Why I hate Moryomaru!!!

If there is one Inuyasha villain that I hate, it's Moryomaru. Most people don't hate him for a few reasons. One, he was introduced at the very last minute of the 1st anime. Most people were too busy on ending where the good guys ran off into the sunset, saying they defeat Naraku. After 167 episodes, the show just abruptly stops and doesn't give a conclusion. I still think Berserk has the worse anime ending, Inuyasha didn't end on a straight cliffhanger. Your options were ..well legally speaking is wait several years for the manga to be officially released in your country. Otherwise you have to read the fan translations. Alot casuals who were unware that it's adapted from a manga and were confused and only official way to learn what happen isn't going to be available in several years.

We did finally get a 2nd anime several years later that did wrap up the story called Inuyasha: The Final Act. However by the time it came available, alot people forgotten who the heck is Moryomaru and the show starts with no recap of what happen. It's like the show pretend you recently saw the final episode of the previous show like it was last week.

Another thing is the 1st ten or so episodes of Final Act took over a dozen manga volumes and crunch it into several episodes. Nearly of the entire Moryomaru arc which is nearly 100 chapters is done over in episode 8 of the 2nd anime.

Final Act may tighten the pacing, there are alot of canon fillers as I call them as they encounter random monsters that has no connection to the overall story. However it does ruined the moments of some stuff. Kagura's death happen when 8 different storylines were crammed in the same episode. If felt like an afterthought and should of been it's own episode or half an episode.

Alot people didn't know the baddie due to being introduced at last minute and his entire arc was done in 8 episodes and I wasn't joking that the Moryomaru arc is nearly 100 chapters. Naraku, AKA the Big Bad of the anime, his heart is now in a form of an infant. Now Hakudoshi who is another offspring of the Big Bad wanted to go all Starscream on his dad and go against him(He dies early in the arc BTW). The infant was sealed inside a weird Frankenstein monster called Moryomaru. Because killing him will end the series, they chased after him instead of Naraku and it lasted for nearly 100 chapters. Our Big Big was actually not seen throughout the arc, so basically the main villain of Inuyasha got replaced by this loser.

Moryomaru was very 1-dimenisonal and boring. His only purpose was to drag the manga for another two years till his Big Bad status was yanked back by the original baddie. Moryomaru also went through a few upgrades like a powerful armor that he absorbed from a turtle demon. Just an excuse to drag on the arc.

Throughout the arc, Inuyasha gets yet another power up in this arc with a Dragon-scaled Tessaiga that can cut the source of the demon's power and absorb it. Him learning his new power takes forever to master it but by the time of the end of the arc, he hardly uses it because he got another power up that can shoot black holes.

I know alot people were annoyed by Naraku and that he keeps escaping and took forever to get killed off. I heard he was like one of the top ten most satisficing villain deaths but I was asking, "What about Moryomaru?" However that's just me since alot casual viewers didn't see him go on for nearly 100 chapters. At least everyone has a personal connection to Naraku and why they hate his guts, Moryomaru doesn't. 

At the arc's end when Naraku absorbed Moryomaru, I cheered that Naraku went back to his main villain status.

If there a few good things that came from the arc is Kagura and Hakudoshi's deaths. I guess Koga getting a power up so he can finally catch up. However it didn't last long because by the time he loses the shards in his legs, he pretty much leaves the show and only came back in a one second cameo in the ending where he marries his non-canon filler love interest. After this arc, Inuyasha finally started to take the story to it's conclusion and started to slowly wrap up storylines. So yeah, during the brief time the Final Act didn't air yet, I mention all the interesting stuff that happens after this arc, and maybe who died in the very beginning but that's it.

Yashahime season 2

Here's a link on what I said about season 1

I was told that Season 2 was a huge step up from Season 1 and they got a different showrunner. So at some point, I gave season 2 a chance.

My 1st impressions of the 1st episode is totally great because for one reason alone, a short recap of what happened and how it the previous season ended. This is a problem I had with the 1st episode with Inuyasha: The Final Act when it started. It just straight up starts and continue where the original Inuyasha left off and pretend the last episode of the 1st series happened like it was a week ago. No recap or anything. It's been about 5 years since the original show ended in Japan and they somehow expect people to remember everything. Most people were confused and completely forgot who Moroyomaru was despite being introduced in the last few episodes of the 1st series and being set up as the new big bad for next arc.

I admit I needed a refresher too for Yashahime's 1st season since I haven't watch the thing in months at the time and I may of forgotten some stuff here and there.

This season starts with Towa giving her all to restore Setsuna back to life. After that, Sesshoumaru tells Towa to go sidequesting to find rare materials to craft new weapons. Yes, this is totally like a video game.

There are fillers in Season 2 but it's not all over the place and they arrived every now and then, plus they at least try to connect to the main plot mostly. So this is a huge set up.

Very early on in the 3rd episode of all things, we got an episode explaining why Rin is in a tree, or why Inuyasha and Kagome were sent to the shadow realm, as well as why Setsuna has her dreams stolen by the Dream Butterfly. Rin got cursed by Zero to have silver scales that will kill her quickly. So Sesshoumaru had to put her inside the magic tree to put her suspended animation to prevent her death. Also the whole Dream Butterfly with Setsuna was done to help keep Rin suspended.

