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
To think that ten years have already come and gone. As we head into the 2020’s we must take the time to reflect and plan from where we were in 2010 to where we are now to where we want to be in the future. But that’s a bit too overwhelming and philosophical for this guy so let’s instead talk about the best video games of the decade. Now this is all my list covering games that I’ve personally played that were released in the United States that year so if you don’t see your game of that year on here leave a comment and let me know how much of a non gamer I am. Also there won’t be any compilations or collections on this list so no Mega Man X Legacy Collection, Bioshock collection or anything like that.
Nor will I put any game on here just for the critical acclaim that they’ve received or what everybody else thinks should be on the list for that year or anything like that. If you want that go to IGN where they’ve most likely put Ocarina of Time 3DS on their list because it’s expected and everyone is a Emperor Damned Sheep. No my choices are ones that I either really do love or have a personal attachment to me as a gamer and as a person. Though to give you all hopefully some idea of what kind of gamer I am here’s the list of the runners up for their respective years.
2010 God of War 3/ Bioshock 2
2011 infamous 2
2013 Project X Zone/Bioshock Infinite/ SMT4
2014 Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth/Ni No Kuni
2016 SMT 4 apocalypse
2017 Persona 5/ Pokémon Sun
2018 Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise/ Bendy and the Ink Machine (PS4)/ Ni No Kuni 2/ Mega Man 11
2019 Luigi’s Mansion 3
Now that you have a taste here’s what I consider to be the best games of the decade in the year of their release.
2011 however will be much shorter since honesty I would rather keep any positive comments toward Konami at a bare minimum considering how they are the pinnacle of the Japanese Hell Company and thus earns my unyielding hatred. Downpour contributing to that as well when Konami tried to release this game, Book of Lost Memories and the horrendous Silent Hill HD collection during the aptly named month of Madness. The last hurrah of the Silent Hill franchise; Downpour was the spiritual follow up to Silent Hill 2 that Homecoming tried and failed so hard to be. Though it did have its flaws with the Otherworld segments being reduced to running away from a red vortex for a few minutes to the breakable weapons the spirit of what Silent Hill should be still shined through without having to lean on nostalgia. Plus it was one of the few games that acknowledges that Silent Hill 4 existed so there’s that. So; short and sweet, this game is underrated and #FucKonami.
Now I did say that compilations are off the list but that doesn’t mean that remakes of the same game with new original content were excluded. So that means that I can put Persona 4 Golden as my pick of 2012 no problem. Oh the poor PS Vita, a lovely little handheld that Sony sadly neglected. Before the Switch came around this was as close as we could get to having full console quality video games on the go, with the enhanced rerelease of Persona 4 being the pinnacle of that notion. With this game I will forever refer to the PS Vita as the Persona 4 Golden machine.
Aside from that Persona 4 Gold is basically Persona 4 only portable with new content, simple as that. And if you have a problem with that (other than "please port it to a system that more than a few people own so everyone can enjoy it aside from watch let’s plays") let me know. Not much else to say but it’s Jojo’s BizzaRPG 4 on the go, what’s not to love?
Now 2013 was a great year for the 3DS with Project X Zone introducing me to new franchises I was only casually aware of to SMT4 my first proper mainline SMT game. But for me I have to give that spot to the game that got me back to a childhood classic, Pokémon X. I skipped generations 4 and 5 simply because I was kind of bored with Pokémon by that point so seeing as I had a new 3DS and needed games for my library I figured what the heck and now I was literally back in the game. Just seeing all of the Pokémon in 3D on a proper portable console invoked the expected reaction.
Not much else to say except it was the game I needed at the right time, sometimes you can come home again. Except for now when Nintendo, game deal or whoever decided to do what they did with Pokémon Home, absolutely unforgivable!
2014 however was a rough year for me personally. This was the year that I finished my one year game design course at the New York Film academy and started to get into the real world. I didn’t have a job for months so until that came around I had quite a bit of time on my hands. And after the emotional roller coaster I needed a pick me up and Studio Ghibli and Level 5 gave me that with Ni No Kuni, Wrath of the White Witch. It’s a cliche to say that certain video games are like playing an interactive movie, but it’s true Ni No Kuni gives you the chance to play an actual Studio Ghibli movie with all the tropes, proper hand drawn art style and the whimsy, wonder and magic that comes with it. Now as much as I love this game I do have some problems with it. Actually completing the game is an absolute nightmare with getting all the Familiars, creating all the items from the Genie, fighting the super boss and completing the Solosseum was just too much for me to bear back then. Speaking of the Familiars I was not a big fan of that, you’re supposed to be a newly minted Wizard with your new companions yet you have little monsters to do all the work for you, sounds pretty weak to me. Completion problems aside this game and Studio Ghibli remind us that sometimes it’s always darkest before dawn, even if Miyazaki himself can be a grumpy asshole.
