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.
Once again April fools is upon us and now to avoid the usual fake posts by putting up this years crop of memes. Which you would have already seen if you're a regular viewer of Toku Riffs live with the RVT crew. In case you're not aware Toku riffs is Ez Rider, Shades, Spade Ace and Matty J and a whole group of fans getting together to riff MST3K style on the latest episodes of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Ultraman that we can get our hands on. We also riff on classic series as well. We also riff tokusatsu movies when they're available for fansubs so we have a lot of fun, laughs and just a general good time. During the intermissions we submit Tokusatsu memes to try to make the four headed jury laugh and show our creativity. So if you see this post follow the link to the RVT twitch page. Toku riffs is on Sunday at 7:00 PM or 6:00 PM depending if there's a marathon going on. Here's the link to the RVT twitch page and then the memes, use as you see fit. https://www.twitch.tv/rvtentertainment
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
So here we are, the last MCU movie that I have to cover before I see Avengers Infinity War. I really should have done this sooner but you know, life, ironically when I'm talking about a movie named after the end of the world. In terms of chronological release; right after a less then exceptional homecoming party for everyones favorite neighborhood Spider-Man we saw what is undoubtably the best Thor movie in the franchise. Also the closest we'll ever get to an adaptation of Planet Hulk though with a much more lighthearted execution and set up. Not to say that Planet Hulk isn't a good story (from what little I've heard it really is) but with what the MCU has set up they did a great job with what they had.
So as we open on Thor in a cage with a skeleton he exposits to his imaginary friend that after Age of Ultron he decided to travel the realms to learn more about the infinity stones before Thanos brings his big purple ass to our door step. But apparently that was unsuccessful so he also got the idea that while he was out and about he might as well stop Ragnarök. Thus he traveled to the realm of Surtur to kill him and stop the whole shebang at the source. During Surtur's whole 'evil plan monologue" he says that to destroy Asgard all he has to do is place his crown into the Eternal Flame in Odin's vault and BAM! Now normally Odin would have that on lockdown but according to Surtur Odin's not in Asgard anymore.
After kicking Surtur's ass, retrieving his crown and nearly becoming Smaug's chew toy Thor finally makes it back to Asgard. No thanks to Heimdal's non union replacement Skurge (played by Karl Urban) who only got the job because Heimdal fled Asgard before he could be sentenced by "Odin" for betraying the throne and was too busy showing off his Midgard swag to some ladyfriend company of his. Thor, finally catching up with everyone who saw the end of Dark World exposes Loki and demands to know where he stashed the All Father, which turned out to be in an old folks home! Or at least that was where Loki left him last. Thankfully someone knows where Odin is, Dr Stephen Strange, sorcerer supreme, keeper of the time stone and newest smug asshole of the MCU.
After some fun at the twos expense Dr Strange teleports the two to Norway where Odin is. They arrive just in time to hear his last words to the two before he dies, warning them that with his death, his daughter Hela (played by Cate Blanchett) will be freed from her imprisonment and that once she makes it to Asgard she will be unstoppable and conquer not just the nine realms but all of existence. Literally after Odin died Big Sis is loose and is not playing around, as demonstrated when she crushes Mjolnir literally single handedly!!!! Of course that was just an appetizer, once Loki opens the Bifrost Bridge to try and escape her, she serves the main course by knocking the two out of the beam leaving the two flying though the depths of space. Then for her next trick she goes to kill the Warriors three and most of Asgard warriors, save for Skurge who rather prefers keeping his head on his shoulders instead of bleeding on the floor. Hela's mood doesn't improve once she's seen what Odin's done with the palace. Back in her time she helped him conquer the nine realms, all but securing his rule. Then once she decided that nine realms were small potatoes Odin then decided to play the virtuous uniter and tried to banish her. Once Hela was out of the way he decided to cover Asgards bloody past with lies of unity and diplomacy (sound familiar?) Once that was all cleared up Hela found the eternal flame and used it to resurrect her army of Ancient Asgardian warriors and her giant wolf Fenris. At first she planed to then immediately get on with conquering but Heimdal stole the sword to the Bifrost and has gone into hiding with the resistance so now she has to deal with that. Thor eventually lands on a junk planet called Sakaar when he's captured by Scrapper 142 (played by Tessa Thompson) and sold as a "prisoner with a job" to the planets ruler, an eccentric nut job called the Grandmaster (played um by um um Jeff Jeff Goldblum). Thor isn't up for Grandblum's bullshit so now he has to compete in the Contest of Champions and defeat the Grandmaster's champion so he can earn his freedom and return to Asgard to stop Hela. No thanks to Loki who somehow landed on Sakaar a few weeks ago before Thor showed up which was only just a few minutes ago!
Oh and he's also got into the Grandmaster's good graces. But does he do anything to help Thor, nope he's too busy humoring someone who's even more nuts then he is, thanks bro you're a big help! But Thor's not alone, he's got a sentient pile of rocks named Korg and a bug with knives for hands named Meek, so he's all good. Especially once he makes it to the Champion himself, The Hulk! But he's been on Sakaar for two years as the Hulk so Bruce isn't in control and has been in permanent smash mode.
