Is Everything Political?

Introduction

Normally I try to keep topics like religion and politics out of my reviews, but I felt somewhat compelled to tackle this subject after ABC cancelled its successful sitcom Last Man Standing starring Tim Allen. When most programs on television, be it the basic letter stations or the major networks on cable and satellite TV, want to get politics involved, they typically go for pushing the "liberal agenda." Last Man Standing, ABC's big boost to Tim Allen's career, did the opposite by having Allen make jokes that came with him venting his conservative views, especially during the first five seasons when Barack Obama was still the President of the United States. After Trump's win, the political jabs seemed to be shrinking, and some think this may have been part of the show's cancellation. Others say it's because of the conservative views being pushed in a "#NotMyPresident" era that the show needed to be canned, so we didn't have to hear Tim Allen continue to talk about how Hollywood is like 1930's Germany. To me, I think it's a combination of there not being much left for Allen to mock, Disney trying to silence voices of dissent (Look up PewDiePie and ESPN scandals), and the show just needing to admit it may be time to end since the two younger daughters are getting older, something that affected another Tim Allen sitcom once on ABC, Home Improvement.

Oh, wait, we were supposed to be tackling a bigger question here. Since the past election, Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump, have we hit a point where everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, has become political? The answer, sadly, is yes. Between Disney dropping stars and shows, YouTube algorithms blocking channels that dared to question the norms being pushed, and a need to persuade people that there are 76 genders and man has caused the climate to change, everything has become political, from the shows we watch to the classes we study.

Science

No, you didn't read that header wrong. As Bill Nye, the man we called "The Science Guy," has said "Science is political." Which is apparent given what his new show Bill Nye Saves the World teaches. Science has typically been viewed as the pursuit of truth, but nowadays if you are questioning the "truth" that has been found in modern science, you're a science denier! Here's an example, in classic Bill Nye, he spoke about how chromosomes contained all the information to make a person and that the probability of being a boy or girl was one-in-two, not one-in-76 nor one-in-pansexual-gender-fluidity. However, with Bill Nye Saves the World, gender is said to be on a spectrum, making the social justice push for non-binary gender seem true despite there being no evidence in actual science. Huh, and here I thought even an actor with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering would understand basic biology and not give in to Tumblr logic.

Entertainment

This one gets crazy because there are so many examples of how the entertainment industry has become super political to the point that it isn't funny, it's annoying. If you make an anti-Obama, anti-Sanders, or anti-Clinton joke, you're pushing cancellation. If you are a successful entertainer, you better be careful when it comes to what you say or your agency may drop you and you're out of work for a long time. For the former, Tim Allen's Last Man Standing gets cancelled for pushing the boundaries of taking jabs at Democrats or leftist culture. For the latter, Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg got dropped by YouTube's partner company, Disney owned Maker Studios for making jabs at the media and making controversial jokes. In addition to Kjellberg, Jon "JonTron" Jafari was also facing backlash from YouTube for his stances on illegal immigration and social justice, which he expressed both on Twitter and in an archived stream with Sargon of Akkad. This resulted in Jafari seeing a cut in his revenue and a number of his videos being placed in the subscriber only Restricted Mode. Hollywood and YouTube are very progressive, which is why they choose to silence voices of dissent rather than allow everyone to speak their mind without fear of backlash. Me, I prefer to say what I want and what I believe, and I don't care what the consequences may be.

Conclusion

Difference of opinion should not lead to a person being fired from their job, a television program being cancelled, or any form of fallout. Factual evidence should not be replaced by feelings. So, why do we allow it? Because we believe feelings come first and if someone is offended by what someone else says, then the someone else should be jailed and shunned because "How dare they have a different opinion?" or "How dare they use facts to disprove my feelings?" Because we believe it's better to coddle and protect grown adults from the outside world, we let the special snowflakes of the Millennial generation believe that they are the most important people and that anyone else is wrong. Sorry, but I'd rather be on the wrong side of history by believing in laws, God, a right to self defense, two genders, heterosexual marriage, and the values of conservatism and capitalism, than be with the "everything is racist, everything is sexist, everything is homophobic" Bernie Sanders supporting socialists that are demanding the wrong form of change.

Until the next review, have a nice day!

-Napoleon Jonamite

Skipping Some 2017 Movie Releases

2017 is already almost a quarter of the way done, and we have had some pretty hyped up movies, while others are just... Eh... Regardless, we all have those movies that we choose to skip seeing despite the hype. Is it because of a fear of a poor adaptation? Not having much understanding of what the film will be about? No real interest in the film based on either content or premise? There are a number of reasons for some. Me? Well, let me list off a few of my skips for 2017 and you'll get the details there.

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Let's start it off with this one. Based on the original Japanese animated film and anime franchise, Ghost in the Shell stars Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg, and a rather hot one too. From what I understand, this movie is looking to serve as an adaptation of the original movie.

Why am I skipping this one? Let's start off with the fact that none of my reasons have anything to do with the outrage over the "white washing" of the leading cyborg lady. My main reason for skipping this movie is a weak understanding of the lore of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. I had only seen the original movie once, and I had some difficulty understanding the lore. What is a "ghost" in this movie's case? How does one pull off "mind hacking"? This lore seems way deeper than I think even Leonardo Dicaprio is willing to go. Inception joke aside, without much understanding of the basic lore, I'd feel pretty lost while trying to watch Johannson kick butt and attempt to see how faithful the adaptation would be. Sorry folks, but this wannabe Otaku is skipping Ghost in the Shell's western live-action adaptation.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Wait, Napoleon Jonamite is skipping a Disney movie? It's true. Disney is continuing its current trend of making their animated classics into live action films. Starring Emma Watson as Belle, Disney is hoping to bring that same magic we got in animated form when we were kids to the big screen in a live action musical.

