Topic: The TV Show Thread

@nessisonett ahh I didn't realise he was an existing character, very cool. I didn't have a huge budget back when Falcon was Captain America but I have a couple issues here and there. His captain America outfit was very cool

YashaHime: Princess Half Demon Season 1 (Hulu). Nostalgia feuled sequel of InuYasha, it reframes Sesshomaru as the central character from the original series and follows Towa Higurashi & Setsuna, the twin half demon daughters borne between Sesshomaru and Rin (the little girl he was charged with protecting in the original series, probably for the better it doesn't bother to explain how the connection between the two became romantic as she got older). The twins, seperated at a young age and both raised by adoptive families, meet up again as teenagers where it's learned that Setsuna has no memories of before the split & is "cursed" to never sleep. The two journey to recover Setsuna's missing memories, and along the way join up with Moroha, the daughter of InuYasha & Kagome, who likewise doesn't have her parents in her life.

Sorry if this runs on a bit (and a lot of names/terms won't make since if you're not acquainted with the OG series), but as a huge fan of the original series, there is a lot here for me to unpack, especially the issues I have with it, so please bear with me:

1. The "Rainbow Pearls". The new magical mcguffins introduced for the series, they effectively act like mini Shikon Jewels (the mcguffin of the OG series), and as we learn near the end of the season they were in fact created by the Shikon Jewel itself (via a wish by one of the main antagonists). My problem with these is that they're effectively like the "Black Star Dragon Balls" in Dragon Ball GT, in that their existence predates the events of the OG series and no in-universe explanation is given as to why they went completely unnoticed during the previous series' events. Furthermore, after all the hooplah surrounding them, when one of the main antagonists gathers them all near the end of the season, she gets one shotted (back to the DB comparisons, the Pearls, of which there are 7, scatter across the land in a nearly identical fashion to the Dragon Balls in the final episode).
2. The writers know that the old fans are here to find out what happened to the original cast, but the girls just don't seem to care about their parents (particularly Sesshomaru's daughters). In the first half of the season it's full of references & Easter eggs to draw in fans of the original series, but the whereabouts of the OG cast just isn't that high on the list of stuff the girls care about. About 15 or so episodes in the writers do away with the ruse and legit dedicate an episode to one of the villains breaking the 4th wall and expositioning the fate of the OG cast via a flashback directly to the audience, an event completely unrelated to the girls. Making things even worse is that the girls are surrounded by a supporting cast that's been around since the OG series (Kaede, Myoga, Kohaku, etc.) and none of them seem at all interested in discussing the fate of the parents who they haven't seen in over 14 years, which is more bizarre & out of character than anything.
3. Between the 3 girls Towa is the lead, & she's terrible:
A. Via a convoluted means it's she who is whisked away to the future & raised by Kagome's family as their granddaughter (hence the Higurashi surname despite being Sesshomaru & Rin's daughter), and the show can't decide whether or not it wants her to be a "Mary Sue" or incompetent. On one hand it gives her 3 big powerups in the first 6 or so episodes (with some abilities only being tangentially related to Sesshomaru, if at all, such as her ability to absorb demon energy, which seems to be a departure from the original series inferring that half demons only inherent lesser versions of their demon parent's abilities), and despite living a cushy life she often gets the kill over her sister & cousin who are shown to be much more seasoned warriors, sometimes one shotting enemies they struggled with (as a comparison with the OG series, Kagome couldn't properly hold a bow for the first 15 or so episodes).
B. On the other hand she's more naive about the past than Kagome ever was. During her first ordeal in the past, when faced with a demon who has literally ripped peoples' skeletons out in front of her to eat them, she suggests that they try to work things out peacefully so no one has to die. She seemingly learns her lesson about the harsh realities of the time period, only to have to learn the same lesson again and again, starting at square one every other episode (even as far as episode 18 when first confronted with the big bad, she nicely asks him if he would please stop antagonizing them). A few times she's even written to be incomprehensibly stupid as well. About 12-13 episodes in they deal with a demon who has kidnapped a 13 year old girl as he is obsessed with making her "his woman" (to the point of burning men alive if they happen to see her), and Towa's response is to straight faced say she understands his obsession as it mirrors her addiction to her smartphone. At the end of the episode the lesson she learns is that she needs to learn to let go of the past (or future in this case) and put away her phone (despite the fact it has a number of practical uses as a recording & note taking device). Making this asinine concept even worse however is that this smartphone that she was supposedly addicted to had never even appeared in a single frame of animation in any of the preceding 11-12 episodes.
4. The show seems to have a thing for taking a dump on InuYasha & Kagome in particular:
