Children of the Corn: Is there such a thing as a fear of Corn?

Apparently, there is, it's called Kalampokiphobia... I don't have much other than that as I couldn't sort out a parody of Pinky and the Brain based on the film, what I was hoping to open this with... it's hard for me to think of words that rhyme with Corn ok? Why do you think I'm not a songwriter!

As you may have noticed if you've been paying attention to this site, horror's not really something I gravitate towards. Is it because I get scared easily? Not really, I'm that one jerk who laughs at scary things if I know they're not real. Combine that with Haloween not being a big thing here, and hopefully, that explains why Haloween isn't a big thing here. However, I will try, I will make a conscious effort to do something scary when I can! I may look to Twitter to help... and that's why instead of Saw, we're doing Children of the Corn... Does this count as progress?

Addendum Review: Pokemon Go, Two years Later

At the time of Pokemon Go's launch, while I was interested leading up to the release, even talking with people who were participating in the Beta here, the early launch period soured my interest quite drastically. At the time, my phone couldn't handle the game, the Google Play store outright refused to let me download it. What also lowered my interest in the game was the limitation of just Kanto Pokemon, and not even all of them as, from what I've heard, more unique pokemon like Ditto were missing at launch. Even when I got a new phone, one that could play Go, I just wasn't motivated enough to start it, only officially starting it late last year while I was killing time waiting for an event that I was working at to end, and only catching my starter, Squirtle.

So what inspired me to actually give it a chance? A number of factors actually. The first being the upcoming Let's Go Games, and how they're trying to marry the Go catching mechanics to the core RPG world design. The other? My broken foot. Throughout all of the winter this year (remember Northern Hemisphere people, down below the equator, June, July and August are the winter months), I was housebound healing a broken foot. A friend of mine on Twitter recommended I use Pokemon Go as my rehab of sorts, to help build up my leg and foot strength again, and I'll admit that it has done that quite well, I'm now back to full mobility in my leg and foot with no pain. As a result of it though, it has meant that I've had a lot of time with the game, and I figured it might be time for an Addendum Review, covering some of the changes that have happened since then.

Opening Impressions: Transformers Cyberverse

Wednesday, April 12th, 2017. The last Opening Impressions post I did (not counting Beast Machines) that used the tag Opening Impressions... wow it's been a while since I've done one of these, and this is assuming I haven't forgotten to put the right tags in some posts which is very likely that I have. I need to take a break from traditional anime for a bit though, so I figured why not wash away Sailor Moon with some giant robots? But what is there to do? The Japanese exclusives? Those are best saved for a marathon especially because that would defeat the point of trying to get away from anime for a while. The games? Hoping to get to War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron next year. Prime Wars Trilogy? Anything I could say on those has probably already been said. There's not much for me to add to that discussion. I wasn't a fan of it, even though I saw all three. I really wish that Mark Hamil's first role as a Transformer wasn't in those shows because I would have loved to see it in something with a higher production value. No... what I need is something new, something that discussions are still ongoing about, something like Cyberverse.

As per usual with these posts, while I try to make the official reviews more formal, these posts I let be more casual, bring in theories and the like. There will still be formal elements, but I can't make any concrete judgements on a show that hasn't even finished the first season yet.

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.