Shigurui: Death Frenzy (Shigurui) [2007] — 8

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233119/

This anime can be summed up in one word. TENSO! (for those of you who don’t know the meaning, just do a Google image search and you will quickly learn) it was like watching the entire series with your eyes bulged out of your head. The entire thing was intense from the start to the end. Hell it even made snowman intense.

Seriously though it was actually surprisingly good. However, you have to like films that involve martial arts, specifically the way of the samurai, no ninjas, not Bruce Lee, fucking samurais.

The story was so intense that the most I could watch in one sitting was two episodes before I had to give my body time to relax. I have never had any series/movie do this to me. There was literally no time at all that the series let up. Just when you think it does and you see a snowman, it’s like “oh thank god, I can relax” but the something fucked up happens and you are back to being on your guard.

The story was AWESOME. One of the best samurai stories I have ever seen. It was however so complex that I still have a ton of unanswered questions though, but mostly in a good way. There is also no way for me to summarize or even gives hints at the story though, it’s just that complex of a story.

The animation was top quality. Not the best I have ever seen, but the artwork, the cinematography, the genius of it all is probably the best that I have ever seen in an anime.

This is again one of the best, most complex animes I have ever seen. But you will be tense the entire time. I think I have a muscle on my back that has a knot in it from being so tense while watching this.

The only thing that really pissed me off was the ending. It was not what I was expecting, but it also never answered my question about the very first episode. And the ending was not nearly as epic as the rest of the series. For such an amazingly strong series, it sure finished with a weak ending. Or at least it seemed that way to me. Maybe I need to watch through it again to understand it better, but it just seemed weak.

All in all if you love anime, the way of the samurai, or just really great, really complex stories, then this is for you. Just make sure to watch it in Japanese with subtitles, the English version is a wussy sauce by comparison.

Total Score = 8

Farscape Season 2 — 7

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187636/

With how amazing the first season was I quickly allocated the second season to see if it was just as good, and I also wanted to see where the storyline at the end of season 1 was heading.

Well it turns out that season 2 was not nearly as good as season 1. It was not terrible, but I was not nearly impressed with it. It seems like this season took a few liberties to try and be better than the first one, and it didn’t work. However do not get me wrong, this was still a good show.

Now there are a lot of reoccurring things throughout the entire season, the first of which being that the evil bad guy, Scorpius, has planted a chip in Crichtons head and it basically implanted Scorpius into his head, which is a great plot device because it makes it seem like the main character is going insane and that the bag-guy is always on their tail even though he may be several light years away.

The other thing that this season started was what I will call mini-movies. There were 2, 3 part episodes and if you think about each episode being about 40 mins, that makes it 2 hours for a 3-episode story. They first one was actually rather boring, but you did end up learning a bunch about Scorpius in it, but it was honestly not that good. Now in the second one, it was intriguing from start to end, I actually watched all 3 episodes in one sitting. It was really good. You learned more about everyone, and it was a great plot device to set up the last episode for the season.

You also learned more about Scorpius in this season than I ever thought I would. He would literally backstab or double-cross anyone who would get in his way, even the hot chick that he was sleeping with. Bad guys need love too I guess, but then they want to kill afterwards. Sounds an awful lot like a praying mantis to me. But even with that in mind, it was awesome.

All in all if you liked the first season, then expect this season to be not as good, but even saying that its better than a lot of other things on TV. So pick it up and keep on spacing.

Total Score = 7

Futurama, Season 3 — 8

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149460/

Even though I don’t watch a lot of televised programming I do occasionally catch an episode or two of Futurama here and there. I just have not seen every episode. So with that in mind I have also been slowly watching the entire series.

It just so happens to turn out that I have seen most of the episodes from this season. The sad part is that the ones I have seen from this season are ones that I have seen multiple times on the air. It’s funny really; I never quite knew how many episodes of Futurama I had actually seen before trying to watch the entire series. It has been around for 10 years now, and with only 5 seasons that are all about 15 episodes there really is not a lot on content with it.

