Dragon Ball Z #122

Today’s episode is: Mystery Revealed.

Goku is surprised to see everyone there to meet him, and he is even more surprised that the new kid knew the exact time and location of his arrival. The new kid asks to speak with Goku privately. They both turn into Super Saiyans and the new kid tests Goku a bit. Satisfied, the new kid introduces himself as Trunks. He is Vagita’s son, which is how he is a Saiyan. He is also from the future, being born in about two years and coming from about twenty years in the future. But that isn’t what he came to say. In three years (he even gives the exact date, time, and location again) a pair of androids show up and start going on a destructive rampage that has lasted until Trunk’s current time. They were created by Dr. Gero, an old enemy who once created the Red Ribbon Army, but Gero himself was killed by his creation. And shortly after, Earth’s special forces were killed by the androids, all except for Gohan who managed to escape and later taught Trunks, but then thirteen years later Gohan was killed by the androids leaving Trunks to face them alone. In this recital, Goku notices he is not mentioned. It seems shortly before the androids arrive Goku contracts a deadly virus and therefore isn’t around to try and fight the androids. Goku is disappointed, and Trunks says in his time they do have a cure for the virus and gives it to Goku. He then promises to return in three years time to help fight the androids. He also says his mother is Bulma and he makes Goku promise not to say anything because otherwise Vagita and Bulma might not get together and Trunks then would not be born. As Trunks doesn’t remember his father he is happy to have finally seen him. When Goku returns to the others, they naturally want to know what Trunks said, but Goku is reluctant but Piccolo heard every word. He doesn’t say anything about Trunks, but he tells everything about the androids. Some are skeptical, but in the end they all decide to train hard for three years in the future.

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Dragon Ball Z #121

Today’s episode is: Welcome Back Goku.

The new kid completely obliterates Freiza. King Cold at first is dismayed, but then tries to recruit the newcomer. He isn’t interested. Then King Cold asks to see the kid’s sword. The kid agrees, but he’s no fool. He fully expected King Cold to turn on him once he was without his sword which is exactly what happens. Too bad a sword doesn’t help King Cold at all. He is just as much of a gonner as Frieza. The guy then powers down from Super Saiyan mode and tells the others that Goku will be arriving in about two hours nearby. He goes off to the supposed spot. Some of our heroes want to believe him, others are more skeptical, but they are all intrigued enough to go with the new guy. When they arrive at their destination, the guy offers drinks. Only a few accept. They try asking questions, but the new kid is very clothed mouthed. He does say he has heard of Goku but has never actually met him, and he admits to being a Super Saiyan. Bulma defends him. The guy can’t keep his eyes off Vegita. While waiting Gohan asks Piccolo why he stayed on Earth when he could have gone with the other Namiks. I get the impression Gohan is a strong intensive for hi to stay^^; Anyway, at the time the new guy said, Goku does indeed land on Earth. How did this new guy know? Who is he?

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Kaze no Shoujo Emily #3

This week’s episode is: Eccentric Ilse.

Well, Emily’s first day at school doesn’t go so well. The violent girl Ilse Burns has it in for Emily, the teacher is strict, and lots of girls tease and torment Emily in small ways. The only one who seems nice at all is a girl named Rhoda Stuart. She gives Emily a box with a snake in it, but then says the other girls made her do it. She says all the girls are being mean because of Ilse. She says Ilse’s father is a sorcerer and if Emily isn’t careful Ilse will curse Emily. With directions from Rhoda, Emily finds he Burns residence and gets into a fight with Ilse. They both fall in the mud and are filthy by the time they are done. Emily worries what Aunt Elizabeth will say, but fortunately Perry and Uncle Jimmy claim that the horses were startled and Emily was thrown from the wagon Jimmy was supposed to take her home in^^; The next day even when Emily is a bit rude Ilse either ignores Emily or is nice. It seems Ilse is a girl with quickly changing moods. They hear Rhoda telling some of the other girls how she doesn’t like Emily and wants to humiliate her. Emily slaps Rhoda. I think their friendship is at an end. Meanwhile, Emily’s friendship with Ilse is blossoming. It seems Ilse’s father is really a doctor. They go with him to visit a sick boy named Teddy . . .

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Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood #54

This week’s episode is: Beyond the Raging Fire.

Like I said last week, never make Roy Mustang angry. It turns out that the thing on Hawkeye’s back is her father’s life work, the secret to flame alchemy. To help Mustang, she let him see it, then after the Ishbal massacre she begged him to burn it off her.  In the end he agreed.

