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| Yo-Yo Girl Cop : 3 of 5 | |
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5.02.2008
7:46 AM | Link |
 Even though I already downloaded and watched Sukeban Deka back in 2006, I was so surprised to see this movie get a US DVD release that I wanted to buy it just to support the cause! In case you don't know, Yo-Yo Girl Cop is an action-adventure about a yo-yo weapon-wielding school girl, staring the Jpop talents of Matsuura Aya and the Biyuden gals. I wasn't overly impressed with the movie the first time, but since then my Jpop fandom has grown and changed a little, so it was really fun to watch it again with new eyes. I also wanted to check out the "official" subtitles, since I thought the translations I had seen before were hilarious with tons of F-bombs, but the Japanese is just as loose this time around. I noticed many more genre techniques (like woosh sound effects for camera zooms!), and I thought Rika was much cooler than before (I guess I'm a bigger fan now!). Of course, I still enjoyed Aya's legs and her action scenes are great, but I was more impressed with Yui's acting - for her first (and maybe only) movie, she does a nice job playing such a sad introverted character! I was a little more moved by the brief dinner scene where Aya has dinner with her father (though she doesn't know he's her dad), so overall my movie watching experience was better this time. It was cool to watch the long Making Of segment with subtitles, and I think it's awesome that Aya did her own stunt work, even the difficult wire flying moves! The best part is watching Aya have a brief conversation with the actress who played the first Sukeban Deka, as they compare yo-yo props and talk about the difference in film making techniques. Yo-Yo Girl Cop isn't a great movie, but I'm glad I gave it a second chance - it's still a fun way to enjoy being a Jpop fan with a tokusatsu flair!
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| Kamen Rider V3 / Complete Series : 5 of 5 | |
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9.02.2007
7:36 AM | Link |
 Even though I had never seen an episode of this series before, I knew right away that I would enjoy this DVD set, since the show was made by the creators of my beloved Kikaida. Fifty-two episodes later, I'm now singing the awesome theme song every day and consider myself an official Kamen Rider V3 fan! This is another classic tokusatsu series from 1973, which is actually the third season of the whole Kamen Rider saga, but it definitely stands on it's own. Kazami Shiro is a cyborg who transforms into V3 to fight the mutants of Destron, an evil organization who want to control the world (of course). He's aided by the Rider Scouts, essentially a group of kids who report on suspicious activities, run by the actor who played the captain in Ultraman, as well as Tama Junko, an incredibly cute girl who kind of has a crush on Shiro (although the possible romantic plot in the first few episodes was dropped, which is unfortunate since I loved the similar forbidden love angle in Kikaida!). V3 has tons of great fighting moves and secret weapons, which are revealed through the series as his "26 secrets". The Destron mutants are cool as well, almost always a combination of some device with a creature, so you get crazy names like Scissors-Jaguar, TV-Fly, or Camera-Mosquito! There's so much more to the series, such as the spy-turned-hero Riderman with his bionic arm or the many evil Destron commandants, but it's tough to boil down 21 hours of watching into one review! The DVD set itself is fantastic, with wonderful bonus material, including hundreds of screens of trivia about every episode, actor, and character, along with an interesting interview with Miyauchi Hiroshi (Kazami Shiro himself) and of course, fantastic karaoke tracks of the theme songs. Generation Kikaida has done a fabulous job bringing this amazing series to the US, and I can't wait to check out their next release!
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| Ultraman Series One / Vol 2 : 4 of 5 | |
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8.03.2007
6:35 AM | Link |
 This DVD set finishes off the original classic series from 1966-67 in all its rubber suit glory, and even though I had a great time watching the first DVD set, I enjoyed these episodes even more! I think the monster fighting scenes are a little longer, and they definitely involve more destruction with better special effects. For example, a few of the creatures have a really convincing fire breath (which must have been dangerous to film!), and Ultraman himself gets to use many more weapons (I especially like the Ultra Slash, which is like a spinning saw blade!). Once again, I still feel sorry for the monsters, since they always meet a violent end - one of them is even blown into a million chunks of monster meat this time! Several episodes feature unusual settings - there are battles underwater, in the midst of snowy mountains, and even in outer space (with some cool space station docking effects). Near the end of the series, the episodes get even sillier than usual, almost like a new writing team was hired, but things definitely get serious for the final episode, where Ultraman actually loses and has to be rescued by another being from Nebula M78. Both Hayata and Ultraman are allowed to live after they are separated, and we get to see the big red ball from the first episode flying away to the Land of Light (with the Science Patrol on the ground screaming their goodbyes). Speaking of the Science Patrol, there was much more characterization in this set, even for goofball Ide, who fights off being depressed about their constant monster fighting. This was a fantastic series (best watched in Japanese, of course!), and I'd love to get into more Ultraman in the future!
