FIF#268-Lord of Mysteries

Suddenly plucked from his world, young Zhou Mingrui finds himself transported into the body of the recently deceased Klien Moretti, who has been resurrected thanks to Zhou’s arrival.  In this world, those who hold power to rival the Gods are called Beyonders.  As Klien, Zhou discovers he might be one of these all powerful beings and is at the center of a race to prevent the return of forces the Beyonders have been struggling to battle against for ages.  To return home, Zhou must unravel of the mystery of Kleins tragic demise and unlock a power greater than either could ever have imagined.

 
Oh boy. Won’t lie, I picked this one a random with zero knowledge of what it was about.  And it’s rare that I say this but I think coming out of the first episode I now know less than I already did…which was nothing.  What looked like a cool, bloody, horror centric action romp proves to be something almost as intimidating and impenetrable as Fate/Stay Night.  That said, Fate/Stay Night at least can explain the rules of its world and how it works in basic terms that allow viewers to jump in and try to keep up.  Can’t say the same about Lord of Mysteries.  The name of it’s game is in the title and it is not a fun mystery at all.
 

T5W#584-Top 5 Hottest Sailor Moon Villainesses

Usagi Tuskino and her fellow Sailor Senshi may be some of the most glamorous Magical Girls in all of Anime but some of the Monsters and major Villains they face off with aren’t slouches either.  For every fang bearing demon from Hell, there’s a gorgeous as all get out deceptress who can more than easily tempt any soul to the dark side.  With Halloween just around the corner, this weeks Top 5 Wednesday is looking at the alluring Witches, Temptresses and Sirens who can haunt our dreams any time of day from the wide world of Sailor Moon.  These are the Top 5 Hottest Sailor Moon Villainesses.

Street Fighter IV: The Ties that Bind

The peace brought about by the fall of Shadaloo quickly disappears when several powerful fighters from around the world begin to vanish without a trace.  Chun Li, Guile and Cammy’s search for answers leads them to an inevitable conclusion: Ryu is the primary target of this series of abductions.  A new evil is rising to take Shadaloo’s place and Ryu’s dark powers are the key to their success.  Once more, Ryu, Ken and their allies step into the ring to test their strength against this threat.  But this is only the beginning.

Street Fighter IV: The Ties that Bind is a special bonus feature that came with Special Editions of the SFIV Video Game at launch and is meant to be an animated prequel to the games main story.  Why these couldn’t have just been integrated into the game as Anime cutscenes, I don’t know.  At the same time though, even though I haven’t played a lot of SFIV, I’m glad these aren’t in the game.  The Ties that Bind is an absolutely boring, tedious and lackluster primer for a game that just lets you get to the nitty, gritty, right away like any proper fighting game should.  Seriously, if you never got a copy of the game with this with it, you’re not missing much.
 

FIF#267-Hades Project Zeorymer

15 years ago, the Tekkoryu created eight giant robots called Hakkeshu, as instruments for their plans of world domination.  On the verge of victory, a traitor destroyed most of the Hakkeshu and stole an unfinished model: Zeorymer of the Heavens.  Now, the Tekkoryu have repaired their mechanized army and are hellbent on revenge and seeing their dreams of conquest fulfilled.  Only Masato Akitsu and Miku Himuro, stand in their way, destined to pilot the Zeorymer together in the ultimate battle for the fate of planet Earth.

 
Zeorymer seems like one of those edgy, late 80s mecha titles that would fit right at home on a Blockbuster Anime shelf with a “Not for Kids” sticker on the front cover.  Heck, the only reason I even discovered it was because I was wandering a local store and found the complete collection in the Anime section and thought “Well I haven’t bought anything new in a while and together it’s only like $20 so why not?”  It looks like a run of the mill Mecha Anime during arguably the genre’s golden age of the late 80s/early 90s, complete with all that excess and extremeness fans love to see in OVAs like this.  So, is the first episode any good? 
 

T5W#583-Top 5 Best Lines from Street Fighter 1994

Well the legends were true on this one: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li really is one of the worst video game adaptations of all time.  It’s wants people to take it way too seriously, critically miscasts usually (mostly) good actors and worst of all, it isnt fun in the slightest.  Now, the same cant be said for the 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme action classic.  Oh it’s still a terrible movie but it’s one that can truly be classified as “so bad, it’s good”.  Part of the reason for this is the dialogue.  Whether played straight or fully acknowledging the silliness of how it sounds, the 94 movie has so many quotable lines that it helps make up for the lack of faithfulness to the source material or any kind of Street Fighting.  With the new movie about to drop this weekend (the review will be up at the end of the month), today on Top 5 Wednesday, I’m cherry picking my picks for the Top 5 Best Lines from Street Fighter 1994.  How many of them will be M. Bison quotes? Read on to find out.