Moving on with the Road to Summer Special is Sonic's failed game reboot Sonic Boom.
The backlash for this thing has finally died down now, so to clarify a few things about how I feel about the games, yes Knuckles looks horrible, yes the games are glitchy and poorly designed and yes I did do the top ten things worst than Sonic Boom several months back, my feelings have always been the same, I've seen and played a lot worst than Sonic Boom so lets see if the cartoon does any better.
Well credit where credit is due, the Sonic Boom cartoon is actually really funny. Using the same characters and restoring some of the slapstick humor used in some of the earliest Sonic cartoons, Sonic Boom cartoon makes up for the rest of this spinoff franchise being bad.
It's an easy thing to say it's not the true Sonic everyone loves but really what medium is? AoStH was so heavy on slapstick that it seemed baffling at times, SatAM while good played a very dark setting to what was otherwise quite a colorful set of characters, Underground had this weird thing going where you pretty much have SatAM's dark setting with cheesy catchy pop music, the Sonic OVA featured the battle with Metal Sonic along with an out of place Catgirl and finally Sonic X featured humans we really didn't need to see in the franchise, so when you look at Sonic Boom that uses copious amounts of slapstick as it's main selling point you kind of come full circle. In the end I just prefer to watch a cartoon that's fun which everyone seems to forget nowadays, Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes are timeless because they still make me laugh, they never went complicated they only functioned on the slapstick and the punchline and Sonic Boom is very much the same as that. If that's still a problem for Sonic fans then I ask you what do you want then?
Welcome to the A-Z Review season; we first start off with the no comment vote winner, Aoi Sekai no Chuushin De, translated in English as World War Blue. Okay you might think this is an obscure anime title but in reality it contains a lot of well known video game characters in humanoid form. So from the picture below lets introduce you to some of the cast.
So from left to right we have...
Tejirov: Blonde guy with the rod, likes to solve all his problems by filling the gaps with his long rod, he's also a colossal pervert as well as being a genius tactician, he represents Tetris.
Opal: Archery girl, makes bad puns, is an expert archer but later becomes good at shooting energy blasts, she represents Fantasy Zone Opa Opa.
Nel: Young girl with the claw, good at sensing her surroundings and reacting quickly to avoid attacks, based on the same Nel from Phantasy Star II.
Gear: Blue haired shirtless guy, has super speed and is a little angsty, represents Sonic the Hedgehog.
Myomut: Guy with the closed eyes and sweet sword, is a great hero but only says yes and no most of the time, represents Shigeru Miyamoto with the designs of Dragon Quest.
Crystal: Girl behind Myomut, represents Final Fantasy series.
Karvai: Pink haired girl with hammer, very happy girl, represents Kirby.
Zelig: Guy holding the mask and dressed like a samurai, bit of a dick, great at gambling, represents Link from Legend of Zelda.
Marcus: Big guy on the end with the mustache, is actually the villain of this series, represents Mario.
Okay to put the story into summary, this is about the Console Wars of the early 90s told as if it were an actual war and every character is fighting for each company they represent with name changes to protect the properties each character comes from, although for the sake of keeping things simple I will use the names of the characters the cast are based on to describe the plot.
Right at the beginning Sonic's best friend Tails gets killed by soldiers from the Nintendo Empire. Fueled by revenge, Sonic joins the Sega Army and quickly gets placed in a team with other friend Nel and reluctant archer Opa Opa, led by traveling mercenary Tetris.
Meanwhile the Nintendo Empire are having to fight traitors in their own ranks as Sega's rise to power starts creating chaos among the other nations.
Sonic's first mission leads him to Castle Hope in the Taito Nation where he must save Sega's Lead General Alex Kidd, who is later revealed to be Sonic's father; with no chance of saving Alex Kidd, Sonic absorbs his power and proceeds to wipe out the Castle, from there we begin the war in full.
Basically that's the opening from the first two and a half volumes of the manga as well as the short OVA.
So yeah this review is a work in progress and may change at a later date when I eventually finish the series, for now I can honestly say, I want to see where this goes. I especially like the designs chosen for the characters, especially Kirby's character being female, not the only Gender reverse character, Street Fighter's, Fire Emblem's & Pikachu's characters are also female. But overall I like how different they portrayed Sonic, he actually looks like a respectable hero with no arrogance to speak of and that's quite a positive image for a character that badly needs a reboot.
Final Verdict: I really want to see where this series goes, I'm hoping it lives up to my expectations, I wish it were more popular because it's doing a lot of good for these characters.
It's the last day of this year so I will finish off with a list. This is the top 10 most surprising talents from popular characters. This list also has a bonus of five non anime entries at the end.
10. Miss Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh
The shy tall girl from the cast of Azumanga Daioh, celebrated for her athletic ability, her American measurements and her aloof personality. While it's not that surprising in her character design to like everything cute but what comes as a real surprise is how well she can sing when with the others at karaoke. This is played with in AMVs when she sings Colors of Wind from Pocahontas.
9. Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann
While she can take down a Beastmen with just her large rifle, she retires from active duty to become a teacher, and an awesome teacher at that, she even hides guns in her Blackboard.
8. Sunako Nakahara from The Wallflower
An anti-social girl who can't stand bright shiny people is able to cook as well as a house wife, in fact it's her most defining talent as a character which ultimately wins the approval of her aunt.
