Tokusatsu Review: Uchu Sentai Kyuuranger vs Space Squad Part 2: Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.

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

 Welcome back to my last written review of 2018 everybody. Yeah sorry but this is the time of the year for friends (the few I still have), family (the ones I actually want to affiliate myself with) and making sure both groups don't kill each other over petty nonsense by pacifying them with material goods. Though in all seriousness this has been a busy year for me and I need a bit of a break. Besides I need to catch everyone up on Kingdom Hearts before the big day comes next month so I'll be dedicating myself to posting the rest of my LP of Birth By Sleep. So now to wrap up the adventures of Dumbluck and his gang of stooges. Here's the link to last time, now to get this party started.

https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2018/11/tokusatsu-review-uchu-sentai-kyuuranger.html

 So after Dumbluck, Robo Bison and Pine Tree showed us how little they actually know about how the world works, and Shuu gets a good sniff of Bootleg Spock after sniffing Tsurugi's female secretary, the guy must collect restraining orders like Yu-gi-oh cards. Everybody is brooding over this whole situation while Spiro is still incapacitated, he could really use either a Spa day or surgery. Dumbluck and his group meet up with Luigi Mario where they surprisingly encounter Spyro who tells the four to look after Yera and that the enemy is going to attack the Neo Kyuutama production facility, yeah I know what's happening but just let those in the back of the class figure it out for themselves. Tsurugi even gets a message from Demost about the same attack. Sure enough Yera's there and ambushed by Tsurugi, Sasuke Clone #3472, Kurumi, Bootleg and Josuk3PO.

 But before they can catch her, get her to a safe location and figure out what the hell is going on, the moron brigade show up, transform and fight with Tsurugi, Sasuke and Kurumi. Dumbluck even gets back up from Leman Russ, but even Dumbluck didn't want him involved in this since he has a family to look after, but nope Bros before hoes and pups I guess, god when even Dumbluck can see that that was a stupid idea, just, ugh. Anyway it's 5 on 3 with Yera still refusing to explain herself while Demost is watching and putting the finishing touches by performing a Jutsu. While back at the fight Spyro shows up again gets caught in a sword clash between Dumbluck and Tsurugi making things 1000 times worse, so what does Yera do while her friends and teammates are killing each other? She runs away like a fucking coward!

 Even Mele tries to call her out on her bullcrap when Shuu intervenes and starts another fight/ flirting session with her. Then the three are attacked by Spyro forcing Mele into her monster form. He tells Yera the exact wrong thing to resolve this situation and Mele uses her chameleon powers to escape with Yera. Back with the moron's fighting Gavan finally shows up and manages to defuse the situation. However Demost knows that Gavan is in the neighborhood and is now on a major time crunch.

 Now here's where we finally learn why Yera is doing all of this, Demost approached her pretending to be be from her Ninja clan and tells her he wants to help her resurrect her master who was killed by Jark Matter by getting the Neo Kyuutamas. So she was willing to trust the words of an obviously evil looking space ninja who says that he can help her bring back her dead master. Do I need to tell you all how stupid this is? I mean do I need to repeat my joke from my recap of Lupinranger vs Patranger, actually yes I will! Unless you're using the Dragonballs resurrections tend to go pear shaped really fast!

Unless Yera really hated her master for some reason and only wants her to suffer as an undead abomination.

Or as an unborn demon that can't even beg for death.

Or to use a more recent example, be resurrected as part of a Zombie Pop idol group for the as of yet unknown purposes of an eccentric asshole as part of a poignant social commentary about how fucked up the Japanese Pop Idol industry is!

 Also no, this isn't a trick of Demost, her master really is still alive, how, why these are questions the movie doesn't feel like answering. Moving on Geki and Shuu catch up and give some advice to Dumbluck and Tsurugi. We also have some scenes about "how are we going to get over something like this" that I've seen handled way better in Persona 3 The Answer so just play that then listen to this tripe. The only important thing to come out of this sequence is that Yera tries to leave Demost but he shows his true colors and fatally wounds Mele for their little heart to heart talk that lead her to get a clue in her head. But Demost shows Yera that her master is alive and he'll kill her again if she doesn't follow his orders.

 His true goal is to conquer this universe as an offering to Fumein and the only thing that stands in his way is the Kyurangers. That's why he even approached her in the first place, and to further drive the wedge between the team he used his Jutsu to disguise himself as Spyro while the real Spyro is still in the hospital. Now for his master plan to destroy the Kyurangers, he'll have Yera kill Tsurugi and to make sure she gets the job done he sends Basco, Juzo and Escape to oversee the operation and kill anyone who gets in the way. Speaking of Tsurugi in a press conference he announces his resignation as President of the galactic Federation. Yera tries to make her move but she just can't go through with it, so Escape does the dumbest thing possible and fires on her, blowing their cover and sending the entire crowd panicking with Basco and Juzo being cornered by the other Kyurangers and fighting back in their monster forms.

