Categories
February 28th, 2024
My Non-Anime List(s)
I used to have lists of extra stuff I wanted to track on my profile "About Me", but I am migrating the lists here!
Super Hero Tokusatsu
Kaiju Eiga Tokusatsu
Star Wars
Super Hero Tokusatsu
Kaiju Eiga Tokusatsu
Star Wars
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Feb 28, 6:17 AM | 0 comments
August 17th, 2019
Gundam OVAs: Comparing Runtimes
Anime Relations: Kidou Senshi Gundam Unicorn, Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin, Kidou Senshi Gundam Unicorn RE:0096, Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin - Zenya Akai Suisei
tl;dr:
Gundam Unicorn has about 5 fewer minutes of total footage in its TV version, and Gundam: The Origin has almost 100 minutes of footage missing from its TV version. See "Results" heading below for data.
Background:
In 2010, Sunrise debuted the Gundam Unicorn OVA series. Being an entry in the Universal Century timeline, it was bound to appeal to long time fans, and the mobile suit designs and model kit line were expertly tailored to empty all of their wallets. A few years later, the OVA had wrapped up its final episode. An entire line of model kits had already been produced, and thus a brilliant marketing tactic was implemented: They would recut the OVA footage into a TV anime to bring Unicorn to an audience that had not payed to see it in theaters, and reinvigorate sales of the kits. This would become 2016's Gundam Unicorn RE: 0096, a 22 episode series which would reportedly include new animation. Through all the years since its release, I have yet to find any details on exactly where this new animation could be found, and doubted its existence. The subsequent Gundam OVA series, Gundam: The Origin, has now received the same TV anime treatment with 2019's Gundam: The Origin - Eve of the Red Comet. The goal of this study was to compare the run time of the OVA and TV versions for both Unicorn and The Origin to deduce if there is possibly new footage to be found.
Hypothesis:
By accounting for all of the footage contained in each version, I hoped to show that both the TV versions and OVA versions contained the exact same content and runtime when adjusted for recaps, credit sequences, and other inserts.
Procedure:
To measure the amount of footage in each version, the episodes must be viewed somehow. For this study, the episodes of OVA versions were viewed on Hulu, and the episodes of TV versions were viewed on VRV. First, the total runtime of each episode is recorded. Then extraneous elements are timed, and their time is deducted from the total runtime. Totals are then calculated for the full runtime of each version. Elements which are deducted include: Theme songs, recaps, company logos, footage reused from previous episodes, and credits. Here, credits refer to either the duration of an ending credit sequence in TV episodes, or the amount of time credits roll after the background has faded to black. For Gundam: The Origin, all times were rounded to half minutes. Gundam Unicorn had some shorter segments of extraneous elements, so its times were rounded to intervals of 10 seconds, represented as a decimal with at most 2 digits of precision. At the end, we compare the reduced runtime of each version to see if they contain the same amount of footage.
Results:
*The TV episode 1 "recap" is only the Daisuki and Sunrise logos. TV episode 3 contains 1.5 minutes of footage present in episode 1.
(Click here to see the full spreadsheet and not these screenshots of the data)
Note that the Gundam Unicorn OVA contains no opening sequences or recaps, while its TV version includes recaps, opening songs, ending songs, and episode previews. Conversely, the Gundam: The Origin OVA begins most of its episodes with recaps, while its TV version only has opening songs and ending songs with no recaps or episode previews. For both cases, the TV version contains less total footage than their corresponding OVA. Unicorn is very close, with the OVA footage only 5 minutes longer than the TV version. The Origin, on the other hand, has almost 100 minutes of OVA footage cut for its TV version. Other interesting data points are the fact that the Origin OVAs subjects its viewers to a total of half an hour of recap footage, and Unicorn's TV version has almost 40 minutes of recaps. In total the Unicorn TV version has roughly 1.5 hours of extra content padding it out.
Discussion:
As much as I admire these TV recuts for the brilliant amount of money they saved in production compared to an original series, it is evident to me that the planning it takes to do such a recut is immense. Gundam Unicorn must have not contained quite enough footage to reach a full 24 episodes even with all the padding, and The Origin with almost 50 minutes less footage had no hoped of being stretched into a two cour run. I think this must be what led to the decision to trim Origin into a one cour abridged version of the OVAs.
As for the new footage for either TV version, it seems unlikely to me that either one contains new scenes animated for the story due to the fact that each one has overall less footage than their OVAs. Perhaps the new animation referenced lies in the opening and ending songs, which while they are mostly comprised of animation from the episodes arranged together with artistic filters, could easily hide new bits of animation inconspicuously. That said, there very well could be new footage embedded in the episodes themselves that slipped past me.
The main drawback of this study is that is only produces two scalar values of runtime to compare, and does not account for what is present within that runtime. For the most part this study was conducted by starting an episode, and recording the start and end times of each extraneous element then taking the difference. I did not take a fine toothed comb to go through each episode and make sure there were no flashbacks or replays of footage from previous episodes, however any such instances that I noticed were recorded and accounted for. A more thorough study would be to watch each version side by side on different screens, and at any point when the two deviate, note what scene is present in but but not the other, and what shots have been cut with precise timing information. If anybody decides to conduct such a study, please link me to the results!
Gundam Unicorn has about 5 fewer minutes of total footage in its TV version, and Gundam: The Origin has almost 100 minutes of footage missing from its TV version. See "Results" heading below for data.
Background:
In 2010, Sunrise debuted the Gundam Unicorn OVA series. Being an entry in the Universal Century timeline, it was bound to appeal to long time fans, and the mobile suit designs and model kit line were expertly tailored to empty all of their wallets. A few years later, the OVA had wrapped up its final episode. An entire line of model kits had already been produced, and thus a brilliant marketing tactic was implemented: They would recut the OVA footage into a TV anime to bring Unicorn to an audience that had not payed to see it in theaters, and reinvigorate sales of the kits. This would become 2016's Gundam Unicorn RE: 0096, a 22 episode series which would reportedly include new animation. Through all the years since its release, I have yet to find any details on exactly where this new animation could be found, and doubted its existence. The subsequent Gundam OVA series, Gundam: The Origin, has now received the same TV anime treatment with 2019's Gundam: The Origin - Eve of the Red Comet. The goal of this study was to compare the run time of the OVA and TV versions for both Unicorn and The Origin to deduce if there is possibly new footage to be found.
Hypothesis:
By accounting for all of the footage contained in each version, I hoped to show that both the TV versions and OVA versions contained the exact same content and runtime when adjusted for recaps, credit sequences, and other inserts.
