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Comments
Due to the fact that 3 entire people on the internet care, we've gotten a lot of information on the new Bakugan series lately via well... the Bakugan community's "influencers", I guess. They even turned him into a card.
It's one of the few shows where the completely inaccurate adaptation really works in it's favor, allowing for a broad story that still touches on certain story points from the game but mostly focuses on it's main characters. It even utilized the play thematic in a nice, surreal way.
There were also a few welcome surprises, starting with how it actually managed to create a sense of hope that wasn't just an inevitability for the heroes. Plus, it reminded me that even a Not Steve Jobs can be a genuinely good, memorable villain (he kind of reminded me of Kaishou Rinroku from UN-GO) with his own motives beyond just looking suspicious all the time.
It even went so far as to have the mysterious girl who explains everybody's powers be completely untrustworthy otherwise, which never happens.
I was going to say something about feeling weird that I was busy watching anime on New Years like... well... me but when I got here I noticed GMH had already updated his OJ thread so I felt way better.
One of the things I remember about the original Bakugan anime wasn't just how it was normal length, but also how there was a genuine sense of adventure to it and the characters were diverse. Dan and Runo were average Japanese middle schoolers, Alice was an Eastern European ojousama who had to clear her grandfather's name and fix what he did wrong, Marucho was a short rich kid who could provide the team with insights and means to travel, Julie was an American girl who liked Dan and had sister drama, and Shun was a standoffish sort who had mommy issues.
In this version; Dan, Wynton and Lia are all Youtubers and friends and that's sort of it? Wynton and Lia think Dan is irresponsible, I guess? There's also Shun who is Japanese and... came from Japan to join the team and he's nice, I guess?
And since this is a Spin Master Formula type show, everything they do takes place in their home town. In the original series they traveled everywhere (Africa, Not-Russia, America, etc). In this one they won't even get to go anywhere. Vestroia is already merged with Earth so like where is there to go in terms of metaphysical space worlds?
Plus, the villains in the original were all really cool and like... never cheated. The main thing the villains in this version do is cheat because the heroes can't ever lose in a fair fight?
And the villains in the original were all really cool and like... never cheated. The main thing the villains in this version do is cheat because the heroes can't ever lose in a fair fight? In the original the villains were linked by the insanely evil doom card they used, but in this version everybody just sort of works for the same evil organization? I mean, in the later anime this also happened but there was a sort of consistency and intention to those groups.
Spectra's group in New Vestroia were set out as a group from the get go, and they had a united goal. Same with Gundalian Invaders villains. Here the villains just sort of work together for either no reason or money, which is dull as heck. Plus, a bunch of them (and the main villain) are adults, which you'd think would serve to elevate the story and not make it more juvenile. It doesn't. They're either half-hearted in their motivations or just comically lacking in foreboding.
Another Bakugan tradition, one that I thought Gundalian Invaders did really well, was developing villains into heroic characters. If that happens here it seems it'll just be a bit of an uninteresting punt. I won't lie, it's funny how Magnus is always in costume trying to trick the Brawlers, but he's not exactly going to suddenly elevate himself to anything better.
And like mainly the overarching plot is nonexistent and there aren't any threads to keep things interesting aside from Shun hiding his identity as a secret rich kid but that will just end in "Oh why didn't you tell us".
I don't even think this is just me not liking the new show as a reboot of Bakugan, I think it's just well... not a card game anime. It's definitely an ad for a card game that exists but it's not a card game anime.
> staring contest
> one taunts the other
> "This makes me very mad! I have to take out my anger on the Precure!"
next-level excuse plot
Watching these early episodes is a bit like silly/serious roulette. You watch an episode, and you don't know what you're gonna get. Sometimes you get character backstory/development for Cure Moonlight. Sometimes you get...this.
I tried watching the first episode of Hand Shakers today. I got to the bit where some guy has a girl tied up and is kicking her but it's okay they're just using their Hand Shaker powers! I paused it to consider whether I wanted to even bother seeing what happened after that at which point I realized I was getting really lightheaded because of the "animation".
I know that theatrical runs of anime movies have become more popular ever since your name. (and will continue to be so, at least in the shounen action vein, thanks to Dragon Ball Super Broly making like $5m during it's American opening weekend) but just picking something without promotion won't really pull good figures off as the standalone anime film isn't as easily exported out of Japan.
You have to build hype on the ground wherever you are through local anime communities so they care that this movie (that came out 3 years ago now) exists. I mean in the end A Silent Voice did pretty well but you get stuff like Haikara-san where they just forego showing the second and third movies in theaters at all after the first one didn't do well.
It has not been fun overall, but SIDE:GREEN, the third movie, was basically everything I was looking for. It focused on Gojo Sukuna and how he came to be a member of JUNGLE, which is my favourite clan outside of the main characters. It showed us new sides to the world of K, with the Gold King's secret giant muscles finally making their screen debut, and how everybody got to know JUNGLE Samus (I'm not kidding when I say this).