 But enough of that it's time to see where Demost was hiding the whole time. He was actually disguised as Tsurugi's female aid, having killed the real one in her apartment. Bootleg and Josuk3PO were sent by Shuu to investigate when he noticed the same perfume smell on both the aid and Bootleg from when Demost had him in a headlock in their earlier encounter. Now that the jig is up, Yera's master is safe and Demost finally kills Mele for her betrayal the 11 Kyuuurangers and Space Sheriffs work together to defeat Demost and put Basco, Juzo and Escape back in the ground. Actually it's not all that clear because even though Demost was defeated he wasn't killed so how does him getting beat up a bit lead to the three that he resurrected go back to being dead? Oh whatever the film's almost over, with Yera's master safe and Demost in Shuu and Geki's custody the Metal Heroes finally go back to their home universe and we'll never have to hear from Dumbluck and his goons again until we unfortunately have to deal with their team up movie with both the Lupinrangers and the Patrangers.

 So to wrap up the Space Sheriffs apologize to Jiraya for nearly killing himself keeping the portal open. But he doesn't care about that as another of the 12 Apostles of Genmakuu is out and is a pyromaniac as apparently he's been running around a planet and setting fires to skyscrapers, the latest one having killed 900 people! So we get the tease of the next Metal Hero that Geki will be working with, Fire AKA Ryouma Kagawa from Tokkei Winspector. So that was Kyuranger Vs Space Squad and spoilers like anything involving Kyuuranger it sucked like a Quantum Singularity. Though I fully admit that I have a major bias against this movie since Kyuuragner was as of this date the only Super Sentai that I ever gave up watching when it first premiered, the characters pissed me off that much. 

 That aspect is still carried over to this movie, Dumbluck is still insufferable and most of the core Kyuurangers are still as one note as when I last saw them. The only ones I don't have an issue with is Pine Tree and Tsurugi since they showed up after I quit the show and thus have nothing to be angry about with them. Another point of contention that I have is with the resurrected villains, most of whom cannot be resurrected due to their nature as AI in Escapes case and the reincarnation with Mele. Now I'm guessing that that the actors for these characters were the only ones available and the producers just didn't care so, meh whatever it was at least nice to see Basco back. Though the cynical side of me is telling me that the only reason why they even brought back past villains like this was to draw in the fans of those shows because they know that Kyuranger was a ratings disaster and were desperate to get anyone to watch this movie.

 Speaking of desperate it was painfully obvious that with the split team dynamic that Toei was trying to ape Captain America Civil War. But again they only copied the superficial aspects of what made it work. Now sometimes when Toei does this it can work, most prominently when they copied Twilight with Kamen Rider Kiva, they only used the "Vampires who sparkle" thing and that was thankfully it. But here, it just makes you want to see Civil War again. Honestly the only way I would recommend this is for the Space Squad ongoing story as it shows how Demost was defeated and sets up the Winspector team up for next time. 

 Now that this review is finally done with I can get on with a bit of a well deserved break for the holidays. And by that I mean I'll be focusing on my personal art, streams and Lets Plays until I feel the review itch again sometime after the New Year. So be sure to stick around for not only the rest of my Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Lets Play but also my end of the year recap. Till then, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays and good cheer to all.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Metal Heroes is owned by Toei Company.
Solomon Grundy is owned by DC Comics, created by Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman
Fullmetal Alchemist is owned by Studio Bones, Square-Enix, Funimation, Viz Media and Hiromu Arakawa.
Zombieland Saga is owned by MAPPA, Megumu Soramichi, Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Tokusatsu Review: Toku Summer Recap: Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger Vs Keisatsu Sentai Patrangers: Persona 5 the Live (Spoilers)

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

Before you even ask, no this isn't a movie this is an actual series. Now I have to wonder what the crossover with Dumbluck and his gang of idiots is going to be called.

 Now that our resident genius is covered for now we're ready for a game of cops and robbers. Thankfully there isn't as much story to cover as of this article so here's the gist of 2018's Sentai. Over 100 years ago the legendary thief Arsène Lupin amassed a vast collection across his career as a Gentleman thief. Among his prizes were a group of powerful and potentially dangerous artifacts which has been dubbed the Lupin Collection. However an organization of interdiminsional criminals called the Ganglar stole the Collection and have used their powers to commit terrible crimes. 

 Their Don, Dogranio Yaboon announces on his 999th birthday that he's looking for a successor to the Ganglar crime family, thus declares that whomever conquers the earth shall be named the new Don. Naturally every Ganglar is looking to take his place and begin plotting their various schemes to earn his favor. But there are two forces that stand in their way by using their own pieces of the Lupin Collection modified by the man himself to protect humanity, the Lupinrangers charged by Lupin's estate to recover the Collection pieces in exchange for a single wish, to resurrect their loved ones who were killed by a Ganglar. The other is the Patrangers charged by the Global Police with protecting the general public from the horrible crimes committed by the Ganglar. Who will win, whose justice will prevail in the end?

 On paper this sounds like an interesting concept for a Sentai, two separate teams with opposing viewpoints and yet equal motivations to stop the Ganglar. One is a rebellious group of thieves who risk their lives to prevent anyone else from suffering the way they have. The other is a group of officers sworn to protect the safety of the general public by any means necessary. But when you see it play out, it commits the ultimate sin of team ups, the Lupinrangers are portrayed far more positively then the Patrangers. In all honestly my feeling of the Patrangers' inclusion in this show can be summed up in this meme.