Procedure:
To measure the amount of footage in each version, the episodes must be viewed somehow. For this study, the episodes of OVA versions were viewed on Hulu, and the episodes of TV versions were viewed on VRV. First, the total runtime of each episode is recorded. Then extraneous elements are timed, and their time is deducted from the total runtime. Totals are then calculated for the full runtime of each version. Elements which are deducted include: Theme songs, recaps, company logos, footage reused from previous episodes, and credits. Here, credits refer to either the duration of an ending credit sequence in TV episodes, or the amount of time credits roll after the background has faded to black. For Gundam: The Origin, all times were rounded to half minutes. Gundam Unicorn had some shorter segments of extraneous elements, so its times were rounded to intervals of 10 seconds, represented as a decimal with at most 2 digits of precision. At the end, we compare the reduced runtime of each version to see if they contain the same amount of footage.
Results:
*The TV episode 1 "recap" is only the Daisuki and Sunrise logos. TV episode 3 contains 1.5 minutes of footage present in episode 1.
(Click here to see the full spreadsheet and not these screenshots of the data)
Note that the Gundam Unicorn OVA contains no opening sequences or recaps, while its TV version includes recaps, opening songs, ending songs, and episode previews. Conversely, the Gundam: The Origin OVA begins most of its episodes with recaps, while its TV version only has opening songs and ending songs with no recaps or episode previews. For both cases, the TV version contains less total footage than their corresponding OVA. Unicorn is very close, with the OVA footage only 5 minutes longer than the TV version. The Origin, on the other hand, has almost 100 minutes of OVA footage cut for its TV version. Other interesting data points are the fact that the Origin OVAs subjects its viewers to a total of half an hour of recap footage, and Unicorn's TV version has almost 40 minutes of recaps. In total the Unicorn TV version has roughly 1.5 hours of extra content padding it out.
Discussion:
As much as I admire these TV recuts for the brilliant amount of money they saved in production compared to an original series, it is evident to me that the planning it takes to do such a recut is immense. Gundam Unicorn must have not contained quite enough footage to reach a full 24 episodes even with all the padding, and The Origin with almost 50 minutes less footage had no hoped of being stretched into a two cour run. I think this must be what led to the decision to trim Origin into a one cour abridged version of the OVAs.
As for the new footage for either TV version, it seems unlikely to me that either one contains new scenes animated for the story due to the fact that each one has overall less footage than their OVAs. Perhaps the new animation referenced lies in the opening and ending songs, which while they are mostly comprised of animation from the episodes arranged together with artistic filters, could easily hide new bits of animation inconspicuously. That said, there very well could be new footage embedded in the episodes themselves that slipped past me.
The main drawback of this study is that is only produces two scalar values of runtime to compare, and does not account for what is present within that runtime. For the most part this study was conducted by starting an episode, and recording the start and end times of each extraneous element then taking the difference. I did not take a fine toothed comb to go through each episode and make sure there were no flashbacks or replays of footage from previous episodes, however any such instances that I noticed were recorded and accounted for. A more thorough study would be to watch each version side by side on different screens, and at any point when the two deviate, note what scene is present in but but not the other, and what shots have been cut with precise timing information. If anybody decides to conduct such a study, please link me to the results!
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Aug 17, 2019 9:27 AM | 0 comments
October 12th, 2017
Dragon Ball GT: Quarterly Report 4
Holy. Balls. I now fully understand why GT is regarded as it is. This final arc, this last quarter, was by far the most underwhelming out of the entire series. This is such a quandary, because in terms of content it should be the most exciting. I mean, we have Goku fight against the Dragon Balls themselves, and see more SSJ4 than we have at any other point, but it was so completely flawed that it was unbearable to watch. Here we go.
PLOT
Literally, this can be summed up in two points:
The end.
Of course, there is a little more to it than that (Just barely). Each of the dragons they fight has some special trick to their power that must be figured out to achieve victory, but many of these are pretty contrived. One of them, whom I will refer to as "Goldie the Dragon," develops respect for Goku as a warrior, but is absorbed by Syn Shenron. SSJ4 Goku can't overcome the newly formed Omega Shenron (Literally the only visible difference is that he now has all of the Balls embedded in his abdomen), and eventually SSJ4 Vegeta shows up, but they still can't win. Now they have to fuse, and they still don't win. Goldie pops out again at some point to delay O. Shenron, and eventually Goku just uses a Spirit Bomb powered by the entire universe to win. The really confusing part is after regular Shenron appears again, and Goku is like, Spirited Away (TM) with him to some other realm? It's like they didn't know how to turn Goku back into an adult so they just remove him from reality and drop the curtain. Oh man.
PACING
The fight against Omega Shenron accounts for nearly half of these 16 episodes, which has the dual effect of cutting short each of the fights against individual dragons and stretching the final battle to an absurd length for the actual amount of things that happen. Save for Goldie and his brother Coldie, each Black Star dragon only gets a single episode from meeting to defeating them. Then, for the remainder of the series we're treated to a back and forth of "I'm more powerful! Oh no, he's more powerful. Haha, we're more powerful again!. Oh no, now we're less powerful." As you can guess, this gets old really quick.
WHY IT OBJECTIVELY SUCKED
First and foremost, most of the Black Star Dragons are just godawful. The idea of fighting dragons based on wishes isn't bad but it was horribly executed. Their designs are all obnoxious, and most of them have annoying personalities. While Goku engages them he either stays in base form and wonders why he's getting his child-ass pounded, or pops straight into SSJ4 with no buildup and is still too stupid to obliterate them instantly. ONE OF THEM IS LITERALLY KILLED BY RAIN.
As I said before, the Omega Shenron battle is mind-numbingly simple, but that's not the full extent of its problems. Goldie, as an attempt to make one of the dragons sympathetic, was nothing more than a gold-plated plot device. The lack of tension in this entire battle is so severe that at one point we witness Goku and two other combatants just chatting about how or if they are going to continue the fight. TALKING ABOUT FIGHTING INSTEAD OF FIGHTING. Is this some kind of foreplay that Goku gets off on? I mean it would make sense, but come on! Let's not even talk about the fact that when Goku is at his weakest, O. Shenron just lets him charge up the attack that will kill him because plot convenience.