Why am I skipping this one? Let's face it, we've all grown up with the original animated movie. It's a timeless Disney animated classic that deserves to be in our film collections even to this day. The big problem comes with Disney trying to outdo itself and hope for another moneymaking remake. Reviews came in fairly mixed from critics and viewers alike. Comments came in from Doug Walker and Steven Crowder about the music being auto-tuned, new songs adapted from the Broadway show to lackluster results, bad CGI that ruined the experience, etc. Crowder's producer "Not Gay" Jared Monroe also commented on some of the casting choices not working out, citing Ewan McGregor's accent "changed like, seven times." While the LeFou "gayness" was overplayed in terms of the controversy, it wasn't the best direction for the character. Crowder noted that the social commentary could've been more like "I really admire this man." "Are you secretly gay?" "No." Personally, I think there are some things you just can't adapt to live action, and Beauty and the Beast is one of them.

Power Rangers

If you're familiar with any generation of Power Rangers, you should have no problem understanding the premise of this movie. If you aren't, let me give you the bare basics. An ultimate evil arrives on Earth to conquer it, a mysterious force for good calls for a group of young heroes to fight this ultimate evil by going through a monster-of-the-week until season's end.

Why am I skipping this? Let's start with what we've seen in terms of the things we watched as kids being revived as a potential film franchise. Transformers has a great box office financial record yet has received mixed reviews that lean toward negative. GI Joe fell off the map recently, blame Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson looking into better projects. Power Rangers moving to the big screen by reviving its early years may not work well considering the number of changes made and its aesthetics looking like Transformers 4. Add in the fact that I never really grew up with Power Rangers, and you have a genuine lack of interest in this potentially overhyped reboot.

There are still plenty of movies releasing in 2017 that I'm genuinely interested in seeing, but that may need to be another blog entry for another day.

Until the next review, have a nice day!

-Napoleon Jonamite

My Little... Millennial?

Okay, call this a weird subject, but let's take a little look into the most recent episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. That episode being the eleventh episode of the sixth season, Flutter Brutter.

Episode Synopsis

The episode revolves around Fluttershy's little brother Zephyr Breeze returning home after a failed venture into the world of mane styling, the pony version of hair styling. Zephyr's appearance of having a five o'clock shadow and a "stallion bun" makes him a pretty obvious representation of most millennials, but we'll get into that later. Zephyr plays the role of master manipulator as he moves back in with Mom and Dad despite Fluttershy's objections. A little later in the episode, Zephyr does leave the nest to find a new place to stay, and it unfortunately is Fluttershy's place. Fluttershy tells Zephyr he can stay under one condition, that he finds a job.

Fluttershy sets Zephyr up with a few jobs, working for Rarity by dying fabric, and for Twilight cleaning all the windows in the castle. How well does this work out? Zephyr does jack crap, and has Rarity's cat Opalescence "dye the fabric" and having Spike "teach him how to properly clean those windows." Can you say "Lazy-flank motherbucker?"

Fluttershy gives up on Zephyr after he quits his new job working for Rainbow Dash at Wonderbolts Training Camp, and big sister kicks her quitter brother out. A little later Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash spot Zephyr living in the middle of the woods admitting his failures, and Fluttershy has an idea on how to help Zephyr out, by giving him the help and motivation he needs to try again and complete his mane styling training. The episode ends on Zephyr coming back in graduation garb talking about his accomplishments, and how it helped to actually do all the work needed.

Zephyr the Millennial Pegasus

As stated earlier, one can't help but draw the conclusion that Zephyr is a typical millennial based upon physical characteristics and certain statuses. When we are first introduced to Zephyr, he's seen sporting the equivalent of a man bun and five o'clock shadow, has no job, failed out of his mane styling classes, and living with Mom and Dad as a freeloader. How does this resonate with the millennials that are part of the brony community? Probably not very well, but there hasn't been enough evidence on Tumblr to support this.

The last time there was a "stereotype" of some kind in Friendship is Magic, it was during the season 5 episode "Brotherhooves Social" with Big Mac in a dress pretending to be a female pony to participate in the Sisterhooves Social with Applebloom. I put stereotype in quotations there because there was an unnecessary controversy spun out of a classic animation trope, and that controversy was that Big Mac was being viewed by some as a crude misrepresentation or mockery of transgenders. I'd give my thoughts on that argument, but let's just keep politics out of this blog.

If the man bun sporting millennials, or at least the jobless freeloading millennials, get upset over this episode, then I think they may have missed the point of this episode. It's trying to actually help even the older members of the viewing audience get up and try again by actually putting in the work necessary to achieve their dreams, even if it means taking up a not-so-glamorous job to help them get there. It's rare to see a children's cartoon create a message that can work on a much more universal level than in previous episodes, but for Friendship is Magic this episode could be that kick in the pants we need to change the way millennials think about how to accomplish their life goals and find the job that they love, rather than demanding handouts ala Bernie Sanders (Only political joke I'll throw in here).

Until the next review, have a nice day!

-Napoleon Jonamite

Videos, Hiatus, and Grief

Well, it's been a while again. Sorry for not updating the blog in forever. This one is an update on things going on with the YouTube channel, future uploads, and a hiatus based on grief and other family issues.

With regards to the channel, I've had some issues with uploads and the wonderful "Where's the Fair Use" situation. I've had to switch my original uploads of my first three reviews to private because of a potential loss that would've been dealt to me by Universal Music Group. When I made a copyright appeal to UMG, they decided to issue a takedown notice on the video I chose to test the appeal with. This forced me to switch the original uploads to private and create reupload versions of the first three reviews I had ever done.

Along with that, I've been in the middle of another copyright claim battle on the My Little Pony review, this time from Sony Music Entertainment because they have the distribution rights to the soundtracks, which they didn't have at the time I worked on the review.

I do have a couple of videos in the works, but it will be a while before they do get uploaded. One review I actually moved up from a proposed Fall release.

I'm also uploading future reviews to DailyMotion while facing these YouTube issues. I will release the reviews to YouTube a week after I upload to DailyMotion.

