Samurai Equine

Hello there, my crowd! Welcome to my Weekly Musings: Orange Edition. 

[I ❤ JAPAN] -- [I ❤ THE COLOR RED] -- [I ❤ CELESTIA]

 May clear skies and a radiant sun pave the way for a better future for you all, my crowd. Ready for another end-of-the-week round up?

 The big thing that happened to me personally this week was... Second trip to the doctors!  The first trip was to see a doctor, tell him my problems, and get a plan set in motion. The second trip was to actually get an operation done. And by operation, I mean an abdominal scan (ultrasound), and get some blood drawn for laboratory examination. When I go back to see my main doctor again next week, he'll tell me what the lab results yielded. I am hopeful, but realistic. The pain in my side has not fully dissipated, despite taking medicine. Perhaps there is another issue at large. As long as it can be taken care of via medicines, I will be glad. I really want this next coming visit to be the last.

 In other news, something great has finally happened for my mother. The house next door to her has been unoccupied for a long time, and the people who bought the house have not been there for a long time either. They bought the house with plans to flip it and sell it, but they've been busy tackling a bunch of other houses first. Well now, they are FINALLY getting to the one next door to my mother. They've all ready made great headway by mowing the lawns and clearing out most of the obstacles. They say that they'll be renovating the exterior because the weather's been rather cool lately, but I think it's because they know the interior is extremely filthy...

 Been trying to figure out what I should do with my newly acquired Livejournal account.  These weekly updates would give me the most content, I suppose. However, I don't think anyone wants to go to Livejournal to read that. So maybe I should use it to archive my history and knowledge of Tokusatsu fansubs and official subs? That doesn't seem like it would give me very much to work with, unless I split up all my knowledge into tons of entries. I guess if I never make an audio podcast, I could put all my material on Livejournal instead... Suggestions? Anyone?

 All right, let's look at the next 5 AR worlds that Decade traveled to and see how they compare to the original show!

• FAIZ'S WORLD: I guess this would give us a rough idea of what might have happened Smart Brain has just legally bought out the Ryusei School instead of implemented a secret attack on it. However, in the original show, the backstory around the Ryusei school was kind of a big reveal midway through the series, and I hate when AR Worlds give away major spoilers like this. The original Takumi was not a simp like this one is. If these two episodes could have moved away from the school, or have the Lucky Clover gang be street thugs instead of the popular clique, then I would have rated this in higher regard. However, these episodes give the wrong impression of the original show, so it fails. X
• AGITO'S WORLD: I feel insulted. While this version of Agito may have narrowed down the number of characters, I can forgive making Shouichi both Gills and Agito, since the original show was about humans reaching a new evolution. However, the original Agito was NOT romantically linked to the commander of the G3 team. Thanks for reducing the AR version of Hikawa to a cowardly cameo that quickly runs away when he can't hack it... The original show touched on themes of family, belonging, gods at war, human evolution, etc. Of all the things to cover, they chose one. Failure. X
• DEN-O'S WORD: Since time travel and multiverse travel tend to be synonymous, it can be hard to tell if this really is an AR version of Den-O or the original version. But the canon details seem to tell me it's an AR version, so let's go with that. Regardless, it's the same cast, same acting, and absolutely no creative changes other than Ryuta and Hana being stuck as kids. Success! ✔️
• KABUTO'S WORLD: Finally, I can breathe a sigh of relief. While these episodes also gave away one spoiler from the show, they managed to correctly capture the themes and spirit of the original show. There is also a continuity error that makes you wonder if AR Kabuto really is stuck in Clock-Up or not, but this version of Kabuto was so good, I wouldn't mind if this was the TV show instead. Either way, success! ✔️
• HIBIKI'S WORLD: This one really skirts the line. If you know anything about the original Hibiki show, you know that the change in production staff members really hurt the artistic integrity. It lead to a grudge behind the scenes, and you can feel that grudge in full-effect here. The Oni Riders were never divided this badly against each other, and Asumu never became an Oni. However, many fans of the original show wanted to see Asumu become the next Hibiki anyways, the Great Oni War is a nice call back to the Hibiki movie, and the main Rider turning into a monster does give a subtle nod to something in the original series. In that show, they said that when you become an Oni Rider, you live and die that way. Here, they made it extremely literal, but you could argue that this is what happens when you follow the path of a demon. Tough call, but I'll be generous and call it a success! ✔️

That's all 9 AR Worlds, but I'm not done with Decade just yet. I've got to finish the series, and watch the movies. So next time, I'll talk about the Bonus AR Worlds! There will be some judgments, but not as many.

 Transformers Cyberverse 325: The Matrix of Following?  It starts off with a recap of how Megatron got his Matrix as well as his weird dark eye. Honestly, I expected something different. At the very least, I expected the eye to be a result of merging with a Matrix that didn’t choose him, but I guess battle damage works. Still, there’s just something intense about a stealth mission, and then powering through even when you get caught! And now we’ve got strange looking robots with faces that remind me of the Decepticon symbol.

 Saber 02: Wash ‘em Out!  Once again, this episode was also a huge mess of CGI. However, I am a little more lenient. Like I said before, CGI should be used to create effects that are simply impossible to do in a practical way. Slowly turning an entire city into the burned pages of a book is one example. I suppose they could have made a model of the city, like what Super Sentai has done for their giant robot battles. Still, it would require a lot of computer-generated effects, transposing, and maybe some green screen to make it work. Either way, it might end up looking artificial. So I guess I don’t mind the abundance of CGI here, I just wish it didn’t look like an unfinished test sequence. You know, the mock-up CGI that is made for a Hollywood movie before they polish it up and make it look as real as possible. I suppose the childhood demographic won’t care. As for the story, I had an easier time following it, and it’s nice to see two Riders instantly getting along for a change.

 Kiramager 23: Jewelry Smile!  Amazing how Super Sentai ends up being the less CGI dependent series all of a sudden. Anyways, it seems I was wrong. I thought the Queen returning was because the Kiramagers altered history in the previous episode. Seems that the Queen was always able to store her soul away in her crown jewel, so maybe not much was changed after all. Still, this was a nice episode for Mabusheena and how far she has come. That song of hers was actually very heart warming. I love whenever a Super Sentai season makes one or more of its extra songs as part of the show’s canon, and they did it here. I wish we could have seen the Queen fully restored, but I’m sure that reunion will come later.

That's all for now, my crowd.  Take care, and make the most of your life's story.

Since this is the Orange Edition, that means we end with an interesting video. If you're a fan of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, this video will be right up your ally. If you've never seen the show, you might still find this funny. And don't worry about spoilers, because despite being hilariously accurate, the creator of this video has never seen the anime either. This is "Jojo's Strange Escapade" by Sr Pelo.