It is a good thing that they are picking up the series again though because as this series among the others, that there is an almost limitless amount of places that a single episode can take you.

Now as far as the different seasons go for Futurama, there really is not a lot of differences. Its hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. Its kind of like the Simpsons in that aspect. There is a reason for that though, both Futurama and The Simpsons are made by Matt Groening.

The only bad part is that its not hard to binge watch this series, but if you don’t take a break after every 2-3 episodes, the humor tends to get dry and not as funny. Then again this is the case with almost every comedy series.

In a way I’m glad that I only have 2 seasons of this left to go and in another way I am not glad. I don’t want it to end.

Total Score = 8/10

M*A*S*H, Season 7 — 8

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/

I know what you’re thinking. Why the hell did I start on Season 7? Well I didn’t I’ve been slowly watching my way through all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, its just that I starting this blog after the fact that I have been some ways through the series. And since I have made it this far in the series I do eventually plan to finish the series, but it will probably be some times before I do.

Now the continuing antics of surgeons trying to get out of the army in this season is fantastic. M*A*S*H always seems to have a way to deliver some fantastic comedy while hitting it close to home quite often. There are always a few episodes in each season that differ from the norm and try a different approach, and this time around the one that stood out to me the most was the one where you saw how the main characters worked from a patient’s point of view. It stayed that way through the whole episode and ended with the patient getting to go home and them seeing him off.

It was insanely interesting and I will never think of them the same way again. That was one of the episodes that hit close to home. Now as far as the other kind, there are plenty of times to cause laughter and in this season the one that stood out to me the most was when Col. Flagg came into camp. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Col. Flagg is basically as top secret as they come. He’s full of himself to boot and is constantly harassing the 4077 (the M*A*S*H unit). And he usually ends up running off with something every time. But this time around he runs into Winchester who plays him and he ends up eating his words and running off. A total turn of events and it helps a lot if you know the characters.

This series actually finished on one of the best episodes I have ever seen so far. For most of the episode I was actually watching with a complete smile and at one point my eyes started to tear up from the happiness that the camp actually brought to their families.

All in all if you like M*A*S*H then keep on trucking like me and you will constantly have an enjoyable time.

Total Score = 8

New way of scoring for TV series

It is really hard to do +’s and -’s for TV series since the average series is over 600 minutes (10 hours) to 1800 minutes (30 hours). Its a lot of time to cover either way and its really hard for me to keep track of every episode.

So from now on i will not be doing the +’s and -’s for TV series reviews. Do not worry Movie reviews will still have them, its just harder to keep track for longer things like TV series.

Thanks for understanding. If you have any comments or questions about this change feel free to comment here or send me an e-mail or a message on Facebook and i will respond to everyone if i can.

Thanks
-Bryce D

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 — 7

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/

Now I am a lover of all things Joss Whedon, but I never got into Buffy which is basically where Joss got his start. For those of you unfamiliar with Joss, his works include Buffy, Angel, Toy Story 1, Firefly, Serenity, Dr Horribles Sing-Along-Blog, and Dollhouse. Joss just has a way of writing that is purely superb, and I wanted to see where he got his start (well ok, my girlfriend is almost making me sit down and watch this with her).

Now I’m not ganna lie, the first season of Buffy was excruciating to sit through. I would have given up on it right then and there if it was not for Joss so I gave the second season a go. Well I was massively disappointed, until about the half-way mark. That’s when it all got really friggen good. Not good as in jaw drop cannot stop watching good, but good enough to see me through to the end of the season and with how good the ending of the season was, I am going to eventually pick season 3 up and go from there.

It just seemed like in the first half of the season it was just a cookie cutter storyline; Introduce weird creature, weird creature kills/does weird stuff, Buffy kills, next episode. Well even in the second half it was the same thing, but there was a lot more story involved, and you had a lot of different types of creatures trying to kill Buffy at one time and it was awesome. This is also the season where as the storyline fit, they would kill off characters. Not main characters, but enough so that it’s still a shock that a few of my favorites died.