I'm betting Toei originally wanted a Phantom Thief themed Sentai to take advantage of the popularity of Persona 5, but decided to just include the Patrangers just for the sake of differentiating themselves from what they're clearly trying to cash in on.

 I'll get into why I feel the Patrangers are unnecessary and why the Lupinrangers are the real heroes of the show after I talk about them. Now Toei seems to have learned their lesson from Kyuuranger (for now at least) so instead of 12 characters that get all the development and attention focused on their reprehensible Red Ranger we instead have two teams of three making my job much easier in that there's less Rangers to cover and harder in that they're distinct. But enough malarky, first is our Red Thief, Kairi.

HA, I wish. A female Red Ranger right from the start, pfft, that'd be bullshit. (sarcasm)

No no, instead of a Keyblade wielder we have Kairi Yano who became Lupin Red to resurrect his older brother.  He's sly, cunning and sympathetic to people's suffering. Though does tend to focus on the Phantom Thief business to the chagrin of Umika who winds up getting overworked at their bistro.

Next is Tooma Yoimachi, he became Lupin Blue to resurrect his fiancée. While he's the most driven of the Lupinrangers this tends to cause him to take impulsive and reckless action in regards to obtaining the collection pieces from the Ganglar or the Patrangers which Kairi and Umika have to reign him in for before he goes too far. Wait, isn't this the other way around? It's usually the Red who's impulsive and the Blue who's the calm thinker. Though he is driven like that he does care for his teammates and will go above and beyond to see his fiancée again. 

Last for the Phantom Thieves is Lupin Yellow, Umika Hayami. Her dead loved one was her childhood friend Shiho.  Though she may appear be the weakest of the team she is the most resourceful and approachable. Though she may come off as childish she does take her mission as a Lupin Ranger very seriously, though she wouldn't mind if Kairi would help out more around the Bistro.

 I love the designs of the Lupinrangers their visors are shaped like a Top hat, the color balance of black and the primary color to look like a tuxedo and best of all is the capes.

 Edna darling, shut up these capes work. They're not long long enough for an enemy to take advantage of, the black on the shoulders contribute to the tuxedo design and two triangles on the collar of the cape look like a bowtie. All in all a classy and cool design. So now we have the thieves, we then move on to the cops. 

First is Patren 1gou Keichiro Asaka or as I like to call him; Dickhead since he's a detective who seems to only think with his other head. Yep we have another dumbass Red, just with a different flavor. Instead of a god modding idiot we have an impulsive, angry hothead who has a very black and white worldview and seems to only do his job to stroke his ego against the Lupinrangers. He claims to protect the public but on multiple occasions has been willing to perform reckless actions to stop the Ganglars and Lupinrangers such as when he drew out a fight with a Ganglar just to draw out the Lupinrangers. Or that time when he nearly got himself killed with poison just to show a kid how much cooler the Patrangers are then the Lupinrangers. Oh and most recently when he tried to kidnap Goodie (aka Good Striker a sentient collection piece charged by Lupin himself to protect the collection pieces that forms the basis of both teams mechs) and forcing him to serve the Global Police as a weapon against the Ganglars. I repeat, a supposed officer of the law, wanted to enslave a sentient being as a weapon to uphold Law and Order just because he was sent to them first.

 That is YHVH from SMT levels of Lawful Evil. You know, the guy whose most powerful minions were literally designed by the guy behind Garo.

 Though at least Dickhead is far more tolerable then Wrong, Leftovers or Dumbluck for four reasons. One, Tsukasa more often then not does call him out on his crap. (Though why their commander Hilltop hasn't is beyond me.) Second, the show doesn't over glorify his actions or make him right when everything says that he's wrong, most of the time. Third, he's not the only Red for the show, so if you don't like Dickhead we can cheer on Kairi. Lastly, the show's not over yet. We've had this type of Red before with the exact same theme, Banban Akaza aka Dekared from Dekaranger had a similar personality and temperament at the start of the show but he did grow and develop as a character. Also from little info I was able to gleam about the 6th Ranger Lupin/Patren X his whole goal is to bring the two teams together to focus on the Ganglar so part of that will hopefully involve Keichiro getting over his ego and seeing the bigger picture.

Moving on to slightly better characters we have Sakuya Hikawa, Patren 2go. He's the rookie cop who is just one step away from Umika getting him a restraining order. He has a crush on her and is not subtle about it at all. He has a much more laid back attitude which of course rattles Dickhead's cage but he does care about his duties.

Lastly is my favorite of the Patrangers, Tsukasa Myoujin. She's the mother hen of the group, routinely motivating Sakuya and occasionally reprimanding Dickhead when he crosses the line. She also has a running gag about her love of odd plushies despite not being the stereotypical girly girl.

 Before I get into my major gripes of the show I'll say that what worked for the Lupinrangers' costumes also works for the Patrangers. Design wise they're complete inversions of the Lupinrangers, Police hats instead of Top hats for the visors, white with their primary colors instead of black looking like a police uniform along with actual shoulder pads instead of the capes, overall a good design. While they're supposed to be the best of the Japanese branch of the Global Police the Lupinrangers more often then not use them to draw out the Ganglar of the week rather easily. So basically denigrating one faction of this vs series to make the other team look better by comparison. This show commits the ultimate sin of any team up to feed into Japans negative perception of their cops.

