I'm David, welcome to my brain. Here I write to not only show that I can but to share my opinions on various topics. Mostly Video Games, Anime, Movies and Tokusatsu. Though I am open to suggestions and never afraid to admit when I'm wrong. Have a good time in here and be sure not to mess with my memory, it's bad enough as it is.
Yes I finally managed to get this whole "Streaming" thing right for once. A little trial and error and soon I can unleash a masterpiece. Well soon enough I will at any rate. Sad to say I can't say the same thing for Lupinranger vs Patranger and Zi-O. With them it's one step forward two steps back, as is to be expected with these shows.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Alright can you all tell me what is the best part of Kingdom Hearts 2? For those who said "the battle of 1000 Heartless".
But yeah that battle is absolutely insane. The best battle music playing all the time, fighting Demyx who finally drops the lazy boy act and going on an absolute revenge rampage after Goofy's "death" and revealing the face of Xemnas, the big boss of Organization XIII. Oh and then there's some more stuff afterwords, whatever.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto. Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions.
"Both are horribly crazy, loyal to their partners and are deadly with their claws. Though as deranged as Anime X-23 here is at least she won't kill the girl she loves over some deranged definition of heroism."
Now let's start the wrap up of our two volume story. Our last volume opens with Kirika remembering how she distanced herself from her classmates since all she saw was vapid boring people having vapid boring conversations and thus not worth her time. She pushes those thoughts aside to concentrate on killing Mami who realizes that her attacks are far too slow to hit Kirika. Kirika says that she's starting to get bored; Mami calls her boredom childish which sets her off again into another attack frenzy. Mami manages to set up a smokescreen but it's only a stalling tactic, especially with her leg wound. But she then notices that the Witches barrier is still up even though the witch has been dead for a while, leading to a realization about Kirikas magic, it's not super speed but she can slow down her enemies. With that knowledge in hand she then hatches a very risky plan. Kirika notices that the Labyrinth is starting to fade so she doesn't have much time left. She's determined to kill Mami so that nobody could track the killings back to Oriko. She finds Mami and begins her assault, however she springs the trap and is critically injured from Mami's surprise Musket blast.
Even with her bleeding like like that Kirika is determined to keep fighting even if it means her death. But before Mami can shoot her point blank Oriko intervenes, picks up Kirika and retreats, but not before giving Mami the death stare and promising her that next time she'll learn the extent of her foolishness. The barrier dissipates and Mami collapses in tears from how terrible Oriko's bloodlust was. Back home Kirika's bleeding won't stop and Oriko is overwhelmed about what she should do. She thinks she should get a doctor but Kirika tells her a doctor won't do any good in the state she's in and that she has something to tell her.
You see Oriko, I borrowed your ChapStick from you without asking Oh, and I tried out your nose hair trimmer too And by the way, your "diamond" ring is cubic zirconium. I killed your goldfish accidentally, just replaced it with another one. And when I told you at breakfast we were out of Rice Krispies what I meant was, that there was only enough left for me, sorry.
No no, her real confession was that after the two first met when she helped her Kirika searched the entire town for her. But when she finally found her at a train stop she got cold feet since while she told herself she wasn't interested in other people the truth was that she was jealous, that there was nobody who would give her a second thought. And cue the Simpsons clip.
Regardless of her errors in definitions that's when Kyubey showed up and Kirika made her wish, to become someone worthy of Oriko. Oriko tells her that she won't forgive her for her deception and that the only way she'll forgive her is that if she dedicates her life to protect her. While that may sound heartless her body language tells a different story, that she needs Kirika just as much as Kirika needs Oriko. So our chapter ends with Oriko holding a cracked Soul Gem and Sayaka, Madoka and Homura deciding to get something to eat after school.
Chapter 5 opens with yet another flashback, this time of people praising Oriko and how she's a shining example of her school and her father. Who then killed himself to avoid questioning about falsified expense reports. So a politician turns out to be a crooked, thieving, lying scumbag, in other news the sky is blue and the grass is green. Back in the present Mami telepathically questions Kyubey about what Oriko stands to gain from the killings. The morning announcements are interrupted by the duo hijacking the broadcast.
