Greetings Ladies and Gents! I am The Shaman of Animation. Here, I talk about mainly cartoons and whatever else is on my mind from Superheroes to Wrestling, to games, and anything else. Enjoy my reviews/ramblings and share with friends.
WHOO!! OH MAN...I'm still getting off the high of this moment...
Greetings Ladies and Gents, it is I, the Shaman of Animation here with something new: A wrestling topic. Tonight, I'm here to discuss the latest WWE Event: Survivor Series.
Now to be perfectly honest, I missed the first hour of the PPV. So I couldn't really comment on it, all I know was that The Miz and Damien Mizdow were crowned the new Tag Team champions. This makes sense considering how over Mizdow is with the crowd. There was also a traditional survivor series tag team match for the divas... although, from what I've heard about it, the less I talk about it, the better...
The Lunatic versus The Eater of Worlds!!
Next up is the first match I actually saw: Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt. This was hands down one of my most anticipated matches on the card....and they kinda pissed it away just for build up to the next PPV. Which is a shame cause I thought that the match started decent and I was beginning to really get into it right as they cut it off...The scene where Ambrose got disqualified dragged on a bit...
Next up, Slater Gator vs Adam Rose and his Bunny.....Spidey?
Thank You...
Next up, Nikki Bella vs AJ Lee...which was like a two minute match, that consisted of Brie Bella kissing AJ and Nikki hitting AJ with her finisher. There's not really a lot to talk about here. I can just imagine during the Brie/AJ kiss that Daniel Bryan and CM Punk were both at home thinking:
Dude.... Orgy...
Next up is the Roman Reigns interview...where he said the same thing he said, the last two times he was in an interview, except now, he's given an announce for when he's returning to which he answered: a month. Guys, I know you want to make Reigns the next guy and I agree he's got the look. But you need to actually let him be off TV, no interviews or anything like that, just let him heal up and keep him off TV so that fans will miss him.
Now for the main event: Team Cena vs. Team Authority. My God, this match was AMAZING!!! Without a doubt, the best part of Survivor Series. The match was creative with the ways a lot of members of each team was eliminated, it did a good job showcasing the future guys (Seth Rollins, Rusev, Harper, Rowan.) But the real MVP of the match is this man:
It ain't showing off when you can back it up...
Dolph Freaking Ziggler. He was simply phenomenal in this match up. From his selling to the way he was booked. After Cena was knocked out by the Big Show (who turned heel for the trillionth time), Dolph was the last man standing in Team Cena and was facing off against three members of Team Authority. He did a terrific job presenting himself as the underdog in the match and when he finally won the match, it was a great sight.
Now let's address the elephant in the room here and talk about the biggest shock of the night:
For years, the closest fans got to this stare down was the video games, but to see it actually happen is beautiful...
When no one expected it, the Icon, the man to never jump ship from WCW, STING, made his WWE debut to help out Dolph Ziggler. There isn't a lot to say here other than it was awesome seeing Sting in a WWE ring and I'm excited to see what he does. Here's hoping we're close to this match happening:
We're now closer to it than ever!!!
If I can be perfectly honest, this Survivor Series overall was just bad. Aside from the main event and Sting, everything felt like a throw away segment. Let this be a lesson for the guys at the WWE: Don't focus on just ONE part of your PPV event, otherwise you hurt the entire show as a whole. If I were to grade Survivor Series, I'd give it a C-, once again just for the main event and Sting.
But that's all I have to say about this so I'm signing off. Till next time, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying:
I just wanted a vid that said Ta Ta For now: But THAT was too hard for YT apparently
Oh...This is Gonna Ruffle Some Feathers, isn't it?
Two Steps forward, Two steps back. That's more or less this volume summed up in a nutshell. Greetings Ladies and Gents, It is I the Shaman of Animation here with my review of RWBY Volume 2.
Synopsis: RWBY is an anime inspired web series created by Monty Oum (of Dead Fantasy and Haloid Fame) for Rooster Teeth (The same studio that brought Red vs Blue) in 2013. The show follows four main characters: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long in the World of Remnant, a world filled with magical elements such as the Monsters known as Grimm. Our four main characters are enrolled in Beacon Academy, a school that trains young adults into warriors known as huntsmen/huntresses in order to combat the Grimm.
