Manga Review: Madoka Magica Homura's Revenge Volume 1 Part 2: Two ships passing in the night.

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

"Let's see here, gains their power because their friend broke their hand thus lost their ability to perform music, check, sword wielder who's presented as the true protagonist of the series with a blue color scheme, check, and slow descent into madness and bloodlust due to misplaced concepts and expectations of heroism, that's three checks for all counts"

 Yes, it's been a while, again but I'm back with more of my Madoka Spinoff Manga reviews. In case you've forgotten what happened last time here's the link to Part 1, with that we're back on track.

https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/04/manga-review-madoka-magica-homuras.html

 In case last time wasn't clear we've switched gears from self aware goofy near parody story to totally serious story so from here on out look for more head slapping and leaps in logic thus more snark. We start the head slapping right away as chapter 4 starts with Sayaka making the contract with Kyubey so she can get revenge for Mami. Ah, the most worthless of causes and because she got fridged too, double points. Madoka goes through the motions and starts to realize the hell that Homura's subjected herself too, getting used to the fact that she can't save her friends. Sucks doesn't it?

 Up on the roof Sayaka blames Homura for Mami's death. Even though Madoka tries to dissuade her Kyubey points out the fact that when Homura showed up she distracted Mami enough for the witch to  chomp her head off like a squishy yellow Gummi Bear. When Madoka tries to tell Sayaka that Homura really was trying to save Mami she remembers that Homura told her not to mention that she's from the future, that nobody would be willing to listen about their futures which causes her to clam up muddying her argument. Getting flashbacks to Futures End here, not wise! Though at least this only lasts two volumes and not 50 or so issues of drawn out, contrived stupidity.

 While I can't disagree with Kyubey's statement (ignoring that he was the one who set her free in the first place to set up the circumstances to discredit her, Sayaka not knowing that detail and Kyubey's not telling her anytime soon) I can however argue with Homura's warning. Though in this case all Sayaka knows is what she saw and what she saw was a magical girl who had an antagonistic relationship with a new friend of hers set up an opportunity that took her out. I can't really blame her and Madoka and Homura know Sayaka will never listen to their argument, hell even Madoka was somewhat skeptical of Homura's claims during the last timeline. But to just say nothing just makes you look like you have no idea what you're talking about and only makes Sayaka less inclined to listen to either of you. The two hear the class bell and Sayaka decides that there's nothing more to talk about and walks off. 

 Later on Homura visits Mami's apartment and reminisces on when Madoka and Mami saved her from a witch and how whenever she tries to save anyone besides Madoka it never turns out well. Kyubey shows up and speculates about Homura's relationship with Mami, what she intends to do about Madoka and if she intends to drag her along with her repeating timelines and if she's strong enough to handle that. Yep, he pressed the Madoka button but before Homura can teach him why he shouldn't'a done that he blinds her with logic and struts off.

"Yeah you didn't want to lose her, you just wanted her to become another witch you miserable sociopathic rat!"

 Madoka runs into Homura at the bottom floor and the two walk back. Homura blames herself for Mami's death in this timeline but Madoka tries to tell her that they can just keep trying again until they get it right. 

 When Madoka brings up Sayaka and Kyoko; Homura remembers that today is the day she's supposed to make her contract when Hitomi gets possessed by the Box Witch. Homura heads to Hitomi while Madoka rushes off to persuade Sayaka not to make the contract. Homura manages to get to Hitomi and the other victims before they finish their Jonestown cocktail and then proceeds to deal with the Box Witch. She has it on the ropes but the Witch drags up her memories of when she first had to kill Madoka. But before she can become worm food Sayaka kills the witch in one attack.

"Well Duh and or Hello! But, you still have to admit Sayaka does have a far better execution of the concept of a Gunblade than either Squall or Lightning."

