#made a show in 2006 (kabuto)

[t-u-i-t-c]

my brain has been a constant cycle between boonboomger, agito, kabuto, and geats for what feels like forever but has really only been a couple of weeks

[hubrisbracket]

Hubris Bracket Side A Poll 15: Tendou Souju/Kamen Rider Kabuto (Kamen Rider Kabuto 2006) vs Wei Wuxian (Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)

Propaganda below (may contain spoilers)

Tendou Souji/Kamen Rider Kabuto

Ok, so Tendou’s name literally translates to “Man who walks heaven’s path”. He believes himself to be the Greatest Man Alive, often quoting some insane shit his Grandmother told him. “Believe yourself to be the center of the universe. It’s more fun that way.” “He who walks the path of heaven shall rule over all.” “My evolution is faster than the speed of light. Nothing can keep up with it.” (YES, his grandmother said this shit. It’s unreal.) Tendou is rather aloof and rarely ever says what he means. While he doesn’t straight up say “I am a god among men.” He will frequently compare himself to the sun, something humanity cant exist without. Something so powerful it can never be reached, and can never be defeated. Did I mention he’s REALLY into cooking? In his debut appearance, he DOESNT dodge a robber’s knife because, “If I had dodged, I would have broken my tofu. And besides, that puny knife couldn’t have hurt me. I’m the master of my own fate.”

(long propaganda not in bullet format for clarity)

His name can be translated as "Path of Heaven, Ruler of All" and he uses this in his catchphrase: "Walking the path of heaven, the man who will rule over everything." His first scene involves him walking through a mugging, completely ignoring someone swiping a knife at him because "No knife can harm me, and if I dodged carelessly it would ruin my tofu".

Other choice quotes: "Grandmother said this: Make the world revolve around you. It's more fun that way." "In the past, present, future, all ages there is always a single person more perfect than others. A man like me. Do you think I can befriend a commoner like you?" "Greater than all the world's population of six billion people. I'm number one."

Bonus quotes from non-canon promotional materials: "If the Precious are a worldwide treasure, then I'm the universe's treasure." "(Sees a guy called Stronger) If he's Stronger I'm the Strongest."

But there's three things that make him specifically peak among hubristic characters.

1) As arrogant as he is he's constantly talking up other people when appropriate. He can't go a full episode without quoting his grandmother. He's declared before that the only reason humanity exists is to service the whims of his little sister. When someone changes their cooking style to be more like Tendou's, even though the food comes out better, Tendou chides them for abandoning their individuality. There's one specific old man he hypes up with the quote "If I am the world's treasure, this man is the treasure of humanity".

2) His response to a restaurant he wanted to go to being closed is "Has heaven abandoned me?". One time someone responds to an "Inspirational" speech with him over the phone by hanging up on him and he's too confused to do anything about it. One time a child said they don't like his food and he looks like he's about to cry.

3) The show buys into Tendou's hype. One time he disappeared for half an episode and returned in a leadership position of a paramilitary task force. He has also inexplicably turned up as a doctor and a priest officiating a wedding. One time it looked like he got hospitalized in a fight but when people rush to check on him he's so ok he's giving his doctor a check-up. One time when his allies were planning on drugging some food to knock out people guarding a kidnapped girl he chided them for messing with food and just made food so good the kidnappers were too distracted to guard their hostage.

One time he got in a contest with another character over who could pick up more girls in one hour and then does nothing for the full hour and when he meets up with the other party in the contest every single girl the other party picked up immediately runs to Tendou because "The girls know of me, just as there is no one who does not know the light of the sun." And then every girl present does his catchphrase.

He apparently dies in the lead-up to the finale but then turns up again with no explanation except "I am the world. As long as the world exists, so will I."

Wei Wuxian

Donated his golden core (like... a heart but for spiritual energy, which is like a source for magic powers) to his brother, without telling his brother. Invented necromancy to cover for the loss of normal magic powers. Was very rude about it (to prevent people from realizing he lost the normal magic powers). Then saved some people who were Really hated by the rest of the world. As a result: semi-accidentally killed his brother-in-law. Indirectly caused his sister's death. Got torn apart by his own fierce corpses. Died, his name living on in infamy. (Then came back to solve crimes and get gay married but thats unrelated to the theme now is that)

[isakatsu-isaac-uchiha9306]

Cars Challenge from Tumblr

Challenge by @ijustlovefiction

Ay here we go!

1. Lightning McQueen

2. Sadly none

3. Lightning McQueen

4. Chick Hicks

5. None

6. Mr. Sterling, Sir Miles Axelrod and Harv

7. Lightning McQueen

8. Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera, Shu Todoroki, Mater, Jeff Gorvette, Luigi, Guido, Kabuto, Mack, Carla Veloso, Cruz Ramirez

9. Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera, Shu Todoroki, Mater, Jeff Gorvette, Luigi, Guido, Kabuto, Mack, Carla Veloso, Cruz Ramirez, Doc Hudson, Finn McMissile, Lewis Hamilton, Cal Weathers, Bobby Swift, Danny Swervez, Flo, Ramone, Boost, Miguel Camino

10.

Lightning McQueen - His arc throughout the first film

Sally Carrera - Her Sass

Shu Todoroki - His Japanese Lineage (I'm a JDM fan)

Mater - His humor

Jeff Gorvette - He's basically based on Jeff Gordon a Nascar Driver

Lewis Hamilton - He's basically voiced by the GOAT

Luigi and Guido - Their commitment to helping McQueen

Kabuto and Boost - Their Nissan Silvia S15s

Flo and Ramone - Their Aunt and Uncle vibes

Cruz Ramirez - Her arc in Cars 3

Cal Weathers - His innocence

Carla Veloso - She's a Lemans car

Finn McMissile - His badassery

Miguel Camino - He's a Gran Touring car

Doc Hudson - He's the GOAT in the Cars Universe

Danny Swervez - Idk I can

11. I kinda have this knack of trying to be a show off... I like to go fast and many more... And Lightning is humble like me

