#introducing my boys is my birthday present from Sentai

[firebirdsdaughter]

Okay...

... Stress reliever.

Let’s overanalyse the Ryusoulger episode 3 preview (+images)! ^^

Well, let’s at least ramble about the pictures?

I’m gonna cut it here, though, bc this is gonna be a long post. (Also, I do talk about a short summary for ep 4 I saw at the end--it was just a one sentence summary, though)

First off!

Lookit the boys! XD Banba’s being all majestic, and it looks like Touwa’s trying to be cool. Well... Maybe trying a little too hard, bc there’s another preview image that has a larger shot of this scene...

Touwa, honey. Don’t climb on walls. Get out of the bushes. Anyway, onward to the rest of this scene!

Okay. So. This is pretty self explanatory. Clearly, the brothers show up and intercede in the fight against Medusa. But the thing that stands out to me here is that I don’t see Kou in this image. Could be he’s off screen, as in this preview image...

... He’s shown fighting with the others. However, this appears to be a different location than the one in the other image. Which becomes clearer if we look at this preview image:

No Kou. Melto and Asuna appear to be in the same positions as the first image, and we can see a wall similar to the one Touwa was standing on in the earlier image as well. This seems to be them talking after the brothers have driven Medusa off--Touwa looks like he’s being a little obnoxious, to boot, as well. Oh, honey. Anyway, it looks like, while the trio do all fight Medusa together at some point, Melto and Asuna end up taking her on w/out Kou, as well; that also makes the above image of all three fighting Medusa difficult to place in the timeline of the ep. Uncertain if this is the first time they meet the brothers--given the body language in the first images, I would hazard a guess as to yes.

Bc this is gonna have too many images already, I won’t be including the identifying close ups of the brothers, but it looks like they also com from this scene. There’s some shots in the preview and pictures of the brothers fighting the Druidon which also appear to be from this scene.

Speaking of chronologically, though, I think this scene would probably come soonest after the above:

Touwa, don’t poke at things you find on the ground w/ your sword. That’s dangerous. Sorry, Ui, I was trying to make a joke. DX Anyway, this looks like a recipe for misunderstanding. Maybe it’s denial, but I don’t think there’s enough context to know what’s going on here. Could very well be Touwa’s just trying to see if she’s conscious or something. Though I would feel better if he didn’t do that w/ a sword. Not sure how Ui ended up in the same place as the brothers, though. Maybe she followed them? After finally locating the other Ryusoulgers, it’s likely the trio didn’t want to lose track of them--alternatively, Melto and Asuna informed Kou, and Ui found out from him when he got overexcited. Or it was just a coincidence. The preview does show her collapsing into Asuna’s arms, but that’s hard to place in the timeline, again. My guess is that Kou, or all three of them, follow either the brothers or Ui and came in at the wrong time. Looks like a great first meeting for everyone.

I put that scene as being next chronologically, is that Ui is wearing the same clothes as in the preview image where she’s hugging her father--which also includes a blanket and couch we see in this:

Given everyone’s placement and the fact that Banba is holding his RyusoulKen, I suspect this moment comes after--possibly immediately after--that preview image of Kou holding Banba’s arm. And, in all likelihood, these:

Moments come after that as well. Not sure in what order, though. Looks like the top one, at least, is definitely the same room as the first from another angle. The third one could be as well, but I’m not really sure how that shelf Banba is leaning on would have avoided notice until now. Anyway, tensions are clearly rather high, to say the least. Even Kou’s upset, though Touwa seems fairly relaxed, esp in that last image. Banba’s judging everyone, but he seems to have been doing that all episode, so that’s nothing new.

What I’m guessing is that the brothers agree to let the trio try to beat Medusa before they try anything. I’m still assuming there’s some level of poor communication, here--probably mostly on the brothers’ end bc Banba’s too grumpy to communicate, esp w/ people as happy and cheerful as these three, and Touwa seems to be pretty uncommunicative in his own way, too. Given their established reluctance for teamwork, seems likely they’re being difficult and it’s not helping their case much. ^^ And possibly coming off as scarier/meaner than they actually are (though that’s probably intentional on Banba’s part).

There’s shots of 3Knights fighting Medusa, the aforementioned Asuna catching Ui--and a shot of Kou and Melto transforming w/out Asuna, which could be happening at the same time as the latter.

