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.
Showing posts with label Venture Brothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Venture Brothers. Show all posts
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
This one got me a button.
Personal favorite of mine.
Would have gotten me a button if the others weren't called that night, oh well.
It's here, it's here, it's finally here! Season 7 of one of my few favorite shows on Tv. Now despite the humor and great characters this show is very serialized and has tons of backstory, not as massive and cryptic as FNAF but it would really help if you saw every episode from the beginning. But I'm aware that not everyone has the time for that (but seriously make it this show is totally worth it) and thankfully Adult Swim realized that as well so they had Henchman 21 (aka the most badass nerd character on par with Travis Touchdown) make these videos to give reaps of seasons 1-5 leaving me to give the details of last season. So here's seasons 1-4 in less then 8 minutes.
Now for season 5.
Now here's where I come in. So after the Gargantua 2 fiasco Doc's inherited Ventech Industries from J.J and like the classic little fuck up that he is, fires all of the board members and starts spending company money on him, Hank and Dean so of course the stocks drop like a stone elephant. J.J's #2 The Captain tries desperately to get Doc under control and eventually he and Doc reach a compromise after Dean steps up to the plate and after the Captain kicks his addiction to tranquilizer darts again. How it works now is the Captain handles the public face of the company while Rusty indulges in super science tinkering, so he's Iron Man. But what about the Captain, how'd he fall off the wagon?
Well the Monarch shoots him with one while he and Gary flee scoping the Ventech building. Though at that point, Venture's off the list for the Monarch for three reasons. First, because of Doc's new CEO status he's bumped up the priority list for O.S.I security (side note that means Brock's back guarding the Ventures) now you might be thinking "like that's ever stopped the Monarch before" but that was when he had his flying Cocoon, an army of elite henchmen, Gary, Dr Mrs The Monarch and his Monarch-mobile; but the cocoon was destroyed by Hatred with most if not all of his henchmen on board which means he, the Mrs and Gary had to move into the Monarch's old rundown Mansion in Newark New Jersey. Which leads us to 2, after that, Monarchs E.M.A (equally matched aggression) level went from 9 or a 10 to a 4, Rusty's now classified as a 10, do the math. Speaking of 10, 3 Venture's arching rights were given to the most influential member of the New York chapter of the Guild; Wide Wale as a peace offering to convince him to join the regrowing Council of 13 (more like Council of 5, later 7 which is just Dr Mrs the Monarch, Phantom Limb, Radical Left, Red Mantle/Dragoon and Dr Z, Dr Phineas Pahge later rejoins and Vendata is still MIA since the Don Hell fiasco) which he in turn divvied up to a bunch of other Level 10 villains underneath him.
Needless to say this along with renovating the house has put a major strain on The Monarch and his wife's marriage. Also it gets simultaneously better and worse, while the Monarch and Gary try to convince some of the level 10's to pass on arching Venture they stumble across the lair of the Monarch's Dad, a member of Team Venture; The Blue Morpho who's basically a blue Green Hornet (aka the original intention for Blue Beatle by his creator.) So Monarch figured that if he and Gary become the new Blue Morpho and Kano they could go around and kill all the Level 10's without anyone knowing it's him. But as you could imagine, dead villains means the Guild is out for Blood, especially given the history of the Blue Morpho as the junkyard dog of Team Venture and being dead for years they obviously smell something rotten. Coincidentally Dr Mrs the Monarch is heading the investigation not knowing that the man she's trying to kill to potentially save her husband; is her husband.
Now killing these villains is nothing to a nut-bar like the Monarch but Gary on the other hand is not taking this well, on top of his existing mental health issues after the death of 24. Not helping is that the Monarch often has Gary as Kano go around killing some of the arches while he's with his wife to maintain his cover. So on top of his previous hallucinations Gary's going to need some serious therapy. Though this only stopped because they messed with the absolute wrong villain. That being Red Death, the most professional villain still in the game, he's basically like if Mr Rogers became a horseman of the apocalypse and had plastic surgery to look like the Red Skull, simultaneously the sweetest guy you'd ever meet, a loving husband and father while also being a living, breathing nightmare for those who're on his hit list.
When the two tried to take him out, it backfired but instead of killing them Red Death just had a talk with the two and convinced them to give up on their crusade, after cleaning up one of Gary's messes. As for Hank and Dean they're adapting to big city life as Hank and Dean do. Dean's struggling with college life since he's, well, Dean and has nothing but outdated facts in his head thanks to his learning bed thing. As for Hank, he's started getting odd jobs and he's got a girlfriend, Sirena Ong, Wide Wale's daughter, yeah he's basically the first guy Sirena's meet who wasn't a playboy D-bag and isn't intimidated by her dad's overprotectiveness or his Guido henchmen. Billy and Pete aren't out of the fun either since their company was sold to Ventech after it was sold to their arch Augustus St Cloud over a prop from a Duran-Duran video.