 Sayaka is about to attack Homura but Madoka protects her. Sayaka falls back for now but swears to Homura that she'll never accept her as a Magical Girl worthy of protecting Mitakihara and walks off. The chapter ends with Kyubey talking with Kyoko who's more then willing to take a crack at killing Homura since she killed Mami before she could. Chapter 5 opens on Sayaka and Madoka on the grassy hill where Sayaka gives her reasons for making the wish. When Madoka tries to tell Sayaka that Homura isn't just in it for the Grief Seeds Sayaka asks how she can trust a transfer student that they know nothing about. 

 So Sayaka heads off to see Kyosuke when Kyubey tells her that there's someone he wants to introduce to her. At the mall Madoka and Homura talk about how they both failed to save Sayaka and Mami, Madoka didn't reach Sayaka in time and Homura rightfully points out that her timing was absolutely horrible when she barged into the Witch's sanctum. Gee it's not as if you could have frozen time as soon as you got in to make sure that everything was secure OH WAIT!!! Homura suggests that Madoka should keep her distance from her lest her relationship with Sayaka deteriorate. But Madoka shoots that down saying how for all the good she's trying to do nobody sees that. 

Sometimes, just a little recognition is all you need.

 Madoka meets back up with Sayaka and the two go on her first solo witch hunt. Along the way Kyubey tells Madoka that he's made preparations to make sure that Sayaka doesn't end up like Mami. The two find the rogue familiar but this time Sayaka kills it without interference from Kyoko, that's because she's too busy pointing her spear at Homura's throat.

"Look, I know that she's got plenty of milk to go with that tea if you know what I mean. But let me tell ya from experience, ya ain't her type. And this creeper shit? Losing some serious points in attractiveness."

 She then begins her assault on Homura and the volume ends with Madoka and Sayaka investigating the noise and see the two fight with a surprising figure entering the fight making it a 2-1 brawl and no it's not John Cena.

Cue Roundabout

 So that was Volume 1 of Homura's Revenge. As I said before after the tonal shift in chapter 3 we have to look at this story with a whole new set of glasses. And with the serious story glasses on we have to sadly point out that Homura does come off as more then a bit of an idiot with her not anticipating Kyubey taking advantage of his new future knowledge to advance his own agenda, which she knows for a fact he would do because he's him! But I'll save the rest of my rants for now. Now unless something else comes along that requires my attention I'll be back next week when I start covering Volume 2.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Homura's revenge is owned by, Masugitsune/ Kawazukuu, Magica Quartet and Yen Press.
The Simpsons are owned by Matt Groening, Gracie Films, and 20th Century Fox Television. 
Hellsing Ultimate is owned by Kouta Hirano, Studio Madhouse, Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment, Geneon and Funimation.
Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is owned by Team Four Star.

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 44 & Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 18

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Sorry that there's no Spider-Man stream this week, again. But we had some surprise guests this week so that took priority. But in all honestly I think I'm just dreading having to talk about Zi-O and Ryusoulger. It's like the Michael Bay Transformers movies at this point, what else is there to say? Though at least Ryusoulger was decent.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 43 & Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 17

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Bit of an unexpected surprise this week. We have the Toku V-Log this week after all despite my thoughts on TV Nihon being behind with weekly releases lately. Oh well to be fair its not like there's mountains of dialogue to translate this week. Zi-O has us finally seeing the final defeat of Another Zi-O and the birth of Another Decade. Ryusoulger has Wiseru back leading the baddies and we learn that Dimevolcano and Mosa Rex are brothers who can combine......ok.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Forever Part 3: The definition of insanity.

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Here we are at last, I've been putting this off for as long as I possibly could but I just have to treat this like a bandage and rip it off as quickly as possible. But it has been a while so here's the links for Parts 1 and 2 to make sure you know exactly where I'm coming from.