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| Ultraman Series One / Vol 1 : 3 of 5 | |
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2.25.2007
9:07 PM | Link |
 Along with Speed Racer, watching Ultraman was another one of my first exposures to Japanese entertainment that eventually led to my culture-obsessed life today! There have been tons of Ultraman series, but this DVD set is the original classic from 1966 (and of course, I'm watching it in Japanese). Most of my childhood memories only involve Ultraman's Color Timer (which blinks on his chest when he's running out of energy), but now that I've watched three DVDs full of episodes I'm excited about learning more and becoming a fan all over again. Each episode features a giant monster (all with insanely imaginative designs) that Ultraman must vanquish, after Science Patrol officer Hayata transforms using the Beta Capsule. Sometimes I feel sorry for the monsters, because Ultraman can get pretty violent (sometimes there's even monster blood!). The rest of the Science Patrol is cool as well, flying around in their VTOL aircraft, shooting beasts with the Spider Shot gun, and talking on their little lapel communicators. The effects were state of the art for 1966, since the studio used one of only a handful of optical printers in existence at the time. My only problem with the show is there's almost no character development at all (I guess I'm spoiled on the emotional impact of Kikaida), which means there's not much connection between episodes. But now that I've seen the first half of the series, nothing can stop me from buying the next DVD set!
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| Deadly yo-yos | |
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10.16.2006
11:07 PM | Link |
 I recently got to watch the new movie Sukeban Deka: Codename Asamiya Saki, and it was pretty fun! I was surprised at how fast this was fan-subbed (though some of the subs were a little hilarious with non-existent F-bombs), but I'm sure that has to do with the Jpop idols in the staring roles. Until now, I didn't know anything about this series (including several TV shows and movies), which is about a delinquent high school girl who becomes an undercover cop and fights with a deadly yo-yo! It's campy and goofy, but sometimes those kind of stories are the best. In this new movie, Matsuura Aya plays the lead, and she does a fantastic job of looking pissed off (while still looking great, of course) and fighting the bad guys (from the behind-the-scenes clips, it looks like she did a lot of stunts that I sure wouldn't want to attempt!). The main villian is Ishikawa Rika, and although the fan world was excited to see her in her evil leather outfit, she doesn't do so great as a bad guy - there's just too many layers of cute that she can't hide. The other girls of Biyuden make appearances, too, so it was cool to see so many faces I know in a current movie. Still, I was a little disappointed overall - I definitely enjoyed the story, but I think the fighting scenes were kind of lame. There so much build up to the big Aya/Rika yo-yo battle, and when it finally happens, it's over in a minute! Oh well, I'm still hoping it's a success so they might make some more Sukeban Deka movies.
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| Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon / Act Zero : 3 of 5 | |
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2.19.2006
3:04 PM | Link |
 It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the incredible live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series that was a TV hit in Japan. After the series was finished, they released a couple DVDs with additional stories, and I bought this one during my last trip to Japan. Act Zero covers the early days of Sailor Venus (or Sailor V, as she was called then), starting with the arrival of her cat Artemis. We get to see Minako fight her first battles and learn to use her attacks (but there's no Love-Me Chain, sadly), but the real fun of the story comes when we see the other girls and characters in brief cameos, all leading up to the actual start of the series. So, we have Usagi at home, Ami feeling shy, Makoto looking for an apartment, and Rei at the temple as usual. There's a really weird scene were the four Shitennou (the main bad guys) are all bumbling cops, before they are "awakened" by Queen Beryl - totally bizarre comedy! I had to watch the show in Japanese with no subtitles, but I was definitely able to follow the plot and even get a couple jokes, and it was good practice, too! The DVD also includes a couple of mini-episodes about how Tuxedo Mask got his start, and a cool segment where the actors who played Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask return to some of the filming locations to reminisce. There's also a collection of "final shots", where the crew gives the actors flowers to thank them, and the girls usually end up crying - so touching. It was nice to spend time with the Sailor Senshi again - now I want to re-watch the series!Labels: dvds, sailor moon, tokusatsu |
| Kikaida Vol 9 : 5 of 5 | |
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12.02.2005
11:16 PM | Link |
 Nooooo! I can't believe I've finished the complete Kikaida series! This last DVD is the best of the bunch, with plenty of the super-cool Hakaida and his quest for meaning. The first episode shows Kikaida blown to pieces (gasp!) 3-CPO-style by Red Mine Toad (who drops land mines out of his belly), so Hakaida, who was created for the sole purpose of killing Kikaida, wonders what's left to do in life. What a tragic story! Of course, he decides to kill his creator, so Professor Gill finally gets a good beating. But then, the ultimate DARK Destructoid, Skeleton Flying Squirrel (can you believe the most powerful evil android is named that?) arrives and does his worst. Mitsuko performs the operation to put her father's brain back in his head (even though she's never operated before), and we finally get to see owari (instead of tsuzuku). This DVD also has an awesome bonus Kikaida movie with 3-D scenes (red/blue glasses are included in the package!), plus some more fun karaoke. I'm totally going to miss my jinzo ningen pal - unless I decide to watch them again! Generation Kikaida has just released a new Kamen Rider DVD set, so maybe I'll have to switch to a new hero now.
