doing this, I stop and reconsider what I’m doing so it can’t bee that difficult.
Anyway, we then move onto the supposed ‘themes’ that the shows both share ‘extremely.’ Those themes being ‘Coming Of Age’ and ‘Getting Over Yourself.’
… Yeah, not only does he not define what the second theme actually is which means there’s a very real chance that people could misinterpret what he says unintentionally but the first theme is one of the MOST used themes in all of fiction. Like, 99% of Shounen, Shoujo and teenage-aimed fiction in America among so many others is Coming of Age stories, each having examples pf being told in vastly different ways with vastly different tones, styles, characters, worlds and so on. To just present the base trope as valid comparison would be to conflate these two to literal THOUSANDS of pieces of media.
But it gets worse. He goes onto explain himself by saying in GAIM, Kouta believes that the Goku Driver and the transformation will make him a ‘better man’ which isn’t true (demonstrated by him trying to help some construction workers by transforming and jumping up to them with some buckets, making things worse) and he questions his own beliefs and what he needs to do, even if it means sacrificing himself in some way. And in RWBY, Yang has to learn how to think in her battles after losing her arm.
Okay here we know so little about Kouta that I have no idea if this is an actual development for him. Judging by the clips shown, Kouta seems like the kind of guy who’d be self sacrificing by nature considering the almost child-like glee he shows in his transformation and helping others while I know so little about him that I have no idea if he is doubtful of himself normally or it’s an actual development. Same goes for Yang, we have no information on Yang outside of being the big sister type and losing her arm. We see Yang leaping at Adam in a clip but without context we have no idea if this is justified or not or if it’s a reoccurring issue with Yang or not. This is aimed at people who haven’t seen either series so this lack of information is damning and makes his point brittle and weak.
And it breaks if you actually think about it. The issues with Kouta are based on him as a person and helps him directly grow as a person whereas the way MangaKamen presents Yang it’s displayed as though she only really grew as a fighter. (He does say that Yang ‘matured from her previous personality’ but that’s not the result of her training, it was more the result of her experiences and even then one could argue she didn’t ‘mature’, she just changed.) And even then, these two developments don’t have anything common other than...being developments in the characters.
And then we have the fact that this isn’t an application of themes, this is just CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Character Development is NOT a theme and yet here MangaKamen is trying to portray it as such. I have no idea why but if I had to guess he realized that the shows didn’t have anything in common beyond basic ideas so he tried dressing up character development as a specific theme.
This gets especially egregious when you consider who SHOULD be Kouta’s counterpart here. Ruby Rose undergoes development revolving around her beliefs being questioned and questioning what she needs to do in order to be a hero. Instead of this comparison with Yang that makes no sense and makes MangaKamen look like an idiot for comparing two different types of character development under the guise of the nebulous and undefined ‘getting over yourself’, he could have reinforced the theme of ‘coming of age’ or ‘being a hero’ with Ruby.
Now why did he not bring up Ruby? Well, again I can only guess...and neither one flattering. 1. He knows Ruby is being questioned not by outside viewpoints like Kouta and her questioning comes not from how to be a hero but the difficulties of being a hero. Or 2. He’s using Ruby to bash her home series. This supported by his first actual point being ‘Is Ruby Even The Main Character?’
However, I will point out that he tries to portray Yang’s loss of her arm and resulting PTSD as the same as Kouta coming to terms with killing a man. because ‘both went through a depressed spell.’ Which is a Trope called Heroic BSOD...one of the MOST used Tropes.
Look, I’d love to continue but for some reason the link started having a 502 issue. And at this point you get the picture. If the link starts back up again or when the video gets uploaded to YouTube, I’ll make a separate post addressing those points.
But numerous times throughout the videos introduction MangaKamen shows that he’s blatantly ignoring facts and information that contradict his assertions and his points, to the point I can only assume he’s being a disingenuous troll or he’s doing this to prop up GAIM. All things he’s called out in the past.
So for now, congrats MangaKamen. How’s it feel to be MatPat for a change? Because you’re being just as intellectually dishonest as him.
I’m Knight Of Balance and remember to examine your fandoms.
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The Top 10 Anime Villains Who Just Won't Die!
Editor's Note: This is a republication of a feature by Nicole Mejias that originally appeared on Crunchyroll News on 5/21/18.
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It’s often said that a good hero needs an equally good villain, and certainly there are many infamous villains to choose from. Rivalries are made, evil plans are thwarted, and the heroes celebrate their hard earned victories with the vanquishing of their foes. However, not every villain is so easy to get rid of, and some linger on long after they’re dead to cause even more problems!
In this list, let's take a look at the top 10 villains who just refused to stay dead, gone, and buried! And as a warning, this article contains a LOT of spoilers, so read with caution!
10. Neferpitou (Hunter x Hunter)
Anime fans can at least celebrate that the vanquishing of Neferpitou didn’t take the quite literal decade that it did in the manga, but the Chimera Ant villain certainly haunted Gon for a long time! Neferpitou had easily killed Gon’s mentor and hero Kite, and reanimated his corpse to use a training toy. Gon, unaware that he was dead, refused to give up on the chance to save his mentor and defeat this extremely powerful enemy. Unfortunately for Gon, Neferpitou vastly outclassed him, as to be expected of one of the Chimera Ant King’s Royal Guards! Neferpitou’s loyalty to the king leads to their undoing, but not before a protracted battle of wits with Gon over the life of Komugi.
Once Neferpitou reveals to Gon that Kite is long dead and unable to be restored, Gon flies into a rage, leading to the iconic scenes where Gon’s Nen ages him, growing his power (and his hair!) to legendary proportions. Outclassed, Neferpitou dies happy, knowing that Gon is unable to get to the king, but even in death Neferpitou haunts Gon further, as their Nen ability Terpsichora activates, seemingly reviving the fallen foe! Distracted and enraged, Gon mercilessly beats his enemy’s corpse until Killua stops him… and falls into a coma, his body nearly destroyed and his life almost snuffed out from the battle! It takes a literal miracle to revive Gon much later, and it’s safe to safe Neferpitou won’t be forgotten by Gon or us any time soon!
9. Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti (Re:ZERO)
Petelgeuse is surely a memorable villain from an aesthetic point of view with his distinct looks and voice, but the way in which he easily defeats Subaru, causing the protagonist to despair that there may be no good outcome against this foe, is one of the defining storylines of Re:ZERO. Petelgeuse seems to have Subaru figured out, and no matter how many times Subaru resets the timeline, he always seems to come up short against the foe, watching his friends suffer and die in various awful ways each time he tries to find a new route to victory.
Not only that, but Petelgeuse almost seems able to guess Subaru’s special ‘reset’ ability, and nearly succeeds in possessing him and ending the story for good! It isn’t until numerous deaths and resets that Subaru develops a working plan, and even then Petelgeuse nearly destroys Subaru. As Subaru writes “The End” in Petelgeuse’s gospel in his own blood, the deranged priest is finally killed after his body is crushed and torn to pieces! We’ll have to wait and see what type of impact Petelgeuse really left on Subaru, but to be sure he was the most difficult foe so far, and on that certainly left Subaru a changed man!
8. Junko Enoshima (Dangan Ronpa)
We warned you about spoilers above, so if you’re still reading and are interested in checking out Dangan Ronpa unspoiled, we suggest you turn back now! In the Dangan Ronpa series (both anime and games) there’s no one quite as twisted and evil as Junko Enoshima, the mastermind behind the initial murder game, as well as the leader of a cult dedicated to bringing her twisted sense of despair to the world! Junko seemingly dies right away in Dangan Ronpa, only for it to be later revealed that it was her own sister who she happily murdered! Junko reveals herself as the mastermind behind Monokuma, having lead the students to murdering each other and laughing all the way!
Despite being killed at the end of the first Dangan Ronpa, the second game (which didn’t have an anime, sadly!) reveals that Junko lives on as Junko Alter, a computer virus seeking to continue her twisted legacy! In the second anime series, Danganon Ronpa 3, Junko appears in both the Despair and Hope routes, showing us how she gained her position of power and set up the initial game. And in the Hope route, Junko’s ghost seems bewildered to watch the antics of the cast’s struggle, before fading away, hopefully forever. Junko may not be the most ‘hands on’ villain, but she’s certainly a troublesome one who caused a literal world of despair, and whose legacy seems poised to last long after she’s dead.
7. Tao Pai Pai (Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z)
Usually, a returning villain is a major hindrance to the protagonist, presenting them with constant roadblocks to success. That’s not quite the case for Tao Pai Pai, who goes from being one of the deadliest foes Goku ever met to a comically inept weakling. First appearing during Goku’s attempts to gather the Dragon Balls at the employ of Commander Red, Tao Pai Pai is one of Goku’s first truly dangerous opponents. Tao is shown to be cunning, cold, and murderous, killing numerous people simply because he wants to, and almost kills Goku! Goku eventually defeats Tao, and if not for the assassin’s cowardly attempts to get the last laugh, might have lived unscathed; instead, Goku deflects his grenade back to him, leaving Tao for dead.
Later, however, it turns out Tao Pai Pai is far from dead, re-appearing with cybernetic upgrades and bent on killing Tien and Goku! Vastly outclassed by the powerful Tien, he doesn’t show up again until the Cell Games in Dragon Ball Z as little more than comic relief, but still as evil and conniving as usual!
6. Toguro Brothers (Yu Yu Hakusho)
There probably isn’t a more iconic villain in Yu Yu Hakusho than Younger Toguro and his demonically powered muscled form, but even without that recognition, these two Toguros are a thorn in Yusuke and company’s side for the entire series, with Elder Toguro being the longest recurring villain in the show! First showing up during the Spirit Detective arc of the show, the Toguros are a formidable pair of bodyguards to the despicable Tarukane. In a fierce battle against Yusuke and Kuwabara, the pair of heroes are barely victorious against the powerful brothers, and it seems as if Kuwabara has killed Younger Toguro with a sword to the chest.
Shortly after, however, we learn that really wasn’t the case, and sure enough the Toguros re-emerge, forcing Yusuke and the others to fight in the Dark Tournament! Toguro constantly pushes Yusuke to become more powerful, and seems to get his wish, eventually dying to Yusuke’s powered up form. However, the Elder Toguro survives after being presumed dead, reappearing from inside the body of Gourmet during the Chapter Black saga! While his brother only seemed impossible to defeat, Elder Toguro truly seems to be immortal, and it takes a cunning attack by Kurama to sentence the Elder Toguro to a life of never ending punishment, where he can’t hurt anyone again!
5. Orochimaru (Naruto / Naruto Shippuden / Boruto)
When we think of returning villains, Orochimaru is certainly pretty high on that list, perhaps redeemed by the fact that he seems to make amends for his villainy by the end of the series, appearing in Boruto as a neutral character (so far). Still, many anime fans probably can’t forget the first time Orochimaru slithered into the story, and his constant meddling and capture of Sasuke lead to one of the most iconic moments in the entire series: Naruto vs. Sasuke. Orochimaru certainly made himself known throughout the series, utilizing his ability to body hop and revive himself numerous times before being seemingly sealed away and defeated by Itachi.
That sense of victory was short lived, however, as Sasuke himself releases Orochimaru to get answers. This proves to be a turning point for the snake ninja, as he realizes Sasuke is now far too powerful to possess, and instead the once head villain of the series begins his path to something resembling redemption. That said, who knows where Boruto will go, so Orochimaru might end up going back to his old tricks once again...
4. Shou Tucker (Fullmetal Alchemist [2003])
Now if this list were the Top 10 Worst Human Beings Ever, Shou Tucker would certainly be #1 with a bullet (or an alchemically powered hand through the face). However, Shou’s return in the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime was a total (and unwanted) surprise, as the series deviated from the manga quite a bit. While Scar had the pleasure of killing Shou in the manga, in the anime Shou vanishes into ‘military custody’... until he suddenly re-emerges as a chimera!
Shou’s mind is more gone than it was the first time, obsessed with trying to revive his daughter… the same one he turned into a chimera. Shou doesn’t meet his maker this time either, being left in the anime an obsessed failure trying to regain what he lost. We won’t really spend time trying to rationalize this despicable man’s actions, but suffice to say fans at the time were thoroughly shocked to see this terrible man-thing appear again!
3. Char Aznable (Mobile Suit Gundam)
It wouldn’t be far to claim that without Char, Mobile Suit Gundam may not have been as successful as it was. Amuro was an amazing, if flawed, protagonist, and he desperately needed an equally flawed and interesting rival. Char Aznable was easily able to take that position, and the Zeon pilot wreaked havoc on Amuro, pushing the Newtype to defeat him. Char is last seen giving Kycilla Zabi a unique one bazooka salute, before himself disappearing in the impending explosion. However, during the events of Zeta Gundam, a mysterious and charismatic man by the name of Quattro Bajeena shows up. Char’s alias is almost too heroic, coming across as one of the most helpful and good characters in the series, but as with most things dealing with Char, his motives are never that easy to discern.
Char re-emerges as himself during the events of Char’s Counterattack, and he and Amuro resume their rivalry, this time seemingly finishing each other off as their Psycoframe equipped suits overload, leaving both men MIA and presumed dead at the end. However, as of Gundam Unicorn, it seems part of Char is still around, emerging as Full Frontal. The conclusion of Unicorn sees the original Gundam Newtypes are reunited in spirit form, and Char, Lalah, and Amuro seemingly reconcile, ready to finally fade away.
2. Frieza (Dragon Ball Z / Dragon Ball Super)
While Goku had faced numerous powerful foes in both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Frieza may be the most iconic and infamous foe, cementing the series as a fan favorite and introducing fans to Super Saiyan Goku, having pushed the fighter to his limits. Frieza is one of the deadliest foes Goku ever meets, and a truly despicable and selfish person, concerned only with achieving immortality and taking over the universe, or killing everyone in it! Goku eventually defeats Frieza, leaving him to potentially survive, until the selfish alien seemingly kills himself with his own desperate final attack. However, when things seem to have calmed down on Earth, Frieza (now cybernetically enhanced!) returns… only to be quickly cut down by Trunks!
Frieza appears a few times during the Majin Buu saga, but mostly as a commentator on the fight against Buu, and has been seemingly finally vanquished… until the movie Resurrection of F! Having escaped Hell, Frieza re-appears on Earth, and his new Golden Frieza form once again makes him an imposing foe. However, his usual failings cost him again, and is this time defeated by Vegeta and Goku. However, this would still not be the end for him, as the Universe Survival Saga sees Frieza return… as a good guy?! That’s right, sort of! Frieza agrees to help Goku in the Universe Survival Tournament on the condition that he get revived. In true Frieza fashion, it becomes hard to figure out what his intentions really are, but in the end he and Goku make an odd couple pairing that, with the help of Android 17, save the day (Frieza even sacrifices himself!). But, as of the closing scenes of Dragon Ball Super, Frieza probably hasn’t learned much, so it’s likely we’ll see him clashing with our heroes once again!
1. Dio (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
If you already guessed the #1 spot on this list, congratulations! If you not, well, we won’t make that joke, but you probably know the one we mean! Sometimes a villain truly makes a series, and Dio is definitely that villain. While the heroes of JoJo’s various arcs are all great, they wouldn’t be half as compelling without the truly awful Dio to stand against. And even when Dio isn’t the central villain, his influence is lingering in the background. From his initial rise to immortality against Jonathan Joestar to eventually stealing the body of his hated rival to the revival of the Pillar Men brought on by people’s fascination with the Stone Masks to the return of Dio in Stardust Crusaders, Dio and the Joestars are forever linked in combat.
But even when the spotlight drifts from Dio in Diamond is Unbreakable, his machinations with the nature of Stands leads to the Arrow finding its way to Morioh-Cho and wreaking havoc as new stand users emerge! And, while they haven’t been animated yet, we’ll just simply say that Dio’s influence in the future JoJo storylines is not to be underestimated… When you least expect it, Dio might just strike again!
Do you have any favorite seemingly immortal villains that heroes just can’t seem to get rid of? Let us know in the comments!
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Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known to profess her love of otome games over at her blog, Figuratively Speaking. When she has the time, she also streams some games. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries
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Homura’s Flash Reviews [February 2019]
This will be my first review post for 2019!! I’m watching winter anime currently which I won’t be reviewing til the season is over, but for those who are interested, here’s what I’m watching for winter!