 It's so nice to actually get answers. In a few episodes, the Dream Butterfly is killed, meaning Setsuna should be able to sleep, however it means they need to finish up their quest or their mother is dead from the curse now that time is ticking. I'm glad the 2nd season isn't playing around.

On their quest, they meet the Big Bad's innocent undead daughter, Rion. She's basically like Kikyou, a dead being in an artificial body made of clay and dirt. She joins the good guys on their adventures as well as Riku. Riku is an offshoot of Kirinmaru and Towa's love interest. It's funny the big bad has two of his kids working against him.

We did get a filler episode in Season 1 about an annoying spoiled princess that try to get everyone in arena combat. I didn't know she will come back again as a recurring character. Now she wants to sneak away from her home school class and try to switch places with Setsuna when no one is looking. When it was revealed that her teacher for the day was Miroku's son, I said to myself, "Let me guess, she's going to fall for him and will regret running away." Turns out I was right.


The next couple of episodes has the trio split up for a very good while before they get back together. Setsuna and demon slayers deal with a former village deity. Moroha is joined with Takchiyo(the Yashahime knockoff of Shippo) and Hachi to overthrow an evil tanuki from their village. I know that Hachi was just simply a very minor recurring character in the original series that never did anything special and didn't have a backstory. All he did was occasionally help Miroku but man, I would never thought we get to see exploration of Hachi's background or anything.

There was a new moon that appeared in the middle of these episodes and showed Setsuna on her 1st night being 100% human for once.

Towa was captured by Zero.

The sister of the Big Bad was filling Towa with sorrow and angst, basically brainwashing her and fill her with anger. Episode 13 is where the gang try to stop the brainwashing and use the power of family love to undo the brainwashing. They battled Zero and it ended with her filled with regret of not being able to prevent the man she totally simps over, InuDaddy. She dies while Rin's curse is lifted, meaning she can finally get out of that tree.

It never really bother me in the original series or Final Act because they never referred to Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's dad that often but in Yashahime, good gosh. It's annoying to keep hearing "The Great Dog Demon".

It times like this I wish he had an actual name. That be like someone from Jr High who had a crush on you and referred to you as a title or something because that's what Zero acting like. The dad never got a canonical name always referred as "Your father" or "The Great Dog Demon(or Great Dog General)" Supposedly, early drafts for the 3rd movie was going to call him Toga but it never went through. Somehow, alot people on social media and wiki sites referred to him as that like that his official name or something. There are other times people thought his actual name was Inutaisho but it's just an untranslated word for his title of being the dog demon or dog general.

Since Zero is no longer a threat and Rin is curse free.

And I nearly threw up after seeing their reunion.

Gosh, I always saw her as his adopted daughter, never his baby mama. It feels odd and wrong.

Sesshoumaru gives Moroha a pearl to reunited with her parents, only for Kirinmaru to come in steals it. He demands that they take Akuru's pinwheel. A mysterious spirit that been seen briefly episode to episode. Kirinmaru is going to use the macguffin to bring the Degenerate Age. The next episode has a big battle and Sesshoumaru is badly wounded but sent the three girls into the black pearl. After that episode, we finally get the heart warming reunion with Moroha meeting her parents. Unlike season 1, Moroha acts like she cares and wonders what happens to her parents throughout this season.


They said they were able to watch their daughter grow up by watching a magical lake and making them see through Jaken's staff. The girls who happen to have Sesshoumaru's healing sword was the key to get them out of the shadow realm and they return back to Earth.

Kirinmaru revealed by the end of the episode that the Grim Comet that's been foreshadowed since the previous season is not going to caused the end of the world in the Feudal Era but in the Modern Era. He also reveals that Towa's school teacher, Osamu from that era is actually an offshoot of Kirinmaru that got transported through time. It was a common fan theory that there was a connection, mainly because they share the same voice actors in both Japanese and English versions. Plus, the school teacher does look like the Big Bad if he wore thick glasses and wore a suit.

Also guess who finally return? It's Shippo...somehow? He's an old dude a class but according the trickster, he's only appearing in that form because he believes he think his students wouldn't take a younger man as their teacher seriously. 

Shippo transforms again and dude got a big glow up and he has a hot waifu. I mean dude.

Shippo transforms back into his normal kid form and the hot waifu is actually belongs to someone else. The show purposely trolled us. I had a good laugh on the total scene. Afterwards, he joins up with the other good guys in the show and assist them.

I was a little curious where he was in the sequel serious but I'm not too concerned. He was last seen going to an academy to practice his fox magic and he had his own happy ending. Plus, he's not directly related to the new trio, so him being on the new series wasn't a major deal to me.

I admit I didn't like Shippo in the original series. All he does is him and Inuyasha have unfunny banter and his magic does nothing in battle or anything. Fillers do try to do something about the kid where he clashes with demons on the same (weak) power levels with him in a humorous manner or he falls in love with a girl close to his age, for the six different times. He also gain a few abilities that are actually useful to the gain like a giant top that teleports the gang to a different location. I'm surprised to say this but Shippo somehow went to one of my least favorites to one of my favorites. Maybe it's because he was saved up to near the end, or he became useful, or he's actually funny for once and not all over the place and overused like the original series.