I thought that Volume one of the show, while VERY rough around the edges, was an adequate effort by Rooster Teeth and gave viewers enough to want to continue on and keep watching to see improvement. Now that we're here, has Rooster Teeth improved on their shortcomings in Volume One? Well if my first sentence signifies anything: no. But let's take a deeper look and see why, shall we?
The Good: RWBY Volume two has given a major overhaul to its backgrounds. The first volume featured a lot of black shadows for people and its big city backgrounds seemed very barren. This volume has fixed this problem. The backgrounds are more dynamic, and the previous ghost towns have more in them which helps give the settings more life.
ZOMG! ACTUAL BACKGROUND CHARACTERS!!!
The fight scenes continue to be the best part of the show. If you haven't seen any of Monty Oum's work in the past, then you'll get a kick out of the fights here in RWBY. This Volume cranks up the fight scenes to where they're seen more frequently and they are even more over-the-top as the previous volume (You'll believe me after the first episode of Vol. 2)
Your eyes do not deceive you. This girl is holding a swordfish like a weapon. The scene in which this is happening is as awesome as it is ridiculous...
The voice actors from Vol. 1 reprise the roles of their characters and you can tell that they feel a lot more comfortable in their roles this go round than they did in Vol.1 which adds for improved performances from the main cast. The episodes in Volume are also at least 12 minutes long, which seriously helps the show as it no longer feels like you're watching part of an episode on a weekly basis and gives satisfying conclusions to episodes...or at least it should...
The Bad: Oh boy...we made it here. Before I begin this, let me say that I DO like RWBY. I think it's a show with a cool concept, character designs and has GREAT potential. What is going to be said in this section is being said in hopes that the writers of the show will see this, and take this as suggestions for the next volume...season...whatever.
One of the biggest problems in Vol. 1 of RWBY was the constant missteps in the writing. That problem...hasn't been fixed in Vol. 2. RWBY is not aware of the phrase: 'Show, don't tell.' It throws out all these concepts without ever really taking the time to explain or develop ANYTHING. You will spend a good chunk of watching this volume asking the questions:
WHO?!
WHAT?!?
AND WHY?!?!?!?
For example, this Volume has our antagonists: Cinder Fall, Emerald, Mercury, and Roman Torchwick collecting Dust (A type of energy in the RWBY world) for...reasons...what those reasons are? It's never explained. Just like it's never explained who exactly Cinder, Emerald, or Mercury are. We just know they're bad because they're bad, which I'd be fine with if I had any sort of idea what their motives were. I can't exactly be against the bad guys if I don't know WHY I should. Even something as mundane as world domination would help...
Which brings me to their next action, the next episode Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are seen, they are disguised as students in Beacon Academy to watch the students to add to 'the list' and pull up old Beacon files? I put a question mark because the shows never says WHY they're there infiltrating the academy, or why there's "A list". I suppose the show is purposely doing this to build some sort of mystery around these characters, but it's just not working for me. It's just making me care less about them.
It also doesn't help the fact that the writers more or less FAIL at making the villains seem credible in their plans. Throughout ninety-eight percent of the Volume, the main characters are pretty much seen kicking the villains' asses in battle. The villains never have a big win under their belts which hurts their legitimacy. The only times someone on the villains' side was able to beat a member of team RWBY (Yang to be exact) was when a girl who before her first fight, we've only seen ONCE, curb-stomps Yang, and this was followed by some no name mook with a chainsaw beating Weiss.
You'd think a giant Robot like this would provide a challenge to the main characters, but nope. One of these gets taken out by a F**KING CORGI!!!!
Speaking of non threatening, let's talk about the Grimm, you know, the things that our heroes are trained to fight and are considered to be the biggest threat to mankind in the RWBY universe? They show up in the last third of the volume and are about as threatening as the care bears. There was a picture perfect way to make the Grim a credible threat in the penultimate episode of the volume as they've broken out into the city and are chasing after humans. They even manage to heavily outnumber our main heroes. I'm sure you're thinking that there's nothing wrong with this so far, it's creating tension and helps build to what could be some dark material.
Well guess what? The very next episode, ALL the Grimm are killed. Almost effortlessly by the secondary characters of the series who show up right on time, and four random @$$holes who we only saw just ONCE (One of them who only had ONE line of dialogue the entire volume) ; these guys end up curb stomping the Grimm, not our heroes, not the secondary team that's already been established, it's these guys!! The most damage that happened was the show SAYING a lot of people got hurt and SAYING there was a lot of damage. The Grimm are the textbook definition of canon fodder!! How would you all feel if the Titans from Attack on Titan were all taken out in one shot? Or if the Akatsuki from Naruto were all beaten in five minutes? That's how you're gonna feel with this last ep. of volume 2; you'll look at it and at the end of it, you'll say:
In the process of finding this Spider-man meme, I found several others on Google & had a good laugh. You could spend all day reading those Spidey memes. Good time all around...