One shot that does interest me in the trailer--which isn’t actually in the YouTube version--though, is this one:

This could be the brothers talking to each other--Banba is focusing on Touwa, but the way Touwa is looking over his shoulder makes it seem like there could be a third person. Maybe that hooded person from the end of last ep? Or maybe they’re talking about that guy and Touwa’s just double checking they’re not being watched? Alternatively, it could be someone else entirely. Also could be this is them arriving at the city early in the episode. Or it could be them discussing what happened at the end. There’s no way to tell when this takes place.

Also, my impression has been that the boys didn’t know about the other three? So maybe they only come across them by accident, or the hooded person tells them? Admittedly, we don’t know that the hooded person knows about the trio, either, but I wouldn’t put it past them to have found out and we didn’t see it yet. Maybe they were hiding just off screen or in plain sight? Who knows.

In conclusion, the brothers seem to be very guarded, direct, and rather extreme. My guess is that they suffered something very similar to what the trio did before, and are just reacting to/coping w/ it in almost the opposite way. I doubt they’re gonna have a Sentai hero or heroes actually try to murder an innocent person--or, at least, they’ll make it clear that they couldn’t actually go through w/ it, even if they say they could; and they’re definitely not going to have them actually want to do so. I will concede that I might be in denial.  But I do also think that, given that the tag for ep 4 is Kou trying to make friends w/ them, it’s very doubtful they’re going to go that far. I mean, Kou is a big hearted, lovable dork, but I find it unlikely he’d forgive anyone he thought would be actually willing to kill an innocent person--meaning that, despite clearly clashing w/ Banba a bit, he’ll have to come to the conclusion that they’re good guys by the end of the episode. So...

Anyway. Digital red bean paste buns for anyone who actually read all of this nonsense. I really wish the week would got faster I’m excited for the next episode, and I’m really curious now--I wanna know what hooded person’s deal is, and what the brothers backstory is.

Still gonna cry when we finally get the full ‘five swords of justice’ speech and full-team henshin. Bc I am a big baby. XD

[vbartilucci]

Kamen Rider Saber - I have not been so completely All In on a new Kamen Rider show in I don’t know how long.

This show had me bouncing up and down in my chair. From the moment Tassel appeared on screen, I knew this show was going to be something wacky and wonderful.

Tassel’s actor, TOBI, is a member of a French / Japanese performance /  drag band called Les Romanesques,carrying on the tradition of Kamen Rider actors being in crazy pop bands. If they do not contribute a song to the show, I will lose all faith in humanity.

The themes in the series are numerous and wonderful.

BOOKS Every modern KR show has had a unifying idea or motif, something that informs the design of the characters and monsters, as well as threads through the narrative. Here it’s books and stories. 

According to My New Spirit Animal, the entire world was created from a single miraculous tome, the Book of Ancients - within its pages are all of humanity’s past and future, and everything else. Formerly protected by warriors of the SeiKen (holy blade), the book was stolen my mysterious dark forces, split apart and scattered across the world in the fight. Those pages became the Wonder Ride Books, which the Kamen Riders and their foes, the Megiddo use to fight.

The series hero, Touma Kamiyama, is a writer, and owns a bookstore, Fantastic Kamiyama, which serves as the central location of the series. It’s a cool change because most of the time the characters hang out in a cafe or some other type of business that isn’t really connected to the show’s theme. 

Touma loves books and storytelling, and I think we’ll see the books he talks about to his friends play a greater part in each Chapter.

PROMISES 

In his dream, Touma is literally holding onto this mysterious girl (I’m betting a sister, lost to everyone’s memories for being pulled away by the Megiddo into the Alter Book) with a Pinkie Swear. Throughout the first episode, he makes many references to making and keeping promises.

FICTION AND REALITY

Again, concepts are introduced early that play into the action sequences.  Touma remembers a battle featuring the previous Saber (Who’s taking bets who Calubur ends up being - anyone?) where the Alter Book takes part of the city into a more fantastic world, something that he says children are more capable of doing. So when it happens again later in the episode, a lot of people panic, but Touma’s editor, Mei, thinks it’s the awesomest awesomeness in the history of awesome.

I have many thoughts about the show already.

MY GOD THIS LOOKS EXPENSIVE - There’s an absolutely insane amount of CGI going on here. Not simply the explosions and monster tentacles; the backgrounds, the sky, almost everything is getting replaced by graphics. We saw a lot of CGI in Build, like all the appearances of Skywall, but it’s even more noticeable here, as the new stuff is more fantastic and less realistic. I hope they can keep it up.

The flipping pages animation effect is an utter delight, and I hope they come up with even more ways to use it later.

