Let it be said that I'm not one to follow trends especially when ninjas took over the world but lets see what was released by the west to tackle the might of Naruto during the mid 2010s.
For 800 years the town of Norrisville is protected by a ninja, in order to keep this going, a new ninja takes the fold every 4 years, next to take the ninja costume is Randy Cunningham 9th grader, however it's not long before he gets enemies in the form of the Sorcerer and his two main allies, Hannibal McFist a big time business man with a mechanical arm that has its own brain and Viceroy who may as well be called Baxter Stockman.
Randy must learn the many teachings of the ninja while defeating his enemies in order to keep peace in Norrisville.
This is the most mixed of mixed bags for many reasons.
1. It clearly took lessons from the Ninja Turtles school of cartoons with it's obvious choice of villains yet they have some top quality voices from the likes of Tim Curry, John DiMaggio and Kevin Michael Richardson.
2. It clearly took the torch from American Dragon a show with a similar premise but then rips off Sailor Moon by having it's victims become monsters.
3. The two leads were clearly part of the Mordecai and Rigby dynamic but are also both jerks.
4. Randy has to keep his identity secret but the ninja is not only common knowledge his so called best friend exploits it.
So yeah mixed bag is an understatement but at least the show itself is entertaining and while it looks like it is pandering to the new millennials need for ninjas and street cred, it's actually a fairly enjoyable show and the fact that the leads are jerks actually makes a change from the typical lead with phenomenal cosmic power and the typical wisecracking fun loving 10 year old that goes with it.
So despite taking more than a few pointers from previous shows, Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja is a good show, now you just need a shorter title and you might actually be remembered. *Smoke Bomb*
I'll be on a roll today as I try and review a ton of shows in a short time.... No really, I'll start with Teen Titans Go.
Teen Titans was originally a psuedo anime super hero show that is very well fondly remembered back in the days of Toonami, exploring the lives of Robin, Starfire, Beastboy, Cyborg and Raven, while very compelling with it's action it also had a good mix of dark drama and oddball comedy and any fan of the show would love to see this come back yet this remake that they chose to bring back is nothing but oddball comedy to the extreme to the point where you can't really call it a Teen Titans show; it really was a strange choice yet in a crazy roundabout way this is still a good cartoon.
Yes I can see all the criticisms, yes some of the jokes are somewhere between juvernile and WTF, yes it does feel like a kids show yet they sprout references aimed at my age group and yes the characters do feel badly dumbed down, and yes compared to the original there's no comparison.
Yet I actually like it. Despite all the heavy criticism this show gets I really don't hate it, it's a reminder of the cartoons of old when all you really want to do is laugh and not need a degree in storytelling to even pass the most caustic of critics, simple pleasures has it's place alongside strong storytelling and sometimes the only way that works is with a familiar property like the Teen Titans, and look on the bright side, the Marvel equivalent to this show is the Super Hero Squad Show which is a million times worst than this.
Next on the review train is Shonen Jump's Gintama.
In alternative Edo Japan, aliens attack and take over after the Shogun wusses out on the battle and betrays the samurai, handing power over to said aliens.
The characters we focus on are Gintoki and his two friends Shinpachi and Kagura, each with their own unique talents and past as they do odd jobs around the Edo region to pay the bills, sort of feudal Japan Cowboy Bebop. However old allies come back to haunt Gintoki and his many allies.
Plot is fairly straight forward but it's hard to really understand what's going on when there is so many gags going on, the film I watched which I'm basing this review on is part of the main story abridged into an easily digestible film and I can honsetly say the experience is unapologetically crass and vulgar and Gintama is very self aware of this as it lampshades the fact that a) it's no where near the level of the likes of Naruto and Bleach and b) the 4th wall breaking stuff with Warner Bros.
The dub especially takes advantage of this as it uses every possible gag in the book and while the majority of the gags hit the mark it does take away the impact of it's more serious scenes leaving me unsympathetic when a character dies or not feeling invested in a good fight scene and that can be Gintama's biggest problem.
Do I enjoy it? In a way, it doesn't do anything different that Shonen Jump hasn't already done better and the fact that it's self aware can make it seem 2nd rate but I do enjoy the experience on show.