12. Life is a Highway

13. McQueen and Sally's drive, Life's a dream scene

14. None

15. Lightning McQueen

16. Lightning

17. McQueen leaving RS, Mcqueen's crash

18. Episode 1

19. Salqueen, DannyCruz, HolleyMater, FloRamone, ShuCarla

20. McQueen/Mater, McQueen/Mater/Sally, McQueen/Sally, Finn/Mater/Holley, McQueen/Cruz/Storm

21. All

22. Eh...

23. Hiccups, Radiator Springs 500 1/2

24. Tokyo Mater

25. I didn't quite get that...

26. Cars the Video Game (2006)

27. McQueen and Sally

28. Jackson Storm

29. Car (1996 Toyota Supra 2JZA80 or 2023 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Z06)

30. Sally Carrera

31. Radiator Springs

32. I don't know actually

33. Radiator Springs

34. Yeah

35. Well... I'd say Sally Carrera... Idk...

36. Happier - Marshmello, Bastille (McQueen and Sally)

37. Finn McMissile

38. None... I don't like them

39. Nope... Trust me... I don't... Not to mention the maritime disasters like Titanic and many more.

40. More Salqueen content, WGP racers, return of older characters

41. Idk since my style is just generic

42. Both.

43. Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera, Mater, Luigi, Guido

44. 100% As a kid I didn't really care much... But as I grew older and I saw how much Doc had an impact on McQueen's life made me change my perspective on him...

45. Lightning McQueen, Sally Carrera and Mater

46. A Cars Life (Don't me get started on the whiny pink Porsche... And the Shelby Cobra Lightning McQueen look a like)

47. (Art not mine... If the original owners saw this... I can tell you that I have no intention of stealing... I just saved these on my phone for fun that's all... Again I'm sorry if I reposted without permission)

48. Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, John Turturro

49. When harv made Lightning leave...

50. Cars (2005) Teaser, Cars (2006) Trailer, Cars 3 Teaser Trailer

51. None

52. Let McQueen have a comeback... Show him have a family with Sally... And let him win one more time before retiring... Give everyone the comeback I didn't see in Cars 3

53. The General Grevious "Your [Blank] will make a fine addition in my collection" line quoted by Miss Fritter in Cars 3

54. Cars 3 More than new paint

55. I'd tell him, hey did you know McQueen is 7-time piston cup champion... And young me would blow his mind hearing that

56. Transformers and Cars

57. None... I just hate the Dream Stans that ship Sally with Quackity or Dream with Lightning

58. Cars... I grew up with it..

[nanjokei]

bruh kabuto is crazy. they made a stereotypical 2000s meterosexual and made him a rider. this show could not be more 2006

[kabutoraiger]

All toku shows are a bit better with tiny mascot mentor friends. Just think about Kiva. Sure everyone has varying opinions on that show, but nobody hates Kivat, because Kivat is an excellent little bat. Or hit 2006 show Kamen Rider Kabuto. Acually I dunno if the bug morphers in Kabuto actually talk but they did in the Hyper Batte video. They're wonderful either way though. Or Keitai 7. Excellent little cell phones. Imagine 555 with talking cellphones. *chef kiss* a masterpiece. Or tiny Taro from Ultraman Ginga! He seemed like a cool little dude. Or the little Gaia memory gadgets and shift cars and that Dragon thing that Sento made for Ryuga :D

sadly the zecters didn't talk within the rest of hit 2006 show kamen rider kabuto but they definitely should've. you're so right, "cute and/or funny little guys" are just such a great and easy way to give your program some instant likeability points.

maybe someday execs will once again realize that This is the ideal way to sell toys rather than having 15 heroes and a bajillion powerups per show. you just gotta have the charming little companion creatures!

[biomic]

kamen rider kabuto (the show) always showed tendou flexing that he was buying high end ingredients, but they also made a point of having his sister establish that he's unemployed. did tendou use his zecter's time travelling powers to have an onlyfans account in 2006?

that last sentence hit me like a brick to the face. yes of course that’s what he did

[yeonchi]

Kisekae Insights #11: Sea Princesses Part 1 (Introduction and Rider List)

(Art by Rainbow’s Network, formerly Princess Rainbow Channel, source here)

You thought five months of Sea Princesses content wasn’t enough? Why don’t we make it six then? Oh, I’m sorry, you thought this was going to be one part like the other shows we’ve gone through so far? Oh no, the Sea Princesses series has so much significance in my project for a niche (and almost forgotten) series that it’s going to take three instalments to cover everything I want to cover.

I was planning to cover my versions of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and Kamen Rider Decade first, but I’ve been so busy with other stuff that I haven’t had time to prepare those instalments ahead of time. Also, I thought it would be better to cover Sea Princesses while it’s still fresh in my mind. In case you didn’t know, Sea Princesses content has taken up the majority of my Tumblr posts in the last six months under the coronavirus lockdown; from April to June, I reposted my reviews of the cartoon series that I wrote in 2019, then from July to September, I fulfilled an item in my bucket list by translating and reviewing the books that inspired the cartoon series. You can check them out here.

In the next three instalments, I’m going to take a look at the involvement of Sea Princesses in my personal project, as well as share some theories about the series that I’ve implemented in my project and teased in my reviews.

A brief introduction

The first mention of Sea Princesses in my personal project was in 2010, when I assigned them warrior names like I did with the Flowertots. Unlike Lucky Star, however, whose characters were divided into five different clans, the characters of Sea Princesses form only one clan, namely the Uesugi clan. In the Moushouden Series, the Uesugi clan would also be known as the Salacian Army.

After being inspired by the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XI segment Night of the Dolphin, I drafted up some mock battle fixtures for a storyline named Salacia Rebellion. The storyline wouldn’t get made into actual stories until 2017 with Three Kingdoms Series 3.

Sure enough, the Sea Princesses made it into Doctor Who as well, crossing over with two sea-related animes. They had appearances in Series 7 Part 1 (the Salacian Time War arc) and the Next Gen Series (a two-parter in Series 8 and then a minor appearance in the Series 9 finale two-parter). In the Moushouden Series, they became Kamen Riders, which I’ll elaborate on later.

Regarding timelines

Most of this series’ involvement in my project is based on the timeline of the animated series. When I bought the books, I was hoping that I could implement them into the series as well, but I decided to stick to adapting the animated series because the timelines for them and the books are very different.