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| Kikaida Vol 8 : 4 of 5 | |
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10.29.2005
6:46 PM | Link |
 I can't believe I only have one more DVD to go of this cool series! Now I've finally seen the ultimate villian, Hakaida! It's sad that he shows up with only about 10 episodes to go, because he would have been cool throughout the whole show. Just like Kikaida, he has a human form (named Saburo), and he always shows up with a haunting whistle (instead of Jiro's soulful guitar). He also has two theme songs, and they are included in a karaoke feature on the DVD. Hakaida's big secret is that he's actually a cyborg - he's an android with Dr. Komyoji's brain! The doctor's body is preserved at DARK's hideout, and poor Jiro doesn't know what to do, because he doesn't want to damage Komyoji's brain. There are some episodes on this volume that are almost all battle, which is cool because Kikaida seems to have learned some new techniques, such as Galactic Hurricane, where he flies circles around his opponent while he kicks and punches! There's also some serious drama, because Masaru is convinced that Jiro has turned evil and killed his father (the doctor), so Jiro has to convince him he didn't and win back Masaru's trust (which returns with plenty of little boy tears). This DVD also has a cool interactive diagram of Kikaida's circuitry! How will I go on after watching the last volume?
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| Kikaida Vol 7 : 3 of 5 | |
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10.05.2005
5:44 PM | Link |
 Lots of big events happen in this volume of Kikaida, which means the big story must be in the home stretch! There are nine DVDs in the series, so I guess it's about time that Mitsuko and Masaru finally find out that that their father Dr. Komyoji is alive. After so many episodes of just missing him, I was pretty amazed when they finally found him and rescued him from the terrible DARK Destructoid Black Crow! Kikaida has to upgrade his powers to fight this one, and now he can shoot beams that he calls "Kikaida Spark!" Some other highlights include some of the cheesiest underwater scenes you can imagine when Kikaida goes after Gold Octopus, and there's also several flying scenes, including Kikaida riding through the air on his Sidemachine (which is what he calls his special motorcycle). The funniest episode ever features Black Spiny Anteater, who actually has a "daughter" robot named Tiny Spiny (I'm not kidding!). Tiny makes friends with a little orphan girl and wants to be human, so she ends up helping Kikaida, but eventually meets a tragic end. At the end of this DVD they start hinting at Kikaida's new ultimate enemy, which my pal Dae remembers as being really cool, so I can't wait to have the time to watch the next volume!
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| Kikaida Vol 6 : 4 of 5 | |
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9.08.2005
5:44 PM | Link |
 "All I want is for you to become a mechanical man without peer!" How's that for drama? This volume of my latest obsession gets a higher rating than the rest, mainly because of an incredible three-part saga bursting with emotion (yes, that's a little sarcastic, but I loved every minute of it)! It seems some other scientist has a schematic for a conscience circuit, which of course is the one part that Jiro needs to be perfect and kick DARK's butt. Three destructoids show up in the first of the three parts, Violet Turbo (another female enemy), Red Devil Stinger, and the super-weird Green Sponge, who fights by rolling his own huge head at his victims. There's some drama with Violet Turbo, whom Jiro actually repairs because he believes she wants to become good, which makes for some great jealousy from Mitsuko (who's getting cuter all the time)! There are some crazy sets, too - one of the final battles actually takes place in an Old West ghost town. In the end, Kikaida doesn't get the circuit - the schematic is burned, and actually Jiro didn't want it anyway, because his imperfections make him closer to being human. I can't wait to watch Volume 7!