His kinda replacement Takchiyo is simply ok to me. He does transports the gang but doesn't get too involued and simply a middle-man for the person that Moroha works for. Basically he never annoyed me like Shippo did in the previous series.

Back to the plot, the trio split from their parents and their allies as they try to hold back the big big while they go see Sesshoumaru's unnamed mom. It was funny back in the day that we all assumed that she was dead long before the dad got with his 2nd wife but then she out of nowhere showed up and all our theories were thrown out of the window. Now we have new questions, did they divorced, did he cheat on her with Inuyasha's mom, was their relationship a one-time fling, or dog demons having a polygamy relationship is totally normal? 

I'm going off subject. The mom task them with a trial and fight a demon from hell. Then this Akuru helps make them time travel to present era.

The next set of episodes take a break from the whole conflict with Kirinmaru's long fight that's been happening for six episodes as the three girls entered the Modern Era and catch up with Towa's step-family. They also met with homeroom teacher, Osamu and unlike demon he's an offshoot of, he actually wants to save the Modern Era. They join forces to stop the comet that's going to crash in Tokyo, problem is it's an invisible magic comet, meaning the muggles are unaware they're going to die. The four warriors did everything to stop the doomsday rock but nothing happening. Osamu then decides to have a change of heart and teleports the comet to the Feudal Era.

We also see Miroku with his new magical powers from his training and Sango got a new Black Hiraikotsu

Now suddenly, Kirinmaru out of nowhere had his main villain status hijacked from the school teacher. He wants to destroy all the demons of the Feudal era by merging with the comet and wants take his sister Rion to all the great cities all over the world. The three girls go inside to fight against Kirinmaru and Osamu inside the comet. They were defeated, Kirinmaru makes amends with his daughter as they passed on to the afterlife.

The final episode is basically an epilogue and maybe a teaser if there was a season 3. The three girls say there goodbyes to their parents as they and Towa's love interest plan to have more adventures in the western lands that's completely separate from the whole Kirinmaru plot.

I admit season 2 is leagues better. May not be the greatest show or most worth watching but it's nice to see a huge set up from season 1. I think the main issues the show starts dragging after Zero got defeated.

Thoughts on Yashahime season 1

 

In late 2020, suddenly out of the blue that we had a sequel to Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru had daughters it seems. My opinion towards this sequel is mixed, more to the negative side.

The show had great promise for a while at first. It set up our new trio of protagonists. Sesshoumaru had two daughters who were separated at a young age. The white-hair Towa who got stuck in present era and grew up there and the dark-hair Setsuna, who was left behind the Feudal era but had her memories and her dreams remove due to a magical butterfly. Moroha is Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter and she's in some serious debt and takes up demon slaying to clear it.

Half of the 1st episode was a flashback of our heroes from the previous show and takes place a few months after the ending and they slay a tree root demon. The demon sort of came back from the dead years later and try to attack our new set of heroes but dies quickly. I found out months later the 1st episode was an adaption of a bonus manga chapter that was released years after the manga finished. I doubt most people knew about the bonus chapter since Inuyasha was long over and there is barely a reason to come back to check for new content. Plus it didn't hit front page news all over the webs. There are people who may of saw The Final Act when Adult Swim finally got around to airing the series despite it's been more than half a decade since it's premiered both subbed and dubbed and already on DVDs and streaming but I doubt people who were watching on Adult Swim were aware of the obscured manga chapter.



Well at first it showed promise. There are questions of how everyone got separated and where is the entire cast of the previous show. I know it ain't going to be answered in one or two episodes.
After episode 4 where everything is set up and our trio heads out to save the day.

Well we ended up getting filler after filler, technically they are canon to the anime series. It's really a bunch of demon of the week stories here and there. Inuyasha was guilty of fillers too and I don't mean the non-canon anime-only ones, I mean canon fillers. The problem is this is a 26 episode season, meaning they should have a beginning, middle, and end set up from the get go, this is not a 100+ series that's adapting from a manga that still going and slowing the pacing just for the sake of not caching up with the manga.

There's still been no word of what happen to Inuyasha and his friends. I know this is a new generation of heroes and they need to have a chance to shine without our previous set of heroes overshadowing them but in recent years, I been seeing in fiction this is done all wrong and it felt like they just want to do it in the most disrespecting manner possible, because that's exactly I felt with this sequel series. Moroha has missing parnets and she doesn't seem to care less what happen to them.(Or till Season 2 retcon her feelings about this)

Star Wars' new Sequel trilogy felt like that where they killed off the main trio and changed their personalities for cheap drama and shove in new characters we barely got to know. Terminator: Dark Fate killed off John Conner and gave us some knockoff we don't care for as they fight a knockoff of Skynet. You can argue which post-T2 film is the worse but for me, it's Dark Fate

Cobra Kai, the sequel to the Karate Kid trilogy is one of the few examples of the old generation passing the torch to the new generation actually works. It gives both the new and old generations a chance to shine, gives everyone character growth, and it doesn't come off as disrespectful to the old film characters for the sake of cheap drama.

