Hi I'm Dranzerstorm
You may remember me as a regular contestant on the caption battle contest.
Welcome to Retro Retrospective, my world dedicated to the old guard of the Otaku world; expect some reviews of the old & obscure, and in-depth geeky knowledge with the occasional top ten and I now have a logo.
Little info about me
Well I'm British and I'm in to all things animated and nostalgia.
I've grown up with every cartoon going and have watched hundreds of anime.
Oh and to answer a question I was asked once, no I don't wear glasses in real life, I would wear Loke's sunglasses though.
I'm usually immune to the strangest concepts but this one certainly makes a lot of effort to convince me that the Japanese are weird. Today's review is on Akikan.
Now be prepared for a weird plot.
Kakeru Daichi is a normal perverted guy until the can of Melon Juice he drinks turns into a beautiful girl who is called Melon for convenience sake.
He has been chosen for a government project called the Akikan Elect which is meant to decide which can is better, Aluminum or Steel, to decide this the Akikan's themselves must fight it out to decide but the story decides to do away with the fighting very quickly to avoid becoming Mai-Hime and become a comedy romance anime instead which doesn't really change things an awful lot.
The problem is Akikan seems to be caught between two genres, the novelty fighter & the romantic comedy, it equally doesn't help that it sometimes delves into harem territory especially as the cast grows more female characters.
But to Akikan's credit at least it tries to be different, the main male lead is not an accidental pervert but a full blown pervert which breaks the first law of Harem instantly, only two girls actually like him since Akikans only fall in love with their owners so it's less Harem and more simple love triangle.
The Akikans themselves are made up of a tsundere, a devoted servant and a super cute little girl. There are only three males in the story, one is the lead, one is the invisible friend and the other is a proud Yaoi character who's clearly in the wrong anime.
The other females are Yaoi guy's over worked secretary, the little Akikan's child minder, a feminist witch and a girl who seriously can't see how much of a pervert Kakeru is. And there's another Akikan but she's introduced so suddenly and so late that we barely get enough time to take her character in, with that in mind the ending is rushed and suddenly reverts to the action plot it started with.
It's habit of throwing in sudden changes is like the director suddenly remembering he's got a deadline and throws in something weird that ends up breaking the flow of the story, made more obvious by the sudden upgrade in art in Episode 11 or the constant breakdowns in serious tones for more of Kakeru's perverted mindset, it's a sheer mess that's poorly managed throughout. Finally to note, there is no dub, probably just as well.
Final Verdict: For such a bizarre concept it strangely manages to work but needs more care and a few more solid foundations to really work as a proper anime. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but it needs a couple of cliches. It's bargain anime at it's finest so give it a look.
And now for the Top 10 Best Pokemon, same rules apply.
10. Blastoise & Sceptile
These two are on this list for a special memory. Both are symbols of friendship from a dear friend of mine across the pond in Canada, we got each other animal necklaces, I had a turtle, she had a gecko. So if available to me, these two are always welcome on my teams.
9. Raichu
Pikachu's evolution is always underrated, yet every appearance it makes has always reminded Ash's Pikachu of what he's missing and Pikachu essentially fighting under the belief that he doesn't need to be a Raichu to be strong, plus he's the one Pokemon who nearly killed Pikachu.
8. Cubone & Marowak
It's not the most practical but damn is it awesome looking and also scary when you first see it as a ghost in Gen 1. There's also the mystery behind the Skull.
7. Nidoking
I'm a fan of big powerful Pokemon and insist on at least one in my team with every journey and Nidoking is usually first choice, honorable mentions to Steelix, Drapion & the mighty Wailord.
6. Sandslash
Sandslash is usually my best buddy for early game progress, plus I'll never forget the time he took down a Pokemon 30 times it's own level. If he's not beating mooks early on he's working as a HM slave. Honorable mention to Golduck for having the same job.
5. Ampharos
Ampharos has always been my favorite electric type, out of all my teams, he's on or at least been involved with seven of them, much in the same way as the next entry.
4. Lucario
I've trained at least three of them as permanent team members, Lucario's movie was down right memorable and even outside the movies he's still a bad ass. Come on one of them fights his trainer just to snap her out of a losing slump. You don't know awesome until you see a trainer deflect Aura Spheres with their hands.
3. Lilligant
If I want a grass type Pokemon, they have to be a powerhouse and nothing is more powerful than Lilligant, in my only attempt at the World Championships it was my only team member to successfully beat any of my opponents Pokemon. Plus it always looks attractive in fanart.
2. Blaziken & Infernape
It would be too obvious to make these two number one, both these fighting fire types have always been awesome to watch, every time either of them are on screen they always leave an imprint in my mind of how easy it is to make this franchise awesome. Infernape is the best Pokemon Ash has ever trained period and Blaziken wins more kudos by being a free Pokemon for X&Y.