Part 1 https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/06/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

Part 2 https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/06/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei_24.html

 So where were we? Oh right Woz just slapped Riku Sanjo right in the face by inexplicably using the Gaia Library to get the Rider Ticket for where Futaros went to; January 29th 2000, one day before the first episode of Kuuga. Sougo takes Ataru, for some reason back with him in the Time Mazin but are too late as Futaros managed to get there first, by jumping out of past Ataru, before he was delivered by his still pregnant mother. Now I'm just imagining what the father's reaction would be if he saw this big, red demon looking guy jump right out of his pregnant wife. "Um Honey, were you schtupping Satan behind my back?!"

 But before they can make a joke about this weirdness Shingo (the one from before he was kidnapped) is about to be abducted by Another W when Futaros tries to fight the Another Rider off but to no avail. And it's here where Ataru finally learns what the audience did about half an hour or so ago. Now that he knows that the kid he was paling around with is his long lost brother he charges right at Another W and gets turned into Another Den-O for his trouble, in the words of Professor Farnsworth "Ah, Paradox resolved." With the two brothers under his masters power Another W makes his escape abroad the Another Den-Liner leaving Futaros and Sougo in the dust. Meanwhile we cut to the Kurougatake Mountains where Tiddlywinks uncovers the tomb of Riku, the original Kuuga and from his remains creates the Kuuga Anotherwatch.

 Geiz manages to intercept him but it's too late as Tiddlywinks uses the watch on himself becoming Another Kuuga, thus creating a future where the Heisei Riders were never real, wiping himself and everyone else in this world from existence in the process, thus never executing this plan in the first place.

 Now this is stupid for several reasons but I will give the writers credit for one thing, working around the fact that Joe Odagiri refuses to reprise the role of Yusuke Godai, the modern Kuuga by having Tiddlywinks taking the power from the remains of Riku, I have to admit that was a good workaround for the problem of creating Another Kuuga. But that's hampered by the fact that this makes no sense. According to the series' lore once an Another Rider is created in the same year that the rider was born in the Another Rider overlaps the history of said rider. Now since Tiddlywinks turned himself into Another Kuuga one day before the Grongi were released and Godai became Kuuga, his history should still be in tact. Which leads to my second problem, Tiddlywinks just became the Another Rider of Riku, not the modern Kuuga so Godai will still become Kuuga because his personal history as a Rider was not changed according to the logic we've been given.

 Also, Kuuga may have been the origins of the Hesiei Riders in the meta sense; but in universe, no the Riders would have come about regardless of Kuuga so even in concept this plan makes absolutely no God Dan Kuroto sense! But this all leads back to one of the biggest problems of the film; Tid is a terrible villain. Answer me this one question audience, why does he do any of this crap? To erase the Heisei riders from existence? Ok, then why, why does he want to do this; creating a world without riders isn't a motivation it's a goal those are two completely different things.

 We're never given a good reason why he wants to do this. Even Paradox from Yu-Gi-Oh Bonds Beyond time had a motivation for his actions, hell, even Harvest, the king of Dumbasses from the Culling had a better motivation than this idiot. Sure they were both just as hypocritical and made as little sense as Tid but at least they had a better reason for their actions other than "because I'm evil." This guy was so badly written and his motivation is quite literally non-existent that I'm just begging for the Great Leader of Shocker to show up and say that this was all a part of his plan. As overused as Shocker is (especially with Shirakura productions) at least they have the established history of wanting world conquest and have a long standing history of hatred for all Kamen Riders.

 This isn't even the first time Shocker screwed around with time travel, that was their entire plan in Super Hero Taisen GP and Kamen Rider Yongou. Sure it's lazy but you don't have to replace lazy with another brand of lazy if the result is even worse! For that matter why did Schwartz even turn Tid into a Timejacker in the first place if he knew that he'd pull something like this. For that matter where are Schwartz and his little Harem anyway? Why didn't they try to stop this if they knew that Tid was screwing up their plans, whatever they are?