For 15 episodes, it's nothing been filler after filler after filler. Our patience been wearing thin. The season is more than a half over and nothing has happen. We would forgive this if this was non-canon fillers because everyone skips them and they don't count. The early part of Inuyasha long before we learn about Naraku or the entire gang got together was more forgivable. You can tell our two heroes were slowly bonding together and they slowly gained a new member one by one while setting up side characters like Sesshoumaru or Kikyou's return. Yashahime on the other hand just straights up sets up our trio four episodes in and then threw them in filler with over a hundred questions for the viewers. We didn't have that many questions in the old anime back in the day.

The trio does encounter the Four Perils who all have Macguffin pearls and work for the show's Big Bad but they come off as your typical demon of the week. Also they barely explain about the rainbow pearls and when they do talk about it, it's so rapidly told. So even it is important to the story, it feels like another filler.

Three of the episodes between episodes 4 and 15 are adaptions of old Inuyasha manga chapters that replaced the old set of characters with the new trio in their place. After the original Inuyasha series got caught up with the manga and the anime went on a hiatus for a few years, a continuation called The Final Act adapted 21 long volumes of manga and crunched into a 26 episode series. Now some stories from the manga got skipped.

Episode 6 has our trio fighting a Bakeneko or a ghost cat which is adapted from a skipped manga story. Towa's blade is pretty much like Inuyasha's dragon scale blade where he absorbs demon energy or Yokai into his blade.
https://inuyasha.fandom.com/de/wiki/Bakeneko  (You may have to use google translate)

Episode 10 has a set of conjoined twins called Kinka and Ginka who are trying to kill each other. The problem is we saw a different Kinka and Ginka who both got killed in the Final Act. Do all members of their species name themselves that?
https://www.furinkan.com/iycompanion/characters/kinka.html

Episode 12 has them fight a demon called Nikosen while Towa is affected by the New Moon, causing her to lose her power and briefly turns 100% percent human for one night. Well this is an adaption of a skipped manga story and that also had Inuyasha revert to a human state for a night.

Speaking of the New Moon, it's strange that Towa's night to be human is the same exact night as Inuyasha.

https://inuyasha.fandom.com/wiki/Nikosen

Also it seems strange that it only happens when she's in the Feudal Era but not present time. This is alot of weird retconning about half-demons and their time to be human. Thankfully Season 2 answered why she didn't get affected by the New Moon. I guess it doesn't affect Quarter Demons seeing Moroha is ok.

Episode 13 shows what happens with Miroku. Dude has let his hair down and doing some spirtual training. He feels useless since his main ability, the wind tunnel is gone. Miroku, you were useless even when you had it because poison insects always appeared why it try to appear. I didn't mind this episode that much since it gives our pervert monk a spotlight and some character growth.

Both his Japanese and English VAs passed away unfortunately. His old English VA was around for the 1st episode and people notice he sounded rough. His new voice doesn't sound quite the same but it works here because he's meant to be older and he's looks way different.

Now don't asked me why Sango looks exactly the same, maybe she ages well?



We finally got answers in episode 15 but oh boy, it wasn't the answers people been wanting to know. There was some questions on who Sesshoumaru's baby mama is. Alot theorized it was Rin aka the human child that followed out dog demon around. Sadly, SesshoumaruXRin unfortunately became canon. (Or non-canon since the original Mangaka didn't write this)


Some were grossed out while others were happy. There been shipping flame wars all over the place. People did accused Sesshoumaru being a child groomer. Others pointed out it's Feudal Era and it's totally normal for a man marrying a minor, also he was only with her for a few months and than dropped her off at a village to be raised by humans when the original show ended, and it was many many years later when they meet again when she's all grown up.

I feel sick to my stomach

If you argue that this is normal back in the day. Inuyasha may been set in Feudal times but was more closer to fairytale fantasy, it never went with full medieval gritty realism. This isn't like Game of Thrones or Berserk. 

I always saw Seeshoumaru as Rin's father-like caretaker, not potential love interest when she grows up. Even Sesshoumaru's Japanese VA and the original Mangaka even saw the dog demon as a father figure, not future husband. *throws up*

Also the show can't make up it's mind when Rin gave birth. It sound like she gave birth at age 12-14 *throws up*. Later on, it said 18 years old. I guess Inuyasha and Kagome were the type of married couples to wait several years before deciding to have a kid because they got together long before Sesshoumaru did.*throws up*

Enough ranting about SessXRin. The other bad thing from episode 15 is we learn what happen to the main couple of the 1st series. Sesshoumaru banish Inuyasha and Kagome into the Shadow Realm aka The Next Dimension, no really. You know, when anime airs on kids networks and try(and fail) to censor death. Actually the couple got sent into the Border of the Afterlife.

Basically where InuDaddy's skeleton is located. Not the place I want to start living of over a decade.

The heroes of the previous generation been stuck there for over a decade. What a way the writers decide to treat our heroes and their daughter acts like she doesn't give a care.(At least in Season 1).

