Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Transformers characters have varying heights. For example, it can be noticed that Optimus Prime is much taller than his other comrades such as Bumblebee. Meanwhile, the Decepticons were more or less close to each other's heights -- except for some of Soundwave's miniature robots like Laserbeak. It was normal to have one character taller than the other. However, there's one thing worth noting in Transformers: Victory . Unusually, Deathsaurus was made as TALL AS A COMBINER!   Who can remember this scene from the G1 American cartoon? I wonder if the Japanese side overlooked Megatron's height vs. that of a combiner. G1 Starscream once used Bruticus to try and get Megatron to relinquish leadership. The Combiners are obviously bigger than the tallest non-combiner characters. Megatron was easily grabbed. I remember one scene in Transformers: Headmasters where G1 Galvatron got seized by an Autobot combiner. Why was Deathsaurus purposely made THAT TALL compared to his predecesso...

As a child, I remember watching four Dragon Ball Z movies, which were edited into two movies. One was called The Greatest Rivals,  which was a combination of Cooler's Revenge and Return of Cooler. Another one combined both The Return of Broly and Bio Broly . I didn't even realize that these movies aren't canon if you try to look at even the minor details. Please remember Dragon Ball Z specials like History of Trunks  and Bardock: the Father of Goku are TV specials. Dragon Ball Z Anime also later managed to retcon Dead Zone from a non-canon film by creating the Garlic Jr. Saga. I wouldn't be surprised if some editing was done in the process.  So what's the purpose of the Dragon Ball Z movies? It seems to be a series of what-if scenarios. Let's think of some interesting what-ifs that were created by these movies. Here's what I could name of what-if scenarios that were made, and here are the only ones I'm familiar with... and let's think of th...

There's a Chinese legend as to why the cat never made it to the zodiac. In Eto Ranger , it was slightly changed when (spoilers) that Chocolat, a once innocent cat became the instrument of Bagi who only appeared as a pair of disembodied red eyes (and seldom showed a sinister smile). Apparently, Bagi is female though the character is Evil God Bagi or Jyarei Shin Bagi. I'll just assume Bagi is female due to the voice being by actress Ikuko Tani. Now, moving on... The plot of Chocolat was of betrayal. A fake Princess Aura showed up and told Chocolat that she could leave five minutes early. This, however, caused Chocolat to be disqualified from joining the fabled 12 animals. The next part was that Bagi offered Chocolat a chance for revenge. Bagi turns Chocolat into Nyanma (Mostar in the dub). Later, Chocolat (as Nyanma) joins the 12 others to finally defeat Bagi who uses Dark Kirinda as her body. Why Bagi was never given a human form (if ever) was just stupid. Also, Dark Kirinda...

If there was one unnamed race that sparked my interest, it was Freeza's race in Dragon Ball Z . Here are the known ones in the Anime: Frieza   The self-proclaimed emperor of the universe, Frieza. He appeared after the Saiyan saga, revealing that he was running an organization that enslaved planets and sold them to the highest bidder. Despite his puny size, he was small but terrible. He frequently gave an appearance of weakness to deceive his opponents but showed how terrible he really was.   Freeza revealed his first transformed state which was a giant version of himself. He was beaten by Piccolo but...   He revealed a second transformation in which he had an unusually shaped skull. This was pretty frightening.     Frieza revealed his third transformed state, which is said to be his true form. He was sleeker and back to his normal size. However, this form is no joke. This is where he gets really mean. Goku only met Frieza in this form. He was hit ...

Image Source Eto Ranger is probably one Anime that either you heard of it or you haven't. It was an Anime series during the late 90s by Shaft Studios and aired on NHK. It does take inspiration from the Super Sentai franchise and somehow Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger had inspired it one way or another. Now, it's time to remember the time ABC-5 (now TV-5) used to air it in the Philippines with dubbed names. I could remember Bakumaru (my favorite character) dubbed as Powell and Cream dubbed as Kelly. Right now, it's all about the actual Japanese names that make it feel more authentic. The Tagalog dub just phases out of my head eventually. So, here's the REAL names and not the names that were given in the Tagalog version: Bakumaru the rat Hols the bull Gao (Growl) the tiger Cream the rabbit Drago the well, dragon Nyori the snake Pakarachi the horse Souffle the sheep Monk the monkey (and he even temporarily became Sun Wukong!) Tart the chicken (and nope, it's ...