Also even though he does not have a big role in the series, there’s fucking Seth Green. I love Seth Green; he has yet to make anything bad. Every episode with him in it, just makes it that much better. No, he’s not a main character, he’s dating Willow so he only shows up every once in a while. No he’s not as funny as he is in the rest of his shows. I don’t care, its mother fucking Seth Green bitches!

Now there is a story, but as the season came to the end it became rather complex, not to mention that it’s an entire season worth of info, so I think I will pass on telling you exactly what occurred. Let’s just say it was worth it in the end. If you are going to watch any Buffy whatsoever, start in the beginning and see it through to at least the end of season 2. If you still don’t like it, then I hate your face.

All in all it was a boringly slow beginning that almost made me throw it out of the window, but once it hit that half-way mark I could not stop watching it.

Base Score = 6
+1 for Joss Whedon
-1 for a massively boring first half
+1 for Seth Green
= 7/10

Farscape Season 1 — 10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187636/

Maybe it’s just the nerd in me, but every once in a while I get a huge craving for something so Sci-Fi that it should make non-nerds brains melt. And this time I stuck with Farscape. I remember a long time ago I watched an episode or two while it was actually on the air still and all I could think of at the time was “Wow, this is almost too Sci-Fi.” But here I am watching it again and loving every little bit of it.

Now when I went into this, I knew that it had puppets. What I forgot was that Jim Henson was responsible for the puppets. You know the Muppets guy? Ya if you think he is only good for kids things, then sir, you are dead wrong. His puppets actually make you think that these are living creatures and that they could actually exist in this universe. On top of that it doesn’t ever make you go, “Bah! Look at the outdated CG crap of a character!” It will always seem real which is awesome!

Now the story is way to massive to cover in a single blog entry, so I will leave that part out. But let’s just say that it was actually hard to get into. That’s because like the human character in the story, John Crichton, he has a hard time adapting to his new environment. So in a way it’s like you are struggling with him to get a grasp on this new world. But once he gets used to it, the series takes off and it never lets go. I actually have had a hard time trying to put it down and even now that I am done with the first season, I want to start the next one. Now you don’t have to see each episode in order, but I do recommend it as this series constantly references past episodes. It is often overlooked in almost every other series.

The other thing that threw me off for a while was the fact that the ship they are on, Moira is actually a living creature. That’s right a ship that’s alive. Now the twist is that it never really hits you until the ship gets pregnant. I’m not kidding, the thing that they rely on to carry them throughout space gets knocked up. It adds a lot to the series and after a while you stop thinking of it as a ship, and more as a character in the series. Genius.

I really can’t think of anything bad t say about this series. It’s fantastic from about the half-way point on. Really the worst thing about it is that you have to suffer through the first half of the series before you get really sucked into it.

All in all, if you are like me and your Sci-Fi urge goes off like crazy, this is what you use to calm it down with. Well this or Star Trek, but I was looking for something out of the ordinary this time, and I was beyond completely satisfied. You know, kinda like when you go to a massage parlor because your back hurts, and the next thing you know, you get a happy ending without even asking for one … and they also forgot to charge you for it.

Base Score = 9
+1 for massive Sci-Fi geek out
+1 for Jim Henson
-1 for slow beginning
+1 for amazing story
+1 for a living ship
= 12/10
Now like Being John Malkovich the highest score I can give is a 10, because this is based on scores from 1-10, so with that in mind.
=10/10

Dragon Ball – Piccolo Jr Saga ep 123-153 — 7

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088509/

First off i did not see myself finishing off this series as quickly as i did. I literally flew through this Saga by comparison. But even saying that, this Saga was 31 episodes long. and there were a lot of things covered. I have broken it up into several sections.