In fifty minutes, it covered each of the JUNGLE members motivations, some in more subtle ways than others. Yukari's plot for example was really well done despite being covered very briefly. Similarly with the Gray King, who has a single moment that really brings his character out to shine.
After SIDE:BLUE, I was really glad to see something done so well. Coincidentally, this is one of the stories that's not an adaptation of a previously released LN or manga, so I'm betting that has something to do with it.
As for SIDE:BLUE...
It began with a promising sequence; we finally learned what happened on the Blue Side of the big Kagustu incident that colours all the parts of the main series that aren't actually parts of the main series at all. In fact, either this series was out of steam before the novels were announced or GoHands really thinks we care about an incident where the most actual character growth and shifts happened for the Green Clan (ie that the leader of JUNGLE gained the leader of the Gray Clan as his sort-of dad figure).
By the way, this movie and the first reminded me that the fate of the Red King is to die and unless we're supposed to take MISSING KINGS as a sign of something otherwise, Anna's going to get overwhelmed by her powers and die eventually too. I mean, she'll probably last as long as Kagutsu, but that's really not a good fate to have.
Anyways, we cut away from that to new character Kusuhara, a grunt in the new Scepter 4. By the way, after the previous Blue King died, Scepter 4 had completely shut down. Scepter 4 as of the original K anime had only existed for like two years, which I find super-hard to believe.
Moving on, Kusuhara sucks and should be cut from the program, but this is anime and he has kiai so he's gonna be okay! He starts to train at night with Zenjou Gouki.
Giant Sidenote: The old Blue King couldn't prevent the old Red King's Damocles Down, and he was standing Right There when it happened so it was about to trigger his own Damocles Down which would have been extra bad and not only destroyed the place that it *does* destroy but apparently all of Kanto and also it would spread to the rest of the Kings (????) and destroy like... half of Japan, I guess. Considering how this stuff works, I'm really surprised that Japan allows the Kings to do as they please even as a Strain-control mechanism which they suck at because they spend most of their time beating Strains up.
Also this had a bit more about Strains, in that they aren't as rare as Neko and like... literally the whole show made them out to be. In fact, it seems most people in Clans aren't just normal people but people with Strain powers which I oh my gosh I am so off track.
Basically Zenjou has to kill the Blue King who he served and this ends Scepter 4. Which again, the whole Japanese magic police force was oh hiatus until some kid on a plane got super powers like ten years later. Anyways, Zenjou retires from fighting and only comes back to New Scepter 4 as a data entry manager or something.
Anyways this seems like a lot of words but this is SEVEN STORIES so actually the first fourty minutes are watching Kusuhara suck at sword fighting for forty entire minutes like he's a character you care about before Munekata gives him an ultimatum.
Which brings us to Munekata, who is literally now officially the worst K.
Munekata tells Kusuhara he has to shape up within a week or be kicked out (even though he currently has a job in data entry and they'll probably need to replace him anyways). This prompts Zenjou to cheat so Kusuhara stays (which for some reason involves hitting Seri's giant chest with a kendo stick). Munekata then promotes Kusuhara to the Special Special Team even though he clearly isn't ready, and Kusuhara immediately dies.
So of course Munekata uses the opportunity to be the worst person ever, smirking and sneering with Saruhiko as they tell Zenjou this and then insisting Zenjou join the Special Special Team. Oh also they use this to spin the government a tale about Scepter 4 being targeted and then turn Tokyo into a surveillance state where they beat up Strains who aren't doing much and basically they become the Scepter 4 from the first anime but somehow much worse.
After that there's some confrontation with Strains who are secretly with Jungle and Munekata uses the opportunity to basically disrespect and dehumanize Zenjou in every way which he reveals is so that Zenjou can also kill *him* one day when he Damocles Downs which is like... Just don't Damocles Down? Basically Munekata is even worse than Saruhiko which is amazing and I think I actually hate him now so thanks, K SEVEN STORIES!
I'll post my thoughts on the first movie; R:B, later.
Then again I was enamored with it (and other Precure things) like several years ago and I probably should have watched it back then.
Or maybe I'm just disappointed that I didn't get as much feels out of Cure Moonlight's character thread as I had hoped. I should stop having expectations like this for stuff.
But yeah, she does kinda show up too late (and is frankly too OP to be easy to write with) for her to have that much to do plot-wise.
I've never found that to be much of a problem outside of Cutie Honey.
Like, I'm also watching Zettai Karen Children and the protagonists are the most powerful espers around from the get-go, but they're not super skilled and they don't want to just murder their enemies with brute force either.
She's certainly not as overpowered as The Children where at least two out of three can absolutely dominate even in one-on-one fights against anybody with similar powers. And I have never found a single magical girl hero that even comes close to Cutie Honey in being overpowered.