The Price of Smiles
Ace Attorney
Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka
The Promised Neverland
Mysteria Friends
I’m also gonna be adding a few other things to these Flash Reviews and also review the movies I’ve seen during the month, just cause I rly like having opinions lol. So without further ado, here are the anime, shows, and movies that I saw this February and January!
Castlevania
Not technically an anime in anything other than style, Castlevania is the animated adaptation of the third Castlevania game, following the adventures of Trevor Belmont, the last of his vampire hunting legacy, Sypha, a nomadic magician, and Alucard Tepes, the son of Dracula and his human wife who was killed by the church, and their struggles to take down Dracula before he wipes out all of humanity.
I don’t know much about Castlevania the games, as they really aren’t my genre, but this adaptation was incredible!! Proof that video game adaptations can and should strive for greater heights! The dialogue was funny and witty, the characters were interesting and even the villains were endearing, and there was this incredibly crafted atmosphere of both sadness and hope. Not to mention, the animation was top notch. Plus, I have to give it credit for finally letting characters say “fuck” realistically.
overall: 9/10
Futari wa Pretty Cure
The very first, original start of the popular magical girl franchise, Pretty Cure chronicles the tale of Nagisa and Honoka, two very different girls who are brought together when they are chosen to become Pretty Cure, the legendary warriors who will defend light from the darkness! Together with their mascot friends Mepple and Mipple, and juggling their real lives along with their supernatural battles, Cure Black and Cure White will do whatever it takes to protect the world from evil!
I’ve intended to watch Pretty Cure for literally years now, and no one could agree with where I should start, so I decided to just do what I usually do and watch from the beginning. I’ve only seen the first season of Pretty Cure and not the Max Heart sequel yet. Overall, it was about what I expected! I’m a bit of a sucker for the traditional 2000s magical girl genre, with its repetitive formulas, catchphrases, poses, and the usual five episode plots that every single one of them has. The designs were super cute and I love how Black and White look so distinct and yet are still clearly a team. Pollun especially is super adorable!!
Definitely I can see why Pretty Cure became such of a behemoth in the magical girl genre today; it has staying power. This season was definitely full of a lot of generic magical girl filler, and I will be honest that I started to lose steam for it towards the end, plus the villains were not at all endearing or interesting (like, Poisonny and Regine are both very pretty, and Kiriya was okay, but other than that, no one stands out), but it was still a great and adorable experience that I’m glad I experienced. I’m not sure when I’ll get to the next series, but I’m sure it won’t be long!
overall: 7/10
Incredibles 2
I took my sweet time going to see this sequel, but here we are. In the anticipated sequel to the original Incredibles, the family faces new challenges as Elastigirl is scouted by a CEO to help make superheroes legal again, while Mr. Incredible has to learn the challenges of taking care of the family by himself.
I guess overall it was a good movie and well made for its intended audience. The animation was pretty good and I usually like their cartoony anatomy designs which are more concerned with a comic-book-esque aesthetic rather than proper anatomy and perfect realism. Definitely the quality has soared since the first Incredibles. For me personally though...as much as it was entertaining, in hindsight I don’t think it was really made for me. There were a lot of plot threads that didn’t seem to get resolved or even addressed. Bob never fully confronts his jealousy for Helen’s new job, and is never quite confronted about the fact that he hid Jack Jack’s powers from Helen either. The new superheroes were...honestly not my favorite designs in the world outside of Void, and I felt like their only purpose was to become fight fodder for the final battle, which could have been done with almost any other means. For as long as the movie was, it felt like a lot of the threads were simply not deeply solved, and only shallowly addressed. As this is a movie for kids, though, I can look past that; this wasn’t the story for a hugely deep look at things. It did affect my personal enjoyment, though, but it was still a greatly fun movie to watch.
overall: 7/10
Dragon Ball Super: Broly
Finally coming for the canon after a couple of decades, DBS Broly brings the legendary super Saiyan Broly into the main cast. When the young Broly is sent away from Planet Vegeta for being too overwhelmingly powerful, he and his father are stranded on a barren planet for forty years, until they are found by some of Frieza’s soldiers and brought into the Frieza Force. Frieza immediately pits the super powerful Broly up against our heroes Goku and Vegeta, who must pull out every trick in the book in order to stop him from destroying the planet in his growing rage.
I never ever thought I would say this about anything relating to Broly, but GODDAMN that might have been the best Dragon Ball media in years. Let’s get this part straight: I’ve disliked Broly since he first appeared in the DB movies. He was boring, had a ridiculous backstory, and was just there to be a Gary Stu to really push Goku and Vegeta to their limits. But this movie??? This movie singlehandedly shot Broly to my top ten characters in Dragon Ball. He is endearing, gentle, a recovering abuse victim with a rage he cannot control, and his strength is more dangerous to himself than to those around him. In TFS’ review of the movie, they made a great point: the real stakes of his movie aren’t whether Broly is going to destroy the planet; they’re whether Broly himself is going to be okay. I’m focusing a lot on Broly, but Goku and Vegeta are in top form in his movie as well. It’s great getting to see Vegeta have a massive fight where he isn’t immediately jobbed for Goku’s sake, and Goku himself is at the top of his game as the fun-loving, battle-crazed but still sympathetic hero that he should always be written as. Not to mention our new additions to the main cast in Cheelai and Lemo, two of Frieza’s soldiers who found and ended up befriending Broly, who are equally endearing and fun especially in their dynamics with Broly himself.
All in all, this was a fucking excellent movie, and the first DB media that I can imagine wanting to rewatch!
overall: 10/10
Fireworks
When Nazuna is about to move away, she asks Norimichi to come with her to the fireworks, though she plans instead to run away. When this doesn’t work according to plan, Norimichi finds that a strangle marble belonging to Nazuna has the power to turn back the clock, giving them a second chance to be together. However, with each reset, they move further and further away from reality -- can they return to a world where they’re able to spend at least one day with each other?
This is pretty much, in a nutshell, everything I love about anime movies. It’s beautiful, fluid, full of amazing music, and the emotions hit so close to home. While the story itself doesn’t explain much, it really doesn’t have to -- the surrealism of the surrounding world sells it more than any exposition would, proving you don’t need to slow down your story to explain something as long as you can make people feel something for it. Despite having so little to know about both Norimichi and Nazuna, I was still more than sold by their romance. And once again, the surrealism of the animation and the story are something that only anime can pull off. You just can’t do stories like this live action.
The only thing that really dragged this story down were some of the CGI bits, which I found unnecessary and weird against the otherwise gorgeous backgrounds, but I guess this is where animation is going lately so I might have to get used to it.
overall: 8/10
#castlevania#futari wa pretty cure#incredibles 2#dragon ball super broly#fireworks#homura reviews#homura's flash reviews
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Reimagining DBGT Baby saga
As we all know, Dragon Ball GT was a complete hot mess…at least in execution. On paper and taken on their own merits, many of the concepts and storylines of GT are actually pretty good, even brilliant in some cases (*coughcough* Shadow Dragons). The problem, however was the execution. Because they were rushed to get the show out, the writers clearly went the route of making stuff up on the fly rather than actually planning out the story. As a result, many of these ideas, things that could have been amazing stories, ended up as wasted potential because Toei was focused on Rule of Cool/Funny instead of worldbuilding, character development, and story logistics.
Pan and Uub are the poster children for these missed opportunities. Pan was notoriously badly written, with the writers themselves admitting that they included her mainly as a damsel in distress to make Goku look better, while Uub was basically forgotten, undoing everything that the end of Z was setting up with him. Here, I will take you through my thought process and show what I would have done with the characters had I been one of the showrunners for GT.
*Just to get some things out of the way, a) This will only go into sharp detail for the Baby arc since that is the only one I am intimately familiar with plot wise, and b)GOKU IS STILL AN ADULT! This was pointless, silly, and only served for cheap jokes that at worst hurt Goku’s character. NEXT!
-Getting into the real meat of the issue, the Black Star Dragon Ball saga would mostly remain the same (BSDBs are used, Earth’ll blow up in a year, Giru eats the Dragon Radar, Luud conflict, etc.). However, Uub would replace Trunks as the third party member, citing that his training can still continue and he wants some real-world experience.
-The character dynamic between Uub and Pan would play out as a mostly-friendly rivalry, both wanting to impress Goku. Uub has come to admire Goku and wants to live up to him, but Pan has much more personal baggage.
*I can imagine Pan as being somewhat resentful of Goku for running off to train Uub, leaving his family behind to live in some random village and train this kid. This would serve to address a common criticism of Goku’s character (focus on his own wants ahead of others), while also making clear that this hurt is unintentional. Goku obviously would never intentionally hurt his loved ones, but sometimes the choices we make have an impact on the people around us. Pan still loves her grandfather, so rather than bring this to the forefront, she decides to bottle these feelings up, not wanting to say something that may hurt him in turn.
*Additionally, Pan may also suffer from an inferiority complex as a result of having so many powerful warriors in her family. She becomes fixated on becoming a Super Saiyan so she can truly live up to that legacy (put a pin in that it’ll be important later)
-Another character point to come up is Uub learning the truth, that he is the reincarnation of Majin Buu. At some point prior to arriving at Planet M2, Uub is pushed to his breaking point during a battle, causing him to lash out with an aggression similar to Kid Buu (I credit KCruzer of DeviantArt for the impetus behind this idea https://www.deviantart.com/kcruzer/art/DBTNG-Satsui-No-Majin-782861139). When Goku tells him the truth, Uub starts suffering an identity crisis compounded by his fear of losing control of the rage.
-The mini arc on M2 is mostly the same, only Pan’s feelings of betrayal by Giru have a more pronounced impact by triggering a transformation similar to the False Super Saiyan from Lord Slug. While that film is obviously non-canon, the idea of a pseudo-Super Saiyan form is one I quite enjoy, and the power boost allows Pan to rescue Goku and Uub and defeat the Sigma Force on her own (the only downside is that this power is hard to maintain). Goku’s battle with Rilldo is much the same, as is their discovery of Baby.
-Flash forward to the return to Earth, only now Baby’s takeover is different. Since Goku is unencumbered by his body, he is able to fight Baby on a much more level footing, and actually starts to win. However, baby uses his control over the infected human population to order some of them to kill themselves, and to commit mass suicide in the case of his own death. Rather than risk it, Goku surrenders. Pan tries to attack Baby herself, but is overwhelmed and apparently killed. As you can probably guess, this puts Pan into the position Goku was in the original show, and she trains to go fight Baby.
*Meanwhile, Baby hooks Goku up to a machine designed to siphon his Ki into himself, completing Baby’s growth to the point where he no longer needs Vegeta’s body to maintain his power. After all, what kind of Tuffle savior would Baby be if he had to remain a parasite of a Saiyan? This would also give a chance to flesh out Baby’s character more, as he is a very real testament to the horrifying legacy of the Saiyans, their tragic genocide by Frieza notwithstanding.
*Uub would take up Pan’s original role, trying to heal the possessed humans alongside Fat Buu and Mr. Satan while also fighting the infected Gohan, Goten and Trunks. Here, the evil Buusona would again resurface, but Uub once again starts to lose control. Buu approaches Uub with the chance to fuse as they did in canon, thus allowing him to properly harness the power. However, while this would give him the strength to defeat Baby, Uub refuses to risk losing his singular will. Thus, unable to call upon the Majin’s strength, Uub is bested by Baby, who eventually becomes strong enough to leave Vegeta’s weakened body
*In Other World, Pan undergoes similar measures and training to restore her tail, in this AU a way for her to better control her False Super Saiyan power. Old Kai considers subjecting Pan to the same empowerment ritual he used on Gohan, but Pan is too impatient and pressed for time to sit for that. Once her tail is regrown, Pan rushes to fight Baby while sending Uub and the others to free Goku, but she too is defeated. This is followed by the Golden Oozaru transformation that Goku originally underwent, only this time it is a healed Videl who manages to calm the berserk Pan down. Thus, Pan is the one to unlock Super Saiyan 4 instead of Goku.
*The power of the transformation allows Pan to make quick work of Baby, but the aggression indicative of Super Saiyan forms kicks in when she starts to pointlessly drag the fight out. In fact, due to having no experience with the other transformations, the Hulk-out is even more extreme that usual. By now, Goku has been freed and tries to get Pan to back off. However, this only causes Pan to snap again, letting all her hurt and anger with her grandfather out at once. Goku is shaken by Pan’s words, but he is reluctantly forced to fight when Pan attacks him, asserting that she is finally a true Saiyan warrior and demanding that he go all out.
*Baby manages to recover and ty to escape but is stopped by Vegeta, who is prepared to kill him on the spot before Uub steps in, citing that the Tuffles had suffered enough. Remembering how Mr. Satan beges him to spare Buu, Vegeta offers Baby mercy, only for the Tuffle to commit suicide, feeling that his people have no more legacy to hope for.
*Goku and Pan’s battle starts getting more intense as Pan continues to vent, letting out all the hurt she had been feeling while Goku tries to apologize. It eventually gets to the point where Goku refuses to fight her and powers down, letting her lay into him. However, by this point all of Pan’s rage has been spent, and all that’s left is a scared girl wants her grandfather back. The two finally reconcile and return to the others
*The saga ends much as it did previously, the only real difference being that Piccolo does not sacrifice himself and the balls are destroyed another way.
-Subsequent sagas may vary (cut Super 17 and seriously rework the Shadow Dragons), but the following points would also be present
*Pan works with Gohan and Goku to achieve and master the real Super Saiyan state so that Pan will avoid the uncontrollable rage that comes from going all the way to Super Saiyan 4 (i.e. SS1 is drinking a single cup of caffeinated coffee, SS4 is drinking six at once)
*Uub comes to terms with his origins as Buu, and learns to call upon and control the Majin power without going nuts
*Vegeta discovers a colony of Tuffle survivors and tries to find a way to make amends for the Saiyan’s crimes
The final result is this; a set of long, heavily involved character arcs spanning a whole saga, connecting directly to our main protagonist, and centered around the theme of legacy. Baby came from a slaughtered people and wants to restore their honor. Uub was born from the most terrifying evil in the universe, yet wants to show he is his own person. Pan is the granddaughter of the world’s greatest hero who mistakenly feels that she must live up to him to earn his love. And finally, Goku is the legendary warrior who is now caught between a legacy of violence from his enemy, a legacy of past mistakes in his family, and a legacy of evil he worked to remake.
Some may find this too deep, but that’s just me.
…
I’m gonna be honest. This sounds a million times more interesting than how the actual Baby Saga played out.
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Dragon Ball Super: Episode 1 Review
A first episode is often going to be the most important of any series. This is the episode that's intended to sell the majority of a show's intended viewers on whether or not it's something worth getting invested in.
For a series like Dragon ball Super though, a continuation of a beloved nostalgic series that millions of people love and has been a massive influence on their lives, the first episode has to make it clear to those people that the show will not only be enjoyable to watch, but that it will respect the series it's following on from. That's a lot of pressure, and while subsequent episodes can always drop the ball (And unfortunately, that did kinda happen in a few episodes), the first impression is the most crucial.
Dragon Ball Super is a long running show that had many ups, and it had it's downs. But did it succeed at that oh so important first impression? Well my friends, today that is what we’re here to discuss.
The series opens with a recap of the ending of the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z, and then cuts ahead an unspecified number of months afterwards. The story proper begins with series protagonist Son Goku having largely settled down to becoming a farmer after returning to life at the end of the previous series. A job that he's not exactly enthusiastic about, as he'd rather be training to get stronger in the event that the earth should be threatened by a new evil force in the near future, but he keeps at it for the time being in an effort to provide for his family like a responsible family man.
The focus of the episode shifts between the various members of the Son family, as well as new in-law Mr Satan, and while it does set up the direction the arc will be taking, outside of one scene early on and the ending it's pretty self-contained. It's difficult to talk about this particular episode without just recapping most of it's scenes as a result, so while I'll go into more detail in some future reviews I'll keep this one brief and focus on the important aspects.
