Manga Review: Madoka Magica Homura's Revenge Volume 2 Part 1: If at first you don't succeed

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

The true hero of the story who's on a self-destructive and selfish quest to save the one person on earth she loves.

 Again, sorry for the delay life is crazy and in other words the sky is blue and the grass is green. Once again here's the link from last time so that everyone is caught up.

https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/07/manga-review-madoka-magica-homuras.html

 As if the twist from last volume wasn't crazy enough; Kyoko actually lets Sayaka take on Homura herself. 

 Why you ask? Because with Mami dead this is the only shipping that the fans will accept in this timeline.

 But a flashback does answer the question, Kyubey introduced the two since they have the same goal of killing Homura. It of course doesn't go well but not as bad as it would have been thanks to Kyubey breaking the ice and informing Sayaka that Kyoko used to work with Mami once upon a time. They leave on civil terms with Sayaka stating that she wants to avenge Mami and Kyoko is all for it; if she can get to Homura first. She does in this case and Homura's just toying with her. At least until Kyoko decides to get in on the action.

 Since their teamwork is shoddy at best Homura is able to outmaneuver them and eventually escapes with Madoka. Kyoko knows that Homura could have taken them out if she wanted too; especially since during the fight she was able to get close enough to Kyoko to touch her soul gem. So after the two hash it out they agree to train Sayaka so they can take down Homura and eventually Walpurgisnacht. Homura and Madoka reach the fountain and discuss this new turn of events where Madoka suggests that Kyubey must be responsible for Sayaka and Kyoko's new partnership. But Homura sees this as an advantage and hypothesizes that with Kyoko looking out for and training her Sayaka should be able to last until Walpurgisnacht shows up, and if Homura has to be the reason why she'll stay with Kyoko then so be it.

 Later on, Sayaka and Kyoko are fighting the Shadow Witch and though Sayaka does rely on her regeneration magic with the Berserker tactics it's nowhere near as terrifying as in the normal timeline due to Kyoko's support giving her a better mental and emotional state. Not to mention they've avoided learning the truth about Soul Gems so that giant factor is removed. However after the Labyrinth is destroyed Homura's right there waiting for them. She advises Sayaka about her fighting style but she's had enough of her crap and gives Kyoko a signal.

Oh lord, their training has worked so well they've achieved Jojo meme status!!!

 As if the Jojo meme level up wasn't bad enough the chapter ends with Homura realizing that this new power is draining Sayaka's magic far too fast and her soul gem starts to cloud. Chapter 6 opens with Sayaka and Kyoko having a far more civil discussion about taking out familiars before cutting back to the two attacking Homura. Sure enough thanks to their training and improved teamwork the two are able to overpower Homura to the point where she has to stop time and fire her gun at Sayaka and Kyoko. Nowhere lethal of course but she does manage to shoot Sayaka's leg giving her the chance to point a gun at the back of Kyoko's head. 

You clever bitch!!!

 Even when Homura tries to buy some time the two manage to overpower her leaving Homura caught in Kyoko's spear, unable to stop time and Sayaka ready to deliver the killing blow. To make matters worse Sayaka's Soul Gem has reached her limits and is about to become a witch. Homura tries to pull out a Grief Seed but Kyoko restrains her shield thinking it's a bomb.

Turns out Homura didn't set us up the bomb. Now all your base are belong to her!

 The Mermaid Witch begins her assault but Homura; unable to convince Kyoko of the truth stops time and goes Reb Brown on her ass.

 After the Witch is killed Kyubey appears and speculates as to what happened. Eventually Madoka shows up and after some back and forth between Madoka, Homura and Kyoko about why Homura didn't tell her and Sayaka the truth Kyoko decides that she's had enough and decides to leave Mitakihara for good but not before bringing Sayaka's corpse back home. When she leaves Kyubey declares his victory, Mami and Sayaka are dead, Kyoko delivered her "screw you guys I'm going home" speech and thus only Homura is left to fight Walpurgisnacht, that is unless Madoka's in the mood to make her contract. So in other words they're up shit creek. The chapter ends with an all too familiar news broadcast of an approaching Mega Storm and an evacuation of the city being declared. 

 Chapter 7 opens with Walpurgisnacht approaching the town with Kyoko watching from afar. At her home Homura is lamenting how even with Madoka's help she couldn't save Mami and Sayaka.

Gee, it's almost as if discussing your plan in front of the deceptive Alien who would garner more trust compared to the transfer student who refuses to give a convincing cover story to sway people to her cause didn't turn out well!

 Madoka swings by and Homura apologizes for bringing her along with her and forcing her to repeat seeing her friends being killed. While Madoka reminds her that they at least managed to save Kyoko Homura says that that's irrelevant since she won't even stick around to help and since she herself hasn't had time to prepare for Walpurgisnacht there's no chance of defeating it. She suggests that she and Madoka repeat the month again since that's all she can think of to save her. Actually yeah that's not a bad plan just make sure that Kyubey doesn't hitch a ride again and then the stage will be set perfectly, you can still try to save Mami and Sayaka during the normal events without Kyubey spreading mistrust among the three, it's your best shot so yeah go for it. The next day Madoka and her family are at the evacuation shelter while Kyoko decides to fight against Walpurgisnacht herself with the Grief seeds she and Sayaka saved up. 