Waking up after the Jörmungandr sized beatdown he received from the Hulk Thor plans his escape via the discovered Quinjet and a vision from Heimdal. Though he knows that alone he'll get his ass kicked again so he asks Hulk and 142 for help but they're not interested for various reasons. Hulk's a famous gladiatorand hisstrength is loved on Sakaar as opposed to being hunted and feared on earth. As for 142, she was originally a Valkyrie, the only remaining Valkyrie after all of her comrades were slaughtered by Hela when they were sent by Odin to stop her. Thor's escape plans are slightly derailed when Hulk unintentionally destroyed the Quintet but a recording of Natashia's last transmission finally reverts Hulk back to Bruce Banner. That's when Valkyrie offers her assistance and gives them Loki to prove her sincerity. They then come up with a plan, to get back to Asgard they have to reach the largest wormhole on Sakaar called; I kid you not, the devil's anus. But to survive the trip they need the right ship and who has all of the Grandmaster's access codes, including all of his personal ships? Loki! After freeing Korg, Meek and the rest of the gladiators the revolution is on! Thor and his group eventually make it though the devil's anus and confront Hela. This time however they have a plan, while Thor, Valkyrie, and the rest get the Asgardians to safety on Korg and Meek's transport ship, Loki will sneak into the place, revive Surtur with the eternal flame, begin Ragnarök and get away while Hela stays behind trying to kill him thus two birds with one stone. Despite some hiccups and Thor losing his right eye the plan works and the Asgardians get away while Hela and Asgard are destroyed by Surtur, thus saving the day. Now that Thor is the new king he plans to move the Asgardians to earth. At least that was the plan but our movie ends with his ship being intercepted by Thanos. Why is he there, well Loki decided to bring along a souvenir from the vault, the Tesseract AKA the Space Stone.
So that was Thor Ragnarök, is it really a surprise that this is the best solo Thor movie? Where as the first two tried to take themselves too seriously (especially Dark World and Malekith) Ragnarök on the other hand embraces the ridiculousness of its source material and gets rid of most of the parts of MCU Thor's mythos that really just didn't work. The Warriors three, not relevant past the first movie, Asgard, cool looking place but not much else outside of the aesthetic, Jane Foster, apparently she and Thor broke up off screen. (Translation apparently Natalie Portman's contract wasn't renewed or something, though speaking of off screen where did Lady Sif go?) Now if you're doing your job right when you take away something you have to replace it with something else.
Well, taking out all the pointless Thor mythos and replacing it with a loose adaptation of Planet Hulk was definitely the right choice on Director Taika Waititi's part, not only giving Thor a unique setting to do his thing and bounce off of people but also giving not only resolution for Hulk after Age of Ultron giving us more things for him to do outside of just smash! Him being stuck in Hulk mode for two years really would have a direct effect on Hulk and Bruce's relationship and we see that happen. Hulk's been in the driver's seat so the usual tactics for calming him down don't work. Hell he doesn't really seem that angry, just more like a five year old with the power of a Tzar Bomba in both of his fists. He sounds dangerous yeah but you could placate him just as easily as you could piss him off.
Hela is also a decent villain for this type of story. (On top of being the first female main MCU movie villain.) Watching this movie again Hela seemed more like what I would think a rebooted Rita Repulsa would be like then what the 2017 Power Rangers movie did, she's funny but it's more derided from her conquest and slaughter of her enemies which really shows what Asgard was like back when she was a necessity for Odin's plans. She was understandably, insanely powerful, able to decimate armies of highly trained god solders and destroy Mjolnir with little effort. Her motivations are also understandable, she was Odin's second in command, helping him to conquer the nine realms, slaughtering countless people who opposed him to only just get rejected because he finallyfound his conscience and realized "oh dear, maybe slaughtering everyone who opposes me to establish my new kingdom isn't exactly the best way to go about this".
But she never came to that realization that Odin did, instead she's just that old blood thirsty war machine, never realizing that Asgard would not exist without its people, to her she sees only either subjects or victims. Which leads me to the big underlying theme of this movie, a biting commentary on the practice of colonialism and the legacy of nations built on them. Hela and her reaction to the fresco in the palace perfectly exemplify the inherent flaws in conquers and militarization, that underneath the golden idols and talks of peace there's just blood, death and many many corpses used as the foundation for this power-hungy despot's utopia. She is the dark past of Asgard that Odin tried desperately to bury and forget. While Hela is more direct with this interpretation we now look at Sakaar and the Grandmaster.
The Grandmaster may have established and built Sakaar without this bloodshed but he also established the policies that allow him and those he finds favor with to stay at the top while pacifying the populace with gladiatorial combat. While he's not as interested in conquest as Hela he's not doing much to improve the lives of the people of Sakaar, unless its those in his court. He instead choses to use his power to indulge and drown himself in riches and booze while trying to present it as a benevolent rule. Either way when you look at Sakaar you can only say one thing about the Gandmaster's rule.
Sakaar is basically Ancient Rome with spaceships, giant green men, "prisoners with jobs" and tentacle Hentai. So while one is a bloodthirsty dictator and the other is an eccentric, hedonistic weirdo with too much time on his hands we then come to Thor and his nomadic Asgardians. Both Hela and The Grandmaster exemplify the worst possible outcomes of colonialism where as Thor at the end of the movie comes to the same realization that Odin did all those years ago, that Asgard is never the realm but its people. So by letting Ragnarök occur taking both Asgard and Hela with it he and his new Asgard can create their own future, not forgetting the past but no longer letting it define them.