On the roof Kyubey figured out what Oriko's up to and will see her dead for this. Oriko gives a speech about how there is a great evil in the world and she will do everything in her power to see it eliminated; as Madoka watches she can't help but feel that Oriko was looking directly at her as she said it. When the broadcast ends Oriko springs her trap, a witches Labyrinth starts to appear and encompass the entire school. Familiars then start to appear then proceed to kill and devour everyone in sight, including Madoka's homeroom teacher.
O_O
Maybe she won't have so many guy problems, IN THE NEXT DIMENSION!!!
But she's already in another dimension!
And does she have any guy problems now? No? Point Vegeta!
The students of course panic and run leaving Madoka behind. Just as she's about to be killed by the familiars Homura shows up and takes them out. Mami in turn transforms and protects the students from the familiars while making her way to the heart of the labyrinth. After some platforming she gets caught but is rescued by Kyoko and Little Green. Kyoko says that the only reason they're there was because Kyubey told them that Oriko would be there. After a little bit of banter the trio make their way to Oriko and Kirika. Homura continues to protect Madoka but she points out an understandable problem with Homura's antics. If she's so damn powerful why is she only focused on her when she could be saving other students as well, including Sayaka and Hitomi. But Homura just tells her that she's her only priority and that the others are inconsequential to her goals.
I don't know what you're talking about Madoka. Look I can see their parachutes they're ok!
Homura tells her that she's not as powerful as she thinks and that if she can save only one person she'd make it Madoka, no questions asked. She creates a barrier for Madoka and tells her not to leave it until she gets back and heads off with Madoka telling her to make sure they go home together. Homura finally makes it to the center of the Labyrinth and sure enough Oriko and Kirika are right there waiting for her. Homura wastes no time and tries to blow the two up with her bombs and time magic, but surprisingly they managed to dodge the attack. Oriko explains that she saw Homura in her vision, of the end of the world. She knows what it is and she knows how to stop it, to save the world Madoka has to die. Homura is of course not about to let that happen and keeps attacking despite Kirika managing to counter her attacks and gunfire. Mami, Kyoko and Yuma arrive to back Homura up but all Oriko can do is shed tears since they refuse to listen to her. Kirika tells her that she's out of time since she was already close enough to set up the Labyrinth. Homura knows what she's talking about and the chapter ends with Kirika releasing the spell she placed on her Soul Gem, fully succumbing to despair and becoming a witch.
Actually not that far off but much less perverted.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Oriko Magica is owned by Mura Kuroe, Magica Quartet and Yen Press. Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record is owned by Aniplex, F4samurai and Magica Quartet. Friday (1995) is owned by F. Gary Gray, Priority films, Ghetto Bird Productions, Cube Vision Productions and New Line Cinema. The Simpsons are owned by Matt Groening, Gracie Films, and 20th Century Fox Television. Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama. Silent Hill Homecoming is owned by Double Helix games and Konami Digital Entertainment #FucKonami
Here's the new V-logs for the last two weeks. Will be making this a new thing every Saturday. Though of course only one at a time. This however is an exception. Just something for the first week jitters, you understand?
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Sorry about this, but with my new V-logs I've decided to increase the amount of of Lets Plays I'll be posting in these weekly posts from 3 to 5. Instead of two Lets Play posts per week it'll just be one big one with my weekly V-logs. On to the main event we have wrapping up the Pride Lands and finally defeating the Zexion and Larxene Absent Silhouette. Once that's done with I take down the Nobodies that're attacking the chicken wusses in Twilight Town. After that it's back to Hollow Bastion where we can look at what's on Ansem's computer.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
Warning: this review and subsequent reviews of Oriko Magica may contain graphic and disturbing images and depictions of child abuse; child endangerment and graphic violence; reader discression is advised.
It's been a while since we've taken a look at the world of Magical Girls, Witches and hellish bunny cats hasn't it? Last time was Kazumi Magica which featured decent artwork, likable characters and asked some interesting moral questions regarding identity and acceptance of death. Will this entry in the franchise give us any of that?