 Moving on, Tiddlywinks finishes transforming into Another Kuuga and he looks like if Inferno from Beast Wars became a demon who devours the souls of the guilty and innocent alike.

INFERNO, TERRORIZE!!!! 

 Special thanks to the guys at Toku Riffs for giving me this idea (originally I was going to go with Waspinator but Inferno works so much better upon reflection.)  Ironically, Beast Wars still has better CGI than this movie. Though this Predacon is less enthusiastic about setting things on fire and is more inclined to grab his opponents and break them like the Batman. Even with Tsukuyomi backing him up in the Time Mazin Another Kuuga wipes the floor with Geiz and after trashing both Geiz and Sougo's Time Mazins retreats back to the Another Den-Liner. But the train crashes back where the movie started bringing us back full circle.

 But our heroes are now stranded back in 2000 and unless they want to do what Captain America did at the end of Endgame and take the long way back they're screwed. Later that night Futaros explains to Sougo why Tiddlywinks even targeted Shingo in the first place. According to him he's a Fixed/Singularity Point whichever one you want to call them I don't give a crap. For those who don't know, Singularity Points are people who are immune to the effects of time alteration, like Den-O himself Ryotaro Nogami and his descendants. Which explains why the creep has been stalking the kid since this whole thing got started, as long as Shingo exists and remembers Kamen Riders Tiddlywinks' plan to create a world without them will never come to pass.

 But this begs the question of why Futaros even wants to help Shingo and Ataru in the first place, maybe because he's just one of the rare good Imagin, good enough for me I guess. Back in 2018 Sento and Banjo fight their way though the fortress and confront Tiddlywinks in his throne room but he just sics some grunts on them. The Zi-O team nearly get lost in the time stream due to their slapdash repairs but get a lift from the real Den-Liner which dumps them off into the Fortress, conveniently next to the throne room. Sougo, Geiz and Futaros get their turn but Tiddlywinks just has Another Den-O deal with them instead. The three try to snap Ataru from his brainwashing but they're not getting through.

 Just as he's about to kill the three everyone except Tiddlywinks are teleported to presumably the Station of the King-Liner terminal. This is where we get the return of the original Kamen Rider Den-O (my very first rider series I finished from start to end btw so, yay) who solos dealing with the grunts and after switching between the rest of the Taros defeats Another Den-O, saving Ataru from Tiddlywinks' control. And yes, Takeru Sato returns as Ryotaro Nogami one last time to give his farewell to the Zi-O crew before warping back to the fight (while possessed by Urataros sure but we know that Ryotaro's the one doing the talking.) Also of note this scene was supervised and written by Den-O's creator Yasuko Kobayashi. While I may have a lot of issues with her original work during her overworked, burnout phase of her carrier, this was still a nice touch and shows that somewhere deep down she still cares enough about Den-O to make sure Toei doesn't do it dirty; despite Toei milking the show like the cash cow that it sadly is.

 Back to the crap, Tiddlywinks' blowing his top because these stupid Riders just won't die! But after we get some flowery bullcrap from our heroes we get a scene that is simultaneously heartfelt and dumb as all hell. See, there was another reason why we got the Den-O reunion scene, it was for Owner to re-establish the whole "as long as you live on in someones memory you'll never die" crap so that the Kamen Riders can come back thanks to the fans who remember them. This is dumb for three reasons. One, in this timeline Kamen Riders are not real so how are the fan's memories bringing them to life if they were just T.V in this world?

 Two, Gokaiger did this much better during the Gokaiger VS Goseiger 199 Hero Battle, and no it's not because its Gokaiger its because it was established much better and constant with the setting of the show/movie because it took place in a world where Super Sentai was real so it didn't seem like something out of Akibaranger like this sequence does. Lastly, this is the exact same plot point that was used to bring back the Riders in Lets Go Kamen Rider and we all know how that turned out. Regardless of my gripes, the sequence that shows all of the Kamen Riders kicking ass is pretty cool, even if Ghost does look like he's standing on a Roomba during his fight sequence. After that Sougo finally gets it into his head to use the W Ridewatch to finally destroy Another W. Tiddlywinks has lost any sanity he's had left and transforms into Another Kuuga to just kill everyone.