Hatred's still hanging around too even though he was officially taken off the job with Brock resigned, so he's now their front desk security guard, basically as useful as boobs on a bull. Speaking of Brock aside from being back with the Venture's he's got his own issues. His first night in the city Brock tangled with the local Super heroes. One of which is an Amazon named Warriana and after some shenanigans with God Gas the two started to develop a relationship. She's possibly the first woman Brock's met that can actually challenge him and not jerk him around.
We haven't heard from Dr Orpheus and the Order of the Triad since season 5 but they'll be coming back this season so there's that to look forward too and hopefully we'll see The Alchemist and Shore Leave make their thing official. So that's about it as far as major story recap is concerned the rest is hijinks, insanity, speed-suits and Christopher Lambert. The characters are still hilarious and interesting, the writing is still top notch and Doc seems to finally have it together, he might suck as a scientist still sponging off of J.J but he's pretty much financially secure as long as he lets the Captain do his thing and stop experimenting with Mind control gas. If you haven't seen the Venture Bros yet, fix that A.S.A.P it's honestly one of the best shows Adult Swim has right now aside from Rick and Morty. So tune in, laugh and GO TEAM VENTURE!!!
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup Productions and Titmouse inc.
Ok, where do I start with his one? Oh wait I know STOP READING THIS AND GO SEE JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2 IMMEDIATELY! No, no no; I need to be a professional about this; I may be an amateur but I am above all else a professional (amateur professional, figure that one out) and believe me if one does not follow the rules then we are no better then the animals. First if you haven't seen the first John Wick; fix that before you go see this one since it sets up the rules of the John Wick assassin world and the consequences for breaking them as well as why John Wick is basically a live action Brock Samson.
No seriously DeathBattle take this one John Wick VS Brock Samson and it will be glorious!
But if you're too lazy don't worry the movie does give you the clip notes version of what happened in the first movie as Wick takes care of the last bit of business from those events. Afterwords an old associate of his shows up at his front door with a debt that he wants to collect. See this was the guy that helped Wick pull off the impossible job that got him his chance to retire from the assassination world in the first place and since Wick went on his rampage he's technically back in the game and thus its time to pay the piper. But of course since Wick just wants to be left the hell alone he tells the guy no, but being out of the game for so long; he must have forgotten what happens when you go and bust a deal!
So after being reminded who runs Barter Town at the moment Wick holds up his end of the deal and kills the guys target, his sister who's inherited their fathers seat on this big organized crime council. But of course this stupid son of a bitch couldn't just leave it at that oh no, now he's put a 7 million dollar bounty on Wick and every other crazy hitman within a 10 mile radius is out to kill him. Why? "Loose ends" his mute bodyguard gestures, dude if that didn't work for Frank Fontaine in BioShock when he tried to kill Jack then why in the wide, wide world of sports would you think it would work for your crazy ass?!
So without giving anything away that's essentially the plot, everything else you have to just go and see for yourselves. Now I have a confession to make, I, like many didn't see the first John Wick when it first came out; I only watched it a week before I saw the sequel to get myself up to speed and I am so glad that I did. I honestly haven't been this excited and pumped by an action movie in a seriously long time, seeing both movies had me so energized and ready to do something I didn't know where to start. Every fight scene in these movies is simply top notch, they're tightly shot, close but not too close and you can hear every single punch and by proxy feel every bone crunch. Taking the fact that this is all live action and not in CG make this all the more impressive to me.
One of my favorite elements of these movies is the 5 star safe-houses for these assassins called the Continentals. These movies also do a great job of establishing the rules of the Continental and the consequences for breaking them. All of which are shown and demonstrated for the audience instead of explained. John Wick remembers that movies are a visual medium and clearly demonstrates how these establishments work and only gives exposition when it's absolutely necessary. As opposed to works like Final Fantasy XIII where not only do the characters explain everything that's going on even though they should know what works where, but also don't explain what actually needs to be explained leaving that information to the Data-logs where even when they explain what's happening they don't explain what's happening.
But I'm getting off track; to sum up John Wick is a top contender for #1 movie of 2017 so far. This a great action movie with intense fight scenes, intriguing setting and is just great action fun. Like the subtitle of this review suggested I pretty much consider John Wick to be the closest we can get to a live action adaptation of Black Lagoon. Only it takes place in New York City instead of Thailand, Revy's been replaced with Brock Samson and Rock, Dutch and Benny are replaced with a dog, BlackBeard from Pirates 4 and Cowboy Curtis respectively. Speaking of Black Lagoon I wouldn't be surprised if at some point John Wick fights against people as crazy as a former FARC guerrilla turned house-maid, a pair of deranged murderous children or even the entire Yakuza. Well only time will tell my friends but for right now, turn off the device your using to read this and go see both John Wick movies back to back, you'll thank me later.
Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup Productions and Titmouse inc.
Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome is owned by George Miller, Kennedy Miler Productions and Warner Bros
John Wick Chapter 2 is owned by Lionsgate, 87Eleven Productions, Thunder Road Productions and Summit Entertainment.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
I'm still waiting people, I'm still waiting for that one bad MCU movie. I thought that it would be Guardians of the Galaxy with them utilizing relatively unknown characters but it turned out to be one of my favorites so far and one of the best both financially and critically, next I thought it was going to be Antman especially if they went with Hank Pym who as most know is one of the most unlikeable characters in Marvels staple.
In case you forgot here's why, yeah I don't care what anyone says; you smack your wife, you automatically descend to Scumball on my chart.
So let me see that would place Hank right between the Devil and George Sewel, he would have been lower but I'm assuming that in the comics he regrets that to this day and is at least trying to do the right thing, then again I don't read much comics these days so I could be wrong.
But they made the smart choice of moving Hank to mentor and having Scott Lang as Antman, thus giving a protagonist that the audiences can actually root for. (Also personally I love the designs of Antman and Yellow Jacket the only thing that's missing for Scott is a motorcycle and red scarf.) I'm not saying that I want the MCU to fail but it has to happen somewhere people. Now I haven't seen Thor the Dark World or The Incredible Hulk so it may have already happened and it has been a while since I've seen all of them so I could be wrong but yeah it doesn't look like the good times are over yet.
Now I honestly thought that this would be the one to end the gravy train for Marvel and Disney considering what this movie is adapting from. But to my surprise Captain America Civil War is how you do a Super-hero vs Super-hero movie. You set up logical and reasonable circumstances as to why they're fighting instead of just ringing a bell.
This can just suck down a jug of Granny Luthor's Peach Tea.
Now for those who don't know this movie is based off the Event Comic Civil War. If you've played Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 you're on the right track, the plot is that after an incident in Stanford Connecticut that left 600 people dead 60 of whom were children the government passed a bill called the Superhuman Registration Act that would demand super powered American citizens to register their secret identities to the US Government or be deemed rouge. Iron Man lead the Pro Side while Captain America lead the Anti and in the end the Pro Side won, Cap was arrested and it directly lead to One More Day, Norman Osborne becoming director of S.H.I.E.L.D and various other horrible things which lasted for 3 years in real time. So yeah not exactly the best of stories out there. However what the movie took from the comic was only what was needed and it works wonderfully.
Instead of the incident happening on US soil it happened in Lagos Nigeria meaning that this isn't just America's issue it's the worlds problem. The issue in the movie isn't of heroes keeping their identities secret but of accountability for the casualties of the large conflicts occurring in the MCU which in real time was only occurring for 8 years as far as the general public knew. And unlike the normal Marvel universe which has been around since the 60's the MCU was created in 2008 when Tony first became Iron Man which is an incredibly short amount of time for Superheroes to just show up, so laws and regulations were an inevitability.
However this is where I start to have problems, the UN and Tony want the heroes to be accountable for those who died during the previous movies. Specifically Loki's attack on New York, the crashing of the Helicarriers and Ultrons rampage and some of the public outright despise the heroes for their loved ones dying during these events. Um, bullcrap? Now I'm not being unsympathetic to those who lost their loved ones but the way the movie is phrasing it these people are angry that their loved ones died as opposed to the potential millions that could have died if the heroes hadn't intervened. I'm sorry but if I had that choice I would much rather live with the guilt of 10 people dying if that meant that I would prevent 10,000 people from dying if had done nothing. Now I believe that there was a certain clip to play in this situation, now where was it AH HA here it is.
Also there's the little factoid that the Sokovia accords have a part in it that dictates that the Avengers who sign are to be regulated by the UN. Um need I remind everyone that it was established in Winter Solder Hydra members have already infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D and other positions in the US and potentially worldwide governments? Unless all the members were exposed at the end of Winter Solder (which I highly doubt because as their name implies cut off one head two more grow in its place) that means that the Avengers could be just a tool for either Hydra or agenda driven, paper pushing, corporate America pleasing bureaucrats, in other words not good. From our heroes perspective Tony does feel guilty (as he should) for the deaths that were caused by Ultron and does believe that even the Avengers can be flawed and that oversight wouldn't be such a bad idea, though from Steve's perspective the ones giving the oversight might not have the peoples best interests in mind and that while some people may die it's better then to stop trying and let more die. Both are legitimately logical reasons for the conflict, accountability and oversight v.s free will and independence.
Also there's some bs about some guy wanting revenge against the Avengers for his family dying in Age of Ultron but that's not important. Now to talk about some of the heroes that were introduced in this movie Black Panther and MCU Spider-Man.
First off, love Black Panther's costume in the movie, it's sleek powerful and downright menacing, a perfect outfit for the warrior king of Wakanda.
I have to admit this is the best looking live action Spiderman I've seen. Though I've only seen the original San Raimi trilogy but still. I especially love the eyes on the mask that can actually move allowing him much more expression as I always loved with with Spiderman's costume.