THIS SHOW IS GONNA GET DARK - Yeah, right now it’s all fairy tales and wackiness, but I’m ready to bet they’re setting us up for a massive turn. Fairy tales are dark and twisted things, especially the early version before Disney came along. The Brothers Grimm couldn’t be better named.

A big clue to that is the book he chooses to give as a birthday present to his little freind.

Sans Famille (Nobody;s Boy) is Dickensian torture porn. It’s exactly the kind of books that Lemony Snicket was parodying when he wrote A Series of Unfortunate Events. And Touma thinks it’s a grand book for a six year old.

And speaking of themes...

THEY HAVE A CLOSING THEME! I can’t even remember the last time a Kamen Rider series had a closing theme. And as if that’s not awesome enough, it’s got a dance, picking up on the tradition of the Super Sentai shows. Considering the KR series is aimed at a (slightly) older audience

I am SO GLAD I decided to buy the toys sight unseen. This show is gonna get a great deal of my money.

[amisbro]

Breaking down Broccoli’s Messages

(a.k.a. “The Method to the Madness”) Alright SO...since we are less than 2 weeks out for Uta no Prince-Sama’s 7th Anniversary I wanted to go and break down some things that I thought were interesting when it came to both Broccoli (The company that owns the rights to UtaPri) and also Sentai Filmworks who does the distribution here in the US What is going to follow is a rather detailed breakdown of when the series started airing to present and also certain other things that I have found of interest as...it would appear that this “UtaPri detective” might be close to cracking what is Broccoli’s code on June 24th! Ready... Set... GO!