1. Kyogre
Remember I said I like big powerful Pokemon? Well none come bigger than this beast. Kyogre is welcome in every team I make and I'll make sure I can get it to X&Y eventually. It fits my team requirements for Surfing, being big & powerful and the bonus of being a legendary. It's the most intimidating Pokemon you can lay your eyes on and I'll be happy to have it as my team player.
Now it's time for a double top ten feature to celebrate the upcoming X&Y Games, and the most obvious ones to do are the top 10 best & worst Pokemon.
These decisions are based on design, practical use for the games, personal experiences and how much I had fun training them or in the case of the worst list how much I wanted to release them; I will also be taking their anime appearances into account. So lets begin with the Worst List.
Bare in mind that I no longer play Pokemon professionally so I will not refer to stats or complex Pokemon game talk in these two lists.
10. Spiritomb & Sableye
I hate these two for the same reason, both Pokemon have no weaknesses due to being Dark & Ghost types, this means they can be exploited with Wonder Guard an ability that negates all non weakness attacks by hackers. I'm not a fan of hackers to the game especially when they exploit these two for easy wins, it's unsporting and ruins the game for everyone.
9. Celebi
I never understood the appeal of Celebi nor do I enjoy the idea of obtaining it. In the UK it's difficult to rely on Pokemon events because there was a period where we got none of them at all and I never got a chance to own Celebi, but like many of the other cute legendary Pokemon it's just toyline bait.
8. Deoxys
Speaking of legendary Pokemon, Deoxys has many reasons for wanting me to hate it. Destiny Deoxys is the weakest Pokemon movie in the Film Series, in at least one game it doesn't obey you for some reason and he's also the whole reason why every Legendary now needs a form.
7. Pachirisu, Plusle & Minun
I'm not a fan of Pikachu clones and it already looks like were getting a hamster one to join the growing cast, although I left Emolga off for actually being useful. Either these three get evolutions or even a Mega Evolution otherwise they'll never be on any of my teams. Plus does the move Helping Hand actually accomplish anything?
6. Dunsparce
Derpy Pokemon is derpy and is utterly useless, I even can't believe that Ash thought about catching one not to long ago.
5. Wobbuffet
Just as derpy and even more useless with the added bonus of being an anime regular. In a game where most high ranking matches are normally down to one hit kills, Wobbuffet is the least useful Pokemon in the games.
4. Snubbell
It looks like a Bulldog in a dress, who decided that was a good design?
3. Scyther
As awesome as it looks, it's the most disappointing Pokemon to train, an impractical flying bug with a way more superior Evolution. If you played Generation one you'll understand what I mean.
2. Keldeo
Okay this might get me a lot of backlash; I'm not a fan of Vic Mignogna. He voiced My Little Pony reject Keldeo and god was he annoying. The reckless young student trope is a horrid cliche and Vic Mignogna made it more annoying than it already was.
1. Vanillite, Vanillish & Vanilluxe
Yep the entire evolutionary line of the Ice Cream Pokemon. I can tolerate Garbage Pokemon, I can tolerate Sludge Pokemon, I can just about tolerate the new Sword Pokemon but an Ice Cream Pokemon, that really is scraping the barrel on ideas Game Freak.
No I haven't been neglecting this world, although it is difficult to write reviews when you're watching five anime at once and had plenty of ideas for stories while trying to work on a computer that's been on borrowed time for the last year or so. Well it's time to stop neglecting and restart with a review on Grenadier.
Grenadier is about a wandering frontier gunman who tries to create peace in every situation they are in despite being faced with opponents that keep getting stronger with each episode, no I'm not describing Trigun but you can forgiven for thinking it is. Grenadier can be best described as a reverse gender Trigun; it helps that main character Rushuna is also blonde, stands pretty tall for a female character compared to the rest of the cast, is goofy in nature yet can shoot better than any character in the series except their own sibling who can match them.
Okay I'm not doing a very good job at separating this show from Trigun so lets see the story. Rushuna has been wandering around for a while being herself until her master puts a bounty on her head and sends a group called the Juttensen after her.
Joined by a samurai named Yajiro & a talented Balloonist named Mikan, the trio set off to the capital in order to find out what the hell is going on.
Now this is where the obvious comparisons end.
For a start it's clear that Rushuna is not so restrictive in using her gun than Vash was at the start of Trigun despite following similar philosophizes, in fact Rushuna wins more points in style than Vash and even Bayonetta in places as she reloads bullets with her breasts and pulls off seemingly impossible gun shots including shooting with just the cylinder frame, this is where Grenadier really shines, the spectacle, in a way this is what some people didn't like Trigun for; it was felt that Vash spent so long not firing his gun that people including myself couldn't sit through the series long enough before we got some proper combat and while it does eventually payoff, it still felt a long time compared to other 90s action anime at the time, in a way Grenadier was created to showcase what Trigun was missing but in the long term especially in the anime, Grenadier loses focus on the story and doesn't deliver itself quite as well as Trigun did.
