I was hoping this episode would mark the glorious new age of the Red Combo, but my hopes and dreams were crushed last week when OOO 19 ended with a preview of how awesome full Red will be. Don't get me wrong, this week's episode was still exciting, as it marked some new developments in Yummy creation/attributes, along with some alright series plot progression.
The episode opens in the Cous Coussier. As Eiji running into work late, he notices a familiar face mopping the floors: OMG, it Gotou!!! He seems to have left his old life behind in order to figure out exactly who he is inside. Satonaka enters shortly after and is shocked a bit as well to see Gotou doing manual labor in this fine establishment, but then she informs Eiji that he is wanted at the Kougami Foundation.
It seems as if Kougami got everyone a present from his trip to Europe, and for Eiji, he has another one for Ankh's cores. After careful rash consideration, Eiji decides to give the medal back to Kougami, so that Ankh is not tempted to leave the body of Shingo to die. Kazari, elsewhere, is up to his old tricks again.
After breaking the ruthless criminal Toichi Yamagane by infusing him with a Yummy, Kazari meets up with Maki, who explains that he can;t come by the lab for a while, since Date has now taken up residence there. Yamagane, fueled by revenge for his partner who sold him out and the detective who locked him up, starts to hunt down his marks, and guess who the detective responsible for his arrest was? That's right, it was Shingo!
Heading back to the Cous Coussier, Eiji runs into the other mark, a hapless criminal/pinhead named Yasuji "Yasu" Okumura, who wants to protect the man who saved his life. Comic-style flashback ensues; Ankh decides to use him as bait. I love how he has selective memory when it comes to Shingo's past. He boasts earlier in the series that he knows everything Shingo knows, and yet he doesn't remember this dude at all. WTF!?!
Anyway, Yamagane attacks again and transforms into a new, odd-looking Yummy: it's a hybrid Lion-Kurage Yummy. Ankh is immediately worried, as this means that Kazari has incorporated Mezool's Cores into his body. The Yummy can also spawn jellyfish with multiply when slashed, and it's resistant to a blast from the LaKiriEtar, due to it's dual nature. Date arrives soon after this, becomes Birth and begins his assault before Kazari jumps into the fray. Kazari manages to knock Birth off the side of the building that they are fighting on, while the Yummy proceeds to rape OOO. During the fight, Yasu steals Ankh's medal case, and gives it to Kazari. ZOMFG, IT'S A TRAP!!!
Forced out of his henshin, Eiji lies helpless as Kazari reclaims all but one of his cost cores, and transforms into an incredibly powerful form. What will happen next?
So Bleach 434 has been out for a bit now, and it's . . . um, insightful. Not the best, no, but hey not everything can be. The best, that is. Blah, anyway on to the recap.
Yuzu and Karin are staying up late, waiting for Ichigo to return. He's been missing now for two days, so Karin says. Right as they start to get into it, Ichogo walks in, cool as sh!t, tells them to go to bed, and cruises up to his room. So cool. The next day, Ichi is summoned to the Fullbring lounge by Jingou for some training with Riruka, who bursts in screaming as always. She kicks down the door, caring a box, and , of course, yelling. Yukio, playing a PSP (I assume) comments about he tired of seeing her panties every time she enters the room, and more fighting ensues, although it's a bit one sided. The box, which is very cute by the way, is one of objects of focus. It seems that she can freely insert and remove items or people from her Doll House. This plaything, she says, will become Ichigo's training camp. Flicking a heart onto his chest, Riruka draws Ichi into the Doll House, and orders him to bring out his Fullbring powers in order to survive a fantastic scene from "Akira". Eh, this chapter was OK, I guess. Story-wise, that is. 6/10, but I think that might be pushing it a bit. The next chapter might be better, But I think that this whole Doll House bit might just suck over all.
That's right! It seems that whenever a female member assumes a male rangers henshin, that suit will be augmented with a skirt. These scans, found on Henshin Justice, were uploaded from the new Shinkenger vs. Goseiger movie. Check 'em out!
Barnaby here with another exciting episode recap and review of Kamen Rider OOO 18! In this week's episode we see some new equipment for both OOO and Birth, plus we get some insight into how Birth's abilities work. But enough talk, lets get into it!
As you saw in last week, we had a first for OOO universe, a two-stage Yummy. By that, I mean a Yummy who was able to represent two-step desire spawned from Rie, a young kendo student who wants to become stronger for some unknown reason. The original Yummy, a kabuto-type, was destroyed by Birth and OOO at the end of 17, but before that, a second Yummy, a kuwagata-type, budded off of it vowing to destroy everything.