How he's introduced is a great spin on the original Civil War comic itself. Tony manages to track down Peter Parker and offers to make him a new costume and provide funding for him to go to a technical college and essentially becoming a mentor and father figure for Peter. Peter doesn't fight Cap for political reasons but because Tony is willing to do this much for him and Peter is the type of guy to repay his debts. It also helps that Tony doesn't threaten to toss Aunt May into the Negative Zone prison (which doesn't exist in this movie thankfully) to keep him in line. Like with BP now that Peter's origins are quick and done with I'm curious to see how Spiderman Homecoming turns out, as long as Pyramid Head doesn't show up claiming to be a new character I think we're good.
The movie also has a far better ending then the comic but I definitely won't be spoiling that here. Long story short pick up the movie, avoid the comic and get ready for more of the MCU, till we find the piece of poo in this delicious pile of chocolate.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup Productions and Titmouse inc. Grand Theft Auto IV is owned by Rockstar Games and Take-Two interactive. South Park is owned by Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Comedy Central. Sleeping Beauty (1959) is owned by Walt Disney, Walt Disney Productions and Buena Vista Distribution. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by Gen Urobutchi, Studio Shaft, and Studio Aniplex. Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan is owned by Paramount Studios and Gene Roddenberry. Captain America Civil War is owned by The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Studios and is based on the Comic "Civil War" Written by Mark Millar
Follow this link for what happened in the first volume. Volume 2's inside cover gives us Mami sleeping with Kyubey on her couch. If only she knew what horror she was stroking she wouldn't be that damn happy I tell you what, but considering he's basically the only companion she has, well take what you can get I guess. We open on Sayaka taking on a royal bug witch who's obviously too fast for her. She gets some back up from Mami, and emotional support from Madoka. The two work together and take the witch out with the most handicapped game of whack a mole ever and get a grief seed.
On their way back Homura confronts the trio. She says that with Sayaka backing Mami up the two would be more then a match for any witch that crossed them yet she insists on increasing their numbers. Mami asks why she's so insistent on preventing Madoka from becoming a magical girl, theorizing it's either so she doesn't inconvenience her or so that she can get Madoka for her own purposes. Mami says that Kyubey told her of Homuras alliance with Kyoko and that if the two are planning on taking their territory then she'll hold nothing back. Homura just walks off without a word. Mami then recounts about how she met Sayaka and Madoka, basically how it went in the anime except for one detail, after Kyubey told the two of their potential Sayaka contracted much sooner then in the anime and as explained later in this story that's why Mami's still alive. During the fight with the Sweets witch Sayaka was able to back Mami up and save her from, well......
"You ok lady?"
Back at Mami's place Madoka asks if in order to protect themselves they have to give up on the other Magical girls. Mami shares her sentiment saying that she wishes they didn't have to deal with rivalries. Madoka brings up Homura and says that she doesn't have malicious intent, Mami agrees but says that because Homura doesn't explain why she pursues them she can't in good conscious include her in their group. She says that she's responsible for protecting Madoka and Sayaka and if she brings in someone untrustworthy and things go pear shaped all three could be killed. She's definitely not wrong, in a unit everyone has to know they have their backs, so there's no secrets.
Ok maybe not to that extent but you get the idea. Sayaka chirps in saying that she'd never work with someone who has an attitude like Homura. She then brings up Kyoko, and how she outright despises her with her leaving familiars to go kill people, trying to kill her, insulting her wish and having an even more abrasive attitude then Homura. Sounds like they'd make the best couple eh? >:/ Yeah slight fanboy tangent here sorry but Kyosaya never made any sense to me I mean who would honestly fall for someone who insults their reasons for fighting (flimsy and half thought out though it may be) tries to kill them, is a complete anathema to their code of protecting people and lest we forget offers to pull an Annie Welkes from Misery on your childhood friend? At least with Harley Quinn and the Joker he didn't try to kill her when they first met, he put on an act that made her think that he trusted her with his dark past and that she was the only one who can understand him, and when she bought the act that's when he started to draw her to his way of thinking and drove her to become what she is, and at least Harley manages to get some payback on her pudden. Now to be fair those are my reasons for the versions of Kyoko and Sayaka in both this story and the original anime. Now if a plausible reason occurs between those two in the Wraith Arc to justify the shipping I'll be perfectly content, but as of now those two look like they get along as well as politicians and common sense.
Back to the recap, Sayaka apologizes for ruining the mood with her tone and after some scenes of lighthearted banter about hunting witches, homework and highlighting how much pressure Mami puts on herself she asks Kyubey what he knows about Homura and Kyoko's alliance. All he says is that he can't tell without compromising his neutral position.
Later after killing the box witch Mami and Madoka find Hitomi unconscious obviously under the influence of the witches kiss. Kyoko shows up mockingly asking where Sayaka is and if she already got sick of Mami. Mami says that unlike Kyoko; Sayaka isn't the type to stab people in the back; oh catty. She then goes on to say that she's been hearing rumors about Kyoko and none of them good. Kyoko asks if Mami's gonna do something about it, but she says not in front of Madoka.