 Back at the shelter Madoka asks if she went back with Homura would everyone be killed by Walpurgisnacht. She of course knew the answer but just had to hear it knowing she couldn't forgive herself leaving other people to such a horrible fate. She suggested making the contract but Homura shoots that down immediately reminding her that even if she won she would then basically become a less hungry and sleepy Beerus and destroy the world. Then the hell beast Kyubey appears and informs them that Kyoko is fighting Walpurgisnacht on her own. Madoka immediately runs off but Homura is stoped by Kyubey who says that while they have the same end-goal their objectives are completely different. 

You know, I honestly hate to say this because everyone and their grandma has said this about Kyubey but it honestly has to be said, bunny cat is a dick!

 Kyoko is continuing to put up a fight against Walpurgisnacht but honestly it's like a fly trying to move a mountain. However just when she is about to be killed by the familiars Homura and Madoka show up to give her backup. The chapter ends with Homura telling Kyoko that even if there is a small chance to save Madoka she'll take it no matter the cost. With that we're nearing the end of this timeline, and considering what happens in the main anime we can guess how this turns out, or can we? Check in for the final chapter and my overall thoughts on Homura's Revenge.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Homura's revenge is owned by, Masugitsune/ Kawazukuu, Magica Quartet and Yen Press.
Mercenary Fighters (1988) is owned by Bruno Mattei, Riki Shelach Nissimoff and Cannon Films.
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. 

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Final Part 2: The boys are back in town! (Spoilers)

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

 Ok here we are again with Part two of my review of Heisei Generations Final (not really Final but just shut up). Want to know what happened in Part 1? Here you go, enjoy.

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2018/08/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

 Caught up? Good now we can get going to the good stuff, you know the stuff like on the poster right above us, yeah that stuff. We get the ball rolling with Emu finally having enough of sitting one the sidelines and decides to look for Enigma. Back in Build's Earth the titular rider is fighting off the Nebula Bugsters while Parado evacuates the nearby civilians. Eventually this draws out the blue Gear monster; Left Kaiser out of hiding and he attacks Build to keep him from destroying his Nebula Bugsters.

 Cranky Kong manages to overpower Build so he pulls out the Fullbottles Stark gave him earlier and transforms into PhoenixRobo form and regains his footing with him forcing Cranky to retreat. But thankfully Sento's smart and in the confusion placed a tracker on him. As Sento and Parado follow the signal to Cranky's hideout Sento learns the secret behind Muteki Gamer's power and it all falls into place for him, the reason why Katsuragi went after Ex-Aid and stole his power was to prepare for this scenario. He knew that Enigma would disable the Gamer Drivers so he had to refine the power of Ex-Aid into the Fullbottles so he could defeat the Nebula Bugsters and Kaisei.

 On the main Earth Takeru delivers the Build Gashats to the three remaining CR riders who can finally do some real damage against the Nebula Bugsters. Even Takeru gets in on the action, though for some stupid reason he doesn't use the Ex-Aid Eyecon that he got at the end of his series which we saw during last year's movie is more then capable of hurting Bugsters. Guessing the costume was scrapped or something stupid like that. Speaking of stupid Emu and Bank try their hardest against the Nebula Bugster but another Earthquake causes Banjo to fall into one of the worst green screen shots I've ever seen.

No this is not just a cheap Photoshop job that I did, this was seriously in the movie. How was it that Power Rangers Lost Galaxy did a similar shot yet do it much better back in 1999 then this movie did in 2017?

 Emu tries to pull Banjo up but isn't strong enough, thankfully the king of the Underpants Gnomes; Eiji Hino shows up to pull him up. After the two saves Banjo from the MST3K joke Eiji fills them in on who's behind Funky and Cranky's world merger and no it's not Shocker, Decade, Alexander Luthor nor Ouma, it's actually Foundation X. Yes apparently Toei remembered that this group exists since Shirakura wasn't involved in this movie's production so they could actually use this great idea instead of it just being Shocker for the 1000000000000000th time. Now you might be thinking "how did Foundation X learn about the Bugster virus to even infuse them with Nebula Gas for this plan?" Well for those who're in the know, during the events of the Kamen Rider Brave Special a member of Foundation X managed to get his hands on the Night of Safari Gashat, so that explains the Bugster cultivation, as for the Nebula Gas it's pretty damn obvious, Funky and Cranky are collaborating; so Build Earth Kaisei provides the Nebula Gas and Main Earth Kaisei uses Foundation X's Bugster research to merge the two components together as well as create the Kaiser systems.

 But that's enough babble time for action. Sento and Parado find Cranky's hideout while Eiji leads Emu and Banjo to Funky's base. The two groups manage to reach their respective Kongs where there's exposition and revelations abound. In Cranky's case it's that he apparently was brought into the Borg collective judging by his face being fried by Kastusragi's betrayal and that once Enigma merges the two worlds together he'll merge with his main Earth self and they'll become a god or something. But how the hell would that even work?