A. First off it's revealed that they waited the better part of a decade to have a kid for no other reason than to make sure the loli was old enough to have Sesshomaru's kids at the same time (and in fact they made the point to show that Rin gave birth at least a month before Kagome, so our previous leads were the last to have children). Secondly, it's revealed that when Moroha was still an infant Sesshomaru sealed away InuKag inside the tomb of Inu No Taisho (InuYasha & Sesshomaru's father). While this was done to protect them, it means they were completely shut out of raising their own daughter (or even watching her growth), and effectively writes them out of the series (assuming only Sesshomaru can open the seal, he probably won't free them until the show's climax).
B. Moroha has been given the worst childhood of the 3 girls. InuKag had her spirited away to Koga (an OG series recurring character) for safety moments before they were sealed away, but apparently he couldn't be arsed to do the job as he pawned her care off to a new character, who has a gambling problem & literally pawned Moroha off to pay for her gambling debts. Moroha starts the series off taking bounty hunter jobs for the guy who effectively owns her, so she can buy back her freedom. Making matters worse she's largely treated as the comic relief of the cast, with the jokes centering on her missing out on the episode's big fight or the target's body completely being destroyed, so she has no proof to bring back for a reward (this has been admitted by the showrunners, who said the twins were originally planned to be the only mains until they realized they didn't play off each other well enough to carry the show, so they upgraded Moroha's involvement for "personality" reasons). No explanation is given as to why Koga doesn't try & check up on her at least once every other year or hasn't busted her out (knowing his character from the OG series this just doesn't make sense).
C. In comparison, while Sesshomaru & Rin also didn't get to raise their daughters (and Rin herself is sealed away inside the Sacred Tree, which only had specific importance to the love triangle between InuYasha, Kagome, & Kikyo in the original series, co-opted to now be a place of importance to Sesshomaru & Rin), Towa got the cushy life of being raised in the modern era by Kagome's family, it's revealed that Setsuna had a tight knit adopted family that took care of her, and aloof as he is, it's revealed that Sesshomaru does watch over them from the shadows & intervienes directly or indirectly when he needs to (an opportunity fully denied to either InuYasha or Kagome on Moroha's behalf).
D. Miroku & Sango are largely uninvolved in the story (other than Miroku putting a seal on Setsuna's demonic powers in the past), but it's clearly inferred that they were able to safely raise their children (and despite Miroku temporarily being estranged from his son) they all still have a relationship with their parents (they're all off doing their own thing, but it's because they're all pushing 20 and leaving the nest). A bit of a relief for sure, but for the life of me I can't understand why InuYasha & Kagome's ending wasn't afforded the same respect, given they were the leads of the past series.
5. The Plot Holes:
A. In a flashback to a point at least 500 years ago, Inu No Taisho is shown to have the Tessaiga, Tenseiga, and uses Tessaiga to use a mastered "Meido Zangetsuha" attack. This contradicts the original series, which states the Tessaiga was created to protect InuYasha's human mother (who wouldn't be born yet during this flashback), and that Inu No Taisho was never able to master "Meido Zangetsuha" (the Tenseiga was splintered off of Tessaiga, with "Meido Zangetsuha" inside of it so Sesshomaru could master it and then return it to Tessaiga & InuYasha. Since Inu No Taisho has Tenseiga in the flashback as well, "Meido Zangetsuha" should have been linked to that sword & not Tessaiga, which he uses).
B. When they first meet, Moroha instantly knows that Towa & Setsuna are Sesshomaru's children based on their scent. As the series continues it becomes quite apparent Moroha has never met Sesshomaru (and has never spent time with her own parents either), so she should have no basis with which to recognize their scent (other than that they should be related to her in some unspecified manner).
C. In the original series it's stated that all half demons have a period of weakness once a month where they become fully human. The writers BS all sorts of reasons as to why only Towa is subject to this weakness, and only becomes subject to it upon the start of their adventure. Moroha is immune to it as she's only Quarter Demon (which really doesn't make sense, if anything she should become fully human for a longer period of time), Setsuna is immune to it because of the "curse" that keeps her from sleeping (this not only doesn't make sense, but it's starting to become clear why I'm putting "curse" in parentheses. In addition to immunization to this weakness, the "curse" also makes her immune to sleeping potions/powder/spells, the lack of sleep isn't shown to hamper her fighting ability, and the only thing she's lost are the memories of her first 4 years of life). Towa meanwhile has been immune to it until now because residing in the future negated it for unexplained reasons. The plot hole in particular comes in when Setsuna is completely shocked when Towa turns human, acting as if this is the first time she has ran into the phenomenon. While it is true that she herself hasn't experienced the weakness, it's later revealed she was raised in a village consisting of no one but half demons, and their lives were once endangered during the moment the village protector lost her demon powers, so she should be fully aware this is something that happens.