 Now occasionally the Patrangers do display their competency and manage to nearly expose the Lupinrangers, but to make up for that the Patrangers have been given some of the dumbest episodes so far. Like the aforementioned Dickhead trying to impress the random brat episode and of course they got a gender swap episode, and yes the jokes were bad and insulting why'd you expect any less? Though the second part of that two parter exposed the biggest problem with the Patrangers, when Dickhead was hospitalized for the poisoning caused by his recklessness Sakuya and Tsukasa actually managed to do much better against the Ganglar despite their injuries (again a result of Dickhead's reckless actions yet he's never held accountable, because of course.) But when Dickhead forced himself out of the hospital and defeated the Ganglar it was back to business as usual.

 This idiot even nearly caused the Lupinrangers to fall into despair when it looked like he destroyed a Ganglar before the Lupinrangers were able to retrieve his Collection Piece. Though from what I can tell its never made clear whether the Patrangers know about the collection pieces, what they can do, the Ganglars having extra powers because of them, the wish, why the Lupinrangers are so desperate to get to them first it just seems like they just focus on the Ganglar regardless of the consequences. Now because I'm me I have a suggestion that would clear up this whole ambiguous part of the show and possibly improve it, make the Patrangers know about the Collection Pieces from the start and actively try to destroy them. Have them know that the collection pieces are what gives the Ganglar extra powers as well as the wish that they can grant when all of them are brought together and try to destroy them not only because of the first reason but also to prevent a dangerous person from amassing the pieces to try to become a god, take over the world, destroy the world or something crazy like that. But even when they eventually learn about what the Lupinrangers are trying to wish for have them still go after them.

 But this is the key part, have them be sympathetic towards wanting to resurrect their loved ones but try to push a "the dead can't come back, you have to accept their deaths, tragic and pointless though it may be otherwise this desire will consume and destroy you" point of view. They can possibly relate with them by talking about some of their loved ones who were pointlessly killed and have that be a contributing factor behind why they joined the Global Police. Besides anyone who has seen any piece of fiction ever can tell you what happens when you try to resurrect someone with supernatural means.

Unless you're using the Dragonballs to resurrect someone

they tend to come back horribly, horribly wrong!!!

 This way we have a legitimate reason why these two groups are trying to reach the Ganglar first, have some understandable conflict between the two teams and make the Patrangers actually sympathetic and likable. We can both see their points of views and hope that either the Patrangers agree to help the Lupinrangers to ensure that the wish is only used for non violent means or have the Lupinrangers eventually accept the potential risk of the wish, move past their grief and join forces with the Patrangers to stop the Ganglar. Or we could just have one team outwit a pair who are stuck with a hotheaded ball and chain around their ankles. We could have Captain America Civil War, but Toei seems set on settling for being at least just above Batman V Superman, though all thats missing is for one of the characters to say "Martha" and the show will officially go down the toilet.

 I'll just naively hope that the show gives Dickhead the character development he desperately needs with the intro of Lupin/Patren X but somehow I know Toei is just going to keep the spotlight on the Lupinrangers until they eventually make the Patrangers into flat-out secondary antagonists. Or even worse have the two join up just because with no real development or camaraderie between the two. Though this is still a far better show then Kyuuranger and I do like it despite its flaws so give it a watch if you want too. Besides it's still a better adaptation of Persona 5 then Persona 5 the animation.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
The Incredibles are owned by Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios and Buena Vista Pictures.
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse/Final is owned by Atlus, Sega and Kazuyuki Yamai.
Solomon Grundy is owned by DC Comics, created by Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman
Fullmetal Alchemist is owned by Studio Bones, Square-Enix, Funimation, Viz Media and Hiromu Arakawa.

Manga Review: Kazumi Magica The innocent malice Volume 4 Pt 1: Amazon Nu

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

All they wanted was to bring back someone dear to them and would go to any lengths to do so, is that so wrong?

 Now it has been far, far too long since we've gone back to the world of Madoka Magica, particularly Kazumi and the Pleiades Saints. Long story short, real life got in the way and I needed some time to myself. Though I have been sporadically been releasing new reviews I will be back to a normal schedule from now on. Though I will be experimenting between once every Monday or Friday, I'll test this for a few weeks to see which day will generate more views but if you all have a suggestion be sure to let me know in the comments. Now as for Kazumi since it's been a few months since my last review there will be no doubt a few of you who have forgotten what's happened in this not so happy story so here are the links to my previous reviews so you can be caught up.

Part 1 http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2016/09/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent.html

Part 2 http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2016/09/manga-review-kazumi-magica-volume-1.html

Part 3 http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2016/09/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent_24.html

Part 4 http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2016/10/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent.html

Part 5 http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2016/10/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent_17.html

Part 6 http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2016/10/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent_24.html

 Speaking of memory loss how was Kazumi since we last saw her?

Oh right one of her friends going crazy, telling her she's a clone and sending the rest of the clones to kill her. Well she's had better days that's for certian.

