Jman

OK, after the auto show yesterday (a huge showcase for electric cars it seems this year, including a $2 million electric powered hypercar) I'm back for more Shenmue. And already Xiuyin looks like she's in an anime adaptation of a Shaw Bros. film. Where's my 36th Chamber of Shaolin anime? "Run away! Run away!" Ryo finally realizes how big a failure he is. Ouch. Yes Ryo, you stubborn ass, after realizing you're a failure, you still think you stand a chance against the woman who handed Dou Niu his ass. And the elbow. Yu Suzuki's kung fu style loved that pointed elbow strike (Akira uses the same blow in Virtua Fighter). It's a contrast from Muay Thai where the elbows are used as slashing and clubbing weapons, not straight on. You know it's funny, that the comparison in the anime is to Shaw Bros. and Golden Harvest Kung Fu movies, while at this point the game was essentially Rick Shaw's Takeout Theater (a bit from the old USA Night Flight block that was before my time where a comedian ragged on bad kung fu movies). Time to raid the big bad guy headquarters! Even if that does sound ridiculous on its head. "Yeah, I'm going to go inside, fight 40 guys including the fatass who's handed me my ass twice now, and bail with the old man. You make it sound like it's a really bad idea!" Any particular reason his dad's memory are grainy film stock? It's an interesting effect at least. They are doing the underground fighting tournament side quest! "You bet against me?!" "Dude, I saw you getting your ass kicked constantly the last few days! It seemed like a good idea!" And now Joy's origin comes into place. This couldn't say "TRAP" any louder if the door had a neon sign that said the word. Cliffhanger! And two episodes left to wrap up the plot of the second game. Shame that it's pretty certain we're not getting a season 2 thanks to the buyout and the Crunchyroll Originals line being mothballed.

Unfortunately I was indisposed this morning, going to a car show. I’ll give my usual commentary in the morning.

I have that special on DVD. Signed after I went to a comedy show he did back in the day. My two prevailing memories of him are that show I saw him live, and Mr. Mxyzptlyk.

My guess is they split the season because Shin Ultraman (Anno’s Ultraman movie) comes out next month and they want to cross promote.

Ultraman Season 2 2-6. That was fun, if a bit too short. A season 3 definitely needs to happen.

The Sentai lineup is admittedly not the thickest one, but there’s gotta be something dubbed on there. This is the admitted problem with your competitors just throwing money at studios. “Make a movie! Make an Ultraman show! Etc.”

More shows need dance endings. I despise “text over black screens.” Imagine if you had Better Call Saul episodes end with random clips and Gus and Mike just randomly busting a move. Series remains fun even if the CG isn’t perfect. The action is great though.

Jujutsu Kaisen 11-24. Ultraman Season 2 episode 1.

That it was the VLD version and the proposal seems to be promising it will be based on the 80s version. I have an admitted hate-on for anything from VLD at this point because of just how bad a show it was and how bad its fans were, but considering how massively unpopular the show was with not only casual viewers but also the licensor of Voltron (who said, and I quote when Dreamworks let the license expire "didn't get Voltron") I'm looking forward to a giant robot movie from the guy who did Dodgeball, no Shiro, and making the franchise fun again.

Legendary funny man and cartoon voice, husband, brother, and father. RIP.

I could rant and rave all day, but I was waiting for the bidding to be finalized before doing so. It will be based on the 80s version thankfully, so the ugly ass Allura design and Shiro are (legally) not going to be in it.

IIRC that’s a Japanese thing. Broadcast versions of JoJo for instance censor cigarettes while the Netflix version leaves them untouched.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/discovery-warnermedia-merger-close-warner-bros-discovery-1235200983/ How this will affect the networks is anyone's guess, but Discovery Plus stuff is coming to HBO Max soon, so...there's that.

Oh good, another Chinese village cold open. You keep adding these damn things and people WILL assume a Season 2 is coming because she has no real impact until the third game. Ryo really needs better pockets. He keeps dropping stuff critical to the plot. Fun fact, the restructuring of Hong Kong means Kowloon no longer exists. Great, shady dudes in black suits. This really is proto Yakuza. “That sucked!” King of understatements right there. The guard seriously fell for that. And now we have the classic “two people handcuffed together” scenario. Dou Nou being gay is definitely more overt than it was in the game. The other guy meanwhile is so flaming you could light a cigarette off of him. That’s another sub quest. Yeah, just fast forward through this part. Ryo…you can’t punch an entire Triad. Kiryu could, but this isn’t Yakuza. At least Ren does some detective work. I really do admire how this show compresses a long play that would go for at least a week into a 13 episode series. The mechanics are there but it’s all streamlined. Cliffhanger! What happens when the irresistible force meets the immovable object?

Something tells me this guy will be tougher than the average Yellow Turban thug.

Considering the movie and the Hathaway trilogy, Netflix scoring Witch from Mercury makes sense. It really is a shame that Steve Blum was squeamish about doing a “Fuck Netflix Bebop” ad campaign. They should have went all in on that. Just post Tweets and videos from the idiot writers, the dumb fuck self appointed political correctness censor, and the moron who played Faye and I hope her career is so dead she can’t get a job at children’s birthday parties. For better or for worse, every failure must be called out, or even a perceived failure. (I call this the Fox News approach).

One of these rainy weekends I’m just going to boot up HIDIVE and watch all the recent Lupin series, the Italian Job, Parts 5 and 6, etc. Also this is yet another Toonami show from HIDIVE. So, when’s Redo of Healer? Or Golgo 13?

Well Shenmue did well enough, but then again Shenmue seems to be exceeding everyone’s expectations (it’s a video game adaptation of a notoriously cult game series AND a Crunchyroll Original, yet it’s quite good). Nothing else was competing with the Final Four and Stone Cold.

It was a rough week competition wise, between the Final Four AND Night 1 of Wrestlemania.

So…Redo of Healer on Toonami when?

You promise X-Men, people expect X-Men.

Attack on Titan the Final Season The Last One Forever and Ever (For Real This Time) (We Fucking Mean It).

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-04-03/the-hollywood-reporter-hollywood-studios-shop-for-live-action-voltron-project/.184306 I really want to see the pitch reel this guy submitted to start a bidding war. Probably promising up and down it will have nothing to do with the Netflix disaster.

Final Final Season? Final Mix featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series?

You could have called this episode "QTE fails" and gotten the point across. The Shenmue II portion of the series has been pretty heavy on the detective work, which makes sense given he has nothing to really go on. I love how the thug fights are so passe we don't even see them. I mean, I get why, you see Ryo beat up one group of thugs to grind XP, you just want to fast forward to the boss. This episode is going to need a "Ryo gets knocked out" counter. "And if you do find Lan Di, and then you kill him, what next?" "I dunno, go to college?" Next episode - Boss fight!