These final episodes also grossly mistreat almost all of the characters. We get gratuitous Pan and Goku adventures, but for some reason no Trunks. Like, when the series started it was about all three of them, and Trunks literally had no reason not to be there, so what gives? Poor Vegeta, they tried to include him in the final battle, but they couldn't have Goku not fight, which was the only reason Gogeta happened. Even then, any glory he may have seen was wrenched away from him with Goku's hella big Spirit Bomb. Vegeta did continue to fight even after he knew there was no chance of him winning, which I have to commend the writers for. I then must immediately retract my commendation, however, because they decided to involve EVERYBODY in the final battle by having them show up at the sidelines. The only way they had to try and create tension was to put everybody directly in harm's way, because there was never a real threat.
CONCLUSION
Hardly anything happens in these episodes, compared to the rapid pace of earlier story arcs. It's really a shame that it fizzled out when it could have ended with a bang. Up to this point, I didn't think the series was terrible as a whole, but this finale really cemented it. Look out for the full review coming soon to a screen near you.
PLOT
Literally, this can be summed up in two points:
- Goku fights Black Star Dragons 1-6
- Goku fights Omega Shenron
The end.
Of course, there is a little more to it than that (Just barely). Each of the dragons they fight has some special trick to their power that must be figured out to achieve victory, but many of these are pretty contrived. One of them, whom I will refer to as "Goldie the Dragon," develops respect for Goku as a warrior, but is absorbed by Syn Shenron. SSJ4 Goku can't overcome the newly formed Omega Shenron (Literally the only visible difference is that he now has all of the Balls embedded in his abdomen), and eventually SSJ4 Vegeta shows up, but they still can't win. Now they have to fuse, and they still don't win. Goldie pops out again at some point to delay O. Shenron, and eventually Goku just uses a Spirit Bomb powered by the entire universe to win. The really confusing part is after regular Shenron appears again, and Goku is like, Spirited Away (TM) with him to some other realm? It's like they didn't know how to turn Goku back into an adult so they just remove him from reality and drop the curtain. Oh man.
PACING
The fight against Omega Shenron accounts for nearly half of these 16 episodes, which has the dual effect of cutting short each of the fights against individual dragons and stretching the final battle to an absurd length for the actual amount of things that happen. Save for Goldie and his brother Coldie, each Black Star dragon only gets a single episode from meeting to defeating them. Then, for the remainder of the series we're treated to a back and forth of "I'm more powerful! Oh no, he's more powerful. Haha, we're more powerful again!. Oh no, now we're less powerful." As you can guess, this gets old really quick.
WHY IT OBJECTIVELY SUCKED
First and foremost, most of the Black Star Dragons are just godawful. The idea of fighting dragons based on wishes isn't bad but it was horribly executed. Their designs are all obnoxious, and most of them have annoying personalities. While Goku engages them he either stays in base form and wonders why he's getting his child-ass pounded, or pops straight into SSJ4 with no buildup and is still too stupid to obliterate them instantly. ONE OF THEM IS LITERALLY KILLED BY RAIN.
As I said before, the Omega Shenron battle is mind-numbingly simple, but that's not the full extent of its problems. Goldie, as an attempt to make one of the dragons sympathetic, was nothing more than a gold-plated plot device. The lack of tension in this entire battle is so severe that at one point we witness Goku and two other combatants just chatting about how or if they are going to continue the fight. TALKING ABOUT FIGHTING INSTEAD OF FIGHTING. Is this some kind of foreplay that Goku gets off on? I mean it would make sense, but come on! Let's not even talk about the fact that when Goku is at his weakest, O. Shenron just lets him charge up the attack that will kill him because plot convenience.These final episodes also grossly mistreat almost all of the characters. We get gratuitous Pan and Goku adventures, but for some reason no Trunks. Like, when the series started it was about all three of them, and Trunks literally had no reason not to be there, so what gives? Poor Vegeta, they tried to include him in the final battle, but they couldn't have Goku not fight, which was the only reason Gogeta happened. Even then, any glory he may have seen was wrenched away from him with Goku's hella big Spirit Bomb. Vegeta did continue to fight even after he knew there was no chance of him winning, which I have to commend the writers for. I then must immediately retract my commendation, however, because they decided to involve EVERYBODY in the final battle by having them show up at the sidelines. The only way they had to try and create tension was to put everybody directly in harm's way, because there was never a real threat.
CONCLUSION
Hardly anything happens in these episodes, compared to the rapid pace of earlier story arcs. It's really a shame that it fizzled out when it could have ended with a bang. Up to this point, I didn't think the series was terrible as a whole, but this finale really cemented it. Look out for the full review coming soon to a screen near you.
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Oct 12, 2017 11:11 AM | 0 comments
August 18th, 2017
Dragon Ball GT: Quarterly Report 3
I made it to the three fourths mark! This marathon covered episodes 33 through 48, which was easily the best quarter of the series yet. The ratio of cool stuff to bs was way better than in either of my previous viewings, but it doesn't necessarily improve any in the character or story department. Then again, this is Dragon Ball, and since when have those things really mattered?PLOT
In this segment, we see two story arcs end and two begin. First we conclude the Baby arc with Goku achieving sufficient tail growth, and returning to Planet Vegeta to face off with the insidious infant. He spends a few episodes stomping around and looking at family pictures in his golden Oozaru form before finally turning Super Saiyan 4, and Super Baby Vegeta does the opposite. Baby is vanquished after too many episodes and the Earth is saved again by the DRAGON BALLS, which were all found with such ease this time that it makes my memories of the first part of this series hurt even more.
Everything is peachy keen when literally out of nowhere opens a portal to the nostalgia realm--I mean hell--I MEAN HFIL! Apparently dead Gero and dead Myuu made a portal back to Earth? Then they release all the weak, pish posh villains you remember (Or don't!) from Dragon Balls past. Of course Goku rushes off to HFIL, and has the campiest fight ever with Frieza and Cell before realizing he's trapped there. New Android 17 from hell links of with regular 17 and they square their power, which still probably shouldn't touch Goku, but wreaks havoc on everyone else. Piccolo does some noble sacrifice biz and Goku comes back, assuming SSJ4 once again. He's really stupid and can't beat Super 17, so the task falls to 18. Not even Goku or Vegeta could win, but with a little psychological manipulation and exploitation of weakness she pulls it out.
Finally we get the set up for the final (?) arc in the series, when the Dragon Balls' internal gas pressure becomes too great and they emit the Blue Dragon! Er, a blue dragon. He then reminds the kids why smoking is for bad guys and sends each ball out to assume the form of a dragon that our heroes have to go fight! Because how else do we build tension besides play with the one tool that fixes literally all of your problems?