So what is the series’ timeframe in terms of this project? Officially, I decided that the events of the series would be set in 2004, the release year of the first book, assuming that everything in the series takes place in one year as there is no indication anywhere in the series that the class has moved up a grade. This means that the characters would have been born around 1996-1998. You can calculate for yourself how old they would be during the years my stories are set in.

Original characters

What would any adapted series be without any original element to them? There are four original characters that I’ve made, but one of them isn’t as “original” as you may think.

The Squid Princess: Squid Girl

You thought I couldn’t make an original character for this series with a character from another series? Haha Rider machine go brrrr.

Yes, that’s right, Squid Girl is, in fact, a Salacian. Her father, the Squid King, was killed by Maurice Mouseling at the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima in 2006. He was the first king to suggest an invasion of Dryland to prevent Drylanders from coming into Salacia. Initially, the other kings were not willing to join him, but they eventually warmed to his cause, given the damage the Drylanders were doing to the ocean. Following the Squid King’s death, his daughter went onto Dryland to take revenge, but she ended up in the wrong place and well, you know the rest if you know about her series.

Squid Girl was one of the two who worked behind the scenes with the Master to bring about the Salacian Rebellion of 2010. She is seen fighting Maurice during the final battle as she attempts to take revenge for her dead father. She also served at the catalyst for the group’s backup plan when the Salacians were defeated by the Dryland armies, eventually starting another conflict amongst the Drylanders before returning to her home at the Lemon Beach House.

In 2012, Squid Girl met the Fourth Doctor in an episode of his spinoff series before she became a companion of the Fifth Doctor, alongside Tsukasa Hiiragi in Series 6 Part 2 and Series 7 Part 1, and alongside Clara Oswald and Takeru Aizawa in the 50th Anniversary Series.

In 2018, Squid Girl was part of a faction of princesses who became Amazon Riders thanks to Narutaki and Nozama Pharmaceuticals. She gained the Neo Amazons Driver and fought as Kamen Rider Amazon Neo.

The Squid Girl anime also featured a girl named Kozue Tanabe, who is implied to be an octopus. She is only mentioned once in Three Kingdoms, but I stated that she was related to the Octopus Royal Family.

The Mermaid Prince: Zhuge Shu (and son, Zhuge Sōta)

Originally, I created this character in 2012 out of nowhere and it wasn’t until 2018 that I actually gave him a backstory. Believe it or not, this was going to be my answer to the Barracuda Kingdom saga until I thought better of it and kept it separate by making him the Mermaid Prince. He was also one of Hiroki’s echoes created when he split himself all over his timeline.

A long time ago, the Mermaid Kingdom was notorious for frequently breaking the First Law of Salacia, which stipulates that Salacians are not to be seen by Drylanders. This resulted in the other kingdoms turning on them, forcing the royal family onto Dryland. The Mermaid King transformed into Agito and fought with all his might, but was killed in battle. His daughter, the Mermaid Princess, was saved by a Drylander before they could hunt her down. They eventually got married and had a child named Seretao. When Seretao was still a baby, the Shark King invited the Mermaid Princess and her husband to discuss a treaty, but his real intention was to kill them.

Luckily, Seretao was left in the care of the Wolonggang Academy, the same academy where Parker trained when he was very little. Upon graduating, Seretao became a mercenary for hire and changed his name to Zhuge Shu (courtesy name Hutiao, made from separating the characters in his name – 虎 and 儵, the latter is made up of the characters 條 and 黑).

Sometime in 2005, one of his jobs led him to the city of Hiroki’s primary school army, where he overheard two girls plotting to kill him. He eventually managed to find Hiroki and tell him to escape to Honnōji, which only served to delay the inevitable.

Over the next few years, he became acquainted with Salacia and worked odd jobs both there and on Dryland. At one stage, he took on the name Magoichi Saika and fought for the Date Army, led by Doctor Eggman. He was the other person who worked with the Master to facilitate the Salacian Rebellion and he was also the Shark King’s strategist, supplying him with weapons and strategies.

Later on, after Squid Girl executed the backup plan, Zhuge Shu, now the leader of the Saika Renegades, defected to Parker’s army. Not much was seen of him, even after they disbanded, until the Salacian Time War in November 2012. Zhuge Shu meets Parker again and helps him set up a delta wave generator, which is actually a trigger that would fire the Harmony Signal once it was charged. Following the battle, Zhuge Shu was entrusted with Akeno Shiranui, a woman who Parker accidentally married following events that led him to see her true form as a mermaid. The two got married and had a baby boy named Zhuge Sōta, who was born in October 2013.

Salacian General: Lorah

Lorah is a Salacian general who fights as Kamen Rider TheBee, with his underlings, Hugo and Tata, fighting as Drake and Sasword. He isn’t known to be a part of any royal family (that never came to mind when I created this character), but given who his underlings are, you could argue that he is affiliated with the Turtle Royal Family.

At the end of his debut episode, Lorah would be revealed to be a Roidmude alongside Hugo, Tata and the goddess Salacia; Narutaki had kidnapped their templates and had some Roidmudes copy them so she could trigger the Global Freeze. After Narutaki’s plan was foiled, Lorah and the others were rescued and they continued fighting as Kamen Riders.

Characters and Riders

When I first implemented this series in 2010, I wasn’t able to include all the characters because I was unable to find or keep records of them at the time. All I had was the characters that had descriptions on the official website at the time, including Agostinha and Dinho, even though the former had no lines and the latter had no appearances (I thought he did at one point, but after watching both series, I was proven wrong). Naimo was also added as I did remember watching The Babysitters back then.

Jaune, Goldina, Flourison, Matilda, Veto, Caton and Caramelo, the “forgotten characters” (who had no descriptions), were implemented in 2017. The speculations I had for them weren’t added onto the wiki until 2019 for the sake of completeness.

The great thing about Sea Princesses having so many characters is that I can make armies of Riders out of them. The characters’ Rider designations are derived from Ryuki, Hibiki, Kabuto, Agito and Amazons. Most of the Riders were featured in Kamen Rider Decade, while some additional Riders were added in Soulbound Series 3 and 4 because god, I can’t stop thinking about Rider War storylines with them. The Salacian Riders are split up into factions typically consisting of Riders from one series.