So we open to see Eiji and Ankh coming back to the Cous Cossier after an unfruitful search for the kuwagata. Eiji theorizes about the new development that not even Ankh had seen before, while meanwhile across town, Gotou is silently stalking our new buddy Date.
Honestly I really like Date and his personality. He's kinda goofy yet determined, but no where near as bad as Eiji. Too bad he's not going to be permanent. Oops. Um, well . . . spoiler alert. X-/
Anywho, Gotou decides to try and kill himself by running out in the rain all night. Eventually he stumbles into the Cous Cossier, thinking that he's passed into the afterlife. Not a bad way to be greeted though, if you think about it. I surely hope that when I die, Hina and Chiyoko are there to soothe my sorry soul.
Eiji and Ankh make they way over to Rie's dojo to find out what her true heart's desire was when Date interrupts, boasting that he already knows. She's in love with her instructor, who as it turns out is engaged and is going to be married on the next day. OH NO!!!!
Here's the kicker: before the entire plot is spilled, both Ankh and Date nod in agreement of what's really going on, but Eiji is still completely lost. Turns out that he just doesn't get relationships, at all (which kinda explains the whole "not-hitting-on-Hina" thing; he's just an idiot), so he never considered that to be an option until it was the only thing left.
Oh Eiji, will you ever get a clue?
While he goes off to hid in the corner, Date readies himself to give Rie a pep talk when Trash Yummy burst into the dojo. Date still delivers his words of wisdom while kicking a$, which inspires Rie to run off and stop the kuwagata. It's a bad idea, yes, but she's do damn cute that it doesn't matter.
Date saves Rie from this blunder right in the nick of time, transforms into Birth, and begins to take on the Yummy when Eiji shows up. Turns out that he slipped a Tako Candroid into his bag while he was asking for love advice. Transforming into OOO, Eiji and Date team up on the Yummy when Uva butts in.
Now it's time for some new equipment kids! Birth deploys his Drill Arm and the new Caterpillar Legs, which operate like tank tracks and are also magnetized, and starts to beat Uva senseless. I image he could also scale metal walls with this new attachment, but that has yet to be seen.
"Oh, what nice legs you have." "All the better to take your medals with."
Meanwhile, OOO uses the long over-due Unagi Medal and Cheetah Medal to keep the kuwagata at bay. The Unagi Core Medal deploys two electric whips, which seem to work very well against his foe.
Back at the Kougami Bio Labs, Maki gets a visit from the head honcho himself, back from his vacation. As they watch the battle unfold on a monitor, Kougami boosts about having two perfect means of collecting medals: Birth for Cells, OOO for Cores.
On the battlefield, Birth ask for OOO to keep both Uva and the kuwagata at bay while he charges his Breast Cannon to max capacity, which is done by continually loading in cell medals. I hope this works with other attachments, but, once again, only time will tell if this is true. Birth blasts the sh!t out of the kuwagata as Uva escapes just in time, then he proceeds to collect all of the medals with his Crane Arm attachment. You know, Date would be able to meet his goal a whole lot faster if he didn't just waste Cell medals left and right. I mean the overcharge was cool, but was it really necessary?
After the battle, Eiji offers a partnership, which Date outright refuses, as he see Eiji as a weak person. Nevertheless, Eiji is impressed with the type of person he sees in Date, and it seems as if he looking forward to working with him regardless of what Date thinks.
So ends 18. 7/10, mostly for the new equipment. The next episode looks exciting; Kazari gets back into the mix, and it seems as if Kougami has a present for Eiji in the form of a new Core. Can't wait! ( ^.^ )-b
Maybe it's my rose-tinted glasses, but I have never played a better PSP game than Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. Now granted, I've had a PSP for less than a year, but I have managed to play a good amount of stuff on it, since both my old roommate and my brother owned one for a while. Mooching FTW!
Anyway, back to Birth By Sleep. This game is a prequel to the entire Kingdom Hearts Franchise, chronicling the journey of three young Keyblade wielders who are investigating the appearance of some nefarious creatures known as the Unversed. The player ending up trekking through all three characters' story lines, eventually assembling a clear picture of the events that transpire over the course of the game.
All three characters are reminiscent of the three main characters form Kingdom Hearts I and II, with Ventus mirroring Sora (and looking exactly like Roxas), Terra channeling the badboy hardassness (yes, that is a word . . . now) of Riku and Aqua mimicking the ever-caring Kairi. Each character not only has a different perspective on the overall story of Birth By Sleep, but they also bring different attack styles to the table. Aqua, my personal favorite, is a wiz with magic attacks which helps to make up for her lackluster defense, while Ven prefers quick, close range dash attacks (very similar to Mickey's attack style). Terra has a rougher style which makes use of his long frame and pure power.
