Inazuma Eleven episode 022 first impressions

And I have caught up with last week with this review, now to make sure I stay on track with this week with Friday's reviews.

Endo Mamoru has a nightmare about the Zeus team destroying the Raimon Eleven team, with him breaking into pieces at the end. He then wakes up still heavily feeling the uncertainty he has about the finals.

He comes to school looking visibly down to others, which surprises the teammates that see him. As Mamoru heads to class those there ask Hino Aki if he has ever been like that before and she answers that she has never seen him like that. Mamoru goes through the rest of the day in a daze as he worries about the upcoming game.

Aki goes to Raimon Natsumi for advice on the matter who is able to comfort her a bit. Natsumi asks Aki to watch over the team for her as she has to visit her father. With her father Natsumi learns that Kageyama Reiji might have had a hand in what happened to Mamoru's grandfather. He warns Natsumi to be careful about Kageyama.

Back at the clubhouse the few that know just how unnerved Mamoru is are discussing matters while the rest of the team practices. They do not want the entire team to learn about it, as they do not want to bring down their morale. When asked about having a stronger move than God Hand in his grandfather's play book Mamoru does say there is one, but he has not figured it out yet. The rest of the team show up and talk about how happy they are that Mamoru has been able to take them so far in the tournament. Mamoru is willing to pretend to be like his usual self to go practice with them.

Later Mamoru is practicing in his usual spot on the hill. Aki and Natsumi show up to watch and Natsumi is anxious about Mamoru pushing himself too hard now because of what she has just been told. Goenji Shuya and Kido Yuto show up though and decide to help Mamoru practice, which they do until they hit their limit.

The group then heads over to Hibiki Seigo's ramen restaurant to rest up. While there Detective Onigawara shows up to talk to Hibiki. Hibiki though tells him that anything he wants to say about Kageyama can be said in front of the kids. Onigawara then reveals that Kageyama is suspected to be behind various misdeeds, which includes being behind the accident Goenji's sister was in that has left her in a coma. The only lead Onigawara has for where Kageyama is in the sky.

It is revealed that Kageyama has a floating fortress where his team, Zeus, have been hiding with him. One of the members is practicing and looks to have wings while he does so.

I guess one issue I have with the episode is the fact that they do not bother to find someone on the team that has known Mamoru for much longer than those that they do gather to figure out how to dismiss his doubt. There should be at least one member of the Raimon soccer club that has known Mamoru for sometime they could go to, as everyone who does know that Mamoru is in a funk are all members that transferred into the soccer club recently. Though I guess Aki, who was the manager before the team finally began playing did tell them that she had never seen him like this so that should count for something.

It seems strange to me that Mamoru does not have a friend since he was little as that just seems like a standard character to have in a series like this.

Also I do not care for the idea that boys can only figure things out by being left alone so the managers are made useless for this. I can understand not wanting to stress someone out by making it seem like the issue is bigger than it is by everyone voicing their concern. But the way it was worded sounded pretty dismissive of anyone that did not play soccer, which of course is all the female characters.

That aside it is interesting to see Natsumi protecting Mamoru from learning what possibly could have happened to his grandfather. Of course we are not given the specifics, which usually means that they will come out in a later reveal. Though what makes it interesting is where this could go story wise, as it could create conflict between Natsumi and Mamoru if played right. Especially as this episode shows that Mamoru is not beyond feeling insecurities and letting things get the better of him.

I love flying fortress or anything huge that just hovers or flies so even though this is completely ridiculous to have in this world I still love it. Kageyama does not deserve something so awesome though and I hope it gets taken away from him soon.


Like I had assumed this is primarily a set up episode. It felt like a lot of milling around with Mamoru and his problem but everything else was strong with the uncovering of Kageyama's past and the hints of what has been going on with him.

Inazuma Eleven episode 021 first impressions

I had hoped that I could get ahead with my reviews that my hiatus would not affect this blog but it did not work out that way. So this week I am going to try to catch up and back on schedule by doing two Inazuma Eleven reviews on the regular scheduled days.