Final Verdict: Gintama can be fun but it doesn't break any new ground that hasn't already been tried and tested by better Shonen Jump anime. Not to say it's bad but it is very predictable.
This is the first anime that I've finished which was inspired by a personal event, more on that later, as we review C3, (Because the full title is ridiculous)
Yura Yamato is starting a new school, however she's naturally shy and socially awkward making fitting in difficult, to top it all off she's felt isolated since her last school and is a lucid day dreamer but more on that later.
Her strange behaviour and the fact that her roommate is the leader of the Airsoft club gets her scouted for the C3 club, (derived from Command, Control, Communication an actual military term)
During her time in C3, she enters several tournaments and feels the experiences through lucid daydreaming where she feels she's in a real battle, however her past and the desire to get noticed starts complicating things for her as she starts showing a darker side.
Characters are a mixed bag and quite a number of interesting characters get overlooked in the story department in favor of Osaka's Gainax cousin, which is a shame because there's a number of characters who need some context for existing in the first place no less the other members of C3 barring Yura and Sonora who actually got a backstory.
This does have the typical sports theme of newbie trying to find herself after being dragged into the sport and is usually influenced by others to improve and actually has talent, see Hajime no Ippo, Princess Nine and every other sports anime in the last few decades, but in 13 episodes it pretty much follows the set trend without needing a thousand more, as the sport of Airsoft is niche enough to not be noticed and with a title this long and forgettable it doesn't really help it's popularity, no dub as there wasn't one but if there was, some character voices would be too predictable.
Final Verdict: Sadly its forgettable, the title is too long, it fails to stand out among its peers and doesn't really give me much to work with in terms of characters, which is a shame because I can see potential in this series.
Extra: I have done Airsoft and it's punishing, while fun its very painful; it's portrayal in C3 is fairly accurate and does have a very niche appeal and is easier to manage than paintball not to mention cheaper.
In my home town of Gloucester we have the biggest Airsoft arena in Europe taking up an old abandoned Match Factory the size of a Rugby pitch, if you ever want to try it, visit Gloucester and ask about Strikeforce.
Everyone is probably sick of the fallout from the Ghostbusters reboot so I'll keep that commentary to a minimum if I can, in the meantime lets look at the first attempt at a reboot, Extreme Ghostbusters.
Following on from the Real Ghostbusters Cartoon, the team have gone their separate ways since the work has dried up leaving only Egon to keep an eye on the containment unit while teaching a college class on the paranormal to further his understanding of the subject, however when ghosts start returning, Egon decides to form a new team of misfits, and these are our main characters.
Role Call
Eduardo Rivera
A Latino slacker full of wisecracks, jokes and the occasional pop culture reference, he's a bit of a woman chaser but is intelligent enough to back up some of his short falls.
Roland Jackson
The level headed African American mechanic, he helps improve much of the machinery used by the team.
Garrett Miller
A Jock paraplegic stuck in a wheelchair his entire life yet he's into sports and doesn't seem phased by the whole disabled label, in fact he mocks his condition constantly.
and finally Kylie Griffin
A Goth styled girl with a high degree of knowledge in the field of paranormal, a very complex character with tons of hidden depths and a worthy backstory to go with the show's tone and is often portrayed as the leader.
Tone is an important factor in this sequel to the original cartoon as much of the comedy is mixed with dark, grittier and more older audience themes and it really works well. It's living proof that you can have a different team of Ghostbusters and still do the name justice even if it goes in a darker direction, in fact I'd rather have the reboot with this team over the all female team any day.
I don't hate the new film, I'm just disappointed by it; it was always going to be judged unfairly due to it being a remake of what was a cult classic that really influenced the interests of geeks of my generation, this cartoon got the same treatment yet it succeeded enough to be judged as it's own product because it didn't try to imitate Ghostbusters, it just approached it with a new perspective and that's what the reboot film should've done to begin with and not appear as a gender swap Ghostbusters made to please corporates who think they can make tons of money making more of Frozen's Elsa rather than respecting the franchise they have and realizing that there was already a strong female Ghostbuster they could've used instead of what we got and to top it off, Kylie Griffin is in the extended comicbook universe which would be more canon than any other Ghostbusters media outside the films.