A lot of fans defend the poor ending as 'just setting up for the next volume.' To which I call BS on. Setting up for the future doesn't excuse a weak finish in the present. You wanna know how Book 1 of Avatar the last Airbender ended? With our heroes finally getting to the North Pole, stopping the Fire Nation from destroying the North Pole, Katara becoming a water bending master (thus ending her character arc of that season), the Gang continuing their journey for Aang to master all four elements and a brief glimpse at Azula.
But oh wait, it's "not fair" to compare a "professionally made" series like ATLA to a web series like RWBY. Then here's this for a "better" comparison: You wanna know how the first season of TOME by Chris Niosi (which you should totally check out by the way) ended? With our main protagonists beating the Forbidden power followed by a short that went into detail about the villains with an amazing twist that tied it all together, and then ending it by showing that the forbidden power wasn't gone for good.
You know what ATLA and TOME had in common? A very strong season finale that wrapped up the events of that season while foreshadowing what was next in the series. Something that RWBY fails to do and decides to sweep that fact under the rug by saying and I quote: "Not every story has a neat and tidy ending."
I want you all to go to YouTube, type in RWBY volume 2 episode 12 and search for the comment with the most thumbs up (Which is mine) What I'm about to say here is the same as what I said there: That line, that one. single. line. Was essentially the show in the kindest of ways giving every single viewer a middle finger and saying we don't have to explain anything to you, you're gonna tune in next year anyway. Yet they made sure that all the Grimm were taken care of in the final episode and our heroes were sitting and starring off into the sunset...That's not foreshadowing... that's plain lazy writing.
RoosterTeeth, something is seriously wrong when fanfictions and an Alternate Universe comic made by your fans tell a better story than your actual show.
Speaking of, Check out RWBY Henceforward by kumafromtaiwan on Tumblr. It's not a bad read...
I've talked about the villains and the ending enough. Let's talk about some of the other issues I found with Volume 2. This volume used two of the biggest cliches I've seen...the first being the villains in the same school as the heroes cliche. Now granted, that's nowhere NEAR as bad as say, the other cliche. The School Dance...
*Sigh* Oh God, we've made it here...
This subplot...this stupid...stupid... subplot, has to be one of the biggest two and a half episodes I've seen in a show ever. This subplot takes place after, IMO, one of the best episodes of the Volume, and continues for another two. I've seen people defending this subplot, saying that: 'It gives time to develop the characters and take a break from the actual story and all the action.'
Now to be fair, those fans would've had a point there...if the show deserved the right to actually take a break from the plot when in reality, they had JUST STARTED getting into the plot. There were literally TWO episodes of the main plot of the volume before the writers decided now was a good time to take a break...Before the end of episode two of volume two, the characters were just jacking around getting into food fights and playing Yu-Gi-Oh rip-off card games!!
Look how INTENSE and plot heavy this is!! Next they're gonna start playing with Beyblades!!!
The main focus of this arc was that character 'A' wanted to go to the dance with character 'B' but character 'B' wanted to go with character 'C'. Meanwhile Character 'D' likes character 'A' but he's too busy focusing on character 'B' to notice and this sounds very annoying to you doesn't it? Now you know how I felt when I watched this. It's one of the most painful things to do in a show about teenagers.
I'm just gonna call a spade a spade and say what this whole dance arc was: Shipping fuel.It was just there to give the people who loved drawing fan art of their favorite pairings material to draw and also draw the ire of the fans of certain ships. I'm not gonna sit here and say I don't take some pleasure in shipping characters, but this whole arc gave me flashbacks to two of THE WORST shipping wars I've seen: The Narusaku/Naruhina war from Naruto and the Makorra/Masami war from Legend of Korra...I should never be reminded of those two shipping wars...
The only good to come out of this was that we FINALLY got some backstory to one of our four main characters that also answered a question that had been asked for a while. Back story that we SHOULD have gotten in the first volume, which in turn makes the payoff to the long awaited answer of that question very unsatisfying...