2015 was one of the tougher years to pick out though that was mostly due to the lack of games that I was interested in. But there was one game that I was waiting for, the conclusion to the Arkham trilogy; Batman Arkham Knight. While I did have a fun time getting to be the Goddamn Batman one last time before my opinion of Warner Bros withered and died like the Joker. That was mostly due to me playing the PS4 version while PC users were treated to a buggy, broken disaster. Also if you knew anything about Batman history you knew who the Arkham Knight was as soon as you heard him talk.
Now funny enough apparently the Arkham Knight caught on with someone at DC since there’s an actual Arkham Knight in the comics now. Now before you say anything, no the Arkham Knight in the comics is not Jason Todd. Back on track Arkham Knight wasn’t the only problem since Scarecrow was a boring, droning putz who took himself way too seriously. But thankfully we had the surprise inclusion of the Joker with Mark Hamill’s second to last performance as the clown prince of crime before the bellyflop that was The Killing Joke. As the conclusion to the trilogy that helped repair the reputation of Superhero games it was satisfactory but Warner Bros and WB have burned too many bridges with me to give their games another chance, and that's truly a shame.
Speaking of licenses in 2016 we got the brilliant return of Ratchet and Clank on the PS4. Now while I never saw the movie that the game was apparently tied into (and from what I heard that was for the best) this reboot got most of what made Ratchet and Clank work right gameplay wise. The game had the proper mix of platforming, gunplay, puzzle solving and a good bit of humor in the writing. I would complain about how Ratchet and Clanks early dynamic was off from how it was originally but since this was being told from Captain Quarks perspective (aka the most unreliable of narrators) I can let it slide since he most likely didn’t pay attention to those parts. Though that does bring up a bit of a problem with that excuse; namely.
Plot wise this was a remake of the first game only with Dr Nefarious added in as the evil scientist working for Chairman Drek. Sure, while we didn’t re-explore every planet from the first game it did expand on some of the smaller details on the planets that we do revisit. From what I can gather the movie seems to have the same problem that the Warcraft movie suffered from, namely being too faithful to the source material that it forgets to create a story that it appeals to others outside of the established fan base. But again that’s just what I’ve heard, I could be wrong. Regardless of the movies failings the game itself is a good introduction point to the new fans while being a great trip down memory lane for the old fans. It definitely makes a better showcase for the PS4 than Knack that’s for certain.
Now before I made my pick for 2017 I initially thought that it would be Persona 5, since it was one of my most anticipated games this generation. But when I finally played the Switch rerelease last year and knowing the development history; I have to name Cuphead as my favorite game of 2017, at least retroactively. Now since Cuphead DLC was included in Smash Bros one can assume most people know about Cuphead through research and pop culture osmosis; bit you know what they say about assuming so here’s the rundown. Cuphead is a hard as nails 2d side scrolling boss rush game in the same vein as Alien Solder on the SNES. It was made by two brothers who remortgaged their houses to keep the project alive and to capture the feel of the Fleischer cartoon style they did the animation for every character by hand! Let me repeat, they put their livelihoods on the line to get their uncompromised game out into the world. Now add on the fact that Cuphead was so critically and commercially received that the game now stands among the ranks of Shovel Knight and FNAF as one of the icons of the indie game market and that would have been enough but for it to be just so damn fun and challenging with era appropriate music, creative and challenging bosses and all for at 20 bucks sets it leaps and bounds over any other game in 2017. If you haven’t played Cuphead you need to rectify that ASAP!