The episode starts off recapping the end of the last episode where the game had started and the Mukata triplets were able to score the first goal of the game. Endo Mamoru is able to block the next attempt at a point from the brothers, then the Raimon Junior High team in general start being able to defend against Kidokawa Seishu better.

With the Mukata triplets refusing to their teammates play offense for the team the flaws in the team show themselves and Kido Yuto has Raimon use it to their advantage. They are able to score their first goal with the Tri-Pegasus move, then it breaks into half-time.

During half-time the team brings up that Kidokawa has yet to use all their special moves so they cannot take things easy. Mamoru of course gives a quick pep talk to raise everyone's spirits.

Kidokawa get the ball next and are able to score again with the move they had not used until then, putting them in the lead again.

The next time Raimon goes for a shot Nishigaki Mamoru uses a special move that breaks the Tri-Pegasus, giving his team the chance to reclaim the ball.

Goenji Shuuya then asks to get the ball next so he and Someoka Ryuga are able to set up to do the special moves they need to score.

The game is near the end then so the Mukata triplets use the move they just scored with again to get the winning point but Mamoru being backed up by his defenders is able to stop it this time. Raimon then uses the Tri-Pegasus again, but this time do not let Nishigaki's counter stop them which changes the move to The Phoenix, which lets them score the winning point.

Nishigaki goes over to Domon Asuka and Ichinose Kazuya to remark on how they have made that move their own now and officially names it The Phoenix.

Then Goenji goes over to the Mukata triplets who take losing to him badly. That is until the Kidokawa coach comes over to set some things straight, like the fact that Goenji was playing with his full team and they were trying to do it all on their own, and also the fact that the coach knew Goenji withdrew from Kidokawa because even though he only missed the game because of his sister's accident he still felt like he let the team down.

The Mukata triplets are then finally able to let things go with Goenji with their new understanding of why they lost and that Goenji did have a reason not to show up to that game.

Meanwhile as Raimon looks on Mamoru realizes that there seems to be something wrong with his hand. He covers that fact up though when Kido asks him if there is anything wrong.

It was nice to see Goenji going against his former team. It gave Raimon an unexpected advantage for what could have been a disadvantage in the end. If anything I did find it a bit disappointing that there was not a lot of mention of his relationships to his former teammates outside of the Mukata triplets hating his guts. I guess if they did go into Goenji's history with Kidokawa it would have taken up much more time than it had so I can at least understand why they did not.

This has been the most exciting game yet for the series as it bucks the usual trends with Raimon having to do more than comeback after losing the first point. It really helped that the team they were up against found weaknesses to attack against, which makes having a character like Nishigaki show up make a lot of sense so that can be done.

So we did not get a new special move for Mamoru like I had expected that we would. Instead we have members of Raimon literally supporting him to stop the goal from being made. Of course I am pretty sure this would be considered against the rules in actual soccer, but I have given up on expecting seeing something like actual soccer for this series long ago.

From the previews a new special move for Mamoru still coming. Plus there was still a new special move for the team unlocked with Tri-Pegasus becoming The Phoenix, so it was not like the game went without that standard reveal.


This is one of the more enjoyable games as it broke away from the usual set up for it. I hope that we get a bit more of that in the upcoming games, but seeing as the next game for the tournament is up against Zeus it is hard to say how that will go. Though I expect the next few episodes will be set up for that match, with setting things up so we have the usual drama going into a game with various members of Raimon figuring out or being on the verge of figuring out a new move to be able to use against Zeus so the team can win.

Ryusei no Kizuna first Impressions (re-post)

(This review was originally posted in 2008.)

Well it seems like sub groups are catching up with the new season of J-dramas and the first episode of Ryusei no Kizuna, starring Ninomiya Kazunari, Nishikido Ryo and Toda Erika, is out subbed.


I heard that they made it lighter in tone than the novel, which I like because I don't really like dark. What I didn't know about the story was that it began before the siblings became con artists, which while not that much of a big deal still threw me off as all the PR for the drama made sure to mention they were con-artists, which had me assume that's what they would be from the start.