Ryuki Riders (led by the Shark King):

Kamen Rider Ryuki – Daniel Camielez

Kamen Rider Knight – Kelvin Galvarro

Kamen Rider Scissors – Sirilo

Kamen Rider Zolda – Elektra

Kamen Rider Raia – Soraia

Kamen Rider Gai – Marcello

Kamen Rider Ouja – Tubarina

Kamen Rider Odin – Shark King

Kamen Rider Tiger – Ester

Kamen Rider Imperer – Leia

Kamen Rider Femme – Polvina

Kamen Rider Verde – Vivi

Kamen Rider Abyss – Bia

Daniel and Kelvin are Drylanders; additionally, Daniel is the Dryland boy from The Boy and The Secret Admirer. He will be elaborated on in Part 3. Kamen Rider Ryuga has not been implemented into Decade or Soulbound, but he will be implemented in Zi-O.

Hibiki Riders – Ibuki Faction (led by Marli):

Kamen Rider Ibuki – Marli

Kamen Rider Todoroki – Caramelo

Kamen Rider Zanki – Delfi

Kamen Rider Danki – Naimo

Kamen Rider Sabaki – Matilda

Kamen Rider Eiki – Dinho

Kamen Rider Shuki – Socita

Hibiki Riders – Kabuki Faction (led by Maurico):

Kamen Rider Kabuki – Maurico

Kamen Rider Tohki – Isa

Kamen Rider Nishiki – Lia

Kamen Rider Habataki – Camarina

Kamen Rider Kirameki – Angelica

Kamen Rider Amaki – Jaune

Kamen Rider Kyoki – Goldina

Kabuto Riders – TheBee Faction (led by Lorah):

Kamen Rider TheBee – Lorah

Kamen Rider Drake – Hugo

Kamen Rider Sasword – Tata

Amazon Riders (no leader):

Kamen Rider Amazon Omega – Juli

Kamen Rider Amazon Alpha – Jessi

Kamen Rider Amazon Sigma – Agostinha

Kamen Rider Amazon Neo – Squid Girl

Unaffiliated Riders:

Kamen Rider Agito – Zhuge Sōta

Kamen Rider Gills → Chalice – Zhuge Shu

Kamen Rider Hibiki – Marcela

Kamen Rider Saga – Salacia

Soulbound Series 3 additions (2019):

Kamen Rider Amazon New Omega – Akeno Shiranui

Kamen Rider Amazon New Alpha – Miss Marla

Kamen Rider Gouki – Caton

Kamen Rider Touki – Veto

Kamen Rider Shouki – Flourison

Kamen Rider Banki – Serena

Soulbound Series 4 additions (2021):

Kamen Rider Aqua – Duante

Kamen Rider Poseidon – Windy Adams

Duante is the mysterious boy featured in The Healer while Windy is the name of the Drylander girl in The New Princess, not to mention that she is named after the Drylander girl featured in the third Sea Princesses main series book, The Windy Letters.

I’ll start covering the history of Sea Princesses’ involvement in the project from the next instalment.

[gelatinocomics]

Rating each generation of pokemon based on the number of marine invertebrates

I’m not much of a critic. It’s too hard to decide which generation of pokemon is best, because they’re all equally good. However, I am passionate about marine invertebrates, so that gives me a good, solid metric to work with. Let’s take a look through each generation and count up how much love they give to all our favorite goopy boys and crusty girls.

Note: I’m including any pokemon whose real-life inspiration is clearly a kind of aquatic invertebrate, not just ones that live in the ocean. Invertebrates of course can’t be any animal with a backbone, so fish, frogs, and lizards are out. Let’s get to it.

Kanto

Tentacool

Tentacruel

(Slowpoke)

(Slowbro)

Krabby

Kingler

Staryu

Starmie

Omanyte

Omastar

Kabuto

Kabutops

Total: 10 (12) Percent of this generation: 6.6% (7.9%)

We’re off to a very strong start. I knew kanto wouldn’t let us down with all its love for oddball animals. There are jellyfish, crabs, echinoderms, and molluscs galore. Slowpoke and slowbro are harder to place, because while they certainly look like some kind of terrestrial animal, they have a mythological origin related to a certain kind of sea snail. Special shout-out to our lovely fossil pokemon, which gave us a great start to a long tradition.

Johto

(Slowking)

Corsola

Octillery

Total: 2 (3) Percent: 2% (3%)

I’ll give these guys credit for being a small generation and essentially joined at the hip to Kanto, so Johto residents get plenty of love from the old invertebrates from last gen. Also extra credit to corsola for being one of my all time favorites, and for being very rare and important representation for coral (lots of little animals!).

Hoenn

Corphish

Crawdaunt

Lileep

Cradily

Anorith

Armaldo

Clamperl

Total: 7 Percent: 5.2%

The third generation is my favorite, so I’m glad to see it performing well here. The fossil pokemon are carrying on the honorable tradition of ancient marine invertebrates, who called earth their home for most of its history (sorry dinosaurs, you’ll get your due next generation). However, the fossil pokemon are also carrying most of the weight here, as Hoenn doesn’t offer much besides them. Could do a little better. At least another one of my faves is here (lileep!).

Sinnoh

Shellos

Gastrodon

Phione

Manaphy

Total: 4 Percent: 3.7%

What Sinnoh lacks in numbers, it makes up for in quality. Shellos and Gastrodon are the sea slug rep we never knew we needed, and they come in many fashionable flavors. We also get a legendary and an ambiguously-legendary kind of sea slug, the noble sea angel, getting the status they deserve. 2006 was truly the year of the slug.

Unova

(Dwebble)

(Crustle)

Frillish

Jellicent

Total: 2 (4) Percent: 1.3% (2.6%)

This is abysmal. I’m sorry Unova, you brought such a huge number of great pokemon to the scene, but where is the love for our spineless ocean friends? I included dwebble and crustle out of pity, since real life hermit crabs venture near the ocean at the very least.