Back to the present, it turns out it is Mustang who is the fake, not the Hawkeye who pulled a gun on him. Envy is a bit too much for her, though she gets in plenty of good shots much to his annoyance, when the real Mustang shows up. Mustang burns Envy enough that he is reduced to his tiny original form. It is about that time that Ed and Scar show up, and a good thing too. I can’t think of anyone better suited to stop Mustang from going to the dark side so to speak than Ed who has been through more than what most people go through in a lifetime already, Scar who was himself lost to revenge for a time, and Hawkeye who between her feelings for Mustang and the close tie his alchemy has to her family has the right to object if anyone does. Hawkeye makes it clear that if Mustang forces her to shoot him she does not intend to live long herself. Aww, their feelings for each other finally come out! Envy tries to get the others fighting each other, but the thing about humans is they can move beyond their base emotions. In the end, the truth is that Envy was jealous of humans and Ed realizes this. Unable to stand this, Envy kills himself.

Meanwhile, more soldiers show up where the Armstrong siblings are fighting. Fortunately, zombies show up at the same time, so it is easy for Oliveira to convince them to follow her lead against them. Meanwhile, Alex gets pummeled by Sloth and pummels in return. The Briggs soldiers manage to get to Central main command, though in this case, they had a little help. Yeah Izumi, you fit right in with them! Nice of you to create a tunnel right to Central command for them^^;

And Hoenheim finally reaches Father . . .

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Dragon Ball Z #120

Today’s episode is: Another Super Saiyan?

Confronted by this new kid, Frieza naturally tells his minions to kill him, especially after the kid says he’s going to kill Freiza. After he quickly wipes out everyone except Freiza and King Cold, the kid’s declaration about killing Freiza seems a bit more plausible. And after the kid turns into a Super Saiyan, Freiza’s demise becomes a distinct possibility. All our heroes sense a tremendous power that isn’t Freiza, so in the end they decide to go check it out. Even Vagita is impressed with the power levels involved, but who is this young man? Frieza tries three times to kill the newcomer, the last time sending off a blast that would have destroyed Earth except for the fact that the kid catches it and holds it easily. After all that energy is mostly harmlessly dispersed, the kid then proceeds to cut Freiza in half with his sword. After all the trouble Freiza gave our heroes on Namek, it is almost an anti-climatic ending to the most powerful villain our heroes have faced up to this point.

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Hikaru no Go #30

This week’s episode is: Ogata vs Honinbou.

Izumi and Waya have heard rumors that an amateur Go champion is going to be taking the pro test this year. These rumors are in fact true – the guy comes to the Go Institute to drop off his application to take the Go test. However, the guy thinks he should warm up by playing an Insei and he corers Hikaru. Since from Hikaru’s perspective this is a random game, he decides it would be safe for Sai to play this time. The guy is good; it’s not his fault Sai is that much better with a thousand years experience to boot. In short, Sai creams him. The guy’s attitude about taking the pro test was fairly cavalier. Now he’s decided to postpone it a year to study seriously and get better first.

Meanwhile, it is the final game of the Honinbou tournament. It is late, so at the last minute Kuwabara makes his move, then since they are out of time for the day Ogata is forced to seal his next move to start the game the next day. It is Ogata’s first time sealing a move, and Kuwabara tries to psych Ogata out by wondering aloud if Ogata sealed his move properly. What if Ogata sealed the wrong move? Yeah, Kuwabara is all about mind tricks and he isn’t about to give up his title without a fight even if he is an old fossil, especially now that things in the Go world look to be taking an interesting turn with the new generation. Well, it turns out Ogata did seal his move correctly, but he ends up loosing the final match anyway and Kuwabara keeps the Honinbou title . . . for now. There is always some whippersnapper ready to try and take it away.

Well, the preliminaries of the pro exam are starting. Being in the top eight Insei, Waya and Izumi don’t have to do the preliminaries, but Hikaru has only been that high for one month so he does. Still, he is raring to go. Waya wonders if Hikaru realizes that only three can pass and all who take the test will be trying to tear each other down.

It seems whenever Ochi looses, he goes into the bathroom, locks himself in a stall and taps on the wall. Everyone is under a great deal of pressure.

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Daddy Long Legs #30

This week’s episode is: Love on a Summer Day.

