Dragon Ball Z Season 7 (Anime Review)

Hey everyone, I've gone back to watching Dragon Ball Z again and managed to whip past a couple of seasons. I think the last time I posted I was on season 5 or 4. Those seasons were pretty boring I think as not a lot happened. Just really long fight scenes as usual. I was surprised to find out that the series moves over half a decade, and everyone has gotten older, carrying on with their lives after Goku has left. In the first episode Gohan starts public schooling, something he hasn't done before as he was always home schooled and tries and adapt to the ways of "normal" people.

Gohan has some close calls with hi powers while helping civilians out so he gets Bulma to make a disguise for him, only to have people try and track him down and reveal his identity. Later on numerous people including Gohan and the gang join up at the World Martial Arts Tournament and fight it all out.

That's all I'll reveal for this season. Compared to the previous seasons, this has to be one of my most favourite seasons out of them all so far. It's because the series flows a lot faster now, and fighting is kept to around 1-2 episodes, not 20+ episodes for a fight sequence like previous seasons. Also there's more going on story wise because of this. We get to see many characters develop in this season. My favourite part in this season is Bulma during the tournament as she makes negative remarks to a competitor's mum, and also she gets really into the fight and starts punching Oolong bahahaha.

I'd have to give this season a 8/10, it's really interesting. I think I said that about one of the previous seasons, but it ended in a really long fight too :S Anyway, I'm finishing up this season now. I'll be on the next season tomorrow as I'm already up to disc 5. In other news I'm up to the last episode of season 1 for Hello Counselor. Well until next time, bye!

Bleach Season 4 Episode 64-68 (Anime Review)

Hey everyone! So I've finally started watching Bleach again!! So I have to say that the first 5 episode of season 4 are really interesting, even though I feel like they're sort of filler episodes. I'll talk about them in this episode, but I'll try to not spill the beans too much!

Ok everyone returns from the Soul Society and go back to normal life. Ichigo and the gang go back to school, and Renji makes an appearance, but this time he's in a human form. With Inoue disappearing one day, it is up to the Ichogo gang to figure out what has happened. In episode 2 we are introduced to a really annoying girl(I have to admit) who starts to play games with everyone by telling them to rush to a local phone or else Inoue dies. This happens a couple of times before the girl finally lets Inoue go. I won't spill the beans next, but later on the Ichigo gang are trapped in a museum labyrinth in which there are traps and stuff. This is the second game the girl plays, and for the third game the gang must figure out which person is an imposter and they must figure it out within a certain amount of time before everyone at the school disappears. There's a couple of other mini games and fight scenes inside these episodes also.

Overall I really like the game themed sort of episodes, this made it really interesting. Also there's also mystery and suspense as almost every time someone disappears or is lost, or someone will die if they don't complete a task or something, that made it really interesting and different to the ark. But also this made the episodes feel like filler episodes as you're not quite sure where it's going to lead. The girl who turns out to be a mod makes the game more lighthearted as she has that annoying laughing, cheerful voice which is annoying, creepy and funny at the same time.

Overall, so far if I had to pick out a few episodes from the series, besides the Aizen dead body scene, these ones are my top picks, though I think maybe the one at the school, or the labyrinth episodes are the most interesting to watch for me.

Oh and have I mentioned the music for the credits??!! They're my favourite closing credits to date apart from the original one with the woman singer singing in English "Nobody knows who I really am"..........

Oh so good! I'd have to rate these few episodes an 8/10. I have no idea what is in store for Bleach though, but I'll find out soon hopefully!!!

Another (Movie Review)

Hi everyone, today I'll quickly talk about Another, the live action movie version, and compare it to the anime I just reviewed yesterday.

So the plot is basically the same as the anime, though to shorten it down, less people died, I think that's the main plot difference. It's been a while since I watched the anime so I can't remember it all, but I couldn't help getting a bit annoyed at the main character portrayed in the film. The writers made it seem like the boy Kōichi was a bit nosy and caused the death of basically everyone(making you hate the lead character).

I think that because it's harder to portray death scenes in such a gruesome way like the anime without it being R18 or banned, but still some of the deaths were a bit hard to watch. My favourite was the spoon??? being pressed inside the eyeball, ooh that's just almost unwatchable!!

