They could have chosen a better Kikuchi piece for this. And the sound effect of 16’s head being smooshed is delayed because of a sloppy edit. However, Clinkenbeard does an excellent job with the scream. And there’s none of that "16, you loved life" bullshit in the script.
anime
Top 10 Shunsuke Kikuchi DB/Z Tracks
Few people talk about Shunsuke Kikuchi. While not the quality of say, Yoko Kanno’s contributions, or the emotional power of Hiroshi Miyagawa’s work, Kikuchi has been in the business of incidental music (that is to say, background music) for decades. Cutting his teeth on tokusatsu programs, Kikuchi got work scoring the anime adaption of the popular Akira Toriyama manga Dr. Slump. He is best known, however, for scoring the anime adaptation of Toriyama’s most popular work, Dragon Ball. Taking cues from old films, Kikuchi is a little Wang Fu-ling and a little Bernard Hermann.
Clips of Episode of Bardock
Gundam AGE Episode 10 Review
Episode 10, "Day of Fierce Battle"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: The Zalam and Euba factions team up with the Diva to take on the UE. The Federation sends a message that they have no forces in the area to support them. Infighting begins between Zalam and Euba as a black UE mobile suit wreaks havoc. Don Boyage is seemingly killed in action and the UE take the advantage. With the Zalam and Euba beginning a retreat, the still alive Don Boyage and subordinates do a suicide charge on the UE ship, which does no damage. Vargas announces that new parts for the Gundam are ready. The new parts are launched and when attached the Gundam becomes Spallow. The Spallow engages the black MS and damages it. The UE ship begins to fall back. Fardain is saved. Elsewhere, Desil has a tantrum. The Diva leaves Fardain for the Minsry colony. Well, finally a solid episode. There’s really not a whole lot to speak about this episode, as it’s mostly action-oriented. The action itself seems a little scattered, but I guess you can’t expect a lot of one-on-one duels in a situation like this one. The black UE MS that Desil controls is pretty badass, totally dominating everyone until the Spallow is in action. The Spallow reduces mass and optimizes speed, as opposed to Titus which specializes in powerful strength. I would have liked to seen a longer encounter between it and the black UE MS, but this was good enough for now. Don Boyage meets his end in this episode, sacrificing himself to damage the enemy ship. Unfortunately, it was all for naught. I have to say that while Don Boyage seemed like a silly character above anything else, and the Zalam and Euba aspect of the story just stupid, I did think that it was a decent moment. It helped Flit to see the horrors of the battlefield firsthand. I still feel, though, that Boyage and his Euba counterpart feel like Gundam ZZ characters that are introduced as silly at first but then given serious moments later on. It sort of dampens the impact when you remember how this character started out in the show. The one thing that really caught my eye was the anti-beam dispersal shells, which are an awesome idea. It’s sort of like an I-Field, but with a wider range. Overall Score:4 out of 5
Audio: English: Tykes, Toys, Rude Little Boys: A Look At Shin Chan
With the Audio:English series, PenguinTruth takes a critical look at the English
dubs which grace some of anime’s most defining series in North America.
My last article was about my quality categories for anime English dubs. I set down general rules for what makes a dub "good", "tolerable", and terrible. Good dubs have accurate scripts and solid voice acting. Tolerable dubs are the ones that just sort of make it, but don’t impress. And terrible dubs are, well, pretty explanatory. Either they have terribly inaccurate scripts, or bad voice performances, or more usually, both. There are a fair number of dubs I could classify in any of those three categories. But one English dub I never know quite where to put is Funimation’s Shin Chan.
Gundam AGE Episode 09 Review
Episode 09, "The Secret Mobile Suit"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: Woolf takes Flit, Emily, and Dique to a space station to meet the designer/engineer of the G-Exes, Madorna. They’re amazed at the mobile suit factory. Mardona shows the group a mobile suit that appears to be a UE one. Before he can tell them about the person who brought it to him, the mobile suit springs to life and starts firing. Flit and Woolf get in mobile suits to stop the UE suit. Flit ends up engaging it out in space. Woolf arrives to distract the UE MS while Flit retrieves the Gundam. Vargas launches the Titus and Flit transfers to it. The UE MS is extremely fast and neither Flit nor Woolf can get it. Suddenly the MS retreats, stunning everyone. Madorna tells the group that it was a man named Yark Dole (a masked man seen previously in ep 5), an arms dealer who brought him the UE MS. Later, back at the Diva, Grodek announces their next destination is Colony Minsry. He explains that his belief is that the UE are hiding out in a base there and that he’s not their captain. Emily speaks up in defense of Grodek. Flit pledges to fight alongside Grodek. Woolf agrees to stay, too, as well as others. Suddenly more UE suits are detected. Comments: Well, now, this was a decent episode. I think the biggest thing that happened in this episode was Emily’s development. This is due in part to Madorna’s girlfriend, Laraparly giving her a little talking to. Emily was still fretting over Flit risking his life, but Laraparly tells her to risk her life with Flit. It’s clear that Flit is going to stay as a pilot, so her options are pretty much support him or leave him. With Emily choosing the former, I’m guessing she’s going to stay on the crew just to be around Flit. I’d like to see her get some kind of job on the ship, liking bringing food around or becoming a bridge bunny. Something other than piloting. Also of note is Emily’s defense of Grodek’s actions. Grodek may be acting in part out of revenge (or even mostly), but what he’s doing is right. Emily, who had hated Grodek for keeping things to himself sticks up for him when he finally tells the truth to his crew. I think Laraparly’s words probably inspired her to do this as well, plus she was waiting for Grodek become more honest. Now the entire crew is as guilty as Grodek is of disobeying the Federation. Another