 Build fixes the Time Mazins and arrives to help Zi-O fight the giant Another Rider. But before he jumps into the Time Mazin Geiz gives him the Kuuga Ridewatch that he created by doing the same thing that Tiddlywinks did in Riku's tomb. So with the power of Kuuga Zi-O and Build defeat Another Kuuga, but he's not done yet as he pulls out his trump card.

No, no, no guys it's not what you think. He's just forcing himself inside of the little boy and pulling out something he never knew he had, Jesus Christ!

 All of the phrasing! After getting himself on a government watchlist Demon Jared Fogle reaches his final form, Another Ultimate Kuuga.

AND LOOK AT HOW MUCH TEETH I HAVE TO SMILE WITH, WHILE I CHEW ON ALL OF YOUR BONES!!!

 So we have an insane pedophile who has the abilities of the most physically powerful Kamen Rider to date who happens to be the size of a skyscraper, can shoot lazer beams and is screaming like a maniac who stepped on a shard of broken glass about how he's going to kill everyone on earth. How are our heroes going to overcome this beast? By everyone landing one rider kick on him. (Yes even Hibiki who never had a rider kick, hate you too Shirakura!)  So yep, that's how our big bad dies, like a bitch from 20 Rider kicks, this is almost as bad as the ending of Let's Go Kamen Rider.

 Oh and Shingo totally survived that blast and wasn't reduced to a pile of chunky salsa like Tiddlywinks, because otherwise there'd be a nice big ol NC-17 rating on this sucker. And just like Freddy Got Fingered this whole movie comes off as one of Tom Green's troll projects. After an actually nice, heartfelt sequence of Ataru and Shingo's revised history of the two brothers growing up loving Kamen Rider we end with Futaros walking off to parts unknown and Sento and Sougo just shrugging off the fact that their lives are nothing more then fiction. Roll credits with a horrible mash up of the previous Kamen Rider's opening themes and we're finally done. So that was Heisei Generations Forever and it's a Taisen movie in Heisei Generations clothing.

 While nowhere near as bad as a proper Taisen movie this still sucks hard if you stop and think about it for even a second. The villain has no motivation for his actions and is more than a tad uncomfortable with the excessive amount of physical contact he has with most of his co-stars. I get what they were trying to go for but I think that Sonic can sum up my feelings towards this character.

 Also Build really got the short end of the stick in this movie, most of it was focused on Sougo and all Sento did though out this movie were two things, jack and shit and jack left town! But another rider that got dumped on even worse was W, we never learn who Another W was, why he was working with Tiddlywinks and hell we didn't even see any of the main W cast to give Sougo the Ridewatch. Hell at the time of this review we're almost to the end of Zi-O and W and Drive got nothing in terms of a tribute arc. Though considering how most of them turned out that's a blessing in disguise as far as I'm concerned but it just seems to confirm my suspicions that Shirakura hates Riku Sanjo and is taking it out on his three series. Sure there was Fourze but his tribute arc got completely overshadowed by Faiz.

 Now my theory behind this is because Riku Sanjo's approach to Kamen Rider proves that everything that Shirakura thinks about the franchise is complete horse-shit and is being a spiteful bastard about it by throwing shade at the three series Sanjo worked on. Hell that might explain how Toqger Vs Kyoryuger turned out as bad as it did. Shirakura hates Sanjo so he put Kobayashi, someone whose political ideologies are the exact opposite of Kyoryuger and she dragged the Koyryugers through the dirt out of spite as Shirakura calculated. Bit of a stretch to be sure but given what we know about the guy it would not surprise me if that was Shirakura's mindset going into this production. Going back to the W Ridewatch for a second it being the Deus Ex Machina that brings Sento and Sougo back to the "real world" is completely unrelated to W.