Now 2018 had the exact opposite problem of 2015 for me to pick the best game since there was so many candidates I could have picked if my runners up for that year were any indication. But my ultimate pick for 2018 was the PS4 Spider-Man. Just like the Arkham games you truly got to be Spider-Man, but unlike the overexposed, multimillionaire Goddamn Batman who constantly drones on about how he touched his dead mother's breast, Spider-Man’s entire premise is being relatable to the observer. Though that’s what my draw to this game is since, honestly I can’t stand 616 Peter Parker. Mostly attributed to One More Day Into The Spider-verse also showed how 616 Peter’s life is a complete and utter train wreck not helped by the writers constantly trying to put him into the “escapist fantasy” box and other people who have the name of Spider-Man just carry it better than him, like Gwen Stacy, Miguel O’Hara, Dr Octopus and yes even Miles Morales are all just better than main universe Peter. But in this game we have a similar Peter Parker but thankfully not an exact copy. He has a better relationship with the NYPD, Mary Jane knows his secret identity but their relationship is on the rocks and spoilers; this Peter Parker takes the “great responsibility” part seriously when he didn’t waste the antidote to the Devils Breath on Aunt May before it could be mass produced. That moment is what cinched it for me, because I knew that main Peter Parker would be that big of a selfish, shortsighted idiot to put Aunt May over everyone in New York if the whole deal with Mephisto was enough of an indication. Spider aside the gameplay here is some of the best I’ve come across in a long time. Sure the combat system may take a few notes from the Arkham games such as the spider sense but unlike the detective vision it’s not game breaking nor does the combat system guarantee a block by pressing a button; it still relies on your skills as a player. Also yes, THE WEB-SWINGING IS THE G.O.A.T! Just the feeling of swinging around New York climbing to the top of Avengers Tower and free falling into the concrete jungle down below and swinging around like an urban Tarzan was just downright magical. But then again these are the guys behind Ratchet and Clank and they know how to make a fun and entertaining game through and through. If you haven’t played this gem, rectify that immediately!
Now to wrap this up we have the one game that several of us were waiting 13 years for, 2019 finally gave us Kingdom Hearts 3. Now did this game have some problems when it came out regarding the difficulty, yes. Did the story wrap up the Xehanort saga while still having Tetsuya Nomura’s less beloved little writing quirks such as sequel baiting, leaving some parts of the story unexplained or not explained well enough that a whole new set of DLC was released to retcon those parts, yes. Did this game still capture that feeling of childhood wonder, excitement and hopefulness even if you’re not a major fan of most of the Disney worlds, yes. Did this game draw out the ire of some of the worst parts of the gaming community for various reasons, sadly yes.
But no matter what anyone says about this game at least Square recognized the criticism and actually did something about it with the free Critical Mode update and the (sadly overpriced in my humble opinion) Re:Mind DLC. Whereas most other companies would have just left it and forget it to drive their reputations into the ground “cough Gearbox” “cough Bethesda” “cough Warner Brothers.” Now as a game KH3 is still a fun old time, though in my experience Proud mode was a bit too easy and Critical Mode took this game from zero to Cuphead in just a few Megabytes which was fine with me and at least you can unlock the Oblivion Keyblade by finishing Critical so there’s that. Now while KH2 is my overall favorite game in the series KH3 as of the Re:Mind DLC is a very close second. So that wraps up my list of the favorite games of the decade per year. From the end of the PS3, the failure of the Wii U, the end of Steam Greenlight to the rise of the loot box and its subsequent need for regulation to the mistake that was the Stadia and the constant disaster of Fallout 76. From the birth of both the PS4 and, honestly the best console so far the Switch; video games have had a rather interesting and turbulent ten years. Now speaking of Decade; since we’re in the Reiwa era now I have to give my thoughts on the last of the Hesei era of Kamen Rider. If this list didn’t kill me than the next one will, oh well I beat Cuphead, The Valkyrie Queen on Give me a Challenge and Yozora on Critical within the span of three months. Bring it on!
Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey is owned by Atlus, Sega and Lancarse. Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment Persona 4 Golden is owned by Atlus and Sega. Rick and Morty is owned by Justin Rolland, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns Industries, and Williams Street Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, Ken Sugumori and Statoshi Tajiri. Ratatouille is owned by Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios and Brad Bird. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is owned by Level-5 Games, Studio Ghibli and Namco Bandai. Batman Arkham Knight is owned by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Rocksteady Studios and DC Comics Ratchet and Clank is owned by Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment. Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama. Dragon ball Z Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. Cuphead is owned by Studio MDHR and Chad and Jared Moldenhauer. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
So, an MCU movie post Infinity War, this is gonna be fun. Though yeah after the events of that mega movie we need something a little (heh) closer to home. Though since this is the MCU debut of Wasp I'll point you to the debut of her mother's comic book incarnation.