PACING
Of all three quarters so far, this one unfortunately had the most inconsistent pace. We start mid-Baby fight and stay there for a solid 5 episodes at least, then cover an entirely new story arc in the span of 10! The Baby fight was bogged down with way too much of golden Oozaru Goku going bananas, ape shit, totally wild before he condenses into the red-furred wad of muscles that is SSJ4. They tried to drag this fight on way too long with multiple twists and turns that don't add all that much excitement, but it was still the coolest fight in the series so far.During the brief reprieve of filler that followed we're tossed right into the next arc with all the fluidity of a rock. The ratings must have spiked when at the end of the Baby fight we witnessed multiple characters from Dragon Ball being helped along their way, because the Super 17 arc is a huge excuse to prey on the nostalgia of viewers. While our non-Goku combatants promptly dispatch all the enemies that used to be a slight threat, they treat us (Actually treat this time!) to kid Goku taking on Cell and Frieza simultaneously. They give possibly the biggest dose of fanservice in the entire series when Goku begins to ride a Destructo Disc fired off by Frieza and grabs a stalagmite to use as a "Power Pole" before making fools of the two previous big bads. I was genuinely tickled, and that moment, to me, shines as the highlight of this arc.
This encounter is over far too quickly, or perhaps just quickly enough to keep from getting stale, and we move right along to a lot of not fighting before Goku gets to fight again. He prettly quickly powers up to max, and the struggle against Super 17 becomes one of endurance. Goku spends a lot of time and facilitates the ample use of stock footage trying and failing to figure out how to beat him, just to get cock blocked by 18 in the end. Before there is even time to breathe, the next arc is already open and we're presented with the first of the encounters with the dragons, getting a cliffhanger ending as the battle begins.
PRODUCTION
My guess is that the Baby arc in reality dropped in overall ratings, resulting in the remaining story arcs of Super 17 and Omega Shenron being rushed. I would wager that 17 was meant to occupy at least 3 more episodes, maybe even 5 before being cut down. The Omega Shenron arc, then, must take up the remaining 16 episodes left in Q4, and may have originally spanned a healthy 25 episodes. I may as well be guessing what dinosaurs sounded like or what colors their feathers were, because this is all speculation.
As for designs, Super Baby Vegeta vs SSJ4 Goku looked pretty nice. The golden Oozaru is honestly really cool, and I've always though SSJ4 was an A-Ok transformation. I wouldn't put it any higher or lower than SSJ3 for looks. Whoever decided to try and make Goku act like a mix of Spider Man and Sonic the Hedgehog during that state was either a genius or a ninny, I can't really decide. Either from the original dialogue or just the localization, all of his taunts to Baby fell totally flat, and they made Sean Schemmel do a sexy phone chat line Goku voice for it. Once SBV is bested and plain ol' SB pops out, I just couldn't help but wonder why we couldn't have fought him this whole time. I get that we did the Vegeta thing to raise the stakes in the fight, but Super Baby without a host body looks at least--You can kill me for saying this--20% cooler.
HFIL brought us a lot of visual fun, but some bad. Having doctors Myuu and Gero in the same room together just highlighted how little they tried with Myuu's design. Letting loose all the old villains that weren't important in the long run was a nice touch, and they all were faithfully recreated in the art style of their native DB era. The fight with Cell and Frieza was tons of fun as we see them flabbergasted and assuming more chibi features, which magnifies how much of a joke they are compared to Goku now. Let's get to the elepant in the room, though...
Why does anyone think the huge brow results in a cool look?
Poor 17, what have they done to you?! Or I suppose, what did you do to you? This was the 90's, but come on! Individually the two 17's still looked okay because they were basically the same, but I guess when you multiply 17 by 17 you get something grotesque and greasy looking. The blue dragon looks appropriately devious, but I'll reserve judgement for Omega Shenron and the 7 until next time.
CONCLUSION
This quarter definitely left me feeling the most satisfied up to this point. It's been several days between viewing it and the time of this writing, and it's just hitting me: Was there a Tenkaichi Budokai in that tiny filler intermission? I'm pretty sure there was, which just goes to show how inconsequential it is any time they are in attendance. Oh wait, there definitely was one, because they pulled hijinx with Goku having to enter the kids division and Pan being placed in the adult bracket so she could have a chance at winning. Also Vegeta being pissed because he couldn't fight Kakarot. Speaking of Vegeta, that poor prince just got shit on this time around! First he was possessed, then he couldn't fight Goku, and then he got his rear handed to him by Super 17. It really is unfortunate that 17 himself was the most underwhelming part of his whole arc, especially following a villain like Baby. While Goku was stuck in monkey mode they went a little heavy with the emotional appeals to try and bring him back to his senses. Ever since the beginning of the Baby arc they began to slowly alienate our three main cast members, so now when they try to bring them back to use as emotional leverage it doesn't quite work. However, I suppose this progression and decrease in the importance of main characters pretty closely mirrors the slow shift from OG Dragon Ball into Z. My final marathon takes place tomorrow, so look forward to Quarterly Report 4 and my ensuing full series review!
UPDATE: That final marathon didn't end up taking place, and now that I've started the fall semester at uni I'm really not sure when I can get around to it. It will happen eventually, though. I wouldn't leave such business unfinished ;)
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Aug 18, 2017 7:42 PM | 0 comments
August 11th, 2017
Dragon Ball GT: Quarterly Report 2
I did it again! I managed to make it through the second quarter of Dragon Ball GT, as part of my plan to finally watch the series in its entirety and subsequently review it. Coming from my childhood when I would catch it intermittently on TV to the present day where I pick apart everything I watch, I've got way too much to say for it to all be contained within that single review. So, if you're ready for some discussion over mediocre anime, please proceed!PLOT
They lose to Rilldo on Machine Planet M2, to be transported to space Gero's lab, which was exactly what Trunks and Giru planned! Then they try to abort Baby, but they're too cocky and take too long, so baby finishes baking and escapes. They finish collecting the balls while baby shows up to wreak havoc on earth among our cast, playing body snatchers and turning everyone into his servants through vague, unspecified means. Goku and co return with the balls, but get their ass whooped by Baby Vegeta and lose them. Baby then uses the balls to wish for planet Vegeta, formerly the home world of his people before the Saiyans wiped them out, to be resurrected in orbit around Earth. At present, only Goku, Pan, Hercule, and Majuub remain free of his control, while Goku gets his tail pulled in the realm of the Kais.
TENSION & TONE
Ever since the Buu saga of DBZ, the series has been plagued by an inability to create any real tension or a feeling of high stakes. After multiple planet-destroying enemies have been dispatched, what threat is an even more powerful enemy that can blow up the planet... Into even smaller chunks? I hope you see my point. This coupled with the tendency of our strongest characters to withhold their full power until an adequate challenge has appeared really deflates most scenarios where they have not yet powered up to the max. How long did Goku sit on Super Saiyan 3 during the Buu saga? Just about as long as he has in GT.