Whatever path he and his new Asgard decides to go with the message is clear, they knows the sins of Asgard's past and will endeavor to create a new legacy for Asgard, just not through the path of the conquerer. Well at last that probably was the plan until Thanos came knocking on his door and will most likely kill everyone on that ship to get his big purple hands on that stone. Which finally brings us to the main event, the ten year anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The March to Infinity is over, Thanos has finally gotten off of his chair and the war has begun. I just want to thank everyone who has been following me on this retrospective and supported me in this whole endeavor and those who will support me in the future. So next time is the main event, Thanos the movie guest starring the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Thor Ragnarök is owned by Marvel Studios, produced by Keven Feige based off the comic by Larry Leiber, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson, Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory.
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z abridged is owned by Team Four Star. Jurassic Park is owned by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Studios based off the book written by Michael Crichton Star Wars The Last Jedi is owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Company and Lucas films based off the characters created by George Lucas.
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
What is this folks? It looks like a Kamen Rider Crossover movie, but it's actually good, and in cannon with the currently running rider series? That can't be right who created this, who wrote this? Let me check this out, ah now it makes sense. This movie was actually directed by Koichi Sakamoto (who everyone who grew up watching Zordon and Saban Era Power Rangers should know by now) and written by Yuya Takahashi the writer of Ex-Aid. Oh my god they actually put people who knew what the hell they were doing in charge of this production it's about time!
Well with that glowing sign of quality let's jump right in and see what enjoyment we can have making fun of this movie. Though for those who are watching Ex-Aid be warned this movie contains spoilers and takes place between episodes 10 and 11 so keep that in mind for those who need to catch up. We open on another bright sunny day at Genm Corperation. The birds are singing, the office workers are greeting the front desk staff, the really, really, really ridiculously good looking Evil GQ models in lab-coats are killing the guards, wait what? Oh trust me their boss makes this even weirder as he's, a guy with an evil Pac-Man helmet.
Kuroto knows a bullshit storm when he hears it so he tries to flee with the Proto Gashats but Zoolander, Valentina and Mongo get to him and threaten to blow his head off if they don't get the Proto Gashats and Bug Visor. Apparently all this is about was them collecting on their backpay since they, you know were apparently killed 6 years ago and came back for the sake of finishing Dr Pac-Man's research. Outside the cops swarm the building ready to gun them down until Mongo breaks out the Gekitotsu Robots Proto Gashat.
And that's when the cops realized that their guns were as useful
as boobs on a bull.
The Mongo Bugster then proceeds to wreck the cops' shit in record time. We then cut to some High School students playing this universes counterpart of Bejeweled called Hatesate Puzzle when one of the girls of the group tells the game's creator Tougo that his game just hit 20 Million downloads. But he's not really concerned with that, no he's got far bigger ambitions then that.
But before his fangirls can register the Sploosh their academy is attacked by thousands of tiny Pac-Men, some of who start chowing down on Tougo. We then cut to the Seto University hospital where Emu is helping a patient with his recovery when Asuna tells him there's an epidemic on the rise. Elsewhere Takeru Aka Kamen Rider Ghost is catching up on his schoolwork when Onari and Akari burst into the classroom to tell him about the crisis.
Both groups connive on a massive swarm of Pac-Men and Emu and Takeru recognize each other's drivers. OH MY GOD CONTINUITY HOW I LOVE THEEE!!! After the two get their "hi how've you been" stuff out of the way the Pac-Men swarm on Takeru after munching on Power Pellets/Power Cookies and eat his Ghost powers so he can't transform into Ghost. Leaving Emu the only one able to take a swing to them so he transforms into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and fights off the Pac-Men.
After the title card Mongo's back at Dr Pac-Man's base who informs Zoolander and Valentina that they've found their target Tougo who luckily has been found by Takeru. Zoolander wastes no time and uses the Photo Drago Knight Hunter Z Gashat to become a Bugster and attacks. Ex-Aid changes into his Level 2 form to give the others time to get Tougo to safety. Valentina isn't having it though and chases the group to a garage where she pulls out her own Jian sword and fights Takeru. Needless to say both heroes get their asses kicked and hard.
Dr Pac-Man shows up to show that he's the one giving everyone a literal case of Pac-Man fever (no really I thought he was spreading the Dig-Dug virus.) He then gloats and walks off, yep some other villain who got their advice from Mr Freeze. Back at CR they confirm that Tougo is infected but with an unknown strain of the Bugster virus. Afterwords the two groups get brought up to speed on the situation and come up with a solution to stop the Pac-Man virus, Ghost. Since as we all know Pac-Man's enemies are the four Ghosts the powers of Kamen Rider Ghost are needed to stop it. However Ghost is out of commission thanks to the Pac-Men having a Power lunch on him earlier. Kuroto comes in with Taiga and tells the group about the Proto Gahsats that Dr Pac-Man and his crew stole and to get them back no matter what. When Emu asks who they are Kuroto says that he has no idea.
Tougo wakes up and surprise, surprise he's an asshole and wants out even though he's infected and the GQ demons are after him. Kagami, being the detached asshole that he is says if the patient wants out then let him. Up on the helipad Emu and Takeru talk about how awesome the other is, Takeru even revealing he still has the Ex-Aid Eyecon from the end of his series. Kuroto interjects asking for Takeru's Ghost Eyecon so he can come up with a countermeasure for Pac-Man.
As for why Kagami let Tougo off? To use him as bait for Dr Pac-Man, though he at least does bring up the good point that there's thousands of lives at stake unless they get the cure for the Pac-Man virus so they can't exactly take the moral high ground in this situation. We then cut to Takeru, Akira and Onari going to see Shinosuke AKA Kamen Rider Drive to see if the three GQ goons have a record and if so a possible identity for Dr Pac-Man. Shinnosuke reveals that they all worked for the Next Genome research institute and that place was known for some really shady shit going down. He also gives them a name for Dr Pac-Man, Zaizen Michihiko. However there's a problem, all four of them died 6 years ago and all of their data was erased, all the police could recover was one video showing the four dying.