Kyoko rightfully calls her out by pointing out that she's keeping out the girl who she's been bringing along on her Witch hunts. Mami points out Madoka's potential and feels she should at least get a demo of what its like to be a magical girl so she doesn't make a half cocked wish. Kyoko is shocked by this and tells Madoka that if she makes a worthless wish like Sayaka then she'll kill her without hesitation. Madoka then tells Kyoko that Sayaka's wish isn't worthless, who responds by saying that Mami doesn't give a rats ass about them and just wants the extra power; at that point Mami's had enough and warns Kyoko not to antagonize Madoka or Sayaka again. After the two walk off Kyoko vents to Homura. Back with Mami and Madoka, Madoka asks about Mami's history with Kyoko, Mami says it isn't important and tells her that ones reason for becoming a magical girl is theirs and theirs alone. Madoka tells her that she realized after Sayaka made her wish that she can't just be frivolous, but that she has to think long and hard before taking on such a burden.
The next day Hitomi comes to school as usual with Madoka and Sayaka though Sayaka seems distant, and when Madoka mentioned that Hitomi was attacked by a witch Sayaka gets a shocked look on her face. Later Mami and Sayaka are fighting a bee witch and are outnumbered by the constant swarm of familiars on top of Sayaka seeming out of it. Mami is about to finish off the witch when suddenly the labyrinth starts to change shape. Mami realizes that there's another witch inside of the labyrinth and tries to warn Sayaka but she blue screens. The chapter ends with Mami knocking Sayaka out of the way of the second witches attack and taking the blow.
Chomp!!!
Part 6 opens with Mami barely managing to escape from the new witch. Sayaka prepares to face the two witches alone when Homura stops time and plants her bombs which stops the witches and then asks Sayaka what she'll do next; abandon Mami or abandon the witch. Sayaka is about to argue with her when Kyoko tells her to stop being a dumbass and save Mami. Sayaka remembers what Kyubey said when she made her contract, that since her wish was to heal someone her healing magic is far greater then normal. So she uses it to save Mami just in time. She recovers and regains consciousness just in time to see Sayaka healing her while Kyoko and Homura kill the witches. Once the barrier dissipates Kyoko reads Sayaka the riot act for holding back and spacing out during the fight; Sayaka screams that she knows that and doesn't need to hear it from her. Kyoko and Homura take their leave while Sayaka sees that Mami is alive. Mami apologizes for slowing Sayaka down and Sayaka cries saying that she's glad Mami is alive and says that it was all her fault.
The next day Mami meets with Kyoko back at their old meeting spot. The two start to have a civil conversation which eventually leads to Mami asking if Kyoko is determined to never team up with her again. She starts to complement Kyoko on how much stronger she's gotten since last time but does the stupid thing and says that it's almost as if she's trying to make up for her lost powers.
Well David her prize is getting yelled at by Kyoko who asks what the point would be if she did tell her. She says that what Mami would have done was give her, her useless powerless teammate Grief Seeds without so much as a nasty thought or second look and that part of Mami pisses her off the most, putting everyone else before herself and not even admitting that she needs help just as much as everyone else does, pretending that nothing's wrong when really she's dying inside. But of course Kyoko doesn't mention that last part but instead decides to trash talk her and Sayaka's teamwork.
Which then leads to Kyoko asking what she really wants to know, why the hell did Mami let Sayaka make a contract? She knew fully well what she'd wish for and they both know what happens to those who wish on the behalf of others. Kyoko says that she hopes Sayaka betrays Mami like she did and at that point Mami has had enough and storms off telling Kyoko to go back to her territory.
Bravo miss relationship counselor, if what you were going for was "try to patch things up with Mami" you couldn't have missed more then if you had Ray Charles as your pitching coach.
We then cut to class where we see Sayaka where she thanks Homura for saving Mami and Madoka, but Madoka notices Sayaka looking away when she sees Hitomi and Kyosuke together so later that night she calls Mami with her concerns. She agrees to help Sayaka and when she hangs up she promises to herself to never let history repeat itself. Elsewhere Sayaka runs into Kyoko again who tells her that she'll never become what Mami is, she dragging her down and to try to find her own way instead of that of a hero. Sayaka agrees and says that she just drags Mami down. Sayaka also says that she learned about Kyoko and Mami's relationship. She goes on to say that in terms of fighting capability Kyoko is the perfect match for Mami.
You know Kyoko maybe Mami was onto something about your diet, if you were eating properly you'd get enough nutrients to get a clue!
We end this chapter the next day with Sayaka calling Mami to the roof to tell her that they should stop being partners. Why you may be asking? Because when Hitomi was under the witches kiss, Sayaka knew fully well what was happening and did nothing to save Hitomi. Yeah, yeah Sayaka that call was bad and you should feel bad. We'll finish up volume two next time were we see more of Sayaka's self destruction and how badly Mami'll take it.
Madoka Magica The Different Story is owned by Magica Quartet, Masaki Hiramatsu, Hanokage and Yen Press.
Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup Productions and Titmouse inc.
Doctor Who is Owned by BBC, Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber and Donald Wilson.
Liar Liar (1997) is owned by Tom Shadyac, Brain Grazer, Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson, Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory.
Welcome back kids, time for the proper list. These are in my opinion the least liked to my personal favorite Kamen Rider Final Forms. We start with #16 and what I consider my least liked Final Form.
#16 Armed Hibiki
Now I'll just keep this short since I haven't seen Hibiki and from what I was able to see from reviews it could have been good. But of course no matter where you are in the world, almost anything that's aimed at kids and tries to push the envelope will eventually be ruined by Soccer Moms. I personally see this form as the culmination of bad management by Toei in the face of complaints about Hibiki the show and its lack of toy sales. The two original writers of Hibiki were given the boot and replaced with the Japanese Frank Miller himself Toshiki Inoue; and his asshole protege Shōji Yonemura, who you would have recognized having wrote the piece of crap called Kamen Rider Taisen.
So yeah Hibiki looks like a mess, and this form and its introduction highlight that mess, one of Inoue's tropes is that he hates writing episodes to just introduce more toys, so he barely puts any effort into establishing them and just basically says "here's some new hunk of plastic for you to buy see ya I'm off for lunch". Apparently this form was obtained from some dangerous training from a quack scientist that would either increase an Oni's (Hibiki's term for Riders) powers dramatically or cause them to lose their powers. Now admittedly that kind of does fit into the modus operandi and themes of Hibiki that everyday you are constantly improving yourself in someway and that even once you master something you never stop training. But that's definitely an all or nothing scenario and to me it smells like a way to drum up some quick drama.
Oh but that's not just me saying that, apparently most of the staff working on the show including Hibiki's actor flat out hated the changes enforced by Toei, and if that doesn't say how bad a show's gone down hill I don't know what does. Hibiki Armed From, the culmination of bad show handling and skewed priorities. Also we're not done with Inoue just yet kids, the next three entries on this list were series that Inoue was involved with (some more then others) and let me tell you; the way some of these forms were handled; it shows.
#15 Ryuki Survive
Now, let me make this perfectly clear, just because Ryuki Survive Form is so low on this list; it doesn't reflect my opinion on the show. I say that because some people consider Ryuki to be one of the absolute worst Rider series. And I honestly don't see why. Because it went in a different direction from the rest of the series? Because there were too many Riders in it? Because the title character is an idiot?
Well let me give my opinions on each of the guesses. First, just because it's a formulaic kids show it doesn't mean it can't go outside the box and try something new? Second, the multiple Riders can give us different characters, motivations and can help show that not everyone who gets the power of a Rider is a good person; though on the other hand, too many characters can easily make a show feel crowded if there isn't enough time, focus, and character development to go around properly. As for Shinji, yeah the guy is a dolt, no denying that. If anybody knows why Ryuki gets all the hate please let me know.
Now for me to talk about Ryuki Survive Form, it's not very good in my books. Ryuki gets pauldrons that look like Dragreder's head (his contract monster and the source of his power), gold highlights on his armor, his helmet gets gold antenna meant to look like a dragon's whiskers and his Drag Visor becomes a gun that can turn into a sword. The pauldrons unfortunately don't look all that good in my opinion, it's the upturned shoulder pads that kill it for me; it just looks clunky. How Shinji even gets this form is underdeveloped too.
I mean we already knew that Ren got his survive card from Tezuka when he died and that he was planing on using it. But Shiro had to have known that Shinji would use that card against him and try to stop the Rider War when he gave it to him so what the hell?
Also we knew that there at least two other Survive cards out there since according to the design of the card Tezuka got from Shiro the cards we based off a bird and its two wings so we knew there were other Survive cards out there and that Shiro had them. So this form did have some foreshadowing and didn't just come out of nowhere unlike some other entries on this list.
But the question still remains, Shinji had no intention of participating in the war, in fact the only reason why he participated is to save people from the Mirror Monsters and stop the fighting between the Riders so why would Shiro willingly give a power boost to someone who he knows will not play by his rules? So a flimsy reason, somewhat average upgrades and a bad appearance, yeah #15 looks like a decent spot for Ryuki, sorry Shinji.
# 14 Agito Shinning
I have not seen this show, Ihoweverhaveseenreviewsofthisshow. I do not think I will like this show very much given the evidence I have seen. Everyone in the show is in someway an asshole, the main bad guy is a hypocritical idiot and it is filled to the gills with Inoue's tropes. But that's a topic for another day when I finally talk about Jetman. As for Agito, aside from the writing, characters and repetition of plot points I do like the designs of the Riders. Agito's Shining Form however is not one of them.
Now this form is supposed to be the true power of the Overlord of Light, the pinnacle of human evolution. Yet we've seen Riders before and after Agito that are far stronger then him. It's essentially Burning From with weaker defenses, faster and with his weapon becoming two swords instead of one long double bladed one. Though there are somethings about the design that I do like; the black under-suit does do its job of making the color on his arms, feet and chest; mainly silver and red pop.