Granted, there are things about the series I do like, or at the very least found amusing.

• For example the first episode is largely a shot for shot adaptation of the special epilogue mangaka Rumiko Takahashi herself published back in 2011 to cap off the original series (published after the franchise's last anime adaptation ended). Treated as a flashback, it's altered slightly to be a jumping off point for whatever story they're trying to tell in YashaHime proper, but it's one nice last bit of traditional InuYasha.
• The girls do spend some time in the modern era during episodes 2, 3, & 4, and it's an absolute treasure seeing Moroha interact with Kagome's family, especially as they quickly figure out she's their biological relative (playing her up for comedy purposes works best here, as it's more about her fascination with all sorts of modern era junk). It's a shame that Towa's forced connection to them kinda takes time away from genuine family bonding, but it is what it is.
• The battle in the final episode goes all DBZ with a couple of the girls (one of them actually being Moroha, after going nearly all season long neglecting her) achieving new transformations against the big bad, ending up in outer space somehow & eviscerating moons. It's completely trippy, doesn't make much since, and feels completely removed from InuYasha in scope & vibe, but it was at least a fun segment if nothing else.
• Something they kept forshadowing throughout the season is the existence of the Grim Comet. Stupid name aside, it passes by once every 500 years or so and a chunk falls to Earth. If this chunk makes landfall it's said that it begets a calamity, with the last impact starting the age of demons. This information & some extra visual clues hint that demon origins may be extraterrestrial... which yes is insanely stupid, but more importantly the comet is closing near to Earth in the modern era. Bringing threats from the past into the modern era was a theme lightly touched on in the original InuYasha, but Takahashi largely dropped it after a few stories early on, so I'm all for YashaHime going into new territory & more involving the modern era, asinine origins for feudal era Japanese demons aside.
• And hey, at least it's getting a second season, so it has a chance to fix some of it's issues.

All in all it still fills a bit too much like a SessRin fanfic got greenlit more than a genuine sequel though.

the Mandalorian season 1 (Disney+)

A little late to getting to this, but I really enjoyed it. The last 2 episodes of the season in particular were cracking, but there were good moments peppered throughout, such as the episode that paid homage to "Seven Samurai". Of course the production values were absolutely top notch (genuinely felt movie quality), and I can see how "the child" took the internet by storm.

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Typical PG-13 type fare.

Violence (Average) - tons of (laser blasting) gunfights & a bit of space ship combat, but it's mostly bloodless. Characters do die.

Nudity/Sex (None) - Dude won't even take his helmet off, lol.

@RogerRoger I’m glad you enjoyed WandaVision. I also found it a great addition to the MCU lore. And with the characters they include (no spoilers) it seems clear that Disney/Marvel are going through a lot of effort to be true to the source material, but also unique with the storyline.

Interestingly, I might take the opposite approach as you in that I watched WandaVision week-by-week but I’ve yet to dive into Falcon. I think I might wait to watch it all at once, or I’ll at least let 3 or 4 episodes pile up and binge it in larger sessions every few weeks.

@RogerRoger its good to read your thoughts on both WV and the first couple of eps of FWS. I think it's going to be hard for FWS to upstage WV in terms of originality. You've noted it, but I fear the uniqueness of WandaVision may make audiences forget that prior to that, despite the formulaic approach, the MCU films have trod different paths as I suspect the Disney+ shows will continue to do. Personally, I love Captain America and it's one of, if not my favourite sub-series of the MCU and CA: The Winter Soldier is probably my favourite film in the whole MCU so FWS is an absolute treat for me, even if it's more standard fare.