 That's not an explanation! I'll get back to this later but suffice to say, these two are idiots. Funky's little surprise is that he brought a few Foundation X projects with him, reproductions of four Zodiarch Astro Switches and a set of Greeed Core Metals including Ankh's (minus the purple ones obviously) which he revives and sicks on the three riders. Emu and Banjo deal with the main Greeed while Eiji gets an idea with the Dummy Ankh and inserts the real Ankh's broken main core medal into the fake allowing Ankh to temporarily regain his physical form. I say temporarily because of the events of Movie War Mega Max where Ankh came back from about 40 years in the future where he was revived completely and I don't know about you but we're not there quite yet despite what Eiji thinks. But that doesn't matter because after the revived Ankh steals a tiger and grasshopper medal from the Dummy Kazari and Uva; Eiji can transform into Kamen Rider OOO again.

 OOO frees up Emu and Banjo to deal Funky while he and his revived red bird bro finish off the Dummy Greeed and reclaim the Core Medals. Funky transforms into Right Kaiser and fights Cross-Z to a stand still, he tries to kill the two while getting away with the Zodiarch switches but the two are saved by the returning Kamen Rider Fourze. Yeah we've actually been seeing J.K and Ohsugi in the background observing all these events so far which is how he knew to show up here and back his buds up. Now before you mention that the Fourze driver was tossed into a smelter in Movie War Ultimatum, you'd be correct but apparently this movie takes place before Ultimatum. Though the real reason why the Driver's still here is that the assistant Director for this movie wrote on Twitter saying that he forgot that the driver was destroyed by this point. I'm guessing that there's going to be some special later that fills in this plot hole.

https://twitter.com/jumpeishiokawa/status/915194214987657216

 Regardless we have what may be the last canonical appearance of Fourze so they're gonna milk it for all its worth. After Gentaro introduces himself he brings them to Amanogawa High School where according to J.K; Funky brought Enigma to since it was a huge focal point for Space Energy which could be utilized to amplify its power. But they're stopped by Dummy versions of the Leo, Virgo, Cancer and Scorpio Zodiarts. Gentaro transforms into Fourze again and during the course of the fight destroys Enigma's cloaking system. While Fourze holds off the last two Zodiarts Emu charges right to the device.

 On Build's Earth Parado and Sento head back to where Banjo was but don't find Enigma. But what they do find is Fruit Jesus himself; Kouta Kazuraba who reveals their Enigma which starts spilling out thousands of Foundation X Guardian Robots. Kouta transforms into Gaim giving Sento and Parado time to infiltrate Enigma while he brings down the wrath of god on the bots. Both Sento and Emu make it to the control consoles of their respective Enigmas and activate the devices starting the world merger.

Wait a minute, this all seems really familiar.

Oh god, if Superboy Prime suddenly shows up and starts killing everyone while screaming I didn't mean it I'm out of here.

 So yep, apparently their big master plan is to let the bad guys win. Not the most conventional of tactics I will admit but hey I'm willing to see where they're going with this one. But we're running long again and I have a lot to talk about with the movie. Besides there's mostly just the ending fight scene to cover. So next we wrap up Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Final and give my thoughts and feelings about the movie, see you then.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
The Spoony Experiment is owned by Noah Antwilder.
Infinite Crisis is owned by Dc Comics, written by Geoff Johns.

Video Game Review: Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux/ Deep Strange Journey: Back into the Black hole!

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

 Of all the SMT games that deserve a remake and rerelease for modern consoles this one is a personal delight. I wasn't always a fan of the Megami Tensei games, hell I never really heard of them till my brother got a used copy of Persona 4 for the PS2. So I decided "eh why not", gave it a try and the rest as they say is that. Now while I learned more about Persona I learned inevitably about the franchise that Persona spun off from, the Megami Tensei series. But this was before SMT 3 and the other PS2 games were on the PSN store so I decided to go with a rather obscure spin off that surprisingly didn't get a sequel.

 So I went to my local Gamestop I think, picked up a used copy and thus Strange Journey became my very first non Persona SMT game and BOY was it a different breed compared to Persona 4. From the setting to the story and the Pokemon esc demon recruiting mechanic, bone grinding difficulty, morally system and multiple endings Strange Journey was a breath of fresh air in the same way Persona 4 was when I first played it. But enough of my reminiscing I'll give a general recap of the game but for this rerelease you really should go in cold. Unlike the Persona series past Eternal Punishment were we play as anime trope #245, the transfer student; we're playing as a United Nations special ops solder who has been assigned to a strike team that has been sent to investigate a mysterious space which has materialized in the South Pole that threatens to swallow the entire world. Once they get inside they find that there's no way to contact the outside world and they can't get out the same way they came in.

 So for this game we've been essentially banished to the Black hole.