R:B ~BLAZE~ : Really dull. The opening of this movie is so long and the only thing we really, really learn is HOMRA never figures itself out under Mikoto. This actually comes up again in Memory of Red, under a whole other set of circumstances. It did bring a lot to light about the Kagustu Incident and how Strains work and how this relates to how the Kings corrall them. But it really did feel like dashing any hopes of a good story about Mikoto and Munekata's meeting. Their relationship always felt like one of the great elements of K, but it turned out to just kind of not be a thing at all, ever.
SIDE:BLUE ~Tenrou no Gotoku~ : I've spoken at length about this one. Overall? Not a fan.
SIDE:GREEN ~Uwagaki Sekai~ : Also already covered. Really good.
Lost Small World ~Ori no Mukou ni~ : After the first two, I was really regretting watching this one since it was a school days prequel. But once it hit it's stride I found myself drawn into Saruhiko and Yata's friendship and it genuinely retroactively made their relationship better. I'm really glad for that.
It also fleshed out some of the earlier elements of JUNGLE, though it's still weird that nobody mentions them in the original TV anime.
Memory・of・Red ~BURN~ : This movie gave depth to Mikoto's standoffish nature, but I think it overstayed it's welcome after we got to what was essentially the prologue of the first TV anime.
Overall I found it a really solid, fun movie. It skimped on details of the clan formation and of the man who wanted to take the Red King crown away from Mikoto (how does that even work?), and I'd like to see what that whole thing was about. It also included quite a bit about the Colorless King before he gave the body to Weissman, which was fun to see. Those scenes provided some introspection that didn't just apply in universe, and I always like to see that.
Oh also this movie included GoHands attempt at CG beachside hills, they were about PSX level, if that even. GoHands should not be allowed CG ever.
Circle Vision ~Nameless Song~ : I guess every franchise needs it's Madoka Magica Rebellion. I mean, howelse do you get the sequel dream match and an actual plot? However, in this case over 4/5ths of the movie was the dream sequences. The first half is just unexplained fun nonsense that whilst very good fanservice for people who enjoyed action scenes, definitely had the feeling of 'stalling'.
There was nothing to latch on to, which made none of the circumstances hold weight, which is funny because the whole movie was about the circumstances in the K universe that held weight causing the characters who lived through it all immense strain. It turns out the new little
girlboy from the key visual (who will forever be known as Pokémon eyes) is the last fragment of the destroyed Dresden Slates, which will probably reform in some way in the future in some new thing, that responded to everybody's wishes to have everybody they lost back.Anyways, all they need to do is like... move on, just a little, and everything is fixed. I don't think this needed to be a fifty minute epilogue. I mean, it wasn't really even an epilogue, since it doesn't really portray any themes that were present in K before this movie and shows like 3 minutes total of how the character's lives actually are. Anyways, it was quite superfluous.
THE IDOL K : These shorts were confusing and not very fun. No wonder the only way they could get you to sit through them was by sticking them in front of the actual movies.
Also a little dull that even by episode 44 they still have to fight Kobraja and Kumojacky seriously.
Meanwhile, at this point in ZKC, all of The Children's recurring opponents besides Kyosuke amount to little more than distractions, which feels like a more natural result. Guess the frequent mentions of power levels actually amounts to something.
In Heartcatch it seems that your basic three villain lieutenants are just sorta vaguely lazy/prideful to the extent that they don't feel like fighting the Cures after their monster-of-the-week gets defeated. Then again, it's also possible that they were also unsure how powerful their opponents were, and didn't want to lose, so thus they really haven't been giving it their all. (And it's even been demonstrated occasionally that they can be overpowered by the Cures.) Meanwhile, the fourth lieutenant is just way different from the other three and has...plot things to do, it seems.
Still, I'm surprised Prof. Sabaaku hasn't fired those first three yet. Maybe he was just stuck with a substandard crop of villain applicants. Or maybe he just put all his
character build pointstime and resources into making Dark Precure totally OP, then bungled actually using her to actually beat up the lower-level Cures when he had the chance, presumably for more important reasons, even though she presumably could have. (She's also rather obsessed with Yuri, so...) But in short I guess he underestimated how fast the new Cures got good at doing their stuff.I'm up to episode 34, FYI.
Can't say I really cared for anything that happened.
Meanwhile, this week's episode of PreCure felt like it was about a bit more than itself:
Considering how even the New York Times agrees with that, I'd be hard pressed to find anybody saying anything negative about the show. Though personally I don't think I know anybody who watched it (or I do and I totally blocked it out).
Star☆Twinkle PreCure might be one of the most innovative series in the franchise but I'm still not sure I'm ready to commit to a whole year of it.
That's the show about visiting Antarctica, right? I have it somewhere on my PTW...
Someone on reddit described it like this:
"It's the kind of show where you laugh a lot, then cry your eyes out, then feel like you could go out and bench press a cement truck if you gave it a shot."
Oh cool a second season of HoraMimi. Wonder if it's Spri-
...
It already started???