Okay so where do we begin...let’s start on 2011 and 2013...specifically July 2nd of 2011 and then April 3rd of 2013. Now why are we going to use these dates in particular?  Here’s why! Have you ever looked up the dates between when the (original) games for the PSP games came out in Japan and the release dates for the Seasons came out?  Its really quite fascinating July 2nd, 2011 is when S1 of UtaPri came out and what is interesting about this is that not long after (August 11th of that same year) was the ORIGINAL Repeat that came out on the PSP...a game that I actually own for the system and have to finish at some point but I just haven’t gotten to it yet. At this time also in UtaPri land 3 games had already been released for PSP before the remake of the first one.  In order they were The ORIGINAL Uta no Prince-Sama (June 24th, 2010) Amazing Aria (December 23rd, 2010) Sweet Serenade (February 10th, 2011) Now keep this in mind too:  These three games released BEFORE S1...what was the reason? The obvious answer (and the very likely one is that they wanted to make sure that they had a lot of stuff to use for STARISH if they wanted to do a series...well they did a Season 1 and then at the “ambiguous” message of “See You Next Time” in the final title card it almost seemed cut and dry after the debut of STARISH in the Anime that they would get to a second series...a second series where the rules changed and we got to start “expansion” of the UtaPri world” BEFORE THAT! Broccoli wanted to make sure that the fans were introduced to new characters outside of the ones they already know (i.e. the STARISH boys, Saotome, Tsukimiya and Hyuuga) so two more games would come out before April 2, 2013 Debut (May 24, 2012...3 days before Maeno’s 30th birthday) All-Star (March 7th, 2013 and became notable for the first game you could date the QN boys) So keep this in mind because its at this point where e get ready also for the second series in April pf 2K13 and NOT ONLY do we meet the QUARTET NIGHT BUT...Shining starts to really show his cunning by subtly introducing a new unit that wanted to take on STARISH but at the time he simply called them “A trio of Amateurs” The Anime comes and we do meet QUARTET NIGHT but during the final 3-4 episodes of ML2K we find out that there is a “rival group” and I seriously hesitate to use that word but others do so let’s go with it for now. The trio, as we find out, is brought on by a competitive and twisted man named Raging Ootori and his son Eiichi is the leader.  The group HEAVENS would be the pawns in a twisted match where the loser would be forced to disband.  Its at this time you can ask the following question: Is this story going to end after two seasons? OR Do the producers and the people behind the scenes have a “bigger plan” for not just HEAVENS but also STARISH and QN? Well HEAVENS would lose as one would find out and...at the time you might not have been the biggest fan of that trio because Eii came on so strong that contact cement wanted him to chill out and Nagi (at the time) was a brat...I admit this wholeheartedly! The thing was they didn’t end the series with a message like “Thanks for watching” or the “STARISH FOREVER” message that we would see later in this unique setup...no they said “See you next time” which made things rather intriguing! What could broc be planning? Christmas day of 2013 we found out! 12/25/2013 an OVA which has only ever released in Japan called “Shining Star Xmas” was released and it was during the OVA that Reiji convinced the QUARTET NIGHT to work together again because of the inspiration he had gotten from their Juniors (remember that the plot of S2 was SUPPOSED to be that QN and STARISH were Senior/Juniors) and they decided to go and make more music and also take on STARISH. Now let’s pump the brakes because this is where Sentai comes in It was towards the end of 2013 that Sentai announced they had gotten the rights to release S1 and 2 of Uta no Prince-Sama in the US.  S1 would release in January and S2 would be in August.  I thought it was interesting that they did it this way but then again I am curious if that is a common practice or I’m just losing it! ANYWAYS So S1 and 2 get released here and other songs would come out for the series not Anime related up until about 2015 and during the lead up we would start to get a lot of little hints about the new season that was announced not the least of which would have STARISH doing “cross units” (I fail to see how they were to a degree but I’ll go with it) while the solo idol songs this time around would go TO...my boys of the QN! Fun fact time for this that might not have been in the know: The date of the OR release for season 3 AND the date of this past stage were the EXACT SAME DAY...take a guess which left a better taste in my mouth ANYWHO! So S3 happens with the two groups working to see who would get to appear as the rep for Shining Agency for the Triple S! Wait...what is this and why are they doing this? Alright politic time! So...in 2013 (so this back around S2) the IOC (International Olympic Committee) was selecting the host city for the games of 2020.  The three countries that were up for it were Turkey, Spain and the eventual winner which would be Japan to see who would host the games.  Japan won and for the past 4 years they have been getting ready for the games and its going to be interesting to see not just how it sets up but also who opens the games as there has been a poll for the public to see which group gets to perform the Opening Ceremony...this is kind of like what would become the storyline between STARISH and QN for at least the 3rd season except...well let’s talk about it During Season 3 a rift would begin to open between STARISH and QN and this was ESPECIALLY the case when they said they would take Haruka if they won (this is the same thing FYI that HEAVENS said or more specifically Eiichi...it was VERY INTERESTING to hear trust me).  Now what made this also interesting was towards the end of the season and Reiji made a declaration that they would keep facing STARISH until they surpassed them! Now surely this “moving out of the dorms” couldn’t be game ref right? WRONG See Broc likes to drop things that happen in the GAME WORLD into the Anime...except I think when they leave in the game its under happier terms...I haven’t got that far in the TL yet! we SHOULD mention that the game “All Star After Secret” was released before this series came out.  The date of the game was March 12th, 2015 and, to date, is the final PSP game that has been released in the series.  the other 2 games on the PSP were both Rhythm Games that were called “Uta no Prince-Sama MUSIC” with (so far) the final game being released on the VITA om January 28th, 2015 NOW we get to have some fun! In the midst of all of this Broccoli DOES announced another Visual Novel game for UtaPri called “Dolce Vita” (Translation:  The Sweet Life) which follows the 11 boys after ASAS.  