Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

If there was any fighting game in Capcom that was pretty "creepy", it was Darkstalkers. It was focused on the supernatural, yep you got it with an array of popular horror movie creatures like vampires (Demitri Maximov and Morrigan Aensland, in extension Lilith, Donovan is half a vampire), werewolf (J. Talbain), a merman (Rikuo), the undead (L. Rapter, Victor, Anakaris, Bishamon, Hsien Ko), other animal based creatures (Q-Bee, Felicia), a sasquatch (Sasquatch, duh) and to the devilish ones (Pyron, Jedah). B.B. Hood may be fully human herself. What I thought kept Darkstalkers going was this- the flirty rivalry between Demitri Maximov and Morrigan Aensland. As vampires, it could go on for a LOOONG time. Why? Well Demitri Maximov thought of conquering Makai, only to have his castle absorbed by Jedah. So they are the main characters and were unjustly portrayed as evil in the cartoon series. Since they're both vampires, he can't control her. She seems to have feeli...

In Fushigi Yuugi, we had the fact that Lady Yui was once in love with Tamahome but as time passed, she gained the attention of Suboshi and later, fell for Nakago who was manipulating her but I believe at some point, he really loved her. But I thought about it that she and Nakago seemed to make the perfect match- if Tamahome was to Miaka then she would be the perfect match to Nakago. All that while, I thought she would be the key to melt Nakago's ice cold heart and just end the war. Of course, Nakago also had the lover in Soi but to Nakago, Soi was more of a comrade than a lover. Maybe not. Nakago after failing to control Tamahome for good, he became Lady Yui's confidant and signs of them falling in love were present. Of course, Nakago wanted to have Yui to wish him power. Was it so he could rule the world with her or so he could have her? Maybe. I suspected that Nakago may have known that if he can't wish for Seiryuu for her and Yui to be together, he'll have to...

Before He-Man was finalized, He-man greatly resembled Conan storywise. He started off as a barbarian but a lot more humane than Conan was, who was destined to fight against the evil skull-headed sorcerer known as Skeletor. Rather than portray him to be super strong, he isn't that super strong. He is portrayed to be more human, like Conan was in Conan the Adventurer. He is the member of a barbaric tribe and its champion. The arch-villain Skeletor was meant to be the quite similar to Thulsa Doom. Rather than being a bonehead, Skeletor was meant to be a SCARY villain. He was from some other dimension, he was an immortal foe that just wouldn't die. Well I believe that in order to avoid being too much of a Conan inspired cartoon, a lot of changes were made such as making He-Man the alter ego of Prince Adam instead.

Skeletor I believe had several inspirations. Here are the possible characters that inspired him: The evil wizard Thulsa Doom by Robert E. Howard- He fought both Kull and Conan in different eras of his life in the comics version since he never fought Conan in the novels. Like Skeletor, this guy is an UNDEAD sorcerer who uses force as means to control his troops. Thulsa Doom's personality was slightly used for the He-Man live movie. Dr. Destiny- Actually it's all just appearance-wise.

I remembered watching the He-Man movie when I was still a naughty child, yes... naughty and TV obsessed. Anyway, I have noticed that the movie version of Skeletor had greatly deviated from the cartoons. Instead of being comical, he is portrayed to be more mature and not only that, far more menacing to the point he does succeed in entering Castle Grayskull and nearly defeated He-Man.  His personality was almost like the comics version of Thulsa Doom. Also, he was able to use the powers of the Universe for himself, which was NEVER done in the cartoons. I sort of later compared this scene to Conan fighting the comic version of Thulsa Doom (where his inspiration is apparently from), much more epic than Conan beheading the movie version of Thulsa Doom. I personally thought however, maybe James Earl Jones should have voiced him. :-P

It has come into my attention that the lovely Kimberly Hart had some unwanted suitors in MMPR and they are: Skull- For a number of episodes, he's been after her and it made his situation worse when Tommy arrived. When Kimberly Hart fell for him under a love potion, his dream came true only for an episode but it wasn't real feelings. I personally thought this was disgusting. Lord Zedd- This was pretty disgusting. So he requires a bride and he fell for Kimberly Hart. Well, I guess she's just that hot. Hmmm... and he wanted her for only one episode fortunately. I personally found the episode too disgusting. Fortunately he found the bride that serves him well- Rita Repulsa. He did forget about her after that one episode and that was a relief.  I guess he knows EVIL when he can have it and he's not overly fixated... but he got overly fixated over Rita even after the love potion was gone.

