FIF#86-ULTRAMAN

 It has been decades since Shin Hayata joined with the Giant of Light to defend the Earth from monstrous giants known as Kaiju.  Today, the hero known as Ultraman is a long remembered legend in a world at peace.  However, a new enemy has emerged, wishing to bring a new kind of chaos to the planet.  But Humanity is ready.  Though Hayata long since retired, the Scientific Special Search Party has been preparing for the day Ultraman would be needed again and that day has come.  Now, the future of Mankind falls to a new chosen one: Shinjiro Hayata, who has inherited his fathers powers.  New suit, new enemies, new Ultraman, the legend continues.

I start off this First Impression with a sad confession: outside of the name and the concept and super suit associated with it, I don’t know much about Ultraman.  I never knew he was part of a special science team and had to keep his identity secret from his comrades.  Don’t know much about his powers beyond getting big to fight Kaiju either.  Fortunately, you don’t really have to be a long time veteran of the franchise to enjoy this new continuation of the Ultraman story.  And if the first two episodes are any proof, the creative team in charge has things well in hand and are ready to offer something new and exciting for old and new fans alike.

What surprised me about this new Ultraman was that it was a sequel to the original.  I was

expecting a full blown reboot or a retelling of the original with a new animation style.  Instead, the new series transitions seamlessly into the next era while also letting viewers know that this world and this hero have a history and it’s important.  It’s not surprising to see Ultraman’s legend so fondly remembered in a museum (hell im sure there are a couple dedicated to him in Japan in real life.).  We even get adequate time to spend with both generations of the titular hero.  Shin Hayata has aged and while he still has his old powers, you can tell time has taken a toll on him.  He can still kick ass but he’s def not the Ultraman he used to be.  As for Shinjiro, he takes the surprising reveal that he has powers pretty well.  Even before he dawns the new bad ass Ultraman/Iron Man hybrid suit, he’s testing out his power in his free time and having a ball.  But Shinjiro also wants to do some good with his powers, even if part of that good might be to impress a girl.  Point is, the kids got heart and seems like a worthy successor to his old man, especially when he fairs well in his first foray as Ultraman.

Anime done in Ultraman’s artstyle of CG heaviness can be more miss than hit with the community, just look at the Berserk continuation.  This style of Anime seems to suit Ultraman nicely, however.  It doesn’t hurt that there are a couple of CG Anime experts co-directing this project.  Shinji Aramaki is best known for his work on the Appleseed Movie Trilogy and the recent Space Pirate Captain Harlock Movie, both done in an even more detailed kind of theatrical CG Anime.  And then there’s Kenji Kamiyama, the director and godfather of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex franchise.  The talents of these two seem to go hand in hand on Ultraman, keeping the human drama at the center of proceedings while still making the action look so freaking cool.  Considering these two directors are partnering up for a new future chapter of Stand Alone Complex, I cant wait for that even more now that ive seen Ultraman’s opening episodes.

Considering there are dozens of Ultraman series out there, im not shocked a new iteration can be squeezed in like this (Hell Gundam’s been doing it for years).  This project doesn’t just look like it’s trying to stand out from the rest because of its artstyle.  Ultraman’s newest chapter acknowledges its long history while bringing in fresh blood to carry on the legend.  This might be one I continue on with just to see if the goodness of the debut episodes can be maintained throughout its short season.  And who knows, maybe if I watch more, I’ll want to go back and find more older Ultraman series and movies to check out.  At the end of the day, I cant think of a higher accomplishment for a newcomer in a long running franchise to pull off.