The episode is well paced and for the most part, each segment flows neatly into each other. Everyone who appears is in-character and the episode does a good job of re-familiarising old fans with the characters and what they've been up to since last we saw them, while also giving potential newcomers tuning in a good enough first impression of who these people are and whether they might like them (Though newcomers might in turn be surprised at how small a role Goten and Trunks end up playing for the rest of the series, considering their subplot gets the most focus)
The tone of the episode is mostly light hearted, and has a nice slice of life feel throughout much of it with a focus on comedy and character writing, though also introducing us to the villain of the first arc, the mysterious cat-like being called Lord Beerus, and letting us know that things will eventually get serious.
It's a pretty pleasant experience overall. Almost all of the jokes land, in particular the scene with Goten and Trunks casually floating around the jewellery store and unknowingly freaking people out while looking for a wedding gift for Videl always manages to get a good chuckle out of me no matter how many times I watch the episode, and when the episode isn't being funny it's still full of cute moments. I don't think there's a single moment that doesn't offer up either a good joke or something to make viewers smile.
What helps with this greatly is the animation. I'm not an expert on talking about art styles and I can understand the overall look of Super not appealing to certain fans of the previous series, but the animation of the episode is pretty well crafted, and the nice colouring helps to enhance the pleasant feeling of a lot of scenes. In particular the scene near the end of the episode with Goku and Goten looking out into the sunset before Mr Satan stops by to offer Goku money for his heroic actions in the Buu saga features some very beautiful backdrops, with the orange and purple skies especially being a real treat for the eyes.
For a franchise well known and regarded for it's action scenes though, the episode only features a short minute long fight scene, and one that's pretty small scale since it just features Goten and Trunks being attacked by a giant snake (Which sounds like it would be dramatic in any other series, but considering Goten and Trunks can both destroy the entire planet by firing a lazer into the ground, it's really more of a minor inconvenience since the snake almost breaks a jar they needed to gather water). And while it's nothing too fancy, it's still pretty fun to watch and well animated.
Makes it a bit sad that the show's production would experience some major pitfalls a few episodes later, and we'll cover that later on, but needless to say the animators and director for this episode at least deserve credit for making the first episode very visually appealing.
While I don't have any major criticisms of the episode, I do have to comment that the scene introducing Beerus does end up feeling almost out of place. It's a good moment don't get me wrong, it gives a good first impression of the character and establishes him as someone who seems incredibly dangerous, but it has no bearing on anything else that happens in the episode other than the last few seconds before the credits, which just has the supreme kai and Old Kai looking out into space and noting that something bad is going on.
I get setting up the plot, and it does leave some intrigue to encourage viewers to keep watching. But with the scene taking place so early in the episode and then nothing coming of it, it feels almost like an afterthought. Needless to say the next two episodes would do a much better job both in establishing the characters personality and presence, and what his actual deal is.
Again, not a bad scene, but it feels weird in how quickly it's brushed aside.
Probably my favourite part of the episode though is the aforementioned scene with Mr Satan offering Goku the reward money for saving the earth. For one thing it's just such a delightful demonstration of how much Mr Satan has grown as a person as a result of his development in the Buu Saga. His character arc was always one of my favourite parts of Dragon Ball Z as a kid, and it's really nice to see the fruits of it here. He's still a somewhat arrogant showboat, but outside of showboating for the public Mr Satan here is a much more humble and considerate man than who he was back in the Cell saga, and seeing him being so insistent on offering Goku such a large sum of money that he could have easily just kept for himself as the person officially labeled as earth's saviour really makes me proud of the guy.
But apart from that, I really just love Goku's response to the whole thing. Outside of his over the top shock at the whole offer being amusing, I just love how humble Goku is shown to be here, only finally accepting the offer because it would go a long way to provide for Chichi and Goten, and give him the chance to train harder so he can be strong enough to protect everyone and not have a repeat of Raditz. It really says a lot about what kind of a person Goku is, and why he's the hero of this story.
So, yeah, all in all this was a pretty great first episode. It does a good job re-introducing us to Goku and his family, with the next few episodes gradually re-introducing the rest of the supporting cast, and it succeeds at being an entertaining, fluffy experience. If you were hoping for the show to hit the ground running with it's plot and for there to be more of a sense of looming dread, like how Z started out, then you'll probably be a bit taken aback by how nonchalant and wholesome the episode is. But personally I loved the approach the writers took with this episode, and early Super in general. It feels like a natural follow up to the events of the Buu Saga, while also being it's own thing, and I think the episode should give you a good idea about whether you're going to enjoy the first arc of the show.
All in all, I think I'll give the episode an A-
Not entirely perfect, but it's a charming, very enjoyable first outing for the series, and something I for one always enjoy coming back to.
Next episode, Vegeta enters the scene as he, Trunks and Bulma take a family vacation, and we get a better look at who our villains are going to be. Should be a lot of fun to talk about, hopefully I'll have a bit more to say, I feel like I kind of phoned this review in since I didn't know how to write out my thoughts in more detail.
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The Skinny Fat Solution
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The Skinny Fat Solution
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Somewhere in Africa, a lion sits in the wild.
He wakes up to unknown food rations, weather patterns, and dangers. Yet he’s bold enough to handle his own life. His survival is his responsibility, and his responsibility alone.
Somewhere in a zoo, a lion sits in a cage.
He’s given food, shelter, and a safeguard from danger. He’s but a pawn, and not in charge of his own life.
Both of these creatures are lions; only one is king.
They have the same hardware — they’re made up of the same anatomical “stuff” — but the software makes all the difference.
Skinny-fat? You’re living in a unique cage.
Your software is broken. Your fat cells complicate things. Your body needs built back up in a specific way not only from a muscular proportion standpoint, but also from a overall body composition sequence standpoint.
I know these things because I was once in the skinny-fat cage.
I’ve come to be known as a skinny-fat guru of sorts, and I’m proud of that because I share your scars. Wider hips. Stretch marks on my lower back. Oh yes, the string bean arms, small wrists, lower chest fat, narrow shoulders, and the entire skinny-fat package was one there. But I’ve since learned how to live out there in the wild, and I’d like to help you do the same.
That’s why, when I had the chance to write for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s personal website, I wrote about skinny-fat syndrome. Now, I’ve been published a lot of places. But Arnold’s personal website? And skinny-fat as my topic of choice? That should tell you everything you need to know about me. (And maybe that Goku turning Super Saiyan changed my life. There was also this thing where a chick told me I had girl boobs in my skinny-fat heyday, but . . .)
It’s a complicated cage. It’s not one most people deal with, and here’s why this matters to you.
We typically learn from those that came before us and have done what we want to do. The problem with this for us? Most people that have done what we want to do didn’t start skinny-fat.
Those fat cells you have? They complicate things. Fat cells don’t really die. They shrink, but they’re always there. If you’ve filled them up in the past, chances are they’re prone to refill. This is something I call a flinch to fat. Your body, for whatever reason, has decided that flinching extra energy and nutrients to fat cells is a good idea, and so it’s going to be a factor. It will always be a factor.
Why is it important? Because true-skinny guys don’t often have a flinch to fat. True-skinny guys, when they start training, carve out one path to muscle. The flow follows that one path. That’s why they can chow down on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all day and gain muscle without turning into lard. But if you’re skinny-fat?
You already have a path to body fat that’s paved and frequently travelled. The goal isn’t necessarily “fat loss” because that does nothing to fix what’s familiar. When you stop going fat loss berserk, you still have the paved path. And you’ll probably just get fat again. Now, fat loss is a part of the overall goal, but it isn’t the real goal. The real goal is to rewire the flinch.
Your body proportions also complicate things. You have a unique build. Not only do you need to use the worthwhile training methods that will actually build muscle, you have to be mindful of where that muscle is going to end up. A great muscle building program might not be great for you because, although you probably need muscle to build a good body, you need muscle in the right places.
Old school physical culturalists like Vince Gironda pioneered this idea with his relentless quest for an “X” shaped physique. This is important for you, too. It’s not always about “as much muscle as possible,” but rather about as much muscle possible in the right places. Physique is like a sculpture in that it’s an illusion. You can look a lot better with less clay if you know how to shape it right. But there’s a fine balance between getting overly detailed and prissy vs. knowing when to throw down hunks of clay in the right places vs. throwing down hunks of clay haphazardly. We need to be in the middle.
People are different. You are different. We can’t deny that some have better genetics for carrying and building muscle and being lean.
We don’t usually don’t fall in that bucket. Smaller and thinner bones make for smaller muscles generally. (I can wrap my fingers around my wrist and touch pinky to thumb.) The wunderkinds might have more muscle naturally or might build muscle with less effort or might build muscle using less effective exercises. Sadly, most people that “make it” don’t come from our background.
Our background, our “cage,” is a product of three things: nature (genetics), nurture (culture), and good old random chance.
It’s not that you can’t build muscle, it’s just that you can’t build muscle the same way the wunderkind does. Nurture is one third of the equation. You have control over this. Our body is aware of the world that it’s in, and so it “works” based upon this feedback. You created an environment in which your body said, “The best way for me to survive this is to be skinny-fat.” Sound depressing, right?
Wrong.
Because you have the power to change it. You are in control. You can step into the wild.
Without the wunderkind nature we have to create a wunderkind nurture.
And that’s the purpose of SOLDIER. (Sorry, no Mako involved. And if you know what I’m talking about we can be friends.) We live in an age of endless programs, and people running around like chickens without heads. SOLDIER is a three step system created with one single intention: you’re skinny-fat, you’re in that cage, here’s how you changed every possible aspect of nurture (training, nutrition, life) to break free. And I’m not talking about just seeing change, I’m talking about really adjusting things inside — rewiring the flinch.
SOLDIER 3.0 The first stages gets the body saying, “Oh hey, these muscles? Yeah, they’re kind of important. Let’s think about them.” And, “Oh hey, this body fat? It doesn’t have to be here. Let’s use some of it up.” If you play your cards right, it’s not uncommon to drop fat and build some muscle here. It’s cruising into both muscle building and fat loss without erring too far to either end to see how the body responds.
This is where you learn the powerful barbell and bodyweight exercises that will best contribute to not only current “X” physique intentions, but also lead into exercises in the future. Some other work for fat loss is recommended, usually walking, sprinting, or rope jumping in a way that doesn’t interfere with the basic strength work.
Nutrition caters to muscle recovery but also promotes fat loss.
SOLDIER 2.0 The first stage usually works well. At some point though, the body usually says, “Alright, alright. I made some changes, but I don’t know how comfortable I am losing all of my fat. I’m going to hold onto some of it; I’m going to cherish it a bit more than the rest.”
This is where you tell the body, “There is no option. The fat? It’s gotta’ go.” This is the stubborn fat phase, and is SOLDIER 2.0, which SOLDIER 3.0 laid a foundation for. We really jam home fat loss here, but only as much as necessary. We let 3.0 run its course because it’s best for muscle. When you go severe fat loss, muscle is usually on hold, so that’s why SOLDIER 2.0 is only a ten week thing for when it counts.
We ramp up fat loss specific work and make some changes to prevent the dreaded starvation mode and the body locking up its fat cells.
SOLDIER 1.0 After 2.0 is over, you’re looking at coasting into muscle building and being happy, but there’s something you need to know: times of catabolism and breakdown stimulate for times of anabolism and build up. This sounds great for muscle, and it is, but most skinny-fat guys will have energy grubbing fat cells prowling. I call these “Gollum cells,” seeking their pressccciiiouusss.
That’s why, after 2.0, I recommend making the muscles hyperactive while bringing nutrition to more of an autopilot feel. When you do this, you bring your body to a reset point where the muscles are hyperdemanding so any extra energy you happen to take in goes there and the fat cells get downplayed majorly. You aren’t actively seeking out muscle or eating for it, but that’s the point of the reset.
This puts you in the best spot moving forward.
And this brings us to The Skinny-Fat Solution.
The Skinny-Fat Solution is a comprehensive resource packed with PDF eBooks and other useful tools that, depending on your level of interest, take you through SOLDIER. As of now, there are three levels you can go with. I’ll run through all of them now, but you should also read about my “No Ass-to-risk Guarantee” that follows.
THE STANDARD PACK (SOLDIER 3.0 ON LOCKDOWN)
The Standard Pack has everything you need to go from zero to SOLDIER 3.0 hero. It contains the training, nutrition, and lifestyle basics to start changing your body. All of the below are instantly downloaded eBook PDF documents that come together in a .ZIP file.
SOLDIER PHILOSOPHY PDF hits you with a comprehensive look at how SOLDIER comes together. It might just light a fire under your feet. (Warning: it mentions Sparta. I’ve been told that anything that incorporates Sparta must be good. Just saying.)
SOLDIER 3.0 X PHYSIQUE TRAINING PDF gives you the program and teaches you the philosophy behind muscle building, specifically in a way that’s going to cater to an “X” physique. It’s a barbell and bodyweight training program.
SOLDIER 3.0 NUTRITION PDF will have you looking at nutrients in a way a casual Google search could never teach you. It gives you the nutrition basics you need in order to make any meaningful body composition strides—how to eat for losing fat, yet also what to consider for muscle repair and growth.
SOLDIER 3.0 QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE PDF gives you the most important nuggets of information from the training, nutrition, and posture/movement guides in one handy dandy place.
SOLDIER 3.0 POSTURE & MOVEMENT PDF teaches you how move. Period. It dissects the fundamental human movements in the squat, press, pull, and hinge, and also guts the issue of posture (as it’s often a skinny-fat sore spot).
SOLDIER 3.0 EXERCISE BREAKDOWN PDFbreaks down each “main” lift within the program and gives suggestions for substitutions. It also gives links to YouTube videos for demonstrations and is chock full of pictures and diagnosing common problems.
(6) SOLDIER 3.0 KITCHEN AND LIFE VOODOO sets you straight. Let’s face it. This journey effects everyone around you. This document is the real gem, in my opinion. It gives you some recipes and kitchen tricks as well as some tips on how to integrate changes into your lifestyle. It’s the stuff no one talks about, yet everyone does behind the scenes. How do you deal with nutrition habits at work? How do you deal with changing your life without de-friending your friends? How do you cook food in a time efficient way? How do you *gasp* enjoy eating vegetables? What spices make food taste good? Why is cheese the greatest thing in the world? (OK, so I don’t exactly tackle that last issue, but I’ll admit to the premise of it.)
+ FREE UPDATES FOR LIFE AND EMAIL CONTACT. I keep in touch with all buyers via email, sending them product updates and anything that crosses my nose that may be useful. This is why people that buy are students more than anything else.
THE HYPER PACK (SOLDIER 3.0-1.0 ON LOCKDOWN)
The Hyper Pack includes everything within the Standard Pack plus these extra PDF documents. The Hyper Pack is designed to give you what you need to complete every phase of SOLDIER on your own. All of these are delivered together inside one .ZIP file.
SOLDIER 2.0: THE STUBBORN FAT LOSS PDF , which outlines nutrition and training changes to help you adjust to the fat loss wall and prevent the dreaded starvation mode. It also teaches you about the wall itself so you don’t exhaust the usefulness of this type of training. Crazily enough, this is the time when you probably should eat more here and there. This takes you through that.
SOLDIER 1.0: THE HYPERMUSCLE QUEST PDF, which tells you what you need to know about your new body, specifically that it probably wants to get fat again. Your fat cells are like Gollum in that they want their prescciioussss energy back. Inside, it also outlines the high frequency training philosophy that I like to use in this phase, which is how to combine high frequency bodyweight training and barbell training in a way that best fits your situation. It also shows you how to go about dialing back your nutrition so you’re not fat loss loopy, but yet at the same time not going into bulk mode. The goal is to “normalize” your body so that it cares more about muscle than fat. Warning: a side effect of this is usually getting jacked; just thought I’d let you know. SOLDIER 1.0 also begins to talk about how to transform some of the staple exercises into more powerful “X” physique exercises.
GMB PERFECTING THE PULL-UP PDF, I’m just going to lay it out there: I treat the barbell deadlift and chin-up like gold. Because they are gold. And because gold is important, I called in my friends over at Gold Medal Bodies to give you some training tips for the pull-up. Ryan Hurst (former gymnast) gives you a progression and proper form to go from 0 to 1 pull-up, and then even some advanced training suggestions.