Judy is still upset about Daddy Long Legs sending her to the farm. She retaliates by not writing for two months to him^^; Still, Judy has decided to make the best of the situation and has spent much of her time writing two short stories which she sent to publishers to await their fate. Then the news comes that Jervis is coming to visit. This naturally throws the whole farm into a tizzy, lead of course by Judy. Jervis is made most welcome. And better yet, almost immediately after he arrives the mail comes, and one of Judy’s short stories has been accepted for publication, and it has earned Judy $50! Later Judy tells Jervis about her dreams of going to college and supporting herself. She tells Jervis what she can’t tell Daddy Long Legs about wanting freedom and how being sent to the farm instead of going with Jimmy and everyone else was. Jervis is sympathetic and while he does caution how hard the road is that Judy wants he also encourages her. The next day, Jervis sneaks himself and Judy out so they can skip church. Instead they go fishing and have a picnic. Unfortunately, a storm rolls in and catches them out in the open. Lightning strikes a tree near by and Judy falls down a ravine, but Jervis finds her and all’s well that ends well. The next day Jervis has to leave. Judy says she has inspiration now for her next work. Jervis tells Judy to call him Jervis and not Pendelton.

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Cross Game #23 & #24

The first episode is: We Can Turn the Game Around, Right?

The girl’s high school team hasn’t scored yet, and the pitcher insists on Aoba pitching. They are able to get a few runs this way. Still, the opposing teams’ pitcher is impressive herself and holds the high school team back. They make a few scores when they figure out the plays, so Aoba asks to give out the plays herself. She also gives good batting advice, and a mistake puts the high school team one point from catching up to the college team. Unfortunately, Aoba makes a mistake at their last at bat so they end up loosing, but sill everyone had a great time and I think Aoba was impressed with just girls playing. Kou leaves the game as soon as the outcome is decided^^; Aoba shows no mercy to the first years at the next baseball practice at her high school^^; Never underestimate a girl or woman^^; Not that guys should underestimate themselves either.

The second episode is: Don’t Give Up.

Several of the top baseball players go to observe the team that is the favorite to go to the Koushien. They have a batter that is just like Azuma. Azuma runs into the batter who left the main team when it existed. They look forward to battling each other on the baseball diamond in the future. It is also that time of year – Wakabe’s birthday, which means Kou is unsociable and he goes and gets a present for her. This year he is supposed to get her a pendant necklace. He sees Azuma’s brother at the store. He gets a charm for the oldest sister, but she ends up putting it on the cat’s collar^^; The baseball team plays a game against a team that has more managers and cheerleaders than players – they used to be an all girls school. It is an easy win, but coach is still merciless in going over the game. Kou later catches Aoba’s pitches since she didn’t have a chance to be in the game. Kou and Aoba understand each other better than perhaps they would like to admit^^;

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Dragon Ball Z #119

Today’s episode is: Mysterious Youth.

In today’s episode, our heroes gather to prepare to fight Freiza. Even Bulma tags along – she didn’t get to see Freiza on Namik and doesn’t want to miss her chance^^; Everyone is nervous, though Vegita and Piccolo seem to be handling things the best. Yamcha seems the most nervous. Of course, just about everyone there except for Gohan has been killed and revived by Earth’s dragon balls once and that won’t work a second time, so they have reason to be nervous. Meanwhile, Freiza reminisces about how Goku defeated him and even sent back an underhanded attack back on Freiza. He was then found by his father, King Cold, and much of him was reconstructed making him even more powerful. Naturally, Freiza wants to make Goku suffer by destroying his friends then his planet. Freiza and King Cold land on earth, but before they can do anything a mysterious guy we’ve never seen before takes out the first of Freiza’s troops to take off. He seems to know Freiza . . .

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Dragon Ball Z Movie #13: Wrath of the Dragon

This movie is nice because we get to see some of the best things, and the best of the worst things, about the later part of Dragon Ball Z. Yep, we get to see Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks, we get to see the Sayaman team (yeah, clearly Gohan hung around the Ginyu Force too much as a child, though at least this iteration of his costume is a bit improved), we get to meet Videl, and see many of our old friends. I felt that parts of some of the other movies that I haven’t blogged were a bit too much over the top, but this movie is nothing if not faithful to the whole feel of Dragon Ball Z. As a plus, Trunks is so cute here as a kid, and I can relate to his position. I’m sure Bulma is a great Mom, and Vagita even makes a decent Dad when it comes to training his kid in martial arts and everything, but who at Capsule Corps does Trunks have around to play with? Sure Goten comes over all the time, but I’m sure Trunks would love a sibbling. Which is why when Tapion is freed Trunks is so affected.

Of course, Tapion’s arrival brings our heroes problems, which gives them plenty of chances to show off use their fighting abilities. We even get to see Trunks use a sword again^^; Ah, echoes of Miri Trunks:) Clearly, whichever Trunks we are talking about, he is a natural with the sword. I wonder where Miri Trunks got his sword though . . .

In short, if you like Dragon Ball Z at all, you will probably enjoy this movie.

My rating: 4/5 because Tapion is cool and tragic and we get to see Trunks with a sword again!

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