Although I'm not such a huge fan of the Fushigi Yuugi OVA (which tried to focus on a reincarnated Tamahome as Taka) -- but it showed how Taka is still the real Tamahome. He wants to reach out to Miaka and even if he's lost his identity but his soul is still Tamahome. In the real world -- he reaches out to her shouting out her name and it's one of my favorite moments in an OVA I didn't really like too much.  Though invisible, the stars in my heart are very concrete guideposts I scream countless times at the top of my lungs the name of the dear one who gave me courage. She's a treasure I risked my life to acquire. An unknown force tries to hypnotize me. But I will never forget my days with you. If this is a dream, I'm begging you, wake me up! Leave no traces of this in my mind. Hurry, before the other me becomes a knife. I can hear the voice of my spirit from far away. Take me to it. I have a love that I must defend. Probably, what hurts the most is hurtin...

I know Dragon Ball Z has Frieza as one of its most iconic villains if not the most iconic one. But there's some criticism I could offer towards Frieza's characterization. If there's one thing that I could say is that Frieza's actually pretty immature for somebody who's older than Vegeta. I think that one thing that Akira Toriyama may not want to admit is why Frieza's given a very small size. While it may be a message that looks can be deceiving considering that he does look harmless but there may be a bigger picture to that. One can argue how cruel Frieza is but he's not exactly all that mature himself. Consider the fact that he frequently murders someone whenever he has temper tantrums, reacts negatively to criticism, whenever something defeats his ego or just any petty reason that leads this petty tyrant to go on rampage. Not so many people criticized him and lived to tell about it. When he realized that the Saiyans would one day be more powerful he de...

I remembered in Dragon Ball Z that stated that Frieza's fourth and final form is actually his true form. This may contradict to what Cooler said in "Cooler's Revenge" which may mean that in actual canon, Frieza's the only son of King Cold and Cooler may just be a what-if scenario of Frieza having an older brother. So what's being said is that Frieza's first three forms were actually made to help him control his power levels. It seems to be a common fad in comics where a powerful villain's powers may sooner or later work against him. This scenario is almost similar to how Apocalypse's body in X-Men will soon lose its capacity to house his essence. Frieza may actually be suffering from the same problem for all we know. He's stated that he only used his first three forms to help him control these powers. In a way, he's actually suffering from the similar condition that Apocalypse is suffering from. The more powerful he gets the more he can...

Well here's the cute characters of Akazukin Cha Cha. Cha Cha is a cute character, there's also Orin and Riiya (in his wolf form).  I always thought it's funny how Cha Cha and Orin both look alike even if well... the show doesn't give a single hint they're related. How Orin is a blonde ninja was never explained whether or not her mother is a white woman or she just dyed her hair. Considering that Cha Cha and Orin belong to the same class, I think Orin is just too short for her age (well the cast graduated in the middle of the show) or two, she's a gifted child that has managed to skip several levels in Urara. As for Cha Cha as a cute character, she doesn't look like a a person who's about to enter Middle School.

One of the Anime serise I tend to have fond memories is Akazukin Cha Cha which was a series filled with so much cute characters. The whole story focuses on Cha Cha who wears a red hood (hence the title "Akazukin Cha Cha") which ends up as a magical comedy. Some stuff got changed over the dub like Cha Cha's spells fumble because of the pronunciation (English and Japanese are very different languages), which were lost in translation, some name changes but not too much to think about. I always thought the series was really just full of cute characters. Cha Cha's pretty cute, Shiene is also pretty cute (he freaking looks like... your Anime version of Rockman/Megaman), Riiya becomes a cute white wolf puppy which is frequently mistaken for a dog) and my favorite cute character is Orin the ninja. The show isn't without its other comic relief characters like Marin (who lusts after Riiya and gets into trouble with Cha Cha because of it) and Yakko who has a crush on Sera...