Glad to see some love for Iron Man 3 there too! I thought I was the only one that understood Tony's complete breakdown after the events of The Avengers (Assemble). At that point in the canon, he was literally the only human (that we knew about) that flew up into a freaking wormhole and saw deep space. That's going to fudge anyone up. I don't think I've spoke to another person who has rated that film as much as I do! I do get the hate for it though, appreciating the events of the film are very much dependent on having seen The Avengers beforehand but as part of the cinematic soap opera that is the MCU, it is a key chapter in my opinion.

Your mention of Photon had me scratching my head though! Had to look it up to find out you were referring to Monica. I've always just thought of her as the second Captain Marvel (after Mar-Vell) but admittedly my knowledge of the actual comics of Marvel is a bit patchy!

In all my talk of favourite series', sub-series' and characters though, I would stress that I actually love the whole of the MCU. So it's not so much I think one thing is good and one thing is bad. It's more like I love certain things in particular and I love other things less. Vision is always going to be my favourite character though! (But there are many, many close seconds, not limited to Hope, Steve, Ruffalo-Banner, Nebula, Klaue, Batroc, Zemo, Peggy - well ok there is a lot more close seconds so I'll end my list there lol)

@RogerRoger im pretty sure the release schedule is covid related unfortunately. I think WandaVision was supposed to be released second but it was ready to go whereas Falcon and WS wasn't. Also Black Widow was supposed to be out by now in the cinema which I think would have capped off the so called "infinity Saga" and laid seeds for future storylines. It is what it is really!

Most of my friends lost interest in the MCU very quickly so I have become accustomed to being alone in my fandom of it. It's difficult to discuss cookie cutter criticism of something because you feel like you are beating a dead horse. All I can do is show my enthusiasm where it is accepted and keep shtum where it is less so.

I actually have a Vision Hot Wheels car 😂. I have all the avengers as hot wheels cars that I bought from Asda for like a £1 each after age of Ultron had come and gone. I don't have any other merch though....I don't think. Actually I do have a lot of the Lego for it. The MCU is too popular to get a t shirt of it I think. I like my T shirts to be specific, just popular enough to get noticed by a few but not with an eye rolling mass appeal. I've got a darmuk and jalaad t shirt, I've got an Arrow T shirt and a Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn t shirt among others. I just recently got a couple of 90s wrestling t shirts, cactus Jack and degeneration X which I quite like.

I agree that Thor 2 is a bit average, I do have a soft spot for it though because I worked on it. I was in a shot that got cut unfortunately during the invasion of Greenwich in London 😅. It did get picked up by the very local and very specific press though so there's a picture of me running away from an imaginary space ship on some random news/blog site somewhere. I found Black Panther to be a bit average tbh, it's still good but was a bit overrated. I do understand it's cultural signifigance though. My favourite characters from it were Klaue, Shuri and maybe M'Baku. I love GotG though, however I won't beat you over the head with an opinion you don't share! It's one of the few pop soundtracks I've bought the CD for, I've had some long car journeys listening to it. All I'll say is.... "I'm Mary Poppins Y'all!!!" 😂

Got round to watching episode 2 of TFATWS! Definitely a bit more in this episode, especially another Young Avenger being introduced as Isiah Bradley’s grandson, and I did know beforehand that they were adapting that storyline here.

@RogerRoger ahh that hit the nail on the head. I've always wondered what I found "off" about Black Panther and it's definitely the CGI. It's kind of way too shiny which I guess is to show how new and futuristic Wakanda is. Normally shiny CGI is bad CGI though so you have to put extra care into making it realistic if that's the look you are going for.

I'm trying to downsize my Lego. I was only going to keep the marvel/DC Lego but I have a few bits of Hobbit/LotR too that I don't want to part with. I'm even a bit hesitant to lose my few bits of Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter too!

DC doesn't even get a look in with my friends lol, not since the Dark Knight days anyway.

With YashaHime in the rearview mirror & nothing else there I really want to watch, I decided to drop Hulu for the time being, and am trying out HiDive.

Admittedly only got it for the plethora of uncensored fanservice anime it hosts (so feel free to judge, lol), but it's also cheaper than Hulu, so there's that.