Obviously there's no Lovecraften monster from beyond the stars here to kill everyone with a space light-show, nor does it mention Hank's first wife who was supposedly killed because of Communism. Though the movie does showcase the consequences of Scott impulsively joining up with Cap's group during the events of Civil War. But he honestly got lucky considering what happened to everyone else who broke the Accords, just put under house arrest for two years. He even still has weekend custody of Cassie, has set up a private security firm with Luis and his two buds and also found the time to learn some slight of hand card tricks. Though ones fortune can become or is balanced out with someone else's misfortune.
The "someone" in this case is Hank and Hope since, because they were the ones who provided Scott with the Ant-man tech they're considered to be his accomplices thus have been on the run. Needless to say they're pretty pissed at Scott, but they need him back since durning the climax of the first Ant-man he returned from the quantum realm. The two need him to help recreate that seemingly impossible feat to hopefully find Hank's lost wife Janet (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) the original Wasp and all before Scott's house arrest is officially up and he canfinally get his life with Cassie back on track. Though like every other MCU movie Hank's past screw ups come back to bite him in the ass. This time in the form of a Quantum shifting former S.H.I.E.L.D assassin called Ghost (played by Hannah John-Kamen) and her surrogate father, one of Hanks bitter former colleagues Bill Foster (played by Lawrence Fishburne) who are trying to get their hands on Janet to cure Ghost of her reality phasing affliction before it kills her.
After such a massive punch to the gut that was the ending of Infinity War, something a bit more lighthearted and down to earth (considering the universe) was definitely needed. While the first movie was more of a heist movie with superpowers this is basically the same but with more fight scenes and some fun gags with the shrinking tech. Honestly the gags and sequences with the shrinking and growing tech are the best parts of the movie, not that the story is bad or anything far from it, it's just that a movie with more personal stakes is needed after the whole universal conflict of Infinity War. So we're allowed to focus on the gags with the shrinking and growing tech, cool sequences in the Quantum realm and we finally get to see Hope kick ass in the Wasp suit. Yes they totally should have had her in the suit in the first movie but hey they more then make up for it here.
No doubt we'll get some more time with Wasp in either this or Avengers 4, but Hope has definitely won through this time around. Now this isn't going to make my top 10 MCU movies but this is still a fun romp with a great cast, likable characters and just one of those times where just this once everybody wins. Well except for Sonny but who really cared about that guy? That is until we get to the post credits scene. I won't spoil it here but I believe that Bird Person can sum up mine and most audiences' reaction to it.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures. Based off the comic book characters created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. Rick and Morty is owned by Justin Rolland, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns Industries, and Williams Street
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Well we're back on earth and just in time to see Earth's greatest heroes take down a menace that is entirely the fault of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. But since this is the first movie that actually expands on Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye as a character and not just "that one guy with the bow and arrows" I'll toss in the link to his debut appearance in the 616 universe before we get to the movie itself.
We waste absolutely no time as we open on the Avengers attacking a Hydra base in the Eastern European country of Sokovia to capture Baron Strucker and recover Loki's scepter. But not before Wanda and Pietro Maximoff demonstrate their newly perfected powers and lay the Avengers out like a mat. Pietro by running over them with his super speed and Wanda screws around with Tony's egg salad to make him see his greatest fear, the Avengers dead, the Chitauri invading Earth and him still alive unable to do anything with Cap's last words to him being "you could have saved us, why didn't you do more?" Nevertheless the team recovered the scepter, Strucker is taken into custody and in four days time Thor will return the scepter to Asgard so there's only one thing left to do, party like it's 1999! But before the festivities Tony and Bruce discover that there's an A.I inside of the scepter, one so advanced that Tony believes that if the two harness it properly, they could finally create their perfect global peace keeping program; Ultron.
Bruce smartly argues that messing around with alien tech is kind of nuts but Tony's vision coupled with his desire to end the Avengers by creating a world that wouldn't need them (peace in our time as he puts it) convinces him to pressure Bruce to help harness the A.I from the scepter. While the party goes on the scepter brings Ultron to life, granting him full sentience and sapience. But instead of a peace keeping program he instead becomes a genocidal A.I with a god complex and daddy issues voiced by James Spader. After spreading himself all over the internet and destroying Tony's A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S (played by Paul Bettany) he cobbles together a body from scraps of Tony's Iron Legion drone bots to crash the party and declare his mission to his creator. That being "peace in our time" and after all he's seen and learned on the internet and seeing all of humanity's history of war and chaos, he declares that to achieve his mission, the Avengers must die.