Well I know we won't be getting one of those things because GOOD LORD THIS ARTWORK!! Everyones eyes are waaaay too big for their heads, Kyoko and Mami look like giants compared to this new girl and speaking of; giant Kyoko looks like she's trying to compete with Yukako Yamagishi and Starfire over who has the more ridiculously long hair. Also no, it's not just the cover art, the whole art for this line is done by the same guy. This artist seems to accentuate eyes the same way Rob Liefeld accentuates teeth. Though the art does get better in the Extra Story we still have to deal with this for now.
But trust me there's more then just the artwork to pick on in this one so let's dive in. We open on Kyubey granting a wish and creating a new magical girl named Oriko. She then sees a vision of Whalpurgusnaught attacking but sees something even worse.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! Is that supposed to be Kyubey, seriously what the hell is that?! It looks like someone drew its face on a marshmallow and sat on it for too long.
So after seeing that deformed monster as well as the vision her sanity understandably snaps and tells Bootleg Kyubey (who can fly for some reason, what is even the hell?) that her powers will be incredibly useful for his plans. But there's a bonus on top of that.
Great so she's openly helping Kyubey, at least this time we know out of the gate that she's nuttier then Squirrel poop.
We then cut from that to Kyoko finishing off a witch. She wonders why there's so many of them around and where the local magical girls are. She's about to walk off when she sees a little girl observing the bodies of the witches last meals. Kyoko figures that at least one if not two of them were her parents and basically tells her "sucks to be you" but decides to at least give her a burger before leaving the Kindergartener in her own in the middle of the city, seriously Kyoko what the shit?! The girl starts having a really bad trip but she comes down in time to hear Kyoko tell her about witches and magical girls and how she should stay away from all of that if she knows what's good for her. The kid tells Kyoko that her name's Yuma and that she'll become a magical girl. Kyoko gets angry at this flippant choice of hers but this gives Yuma the perfect opportunity to scream "MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!!!!" But just as Kyoko is about to wash her hands of the whole ordeal Yuma starts to break out the waterworks so she decides to at least teach her how to live on her own. I mean it's not like you could just bring her to a cop and ask if she has any living relatives who could take her in or anything no no no Aladdin clearly needs Abu here. So after a montage we see Kyoko is really taking a shine to the little moppet even taking her with her on a witch hunt to show her the dangers of the work. When Kyoko thinks that Yuma was attacked by the witch she checks and finds something rather interesting.
Yeah her mother was nothing short of a monster. I won't show an example right now but this should give enough of a clue. "NO MORE WIREHANGERS!!!"
So Yuma then declares that she wants to be strong like Kyoko and starts asking questions until Kyubey shows up and says that just as Oriko told him Yuma has the potential to be a magical girl.
Come on Kyoko who could say no to a wittle face like that, dawwww.
Kyoko stands by what she said and tells Kyubey to piss off. But not before she asks him about the lack of local magical girls. He says that this was the work of another magical girl who's apparently been killing them for control of the territory. Kyoko then tells Yuma as clear as day not to become a magical girl, who unfortunately takes that to thinking that Kyoko will just toss her away because she's useless like her mother who loved to beat the shit out of her over. Ok real talk here, that whore biscuit got what she deserved, even Heihachi Mishima would be blown away by this and keep in mind that this is the same guy who threw his son off a cliff to teach him how to be a man. Speaking of crazy evil masterminds we end the chapter with Oriko conversing with Kyubey about how he should be grateful for human emotions.
You mean emotions can give me the ability to breathe fire, turn my turds into gold, get Shinichiro Shirakura fired and have Marville make sense? AWESOME!!!
Chapter 2 opens with Kyoko waking up, sensing a witch awakening and going out to take care of it, leaving Yuma alone giving Oriko the chance to make her move. As Yuma wakes up wondering where Kyoko is Oriko appears before her and tells her that she's most likely going to die fighting the witch. Speaking of; Kyoko encounters the witch and while she does have the initial advantage it turns into a back and forth bout. After Oriko weaves her web of deceit Yuma runs off to try and find Kyoko when she encounters Kyubey. Kyoko is nearly about be killed and eaten by the witch but then something happens and the witch is incapacitated.