THE INTERNAL MONOLOGUE PDF, I took pictures throughout the first year of my transformation. This PDF is a ‘lil special egg in the lot in that I self coach myself along the way from where I sit now. For instance, a few months in I actually look fatter than in the beginning because of how my body was losing fat. Just little informative nuggets like this I thought would be valuable.
+ THE STANDARD PACK
BONUS: The Hyper Pack is the Ultima Pack for the time being. With this option, you also get access to the membership area, forums, and coaching website. See Ultima Pack description for more details. Feels good, right?
THE ULTIMA PACK (SOLDIER 3.0-1.0 ON LOCKDOWN WITH PERSONALIZED FEEDBACK)
The Ultima Pack contains everything within the Standard and Hyper Packs, but also lifetime access to the “inner circle” coaching website. Like the Hyper Pack, it’s designed to take you through the entire SOLDIER system, but has much more of a personalized, community focus for those that need or want it. They PDFs and instructions for access are send immediately upon purchase.
ACCESS TO THE INNER CIRCLE for community support and also EXTRA courses. See, this isn’t The Skinny-Fat Solution’s first rodeo. I’ve had previous versions that make an appearance with the rationale of why I might have changed things, so there are different strategies there for those that might do better. Like I said: it’s a personalized kind of place. There’s a forum where you can get feedback on exercise form, additional learning courses, regularly scheduled face time (via Google+ / GoToMeeting) calls.
+ THE HYPER PACK
+ THE STANDARD PACK
–
Because this membership area isn’t quite pristine and still in beta, I can’t justify selling this membership solo. That’s why the Hyper Pack is the Ultima Pack right now. Buy purchasing the Hyper Pack this instant, you’ll actually be an Ultima Pack owner with all of the perks of an Ultima for life. Sweet, right? Come inside, introduce yourself, and help me make it an awesome place.
Breathe easy. You are protected from internet scum.
My No Ass-to-Risk Guarantee is in place to prevent you from being misled or mistreated from online business malpractice. Your satisfaction is my guarantee. You may return this product if it doesn’t meet your expectations. Anytime. Anyplace. Even if my retailers refund period has expired (my retailer is ClickBank and they have a 60 day refund policy), I’ll handle it in house. Check out some testimonials, and then find out more about not risking your ass.
Your mind is swimming with ideas. It has to be. I know mine was.
There’s simply too much out there. P90X. Pilates. Bulking. Cutting. This method. That method. This gidget. That gadget. It’s overload. And sadly, most of it doesn’t work for us. I fell for the instant ab solutions when I was younger. (I even had one of those electrostimulation ab belts — one of my most embarrassing secrets.)
But I’ve done them all. I know your ultra low carb experiment zapped away your muscle. I know P90X didn’t put on the muscle you wanted it to and probably ruined your knees. I know your bulks left you with more fat than muscle. I know because I’ve been there. And I know what’s worked best for me and I can confidently say SOLDIER is that system.
Don’t make the same mistakes I made.
The question ISN’T if you have what it takes, it’s how much time you’re going to waste — how big of a hole you’re going to dig for yourself. It’s no coincidence that you’ve made it this far. You have what it takes. But the more important matter at hand: not getting lost in the thicket so that you can start making progress now. Every day of moving in the opposite direction carries potential irreversible damage.
If this means as much to you as it did to me, you can’t waste any second of your time — or dollar from your wallet — on something that sends you backwards in progress. That’s my back. Those are stretch marks. There. Forever. I could have prevented them by taking action quicker.
So you have a choice: You can stay in your cage. Or you can become king.
Here are some people that chose the latter. Will you be next?
Every document within the Skinny-Fat Solution are PDF files that are compatible with ADOBE and other like PDF readers. They come in a .zip file, which most operating systems can inherently unzip. There are no physical products shipped. And breathe easy. You are protected from internet scum.
My No Ass-to-Risk Guarantee is in place to prevent you from being misled or mistreated from online business malpractice.
First, your satisfaction is my guarantee. You may return this product if it doesn’t meet your expectations. Anytime. Anyplace. Even if my retailers refund period has expired (my retailer is ClickBank and they have a 60 day refund policy), I’ll handle it in house. Check out some testimonials, and then find out more about not risking your ass.
What Others Are Saying
Anthony Mychal is one of the few people whose advice I trust implicitly, and it wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say his teaching has changed my life.
As a former skinny-fat (physically, at least!) looking to add muscle after reaching my solid base, his articles, and the TSFS / Chaos Bulk resources in particular, address my situation perfectly. He doesn’t just prescribe boilerplate sets of lifts, but also tackles the nutrition; lifestyle; and, importantly, the psychological baggage that comes with this body type.
I was lucky enough to jump on the Skinny-Fat Solution charter group membership, and being part of the Skinny Fat Solution coaching group has allowed me a privileged position where Anthony is on hand to offer advice and answer students’ specific questions and concerns. He is always exceptionally supportive, celebrating our achievements with us, without being afraid to dish out a bit of “tough love” where necessary (something I’ve benefited from on more than one occasion!).
In short, I am proud to call him my mentor, and hope to be able to do so for many years to come.
Dajve Green
The “before” pictures here were taken before I found Anthony. I was able to lose some fat with “traditional” bodybuilding methods — frequent meals, no alcohol, etc. But I spent years bulking and cutting, only to get no where. It was SO frustrating.
Enter Anthony and his abundance of Skinny-Fat information, and I was able to stay stay pretty lean, gain strength, and gain muscle. I FINALLY feel like I’m making real progress, and Anthony has BY FAR been the biggest positive influence in that regard.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one more BIG thing. I was one of the biggest offenders of program hopping. There are soooo many resources out there, that are so different, and claim to be the best. I think I tried everything under the sun! Once I adopted Anthony’s policy to stick to a program, practice the Great Eight, and gauge my progress…things started to click!
Mike Gage
I used to be your classic skinny-fat ectomorph. My body composition was born from too many video games and too little physical activity—a lifestyle that also caused debilitating back pain for me as a teenager. I was called names. Teased. I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin. I didn’t enjoy the way I looked.
At the end of 2008, I started exercising regularly. Training was usually three days per week with an hour of aerobic work thrown in. This exercise alone (without dietary considerations) helped with both weight loss and my back pain. But like most people, I fell into the trap of “bulking.” I got thicker, but my muscles didn’t exactly come along for the ride. Bulking didn’t go as planned.
In 2011, I fully bought into what Anthony preached, which turned out being a great decision because it worked. I started looking lean and athletic. My body felt better day by day and I lost 15kg in a relatively short time period. Every exercise I did improved. My pull-ups (that Anthony puts such high praise on) went from 3-4 reps per set to 11 reps per set.
All in all, Anthony’s perspective, and Anthony’s website helped me create not only a better body, but also a better life. I look and feel better than I ever have before.
Johannes Dee
It’s only a small exaggeration to say that Anthony saved my life because I really didn’t have much of one before. My entire life revolved around training. Working out was negatively impacting my life as it had put a strain on my finances (food, memberships, supplements etc.), my relationships with friends and family (go grab a pint? no way!), and my career because all my time and mental focus was being spent on this obsession.
But even with all of that sacrifice, I made very little noticeable gains. Everyone else worked out moderately, never followed any specific diet, and yet they were all in way better shape than me. I tried all of their routines but they didn’t work. I did every fad diet and internet program which just entered me into a cycle of constant failure and frustration. When I began working with personal trainers they attributed my lack of progress to not dieting strictly enough, not enough supplements, or that I was wasn’t pushing myself, or trying hard enough. Wrong.
I found that a problem with a lot of trainers is that many of them have been in shape their whole lives, and believe that those who are out of shape are lazy and make poor diet choices. If you have found your way here, chances are that this does not describe you. Most trainers don’t believe in body types, have no clue about frustration, failure, and the emotional weight of being embarrassed about your body.
What makes Anthony different from all the other trainers out there is that he can empathize with the skinny-fat ectomorph because he has walked in our shoes. He recognizes our struggle and truly understands what we are trying to achieve. His guidance has been both motivational and inspirational to me. The main thing that I think gives him an edge over everyone else is experience. He has been working with his own stubborn body his whole life. Not only has he figured it out for himself but he has helped many others in the same situation. This makes the likelihood of his methods working for you much greater as a good chunk of the guess work has been done. He acknowledges that we must train differently than the average person, and has solutions for our bodies’ stubborn nature.
I’ve learned about the mental aspect of training, which is often forgotten, and it has been beneficial not only to my training but in other areas of my life too. Our bodies react to stress, both physical and mental, in a different manor than the rest of the world. I still train hard and consistently but I never exceed what my body or my mind can take.
My results are that I am the best physical shape that I have ever been in. I have the lowest body fat percentage ever, greatest definition, increased flexibility, and increased aerobic endurance. I look great, feel great, and am comfortable with my shirt off. I train in a way that has become my lifestyle which means that it’s all uphill from here. I’ve finally found a method of training that is giving me real and noticeable results. I got my life back and I got the confidence that I always wanted.
Greg Keyes
Years ago, when I started training, everything I did was more or less the exact opposite of what Anthony teaches. In the few years I had been training I only made small gains relative to how much effort, time and energy I was pumping into my workouts! Before long my skinny fat body was only ever so slightly more muscular and a hell of a lot fatter. This drove me to quit working out and just giving up.
I was out of the gym for close on 4 years and had become very overweight, very weak and very very unhappy. I decided enough was enough. Doing some research lead me to a number of websites, Anthony’s being one of them. I instantly enjoyed reading his articles and the theory made sense to me. Before too long I was pumped to get started again.
I implemented his eating style, his diet tips and his training protocols. Now, a year later, I’m down 65 lbs, about 3 times stronger then when I started, and much much happier. Anthony’s help and teachings are a huge part of what got me to where I am now, and his helpful nature was very greatly appreciated.
Anthony is one of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to talk with. He is a seriously knowledgeable man in this field and is more then happy to share it with everyone. Even if you have a specific question and email him looking for help, he will reply. This is something that is very rare in this industry, even for “Personal” trainers that you meet in person.
I owe so much to what he has thought me, its changed my life forever. I have no doubt that he can do the same for you.
Shane Carberry
I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to fully change my body composition the way I want. But one thing I know for sure – following Anthony’s advice has changed my life! It’s much simpler, healthier and relaxed, at least in terms of training and nutrition.
I used to change workout programs and nutrition strategy every 2-3 months. I was spending hundreds of hours studying all that was available about how to lose fat and gain muscles. I always hoped that next program would be the one. It all just made me hopeless.
Anthony is not a businessmen. He’s not like most of other experts who have done big internet business in fitness. I don’t have anything against it. But this guy really wants to help people, without having any kind of financial benefit for sharing his knowledge, wisdom and advice.
As former skinny-fat ectomorph there is no better person to teach by his own experience. Besides he knows a lot about the athleticism in general. Also, very important, he is gifted to transfer his knowledge in so simple and practical way that anyone can understand and immediately apply.
Finally, I know exactly what I do and why I do that particular exercise, why I do that many sets and reps, why I eat what I eat and when I eat… It’s that simple! I just regret there was no “Anthony” some 15 years ago.
Bojan Vuina
I am excited to tell you since discovering Anthony Mychal I have found the required faith that I can reach my goals. Seeing the proof with Anthony’s transformation I now know that I too can build a more muscular body. I have been primarily on the skinny side of Skinny Fat for all my life. I am now following Anthony’s recommendations found on his blog, The Skinny Fat Solution and Chaos Bulk programs. Today I am making gains not seen after over a dozen years of lifting weights. Even after religiously following another popular skinny guy 5 x 5 program for a frustrating few years. I have learned that pull-up are vital and I need to do bicep curls in order to reach my goals. I highly endorse Anthony’s recommendations and his products.
Gary Frank
Ant’s approach to strength, conditioning and nutrition is unique in that he has taken the logic and common sense of some of the best in the game and applied his own experiences and knowledge to create systems and ideas tailored towards those of us from a genetically disadvantaged background. On a personal level, Ant’s writing and guidance has finally got my training and nutrition moving forward after years of spinning my wheels. I look better than ever before, and although I have a long way to go to reach my physique and strength goals, I know that Ant’s guidance will help get me there. His ideas just make a lot of sense, and he presents them in such a way so as to make the seemingly complex easy to understand. He is also conscientious; on many occasions I have pestered him with mundane, interesting or challenging questions, and I have always received a reply. His products deliver great value for money, and if you have a question, he will answer it. What more could you want?!
Toby Griffiths
I had two big problems with my body. First, I didn’t like it. Second, I had lower back pain. Sitting in a chair all day really takes it’s toll. I thought I was helpless.
Then I found Anthony’s blog, and read The Skinny Fat Solution. Everything that Anthony teaches with The Skinny-Fat Solution helped me so much, the exercises, the nutrition guide, and even down to the way of life that he proposes.
Now I’m not only free from back pain, but I’m also happier with my body. It’s a journey and I’m just starting, but I can already tell that it will be a sweet ride. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, and I only look forward to the future. There are a lot of fitness guys who teach how to train. Only a few teach how to train in a healthy manner. And not many have the empathy of Anthony.
Jorge Rodighiero
No-Ass-to-Risk Guarantee Continued
Let’s start back from the top: My No Ass-to-Risk Guarantee is in place to prevent you from being misled or mistreated from online business malpractice.
First, your satisfaction is my guarantee. You may return this product if it doesn’t meet your expectations. Anytime. Anyplace. Even if my retailers refund period has expired (my retailer is ClickBank and they have a 60 day refund policy), I’ll handle it in house. Check out some testimonials, and then find out more about not risking your ass.
Second, the training program makes use of barbell training. There is no alternative program, because I don’t compromise my stones (what I feel works best) to appease others. In order to introduce those unfamiliar, I created the “Dissecting the Great Eight,” “Perfecting the Pull-up,” and “Leveling Up the Upper Chest” guides to truly turn over everything I program. It’s fully comprehensive.
The nutrition protocol makes use of intermittent fasting, which is going for prolonged times without food. The best way to think of intermittent fasting: it’s a nutrition strategy that has you skip breakfast and eat lighter through out the day.
In regard to typical results, I always give the same disclaimer with any digital product: One of two things will happen when you buy my products. Either A: You might buy it and never use it. You might even return it because you’re too lazy to use it, read it, or value what’s inside. Or B: you’ll get it, follow through with the plan, learn something new about yourself, and see the resultant knowledge shine through with improvements in your body or life. Things with the body take hard work. If you’re willing to chip in your share you won’t be disappointed.
If you want to purchase any of these guides alone, or if you have any questions…
|| anthony -at- anthonymychal.com ||
Email me. I’m a human, so I understand if you have any questions. And yes, I’ll personally respond.
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The Underpowered Optimist
This is just a bit of an analysis, or rather something I noticed, when considering a couple of protagonists who have managed to skyrocket their way to popularity, Ruby Rose and Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, and what they have in common.
Recently I watched a video analysis on Hero’s in stories called “What Makes a Hero Feel Real?” by SuperEyePatchWolf (go check it out, all their analysis are great). When watching this, they used a graph to and placed heroes on it based on Morality and Contextual power. Morals were simple, with the “I want to do good” heroes on one and the anti-heroes on the other. Power was simply how well a character could change and influence the world around them, both through influence and through force. On the powerful heroic side you had people like Super-Man, always good and nearly unstoppable. This is where most heroes fall, being good people who can change the world around them.
For a time, grim-dark heroes became popular though. Changes were made and other heroes gained some popularity. Anti-heroes who would have no problem with destruction or death so long as it meant achieving their goal of stopping crime/saving the world/revenge/etc. Now though, there has been a change, and I’ve noticed a bit of another type of hero getting more popular again. The Underpowered Optimist.
One specific character stuck out to me on this chart that I saw, being very low on the power scale, but high on the “good” scale. That is the character of Izuku “Deku” Midoriya. For those of you who don’t know, Deku is the Hero-in-training of the show/manga Boku No Hero Academia, or My Hero Academia (MHA). He is a somewhat socially awkward character who dreamed big of becoming a hero, but was limited by biological chance and told he couldn’t succeed. Nevertheless he studied, worked, and trained in order to get into his dream school so he could become a true Hero.