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| Kikaida Vol 5 : 3 of 5 | |
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9.02.2005
7:03 PM | Link |
 I guess I've reached the half-way point of this fun saga, and I'm still enjoying all the robot on robot action! This volume has some particularly good DARK Destructoids, with cool names like White Saw Shark and Purple Rat. Well, Purple Rat might not be a very good name, but he definitely has more powers than the average destructoid, including a whip arm, poison gas, and "photo bombs", which are like huge flash bulbs that pop out of his shoulders! That episode is a good story, because Kikaida risks his life to save Mitsuko by removing his thermal fuel cell. So touching! Speaking of Mitsuko, it's becoming more obvious that she loves Jiro, especially when she's playing with a friend's wedding dress. There's another girl villain this time - Pink Armadillo has a sexy human form so she can plant a kiss on their forehead, then she turns them into her slaves. Hanpei's outfits get pretty silly in this one, and he's always dressed in costume for no reason (in one episode, he's in a full horse jockey outfit, but why?). This DVD has some more interview footage, plus a Behind the Scenes Factoids feature, that reveals things like when they reused certain sets. I'm ready for my next Kikaida dose!
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| Kikaida Vol 4 : 3 of 5 | |
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8.11.2005
8:11 PM | Link |
 I'm still enjoying this awesomely goofy series, and this DVD was filled with lots of new monsters (the DARK Destructoids, of course). Rogue Jellyfish is the first female destructoid, and the mini poison jellyfish that she commands are really funny looking when they hop around in the air! King Crab Maroon is pretty cool looking, but his main weapon is shooting a stream of bubble bath suds (well, at least it paralyzes what it touches). Jiro has a few interesting moves in these episodes - sometimes he uses his famous red guitar as a club and bashes his robot enemies with it! That can't be good for the instrument, can it? I always enjoy seeing him appear out of nowhere playing his sad guitar. He's always hundreds of yards away somewhere, usually on a mountain or a bridge, but in one episode of this set, he shows up perched on the very top of a huge tree - he looks like a Christmas tree topper! All silliness aside, I do actually enjoy this show, and it's fun seeing Mistuko deal with her feelings for Jiro. Will she ever tell him how she feels? This DVD also includes a nice interview with Ban Daisuke, who played Jiro almost 30 years ago. Well, that's twenty episodes down, and a ton more to go!
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| Kikaida Vol 3 : 3 of 5 | |
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7.21.2005
5:32 PM | Link |
 Yes, I'm officially hooked - I know all the words to the opening theme song, and I can almost sing the closing theme song, too. Kikaida is so much fun! It somehow feels relaxing to watch a mindless action series from the 70s, and I like listening to all the Japanese (several characters speak pretty fast!). This volume was really good, because it kind of crosses seasons of the show. Jiro defeats all 13 of the original DARK Destructoids, and then Professor Gill resurrects all of them (but mainly so they can test a new, more powerful Destructoid, namely Silver Tortoise!). In one episode, a Destructoid poses as Taro, Mitsuko's brother (who was killed by DARK), and Kikaida really kicks some metal butt when the impostor is exposed! I just realized that a lot of the Destructoids are cats (Silver Cat and Pink Tiger are in these episodes) - what's up with that? The bonus material is fun this time, with a Kikaida quiz (I scored 9 out of 10) and an awesome theme song karaoke, which includes all the verses of the two themes (they both have around four verses!). I've just bought all the other DVDs (for cheap), so I'm all set for Kikaida watching for quite a while!
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| Kikaida Vol 2 : 3 of 5 | |
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7.09.2005
10:53 PM | Link |
 I had never even heard of Kikaida when Dae bought me the first DVD of this series for my birthday, but now I think I'm hooked! I was reluctant to start collecting the DVDs, since they were all so expensive on Amazon, but I found them for a super-cheap price on Overstock.com, so now I'm continuing with these rubber-suit adventures! In this volume, every episode is basically the same formula - a new DARK Destructoid shows up (and usually kills some people, which is definitely out of the norm for a kid's action show), Dr. Komyoji (who has amnesia) wanders around a bit, Mitsuko and Masaru get in trouble, and Jiro finds a way to block the sound of Professor Gill's flute so he can change into Kikaida and save the day. Yes, it's just a goofy as it sounds, and for further proof, the Destructoids in these episodes are named Black Horse, Bull Kong, Carmine Spider, Red Condor, and Scorpion Brown (and their costumes are awesome, especially when you can see the eye-holes for the dude inside)! I love singing the opening and closing theme songs, and I think it will be interesting to actually see how the series evolves and ends. I love living in the 70s again when a good double-chop was all you needed to make an evil android explode!