No seriously I can't tell what happens in these panels. Great so on top of the art style itself just looking bad its direction is also a jumbled mess, fantastic.
Nonetheless Kyoko's saved; by Yuma. This of course pisses Kyoko off something fierce who smacks her and screams about how she wasn't to even think of becoming a magical girl. We see in a flashback that Oriko managed to convince Yuma to make the contract to save Kyoko since she doesn't want her to leave her for being useless.
So it's pretty clear what kind of person Kyoko and Yuma are dealing with, a sociopath who would deceive and play at the metal scars of an abused little girl. So in other words Sofia Lamb with super powers.
Kyoko softens up since Yuma made a wish for the exact same reasons she did and it struck the exact right cord with her, I'll give you a guess as to what that is. Kyoko pats Yuma on her head and swears to get revenge on Oriko. Speaking of we end the chapter with a girl calling Oriko and agreeing to meet up with her later, just as soon as she gets cleaned up.
O_O Ok this girl is clearly Lovesick, in more ways then one! Still better then the Joker in All Star Batman and Robin.
Chapter 3 opens with a flashback of little Oriko handing out flyers for her politician father, they're both happy and smiling and who wants to bet this is going to turn out horribly for everyone involved? We then cut to Mami and her gigantic drill curls taking down Charlotte with no difficulty proving that she hasn't met Madoka and Sayaka in this timeline. She finds the corpse of another magical girl in the Barrier and notices that her marks are inconsistent with the Witches bite marks. Kyubey pops up and drops the oh so subtle hints that another magical girl was the killer. Speaking of we cut to Oriko and the girl from last time; Kirika relaxing in Oriko's rose garden. Their flirting time is over however when a witch comes a calling which means that while Oriko makes the tea Kirika takes care of the pest.
While she does kill the witch; part of its body destroys their tea table. Which causes Kirika to start sobbing and has a temper tantrum until she passes out. While Kirika sleeps in Oriko's lap she has another vision which leads her to apologize to Kirika for using her as she has, but she has to do so so she can save their world. Back with Mami she meets up with Kyoko and Yuma to exchange info about the Magical Girl hunter. Mami's target was described as wearing all black while Kyoko is looking for Oriko, the girl all in white.
When Mami asks why she's so set on finding her Kyoko just tells her that it's none of her business. Even Homura doesn't know anything about the two. Mami of course doesn't believe her and tries to threaten her after Madoka tells Homura that she, Sayaka and Hitomi are about to leave.
One good thing I can say about this artwork, when people are pissed they look freaking terrifying, honestly this face could give Don Bluth's death stare a run for its money
Never mind they both make me pee a moat.
After seing that vision of terror Mami thinks to herself about what the magical girl hunters motivation could be when she sees Kirika freaking out about losing something precious to her. Mami finds a bunny keychain and asks if it's what she's looking for. Since Kirika jumped on it like Galum just found his precious it'd be safe to say that's what it was.
Yeah this girl may just be coo-coo but if you want my opinion Mami if she wants to make it up so badly maybe you should keep that favor in your pocket. Oh I don't know, maybe if you're lonely on a cold winter night you can bring her and Oriko over, light some candles, pour some Sake your parents squirreled away and see where the night takes ya.
Or you can be the nice girl and have her treat you to crepes that works too I guess, and Mami knows the spot for the best crepes in town.
Sure they may turn you into rabid gluttons but hey you can't beat that price or taste.
Mami asks Kirika if that trinket was from someone special. When she sheepishly admits it is Mami says that she must have quite the crush. To Kirika however someone reducing her love and devotion to Okiko to buzzwords like "crush" "passion" and "romance" is basically her equivalent of walking up to Josuke Higashikata and telling him his hair looks like a rotting dick that's so disease ridden and filthy even birds wouldn't take a shit on it let alone use it as a nest. In non Jojo fan terms, the last words you will ever utter on earth. But before Kirika can get even more worked up a witch appears and traps her in its giant yarn ball. Mami transforms and prepares to fight it but Kirika transforms as well and rips the witch to pieces with no effort.