While they're successful at stoping Ultron's initial attack it was just a stalling tactic while he stole the scepter and transferred his consciousness to Strucker's base that was building thousands of mass produced drones and a new larger, stronger body for himself. Once he finished he called out the twins so they can see the fruits of their labor, their way of getting revenge against Tony Stark. What did he do this time? Well apparently the two were trapped under a Stark industries missile for two days straight when they were children, scared to death that any second could be their last and now seeing Tony and the Avengers acting as heroes? That was more then they could stomach, so they volunteered for Strucker's experiments with the scepter and now they have their powers and Ultron to exact their revenge.
Their first act was killing Strucker in his cell and deleting all of his data from the net to keep his contacts quiet. Specifically Ulysses Klawe, and his supply of Vibranium that he stole from Wakanda. The trio pay him a visit at his hideout off the African coast and after a deal involving cuttlefish and literally disarming Klawe the trio engage the Avengers. During the fight Wanda gets inside of Cap, Thor and Widows heads forcing them to see what they fear. For Widow it was her reliving her training in the Red room, Steve sees the life he could have had, partying and dancing with Carter back at the end of WW2 and Thor sees Ragnarok, also something else he couldn't make out.
While Tony engages Ultron he tells Tony that he's not only getting away with all of Klawe's Vibranium but that the Hulk is on a rampage in the nearby city thanks to Wanda's mind games. After Tony suits up with the Hulkbuster and pacifies the emerald eradicator the team is devastated, not only is the world afraid of the Hulk after tearing through a populated city like a linebacker the team is still shaken up after having to see their deepest fears. So Clint flies the Quinjet to a safe house off of S.H.I.E.L.D's files, his house in the middle of nowhere with his wife and kids. But Thor still can't get his mind off of the visions he had during his nightmare. So he goes to Dr Selvig to find a pool that would let him see the visions again to get more answers behind what he saw.
Back at the farm tensions run high between Tony and Steve about Tony creating Ultron and Steve's disappointment with Tony going behind the teams back. While Tony is in the barn he's confronted by Fury who adds "created a homicidal A.I" to his ongoing list of "how many times Tony Stark has screwed up" and tells the team to get their shit together and what they're up against. They also theorize what Ultron is going to do, evolve the human form. Elsewhere Ultron takes over the labs of Avengers ally Dr Helen Cho (played by Claudia Kim) in Seoul and uses the scepter to take control of her and her staff. He needs her synthetic tissue technology to create his vision of the perfect humanoid form using the Vibranium as the base and the Mind Stone inside of the scepter to store all of his data.
But as he begins downloading into his new body Wanda is able to see inside of his mind and learns what Ultron's goal is, to cause an extinction level event and wipe out humanity. After this she frees Helen from the Mind Stone's control and sabotages the transfer while notifying the Avengers where they are and she and Pietro escape forcing Ultron to take his new body with him. Steve, Hawkeye and Natasha manage to steal the body from Ultron during the preceding chase. During his fight with Captain America Wanda and Pietro turn against Ultron since they realized that he's basically Robo-Satan. However he still manages to capture Natasha and get away leaving the stasis pod for his new body in the hands of the two that created him in the first place.
Back at Avengers tower Tony reveals that J.A.R.V.I.S is still functional and he decides to turn this would be Predacon into a Maximal by inserting J.A.R.V.I.S into the body. After Steve, Wanda and Pietro try to stop the upload Thor finishes the job, resulting in Vision; neither J.A.R.V.I.S nor Ultron, but his own being. After Thor explains about the Infinity Stones, Vision proving his trustworthiness by being able to lift Mjolnir, Tony uploading his new A.I. F.R.I.D.A.Y (played by Kerry Condon) to replace J.A.R.V.I.S and Clint receiving a destress call from Natasha the team heads over to Sokovia to stop Ultron once and for all. He's at the end of his rope and has used the remaining Vibranium to create massive engines to lift the capital city high enough into the stratosphere and send it crashing down destroying all of humanity as a makeshift meteor. Yet this still makes more sense for an extinction level event then the opening of Power Rangers Dino Charge.