It wasn't until he fought Baby on Earth that Goku finally stopped playing around and whipped out the big-browed, bushy haired transformation, which honestly just looks awkward on his child frame. There is never an explicit limit on his power inside his kid body, because he is finally just like, "Ohp, guess it's time to take things seriously. Give me like 40 seconds to hit SSJ3." This fact alone means that every fight up until this point in GT had basically no stakes, because at any point Goku could have decimated EVERYONE. The only thing stopping him from going all out was the writers trying to keep him in base form for the OG Dragon Ball aesthetic. Goku has to restrain himself by not transforming when confronted by both of his possessed sons, but this just further confuses the situation of his power levels. All throughout the show to this point his base state is bested by various enemies, but now it's suddenly strong enough to simultaneously dispatch two Super Saiyan-human hybrids?
However, with the introduction of Baby and his body snatching powers, we are granted actual stakes to the action. It started with just Goten, and Gohan's hesitation to harm his brother's body to destroy the evil possessing him, but quickly escalated to full on assimilation of what seems to be the entire Earth population. At the time of airing, there was no guarantee beyond the Dragon Balls that anybody would make it out of the Baby arc alive, but even the balls had just been expended and scattered across the galaxy again. With only a handful of remaining independent characters and an enemy stronger than Goku, this arc has technically created some real tension, for which I applaud it.As a perhaps necessary counterbalance to the immediate peril our heroes face, there are plenty of shenanigans which serve to upend any serious atmosphere we're presented with. Humor has always been a core element of Dragon Ball, but as it transitioned into Z, there were written longer periods with a dead serious tone to play up the drama. GT tries to do both, but each cancels out the other.
When they were betrayed by their robot "friend" and trapped on a robot alien planet, we're treated (Or subjected, your choice of verb) to Pan dressing up in empty robot parts and attempting to blend in with them. The crazy part is that it works until she fails to enter platform 9¾ and is sent to the trash compactor on the detention level. Of course, she helps all the doomed robots within it escape, and one of them is later shown to have this planet's standard robo-ability of phasing through walls. So like, why was he trapped in the compactor?? Why can robots phase through stuff anyway? Can they phase through other robots, and is that technically gay? The answers to these and more, next time, on Dragon Ba- Oh wait, we never get those answers. Not to nitpick villains, but did I mention that this whole time Goku was fighting golden Ginyu turned Mega Man boss turned beefy Cooler/Gaara of the Funk? The fight animation was really cool though.
My last issue on this topic happens near the end of this chunk of 16 episodes, when fully powered Goku is bested by the vilain who holds the fate of all our dearly beloved Z Fighters. Goku is trapped under some rubble, and of course the prideful Baby Vegeta doesn't think it necessary to ensure he's dead, but what comes next is the kicker. Goku wakes up in some strange dimension where he's forced to play basically Mario Party to survive, against a snarky, annoying blue creature. Goku unwittingly drops the game die towards a pool of lava, which then transforms into some green raccoon thing.
As it turns out, the blue creature and his son (Disguised as the game die) are shapeshifters like Puar or Oolong, and they've been trapped in this dimension between the real world and Other World for Kami knows how long. However, having been found out for cheating, the entire dimension begins to collapse like the Cave of Wonders around Aladdin. Just the sheer cartoon shenanigannery of this deflates the entire situation which landed Goku here in the first place, and in interest of emulating OG Dragon Ball, they steered waaay too far to the silly side with this side plot.PRODUCTION
I was glad to see the opening of a new story arc with a defined villain coincide with the wrap up of the Dragon Ball hunt, because it really just isn't post-OG Dragon Ball without a big bad to fight. Overall they seem to have kept the pacing pretty consistent. It doesn't feel like all that much more or less happened in the second quarter than did in the first, and that consistency is, I suppose, a valuable quality.
Let's move on to some character designs, because I'm not as impressed this segment as I was last time. For starters, Baby is a silly name and he has an overall gross and annoying aesthetic. Period. Dr. Myuu was a seriously lackluster attempt at making a new scientist, because both in act and appearance he was literally just space Gero. They also really undercut his potential, because he was dead within an episode or two of their first encounter with him. Rilldo's several forms didn't really feel like a fluid shift from where he began to where he ended. Whereas our three big bads from Z had a consistent style, Rilldo's second form (Appropriately) looks like a bunch of machinery slapped onto his base form, and his final form just strips him naked and paints him in chrome, which is the color of the future. I did like the general Toriyama style robots on Machine Planet M2, however. There were only a few basic types, but they were varied enough to maintain visual intrigue.
There aren't a whole lot of new threads for our heroes, save for Vegeta. After letting his hair grow back out just a bit and shaving his moustache, I definitely like his hair configuration more this time around. His outfit, consisting of tight jeans and a maroon tank top, just looks lame. I'd say he should have taken some fashion tips from Bulla, but doing that is probably what landed him in these duds in the first place. Speaking of Bulla, she's supposedly a year younger than Pan, so why the HELL is she dressed like THIS?
I can see why Vegeta has to beat away the boys that come a'hollerin.
I already knew this, but seeing Goku's SSJ3 form on his kid body just reminded me how stupid it looks. Then, once him and white-haired, still-regular-garbed Vegeta start fighting, it just makes me want to gouge my eyes out. How there can be two combatants so hideous baffles me, and their looks just ruined that entire fight. Once he transitions into the yellow armor, Baby Vegeta looks leagues better than he did, but still doesn't quite live up to Toriyama's villain designs. Uub is pretty unspectacular, both before and after combining with Buu. His post-fusion Majuub outfit is definitely more interesting since it isn't a standard gi that everyone seems to have five of.
COMPARED TO SUPER
This will be the last time I'm qualified to compare the two series for a while, because I'm just now on episode 29 of Super. Curse my steadfast committment to watch Super in English on Toonami! From episode 16 of Super to here, we saw the entirety of the Resurrection F arc with some delightful filler to pad it out, and as of episode 28 it begins new original storyline, which don't expect to develop too much in the next 4. Additionally, we see both Goku AND Vegeta achieve a new transformation, as well as ample hijinx as they train to reach it. The Earth cast is present most of the time, but largely relegated to the sidelines once our two heroes arrive to take on Frieza.
