Monday more like Assassins day

Alright it’s Monday again guys, and I am sorry getting the post up a little late but I have good reason. That reason being Assassins Creed 3, yeah I went for the midnight release with a friend and can’t wait to start playing this amazing looking game. I have been a fan of the series since pretty much the beginning.

I have put my hours into Assassins Creed 1, 2, Brotherhood and Revelations and  loved every minute of the games and their beautiful stories from beginning to end. All starting with the great assassin known as Altier, who grew from the ranks as the best, even to best his mentor. Then playing as Ezio, who started from the ranks of an assassin learning the ropes, then to leading your own guild of assassins and even be revered as one of the best in your time. Of course all these stories are connected to one center, a man named Desmond Miles, who is somehow descended from these characters Ezio and Altier, who each hold a piece of a puzzle leading to a bigger mystery in the greater which takes place in near current time. Now I don’t want to give too many spoilers if you haven’t played because these games really must be experienced to be enjoyed to their fullest extent.

I must in fact give props to the team behind these games Ubisoft, The fact they can release a new game each year with the amount of content that each of these games has is a testament in and of itself. Kudos to you and your wonderful team, it is times like this I am proud to be a Canadian with a great team like theirs supporting our ranks for awesome stories and games there is no arguing that Canada is Awesome.

Now I am itching to try out Assassins Creed 3 so I am leaving the post short but remember the creed “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” you should play the games to understand it’s meaning to the fullest as an Assasins does.

Men In Black

Who doesn’t love the Men In Black, the movies are enjoyable, the characters are fun, and of course awesome Aliens. Well Today I am not talking about the movies but in fact the Animated series created by Warner Bros. This series was geared towards children as it was on the WB kids block at the time, but after watching the series again as an adult I am surprised this show even got away with being a kids show at the time. 

We will start today with talking about the positives the show brings and later move to the negatives. Obviously in the positives pile one can include that Agent K and Agent J were the main characters and were supported by the regular cast of the movie such as Agent Z, Agent L, the Twins, and the worms to name a few. The casting choices for most all these characters were amazing with Ed O’Ross and later Greg Berger doing agent K, and Keith Diamond under  the voice casting for Agent J. Lastly I have to say the stories were great along with the character development, most of the stories did in fact serve to show some form of character growth. To better explain this look at the episode called “The Inanimate Syndrome”  This introduces a character named Eileen, and it is strongly suggested that K and her had had an intimate relation sometime before and that they may even get together again when the episode finished. This is later followed up with another episode having Eileen return in “The Sonic Boom Syndrome”, and clearly reference is made  to the previous episode she aired in and there is acknowledgment to the lessons from  time to still be in effect. For a bonus point since we are talking about these episodes there was in fact many a sex joke in the early seasons of this show, which surprise me that they even got past sensors as well as they did, especially since these jokes clearly go right over childrens heads and are clearly intended for the adult audience. Maybe the series was hoping to get that longevity who knows.

Now that I have discussed the good points of the series let us continue with the bad. Mostly the bad comes from season four. This is when the censors really dug into the show and changed a lot of things, such as including more worm-centric episodes. The problem with the worms is of course the inconsistent ramblings, and they do not  perform well under the spotlight as they were originally conceived as supporting cast and not meant for anything else. That of course was not the only terrible decision  by the fourth season but there was also the change of Agent L’s voice with the new actress Jennifer Martin, she did not have the same feel as Jennifer Lien even though she did seem to be trying her best and was doing a good job. Still the biggest complaint wasn’t L or the worms but the wasted potential of the new character Agent X an alien who disliked humans as he felt they were beneath him. This character was a jerk, and written to be that way but there was no real character development with him in the fourth season so we never learned to like him. This is what I  call lost potential, characters of this nature are usually the way they are for a reason obviously and that reason when confronted can show great character plot and development which can lead into a great story and possibly could have even helped Agent X become a more likable or relate-able character by the end of the series.

Still I love this show and recommend you give it a spin, I even recommend the fourth season as the finale alone saves it. So tonight I will be saying good night and leave you with the opening theme to the show which is stuck in my head as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHeuRMc6ak

Getting Ready for Hal-Con

As a nerd and a proud resident of Halifax, Nova Scotia I will be going to Hal-Con, sadly there is no booth or panel for me this year not popular enough for this. I apologize to any saddened fans over this turn out, but I will gladly say my hellos to you if I run into any of my followers. I will be the one probably wearing a few Lantern rings from the spectrum and possibly wearing an N7 cap from Mass Effect if you are in fact looking for me.