So after Vision shuts Ultron's consciousness out of the net to just his own network and most of the civilians are evacuated the Avengers get to work destroying Ultron's army. The day is saved but not without casualties, such as Pietro who gave his life to save Clint and Vision destroying the last Ultron unit. As well as some of the civilians who couldn't make it out of the city before Ultron took it for a joyride. But who's going to be sore about that eh, I mean you know what they say about eggs and omelettes right? After the fight the Hulk takes the Quinjet into stealth mode and shuts down all coms so nobody can track him.
With all said and done the movie ends with the Avengers setting up a new base in Upper New York and Tony deciding to retire from being Iron Man (again). Thor then goes back to Asgard to do more research on the Infinity Stones, thanks to the visions he knows where the four from the previous movies are so now he's off to find the other two. As for Cap, he's home and has a new group of Avengers to work with, including Vision and Wanda. Though speaking of the Stones, our end credits scene has Thanos putting on the Infinity Gauntlet and decides that if you want something done right, do it yourself.
So that was Age of Ultron and after the breath of fresh air and energy that was Guardians of the Galaxy this was basically the first Avengers though without all the new wow factor the first one had going for it. I mean it was all still good as with most of this franchise but it just kind of felt like a rehash without really giving us something we haven't seen before. Now don't get me wrong there were some good things about this movie, its just that marathoning all of these movies back to back, and having to recap and break them down week after week is starting to get to me. But like I said there were parts that I really liked and others, while still good is just stuff that we've seen before.
Positives first I really liked the party scene before Ultron showed up. Just seeing these characters chilling out, having a good time, being pals it was just fun. I really liked the scene where everyone was trying to lift Mjolnir, not only was it just a fun sequence and great set up for Vision's trustworthiness later on (what we call Checkov's gun) but also showed that Steve actually got the hammer to budge just a little bit. I also really liked seeing the members' personal nightmares, Tony seeing his friends dead because he failed to do more, Steve seeing what he could have had and Natasha having her life stolen from her and raised into a killing machine. Also there was the after effects of those visions at Clints house, where Steve is finding it harder to trust Tony, Widow reliving her horrid past and Bruce completely losing control of the Hulk.
Though speaking of; that brings us to Thor's vision and his side quest to find the pool. Or as the Blockbuster Buster so eloquently called it, the Jacuzzi of exposition. This subplot was only there in the movie to set up Thor Ragnarok and give exposition on the Infinity Stones recovered so far. Apparently Joss Whedon was forced to include that subplot at the demands of Marvel, otherwise he would have had to have cut out Black Widow's nightmare scenes. Because of this Thor couldn't take part in the farm sequence which cost us some serious character development for him.
We once again see that Tony is once again the cause of all of this, not just by creating Ultron but his weapons nearly killing the twins set them off on their revenge quest on the man who indirectly killed their family. But does he own up to it? In later movies, yes but not before doubling down and creating Vision, sure it worked out in the end but he could have just as easily made another monster in that instance. So when we see him retiring at the end I figured it was for the best, but then Civil War happened and he's back out in the field though it looks like some of the lessons he's learned has finally started to stick.
As for the villains it honestly felt like the twins were just included into this movie as people for Ultron to ramble about his plans and motivations with. I mean they had a good reason why they wanted to destroy the Avengers it just felt excessive. Though I was honestly surprised that they were even in this movie in the first place regarding the situation with the X-Men movie rights at the time, though the changes Marvel made for the movie at least made it so they weren't out of place in regards to the MCU. But then again Mutants in the Marvel universe just don't make sense when you stop and think about it, I mean the Fantastic Four, Captain America and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) were mutated but you don't see the hate groups chasing them down do you? (At least not as far as I can tell.)
Ultron himself is the perfect idiot. An A.I who was alive for over a week and after surfing the web thinks that he can just wipe out humanity and do it better, his plan is not only insane but just plain stupid. He's a pretentious tin tyrant who thinks he knows best when really he only knows how to do two things, destroy and make snarky quips. But that honestly makes him fun to watch, he's an unrepentant psychopath who honestly thinks that he could do better then an entires species, he's all knowledge but no wisdom. And sometimes we just need someone like that get their shiny metal asses kicked.