T5W#208-Top 5 Hottest Final Fantasy Heroines

As one of the longest lasting video game franchises of all time, Final Fantasy continues to deliver unique worlds with plenty wonder, danger and tons of unforgettable characters.  And while there’s usually a somber guy learning how to smile while kicking ass, there’s a fair chance there’s a beauty worth dying for fighting by their side.  Yep, much like Chun Li of Street Fighter or the plethora of Dead or Alive femme fatales, Final Fantasy has a large library of brave and beautiful bad asses that are sometimes far more remembered than their leading counterparts.  Todays Top 5 Wednesday is a shoutout to these beauties: my Top 5 Hottest Final Fantasy Characters.  From front and center to supporting roles, these gals stole the show of their respective games and my heart too.  To keep things a little fair, only

 

#5-Quistis Trepe (Final Fantasy VIII)

Could anyone ask for a hotter teacher in their next generation mage/super soldier academy?  The moment Quistis first appeared in VIII, shaking her head at Squall landing in the hospital again, she had my attention.  Rocking glasses and a riding crop as her weapon of choice, Quistis could give you a good scolding while throwing down with monsters ten times her size.  She also has a small crush on Squall…which would make any guy jealous.  But Squall’s heart belongs to the lovely Rinoa, so there’s hope for us all still with the best Final Fantasy teacher ever.

 

 

#4-Riku (Final Fantasy X-2)

Final Fantasy X was the first main numbered entry to have the honor of getting a direct sequel, X-2.  What might’ve caught everyone off guard more than this news was Charlie’s Angels esque makeover given to Yuna and Riku.  And WOW Riku got one helluva new look.  It would be hard to pay attention to a girl twirling dual knives when she is basically rocking a string bikini leaving little to the imagination.  Throw in a fun hairdo and a deceptively flirty smile and you’ve got an amazing secret weapon in Yuna’s YRP trio.  Sure Yuna got to become a Jpop star with some nice tunes, but Riku still has part of my heart to this day.

 

 

#3-Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII)

Oh boy, I know I’m gonna get some flack for this (either this or that other Final Fantasy ladies aren’t on or at the top of the list).  Yes, I think Tifa is the best character in Final Fantasy VII and I like her more than Aeris, not that the latter is bad by any mean.  Tifa hits harder, is a cute bartender and her sense of fashion is enough to charm even certain members of the Turks.  Heck, Tifa’s newly revealed look in the Final Fantasy VII Remake is the reason I thought about doing this list in the first place.  Tifa looks tougher and more devastatingly beautiful than ever before (and yes adding in the Rin Tohsaka esque thigh highs is a very big plus in my eyes). I know Cloud will always love Aeris, but man…he should know how lucky he is to have Tifa by his side no matter what.

 

 

#2-Cindy Aurum (Final Fantasy XV)

The moment this southern voiced belle walked out of the Hammerhead station garage, I was in love and there would be no other competiton from any other girl in Final Fantasy XV, not Lunafreya or Aranea or Iris (and they all have their good qualities too).  Besides the obvious sexy attire, Cindy is a girl who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty handling all the hard work on the Regalia.  After a long day of hunting monsters, it’s good to come back to Hammerhead and have even a brief conversation with Cindy to hear her soothing voice and her effortless, sexy charm.  Best mechanic in Final Fantasy, fight me.

 

 

#1-Obera Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII)

Wont lie, for the longest time Lightning was my Queen of Final Fantasy, the ultimate warrior crush…then I actually played XIII all the way through and found she’s not quite the best character in the game.  Nope, that honor went to a much more hyped character who lived up to the hype and surpassed it.  Rocking a tribal outfit, a sick spear, legs for days and a beautiful accent that could melt the toughest of hearts, Fang has good looks and a strong personality and one of the best character journeys in the whole game.  Not to mention the way her interactions with XIII’s lead heroine Lightning play out, I can see why these two continue to be shipped (including by yours truly).  Fang was on my party from the moment she first appeared and never got traded out.  Sorry Lightning but Fang is my official Queen of Final Fantasy.