The ending is really spooky too. I won't spoil it too much, but a character basically appears out from the dead at the school and looks all fine and stuff, with the movie ending with a freaky cassette message, eeek!!!

Like I said, less people died, and it also meant people died in different ways to the anime too(I keep talking about the anime because I haven't read the novel or manga before so sorry!!) There's actually one person who decided to die in the end, I think that was very heroic, different in the anime where the character just gets murdered.

That's all I guess, overall it's a pretty average film, but I would have not enjoyed it as much if I had never watched the anime before so if you haven't watched both before then I suggest watching the anime first. Overall I'd give it a 6/10

Pokemon Art Academy (3DS Game Review)

Hello everybody, today I will be reviewing the Pokemon Art Academy game on 3DS. The thing is that I've only played around an hour, so this is my perspective while initially watching this game.

So as the title suggests, in art academy what you do is draw Pokemon step by step, starting with the outlines, then colouring in. If you're like me, and are really bad at drawing , then this is the game for you to start of your Pokemon drawing journey!! There are a few Pokemon faces that you can select and draw first, one of them I drew was a Pikachu, and a Piplup.

To be honest, after I drew one Pokemon, I realised how much the guy talks so much in between each step! I actually find it annoying and would rather him not talk so that I can just go and learn how to draw!!

For the moment anyway, I feel like this is more of a colouring in book in which you just trace Pokemon in, but I heard that as the drawings get more complicated, it gets harder to draw the Pokemon, so I think that I need to play more of this game to get a overall rating. But for a temporary rating, I'd have to give it a 6.5/10. I really like the idea of learning how to draw Pokemon though. I wouldn't recommend this game if you don't like drawing or learning how to draw Pokemon as this would not be the game for you. That is all for now, goodnight!

Pokemon Heritage Collection & Dragon Ball Z Movie (Anime News)

Hi everyone, so no review or anything but I would like to quickly talk about a new product that will be released on the 11th of November by Beyond Home Entertainment. The Pokemon Heritage Collection will be a massive Pokeball trophy like mould containing the first 9 Seasons with 54 discs and with over 168 hours of footage to watch, this is a must have Limited Edition Pokemon item to buy, but if you've already bought each Beyond Home Entertainment(Formerly Magna Pacific) release of Pokemon on DVD then are you really ready to pay $250 for this collectors item??

If you're like me and have 4-5 copies of each season on DVD, you can't blame me for being a bit hesitant on buying this collection. But if you're like me and are a Pokemon collector, then you can't blame me for wanting it just because it's a new limited edition item, and I myself am a huge fan of the anime ahead of anything else(tcg, games etc). I do have one question though, why no Blu-Ray! This would have been the perfect time for a Blu-Ray release!!!! So far, only the last few movies have been released on Blu-Ray. We are still waiting for a Blu-Ray release for full HD!! Also does heritage only go up to season 9? Is that as ancient as it goes with Pokemon?? I suppose they'll release another Heritage Collection containing the final seasons from season 10 upwards.

Well you know I'll buy it, but what about you??

Link for more details below!!
Beyond Home Entertainment Pokemon Heritage Collection

Well, that's all I have to say, but I hope at least the discs will be stored better than the Pokedex book collections!!!

Also tomorrow repeats for the new Dragon Ball Z film will be showing again at cinemas so if you missed it, then you can go watch it!! (or watch it again!)

Lady Snow Blood (1973 Film Review)

Hello everybody! Today I will be reviewing the Lady Snow Blood movie (The first one) directed by Toshiya Fujita. So I bought this movie on Saturday at Mightyape and it finally arrived today!! One of the things which really attracted me to this film was that Kill Bill was inspired from it, and yes I have seen Kill Bill before, so it made me intrigued into some of the similarities.

So the main character Yuki(played by Meiko Kaji) is set to finish the task of killing the people who killed her father and brother, after her mother killed one but was later sent to jail and died. Already there is a similarity with Kill Bill, the task of revenge for killing loved ones. Another is how the stories are set e.g chapter 1, chapter 2 etc, and also how there's two volumes!!!

There's quite a lot of action which goes on, though comparing to the action, gorey films we see today, this film doesn't quite stack up. I think what makes it that is that this is quite an old film(70's), and I have to say that I was a bit surprised at how old the film was, I thought maybe late 80's to 90's film so at least the people who restored this film to digital did an amazing job!