After having some self-examination, I do hate to admit it what while I favorite Dragon Ball Z character is VEGETA (and me and him have ego and temper issues) but I am also reminded of Frieza in some ways. I used to get the remark that I am acting like Frieza towards others especially with how easily annoyed I am by even the slightest remark or disagreement, that I simply have the inner desire to finish anyone off who pisses me off... in fact, there's something in me that says, "You want to kill yourself because you refuse to follow rules, go ahead!" During the scene he horribly blew up Planet Vegeta, it just reminded me I wanted to blow up an entire organization for the offense of one person. I said that I would be laughing while they blow up, seeing them wiped out and I would probably be so happy to see them die from the face of the Earth. So really... I always thought his approach in life still disturbs me especially I'm just okay with ending people's lives j...

Image taken from:  http://polandball18.tumblr.com/post/127640807780/why-is-gohan-copying-yamchas-hairstyle While Gohan's image is a combination of both Goku and Chi-Chi but the similarity above is really is that he resembles... YAMCHA? I thought that somehow the next Dragon Ball Z ended up having some carry over of traits from the last generation characters like Trunks vs. Goten is pretty much like the later friendly rivalry of Tien vs. Yamcha, with Trunks being better. But for Gohan, it's easy to notice he does copy Yamcha's hairstyle in more than one occasion so was he meant to be a next generation Yamcha as well? I always thought it was funny to have Gohan have Yamcha's long hair style during the Saiyan saga and after he got a haircut, his hair is similar to that of Yamcha with short hair. When you look at the similarity, you can see the obvious similarities which were either intentional or coincidental. When Gohan grows up, he also has Yamcha's spiky hairstyl...

While watching the Dragon Ball Z OVAs (uncut, uncensored and BLOODY)... I started to think about one huge naming glitch.  Vegeta's father was simply called King Vegeta... shouldn't Vegeta be called as Vegeta Jr.?  It kind of even made me think a hundred years later, Vegeta had a distant descendant known as Vegeta Jr. when that name should have BEEN for him.  While I'm oaky with Vegeta being called Vegeta, but he should have been appropriate called Vegeta Jr.

While watching X-Men and Dragon Ball Z, I started to notice how often ideas fly from area to another.  I mean Super Sentai even copies ideas from its adaptation, Power Rangers.  So I thought for Frieza, what are his possible similarities to Apocalypse? Both believe that only the strong survive, the weak will perish.  Apocalypse lived with the doctrine of survival of the fittest weeded out the weak and got the strong.  Frieza conquered planets, spared the strong to serve him (most of them are just disposables) and he also fears to be usurped.  If Apocalypse wanted to get rid of any powerful mutant, Frieza feared the prophecy of the Super Saiyan that would destroy him.  Apocalypse infects the infant Nathan with the techno-virus, Frieza destroys the Planet Vegeta hoping none would oppose him but failed to notice the infant Goku. Both have their backup forces.  Apocalypse has his Four Horsemen.  In Frieza's case, he has Ginyu Forces. Their fall...

Dragon Ball Z's Cell Saga was a time paradox era. We meet Future Trunks the son of Vegeta and Bulma from the future. Would that sound a little bit similar to Cable from X-Men? Knowing that America and Japan copy from each other, I also felt like Cable's type of story was implanted into Future Trunks as a mysterious time traveler. Cable was first published in X-Men in 1986 so I'd say Dragon Ball Z copied the concept of Cable but modified it. So unlike Cable, Trunks is not time displaced but like Cable, he seeks to prevent a dangerous catastrophe from hitting the future. And like Cable, he ended up meeting his own infant self at one point, which during the Android Saga to the Cell Saga, Future Trunks STAYED in the past. He also destroyed a cyborg Frieza and King Cold before the start of the saga. Future Trunks' timeline is different from the present. His timeline was ransacked by several of Dr. Gero's robots (and I'd love to imagine Dr. Gero as being based on Ba...