Street Fighter II V Part 1 Episodes 1-4

Ryu and Ken are childhood friends and martial arts experts and a reuniting for the first time in years.  After the pair get into a bar room brawl with a tough Air Force fighter named Guile, Ken decides that he and Ryu need to seek more challenging foes. To this end, the pair begin a round the world fighting trip, seeking out the toughest Street Fighters they can find.  Together, Ryu and Ken will hone their skills, strengthen their resolves and get into plenty of trouble along the way.  The world is their battleground and there are no rules…and Ryu and Ken wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

A few months back, I reviewed the feature film adaptation of Street Fighter II.  A good friend of mine mentioned that if I wanted more of what made that movie good, I would enjoy the TV Anime, so I promised her I’d add it to the roster.  And here we are.  Now that the Summer of 2019 is starting to close out, how about we take one more vacation around the world with Ken and Ryu?  Welcome to Street Fighter II V.

 

One complaint I had about the Anime Movie was the fact that the central story wasn’t focused.  You had Chun Li and Guile teaming up to hunt down M. Bison while Ryu searched for a missing Ken and got into some fights along the way.  Sure both converged in the finale but I would rather have gone with one way or the other in terms of which characters to follow (and did wish we’d stuck with Guile and Chun Li all the way).  SFIIV doesn’t look like it’ll have that problem as it makes it clear from the beginning this is Ryu and Ken’s show.  It’s a simple set up too, nothing complex at all: Ken invites Ryu to visit him in the States and after one little fight, they decide to go see the world and get into more little fights.  There isn’t a world to save (yet).  There is just the fight…and the bromance between our two leads.

 

Ryu and Ken are instantly likeable for more than just their ability to kick ass all day and all night.  Their brotherhood is genuine, from their friendly spars to just rough housing around the apartment or dojo of their choice.  Ryu is very much in the Goku vein of hero: super strong, dedicated to training and loves a good meal.  Ken can match Ryu blow for blow but comes with more charm for the ladies and a bottomless pit of a fortune that can land him and Ryu a $20,000 a night penthouse suite for a week.  But thankfully, Ken isn’t one to pay for his victories with cash, he’s more than willing to back up a challenge with his fists.  I actually like that while Ryu and Ken have no problem with low level thugs, getting their butts kicked by Guile solidified that theyre far from the top of the Street Fighter food chain.  The pair have a ways to go before theyre probably anywhere near what they are in the video game, especially since Ryu doesn’t seem to know or have shown us he knows his signature Hadouken technique.

 

Speaking of taking on Guile, if you’ve come here for action you are gonna be right at home if these opening episodes are any indication.  Ryu and Guile’s battle is full of fast paced, bone crunching action, as is pretty much every brawl in the first four episodes.  Much like SFII The Animated Movie, it’s clear that the animators are carefully studying the video game in order to recreate the fighting patterns and signature moves of the diverse cast of characters.  The end result are a slew of crowd pleasing brawls including the aforementioned barfight and Ryu’s endurance match with the worst of the worst in Kowloon City.  This is the kind of action 90’s Anime was best known for and its so much fun to watch.  Man I felt some of those hits and all I can say is…ow.

 

This opening set isn’t without it’s drawbacks.  The first is we don’t get to see what was probably a really amazing fight between a furious Ken and a hungover Guile.  We see them exchange a couple of punches and then cut to Ken recuperating back home.  Really?  We watched an awesome fight with Ryu and Guile earlier on but are denied seeing Ken get payback for his friends beating?  Makes me hope this isn’t the last we see of Guile, though Im sure some familiar faces might only stick around for quick arcs before disappearing.  The second is the latter half of the Kowloon City arc.  On the brightside, we get to see Chun Li in this arc and even though she isn’t rocking her iconic video game costume and is a bit younger than she was in the Animated Movie, Chun Li is still a beauty to behold and a great addition to Ryu and Ken’s adventures.  That said, Chun Li doesn’t really show much of her incredible skill until the end of the arc when she defeats the big boss of Kowloon City.  Up until then, she’s kind of a bystander and damsel in distress while Ryu and Ken clean house in what turns into an Anime version of The Warriors/Escape from New York and Streets of Rage all packed into one.  That doesn’t sound too bad given the setup of the arc itself.  But still, I liked when Ken told Guile that his and Ryu’s code was one on one fights.  Group battles seem a bit out of place but maybe ill get over that.