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| Kikaida Vol 1 : 3 of 5 | |
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2.02.2005
8:01 PM | Link |
 My pal Dae always sends me cool birthday presents, and one of them this year was this DVD, featuring the first five episodes of this wacky Japanese series from the early 1970s. I hadn't seen Kikaida before, but after reading episode titles like Green Mantis: Bizarre Killing Machine and Orange Ant: Challenge to the Death, I knew I was going to love it (since I can't get enough of rubber suit monsters)! Kikaida is a robot (who has a human form and a robot form that looks like a red and blue Ultraman) who was created to fight the forces of DARK, an evil organization who wants to take over the world, and keeps sending new Destructoids out to face Kikaida. When Kikaida is in human form, he's called Jiro, and he always shows up strumming his red guitar to announce he's ready for battle, and then transforms by yelling "Switch on! 1, 2, 3!" The battles are great, since when an enemy is destroyed, there's a cloud of smoke and then lots of random electronic parts fall to the ground (one time I saw an ordinary house light switch)! The theme songs during opening and closing titles are funny, too, with hilarious lyrics. It's so bad that I love it to pieces! Now I'm faced with the decision of buying more of the series (since Netflix doesn't have it) - I want to see the rest of the Destructoids!
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| I don't care if you make fun of me | |
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12.31.2004
5:02 PM | Link |
 I recently watched the final bonus Special Act episode of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, thanks to the amazing efforts of TV-Nihon! This hour-long episode was only released on DVD, and tells the story of everyone four years after the original series. The big event is the wedding of Usagi (Sailor Moon) and Mamoru (Tuxedo Mask), but of course there's a big fight with the Dark Kingdom first. Mio (the bizarre cute gal you love to hate) wants to take over the world and steal Mamoru, so the sailor soldiers have to get back together for one last battle. It was cool to see what the girls were doing - Ami (Sailor Mercury) is a doctor in America, Minako (Sailor Venus) is doing concerts in Europe, and so on. I was sad that Rei (Sailor Mars) didn't get to transform with everyone, since she was wounded early on, but the big fight was cool anyway. The wedding at the end was awesome, and I cried like a girlie, but the best part was when Motoki (the turtle otaku) proposed to Makoto (Sailor Jupiter) and she accepted! Hurray for the geek getting the girl!
Thank goodness my Flickr self-portrait series is now complete! Tomorrow I'll begin the new year with a PEZ camera photo series, and maybe I'll recap 2004 for you, too. Labels: life, sailor moon, tokusatsu |
| The Final Act | |
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10.08.2004
7:09 PM | Link |
 I just watched the final episode of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (thanks to TV-Nihon), and it was great! I figured the ending would get a little esoteric, and I was right, but it doesn't matter - seeing everyone together and happy is all that matters to me. As predicted, I shed a tear or two (but not as many as when Minako died a few episodes back), and now I'm so sad that it's over. The only thing for me to do is start devouring the original anime again, which is still wonderful and has its own charm - but there's nothing like watching the beautiful live-action Usagi say "Tsuki ni kawatte - oshoiki yo!"Labels: dvds, sailor moon, tokusatsu |
| Enjoying Sailor Moon | |
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8.25.2004
6:43 PM | Link |
 I've been a closet Sailor Moon fan since I got hooked on it a few years ago when some station was showing it super-early in the morning right when I woke up. I had read a lot about Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon - a live-action version of the anime currently showing in Japan (and just about to finish the series), so I found some VCDs of the show on eBay and snatched them up (over 40 episodes!). I am totally thrilled to be watching this show for so many reasons! I like the Sailor Moon story (which is pretty interesting in spite of the ridiculous parts), I like hearing Japanese and figuring out phrases, I like the cheesy CG special effects (pretty much on par with the Power Rangers shows), I like the cool theme song, and I like watching cute Japanese girls (can't blame me for that!). On top of that, and here comes the weird part, I find the show strangely inspirational. The Sailor Scouts are always "doing their best" and fighting through tough circumstances, and I admire that attitude. I've had some busy weeks lately, and seeing a few episodes of this show has helped to lift my mood. Ganbarimasu!Labels: life, sailor moon, tokusatsu |
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