Similar to KH: Chain of Memories and KH: 358/2 Days, you slot in commands for you attack deck, abilities (such as High Jump, Block and Glide), and a new feature call a Shotlock technique. Shotlock are spells which can lock onto multiple enemies to unleash a barrage of attacks, while being completely immune to damage during the execution of the technique. It can be quite handy during, oh say, a boss fight where you are right about to die and you have 4 more seconds until your next cure spell recharges. And believe me, that will most likely happen to you too.
Shotlocks aren't the only new addition to the KH battle system; instead of having summons in BBS, our three heroes are able to forge bonds with the people they meet along their journey, allowing them to "borrow" that character's command list. These bonds, called Dimensional Links or D-Links for short, can be upgraded by collecting special gems dropped during combat, which add new finishers and commands to the command repertoire.
Another great addition the the BBS combat system is the addition of Command Styles. Command Styles give the player special abilities related to the types of attacks used in combat. Say for instance that you use several fire attack; you will activate the FireStorm Command Style, which adds fire damage to all of you attacks and ends with a dynamic fire finisher. This makes for some extremely cinematic combat sequences, but pretty much requires you to install the game if you intend to run it smoothly. I highly recommend doing that anyway, but this is yet another reason to do so.
Terra takes it to the band using the new FireStorm Command Style.
You level up your commands through either battle experience or by playing the Command Board Mini-game, which is essentially Monopoly without a banker. Commands can also be melded together to form new skills and abilities. This is also how you create all of your passive abilities that are absolutely vital in proceeding through the many worlds.
The Command Board is kinda like the bastard child of Monopoly and Mario Party, and, just like is both games, you can can get F'ed in the A in a instant. (Image from IGN.com)
Speaking of worlds, the game features both old classic, such as Neverland and Radiant Garden, and new worlds, such as Stitch's Deep Space world and the new multiplayer-centric Mirage Arena. Each world features some cool new environments and great boss battles that will put your command deck to the test.
Aqua and Stitch . . . er Experiment 626 face off against Gantu in Deep Space. (Image from GameZone.com)
The story is fantastic and provides a great deal of insight into backstory of both Sora and Xehanort, while also providing a glimpse of a universe before the invasion of the Heartless and Nobodies. All three stories are dynamic and moving, and each character is a blast to play. Also, once all three stories are completed, you can access a bonus final chapter, so make sure that you save all of your clear data files. Their are also hidden bosses, which provide quite the end-game challenge.
Like I said from the get go, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep has been the best PSP game I have ever played, and quite possibly the best of the series so far. The game packs in so much emotion and story into such a small package that it's a must buy for Kingdom Hearts fanatics. 10/10 easily. And for you hardcore fans, beat it on Proud or Critical Mode for a sneak peak into the next major Kingdom Hearts title. I have more Kingdom Hearts coverage on the way, as I'm 3/4ths of the way through Re:Coded right now. Also, got a review of OOO 17 in the pipeline, along with Episode Yellow review (since I can't figure out if I not so keen on the movie or just hate the new rider) and NBA Jam for the Wii (f*ck Larry Bird btw, that douche bag).
Oh OOO, you never cease to amaze. New rider and new movie scene, all in one episode. That's about where things start to slow down in OOO 17 however. It's a good episode, with some interesting developments, it's just very slow.
Eiji and Ankh kick off the show by meeting the man behind the mask of Birth: Akira Date. He's just some dude. Really. No joke. There are very few clues about his origin right now; we know he's been out of the country for a while (he comments about how bad his kanji knowledge has gotten), and from the patch he has on his right leg (which can best be seen at 23:58) we can see that he spent some time working for what look like the New Mexico Metropolitan Detention Center. Really? That pretty f*cking random. Other than that, he carries around a large tank full of Cell Medals and a user manual from the Kougami Bio. Labs.
Speaking of Birth, I haven't said much about the Rider itself. The suit design is so-so imo, but I do like the idea of a capsule rider. It could make for some interesting abilities and puns later on. I just hope his secondary form looks nothing like this.
Akira Date, wearing the Birth belt, posing in all of his . . . um. . . glory? (Image from HenshinJustice.com)
Anyway, the rest of the episode primarily focuses on a kendo student named Rie who never wants to loss at a another kendo match again. So it's no big surprise when Uva shows up to spawn a Yummy from her desire. During Eiji's first encounter with this yummy, it never evolves, which is really bizarre. It manages to escape right as Date shows up by knocking Rie out cold, which (like always) distracts Eiji.
