Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

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 -- ...

Street Fighter II V came out in 1995 AFTER the Street Fighter 1994 film came out. Street Fighter (1994) decided to go away from the TITLE MOLD for the G.I. Joe mold. There were Street Fighter toys by Hasbro at that time too. I was thinking that the 1994 film actually failed to incorporate Blanka in a MEANINGFUL way. The Street Fighter II Anime chose not to feature him, T. Hawk, Dee Jay, and E. Honda for a reason.  The movie plot had Blanka as Charlie Blanka -- a combination of Charlie Nash and Blanka. However, the GAME has him as Jimmy. I felt that Blanka could've been added into the Dictator's list of Super Soldier projects that could easily fit into the final scene. What if the Dictator decided to use Jimmy as a super soldier that would be forced to fight Ryu and Ken towards the finale? This would prove the Dictator to be someone who plays the deadly game of humanity against the heroes. My plot is that the use of Hadou to purge Blanka's mind rage. Blanka could be used as ...

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? They would compose 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 o...

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.