Which leads me to this: In ep. 5, we see Jaune, one of the secondary characters (And The best developed character in the show) worrying about not using his aura (some mambo jumbo I don't really care about explaining right now). So why not have the next two episodes that followed it not be about some dance, but about Jaune learning to use his Aura while Team RWBY investigate what's going on with the villains. That way, we have character development while STILL focusing on the main story.
Speaking of the title characters, let's move on to Team RWBY themselves. This volume...they're actually a well oiled machine. They have team formations (Which is really just pandering to shippers), they work well on the field and they, outside of one scenario, communicate greatly with each other...and that's where I have a problem. I feel that a good chunk of develop for the team was just skipped over. The last volume revealed that Blake was a Faunus (A human with animal traits) and a, a species that Weiss hated for all the damage they did to her family. In the last volume, that arc was wrapped up in two episodes and NEVER touched upon again in this Volume...
This is where I feel RoosterTeeth missed out on a great opportunity. They could have ended with Blake and Weiss coming to mutual terms in the final episode of volume one and in Volume Two, there was still some Animosity between the two; that the trust between them isn't fully there, which could have expanded on the inner conflict that was established on in Volume one. Instead, we get the team worried about Blake not going to a dance...
The Rock questions your story choices Monty Oum.
Conclusion:
Everyone, I want you to watch the opening for RWBY Vol. 2
Now I want you to watch the trailer for it...
These two clips were shown two months before the Volume premiered online. You all have no idea how excited I was when I saw these. It seemed as though RT and Monty had gotten their feet wet, understood what worked and what didn't in Volume 1 and were ready to go for Vol. 2. Not to mention the promises they made that this volume would be more "character based" and be more serious than the previous So you guys would have to imagine my utter disappointment when the Volume finished.
I cut RWBY volume 1 a lot of slack as it was a fairly new and experimental project that was trying to find its footing. But now it's been over twenty episodes.... and I ran out of kindness. All this volume is is set up for the next one as nothing really gets resolved in this volume. It seems that for every positive the show has going for it, there seems to be twice the negatives that hold it down. The plot just seems to meander around and take a back seat for cliches and inconsistencies (Like the awesome trailers before the series first premiered that had no meaning to the show actually having a meaning suddenly).
I could forgive shoddy animation along with not so great production as long as the writing's good. That's the one thing that both Monty and the RWBY fanbase needs to understand. Not being a "big time professional studio" does not excuse poor writing...
During this volume's duration, I came to a realization. The RWBY fanbase (and even Monty to an extent) treats the series like it's a big name show until it gets critiqued like a big name show. They praise it and say it's better and more original than a lot of anime, but when it gets compared to a series like Kill la Kill, they retreat and use the defense "It's just a web show." Well guess what? If RT wants to sell merchandise like DVDs and figurines, get licensed and dubbed over in Japan, and get promoted on Crunchyroll like it's a big name anime, they better be ready to be judged as such.
I'm coming down on RWBY as hard as I am because unlike other critics, I do see the potential in it. I want Monty and RT to succeed and show WHY this show deserves to be up there on Crunchyroll along with series like Madoka Magica and Fate Zero. But as it is right now, it's just a show that's hyped to the sky because of the names attached to it, and as it is, I can only like the show in concept...
If you're at all interested in RWBY...just go find the fight scenes. They're uploaded separately from the show itself so they shouldn't hard to find. Here's hoping next Year, the guys at Rooster Teeth manage to wow me with volume three...or Season 2 volume one...or...oh who cares...
Till next time, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying that if you made it this far and read this ENTIRE thing...
I wonder how many blogs have used this pic for a KH3 topic...
Greetings Ladies an Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation with a new topic discussion. To those uninformed, I am a HUGE fan of the Kingdom Hearts Franchise. I remember watching that very first cutscene from the first game as a kid and being completely hooked on it. Its strange combination of Final Fantasy and Disney along with awesome game play and...an admittedly convoluted story turned me into a fan of it to this day.
So when Kingdom Hearts 3 was finally announced, you can bet that I was STOKED. My exact reaction was something along the lines of this:
Of course when the game was announced, myself, along with the rest of the KH fanbase, were going wild just thinking of what movies from the Disney Library could be made into worlds for the newest KH game. This in turn caused a certain topic to rise among fans: Should Marvel and Star Wars be in KH3?
To those who don't know, back in December of 2009 Disney bought the rights to the comic book and Movie making company Marvel. Then, in 2012, they bought Star Wars; meaning that Iron Man and Darth Vader all live in the same house as Mickey Mouse (Sadly not Spider-Man...one day webhead...one day...)