When I saw Deku there on that chart, I realized just how much he reminded me of another character that many people like, and one of my favorite characters, Ruby Rose. Just like Deku, Ruby is a young socially awkward teenager who wants to be a hero and trained extremely hard to get into her dream school in order to do so. Both are born in worlds filled with super powered people, making them contextually weak compared to those around them.
Now it could be argued that neither of these characters are truly weak. Deku has super strength so great that a single flick of his fingers can create enough air pressure to destroy a wall of ice, and Ruby has super speed, heavy endurance, and extreme skill with a highly dangerous weapon that she personally designed. However the entire base is that these are contextual. While Deku does indeed have a large amount of physical strength, he only achieved this recently. Spending most of his life as one of the few people without a power made him a target for bullies, and even after getting the power he can’t use it without sustaining extreme injury to his body.
Similarly, Ruby is in fact quite skilled, enough so that she managed to get into her dream school two years early, and she’s been shown to mow down large amounts of monsters in a matter of minutes. However the entire concept is relative. She is still just a fifteen year old girl at the start of the series. While her skill for her age is advanced, its shown many times that she still has a long way to go. Many of her classmates have skills equal or greater than hers, and people who are older are on a scale she isn’t even close to achieving yet. For the villains she’s considered not much more than a nuisance.
Both of these characters are young idealists who want to improve the world and train desperately to do so. However they also both don’t have the power to actually succeed. This is quite different from many other series where the protagonists are given the power to change the world through any variety of circumstances, be it birth, radiation, money, or a spider bite. While we see the dreams of these characters, we also see that their hard work has only taken them so far.
Despite their failing ability to affect change in the world, both their series have become extremely popular. The characters inspire others to root for them not because they are a powerful force standing between good and bad, but specifically because they choose to stand up despite lacking power. Both heroes acknowledge that villains and darkness exist in the world, but they choose to fight regardless.
Ruby, as of volume 4, has seen a drastic change in her world, with friends injured and even killed as her world and dream crumbled before her eyes at a force far beyond anything she and her team could even hope to handle. The darkness which had always been far off moved to the forefront and showed no mercy. Even so, she picked herself up, motivated her friends, and moved to continue her fight.
Deku, born into a much brighter world, was told his dream was impossible. He later was given a chance, and hard work earned him a power that he couldn’t truly use. His only choice was to fail, or gain an ability that would shatter his body with any use. Instead he used his mind to avoid using it as much as possible, letting his body break when he needed it, so that he could fight longer and train to master it. While he succeeds in stopping his body from breaking, he also loses nearly all the power in the process. Even so he continues to fight, resolving to become the greatest hero, no matter what it takes.
In the end, it seems to be fairly simple what makes these heroes special. Everyone enjoys an underdog story, seeing the small rise up to challenge the very world around it. However there seems to be more. Part of what makes these heroes who they are is that they represent a force of unbridled and unwavering “good” in their world. I worlds filled with villains and monsters, suffering loss, pain, and suffering, these small, literally and figuratively, heroes strive to stare down the darkness of the world and remain unbroken. Despite lack of power and a world telling them they will fail, these characters refuse to waver, seeking to become the heroes of story that can help those around them and make the world a better place. In the end, it’s the fact that they aren’t Super-Man or Goku with godlike powers that makes their desire to help the world seem that much more interesting, and gives us all the more reason to cheer them on.
#RWBY#BNHA#Ruby Rose#Deku#midoriya izuku#just a little something I noticed#not much#i just like analyzing these things
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I Didn’t
http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/163454403646/so-kob-how-exactly-did-you-debunk-my-claim
1. That was not the argument at hand in the OP: The argument was whetehr or not the shows you listed where better than RWBY.
And 2. I actually did compare RWBY to them. And I even pointed this out the last time you tried this and said how it was an example that RWBY stands up even to professional shows.
But, guess it’s easier to fight a strawman huh?
Primarily out of curiosity. To see if they still held up even after all these years, and to see how they compare to RWBY. IMPO, they are BETTER. Oh wait, that’s an opinion that makes RWBY seem mediocre in comparison, no WONDER you think that all I do is bash RWBY despite the fact that I want to love the show. It makes SO Much SENSE NOW.
No, you were talking in a very affirmative and factual way in the OP, meaning you were claiming yourself to be right. (https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/162855264440/yes-yes-it-was)
And I realized that the show, Beast Wars, one of the very FIRST 3D Animated shows ever aired, is better than RWBY.
So no, you were not saying an opinion, you were trying to pass off an opinion as fact. As you are still doing now. And half of your argument is strawmaning me for pointing this out by twisting the facts: if you are so right, you wouldn’t need to do this.
1. So, if Cinder is supposed to be hated, why are we shown her having regrets about things? Why are we shown her to be in pain? These are things that are done to give us a reason to sympathize with a villain, but we have yet to actually be SHOWN or even TOLD what her reasons are for wanting power. She’s supposed to be sympathetic in those scenes in Vol 4, but earlier she acts like a villain who is aware that she’s evil, and is okay with that. Also, the Joker is a force of nature, no villain can top him. But Rampage utterly DEMOLISHES Cinder in the ‘motive’ department.
because she was give n some humanity, some flaws, to make her less two dimensional. By this logic, because the Joker has a tragic backstory, we are meant to feel sorry for him when that is clearly not the case.
And here’s a problem I stated in the argument: Beast Wars is finished. RWBy is not. In the future, we could very well get more information on Cinder’s motives. You can’t make judgements like these until you have all the facts: And yet you are making broad strokes about RWBY.
No...The Joker is not a “Force Of Nature” villain: Darkseid is an example of that type of villain. The Joker is the “Insane, tricky, unpredictable, chaotic trickster” type of villain. This is a problem you have here: You cannot tell the difference between two types of characters. It’s like saying Shinji Ikari is a better protagonist than Goku: they are not compatible. In fact: That in and of itself is a problem here. Rampage was built t be the “Tragic insane” character whereas Cinder is the “power hungry manipulator” villain: they are not compatible thus the argument comes down to who you like subjectively better and in an argument, that means jack shit.
And another thing: You STILL don’t explain jackshit abut your side: How does rampage crush Cinder in motive? Why does he? You can’t just claim these things as fact.
2. Beast Wars IS better. For starters, the writers NEVER withheld valuable information, and they never relied on forced humor. Not to mention the fact that the characters are fleshed out, and get more than one episode in the limelight.
Okay, so first you say that you are stating your opinion and now you are repeating what you said earlier but as fact...Dudeblade, you can’t even go a paragraph without contradicting yourself.
Okay...So? How is that bad? How is not withholding information bad in RWBY or Best Wars? in fact: How do you know withholding info wouldn’t make Beast Wars better or not make RWBY better? No explanation? FIne, your argument is invalid.
How is the humor forced or not forced? What is the tone of Beats Wars and how does it ? Any examples? No? Then I claim bias against RWBY again.
And RWBY isn’t finished: Stop making jumps in logic just to suit your narrative.
3. This is because RW/BY has a cultish following of fans who refuse to see the bad in the show. Like you. You claim that RT isn’t homophobic when they literally repeated the same unfunny “fag” joke in Camp Camp TWICE! And this is just proving my point. “If it’s professionally made, but has a lower rating on IMDb, then we can compare it to RW/BY“ - That’s you. “If it was professionally made, but has a higher rating than RW/BY, then it isn’t fair to compare the two.” - That’s also you.
And I can claim that Beast Wars has a cultist following fueled by Nostalgia and it’d hold the same weight as yours: none at all. because neither of us provide any evidence. In fact, I can say that you are biased against RWBY and then as proof point out all points in which you ignore aspects of RWBY (such as being incomplete, different types of villians and how the shows are structured) or never give examples (humor, motives, characters as well as action, vocals, audio and animation) in this very post in order to declare Beats Wars better.
I can also point out the fact that you call Camp Camp unfunny but admit to watching South Park and the SImpsons were they made those exact same jokes.
And no, I am not. As we will see latter down the line, I actually compare RWBY to higher rated shows. You are the only one who refuses to acknowledge RWBY as being professional until you can say that it is worse than something else.
Here, let me do it right now. Jimmy is the smart kid who feels like an outcast because of his intillect - Something that people can relate to because they can feel like an outcast for simply being BETTER than others at something. Carl is the kid with the medical conditions and weird obsession, which everyone has. Sheen is the guy who hero worships a fictional character, much like how you worship miles and Kerry. Cindy is the girl who is jealous that her title of “The Smartest” was toppled, and Libby has an obsession over music - something that EVERYONE has, or at least KNOWS a person who is.
Except that I don’t feel like an outcast because of my intellect, in fact, it wasn’t because I had something over other people but rather I LACKED something from them. So Jimmy would seem pretentious and entitled to me. Not everyone has a weird obsession and definitely doesn’t have medical conditions. And you missed the ACTUAL chance to be right and say “Kamina or Simon The Digger”, two characters I heavily look up to. Instead, you bring up an attack on me that makes you look like an ass.
Cindy just comes off as a brat to me because I LIKE it when someone is smarter than me: it allows me to see what I am doing wrong and improve. And Libby’s obsession with music is literally the only thing I can relate to.
See the problem Dudeblade? Not everyone THINKS your way, not everyone AGREES with you: In fact, most people don’t.
Going off of your point: I can say the same to the characters in RWBy. Everyone has been like Ruby at some point, blissfully believing in a good world. A lot of people have parental problems like Weiss (like you), a lot of people can relate to trying to fight against the world while trying to NOT become like their enemy and a lot of people can relate to Yang’s depression (as I have and I know you have.) Even if you bring up my previous point: That just means the two shows go after different things.
But if you insist on this, let me ask you: Name a trait of Jimmy’s that isn’t smart or condescending. Name a trait of Carl’s beside sick and weird. Name a trait of Sheen’s beyond stupidity and obsession. Because I can with RWBY: Ruby’s issues with dealing with the world not being what she thought it was, her eagerness to make friends and her guilt about putting people around her in danger. Weiss has her overcoming her racism, learning to put aside her grievances with Ruby to work with her and become her best friend and her admiration of her sister Winter. Blake has her cowardice, her martyr complex, her issues with Adam as well as her inability to let people help her. yang has her maturity, her depression and overcoming it, her good nature, her relationship with Ruby and her father, her duality with her mother and her tendency to be harsh towards those she cares about. You do not give an example of how they are better characters beyond being relateable which RWBY has as well.
Oh hey, look! MORE proof that IMDB ratings are all that matter. Despite the fact that you claim that LoK has an unfair advantage when it has a higher rating.
1. Because they are factual and the only place RWBY shares a page with all the examples.
And 2. I pointed out the exact same advantages that the other three had as well:
And unlike Beast Wars which is a part of an existing franchise, complete and had more professional backing: RWBY didn’t and still doesn’t. Again, while this is amazing of Beast Wars, RWBY is still factually rated higher so your opinion doesn’t hold much weight.
And this while being completed and backed by a popular network whereas, again, RWBY is NOT. SO even with all those advantages, RWBY still beats it out.
And it aired on Cartoon Network and is complete. So your statement fails.
I bring them up in BOTH sides of the coin: You only argue them when they have the higher ratings.
More proof that you only care about ratings when it comes to comparisons.
Contradicted when I demanded that you explain why it was better right BEFORE that as well as the fact that I bring up this right at the end:
And the only one I really fond impressive is Beast Wars. Storm hawks and Jimmy Neutron are both utterly crushed by RWBY in teh ratings, who doesn’t have network backing, isn’t a part of an existing franchise and isn’t complete so it can still go up.
And again: ratings are factual. You cannot make them up nor can you fake them. They are a factual way of quantifying a series' quality. You have yet to disprove that.
YOU SEE! You just proved my point. You just said that the other shows don’t matter because they got crushed by ratings, but when it’s RWBY that’s getting crushed, then it’s unfair because they had “network backing.” NEWS FLASH! - LoK got SCREWED OVER by the network. Your argument is ALREADY contradicted by actual facts.
Except that these exact points you bring up were brought up with the previous three when they had lower ratings: You are only now arguing them because you have a chance at twisting the facts.
And how was LOK screwed over? Because it got so low ratings that Nickolodean pulled it off the air? (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/TheLegendOfKorra) Wouldn’t a show getting pulled or canceled be a sign of it being bad normally unless proven otherwise, which is not the case here? Especially since TLA never did?
Again, because people like YOU keep claiming that it’s “unfair” to compare RWBY to things like LoK or SU. RWBY has the advantage of not having to deal with censors, and being able to go back to fix things they are aware would make fans confused, but they don’t take advantage of it. Which is a problem considering that you seem to ignore the fact that other shows have to deal with censors, and don’t have the luxury of being able to hire TFS or Funimation VA for one-shot characters. when SU uses a guest star, it’s for a character that is special, and is likely to return. RWBY? - “Oh hey! Let’s hire TFS voice actors for these characters” “Great, which ones?” “These guys.” “But, they’ll only be there for one episode…And they hardly have any lines.” “Exactly! We’ll get the recognition of USING TFS actors to voice characters,and NOT have to worry about paying them so much” - That? That was the (probable) thought process that went into the idea of using TFS actors. Though, it’s also my cynicism talking as well.
I claim it is unfair...then proceed to compare them to RWBY with the same standards that I did with the previous three while you refuse to argue ratings until they are higher than RWBY’s? And...so what about censors? Stuff that the censors deal with nowadays don't concern the quality of a show: Lesbians and black people do not make a good show. They are inconsequential to a show’s quality.
And that’s true...only Tara Strong, one of the most iconic voices in the business.
And a constant compliant with RWBY has always been the voice acting: So wouldn’t hiring more professional actors fix the problem? So attempting to fix a problem is bad now?
And you just admitted to having bias being prevalent in your argument: Why should anyone take what you say here seriously?
Much like how RWBY isn’t even noteworthy enough to get a review by the Nostalgia Critic despite LoK and SU doing so. And considering that you used the words “mostly just using Smash Bros brawl for acting” when you conveniently ignore the stolen assets that RWBY uses, I’m guessing you don’t even know the story at all.
... Nostalgia critic doesn’t review cartoons anymore, especially such recent ones. That's Doug Walker and those are Vlogs, personal opinion. Not factual reviews.
And that “assest stealing” has been disproven (https://lovenotefromcoco.tumblr.com/post/155633293739/slashmaiddeviantartcomartrwby-wtf-645284611). A RWBY fan would know this.
Here’s another thing: Just because RWBY is the first American-made anime DOESN’T automatically excuse any of the mistakes that it constantly makes. I know that’s a hard concept for you, but I can do this about Beast Wars and the mistakes that it made despite being one of the first 3D animated shows to ever air.
Okay...never said it did: You were just trying to devalue the accomplishments of RWBY so I showed accomplishments you couldn’t devalue.
Ahem; Tigerhawk got killed off too early, we never got to explore a whole lot on Megatron’s dragon mode, Blackarachnia whines about not being trusted too much despite having a lot more bad blood with the other Maximals, they used TIME TRAVEL as part of the plot, and Rampage’s caring nature wasn’t explored that much.
And yet you claim it to be better than RWBY when I see many of the same mistakes you claim RWBY has done in here. And when I did this in the past, you still called me a fanboy so why should this be different for you?
There, I just listed off some of the things in Beast Wars that were mistakes/irritating. But unlike RWBY, these are just mine, whereas most of the gripes about RWBY are shared by most of the rwde tag.
And are these shared by most of the RWBY tag on Tumblr, let alone circles that do not include Tumblr? Are they shared by the critics of RWBY or that one jackass FMF? No, so by your own logic, you are still wrong here.
Grow the fuck up kob. RWBY isn’t “Magically exempt from criticism” like you say. Neither are miles, Kerry, Grey, and the rest of crwby. They have to be held accountable for their bullshit excuses and mistakes, or they’ll only receive praise from the likes of you and the rest of the cultish fndm. Meaning that they’ll keep making the same mistakes over. And over. And over.