I love everyone in their roles. I had only seen Nino in Letters from Iwo Jima and loved him then and it's no different for in Ryusei no Kizuna. I think he's great in his role and pulls off Koichi's unwillingness to really react or care about anything outside of his family and the murder of his parents. I really get the feeling that without his siblings he would be completely lost.


I haven't seen Ryo in an acting role but had heard good things. I think he plays the role of Taisuke well. It's easy to over do the stupid in a character like that but Ryo seems to be able to draw the line to keep the stupid fun and charming instead of overdoing it and taking it to the level of annoying.


Erika is another one of the leads I've never seen in a role, but I enjoyed her in the episode as the sister, Shizuna. Her character completes the trio well and I can easily see how she will become a problem for her brothers in their goal to get revenge, as she's definitely the heart of the group as Koichi is the brains and of course Taisuke the brawn.


Honestly I'm not too interested on the storyline itself but I love the siblings, especially their interaction, and want to keep watching for them. So it's really a series if not for the actors I probably wouldn't continue watching, even though I have a feeling this just might be one of those dramas that just takes time to warm up.


The flow of the episode seems off, though it's hard to tell if it's because of the jumps in time that were used to give the back story. I'm hoping now that they don't need to fill us in on the past so much this problem won't show up in the other episodes.

Captain Marvel (2012) issue 10 review

Because of my hiatus I decided to move this review back a day so I would have a bit more time for it instead of doing a rush job.

Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) wakes up from a dream that was turning into a nightmare. She gets a call from Wendy Kawasaki, who she has recently hired to be her assistant. Wendy has called to tell her to expect a visit and while still on the phone the visitor, Frank Gianelli, shows up. Frank tells her that he wants to find someone else to be the pilot for his organization because of Carol's brain lesion. Carol gets made at him then leaves him to go patrolling for trouble.

She runs into trouble in the subway where part of a tunnel disappeared. She helps get the train out of the way of danger. She does not do so without feeling some side effects of her condition.

She is met by Katherine "Kit" Renner, a little girl that lives in the same apartment complex as Carol. At the apartment building Carol gets Kit back to her worried  mother. Carol gets an ear full from one of the other apartment tenants about how he thinks having her there makes the whole building unsafe.

When Carol reaches her apartment Steve Rogers (Captain America) comes by with a hover scooter thing to give to Carol to help her out with the whole "no flying" thing. They talk up on the roof of the building a bit with Carol still not wanting to admit that she has a medical condition. Steve leaves with the scooter in the end, willing to give Carol time to accept the truth.

Alone on the roof Carol is ambushed by Deathbird, an old foe of Carol's. They battle with Carol taking flight to get Deathbird away from the apartment building. In flight though her lesion acts up and she ends up plummeting.

Carol gets to really feel what the lesion is affecting her in this issue. It is enough for her to realize that it is a problem she cannot simply shrug off but not bad enough that she is ready to give in to it. It makes a lot of sense for Carol to not want to give in to the idea of not ever being able to fly again. While that first arc of the series seemed to drag a bit it did do well with giving a good idea what something like this would mean for Carol and I think when it comes to super heroes getting medical conditions this one fits the narrative for Carol quite well.

Kit is just the cutest thing ever. But more than that I love how we get to see Carol interact with a good range of people in her life. Carol is not a millionaire so she is going to have to live like everyone else in a city. Of course it does have added issues with her identity being public knowledge, which it looks like we are going to be see addressed with this story arc.

I had been hoping we would be getting a more traditional villain for Carol to go up against and it looks like I got my wish with Deathbird. Of course with Deathbird not showing up until the end there are a lot of questions to be asked about her appearance. Like why it sounded like she was talking to herself? And, is there any relation to her showing up to the part of the tunnel that just disappeared?


I would love to see more done with establishing the relationship between Steve and Carol. I want to see them becoming military buddies kinda like how Tony Stark and Bruce Banner are science bros. So I hope that Steve keeps cameoing in this book to have this happen.