 Now that I have explained all of that I will be going right to the nitty gritty and tell my loyal followers what is recent in my books. Well to start of course last week I started buying single issues of comics. To  be more precise single issues of the DC New 52 comics line, as DC is slow at releasing their collected issues and I do not want to be behind with a few of the stories specifically Redhood and The Outlaws and Green Lantern New Guardians  Both of these stories are well written respectively and the art does look good, I will be honest though Redhood and The Outlaws is not everyone’s cup of tea especially with some of the changes that happened with Star Fire in particular, but I am sure if you give it a chance you can see why it is popular among some readers such as myself.

As for Green Lantern New Guardians what can be said but awesome a team of Lanterns from every spectrum working with Kyle Rayner to make themselves the possible new Guardians of the space sectors. This is what stories are made of it has a team that doesn’t get along due to the  warring emotions of the different spectrums and a chosen  character, Kyle Rayner having to learn how to tap into every ring power, which in turn can effect him and his emotions possibly destroying the character from the inside . Yeah this is sort of the universe event that keeps going on in the background and no one knows about it, this is just is just pure awesome and a must read.

Now that I have discussed my up to date events with you fine people I hope to see you at Hal-Con or at least hear from you on the blog itself. 

Pokémon – Gotta Catch èm All

What can be said about Pokémon that hasn’t so far, we have all played the games and watched the cartoons and even had battles about which Pokémon is better. Alright I`ll be honest like most Canadian kids in the nineties Pokémon started for me with the show and yes I did watch the first season as a kid I was about the same age as the main character Ash Ketchum, 10 years old when the  show first aired in North America. This made me the perfect marketable audience and of course I loved the show and instantly had to buy the games.

Later in my life I of course learned the games were the original incarnation made by Game Freak and Nintendo. This was a major surprise to me to learn, especially with Nintendo`s track record of making game series into television shows. Let`s just say most of the shows are very forgettable in nature like Super Mario Bros. Super Show or Captain N and the Game Master.

I`m here of course to talk about Pokemon though, so let`s forget the abominations I mentioned earlier. This series was actually fairly well made with top notch animation and  good voice acting. This of course can be attributed to the fact that the series treated children with a sense of respect and it did not take light issues that were in fact taking place in the series, such as death and a persons feelings in given situations.  Of course the fight scenes were awesome in the series as well, there was great choreography  in the art and designs it  held you attention and you wanted to watch every minute of it.

Sadly Pokemon did have its faults though the main character Ash was a bit dimwitted, he rarely caught most of the Pokémon he clearly had chances to and of course the creators decided the main character should not age. This seemed like an odd choice to me I mean the idea of the series is that it`s a coming of age story therefore without the character at least gaining some age this does not transpire, and not to mention you can`t tell me that the amount of traveling that is done in this series spans within a years time frame, especially since the series does even take the main characters to other continents later. I`m just venting though and still recommend this show to any young child as there is always something here for anyone who is a fan of this genre of shows.

Pokémon did have some great internet memes, which i recommend you look up and of course the infamous killer drinking game, take a drink for  every time a Pokémon says it name or every time ash does not catch the Pokémon, I don`t know anyone willing to try it. Before you try the drinking game to prove me wrong though I would appreciate you finish this blog first.

The games were a  different beast to the show though. The Pokémon games were  basically set up to be a first RPG for kids in a way and this was great as it kept things simple and easy to understand, such as do A get result B, not that hard and for the hardcore fans of course there was forms of advanced tactics to be found and abilities to explote. Sadly the Pokémon games have not really evolved much in the past 10 or so years the series has been around and this is kind of sad in my opinion and one of the reasons I stopped playing the games after the Ruby and Sapphire days.  Who knows though this blog did awaken the nostalgia in me maybe I`ll give one of the new games a crack for old times sake and see if I can feel that kiddish charm again, too bad there`s no Charmander as the starter choice anymore though he was one of my favorites

Anyway for the people still playing the games or watching the show remember “gotta catch èm all“ and here`s the original theme song it was probably the catchiest one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSSbYFUVq_A

Monday Scoop

Hey guys as I stated on Mondays I ‘ll be posting something about current events and Thursdays will be for the nostalgic.  Today we will discuss Green Lantern the Animated Series. A show well worth picking up especially if you are a Green Lantern fan. The art is beautiful and the writing is superb, but I expect nothing less from the folks that work on the DC Animated Universe.