Age of Ultron at the end of the day just felt like a retread of the first Avengers movie. While that's not a bad thing it just meant more of the same, and a little too safe for my tastes. It did its job of bringing the characters and audience up to speed with the Infinity stones and got the necessary set up for Phase 3 out of the way. But before we get to Phase 3 we still have one last movie to cover. As the next steps on the march to infinity may be tiny; they can still pack a very big punch.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Avengers Age of Ultron is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and is written by Joss Weadon. Based off the Characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Rick and Morty is owned by Justin Rolland, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns Industries, and Williams Street
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Lets see, evil clone of a central character, obsessed with killing their original. Sounds about right only difference is that unlike Ryuga we actually know where Hijiri came from.
Once again sorry for the delay in getting this part out but again life happens. But instead of me pointing you to the previous reviews of this Manga I'll instead save that for the end of this series of reviews to avoid redundancy. Back on track Volume 5 opens with Hijiri abridging the Darth Vader speech to Kazumi who of course tells her to stick her offer where the sun don't shine, even though she was a replacement the friendship between them was real.
Your words have touched my heart, tiny little homunculus girl. NOW LEZ GIB OURSELVES A BIG OLL BACK BREAKEN UG EH?!
Kazumi manages to break out of the tube and grows back to normal size, maybe she had one of Saki's shrooms on hand. Kaoru offers Hijiri a chance to just stop all of this but she refuses, which leads to Umika giving her a reason you/we suck speech that really needs to be read for yourself. Nonetheless now that Kazumi won't join her Hijiri has no reason to be holding back anymore. Umika and Kaoru transform to let Kazumi rest but Hijiri gets some unexpected help. Some of Mirai's bears break into the barrier carrying tainted 6 Soul Gems including the Souju's all of which turn into witches that form a protective wall around Saki's witch. The two are undeterred however as Umika uses a spell she recorded on Kaoru.
Copy, please?
Despite the extra Kaoru's and Umika trying a sneak attack; Hijiri and the witches prove to be too strong for them. Kazumi tries to transform but her soul gem is at its limit. Which is where Juubey comes in and does his thing.
Or not. Hey dude I know you've been kind of useless but thats no reason to fall to pieces over this.
So now that Juubey's dead the girls are completely hosed without a way to purify their soul gems.
Wait Juubey, no no no I remember now, to our collective displeasure.
Kaoru tries to use the two gems left behind by Juubey's remains but they're dissolved and completely useless. Now that there's no way to fight back Hijiri sends the Nebula disk witch to attack, however when it hears the sound of Kazumi's earrings it roars and the other witches charge in and start to eat her. Yes what was left of Saki commanded the witches to eat and kill her so she can give the three her Grief Seed, what little of the girl inside of the monster broke out long enough to save her sisters in arms. Kind of like Day of the dead only with less Zombies and more friendship. The chapter ends with Umika and Kaoru taking the Grief Seed and fulfill Saki's last request, using it to purify Kazumi's Soul Gem saving her life at the cost of theirs. Chapter 20 opens with Kazumi completely restored and no longer in danger of witching out. Hijiri even after seeing everything that these girls went though for each other still thinks Kazumi will go along with her crazy ass plan, look kid there's a difference between being stubborn and just plain old fashioned stupid. Kazumi obviously tells Hijiri to blow her offer out her ass and uses Umika's power (aka Kyoko's) to create copies of herself, which manage to take out the minor witches in one strike leaving Hijiri with just the Twin Fox witch. As Kazumi charges ahead the duo reminisce and regret on how they should have introduced her to Saki much sooner then they did.
Yeah apparently they could have had Kazumi meet the rest as soon as they found her, but they just wanted to wait and see if she was stable before moving things forward. They concluded that aside from Kazumi retaining Michiru's cooking skills she has no trace of Michiru's memories or personality, so pretty much perfect. Further in the past after a fight with a witch Umika got the idea to resurrect Michiru from the ability she copied from the witch with her X-File spell as well as pooling everybody else's powers together.
Now this just begs the question of 1, how she made this thing in the first place and 2 since Witches have hearts what would a Heartless born from a witch look like?