Firstly, after the last encounter with King Piccolo, at the end of the battle, King Piccolo spat out an egg and it did in fact turn into Piccolo jr as i anticipated, what i didn’t anticipate was that it was basically a carbon copy of King Piccolo, and this character is actually the Piccolo that later turns into Piccolo in DBZ. So with that being said, for simplicities sake, I’m just referring Jr to Piccolo.

after King Piccolo made his wish, he destroyed the eternal dragon, so Goku was searching for a way to revive him so that he could wish his friends back to life. He found out that there was a place above Korins tower, this is Kamis lookout. Kami is the protector of Earth, and is also the one who created the dragon balls and the eternal dragon. Turns out this is also where Mr. Popo shows up. Long story short, Kami revives the dragon. Then Goku is forced to train with Kami/Mr Popo for the next 3 years. Just enough time until the next WMAT (World Martial Arts Tournament). Then the next thing you know, its the next tournament and everyone is grown up. Suddenly Goku is an Adult as is Krillin, and everyone else looks the same exact age.

At the WMAT there are a few surprises, ChiChi makes it into the finals, as does a cyborg Mercenary Tao. All in all though, it really boils down to what you think will be Goku and Piccolo, but that’s not true. There is actually one fighter in disguise who is Kami. (for reference, Kami and Piccolo are the same being, they had to split apart, so one is pure good, the other pure evil) Kami tries to stop Piccolo, but ends up failing and the rest is left up to the final match, Goku and Piccolo. Of course the tournament was long and drawn out, it was interesting and fun to watch (I’m a sucker for the tournament sagas) but the real battle begins at the final match.

The battle between Piccolo and Goku lasts for a good portion of time. Its also where the power-ups take several episodes to occur, so for 2 episodes Piccolo is sounding like he is either being raped by a tree, or like he is taking the largest shit ever witnessed by a human. Definitely not needed, or entertaining. but there are 4 different times where Piccolo produces so much power from one of his energy attacks that nuclear explosions happen. Not once, not twice, 4 fucking time. no joke. and on the last one its of such a magnitude that the entire island that the WMAT is held on becomes leveled and all that remains is dust. yet somehow even though there were 4 nuclear explosions, the arena floor is only covered in dirt. Its still there, but skyscrapers, and villages, and well THE WHOLE FUCKING ISLAND IS VAPORIZED! somehow the arena floor seems largely untouched. Anywho Goku wins(no shit, right?)

Then when you think the saga should be over since Goku won and all, no, it keeps going, it went on for so long all i could think of was, damn. Why is this shit still continuing for at least another 6 episodes, what the hell can you add on to the end of a huge battle that will make it all worthwhile to keep on going for that long? the answer? absolutely nothing. Its all about how Goku and Chichi are going to get married, and then the Ox-Kings castle catches on fire, so Goku and Chichi have to run all over the world trying to get one mystical artifact just to put the flames out on the castle. Nevermind the fact that Goku can survive 4 nuclear blasts, give him some fire and he can’t go through it. Anyways, after some long drawn out bullshit to put out a stupid fire in a castle, Goku and Chichi get married and thats the end of the series.

But ohhhh wait, even Akira Toriyama knew that he was going to continue the Dragon Ball series and even left you with a teaser at the end saying “If you want to see more adventures of Goku and friends. stick around for Dragon Ball Z!” fuckers. so cocky that they know they will get a sequel. thats like selling someone a car thats ganna break down so you know you will have to see them again. Ok, bad example, but i think i’ve proven my point.

Base Score = 7
-1 for surviving 4 nuclear blasts
+1 for WMAT
-1 for power-ups taking multiple episodes
+1 finally seeing how Goku grew up
-1 for still not having any idea how Piccolo joins Gokus team
+1 actually wanting to see more dragon ball, even after the last review i couldn’t wait to stop watching it for a while.

= 7/10

Dragon Ball – King Piccolo Saga, ep 102-122 — 7

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088509/

So this is where the constipation scenes start. You know the ones where a character “powers up”. They just stand there making funny faces like they are massively constipated trying to push a log out the size of a polar bear. Ya that one.

This is also where the energy battles start, not the ones where 2 Kameamea Waves hit each other and they fight over which one goes through. No, just the fact that Akira Toriyama decided it would be more fun if they shoot lazerz (pewpew!) and get glowing apparations to make themselves look more powerful.