Now for a subject no YouTuber ever wants to discuss, hiatus. After I released the Senran Kagura review in March, I was waiting for the right time to start recording again. While I had plenty of content recorded for a review I wanted to have done this summer, I had to place editing on hold for quite some time due to a major family emergency. Around the end of April, we had an emergency call come in about my brother-in-law collapsing in his home and being rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately he passed away during the attempts to get his heart started again. This forced me to enter into a hiatus that would then lead to pushing a project up to being the next review to be released this summer. This video will be dedicated to him, even if he had no influence on my videos. There will be an "In loving memory" card placed at the end of the video, something I never thought I would ever include in any of my videos. The grief has been rough, and I'm still not 100% back to my old self, but I know that he would want me to return to working on the things I love.

After I get the next two videos done, I will officially enter into another hiatus as I wait for that moment when I can officially move out of my current residence. I won't go into details about my current living situation, but just know that I will return to videos sometime next year. This will allow me plenty of time to draft up more scripts to work with when the time comes to return.

Until the next review, have a nice day!
-NapoleonJonamite

Please Rewind Napoleon: Where's the Fair Use?

It's something that many YouTube critics or entertainers are asking. The situation regarding YouTube's current copyright system scares a lot of users, and is currently making me want to not become a partner if this is the case. Oh, I think I am getting way ahead of myself here. Let's start off with the basics of the topic of Fair Use.

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is defined as a legal doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted materials without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, research, and parody. YouTube content creators like Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, Anime America, and even Please Rewind Napoleon are examples of critical and commentary based fair use content, while TeamFourStar and "Weird Al" Yankovic are major examples of parody creators. Whether the release is YouTube or the open market, the content made with use of copyrighted material is protected because some form of transformation was made to what was being used.

Why Are We Talking About This?

Recently, some of the big YouTubers, Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, and TeamFourStar to name a few, have been hit with copyright claims and strikes under the current copyright system being used by YouTube. Many companies or users claiming to "represent these companies" are placing these claims on the users mentioned stating that they own the content being used. With this, any money earned by the YouTuber through ad revenue goes to the copyright claimer, and a potential copyright strike is placed on the user's account.

TeamFourStar makes a parody of the anime series DragonBall Z, which has multiple owners in Funimation, Toei Animation and Fuji TV. The Nostalgia Critic creates critical content on various movies. The former channel was recently terminated due to a large amount of copyright claims made against them, despite their content falling under fair use, while the latter had monetization removed from their channel due to numerous claims made on many of his reviews. These users make their living through the content they produce, and with a lost income, they can't pay their bills or any sort of production crew they may have.

Sometimes, the company that makes these claims aren't even true owners of the content being claimed. Anime America, an anime review channel on YouTube, had many of their videos claimed by an Italian company that claimed to own some of the content that was seen in the video, which even included the users' avatars and commentaries in the videos. This sadly forced them to block their videos, including new uploads, from view in Italy until things get fixed.

How is Please Rewind Napoleon Affected?

Right now, Please Rewind Napoleon is a non-profit, non-YouTube-partnered review series, so it isn't affected at this time. However, this does make me nervous regardless of whether I choose to go into a partnership or not. Prior to my recent revival of the channel, I had claims placed on my earliest reviews. Universal Music Group claimed my videos because of the music used in my original intro, Billy Preston's "Nothing From Nothing." Time Warner claimed my Swat Kats review because Swat Kats was owned by their Cartoon Network Studios. And recently I had to dispute claims made by Viz Media on my Sailor Moon review and deleted joke idea, both of which used footage from the DiC and Cloverway dubs. I won against Viz's claims mostly in part of them not responding to the counter claim, but if I had those videos monetized, then I would've lost any money made during the claim dispute to Viz Media. As for my older videos, Universal made my videos unable to be seen in Germany or on certain platforms, and Warner is placing ads on the Swat Kats review to make money off of my video. I argued fair use to Warner, but lost the counter claim, luckily no strike was given to me. If this is what a creator of content that should be protected by fair use has to go through on a regular basis, why should I either consider a partnership or even create more reviews?

There are some major changes that YouTube needs to make to its current handling of copyright claims. Doug Walker, the man behind the Nostalgia Critic, has suggested that a side account be made for the funds that are being held/seized during a claim dispute, so that money goes to whoever wins the dispute. I'm sure there are other things they could do better, but I'm having a hard time figuring them out right now.

Until the next review, I have just one question. Where's the fair use? #WTFU

-Napoleon

Videos Returned

Hey everyone!

Just so you guys know, I did return to video making as of July of 2015. The first new video I posted was a review from the list I made back when I first promised a return in 2014, the other was an unplanned review that I wanted to do for a while. I will occasionally do some posting here, but my main focus is going to be on the videos as I attempt to bring new life to Please Rewind Napoleon. Thanks everyone for your patience!

Until the next review, have a nice day!

-Napoleon

PowerPuff Reboot: Pre-Release Thoughts

Well, well, well, things are starting to look up here. When I first heard that Cartoon Network was rebooting the Powerpuff Girls, I admit that I was a bit more than concerned. Partly because after I saw the anniversary special I saw an underwhelming and ultimately disappointing return of the girls to our TV screens. While the original voice cast returned for the special, the art style and writing that we were familiar with did not join them. The lack of any involvement by series creator Craig McCracken certainly didn't help either, but this was pretty much something that couldn't be prevented after he walked away from the series after it ended in 2005.

Cartoon Network seems to be trying to redeem itself with this upcoming reboot and the recently released information regarding the cast, new art style and the new executive producer for the series. Without further ado, let's get to my thoughts on the upcoming release. I'd compare writing styles, but until the pilot of the reboot is released I can't do so.