 As if fighting against 12 of you wasn't bad enough Satomi decides to shake Kazumi even more by telling her what really happened when Michiru became a witch. It was a dark and stormy night, just like that night (no seriously) and Michiru was making her grandmas strawberry risotto to celebrate Umikas first book publishing under her real name. Everyone was happy and celebrating until everyone started thanking Michiru for helping them become magical girls, but as you can imagine she knew the truth at that point so she witches out over her tremendous guilt. Satomi says that Yuuri being when they found out was a lie that Umika used to soften the blow for the others. So on top of all their other horrible acts these girls have also been manipulating their own memories to hide the truth and have been committing the ultimate taboo at least 13 times to resurrect their dead friend.

You think that only once would be enough to get the point across but noooooooo! Well brother I guess they're just the type of people who have to touch the stove twice before they realize "ow that's hot!" I mean we were just little kids when we tried that, what's their excuse?

 And just like with the Fullmetal Pipsqueak and his big little brother the Pleiades' attempts weren't exactly all that successful to say the least, but these clones at least look somewhat human. But close ain't good enough and with Kazumi starting to turn into a witch as well, they'll have to try again. 

Personally I would have maybe brought Kazumi a chair for her to sit down and take this all in or  a "sorry you're not who you think you are" Card and a Gift Certificate to Amazon or something not just drop it on her and try to kill her in cold blood but then again I would't even be in this situation because I'm not that crazy yet! Also Niko what are you doing up there? You are not Batgirl!

 Satomi continues to pour Salt and Lemon juice on Kazumi's wound by telling her the reason why Saki couldn't go through with killing the failed prototypes, she was so in love with Michiru that she couldn't bear to kill something with her face; much to Mirai's ire as she was overhearing everything near by. So Satomi figures she'll kill two birds with one stone by using her Phantasmo Bisbiglo to take control of Kazumi, have her and the clones fight to the death and she'll finish off the winner, easy peasy.

 So Kazumi's forced to do battle with her clones and during the skirmish she discovers that since she was created using the magic of the others she in turn can use their abilities such as Umika's barriers, Kaoru's super hard skin, Mirai's Dragon Slayer and Saki's lightning speed. To add to the horror of finding out she's a Super Skrull; when she took excessive damage her body absorbed the dead clones nearby and regenerated. The chapter ends with the last clone begging Kazumi to kill her; she can't do it but Satomi is more then willing as she impales both Kazumi and the clone with her feral cat wand.

 Chapter 15 continues with Satomi chuckling to herself over her victory, but when she sees Kazumi regenerating from the last clone she finally snaps and becomes a witch. The beast tamer witch attacks Kazumi who in turn transforms into a pseudo witch form herself. 

 Not exactly like that but close enough. Especially since this may be an amalgamation between Kazumi and what Michiru's Witch form may have looked like. The beast tamer witch then summons her familiars which swarm over The Witch Amazon; who then in turn uses Mirai's La Beastia spell to take control of the familiars which tear through the witches shell and exposes the core creature. 

Tell me about the Rabbits George. "Click" "VIOLENT CRUSH!"

 Saki regains consciousness at the worst time as she sees Kazumi smashing Satomi's lifeless head into the wall like a paintball pellet. Kazumi is of course horrified by what she did but Saki hugs her and tells her that it wasn't her fault. 

Well congratulations Saki you have said the absolute wrong thing to her and have just confirmed Satomi's stance that all Kazumi was is just a cheep replacement for Michiru. 

 To confirm how completely she had fucked up Kazumi is of course furious of Saki only seeing Michiru and not her. She turns to Kaoru and Umika and begs them to answer if she's human, her memories are real and not all just a fabrication. When they don't respond she teleports away in tears. Back at base Niko can't track her since she's subconsciously hiding her energy. Saki apologizes for failing to destroy the clones but Mirai tries to assuage her guilt by saying that the group shouldn't have placed the burden on her since they knew how much Michiru meant to her, that even though they knew she couldn't kill them they just didn't want to face the truth. 

 Niko has to be the buzzkill and brings up two major problems that need to be addressed; first what to do with Kazumi now that she's turning into a witch; second what to do about Satomi now that she's dead and all that's left is her corpse and grief seed. Saki says that they'll just keep reviving Michiru and Satomi till they finally get it right. Everyone agrees except for Kaoru who of course brings up the tiny little fact that Kazumi isn't just some mistake to sweep under the rug that she's you know, a sentient being and all. But she gets overruled by Saki with her asking if she's willing to let Michiru's diary just end with her descent into despair.

 Later on Saki and Mirai are out looking for Kazumi where Saki thanks Mirai for speaking up for her back at the meeting, Mirai bashfully blushes and says that she totally knows how Saki feels. 

So much so that she'll kill Kazumi nice and slow. Is there anyone on this team who isn't bat squeak loco?

 This chapter ends with Kazumi alone, depressed, miserable, broken, alone and in tears over how her whole existence is a lie, her friends only see her as a cheap replacement of Michiru and how she has no one else in the world she can turn to, until she's confronted by a familiar face.

 Chapter 16 shows who that familiar face is. It's the detective from the first chapter, however she's had her memories altered by Umika so that the bombing was placed on fake people; hers and Tachibana's involvement were changed and that her memories of being the Mantis Witch were removed. The detective offers to take her home and during the ride the conversation leads to the detective investigating the disappearances of young girls, one of whom was Airi. Several of the missing girls had a similar word pop up in their texting history before their disappearance, "Hyades" however the address that sent the texts wasn't in the phone company's records.

