Kate, Yasuke and Kenshin: The Beginning

Two tragedies (and one animated WTF) set in Japan.

Kate

When the titular assassin (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is poisoned, she is on borrowed time to enact revenge and perhaps become a better person for it. While the plot is pretty straight forward, it is in the telling that kept us captivated - especially when set against the backdrop of modern day Japan. I'm pretty sure there was a cameo of the Tokyo Ghoul anime in there too.

She's having a bad day.

Of course it helps that there is a decent body count and some exciting action scenes to help things along, though some of Kate's kicks really don't look like they have much power behind them. Still something I'd watch again, I give it two and a half Boom Boom Lemons out of five.

Yasuke (Season 1)

Set in Japan during the honorable times of the samurai, spell casters and giant mecha, a black man (the titular Yasuke) gets roped into saving the country. This animated series definitely goes off the rails early and the art is well animated with action sequences aplenty. Most importantly Yasuke himself is a good character, making us eager to watch him every episode. The plot is actually mostly ok too, despite being a really odd blend. Recommended if you want something different, I give this two and a half Nobunagas out of five. I don't really care if there's a Season 2 for this one though.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

While it's funny that "The Final" comes out before this, I can safetly say that its because this is a better movie story wise. All throughout the other films people keep mentioning how Kenshin was once a cold blooded killer - well, this film focuses on that part of his life and it actually helps that most of the fights, while still epic and cool, are not too over the top like some of the previous ones have been (no mid air dodging a chain gun here lol).

That said, the antagonists certainly make a lot of mistakes and if you've seen the anime counterpart of this movie it plays almost exactly the same (but this one is superior). Also towards the end there are a lot of "let the camera stay on this character who isn't doing anything" shots which is a bit odd, but this is still a good movie and a must for Kenshin fans. I give it three and a half scars out of five.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Final

After battling Shishio, Kenshin and his friends soon become the target of an old enemy in the final manga arc which never got animated. As a side note it will be funny if they do movies on what did get animated though but they'll need to fix up those plots majorly!

Enishi finally appears!

Anyway, the sets and cast are ok (Cho again is overacting lol). The action bits which all seem to rely on heavy wire work are fantastic again - at least in the small scale fights. Against mobs of enemies there's still that effect of lots of guys "waiting to strike / get hit" which is a shame because I remember specifically that anime Kenshin usually runs to narrow passages to remove that advantage from his enemies. Meanwhile movie Kenshin took a few (more) levels of bullet dodging.

I only have two other gripes with this flick: some quiet scenes go on longer than needed, and there seem to be fan favorite characters thrown in just for the sake of them being there. If that actually happens in the manga, I don't know, but at least two people definitely didn't need to be in this movie.

I still enjoyed this and if you like Kenshin you will too. If you are only here for the action, then there might be a few parts you'll need to be patient in. All up I give it three judgements out of five, and would watch it again... for the fight scenes.

December 2019 Review

Wow, that year just flew past. Putting this early as I'm going to be away for a bit - no need to worry though, my automated services should keep posting if I set it up right! Haha. Game backlog has expanded again thanks to the all the freebies of the Christmas season. I'll have to tackle them when I get back!

    End 2019 with less weight (FAIL +3 kg from last month, running total: +6 kg)
    Make 1 web comic page (nada)
    Make new board game idea (nope)
  
BACKLOG
Borderlands 2 [gift]
Try Shroud of the Avatar [free on Steam] (priority NWO: Infernal Descent Mod)
Soma [free from Epic Games] (done)
The Messenger [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Jotun [free from Epic Games] (done)
+Wasteland 2 [free from GOG] (done)
+The Escapists [free from Epic Games]
+The Wolf Among Us [free from Epic Games]
+Postal 2 [free from GOG]
+Into the Breach [free from Epic Games] (done)
+How to Survive 2 (gift)
+Towerfall Ascension [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+The Wolf Among Us [free from Epic Games]
 +Superhot [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Little Inferno [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Ape Out [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Undertale [gift]
+LISA: The Painful [gift]
+Rimworld [gift]
+Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain [gift]
+Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes [gift] (done)
+Totally Acurate Battle Simulator [free from Epic Games]

Board games:
Zombicide: Black Plague Campaign (10/11)
London Dread Campaign (1/4)
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (0/13)
Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats (4/4)
+Love Letter
+Black Orchestra

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

Neverwinter Online released a crappy professions workshop and I started "The Cursed" story which began with the old D&D game - Curse of the Azure Bonds. Also Netflix started axing a whole bunch of Marvel superhero TV shows!

Five Years Ago

I am still very much into Vindictus and Tiamat first appears in Neverwinter Online.

