Category Archives: 2016
Idea for upcoming reviews!
My latest semester of college is over in a week and a half. That means hopefully some more free time. Now’s the perfect time to recommend a Manga or anime. Remember, as far as animes go I mostly just watch on Crunchyroll, so that’s your best bet of getting me to watch it. Its been entirely too long since I’ve done a review on here. Hopefully I can change that within the next two weeks.
As always, thanks for reading and have a great day!
Let’s Talk: Pokemon Trailer.
The latest trailer of Pokemon Sun and Moon came out today, so check it out.
The question of the day is: Which starter had the craziest super move? I, personally, am team water, but turning the area into a WWE match and dropping a hundred arrows on your foe’s corpses is pretty sweet as well.
Bonus question: What is Dugtrio’s band name?
Lets Talk: New Nintendo Console!
So, the Nintendo Switch or NX or whatever you would like to call it has been revealed. Be sure to go check out the release trailer if you have not already.
This is definitely something worth talking about. I give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt, so until the actual release, I will be waiting with great excitement. I only just watched the video and there was a lot to digest. I, in no way, have all the details, nor have been following it very attentively. With that in mind, I am going to turn the discussion over to you guys.
What do you guys think of this new console? Will it reinvent the home console? Do you believe it is just a gimmick? Will this revitalize Nintendo or officially run them out of business. I’ll do a follow up blog once I’ve viewed more of the games and understand the features better.
I’ll leave you with some of my early thoughts to generate discussions.
Games Showcased: Obviously, Breath of the Wild is the money maker. Nintendo, in my opinion, was smart holding onto this big boy. It can help get the Switch off on the right leg. Remakes of great Wii U games seem plentiful. Mario Kart and Splatoon to headlined this. I missed Splatoon on the Wii U so this might be a good chance for me to pick it up. I typically do not do remakes unless it is of games I love. However, I know remakes helped carry Xbox One and PS4 early on with the Last of Us remake as well as the Master Chief Collection. I do not know if that was Mario remake showcased or a new title. They also showed an NBA game as well as 1st person mid evil looking game.
Mechanics/Portability: This has been a highly debated topic sense the Wii tried to reinvent gaming back in the day. However, this one looks like it makes sense. The “On the go” gaming looks like a good selling point. I mean, who doesnt want to play video games in cars? I think it is great and they have a traditional controller if this does not interest you. The real question is will this hurt the 3DS? I dont know because Pokemon should keep the 3DS alive.
So, If Nintendo has lost you over the years, what does this console have to do to win you over? The biggest fault I have with Nintendo is not the hardware, but the games. The first party’s are still amazing and the Switch is shaping up to keep that trend alive, but they do need a bigger 3rd party support. I have a One because I too need to branch out at times. Fallout 4 and Witcher are great games Wii U owners will never get to experience.
Show me great 3rd party support and this console should save Nintendo. They have moved past naming everything Wii, so hopefully there is no marketing disasters.
Here’s to hoping March is a great month for gaming!
Pokemon Sun and Moon Latest Update!
Pokemon hit us with it’s latest video. If you have not seen it yet, check it here Pokemon Sun and Moon Video.
Let me just say, I have loved everything Gamefreak is doing with this installment. Some Pokemons are still hit or miss but the ideas and creativeness they are trying with mechanics and style is welcomed.
Here’s some of the takeaways.
#1 Pokemons getting fresh make overs:
Have you been playing 20 years of Pokemon? Well Gamefreak is giving some new life into old pokemons, and I like it, personally. Vulpix and Ninetails are getting ice forms as well as Sandshrew and Sandslash. They retain their design but get new colors and typing.
Exeggutor has an Alola form as well. I’m more or less on the fence but I am sure it will work out.
#2 Region based forms are back:
Much like Shellos in Diamond and Vivillion in X and Y, where you catch a pokemon matters. Shellos would be green or pink depending on where you caught it. Vivillion would have different designs depending on where you caught them. Oricorio will have four different forms depending on which island you catch them on. The four forms are the Baile form (Fire/Flying), the Pom Pom form (Electric/ Flying), Pa’u form (Psychic/Flying) Sensu form (Ghost/Flying).
This is a pretty sweet addition if it works how I think it will, because it will be four Pokemon for the price of one. I don’t know about you, but I am always down for more Pokemon!
Their ability is dancer which I did not realize how powerful it can be the first time I watched it.
Here’s a list of all “Dance Moves”
Quiver Dance- Raise Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed by one stage(Most have special based typing so this my be the most useful to steal)
Dragon Dance- Raise Speed and Attack by a stage
Rain Dance- Summons rain for 5 turns (Seems redundant)
Swords Dance- Raise Attack by two stages (Depends on stats and move pool, but does not seem as good.)
