Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

  It's a common playground argument about which name was which. A person who had a Super NES (American) may argue with the one who has the Super Famicom (Japan). I even remember using the Street Fighter: The Movie (which had Boxer as a good guy) to be the source of the real names. However, if anybody observed it -- if the game uses the Bison-Balrog-Vega naming -- the GAME WAS IN JAPANESE. This is a naming controversy that actually understood the INTERNATIONAL MARKET. If Rockman was renamed as Mega Man for America, then a lot of localizations DO HAPPEN!  There's no questions asked that I can be "quite a purist" with Japanese sources. My dislike for Power Rangers is something I can't deny even if I acknowledge the necessity. The Mike Bison controversy may have just been one -- all to avoid a lawsuit with Mike Tyson. We need to look into the NAMES and what they meant and why they may fit the international market better... Changing M. Bison to Balrog for the Boxer An...

I remember Friday evenings on ABS-CBN shifted with new shows. There was also that atrocious Street Fighter American cartoon . This one is a HUGE MISALIGNMENT when the toning down went from PG-13 (which was the case of the first Mortal Kombat film) to TV-Y7-FV. Yes, talk about the Insult to Injury. Thankfully, the cartoon only lasted 13 episodes, unlike Conan the Adventurer -- a show I was obsessed with UNTIL I saw Conan the Barbarian.  The show is a pseudo-sequel of sorts of the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. It was all before that also AWFUL Mortal Kombat Annihilation movie came out in 1997. At least  Mortal Kombat Annihilation still the PG-13 filter. Here? Everyone becomes a Saturday Morning Cartoon character. Everyone turns into a generic action hero. I still can't get over how badly EVERYONE was done whether it's my favorite Liu Kang or my other favorites like Jax, Sonya Blade, Kuai Liang, Jax, Nightwolf, Kitana, and back then, Stryker was still viewed as bland.  The show ...

  Street Fighter II V is one series that may have only done better because the American cartoon really sank too hard . A rewatch of the Anime series for anyone who saw the SH*TTY Street Fighter American cartoon AND the cult classic movie Street Fighter (1994),  which earned Capcom USD 165 million at that time, might notice the movie DNA baked into the series. It seemed like a correction of sorts. But let's think about the pros and cons. Honestly, I felt that Street Fighter II V wasn't exactly faithful to the lore either. Now, let's think of the movie DNA. Note: I'll be using the international version names instead of the Japanese version, for easier reference. This is where I can name a lot. I was thinking about how Street Fighter (1994) influenced this series' formula. The series tries to focus on "near-realism," such as how projectiles aren't even used (and they're a PRIVILEGE) and have to be earned by hard work. This series somehow felt that eve...

Back in the 1990s, it was the analog age, and people simply couldn't see the difference between the U.S. adaptation and the American original. Power Rangers was also a licensed adaptation, so dislike the franchise all I want -- I understand Toei had a contract! Now, another one that came out in 1995 (the same year as Street Fighter II V ) was the American Street Fighter cartoon. It aired late in 1995 and had a second season that later introduced characters from the Street Fighter Alpha series.  Basically, the  Street Fighter American cartoon may have been a response to the Street Fighter movie. However, the Street Fighter  movie, HORRIBLE AS I THINK IT IS, actually had redeeming factors. For example, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile was better than the Cartoon Guile. The late Raul Julia gave his all for the performance. However, the biggest mistake for me was the dubbing and the bad writing. In fact, more often than not, the show can go so cringy. Cartoon Guile was made the...

It's known that I didn't like the Street Fighter live-action film. Adaptations will always have some form of altercation. I felt that Ken Masters, not William Guile, should've been the protagonist for an American adaptation of Street Fighter . However, the movie itself was still more forgivable than that accursed Street Fighter cartoon in 1995 -- which came out in the same year but a few months later. So yeah, Capcom was getting double royalties from Group TAC (Japan) and the American companies, Graz Entertainment and InVision Entertainment. The American cartoon ran for two seasons, which was considered the worst addition of the franchise with a very anticlimactic end.  However, it seemed that Street Fighter II V decided to follow the movie DNA in some way. The American version made Guile spam Sonic Booms as the main character and use projectiles. However, here, we don't see any projectiles and it took AN ENTIRE SEASON before Ryu and Ken performed Hadou energy moves -- ...

Make no mistake that I saw Conan the Adventurer before I saw the rather bloody Conan the Barbarian . Yes, that was an incredible shock for my younger days. The name Thulsa Doom was used in the movie. However, anyone who has seen Conan the Adventurer might easily call him "Wrath-Amon" like I did. However, the Movie Thulsa seemed to be referenced in Conan the Adventurer via Ram-Amon . It was years later when I discovered that the "Skeletor" that Conan fought in the comics was actually THULSA DOOM. Comics Thulsa was introduced as the archenemy of Kull. Even more, it wasn't Conan but Kull who was enslaved as a boy and became a king at his own hand. Basically, Conan the Barbarian (1982) combined the different elements of Kull and Conan into one epic film. In the 1982 film, Conan was enslaved as a boy and rose up against Movie Thulsa.  Back in the day, I remember talking about how He-Man was inspired by Conan . People would say that the Movie Thulsa had this skull. It...

It's time for another "exorcism". Now, I thought about how UNUSUALLY hard I was on Seiiun Kamen Machineman back in the day. It's just 35 episodes (36 was a special clip show) and the show was a cheap production. However, one must note that this Shotaro Ishinomori production was OUTSIDE the official franchises of Kamen Rider (which was still shaky back in the day) than inside. Whatever money was given for the show may have been like, "I'm not giving you a budget for 50 episodes!" That's what the show looked like. The show was relying on absurdity. The show most likely had no intention to run an entire year. The plot feels like it's a random series of chaotic events. Nick from Planet Ivy goes to Earth to do his thesis. That plot alone feels all too random. Nick goes by the alias Ken Takase and keeps his Machineman alter-ego secret -- hence it's called NEBULA MASK.Ken's arrival on Earth gets him at odds with the Tentacle organization. Childr...