Once the witch is dead Kirika turns her attacks to Mami. Once she sees Kirika's outfit, gigantic Wolverine claws and the claw marks she asks if she's the magical girl hunter; she responds with a simple "yep" and then goes into full blown Wolverine Berserker rage; going too fast for Mami to restrain her with her ribbons. Our volume ends with Kirika overpowering Mami, leaving her critically injured and Oriko asking if her father is watching her since she and Kirika are going to save the world. Yes they'll save the world by killing Magical Girls and basically serving Mitakihara to the Witches on a silver platter, so our villains are two flavors of crazy, one screaming at the moon nuts the other a James Bond villain with magical powers.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Oriko Magica is owned by Mura Kuroe, Magica Quartet and Yen Press. Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record is owned by Aniplex, F4samurai and Magica Quartet. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
So now we're in familiar territory with Agrabah and Halloween Town. While Agrabah's not much to talk about aside from there's Sand and how it's rough, corse and irritating Halloween Town is definitely the one to talk about. Originally when you went to Christmas Town you were still in your Halloween Town outfits and had the same music through out. But now in the Final Mix you not only get new Outfits for the trio but also much more fitting music for Christmas Town. Again if you have to play Kingdom Hearts 2, get the PS4 bundle you will not regret it. #FreeAd
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
Yep folks, Mega Man is back in every sense of the word. After Mighty Number 9 made it's backers cry like an anime fan on prom night Capcom saw the damage that Inafune caused and decided that now was the time to revive the blue bomber not unlike how they made Resident Evil 7 after Konami shat the bed with the whole P.T debacle. Now I've played my fair share of Mega Man over the years, though I'm more of a Mega Man X fan but the classic series has given all of us plenty of challenges and nightmares. This is no exception, at first you can get though the stage itself with little to no difficulty given enough practice. But then you get to Block Man and let me tell you, he's as hard as he looks.
I mean his normal form isn't all that much trouble, just slide and jump, but then he turns into his Golem form and all bets are off! Unless you have the weapon he's weak against (and trust me, you don't) it's a battle of attrition. Just make sure you get that E-tank otherwise you're screwed. Other then that it's most definitely the blue bomber back in his full glory. Now to see if we'll actually get Mega Man X9 after this, here's hoping.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Megaman 11 is owned by Capcom, Koji Oda and Kazuhiro Tsuchiya. Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions.
Starting something new is never easy, even more so when you have little to no idea what you're doing. But sometimes, you just have to take that leap and hope you make a smooth landing. Now this isn't anything as dangerous a actually taking a leap but for some people this might as well be hopping into the Grand Canyon without a parachute. So here I go, starting Saturday at 12:00 ET (Eastern Standard Time) I'll be taking a shot at live streaming.
I know that there's plenty of competition but I hope that I can at least try to give everyone something to laugh at. At least in a "oh this guy is really funny" way and not a "oh god this guy is a complete amateur he should just die" kind of way. But here I go anyway, I just need the time and the right game to play. But maybe I can get started with V-logs to build my confidence up a bit. So that's what I did and here's my first one.
See you all on Saturday at 12:00 ET for my first surprise Stream.
Talk about shifts in quality. First we have the Timeless River, one of the best looking levels in the game with a very clear attention to detail in the visuals and audio department. Then we have Atlantica which is one of the most teeth grindingly annoying levels in the game what with the singing and rhythm mini games that I absolutely can't skip due to the 100% completion aspect. And lastly there's Port Royal, which for 2004 might have been good but on the PS4 in 1080P the realistic looking models look so out of place it's kind of creepy. At least the models for Kingdom Hearts 3 look way better, less like the Animatronics of the source material.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
I'd say that this block of episodes is a bit bi-polar. First we have Winnie the Pooh getting his memories stolen followed by fights to the death in the colosseum before Disney Castle is invaded by Maleficent and her Heartless. But it's not all bad news though as we get Auron!!! Yes the one good thing to come out of Final Fantasy X aside from the laughing scene. But he's only around for one world, poo.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Now that we've finally got our new gear and mission it's time to get to brass tax. Though here's were we start with one of the more annoying traditions of Kingdom Hearts games, the level that should be next isn't. What do I mean? I mean the level of a world doesn't reflect it's place in the story. The worst example of this is in Dream Drop Distance where if you went to The Grid Before Pranksters Paradise in then you'd be spoiled on the revelation of Xemnas' revival.
