Marvel Anime: Wolverine 03 – Kikyo, Molotov Cocktails and Seeing a Lot of Red

Can't wait to see some generic assassin in my birthday...

In this episode of Wolverine, which can be divided into two parts, the first part, we have the duel between an assassin and our Canadian mutant and on the second part; Logan is having his payback with Kurohagi drugging him in the first episode!

The first part of the episode reminded me of something. What if Kenshin Himura or any silent assassin had a face off with Logan? I guess the outcome of this part explained it. To be honest, Kikyo reminded me of every silent assassin variant found in anime with the exception that his sword is found within his body. Kinda like Wolvie’s claws except that it is a single sword. In terms of his personality, I find Kikyo somewhat forgettable due to how generic he is with added spice.

How generic? His fighting style reminded me of every wind-based assassin found in anime! I mean, he can use pressurized air to damage his enemies, what’s special with that? If the writers decided to continue on using this character, please, give him more variety. But hey, at least we know that he is the one responsible in killing Asano!

As for his fight with Wolverine, its fun watching it and the fact that it ended up with a draw gives us a possibility of seeing Kikyo again in the near future since he has unfinished business with Logan. And one of the best things about this fight? They abused Tokyo’s location, resulting to have fights on top of buildings, streets and on top of police patrol cars!

For the second part, probably, this one of the strongest parts of the episode. It is official that Logan and Yukio will cooperate because of their single goal of revenge against Shigen and his yakuza clan.

And how will they start their revenge? By destroying Shigen’s cargo of drugs using Molotov cocktails! The sight of seeing Molotovs flying around makes this episode fun along with Kurohagi and his men panicking in stopping the flames. What’s more is that Logan himself jumping from a warehouse rooftop just to confront Kurohagi, man to man!

Can't. Wait.

Overall, this episode compared to the previous one is strong in terms of fight scenes. The only downside with this episode is that Kikyo is just one generic assassin with mutant abilities that it felt like he is not worthy facing Wolverine. But hey, in the next episode, we will be having Omega Red! Please bring Sabertooth after Red so that I could see X-Men’s trademark squabble!

Tokyo MX to Regulate Anime Due to Youth Ordinance Bill

Freezing, one anime title that is currently airing on Tokyo MX

The February 12th issue of Weekly Gendai published an article that Tokyo MX might self-regulate in terms of airing anime titles due to the recently passed Youth Ordinance Bill because of its ties with the government, to be exact, 4.1% of the stocks of Tokyo MX are held by Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Aside from that, this is the only station that Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara airs his press conference who is responsible of the said bill.

Weekly Gendai's source at Tokyo MX added, "We are popular among students as a station known for its strong presence of anime," but the station may have to reconsider hiring anime fans among new graduates.

For example, the job application sheet may have the question, "If you were to take a foreign friend sightseeing in Japan, where would you take him or her? If the student were to write "Akihabara," the station might ask him or her to leave the application process.

Even if they will regulate the amount of ecchi anime titles, it doesn't mean you can't watch the said late night anime content because there are other stations who can air it in Japan such as Chiba TV, TV Kanagawa and TV Saitama. So those who are watching Rio- Rainbow Gate! or Freezing via keyhole, don't worry!

Source: Karubi, Yaraon! via ANN, MyAnimeList

IS: Infinite Stratos 04 - Gate Crashers

The battle between Rin and Ichika begins but even if that is the assumed plot, it all ended up with some unmanned IS ruining it. Aww, I was expecting to see more Shenlong action with retractable claws… just kidding! The amount of time it appeared is enough for me to talk about it abilities!

Note: Second sentence never happened in the series. It happened in a different series that involves a different Shenlong.

The battle between Byakushiki and Shenlong was more intense compared to Blue Tears shooting aimlessly on the evading Byakushiki. I mean, asides that Rin is good in using her IS in short range, Shenlong can deliver one strong laser attack… and it is not yet on its full power! This is, how I can say it, if the match continued without that unknown IS crashing in, Shenlong will definitely win.

As for Shenlong, I love the fact that it is advantageous in both close range and long range combat thanks to its dual swords and mounted cannons. As for the design, the good amount of red made a clear reference that this IS came from China, the dragon antenna found in Rin’s head adds the Chinese touch with the IS.

For the gate crashing IS, my first impression is that from afar, he kinda looked like Vilgax from Ben 10 due to its fat arms but hey, at least those arms back quite a punch and fire power! In this situation that the arena is closed and that Rin and Ichika are alone in the area with that mecha, this is when we saw much of Ichika’s potential both as a pilot and as a lead protagonist.

As a pilot, he was able to think fast with the situation he is facing right now. Even though he does not read his manual much, he was able to manage it with his personal instincts and I salute Ichika with that. As a lead protagonist, he doesn’t want to leave Rin alone, in the battlefield and it is enough to tell me that his harem will continue on growing as time passes.