Funny you say that: I did in fact criticize RT in my Volume 4 review (https://team-crtq.tumblr.com/post/162758524659/volume-4-review). I’m not the one lying, attacking people, being hypocritical, calling someone racist in the tags for no reason other than Ad Hominin and attacking people. I’ m not the one who refuses to say anything but one side of a conversation, refuse to do the same for other shows and then calls everyone who disagrees with them a “cult.” That’s just you.
You failed in the very title of your post so I don’t know what you were expecting.
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My wants for Super Smash Bros for Switch
In my previous blog post, I talked about the rumors regarding a Smash Bros game for Switch coming out in 2018. Since the dawn of time, when a new Smash game is teased, fans speculate rosters with new and outrageous characters they want to be in the game. These requests can vary from calm and believable, like an Inkling or Ice Climbers, to absolutely outrageous shenanigans like Shrek and Goku. With the anomaly of Super Smash Bros for WiiU adding some of the most requested and completely insane characters to the mix, it might be hard to judge what could happen with Smash 5. Could Shrek actually be in the game? Who’s to say Goku doesn’t have a chance? With the success of the Dragonball anime and games, even my mom knows who Goku is! That might mean something for Nintendo! For now, let’s get all the goofs out of the way at let me break down what I think will be in the next Super Smash Bros game.
I would like to begin with the characters. I mean that’s probably why most of you are reading this anyways. Does anyone really care if I say I want Corneria back or maybe the Cracker Launcher? Didn’t think so... I’m going to rundown all the characters I think have a chance of being added/returning to the game. Now keep in mind, most Smash games have one “out of nowhere” character that sneaks their way in, so if you see Sukapon or a Tetris block in, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Let's just get one of the most obvious newcomers out of the way, the Splatoon Inkling. If you have been following Nintendo for the past couple years, it's clear Splatoon has become one of their most beloved new IPs and has high brand recognition. Splatoon has already showed it's popularity with the inclusion of Inklings as well as a themed track and karts in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It's also easy to predict what the Inkling would do in combat. With the wide variety of weaponry in Splatoon, the squid transformation and the ink-splatting mechanics, Inkilings move-set is as predictable as a new Mario Maker on Switch. I for one would love to see an Inkling in the next Smash game and am 100% sure it will happen, but who else?
With Splatoon being one of Nintendo's newest IPs, is it not safe to assume the Springman from ARMS has a chance too? ARMS was the first new Nintendo IP to hit the Switch and it was popular for a short period after it’s launch. In fact, there is still a loyal scene out there for hardcore ARMS players and tournaments still going on. Not to mention his move-set would be another simple one too. Besides the basic punch moves with his standard attacks, they could mix things up with the different arms with elemental damage, or even have some of the environmental objects from the stages of ARMS integrated in his special moves. I'm sure they would also play off the fact that all ARMS characters can stretch their arms for his smash attacks and grabs. As for other new characters I'd like to see in, I would really like to see someone like Paper Mario or even a new Metroid character (I'm honestly not too familiar with the Metroid series o.o). I think Paper Mario would be interesting with his arsenal of different stickers and super moves, and a new Metroid character is just needed! But someone I’m praying for and I think would just be sooooo cool, is a Breath of the Wild style Link. Think about it, Link from Breath of the Wild is VERY different from past interpretations of Link. I can imagine now a Link with unique standard attacks using the vast and new weapons like axes and spears. Combined with the Sheikah Slate and it's abilities as well as the champion abilities as smash attacks or special moves, this Wild Link could be a very interesting character! Wild Link is honestly my biggest wish for Smash 5, and with the success of Breath of the Wild, I’m sure they will put some character/item/stage to give it it’s respects. Now that I’ve gotten my wet dream of newcomers out of the way, let’s ponder what will be returning to Smash 5, or should I say who?
Smash 4 has one of the most diverse character selections of the Smash series, but not everyone from previous games was lucky enough to make the cut. Now that Smash 5 will be on the big-boy console with amble amounts of power, I think it’s best to bring back the Ice Climbers. The Ice Climbers were one of the first out-of-left-field characters to be added to the Smash series and I quite frankly love it! Ever since Super Smash Bros Melee, the roster of the Smash games has not only included fan favorites, but also payed homage to the classic games that made Nintendo what we know and love now! The main reason they were removed though was due to the limitations of the 3DS, and I can safely say the Switch would be able to handle the slippery duo. Now if they bring back 8-Player Smash that’s a different story but we’ll talk about that later. As for more returning characters I’d like to see, anymore of the other Pokemon Trainer’s Pokemon would be nice! Squirtle and Ivysaur both had very interesting move-sets that some players really loved. The fact that Nintendo removed two original characters from the game baffles me completely, even more so with the inclusions of characters like Dark Pit and Doctor Mario. I’m honestly not a fan of the clone characters, but I would like to see a re-worked Wolf be added back too. Lastly, PICHU!!! No, just kidding. I know this will probably never happen again, but if Snake would return to Smash 5, I think I might buy three copies! Snake was one of my favorite characters from Brawl so I might be a little biased, but he also had a really cool unique move-set. Not to mention Snake really didn’t fit in with the rest of the lovable Nintendo cast, and that’s what fans loved about him. The pure joy of getting a smashball as Snake and raining down grenades on Jigglypuff and King Dedede, ohhh yahh! Pure bliss! His inclusion was heavily influenced by Hideo Kojima, so considering he’s not at Konami anymore gives Snake a slim chance of returning. But hey, Konami does like that thing called money, so you never know! Thus concludes all my thoughts and wants for characters in Smash 5. Now it’s time for a vigorous and exciting paragraph talking about my wants for new and returning stages and items! ...Or how about we talk about something I actually think Smash 5 will need, a new single player mode.
Smash 4 introduced us with 2 different new modes added to the series. Smash Run was the featured mode for the 3DS and it was honestly a fine mode. I didn’t play the mode as much as others, but I honestly enjoyed what little time I played. The WiiU version got Smash Tour which was not so great. I only played this mode once or twice and it seemed like Smash and Mario Party had a one night stand. For my sake, I wish they would’ve used protection. Both of these modes were McDonald’s chicken nuggets compared to Gordon Ramsey’s sliced free range chicken breast, coated in layers of breadcrumbs, fried to crispy perfection, The Subspace Emissary. Okay, I might be over exaggerating here, not to mention TSE(The Subspace Emissary for short) isn’t comparable to the multiplayer modes that are Smash Run and Smash Tour. From the trailers Nintendo were putting out at the time, they seemed to be suggesting that these new modes would be just as good, if not better, than TSE. TSE might honestly have taken the development team too much time, which could explain the delays for Brawl. Even if that is the case, I’d give my amiibo collection to have another shot of TSE, a TSE2 if you will. I adored this mode, seeing the different characters subtly interact with one another, telling a simple story without the needs of speech or text. Not to mention the unique world, enemies, and bosses added to this mode. Many players have complained that TSE didn’t really connect any of the Nintendo universes because they just weren’t there in the story, instead replaced with generic ruins, forests, and cities. But, for some reason I really enjoyed this. Instead of this world being a Nintendoland, it felt to me like a real world, where each of the different characters were on their own adventures, living all actively together. Sprinkling in the Shadow Bugs to create interesting enemies, shadow versions of our heroes, and new epic bosses, the world really had a personality. TSE was also great because it allowed you to try out all the different characters. I never expected to like R.O.B. until I got a chance to play him in TSE and now he is still one of my mains to this day. The Subspace Emissary will always hold a special place in my heart! It compares to, but exceeds, the adventure mode found in Melee. Hopefully Nintendo will actually put some sort of new single player mode in Smash 5, considering the Switch is offline most of the time it’s a no brainier. I will even take a Melee style mini adventure mode, please Nintendo! Single player game modes NEEDS TO RETURN TO SMASH 5!!!
Alright Nintendo! I pretty much just made you guys a winner that every Smash fan would want to see. I’ll just fax you my email and phone number and maybe we could work out a cut?!? You guys should know these things are all I want in the game. I’m a simple man when it comes to games. I just wanna be White colored Link and throw my bombs and boomerang at people! Maybe get a few Marth matches, land some tippers in there(OHHHHH YAAAAAAH) If any of you want to add your ideas or wants, feel free to hmu or leave a comment. I could go on and on about what I’d add to this Smash game, but I’ll stop myself. The next time I talk about Smash 5, hopefully there will be a trailer instead of rumors! Maybe I could talk about all the three thousand, six hundred seventy two Smash amiibo Nintendo released and how I about every one of them. Nintendo, you keep releasing that plastic, and I’ll buy it! Except Animal Crossing... no one wants those apparently...
#nintendo#nintendo switch#switch#super smash bros#smash#super mario#legend of zelda#link#zelda#pokemon#game news#gamies#gaming#videogame#video games#gamer#blog#gamingblog#video game blogging#videogameblog#splatoon#arms#melee#brawl#wiiu#smash 4#pikachu#kirby#donkey kong#star fox
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Day 4. [3048]
The admin running the RP site gave me a writing discount with the agreement that I would be willing to be a battle mod when necessary. It was much appreciated. Took my 4250 word requirement down to a 3000 word one.
"No, no, you have to scream while you do it," Captain Ginyu coached. "The point of the pose is not simply to pose, but to show off your excellent physique. When you scream, you call attention to yourself and force your opponent to gaze upon you in your full glory." Gatas sighed. This newest technique that the Ginyu Squad was trying to show her seemed utterly pointless, but each member had struck a different pose before insisting that she choose at least one to learn for her own benefit. Of the five, this one looked the least ridiculous. Now they were expecting her to scream while doing it? She shook out her arms to limber up before striking the pose again, this time voicing her irritation in the form of a primal bellow. "Yes, just like that!" Ginyu roared with approval as the rest of his squad cheered and applauded. "Again!" A few more practice runs of the move and the older Shikirian was sufficiently satisfied that Gatas could execute it properly. Each time brought another round of applause from the other four warriors, but on the final rep Gatas heard another slower clap continue after the Ginyu Squad had ceased in their celebration. She turned to see that a tall and imposing green humanoid now stood in between Burter and Recoome, a steady smirk on his face. "Well done," he said. "I haven't seen you around here before, so I'll assume you fell into league with this motley crew because you're new and you didn't know any better." Gatas raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The Ginyu Squad may have been an eccentric and rowdy bunch, but they had been nothing but respectful and helpful to her since their meeting. "Oh, how rude of me," the green man laughed. "I forgot that the newcomers usually haven't heard of me, since I came and went before their time. I'm Perfect Cell." "Oi, back off mate. She doesn't wanna talk to you." "And she hasn't yet," Cell said. "Come on now, you old dogs are running out of tricks to teach her anyway. Don't think I wasn't watching. Aside from Ginyu's body swap maneuver and Guldo's fancy time stop trick, what do you really have to offer her besides the one pose she just chose to learn out of the five you were offering?" "Er..." "Thought so!" Cell looked to Gatas. "Come now. I see you're interested to learn more powerful techniques for your own sake, and I'm probably more qualified to teach you than anyone else down here." "What makes you say that?" Guldo interjected. "Because, my dear Bas-jin, my genetic makeup includes DNA and information from all the greatest heroes of our time. That means the same people and the same attacks that killed all of you," Cell paused, gesturing vaguely in Ginyu's direction, "well, most of you, are inside of me. And my fathers, who art mostly in heaven, had all the best moves." "Mostly? What about the rest?" Jeice couldn't help but ask. "Well, don't act too surprised when I tell you this, but someone you know was also a major contributor to the magnificence that is me. His dad, too." Cell smiled, his gaze passing over the five members of the Ginyu Squad in turn. "You don't see the resemblance? I may not be as pale or as purple as them, but you could say I'm a little... King Cold-blooded?" Recoome snorted. "Hehe, I get it." "Anyway, enough of that. You're more than welcome to join me, if you're interested in picking up a few new tricks. Even on the off chance that you are interested in what I have to teach, I could point you in the direction of other potential trainers." Cell began to walk away from Gatas and the Ginyu Squad, looking back over his shoulder once he was several paces away. "I'll be making my rounds shortly. The decision is yours." Gatas looked around at the quintet, nodding at the Captain and Jeice before she left to follow the slowly retreating form of Perfect Cell. Catching up quickly, she fell into step, walking slightly behind and to the right of the bio-android. "No, no, with me," Cell said, slowing his pace until the Shikirian woman was walking beside him. "I can't keep talking to you if you're way back there, and I don't think I can expect to have you carry the conversation." They continued at a leisurely stroll through the various parts of Hell, slowing down or stopping entirely any time the powerful bio-android found someone of import to comment on. By that notion, Gatas was quick to observe, Hell was full of important people. "Not much to see around these parts," Cell commented. "The majority of the rabble that frequent this area are some of Frieza's men. Most of their names aren't worth remembering, but-- oh, wait a moment. That one over there, with the green hair? That's Zarbon. He almost killed Vegeta once. I know Vegeta is probably one of several Saiyans with the same name, being named after their home planet and all, but I'm talking about the Vegeta. One of my main sources of DNA. His power never quite lived up to Goku's, except maybe in moments of extreme rage, but I do appreciate having some of his genetic code. Glad I didn't get his hair, though. That widow's peak would have clashed horribly with the rest of my face. "I'm surprised Dodoria isn't hanging around today if Zarbon's around. Dodoria's not very bright, but he likes to use his head. In a much more literal sense, I mean. The spikes aren't just there for decoration. I'm sure you understand that. If I had horns, I'd certainly use them. It would be like an homage to Frieza's encounter with Krillin," Cell chuckled. The two continued their walk. Hell was by no means empty, but it managed not to be crowded even with all its inhabitants. Still, hardly a minute passed without Gatas and Cell seeing another damned soul. Gatas spotted a few Shikirians that she recognized from their race's big brawl earlier and waited for Cell's commentary, if any was to come. "Ah yes, your race. Fascinating, really, that trick Ginyu has up his sleeve. It kept him alive much longer than the rest of his squad, though I'd hardly call it living if you're stuck in the body of a Namekian frog for almost the whole time. I hope you put the move to better use than that, if you have the opportunity. But then again, I don't know what your plans are. Did you want to go back to the world of the living eventually, or is this it for you? Just gonna spend the rest of eternity in the afterlife?" Gatas's brow furrowed. She hadn't considered the possibility of there being a way to come back to life; she merely accepted that she had died in battle, as was the ideal for her race. Now Cell was telling her that she could go back to life as a soldier? Gatas had heard of the legendary warrior Goku and how he and his allies managed to come back from death time and time again, but she had no allies she believed would be willing to wish her back to life. Another rumor she had heard involved a Tuffle of some renown on planet Namek, who had supposedly died in battle and then reached back from the dead to claim his enemy's life. She had more battles left in her, that much was certain. Did she want to go back and pick up where she left off? She could claim more victories, and more victims. The war couldn't possibly have ended in the brief time that she'd been gone, and her victory against Lute meant that if she returned, she was guaranteed intel on other high-profile targets. On the other hand, it seemed that she still had much to learn in Hell. "Oh, that's hilarious," Cell said, interrupting Gatas's bout of introspection. She followed his gaze and saw what had caught his eye. A tall, broad-shouldered figure in the distance was hard at work plowing a massive field in the shade of an equally enormous tree. "A Shin-jin in Hell, and taking up farming by the looks of it. I wonder what old Yema had to say about him when he came through the checkpoint for judgment." Filing Cell's comment about returning to life away for later, Gatas climbed up a hill after Cell to get a better view of the tree. A Saiyan sat at the base of its trunk, picking his teeth with a bored expression on his face. The bio-android's eyes lit up. "Turles! Now, he wouldn't be anything special if not for that tree he's guarding, but he's been snacking on those fruits for a while now. They've got a lot of juice, I hear." Cell snorted at his own pun. "Too bad he has nothing to offer in the way of innovative techniques. Let's move on. We may have eternity, but I'm not going to waste any of it watching plants grow if I can help it." The pair descended from the hill the same way they came, then took a left to continue into new territory. "It is a shame, you know," Cell commented. "So many new souls condemned here day in and day out, and of the minority that are strong enough to even retain a physical form, even fewer still have any worthwhile techniques for me to observe. I hear there's a war going on