The remainder of episode 16 and 17 did say Moroha grew up with Koga's tribe before she ended up in debt. Some question why she ain't living with Miroku's family or why they ain't doing something about her debt. 

Episode 20 shows that Shiori, the half-demon bat lady who was a little girl from a small arc in original series returns and told us that she raised Setsuna after she got separated from her sis. Also the villain designers gotten lazy and copied an old moth demon from a filler episode from the old series who was a copy of a filler movie villain.
https://inuyasha.fandom.com/wiki/Moth_y%C5%8Dkai

The remaining episodes finally started to feel less fillery but it's so fast paced and all over the place. I was getting lost. We learn that the main villain and his sister knew Inu-Daddy and they destroy a giant comet that would destroy everything and said it will come back again centuries later. The heroic trio clash against the two siblings. Sesshoumaru's healing sword breaks while Towa dies and the season ends on a cliffhanger. Honestly, I was not feeling it.

I heard there is a manga adaption that re-imagines the story. Setsuna and Moroha were raised in Kaede's village and while RinXSesshoumaru does happen, she looks way way older than the anime. It sounds like the superior version of the story.

Minor updates

I added a few new thing about Predator 2018 in this old article. I don't why I didn't think of writing it down back then. I just came to my head while watching the new Prey film. I remember stuff like it was going political about stuff and failing on telling it's messages.

Here's the link to the old article

You Will Cry 2021!!! Part 2

 A list of jokes of movies from the 2nd half of 2021

I'm going to make you watch Paw Patrol: The Movie. You will cry that the lame knockoff of Rescue Bots was so popular that it ended up having a movie. Man, why did this get a big movie but material they stole from didn't?

Hmm, a preschooler show about non-humans being rescuers that helps people in need. This came out in 2011, two years before it's copycat came around. For shame Paw Patrol for coping off of this, for shame.

Note-I'm joking about Paw Patrol ripping off of Rescue Bots. I was aware of Rescue Bots long before you started seeing Paw Patrol all over the cereal aisles. I never watched Rescue Bots but I knew it was part of very loosely connected universe of Transformers shows, comics, and games. I repeat, very loosely. I found out some issues I had questions about the timeline was resolved in of all things, a preschooler show like how many years does RID15 take place after Prime or that Grimlock in RID15 when by a different name back in the day, which totally makes him a separate Grimlock from Fall of Cybertron.

Over the years, I see Paw Patrol merchandise everywhere and jokily pretend to others that I'm jealous of Paw Patrol's success while the Transformers spinoff becomes forgotten and airs only on some channel that you need to spend extra money on.

I'm going to make you watch Shang-Chi...You Will Cry...That after three attempts...They still can't get The Mandarin's skin color right.

Everyone who grew up with this Iron Man cartoon definitely knows that the Mandarin has green skin. How dare the MCU ruined our childhoods. You think they learn after the 1st time but no, they did it three times already.

Note- There was one Iron Man show in the 90s that has his iconic nemesis with green skin. If you read the comics or see anything else that features him, he doesn't have green skin. It was a bizarre choice that came from this 90s cartoon.

I seen people out there who seen at least one incarnation of a popular franchise and they act like they have decades worth of knowledge and make themselves look like fools for complaining about their one particular version isn't in the big major motion picture. So maybe there are Green Mandarin fans out there crying?

Back in the early 2010s, Iron Man 3 heavily hyped up that his iconic foe from the comics, The Mandarin was making his big screen debut and the trailer showed him to be as a legitimate threat for Tony Stark. Unfortunately, it turns out the Mandarin is a goofy actor reading his lines while the man calling the shots was a some dude in business suit who engineered a middle eastern terrorist group from from a western computer lab.

There was a short film afterwards that showed the goofy actor in prison and it told us that there is a real Mandarin out there and the computer nerd took inspiration from the ancient mythical man. Fast forward to 2021, we finally got to see the man himself.

I think the problem is The Mandarin is a tricky villain to adapt due to him originally being based on a dated Chinese stereotype from decades ago. I think Marvel been somewhat trying to change a bit by making him bi-racial and toning down the stereotype in the comics, or skin green in the old cartoon(which is dumb), or avoiding having him East Asian in Iron Man 3(which failed).

*warning major spoilers, skip to the next entry to avoid spoilers*

1. You will cry...That 007 is a black woman

Ok, I can handle a blond Bond, or a young pretty boy Q, but making 007 into a black woman is going too far. How dare ruin James Bond.

2. That Biofield dies right after he's introduced.

What!? Bond's iconic foe dies in one scene and there 2/3s left of the film's runtime? Well time to leave the theater then.

3. The ending

*again major spoilers, I already warned you earlier*
4. That the credits say James Bond will return despite he's dead.

Wait, what you mean he returns? Didn't he die just then? I mean what, did he slipped under a magical dumpster and it sheltered him from the missiles? Did he did a transfer his Katra to another before his body died? Was his body thrown in a Lazarus Pit? Did he literally live only twice?

Note #1- James Bond was retired since the previous movie. When he came back, he found out the person that holds the title of 007 was a black woman named Nomi.