The main reason why this is so low however is because this form, like the rest of his forms just comes right the hell out of nowhere; he just steps into the sun and BAM Final Form. Also Agito can only transform into this form in the sunlight, so if he ever needs to fight at night he's hosed. Agito Shining Form, the form of Ultimate Evolution or the form of the Ultimate Hippie? YOU MAKE THE CALL!
#13 Decade Complete
This suit is just plain old fashioned bad. Decade in my opinion was a very messy show with a very poor execution. Now I get the concept of Decade, a celebration of the Heisei era with a hero that can harness the powers of those who came before, however the writing was sloppy, the portrayals of the previous Riders ranged from boring to insulting and Tsukasa himself was an egotistical schmuck whose Photographer's eye really needed a monocle, contacts or glasses take your pick. This form like the rest of the forms that Inoue wrote just comes out of nowhere, the K-Touch needed to become Complete Form just happened to be held by the Dark Riders. How did it get there, who made it, why did the Dark Riders know to hide it, why didn't they try using it themselves, how did Tsukasa know how to use the damn thing? Say it with me kids, it's never explained!
As I said the design does not look good, just using the Final Ride Cards as Pauldrons that change to a specific Rider when one is summoned alongside Decade, also Decades' Card is just placed on his forehead with two glaring Magenta lines going between both of the eyes on the helmet no doubt obscuring Tsukasa's vision that's smart design work right there! Also not a big fan of the mostly silver color scheme with nothing aside from black and small traces of magenta to try and balance it out, it just doesn't work for me. Decade Complete From is a complete washout.
#12 Stronger Charge Up Form
The trope had to get its start somewhere, so why not in the Shōwa era? Yes the Final Form didn't start with Kuuga but with the seventh Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Stronger! While it was the first it isn't necessarily the best; but it did help to set up the tropes of what I believe a good Final Form should be. Power needed to defeat stronger enemies, check. Before Charge Up Stronger would have been reduced to scrap before the power of the Delza Army, hell if he had this power sooner he might have been able to save Tackle. But that's just a "what if" kind of thing and we really shouldn't dwell on these types of things right?
RIGHT? Though admittedly Stronger barely showed up in this thing so, good.
Power that comes at a great cost, check. See Charge Up may give Stronger greater power but if he doesn't power down from this form in less then a minute then he'll overload and kablam! Bye bye bug man. It fits all the criteria except for the "story-line significance" part of the Final From, he just got the upgrade from a random scientist that he apparently saved from Black Satan (the organization that Stronger fought against in the first half of his series and the ones who turned him into a Cyborg), real gripping story telling there kids. However while this Form is essential to the history of the franchise, I am just not a fan of the design, and that directly ties in with the design of Stronger, now I know that this was the 70's and the show was trying to innovate with the designs of the Riders but I just plain old don't like the design of Stronger. The size of the helmet, the eyes and football armor just doesn't work for me and adding big blobs of white and silver on it really doesn't make things better. Stronger Charge Up; strong enough to be #12 but not much else.
#11 Fourze Cosmic States
Ugh this form and Rider, honestly I have a hard time deciding what's the worst Heisei Kamen Rider series from the ones I've seen so far, Decade or Fourze. Because just like Decade the biggest problem I had with Fourze was the ending which I won't spoil here, but just check out Fourze and prepare to have your barf bags on stand by. Now back to Cosmic States, this form allows Fourze to use the powers of all Forty of his Astroswitches (his collectible trinket/ power totems) which he can channel and combine through his chest plate for extra powers. Though he mostly just stuck to using the elemental switches as far as I can remember. This form also allows Fourze to generate wormholes which he uses to take out the Horoscope of the week in the void of space where it can be turned back to a normal human with no excessive area damage. Yeah just knocking out a normal human in Earth's Mesosphere should present no life threatening consequences what so ever. Look doofus if entering that high in a planet's atmosphere didn't work for Iron Man or Shepard what makes you think a normal human teenager would fare better?
Also this form is apparently only maintained by the stability of Gentaro's (Fourze's user) friendship with the members of the Kamen Rider Club. Yes, this form literally runs on friendship.
Yeah yeah call me cynical and what not but a form that runs on friendship and with a dude as stupid and annoyingly perky as Gentaro; yeah not gonna work for me. Design wise, like Stronger I am not a huge fan of Fourze's design. Now the rocket design I get because Fourze was designed around the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight in 1961 and the main themes of Fourze revolves around space. But were the eyebrows on the helmet really necessary? Some people have taken to saying that he looks like a retarded storm trooper, I wouldn't go that far, to me he looks more like a little kid mixed a NASA mascot with a PlayStation controller. Fourze Cosmic States, not even the most hardcore of bronies would accept this form at base value.
