#gonna do a bunch of posts for 1000th episode

[gauchebistro]

1000 episodes of yugioh

With the first 6 series(Not counting season 0 or capsule monsters), total episode count is at 972. Sevens is currently at 11/12 episodes. So just 16/17 episodes left for the 1000th overall episode.

It's been a wild ride, and I'm happy I have been able to be on it up to now. There were times I left, and times I came back. But my love for the series and game is eternal.

As many others, I grew up with the dub of Duel Monsters. Being a child you don't tend to think too much about the dubbing, and obviously they did it right enough to hook people. That being said the dub has had some significant issues during the run, namely skipping two series last bit of episodes. Fortunately, since Zexal they have finished each(Haven't checked on vrains but I'm sure they will finish it too). Other issues become more preference based. Such as voice acting and story changes(Mainly done to make it more kid friendly). At the very least many can find comfort in the hilarious dubbing changes, be it because of the actual jokes or the absurdity of it all.

I didn't start watching subs until 5D's, which ironically I only did because of the dub for that series. Like with GX, they never finished dubbing it. Being invested and wanting to know how it ends I decided to watch the subs. Which opened up a whole new world for me. As for GX, I was able to see weekly pics of each episode while it aired in Japan, do not finishing the dub at the time then wasn't an issue.

5D's itself opened me up. As with many, my first reaction of the series was "card games on motorcycles? The fuck is this?". So I didn't actually watch it right away. It wasn't until they started airing the dub in canada(which was probably a month or so behind the us) that I actually sat down and watched an episode. But the moment I started watching I was hooked and started watching every week again. Now, it might have helped that this was early in the series still, during the time in The Facility. Where the first duel was against either Bolt or the prison guard. Both of which didn't use Speed Dueling and I think the only Synchro was from the guard. Even still, I wasn't put off by Speed Dueling or Synchros when I started seeing them.

Enter Zexal and history repeats. First reaction was "Nope!", and I was back on judging before watching. But it didn't take too long for me to decided to watch it. I think I started when 20th so episode had aired in Japan. So i had 20 episodes to binge, and binge I did. Hooked after the first episode. At that point i realized, maybe I like the series overall and shouldn't just close myself off to it because of petty reasons. And boy am I glad I decided to watch Zexal.

Not only did my love for the anime get renewed permanently, but I also started buying cards again...maybe a bit too many. I also decided to watch all the previous series again(Again season 0), all in subs. So I got to see the entirety of GX for the first time, as well as see the original content for DM. And from Zexal to Vrains, I have basically been watching a new episode each week. And it's been amazing(I do have to still finish Vrains though. Pretty sure I'm at Soulburning vs Revolver take 2, so not many left, also know what happens from then to end, but still want to finish watching, just been putting it off...for a while). Sadly, the anime went on a bit of a break at the end of Vrains(6 months I think?), so I didn't have my weekly dose of yugioh(at least for the show, I have friends that I dueled a bit).

As for the actual game. As I said, I bought a lot of cards...like...a lot. At the time i was working at a dollar store that had 10 card repackaged packs for 1 dollar(plus tax). So I bought a bunch of those. Obviously, they weren't amazing cards but they were from more recent sets(Zexal era), so getting no normal monsters was nice. I did go overboard though. Probably got at least 150 packs in total from there during my time. Which means 1500 cards. Eventually I wanted better cards and at first went to places like walmart(big mistake, cost more), then I found an actual card shop. I still was going overboard though, heck I've been over boarding it for like 5 years now I think. Now I don't know how many cards I actually have but I'm 99% sure it's over 10000 so...yah. I choose to not think about the money. I have decided to cut back this year though(Which actually was easier than I expected, albeit a global pandemic probably did help a bunch). Even still, I have 20 decks I'm focused on right now(Was at least 40 before, probably even 60), so it's still a bit but...I like the cards...I can't help myself.

I could go on and on. Like how watching Zexal helped kept me going in life, or how I love each series and will forever have sold my sold to the card devil. But I'll leave it there.

I plan to continue to watch the series to come and play the game with whatever changes that are made. Seen first few episodes of Sevens and I enjoy it so far, gotta continue though(And finish Vrains!). I am glad there is no new Summon method this time though(Although I want a red type of card(I still don't get why Links were done blue)). I think the game is at a good point with different methods, feel adding new ways to duel is more ideal(Although I'm not interested in Speed Duels or Rush Duels). Regardless, I'm still very much in love with this franchise, probably only being beaten in love by Pokemon but even then it's close. So thanks Yugioh for all the great times :)

P.S. I'm still waiting for a fuckingbwold archetype, even a werewolf archetype would do, or even a series. But Aloof Lupine is a great wolf so thanks for that at least(And Performapal Silver Claw).

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider OOO Episodes 17-32

I'm really holding myself to not make a joke with a Katy Perry song.

Yes, I'm late. Yesterday was my mom's birthday and I was taking care of that for the past three days so I didn't finish writing this post on time, I'M SORRY. But here I am now so let's get to the juice.

You know, looking from the point we left in the last post I expected things to go downhill and I was prepared to have another W's mid-season experience. Aaaaand I was wrong! And thank god for it.

The complaints I had from the first part are still present here, but they picked on the good points already present and expanded so much on them that when you put things on paper the positives more than compensate for the bad ones. As I mentioned before, arcs introducing a new "ranger" in the middle of the season are for the most part very hard to me, I usually don't like those, and the way they introduce Birth sure was rough in some edges. But despite the elements I dislike still being there, I've grown to like Akira/Birth and I think their inclusion to the cast played a big role in making this second part as solid as it was.