Oh forgot to mention this tidbit earlier, but apparently Hina and Chiyoko when to Egypt and bought gifts for everyone, so not Eiji has a scarf and Ankh has a nifty O Medal Holder. I really could give two sh!ts about the scarf, but that holder could be promising. I'm thinking that Eiji might snag it sometime down the line, allowing him to transform at will.
This episode also introduces a new Candroid: the gorilla. It seems that Date's the only one with access to it right now, but it can sense the appearance of Yummy. Yet another tool for Eiji if he ever decides to go rogue.
My terrible attempt to make a great joke using Photoshop. Spoiler alert! I'm bad at Photoshop. XD
Meanwhile the Yummy rampages enough to molt into the Kabuto Yummy. Ankh alerts Eiji of the change, and he attacks it in TakaGoriBa to compensate for it's extremely hard shell. Things are going quite well until Kabuto starts flashing and buds off a second Yummy. WTF!
It's seems as if Rie true desire was to destroy everything with her new strength, which seems to suggest that if some one has an ulterior motive, they can spawn multiple Yummies from a single coin.
This second Yummy, a Kawagata-type, tips the balance back towards the enemy right before Date jumps into the fray. Unleashing two new abilities, he shows the power of Birth's Drill Arm and Crane Arm, which both seem to have magnetic properties to allow for the easy collection of Cell Medals. Using a gross amount of Cell Medals, he blasts everything, OOO and Ankh included, with his Birth Buster, and defeats the Kabuto Yummy. Knocking Ankh away from his prize, Birth uses his Crane Arm to collect all that loose change and deposit it into his canister.
Breaking his henshin, Date clues Eiji and Ankh in on his true goal: to earn money by collecting 100 million Cell Medals. That's his job, and no one will stand in his way.
Eh, watching Birth in action pretty much saved this one. Other than that it's was kinda slow. 6.5/10. The next episode look a bit more promising, as we should see some new stuff for both OOO and Birth.
Hey guys! Sorry about the long drought, it's been a weird week. I though I was going to start class, but now I'm going to be sitting here til next Tuesday. Yay? It's like some cruel joke. "What, you want to start your last semester and get out of school? TOO BAD BITCH!"
Anyway you don't want to hear me complain about not being able to start class. You want to hear about Bleach and Kamen Rider! No OOO right now, but I do have a review that I have been meaning to post about Episode Yellow. But first, Bleach 433, the return of Chad!
So in the last chapter, we ended with Chad and Ichigo being reunited in the lounge of Xcution. We start 433 with the two standing face-to-face, with Ichigo absolutely dumbfounded by what he see. Raging, Ichi starts demanding answers from Jingou, who calms him quickly, then requests a drink for Chad while he explains how and why Xcution plan to restore Ichigo's power.
Turns out that Jingou and the others' powers come from, in part, Hollows. Each Fullbringer has a parent who was attacked by a Hollow. A residual amount of that energy from the Hollow was then transferred to the child upon their birth, thus manifesting itself into powers such as Jingou's. The Fullbringers gathered in Xcution to help erase themselves of their acquired abilities, which can only be done if they can transfer their powers into a person who has both human and shinigami powers. Who do we know like that? Hmmmm. . .
So here's the deal: Xcution will help Ichigo gain his powers back in exchange for him taking their powers, therefore restoring the humanity of the members of the group. Sounds. . .suspicious, but even Chad is in for it. Turns out that he is also a Fullbringer (I still suspect that Inoue is as well, but we might not find that out till much later), and he fully supports any plan to restore Ichigo back to his former glory.
Reluctantly, Ichigo agrees to the plan (bad idea dude), and Xcution become bound to Ichigo. Things are about to start going down soon, but I'm not sure that either Ichigo or Chad have fully though this through yet. . .
Overall, 6.85/10 for the chapter. Not perfect but exciting, and it was a decent resolution of the 432 cliffhanger.
Hey all! Hehe, so after that boasting about having more free time ahead, I immediately got sick and have been out of commission until now. Also, I've added an0ther reason to why I should never EVER go back home again: you catch the flu within 16 goddamn hours. Speaking of sedecim, OOO 16 has been out now for a bit, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about you. In fact, I have your medicine right here!
Maki and Kazari are wrapping up their container experiment with Gamel, as he has now ingested 14 Core Medals. The power of having multiple Cores is apparently a bit much for Gamel to control, even after his body morphs to adapt to his new found power. Such a fool, he thinks he's following Mezool's wishes , when really he's it' s just a tool. Maki pushes his luck with Kazari, who dispatches of him easily and leaves with his "fee": Ankh's Core!