Speaking of the Art of this series I have to point out even in CGI the character designs seem familiar to most people my age, and rightly so because Bruce Timm art creator for Batman the Animated Series, Superman the Animated Series, and Justice League is back at the reigns here and he is still on top form with his designs. I was especially surprised to see his character designs work as well as they did with CGI, especially those strong male figures he normally draws, for his heroes and those great sensual yet strong shapes he has for his females. The art alone promotes the series and should garner a watch, 

The show is lucky though it doesn’t only have an amazing artist guiding the reigns and leading the teams but also a great slew of writers such as Mark Hoffmeier, Jim Krieg and Ernie Altbacker just to name a few and the writing team seems to change all the time keeping ideas fresh and new. Though I have to say I did love how Mark Hoffmeier did introduce an old villain from the comics into the second half of the first season of this series, it especially shows some great things to possibly come for the story from this awesome team of writers.

The main characters could not be better for the series either following the likes of Hal Jordan the first Green Lantern of Earth, Kilowog bad ass of the stars and Green Lantern trainer, Aya an awesome A.I. learning the ropes, and finally Razor a Red Lantern that does not belong. I was surprised to see a team so well written and their evolution throughout the series so far has been nothing short of amazing, This can be brought back to good writing allowing things to run through course, and not forcing the story to go one way or another when it does not seem right at all. This is a great way to keep your audience glued to the channel and in a constant wait for the next episode, I know I’m hooked.

I might go watch a few episodes again while you read this.

News for the Blog

Sorry I haven`t been posting as much lately guys. I have been learning that without proper research some of these topics can get a little over whelmed. I want my writing to get better for my fans and followers and so to do this I will be changing things by posting a new post once a week. I may even do a preview post sometimes letting you know what I am watching or reading currently and my opinion of the series. So starting today regular updates will be Thursday or Friday, and the self updates will be on Mondays or Tuesdays (allowing for unseen situations and errors)

Justice League

One of the greatest things to come out of the early 21st century has to be the Justice League cartoon and I never wanted to miss a single episode.  This show was so popular and had a great staying power that it lasted from  from 2001 right to 2004 and then became Justice League Unlimited which then finished airing in 2006. 

The writers and producers of the DC animated universe really love the comics to such a degree that they even try to carefully choose the voice actors for their shows and Justice League was no exception With a strong cast like Kevin Conroy as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash, Susan Eisenburg as Wonder Woman and many more, it’s hard not to fall in love with the characters and even picture these voices while reading your comics. 

The DC animated Universe was great at introducing people to the DC universe and keeping it simple so that when you jumped into the comics you still felt at home . This is a testament to the team at Warner Bros. Animation, truly they seemed to have nothing bad in the nineties when it came to animated series. Though I have to strongly admit to the DC universe because we are talking about comics that have literally been around for Decades and that leaves a lot of back story to cover, this can get hard when you have to pick and choose what to change or leave out completely and yet the team behind Justice League just had a second sense for it.

I may be giving this show a lot of praise and I believe it is in the right mind set it was a show that knew how to appeal to kids but also to adults and it was not afraid to tackle hard issues like a series relationship with multiple cast members.  It was things like this that made the show stand out especially since it was written so well thanks to people such as Paul Dini, Dwayne McDuffie, J. M. DeMatteis, and more. This series was so well received by the fans that the series was released on blu ray and I have to recommend the purchase the quality is that good.

Guess I should end tonight with a strong note and leave you with the opening themes of the series which were epic and great at getting you pumped for the series 
Justice League Opening  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-GAxE6RD4
Justice League Unlimited Opening  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa2jYn3LmlE&feature=related

Animaniacs

One of the craziest things to ever come out of the nineties has to be the Anamaniacs, a great piece of animation that came from the great production team of Warner Bros. and Steven Spielberg. This was one of the many cartoons I enjoyed as a child and with good reason. The many people that worked on this series knew that you had to tell a story and keep it short and sweet so that no story segment would over stay its welcome. 

This show was great at getting away with some pretty awesome jokes meant for both kids and adults, and some of  the adult jokes were very risky even by today’s standards. If you want to get a good look at some of these awesome jokes, might I recommend the Nostalgia Critic’s Top 11 Naughtiest Moments in Animaniacs video http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/221-the-top-moments-in-animaniacs.

This series was a love letter to animations of old, while at the same time being an entity of its very own. This animated series was done in the same styles of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, Search up these two if you are inclined, I am sure you will find some great art from back in the day and maybe even some familiar art and animations styles still used to this day. 

Animaniacs clearly knew what it wanted to be and it even kept with it’s tropes even when it was told to do educational material, I mean look at the song about the planets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8eFFnJsCjs, They literally made the  punch line at the end on purpose and it was funny. The team behind this show as well as Freakazoid and Tiny Toons, who were pretty much all the same people knew what they wanted out of their shows  and made sure to stick to their rules. To this day all these shows are still funny and enjoyable and good for child and adult alike.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the Animaniacs and maybe i got those nostalgiac juices pumping.