Also this is where the series ran out of human-like enemies (since they main characters all were finalists in the World Martial Arts Tournament) so what did they go with? Aliens, mother fucking aliens. How generic can you get?

So they bring in King Piccolo, a Namek (which I’m not supposed to know at this point) and he causes all types of trouble. Even with the above mentioned ‘problems’ this is also where Dragon Ball fall into the regular pattern that we are used to seeing all throughout DBZ. The pattern of Goku beats the ever living crap out of the previous enemy, or it ends in a draw, and then proceeds to find an enemy that can kill him in one hit. Then throughout the saga Goku trains and gets better. Then when he meets up with the enemy again he wins, but only after seeing his clothes ripped into shreds, and one of his eyes acting lazy.

OK, enough with the bashing, all in all i liked this Saga, this one was not as good as the previous Saga, but that’s mainly because I like tournament sagas more than any other because i like to see how they play out. There’s always intense moments in them, not to mention that you will always know who will end in the final match, but you don’t know how.

Also this Saga surprised me because at the end of the last Saga i thought i knew what the wish would be for, but i was wrong, King Piccolo actually got a wish, and he wished himself younger, which the eternal dragon granted. But after King Piccolo got his wish he destroyed the eternal dragon. I thought it couldn’t be done. I know the dragon somehow comes back though because i have seen DBZ, i also know that Roshi, Krillin, and Chiaotzu all come back, so the dragon has to be alive, or somehow they get other dragon balls and wish the eternal dragon back to life.

Also once King Piccolo was defeated, he let out another egg and spat it at the icy land area, which I’m assuming turns into Piccolo Jr (since the next Saga is called Piccolo Jr Saga) and they have to fight another Namek all over again.

All in all though I did enjoy it and i look forward to finishing off Dragon Ball with the last Saga and then take a break from any Dragon Ball for a while and watch something else, like M*A*S*H or The Twilight Zone, or anything not Dragon Ball. But i must finish the series.

Base Score = 7
-1 for “power ups”
+1 for no wave fights
-1 for knowing that certain characters will become alive again
+1 for being hard to put down after halfway through the Saga.
= 7/10

Dragon Ball – Tien Shinhan Saga, ep 84-101 — 8

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280249/

I know that this is not the beginning of  the Dragon Ball series (the original, not Z, not GT) but a while ago, and before i created this blog, it came upon me to watch the original series. I like DBZ growing up, but never saw how it all began, so one day i decided to get them and to start watching them. So I will pick it up here and continue with it till the series is finished.

This is the 2nd tournament saga in the DB series and being so used to DBZ i had no idea that Tien was originally a bad guy. It seems impossible to me now to even figure that he was once bad. Although through the course of the tournament, Roshi finds a way to convert him out of the path of killing, and into a good path, he does it using only words, and the words drive into Tien so deep that he starts loosing it.

As is with most of the tournaments, you already know who will make it to the final round thanks to a simple plot, Tien and Goku. but there are always small surprises on the way, or basically just things to bring up the emotions of the combatants so that the fight seems more intense.

This was also he saga where each person had enough energy to actually do more than one energy attack, so this is the birthplace of the famous, scenes where characters ‘power up’ for 3 episodes it feels like making noises like they are trying to pass a giant rubber poop monster through their bowels. but since this is the beginning of those days, it actually was very well balanced, and they only used the attacks sparingly by comparison to how much they do in DBZ.

All in all this saga was not to bad, and at the end of it they gained 2 allies, Tien and Chiaotzu. But at the end of the saga, someone came and stole Gokus dragon ball, and while doing so, he killed Krillin, it never showed who or what killed him, but krillin is no longer alive, and someone has stolen a dragon ball. I guess it left it open for the next villian! and also the next wish on the dragon balls.

base score = 7

+1 for well balanced fighting

+1 for getting some backround on DBZ and how Tien and Chiaotzu came to be

-1 for knowing what the next wish on the dragon balls will be.

= 8/10