As stated earlier this is the ultimate taboo they're breaking for Michiru since she went through so much to protect them. Saki read through her journal and confirmed that Michiru at some point learned the truth, thus she made sure the other's gems were cleaned before hers and did everything she could to hide the truth from them. Her little way of trying to cope with the fact that she accidentally sentenced her new friends to inevitably becoming horrible monsters, well some people take up yoga, some people play video games and others hide the truth about their new friends becoming rejects from Tim Burton's deviant art page. Nevertheless they all agreed to this insane plan since they desperately wanted to pay back their mentor and beloved friend for all she did no matter the cost. So for months they tried and tried but it never worked out, even Kazumi their most perfect creation can't avoid the fighting that comes with being a magical girl. Kaoru and Umika flashback again (take a shot) to the group wondering what to give Kazumi once she's finished. Mirai would give her one of her custom teddy bears, Satomi was going to give her back Toto who apparently was injured when Michiru became a witch. Umika was going to let her be the first person to read her new book (so, your gift to your friend/creation is to show her how awesome you are. Real selfless gift right there lass, maybe she was just really desperate for some feedback, but based on their previous attempts to recreate Michiru I would have guessed it would've turned out like this.)
Moving on to less narcissistic gifts Kaoru was going to give her the uniform she won in the national tournament. As for Niko, she proposed a trip to America, she wanted them all to look up at the Pleiades constellation in the Grand Canyon, where she'll be able to tell them everything about herself. As for Saki, her gift was the earrings, besides being her gift it was her way of trying to move past Michiru's death, by seeing Michiru's most treasured item not as hers but Kazumi's. So essentially a regift? "cough" Cheapskate "cough".
Back in the present as the two are about to succumb to despair they notice a much bigger problem. Saki's grief seed is about to hatch into the Nebula Disk Witch all over again. At the same time a giant glyph over the city shatters, which reminds the two about how Grief Seeds were originally disposed of. Our chapter ends with the return of the reason why the Pleiades Saints started this insanity, the being that's ultimately responsible for all of their problems, the unholy fucking fuzzball himself; the Incubator!
Chapter 21 has Kyubey just strutting around like he owns the place and introducing himself to Kazumi. Kaoru is perplexed as to where he was this this whole time, when in reality he never left they just didn't notice him. He elaborates that the reason why he went unnoticed this whole time was due to Umika. As yet another flashback tells us (take a shot) when Kaoru confronted Juubey what really happened was that when Umika grabbed the incubator; instead of rewriting Juubey's memories she in actuality beat Kyubey to death against a wall. She thought that would be the end of it but of course where there's one Kyubey there's another not too far behind like a game of wack-a-mole.
But instead of the usual cannibal routine Niko kept the dead Kyubey and experimented on it. The results of her research was an artificial incubator that was subservient to them as well as able to purify Soul Gems without a Grief Seed, and thus they named their creation Juubey. With their new incubator Umika planted the finishing touches, by combining her magic with the other 5 Pleiades she created a giant spell glyph over Asunaro city that replaced every magical girls' memory of Kyubey with Juubey and made his presence completely undetectable, so that way he can't come into contact with and create new Magical Girls. Kyubey admits that her plan was pretty damn good save for one problem, they used an incubator body as the basis for their Juubey project.
Now admittedly his critique makes sense since if Incubators were created to absorb the energy when hope becomes despair why would they be given a function that purifies Soul Gems without the use of a Grief Seed? So all Juubey was in the end was just a sentient placebo, all he did essentially was give their Soul Gems a spit shine job when they really needed a trip to a car wash. He speculates that the only reason why they didn't become witches sooner was a combination of holding back their strength when fighting as well as a residual purifying power of the Grief Seeds Juubey ingested.
Speaking of witches Umika and Kaoru are on the verge of becoming ones themselves.
"Just as planned Bwahahahahahahahahaha!!!!" Yeah Kazumi he couldn't help but look at what's bleeding all over the floor right over there?
Kazumi skins the Fox witch but unfortunately it didn't drop a Grief Seed. So this chapter ends with Kazumi holding her friends hands begging for them to not become witches. With this revolution we've officially reached the climax, will Umika and Kaoru be saved, will Hijiri be stoped before she can destroy humanity, and what of the other magical girls stored in the freezer? Check out next time where we see the conclusion of Kazumi Magica The Innocent Malice.
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. Bioshock Infinite is owned by Ken Levine, Irrational Games, 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive. Rick and Morty is owned by Justin Rolland, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns Industries, and Williams Street. South Park is owned by Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Comedy Central.
Warhammer 40,000 is owned by Rick Priestly, Games Workshop and Citidel.
If the Emperor had a Text to Speech Device is owned by Bruva Alfabusa.
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.
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.
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