Though film was filmed on quite a small budget so that could have also been a factor. The fight sequences feel a bit choreographed to me as there's some delay in the reactions, and also the blood is fake looking, though I feel like that's what almost everyone used back then. My favourite death would have to be the slicing in half of one character, that was superb as I have never seen anything like that on film before.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this film at all to be honest as the film flows quite nicely. You can see how and why this was a major influence on Kill Bill and possibly other films too. I'd have to give this film an 8/10. Probably you would want to watch this film more for the gore and storyline than the action as I feel like the action in this film is more gore than action.

Also on another note, this film breaks a barrier in the film trope. Normally women are portrayed as more beautiful but weak beings, but this film shows that women can be beautiful, but kick it all out at the same time too which is something that I really like about this film. In America this doesn't really start until later on so I think this film was ahead of its time(story wise).

Considering the budget of this film, I wonder what they could have done if they had a larger budget. The only question I have is what happens to Yuki at the end, though I think it was found out in the next film, but I can't quite remember. Though if you want me to review the next movie, then you don't need to as it's got the same tropes as this, though now Yuki is on another quest, and there's only one person she has a target on(in the beginning anyway), though I thought the storyline was a bit more boring, it still stacks up, but if you want to watch just one film then the first one is the way to go.

That's all anyway, this post is getting too long. Bye!

Dragon Ball Z Season 4 (MId Way Review)

Hello everybody, sorry for all the Dragon Ball Z blogs but I've been watching it pretty much everyday and made it past season 3. I have to say that there wasn't much to season 3, mostly just Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Vegeta  and Krillin battling Frieza for probably 20+ episodes, and that carried on from the previous season! Following on from the previous season, everyone was wished back to earth and now Vegeta and Yamcha lives with Bulma's family (how this happened I sort of forgot sorry lol), but a year or so passes since the previous season, and everyone is settling down. Goku still doesn't arrive back yet, until around mid way through (spoiler alert sorry). Frieza appears again but is fought off by a mysterious Saiyan named Trunks who later is found to be from the future and gives details on what will happen if Goku and the gang don't change it, so now everyone is training because within 3 years so Android people will come and basically destroy the place(like we haven't heard of that before right??)

Anyway, a little side plot I think is interesting... Gohan is forced to study by Chi-Chi and since he's so smart she decided to hire a tutor for him, who is really mean and nasty. This is probably the most interesting thing to happen in the series haha, so make sure you watch it if you haven't already.

I think what differs from this season to the others is that it's not just one big fight season like some of the previous seasons.  We get to see characters go on with their lives while training at the same time, which is interesting to see. Although the season half way doesn't have as much fighting, I think this is good as the fight sequences only last for a couple of episodes(I like it). Is this too much rambling for you?? Sorry about that!

Currently I'm watching Goku and Piccolo try and get their drivers license haha. What I never really thought about is the characters growing up. Gohan seemed like a wee young kid at season 1, and now he looks more mature, even though he's still a kid. Bulma changes her hairdo once again to an Afro?? I'm always wondering why she's always changing her hair style.

Also I know that the show tries to seem futuristic, while they still mention cassettes and VCR's etc and show people with the big box TV's lol, so if you're creating a futuristic TV show, make sure you leave out the tech, or at least make it seem more futuristic, with no now days tech in the background!

That's all really, goodnight!

Annoyed with Dragon Ball Z Cropping!!

Today there will be no review or anything as I need to do some study, and I have an exam today, but while I'm studying at the moment, I am watching Dragon Ball Z and have realised that (At least I am certain) that even Kai is cropped. This means that even Kai has missing bits throughout the show. This means that we are losing images from the four sides of the picture, though because I haven't closely analysed this, I am very annoyed with whoever has tried to digitally remaster this series. I believe that there won't be a true remastered copy, until they stop cropping the show! I saw a picture online anyway, comparing the Kai versions of the show from the Japanese and English DVD and Blu-Ray versions and all vary in either colour or cropping. Maybe one has brighter colours, maybe one is cropped on the sides, or the other is cropped on the top and bottom, maybe a picture is more fuzzy than the other, all in all, I believe that a show should be consistent throughout. I have never seen a show quite like Dragonball Z before, so much that a show has been altered in a way that it has annoyed me. I believe that I am a purist and like things kept to how they were. I don't mind colour tweaking or noise or dust removal, as long as the original still stays original. But I think what's just annoying me is that they can't get the original 4:3 footage on the screen, and need to crop either the top or sides. I just hope I'm wrong with Kai though, and they've fixed it for the Blu-Rays, but I think I saw that it's still 16:9, but they've moved the frame lower or higher depending on where the persons mouth was or something so the cropping is less noticeable, but really, was the cropping necessary for any of it? The show was made to view in 4:3 in a particular frame shot so it shouldn't be changed at all.