It seems people vaguely heard early reports about a female black 007 and went fan rage, thinking James Bond himself been heavily re-imagined or something.

Note#2- Biofield did die 1/3 in the movie but it sets up a whole new villain. It does seem disappointing he shows up and dies suddenly.

Note#3+4- The movie did in a surprising manner killed our hero at the end.  What's funny is that the end credits flat out said he will return, despite killing him. They may meant that they may reboot 007 or go back to the original timeline. Daniel Craig's Bond was set up to be a self-contained timeline.

They didn't bother to stop Thanos.

Seriously, get off your lazy butts. Also, isn't Thanos considered a Deviant? The monsters that your assigned to stopped?

Note- The whole net joked that they didn't get into the affairs of the world shattering events, unless it's Deviants that's messing stuff up.

In the comics, Thanos' race is complicated. He was born from two Eternals but had the Deviant gene and born all purple.

You cry...that they milked another sequel.

Note- There been a several Home Alone movies over the years after the 2nd one. Alot of them were not good and went straight to video with no promotion. I never heard anything good about them and they sound like quick cash-ins.

1. Forget watching 20+ Marvel movies but now you have to watch 2 separate Spider-Man films series that take place outside of the MCU. That's more stuff to add to the binge watch.


2. Also Matt Murdock made a cameo, requiring that you to watch all of the shows that originally aired on Netflix.

Wait, I now have watch 3 whole seasons of Daredevil to understand this cameo? I thought the Pre-Disney+ shows weren't canon to the MCU. Oh gosh, do I have to torture myself by watching Iron Fist?

3. That they are copying off of One More Day. One of the worse Spider-Man storylines from the comics.

You mean the story that ruined my OTP. 1st Star Wars Episode 9 pull from one of it's infamous comic stories, now Spider-Man?

(The lizard is missing in pic)

4. There is 5 Spider-Man villains.

They still haven't learn from Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 2. Their film series ended on a bad note when they had too many villains. Man, this movie is going to suck.

5.That 70s Spider-Man isn't in it

Or Japanese Spiderman don't show up with his giant mech.

What!? Man, nobody came to see No Way Home to see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. We wanted the guy from the forgotten 1970s series that everyone forgot about. Also wouldn't be it cool to see Japanese Spider-Man coming in and summon his giant mech into battle and give all five enemies a run for their money.

6.That the Venom cameo means nothing

What!?  Ever since I saw Venom got transported to Tom Holland's world, I thought I be seeing an epic showdown. What a letdown.

Note#1- You kinda need a checklist on what to watch on the MCU movies but now, we're seeing characters from films series that been long rebooted.

Note#2- 

Once upon a time, there was a group of shows on Netflix that was very loosely set within the MCU. I repeat very loosely. The only references to the MCU is the Kingpin's company helping rebuild NYC after "The Incident" or gangsters found special bullets made from metal that's "out of this world" that came from the "The Incident". There was also mentions of Supermax prison that was seen in Civil War. The Incident was another name for Loki's invasion of NYC.

After several years, alot shows that's sort of connected to the MCU were immediately cancelled because Disney+ was coming around with new shows with actual direct connections to the movies. Daredevil was unfortunately one of them.

I joked in the past that Infinity War and Endgame was going to have all these characters show up and confused the viewers as they make 50 thousand references to their shows. I also joke that random upcoming MCU movie/show would resolved the cliffhanger of Luke Cage being a mafia boss or explain Danny Rand's new energy guns since the chances of any of these stories being wrapped up is very small.

Daredevil and Killpin is now being welcomed into the main portion of the MCU. It's possible you may not be required to watch all the Netflix shows and basically give these characters a fresh new start as a new jumping on point.

Note#3- This movie sort of follows the infamous One More Day story but done better.

In the comic events of Civil War(which the MCU movie is loosely based on), Spider-Man unmasked himself to the world. Problem is, his enemies now know who he is and planned to attack his love ones. Aunt May was shot and showing no signs of recovery. 

The Marvel version of the devil called Mephisto appeared and offer Peter that he will save Aunt May and restore his secret identity if he gives up his marriage to MJ. They agreed and his years of marriage was magically erased from existence. Peter and MJ remember but not the whole world around them.

Everyone hated this direction. Marvel's higher ups thought Spidey be better off being a single man despite him being married for decades. Also MJ was preggers and was magically aborted. It took 10 long years to finally get them back together. Also, people would say that Peter would make the responsible choice and let his aunt die because it was her time instead of making a deal with the devil.

The movie was a million times better on the story. He went to his friend and ally, Dr. Strange, not the devil. It was to restore his secret identity because Spidey and his friends were bullied and denied their collage scholarships. It wasn't done to simply make Spidey single.

Note#4- These the complains from the previous Spider-Man movies. I think the main problem with the 2nd Amazing movie wasn't too many villains, it was way too many storylines and set ups for later films because The Rhino was only around in the last 5 minutes.

The good thing is all the villains stories were already establish from previous films and they more or less have the same predicament and working together. A dozen villains can work in a film if they are together in a group, not three villains that are completely separate from each other and all their stories getting rushed through and crammed in.