Teeter Dance- Confuses all other active Pokemons (Seems like a funny interaction)
Lunar Dance- KO yourself, heal the next Pokemon up (This could be used against you, be careful)
The rest of the dance moves are all attacking moves, we will have to wait to see how this interaction works out.
It’s an awesome ability that could stop a dragon setting up dragon dance, but it does not stop there. Assuming it works how I think it will, it becomes amazing in double battles. Have Pokemon A use Quiver Dance and your Oricorio will copy it. However, I do not know if this counts as your move. If it does, it becomes worse then I think it is. If it does not count as your turn, it can get pretty broken in double battle.
I wish the wording was “Copy the effects of dance moves”. Also I could see Bellossom getting this ability.
Minior has shields down, which seems to act like a substitute ability (much like disguise), and it has four different cores. Not much has been shown yet.
#3 Island Trials
We now have an Island Trial on the four islands, beating them will unlock the leader of each island. This is how you will gain access to new islands. I’m curious to learn more about this aspect.
#4 Z attacks are a thing:
They look broken. Just look at this
Here’s a couple things that stand our about Z attacks.
Look at the levels. It shows Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio, and Pikachu. All baby forms. So how early do you get access to this broken mechanic?
Also, as the video shows, the trainer is the one doing the dance, so it is possible that any Pokemon can use its corresponding type attack.
With new forms, z moves, and tons of variety, this could shake up competitive play as well as how we play Pokemon in general.
The future is as bright as the Alola regions, and I for one, am super excited for what it hold.
Three Take Aways from the Latest Pokemons!
I am not reviewing each Pokemon this week because, well, they were mostly bland. Here’s the three big take away though.
#1 Mudsdale looks legit.
Own Tempo can make him a sweeper using moves like thrash or even in a double battle swaggering it. Stamina is a new ability that allows him to raise his defense. I can easily see this guy being a mixed sweeper, for sure.
#2 Substitute is now an ability.
Mimikyu is a terrifying little guy I almost brushed off just by looking at it (This is literally a Pikachu clone). However, he is actually kind of cool. He is a ghost/fairy who made a Pikachu disguise most likely out of bed sheets. Disguise is an ability that nullifies the first hit it takes once per battle. Pretty sweet. People have already mentioned the idea or fear of using substitute on the first move to safely set up. Do not worry. I doubt they would slap this ability on anything relevant.
#3 This generation might just be the scariest one yet.
Just when you thought Mimikyu was going to be the scariest thing on this blog.
The bear and fist in question do not seem to go together, but hey, that’s why we play this wacky game. Take a second to realize how deadly this guy might actually end up being. Plus GameFreak is rolling in the bear puns. Bewear and Beartic. I love it.
The Cat Returns- Anime Movie Review
Today is a first here at DaHubbz! Our first Anime Movie Review (Hopefully the first of many). I’m reviewing The Cat Returns.
The Cat Returns is Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Only Yesterday) 12th film. It was directed by Hiroyuki Morita and Reiko Yoshida and was released in Japan in 2002.
We’re about jump into this but I want to add a couple disclaimers before we go.
First one:
I watched the Blu Ray English dub from Disney. The Cat Returns moved to America in 2005 and starred Anne Hathaway in the lead role of Haru.
Second One:
I watched Spirited Away in my younger years, so for review purposes, The Cat Returns is my first Studio Ghibli film.
Spoilers: Spoiler free as I can get.
Okay, here we go!
Studio Ghibli is a studio known for it’s heart warming characters, enduring animations, and timeless story telling. The Cat Returns delivers on all three fronts. After my first viewing I was torn. I knew it was a good movie, but I struggled to stick with a score. The best part of it for me the first go round were the characters. Anne Hathaway was great as Haru. Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Muta and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Frozen) as Hiromi and the other cast I think all did great jobs with their respective roles. After it was said and done I struggled to find the meaning of the film. I was getting hung up in the stuff that bothered me and did not make sense.
For starters, The Cat Bureau. It seemed like such a cool idea. Objects are given souls and come to life. Unfortunately, we only see the Cat Bureau once. I also struggled with a purpose for the film. Honestly, I think that boils down to being so caught up in everything else, the meaning just went right over my head.
Thankfully, I watched it a second time. It hit me and stuck with me. Biggest mistake I made going into it was assuming this was a movie about Baron, the kitty cat on the cover. Well it is not. This is a story about Haru. As cool as they try to make Baron out to be, he has to take a backseat to Haru. This was not something I was willing to let happen my first viewing. I wanted more of Baron and Muta and the Bureau. Big mistake on my part.