Most Viewed Posts last Month
The Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt: Rats
The Wild Hunt: Generals

I'm guessing this was helped by the recent release of the Witcher series on Netflix. ;)

Top Search Terms last Month
rurouni kenshinn
neverwinter drowned shore heroic encounters fountain of fear
what level do you get a workshop in neverwinter

It's nice to see rising interest in Neverwinter again, but Kenshin just came up out of nowhere with literally 32 times more hits than both of those!

Dark Souls II: Two Havel

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Though the Ivory King was defeated, I still hadn't finished exploring his city. In doing so I found a coffin I could ride out into the frozen outskirts - a beautiful snow field which has alternating, blinding blizzards every minute. Oh, and giant psychotic ice deer that can literally fly. Wasn't long before I got the "You Died" message.

I figured I'd do the same at Sanctum City, exploring for bits I missed - and boy did I miss one. After defeating the tank invader Rockshield Baldyr in a long battle of attrition, I found myself heading into a cave littered with poison statues and the local poison undead. Fortunately Alfis and Rapacious Andrei joined me for this trek which really cleared the path down into the dark.

Team Exploration go!

There in the lowest level, we encountered three brigands - the leader of which was a Havel cosplayer like me! Each of us going one on one was probably a bad idea as Andrei and Alfis died quick. I had to use the Kenshin method (running to separate them out) to slowly whittle away at them. Eventually only the two Havel's remained, and there could be only one! I got a good supply of souls from that encounter, that's for sure!

He did put up a good fight!

Today I Smiled: Randomness!

Hope you're all enjoying the death count racking up in my Skyrim Adventure journal. I thought I'd take the time to point out that the new Philippine president is racking up a kill count (albeit indirect) too! The more I read about this guy, the more I think I would have actively voted him in too. Unless Mayor Stubbs ran against him, then I'd definitely vote for Mayor Stubbs because he's one cool cat. Literally. :P

At least neither are as controlling with their reddit channels as the magnificent leader though! r/Pyongyang is the most moderated channel I've come across on reddit thus far and it's pretty funny. Less funny is the upcoming apocalympics 2016 in Rio. I'm on board to give any athelete that attends a gold medal, and if they can leave the country and still have the medal - they can keep it.

Speaking of things that remind me of my own unfitness sports - have you ever seen a Trex run the Ninja Warrior course? Or know that Caity Lotz (aka "Sarah Lance" in the Flarrowverse) is a pocket rocket? It helps that there are gyms that are seemingly designed to train awesome skills like parkour these days. If you have a more medieval taste then this old article/interview with Samatha Swords might be of interest to you.

That's it for now, there'll be no new post tomorrow but the Skyrim adventure journal shall continue the day after. I'll leave you with some odd ball videos such as: Too Many Cooks, Don't Hug me I'm Scared, and How to Hypnotize Chickens.  Or if you prefer some music you can try anime jazz fusion and have a listen to Platina Jazz's version of Sobakasu. Alternatively if you prefer your music instruments airborne you can watch Walk off the Earth's version of Shake it Off. Have a great weekend!

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends

The direct continuation from Kyoto Inferno, this film wraps up the "Shishio arc" in the anime quite well, but obviously with big differences in locations and plot due to the time constraints of a two hour movie. This means you don't get to see all of the ten swords fight, which might be a good thing. The few you do see who haven't been introduced with a speaking line in the previous movie are understandably very pale comparisons from their anime counterparts that had episode upon episode of character building. Instead they just become oddly dressed fodder. In exchange they creators just made Shishio a hell of a lot stronger.

Bandages are armor?

As usual, there are some questionable plot points especially when it comes to the government people but these are easily overlooked while you get amazed again by the fast paced, beautiful and brutal fight scenes. I also really like whoever they got as Kenshin's master, he fits the role perfectly. Better than the last movie? Hmm, I think it is about the same - or maybe better by just a little. The very first movie is still the tightest plot wise since they didn't deviate around too much. Not that it matters because you are going to watch all of them in order right? ;)

Highly recommended for Kenshin fans regardless, or fans of Eastern action movies.

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno

The fight scenes are fricking awesome. Let's get that out of the way at the start! :P

Continuing on from his encounter with Jin-E, Kenshin continues to reside at the Kamiya Dojo with the Kenshin-Gumi but just like the anime is soon asked to go stop one Shishio Makoto and his "Ten Swords" from doing terrorist activities as payback for that time the government literally back stabbed him and tried to burn him. In this version though, the Saitou vs Kenshin fight doesn't happen since that sort of occurred in the previous movie and they are now allies.

Did you miss me?

Aoshi appears instead, but is always one step behind Kenshin who he is hunting for similar yet different reasons from the anime. He is somewhat more of a douchebag in this reincarnation. Yes, I didn't think it was possible either. :P Also missing is the "fire flies" scene which has been altered and doesn't have as much of an impact as it did in the anime. To be fair, also missing are the gazillion fillers in the anime that took the time to build the whole Kenshin and Kaoru thing up before that point. Acting wise my only problems are with Cho (over acting) and the wailing child extra. I ... guess he's a good wailer?

