Jumping in Headfirst

This Vegeta pic is my reaction to most Dragon Ball Super episodes: slightly annoyed indifference. The good side to Dragon Ball Super, lately: Vegeta punching everything in its stupid face. The bad side to Dragon Ball Super, lately: ...EVERYTHING ELSE.  Zamasu and Goku Black are basically villain versions of Boring Invincible Protagonists.  At a certain point, it's not even realistic to see the heroes triumph when the villains keep coming up with more powerful techniques that they're asspulling seemingly from NOWHERE.  This episode featured Goku Black literally slicing a hole in reality itself and from that hole sprouted Majin Buu-esque clouds that would form into wannabe Goku Blacks.  Where'd he get this technique?  According to him, the "depths of his anger".   This is only marginally better than when Hit was inexplicably using his technique at better and better levels because "he'd never wanted to before".  And this is before you get to the ...

One of the best things about anime gradually running out of shitty light novels with impossibly lengthy names to adapt is this resurgence of older anime.   Dragon Ball, Heroic Legend of Arslan (though that's because of a newer manga adaptation of the source material), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Saber Marionette J, and Peacemaker Kurogane...and now Mobile Police Patlabor. Patlabor was a manga/anime franchise developed near the end of the 80's by a group called Headgear.  They're not known for much aside from Patlabor, but that's really all it takes.  If Gundam ushered in the real "Real Robot" part of mecha--a franchise in which robots were used as tools of war in morally gray battles that were humans versus other humans--then Patlabor took that to the furthest/final extreme of that.   The mecha in their universe were called "Labors", named such for their usage in making manual labor easier--they were used primarily in construction, but also f...

I miss Superman already, but this episode kept me from missing him TOO much because there was quite a bit going on.  Introducing Lynda Carter as President, showing Mon-El's first time as more than just a coma prop, bringing in Detective Maggie Sawyer (who should totally be in Metropolis right now but nevermind that), and a last minute appearance by M'gann M'orzz, AKA Miss Martian--kept the episode so busy that you almost forget that the villain's plot is kinda half-baked.

Even though she screwed up the most this episode, I'm still not tired of Sara.  Most successful "player" of the team! DC’s Legends of Tomorrow show is a classic example of the saying “be careful what you wish for”.   When the series trailer first popped up around the end of Arrow S3/Flash S1, I was giddy with excitement.  Though the overall line-up was lacking (basically anyone relevant from Flash and Arrow tossed onto a team), I got the concept—this was the CW’s Justice League.   And watching the first two episodes, everything just seemed to fall into place with Rip Hunter leading this ragtag group into battle against the immortal Vandal Savage to save the Earth. 

Jay's sick of your shit, Barry! Since I'm a week behind and these two episodes kinda work together, let's just knock them both out at once.

I don't think I've been this excited for DC TV stuff since The Flash.  Having avoided last season of Supergirl due to its puzzling lack of connection with the CW-verse, "Adventures of Supergirl" was my first time watching the series.   I'd be lying if I said what made me give it a try was the simple fact that I didn't believe the show would ever use Superman and would simply lazily bring him up as always being "busy" and make him too important for the series.    The fact that they were willing to not only cast an actor as Superman but allow the character to be around for multiple episodes was a bold decision that I admire.

From one main character to another, a warm welcome! So far, ViVid Strike!! is my favorite of the season. 

Sometimes you watch the chaff... Why wouldn't you just print new textbooks? Time Bokan 24 is a series about Tokio--a junior high kid from the year 2016, and his friend Calen, a veteran of the 24th century's Space-Time Administration Bureau.  Together, they travel throughout time on Time Adventures to find the "True History" of the world, one that's funnier than what's been written in our textbooks.  Yes, that's almost exactly the way that they phrased it.  Their antagonists are the mischievous Akudama, employees at a company called History Paradise which has created false textbooks covering the history we believe to be true.  The first episode sees Calen and her crew, a robot named Pikobo and a talking parrot named Peralino, traveling throughout time trying to escape from the Akudama--until they finally travel back to their home base and lose their pursuers, but not before picking up a boy from the 21st century who's shockingly just as capable ...

One episode in, this doesn't look like any Digimon series I've ever seen before.  There's a Digivice, there's a kid wearing a goggles, there are Digimon, but that's about where the relations stop.  The familiar faces you're looking for, the ones that tie all the disparate Digimon series into a loosely connected "universe"?  For right now, they appear to all be gone--from Agumon to Leomon, the lore you're used to relying on as comfortable touchstones have vanished. And I'm not sure that's a bad thing.  I hate to be one of those "original is the best" type of people, but ultimately most of the Digimon series I've seen have too much of the same going on for them not to have a continuing, grander story at play.  And at the same time, this series feels more...relevant?  Digimon is basically Pokemon but with a strong technological component--they are Digital Monsters, after all.  Which means, much like technology they should r...