back on Earth. Where are all the warriors?" Further travel was quiet for a while. Gatas wasn't sure whether it was a real lack of any notable fighters passing or if Cell had suddenly lost his enthusiasm for being her unofficial tour guide. She glanced his way and saw that he was silently counting on his fingers over and over. Occasionally he would mouth something, frown, then start counting again. Their pace continued to slow as Cell completely stopped paying attention to their surroundings, eventually stopping entirely in the middle of a clearing. Gatas looked around and then back at him, unsure of how to proceed. Minutes passed. "You know what we need?" Cell announced suddenly as Gatas was just about to give up on him and wander off. "We need an Afterlife Cell Games." "What?" Gatas said, a bit louder than she intended. Cell's intensity in breaking the silence between them had startled her. "Well, I wasn't always the perfect being I am today," Cell began, his voice taking on a narrative tone. Gatas got the distinct feeling that she would soon regret giving him the chance to monologue. "I came into existence in an alternate timeline from this one. Unfortunately for me, my original timeline made it impossible for me to achieve this form, so I had to hijack my way into a timeline where it was possible. Once I'd managed that, it was just a matter of absorbing my android siblings into myself and becoming whole. And let me tell you, that was quite the fiasco thanks to Son Goku and his little friends. "Anyway, it was after I achieved my perfect form that I realized there had to be some way I could truly test my abilities to the fullest. And what better way to do that than to hold a tournament to lure out the world's strongest fighters? Thus the original Cell Games came to be. Of course, it was me versus the world back then; this time around I think a standard elimination-style tournament will suffice. We'll just have to see how many people want in." Cell tapped a finger on his chin, his elbow resting in his opposite hand. "I'm sure Frieza will want to participate, and maybe his father. I'll go ahead and invite Turles too; we can see how much stronger the Tree of Might's fruits have really made him. Oh, and Raditz will show up whether I ask him to or not, I know that." Cell scoffed. "He's like our Yamcha." Cell pushed off and took to the air. "I suppose we can worry about the guest list later. Our first order of business should be finding a suitable spot to build the venue." A pause. "You can fly, can't you?" Gatas responded to Cell's question by jumping up to hover beside him. "Ah, good. You know, I've watched people try to learn how to fly from that meathead Recoome before; I can tell you haven't learned it from him. Anyway, we're looking for two things. One is a big field, which won't be too hard to come across. The second will be harder to come by, and that's a big plateau that I can use to make the arena." They passed up several large tracts of land, each rejected by Cell for not being scenic enough. After he began to grow irritated by his lack of viable options, he settled for one of the spots he'd previously rejected, leveling some nearby hills to expand the space to his satisfaction. A similar compromise had to be made for the arena's building material; finding no single rock big enough, Cell settled for razing part of a nearby forested area to construct the arena out of wood. At each corner Cell positioned a large spike taken off one of the steep and unforgiving mountains to give the main stage the dramatic flair he wanted. Calling everyone together was just a matter of Cell amplifying his voice to announce the tournament. The competitors came in droves, amassing around the arena. Gatas stood next to Cell in the arena as more and more fighters joined the crowds. She tried to pick out some fighters that she thought would do well in the tournament, but as the assembled populace grew, she instead began to wonder how Cell intended to organize such a tremendous turnout. She wasn't left to wonder for long. Clearly marking his own time, Cell waited for a while before calling everyone to attention once more. "Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone outside or in between! Welcome to the second ever Cell Games. We have quite the crowd out here, and I'm sure you're all itching for a good fight, so I'll keep it brief. This tournament will have two main components, and we're about to begin the preliminaries." Cell fell quiet for a moment, appearing to focus his concentration. The tip of his tail, still retracted near the middle of his back, widened significantly, and with some effort produced five smaller and bluer versions of the bio-android. There came a mixed reaction from the parts of the crowd that could see what had just occured, though it was mostly shocked outcry or cheering. The five Cell Juniors turned to their sire for direction. "Hello, my perfect children," Cell greeted them. "You all know the Multi-Form technique as well as I do, isn't that right?" The Juniors nodded. "Well, look around you, my sons. All these people have come to meet us, but there are just so many of them. If you all split up, I'm sure you can manage to say hello to everyone. Do you understand?" The Cell Juniors nodded emphatically and suddenly the five of them became twenty. Cell addressed the masses once more. "Congratulations. You've all been officially entered into the preliminaries. Anyone left standing once my precious children have all been defeated will qualify for the actual tournament. The preliminaries begin...." Cell drew out the pause to its greatest effect, waiting until the tension in the air was at its peak. A thought occurred to him and he looked over her shoulder at Gatas. "Wait, were you planning on participating or just spectating?" Gatas considered for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll watch." "Fair enough." To the crowd once more. "...Now." At his word, the multiple Cell Juniors leapt out of the arena and into the assembled masses. Chaos ensued. The sound of hundreds of combatants clashing together permeated the vicinity, and Gatas smiled. It was a comforting sound. Cell floated up to get a better vantage point of the slaughter, and the Shikirian woman followed him. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to participate or just sit back and watch for something good," Cell commented. His tone was purely conversational, as if he had just given Gatas the weather forecast for the day. It was a stark contrast to the mayhem below. "So I gave myself the best of both worlds. I automatically get a bye in the first round, so when the real tournament starts I get to scope out every one of my potential opponents. Not that I need the advantage, really, but if any of them have techniques worth learning I may get to observe them sooner rather than later. I imagine that's what you're still here for, after all." Gatas nodded. "Hey, do you mind grabbing me a drink from one of the vendors?" Cell asked. He pointed towards the outskirts of the battlefield where a line of food trucks had set up shop. Gatas's brow creased. She hadn't noticed them until now. How quickly had they set up shop? "I'm in charge, so it's on the house. You can grab yourself something too. This may take a while." All in all, there were still nearly a hundred survivors once the last Cell Jr. was taken down. Cell appeared undaunted by that outcome, quickly drawing up a massive tournament bracket and getting the first round of fights under way. Several hours and trips back and forth to the vendors for snacks later, there had still been no techniques used that were impressive enough for Cell to take notice. Gatas yawned. While she was curious to see who would eventually emerge victorious, she was starting to feel antsy. She didn't know how well she would have fared against some of the fighters she'd already seen, but she felt a pang of regret at turning down more chances to fight. Suddenly Cell sat up from the lawn chair he'd been lounging in, almost spilling his fruity drink in the process. "There! That's the move we've been waiting to see!"
[Running Total: 5,930 words]
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Dragon Ball Z 269
All right, finally it’s time for some muthafuggin’ Vegito.
The Fusion Saga is one of my favorites, but it is a bit uneven. The whole arc is basically a long gauntlet match featuring Super Buu, but everything leading up to Vegito is really just a warmup. As we’ve seen, Buu only toyed with Gotenks while he waited for Gohan to show up, and Gohan never had a chance, because he didn’t know about Buu’s absorption ability. I’ve often tried to imagine alternate scenarios for the fight against Majin Buu, but really, everything ends up leading back to the same outcome: Goku and Vegeta would have to work together to stop him. Every alternative was just a stopgap measure.
But now, that’s all over. Now it’s Vegito Time, baybay.
For openers, Vegito just tosses some air at Buu, or something like that, and it’s so forceful that it slices open his cheek. Just a tiny sample of what this guy’s in for.
As for the name, “Vegito” or “Vegetto” is supposed to be a portmanteau of “Vegeta” and “Kakarott”. The “o” on the end comes from the way Goku’s Saiyan name is pronounced in Japanese, “Kak-a-ro-to”. There aren’t a lot of Japanese words that end with a consonant, and I think the only ones that do always end with an “n” sound, so a loan word like “carrot” ends up sounding like “carrot-o”. At least, that’s my understanding of it.
Viz tried to do an end run around this isn the translation of the manga by naming him “Vegerot”, which is probably more sensible, but it also sounds really dumb. I like Vegito, even if “Gogeta” or “Veku” or “Vegeku” or “Kakarita” would have been more appropriate.
Buu spends most of this episode acting like this is no big deal, although we’ve seen signs that he’s more afraid than he lets on. He was genuinely upset with Gotenks for being so close to him in terms of power, and he hated Gohan for surpassing him in strength, and even when he had the upper hand after absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo, he was still very anxious about Goku’s Potara strategy.
Initially, Buu seems to have an advantage, but Vegito claims he was warming up during this exchange, since he’s not accustomed to this new body yet.
Then he punches the crap out of Buu and blows off the lower half of his body. This isn’t exactly new for the Fusion Saga. People have been blowing up Buu like this for a while now. The difference is that Vegito did it so quickly and effortlessly. Unlike Gotenks, this wasn’t the result of some tremendous effort or a flashy ultimate move. This was just Vegito taking Buu’s measure.
From here, Buu admits--begrudgingly, that Vegito is stronger than Goku and Vegeta put together, so he decides to finish him off instead of playing around. Only he can’t. Vegito can take everything he dishes out with no trouble at all.
Up on the Supreme Kai Planet, Kibitoshin is amazed to see someone hold their own against Majin Buu like this, but the Elder Kai tells him to look again, because Vegito is actually overpowering him. This is a dream come true for Kibitoshin, but the Elder Kai isn’t entirely certain that this fight is a foregone conclusion.
Still, it’s very satisfying to watch.
Meanwhile in... well, we’ve never seen this planet before, but this is “Heaven” in Otherworld. I don’t know if this counts as a “planet” exactly, but it sure looks like one.
It looks pretty idyllic, although everyone’s a ghost from the waist-down. No sex in heaven, I guess.
The point of this scene is that Chi-Chi, Bulma, and Videl are dead, so they figure they can at least find Gohan, who they think died way back in Episode 234. But they can’t find him in Heaven, because he’s not dead and he never was. Currently, he’s been absorbed into Majin Buu’s body.
But Heaven’s a big place and the girls just got here, so they figure that they just need to look harder for him. Chi-Chi’s a little worried that he got sent to hell, but that’s pretty hard to imagine.
Anyway, you might have noticed Dabura here with these three. That’s because King Yemma sent him to Heaven after Majin Buu killed him, because Yemma figured Dabura would enjoy Hell a little too much. Ironically, just being in heaven seems to have completely altered Dabura’s whole outlook on life, and now he’s this total sweetie-pie who admires Gohan’s character and has pledged to help the others find him.
As he puts it, being here has allowed him to “learn the importance of mind and life.” Well, good for him but he’s only been here for like two or three days. If Heaven has this much of a rehabilitation effect, it kind of makes you wonder why Yemma doesn’t just send all the bad guys here. Bulma finds Dabura’s reformation a little hard to swallow, but she never even heard of the guy before she got here, so I don’t know why.
From what I understand, Xenoverse 2 has a bunch of DLC content with Dabura revived as a lead villain, and he pops up in Dragon Ball Heroes and other video games, which sort of makes sense, because he was kind of a big deal, but he got overshadowed and killed off before he could ever do any real bad guy stuff. But I wonder how they squared his resurrection with these scenes of him as a sappy babyface.
Back on Earth, Buu makes a huge ki ball and threatens to throw it down at the Earth. Vegito can either dodge it and let the world be destroyed, or risk his life to block it.
Meanwhile, Dende flies Mr. Satan to the battlefield, but he drops him, and Satan crotches himself on a rock.
But Dende quickly figures out that Goku and Vegeta have fused, and this means the world might have a chance after all, so I guess that salves Mr. Satan’s nuts a little.
Anyway, Vegito catches this giant energy ball and kicks it up into space, where it explodes harmlessly. I suppose you could say this was Buu’s biggest attack so far, and Vegito deflected it with ease.
Buu seems more amused than impressed. He acts like this was no big deal, even though he assumed earlier that Vegito would run away because he couldn’t deal with something that big.
Does... does Buu just not realize how strong Vegito is? Maybe that’s what’s going on here. He was pretty frank about Gohan when he first showed up, and he admitted that Gohan was stronger than himself. But with Vegito, he seems to be in denial, or maybe he genuinely has no way to gauge the power of someone this far beyond him.
So Vegito decides to demonstrate his true power.
It, Mr. Satan. He’s bout to do it.
This is the last time we see a new character in DBZ turn Super Saiyan, and in this case it’s kind of a formality, since it only makes sense that a fusion of two Super Saiyans should have this ability. It’s such a formality that Toriyama didn’t even bother building up to it in the manga. There, Goku and Vegeta fuse, and Vegito transforms into a Super Saiyan immediately. So maybe the novelty of Super Saiyan has worn off at this point.
But this is still one of my favorite scenes in the series. Buu’s been unstoppable this whole time, and now he’s finally met his match in Vegito, and this time it’s Vegito who turns out to be even stronger than he was letting on. Buu was screwed before, but now he’s extra-double screwed now, and if he doesn’t realize it yet, he soon will.
And I think this is the first episode I watched in Japanese, because I remember buying the DVD back in 2004 just to see Vegito in action again, and I decided to watch the subs just to get more out of it. This was the first time I heard the closing minutes of the track “Believe in Tomorrow”, which plays when Vegito transforms. It’s awesome and inspirational, and I kind of get annoyed when it’s used for the close of so many other episodes in this arc. But it’s still less awesome here.
Things were bad before. Very bad. We’re not out of the woods yet, but it wasn’t a waste of time and effort to hang in there. The world endured Majin Buu, and now the tide has finally turned. Super Vegeto is here. Z stands for the end, but not yet. Believe in tomorrow.
#dragon ball#2019dbliveblog#fusion saga#vegito#majin buu#dende#mr satan#bee#chi chi#bulma#videl#dabura#kibitoshin#elder kai
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Dragonball Super Episode 106 Review [ RANT ] https://animeride.com/blogs/6307/dragonball-super-episode-106-review-rant/ #Beerus, #DragonBallSuper, #Gohan, #Goku, #MasterRoshi, #Piccolo, #Tien, #Universe7, #Vegeta, #ZenSama
New Post has been published on https://animeride.com/blogs/6307/dragonball-super-episode-106-review-rant/
Dragonball Super Episode 106 Review [ RANT ]
Hey guys, How are you today If you want to find a way to absolutely shit on a fanbase then look no further than this pile of manure right here. The way they managed to bury Tien was magical with so many details and layers you would think he had killed one of the writer’s Grandmas.
Story
This episode begins with the exciting new character Dr. Rota who apparently has a special ability that will destroy Gohan and Piccolo. But before he can do so is quickly destroyed by a blast and squashed making his character absolutely useless which I have to admit Super is very good at doing. Realizing they are out in the open both our heroes begin to discuss a strategy against this apparent Sniper. But before they can really do anything are hit by one of his shots thanks to a reflective red orb and Piccolo has his arm taken off. We soon see that these red orbs are shot by this huge red tub of lard and the Snipers blasts go through him and the orbs which our heroes soon realize with teamwork. Creating a smokescreen Gohan and Piccolo slowly put together the pieces of this puzzle but are attacked as even with the smokescreen can be seen with heat seeking eyes. Even after this the two still continue to stand there and get shot at once again which transitions to more repeat Animation starring Zeno and The Grand Priest repeatedly.
Finally we get the star of this episode Tien who quickly warns Goku and Vegeta to get down to which the latter brushes off before nearly getting his ass blasted to oblivion . Back with father and son Piccolo now knows what it feels like to lose both his arms because him and Gohan didn’t dodge. Having a brilliant idea Piccolo and Gohan heat up the area around them to fool the red fuckers sight but immediately becomes useless as he now just shoots everyone all at once. Seeing the red guy is causing the reflections Goku and Vegeta go to stop him while Tien runs through the area like he’s Rambo. Blasting at the red ogre both Saiyans are surprised that he can reflect Ki even though they saw him do it 10 seconds ago. Guess Goku isn’t the only one to have brain damage. Lardass then proceeds to explain why he has trapped them and instead of using that time to run up and simply punch him or use a Kiai instead Goku and Vegeta go. “Damn we sure ran into that trap.”
We then learn the name of the Sniper Hermila who looks like a green Howard the Duck as he shoots out another wave of Ki. Seeing Hermila Tien creates four clones of himself and instead of using any protection or trying to sneak up on him as he hadn’t been paying attention to them. Tien instead decides to just run at the guy out in the open like he’s a main character and gets his ass destroyed tanking the attacks instead of actually trying to dodge them. Hell even FUCKING GOKU uses better strategy which simply amounts to chucking rocks at his opponent. Getting close enough to Hermila Tien uses a Tri-Beam and now has him dead to right. Now of course a smart fighter would still keep their guard up and take down their enemy quickly before they can try anything else. What does Tien do? Walks right up to the guy and gives him a chance to fight back which ends with Tien and Hermila eliminating each other.