Note#5- This was clearly a joke about 70s and Japanese Spider-Man appearing. Most people has forgotten the show from the 70s and it's not worth watching. The Japanese show is good for a laugh and all but I don't know if they can get the original Japanese actor and he may not speak English.

If anything, what we got was already awesome. Who would thought we see Tom Holland's Spider-Man working with his predecessors and seeing the villains played by their original actors again after everything got rebooted over twice.

Note#6- The post-credits of the 2nd Venom movie have him fell through a portal and see the news reports of Spider-Man's identity exposed to the world and it seems it was setting them fighting. Well the post-credits of No Way Home have Eddie Brock drinking at a bar and hearing the history of the MCU from the barkeep, and then he suddenly vanished back to his home dimension.

All that set up was nothing more than a tease. There be no epic showdown between Holland's Spider-Man and Tom Hardy's Venom. A piece of the symbiote was left behind but I don't know if this will lead to anywhere.

Update on an old Ninja Turtles article about William Hung

https://chrisnumber1.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-times-4kidsfoxbox-screwed-up-ninja.html

In my old article above, I mention how William Hung, the infamous singer from American Idol hosted the FoxBox. At the time, I couldn't find videos of Hung and I had to rely on links to old forums from back when these shows were airing.

As of recently, I found Toon Along! YouTube channel and it contains several clips of bad singers.

Here's a link to YouTube channel of Toon Along!

There is one video of the Turtles about to listen to William Hung performing She Bangs. I seriously hope they were being sarcastic about his singing.

FMA Sequels

 

I pretty much explain my previous feelings of the 1st movie in another post.

It shoved 30 storylines into one little movie and somehow made some random minor dude as the main villain from the train robbery episode.

I found out the past few months that they released two sequels on Netflix. I went ahead and watch the 2nd movie and it was "Better-ish".  I only saying that because it mostly adapts episodes 13 through 26, which is kinda a small handful of episode rather adapting and grabbing random story points from the source material.

There were a few bits here and there that got adapted. The movie starts with a very quick adaption the train attack story that was only present in the 1st show but skipped in the 2nd show. The only difference was they saved Fuhrer King Bradley instead of Major General Halcrow. Also instead of meeting Maes Hughes, they met with Ling Yao and his gang.

Behold, an actual Asian character played by an Asian instead of Asians wearing wigs and having German names.

Also him and Winry's dub voices are the only returning voices from the tv shows. I heard Ed and Al had their original voices in the 1st movie but I guess Netflix waited months to quietly release it's dub because I didn't know the 1st movie had a dub track when it 1st came out.

Anyways, back to the train attack.

The guy on the right is Major General Halcrow aka the *main villain* from the 1st live-action movie

Both the 2003 show and 2008 show were adapted from the manga or comic. The 2003 show quickly got caught up and made up new storylines partway. When 2008 was made, the story from the manga was almost done but since it's been half a decade and the 2003 show was still fresh in our heads. They sort of speed through was was already told in the 2003 and skipped certain parts that didn't really matter.

The terrorists attacking the train episode's main purpose was to introduce Maes and Roy who were major characters. The terrorists never appeared again and the Major General was pretty much forgotten aside a minor cameo. So I have no idea why they made him the main villain in the 1st film.

Unlike the live-action movies, the 08 show did a far superior job of having 1st 12 episodes being an adaption with some stuff cut down and trimmed but still successfully told a great story that ran through. The way the movies done it is just jump point to point, making sure at least everything is in the movie but told so quickly it's confusing.

There are two main antagonists of the movie. One is the Homunculus, artificial created beings whose names based on the 7 deadly sins and there's this guy.

This man is called Scar. He's a survivor of the losing side of the war and becomes a serial killer, hunting down military alchemist.

The entire movie is mostly focused on this guy. In the original story, he slowly becomes an anti-hero, realized his murderous ways caused harm, even to innocents. He did end up working with the good guys as they all find out the war that started in his homeland was the result of an 300 year old conspiracy.

The movie does try to compress his entire character arc into the entire movie but believe me, it's not as laughable as some of the stuff I saw in the 3rd movie but yeah, he goes from murderer, to started to realized he he caused harm to innocents, to somewhat being forgiven by his enemies and started to work with them in one whole movie.

Here's a few comments about the casting.

 

Instead of a little girl, Mei Chang is a full grown woman

Alex Louis Armstrong is suppose to be a ridiculous character and he even looks ridiculous in live-action. Some things can't translate from animation to live-action. The 1st pic, we're laughing with it because he's goofy and over the top while the 2nd pic, he's we're laughing at it since he's look ridiculous for the wrong reasons. Also he's not too muscular. He's just some dude that does work out at the gym but no where like a big bodybuilder type.

Kimblee is a recurring villain who is heavily hyped in the flashbacks to the war but in the movie, he never appears after the flashbacks again, even in the 3rd movie. All this hype for nothing.

One thing I will praise besides the set designs is the whole scene

The scene where the main hero's love interest finds a gun and nearly goes gun crazy on her parents killer but he snaps it out of her and slowly pulls the gun from her hands. He tells her hands help deliver a baby and help attach metal limbs to people who lost their organic ones.