Art Direction

The art for the 2014 special. Oh, God... *Vomit*

Well, let's start with what we had in 2014, which gave me great concerns that this would be used in the 2016 reboot. In mid-to-late 2013, we were given some sneak preview images of the art direction that upcoming special would take. The plan was to use CGI animation to create the special, and it went drastically far away from the classic art style the McCracken brought with his original vision when the series was first released in 1998. Some characters did retain their designs under this animation style, but the girls themselves and villain Mojo Jojo were drastically changed (See image above for the girls). Needless to say, this should have been the indicator that things would be changing, and not for the better, by the time the special itself was released.

The recently released art for the 2016 reboot. Now that's more like it.

June 9th, 2015, Cartoon Network released some images of the new art style for the reboot. This is what I was hoping for in the 2014 special, something that closely resembles the classic art direction of the original series. Nothing trying to be edgy, no crappy CGI work, just a classic 2-D art that will make classic fans happy.

Voice Cast

The new voices of the girls. Not sure about this one.

This is the hard part of the announcement for me to discuss. As I stated in my notes about the 2014 special, the original cast from the series reprised their roles. For the new series, the only one reprising their role is Tom Kenny, the voice of the Mayor of Townsville. Cartoon Network decided to cast Amanda Leighton of Pretty Little Liars fame as Blossom, newcomer Kristen Li will voice Bubbles, and TV movie actress Natalie Palamides will voice Buttercup. This is a bitter pill to swallow, reading that none of the original actresses are reprising their roles.

"I have NO ILL FEELINGS for the actresses in the new PPG," Tara Strong, the original voice of Bubbles, said on her Twitter on June 8th when she first heard of the new casting. "We were just beyond hurt we were NEVER asked..." We, meaning Tara and her co-stars Cathy Cavadini (Blossom) and Elizabeth Daily (Buttercup). It's a shame that we won't be hearing those same voices that made these characters memorable, but hopefully this new cast will surprise us. That or Leighton will make a "Pretty Little Liar" out of me. ...Okay, I'm just gonna shut up now.

Production Team

Right now, we don't know anything about the writing team for the upcoming reboot, but what we do know is that Nick Jennings, the man who has helped direct Adventure Time and Spongebob Squarepants, will be on board as the executive producer of the new PPG. Jennings has won an Emmy for his work on Adventure Time, which already gives me some hope for the series. If he can find the right staff to work with him on this series, we could have a more true to the original reboot than I had feared we wouldn't have.

Bottom Line

With this new information, I'm leaning a bit more towards the excited side of the spectrum than before any of this was released. While I am sad that Cavadini, Strong and Daily will not be reprising their titular roles, I do have good (ish) feelings about this new team. I'm also glad that they did at least go into imitating the original art style for the upcoming release instead of something that would make the 2014 special look brilliant. Let's hope this all holds up next year.

Until the next review, have a nice day!
-NapoleonJonamite

Is It Worth It? Sailor Moon Season 1 Part 1 DVD Review

Introduction

It's November, and that means turkey, ridiculous sales on the day after, and for some nerds the release of the original Sailor Moon anime on DVD and Blu-Ray. After being acquired by Viz Media, Sailor Moon gets her anime digitally restored, uncut, and completely redubbed. After watching the streams on Hulu back in September, I was pleased with the results of the dub, though I did have a couple of nitpicks/issues with it. Anyway, now that the DVD is out, I'm going to give a mini-review based on the main content, presentation, bonus content, and price tag. Let's get started!

Main Content

If you read my post "Sailor Moon Viz: The Good, The Bad, and Those Ugly Nostalgia Goggles," you already know how I feel about the new dub. If you haven't, I'll give the highlights for this one. The dialog was well written, the casting for the most part was well done, Viz kept true to their word and left the anime uncut, and dropped episodes from the original dub finally make an appearance with an English audio track. The only flaws of note are that the English voice track is too highly defined compared to the music and sound effect tracks, and Shingo (Usagi's younger brother) has a voice that just sounds a little too old for the character's age. I was hoping that these two issues would have been fixed before the release of the DVD and Blu-Ray, but sadly they still exist. I will say that on the DVD the audio issue is barely noticeable while I'm sure on the Blu-Ray it sticks out like a sore thumb. Overall rating for the main content remains at 8/10.

Presentation

The DVD case (Left) and the cardboard sleeve (Right)

The box art of the DVD case is pretty simplistic, yet sort of bland. Buyers are given a gradient pink background with 90's Sailor Moon vector art and "Sailor Moon" printed in an elegant font. There are also some accents on the corners which are holographic/metallic on the cardboard sleeve, but a gradient gold on the case insert. I personally think they could have made something more eye catching than this, but that's me.

Funny how you can barely see Sailor Moon or Sailor Mercury while Sailor Mars stands out.

The discs are a single color with darker tones used to make outlines of the three Sailors we get in this first half of the season. The art is well done, but on discs 1 & 2 Sailors Moon and Mercury (Respectively) are barely visible.

The three menus from the first disc.

The menus seem to share the same trait as the box art, well some of them anyway. The main menu is given a much more eye catching background while the episode select and setup menus could use a bit more. What really gets me is how they show the episodes on screen. Note: I usually have it set to stretch SD footage to fit my widescreen TV.

By the way, I'm using a stretch to fit screen option on my Blu-Ray player.

The episodes have what is called pillar boxing, meaning they kept the footage plastered at a 4:3 scale with black bars on the sides. This would normally be fine, except that it does create some issues with the subtitles for signs written in the Japanese kanji. This is most noticeable in the episode "Scent of a Monster: Chanela Will Steal Your Love." See screencap below.

I think Viz forgot to buy oops insurance.

Overall, the presentation is okay for a first set, but I think that Viz should try a little harder to make the future releases a little more pleasing to the eye instead of the current bare bones art. In addition, the pillar boxing just messes with the video presentation, and while Viz has said they will remove this in future releases, I really wish they had the foresight to fix this before they made this release. Presentation score: 6/10.