GT doesn't offer as clean of a break between arcs as Super does, as the hunt for the Dragon Balls gives way to the struggle against Baby. Baby's path to dominating the Earth is relatively fast, with only a few steps to the entire process. I suppose this can be attributed to his intelligence, since he inserts himself directly into the most powerful circle on the planet. In fact, as far as main characters he really only makes two jumps--from Goten to Gohan, and then Gohan to Vegeta. He wastes no time enacting his plan and wishing Planet Vegeta into the Earth sphere, and promptly subjugates the population and puts down any opposition. His efficiency is truly admirable. We do get to see a lot of our Earth cast, and it seems that they have more fights over more episodes than in Super's Frieza arc. However, we STILL have not seen Super Saiyan 4, and the series is already half over!CONCLUSION
As I said before, it's nice to see a main villain finally introduced, I just wish we could get to the BIG BATTLE. Having more Goten screentime was nice, and I guess we got a little bit of character devlopment for our main crew. I'm a little confused about the people under Baby's control, but whom he does not directly inhabit. When these people, like Gohan or Trunks, speak, is it Baby talking or is it their own corrupted minds? The one thing that made me wonder is that they still use familial terms when addressing Goku, calling him "dad." This second portion has cemented in my mind the idea that GT is the Dragon Ball equivalent to Gundam ZZ, and I would dare anybody who was seen both to try to prove me wrong. I'll be back once I trudge through episodes 33-48, and will see you next time, on Dragon Ball... GT!!
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Aug 11, 2017 2:56 PM | 0 comments
August 3rd, 2017
Dragon Ball GT: Quarterly Report 1
I finally got around to watching some Dragon Ball GT, because I'm a completionist and a glutton for punishment (And because I snagged the entire series on DVD for cheap at the last con I attended!). To minimize the pain of sitting through it, I decided to break it up into four sittings of 16 episodes. Here are my thoughts on the first quarter of DBGT, for all they're worth. Naturally, this entails SPOILERS.
THE PLOT
I have a very vague recollection of the story in GT from seeing it on TV back in the day, so I was intrigued to see exactly how it all went down again. Several elements of GT seem tailored to emulating its roots of good ol', no-subtitle Dragon Ball, and the first of these is the catalyst for the entire story. Emperor Pilaf and co pull an uncharacteristically ballsy (Pun almost intended) heist for the Black Star Dragon Balls, which Popo apparently keeps in the basement with his assorted skeletons. After accidentally wishing for Goku to be returned to his childhood state, they sort of vanish while the plot advances without them. The Black Star Balls have different rules, it seems, and Red Shenron is kind of a dick, because now Goku has ONE YEAR to find the balls that are scattered across THE ENTIRE GALAXY and he'll need the help of his FRIENDS to go on this exciting ADVENTURE.
I remembered that our main cast consisted of Pan, Trunks, Goku, and the annoying robot, but I didn't remember why it was so. Why wasn't Goten featured more prominently? Well, it all boils down to a phone call he receives from his date on launch day, and stowaway Pan hits the ignition button before he climbs aboard. That's it. He's just left behind, which brings me to a detail I kind of appreciate: After they leave Earth, there are little to no cuts back to the homeworld. We follow our main group intently as they hop from planet to planet in their Capsule Corp. octopus shuttle. I hope you don't get sick of Pan's age-appropriate outbursts, robot shenanigans, or adolescent hijinx, because the audience is essentially cooped up in their spaceship alongside them.
While they jump between exotic locales (None of which would be out of place on Toriyama's Earth), Goku's apparent lack of his full powers is supposed to be somewhat of a clean slate to his abilities, thereby creating tension. It's a bit like Ash and Pikachu having their skill reset every time they begin a new Pokemon League challenge. They never really go into detail about why he can't access his full powers, but he does go Super Saiyan a handful of times, which would suggest that he is indeed stronger than when we was actually a child. With no clear cut way of knowing, I can't help but ask why he doesn't just bitch slap every enemy they face. In true Goku fashion, he reserves his full power for shits and giggles until things start to look bad.
PRODUCTION
Ah, 1996. I was two, then! Dragon Ball, however, was at the tail end of a ten year run on television. As Toriyama was pushed along into continuing and escalating Dragon Ball, the anime became bloated with filler and evermore a corporate commodity. Gotta have that weekly Dragon Ball timeslot on TV! Once there was no more source material to go from, they had to figure out some way to keep making money, so of course the only sensible option was to synthesize a new TV anime. This is where many of the OG Dragon Ball similarities come in.
It appears to me that much of GT was an attempt to bring in estranged fans who may have fallen out of DB during the later arcs of Z, and to a lesser degree as an attempt to appeal to the children of fans of the original (Any such kids would have to have been born to people that were already older teens when the series debuted). "Hey look, remember why you liked this show? Remember Pilaf? Remember kid Goku? Remember when finding the Dragon Balls was important?" Even some of the plot points are designed to mirror the original, such as the giant catfish monster Tsunama (Oolong) terrorizing a village so he can receive a wife to appease him. Naturally we have to dress up one of our male characters to dupe him, so we're treated to "Trunksette," who is admittedly kinda sexy.
Speaking of sexy, this show looks great. Compared to modern computer-based animation, the hand drawn 90's aesthetic strikes a perfect chord with me. All of our characters are given redesigns which show an appropriate amount of aging. *coughSUPERcough* Excuse me, I've got a slight Ginyu in my throat. I really like Goku's new colors here, and Trunks' outfit is honestly really cool. I might even like it more than his classic half-jacket, which feels wacky just typing out o__0 Pan's design is.. Well it's just fine, I guess. She's never really looked any other way in my mind. At least in this first fourth, we don't see the rest of the cast beyond the first few episodes, but OH BOY is it a treat. Bulma's mechanic outfit, and single visible wrinkle on her cheek tickle me. She's absolutely adorable! Poor Goten looks really bland, his older brother is back to his bookworm roots, and Vegeta...
Oh, Vegeta...
I'm cool with the mustache, but what cracks me up is his hair! Saiyans are supposedly unable to change hairstlyes because of their hair's resiliency, which leads me to believe that no ordinary barber could put a dent in his 'do. Now, considering his ridiculous flat top, the only logical conclusion seems to be that he had his hair cut by... Krillin?! Seriously, did he just have poor Krillin chop the top of his artichoke hair off with a Destructo Disc? Overall, I dig the aesthetic the show is laying down so far. I've intentionally not mentioned any alien designs because... *shudders* I'd rather not talk about them.