Other than that the series is becoming more and more interesting to read. This would be a great time to get into the series, as it would not be too troublesome to get the back issues (in fact Marvel Unlimited is already starting to get the early issues of the series available) and a reader would start to see the payoff for the early issues start to take affect as this arc is definitely building on it.

Sprout final impressions (re-post)

And I am finally done with this drama! Now I can let myself move on to better dramas and not feel guilty for not finishing this one. Though honestly I probably should have dropped this around the midway mark.

Needless to say this is one of the few dramas that I watched all the way through despite not liking it. I rarely make myself do this unless I can at least find enjoyment from being able to mock it, but this drama was so boring I was not really able to do that. This series should not have been twelve episodes and would have probably been much better as a eight or nine episode series instead. There was just too much that got stretched out over the episodes that made it hard to get through at times for me.

In the end I watched this series because of the actors, mostly the Johnny's of course. I think for a young actor with little experience with acting a series like this is not a bad place to start. Romance is a common enough theme across all types of genres and there does seem to always be a lot of focus on it for teens. But an actor can only improve if they are acting so I hope that those that are on the weak with it will improve over time. I mean I was surprised with how well Chinen Yuri did in this as I remember him being much more stiff with his acting from past roles. I only hope that Jesse will also improve over time as he came off as rather stiff himself in this.

Despite this not being a drama I liked there were moments here and there that I did surprisingly enjoy. I liked how Narahashi Souhei (Chinen) and Uzawa Miyuki (Kojima Fujiko) broke up, not so much all the humming and hawing it took to get there but the actual break up itself was not bad at all. So I will give credit for the series for being able to have a couple break up without making one side the "wrong" one. Even with Ikenouchi Miku (Morikawa Aoi) and Katagiri Hayato (Jesse) no side was the "bad" side for the break up, even though that scene really showed how weak Jesse's acting is.

I am very glad that Hashimoto Ryosuke has another drama (Bad Boys J) he is a part of that I can watch. I found him to be a bright spot in Sprout even though his character was not in it often. Not to mention the character suffering from what the rest of the supporting cast did with not really being characters in their own right but rather being around to prop up the main characters to make sure they heard the right things at the right time to ensure they would get together at the end.

The only joy I felt from Miku and Souhei getting together at the end of the series was mainly from the fact that it meant the series was finally ending. Still hate the whole, "he's my fated person, so we will be together if it is fate," deal Miku clung to. Relationships do not work because of an idea as simple as fate, they work because the people involved put the effort in to make them work. And it is the fact that so much shoujo ignores that fact that turns be off of the genre.


For all the bashing I give for Sprout I will say that at least I do not hate the series. It may not have been my cup of tea and the way everything was dragged out with there being little to no tension whatsoever with the story but there was nothing that made me want to just give up on it. Outside of forgetting about it at some point because there is not a lot there to make it memorable. In fact I would say that this drama is best for those who want to kill time and are fine with a series where very little happens over a long period of time. Or perhaps if you want something to help go to sleep with.

Sprout mid-season impressions (re-post)

After taking my time with getting back to this drama I am finally working my way though it. If only because I hate to leave things unfinished.

I still cannot say I am actually enjoying this drama series. If there is anything keeping me from dropping it midway it is that I do like the members of the cast. And I like them enough to try to get through all twelve episodes of this.

There are not many romantic tropes I hate more than the whole idea that there is one true destined one for someone in the whole world. Not because I do not believe that love cannot last a lifetime but rather because with this trope the only reason for a couple to be together it that they are destined to be. And because the trope relies on this it usually fails to build on why the couple work well together as a couple leaving "because I said so" as the answer to that. To me that does not work and I do not see why Ikenouchi Miku and Narahashi Sohei should be together, outside of them being so boring it would better they be boring together than to be boring with other people.

Of course what is a romance series without love triangles, though it looks like the series is going to make it even more complex by adding others into the equation. But for now it is settled with Sohei with Ozawa Miyuki (Kojima Fujiko) and Miku with Katagiri Hayato (Jesse). While Miyuki and Hayato are no great personalities I do find them slightly less boring than Sohei and Miku at least. If only because they do more than just think about things and will actually act on their thoughts.