That's just my rant for today! I hope they release an uncropped version to NZ soon.

Tekken 1 (Game Review)

Today I will be reviewing the Tekken 1 Game which I bought maybe 2 months ago. I didn't grow up playing this game so I don't have any views from back then, plus I wasn't even born when it was first released!! I'm a huge Tekken fan, and first played back in around 2005, the game was Tekken Tag Tournament, but I will not be talking about that game today. Tekken 1 was included in the arcade mode of Tekken 5, and I did have a play around when I first got the game in 2006. All I can say is that it was hard and frustrating!

So Tekken 1, this was the first game in the series. First released for the PS1, and can now be downloaded from the PSN. Before playing for the first time I actually had a few ideas in mind on what would actually be in the console version of the game, but was a bit disappointed when I realised that there was only arcade and vs mode which is basically the same as the one on arcade mode on Tekken 5.

I actually have no idea how people managed to play this game. The first time I played this on easy mode, I had to switch characters 4-6 times at the minimum before finishing arcade mode and watching the movie. The secret is to just do the jump kick!!! Works almost every time(for Tekken 2 too!). 

After going through Arcade mode a few times, I started wondering why the other characters wern't unlocking. Turns out that you need to unlock Heihachi first, and to do that you need to be able to complete the game in under 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and you must do that without any continues! Though I can't confirm that you need to do both things as many sites differ to what you actually need to do. But either way, it's pretty impossible.

In terms of how the characters move, they jump too high(which is later fixed in Tekken 3), and the characters move too slow, and take a long time to get up. Nina needs to take two steps before doing her arm chop move(which is one of my favourites). Almost all characters have very limited combo moves, with a lot of just arm punches and kicking.

I have to say though, for a game created over 20 years ago, the people who created the game did pretty well considering. I can see why it got such great reviews back then, but now if you released a game like that, it'd probably get a 0 or 1 out of 10 so I can't give this game a score as I've been influenced by the 21st century!

Dragon Ball Z Kai Limited Edition Complete Collection (Box Set Review)

This is a quick review on the Dragon Ball Z Kai Limited Edition Complete Collection Box Set(Region B released by Madman). In this review I will not be reviewing the anime itself, just the contents. I bought this particular set from Mightyape, Link Here!

So what is included in the Box Set? It includes a box containing four cases with 4 discs in each. And that's it. I actually expected more for a box set being Limited Edition, but I guess it's the box that makes it Limited Edition? The covers for each of the cases seem to be different to the separate collections released by Madman anyway.

If you know me you'd know that I bought the full set of Dragon Ball. The only thing I was missing was Kai, and Dragon ball on Blu-Ray. What I wanted was more HD(1080p) and also better aspect ratio as the remastered versions are all Wide screen, but the frames are cropped at the top and bottom, causing lost images(lots of chopped heads etc) which is actually really distracting, I have no idea what they were thinking there! I'm very happy to say that the whole set is in full screen box form, meaning that nothing is chopped off, including the top and bottom, so that is a definite positive from this! Also the colours are tweaked a bit so that the series looks like it was made in the 21st century, rather than the 20th.

The set includes both English and Japanese audio, perfect for anyone as they also include English subs!
Also if you didn't know what Kai is, it's basically the Dragon Ball Z series, but minus some story-lines and episodes, making it finish much faster. I think Kai is more based on the manga run, that's the reason for all the edits, but some scenes are added in which have not aired on Z before. I'm watching Dragon Ball Z right now and the battles last for basically the whole season, which I think takes too long so Kai will interest me definitely!

