Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Above is a video by Filipino actor known by his screen name Michael V. Michael presents the history of Telesuccess Productions (a dubbing company in the Philippines that did the oh-so-cheesy English dubs back then). I remembered GMA-7 aired Combattler V by giving English first names and Japanese last names (which ironically made the real first names the dub surnames). Before that, Voltes V was aired by giving very American-English names to the cast of characters. I guess it was that hard to remember and pronounce Japanese names so the dub names were given. Personally, I don't hold a fondness for the dub names these days after seeing the Japanese original.  Voltes V got aired during the Empire of Marcos. I originally had a theory that Voltes V stopped airing straightly after episode 28 when Emperor Zanbazil was revealed. I wonder how true it was that Zanbazil was renamed Ferdinand and General Bergan (Ozlack) was renamed General Fabian? If that were true, I guess we can never find th...

I do have my gaming vibes dying. I did remember that while I could afford Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath but many stuff just suck. One of them was making Sindel EVIL ALL ALONG in the New Timeline. The storyline started where Past Liu Kang and Revenant Liu Kang into Fire God Liu Kang. Later, MK11 Aftermath had two possible endings. Would it be Fire God Liu Kang who starts a new era or will it be Shang Tsung? It turns out that Liu Kang won the new era.  Fire God Liu Kang defeats Shang Tsung (who practically defeated Kronika OF ALL PEOPLE). Fire God Liu Kang starts a New Era in which he speaks to the original Great Kung Lao. Fire God Liu Kang was last seen talking to the Great Kung Lao to be his champion. We have Raiden who is now a mortal and a farmer. I still feel Raiden should've regained his divinity instead of turning into a mortal. We also see Scorpion, Sub-Zero (presumably Kuai Liang), Mileena, and Kitana in the trailer.  What's no surprise is Shang Tsung's tenacity with h...

  I guess some shows by Toei are meant to be underappreciated in the modern age. I did watch Voltes V as a teenager followed by Combattler V. There was the Robot Romance Trilogy which was done by Toei Ltd. directed by Tadao Nagahama. This was all before Golion became the thing but didn't enjoy the traction. Eventually, we know that Toei Ltd. decided to shelve the genre to continue with Super Sentai . The team formation may remind some of what came before it namely the Gatchaman Trilogy . The Gatchaman Trilogy series started in 1972 (and the first season had 105 episodes) followed up by Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter . Take note that Tatsunuko, not Toei, was behind Gatchaman . It was in 1976 when Combattler V came. Interestingly, Gatchaman's two other sequels were in 1978 and 1979 after the first season ended in 1984. The team format suspiciously resembles the Gatchaman team in many ways. You have the leader, the rebel, the big guy, the woman (Smurfette Principle), and the c...

I decided to give Voltes V: Legacy a shot. I noticed that the show added some backstory for Emperor Zanbazil such as showing his mother (who NEVER appeared in the 1977 anime). If there was one thing worth noting is how Golion has some similarities with Combattler V followed by Voltes V . The three shows both have similar team formats (leader, rebel, big guy, woman, child genius) and some similar villains. For some reason, Voltes V was cut short to 40 episodes in contrast to Combattler V which had 54 episodes. Why this happened may be because Voltes V  was Darker and Edgier in contrast to its predecessor. I guess children weren't too interested in the darker politics. Later, Golion was launched in 1981, four years after Voltes V . One could notice that Golion has better artwork, more episodes, and not to mention the HIGH BODY COUNT. Voltes V did have a high body count too such as the deaths of Mitsuyo Go, Professor Hamaguchi, and General Oka to name a few.  I did remember a con...

  I guess Marvel does have a huge cycle, right? A bit of research will tell us Toei Ltd. once had a Marvel license, later Haim Saban acquired a Marvel license before getting a license from Toei, Disney later bought Marvel and later the Power Rangers brand, and then it's a weird cycle. Nothing's really completely original at all. I could go ahead and praise Haim Saban for doing Knights of Tir Na Nog though it's clearly not all that original. Heck, Toei Ltd. does seem to have a habit of making fun of a lot of stuff. One such case was when Japanese Spider-Man  or Supaida-Man was created. Sure, I expected it to be somewhat alike yet different. Instead, it's very different. The hero Yamashiro Takuya meets an alien who's the last of his kind. Yamashiro loses his father to the Iron Cross Army. Later, Shinji meets a Garian who gives him spider powers. Shinji Todo was famous for playing several villains such as General Hedder from Denji Sentai Denziman and God Neros' hum...

Is it me or is almost every movie meant to tie in with Conan the Barbarian (1982)  destined to fail? Conan the Destroyer is viewed with utter contempt. Red Sonja is viewed with utter contempt. It was said that Kevin Sorbo was reluctant to play a character already done (which is weird since he isn't the first Hercules). I think it had to do with filling the shoes of Arnold Schwarzenegger to continue the saga of Conan the Barbarian . The movie presented Akivasha as the main villain.  A bit of tidbit will reveal one thing with how adaptations CAN change certain things... The name of Kull's enemy was known as THULSA DOOM. Unlike the movie, most versions of Thulsa Doom whether it'd be the original Robert. E. Howard Universe or the comics, he was practically inspired by the Grim Reaper. That's why it's very easy to create the rumor that He-Man was supposedly a toy line based on the Conan franchise. I don't believe it now but I still believe that Conan was partly an in...

I guess one of the most underrated or underappreciated characters is Jun Kazama. Canonically, she has only appeared in Tekken 2 . The Tekken Tag Tournament games are NOT canon. I may have no plans yet to get a PS5, I also feel that Tekken 7 gives me a good reason t set a lower bar for Tekken 8 . I really just hated how Tekken 7 had good gameplay but the Story Mode was plain disappointing IMHO (and the robotic narrator really ticks me off), there was lack of Single Player content, and there could've been a lot of cool stuff that would've made the wait worth it. Personally, if only the PS4 and PS5 have backward compatibilities!  I wrote about how Jun is more important than you think . Sure, I'm liking Asuka Kazama as a next-generation character. I'd still dare say that my admiration for both Jun and Asuka is just like how I can like both Kenshi and his son Takeda in Mortal Kombat X . I think Asuka trying to stop Jin was a fun plot. However, I think Jun was sorely missing ...