 They penetrate the blag ole called the Schwarzwelt and being an SMT game there's demons all over the place and they want to escape and rip every humans face off. Though personally I can't tell which is worse the demons or being trolled to death by the Gatekeeper. Before they find out for themselves the crews of all the strike teams ships all receive a vision from an unknown source, and with it the Demon Summoning Program is uploaded to their special combat suits called Demonicas that allow them to communicate with and control demons. So with their new demons our protagonist and the crew of the Red Sprite must venture into the heart of the Schwarzwelt and destroy it to save Earth. However there are several factions who want to use the Schwarzwelt for their own purposes, including the Three Wise Men, a mysterious blond girl, a black haired, black winged angel named Mastema, the Mothers of the Schwarzwelt and now for the 3DS remake; a mysterious woman called Alex as well as Zeus and Demeter, maybe.

 Regarding the characters I won't go into too much detail as usual. Even though this is a remake of a 9 year old game I really want you to experience it for yourselves and avoid spoilers, so only names and basic characterization will be detailed here.

First is our protagoinist. There's nothing about him when you start. The only unique thing about him is his nationality depending on which version you're playing. If you're playing the English release he's from the US and the Japanese version he's from Japan. He really is nothing more then a player avatar.

Next is the Captain of the Red Sprite Commander Gore.  He dies within the first hour of the game. That's all I can say for now. Also yes he is clearly named after Al Gore. But he is important to the story I'm being super duper cereal.

Now we have the AI of the Red Sprite, Arthur. After Commander Gore dies Arthur is made the new commander of the Red Sprite. Though Arthur the Crew of the Red Sprite receives the Demon Summoning Program.

Following up is Jimenez, the Chaos partner of our story. A private contractor from the US he's the only member of the Blue Jet to survive the crash and subsequent attack by the resident demons. He's not afraid to speak his mind though is rather pessimistic and confrontational, though he is on friendly terms with his personal Demon Bugaboo and the Protagonist. 

On to our law aligned partner Zelenin. She's a scientist from Russia and is a survivor from the third ship, the Elve. And after she survived her time in Sector Bootes, let's just say she's not all that willing to use the DSP anytime soon. That is until she encounters Mastema.

Mastema, also known as Mansemat, is an angel of persecution and hostility as cited from the literature of Israel's Second Temple Period. In this regard, he is also similar to Satan, who held more or less the same portfolio in other books of the period. Mastema is said to be the angel that unleashed the ten plagues of Egypt and attempted to kill Moses. In this game he's an angel supposedly sent by God to investigate the Schwarzwelt but seems to be following his own agenda. While he claims to be following the orders of God Jiminez correctly doesn't trust the guy as far as he can throw him. Though he does help the crew of the Red Sprite they do keep this angel at arms length.

Last and the newest character in this remake is Alex. All I know about her is that she has her own AI George and she wants to kill me badly for some reason.

 Gameplay wise you'll be navigating the various dungeons, referred to as sectors in this game by a first person perspective with a map on the bottom screen that fills out as you progress through the level. Basically if you've played Etrian Odyssey or Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth you'll be familiar with how it all works. But unless you get to recruiting demons and getting new and better equipment you'll be stomped on rather quickly. You'll get new weapons by bringing back Forma that you collect from Demons (though negotiation, defeating them or as a reward for leveling up.) Some forma can only be found in specific sectors or as rewards for side-quests, again much like Persona Q.

 But you won't be able to survive on new equipment alone, every good solder does need trustworthy squad-mates after all, and luckily for you these demons will always work for you, provided you know what their price is. A major factor in recruiting demons in this game is dependent on your moral alignment. By default you'll be neutral-neutral, but as you answer certain dialogue routes you'll sway between the Chaos and Law alignment. If you're lawful then Chaos demons will be harder to negotiate with and the opposite is true too so if you're looking to draft a new demon you better be on the same page ya hear? However there's three conditions where you cannot recruit demons, if the demon is an Unknown, the moons phase is full (unless you have a certain sub-app equipped) and if the demons' secondary alignment is Dark so you'll have to fuse those particular demons or get really lucky and run into them during the full moon with the aforementioned sub-app.

 Or you could just summon a demon by imputing a password, you can find the Passwords for all demons by checking out the SMT Wiki. The music is a radical departure from most of the Megaten series. Once again Shouji Meguro was the composer for this game so surprise, surprise despite the tone it fits this game like a glove. While most of the games I've played that he worked on have gone for a rock, synth and pop style depending on which game it is Strange Journey is much more serious and dire. Apparently he was told to compose it like if it were a movie so he went for a military orchestration with Gregorian chanting, drums and violins.

 Which makes sense for a joint military operation to save the world, the clock is ticking closer to doomsday so it's all business and it really stresses the dire and serious tone of the setting. So all in all when Strange Journey Redux comes out be sure to pick it up. If you're only familiar with the Megaten franchise through Persona this may be what gets you to check out the other areas of the franchise like I did. They're all still great games, made by the same company so equip your Demonica and get out into the field to kick some demon ass! Rip and tear, rip and tear, rip and tear their guts!

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux/Deep Strange Journey is owned by Atlus, Sega and Lancarse.
Atmosfear is owned by J.W. Spear & Sons, Mattel and Flying Bark Productions.

March to Infinity: Captain America The First Avenger: A real American hero!

