Yu-Gi-Oh; Pyramid of Light: This seems a bit excessive for a card game...

The push to capitalize on Pokemon's fame was a strange time for shows and anime, as many shows tried to tap into that market by making their worlds revolve around their takes on Pokemon. In the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, that included things like making an entire city crawl to a halt just due to competitors in a corporation dedicated to the game's competition, used as a ploy for the owner of said corporation to try and get his hands on three cards, and unintentionally drawing in the attention of a crypt keeper and his servants joining the tournament to try and get them and a puzzle from a kid who has the spirit of a Egyptian pharaoh that shares his body. No really, all of that happens, and I'm even skipping parts of it. Point being, this universe is weird, and it gets weirder when it wants to go cinematic, so let's see how weird it gets with two of the localized movies, starting with the first (to my knowledge) that got released in English, Pyramid of Light. Before you ask, yes I did try a World of Light joke, but nothing worked for me.

Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon Crystal: Wait... Didn't I do this 4 weeks ago?

"Hi you 20-40 somethings that enjoy sticking to your childhoods! Did you like Sailor Moon growing up? Have you heard how much better the Japanese version is? Well here you go, have the first three seasons redubbed and restictionless now that we don't need to worry about the TV sensors. What's that? You want a new show? Well then take this, the first three seasons with all the filler removed in a brand new art style! That's what you meant by a new show right? No? Too bad!"-A Viz media representative... probably (not really).

Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon SuperS (Cloverway Dub): Sailor Moon into Dreams... yeah I had nothing so NiGHTS refference

Where does one go after scientific witches try to find the Holy Grail? Clowns stealing dreams to try and get a Pegasus... yeah, we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here... Well, the end is in site, so let's see how one of the last Sailor Moon show, and the last to be given an English dub before VIZ took over went, let's look at Sailor Moon SuperS. No, I don't know why they don't call it Super S either, some sites do, some don't.

Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon S (Cloverway Dub): I can't decide, should this be a Monty Python joke or Indiana Jones joke?

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Makemake, Eris. Not counting moons and the sun, these are all the planets in our Solar system. I would include the moons here, but there are 194 formations scientists consider Natural Satellites in our Solar System. Many of these have connections to other factors of our lives in some form, from the five elements of Chinese astrology, depictions of alchemy, star signs of numerous cultures, I could go on but honestly nothing I could add here in regards to Saturn's death powers could top the number 1 reason why people remember this season. Welcome, to Sailor Moon S.

Ok, first things first, the new intro. This gives off the impression of this being a rush job in the dubbing process (wouldn't be surprised to be honest). It is the Japanese intro, using the English theme which doesn't match the new intros in terms of lyrics. I can't talk for the Japanese one though as while they use the same song, the lyrics are different between Japan and the West.

Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon R (DiC Dub): Who wants to break the news to Pluto?

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE SEASON, NOT THE MOVIE (Bloody hell, what is with this series and it's naming conventions?)

Yeah, kids, while you might not learn about this now, there was a time when Pluto was considered a proper planet. All the way up to 2006. Does this have anything to do with the Pluto in this show that has power over space and time? No, just couldn't resist the joke in the title. Welcome to Sailor Moon R!

The objectification point from last week still stands, and isn't helped by this cover.

Sailor Moon Marathon; Sailor Moon (DiC Dub): This is not an excuse to ask me to review Dragon Ball!

Before we begin, there is something I should clarify with this. Like with all my other anime reviews, this marathon will be reviewing the English dubs of the shows. However, as some of you might be aware, there are two English dubs. A more recent one by VIZ Media, and another primarily done by DiC Entertainment, the exception to this being Sailor Moon S, which was done by Cloverway. This marathon will be primarily focusing on the DiC/ Cloverway dubs, VIZ's is one best saved for another time if there's interest.

If I was to ask you to name an anime you watched as a kid growing up that you remember off the top of your head, what would you answer with? Dragon Ball? Cowboy Bebop? Pokemon? To a lot of people, they might say Sailor Moon, born from a manga of the same name and one of the defining choices in terms of the Magical Girl story structure, about a group of ever growing friends destined to come together to stop evil threats that lurk in the night and shadows. For it's time it was popular, enough to still be going to this day. Time, however, is a fickle thing and is harsher to some ideas than others. So, how kind was time to Sailor Moon? Ignore the fact that I'm clearly not the target demographic for this and let's find out! Welcome, to the Sailor Moon Marathon starting with the original show.

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 4; Loss: I'd have gone with missing or missed as there's a missed opportunity here

We finally did it! We're in the Digital World! One of the main draws for Digimon and something that not a lot of Digimon series, including Adventure and 02 wasted time to get to. Secrets are bound to be revealed, friendships remade, and more... right?

