Samurai Equine

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

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

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What a week to sling some fun!  Shall we talk about it, my crowd?

 The biggest thing that happened was April Fools.  I got to do something different for once. I got to impersonate a friend of mine, and he impersonated me. Believe it or not, I had someone else in mind when I first came up with this idea. However, this other friend (who I won't name) just doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would have enjoyed this kind of thing. I am glad I chose my friend Steve instead.

 Not much happening beyond that. Sonic 2 is REALLY close to being in theaters here in America, but I heard it has all ready begun airing internationally. I am avoiding any early reviews because I want to see it for myself. I went to my favorite clothing store, but they didn't have what I want. My uncle surprised me by giving me some really awesome power tools. Last of all, I started a new cleaning project. In a few weeks, my mother's garage will be all clean. 

 [ 1 / 2 ] MOVIE TIME!  To start, I saw Venom 2: Let Their Be Carnage. f you loved the dumb fun of the 1st Venom movie, you'll love this one too. Any arguments about Cletus or Carnage being less than faithful to their comic book counterparts is utterly pointless since this incarnation of Venom is different from the get-go. In some ways, this movie is almost too similar to the first. You practically thank the plot when Venom and Carnage have their epic fight, which is clearly where all the budget went. And don't think I didn't notice that tongue & cheek nod to Gwen Stacy, as well as the trilogy bait. It's just a dumb fun time all around, but in case you're worried those similarities I mentioned, wait 'til you see the after-credits scene. That moment will you have you popping out of your seat, cheering! ...Well, if the internet hasn't all ready spoiled it for you. Let's just say it answers a lot of fan questions and makes some dreams come true.

 [ 2 / 2 ] I also saw Spider-Man: No Way Home. Never has a Spider-Man movie made me want more THIS much, yet left me sad knowing this is the end. Never has a Spider-Man movie made me feel both sad and proud that it ended this way. Admittedly, the first good half of the movie paints the following events in a bad light. It really is the picture of “you could have avoided so much if you just slowed down and actually talked things out”. However, what we got was so much more. We got villains with improved looks/costumes. We got a chance to save them rather than kill them off. We got Marvel/Sony's best kept secret. We got fan moments that we have been waiting for the movies to address for so long!! I am gushing because I want to say so much, but I want to give everyone a reason to watch it as well. Not to mention the after-credits scene, which finishes the story started in Venom 2 but leaves room for a sequel? Even though it makes no sense and I'm pretty sure there won't be? UGH!! So many conversations to be had about this. The ending alone is tragic, beautiful, makes me want more, and is a way better story than One More Day. I almost wish I had a spoiler-focused review just so I could talk for hours on end, but for now all I can say is... This movie is highly recommended.

 SUPERHUMAN SAMURAI SYBER SQUAD!  My thoughts:

• Episode 7, Kilo actually shows he has some standards, but Malcom shows he might actually be more of a genius than his Japanese counterpart by using computers to mess with Kilo. Also, WHY IS THIS EPISODE SO THIRSTY?! I can't remember how it went down in Gridman, but when you have temperatures of over 170, they should all be dead. Plot-wise, it's similar to Gridman Episode 8, but with environmentalism and trying to impress Jennifer since there is no brotherly feud. However, the monster footage is lifted from Gridman Episode 7. Surprisingly, they did save the monster for later, just like in the original show; AND THEY INCLUDED THE HEALING SCENE! Hard to pick which episode is better honestly, but Gridman 8 manages to sneak in the win. It's one of the better episodes, the threat of death is actually real there, and it's one of the better Gridman episodes too.
• Episode 8, I was initially surprised to see a bodyswap episode, something that has no Japanese equivalent in Gridman, until Kilo started using Malcom's body to announce who he is. The most annoying thing is that it ends without ANYONE from Team Samurai suspecting that Malcom might be in league with Kilo, and how did they know killing the monster would save Malcom? Monster footage comes from Gridman Episode 2. Both episodes have moments of “technology doesn't work that way”. They both use their footage to achieve different effects. However, I think Gridman 2 wins. I honestly have no idea what Kilo was trying to gain by becoming human, and I doubt Digifer would have wasted his time anyways.
• Episode 9, here we go again with a cold opening, this time with monster footage from Gridman 13! Plot-wise, it's a repeat of SSSS 7, but done dumber. This time the main monster footage and plot both come from Gridman 8. Also, they genderbent one of the monsters for some reason. Malcom, if you can upgrade monsters on the fly, why don't you do that more often? At least we got a healing scene. I seriously have no idea why they decided to retread the same plot but worse. Gridman 8 is the clear winner here, again.
• Episode 10, plot-wise this episode seems to be a combination of Gridman 30 and 35, with monster footage taken from Gridman 30. How sad to see that Kilo's priorities are all over the place. In SSSS 8, he vowed to destroy the world, now he wants to conquer it again. Holy moly, Malcom actually kissed brainwashed Syd! That's farther than Takeshi ever got with Yuka. Okay, it was dumb when Team Samurai couldn't figure out the obvious, but it's insulting when Malcom figures out who Servo is and tosses it away for no reason. But at least this episode was smart enough to do something Gridman didn't do, reverse manipulation on the digital world. No healing scene. ...WHAT?! Servo can attack Kilo through their two-way communication?! My brain is melting again, yet I'm probably the only one who noticed that Malcom's locker keeps switching sides. All three episodes are their own level of stupid, but I'll say either one of the Gridman episodes win, just because Malcom should be that stupid.
• Episode 11, we start off with another cold open of Gridman 13 (what's up with using 13 as a cold opening punching bag?). We see that Sam's wrist device has way more uses than Naoto's Acceptor. The plot and monster footage mostly come from Gridman 5. Odd time to give Tanker a food addiction, and an even more odd time to try and make him a secret inventor like Ippei. Also, forgot to mention, but the  news reporter is also a bigger reoccurring character than her Japanese counterpart. Ah, they might not kill dogs in this version, but they joke about eating them! The winner here is Gridman 5. They are both equally stupid, but by setting these events in a flashback makes it feel like this episode should have happened sooner.

 ReVice 26: Horns for Wings!  The latter half of this episode was kind of predictable. Daiji/Live managed to sacrifice his inner devil to become an angelic Kamen Rider. We all knew the good guy would be victorious. I wonder if this means the other Igarashi family members will also have the option to erase their inner devils? They've shown it can be done by now. The main attraction was the beginning of this episode. More exposition, and more characters have to make difficult choices. Wasn't even expecting Ikki's dad to have a different name previously. BTW, the power of a good story strikes again. I can hardly believe the show is half over! The story has been so engaging thus far, I barely even noticed. It's like time has just flown by~!

 ReVice 27: Weekend Get Away!  I love seeing a caring family reaffirm their familial love for each other. But as the old saying goes, sometimes we just can't have nice things, and that includes Vice. The family gets taken to the Weekend's HQ where their intentions are made transparent, all the while imprisoning Ikki because Vice seems to be especially connected Lord Giff more than the others. I am surprised by the serious issues this episode alludes to for Olteca's backstory. And as Vice loses more and more control of himself around Lord Giff, it's nice to see they are really building up ReVice's next form instead of getting it out as soon as possible. Might I also say, we have quite the interesting situation. We have Daiji/Live who is loyal to Fenix, Sakura/Jeanne who is become loyal to the Weekend, and Ikki/Revi who has made no hard loyalties to anyone other than his family. I hope Ikki stays that way and continues to be a free agent fighting for his own ideals.

 DonBrothers 04: Enigmatic Frenemies!  It's a bit much to keep up with since we now seem to be exploring the stories of multiple Rangers at once, but at the same time, we get a slower pace that really lets us absorb things. We can enjoy the changes into previous Sentai. We can enjoy how they aren't using giant robots every time. We can enjoy how we are earning that moment when they will finally be a fully realized team. We are learning to appreciate each character for who they are individually, as we should. Having a Red that wants to have a friendly duel with his companions is very interesting. Connecting OhRanger to Onigiri is weird, but the theme of triangles does hold up, and both words start with that “Oh” sound. Better than last week's MOTW anyways. And in closing, I am surprised it was Saru Brother that become a LupinRanger and Inu Brother that became a Ryusoulger instead of the other way around. I hope this creative choice is a sign of future story direction!

That's all for now, my crowd.  Take care, and don't be easily fooled.

Umm... I'm running out of video ideas.  Here's "Sunny Plays: Bounce and Pop" by Tridashie.