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

 After some Asgardian antics we move back to the 1940's with the star spangled man with a plan, Captain America! As is tradition I'll point you in the direction of Linkara's review of the very first appearance of the Power Punching Patriot with one of the most iconic and wonderful covers for a first issue you could ask for.

http://atopthefourthwall.com/captain-america-comics-1/

 Now you think that making a compelling movie focused around a guy who punched Hitler right in his goddamn jaw on his debut cover would be as easy as farting but then again you'd be surprised how often when you think its a fart it turns out to be a very loose stool. Now come on we've all bet on a fart and lost at least once in your life don't deny it! Now you might be thinking only of the 1990 Captain America movie which was a nasty piece of work which both the Nostalgia Critic and Cinema Snob can attest to.

 But that's nothing compared to the flaming hot liquid butt fudge that was the Reb Brown made for T.V movies the Spoony One covered many years ago. (I hope he gets back in the game, just take as much time as you need man, these sort of things take time.)

 Ok I couldn't find part 2 of the 2nd Reb Brown review but yeah it's still really bad, trust me! But yeah Captain America while one of the most iconic superheroes ever was handled by some real grade-a holes before Marvel brought him home. Also for some reason they decided to cast Chris Evens as Steve. I mean it worked but let's not forget that the last time he was in a Marvel movie it was as Johnny Storm in those two mediocre Fantastic Four movies. I mean first Chris Evens and now Michael B. Jordon, at this rate it's only a matter of time till Jay Underwood finds his on screen redemption.

 Back on topic, as per usual there were some major changes made from the comic to the big screen. Like for example Bucky Barnes is the same age as or older then Steve and isn't the regiment mascot, Steve doesn't get into the battlefield right away and they skip straight to him being frozen for 70 years or so. As for the rest that's what this review/ recap is for isn't it? So our story begins in 1942 where a Nazi officer named Johann Schmidt (played by Hugo Weaving) acquires a powerful artifact called the Tesseract and brings it back to his lab. Schmidt is the head of Hitler's R&D department Hydra and after he and his head scientist Arnim Zola (played by Toby Jones) decide that Hitler and his third reich were a waste of time split Hydra into its own unique organization after killing several Nazi officers with a Tesseract powered weapon.

 Cut to America with young Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evens) trying to join the Army and serve his country. But the problem is that he looks like somebody could break his arms like twigs if they so much as accidentally bump into him. While he and his best buddy James "Bucky" Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) attend a worlds fair Steve tries to enlist again but is accepted this time to be the guinea pig of Dr Abraham Erskine (played by Stanley Tucci) and his Super Solder project. After proving his nobility and self-sacrificing bravery to Erskine; Agent Peggy Carter (played by Hayley Atwell) and Chester Phillips (played by Tommy Lee Jones) he's chosen for the procedure and becomes a Super Solder.

 But a Hydra agent kills Erskine and flees but kills himself with a cyanide pill after Steve catches him. Not knowing what to do with Steve now that Erskine and his formula are gone Senator Brandit wants to just make Steve into a patriotic mascot to promote the war effort as Captain America. But eventually Steve's had enough and when he hears that Bucky's unit is captured he takes matters into his own hands. With the help of Agent Carter and Howard Stark (played by Dominic Cooper) he breaks into the Hydra base, frees the P.O.Ws and even sees Schmidt who revels his identity as the Red Skull (a side effect of taking a prototype of Erskine's formula) and finally earns the respect of Phillips.

 This starts a campaign of Captain America and his Howling Commandos busting down Hydra bases and pissing on Red Skulls shoes, that is until Bucky fell to his death on a mission. But thanks to Zola spilling the beans Cap finds the location of Red Skulls main base and his ultimate weapon. So he and his forces attack the base and Cap chases the Red Skull to the deck of his ship where after accidentally touching the Tesseract the Red Skull is either destroyed or forcibly teleported into the sky by a mysterious blue column of light. But Steve has to steer the ship off course before it reaches New York and the onboard missiles detonate, so he crashes the ship into the Arctic freezing himself in the process. So the story ends with Howard recovering the Tesseract, Peggy is left behind with her ABC spin off show and Steve is recovered by Nick Fury in 2011 more annoyed about missing his date with Peggy then anything.

 To sum up Captain America The First Avenger is definitely one of the shining jewels of the MCU. A great period story and character piece of one of the greatest heroes of Marvels library. Of all the phase one Marvel movies this was definitely one of the more refreshing at least aesthetically. Sure Asgard looked amazing but you can tell that was mostly in CG (really good CG but still CG) the 1940's esthetic really was on point in this one, from the buildings, the music and general decor were just aces in this movie. But this is no surprise considering this was made by Joe Johnston who worked on The Rocketeer and the first two Indiana Jones movies, so he knows a thing or two about capturing the period of a setting.