Well, yes, but the way they handle it is... strange to say the least. We learn why "Ken" is evil, although that was revealed in Chapter 3, I left it for here as it flowed better and it's more important here. We learn Himekawa's involvement in the plot along with another new face for this series, we know who's pulling the strings, and we learn more about Meicuumon's role in all of this, but its not before the kids have to reconnect to their Digimon, as all eight of them have lost their memories. It's honestly amusing to see how the Digimon interact with their partners, how afraid, confused, mad and the like that they all are. I can't help but smile at things like Nyaromon being one of the first to trust their partner thanks to the connection Kari has with the whistle. One of the last ones though is Biyomon, who is mad at Sora until pretty much the end of the film. What brings some stakes into this though is that not only are the team eventually separated, but a villain is trying to take Meicuumon. That villain is... Gennai? You remember that old man that helped the original team in Adventure, then suddenly became a lot younger in 02? Had a whole thing about the balance between the Human and Digital World, was even giving information to the organization Himekawa and Diago Nishijima (I'll get back to him) on the Infected Digimon. Well... Apparently, he's evil now, working alongside Himekawa, and serving King Draisel, an entity those who are familiar with Digimon Data Squad would know of. Turns out, Draisel was behind all of this and is intending to go to war with the Human World. To do this though, he needed the Digital World rebooted so that all the powerful Digimon that the Digidestined have defeated return, including those who fell in the human world, and never became Digi-eggs again.

One of the rare times we see all of them in their Rookie forms together.

I love this idea in theory as it's an easy excuse to bring back old villains, especially if the team have to relearn how to get their partners up to Champion, Ultimate and Mega again. That last part though is a missed opportunity, as not only does Biyomon become Phoenixmon, her mega form, but Tentomon becomes HerculesKabuterimon, and Patamon suddenly becomes Seraphimon... something he hasn't been able to do since the third film that made up Digimon The Movie... Ok? Unfortunately, that is probably down to the release structure of Digimon Adventure tri. What were six movies became 26 (I think) episodes of varying length, which have been turned into films again for the home releases? Because that's not redundant at all! If it was allowed to breath more, we could have seen some interesting ideas, like the return of villains and Digimon that mean a lot to the kids, such as Devimon (the one that gave T.K some strong trauma as Angemon died that episode), Wizzardmon (who sacrificed himself to protect Kari and Gatomon from Myotismon, imagine if he was brought back as a villain), Diaboromon would be cool to see again. We do get the return of Machindramon and Metal Seadramon, but they're relegated to mukes now and lost what little personality they had. The reboot restoring the Digimon who didn't get revived is also a reason why Himekawa is working for King Draisel. She and Nishijima were two of the original Digidestined, the team before the Adventure team we know, and her partner Digimon was killed in a battle against the Dark Masters. Her partner was the only one who died that battle, as the other four, including Nishijima's partner, became the four Digimon Sovereign from Adventure. It's another thing that sounds great in theory, but I get the sad feeling that it's not going to be developed fully by the end of this.

I have no idea why they went back to the Digital World in their school uniforms though. They're on summer vacation right?

So, where do we end this marathon? Seven of the eight digi-destined can reach the Mega level, Meicoomon is about to rip Genai a new one as her anger and Meiko being harmed got the best of her, turning her into one of the two Meicrackmon forms, Himekawa's insane, and Draisel's getting ready to go to war in the human world, intending to use Meicrackmon in the plan. Could I review chapters 5 and 6 now? I could, however, I do stick to English dubs to make it easier to review, and Chapter 5 hasn't hit home media yet, with Chapter 6 not even out yet in English. Chapter 4 only hit DVD and Blu-Ray here last week to the day, so this is another extremely timely review. However, that is the reason why this marathon is being called here. I will try and review Chapters 5 and 6 when they come out, but that is easily going to be a while. The anime content isn't over though because next week, we're looking at a team that fights evil by moonlight, stretches the definition of strong female characters depending on who you ask, and was stupid enough to try and hide a lesbian couple with an incest one... that flew over well! Regardless, I'll leave you here, Sunday will be the Tamagotchi review I promised (that I've been meaning to do since I launched the Toybox...) and next Wednesday will be the start of another marathon of reviews with Sailor Moon.

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 3; Confession: Still not going to put any real effort into finding out what happened to the 02 Team? No?

It should be said right at the outset that this is one of the hardest chapters to watch. Not because of quality, but for the story, it's trying to tell. You know how I brought up the Death of Leomon and the D-Reaper arc in Digimon Tamers last week? Well, this is probably up with it. It's brutal if you've grown up with these characters. If you don't want to be spoiled, turn away now. What I can say about it though is that this is a far better chapter then Chapter 2 was, at least overall. If you want to know why, then read on.

Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1; Reunion: Kuwagamon, why does it always have to be Kuwagamon?

It took a little while to get here, and even then it's not going to be the full trip, but here we are, the return to Digimon with Digimon Adventure tri. The films that celebrated the 15th anniversary of the series (which was for some reason spaced out to include 2013 and 2015, even though the anniversary was 2014...), and a direct continuation of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. The original eight are back in action once again, for something that will send you on a rollercoaster of emotions one way or another. For the record, these reviews will go off the assumption you know who the characters are from Adventure and 02, if you want to watch tri., it's recommended that you watch at least Adventure first. This is also going to cover spoilers as each chapter builds on each other.