 The detective then asks if Kazumi recovered her memories, which causes Kazumi to start crying not just because of recent events but.

Well at least she's not completely miserable, she might be a homunculus but hey a girl's gotta eat.

 They stop by Tachibana's bistro where Kazumi falls asleep and the two adults have a conversation about why the detective is so determined to solve the disappearance cases. Her friend from middle school also disappeared when the two moved up to their third year and her friends 3 year old sister told that she was a magical girl. Though of course nobody but the detective believed her. We cut to a week later where Kazumi was staying with Tachibana. He tells her that she was sent a diary, Michiru's to be exact. 

 (Also apparently she knew Yuuri before she met the six and also encountered Kyoko, so great another cameo.) It tells how she figured out that Magical girls become witches and so to prolong her friends she always let them use their earned Grief Seeds first. The book also contained a letter from Kaoru warning her to skip town and that she'll do everything she can to protect her, that she's Kazumi and not Michiru and how she'll always be her friend. This was the motivation to give Kazumi a plan of action regarding the Pleiades, so she shares her recipe for Strawberry risotto with Tachibana and says her goodbyes to him. Our chapter ends with her telepathically contacting the girls and give them an ultimatum, either come to the freezer and face her all at one or else.

Next Hunt: Witches Brew

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Kazumi Magica The Innocent Malice is owned by Masaki Hiramatsu, Takashi Tensugi, Magica Quartet and Yen Press.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Fullmetal Alchemist is owned by Studio Bones, Square-Enix, Funimation, Viz Media and Hiromu Arakawa.
Hot Fuzz is owned by Edgar Wright, StudioCanal, Working Title Films, Big Talk Productions and Universal Pictures.
The Whitest Kids U Know is owned by Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Darren Trumeter, Timmy Williams, Good Shepard Productions, Jimco and IFC.
Rick and Morty is owned by Justin Rolland, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns Industries, and Williams Street

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Gaim Gaiden Zangetsu & Baron Part 1: THINK OF THE CHILDREN! (Spoilers)

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

I've been waiting for these two for quite a while. As I've gone over several times before Gaim is currently my favorite Kamen Rider series and I know I should be throwing a bit of a fit that Toei is going to be milking this as much as they did with Den-O especially since as far as I can tell Urobuchi isn't going to be writing these direct to video spin-offs. Then again he hasn't exactly been having the best of luck with his more recent shows and projects and that personally makes me a bit of a Sad Panda. But hey if Gaim, Madoka, Psycho-Pass and Fate/Zero are his only good stuff then at least right now he has a better hit/miss record in my mind then George Lucas ( and no I haven't seen American Graffiti, it and Psycho-Pass are on my to do list).

But be of good cheer fair readers; these and subsequent Gaim Gaiden movies will be written by Nobuhiro Mōri and Jin Haganeya; both of whom assisted Urobuchi in writing Gaim and the movies so I still have hope for these spin-offs. I don't want to watch bad stuff if I can avoid it, but I do know that if corporations be it gaming, movies, toku whatever know something works they'll exploit the ever loving shit out of it until people get sick of it, just like with Den-O and its stretched out movie series. Now to start this review but first be forewarned; this will contain spoilers for Gaim since these movies take place between episodes 20 and 21 so before you read this go watch up until at least episode 21 then come back.

So we open on Takatora talking to Kouta at the end of episode 20 where Takatora finished showing Kouta the ruins of the Helheim Forest and explaining his plan to slowly kill off 6 billion people so that the remaining 1 billion have a chance of surviving the world being over taken by Helheim in the next ten years. Takatora also says that if Kouta gets in Yggdrasil's way again he's a dead man. Kouta of course is not happy and asks if Takatora really thinks that this plan is right, but he just walks off. Later that night we see some Kurokage Troopers burning down some of Helheim's plants that have started to sprout in Zawame.

The Kurokage troops are Yggdrasil's foot solders/ mass production Kamen Riders.

Suddenly a crack opens and the two stooges are attacked and knocked out, the next morning Takatora and Sid investigate what happened, Takatora thinking that Kouta might be the one responsible. Okay, he has probable cause but any evidence there chief? Sid of course asks what he'll do if Kouta was the culprit. Takatora saying that he'll eliminate him personally. After Sid leaves he says to himself that no matter how many people must be sacrificed it will be his burden to save what's left of humanity from Helheim.

Later on Takatora returns to his mansion where he has a flash back to his father telling him of Noblesse Oblige.

What pre Iron Man Tony Stark should have learned, but hey hindsight is 20/20.

His little brother Mitsuzane tells him that there's someone here to see him. Her name is Touka Akatsuki, she was his father's maid who Takatora hasn't seen since his father collapsed, so I'm guessing she's here to tell him how his father's doing; catch up on what they've been up too and,

awkward.

Yeeeeeaaaahh that's exactly the news he needed to hear, not only is he spearheading a plan to kill about 80% of earth's population but now he just found out his dad's dead; this of course comes as a shock to him. Later on he asks Micchi about his feelings on this news, Micchi says he doesn't feel anything and walks off saying that he has more important concerns then the dead, damn, you cold dude. Takatora flashes back to when he first met Touka when the two were children. She was brought in by Amagi to be Takatora's servant; on her first day she baked Takatora an apple pie, even though he thought it tasted horrible he ate it nonetheless just for her company and the two had a little laugh about how bad it tasted, aaaaawwww he actually had a heart back then. Takatora brought it up during dinner that even though it tasted horrible it was one of the better meals he's ever had.