And here is no exception. You'd think that the Land of Dragons would be first but you're apparently wrong it's Beast's Castle you dummy! Well excuse me for knowing that 10 comes before 13 Nomura!!!
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Let's see how many of these guys actually show up for Zi-O.
Now we've come to the conclusion of Heisei Generations Final. Take a good look because we might not be getting a good Kamen Rider Movie for a while if Zi-O is going the way I'm expecting it to turn out. I honestly hope that I'm wrong but considering the staff in charge of it; also the fact that Toei's anniversaries are cursed in one way or another Zi-O may be no exception. But that's a week from now so lets focus on Build and Ex-Aid. Here's the links to the previous parts of the review for those just joining us.
Now that we've caught up we move on to Sento's plan to stop Cranky and Funky Kong from merging the worlds and destroying them, by merging the worlds together and destroying them..... wait what? Even Banjo is confused because it wasn't even 12 O'clock when the merger started. But the bridged worlds does give Sento and Parado a chance to ride the Enigmas to meet back with Emu and Banjo back on the main Earth. Sento gives Emu the Ex-Aid bottles back thus restoring his powers. With that out of the way the reunited hero groups as well as back up from the previous riders make their way to the Enigmas to stop the Siamese Psychos once and for all.
For the trailer!!!!!!
Which is great timing since Cranky and Funky use the Kaiser System to assume their strongest form.
Behold, the ultimate ruler of creation, RC Cola Bot!!!
The veteran Riders take on the Guardian Bots and sever the connection between the two Enigmas using their strongest available forms (even using their original battle music too) while Ex-Aid and Build take on Rc Cola Bot on the two flying Enigmas. At first RC Cola is holding his own against the two at least until Ex-Aid goes into Hyper Muteki Gamer form. That's when Cross-Z delivers Build's latest toy I mean power-up and Build becomes the one warrior who can stop the worlds from being destroyed by RC Cola.
With Build's new Rabbit Tank Sparkling backing up Ex-Aid the tide turns; especially since because the World merger was activated prematurely Rc Cola Bot isn't an immortal all powerful god, just another jackass with a knock off Rider form and delusions of grandeur. So with both of our heroes delivering a full powered double rider kick they destroy RC Cola once and for all! Our movie then ends with Build and Cross-Z giving their thanks to the senior Riders before returning back to their world. We also get some small epilogues of our heroes getting either some closure or seeing their journey continue with renewed hope for the future. But after the credits we see Build and Cross-Z fighting Guardians and having the Phoenix and Robot Fullbottles stolen by the as of yet introduced Kamen Rider Grease.
So that was Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Final and as usual I have some closing thoughts about this final ride for the Heisei era. First off it was really cool getting to see Eiji, Ankh and Gentaro one last time especially considering that this may be the last cannon time we get to see Fourze outside of an AR world scenario or Legend Rider Power Up or something like that. As I said before; this movie has to have taken place before Movie War Ultimatum because unless Fruit Jesus intervenes I doubt anyone can recover the Fourze Driver from a flaming hot smelter intact, for either party! As for Eiji we do get the hint that Ankh can be recreated in the future and perhaps this incident was the inspiration for the method behind that future resurrection. Though sadly there wasn't anything new for Ghost or Gaim, but I guess since there wasn't anything for them to wrap up and get closure for there wasn't a need to tack on anything unnecessary for them to come and help.