Back with Emu Dr Pac-Man catches up to them and calls Takeru for back up. Shinnouske offers to help but since he doesn't have Krim he can't become Drive anymore so he just tells Takeru to be careful. Dr Pac-Man and his two goons corner Tougo and Emu saying that the entire point of the Pac-Man virus was to find Tougo specifically since he installed a Virus detection program into Pac-Man. Which virus, the Bugster Virus what else? But since Emu and Asuna couldn't detect it in CR that can only mean one thing, Tougo has a brand new strain!
Which culminated into the Hatena Bugster.
Takeru and the others arrive and reveal Dr Pac-Man's identity so Zaizen finally takes off that weird helmet and begins going on about his evil plans. Long story short he and his cohorts were trying to create a new life form from the Bugster Virus, something went wrong, they went to the game world, they escaped to complete their plans and they need the Hatena Bugster for their plans to come to fruition. Hatena attacks causing blocks to fall and create several explosions in very close proximity to our heroes.
Yet most if not all of Toei's heroes survive explosions like this so go figure. The good news is that Makoto and Alan drive to back the group up, bad news Akari and Takeru get caught in the blast of some of Hatena's block bombs yet surprisingly only Akari's on deaths door after that instead of both, I guess given how many times Takeru died and just came back during his show I thought the writer would have that excuse to kill him again for shits and giggles. Though I might not be that far off as both Takeru and Akari are infected with Hatena's Virus strain and will both die unless Hatena is killed in 24 hours, because of course it's 24 hours and not instantly since we need to feed the Drama Llama somehow!
Speaking of drama Makoto and Alan get their asses kicked by Valentina and Emu gets beaten like a drum by Zoolander who literally did it single handedly, ok now that's funny. Zaizen uses the Bugvisor to capture Tougo while his two goons to finish off the riders. Thankfully they get more back up from Kiriya, Taiga and Kagami who also gives Emu the new Gashat from Kuroto, the Kaigan Ghost Legendary Rider Gashat, so now they have a counter measure against Pac-Man without Takeru. Good thing too since Zaizen summons a Giant Pac-Man to cover his and Hatena's escape.
"Pac-Man's a bad guy?" There, that's as far as I will ever get to actually referencing that god awful piece of crap movie.
Pac-Man then turns into a more monstrous form to chase down Takeru and Emu. Takeru has yet another inspirational courage boost which restores his Rider powers, because Pac-Man's yellow, the Heart of the Cards I don't know how folks either way this somehow helps Emu get over his own blue screen and uses the Kaigan Ghost Gashat to become Ghost Gamer Level 1. Back at Zaizen's base Mongo's finished creating the gene diagram needed for their goal, Zaizen has Hatena reconfigure his DNA to match the sequence. Both groups of secondary Riders force the goons to retreat but not without Makoto and Alan taking heavy damage. Back with the main riders Ghost uses the Ex-Aid Eyecon to gain the Ex-Aid Damashi and Ex-Aid levels up so the riders can double team Pac-Man and purify the virus, they succeeded and by defeating Pac-Man the Pac-Man fever epidemic is cured. So that's where we'll leave things for now check in next time for the defeat of Zaizen, the salvation of Akari and Takeru and some back up from some old friends.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson, Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory. The Other guys is owned by Paramount Pictures and Adam McKay.
Follow this link for what happened in the first volume. Volume 2's inside cover gives us Mami sleeping with Kyubey on her couch. If only she knew what horror she was stroking she wouldn't be that damn happy I tell you what, but considering he's basically the only companion she has, well take what you can get I guess. We open on Sayaka taking on a royal bug witch who's obviously too fast for her. She gets some back up from Mami, and emotional support from Madoka. The two work together and take the witch out with the most handicapped game of whack a mole ever and get a grief seed.
On their way back Homura confronts the trio. She says that with Sayaka backing Mami up the two would be more then a match for any witch that crossed them yet she insists on increasing their numbers. Mami asks why she's so insistent on preventing Madoka from becoming a magical girl, theorizing it's either so she doesn't inconvenience her or so that she can get Madoka for her own purposes. Mami says that Kyubey told her of Homuras alliance with Kyoko and that if the two are planning on taking their territory then she'll hold nothing back. Homura just walks off without a word. Mami then recounts about how she met Sayaka and Madoka, basically how it went in the anime except for one detail, after Kyubey told the two of their potential Sayaka contracted much sooner then in the anime and as explained later in this story that's why Mami's still alive. During the fight with the Sweets witch Sayaka was able to back Mami up and save her from, well......
"You ok lady?"
Back at Mami's place Madoka asks if in order to protect themselves they have to give up on the other Magical girls. Mami shares her sentiment saying that she wishes they didn't have to deal with rivalries. Madoka brings up Homura and says that she doesn't have malicious intent, Mami agrees but says that because Homura doesn't explain why she pursues them she can't in good conscious include her in their group. She says that she's responsible for protecting Madoka and Sayaka and if she brings in someone untrustworthy and things go pear shaped all three could be killed. She's definitely not wrong, in a unit everyone has to know they have their backs, so there's no secrets.