Bonus Content

Ah, yes, the major draw to a lot of DVD and Blu-Ray releases, the bonus content. For Sailor Moon Viz, it's kinda sad in both releases. On the DVD set, you are given a quick montage of Anime Expo's Sailor Moon events. Nothing notable there, sadly. The other features are trailers, the first being Viz's official announcement trailer for the Sailor Moon DVD release (Which has been out for a while), and a pair of other Viz Media releases. Weak.

The Blu-Ray offers these same features, plus a behind the scenes featurette of the dub recording and art galleries. The Blu-Ray release also includes an 88 page art booklet. Art gallery feature in the disc and an art booklet? Pick one or the other!

DVD buyers get a smaller set of bonuses leaving them forced to buy the Blu-Ray if they want a behind the scenes featurette. Overall, the features could be better and DVD buyers should not be left out of anything that could be a real behind the scenes bonus, which draws a lot of people to these releases in the first place. Bonus content score: 5/10.

Pricing

Now here's the one I think more people are wondering about, especially during these times of financial hardship, and that's the price tag that comes with this release. For the 23 episode, 3 disc DVD release, it'll run about $30. For the Blu-Ray release, 3 Blu-Ray discs plus the 3 DVDs and the art booklet will cost you around $50-55. Prior to release, Amazon had the DVD and Blu-Ray releases marked at $40 and $75 respectively. Had these been the final release date prices, my rating for the prices based on the content would have been much lower. Considering the fair pricing for what is available as of now, I give the pricing a sold 6.5/10. It's affordable, but not quite worth it for a first half release. Had the prices been what I saw during the pre-order period on Amazon ($40 and $75), the score would have been a 3/10 as those would make this set overpriced for the content being sold.

Final Verdict

Time to tie all of the scores together. The final verdict will be an averaging of the four scores given. The scale will work like this:

1-3/10 = Wait until it's available at a bargain price of $10-15

4-7/10 = Buy when it's on sale

8-10/10 = Buy now, completely worth it

Sailor Moon Season 1 Part 1's average score comes to... 6.4/10 As the next sets prepare to arrive, there may be a possibility of a price drop (Though considering the second half is expected out in early 2015, likelihood of that happening is low), so I would wait until then. If you're a hardcore fan and want to own this set, then by all means go ahead, but realize that for what is given in the video presentation and other content, you're going to feel some disappointment in paying the $30 or $50, depending on which version you purchase.

Until the next review, have a nice day!

-Napoleon

Five Night's at Napoleon's: 1st Night (Toy Story of Terror)

Introduction

When I first saw advertisements on ABC last year for this special, I was intrigued. I was one of those who enjoyed the third installment in the Toy Story film franchise, and was curious about how/if they would continue the stories of Woody, Buzz and the rest with their new family. I also had my reservations, considering that some family Halloween specials tend to play it safe and any terror/horror levels would be so low as to not frighten younger audiences. Now here we are, a whole year later on this one, and it's time for my thoughts. Ladies and gentlemen, toys and dolls, Toy Story of Terror.

Synopsis (Potential Spoilers)

We start off with the gang watching an old black-and-white horror film on the portable DVD player in the trunk. Throughout, we get the usual "Don't go in there" style commentary from the gang, and Mr. Priklepants starts his usual film class lecture on horror film narrative tropes.

Frankly, I don't blame Potato Head for this.

During the trip, the car gets a flat tire, causing a few bumps in the trunk leading to Jessie being locked inside a small tool chest. While trapped, Jessie's fears start to build. What does she have to be scared of? You can either watch Toy Story 2 to get the full story on Jessie, or you can wait a minute to get the explanation.

Remember how Jessie was afraid of going back into storage in TS2?

That's right, this brought back those bad memories of when Jessie was abandoned all those years ago then left in storage by Al of Al's Toy Barn. Since Pricklepants and Trixie (The triceratops) didn't know, we got that explanation. Anyway, we then find the gang in Bonnie's (The new owner as of the end of Toy Story 3) suitcase as they check into a motel as they wait for the car to be serviced. Of course, we get more horror film narrative tropes being predicted by Pricklepants.

"BUM BUM BUMMMM!" Yeah, you're kinda taking the drama out of it with your predictions.

So the gang finds out that they'll be staying in the motel overnight, during a stormy night too I might add. After they get their room, Trixie gives the all clear and Potato Head decides to leave the suitcase to check out the amenities. Priklepants points out another horror trope, "The first one to leave always gets it."

Oh good, Woody feels the same way I do about this.

The rest of the special goes like this: The toys leave the suitcase one by one, Potato Head goes missing, the gang goes searching for him, they then start getting picked off one by one as Priklepants continues the narrative trope-telling, Jessie meets up with a Combat Carl toy who also gets picked off, then Jessie gets taken as well, and our culprit is the motel manager and his pet iguana. Turns out the motel manager takes toys (Lost or otherwise) and sells them online.

Dang, maybe I should have held on to my Woody toy if I knew he was worth that much.

So Woody gets packed to sell, and shortly afterwards Jessie is going to be shipped as well. Before he can pack her up, the manager is called away by a tow-truck driver who was sent to fix the flat tire on Bonnie's mom's car. At this time we also have the shipping truck here to pick up a series of packages, including Woody's. This leads to a rescue mission by Jessie, who has to overcome her fear of being trapped in a box by, you guessed it, being placed in a box herself. She frees a Transformers combiner and uses its box as her way in to save Woody.

"By Globatron's ghost, you shall be remembered." She's not dead, just boxed in.

Jessie's box gets in the truck, she conquers her fear, breaks out, frees Woody, and the two of them return to try and free the others before Bonnie checks out. At the last possible second, the curtain to the manager's office is torn off exposing the case to Bonnie and her mother.

"Are those my daughter's toys?" Busted!