But what really goes against Grenadier is the fact that Rushuna has gigantic breasts, seriously those things are DDDD, which according to sources is the same size as Soul Calibur's Ivy. The breasts kind of de-credit the story and make it seem like a huge fanservice show, not helped further by Rushuna's interest in taking baths every episode. Any kind of seriousness left in the show is lost in the anime because of Rushuna's cleavage.
Final Verdict: Trigun is a more superior anime by far but Grenadier still creates an impressive spectacle, I will say that the manga does make up for the anime's shortcomings and improves the story.
The excitement over Pokemon X&Y has been gaining momentum, so it’s my turn to weigh in on my opinions on the five bad & five best things so far on X&Y, as this is based on a game & anime series that hasn’t come out yet, my hopes will be that my opinions on the bad will quickly disappear when the game & anime is released.
I’ll start with the bad.
5. Gym Leader, Elite Four & Champion Designs.
So far I’ve not been impressed by the Gym Leader designs, I’m hoping Clemont & Viola prove me wrong in the anime, but rock climber guy isn’t exactly very inspiring & skater girl is packed full of gimmicks, and I’m hoping this doesn’t become a habit with later gyms or the Elite Four & Champion.
4. The Anime fails to use the relationship between Ash & Serena.
The biggest most shocking reveal of X&Y is the fact that Serena is Ash’s childhood friend.
This is a big risk for a series where all other traveling companions haven’t even heard of Ash until he showed up, so how will they play it with Serena who knows Ash already? Well this leads nicely to number 3.
3. Ash doesn’t grow as a character again.
My biggest criticism about Black & White was that Ash forgot how to be a Pokemon Trainer; in other beginnings in Hoenn & Sinnoh he at least remembered how to act from his previous journey but lost all bearings when he reached Unova. If he ends up this way again then the fanbase will demand that Ash hang up his Pokeballs for good and give up the title of franchise lead to someone else, maybe even Trainer Red who will easily replace him should Pokemon Origins be a rousing success.
2. The Fairy Type might break the game.
New types are hard to balance, it took a couple of tries before Dark & Steel were correct and it may be the same with Fairy type. To rephrase this properly, if I have to have a Fairy type or a Pokemon that has to counter a Fairy type, particularly if the Champion is a Fairy specialist then I’m going to end up with a team of Pokemon I don’t want; I gave up professional Pokemon training years ago and I want to enjoy this game with a team of Pokemon that I want and not a team of Pokemon I need. This also comes into another problem.
1. Mega Evolution might break the game.
The need for a Mega Evolution Pokemon on the team is going to be high, again I don’t want one if I need it to complete the game, this is especially prominent when I end up with a Kanto starter & Torchic so soon after selecting my own Pokemon which does have a Mega Evolution each.
Bonus: I'm getting so sick of the fake images of fake evolutions, honestly can't people do something more productive with their time?
Now the good things
5. The Kalos Pokedex will be huge.
Considering how many Pokemon have appeared in trailers and previews this could potentially have the biggest Pokedex of all the regions.
4. Character Customization
I finally get to redesign both my male & female trainers to their own personas rather than play as just a generic character with their own name. Since I play both games, both my trainers will look good.
3. Less New Pokemon and they don’t suck.
There have been less new Pokemon this Generation unless Nintendo have really been Sandbagging all this time. Saying that, the designs are pretty good so far especially the T-Rex one that will definitely be on the Male Trainer’s team.
2. Traveling in the Pokemon World is actually fun.
Ride-on Pokemon, Roller Skating, Bicycle & Default Running. That may not seem much too some people, it’s a big deal for someone like me who dislikes walking at snail’s pace in these games, and if the trailers are anything to go by then you’ve got rope swinging as well. For the first time the journey feels like a proper adventure.
1. Serena.
Serena is the female trainer who will become Ash’s traveling companion along with Clemont and his little sister, she is also the default female trainer for the games. It may not seem as a big surprise to many people but what did cause a stir among the fanbase was the reveal that Serena is “ASH’S CHILDHOOD FRIEND!”
That caught me off guard. I already had my predictions over the next female companion that Ash travels with; not only was I not expecting Serena (I expected Roller Girl) but I wasn’t expecting the even bigger revelation of Serena being Ash’s childhood friend.
Not to mention the shock of every Pokeshipper in the world; I think it went something like this below.
So what does this mean for Ash? That’s what I want to know. The hope is that the stuff I mentioned about Ash & Serena in the bad list doesn’t come true and for the first time in the show’s history, Ash might finally grow up. (Mentally not physically) Either way, Serena is the key to the success of Generation VI, and the anime is often a better representation of the franchise than the game itself. How they deal with this is how we’ll remember her as well as Ash and this generation of the franchise.
Bonus: Clemont & his Sister
The same goes for the male traveling companion and his tagalong sibling, mind you Clemont doesn’t need much to beat Cilan nor does he need much to beat Tracy or Max, he just needs to beat or equal Brock who we miss terribly.
