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 5
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
MG Delta Plus – WIP Update 03
Some substantial progress on my MG Delta Plus took place last night. Here’s how the main kit now stands…
The front cod piece is undergoing some reconstructive surgery which will probably take some time to complete. In the meantime I suppose I should start work on the wings and shield. In addition, to make up for the issues on the kit itself, I’ve decided to compensate by sprucing up the kit’s action base as well.
threeA Toys’ 16in Metal Gear Rex
I’m a bit late to the party but I just found out about this epic Metal Gear Rex project from threeA. Take a look…
Supposedly the figure is going to be 16" tall and retail for around $500. It’s set to go up for preorder sometime January 2012. When that happens you’ll be able to pick it up via Bambaland. A few more pics…
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.
G-Exes: Gundam AGE’s best worst addition
So, watching Gundam AGE‘s 8th episode I was welcomed with the introduction of the G-Exes mobile suit. One of the cooler, and more widely accepted designs, I was looking forward to seeing it in the series. I think I’m going to regret that desire.
I mean, it looks pretty good when it’s just standing around…
But in action something just looked off. At first I thought they couldn’t figure out what to do with shading a primarily all white kit but that turns out to just be part of the problem.