 

I’ll be honest, Street Fighter II V has been sitting on my shelf for a long, long time and I feel like it’s overdue for both a watch and review from yours truly.  Some flaws aside I think the series is off to a good start and should be packed with lots of guest appearances from Street Fighter II’s roster, nicely animated fight scenes and tons of 90’s cheese to enjoy.  Let the world tour continue…and bring on more Chun Li, I cant wait to see her finally get into a match.

Project A-Ko

Sixteen years after an Alien Spacecraft crashed into Graviton Island, life goes on for the human race.  A-Ko Magami and her best friend C-Ko Kotobuki have just started at a new school and have quickly found themselves on the radar of the beautiful B-Ko Daitokuji, who is determined to win the heart of oddball C-Ko and crush the overly powerful A-Ko.  As their unexpected war threatens to consume their school, a threat from deep space is fast approaching Earth and has it’s sights set on one member of this peculiar trio.  All A-Ko wants to do is be a normal school girl with her best friend.  But between a crazed beautiful genius and her entourage, an Alien invasion and the search for a missing princess from space, that’s easier said than done.

Anime is a medium that has no ceiling and no limits.  It is a sandbox of possibilities and is capable of bringing to life any kind of premise anyone can dream of.  Will it always make sense?  Probably not but sometimes it doesn’t have to so long as your having fun making it and watching it.  Why open this review with that sentiment?  Because it is the best way to sum up Project A-Ko, an over the top and glorious love letter to the best elements of 70’s and 80’s Anime…that just so happened to be made during the heyday of the 80’s.  That means its action packed, loaded with beautiful girls and brought to life with some of the best looking animation in the genre.

If you come into Project A-Ko with any kind of expectations, you’ll either come away surprised, confused, or disappointed.  But hopefully it’s more of the former two of those outcomes in combination, that’s the best way to look at this movie.  There is a central plot brewing in the background but honestly, it’s meant to play second fiddle to what amounts to a series of short skits involving the misadventures of three beautiful high school students, each with their own likeable quirks and scene stealing moments.  The titular A-Ko is a fun loving cutie with superhuman abilities and a penchant for being late (kind of a mish mash of a few very familiar superheroes if you can spot the references…and man are there a lot in general but we’ll get to that).  Her best friend, C-Ko, might look like an overbearing crybaby…and she is BUT her whinning and constant crying never comes off as truly annoying and you love the bond she and A-Ko have, as well as her oblivious reactions to any kind of danger around her (one such instance late in the movie produces one of its most laugh out loud moments).  And then there’s B-Ko, who is easily one of the best and yet creepiest characters here with her beautiful and proper attitude matched only by her hilarious obsession with C-Ko and the lengths she’ll go to win her heart.  When these three share the screen together, you’ll almost forget that there you’re supposed to be worried about the bigger threat heading their way.  Even in the face of an alien invasion, this is A-Ko, B-Ko and C-Ko’s world, everyone else is just living in it.

Project A-Ko could’ve just been about the three main girls getting into various trouble around their school and that would’ve been fine.  But this movie is about blasting away the excess and going full on crazy at the drop of a dime.  Not only do we get A-Ko fighting B-Ko, who’s sporting bikini battle armor (it’s as ridiculous and hot as it sounds), but you’ve also got super powered masculine school girls, insectoids battle fighters being used as projectiles during one of A-Ko’s battles, slick looking fighters charging into battle against a miles long spaceship, missile barrages, sword duels and a bombardment of mecha suits built by B-Ko just to kill A-Ko…yeah there’s a lot and it always feels like steam might come out of your head from all this crazy.  It’s the best kind of crazy though.  Thanks to some absolutely stellar animation, Project A-Ko invites you to the action that never lets up or the absurdity that never tries to justify itself.  It’s just about having fun and making jokes at the expense of Anime classics like Macross and Fist of the North Star.  All of this is done to some amazing sequences that even more modern Anime might have trouble matching and one of the most kick ass soundtracks I have ever heard in an Anime film and should be owned by all fans.