 Another of this movies best strengths is setting up the character of Steve Rogers and why he is Captain America. Erskine knew that in order to not make the same mistake as Red Skull he knew he had to find a man who had a noble and righteous heart. When he asks Steve why he wanted to enlist he wasn't just looking for some glory hound thug who wanted to kill Nazis he was looking for someone who knew what it meant to be weak and wanted strength not to attack, conquer and invade but protect and support. If he wanted a Solder there were plenty, but what Erskine was looking for was a Knight. Though clad not in armor but clad in the idea of what America should stand for, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 Steve was definitely that Knight. His self sacrifice and willingness to do the right thing no matter the cost is made crystal clear in this movie. Even when he was flung into the future and everything he knew and loved was changed and gone forever this first thought was how he failed to keep his promise to Peggy. Though with that said as this was a great character piece for Steve Red Skull was just a standard megalomaniac with a fancy power source. We don't know much about him aside from how he thinks himself on par with the gods, big woop we've seen this type of bad guy 1000 times before. Now again Red Skull and that beam of light thing is an insurance policy and since the end credits scene give a key plot point away I think its time to indulge in a bit of speculation.

 I mentioned this when I reviewed Hulk and Thor, they set up characters and left their fate ambiguous. Basically it was a hedging of bets to see which of these villains would work better with audiences to see who would be the big bad in the first Avengers movie, also just in case any scheduling issues popped up. So they set up The Leader, Loki and Red Skull and left them in unknown straights just to see which of these three would take center stage and we all know that Loki was the one they went with. Mostly due to how well Tom Hiddleston went with audiences, we actually saw him in Thor's end credits scene and also possibly due to the fact that Loki was the villain in the debut Avengers story.

 So now with all of the key players at the table it was time to run it or go home empty. We've had five movies setting up the members of the team, the world they live in and now they needed a big enough threat to bring them all together. So did this bold gamble of a movie franchise work? Well obviously it did but hey that's hindsight for ya. Nonetheless come in next time as the March to Infinity continues with the end of Phase 1, The Avengers!

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Captain America The First Avenger is owned by Marvel Studios, Paramount pictures and The Walt Disney Company. Based on the character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Manga Review: Kazumi Magica The innocent malice Vol 4 pt 2: Witches Brew

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

Here's the link to the last review. 

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2017/06/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent.html

 From where we last left off the remaining Pleiades heed Kazumi's threat and head to the freezer where she erects (phrasing) a barrier to make sure they can't run off which doubles as a motion sensor so that if she senses magic other then her own she'll thaw out the girls they have on ice.

Yeah folks this is the look of a person who is in precisely zero mood to listen to anyone's hogshit.

 She tells them she's read the diary and it's clear to her how much Michiru meant to all of them and how she cared for them in turn. So then comes the million dollar question. Why didn't they give her Michiru's memories? Saki says that every time they tried giving the clones some of the memories they went berserk. They took it as a sign of Michirus will and then decided to create one with a different personality, thus Kazumi. But this leads to the biggest problem with this plan, she's not Michiru! 

 Kazumi hearing this declares that she refuses to accept the idea of Magical Girls being born from hope to end in despair and tells the others to never stop until Michiru and Satomi are brought back to life, they committed the ultimate Taboo so they have to take responsibility and finish what they've started. She also says they have one other job to do, kill her. Kazumi starts turning into her Amazon form and asks one last question. 

Thank you Kaoru, Keelah se'lai.

 She finishes transforming, swallows the two evil nuts to go completely berserk and screams at them to kill her. She then slams Kaoru with her tail knocking her into a wall. Niko asks Saki what her call is, Saki then swears that she'll kill Kazumi as many times as it takes until they truly revive Michiru and she'll bear the guilt each and every time. She and Mirai transform to take on Kazumi; who incapacitates Niko with an energy blast. During the fight Umika sees that Kaoru was paralyzed by a spell, she breaks it and Kaoru blocks one of Saki's attacks to tell her that Kazumi is still herself. She wants them to kill her thinking she went berserk and the reason why Kaoru was taken out first was because she swore to protect Kazumi. When Kazumi stumbles with Kaoru's accusation Saki collapses, her resolve to kill Kazumi shattered.

 But that's because she's sane, Mirai however cuts Kazumi in half with her buster sword without a second thought. But the Kazumi that was cut turned out to be a decoy as well as the Niko that was shot. The real Niko emerges from the shadows with Kazumi shrunken into her tube. As Mirai prepares to attack Niko for interfering she points out that she has a bigger problem on her hands and points to Saki, whose Soul Gem is turning into a Grief Seed. Chapter 17 ends with Niko then teleporting to Saki, creates an Evil Nut and inserts into her, wait what the HELL?! 

 Chapter 18 continues with Niko reveling to everyone that; like Kazumi she's also an artificial magical girl. Saki keeps bringing down the thunder which according to Niko is her trying to not become a witch. 

 Mirai dives into the electric column and refuses to leave Saki's side even when Juubey says that it's too late to purify her gem. The reason why Mirai is so obsessed with Saki is that when the two were starting to become friends Saki says that Mirai reminds her of how she used to be, this combined with Mirai's ostracization and how she selflessly protected Saki from the jellyfish witch lead to her developing feelings for Saki. So she won't leave Saki no matter what happens. Saki finally becomes a witch with Mirai's last words of her declaring her love for Saki, as her head gets bitten off by Saki's witch like a gram cracker! 

Time for a game of disappearing lives?