The toys are reunited with Bonnie, they all leave, and the credits roll as per, you guessed it, Priklepants' trope-telling. During the credits, we're given a gag scene where the manager is being questioned by the police, the manager attempts to steal the squadcar and, well...

"Told you not to leave the keys in the car." "We got a runner."

Yeah, that's how they wrap up the whole thing.

Final Thoughts

After sitting through the whole almost 30 minutes of this, sadly I can't really say too many good things about it. While I do give props to them using the original voice cast out of Toy Story 3, the writing just felt bland and rushed. The "terror" elements were underplayed while they overplayed Jessie's fears, thus making the whole thing feel as if they tried too hard. The humor was weak due to the overuse of Priklepants's constant narrative trope telling, and the good jokes were too few and far between. If Pixar was given more time to try and flesh this story out it could have been better, but as it is this is very weak as a family Halloween special. Final score: 6/10

Congratulations, you survived night one! Join me in night two, where we look at another Halloween special.

Until the next review, have a good day!

-Napoleon Jonamite

Sailor Moon Viz: The Good, The Bad, and Those Ugly Nostalgia Goggles

On September 5-6, depending on your time zone, Viz Media released the first few episodes of their dub of the original 1990's Sailor Moon anime. To think it was only about three months ago that Viz made the announcement of acquiring the rights to this series and the reboot Sailor Moon Crystal. While we waited for the DVD and Blu-Ray release, we were treated to clips of the new dub audio. There was excitement, there was skepticism, there were fanboys raging at the very idea that the entirety of the 90's anime was being redubbed when a majority of the series was already dubbed. I'll get to the nostalgia goggles issues later, but for now let us look at what Viz did right, and what they did wrong in this highly anticipated redub.

The Good

Viz said that they would keep true to the original Japanese release and keep it uncut and uncensored. Considering how heavily edited the original dub was under Dic, this would surely be an improvement over Dic's version. Viz did not fail in keeping their word. Dropped episodes from the first season have been given the dub that they deserve, originally released episodes got the much needed corrections, with no cuts to any scenes or footage from future episodes being repurposed for what the dubbers thought would serve as an enhancement of the story. I remember those changes being one of my biggest gripes regarding Dic's dub of season one, especially since some of those scenes that got deleted could have been repurposed with their censorship changes or they removed some key story elements, such as the original introduction of Sailor V.

Another thing Viz did right was the writing for the dialog. At last, no more awkward dialog that seemed like lines were skipped, no more lines that didn't fit the emotions that were shown in the animation. Viz's dialog seemed to flow more like what we got out of the subtitles for the series, making it sound more like they followed the original scripting than just making up their own lines and hoping they stick.

The Bad

Even the best dubbing companies have their flaws in their work. Sometimes it's an audio thing, other times it's acting/actor choices, and there are mistakes that can make a 4Kids dub look like an Emmy winning piece of art. Viz has made some mistakes, but nothing really on the 4Kids level as Viz has a much bigger focus on accuracy and overall quality while 4Kids... Well, just look at what they did to One Piece and I think you'll get the point. Anyway, let's see what Viz did badly on this one.

The most notable, even in the pre-release clips Viz posted on their YouTube account, is the overall audio quality. While Viz did opt to keep the original soundtrack and sound effects of the Japanese version, the English dialog track is too clean, crisp, and highly defined compared to the other two tracks. This means that Viz either forgot to upconvert the other audio tracks when they were preparing the dub, or they forgot to downgrade the audio of the dialog track to fit to quality of the other two tracks. This is a careless mistake that can make or break a dub, and right now this sounds almost like a low-end fandub than a professional level dub. Hopefully this gets fixed before the DVD and Blu-Ray release in November.

Another element of the work done badly with this is the casting choice, most notably for Usagi's little brother, Shingo. While I can give props to Viz and to Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi for making good English voice casting decisions, my personal favorites being Stephanie Sheh as our titular character Usagi Tsukino, Michelle Ruff as Luna, and Christina Vee as Rei Hino (Still waiting for her first episode so I can hear this wonderful new voice), there was an issue that came with Shingo's voice actor that bugged me. Shingo's actor, Nicolas Roye, gave him a voice that makes the younger brother sound much older than he actually is, and while there are some young 8-10 year old boys with deep voices, this one is kinda hard to forgive.

Those Ugly Nostalgia Goggles

Couldn't have said it better myself, Rei.

Oh man, where do I begin on this one? While I can understand the skepticism that revolved around the voice cast for this new dub, I found it hard to believe that some of it was so bad they would ask "Why redub this series when the original dub was so perfect?" ARE YOU F***ING KIDDING ME?! There were so many problems with the old dub that I cannot call it anything but garbage. The acting quality of both the Dic (Seasons 1 & 2) and Cloverway (Seasons 3 & 4) dubs was so bad that it made the acting in The Last Airbender movie seem worthy of an Oscar. The writing was worse, the plot holes due to dropped scenes and episodes were big, the censorship had double standards throughout (How can you allow a guy who is in a puddle of his own blood to be in, yet you decide to get rid of a scene where Sailor Mars literally slaps some sense into Sailor Moon?), I could go on but I don't think the blog will work if I do.

One comment that came up on the Amazon pre-order page for the new Viz DVD and Blu-Ray asked "Why can't Viz leave the already dubbed episodes alone and focus on dubbing the ones that weren't?" I can tell you why right off the bat, and it's because of something called "consistency." Do you want a constantly changing voice cast and alternating levels of what's allowed or what names the characters are given? Viz wanted to keep the original Japanese names, while Dic and Cloverway Americanized the names of almost all the characters. In addition, both Dic and Cloverway switched out actors as the series changed hands. Dic even changed Sailor Moon's voice actress partway through the series as her original voice first went on maternity leave (At least, that's what the internet says) before leaving entirely. Would you really want to hear three different casts through 5 seasons of Sailor Moon? No? Good, then be happy that there will be consistency throughout each season.