But if you've already bought the whole Kai series or are thinking of buying this collection, you might want to give it a think. If you don't have the Kai collection or Dragon Ball Z, then maybe consider watching Dragon Ball Z first before Kai as Kai is missing stuff out from the original anime. Should you have already bought the Kai collection, then you shouldn't need to buy this set unless you're an absolute fan/collector and want to collect the box and art as I don't see any differences with the separate collections. If you prefer watching newer anime titles and don't really like watching older ones then Kai is for you as it has a newer 21th century look.

So all in all, I think this is a really good collection, I myself can't wait to watch this, even though I'm still stuck on Season 3 of Dragon Ball Z. Until next time, bye!

Full Metal Panic! (Anime Review)

I bought the fat pack set in June and just recently decided to watch it. Problem is that disc 5 was faulty. Might ape was very kind and are going to get a replacement for me. Until then, I thought I should review the series, up until around the mid point(where I've stopped).

So what sort of anime is this? It is heavily military based as the male protagonist Sousuke Sagara and is squad are set to protect a high school girl named Kaname Chidori. Sagara goes undercover at school, and people initially think that he just has some military obsession or something. 

The anime is mainly set at school over the first few episodes but once Chidori is saved by Sagara after being kidnapped by an organisation, the plot has a sort of shift. My thoughts on the series is that after this, the series sort of goes out of the window. I do not believe that there is much that is happening story wise. The first few episodes are promising though. I think that the whole series could have been concluded within the first 12 episodes, or in a movie instead, but certain anime titles do follow this sort of style.

What does this anime bring? Well, it brings action of course(military orientated show) so you see guns and all sorts of military equipment(plus some futuristic stuff). There are elements of comedy, probably more adult related jokes but you get what I mean anyway. 

Relationships(and love) also build on this series, as Segara is the secret love interest of Chidori, and possibly others too, but you can tell that Chidori acts all angry, like she hates him when she's at school and stuff (show trope haha).

So should you watch this anime title? Well it's not for me to decide but I have to say that it's not bad at all. I'd probably give it a 7.5 as I know I've seen better before. I think that if the series ran smoothly without episode which have their separate plot, then it would have been an ever better show.

Well that's what I thought of Full Metal Panic. Hope you enjoyed reading this quick post. Talk to you soon, bye! 

Eden of the East (Anime Review)

Hello everybody! Today I will be reviewing the 2009 anime Eden of the East (TV Show only). I actually bought this DVD on Thursday and it arrived on Saturday but I managed to finish the whole thing today! It was on sale so I decided to buy it, not realising that there was the same collection but with the two films added into the collection! But oh well!

I won't go into depth too much as it'll spoil the surprise for you but basically some missiles strike Japan and is forgotten months later by the population. Most of the anime is circled around the two protagonists of the series, the guy Akira Takizawa and girl Saki Morimi. Turns out the anime is about a game and the people playing have cellphones. When I found this out I suddenly thought of Future Diary! There are a couple similarities but if you're looking for more action and blood I suggest you watch Future Diary. Eden of the East is more mystery based, the main mystery is to who the character Akira really is as the character has lost his memory right at the start of the film so he doesn't remember who he is. We as viewers(and also some of the characters of the film) are unsure as to if he is a good or bad guy until the final few episodes of the show.  (Hopefully I haven't spilled the beans already ><)

I had high hopes for this anime, it started off in a weird way in America(just watch it, then you'll know haha) and ends a bit weird too. I expected this to be another action packed series or romance kind of anime but it's not really the case, all I can say is that it's different, but in a good way. I did manage to last watching the whole series in one day though. Usually if a series is really good you get these withdraw symptoms but this wasn't the case at all for this show, I feel like it's more like a film. It's something I'd watch once but possibly not again.

I'd give it a 7.5/10. It's not a bad anime at all. Recommended for people who want to watch something different to your usual anime titles that you hear about online. It does have a few laughs here and there mixed in with the seriousness so if you think you like the sounds of this title then you should go watch it! It's out on Blu-ray and DVD so you can get your hands on it :)

See you all next time in the next review, hope you enjoyed! What I'll do is review a couple of other titles that I've watched later on even though it's been a little while since I've seen them. Maybe I'll watch them again, who knows?! If you like my new blog then don't forget to share with your friends, I'd love to get other people doing reviews on here too in the future!

Edit - Sorry I know I'm not the best at these reviews but I'll get better as I write more. I'm not A+ in the writing side but I hope you're not here to read an essay! Just a brief overview and my thoughts, that is what these posts are all about, thanks :)