I know right he almost seems human, like someone who isn't trying to commit near genocide. Go figure.

Later that night Sid is attacked by the crack warping assailant; he pulls out his Cherry Energy Lockseed but the attacker is gone leaving behind some Helheim vines. The next day Yoko confirms that the M.O. of the attacker was the same as the person who attacked the Kurokages. Takatora, more annoyed then anything says that he hopes he's the next target so he can kick the culprit's ass and get it over with already. He thinks he's about to get his wish in the garage, but it just turns out to be Touka who offers him to stay at her place since he seems stressed out. Oh ho hoooo I see where this is going, she wants him to come over and have a piece of her pie.

What? At least it doesn't look burnt and it does look good.

However it still tastes horrible but he still eats it noting on how it brings him back to his childhood. Now I'm not really going to talk much about this sequence aside from showing that Takatora still has some semblance of humanity and may be leading up to his development in the series. The next day at Yggdrasil Yoko sees some Helheim vegetation and follows it to an electrical room where the lights go out and is attacked by a shadowy figure, the figure then transforms into a Rider before running off. Now that Yoko knows that she's dealing with an Armored Rider she pulls out her Peach Energy Lockseed and Genesis Driver and becomes Kamen Rider Marika, she engages the mystery rider before he teleports into another crack, but not before Marika manages to get off two shots into the crack before it closes.

Takatora brings in Ryoma Sengoku, the creator of the Sengoku Drivers, Genesis Drivers and the one responsible for the utilization of Lockseeds. Anyway he says that the attacker is an unknown Armored Rider and since Ryoma knows who got the Sengoku drivers he must know who has this belt, the problem is that if he did know he's not telling since Ryoma is about as ethical as Dr Suchong. Ryoma then remembers to give Takatora a prototype Lockseed he was working on to replace the Suika Lockseed that Micchi stole from him without his knowledge.

The Watermelon Lockseed, and you can just bet it's as safe as a pillow.

Takatora asks if he knows who has the belt but as I said Ryoma doesn't say who but does say that if it wasn't a beat rider, Takatora thinks it must be someone from Yggdrasil. Ryoma asks for more details about the Rider and when Takatora says he can make cracks without a lock vehicle Ryoma starts to worry. That night Takatora is looking through some research files at home to try and find a clue. He doesn't find anything until he discovers a hidden safe behind a painting and the files inside.

Oh that can't mean anything good.

And inside the files Takatora finds a picture of his father, the institute and pictures of children, some with circles on their picture; others with a red X instead and most damning of all a concept drawing of a prototype Sengoku driver. It's skipping ahead here but yeah it's obvious from what's seen here that Amagi was involved with experimenting on children trying to prefect the Sengoku driver. Yeah he was involved with some seriously bad Juju, but hey it's not like we've seen time and time again

that large

organizations

performing

experiments on

children

was a

horribly

unethical,

and insanely

stupid

thing

to do

right?

Right?

Right?!

Why does this shit keep happening?! I mean those were only just examples off the top of my head. But those more then show that Child experimentation leads to horrible, horrible shit and those that survive more often then not end up as genocide seeking nut jobs with a higher kill count then Chin from Hong Kong 97. So as far as we can guess something undoubtedly horrible is just around the corner with this little revelation. We get some confirmation of that assumption as Micchi gets attacked by the Rider but he retreats as soon as Takatora shows up. He pulls out his Melon Energy Lockseed to transform but the Rider uses his control over Helheim to summon a crack and steal the Lockseed with vines.

Takatora decides to head to the abandoned institute to see if he can find any more clues and hopefully find the Rider. Now I would honestly question why he's going alone and not bringing say Yoko or Micchi or even some Kurokage troopers as back-up since we've seen this Rider taking these guys out when they were caught off guard or were unaware of him. But now they know and could easily out number him, sure even though Takatora lost his Energy Lockseed he could either still stick to Normal Zangetsu or hell since he owns the company that researches these things get another Energy Lockseed from Ryoma. Oh wait there goes me and my logic again. So yeah this genius head of a multinational corporation that owns Kamen Rider production tech goes inside the creepy abandoned research institute on his own to track down someone who has a Sengoku driver yet has easily outfought some of his most powerful comrades and stole your Energy Lockseed reducing him to his original form in case something goes fubar.

 So our oh so smart protagonist heads inside and finds that the place is trashed with very clear evidence of a struggle and yet no bodies. He goes into the basement and finds..... the laboratories where Yggdrasil conducted their experiments on the children.

And we know that nasty business was conducted here since it's an abandoned Shocker facility.

I joke but seriously it's the exact same damn location. I've seen waaaay too many of these shows. Also Toei, splurge a bit and get some new sets already jeez!!!