Speaking of returning characters it was really great to see Foundation X as the villain backer for this threat instead of rehashing Shocker again. Just like in Megamax we see they're still continuing to improve and refine their Core Medal and Astro Switch research, even managing to recreate a dummy version of Ankh. Though thankfully they don't seem to be stupid enough to recreate the Purple Dinosaur Core Medals since those things are unstable and the antithesis of the normal Core Medals. It also seems that they've expanded their research to include Game Syndrome and the Nebula Gas making them a more dangerous threat for the future. (At least as long as Shirakura doesn't try to retcon them as being a literal new brand of Shocker or something stupid like that.)
Though speaking of our villains both the Kaisei's are decent ones. Though their plan is more then a bit familiar. As I joked about in the first part of this review the plan of the Kaisei's really is a mash up of Alex Luthor's plan from Infinite Crisis and their collaboration seems to borrow almost note for note the collaboration between Yi Suchong and Jeremiah Fink in BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 2 except the Kaisei's are the same person and aren't trying to steal from the other. Merging both of their worlds together to create a new perfect reality for themselves and sharing their world's unique technologies to accomplish their goal. Though I have to wonder when they merged into Bikaiser did their personalities and conciseness merge together or was it like when Zamasu and Goku Black fused and they just became one being since they were both the same guy?
Though one thing I did like with these two is the portrayal for both world counterparts of the same guy. Main Earth Kaisei was a loud obnoxious sadist who seemed to be much more enthusiastic about killing as many people as he could, especially the Riders; not surprising considering he's a member of Foundation X. Where as Build Earth Kaisei was far more cold and ruthless, more obsessed with attaining his godhood and getting his revenge on Takumi for not only the betrayal but also scaring him. It really demonstrates how the same person can be so different considering their circumstances and backstory yet still be the same person, in this case both were power hungry lunatics just with different flavors of psychosis. I have to admit that it must have been fun for Kaisei's actor to portray the same character but with radically different personalities, though I'm betting the costuming was a bit of a pain getting that mask for Build Earth Kaisei and the scar make up for Main Earth Kaisei.
Just like with last year's Heisei Generations this movie serves to explain previously unanswered questions in Builds narrative and also serves to foreshadow the conclusion of the current series. In this case we get the explanation behind why Build stole Ex-Aids powers at the tail end of Ex-Aids show as well as explaining how he did it since that cameo was before the first episode where we learn it's an alternate Earth with the Skywall and all that jazz. We also get to see some narrative purpose behind Kuroto's Build Gashat though in both cases sadly they didn't lead to any Legend Rider form for either character's power set, which I speculate was due to budget constraints. After this movie the Kaiser System was repurposed by Utsumi to create the Hell Bros which only served to be Nanba's Bebop and Rocksteady. Also the world merging will be seen again, but since it was so recent I won't reveal how it was utilized here.
So in the grand scale of Kamen Rider movies this is one of the good ones. The fights were nicely choreographed, the return of older Riders and their brief interactions were a treat and the threat was competently presented. Though there were some moments that made me scratch my head like the aforementioned time Takeru forgot he had the Ex-Aid Eyecon where it really could have been useful. Also I kind of forgot but why exactly did Onari leave the temple again? I mean I mostly forgot about the events of Ghost mostly because it wasn't really worth it but still at least he was useful to placate Kuroto and get him to help (even if it involved feeding into his delusions and God complex) but I still kind of prefer Heisei Generations since it focused more on Ex-Aid and was called back to more in the main story giving it much more necessity.
Since Kamen Rider Build ended recently I'll just give my thoughts on it here. It was a decent series though some people complained that the war plot dragged on way too long and that Evolt overstayed its welcome. I can certainly see where they're coming from but for me Build is one of those series whose pros outlay the cons. The major pro was the acting from the main cast, especially Atsuhiro Inukai's portrayal of Sento, the best instances of his acting skills I've seen in the show was his PTSD after going berserk with Hazard Trigger and when he recovered his memories as Takumi, he really conveyed portraying a completely different character before that plot point was resolved. Like I said at the beginning I want Zi-O to be a good series, but considering the staff in charge of it I won't be surprised if it winds up pissing everyone off, only time will tell.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Pepsiman is owned by Pepsi Japan, created by Travis Charest.