And the episode tries to hide this burial of Tien who let me remind you is a master strategist and Martial Artist who has fought for decades and has his own school yet got eliminated like a fucking amateur yet the show tries to hide this by having Beerus be impressed which just devalues the Roshi moment from last episode as it just makes the guy look like he would respect you if you managed to wipe your ass. Hell even Vegeta basically sums up Tiens worth in this Arc in three words when Goku comments on his elimination. “It doesn’t matter.” And then both Rota and the red guy who never got a name reveal are eliminated ending this shit episode. This episode managed to ruin any goodwill I gained after Episode 105.
The story was absolute filler, offered no development for any character, and only managed to waste everyone’s time and effort who bothered to watch this shitty episode or make this episode. For the writers who made this episode you deserve to be fired for this travesty in every sense of the word. It feels like someone came up with this episode then after throwing it in the garbage because it was obviously an awful idea Toei dug it out of the trash and then decided to make it into an episode without creating a second draft to iron out the problems. Everything in this episode amounted to less than nothing and I can say with all my heart this episodes story manages to get my first a 0/10 it has no positives only negatives and if anyone has a problem with my rating than I challenge you to tell me what was the point of this episode besides nothing.
Characters
And if you believed the characters would fare much better oh ho ho ho boy are you wrong. This was apparently supposed to be Tiens crowning moment in this Tournament. That finally Tien one of my top 5 characters in this Arc would get his moment in the sun. Instead I watched Tien get sucked into a Black Hole as Toriyama is saying. “Lol you thought Tien was going to be portrayed well fuck that!” And then proceeded to kick me in the balls. Everything Tien did in this episode was as stupid. He charged at the Sniper of Universe 2 then proceeded to let his guard down and got eliminated like a chump. Somehow this episode about Tien had more screen time for Piccolo and Gohan who did nothing of value than the actual focus!
Goku somehow comes off smarter yet even him and Vegeta are idiots as they blasted at the guy who they saw reflect Ki and then didn’t try to punch him or use their other attacks but instead throw rocks. Gohan and Piccolo act both smart and incredibly stupid and any plan they came up with turned out to be absolutely useless making their presence in this Episode pointless. Hermila and the red tub of lard are nothing but fodder with no character and only serve to drag down the already piss poor characterization. Also Rota served no purpose and was just a waste of a possible cool ability. None of the characters are portrayed well and the only reason the antagonists get anywhere is because seems to act like morons instead of actual smart fighters with decades of experience. There were at least one or two neat points as while his plan failed Piccolo did come up with a pretty genius plan and I got a kick out of the rock throwing. So i’ll be a little generous and give this a 2/10.
Animation
Finally we come to the Animation as there was no Fighting in this one just people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The Animation was laughable at best with characters being off model a good amount and them at times looking like circus freaks instead of actual people. Need I remind you of Vegeta’s Big Hands Mode or their faces looking just weird. It’s obvious not even the Animators care about this shitfest of an episode and that they just wanted to get it done. For any Animator working on this episode I do not blame you I pity that you had to waste your time and effort on making Animation for such a crappy product. I can only hope that you guys can go on to work for bigger and better things. Back to the Animation the explosions look pretty generic not really giving any feeling when someone gets hit as it just looks like the same damn explosion we’ve seen 300 times. The Animation isn’t bad just mediocre or below average at best which is probably the most positive thing about this episode as it earns a 4/10.
Final Verdict
This episode was absolute garbage in almost every way imaginable except the Animation which even then isn’t exactly top notch. The story is pointless and only buries everyone in it, The characters look like morons and the antagonists for this episode have no character at all and only manage to come off as boring jobbers who should never have given our heroes so much trouble. This episode is quite possibly the worst Super episode and ranks up there with Episode 5, Episode 24, and Episode 67. I give this train wreck of an Episode a 2/10 it offers nothing of value and only misery.
Comment your opinions below … Did you like this garbage of an Episode ?
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The Top 10 Anime Villains Who Just Won't Die!
It’s often said that a good hero needs an equally good villain, and certainly there are many infamous villains to choose from. Rivalries are made, evil plans are thwarted, and the heroes celebrate their hard earned victories with the vanquishing of their foes. However, not every villain is so easy to get rid of, and some linger on long after they’re dead to cause even more problems!
In this list, let's take a look at the top 10 villains who just refused to stay dead, gone, and buried! And as a warning, this article contains a LOT of spoilers, so read with caution!
10. Neferpitou (Hunter x Hunter)
Anime fans can at least celebrate that the vanquishing of Neferpitou didn’t take the quite literal decade that it did in the manga, but the Chimera Ant villain certainly haunted Gon for a long time! Neferpitou had easily killed Gon’s mentor and hero Kite, and reanimated his corpse to use a training toy. Gon, unaware that he was dead, refused to give up on the chance to save his mentor and defeat this extremely powerful enemy. Unfortunately for Gon, Neferpitou vastly outclassed him, as to be expected of one of the Chimera Ant King’s Royal Guards! Neferpitou’s loyalty to the king leads to their undoing, but not before a protracted battle of wits with Gon over the life of Komugi.
Once Neferpitou reveals to Gon that Kite is long dead and unable to be restored, Gon flies into a rage, leading to the iconic scenes where Gon’s Nen ages him, growing his power (and his hair!) to legendary proportions. Outclassed, Neferpitou dies happy, knowing that Gon is unable to get to the king, but even in death Neferpitou haunts Gon further, as their Nen ability Terpsichora activates, seemingly reviving the fallen foe! Distracted and enraged, Gon mercilessly beats his enemy’s corpse until Killua stops him… and falls into a coma, his body nearly destroyed and his life almost snuffed out from the battle! It takes a literal miracle to revive Gon much later, and it’s safe to safe Neferpitou won’t be forgotten by Gon or us any time soon!
9. Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti (Re:ZERO)
Petelgeuse is surely a memorable villain from an aesthetic point of view with his distinct looks and voice, but the way in which he easily defeats Subaru, causing the protagonist to despair that there may be no good outcome against this foe, is one of the defining storylines of Re:ZERO. Petelgeuse seems to have Subaru figured out, and no matter how many times Subaru resets the timeline, he always seems to come up short against the foe, watching his friends suffer and die in various awful ways each time he tries to find a new route to victory.
Not only that, but Petelgeuse almost seems able to guess Subaru’s special ‘reset’ ability, and nearly succeeds in possessing him and ending the story for good! It isn’t until numerous deaths and resets that Subaru develops a working plan, and even then Petelgeuse nearly destroys Subaru. As Subaru writes “The End” in Petelgeuse’s gospel in his own blood, the deranged priest is finally killed after his body is crushed and torn to pieces! We’ll have to wait and see what type of impact Petelgeuse really left on Subaru, but to be sure he was the most difficult foe so far, and on that certainly left Subaru a changed man!
8. Junko Enoshima (Dangan Ronpa)
We warned you about spoilers above, so if you’re still reading and are interested in checking out Dangan Ronpa unspoiled, we suggest you turn back now! In the Dangan Ronpa series (both anime and games) there’s no one quite as twisted and evil as Junko Enoshima, the mastermind behind the initial murder game, as well as the leader of a cult dedicated to bringing her twisted sense of despair to the world! Junko seemingly dies right away in Dangan Ronpa, only for it to be later revealed that it was her own sister who she happily murdered! Junko reveals herself as the mastermind behind Monokuma, having lead the students to murdering each other and laughing all the way!
Despite being killed at the end of the first Dangan Ronpa, the second game (which didn’t have an anime, sadly!) reveals that Junko lives on as Junko Alter, a computer virus seeking to continue her twisted legacy! In the second anime series, Danganon Ronpa 3, Junko appears in both the Despair and Hope routes, showing us how she gained her position of power and set up the initial game. And in the Hope route, Junko’s ghost seems bewildered to watch the antics of the cast’s struggle, before fading away, hopefully forever. Junko may not be the most ‘hands on’ villain, but she’s certainly a troublesome one who caused a literal world of despair, and whose legacy seems poised to last long after she’s dead.
7. Tao Pai Pai (Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z)
Usually, a returning villain is a major hindrance to the protagonist, presenting them with constant roadblocks to success. That’s not quite the case for Tao Pai Pai, who goes from being one of the deadliest foes Goku ever met to a comically inept weakling. First appearing during Goku’s attempts to gather the Dragon Balls at the employ of Commander Red, Tao Pai Pai is one of Goku’s first truly dangerous opponents. Tao is shown to be cunning, cold, and murderous, killing numerous people simply because he wants to, and almost kills Goku! Goku eventually defeats Tao, and if not for the assassin’s cowardly attempts to get the last laugh, might have lived unscathed; instead, Goku deflects his grenade back to him, leaving Tao for dead.
Later, however, it turns out Tao Pai Pai is far from dead, re-appearing with cybernetic upgrades and bent on killing Tien and Goku! Vastly outclassed by the powerful Tien, he doesn’t show up again until the Cell Games in Dragon Ball Z as little more than comic relief, but still as evil and conniving as usual!
6. Toguro Brothers (Yu Yu Hakusho)
There probably isn’t a more iconic villain in Yu Yu Hakusho than Younger Toguro and his demonically powered muscled form, but even without that recognition, these two Toguros are a thorn in Yusuke and company’s side for the entire series, with Elder Toguro being the longest recurring villain in the show! First showing up during the Spirit Detective arc of the show, the Toguros are a formidable pair of bodyguards to the despicable Tarukane. In a fierce battle against Yusuke and Kuwabara, the pair of heroes are barely victorious against the powerful brothers, and it seems as if Kuwabara has killed Younger Toguro with a sword to the chest.
Shortly after, however, we learn that really wasn’t the case, and sure enough the Toguros re-emerge, forcing Yusuke and the others to fight in the Dark Tournament! Toguro constantly pushes Yusuke to become more powerful, and seems to get his wish, eventually dying to Yusuke’s powered up form. However, the Elder Toguro survives after being presumed dead, reappearing from inside the body of Gourmet during the Chapter Black saga! While his brother only seemed impossible to defeat, Elder Toguro truly seems to be immortal, and it takes a cunning attack by Kurama to sentence the Elder Toguro to a life of never ending punishment, where he can’t hurt anyone again!
5. Orochimaru (Naruto / Naruto Shippuden / Boruto)
When we think of returning villains, Orochimaru is certainly pretty high on that list, perhaps redeemed by the fact that he seems to make amends for his villainy by the end of the series, appearing in Boruto as a neutral character (so far). Still, many anime fans probably can’t forget the first time Orochimaru slithered into the story, and his constant meddling and capture of Sasuke lead to one of the most iconic moments in the entire series: Naruto vs. Sasuke. Orochimaru certainly made himself known throughout the series, utilizing his ability to body hop and revive himself numerous times before being seemingly sealed away and defeated by Itachi.
That sense of victory was short lived, however, as Sasuke himself releases Orochimaru to get answers. This proves to be a turning point for the snake ninja, as he realizes Sasuke is now far too powerful to possess, and instead the once head villain of the series begins his path to something resembling redemption. That said, who knows where Boruto will go, so Orochimaru might end up going back to his old tricks once again...
4. Shou Tucker (Fullmetal Alchemist [2003])
Now if this list were the Top 10 Worst Human Beings Ever, Shou Tucker would certainly be #1 with a bullet (or an alchemically powered hand through the face). However, Shou’s return in the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime was a total (and unwanted) surprise, as the series deviated from the manga quite a bit. While Scar had the pleasure of killing Shou in the manga, in the anime Shou vanishes into ‘military custody’... until he suddenly re-emerges as a chimera!
Shou’s mind is more gone than it was the first time, obsessed with trying to revive his daughter… the same one he turned into a chimera. Shou doesn’t meet his maker this time either, being left in the anime an obsessed failure trying to regain what he lost. We won’t really spend time trying to rationalize this despicable man’s actions, but suffice to say fans at the time were thoroughly shocked to see this terrible man-thing appear again!
3. Char Aznable (Mobile Suit Gundam)
It wouldn’t be far to claim that without Char, Mobile Suit Gundam may not have been as successful as it was. Amuro was an amazing, if flawed, protagonist, and he desperately needed an equally flawed and interesting rival. Char Aznable was easily able to take that position, and the Zeon pilot wreaked havoc on Amuro, pushing the Newtype to defeat him. Char is last seen giving Kycilla Zabi a unique one bazooka salute, before himself disappearing in the impending explosion. However, during the events of Zeta Gundam, a mysterious and charismatic man by the name of Quattro Bajeena shows up. Char’s alias is almost too heroic, coming across as one of the most helpful and good characters in the series, but as with most things dealing with Char, his motives are never that easy to discern.
Char re-emerges as himself during the events of Char’s Counterattack, and he and Amuro resume their rivalry, this time seemingly finishing each other off as their Psycoframe equipped suits overload, leaving both men MIA and presumed dead at the end. However, as of Gundam Unicorn, it seems part of Char is still around, emerging as Full Frontal. The conclusion of Unicorn sees the original Gundam Newtypes are reunited in spirit form, and Char, Lalah, and Amuro seemingly reconcile, ready to finally fade away.
2. Frieza (Dragon Ball Z / Dragon Ball Super)
While Goku had faced numerous powerful foes in both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Frieza may be the most iconic and infamous foe, cementing the series as a fan favorite and introducing fans to Super Saiyan Goku, having pushed the fighter to his limits. Frieza is one of the deadliest foes Goku ever meets, and a truly despicable and selfish person, concerned only with achieving immortality and taking over the universe, or killing everyone in it! Goku eventually defeats Frieza, leaving him to potentially survive, until the selfish alien seemingly kills himself with his own desperate final attack. However, when things seem to have calmed down on Earth, Frieza (now cybernetically enhanced!) returns… only to be quickly cut down by Trunks!
Frieza appears a few times during the Majin Buu saga, but mostly as a commentator on the fight against Buu, and has been seemingly finally vanquished… until the movie Resurrection of F! Having escaped Hell, Frieza re-appears on Earth, and his new Golden Frieza form once again makes him an imposing foe. However, his usual failings cost him again, and is this time defeated by Vegeta and Goku. However, this would still not be the end for him, as the Universe Survival Saga sees Frieza return… as a good guy?! That’s right, sort of! Frieza agrees to help Goku in the Universe Survival Tournament on the condition that he get revived. In true Frieza fashion, it becomes hard to figure out what his intentions really are, but in the end he and Goku make an odd couple pairing that, with the help of Android 17, save the day (Frieza even sacrifices himself!). But, as of the closing scenes of Dragon Ball Super, Frieza probably hasn’t learned much, so it’s likely we’ll see him clashing with our heroes once again!
1. Dio (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
If you already guessed the #1 spot on this list, congratulations! If you not, well, we won’t make that joke, but you probably know the one we mean! Sometimes a villain truly makes a series, and Dio is definitely that villain. While the heroes of JoJo’s various arcs are all great, they wouldn’t be half as compelling without the truly awful Dio to stand against. And even when Dio isn’t the central villain, his influence is lingering in the background. From his initial rise to immortality against Jonathan Joestar to eventually stealing the body of his hated rival to the revival of the Pillar Men brought on by people’s fascination with the Stone Masks to the return of Dio in Stardust Crusaders, Dio and the Joestars are forever linked in combat.
But even when the spotlight drifts from Dio in Diamond is Unbreakable, his machinations with the nature of Stands leads to the Arrow finding its way to Morioh-Cho and wreaking havoc as new stand users emerge! And, while they haven’t been animated yet, we’ll just simply say that Dio’s influence in the future JoJo storylines is not to be underestimated… When you least expect it, Dio might just strike again!
Do you have any favorite seemingly immortal villains that heroes just can’t seem to get rid of? Let us know in the comments!
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Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known to profess her love of otome games over at her blog, Figuratively Speaking. When she has the time, she also streams some games. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries
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