Takatora is of course appalled that not only were these atrocities perpetrated by Yggdrasil but that his father was the one who authorized it all. He notices an Inves hiding in a door but is attacked by the assassin before he can follow it. As the two struggle Takatora manages to pull off his mask revealing Touka. She explains that the purpose of the facility was to raise potential members of Yggdrasil, some as researchers, others as leaders and others as agents in the criminal underworld. The rest that didn't meet their expectations were used as Guinea pigs in Yggdrasil's Helheim research, that Inves seen earlier a result of that research.

She also reveals that she did in fact kill Takatora's father as part of her well deserved revenge plan, but that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as she's concerned, she won't stop until both Yggdrasil and the Kureshima name are reduced to a pile of ash under her boots. However she hates the fact that someone as nice as Takatora is Amagi's son but as long as his blood flows through Takatora's veins she will chase him down to the ends of the earth to kill him. So with her resolve hardened she pulls out her Sengoku driver and the Ringo Lockseed,

where she becomes Kamen Rider Idunn.

Hang on, she could never make her apple pies taste good, she wants to kill Takatora, her Rider Form is based on an Apple and her name is Idunn?!

He tries to reason with her but she's in full blown crazy revengeance mode and won't listen. The fight moves outside; Takatora saying that while he hates his father and knows all the horrible things he's done there will always be one thing that he taught him that he will never discard. Noblesse Oblige, and that no matter how many sins he must commit, no matter what trails comes his way he will hold on to that lesson and save humanity no matter what. With that he pulls out his Sengoku driver and the Prototype Watermelon Lockseed.

Becoming Kamen Rider Zangetsu Watermelon Arms.

The two Riders face off; Idunn using her ability to control Cracks to her advantage outmaneuvering Zangetsu.

There you big baby, you complained soooo much about the testing, how it hurt and hurt, and yet here you are, killing the only man you've loved. Congratulations, you monster. But hey, at least there will be pie in the end, pie that tastes like death. But you should know that already.

But Zangetsu has his own tricks and goes all Reb Brown on her ass by pulling out the Watermelon Gatling gun and chasing her off. Now we know why he doesn't use this in the series, while the Watermelon gun is incredibly powerful the kickback however is far to much, leaving Zangetsu vulnerable to attack. Since he can barely hold on using that weapon he has to make his next shot count or Idunn will kill him. Which he does, unloading a full assault on Idunn when she tries to do another sneak attack forcing her to power down and drop both her Ringo Lockseed as well as the Melon Energy Lockseed. Zangetsu also powers down due to the strain of the kickback from the Watermelon Gun, the two pick up their respective Lockseeds transforming back to Idunn and Zangetsu Shin.

Zangetsu Shin and Idunn hit each other with their respective Squash attacks, but since New Generation Riders are already stronger then Armored Riders, Zangetsu Shin manages to overpower Idunn forcing her to power down again. Zangetsu Shin however can't bring himself to deliver the killing stroke.

Unlike Dr Manhattan, he misses his swing as we cut to Touka making it back to the research lab where she starts to, for lack of a better term rot away, and that's when Ryoma shows up. It turns out that the Ringo Lockseed was created by him back when Amagi was in charge and just like the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed was considered a defective prototype. He only let her use the Lockseed just so he could use her to get more data on the thing. He further explains that the Ringo Lockseed allows people limited control over Helheim proving to him that the Golden Fruit of Helheim exists and now that she's no longer useful to him, he'll kill her just like she did with Amagi.

Nuttier then an almond joy, showing complete disregard for human life yeah it shows, especially with you.

Touka transforms into Idunn again but is too weak to defend herself so Ryoma transforms into Duke and guns her down like a thug. So the first segment ends with Takatora reflecting on what Kouta said and his time with Touka before walking into his home office.

Tune in next time where we take a look at Baron's part of this straight to video special. Hopefully with a bit of a more lighthearted note.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Fullmetal Alchemist is owned by Studio Bones, Square-Enix, Funimation, Viz Media and Hiromu Arakawa.
Bioshock is owned by 2K Boston, 2K Australia, Take-Two Interactive, Ken Levine, Alyssa Finley and 2K Games.
Bioshock 2 is owned by Take2 interactive, 2K Marin, and 2K Australia.
Bioshock Infinite is owned by Ken Levine, Irrational Games, 2K Games amd Take-Two Interactive.
Kill La Kill is owned by Studio Trigger, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Kazuki Nakashima and Aniplex of America.
Mass Effect 2 is owned by Bioware and Electronic Arts.
Metal Gear Rising Revengance is owned by Platinum Studios, Konami and Kenji Saito.
Eureka Seven is owned by Studio Bones, Funimation and Tomoki Kyoda.
F.E.A.R is owned by Monolith Productions, Vivendi Universal and Craig Hubbard.
Monster is owned by Naoki Urasawa, Viz Media and Shogakukan.
Genocyber(OVA) is owned by Koichi Ohata, Shô Aikawa and Central Park Media.
Akira is owned by Katsuhiro Otomo, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and Toho.
Persona 3 The Movie: No 2 Midsummer Knight's Dream is owned by Atlus, A-1 Pictures and Aniplex.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is owned by Atlus, Sega and Arc System Works.
Elfen Lied is owned by Studio Arms and ADV Films.
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 is owned by EA (Electronic Arts)
Watchmen (Film) is owned by Zach Snyder, Legendary Pictures, DC Comics, Lawrence Gordon Productions and Warner Brothers Entertainment.