I like this scene for two reasons, one, because I hated how the 03 ends and left them divided in different universes and it was nice to see an actual romance scene. Two, the movie could of shoehorn the entire story of her help delivering the baby but it didn't. His line about saving lives means the list of patients he saw earlier that needs automail aka metal limbs to replace their missing ones and it was only seen in half a second. There was no shoehorning whatsoever. Just a half a second scene that don't interrupt the narrative of the movie and ends up fitting with this moment.

Now oh boy, on to the 3rd movie which is a pacing nightmare. It adapts episodes 29 through 64 all in a two hour movie.

There are episode that done in like less than two minutes and then move on to the next. There is no time to breathe. It just jumps point to point. It hurries up, tell a certain story in 2-3 minutes and then jumps to the next scene.

Remember Ling, the Asian actually playing an Asian. Well I need to explain the homunculus, Greed.

The man know Greed is a rebellious man who ran away from the other villains and started his own gang in a city. Later Wrath killed most of the gang and captured Greed. His body was boiled down and turn into a stone.

Later on, Ling was captured and turned into a homunculus with Greed's stone. It took over his mind and became the new Greed. It didn't have memories of it's past life as a rebellious gang leader.

Also, Ling came to our heroes' country to find the secret of immortality to help his country's emperor but as they were forcing the stone into his body, he was told he was going to become "immortal", so he easily gave in to be possessed.

Throughout the story, Greed's memories of his past life will surface and end up joining alliances with the good guys and Ling started to sometimes take control of his body. It's based like Brock and Venom sharing a body. At the end, Greed sacrifice his life to save everyone, including Ling.

Well in the movie, Greed 1.0 doesn't appear and makes they make offhand references he was rebellious in his previous life. Ling easily gives in to become a homunculus and this was commented by our heroes. The good guys flee the villain's lair, literally five minutes later he meets up with the good guys at house and he said something like, "Don't worry, I'm back in control and Greed is on our side."

Also it is jarring Greed still sounds like Death the Kid instead of Prince Schneizel/Steeljaw/Snow Villiers because in the show, when Ling became Greed, they got a different voice to play him unless Ling takes control of his body. That be like Venom is using Tom Hardy's regular voice.

The beginning of the 3rd movie also introduced Izumi Curtis who was Ed and Al's teacher and randomly gets introduced, meets the brothers' dad, gets her missing organs magically heal from his alchemy, and then moved to the another scene. She only shows up again to help to help the Armstrong siblings to fight Sloth at the end. It's kinda pointless this late in the game to introduce her, tell her entire tragic story why she has missing organs, and then make her show up.

That entire arc where our heroes travel up North to the border of the country in Briggs, all told in a few minutes. They hurried up meet Armstrong's sister, encounter a very obvious cheap CGI Sloth, go underground and learn the villains goal to transmute an entire country. All this in a few minutes with no time to breath.

At one part of the movie, Ed and Al were for some explained reason were separated(unless you watched the show). They meet Fuhrer King Bradley's son(and Gluttony) and instead of making an big epic reveal of his true nature as the Homunculus, Pride, he was all like, "BTW, I'm Pride".

In the middle of the battle, he randomly decides to devoured Gluttony. Gosh, this entire scene is a way too rushed.

Their rapidly regeneration abilities were fading out and he straight up eats his ally to recover but they don't explain this in the movie.

They did the entire final arc, "The Promised Day." The arc where our heroes raided Central Command and attack everyone, killed all the Homunculus, and defeated their Father and stop his plans to attain godhood. Pretty much everything from that arc was adapted, except that every major scene was done in a minute or two. I feel I like I'm watching a Michael Bay action scene where it's all too fast. If you watch the movie with no idea of the show, that's exactly like that. You be wondering whose who and who killed who. The only difference is no shaky cam or explosions.

Tough characters like Sloth went down in two or three hits. Even if you never seen the show, you think a behemoth that's 3 meters tall wouldn't go down in three hits. I mean heck, the 1st movie had Ed and Roy figuring out the Homunculus have a limit of how many times they can regenerate and it show Roy burning them down over and over.

So yeah, this movie is a complete nightmare. It's faithful to the source material but instead of creating a story based on it, it more like cherry picked the best scenes of the show and turn this into a live-action recap aside a few differences like killing off Dr. Marcoh in the 1st movie, forgetting Kimblee, or the cutting out the Chimeras. 

I think I mention it once but the CGI looks fake. I know I don't except it to be a high-budget Hollywood film but you know, it still look animated.

Despite it being set in a fictional world similar to Germany, you got Japanese actors in wigs and dyed hair unless they are from the FMA's version of China. Something similar happen to the Attack on Titan live-action movie where's it's also based on a fictional version of Germany with a ton of Japanese actors. However, at least they sort of have a sort of have an excuse, that movie pretty much made up it's own lore since it was made far back when that show was in it's 1st season, meaning it takes place in a post-apocalyptic Japan. Also their token Half-Asian never said within the movie that her mother came from a far away land. Also never wore wigs. The only problem is they have European names, which is weird.

If there some positives I say for the FMA movie. The sets and locations look great.