Final Thoughts

Despite the two issues that were mentioned in the bad section, I found the new dub enjoyable. Viz has done a quality job with the writing and casting. They just need to fix their audio mixing issues and do something about Shingo's age crisis and the whole thing will be great. I can finally swear off the old English theme song and calling Sailor Moon "Serena" and welcome Moonlight Densetsu and Usagi Tsukino! Final score: 8/10

Until the next review, have a nice day!
-NapoleonJonamite

Personal Thoughts: Classics vs. Reboots/Spin-offs

While watching old episodes of Teen Titans and some old G1 episodes of Transformers, I started thinking about how the new generation doesn't know that these oldies exist. All they know of is the version of Teen Titans where they have an episode in which the word "waffles" is said throughout the entire 11 minutes of it, and a Transformers in which the designs are based off the Michael Bay versions. This is where my heart aches for this lost generation. So then I have thoughts on these reboots and spin-offs that make me wonder if it's really a loss on these new versions, or am I just a hater of change? Well, I think it's time I explained some of those feelings, and maybe give some brief points on a few of these little battles. I think you already know my feelings towards the Sailor Moon reboot, so let's skip that.

Teen Titans vs. Teen Titans Go!

This is one that I can say the reboot fails when compared to the original series. The Teen Titans series of 2003-2006 was quirky, but it knew when to be serious. Every character on the team had many layers to them, and continued to see growth as the series progressed. The quirks came from either the anime influences or Starfire's personality. These plus well written and well timed lines of dialog were what made the humor for the series.

How can we forget this gem?

As for the spin-off "comedy" series, Teen Titans Go!, we're really wanting this one off the air. In 2013, Cartoon Network decided to reboot the Teen Titans in a series that had little to no focus on action/adventure and more focus on "comedy." There's a reason I say comedy in quotes like that, and it's a simple reason. It's not funny, it's annoying. This series was basically made with the idea that the original series should have no influence on it, and it shows. The personalities of the originals didn't transfer, turning multi-layer characters into idiots or jerks. The show does have its moments in where it can be forgiven (See image below), but for the most part it is a sin against the original. Its humor is also based on the changes and pointing out how annoying it can be, but that doesn't make it funny. It's all anti-humor, except there is no ironic redemption. I have watched episodes of Go!, and found myself ready to change the channel within the first 3 minutes. There are other critics who have found this show obnoxious, and for reasons unknown it is still on the air.

Yes, Raven is playing with ponies. Tara Strong, everyone!

Teen Titans Go! is by far the worst series to be made, and it got awarded with a second season while a better series in Young Justice got the ax. The level of stupidity over at Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. is too damn high (And I feel bad for that joke)! Normally, I can find changes acceptable in a show, but if it guts the characters of the source material to a level in which they gain the title of Toddler Titans you know it's destined to fail. The original Teen Titans was an 8/10 in my book, while Teen Titans Go! receives my lowest score ever: 3/10. I would definitely rank this lower than the original English dub of Sailor Moon (Which I personally score at 5/10).

Transformers G1 vs. Future TF Generations

I'll admit, G1 Transformers is one of my favorites, despite the now cheesy levels it contains. Sadly, I grew up with the second airing under the name Transformers: Generation 2, which was only a select number of episodes from the first three seasons with annoying and unnecessary transition effects. Either way, I watched the original growing up before the quick transition to the Beast Era. G1 had some good stories for episodes, some of which apparently became inspirations for the plotlines of at least one of the Michael Bay films (See the plots for The Ultimate Doom and Megatron's Master Plan, and compare them to the synopsis to Bay's Dark of the Moon).

A revised edition of the classic TF logo by Hasbro. Part of their Generations toy line.

As the years went on, about thirty years, Transformers would overgo many changes. Some were good, others meh, some others were just not good. The Beast Era saw two series, Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Beast Wars was one of those shows that had many good episodes, some with character development, some would expand on the G1 lore, others were just straight up action episodes. The series has so far been declared the best Transformers series made by its fanbase. The sequel series, Beast Machines, was underwhelming. It suffered from an overcomplicated story, and a subliminal environmentalist message. That, and the radicalist religious undertones for Optimus Primal's teachings didn't exactly help. Later generations were for the most part Japanese imports. Each having their own varying degrees of success. Transformers has been a mixed bag long before Michael Bay released the first of his four films, but that doesn't exactly hurt the longevity. Because of the amount of diversity between generations, the franchise will continue to thrive even under the worst conditions.

I think this is all I have time for today, but I do promise to do more of these kinds of posts throughout the months. My basic mindset is that if it's done right, a reboot or spin-off series can be good. But if the creators/writers deviate too much from the original, it could spell disaster.

Until the next review, have a great day!
-NJ

First Impressions: Sailor Moon Crystal

Sailor Moon Crystal began its simulcast on July 5th, and it was receiving mixed reviews long before it even premiered. After the first airing, fans are divided. Primary complaints included the changes in storytelling and the art direction, including the transformation sequence. I personally have a hard time understanding these complaints. Perhaps watching it will help me make sense of it all.

Synopsis (Potential spoilers for those who haven't read the manga)

The story of the first episode is fairly similar to the opening chapter of the original manga. A notable exception is that it opens on a dream our lead character Usagi Tsukino is having about a prince and a princess meeting for a kiss.

How romantic. *Vomit*

Usagi then gets a reminder from her mother that she's going to be late for school. Of course this leads to Usagi getting ready for school in a quick panicked state, which leads to a moment of clumsiness, slipping on the stairs and riding them all the way down on her butt.

Have a nice trip, see you next fall!

Usagi then grabs her lunch, and starts her run to school. Her mother then talks about how she wishes her daughter would learn from "Sailor V."

Hey, at least she got her mentioning right off the bat.

Usagi's run to school includes her complaining about morning coming every day and still being sleepy. Then comes the narration by Usagi introducing herself as a crybaby and a little clumsy (No sh*t!). Along the way, she steps on something and falls flat on her face. What did she step on? A black cat.