I remembered watching the Yaiba series when I was a kid and it was usually and mostly focused with Takeshi Onimaru as the main villain until the arrival of Princess Kaguya (Princes Moon in the dub). For me, the whole series was a fun with some Dragon Ball influence (obviously Yaiba is a Goku clone and Takeshi Onimaru almost resembles Tien). Now we can start with the whole plot of the series. We have the arcs that focus mainly on Takeshi Onimaru. Yaiba challenges a high school student named Takeshi Onimaru who for some reason is bald, one day gets the Sword of the Wind God. Takeshi becomes the Wind God demon but uses the powers for himself. He goes from nobody to nightmare and seeks the Sword of the Thunder God to double his power which he and Yaiba do engage in an epic battle later in the series. Takeshi is the antagonist from the Hakki Arc (where Yaiba fights Takeshi's eight top henchmen, two who became his allies namely Gerozaimon and Namako Otoko), the Kojiro Arc, the Fortr...

If there was any other villain in Dragon Ball Z that intrigued me it wasn't Cell who was born into the world by artificial biology or the feral Super Buu, it would be Frieza.  That's right- the name that would strike fear TOO MUCH.  So what's the big deal?  He was known to be the son of King Cold yet for some reason, this prince of evil is far more feared than his supposedly more powerful father or his older brother Cooler who sadly only appeared for a short flick only.  So what's the big deal? So he's the one to propagate the idea of survival of the fittest- the strong survive and the weak will perish.  Ah that makes him a real monster quite like Apocalypse of Marvel Comics yet his was at an even BIGGER scale.  Not much is known except he's a spoiled brat to his father and perhaps that's what turned him into a complete monster.   So what activities has he done?  He normally gets a good planet, orders his subordinates to kill its inhabitants and ...

If there was any villain worth mentioning in Gatchaman it would not be the rather comedic (and gender ambiguous) Berg Katse or the redeemed villain Gel Sadora but rather... his excellency Count Egobossler... or should I say his despicably evilness. So why is he kind of unique? Compared to Berg Katse and Gel Sadora, he was no product of Sosai X but rather a dictator who has little or no mercy in every area he occupies and a person who evolves into a complete monster. His hatred unquenchable, he chose to show no mercy to anyone. What also made him unique is that he would NEVER allow anybody to come above him, not even Sosai Z (created from Sosai X's remains) who he had a partnership with. He feigned his loyalty from the very start hogging the glory only for himself. He was so cruel that even in the first episode, he launches an even bigger attack than most of his predecessors have. He in fact made Gatchaman Fighter very special to me. However things weren't exactly in his favo...

If there's one trend that seems to delight me is when Japanese anime does not only go live in Japan but also if it gets a Chinese adaptation. Yeah. Here are just a few of the Anime series that have been given a live Chinese adaptation and what I think: Hana Yori Dango- It became the basis for Meteor Garden 1.  However the ending was pretty different for the Anime vs. the Taiwanese version by F4.  Kaede Doumyoji was way scarier in the live version or maybe it's because the actress Zhen Xiu Zhen is really an awesome actress (I wish the actress were my mom and she'd teach me a thing or two about acting!).  It had a second season which wasn't as good while being original, it did deserve some praise. Marmalade Boy- Ken Zhu and Stella Huang do their parts as Miki and Yuu rather well. The Poor Prince- Vic Zhou manages to get his first main part here.  However there was a casting error making Ken Zhu the father of Vic Zhou, it's as stupid as Ti Lung being Jacky Chan...

Transformers... more than meets the eye. It started all with Hasbro and Sunbow productions in the U.S. which was one of the 80s series that had caught the eyes of children. Yup. And who couldn't forget how the jump the shark moments, the joy and pain of the Autobots vs. Decepticons and here's how it went: Season 1-2 - The plot was basically Optimus Prime leading in battle against the evil Decepticon warlord Megatron. It was basically where Megatron frequently got into a fight with his scheming deputy Starscream (who I disliked) because of power issues. Starscream was a traitor at best. Also, it was probably more violent than G.I.Joe was. The Movie- Well I have to say but I hated the fact that Optimus Prime was killed and he was replaced by Hot Rod who was simply introduced as a newbie.   Season 3 - Hot Rod's transformation to Rodimus Prime was pretty boring for some but he did a good job maturing as the series went. Galvatron deserved a better opponent....