Saturday, September 27, 2003

   Manga, cartoons and Robots
So, after a long day, it's time for my perspectives on certain things...

I got three new mangas today: Naruto vol 1, Shamen King vol 1 & Yu-Gi-Oh vol. 2.

I love all three of these mangas, but as per each individual volume, I'm going to have to say that Shamen King was the best read. The first volume covered all the way from the first Reincarnation to Yoh's battle with Ren.

YGO & Nauruto, on the other hand, felt incomplete. YGO broke off right in the middle of the Shadi storyline, and Naruto broke off in the middle of the first training storyline. Bummer. =(

Saw YGo, Jackie Chan Adventures and X-Men:Evo today, as well. A blurb for each:

Yu-Gi-Oh: I think what I liked most about this duel is that Joey summoned every monster he won in Battle City against Odion; nice touch. Also, I loved the way he figured out that Odion wasn't Marik. And now, because Marik's a creep, he's going to @#$% the whole duel up. I just wish it had been concluded today...

Jackie Chan: Lame. I usually love JCA, but this morning's episode didn't have any of the qualities I enjoyed.

X-Men: Evo: The return of Spike! But wait...I didn't miss him, and never liked him in the first place...ohh... This episode was total filler, and i'm getting a wee bit peeved. Magneto is dead (?), are we going to examine the reprecussions of that? Apocalypse is still on the loose, but he only gets a mention. And are we ever going to resolve the fact that Rogue basically murdered Mystique? No, we're going to be left hanging another week to check up on the most boring X-Man. Weak.

Anyway, on to something I rarely speak of: Transformers. There was a Transformers event at the local Toys R Us, and I dropped by because I was in the neighborhood.

They're re-releasing Beast Wars/Beast Machines figures as part of "Transformers: Universe", but...well, the new colors on them suck. And, quite frankly, their choice of characters to release is a bit lacking.

I don't expect a lot, but I'd kinda' wanted them to release toys of characters that were on the TV show. Instead, we get Iguanus, Snarl, Striker...who are these freaks, and why should I care about them? I want Waspinator, Rattrap, Cheetor, Dinobot, Jetstorm...

Granted, they are releasing *some* relevant characters, but, (and this is a personal thing), they're all characters I'm not fond of. Silverbolt & Blackarachnia are friggin' boring when they're together, and I much preferred Jetstorm, anyways.

They get one good point for releasing Obsidion, but the maligning of his character in the lousy "T:U" comic cancels that out.

Who *I* want to see released (my own TF dream-team): Cheeotor (BM), Rattrap (any incarnation), Inferno (BW), Obsidion, Jetstorm, Waspinator/Thrust, and Dinobot (TMII).

Whilst in the mall, I scanned Pojo's latest YGO release, covering LOD. In the Killer Decks section, I found something *really* interesting.

Appsarently, the Pojo staff designed a brand-new deck archetype! (Gasp!) This deck would be a Beatdown that consists entirely of Light-attribute monsters!

Amazing! Why didn't I think of that?

Oh, wait, I did. Months ago. In fact, an all-Light deck remains one of my fave arch-types.

Not to diss Pojo, but when they said it was a "new" arach-type, I just cracked up. :D

Finally, Shonen Jump #11 came today, along with a reminder to renew my subscription. I gotta' say, that is one ugly cover. Can't all be winners, I guess.

I loved this ish, as usual. Highlights were the previews of games, cards and other mangas, the origin of Cell, the fact that Sand-Land is over, Hiei getting his butt handed to him, and Sakura showing the boys up.

Quite frankly, though, Yu-Gi-Oh is weirding me out. The implication that Mokuba would kill Yugi and Joey is a bit much, especially when we know how his character changes, but that's nothing compared to how Kaiba's being presented. It's been implied/stated that he killed his father, dealt with the Mafia, killed to get his Blue Eyes, would have driven Granpa insane, and wants Yugi and his friends to die.

That's waaaaaayyyyy too much to pile on one character, especially one that will eventually become a protagonist. Can we just fast-forward to Duelist Kingdom?

My, this was a long column.

Thought of the moment: The XYZ machines look wicked cool...

Quote of the Moment: "This one's not bad; I can't even read 'Make-Out Paradise' while we're fighting." -Master Kakashi
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