Also in this episode, we saw more of Chifuyu's sister side when she thought Ichika more about the original sword that she used in which Byakushi's sword was based upon. Also, we saw more of Rin trying trying to steal a kiss from Ichika! It seems that Houki and Cecilia will have one tough love rival!

As for the battles, it is still as impressive and stunning as ever. Sure there are rough edges such as the transition between CGI and traditional but it is forgivable.

Overall, the episode is still visual eye candy and with the introduction of a new IS with an unregistered core; it seems that this show is finally becoming more interesting. Because of the introduction of an unregistered core, a question surfaced, where is Dr. Tabane? Is she responsible for all of this? If so, I guess I know what will happen next! Speaking of next, in the next episode, asides from Ichika, a new boy in the IS Academy appeared!

Marvel Anime: Wolverine 04 – Omega Red

On the previous episode, Logan and Yukio decide to crash Kurohagi’s delivery by throwing a couple of Molotov cocktails with Wolvie, confronting Kuorhagi at the end. At the near end of the episode, one of X-Men’s famed villains, Omega Red makes an appearance and decides to settle his score with Logan.

If you watched any X-Men cartoon adaptation, you always see Omega Red either working for the government to defeat the X-Men or working with the Brotherhood. But this time, it seems that he is working freelance thanks to his grudge against Logan. I like this. To begin with, Omega Red never stood out as a bad guy, well his tentacles, yes it stood out for me but his personality, not much because he is some guy who works for some organization and he is just doing his job and his darn good with it!

What I can say about this Omega Red is that, for starters, it is fun to see Omega Red having a grudge against Logan because of what he did years ago thanks to some carbonadium synthesizer, which is need for Red to survive from the rejections caused by the prosthesis found in his body. In addition, he has every right to be angry with Logan because he stole that said item for the government!

First impression about this guy, I love their version of Omega Red! A mutant struggling with the weapons found in his body and now that he is okay with it thanks to some folk from Madripoor, he is about to get his revenge because of what Wolverine did to him years ago. I like this Omega Red along with how they redesigned him to make him look like some angry old Russian!

About their fight, its fiery, making a good contrast to Wolverine’s first encounter with Omega Red back in cold Russia. The fights showed the anger found in Omega Red’s eyes and in his fight with Wolverine, he clearly dominates that Wolvie had no choice but to throw some LPG tank found in the warehouse just to deliver major damage against Omega Red.

Overall, this episode is quite an episode. Asides that it reintroduces an old X-Men villain with a pretty good reason why he needs to trash Wolverine with his tentacles, adding another mutant in one of the things Logan needs to settle in Japan adds spice to this show.

Bakuman 17 – Goblin and Kindness

It’s been a while since I wrote an episode review for Bakuman, but here it is, I just did a review for episode 17! Anyways, Mashiro accepts the summer job of being Niizuma’s assistant and along with it; he met Nakai and Fukuda, his other assistants. Naki here is the old guy on his thirties while Fukuda is that white-haired guy. Enough with the character descriptions, let’s get this over with!

Asides that it is pretty rare that I use the show’s episode titles, the reason why I used it is because of two things. First, Niizuma has been quite cocky and doesn’t listen much to his editor, instead he spends time drawing the manuscript and submitting it and because of this, CROW’s rankings slowly drops after the first chapter due to it being not interesting.

This is when the Goblin part of the title comes in. Eiji has been occupied with the praises coming from those in Jack’s editorial department because he is, accordingly, a genius with the said praise stuck in his head that at the end of the episode he admitted that he turned into a “goblin.”

Second, as for the Kindness part, if not for Mashiro not observing Niizuma, the talk about popularity will not be brought up which ended up with a pseudo meeting between Mashiro, Niizuma and Fukuda just to help their Niizuma fix his problem in making CROW interesting.

As for the new characters, Nakai is one of those pro-assistants who still want to become a full-fledged manga-ka and as seen in this episode, he is envious with the youth around him, makes me pity the guy. As for Fukuda, he is cocky and somewhat a good mix between Niizuma, and that guy who likes to draw moe in some episode that I forgot. Even though he is a jerk that deserves to be punched, deep inside he is good guy who works as an assistant and as a convenience store clerk at morning.

Asides from the new characters, this is one episode in which we saw Niizuma having the needed character development. I mean, for the past few weeks, he is acting weird, doing poses (in this episode, he did Kamen Rider 1’s pose that caused me to fanwank a bit and mutter his henshin phrase, Rider… Henshin), and leave his manuscripts lying on the floor. It was fun when it lasted but what’s next? Thank God, the writers heard my wish!

Overall, it is one worthy episode to be watched. Asides that we saw Niizuma finally having the needed character growth, we met Ashirogi Muto’s possible rivals in the form of the kind-hearted Nakai and the jerk Fukuda. Finally this show is getting much more interesting due to the change of pace with our characters! Now, when we will see episodes that involve Takagi’s own personal growth?