7. Konata Izumi from Lucky Star
Unfit, over weight otaku are considered an out dated stereotype but Konata is so small in build that you wonder how on earth she could be so athletic.
6. Apachai from Kenichi Mightiest Disciple
Apachai is tough, he can talk to animals and he can somehow defeat everyone at Othello or Go if you want to stay Japanese. It's supposed to show how a non skilled person can learn anything with practice but Apachai gets so good he nearly beats resident genius Akisame.
5. Ami Mizuno from Sailor Moon
It was going to be Makoto Kino but her skills don't really surprise me. As for Ami, it comes as a big surprise that the resident genius who claims to have no interest whatsoever in romance can apparently dance like an elegant princess. She may give Belle a run for her money.
4. Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina
Keitaro is pretty useless at most things but seems to have the skills of a master patisserie chef during Valentines Day when he makes a cake so amazing it would fool anyone into thinking he had a girlfriend. Good thing he has those skills as you need something to fall back on if he failed University again.
3. Hinata Hyuuga from Naruto
The timid ninja who really doesn't belong in the anime up against all the male ninja in an eating contest where usually the defining trait of Shonen lead males is that they eat a lot. Hinata defeated all of them, no defeat is the wrong word, she thrashed them.
2. Lizzy from Black Butler
I started with Meyrin but it's not such a big shock for a Phantomhive servant to be a mercenary. Lizzy on the other hand is the shows only girly girl, and seems out of place throughout, until a defining point in the manga when Ciel ends up in danger, she picks up the nearest swords and slices the Zombie horde to ribbons. In fact just look at the picture, that's really Lizzy being a bad ass after spending so long being annoying.
1. Tenma Tsukamoto from School Rumble
But I don't think anyone can top Tenma, a hopeless romantic, scatterbrained idiot with no physical or academic skills with the attention spam of a Schizophrenic Goldfish. and yet she has deadly Archery skills, can Judo throw someone twice her size, has a deadly baseball throw, can cycle really fast and to top off just her physical strengths she can Ski so well she teaches everyone else. And depending on how you interpret the ending she becomes a Doctor Overseas in the States
Now for five Western Examples
Eric Cartman from South Park
Is very talented at Photography when you take into account all his schemes. He is Peter Parker good.
Doctor Robotnik from Sonic
While only brushed on briefly by the Doctor at the end of Generations, Robotnik apparently was at university studying to be a teacher, I would love to see that expanded on. Next project Sega "Sonic Origins"
Buford from Phineas & Ferb
The bully from Phineas & Ferb can speak fluent French and quotes Voltaire, proving to be more sophisticated than the rest of the cast.
Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons
While having extra skills is not really a surprise in a series this long it always comes as a surprise when it happens especially with Lisa who has no skills outside academics yet she has the hand-eye coordination to stop a Hockey Puck bare-handed fired by an adult. The same Lisa who earlier in the same episode burst a Volleyball with her hair.
Sabrina from the Pokemon Games
It comes as no surprise that Gym Leaders have hobbies & jobs outside Gym Leading but when Gen 5 came along, Sabrina came back as a Movie Star; okay playing a Movie villain is less surprising but in the games she's depicted as a psychic master over dedicated to her training which expands to the anime; I would never picture her as a Movie Star. This also backs up a theory that suggests that Sabrina doesn't come from Kanto.
Well that's everyone, I'll be in 2014 before the majority of you so Happy New Year to all my viewers and I'll see you in 2014.
As promised the biggest review I've ever written, please click full view for the full review. Now to begin my longest ever review, Sonic OVA.
Sonic the Hedge...
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Endless Wardrobe is a little feature that acts as a news update as well as smaller posts that won't fill out a whole feature.
So What's Next?
Coming soon will be a feature on the Lilo & Stitch anime requested by Nimbusoak, I remind everyone that they can request anything, anytime and I'll do my best to post it.
Soon I'll also be posting the review of the Sonic OVA film which will be my longest review to date.
There will also be a couple of surprise top tens so look out for them.
And there will also be a feature on the Aussie cartoon Shezow as well.
I Refuse to do Touhou Project
As popular as this game is and I am aware of how much people love it, I'm afraid I can't bring myself to review it on the grounds that I know nothing about it other than the fact that it's a bullet hell game and I am not qualified to review anything about it.
Tagging Questions
Over a week ago I was tagged so here are my tagging questions, but as I'm new at this I tag my subscribers and let them decide whether or not to answer my questions.
1. Does it baffle you to know that I do most of my posts at Midnight when it’s only Dusk over where you are?
2. Cartoon Network or Nicktoons?
3. Which anime character best represents you?
4. What is your most epic gaming moment?
5. Which Pokemon would you start with if you could choose between all the starters in the franchise?
6. Harry Potter or Negi Springfield?
7. Would you watch End of Evangelion after midnight with all the lights off?
8. Think of the most creative superpower possible.
9. Which anime character would you marry?
10. What’s your theme song?
11. How did I do for a first try at tagging?
Caption Battle Returns
RinMustang22 has created a caption battle world, check it out if you enjoy writing funny comments to random pictures.
And Finally
My break is over so look for new posts shortly. Coming soon will be another new world, I won't tell you what it is now, you'll just have to wait until next week.