thing I noticed is that Madorna was astonished that Flit is a member of the Asuno family. Apparently the Asunos are a famous family, but other than his mother being dead, there’s nothing else we know about Flit’s family. I have a feeling we’ll find out more about it in the near future. Why did Flit, Emily, and Dique freak out when Laraparly kissed Madorna? It wasn’t even on the lips and they were blushing. We see a brief cameo of the little boy Desil from a few episodes back. Apparently he has control over the UE mobile suit that Madorna was souping up. The masked man Yark Dole is the same weapons dealer that gave the Zalam and Euba their mobile suits and if he’s connected to the UE, it seems like he’s manipulating everything for profit. But as a guy in a mask I think there is probably some ideological slant to his actions. I just wonder what Desil is in it for. Just to have fun, like Bud in Patlabor? Next episode looks to be full of action. Overall Score:3.5 out of 5
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – Episode 51 ENGLISH DUB Review
Episode 51, "Immortal Army"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: The officer who activates the homunculi dolls is eaten by them, and they turn o the scientist that was with him next. Edward, Scar, and the chimera arrive at the doorway near where Barry died. Ed tries to open it, to no avail. Suddenly it opens and the homunculi dolls pour in. Olivier takes a general hostage, but he orders his subordinates to shut the gates so that Mustang’s and the Briggs forces can’t get in. Sloth attacks, but Olivier moves out of the way and the general is crushed instead. Edward’s group tries to fight off the dolls, but they don’t have any luck. Edward suddenly realizes what they are. He shuts the exit to the room so they can prevent them from escaping. Back at the mound, Heinkel realizes that Pride has been sending out morse code signal, but it’s too late. Kimbley attacks, breaking the mound, which releases Pride. Underground, Mei runs from the dolls, balancing the jar with Envy on her head, but Envy is swallowed by one of the dolls and takes control of it. Devouring the other dolls, Envy returns to his original form. Olivier tries to fight Sloth, but isn’t damaging him. When she is about to be crushed, her brother Alex arrives to assist her. Alphonse tries to help Heinkel and escape from Pride and Kimbley, who shows him the Philosopher’s Stone he saved from the mine. Alphonse uses it to challenge Kimbley and Pride, to Kimbley’s amusement. Comments: Envy returns to form in this episode, meaning more of Wendy Powell’s grainy, pained sounding voice for him. Well, actually, Powell’s Envy wasn’t that bad in this episode. In fact, I quite enjoyed her delivery when Envy returned to his usual form and thanked May for it. The dialogue was well read and fit the mouth flaps perfectly. This is probably as positive as I’m ever going to be about Powell’s Envy, which I’ve never been fond of. I still think it’s stupid that they brought Envy back into the mix. His defeat at the hands of Doctor Marcoh was a great way to have him meet his end, by the hands of one of the lowly humans he’d been taunting for so long. Stephanie Young’s Olivier is still strong in this episode as she begins her fight against humungous Sloth. I guess Sloth sounds as he should, big, slow, and tired. Eric Vale’s Kimbley still seems a bit too scratchy for my liking. The delivery is decent enough, he sells the lines most of the time, but as for his voice, it’s iffy. Maxey Whitehead’sr Alphonse was solid, geniunely sounding concerned for Heinkel’s well being. The VA for Heinkel even did a decent job. All in all, not a lot to say about the performances, because they seem to be good, overall. Overall ENGLISH DUB Score: 4 out of 5Dragon Box DVDs vs Level Set BDs
Here’s a few screenshots for your consideration (Dragon Box on left, Blu-Rays on right):
I still prefer the Dragon Boxes. The BDs look great, but the colors are a little too dark, in my opinion.
However, since the DBoxes are now out of print, I reccommend picking up the "level" Blu-Rays if you can’t find the DBoxes.
Here’s one more:
Gundam AGE Episode 08 Review
Episode 08, "A Deadly United Front"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: The Gundam is fitted with new parts, becoming Gundam Titus. It arrives on the battlefield to save Largan. The Titus easily dispatches a UE mobile suit. The Zalam and Euba mobile suits both attack another UE MS, with no effect. The Titus arrives and helps. Flit tells the two sides to join forces to fight the UE. The Titus destroys two other UE MS, with the help of Don Boyage (Zalam) and Ract Elfamel (Euba). UE mobile suits attack the city and the three team up again. When they’re pinned down another mobile sit arrives that attacks the UE. It’s Woolf in his new MS, the G-Exes.Together they team up and take down all the UE MS that attacked. Don Boyage and Ract Elfamel call a temporary truce. Comments: I can’t help thinking that this three-part arc with Zalam and Euba could easily have been two episodes, or even one if they left out the parts with the children. It just wasted a lot of time on characters I just don’t give a damn about. Zalam and Euba’s conflict just came across as silly. It was sure treated that way by the dialogue. It felt like a rivalry you’d see in an episode of Pokémon that by the end gets resolved by teaming up to save the new Pokémon of the day from Team Rocket. It was drawn out way too long. This show can’t leave Fardain soon enough. A good chunk of this episode was merely recapping the end of the previous episode. We get to see the Titus parts being produced, Flit arriving to take the parts, the parts being fitted, etc. It’s a lot of a waste of time since we already saw Titus in action at the end of the episode. Adding these scenes at the beginning of this episode is just pointless padding to an already drawn out arc. The only real highlight of this episode are some of the features of the Titus and the arrival of Woolf and his new mobile suit. The G-Exes is a pretty awesome MS and Woolf was kicking some major ass in it. They could dedicate an entire episode just to that and it wouldn’t be a waste of time, the way this story arc was. Woolf and Grodek are the only reasons I continue to watch this show. The badassery of Woolf raised the score of this episode. Overall Score:3.5 out of 5