Hoo boy, I feel like ive tried my best to avoid going full blown fanboy with this film.  In truth, I could’ve just written “THIS ANIME IS EPIC AWESOME AND FUN” multiple times and just left it at that.  Project A-Ko isn’t out to be the next great epic like Gundam, Macross or Legend of the Galactic Heroes.  It’s here to have three totally different female leads get into trouble on a galactic scale and God help anyone who is dumb enough to get in the way of their carnage.  If you’re looking for things to make sense, this isn’t the Anime for you.  But if you want a full blown demo of what Anime in the 80s was capable of, aka filmmaking with no limits beyond those of the imagination, then Project A-Ko is the Anime you’ve been waiting all of your life to see.  It’s a love letter to the fandom during one of Animes biggest and most blossoming time periods and I think you’ll fall in love with it too if you give I a chance.  This is Anime, as Neo put it, “Without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.”  So simply…this is Anime…and a great reminder of why I love this genre so freaking much.  Thanks Project A-Ko.

9.5/10

FIF#85-Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

Ever since a traumatic “Hospitalization Incident”, Sakuta Azusagawa has been withdrawn and trying to keep a low profile.  That all changes one day when he spots a beautiful girl wandering the library dressed as a Bunny Girl…and no one seems to notice.  This girl is Mai Sakurajima, an upperclassman as Sakuta’s school and a famous child actress.  Mai finds herself drawn to Sakuta as he is one of the few who can see her when the world cannot.  And Sakuta figures Mai’s case relates to a much larger mystery going by the name “Adolescence Syndrome.”  How has this made Mai invisible and how is it connected to various other youths with their own curses?

Well this was…not quite what I expected.  Going into the first episode of this Anime, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into.  But then again it’s easy to get distracted when the central character that’s most advertised is one of the most beautiful girls ever created for recent Anime who also happens to be wearing an eye catching bunny outfit.  Not once did I think I was going to see another boring main male lead who might as well be cousins with Hakuno from Fate/Extra: Last Encore, nor a scifi-ish mystery about disappearing youths or scars attained from vicious internet chats.  In short: Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is kind of bizarre.

And really, the mystery of the series and Mai Sakurajima herself were the only things holding my interest through the first episode.  Sure the show is pretty to look at.  But when your protagonist is more or less a block of wood with little reaction to the world around him, it’s hard to get attached, even if his behaviour is part of the overall plot (that did become more clear to me as things went on).  Sakuta definitley has a dark past and his sister has had some trauma too.  So it’s hard to look at this series as a romance when there’s some really darker elements maybe creeping around the corner.  Maybe im reading too much into this other than this is one huge and really deep metaphor for real life matters.  And what about Mai?  Well…she’s incredibly cute and feels instantly more likeable than Sakuta.  Even though she seems withdrawn despite the circumstances that have left her invisible, you’ve gotta give a girl cred points for testing a theory by running around in a bunny girl outfit, consequences be damned.  And even when Hakuno…er I mean Sakuta sees her, she takes it in stride.  For a second I thought Mai might hail from a fantasy realm of sorts.  But seeing as how this “Adolescence Syndrome” has popped up with Sakuta, his sister, and various others, the coincidences cant be ignored and Mai might be key to making a break in this mystery.

The questions is: do I want to see more to find that answer?  Welllll…the show might be worth another episode or two but im not certain ill prioritize it to be honest.  Sakuta did show signs that he had more personality to him later in the episode so that could be a sign that things improve for his character.  And Mai is…well Mai and I know for some that could be enough to keep oneself invested in a show with a really long name with a perculiar mystery at the center.  Like I said, this is not what I was expecting when I cued up a show called Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.  I might dream of Mai Sakurajima but as for watching the rest of the series (and the movie that came out earlier this summer I believe), that we’ll just have to wait and see.