It is probably a bad thing that I am much more interested in Miku's friends than her and her romantic troubles. They just seem more interesting even though there is so little of them shown. But I imagine a series about them would be a lot of fun as I can see them getting into all kinds of hi-jinks  because there is no way anyone's life could be as boring as Miku's.

While Jinguji Yuta is cute in this, that is about all. Though there is not much to his character, Katagiri Wataru, other than being a plot device. Which probably makes it a good thing that he is not in many scenes in this drama so far.

Every little moment that Takigawa Naoharu (Hashimoto Ryosuke) is on the screen I find a reason not to close the video file.


Watching this series reminds me why I am not a big fan of high school romance series. Especially when they come from shoujo manga. Everything moves at a snails pace and you can usually tell who the main character will end up with from the first chapter. Though to give Sprout some credit at least the guy is not a jerk that treats the main character terribly.

I still cannot believe that this story manages to stretch itself out over six more episodes. Why? Just why?

Young Avengers (2013) issue 02 review

Feels like it has been forever since I reviewed the first issue of this. But now with the four titles I am picking up monthly all having a review behind them I figure I should be able to settle into some form of a schedule for it all.

The day after Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) brought an alternate universe version of Teddy Altman's (Hulking) mother, Ms. Altman, he goes to wake his boyfriend up. They go downstairs to the kitchen where their parents are. As Ms. Altman talks to them it becomes very apparent, very quickly that she is really only like the 616 Ms. Altman in appearance alone.

Billy tries to send Ms. Altman away with his powers but Ms. Altman is able to somehow block it. She tries to send Billy to something that she calls a room but it looks like a white panel. Before she does Teddy attacks her then grabs Billy so they can run away. Ms. Altman shows that she seems to have some kind of reality warping powers.

The two run over to Avengers Mansion to get some help from Billy's other mother, Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch). Unfortunately Ms. Altman beat them to it and has the Avengers under the same influence as Billy's parents. The two get sent through the white panel and end up in some kind of white box prison separated from each other.

Loki shows up and helps Billy and Teddy escape from the white box prison, taking them to a diner so they can talk. He explains that the Ms. Altman that Billy brought to their universe is actually a creature that searches for young powerhouses and Billy into its trap.

After talking things over between each other Teddy and Billy decide that they need to go to Asgardia, which is in Oklahoma. As they touch down near the place Laufey, Loki's dead father, shows up.

When your powers are basically deus ex machina one does have to wonder what kind of villain you are supposed to be able to go up against. This story answers that with the evil Ms. Altman, who who finally know is not just an alternative universe version of her 616 counterpart.

Though while this whole thing is a big screw up on Billy's part I would say that at least it is not up there with some of the worst things to have happened with others with reality warping powers. And I pray this experience will stop him from doing something to reach those levels.

And we get some Avengers cameos, which helps block any questioning about why they would not be involved with what is going on, and that is simply that Ms. Altman got to them first. So there is good reason for the teens not to rely on the adults. An all too common criticism for series that star children or teens.

Also the gook that Ms. Altman is made of and changes people into is really gross looking to me.

The white box prison is a great visual that really manages to pop out artistically. These pages easily stand out and what is most important there is a reason for the visuals. I love that each issue so far has had pages that strike out visually to be something quite distinct. I doubt we will get this for each issue going forward but I do expect to have the run be sprinkled with them with the current creative team.


I am disappointed that we do not see any of the other Young Avengers in the issue. But that it really my biggest issue with it. Otherwise it was a good solid read that has me looking forward to the next issue. I can only assume the aliens Kate Bishop and Noh-Varr were dealing with in the first issue will somehow come into play, seeing as Kate at least gets mentioned in the issue.

I still cannot get over the fact that Asgardia is now in Oklahoma. In a way it does seem nice to have it in Midgard, but it also seems very strange to have it there.