Meanwhile Hina is trying to patch up Eiji back at the Cous Coussier, although she might be doing more harm than good. Ankh is no where to been seen, which we find out to be because he is off visiting the Kougami Foundation to eat their brains and gain their knowledge . . . I mean just to gain knowledge. Kougami seems unphased by the idea of Maki plotting against him, since Maki moving toward his general goal of greed changing/save the world. He begs for Eiji (oh yeah he barges in and starts throwing he's "weight" around) and Ankh to hold back and wait for Maki's experiment, whatever it might be, to unfold.
Ankh leaves in a huff, but Eiji hangs around to get some more information about the Core Medals and the Greeed. Now we finally get a true explanation of the birth of the Greeed and the purpose of the Core Medals. But first, let's check in on our betrayed Greeed, Uva and Mezool. It appears that Mezool managed to retain one Core, which Uva now wants, but Mezool manages to escape with. Uva sends some trash Yummy after her, while we start to hear an explanation for the Greeed. FINALLY!
So 800 years ago, scientists of the time tried to make an artificial life form. Wait. This sounds kinda familiar. That didn't well either. Oh scientists, when will you ever learn? Anyway, they compressed some creatures into coins, then ordered them in groups of nine which eventually began to gain consciousness. That consciousness started to develop a greed complex, and now here we are, in the future, with crazy a bugmen trying to murder a landshark lady.
So OOO was made to control/suppress the powers of Greeed/greed. Now Eiji is even more unsure of his or Ankh role in all of this. After defeating the trash, Eiji of course unknowingly protecting Mezool in the process, we flash over to Maki in the lab talking about destroying the world.
Gotou steps in and tries to arrest him for his role in last week's episode, but stops when he realizes that Birth is complete and he could wield it if he stays on his good graces.
Meanwhile, Gamel starts wondering around town looking fro Mezool, and eventually drifts into the Cous Coussier's Christmas fair. Eiji unwittingly serves him while struggling to figure out why he looks do damn familiar. Gamel mistakes Hina for Mezool, then goes crazy when he realizes it's not her and releases so much energy that he breaks everything in the shop and runs out.
Eiji gives chase, then tries to stop Gamel from rampaging. Mezool shows up and fuses with Gamel, who is all too willing to give her all of himself. Maki shows up to help complete the experiement with Mezool now, and he throws in thousands of more Cell Medals plus two of Uva's Core Medals. This causes Mezool to complete change forms into a giant Cthulhu-esk landshark thing, and she immediately loses control and begins to rampage. It kinda looks like a more retarded Castle Doran.
Eiji goes OOO TaToBa, but lacks the power to do anything. Right as things look extremely bleak, Birth shows up and uses his capsule machine inspired powers to damage PsychoMezool, sending two of Uva's Core's flying. Seizing the opportunity, OOO goes GataKiriBa and finishes her off. Cores go flying, and Ankh, Kazari and Uva all fight for their share with Ankh only grabbing two.
On the way back home, Birth come back. Dropping his henshin, we see not Gotou, but an unfamiliar face. Who is this man? (spoiler alert - his name is Date Akira)
The episode opens in the Cous Coussier. As Eiji running into work late, he notices a familiar face mopping the floors: OMG, it Gotou!!! He seems to have left his old life behind in order to figure out exactly who he is inside. Satonaka enters shortly after and is shocked a bit as well to see Gotou doing manual labor in this fine establishment, but then she informs Eiji that he is wanted at the Kougami Foundation.
Heading back to the Cous Coussier, Eiji runs into the other mark, a hapless criminal/pinhead named Yasuji "Yasu" Okumura, who wants to protect the man who saved his life. Comic-style flashback ensues; Ankh decides to use him as bait. I love how he has selective memory when it comes to Shingo's past. He boasts earlier in the series that he knows everything Shingo knows, and yet he doesn't remember this dude at all. WTF!?!
Anyway, Yamagane attacks again and transforms into a new, odd-looking Yummy: it's a hybrid Lion-Kurage Yummy. Ankh is immediately worried, as this means that Kazari has incorporated Mezool's Cores into his body. The Yummy can also spawn jellyfish with multiply when slashed, and it's resistant to a blast from the LaKiriEtar, due to it's dual nature. Date arrives soon after this, becomes Birth and begins his assault before Kazari jumps into the fray. Kazari manages to knock Birth off the side of the building that they are fighting on, while the Yummy proceeds to rape OOO. During the fight, Yasu steals Ankh's medal case, and gives it to Kazari. ZOMFG, IT'S A TRAP!!!
Forced out of his henshin, Eiji lies helpless as Kazari reclaims all but one of his cost cores, and transforms into an incredibly powerful form. What will happen next?