 W at no point had anything to do with inter dimensional travel so it being the key to going back makes no sense. What would have worked better is that instead of Another W we have Another Build instead. Build's series ends with Sento, Banjo and the others traveling to the main Rider Earth to escape Evolt, hell Interdiminsional travel is the main plot point of Heisei Generations Final. But no, like a horny teenager the braintrusts behind Zi-O blew their load too early with Another Build being the first Another Rider fought in the series instead of W. And don't you dare give me the "Build's show was just wrapping up so they had to get the cameo done while they were still on the payroll" card, they knew the team up movie was coming, they knew that it was going to be a crossover between Build and Zi-O, they could have waited but no, like I said, blew their load too soon and now we have a big, narrative mess all over our pants, phrasing boom!

 Like anything that Shirakura is involved with the problems could have been solved if the people in charge just stopped and thought for more then 5 seconds (but lets face it, even 5 years would be far too generous for these clowns) they could have been fixed and we could have had a much better movie. Especially since this is the capstone of the Heisei Era, the last 20 years of Kamen Rider, that just makes this all the worse. This is the way your era ends, not with a bang, but with a spiteful, disinterested sneer by someone who doesn't even know what heroism is. They say that catharsis is bad for you, and I can see why. I'll be back next week with the long awaited continuation of my review of Madoka Magica Homura's Revenge, a much better story than this one despite the sudden tone shift I assure you.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.


Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z abridged and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 
Batman Forever is owned by Warner Brothers Pictures and Joel Schumacher Based off the Character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions.
Jontron is owned by Jon Jaffri.
The Adventured of Sonic the Hedgehog is owned by DIC Animation City, SEGA of America, Hong YIng Animation, Tokyo Movie Shinsha and Rainbow Animation.

Personal Post: Kamen Rider Zi-O Ep 41 & 42, Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger episode 15 & 16 & Marvel's Spider-Man Part 8

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Hey yeah sorry about the delay from last week. There's been quite a bit on my plate lately and I'm going to need some time to get everything back on track. In other words, its summer, vacation time is here and I need one. Especially after dealing with the nothing that Zi-O and Ryusoulger's given me to work with! But at least we have the City that Never Sleeps campaign to; ironically help me sleep sounder at night knowing that better content is out there.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Movie Review: Spider-Man Far From Home: The end of Phase 3 (No Spoilers)

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

"I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque." 

 Summer is here and after the events of Endgame it looks like the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is looking for a little bit of R&R. But sadly no matter what universe it is Peter Parker needs to suffer, c'est la vie. This suffering comes in the form of Nick Fury highjacking his class' European trip to have him help a new hero called Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who is totally a survivor from another universe hunting down four elemental monsters to prevent the destruction that his world suffered from occurring in Peters. Of course Peter doesn't want any part of this, but after the events of Endgame the world is looking for the next Iron Man, and since Peter is technically Tony's apprentice and the only active Superhero he's basically guilt tripped into helping Mysterio. So will Peter be able to live up to Tony's expectations or will the four elementals have their way with this Earth?

 Short version of this movie, it's really good, better than Homecoming, and a decent sorbet course to wrap up Phase 3 of the MCU. But it does also help to explain how the world of the MCU adjusted to the people who were snapped out by Thanos returning like nothing had ever happened and having a little fun with it with a pretty funny gag at the start. In the case of education; the kids who "blipped" as they called it (I see what you did there, and I'm still bitter) just had to repeat the year that they were in from the start while their friends and family who weren't blipped moved on with their lives without them. Like for example your younger brother who was three years younger then you is now two years older. The only way your family tree could be even more insane was if you were from the planet Jurai or your last name was Joestar/Kujo.