The come and go of the medals is still confusing and hard to keep up with, the antagonists are still kind of a mess, some of the MOTW plots are weak, but each one of these negatives come with a positive. Yes, is hard to keep track of the medals, but the new combo forms Os got in these episodes were amazing both in visuals and in powers. Yes, there are still many "factions" acting as antagonists, but each one of them had something added to them so they don't look just like a bunch of pawns trying to act like a king and just looking like a bunch of ants who broke formation coming back to their colony. While some MOTW didn't have a very engaging story, each one of them had at least one quirk that made them interesting.

If there are things I'd consider fatal flaws in this particular block of episodes I'd say they are: how they didn't know how to manage the GREED, Gotou's storyline, and those horrible episodes celebrating the 1000th episode.

Regarding the GREED, this is a problem I had in the first part as well, they're completely underused. First, they quickly ditched two generals (the ones with most personality) at once, so I thought we would see Uva and Kazari as two different forces going against each other, but no Uva was pushed to the side for the most of it and we only saw Kazari doing his things. Then there's the matter of Ankh's body who's sitting on a very thin line and sometimes it's pending more to the interesting side and in other times is just sitting in the "really, queen?" side of things. Now not everything is bad, adding a new GREED that wasn't one of the original 5 and having this GREED be merging with both Eiji and Dr, Maki is very interesting and I'm quite curious to see how it'll develop, I feel like they're building up for Maki be the final boss and I'm kinda thorned about it since I really like Kougami and I wish he was the final antagonist, but episodes 29 and 30 shed a new light on Dr. Maki and I started liking him a little more so I think I'm okay if that's the path they'll take.

Gotou is a mixed bag of feelings for me. I really started disliking him around episode 12, and I disliked him more when they started to hint him as being the next Rider to join, and I still think he's a very weak character and he's definitely not in my favorites' list. But I started to get more sympathetic towards him and a huge part of that is because of his interactions with Akira, I'm still not interested on seeing him becoming Birth but thanks to this period he spent with Akira I think when the change happens I'll be more open-minded for it. I also can't deny that he had a great part in on of my favorite stories of the season (Episodes 21 and 22) that made me soften my heart for him, seeing his internal conflict about his own sense of justice was very cool, the conclusion he came to wasn't what I wanted but it was still great nonetheless.

The 1000th episode arc was... just boring and embarrassing, I'm sorry. I know I don't have the knowledge of this franchise to catch all the easter eggs and such, but with easter eggs or no is a very weak plot and I wasn't interested in anything. Again, I'm sorry.

But now let's talk about the good stuff. First of all, I wanna take a moment to talk about the power-ups, Os got two new combos in these episodes and they're both great. Seeing that I'm a sucker for water powers I thought ShaUTa would be my favorite, and while it looks pretty good and the fight underwater we got as cool as heck my favorite form is TaJaDor, I love the design of the suit, I love the design of the wings, I love that attack with the peacock feathers, I love when he goes to the sky and start looking like a phoenix, that power-up is *chef's kiss* perfecto! I don't know if PuToTyranno is considered a power-up, but the form is also pretty darn good, I think the ptera wings are a bit weird and attacking with a tail is a bit too much for me (especially with that CGI), but I love the ax/gun weapon he got, and I can't wait to see more. (also PuToTyranno is a very fun name to me because "puto" is not a family-friendly word in Portuguese and I just can't help but crack every time I think of it XD)

Talking about characters, Eiji is as great as ever, his smartness continues being on point, he has great comedy moments, and the delivery on the emotional moments is very well done. What I liked the most about him in these episodes was seeing how he could gave some very strong speeches about justice and helping other people and said speeches didn't sound generic or fake like in the many other shows with a young male target audience. They were a bit idealistic while staying very grounded in reality which I loved. We also got to see the full scope of his backstory too, I don't necessarily love the part about he coming from a wealthy family, but I can see that this also adds a lot on his shoulders so I'm okay with it, is still a very strong character point. I thought it would take long to another Rider to dethrone Shotaro as my favorite, but Eiji is coming very close to it, let's see how the show will handle his character in this final third.

Ankh... is still Ankh. I thought they were building a narrative of him betraying Eiji, and I thought that could be a very nice point to make him grow as a character but that didn't come true so, I'm still kinda meh about him. Hina is still boring, but this time I'll blame all on the actress/direction they gave to her because there are good moments for her here but the delivery is very lackluster. Chiyoko is still a very nice side character, I really liked her participation in episodes 29 and 30 with her interactions with Maki, I hope we can see more of this in the future.

The things in Kougami foundation are still a high point for me, Kougami himself seems to be becoming more crazy and obsessive as time passes and I just love it. Erika is by far the best support character, and I love that badass action scene they gave her in episode 20! I wish the booty shots didn't have camera angles that weren't so IN YOUR FACE, but I guess is a fair trade considering the many closeups on Eiji while he's on his underwear so...

I already talked a bit about Akira but I feel like I need to highlight him again. I wasn't expecting to like him this much, especially seeing how he crashed this party without previous notice, but I really enjoy him. He's so upbeat and straightforward, yet he's not just an easygoing character, we can see his dept and whenever he goes serious it doesn't seem like a very drastic change. It's kinda impossible to dislike this guy. I'm a bit afraid for him, because the signs that he's going to die are all here, and I don't wanna see him go because I like him so much, I hope that if they do it it'll be on a nice way and it'll make him justice, BUT I'LL TRY TO STAY POSITIVE TILL THE LAST MINUTE AND I'LL BELIEVE THAT HE'S NOT GONNA DIE (pls OOO, don't crush my heart).

I believe this is all I had to say, I can't believe I'm already so close to the end of this wonderful series, I really hope they won't drop the ball in this final stretch. How yall feel about the middle portion of OOO, anything you agree or disagree with? Let me know in the comments. See you, folks. o/