 That barely fixes her stoner munchies so the freshly backed witch goes after Kaoru and Umika but the fake Niko uses a spell to restrain the witch and tame it like a beast master. With Kaoru and Umika left to deal with Niko's revenge is almost complete, when Umika asks what revenge she's talking about she tosses her phone to her which is opened to a California newspaper article. Niko explains that after that tragedy; her original self Kanna Hijiri was consumed by guilt, day after day she blamed herself for killing her two friends and always wondered what her life would have been if not for that one bad day. She even created an imaginary her to live out that fantasy; there was her then the imaginary her, mixing the two created "Niko". 

Oh so she took on the responsibility of fighting witches to atone for her horribly consuming guilt while you lived the life she always wanted, boo fuckidy hoo here's the worlds smallest violin just for you you little Rule 63 Kratos.

 Though her anger is less from that but from the day she found Niko and the saints fighting a witch and of course is shocked to find someone who looked exactly like her. Normally she would've thought nothing of it but Juubey approaches her and spilled the beans about Niko creating her with her wish. After she discovered the article about the shooting she was understandably livid about her life being a lie. Though she asks Juubey why Niko didn't just wish those memories away he says that she didn't want to run from her guilt. 

 Kanna is understandably disgusted with Niko's decision and wants revenge on her and her friends. So she makes her wish, for the power to sneak on people without being noticed so she can get a front row seat for the moment of Niko's death. From her observations she learned about Niko's suffering and the Saints' plans. When she found out that another artificial magical girl was created she was understandably over the moon, but at the same time the way the Saints were running rough shod over everyone pissed her off but good. Kaoru assumes that Kanna was the one manipulating everyone, however she admitted that all she did was create the evil nuts using Niko's reformation magic and Umika's Ex File. 

 In truth all she had to do then was point Yuuri and the Souju's in the right direction and everything else was all them. All she needed was to get the girls to use up their magic thus corrupting their Soul Gems, her plan was going perfectly until Yuuri accidentally switched the suitcases with Tachibana. The volume then ends with Umika then asking what her end goal in all of this is now that she has Kazumi. 

New humanity with Kung-Fu grip!!

"Screw humans I'll make my own species, with blackjack and hookers, in fact forget the new species!"

 Needless to say humanity and our three remaining protagonists are up shit creek without a boat much less a paddle, tune in to the coverage of the last Volume of Kazumi Magica to see the outcome of this story and afterwords my analysis of this entry in the Madoka franchise. 

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.
Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation is owned by LBS Communications, Nelvana Communications and Colombia Pictures.
Attack on Titan is owned by Hajime Isayama and Kodansha.
Attack on Titan abridged is owned by Team Four Star.
The Spoony Experiment is owned by Noah Antwilder.

Tokusatsu Review: Shruiken Sentai Ninninger vs Toqger Part 1: Why too much silly doesn't work.

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

 Well people, here we are, the crossover I have been dreading for quite some time, my current personal worst Sentai series to date crossing over with the current most critically and commercially panned Sentai. You all know my complaints about Toqger by this point, the Red has severe brain damage and is insufferable, the suit designs for the heroes and their mechs are the most lazy I've ever seen and their message is personally disgusting, offensive and just plain wrong. While in Ninninger's case I give it more slack then Toqger if only because Toqger came out first so all my rage was probably spent by the time it fell apart. While yes it is structurally far worse then Toqger and has not only lame villains and also an even worse mentor then Gosei from Megaforce (YES I WILL TAKE THAT TO THE GRAVE!!!) and Takaharu was just a little less annoying and slightly more tolerable then Right I will still rush to Ninninger's defense before Toqger. Especially since Ninninger has a chance to redeem itself from adaptation since Saban seems to agree with me and is skipping Toqger for adaptation once Dino Charge is over. 

 Now before I talk about this crossover and no doubt get drafted into the Red Lantern Corps when I'm done with it I need to share some theories as to why Toei has been shoving out goofy series for three years after Gobusters wrapped up. The reason is due to what fellow Tokusatsu critic Des Shinta refers to as the "Carranger Effect" named after the series Gekisou Sentai Carranger, which was what was adapted into Power Rangers Turbo. This refers to Toei's tendency to follow up a failed sentai series with a more goofy silly sentai to try and bring back viewers who they think left because "Kids are stupid and can't understand more complex stories so bring them back with brightly colored nonsense." 

 Yeah but see here, the reason why Carranger helped saved Sentai back in the 90's? It was because a more goofy series was needed since the previous series Choriki Sentai Ohranger was a super serious war Sentai that premiered during a Terrorist attack!!! On top of that apparently around the 9th episode Ohranger was going to do a storyline that apparently would have been very similar to what just happened and Toei; figuring that little kids wouldn't be particularly happy being reminded of horrible attacks that killed several thousand people potentially including their loved ones had to cobble together new episodes and plots extremely fast which put their series far over budget. This is exactly what happened to Evangelion by the way, also this is just speculation based and what I've found online in forums discussing this topic so it could be false but it does seem rather plausible that these are the circumstances that lead to the Carranger effect.