Ok maybe not to that extent but you get the idea. Sayaka chirps in saying that she'd never work with someone who has an attitude like Homura. She then brings up Kyoko, and how she outright despises her with her leaving familiars to go kill people, trying to kill her, insulting her wish and having an even more abrasive attitude then Homura. Sounds like they'd make the best couple eh? >:/ Yeah slight fanboy tangent here sorry but Kyosaya never made any sense to me I mean who would honestly fall for someone who insults their reasons for fighting (flimsy and half thought out though it may be) tries to kill them, is a complete anathema to their code of protecting people and lest we forget offers to pull an Annie Welkes from Misery on your childhood friend? At least with Harley Quinn and the Joker he didn't try to kill her when they first met, he put on an act that made her think that he trusted her with his dark past and that she was the only one who can understand him, and when she bought the act that's when he started to draw her to his way of thinking and drove her to become what she is, and at least Harley manages to get some payback on her pudden. Now to be fair those are my reasons for the versions of Kyoko and Sayaka in both this story and the original anime. Now if a plausible reason occurs between those two in the Wraith Arc to justify the shipping I'll be perfectly content, but as of now those two look like they get along as well as politicians and common sense.
Back to the recap, Sayaka apologizes for ruining the mood with her tone and after some scenes of lighthearted banter about hunting witches, homework and highlighting how much pressure Mami puts on herself she asks Kyubey what he knows about Homura and Kyoko's alliance. All he says is that he can't tell without compromising his neutral position.
Later after killing the box witch Mami and Madoka find Hitomi unconscious obviously under the influence of the witches kiss. Kyoko shows up mockingly asking where Sayaka is and if she already got sick of Mami. Mami says that unlike Kyoko; Sayaka isn't the type to stab people in the back; oh catty. She then goes on to say that she's been hearing rumors about Kyoko and none of them good. Kyoko asks if Mami's gonna do something about it, but she says not in front of Madoka.
Kyoko rightfully calls her out by pointing out that she's keeping out the girl who she's been bringing along on her Witch hunts. Mami points out Madoka's potential and feels she should at least get a demo of what its like to be a magical girl so she doesn't make a half cocked wish. Kyoko is shocked by this and tells Madoka that if she makes a worthless wish like Sayaka then she'll kill her without hesitation. Madoka then tells Kyoko that Sayaka's wish isn't worthless, who responds by saying that Mami doesn't give a rats ass about them and just wants the extra power; at that point Mami's had enough and warns Kyoko not to antagonize Madoka or Sayaka again. After the two walk off Kyoko vents to Homura. Back with Mami and Madoka, Madoka asks about Mami's history with Kyoko, Mami says it isn't important and tells her that ones reason for becoming a magical girl is theirs and theirs alone. Madoka tells her that she realized after Sayaka made her wish that she can't just be frivolous, but that she has to think long and hard before taking on such a burden.
The next day Hitomi comes to school as usual with Madoka and Sayaka though Sayaka seems distant, and when Madoka mentioned that Hitomi was attacked by a witch Sayaka gets a shocked look on her face. Later Mami and Sayaka are fighting a bee witch and are outnumbered by the constant swarm of familiars on top of Sayaka seeming out of it. Mami is about to finish off the witch when suddenly the labyrinth starts to change shape. Mami realizes that there's another witch inside of the labyrinth and tries to warn Sayaka but she blue screens. The chapter ends with Mami knocking Sayaka out of the way of the second witches attack and taking the blow.
Chomp!!!
Part 6 opens with Mami barely managing to escape from the new witch. Sayaka prepares to face the two witches alone when Homura stops time and plants her bombs which stops the witches and then asks Sayaka what she'll do next; abandon Mami or abandon the witch. Sayaka is about to argue with her when Kyoko tells her to stop being a dumbass and save Mami. Sayaka remembers what Kyubey said when she made her contract, that since her wish was to heal someone her healing magic is far greater then normal. So she uses it to save Mami just in time. She recovers and regains consciousness just in time to see Sayaka healing her while Kyoko and Homura kill the witches. Once the barrier dissipates Kyoko reads Sayaka the riot act for holding back and spacing out during the fight; Sayaka screams that she knows that and doesn't need to hear it from her. Kyoko and Homura take their leave while Sayaka sees that Mami is alive. Mami apologizes for slowing Sayaka down and Sayaka cries saying that she's glad Mami is alive and says that it was all her fault.
The next day Mami meets with Kyoko back at their old meeting spot. The two start to have a civil conversation which eventually leads to Mami asking if Kyoko is determined to never team up with her again. She starts to complement Kyoko on how much stronger she's gotten since last time but does the stupid thing and says that it's almost as if she's trying to make up for her lost powers.
Well David her prize is getting yelled at by Kyoko who asks what the point would be if she did tell her. She says that what Mami would have done was give her, her useless powerless teammate Grief Seeds without so much as a nasty thought or second look and that part of Mami pisses her off the most, putting everyone else before herself and not even admitting that she needs help just as much as everyone else does, pretending that nothing's wrong when really she's dying inside. But of course Kyoko doesn't mention that last part but instead decides to trash talk her and Sayaka's teamwork.
Which then leads to Kyoko asking what she really wants to know, why the hell did Mami let Sayaka make a contract? She knew fully well what she'd wish for and they both know what happens to those who wish on the behalf of others. Kyoko says that she hopes Sayaka betrays Mami like she did and at that point Mami has had enough and storms off telling Kyoko to go back to her territory.
Bravo miss relationship counselor, if what you were going for was "try to patch things up with Mami" you couldn't have missed more then if you had Ray Charles as your pitching coach.
