Looking back on.. Archives » Page 14 of 18

Pokemon Banned Episodes Kanto Indigo League Season 1

05/14/201701/12/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

The Pokemon anime started as a very Japanese show so even if it was a rather tame anime it still had to be edited quite a bit for American audiences and because of distribution rights to the rest of the world. In the first season now known as the Indigo League season or “gen 1 / Kanto” to others there were 3 episodes that were banned for various reasons. Most of us knew about them since it was very well documented online and even in magazines. Now since then there have been a few other episodes that have been skipped and even some from season 1 but let’s just take a look at the original 3 episodes that were skipped and yet apparently were dubbed as well, who knows if that’s true. So whether you’re here to see the original Pokemon beach episode, have Ash be threatened by a gun or just have a seizure with porygon, Let’s begin.

The Legend of Dratini

The Jumanji Cartoon is the best interpretation of the franchise

05/13/201701/12/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

Jumanji was a movie that I absolutely loved as a kid and could not get enough of it, the ending made me want to watch a sequel which I guess we eventually got with either Zathura or Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle but a little late in the timing for me. However the original Jumanji movie did get an animated tv show that while I didn’t really get to watch as a kid I did know about it and it did end up lasting three seasons and amounting to a 40 episodes. So, how was this Jumanji series?

This show reminded me a lot of the Beetlejuice cartoon with the travelling to the world instead of the world coming out like it was in their respective movies. The cartoon is set in a different continuity from the movie but it works with mostly the same rules of the game; It’s actually set up in a perfect way that it makes a show out of the movie idea and it never feels like it wasn’t meant to be a show, great way of changing the premise without altering the basics.

Exosquad is the best cyberpunk sci-fi cartoon ever made

05/07/201701/12/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

Exosquad is a show that I never saw as a kid and I barely even remember the toys and yet I was recommended the show a few times comparing the show to Gargoyles and Avatar: The Last Airbender. For some reason every time I heard Exosquad I thought of Centurions, a cartoon that I always hated and now think is a prequel to Visionaries, and every time I decided to check the intro or read the synopsis it seemed terrible to me and I just didn’t want to watch it. I finally watched the so called “anime of the west” Exosquad and well I was definitely impressed but not to the level of hype the show seemed to have.

The setting of the show is the beginning of the 22nd century and Man has colonized both Venus and Mars. To help colonize and terraform the planets they had to create an artificial race; The Neosapiens, because of the harsh conditions for life on the planets. The Neosapiens were treated as slaves for the most part and they eventually revolted but humans created the Exo-Frames which are basically a type of exoskeleton or even mechas and won the war, while the Neosapiens are given more freedom for the most part they seem to still be treated fairly bad. The show itself deals with a new Neosapien revolt which based on the backstory you’d think they are the good guys but they aren’t and they try justifying it by saying their leader is evil. You can say there are shades of grey in the war and its definitely true however it’s mostly shown to you as the good guys vs the bad guys and the shades of grey are just for the audience to pick up. Lets look at the more interesting characters .

Visionaries Knights of the Magical Light deserved its holographic fate

05/06/201701/12/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light is a show I heard a few people randomly mention for a long time; An old forgotten short lived series that I’d never heard about so I was excited to check it out. The concept of the show is in a futuristic world the age of technology suddenly ends as everything electronic seizes to work and a new age, the age of magic comes back. Hmm.. the concept doesn’t make a lot of sense, I mean why did technology randomly stop working but I guess it has potential. For some reason though the show just didn’t seem like it was going to be a good one but I was willing to give it a chance.

All the characters are as generic as they can get, I didn’t even learn any of the characters names after 13 episodes, The leaders of each respective group is Leoric and Darkstorm and the others have similar themed names. The only characters I actually liked was Cindar, of the darkling lords and Cryotek of the spectral knights. Cindar is not very intelligent which gives him some funny lines.. too bad we don’t see much of him until the end. Cryatek is the only one that has some type of personality that can even aspire to rival Cindar. The theme song; The intro is not bad at all, catchy theme and cool action sequences. The outro is just the intro song without vocals and its more bad ass because of it, especially when you see the main guy just randomly whip the screen.

Ultraforce Cartoon is the best 90s superhero show you missed out on

04/29/201701/12/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

Ah the 90s, the decade were everything had to be X-TREEEME and with comic books making a comeback in that decade, new heroes that were more extreme than the old ones had to be made. That led us to Ultraforce from Malibu comics. Now I never read them or even knew they existed. Seeing a bunch of 90’s heroes that weren’t from DC or Marvel but some indie comics is awesome and they had their own cartoon so of course I had to watch it.

Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? is better than Netflix’s cartoon

04/23/201701/12/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

Thanks to Netflix the world’s greatest thief Carmen Sandiego is back on the spotlight which she hadn’t really had since the 90s. What started as a computer game which received various sequels it also ended up getting various spin-offs, from two ame shows: “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?” and “Where in time is Carmen Sandiego?” to an animated series, and what better way to show appreciation than with a quick review / overview of the 90’s cartoon “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?”.

We should first talk about the opening which is super catchy and there’s a reason for that since it’s actually a modern version with lyrics of Mozart’s “Singt dem grossen Bassa Lieder”. They really did a good job that this was some sort of crazy quest to find this one person who keeps outsmarting them all in the intro. Since it’s a song that you’ve heard so much in life it means that you already feel familiar with the show even if it’s your first time. You’ll never be as excited to start an edutainment show as you will with this opening; Sorry Magic School Bus. Go ahead and listen:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 Original Watch Through

04/15/201701/11/2021 Luigi Kawasaki

Looking back on..

About 5 years ago I re-watched all of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) cartoon by Fred Wolf and I made notes about it as I watched it and thanks to that I can now post general comments on seasons, episodes, and continuity. Before this marathon I did, I had already watched all of the original toon up to season 4 but not much after that, just a few episodes here and there. As a kid I definitely remember watching the TMNT but maybe I was just too young to remember plots. I still watched enough of the show however since all the voices and songs are instantly recognizable so that’s a bit weird, I guess I did watch it a lot just not of other seasons and not as consistent as other shows plus my young age. It wasn’t until the DVD releases that I got to see many episodes and the whole show later when it was easier to watch. This isn’t a formal review but random questions, observations and thoughts on each season.

Season 1, there is stuff that bothers me like what happened to the other mutant gang members besides Rocksteady and Beebop? They just disappear. I also wonder how exactly Shredder met Krang what happened to the foot clan and why did he decide to follow Hamato to NY…heck Splinter makes a reference that he thought Shredder wasn’t alive anymore, maybe there was some type of battle between Shredder and Hamato before he went to NY? Shredder appeared to die so Hamato was still shunned by the foot clan therefore Shredder has no foot soldiers in the OT since they’re all in Japan thinking Hamato killed Oroku Saki. Just a weird theory I came up with.. The humor is so abstract, I love it, too bad later seasons don’t carry the same humor. I also feel bad for Baxter Stockman, why was he sent to jail? he wasn’t really a bad guy at all here, he was just threatened by the Shredder to do his evil stuff, heck he wasn’t even aware of everything he was doing! He even comments that Shredder must really hate rats to find a logic for his invention he was creating for him. I also really liked how much they fight foot soldiers, they never really use them after this season.