The majority of Kingdom Hearts Fans felt very opposed to the idea of seeing something like this in the third (except not really third) installment of the KH franchise, thinking it would ruin the feel of Kingdom Hearts:
I wonder how many blogs have used THIS pic for a KH3 topic...
But, I'm going to be the one guy in the minority to say that yes, Marvel and Star Wars CAN indeed fit in Kingdom Hearts 3. When people here think of this notion of Marvel and Star Wars, they think about Sora, Donald, and Goofy going into actual Marvel and Star Wars Themed Worlds dressed as Superheroes/Jedi and having one of The Avengers/Luke Skywalker in your party. My ideas are MUCH smaller than that, and they can be easily weaved without being jarring at all.
For my first idea, If you go on Youtube and search for D23 Expo Japan 2013 (try saying that three times fast) footage shown for Kingdom Hearts 3, you'll see a small clip of Sora, Donald, and Goofy on a roller coaster battling the Rock Titan from Disney's Hercules.
CHOO CHOO MUTHAFUCKA!!!
Now fans of the franchise will know that this isn't the Rock Titan's first appearance in Kingdom Hearts. He first appeared as the final boss for the Hades Cup in the first game. This leaves me to my first idea for Marvel and Star Wars in KH3: Have a few characters from Marvel and Star Wars as optional bosses. Just picture it, you're in the Hades Cup, you've gone through 49 of the 50 battles, you've beaten Hades, Cerberus, and whatever Final Fantasy characters that show up for a paycheck. And now, for the last boss, a giant pillar of light appears from the sky, the light dissipates, the final enemy appears, and then this fight is happening...
Man, the awesome things you can do with Photoshop...
It's very easy to do; Much like Sephiroth in the first Kingdom Hearts, have a few mystery cups to do at Olympus Colosseum, when selected, you're fighting Loki or whatever Star Wars villains there are (Sorry, haven't seen a Star Wars movie, I'll hand in my nerd badge at the end of this...) Or if you don't want to go for the Olympus Colosseum route, you can go for this:
Say, for example, in KH3, they have a world based on the Buzz Lightyear cartoon. After you battle and defeat Zurg, you come back to the world for an extra mission or something like that. Then, you discover a secret area that was previously locked. Once you go in that area, you discover an enemy that hasn't been seen before by Buzz and you must battle him. That enemy...Ronan the conqueror from Guardians of the Galaxy!!
A hidden boss in a world you've traveled in before is nothing new to the series. Time and time again, it's created great Shock Value for fans and what better way to do that than with a character from Marvel or Star Wars.
Another option to go with are weapons!! With this, you have the influence of these two big companies without any of the characters. You could go to your hub world, go to your weapons shop and on sale you see Captain America's shield as a weapon for Goofy and Thor's hammer as a weapon for Donald. To once again go with my Olympus Colosseum option, say after you beat the entire Hades Cup with just Sora. What do you get as an award? A light-saber styled keyblade!
The ability to use The Force Not included...
My third and final option is a very simple and easy one: The Gummi Ship. How easy would it be to have a gummi based on the Millennium Falcon or Star-Lord's ship from GOTG? Not to mention, you can have a gummi ship mission based on Star Wars where you can blow up the Death Star by the end of it.
These are all the options I have for implementing Star Wars and Marvel into Kingdom Hearts 3. My idea for the game is to stick mainly to pure Disney related content and not go all out with the two properties, but just have small sprinkles here and there that won't have the Kingdom Hearts fanbase up in arms ready to strangle someone. Now whether Tetsuya Nomura and the rest of Square Enix go through with this idea, it's all up to them. All I know is I better see a Sora and Kairi kiss in KH3...
Make it happen Nomura. MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!
Until next time Everyone, I'm the Shaman of Animation handing in his nerd badge for never seeing a Star Wars movie...
Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen! It is I, the Shaman of Animation. Last October saw a big announcement for video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom is a spin-off from the main Sonic Series that brings an all new take on the blue blur (this of course also means the designs you see above). Sonic's no stranger to animated series as this show marks the fifth time he's been on the small screen. Now that the show is three weeks in, how is it? That's what I'm here to discuss
Sonic Boom is a comedy-action series (More comedy than action) that follows an eleven minute "one-and-done" episode format. It follows our hero Sonic and his friends Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and new to Sonic franchise, Sticks, as they go on adventures and battle the evil scientist Dr. Eggman
First off, Sonic Boom from a visual standpoint just looks great. You can tell a good amount of money was put into this series, A lot of all CG animated series take a few episodes to even a whole season to find its niche when it comes to its texturing and facial expressions (Take a look at the first season from the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon on Nick for example). From the get go, Sonic Boom brings you very vibrant and colorful environments, It will feel like you're watching cut scenes from the video games, which are always great to look at. The designs for the characters, for the most part, also look great. They perfectly match each character's personality and traits (Sonic being the speedy adventurer, Tails being the tech guy, Knuckles being the muscle of the group, etc.)
The voice acting for Boom is very top notch, easily some of the best in the entire franchise. The cast from the games from 2010 to now (sans Kate Higgins as Tails who's been replaced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey) have returned to reprise their roles and they do a great job. Extra points to Mike Pollock, the voice of Dr. Eggman. He's been voicing the character for over a decade and he sounds better than ever. His dialogue is easily some of the best of the show so far.
Speaking of Dialogue, the show does well with this also. All the characters' interactions are fun to see and they play off each other nicely. As Sonic Boom is a comedy series first, the comedy is decent. Nothing gut-bustingly hilarious, but you will get a good couple of chuckles from each episode.
Now for what I feel is the bad of the show. I wouldn't really say it's bad, but it's more personal nitpicks from myself.
First off, with this being a brand new continuity in the Sonic franchise, I wish we could have seen just HOW Sonic and the gang met and how they got to the point they are in the beginning of the show. When the show starts, they already know each other and they're buddies (and from what I've seen, the game doesn't go into detail there either).
Another thing that concerns me is newcomer Sticks the Badger. The show so far is going with the style of wacky random humor with the character in the sense that she does and says very strange things cause 'Hey! Normal people don't do that. HA HA HA!!' As it is so far, I think the show is doing a decent job of not going super over the top with her character and the style of humor, she even has some good lines from time to time. I just don't want it to dominate the episodes she's in as the two Sticks-centric episodes we've had so far have been some of the weaker ones.
And finally...one of THE BIGGEST sins this show has is how can you have a show titled Sonic Boom...and THIS ISN'T the theme song?!
The goal of Sonic Boom was to introduce the blue blur to a new generation and, in my humble opinion, the TV show succeeds at doing so (The game...not so much...) It has everything kids would love, bright colors, decent humor and action (the little that's there) and just all around fun. It's a Saturday Morning cartoon at its finest and one that young ones will enjoy and older Sonic fans can find some entertainment out of. If you have time, check out Sonic Boom...when the episodes are online cause there's no way in hell anyone over the age of ten is waking up at seven in the morning to watch a cartoon...
In 1999, a series would be published that would take the world of manga by storm: this series would grow to become one of the best selling manga in history and would be the biggest modern anime in the U.S. The series is none other than Naruto.
Naruto is a series created by Masashi Kishimoto. It was the tale of a boy named Naruto Uzumaki and his journey to become the greatest ninja in his village. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's pretty much the story at its core.
I remember being ten years old and watching the premiere of Naruto in the U.S. I was completely in love with the character of Naruto: a boy born with nothing and looked down upon by his peers along with the majority of his village who had to fight tooth and nail to earn respect of those around him. The series in itself had this perfect balance of cool characters, an interesting world, amazing fights, and just all around awesome moments that made you either want to tune in for the next episode or pick up a volume of the manga (or do what the majority of fans did and go online) and read what happened in the next chapter.
I have been following the story of Naruto for nine years and I had seen the series at its best and worst. I witnessed every single twist, every single fight, every single moment that made it what it was. I also witnessed how the series practically ruined nearly every single aspect of what made it so great in its final arc and made it a shell of its former self (Hell it's debatable that the decaying of it's story began LONG before its final arc). But I'm not here to drawl on the negatives, I'm here to celebrate it.
Even when it was taking its turns for the worst, Naruto still managed to entertain me in some form. Whether it was through the comments of Youtube videos where fans would could up with insane theories and speculations, or when I'd watch and laugh at whatever person would rant his head off about how horrible a certain chapter or character was. Or when I would go to the forums where people would verbally & virtually be at each other's throats over who should be Naruto's girlfriend (I'm not making that up. Type in Naruto pairing wars in Google right now. That's some intense shit that fans are probably STILL talking about. And I'd be lying if I didn't participate in that stuff when I was younger).