Transformers Marathon II; Robots in Disguise 2001: That was a drastic jump

EDIT: It should be brought up that, during the time this was being aired (encase 2001 wasn't a give away) aspects of the show was censored upon western release due to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, leading to confusing plot threads later on in the series. I did not bring it up in the main review because... I never got up to that point as I couldn't bring myself to get up to that point.

Behold, the series right before when I started, Robots in Disguise (for the purposes of this I'll be referring to it as RiD 2001 as they reuse the name for another show which is getting a revisit this marathon along with several toylines and I already used my "no not that one" joke and I'd rather not reuse it yet), and this was a pretty big jump from Beast Machines and then the jump to Armada was just as big. But to give you the heads up now, the only reason the jump was big was because the pit that RiD 2001 is in. I've seen talk of this being a filler show between Beast Machines and Armada, and if that's true, it shows.

Opening Impressions: Pokemon Sun and Moon anime

I know you're probably sick of Pokemon stuff, but I want to cash in on the Sun and Moon hype. But I'm only on Ula Ula island, and there are plans for a video review of it in December. So what to do... First two english episodes of the new anime are out thanks to Europe you say? Sold. Forewarn, like with every anime I do, unless an english dub will never happen, a la 10+ years old, I review the english dubs, because it grounds the basis for how I can review them (or more bluntly, I can review English voice actors, not really Japanese ones as I'm not fluent in Japanese.

Mediaholics Cinema: Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea

Welcome to the Mediaholics Cinema. Tonight, we are airing Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. Do note, THIS DOES NOT SHOW THE ORIGINAL MOVIE. This is a commentary on the movie.

Mediaholics Review: Pokemon Generation 1 review

... /Episode 0 of the podcast... we're working on it...

We wanted to be, the very best, like no one ever was. To catch them was our real test, to train them was our cause. Now after 20 years, two critics, who are barely any older then the franchise, analyze Pokemon Red, Green, Blue, Yellow... Fire Red, Leaf Green, the tcg, the anime and pretty much anything Generation 1. How well does it hold up after 20 years, 16-18 main series games and more.

First Impressions: Akame Ga Kill: I hope you don't have a weak stomach

The material this review is based on and the review itself is designed for a more mature audience.

So this one was a request to cover, however as the name suggests, I hope you don't have a weak stomach, otherwise you may not like this. This isn't for the kids, but for everyone else, let's see what Akame Ga Kill has in store.

Opening Impressions: Log Horizon: "I can show you the world"... well, a digital world... another digital world...

An anime type (does it count as a sub genre yet?) that has appeared recently is, what I'm dubbing, the MMO world. Basically, the main characters get sucked into some sort of MMO and have to survive in that world, using their knowledge of the game. In this, we have the world of Elder Scrolls... I mean Elder Tale and the world of Log Horizon.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: It's going to be one of those shows, isn't it?

It's been a while since I've done a anime hasn't it? Digimon Marathon aside, the only other animes I've done here are The Unicron Trilogy during the Transformers Marathon (Armada, Energon and Cybertron) and K-On... which I will get back to... should get back to... maybe....hopefully... So, Magical Girls. It's pretty much self explanatory, girls, normally teenagers, are given magical powers to stop some sort of force of evil. Think of Sailor Moon as an example. That's pretty much all the explanation that needs to be said, now to look at the series that turns it into something dark and depressing: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, commonly referred to as just Madoka Magica.

Opening Impressions: Digimon Fusion Season 2: "We finally realised 'we're stronger when we act as one'... kinda...

So, with more news coming out for Digimon Adventure Tri, Digimon Fusion Season 2 decides to make its appearance (why it took a year is beyond me, seeing as it was first aired a few years ago in Japan). Jeremy and Angie (two people I didn’t bring attention to in the Season 1 review) take their leave, and we now focus on all three of the Digi Destined, who actually have Digivices.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Fusion. Dr Frankenstein would be proud

It pains me to conclude the Digimon Marathon so quickly, but sadly schedules can be a pain sometimes. There is however, one last completed season to review, and with both Season 2 and the upcoming Digimon Adventure Tri to look forward to, I guarantee this won't be the last time Digimon makes an appearance here. Time to delve into the world of Digimon Fusion.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Data Squad: #BlameKurata

One problem I see with projects, in particular fan works, is the poor combination of either parts of franchises, or franchises completely. It’s not something I see often enough to be a large problem, but when I find one, it really stands out, like the subject of this review, Digimon Data Squad.

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Frontier. All smiles, Spirits and world deletion... wait...

So, after the feels trip that was Digimon Tamers, its not surprising that the next season would be more on the chearful side. Unlike its even predecessor and more like its actual predecessor, Frontier is once again, a reboot (which actually makes more sense seeing as this is a Digital World). A brand new Digital World, new Digi destined and the concept of Spirit evolution, it's true what they say, the past can come back to haunt you: Digimon Frontier.