Kalos

Inkay

Malamar

Binacle

Barbaracle

Clauncher

Clawitzer

Total: 6 Percent: 8.3%

In a shocking turn of events, Kalos sweeps away the competition, even beating Kanto percentage-wise. It’s a small group, but they come from a small generation, and they show their pride. Finally, the oft-overlooked barnacles get to join in the fun.

Alola

Crabrawler

Crabominable

Mareanie

Toxapex

Dewpider

Araquanid

Wimpod

Golisopod

Pyukumuku

Dhelmise

Nihilego

Total: 11 Percent: 12.5%

It’s no surprise that the region inspired by biodiverse Hawai’i shows lots of love to a wide variety of ocean dwellers. There’s a lot to talk about here, so let’s get started: Crabrawler has an uncanny resemblance to the coconut crab, which is typically found more on land than in water, but I’ll let it slide, especially since its evolution draws inspiration from a totally aquatic crab. Dhelmise is an odd case to judge, since it’s not an animal in any capacity. Its living portion is made of seaweed, and we don’t typically talk about algae having a backbone or not. However, since it clearly doesn’t, I’ll let it join the party. For these purposes I’m considering Nihilego some kind of bizarre jellyfish.

Galar

Clobbopus

Grapploct

Corsola (Galar)

Cursola

Pincurchin

Total: 5 Percent: 6.2%

I find it necessary to point out that not a single one of these marine invertebrate pokemon is water-type, which I think is very cool and fresh of them. I’m including corsola’s new form here because it’s a very nice and educational take on an old classic. Cursola just makes things even better with its spooky charms.

Conclusion

I think it’s safe to say that marine invertebrates have not been neglected in the world of pokemon. We’ve had a wide range of odd animals represented, but there’s always room for more. As for the generations, I think it’s clear that Kanto and Alola are the big winners here, but every generation gave us valuable contributions to the family. Even my favorite group, the echinoderms (starfish, sea cucumbers, urchins, etc.) have a decent number of representatives, perhaps enough for a full team. What kind of marine invertebrate would you like to see more of in the future?

[nerdomlover]

Explaining Kamen Rider

Part 5: Heisei boogaloo. Me explaining Kamen Rider like I would for my friends with funny quips and simple explanation. Spoilers in bound and remember I haven’t seen all of them just enough to know the stories. 

Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005)- A warming story of a man and his student as they train and fight monsters with music. Too bad it was only 25 episodes. Nope, there isn’t a conclusion. Episodes beyond 25 are a lie. They don’t exist. Look we just don’t talk about it.

Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006)_ Grandmother once said this is show is good. The suits are some of the most Kamen Rider-ish in Kamen Rider. It’s about the most Overpowered and Gary Stu kamen rider kicking monsters that steal faces at superspeed, Also Kagami is there and we love and support him.

Kamen Rider Den-0 (2007)- Time traveling train comedy show with too many movies. Also this was my first Kamen Rider ever and I love it. Also Takeru Sato is the main Rider and someone please give this man all the awards for playing like 8 characters omg.

Kamen Rider Kiva (2008)- Vampire angst backstory but it’s a kid show so we can’t say vampire? Like it’s about like the main dude Kiva dealing with vampires but we also follow his womanizing suave father back in 1986. So, this actually my favorite Kamen Rider but no likes it or talks about it so I’m sad.

Kamen Rider Decade (2009)- The 10th anniversary season that made every mistake. It’s follows screen hog Tsukasa (I love him though) while he tries to save/destroy the worlds? They’re never really clear on that. I still love the show though and it was the first Kamen Rider I ever finished. Just try not to take him beating up the older Riders to seriously and your good.

[ryo-maybe]

Current Watch Log + Bonus Recs

FINISHED

- Kamen Rider Kabuto: one of the most thoroughly enjoyable Rider series I’ve seen so far, especially since Faiz and Blade were far less memorable than the two series preceding them, and Hibiki, while being simply delightful with its peculiar tone, was somewhat lacking as far as sheer excitement goes. Kabuto’s endgame was kind of a mess admittedly, but overall, the series did what it set out to do - entertain, and it did so pretty satisfyingly.

- Houseki no Kuni: The anime ended right when things were beginning to truly escalate, which is a pity. Nonetheless, the surreal atmosphere and the obvious influences from Buddhism and whatnot were interesting. Incredible aesthetics, too: this is definitely the best use of computer graphics in an anime series I’ve seen to date, it simply curbstomps the competition and I hope it will set a standard for others to follow. I expected half the cast to be composed of evil traitorous bastards just by looks alone, but it turns out that everybody was truly just chillin’, which I appreciated.

- Kekkai Sensen S2: A vast improvement over the first season! An episodic format suits the setting far better than whatever attempts the previous season to have an overarching plot. Lots of characters finally got some time to shine in the spotlight, by which I mean that FINALLY my prayers for Chain to have some relevance were answered and all is well in well in the world. I hope there’ll be an S3 to follow through on the new formula, I need myself more doses of this disfunctional band of misfits.

- Net-juu no Susume: YOU WOULD DARE HAND ME THE CHEESE ONLY TO TAKE IT AWAY RIGHT AS I’M ABOUT TO BITE INTO IT? THERE BETTER BE AN S2, I’M NOT GONNA BE SATISFIED UNTIL MORIMORI AND GLASSES FU

- Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte kara: Alright, I guess I’ll make do with a cheese flavored drink instead. Watch this if you like alcohol. Absolutely watch this if you don’t like alcohol but like to see a happy married couple be disgustingly adorable with each other.

IN PROGRESS/CATCHING UP

- Mahoujin Guru Guru: Fast-paced parody of RPG conventions that’ll barely leave your sides a moment to recover between one joke and the other.

- Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou: Potatoes roaming a baked world. A relaxing, different take on your usual slice of life. Perfect for post-apoc buffs.

- Love Live Sunshine S2: They say this season was noticeably better than whatever mess the first one was, but all I care about is seeing how exactly we reached the point where everything ended with a magical drug-induced trip on a flying school bus.