As corny as it sounds, Naruto had a huge impact on my life. To use metaphorical terms, Dragonball was the series that presented me the gate to anime and manga. Naruto was the one that kicked that gate down and introduced me to a brand new kind of medium for entertainment. A lot of the friends I made in my life were people who had a common interest in Naruto, even in college this fact STILL rings true. It's the reason why I want to be a story writer myself (Hopefully I won't be fifty when I actually finish and publish the stuff I write.) It's part of the reason I created this blog that you're sitting in front of your computers reading right now.
Was Naruto the greatest manga/anime ever. No. Far from it (I don't even know if I could put it in my top 10 list). But what it did for an entire generation of kids was introduce this insane and fun medium that hopefully they won't drop off now that the series has ended. Whether you loved it, hated it, praised it, or trashed it, Naruto will forever have its place in the Manga & Anime World. And it will always have a place in this reviewer's heart. Thank you Masashi Kishimoto for this Roller coaster ride of a story you've created. And thank you Naruto, for giving me nine years of entertainment.
Tuesday, Marvel dropped a BOMBSHELL with the line up for the films that will be in Phase 3 of their Cinematic Universe. Of these films included: Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, The Inhumans, and Avengers Infinity War parts one and Two. However, The first film announced for this new phase was the third installment of the Captain America Franchise: Civil War.
To those uninformed, Civil War was an event in the Marvel Comics that had the government pass the Superhero Registration Act: an act that had all super powered characters reveal their identities and act under the government's orders. Tony Stark (A.K.A Iron Man) was all for the act while Steve Rogers (A.K.A Captain America) was against it. This led to a huge division among the superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Some on the side of Tony, while others were with the Cap.
Now this event will be adapted in the movies, which has a lot of fans of the Comics concerned as to HOW you do this event without two VERY key elements that made it what it was: The reveal of superhero IDs (All the heroes in the MCU don't have secret IDs), and Spider-man (Who's owned by Sony and Marvel can't have in any of their movies). But I believe I have a few solutions to remedy these issues.
How would the Superhero Registration Act work without the Superhero identities? Simple. The SRA wasn't just about people revealing themselves, it was about the people that either wanted to be aligned with the government or refuse to be on their leash. Marvel already planted the seeds for this in two movies: The first being Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where, spoilers to those that haven't seen it, SHIELD has been dissolved and all of the things that they have done was leaked out to the world, meaning the government knows ALL of SHIELD's dirt. The Second being the upcoming Avengers movie: Age of Ultron. If the trailer to this movie proves anything, then Ultron (Who was built by Tony Stark mind you) is gonna cause some MAJOR damage to the world. The events in this movie plus Winter Soldier will know doubt play a huge part into why the Registration Act is created so that the government has some type of control over these super powered beings. The setting might be different, but the concept remains the same.
The Second and probably more important element in this equation: Spider-man. Everyone's favorite wall crawler played a very important role in the event as the middle man. Not to mention him revealing his identity to the world was one of the biggest moments of the event itself. The problem now is that Spidey's owned by a different company and can't be used in Marvel Studio's movies. So now the question becomes How do you do this movie without Spider-man, well Marvel has the answer in two words: BLACK PANTHER.
Before his own solo movie in 2017, Black Panther will make his big screen debut in Civil War (Played by Chadwick Boseman) This already sends signs that Black Panther will no doubt take the role Spider-Man had in the civil war Movie and it could be argued that he would have more impact than Spidey would. In Cap 3, T'Challa is introduced as the king of Wakanda, a technologically advanced country that has cut itself off from the rest of the world because of the dangers and greed of the world. The country is also known for the number one source for Vibranium (The Material that Captain America's shield is made of).
As I once again reference the trailer for Age of Ultron, it's seen that Captain America's shield has been destroyed and he needs to find Vibranium to have it repaired (Let's say for argument's sake he needs it so he can duke it out with Iron Man). In comes T'Challa with a source of Vibranium and then he learns of the situation going on with the SRA. Long story short, deciding that he can't just sit back, T'Challa takes part in the Civil War and sides with Cap. (Thanks to the ComicBookCast for their indirect help with me coming up with this theory)
To put it simply, despite what people say about it, Civil War IS a story line that Marvel could seamlessly incorporate into their Cinematic Universe. All it takes is the right directing and writing, and since when has Marvel let the fans down in those two regards?