We then cut to class where we see Sayaka where she thanks Homura for saving Mami and Madoka, but Madoka notices Sayaka looking away when she sees Hitomi and Kyosuke together so later that night she calls Mami with her concerns. She agrees to help Sayaka and when she hangs up she promises to herself to never let history repeat itself. Elsewhere Sayaka runs into Kyoko again who tells her that she'll never become what Mami is, she dragging her down and to try to find her own way instead of that of a hero. Sayaka agrees and says that she just drags Mami down. Sayaka also says that she learned about Kyoko and Mami's relationship. She goes on to say that in terms of fighting capability Kyoko is the perfect match for Mami.
You know Kyoko maybe Mami was onto something about your diet, if you were eating properly you'd get enough nutrients to get a clue!
We end this chapter the next day with Sayaka calling Mami to the roof to tell her that they should stop being partners. Why you may be asking? Because when Hitomi was under the witches kiss, Sayaka knew fully well what was happening and did nothing to save Hitomi. Yeah, yeah Sayaka that call was bad and you should feel bad. We'll finish up volume two next time were we see more of Sayaka's self destruction and how badly Mami'll take it.
Madoka Magica The Different Story is owned by Magica Quartet, Masaki Hiramatsu, Hanokage and Yen Press.
Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup Productions and Titmouse inc.
Doctor Who is Owned by BBC, Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber and Donald Wilson.
Liar Liar (1997) is owned by Tom Shadyac, Brain Grazer, Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson, Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
400 episodes people, and I have to sort through all of them to find my current 15 favorite episodes. Well I've done crazier things so let's get started. Now there will be some rules here, I can only choose one episode if Linkara reviewed multiple issues of a story or comic, so no all the reviews of Marville or ASBAR won't be clogging the top spots. I have to include at least one episode from each year of the show just to show the diversity and hopefully shine some light on some old gems. Also I have to explain why I liked the episode. So let's get started.
#15 Superman at Earths End Have to give it up for a true classic of a review that gave us Linkara's catch phrase, introduced the list of dumbest plans to take over the world starting with the milestone of Twin Clones of Hitler, Bearded Idiot, as well as the excuse to review its prequel of Kamandi of the North Star. Though yeah the notoriety of this episode is why it got on the list, because if you've seen this episode and then the newest it really does show how far he's come since that day. It's never easy to look back on old work, especially when it's something this stupid.
#14 Bimbos In Time Ah yet another seminal classic for the show, what he considers one of the worst comics of all time. Though since the creators themselves admitted that their poor quality was intentional that honor is dubious at best. Other then that the artwork is amateurish, the characters were so flat they can't even have a dimension to them and random out of place cameos from people fictional or otherwise. It's like if Sly 4 was really, really stupid, and I mean dumber then it already is but that's an issue for another day but if you're a fan of the Sly games and have played Sly 4, then you probably know what I'm talking about.
#13 Transformers #4-5 This was the very first episode of At4W that really got me interested in the show, mostly because Transformers. Either this or Ewoks #9 or the California Raisins comic were my very first ones but this was my first one I remember watching. This episode showed us the scummy practices of Pat Lee, his horrible inconsistent character proportions as well his trademark face for robots.
Sometimes it takes something that you're familiar with to lure you into something brand new and awesome. Examples include Kingdom Hearts, Project X Zone and of course a D list internet Celebrity reviewing a transformers comic, also my favorite series is Beast Wars and I am forever grateful that Bay hasn't gotten his claws on that series yet. Though I'd still take the embezzling weasel then the pyromaniac man child anyway of the week.
#12 The Invincible 4 of Kung Fu and Ninja: Oh lord this review, aside from it being a knock off of a much better and well regarded artist and writer it also had translations that are just barely better then most HK subs. Though the main reason why this makes the list is because this review inadvertently introduced me to Team Four Star when Linkara did the Krillin owned joke in the episode. But yeah rocket nipples and Krillin wanting Barbecue, good times. Though I'm still waiting for when we tackle that series again.
#11 Tandy Computer Wiz Kids: A deadly choice: Yet another classic staple of the show, making fun of outdated advertisements for computers that feature a class consisting of proto Patty Hearsts being indoctrinated with Anti drug pamphlets and Tandy instruction manuals. So why this episode in particular instead of say the one where these twerps have to help Superman stop Major Dumbass? Well three reasons, one this is where the shoe dropped that the Wiz Kids are stuck in a time loop where every day is their first day back from Summer Vacation. Thus my head cannon for the wiz kids comics is that this is the American comic book equivalent of Endless Eight.
Let me drop this beat and see if you can keep up; Haruhi Suzumiya was doing research on American color computers in the 80's and wound up watching a boring anti-drug PSA online to the point where she got so bored she wondered who would honestly listen to this crap at face value. So sheunknowingly created an alternate universe where these comics take placein and since she was so damn boredthat might explain Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Popeye and DukeNukem's surprise cameos. Speaking of surprises this brings me to my second reason why this is my favorite Wiz Kids review, because Linkara made a Madoka Magica reference. Yeah first time I heard that I had to rewind the video to make sure I heard that right and when I did I was like
and three; the premise of the issue was of Ms Wilson, the worst teacher ever who seriously needs to be fired out of a cannon puts these brainwashed brats in charge of a drug prevention hotline, yes she was in fact sober during these events and no she was not fired for this stupid idea nor did she put anyone over the age of 18 in a supervision position over them. Just.... mother. Now for me to sit and wait until Linkara reviews a Madoka Manga, now this could be through a Patreon request, or he could find one that's genuinely bad, my best guess would be Oriko Magica, not only for the honestly bad artwork but also for this character,
Not Yuma herself no no no, but her mother is honestly an even worse person then The Fixer or Crazy Steve.