 But the biggest gaps to fill is the lack of Superheroes, sure there's Dr Strange but he's dealing with cosmic threats. Falcon, Bucky and Wanda are most likely on the run thanks to the Sokovia accords and T'Challa has a kingdom to run. No idea where Bruce Banner is, Thor is in space with the Guardians, Carol is protecting the Skrull and the rest of the cosmos, Cap took the long way home and is in no shape to do anything like he used to, and as for the guys like the Defenders, Inhumans and any other groups from the T.V series? They're more akin to local protectors than facing threats head on unless they're right in their neighborhoods (literally in the Defender's case.) So everyone looking to Spider-Man to fill Iron Man's boots makes sense, but on the other hand Peter's a Teenager who skipped 5 years and is dealing with the fact that his mentor/father figure is literally plastered all over the place as if in constant judgement of him for not living up to his example.

 But at least since Aunt May, Ned and pretty much everyone important in his life knows he's Spider-Man anyway he at least doesn't have to worry too much about the secret identity thing. That's something I do give the MCU Spidey credit for, throughout the life of 616 Peter Parker his secret identity issues has given him absolutely nothing but grief and plot contrivances, thankfully the writers recognized that and at least took measures so that MCU Peter doesn't have to worry about his loved ones. I do want to talk about Mysterio, butter those who've never heard of him before I'll keep my trap shut. All I'll say is that Jake Gyllenhaal's performance makes this character, this really is Mysterio. As for the ending, all I'll say is that I was desperately waiting for a certain character to say this line when he showed up.

 But now that Phase 3 has ended, it's time. As before when Phase 1 and 2 ended its time for me to go down the list of them and list the best to the not as good. Though make no mistake Phase 3 had no movies as bad as Iron Man 2 or Thor the Dark World, at worst they were just fun and with the main MCU Achilles heel holding them back (the boring antagonist).

#1 Infinity War (The big show stopper and finally worth it to see Thanos get his big purple ass off that chair and wreck all of the ass, just to take in that sunrise on that farm.)

#2 Captain America Civil War (This was the movie that Age of Ultron should have been.)

#3 Avengers Endgame (This really needs to be seen back to back with Infinity War to get the full effect, also never just insert Time travel, ever!)

#4 Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (Another great Guardians movies and thank Yandu's beautiful blue mug that James Gunn is back on track for Volume 3.)

#5 Black Panther (Poignant social commentary with one of the best villains of the MCU despite said villain overshadowing most of the cast.)

#6 Thor Ragnarok (Definitely what Thor needed after the Ragnarok that was Thor the Dark World.)

#7 Spider-Man Far From Home (For better than Homecoming and helps establish the new status quo after the Snap.)

#8 Captain Marvel (Cool 90's throwback, a great female lead; though not as good as Wonder Woman but that's a high bar to reach so, fair's fair.)

#9 Doctor Strange (A good Phase 1 movie and amazing visuals but the villains sucked. Yes, an MCU bad guy was lame color me shocked too.)

#10 Spider-Man Homecoming (The plot was just there and mostly inconsequential. Though it did introduce some of Spider-Man's rogues gallery that never got decent live action incarnations before and Michael Keaton killed it as the Vulture.)

#11 Ant-Man and the Wasp (Most of the same complaints as Homecoming but with a weaker villain with Ghost. But at least she had Lawrence Fishburne backing her up so she's at least better than Kamen Rider Ghost.)

 With that list done we move on to Phase 4. Maybe later on I'll do an overall list of MCU movies from top to bottom, we'll see. But this movie does raise a rather important question that needs to be answered. Now that the founding members of the Avengers are gone (Except for Thor but he's in space so whatever.) Who will rise up tot take their place as Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

 Will it be a family of 4 with Fantastic powers? Will it be a group of young people using the powers they were born with to protect those who hate and fear them? Or will the Defenders get upgraded to the main movies once they ditch Iron Fist? That remains to be seen, but rest assured we'll be there to see it. But as for me, I've run out of excuses, it's time for me to finish Heisei Generations Forever once and for all, this is gonna suck.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is owned by Sony Pictures Releasing, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures and Colombia Pictures
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z abridged and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Final Form Top 20 Update Genius Form: More like C- (Happy 5th Anniversary)

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While I do have massive problems with this series this Ridewatch does make for a convenient title card doesn't it?