COMPARED TO DB SUPES
I've waited a long time for Dragon Ball Super in English. I've abstained from both the Japanese dub and the manga so I could experience it the way I grew up, with Sean Schemmel and co. reprising their respective roles. Since it started airing on Toonami at the beginning of this year I've watched it religously, even knowing that the first chunk is entirely an extended recap of the two most recent movies. So, how do GT's first 16 episodes stack up against Super's?
Well, at this point in Super we had just concluded the Battle of Gods arc and were being treated to some admittetdly delightful filler. In line with Super's MO to generate oodles of cash, they took one plot line and stretched it over as many episodes as they could. At the end of 16 episodes, though, Super does leave Goku with a new level of power, and an actual sense of some progress made with a whole new plane of adventures now opened up. Contrastingly, GT moves very fast. We jump from place to place, never lingering on one adventure longer than a couple episodes. As I said before, however, these don't really add up to much aside from forgettable (Or horrifically unforgettable, like the Para Para brothers) vignettes on the quest for the Dragon Balls.
That's another thing, Super very much continues where Z left off in respect to what esteem the Balls are held in. For Kami's sake, on a whim Bulma has all the Balls collected as a prize at her birthday party!
The animation in GT is LEAGUES better than Super, just as a consequence of the modern anime production landscape. Both series are shameless cash grabs, but the dated animation techniques used in GT result in a much prettier product. The painted backgrounds are deep and gorgeous, animations fluid, and character models consistent. It's simply a treat to look at! Super does showcase the full DB cast to a much higher degree, so it wins points in the fanservice department. At this same point in Super we've already gathered everyone important on a single boat, and even gotten to see Gotenks and the Supreme, Kibito, and King Kais. If I remember correctly from this morning, the only time GT has shown us any Kai so far was when King Kai dropped some telepathic exposition on our heroes before kindly canning it.
CONCLUSION
Wow, I'm not really sure how to feel about GT overall. In my quest to finally have an informed opinion instead of trusting bandwagon sentiments about it I've surely set myself up for a time and a half. GT is like the Gundam ZZ of Dragon Ball so far. Knowing where this series eventually gets to, I'm astounded at how long they've spent on these effectively inconsequential plot points. I suppose it's all in service of giving the fans another legitimate hunt for the Dragon Balls, but I can't help but feel like they're dragging it out. I'll be back for the one-half report once I muster up the courage to sit down for another 16.
Legit, out.
THE PLOT
I have a very vague recollection of the story in GT from seeing it on TV back in the day, so I was intrigued to see exactly how it all went down again. Several elements of GT seem tailored to emulating its roots of good ol', no-subtitle Dragon Ball, and the first of these is the catalyst for the entire story. Emperor Pilaf and co pull an uncharacteristically ballsy (Pun almost intended) heist for the Black Star Dragon Balls, which Popo apparently keeps in the basement with his assorted skeletons. After accidentally wishing for Goku to be returned to his childhood state, they sort of vanish while the plot advances without them. The Black Star Balls have different rules, it seems, and Red Shenron is kind of a dick, because now Goku has ONE YEAR to find the balls that are scattered across THE ENTIRE GALAXY and he'll need the help of his FRIENDS to go on this exciting ADVENTURE.I remembered that our main cast consisted of Pan, Trunks, Goku, and the annoying robot, but I didn't remember why it was so. Why wasn't Goten featured more prominently? Well, it all boils down to a phone call he receives from his date on launch day, and stowaway Pan hits the ignition button before he climbs aboard. That's it. He's just left behind, which brings me to a detail I kind of appreciate: After they leave Earth, there are little to no cuts back to the homeworld. We follow our main group intently as they hop from planet to planet in their Capsule Corp. octopus shuttle. I hope you don't get sick of Pan's age-appropriate outbursts, robot shenanigans, or adolescent hijinx, because the audience is essentially cooped up in their spaceship alongside them.
While they jump between exotic locales (None of which would be out of place on Toriyama's Earth), Goku's apparent lack of his full powers is supposed to be somewhat of a clean slate to his abilities, thereby creating tension. It's a bit like Ash and Pikachu having their skill reset every time they begin a new Pokemon League challenge. They never really go into detail about why he can't access his full powers, but he does go Super Saiyan a handful of times, which would suggest that he is indeed stronger than when we was actually a child. With no clear cut way of knowing, I can't help but ask why he doesn't just bitch slap every enemy they face. In true Goku fashion, he reserves his full power for shits and giggles until things start to look bad.
PRODUCTION
Ah, 1996. I was two, then! Dragon Ball, however, was at the tail end of a ten year run on television. As Toriyama was pushed along into continuing and escalating Dragon Ball, the anime became bloated with filler and evermore a corporate commodity. Gotta have that weekly Dragon Ball timeslot on TV! Once there was no more source material to go from, they had to figure out some way to keep making money, so of course the only sensible option was to synthesize a new TV anime. This is where many of the OG Dragon Ball similarities come in.It appears to me that much of GT was an attempt to bring in estranged fans who may have fallen out of DB during the later arcs of Z, and to a lesser degree as an attempt to appeal to the children of fans of the original (Any such kids would have to have been born to people that were already older teens when the series debuted). "Hey look, remember why you liked this show? Remember Pilaf? Remember kid Goku? Remember when finding the Dragon Balls was important?" Even some of the plot points are designed to mirror the original, such as the giant catfish monster Tsunama (Oolong) terrorizing a village so he can receive a wife to appease him. Naturally we have to dress up one of our male characters to dupe him, so we're treated to "Trunksette," who is admittedly kinda sexy.
Speaking of sexy, this show looks great. Compared to modern computer-based animation, the hand drawn 90's aesthetic strikes a perfect chord with me. All of our characters are given redesigns which show an appropriate amount of aging. *coughSUPERcough* Excuse me, I've got a slight Ginyu in my throat. I really like Goku's new colors here, and Trunks' outfit is honestly really cool. I might even like it more than his classic half-jacket, which feels wacky just typing out o__0 Pan's design is.. Well it's just fine, I guess. She's never really looked any other way in my mind. At least in this first fourth, we don't see the rest of the cast beyond the first few episodes, but OH BOY is it a treat. Bulma's mechanic outfit, and single visible wrinkle on her cheek tickle me. She's absolutely adorable! Poor Goten looks really bland, his older brother is back to his bookworm roots, and Vegeta...
Oh, Vegeta...
I'm cool with the mustache, but what cracks me up is his hair! Saiyans are supposedly unable to change hairstlyes because of their hair's resiliency, which leads me to believe that no ordinary barber could put a dent in his 'do. Now, considering his ridiculous flat top, the only logical conclusion seems to be that he had his hair cut by... Krillin?! Seriously, did he just have poor Krillin chop the top of his artichoke hair off with a Destructo Disc? Overall, I dig the aesthetic the show is laying down so far. I've intentionally not mentioned any alien designs because... *shudders* I'd rather not talk about them.