Also Broccoli announces a partnership with KLAB who is behind the series “Love Live” and NOW things get interesting because LL: School Idol Festival DOES I believe have an English release...hmm! Back to the Anime At the end of Series 3 HEAVENS reappears as a 7 member group and each member would be a counterpart to a particular member of STARISH (ex:  Eiichi/Oto, Masa/Kira, Van/Ren etc.) and they performed HEAVENS GATE again...aight! At the end of the season two things are put up on the screen: “To be continued...” and “SEE YOU NEXT SEASON” Aight...this is interesting! It should also be noted that during the season that Sentai announced licensing S3 (Maji Love Revolutions) but it was interesting that even though they announced licensing it they didn’t release it...why? The answer doesn’t come until after the 2016 season and into this year when they announced that they WOULD release both of them...but about that 2016 season During S3 there were fans that speculated (both on here and facebook) that S3 was it for Utapri...now we forgot that STARISH saved HEAVENS from disbandment for a reason and that became apparent when we got to the end of “R” as the North American license calls it and now that might have come back to bite them. HEAVENS didn’t appear at 5th stage for the announcement but in January of 2016 it was announced that the season would air in October of 2016 which breaks the two year cycle for UtaPri!  Up to this point they only did one season every 2 years and now they did this...interesting When Season 4 was announced (called “Legend Star”) what form it would take would be interesting...what we got was a duet season with STARISH and HEAVENS (a proper C-U if i can say that) and then the fun began! for the most part it was an interesting season...especially if you were on the HEAVENS side watching it to see how the boys of HEAVENS were represented.  Most of the time they were okay with some genuine sweethearts in ther (hello Eiji, Shion and Van), one that was rough around the edges in Yamato, another that...depends how you want take him in Nagi, Kira was a saint and then Eii...the most controversial of the original trio! What became somewhat clear in HEAVENS is they wanted fans to try and accept them...I already had after a second viewing of S2 but for some it was trickier and I get that!  What was interesting was to see if the situation with Eiichi would cause more fans to sympathize...or if they wanted to forever turn against HEAVENS Episodes 9-11 would become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds in an Anime as far as fandoms went.  You were either looking for ways to prove (and you had plenty) that Eiichi meant well but he might have just gone a LITTLE TOO FAR and then you had the crew that wanted his head on stick even if there was more evidence that what he did wasn’t completely his fault! Now that not withstanding here is where it gets interesting and this deals in the end cards for the season First off on AniPlus’ facebook page they specifically stated this was the SEASON finale and not SERIES.  They actually made that mistake with DRIFTERS when that was getting ready to wrap up and then had to retract it.  Crunchyroll also promoted the final episode of YOI as the SERIES finale and who knows...the series MIGHT be over and the Movie is the last you get of it but the way of advertising the final episode towards the end of a few seasons...it was intersting Okay now let’s get really good! So the end cards...let’s recap how they did the end cards for S1-3 1000% - “See You Next Time” 2000% - Same Revolutions - To Be Continued/See You Next Season Legend Star - the “STARISH FOREVER” message and then the Message about the Animation Project Here is what I have found interesting so far For STARISH there have been 4 games where they were the sole focus (remember Debut was only when QN came in but they weren’t playable yet) AS/ASAS were so far the games when QN comes in as playable characters Nothing on HEAVENS...YET! NOW it gets good though After the finale if you went on the twitter for UtaPri they first wished the fans a Merry Christmas from Shining Agency BUT ALSO Raging Agency...I wonder why they also had a message about the new project on their twitter but they used three words that were key I think FROM NOW ON when you read that it almost sounds like both Agencies will be active right?  I can jive! Now we get to NOT 5/27 of this year BUT 5/24 which was 3 days before the concert (and the now infamous debacle) It would seem that, when you get to breaking it down so far Broc has been strategic in WHEN they start expanding the UtaPri Universe and HOW they dod it right?  There is a reason I bring this up According to the translation of the blog post which was put up three days before the concert it has some interesting wording towards the end “Please watch the development of this work that sets Uta no Prince-Sama Sports and Expansion of this world” Okay...WTF?! THIS POST was brought to my attention by my dear friend @shiningstarish (P.S. Nadie one of these days you have to tell me what that blog title means) and when I read the whole thing which, I will bookmark and if you want the WHOLE translation I will give it to you so you can break it down but I thought it was interesting “Sports”...alright are we getting a sports game in time for the Olympics or... Okay but then there is this “Expansion of this world” THIS...this is interesting Broccoli has NOT introduced a new group into the Game verse since the QN back in May of 2012!  Its been over FIVE YEARS since the last “expansion” of the UtaPri universe (so this ends the argument of “milking the franchise” really) so it would stand to reason that the next thing to happen is that HEAVENS would come in to the game world in some way and then a game would come out for them...makes sense right? But hold up...something’s NOT...QUITE...RIGHT! Ahh I think I know what you might be thinking and you would be right See the STARISH and QN characters were given games FIRST and then seasons...HEAVENS went backwards! Here is the theory we can work with Broccoli WANTS to have a game done for HEAVENS...they wouldn’t have made that splash page for June 28th of 2015 with the HEAVENS 7 on a newspaper article if they didn’t AND they wouldn’t do the “White Day” even for them right? So if you read between the lines of the “UtaPri Masters” what can we take from this Broccoli is probably going to be announcing a HEAVENS game in the near future and more than likely it will be either at or around 7th Anniversary thus the “Expansion of this World” line But what about “Sports”? I got to thinking about this and I was thinking that MAYBE they don’t want to announce another rhythm game since they have “Shining Live” to come out BUT what about something in the realm of the “Olympics”?  That’s a “Sports” theme right? Maybe part of the “Expansion” could also be that they include all 18 (or 22?) characters in the game and you do different athletic events (which could ALSO explain the episode with Yamato and Syo which was SPORTS THEMED)...am I on to something here?! again EVERYTHING that I just talked about and scoped out is PURE SPECULATION but if I am reading the tea leaves right then June 24th could be a VERY INTERESTING DAY!