 Time yet again for another update to my top Kamen Rider Final forms list. But before I give my thoughts on the hilariously named Genius Form I have to unfortunately touch on the recently revealed Grand Zi-O. Long story short I hate it and seems to incapsulate all of my problems with a Zi-O as a rider.

While the design isn’t all that bad the power if the form itself is what kills it for me. All Zi-O has to do is touch a Rider on the armor and it summons that Rider to perform their very first finishing move, where they were at their weakest, yet it’s able to repel a late series monster.

 I don’t even need to explain why you all can hopefully tell why this power is so ungodly useless to Zi-O. Rest assured that when Zero One’s Final form is introduced this grand failure will hit rock bottom of the list. But for now we have to change gears and focus on the flaws and strengths of Build’s Final form.

 Aesthetically I’ve seen worse, contrasting against the all black dominated color scheme of the Hazard Forms that mostly rely on pure power and speed Genius Form (theoretically) depends on variety since it apparently can utilize the powers of all 60 of the Fullbottles. Yet we never really see that happen on screen just like with Blade and his King Form and Fourze's Cosmic States. All that it was built for was to combat the Lost Smash and save its victims without killing them by purifying the Nebula Gas in them, purifying the Lost Fullbottles in the process. Other than that, nothing, it barely even helped Sento stand up to Evolt. I don’t think that I’ve ever come across a final form that was so specialized to be almost useless outside of its intended purpose. 

 Also I get what they were trying to go for with the red and blue color scheme calling back to Build's default Rabbit Tank form but the color balancing just doesn't work for me. Though symbolically this form is the culmination of Sento’s identity crisis. With this form complete he was able to balance himself between Kiryu Sento and Katsuragi Takumi, the false persona made real and the demon scientist. Around the time that Genius Form was finished Takumi conceded the body to Sento, though he was a false persona he’s proven to Takumi through both is actions and character that he truly is the better man between the two. So while the form itself isn’t all that impressive it does do what a final form is supposed to do and culminate the emotional and or character arc of the main character and it does that job well but not enough to break the top 10.

 Also apparently Sento even lost access to this form after the two worlds were merged at the end of the series. Though does still have the Fullbottle itself he can't access the form, but there's still the V Cinema's coming down the pike so we'll see about that. But for now if I was being extremely generous I'd at least put it at 12th place knowing down Faiz Blaster.

#20 Hibiki Armed
#19 Ghost Mugen Damashi
#18 Ryuki Survive
#17 Agito Shining
#16 Decade Complete
#15 Stronger Charge Up
#14 Fourze Cosmic States
#13 Faiz Blaster
#12 Genius Form
#11 Drive Type Tridoron
#10 Wizard Infinity Style
#9 Kabuto Hyper Form
#8 Muteki Gamer Lv 100
#7 Blade King Form
#6 Ultimate Kuuga
#5 W/Double Cyclone Joker Xtreme
#4 OOO Putotyra Combo
#3 Den-O Liner Form
#2 Gaim Kiwami Arms

#1 Kiva Emperor Form

 Now I know that I should be finishing up my review of Heisei Generations Forever and yes it will be done. But since there's Spider-Man Far From Home coming in the very near future I have to make that priority. And since it's the end of Phase 3 I have to give my list of the best and worst of Phase 3 so that's going to take my attention for now. But afterwords, I will finish that review, so please be patient, thank you all for the views, shares and what not, and Happy 5th Anniversary.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.


Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Gravity Falls is owned by Disney Television Animation and Alex Hirsch.