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 5anime
Dragon 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
AMV – Carry On My Saiyan Son
Here’s a little something I made myself:
Dragon Ball Z: Carry On My Saiyan Son from mtpenguin on Vimeo.
New Lupin III anime CM
Gundam AGE Episode 07 Review
Episode 07, "Evolving Gundam"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: Captured by Zalam mobile suits, Flit is brought before Don Boyage. He questions the actions of the Zalam and Euba, since the UE could attack at any time. Don Boyage expresses his desire to use the Gundam to fight Euba. Grodek explains that the Federation isn’t strong enough to fight the UE, thus his request for warships. When Euba mobile suits show up, Grodek and Flit escape among the chaos. Don goes out in his own mobile suit. Flit in the Gundam gets in the middle of the fighting factions and tries to reason with them. Suddenly, the UE attacks. Largan arrives in a mobile suit to hold the UE off while Flit takes the Gundam to the AGE system. The Gundam is fitted with new parts and arrives to help. Comments: I can’t imagine me giving less of a shit about this show. The introduction of the two warring factions is fine. It wouldn’t surprise me if people kept fighting with each other even with a common enemy. Zeta Gundam had that. The Zalam and Euba factions have neat insignia and I’m digging their mobile suits, too. However, there’s nothing about what these two groups are fighting over, and the Zalam side especially seem more like comedy relief rather than a serious threat. I’m waiting around for them to all just go away so we can get back to the real story, because this shit is about as good and integrating as the silly crap in Double Zeta. Even Grodek was boring in this episode. We did get a nice scene with him and Flit where he puts out his hand, but past that, it feels like he’s just going through the motions. Flit seemed pretty mechanical, too. In fact, all of the characters were robotic, except for the aforementioned comedy relief. At least the guy with the fro, Largan, finally took part in a battle. Though after all that waiting he easily gets his ass handed to them. I guess they’re going to need Woolf again. The Gundam AGE gets a new add-on armor that makes it look like Gundam Maxter. I hope it tackles like a football player, so at least it’s over-the-top enough to come back around to entertaining. I’ve gone from not caring much about this show, to liking it slightly, and now I can barely stand it. I almost hate it. The art is inconsistent, the animation is awful at times, the story is boring, and the characters are uncharismatic. Right now the show is just a waste of time. If it doesn’t pick up soon, I’m dropping it. As flawed as it was, Gundam 00 was better than this.Overall Score:
2.5 out of 5
Dragon Ball Kai Complete Review
Starting in 2009, Toei’s refurbished, "refreshed" version of Dragon Ball Z began to air on FujiTV. It recieved high ratings throughout, but was cancelled after 98 episodes (97 aired, 1 DVD/Blu-Ray exclusive). The purpose behind this creation, Dragon Ball Kai, was, besides celebrating the 20th anniversary of DBZ, was to provide a filler-free version of the show, staying closer to the original manga by Akira Toriyama. It was even touted as the "Toriyama Akira Original Cut Version". There would, as a consequence, be fewer episodes.
Dragon Ball Kai – Episode 98 Review (FINALE)
Episode 98, "Peace for the Future! Goku’s Soul Lasts Forever"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: Trunks arrives in his timeline. Meanwhile, Gohan relaxes with Gyumao, baby Trunks learns how to walk, and Mr. Satan shows off for an audience. Goku watches from the afterlife. Kaio wants Goku to help him build a new house. In Trunks’ time, Bulma notices how grown he is. He tells his mother about how Vegeta tried to avenge him. Hearing a newscasst about the Artificial Humans, Trunks takes off to fight them. Trunks confronts the 17 and 18 of his time and destroys both of them. Time passes and Trunks is stalked by Cell. The two fight and Trunks is the victor, destroying Cell. In the afterlife, Goku accidently destroys Kaio’s new house. He convinces Kaio to show him the master martial artists in the afterlife. They head off to meet them. Comments: In the (unfortunately) final episode of Dragon Ball Kai, the Cell arc wraps up with Trunks’ triumph over the Artificial Humans and a few other things. It seems like they moved around the events a little by having Trunks arrive in his time, then going back to the regular timeline for a bit and back. I like the rearrangement because it allows some non-Trunks related material before we get to his stuff, thus he doesn’t quite dominate the entire episode. My favorite scene is the one where baby Trunks tries to walk, and refuses help to get up. In his timeline, Trunks relays what he learned about his father striking out at Cell when he died and future Bulma is somewhat surprised. I think that’s my second favorite scene (Bulma says, "I guess he did have a side like that"). Soon he’s off to destroy 17 and 18. It’s worth noting, as Trunks did, that this version of them are much more cruel. However, they’re probably weaker than the 17 and 18 of the regular timeline. Of course, Trunks takes them out easily, since he’s strong enough to defeat Semi-Perfect Cell (something Imperfect Cell learns the hard way), but I got the sense that 17 and 18 in Trunks’ timeline aren’t as strong. One wonders how society carried on after Trunks finally defeated all the Artificial Humans of his time period. Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, and others are dead and there aren’t any Dragon Balls anymore. Perhaps the Kaio from that timeline could contact the Namekians to use their Dragon Balls to wish people back to life. Come to think of it, why didn’t Kaio from Trunks’ time period help out at all? Speaking of Kaio, what’s with the footage of him and Goku meeting the other Kais and participating in the afterlife tournament? That’s all anime filler, it doesn’t belong in Dragon Ball Kai. And it’s in this weird montage of scenes from throughout the show, set to "Dragon Soul". I think this is Toei’s way of saying goodbye to the viewer, but it comes across as a little lazy. I think they should have shown scenes of the Buu arc instead. It’s too bad Kai ends before the Buu arc. Maybe someday we’ll see it Kai‘d. Until then, this has been interesting. Later! Overall Score:3.5 out of 5
Voice Actor Comparison: Dragon Ball/Z/GT – Piccolo
Original Video – More videos at TinyPic
My pick: Toshio Furukawa
Reasoning: I love how Toshio Furukawa can sound snarky and arrogant one minute and really serious and sharp the next, depending on Piccolo’s mood. He’s got that devilish feel to him. However, it’s not a "character voice"; it sounds natural in every scene. As far as the English dub(s) are concerned, Scott McNeil’s Piccolo edges out the competition by having a wild flare to it, while still remaining solidly rooted. In comparison, Sabat’s Piccolo seems a little bland and the others just sound plain bad.