There are quite a few minor changes in the story but for the most part it goes how one expects, up until the end that is - where there's a major plot shift to open into the next movie. I didn't find this one as good as the previous movie (only because of the "to be continued" thing) but it's pretty close and very enjoyable - especially to Kenshin fans. You may want to watch the first movie first though if you haven't already, as this is more "The Empire Strikes Back" part of the trilogy. Personally, I can't wait to see the next one! ^_^

TiS: Rurouni Kenshin Returns!

I've just seen news that the next two live action Kenshin movies are coming out this year - HUZZAH!

For those who don't know, Kenshin is a pretty long running manga turned anime turned OVA turned live action movie that my brothers and grandfather have been following over the years. We took turns reading out each subtitled line for my grandpa throughout the animated series and when it finally came to the end was one of the only times I've seen my grandpa cry. That's how awesome it is.

I did do a review of the first live action movie and was thoroughly impressed by how they handled the content. This time it's the Kyoto arc where Kenshin and co. face Shishio and his "Ten Swords". Totally expecting much backstory getting chopped here in exchange for beautiful and vicious combat. Having Aoshi (my favourite character) in there is a bonus! I suspect they'll need to change him around a fair bit though since they totally skipped his intro in the previous movie (which means its not going to end well for him, is it? Damn!). I'm also interested to see just how they do The Legend Ends, a little of which is seen right at the end of the trailer in the link I believe. Best of all it doesn't look like I'll have to wait long as both movies are set to release later this year! With news like that, who couldn't help smiling!?

If you still haven't seen the first Kenshin live-action movie then you can watch if for free here! It's subtitled in English, so even Simcha has no excuse not to watch it. ;P

Oro!? When did Kenshin come back?

I was a little dubious when I heard that a live-action Kenshin movie was being made, we all know how Dragonball went after all. This left me pleasantly surprised when I actually got around to watching the 2-3 hour film recently (yes I am super late to the party). They follow the series quite well but obviously had to make changes to fit in the budget/time constraints (and sort of highlighted how much filler crap there was in the series). I was a little miffed one character was missing but afterwards I could see it was a good call because giving him and his buddies very little development and screentime would be a bigger disservice, especially since it went so well that they are making a second movie. :D

These people look familiar...

The fight scenes are pretty good and go up to awesome. The actors for me work well too, mostly. Kenshin is good as the hapless rurouni, not so much as the "angry face" hitokiri though. Kaoru and Megumi for me are fine and Sano is ok, though his zanbato is hard to take seriously. Poor Yahiko looked the part but had nothing to do - more or less an extra/throw away. Everyone's favourite cop in that era does an amiable job of being a badass, though I hope we get to see a rematch like the one at the start of the Shishio Arc in a future movie. As for the baddies the guy doing Kanryu overacts a bit which is absolutely fine for a drug smuggling a-hole. Jin-e was perfect. The other two "mini-bosses" don't really have a ton of development but they play their part of combat opponents nicely. Everyone else comes from the stock-standard demonized pile of losers on the street (literally).

There are some questionable story holes too (which usually happens when you cut a large part of the story out). Just a few being: Megumi willing to go out to dinner at a restaurant though she's a hunted person. She also doesn't tell the nice people she's staying with about her problems. Why Kaoru lets anyone and everyone stay at the school. What exactly happened to her dad. Why people think the battousai comes from her school. Why all the psychos actually "work" for Kanryu? They could just kill him and take the loot (he doesn't really come across as a savvy business man in the flick, more like he inherited some wealth). Why Jin-e massacres a whole bunch of nobodies and sets fire to a shrine he's sitting in for no good reason (I guess being a psycho covers it). Why, if it is illegal to carry a sword, are all of Kanryu's men armed? Sano too - does he just claim it's a large bandaged bread loaf? Not exactly the easiest thing to conceal. Most importantly why people think a sakaba sword is not a deadly weapon? "Oh, it's blunt metal like a crowbar at the front and only razor sharp at the back. It's not like he can turn the sword around when he feels like and really - crowbars haven't been used to kill people. Ever."

Also, who is missing you ask?

Beshimi... Hyotoko.... Shikijo.... Hanya....

Still very minor things in an otherwise very enjoyable movie. I can see Aoshi working with Sano's bomb-making friend instead in the sequel. Not sure how they'd fit the entire Shishio Arc without condensing the cast and/or mixing them around though. I mean adding Hiko Seijuro himself should probably eat up one third of the movie if they do the whole training thing. Not much we can do but wait. Till then though, you can and should watch the movie! Too lazy to find it yourself? Here you go. Enjoy!