DROPPED

- Fate/Apocrypha: I told myself that I was willing to put up with Astolfo and Sieg, as long as I could focus on characters that are actually likeable. It was around the time Vlad got mindjacked that I realized that Achilles alone wouldn’t be able to carry the show for me alone, so b y e

- Juuni Taisen: I think I may pick it back up sometime in the future whenever I feel like hearing Nisio Isin telling me to fuck off from his throne of piled-up pretentiousness through the mouths of his gut-bustingly bad characters, but for now I’d rather watch stuff I can actually enjoy.

CURRENTLY IN EVALUATION/SCOPED FROM THE CURRENT SEASON

- Violet Evergarden: I had big hopes for this, and I still do, but the first episode was trying so hard to make itself seem like an emotionally deep trip that it did like Gandhi and went the whole way around, falling flatter than a performance by a troupe of actors who have perfectly memorized their scripts, but perform like plastic, overdramatic mannequins rather than human beings. We’ll see how things go from here.

- Kokkoku: It looks like it was made in 2006 and nobody working on it truly had many hopes for it, but I want to give it a try for a few more episodes just because the gimmick and the aesthetic of the creatures that briefly show up seem interesting enough.

- Poptepic: random humor that might veer a tad too much on the side of random to the detriment of the latter. I’ll probably end up seeing the funnier clips posted all over the place on Tumblr anyway, so that works for me.

- Junji Ito Collection: I suppose that hoping for another accidental masterpiece like KonoSuba was borderline delusional, huh

- Takunomi: It’s a 12-minutes long beer commercial, but precisely because it’s so short, I might as well keep up with it since it seems to be somewhat charming anyway.

- Killing Bites: Did you mean: Bloody Roar? Might end up becoming a surprise good watch by virtue of being so over the top trashy. Seems like a very promising “turn your brains off and enjoy the cool fighting scenes and HAMMY EXPOSITORY NARRATOR” kind of show, against all odds.

- Overlord S2: It has lizard people. Guaranteed good watch.

- Beatless: Violet Evergarden, except good.

NEED TO CHECK OUT

- Yuru Camp: I have my doubts since for all intents and purposes all I’ve seen around seems to indicate this is another “cute moeblobs doing nothing in particular” show, so I hope to be proven wrong and fatten my queue more than it needs to be.

- Aishen Qiaokeling S2: It’s been 2000 years, but finally, the best Chinese anime ever made is finally BACK

I SWEAR I’LL FINISH IT ONE DAY

Fucking VOTOMS!!!

[himitsusentaiblog]

Hey there again! Hope you are having a great day! I was wondering, I wanna get into Ultraman but there are so many! Is there somewhere I should start and continue forward with? I want a general connection if they share a story of some sort? As well as any Heisei or Neo Heisei Era rider shows? I'm watching Kabuto (and Drive) at the moment and I wanna have another going right after.

Ok, Ultraman is a bit weird when it comes to continuity.  That’s mainly because as originally created by Eiji Tsuburaya in 1966, there was no continuity between series.  Ultraman and Ultraseven were totally different shows and had no real links. 

In fact, it wasn’t even his desire to continue the Ultra Series past the first three installments (Ultra Q and the two hero series). It wasn’t until after his death in 1970 and the inheritance of his company by his son, Hajime, that it was decided to return to the franchise.  That was why in 1971, The Return of Ultraman hit the airwaves and also created a connection between it and the previous two series. This started the M78 Continuity of Ultraman retroactively bringing Ultraman and Ultraseven into the same universe.

So, if you are interested in the original continuity, start with 1966′s Ultraman.  It’s available in a VERY cheap DVD boxset in the US.  Ultraseven, in my opinion, is the better show and it makes a nice follow up.  Sadly, the next three series (The Return of Ultraman, Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Taro) are NOT available in the States.  The next two series, Ultraman Leo and Ultraman 80 however, are streaming on the Crunchyroll service. If you want a nice overview of all of it though, the 2006 40th Anniversary series Ultraman Mebius (also available on Crunchyroll) is a great place to start!

That’s just for the main M78 continuity though.  When Ultraman came back to Japanese TV (there were two other series made in Australia and the US in the intervening years) it was with an entirely new story, characters and universe with no real connection to what came before. That series was 1996′s Ultraman Tiga.

This was a great series with a more modern sense of storytelling, continuity and character development than the earlier shows and as it was divorced from the universe and long-running meta narrative of the previous entries, is a good starting point for new viewers to get a feel for the franchise.  It was released on DVD in the US in the early 2000s and some of them are still available at reasonable rates on the secondary market.  However, due to a low press run, the third volume is VERY hard to come by.  Seriously, if anyone finds one at a decent price let me know so I can finish my set!There was one direct sequel to Ultraman Tiga released in 1997 called Ultraman Dyna.  Though that series is not available in the US, the movie for it that served as a crossover with Tiga was released by Image Entertainment.

From there, every series after (Ultraman Gaia, Ultraman Nexus, Ultraman Max and Ultraman Cosmos) were all set in their own timelines and universes with no real connection to anything else save for one crossover movie (also released in the US connecting Gaia with Tiga and Dyna thanks to cross-dimensional travel).

Most of those series mentioned above are streaming on Crunchyroll and can be watched without needing any previous knowledge of the franchise.  They all have very different themes though.  Gaia is a fairly serious series with some very light hearted moments.  Nexus is a dark series aimed at a more mature audience with a continuing narrative between episodes. Max is a throwback series that feels like an M78 entry but has no real connections to it.

After the return to the M78 Continuity with Ultraman Mebius, a huge decision was made that lead to the unification of all timelines and continuities as separate branches of one giant Multiverse.  Though there had been cross-dimensional travel before the multiverse itself was first glimpsed in the Ultraman Zero: Revenge of Belial movie. From there, it became commonplace for Ultramen to travel between universes to aid one another leading to major, epic crossovers.

Any of the modern series like Ultraman Ginga, Ultraman X, Ultraman Orb or Ultraman Geed have multiple crossovers and appearances by past heroes.  However, much like Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger for Super Sentai, previous knowledge really isn’t needed.  It might help but you can start anywhere you want and still have a good show to watch.