Do a little research or read the manga and you'll find out why. I mean at least Crazy Steve is hilarious in his insanity and The Fixer is just Frank Miller's racist ramblings given physical form but Yuma's mother, she got what she deserved in the first chapter.
#10 Batman Fortunate Son: Moving on to much lighter topics we have the introduction of yet another running gag of the show, Batman's everlasting hatred of Rock and Roll. This introduced us to the mad ramblings of Izzak Crowe, over privileged dumbass rocker who blows up buildings full of people, incites riots and has hallucinations of Elvis telling him to blow up Mc Donalds because he didn't come from a "real place" so his music doesn't have "the struggle" behind it. Now I get what they were trying to go for here since Crowe poop here is supposed to be a stand in for Kirt Cobain and apparently how he died, but great balls of fire was the execution stupid as hell. This was also one of the best uses of the Superboy-Prime voice because Crowe's actions and ramblings were just that insufferable. This also leads us to Batman where because his dad told him not to listen to rock and roll on the night were Bruce touched his dead mothers' breast and since he encountered a Sid Vicious stand in who killed his girlfriend he believes that Rock and roll must be destroyed at all costs, which also lead to this infamous line.
Though I love the irony of when he was researching everything about Rock and roll in 6 hours (seriously) he memorized the lyrics of "I am the Walrus" not only because hearing Batman say "Pigs from a gun" is insane in and of itself but also those lyrics were meant to not make any sense, yet here's Batman, the worlds greatest detective researching nonsense lyrics to try to make sense of a madmans drug induced ravings, the irony is delectable. Yet apparently this was all made as an honest tribute to rock and roll, which may be the most insane thing about this comic, yet the creators of this thing did a much better follow up in Batman Jazz then this garbage. So Artichoke mayonnaise ripping into peanuts dancing with the silver bake king.
#9 The Adventures of Jell-O Man and Wobbly: If you thought that Adventures of the Kool-Aid Man and Superman meets the Quick Bunny were too grounded and logical here comes Jell-O Man and Wobbly! This gave us one of Linkara's best freak outs and just the shear WTF of this comic was too much for me to ignore. Plus apparently Jell-O man was the one who taught Ms Fortune of SkullGirls his fighting style. But given how crazy that game is would anyone be surprised that someone was taught fighting skills from a walking talking desert?
Batman is owned by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, DC Comics and Warner Brothers. Puella Magi Oriko Magica is owned by Magica Quartet, Yen Press, Kuroe Mura and Houbunsha. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson, Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory. The Thing (1982) is owned by John Carpenter, Universal Pictures and Truman Foster Company.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Where we last left off Fifteen was fighting against Wizard who uses his Bind spell to try and hold down Fifteen. Fifteen however switches to Wizard arms and easily breaks through it. Fourze backs up Wizard, however Fifteen just switches to Fourze arms and continues to pound the two, even with W and Decade the four Riders get smacked down by Fifteen, finishing them all at once by switching to Decade arms. Gaim calls out Fifteen, Fifteen decides to stop screwing around and switches to Gaim arms, to accept the final one on one fight. Porcupine-Roid is firing on several Riders, however Baron, Ryugun Kiwi arms and Zangetsu-Shin show up for a rematch.
Yeah, I'm keeping that spoiler to myself.
After that bit of hilarious hindsight the three Armored Riders over power Porcupine-Roid and destroy that rejected Predacon. Meanwhile the spirits of the dead are terrorizing the civilians, one of which decides to interrupt Faiz.
Nobody gives a shit about you, Kusaka!
But for some reason Faiz does. Skullasaurus in the mean time knocks out Gabutyra when, NO NO NO!
Yep; they show up. Ressha Sentai ToQuger. I, absolutely HATE THIS SERIES! I could go into further details, but to sum up at least 50% of my complaints of ToQuger, it would be because of this guy!
SHUT UP RIGHT, YOU STUPID JAPANESE JUSTIN BIEBER!
You ever have that one character that for some ungodly reason you cannot stand the sight off? Right is that guy for me. He is my Tidus, my Shinji Akari, my Lamar Davis, my Roman Bellic, my Chris Brown! Just the one character that for what ever reason whenever you see him, he just sends you into pure, unreasonable rage! You want to know why? Then just watch ToQuger to find out for yourself. Though at the time of this post ToQuger isn't over yet so I will wait until it's finished to give this show the beatdown it may or may not deserve. Anyway the ToQuger transform and summon their mech ToQ-Oh.
And the thing looks terrible.
One of my biggest complaints for ToQuger is that designs for the Heroes, from their suits to the majority of their Mechs looks horribly lazy, and for the the Sentai that is themed on "imagination" that is a very big problem. ToQ-Oh is just five trains lined up side by side. Now for this movie, the big bad, the Generalissimo of Badan do you think that he should be destroyed by the Kamen Riders, the enemy he's been trying to destroy and vice-versa? Nah, just give that honor to the Sentai members that only showed up at the last 20 minutes of the movie.
Anyway, while the ToQugers hold off the walking Jurassic Park logo we shift back to the fight between Gaim and Fifteen. Fifteen is of course giving Gaim delicious pain and screaming "Who's your daddy?" Gaim of course doesn't know the safety word. Ichigo then throws Gaim a Lockseed that he literally pulls out of his ass!