Yes, really. A cat. Are you seriously that stupid?

Usagi apologizes to the cat, kisses it, and gets scratched. After that, Usagi notices the bandages on the cat's head and removes them, revealing a crescent moon. During a stare down between the cat and herself, Usagi then remembers that she's late to school. She arrives only to be told by her teacher, Ms. Haruna to stand in the hall outside her classroom for being late.

Maybe if you stopped arriving late, this wouldn't happen.

She then begins to remember her dream, and then decides that she wants to be a princess too. Why would she want to do that?

Why do I get the feeling this line's gonna be a running gag?

Oh, yeah, Usagi's stomach starts to grumble while she's standing in the hall. She forgot to eat before running to school. While she gets ready to eat, she gets interrupted by Haruna with the results of Usagi's test. And the results are...

Tonight on Newsbreakers: Why Usagi can't learn. Maybe it's because Usagi's teacher doesn't know jack?

Usagi's depression builds when the nerd of the class, Umino, shows that even with his "lack of study" he still got a 95. Her best friend Naru scored an 85 on the same test. Why do I continue to get the feeling that Usagi embodies all of the "blonde bimbo" stereotypes? Anyway, the day progresses and the kids in the school are discussing the latest rise in jewelry store robberies. All of which were stopped by the famous Sailor V.

Not if this show has something to say about it.

At the end of the day, Usagi and Naru decide to go check out a sale at the jewelry shop Osa-P, which Naru's mother runs. Remember how in my original Sailor Moon review I mentioned the sales were 95% off? Yeah, that makes a comeback here as well.

To quote River Song, "Spoilers!"

Usagi wants to get some of the discounted jewelry, but figures that thanks to her 30% on the test she won't be able to ask her parents for anything. She decides to toss her test and head home, but not before her crumpled test hits someone behind her in the face.

Hey, it's my favorite dumb blonde mocker who doesn't afraid of anything! This time in a tuxedo!

After a nasty encounter with our mystery man, Mamoru Chiba, Usagi stops by the local arcade and spies a poster of Sailor V, because this character is such a sensation she has her own video game at the arcade. While looking at the poster, Usagi says that she wishes she could be like Sailor V. Why?

Freaking called it! Running gag!

Usagi then goofs off in the arcade for a while before heading home. As soon as she gets inside, her mother said that she saw Umino, and mentioned his test score. Usagi's pissed at this and shows off her test score to her mother. Want to guess how well this turns out?

...Well, that escalated quickly.

While all this drama at home is going on, Naru's mom is talking about how the jewelry she sold is stealing energy from the people wearing them. Okay, looks like we have a monstrous enemy in disguise here.

Either she needs to see a dentist, or... Nope, yeah, definitely evil monster in disguise.

We return to Usagi's house, where we find her dreaming again, talking about the "bald-patched" black cat (In reference to the cat from earlier, she thinks the crescent moon on its forehead is a bald patch). Eventually the cat reappears in Usagi's room, yelling at her "It's not a bald patch! How rude of you!"

And it has a British accent? Oh, wait, no, there's no English dub yet, so no accent.

The cat, who's name is Luna, introduces herself to Usagi, and tells her of her mission, to defeat her enemies, to find her allies, find the "Legendary Silver Crystal," and find the princess. During this, Usagi receives a gift from Luna, a broach that allows her to transform into the super powered heroine, and title character, Sailor Moon.

A pretty cool CGI transformation sequence, but it lasts a whole 52 seconds!

After transforming, Sailor Moon receives a distress signal in her hair buns that is coming from Naru's cries for help at the jewelry shop. She arrives in the shop just in time to stop the monster from killing Naru. Then comes the introduction conversation.
"Who are you?"
"I am the pretty guardian in a sailor suit, Sailor Moon. In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Guess this is what happens if your name doesn't end in Kardashian.

After that shot gets fired, the monster uses the energy she collected to summon her army of zombified jewelry buyers. Trust me, it's more creepy than it sounds. Part way through the fight, Usagi's crybaby nature rears its head after getting a cut on the knee. Although in a strange way, it helps her.

When was the last time you heard a girl scream on a super sonic level?

Her screams knock out the army, and practically paralyzes the monster, to which Sailor Moon throws her "Moon Tiara Boomerang" and turns the monster to dust. You know, for kids (This will probably get either a TV-PG or TV-14 when/if it airs in the US)! Oh, but what about that one character, Tuxedo Mask? He was a spectator, who then introduces himself at the end (No pep talks like the original series).

Well, that makes one of us.

At the end, the real enemy starts planning for future plots, and Naru starts talking about the incident that night.

Guess Sailor Moon's the talk of the town. Except they don't know her name.

Lastly, a little bit of foreshadowing for the next episode, which is plot of the second chapter of the manga.

Who is this girl? Find out in the next episode of DragonBall Z!

Criticisms

Overall, with a few little exceptions, such as the main villains being shown and the dream sequence at the beginning (Though obscured to increase the mystery that revolves around the first manga story arc), and some dialog, the episode basically follows its original source material very well.

The art direction does have a lot more similarity to the original art of the manga, but I can see the complaint that commonly comes up from the fans, and that's the fact that the girls look way too skinny, though I will say they still look more normal than they are being made out to be.

My one issue is that the transformation was way too long. Granted, this was only the first transformation in the series, but they could have made it shorter. I swear the original transformation sequence was half the length of the new one, though not quite as fancy as the new one.

This was 24 minutes that I was able to enjoy of a reboot that some were ready to swear off because it would cut the filler (Remind me how that's a bad thing?), and artistically look wrong (Time to take off the nostalgia goggles). It does make me want to see how things go from here for the remaining 25 episodes of the season/series (It is still unclear if it'll move to the second arc or not). Final score: 9/10

Until the next review, have a nice day!
-NapoleonJonamite