For Recommendations though, try this:Ultraman (1966)Ultraseven (1967)Ultraman Tiga (1996)Ultraman Gaia (1998)Ultraman Mebius (2006)Ultraman X (2015)Ultraman Orb (2016)and if you want to get into the newest show, give Orb a try and then move to:Ultraman Geed (2017)Thanks for the question and happy viewing. I know a massive franchise like this can seem daunting but pick one that looks fun and dive in!

[tokupedia]

Kamen Rider 45th Anniversary File: Kabuto

2006

Magical Source! Mystic Force! Power Rangers Mystic Force premieres on ABC and Jetix in the west.

After two seasons of the same lead cast, the Pretty Cure franchise introduces fans to a pair of brand new Cures, Cure Bloom and Cure Egret, in Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star. The series airs alongside the new Sentai and Rider series. Super super spark, Splash Star!

After the mild success of creating Garo, Keita Amemiya takes a break from the directors chair to be a character designer on a TV series called Madan Senki Ryukendo. The show was sponsored by Capcom and created by Takara Tomy and We’ve Inc. Ryukendo revolves around a trio of magical heroes who use special keys and talking weapons to defeat an army of demons terrorizing a small city. It also serves as a sort-of-prequel to the Tomica Hero Series as that series is set in the same universe.

Meanwhile, some of the staff of Garo worked on a short adult revival of the 1970s P-Productions TV show Lion Maru, Lion Maru G.

Endless Bouken Spirits! Super Sentai celebrated its 30th anniversary/season with GoGo Sentai Boukenger, a treasure hunting themed Sentai that features special segments at the end of the show highlighting the important milestones and tropes of the franchise as well as teams from each season.

Ultraman celebrates its 40th anniversary year with Ultraman Mebius, a show that pays homage to the entirety of the franchise with some classic monsters reappearing to fight the rookie Ultra and guest appearances by previous Ultramen.

Gamera returns for one last film: Gamera the Brave  (Coke products not included.)

2006 was the 35th anniversary of Kamen Rider.

Since this momentous occasion was so special, the staff of Toei decided to go back to basics with the next series (especially given the staff/writing debacle with Hibiki the previous year). No extreme excess amounts of gimmicks, no strange mashups of motifs, just good old fashioned fightin’ bugmen.

Early Kabuto concept art

A later concept sketch showcasing the overall final look of the main hero. Note that one of these designs would be used for a future Rider in the show. Copyright to PLEX and Ishimori Pro.

One interesting thing about Kabuto is the allusion to the franchise’s roots. The Masked Rider Project began on April 3, 1971 after the Natives landed on Earth. This leads to fan theory that the Kamen Riders, at least the tech-based ones, have their belts, cybernetics (in the case of Showa Riders) and equipment made from reverse engineered alien technology. A bit of expanded universe lore leaned a bit factual weight to that theory outside normal canon, as Kamen Rider Stronger’s Final Form Ride by Decade was a Zecter.

But this was just a date, a fanservice nod in terms of the show.

The insect motif designs for most of the Riders in the series were essentially modernized variants of the Showa Riders: A Japanese Rhino Beetle (Stronger/Kabuto), A member of the Vespa family of insects (Super-1/TheBee), a Dragonfly (V3/Drake) and two Grasshopper themed Riders (1 and 2/Kickhopper and Punchhopper). It also payed homage to the more recent motif of a Stag Beetle (Kuuga/Gatack) for the main supporting Rider.

There were also new additions, including a Scorpion Rider and a trio of new Beetle motif Riders as the annual movie exclusive Riders. (Hercules, Caucasus and Centaurus).

The reboot Takeshi Hongo makes a cameo in one episode (made even stranger since there was no other reboot film in theaters at the time, as The Next was still being filmed.) Given the real Kamen Rider 1 exists as does Kabuto in later continuity, this is best hand waved as just a promotion plug for Kamen Rider: The First’s DVD.

There were also 35th anniversary files building up to the summer movie God Speed Love, which essentially functioned similar to the ones Boukenger showed for Super Sentai’s 30th. (These 45th anniversary files are the unofficial, fanmade sort of successor to this bit.)

During a few of the Super Hero Time closing segments, Souji would interact with Satoru aka BoukenRed. This was no surprise since the two sibling shows were celebrating an anniversary year together, but it was historic as nobody had seen the actors of a main Rider and a Red Ranger interact with one another before in conversations.

Most Super Hero Time segments kept the heroes separate and interacted only with their show’s cast onscreen aside from transformations and dialogue, so this was unheard of at the time. This event would sow the seeds of future crossovers in the Heisei era such as Den-O and Kiva, the Decade crossover with Shinkenger and eventually lead up to the Taisen films and spring crossover specials.

A media trend happening during the mid aughts was The Matrix film franchise, whose “bullet time” visual effect was often duplicated and/or parodied. Kamen Rider was no exception, as the staff and SFX team at Toei decided to experiment with variants of the visual mechanic by giving the heroes of the show a unique form of super speed to counter equally fast enemies.

Another achievement this installment made was Kamen Rider Kabuto has the distinction of being the first main Kamen Rider to go into space!

(Space, the final path of heaven... these are the Hyper Clock Ups of the superhero Kabuto. His continuing mission, to destroy strange new monsters, to seek out new recipes and quote his Grandmother. To boldly kick where no (Rider)man has kicked before! *TNG theme plays*)

Let’s not waste any time, we must talk of the path of Heaven who rules over all!

Mr. Tendou circa 2007 in Paris, France, traveling as the greatest chef humanity has ever been graced with.

Real Name: Souji Tendou (formerly Souji Kusakabe)

In 1971, Earth was visited by aliens called the Natives, who offered to protect humans in secret from the more hostile members of their race: The Worm. They did so by developing and creating the Masked Rider System and ZECT, a tech company/defense force designed to hunt down the Worms. They assume human forms in an attempt to blend in and live peaceful lives among the humans.

In 1998, a shower of meteorites hit the Japanese district of Shibuya, killing countless people and causing massive property damage. Among those killed were the Kusakabes, save for the youngest son, Souji and his cousin Jyuka. While this disaster was tragic, something even worse came with the meteorites: The Worm.