 Back on topic here Toei seems to have forgotten that Carranger helped Sentai get back on track due to it being a necessity at the time, not so much afterwords. But now they seem to think that if a series sucked, crank up the goofy and they'll come back in droves. When they don't acknowledge that it sucked because the writing wasn't up to par. But I could just go on about this and since this is a review blog and not an opinion blog let's get on to the real question of this review. Would I prefer a Shuriken in my eye or being run over by a train?

 We begin our festival of pain with our band of Ninja numbskulls on a train, though Takaharu doesn't know exactly where they're going. Apparently they're off to a Ninja theme park for summer vacation. The intercom tells them that their stop is at Dream Ninnin Live Station and if you have two functioning brain cells you can immediately tell that they're on a Shadow Line train but no time for that now we have Kinji doing a rock cover of their ending theme song, because reasons. After the Big Lipped Alligator Jam Session we see a familiar face.

Great, Rule 63 Right's the first apperance in this crossover, I can already feel the Pixie Sticks being force fed down my mouth. And she's in her grown up form WTF? Also she's a pop idol in this dream for some reason, speaking of.

 Back on track Kagura grabs Kinji and runs off with him. We cut to.... the opening of the movie again, kay? Though Takaharu notices that while the core five are there there's six bentou lunches. However the intercom chimes in again telling that they're now in Dream Spy mission Station now. Where they apparently become a much better Sentai team, the Gobusters. Ok not really but they're spies now for some reason. The group split up and Yakumo, Nagi and Katsumi get chased down by thugs when they're saved by the only Toqger that I wouldn't want to toss into a Gulag.  

Dude you can ask people to call you Susan for all I care just so long as you usurp Right as leader of the Toqger I soooooo don't care!

 He's not here to take up my advice however and just takes the three with him. The next loop of Endless Eight happens again but the two have their next station up ahead.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! THEY'RE BROTHER AND SISTER MOVIE WHAT THE HELL IS THIS I DON'T EVEN!!! Oh good lord I swear I can hear Banjos already.

 Oh thank whoever's up there that these two aren't at the alter and Fuuka's dream groom is really Tokacchi, but is it? No for you see he's really this guy!

 No no Mio shows up, chews out Tokacchi and tries to get Fuuka out of there but are stopped by Jukkarage thugs. The four transform and the Toqger explain that these dreams are actually illusions created by our movie exclusive Yokai Wanyūdō.

And oh dear god he's just a weird head strapped onto a Kuliner Robo suit. Once again the laziness of the Toqger mandates infects the production. Now it just looks like a spooky stupid Gunman. If only Kamina would show up, give a over the top man speech and kick its ass. But no we have the Toqgers and Ninningers to do it instead, joy bunnies.

 So our lazily designed monster traps the four inside of itself so the "veterans" can give the two newbies the lowdown. Takaharu remembers that they went out to fight Wanyūdō and got abducted and out muscled. So greetings are exchanged, introductions are made, title cards are shown yeah yeah yeah we know the drill. The Toqgers continue saying that even tough they beat the main Shadow Line their resident Doctor returned from studying abroad and that he's the one behind the Dark Ninja land. Takaharu says his catchphrase and of course the other 3 sane people are flummoxed by his stupidity.

Well they both make me want to take a staple-gun to my ballsack then put up with them so yes, Tokacchi yes they are.

 Speaking of which he shows up for the rescue and drives the rainbow line up to Wanyūdō's train form to let them make the jump to safety. Wanyūdō however sends in Jukkarage and Kuros to take the four out. They transform and try to fight off the forces but they just keep coming. Wanyūdō eventually manages to escape into a tunnel but not before the Toqgers manage to get Fuuka at least to safety, Takaharu however didn't make it, not because the grunts overwhelmed him, not because Wanyūdō got inside the tunnel no no. 

BECAUSE HE SLIPPED ON FUUKA'S GODDAMN BANANNA PEEL!!!!!

 Why did I say I'd stick up for this asshole again? So one dumbass red gets kidnapped so our other dumbass red chases him down. And to pour salt into the wound the Kibaoni foxy general shows up to gloat.

No not that Foxxy.

Dear god not that Foxy.

Oh I wish it was that Foxy, at least she's fun and competent. Also HELLO NURSE!

 No no it's Kyuemon who tells them the obvious, that he was the one behind Wanyūdō, speaking of he delivers our dumbass Ninja to the dark Ninja land park. You know all this blatant stupidity is getting to me. I'll cut it off here before my brains are reduced to yogurt. See you next time where we learn more obvious crap like how the sky is blue, feet stink and Takaharu and Right couldn't outwit a box of oatmeal. 

Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is owned by Studio Sunrise, Gorō Taniguchi and Funnimation.
Code Ment is owned by PurpleEyesWTF.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is propriety of Hirohiko Araki, David Production, Tokyo MX, Warner Bros Entertainment and Viz Media.
The Spoony Experiment is owned by Noah Antwilder.
Drawn Together is owned by Comedy Central, Dave Jeser, Matt Silverstein, Double Hemn, and Rough Draft Studios.
Five Nights at Freddy's is owned and created by Scott Cawthon.
Project X Zone is owned by Banpresto, Monolith Soft and Bandai Namco Games.