Digimon

Digimon is a great anime and Television series that is still airing to this day. Originally aired in Japan this series was later moved to the North America’s thanks to the people at Saban Entertainment. I was an instant fan of this series when it first aired back in 1999 and I even stuck with it up to one of the later seasons.

This series was considered a rip off of Pokemon, and I think it still is considered as such. Though if you were to watch a season of this and a season of Pokemon I think you would notice some very key differences, such as the premise and even key story elements. The only real resemblance that these two series even have is that everything is centered around abnormal creatures that evolve into different forms to become more powerful.

One of the things I loved about this series, but at the same time disliked was the way it handled its seasons. Digimon did not stick with the same characters for every season but in fact allowed the characters to grow older and have them be replaced be new characters and even some seasons were right out forms of  retelling of the story with new characters and premises. Personally I liked this to a degree as it showed a great way to allow new fans to come in to the series at the start of almost any season, as well as even allowing new Digimon be shown with new evolution states keeping things fresh and new like. On the other hand I do have dislike for this in the sense that sometimes they completely forgot the previous cast members and this was proven as they were never mentioned or even shown in some of the newer seasons, which for a fan of the original who worked their way up to the current seasons of this show felt like a big let down.

Even though I do hate some of the choices the creative team does have with the show I do in fact feel the good out weighs the bad in this show, because the character development is good and the animation was, and still is great to look at. This series knew how to tell its stories and you loved most every minute of it. This is where I have to commend the creator Akiyoshi Hongo and the producers at Toei Animation, obviously they knew what good stories were and they clearly wanted their fans to enjoy this series.

Since Toei Animation was behind this show in Japan it had a good production quality behind it as well, and because of this I couldn’t wait for one of my favorite parts of this series the evolution stages or as the English version called it Digivolution. This was usually followed up by a pretty awesome battle sequence commence, which was shown with some great animation. This is where the actions really shines for me because things can get real hectic and a good animation team, like Toei Animation can really make sure you still know what’s going on even in the most craziest of situations.

As a fan of this series I guess I have nothing but praise and can recommend it to anyone and everyone who clearly gained interest in this post  today.

Go Go Power Rangers !!!

I’m sure everyone remembers the power rangers, but just in case you don’t I’m sure the opening credits will jog your memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpcCoW5gA7w. This show was cheesy, it was silly and I loved it. This should not surprise anyone actually it was a show that had a very loyal fan base and it was probably one of the first things we took from Japan and made our own.

Originally the Power Rangers was a Japanese creation, I think they even had a different name there but the popularity was unquestionable, which amazingly gave Saban the idea to make the American counterpart for the show  which was aired originally in the nineties and is now continuing to this day with new iterations to the Power Ranger teams almost every year or so. This series is so loyal to its fan base it never seemed to forget the past, the proof of this lies with an episode I recently seen which showed all the Red Rangers teaming up to face a common enemy they would not be able to alone, from what I saw the show still had the cheesy effects and the fun music and awesome atmosphere that made you say “Fuck Yeah”.

Funny thing about this show is it was all about the “Fuck Yeah” moments. Even when you were a kid and you didn’t quite know what the words meant you still had the feeling , and nothing was truer than when the Power Rangers got out their Megazord for the ultimate fight with the boss for the selected episode and they would defeat it in a blaze of glory. This was one of the reasons most of us came back was for the cheese and the action. Maybe we even wanted to be Power Rangers as kids, hell I know some people who still love the series so much they admit to watching some of the new seasons. I myself watched the Dino Thunder season to be honest, because they got the actor who played Tommy, the Green Ranger and White Ranger respectfully in the original back again. In this season he was still Tommy and he had grown up to become a teacher and in a later episode the new Black Ranger, this was clearly a wink to the old fans especially since they even had an episode where he fought his older ranger forms to show that he moved on. This surprised me to a new level, especially with a deep story impact such as this clearly meant for the adult fans

To be honest the Power Rangers have  evolved I guess and they cater to multiple audiences now, kids  new to the series and adults who stuck with it because they are true fans or came back to watch it with their own kids. This series seems to always have an idea and might never die because of these things, but it still has its own sad state of    repeated story elements and silly ideas, one particular idea does actually come to mind that I always seemed to notice as a kid and even in the Dino Thunder series. The Evil Power Ranger who later becomes the good guy. Even with its flaws though The Power Rangers is a great introduction into the science fiction universe and I still recommend it.

If I have gotten some of you interested or  nostalgic I recommend hitting up Netflix and watching a few episodes of your selected seasons. So as the Power Rangers always say Morphing Time