Young Souji received a belt from someone to one day help humanity. Jump ahead to 2006 and he gets his chance after seeing a Worm attacking and a Zecter appears, which comes to him and he transforms into Kabuto to destroy it.  Having lived with his grandmother after the death of his parents, Souji upon first impression comes off as egotistical and eccentric. But he is a caring soul and has a Buddhist monk-like sense of peace. He also really loves his grandmother and both he and Jyuka quote her philosophies often.

Kabuto does not align himself with ZECT and does hero work on his own whims, as he rightfully does not trust them. He investigates the mystery of ZECT and the Worms and sometimes makes hard decisions that make the hero come off as cruel or questionable in motive.

After defeating the rouge members of ZECT and the Worms, Souji becomes a famous world-traveling chef. But should the need arise, he will call upon his Zecter once more to fight evil wherever it may be.

Powers:

As his insert song lyrically describes him, Kabuto is the Lord of Speed. Able to travel faster than the speed of light itself in Hyper Form, Kabuto is one of the fastest Kamen Riders around.

His Clock Up power gives him the ability to move at super speed to the point where everything around him is at a standstill or slowed down considerably. In addition, Kabuto’s armor grants him enhanced defense and the tachyon energy it or combined Zecters absorb can be channeled to execute a finisher or weapon attack. The belt and its systems, being alien tech. have a self repair function that allows Kabuto to restore the Armor or Belt even after heavy damage, the extent of time to repair depends on the damage. (Ex. The ability to use Clock Up again in mere seconds after his Clock Up system was electrocuted by Stronger. )

Kabuto’s Hyper Form can also allow the Rider to break the time barrier and alter history however he sees fit to save someone or immobilize his target for a quick finisher. The exact limit of the length he can go back in time is unknown, but it has been shown he can go back at least 7 years into the past. This also results in some timey-wimey scenarios where Kabutos from alternate timelines can appear and disappear. It also means that the Hyper Zecter cannot be destroyed on a permanent basis, as another can be called upon from a different point in time or an alternate timeline. In Hyper form, Kabuto can fly or jump higher using a tachyon energy powered jetpack which can also be used for space travel. Kabuto also has immense super strength in Hyper form, able to do Superman-like feats with the help of his jetpack such as push a giant meteorite.

Souji is a very skilled combatant, as part of his fighting style utilizes evading his opponent to read their movement before finding tells and countering with rapid punches or slashes. He also utilizes his super speed and surroundings to his advantage. Souji is also very skilled at many things with examples including cooking, martial arts, and remaining cool under pressure even in the most tense of situations.

Weaknesses:

Kabuto is a difficult opponent to defeat, as he can simply time jump to take his foes out before they can even plan an attack or just mow them down with Clock Up/Hyper Clock Up. But there are ways to defeat him, some superheroes such as Kamen Rider Faiz Axel form or Red Buster from Go-Busters can match regular Kabuto’s speed. So it stands to reason a foe with powerful super speed and attack power could defeat him.

Another way is to create a “Clock Down” wave, creating a subspace field of energy that disrupts Kabuto’s tachyon absorption and thus forces him out of Clock Up. Without his signature ability, a more skilled combatant could overpower him.

Decade is shown to be more than a match for Kabuto by copying his Clock Up  and utilizing other Rider powers in tandem with that ability to crush him. If another ZECT Rider gains a Hyper Zecter, such as Kamen Rider Caucasus in God Speed Love, Kabuto would have trouble defeating them unless he used his own or formed a strategy to take them down.

Gear:

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kabuto_Zecter

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Rider_Belt

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kabuto_Kunai_Gun

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Kabuto_Extender

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/ZECT_Mizer

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Hyper_Zecter

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Perfect_Zecter

Signature Finishers

Rider Kick: By pressing the three buttons on his Zecter and flipping the horn lever back and forth, Kabuto charges tachyon energy into his feet to execute a powerful kick. Kabuto’s kick comes in three variations: A normal 180 degree roundhouse kick, a counter kick (360 degree roundhouse kick, which is used to surprise opponents who attempt to attack him from behind), and a flying side kick. The Hyper Version is way more powerful and utilizes the tachyon jetpack to rocket jump higher to land the kick with even greater force.

Avalanche attacks (Kunai Gun): The Kunai Gun multipurpose weapon can execute a Rider Shooting attack, a Rider Thrust stab or a Rider Slash.

Maximum Hyper Cyclone: Kabuto’s most powerful attack. By summoning the Drake, TheBee, Sasword and Perfect Zecter in Gun Mode and combining them, Kabuto channels the maximum output of tachyons into a powerful energy burst that annihilates anything in its path. The recoil from this powerful gun blast is so rough that Kabuto either needs to use his jetpack to keep himself steady or use Hyper Clock Up to stop time to slow his inertia from the recoil or do both.

Maximum Hyper Typhoon: A powerful Rider Slash that channels the maximum output of tachyons into either an enhanced sword cut to kill one foe or a powerful swordbeam that destroys multiple targets.

Enemies:

ZECT

A tech/defense organization founded by the Natives and humanity, ZECT itself is kind of dubious at times. This is not helped by the fact that Worms who are not Natives and harbor schemes of their own are lurking in ZECT. ZECT often has problems among its ranks, so it is hard to trust some of the personnel as some of them could backstab, be a Worm or go under orders to kill or detain a Rider. Things get worse in an alternate timeline where infighting causes ZECT to split into two warring factions with the main version of ZECT’s leader plotting to end Humanity by bringing more of....

The Worm

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Worm

Worms are a mimetic humanoid insect alien species from an unknown region of space who arrived on Earth on a Meteorite that crashed in Shibuya back in 1998. They commonly possesses the ability to move at unbelievable speed after shedding their pupa stage, fire energy blasts and can mimic a human right down to their memories ala Invasion of the Body Snatchers, usually killing the original or mimicking a recently dead person.  Worms have a variety of insectoid or arthropod forms they can take on and powers, ranging from the ability to stop time completely to attack unseen to shooting webs covered in acid.

There are good Worms called the Natives who wish to help humans and some who are even close to the main characters and get a happy ending. But I’ll leave that as a surprise....

Kabuto was a good series as it remembered the franchise’s roots and tried to honor them one last time before heading out into a new era of change and progress in motifs and innovations for the Kamen Rider series. And that path is the one we still walk now...