What else does it look like?
He literally, pulled that out of his ass!
With that horrifying nightmare fuel out of my head Gaim then transforms into his movie exclusive from. Kamen Rider Gaim Ichigo(#1) arms.
Strike a pose ya'll!
We then cut from this moment of awesome to ZX pointing out that the Mega Reverse Machine is almost finished! All the Riders capable of flight go to intercept and destroy it. Decade manages to get to where Shuu is strapped into the device, freeing him. With Shuu freed and out of harms way, the Riders are now free to go all out! X and Wizard Infinity Style prepare to fire when they are intercepted by Faiz, who blocks their attacks forcing the three to power down. Haruto asks what the hell Takumi was thinking, him saying that his friend is coming back to life and that he doesn't think that's a bad thing! You really weren't paying attention today were you? If that thing finishes, you are all dead, but I guess it's all worth it to bring back a despicable, irredeemable asshole right dude?
But Haruto mentioned the bit of continuity I brought up in his and Gaim's crossover movie about Koyomi coming back as an evil mage, but Takumi is still stuck in moron mode which Jin thankfully tries to bring him out of by delivering a nasty right hook.
Let's see you grit those teeth!
After that blow of common sense Jin tells him to stop obsessing over the past and live for the future. Of course this doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense given Kusaka and Takumi's relationship which I disused earlier. Haruto then gives his last hope spiel when the ghost of assholes past shows up again.
I am a Shadow, the true self! Can't you just die already?
A real friend right? Takumi flashes back to Jin treating the hostage takers' wound back at the dinner and tells Shadow Kusaka to piss off. Where he then gets his Persona in the form of Faiz Blaster Mode as Haruto and Jin transform with him and blast away Kusaka, good riddance to bad rubbish. The three then lead the charge as the remaining Kamen Riders use their Rider Kicks to penetrate the exterior of the Badan base. Once inside, we see Wizard Infinity Style, X and Faiz Blaster Mode use their strongest attacks to annihilate the base and the Mega Reverse Machine. With the machine destroyed and the spirits gone, all that's left is to clean up the stragglers. ToQ-Oh gets knocked down, Daigo telling Gabutyra to show his bravery. That has Gabutyra transform into the Kyouryuger Ressha.
You know what? I don't care. I just don't care.
Then the Den-Liner shows up. Now, don't get me wrong I like Den-O, hell Den-O is my very first Kamen Rider series that I finished. But I can't stand how Toei keeps bringing back Den-O like this. Because, just like Pyramid Head in Silent Hill, Den-O got popular, so popular that Toei just, won't, let him die! Den-O's series was good, as well as the three main movies. But since Decade, Toei has been pimping Den-o out like a Brothel with terrible movie after terrible movie and pointless and harmful use after pointless and harmful use. Also, ever since "Let's Go Kamen Rider", every time Den-O is involved in a movie, and he has a speaking role the plot goes down like a cheap call-girl. However this time doesn't count since Den-O and ToQuger are both train themed, so this does make sense to me. (Also Den-O and ToQuger were written by the same person, making even more sense.) Anyway the three combined their mechs into the movie exclusive mess that is ToQ-Oh Kyouryuujin.
Because Zebras!
With this, unholy chimera the ToQugers finishes off the Generalissimo with every other Den-O train, including Zeronos' train. Whatever, the big bad is dead, now to end this thing by finishing off Fifteen. Gaim calls him out by asking how can he even care about Shuu wants if he doesn't even care what he wants? Fifteen says that even if his wish was granted, it still wouldn't make up for the pain of his death.
A: Hey dude, I've been there, do you need someone to talk too? B: Come on, suck it up Cupcake.
Gaim goes for a bit of both telling Fifteen that he's just running from his problems. He finally finishes Fifteen with his Ichigo squash Rider Kick which destroys not only the Fifteen Lockseed but Fifteen's Sengoku driver. Now that the driver is gone I have to call him by his actual name Ren. Gaim tells Ren that he'll never escape his pain unless he faces it. Shuu and the rest of the riders show up with Shuu starting to fade into light. Shuu then tells everyone to tell those who are alive that their futures are bright. Kid you are not in a Mr Japan Jr competition, can the shmaltz.
I, I can't make fun here. I really do feel for this scene.
Gaim asks if there is a way to grant Shuu's wish. Decade said that Ichigo and the rest of the Shōwa Riders should be able to do it if they combine their powers.
And what happened, then? Well, in the world of Riders they say - that Ichigo's
small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the true meaning of
Christmas came through, and Ichigo found the strength of *ten* Riders, plus two!
But we already saw the power of Merchandising!
With your powers combined I am Captain Planet!
Thankfully instead of that cheesy Silver Surfer clone showing up the Riders instead teleport Shuu to the lighthouse so he can say goodbye to his mom and dad.
"thump" "thump" That hits me right where I live.
Saki: Ren Aoi, where the hell have you been? Ren: Well honey the good news is it didn't involve alcohol. The bad news was, that it did involve an evil organization trying to merge the Neitherrealm with Earthrealm to bring our son back. Saki: You're sleeping on the couch for a month! Ren: I know.
So, now the bad guys are defeated, the kid gave his parents his final good bye and we can all go home and.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Deadfall is owned by Tristar Pictures and Christopher Coppola Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment Ultima IX: Ascension is owned by Electronic Arts, Origin Systems, and Richard Garriot AKA Lord British. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson, Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory. Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama. Dragonball Z abridged is owned by Team Four Star.