#10 Faiz Blaster Form
Now we're getting to the good ones; ironically with another Rider whose adventures I don't want to see. Faiz is another of those series that I have no intention of seeing, not just because of Inoue but for two more reasons, from what I have seen it just seems too mean spirited and spiteful for me to get any entertainment out of it. Also this particular series has the most despised character in the history of the entire franchise who almost always gets away with his crap. As I mentioned in the third part of my review of Kamen Rider Taisen; Masasto Kusaka is a human shaped turd and I refuse to withstand the sight or mention of him for more then is necessary. In fact, now is the time to introduce the Bastometer (TM) a meter that shows how much of a bastard someone is in my eyes and how they stand, from those who are likable because of how much of a bastard they are starting with Rusty Venture; to scum of the earth ending with Chris Brown.
And as you can see Kusaka is right in the sweet spot between George Swell from Silent Hill Downpour and Right from Toqger.
But enough about that, time to discuss Blaster Form which is definitely one of the cooler Final Forms. As the name implies this thing has a giant gun that can also become a sword, but it also has shoulder mounted Gatling guns and a jet-pack that allows Faiz to fly. Also his design is really good too; a nice balance of just four colors and I really do like the designs of the Faiz Riders with an smooth armored look that kind of reminds me of the first Tron movie. But the biggest problem with this form is just like with the rest of Inoue's writing when it comes to new forms, say it with me kids it comes right the hell out of nowhere! Yeah apparently the former head of Smart Brain (the Orphnoch's organization and the company that designed the Faiz Rider Gears/belts (whichever you want to call them I don't care)) was working on this and just decided to mail this to Mari (the one who got the Faiz belt in the first place) which relied on a Smart Brain satellite to unlock the transformation by beaming down to the belt, but if that's the case why didn't Smart Brain just destroy the satellite since they knew they didn't have the belt and.
Yeah if you stop to think about this, the writing really doesn't hold up, but I have a bit of a soft spot for this form and this is my list after all. Faiz Blaster, just managing to blast it's way to the top 10 despite Inoue's lazy ass writing.
#9 Wizard Infinity Style
OOOhhhh boy Wizard; I already know I'm going to have
some people after my blood after this, but such is the path I've chosen,
well showtime. Now for context as to my feelings about Wizard; at this
point in my life I was pretty much on my way to becoming a full fan of
Kamen Rider and was starting looking back on the earlier parts of the
Heisei era. However this was also the point in my life that I was in my
senior year at college so I didn't exactly have a whole lot of time to
watch the then running series at the time; Wizard. It also didn't help
that, well I just found Wizard to be rather boring and by the books in
terms of show format, I was really getting tired of the 2 parts episode plot
formula of the show and the fact that I found Haruto to be a rather meh
protagonist didn't help much either. I mean when the most memorable thing about the guy is the type of doughnut he eats there's something wrong here.
That said I do get the significance of this form. Haruto just had his inner Phantom; Dragon destroyed by Legion.
NO, Not that Legion.
So yeah his source of magic is destroyed and a uber-powerful Phantom is on the loose.
But he manages to restore Dragon with his resolve to never give up and
was reborn with this new form. Now in terms of fitting in the show's
themes of dealing with despair it fits in rather well. You've lost
everything, those that you cherish are on the verge of being lost to you
forever, do you just give up and become consumed by your inner demons,
or do you pick yourself back up and face the despair head on and;
through your own perseverance and the help of those around you find that ray of hope
that helps things turn out alright? Infinity style is the
personification of that notion.
I also like the symbolism behind this form. For starters, the crystal design. Since all of Wizard's other forms revolve around precious stones and those stones have ties to various magics since they come from the earth, some speculate that crystals help to draw in power from the earth to fuel arcane powers of wizards, warlocks, witches and other magic users. While the other four forms are based around precious stones, specific elements and areas of magic; crystals and thus Infinity Style draws their power from the most primal parts of the earth, for Haruto, his most primal instinct, hope. It's just that the crystal color is a tad bit overwhelming for my taste, and the dragon design for the other forms of Wizard is very diluted.
But his Axcalibur weapon is really cool, it's an axe that turns into a gun and can grow to giant size to chop enemies in half. He can even move the damn thing without having to hold it so he can chop enemies in the air like if Paul Bunyan became a psychic hibachi chef. Wizard Infinity Style, a great shining hope and a pretty decent Final Form. Next time I start to talk about my Personal Favorite Rider Forms.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams
Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup
Productions and Titmouse inc. Grand Theft Auto IV is owned by Rockstar Games and Take-Two interactive. South Park is owned by Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Comedy Central. Sleeping Beauty (1959) is owned by Walt Disney, Walt Disney Productions and Buena Vista Distribution. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by Gen Urobutchi, Studio Shaft, and Studio Aniplex. Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Family Guy is owned by Seth Mcfarline, 20th century fox television, Fuzzy door Productions and Fox Television animation. Austin Powers: Goldmember is owned
by Gratitude International, Team Todd, Moving Pictures, and New
Line Cinema. Mass Effect 2 is owned by Bioware and Electronic Arts.