Tekken and Virtua Fighter seem to copy from each other. Okay I'm more of a Tekken fan and I admit that Nina came AFTER Sarah Bryant but I'd like to present some similar characters: Akira Yuki and Jin Kazama - Too self-explanatory. Wolf Hawkfield, El Blaze, King I and King II - They're all wrestlers. Duh. Sarah Bryant and Nina Williams - Both are amnesiac blond women. Wang Jinrei and Shun Di - Both are old men who are masters of martial arts. Aoi Umenokoji and Asuka Kazam a- Both are daughters of dojo masters. Taka-Arashi and Ganryu - This is where Virtua Fighter gets an idea from Tekken. Both are sumo wrestlers. However Ganryu made more appearances than Taka-Arashi.

If there has been ANY chemistry that kept X-Men going IMO it's the chemistry of Cyclops and Jean Grey. The two were really somewhat made for each other despite the troubles, they somewhat made it back. And of course their romance was "until death do us part". I personally wanted them to have a real, cohesive relationship and plus, I always thought of it that they were truly meant for each other. However the writers were just so DUMB as to the point they actually had to KILL Jean Grey rather than fix the relationship. So I was already upset that Cyclops would have a love affair with Emma Frost and when reconciliation could be possible, the authors had to kill Jean Grey and later pair him up with the third party. I personally thought that perhaps there is a lesson to help couples cherish their moments before it's too late.

What was pretty interesting was this that He-Man being inspired by Conan the Barbarian in some ways, was that He-Man in the draft was intended to be a wandering adventurer, much like Conan, a more child friendly version of Conan. He wasn't intended to be royalty and his real identity as Prince Adam was never created until later. So it was apparent that they wanted a barbarian character to be He-Man, and that he wasn't going to be that strong either. Also, the character of Skeletor was intended to be an undead menace, much like Thulsa Doom and was intended to be less comical and more serious, which was later used for the live He-Man movie.

If there was anybody in X-Men that amazed me was Apocalypse. I tend to compare him to Mumm-Ra in Thunder Cats as both are over a thousand years old and are practically nearly immortal. So far, he had been around the world, menacing it. He had risen from the ashes of being left behind for his monstrous image, to being raised by Baal the Sand Raider to his rise to power, with the knowledge of sorcery and later technology. He had been the ultimate of destruction, seeking to make a world fit only for what he saw as fit. His true name was En Sabah Nur meaning the first light of the great dawn, which he believed himself to be. So far, he had made a pact with the ancient spirits of evil to survive. He had over the years acquired several powers from ultra high tolerance to fatigue, being able to survive without food or water for a long period of time, enhanced strength, the ability to prevent aging and even fire dangerous blasts that could wipe out whole cities.  Later on, he found...

I personally thought that Cobra Commander in the cartoon was simply murdering the real him in the comics. The comic version was less cowardly, a lot less that is. So while he was initially portrayed to be like Adolph Hitler, however the writers were SO STUPID to write him in the vein of Yosemite Sam or worse, Starscream as he was voiced by the late Chris Latta. He was later given such dumb plots like vandalizing the moon (which was really dumb) or that he frequently called for retreat, which was another trademark not in the comics but certainly Megatron did keep saying "Retreat!". It came to a point that his incompetence caused Dr. Mindbender to organize a meeting between Destro and the Crimson Twins to create the Cobra Emperor. He discovered them but later his own guards turned on him. What the? I felt like he may not be paying the Crimson Guards properly either. Even his own confidant Scrap-Iron betrayed him and he was inevitably usurped by the new leader, Serpento...

If there was any part of G.I.Joe that I found worth questioning was the existence of the Cobra-La. Sure these guys are more vicious than the Taliban or anybody who would send Osama bin Laden a.k.a. the real life Cobra Commander but I felt like these guys were just written out of a sudden plot twist. So it turns out to be they are some missing branch of humanity and I thought that they were pretty cool as a child but then, as I grew up, my critical thinking had them analyzed. So I thought they are not so necessary for the G.I.Joe plot plus the part where Cobra Commander is part of them doesn't make sense. In the first place, Cobra Commander being sent by them to form the Cobra army to dispose of humanity was just stupid in writing. Why? Cobra Commander organized Cobra for his own benefits. He organized an army of humans to work for a human-hating society?! WTF? Also there was the plot of Serpentor as part of Cobra-La's plans. Again, Cobra-La hates humans and Serpento...