COMPARED TO DB SUPES
I've waited a long time for Dragon Ball Super in English. I've abstained from both the Japanese dub and the manga so I could experience it the way I grew up, with Sean Schemmel and co. reprising their respective roles. Since it started airing on Toonami at the beginning of this year I've watched it religously, even knowing that the first chunk is entirely an extended recap of the two most recent movies. So, how do GT's first 16 episodes stack up against Super's?
Well, at this point in Super we had just concluded the Battle of Gods arc and were being treated to some admittetdly delightful filler. In line with Super's MO to generate oodles of cash, they took one plot line and stretched it over as many episodes as they could. At the end of 16 episodes, though, Super does leave Goku with a new level of power, and an actual sense of some progress made with a whole new plane of adventures now opened up. Contrastingly, GT moves very fast. We jump from place to place, never lingering on one adventure longer than a couple episodes. As I said before, however, these don't really add up to much aside from forgettable (Or horrifically unforgettable, like the Para Para brothers) vignettes on the quest for the Dragon Balls.
That's another thing, Super very much continues where Z left off in respect to what esteem the Balls are held in. For Kami's sake, on a whim Bulma has all the Balls collected as a prize at her birthday party! The animation in GT is LEAGUES better than Super, just as a consequence of the modern anime production landscape. Both series are shameless cash grabs, but the dated animation techniques used in GT result in a much prettier product. The painted backgrounds are deep and gorgeous, animations fluid, and character models consistent. It's simply a treat to look at! Super does showcase the full DB cast to a much higher degree, so it wins points in the fanservice department. At this same point in Super we've already gathered everyone important on a single boat, and even gotten to see Gotenks and the Supreme, Kibito, and King Kais. If I remember correctly from this morning, the only time GT has shown us any Kai so far was when King Kai dropped some telepathic exposition on our heroes before kindly canning it.
CONCLUSION
Wow, I'm not really sure how to feel about GT overall. In my quest to finally have an informed opinion instead of trusting bandwagon sentiments about it I've surely set myself up for a time and a half. GT is like the Gundam ZZ of Dragon Ball so far. Knowing where this series eventually gets to, I'm astounded at how long they've spent on these effectively inconsequential plot points. I suppose it's all in service of giving the fans another legitimate hunt for the Dragon Balls, but I can't help but feel like they're dragging it out. I'll be back for the one-half report once I muster up the courage to sit down for another 16.
Legit, out.
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Aug 3, 2017 11:15 PM | 0 comments
July 16th, 2017
Busou Renkin: The Abridged Fanfic (Teaser)
Anime Relations: Busou Renkin
Multiple times over the years a couple friends and I have tried to start up an abridged series of one of my favorite animes: Busou Renkin. We've gone through multiple versions of the script, but never made any foray into video editing because none of us want to learn how. So, to save these scripts (Which I am rather fond of) from rotting in a Google Doc for all eternity, my plan is to adapt them into a fanfic which retains the same style of humor we had written into the series. Following is a passage of the opening scene of the anime, which I scribbled down during church (lol). I plan to write the rest of it eventually, but I just wanted to hurry and put this on the net cause it was fun to write!
Througout the dim warehouse echoed slurps and gurgles. A large shadow closed in on a seemingly defenseless individual, when Kazuki Mutou took note of the situation. From behind the pillar where he hid, Kazuki risked a glance at the origin of the horrid sounds. What the hell is that thing?! A great serpent with spines as long as a man slid toward its unsuspecting prey. Is this when it finally happens? Is this my chance to become... A main character?
Kazuki's whole life had been entirely unremarkable, mostly resembling the role of a background character in a slice of life show. He made average grades, had an average family, with average friends, and could average a set of values, well, averagely. He knew a few people from his hometown had gotten their own series over the years--some were gag series, others were sports--but he never imagined that he might be the star of his own story, especially what appeared to be some (really scary!) monster anime. Kazuki's family was a long line of side characters, always at the fringes of a bigger story without much to contribute. Now was the time to change all of that.
He knew that for any shot at becoming a lead he had to take the most heroic course of action possible, which was precisely what frightened him. With no weapons to speak of, Kazuki flung himself between the beast and this innocent side character that would certainly never be of any importance ever again. The terrified but eager young man let loose a primal scream to boost his aggro, which actually worked perfectly. Half way up his spine he felt a warm prick which pushed clean through his back and out the front before he could even comprehend it.
I was wrong, he thought as he watched a writhing tentacle the size of a tree trunk extend from his chest. This isn't a monster anime, this is hentai!!
/BRTAFF TEASER
Come back for more at an unspecified later date! If you love Busou Renkin leave a comment! :D
BUSOU RENKIN: THE ABRIDGED FANFIC
Througout the dim warehouse echoed slurps and gurgles. A large shadow closed in on a seemingly defenseless individual, when Kazuki Mutou took note of the situation. From behind the pillar where he hid, Kazuki risked a glance at the origin of the horrid sounds. What the hell is that thing?! A great serpent with spines as long as a man slid toward its unsuspecting prey. Is this when it finally happens? Is this my chance to become... A main character?
Kazuki's whole life had been entirely unremarkable, mostly resembling the role of a background character in a slice of life show. He made average grades, had an average family, with average friends, and could average a set of values, well, averagely. He knew a few people from his hometown had gotten their own series over the years--some were gag series, others were sports--but he never imagined that he might be the star of his own story, especially what appeared to be some (really scary!) monster anime. Kazuki's family was a long line of side characters, always at the fringes of a bigger story without much to contribute. Now was the time to change all of that.
He knew that for any shot at becoming a lead he had to take the most heroic course of action possible, which was precisely what frightened him. With no weapons to speak of, Kazuki flung himself between the beast and this innocent side character that would certainly never be of any importance ever again. The terrified but eager young man let loose a primal scream to boost his aggro, which actually worked perfectly. Half way up his spine he felt a warm prick which pushed clean through his back and out the front before he could even comprehend it.
I was wrong, he thought as he watched a writhing tentacle the size of a tree trunk extend from his chest. This isn't a monster anime, this is hentai!!
/BRTAFF TEASER
Come back for more at an unspecified later date! If you love Busou Renkin leave a comment! :D
Posted by MrLegitimacy | Jul 16, 2017 1:38 PM | 1 comments