A couple of shows I've recently finished:

Photon: the Idiot Adventures (Amazon Prime Video) - 90's sci-fi anime OVA series that follows Photon Earth, a simple boy with immsense strength (think Goku from early Dragon Ball, though with a much less energetic personality) living on the Sandy Planet (a desert world that's seemingly Japanese in culture, it appears to actually be Earth from space shots). When Aun, the village chief's daughter & Photon's childhood friend, leaves the village in search of a handsome boyfriend, Photon is dispatched to bring her home, as she has the power to freeze time when she's upset which can cause untold problems & only Photon is immune to the effect. A few shenanigans later & Photon awakens Keyne Aqua, a fleeing rebel from the Galactic Empire, and due to completely silly reasons she considers herself the boy's wife, and he finds himself protecting her from the empire's agents (alongside an increasingly jealous Aun) as she looks for something her grandfather supposedly left hidden on the planet that can challenge the Empire's rule (and just may have something to do with Photon & Aun's abilities).

In terms of tone & aesthetic it reminds me immensely of the early Tenchi Muyo! series' (to the point that I had considered the possibility that it may have been one of the numerous Tenchi related spin-offs, though I don't think that's the case as it doesn't seem to share any lore). That in itself should be enough to tell you whether or not the series is for you. Of course it's not as good as the classic Tenchi stuff, but better than many of it's spinoffs. Due to it's short runtime of 6 episodes, there's a lot of technobabble that gets thrown around (particularly in the last episode) that's never fully explained.

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Mostly PG-13 type stuff.

Violence (Average) - Most of the blood is played for laughs (like when a character is so angered blood starts to spout from their bulging veins), though things do get genuinely bloody in the final episode when things get serious.

Nudity/Sex (High) - Being Tenchi influenced it should come as no surprise that there's plenty of topless female nudity. There's also one quick scene in which a villain briefly gropes Keyne. Otherwise there's some nudity on the part of Photon in the same vein as early Dragon Ball Goku.

WandaVision (Disney+) - The first in a series of MCU related miniseries hitting Disney+, it follows Avengers Wanda Maximoff (the Scarlet Witch) & the Vision after the events of Avengers: Endgame in which the duo are trapped in a reality where the world exists as a classic sitcom centered around their daily life as husband & wife.

Absolutely gripping. The first two episodes were a bit slow (though unique for the franchise), but when things started to slowly fall apart (and when they started to reference sitcoms I grew up watching, like Malcolm in the Middle), I was absolutely hooked. I don't usually binge shows in a short period of time, but I chew through this over a single weekend. I did find it amusing that they portrayed their powers with the kind of low fi effects seen in classic sitcoms like Bewitched in the early episodes, and the Easter Egg involving a returning character, I believe Pietro was played by the actor from the X-Men movies?

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - PG-13 type stuff again.

Violence (Average) - Typical PG-13 superhero action.

Nudity/Sex (None) - Nothing to note here.

@Arugula I remember watching the very badly dubbed version when I was a kid. Entertaining, but I never knew what on earth was going on! 🤣

Perhaps not a good sign that I’ve watched this week’s Mighty Ducks but haven’t got round to Falcon and Winter Soldier yet! Although the Mighty Ducks series is surprisingly good.

@RogerRoger It really feels half baked so far. And I'm not sure knowing the source material would elevate it any.

Really did not wanna be a downer about this show as I love the MCU Winter Soldier and Falcon grew on me over the course of several films, and I'm fully on board with him taking up the shield and becoming the new qualifier-free Captain America, but man, what am I watching?

@zupertramp I watched the third episode tonight and I have to agree, pretty much nothing has happened. I’m glad to see certain characters back, especially Zemo but there’s definitely something missing. I’m not sure what.

Spoiler laced rant incoming... Proceed at your own risk:

@nessisonett yeah episode 3 really went a long way pushing me more towards disliking the show. And I should be clear I like Zemo... as a villain. And Daniel Bruhl is good at it. But like, why is the show trying to get me to hate fake-captain america more than the guy who killed innocent people in a terrorist attack?

@zupertramp That's kind of what they're going for with John Walker

He's basically if Captain America was a complete dick to everyone and wasn't completely pure of heart. You could argue he's way more of an anti-hero than a legit good guy

@TheFrenchiestFry oh no doubt I totally get it. i think of him as Jason sudekis from that weird Anne Hathaway movie (I'm blanking). The pretend nice guy. And I'm fine with that. Just not sure about the buddy cop sheen they are putting on Zemo .

Edit: Colossal. The film.

@TheFrenchiestFry I dunno though, USAgent in the comics evolved over the years and became a lot more interesting. They seem to just be lifting his original arc. The actual baddies are incredibly uninspired to be honest, mostly seems like an excuse to generate articles about antifa than anything.

@zupertramp Colossal is film you are thinking off. And your right, it was really weird.