I’ll break it down by topics moving forward.
Plot: The Cat Returns is a story of Haru, a young teenage girl. She oversleeps, has secret, little crushes, and most noticeable struggles with who she is. This is very apparent through dialogue with her friend and mother. She saves prince Lune, prince of the cats, and news travels fast to the cat kingdom. The king makes it his priority to return the favor. This part is cute as the cats offer her several live mice among other gifts. The most noteworthy is Lune’s hand in marriage. She tries to run away from the cats, but these cats are willing to risk all nine of their lives to get Haru to the kingdom. Baron leaves her with more or less these words, “never forget who you are and you will be fine.” Good stuff. Needless to say, Haru gets caught up immediately in the kingdom. Haru turns away from her human side and becomes a cat. I’ll avoid major plot spoilers. Baron shows up and save hers in more words then that.
Characters: While I said the characters were the best part of this movie, and stick by it, there really is only one character to do a major analyze on. For starters I think this movie is great, but so much of it depends on Haru. Haru is a character we have been taught has issues. She begins thinking maybe the cat kingdom is where she belongs, but she does it everywhere new. First, it is the Cat Bureau, then the kingdom. It is at least consistent in that regard. Watching her evolution is a beautiful yet unfulfilling event. I think getting wrapped up in the kingdom and the other characters is why I did not realize how much of this movie hinged on Haru. This is why I’m sad it did not hit me the way I had hoped. When she has the dramatic change from cat back to human it felt rushed or unexplained, I guess. I felt the urgency from Baron to get Haru back to the human world, but not Haru’s. Maybe that is just me. Even in the end, she has to be saved from falling off the tower. I guess the one big take away is that she did choose to ultimately leave the cat kingdom, even if I’m not sold on it. This makes me doubt the Haru seen at the end, even though I do enjoy that Haru.
The World: Another great part of this movie. The Cat Bureau and Cat Kingdom are great, beautiful, and lively. The cat kingdom is bustling with heart, character, and humor. This place is filled with secret agents, explosions, mazes of death, epic falls, and a crazy ruler. I never got a sense of dread or darkness. Seriously, even during all these crazy parts, it is still fun, energetic, and up beat.
Verdict: What I’m ultimately judging this film on is this movie through Haru’s eyes. This differs from the score I’d give if I was just judging it as a whole.
Score: 7.5 out of 10.
Conclusion: This movie is awesome and well worth the watch. I dare say it could be a classic. It is charming and enduring. It bolsters amazing characters, well timed humor, and a vibrant world. Haru did not connect with me the way I wanted her to, and the grade reflects that. In the end I do not actually believe she has undergone any change, or more so, the change feels forced. Her coffee line at the end did not hit me the way I think the studio had hoped.
My Thoughts: Pokemon Sun and Moon: Salandit!
They did it. They actually did it. I know what you’re thinking. “What did who do?”
Pokemon! Someone at Gamefreak seems to be a fan.
In all seriousness though, back in September I was messing around with ideas for future types, moves, and abilities. Check it out if you haven’t already. If you know anything about me and Pokemon, it’s that I love poison Pokemons and I constantly try to think of ways to make them OP. I tossed out a theme revolving around the word rancor. I came up with a standard 120 base power poison move called Rancorous Blast. It had a 20% chance to poison any type of Pokemon. Obviously, I despise steel Pokemons and this was my way around them. Well earlier today Game Freak gave us Salandit:
(My Hero)
Okay, so before we get carried away, let’s evaluate him for what he is.
He is based clearly on a salamander. Parts of him seem off, but not enough to take away any points. He is Poison/Fire. So right off the bat is a slam dunk in my book. A steel fire Pokemon just feels like a win. This typing would have been amazing in prior generations. Poisons suck against steel, so fire would have been a nice touch… and still is, mind you. Now, though, poison Pokemons have access to the ability corrosion.
Corrosion, a great name for this ability as well, means the user can inflict poison damage on any typing of Pokemon. And yeap, you guessed it, even steel types. But Game Freak did not stop there. Nope. You can even poison poison Pokemons.
This is truly a great day for all us Brotherhood of the Poison Pokemons.
I really do think he is going to be a big deal. They clearly used him to illustrate this new ability (a huge ability at that) for a reason, and they slapped fire on him too. I think he can be a trend setter for awesome Pokemon to continue and shake up the landscape. I am honestly getting super excited for this region.
I’ll hold back from giving him a 10 out of 10 just yet, but now the only question I have is why couldn’t he be a starter over Litten!
Oh, and Pokemon Go came out today. I’ll talk about that tomorrow.
Let’s Talk: BatmanVSuperman!
Oh boy. It’s that time. Sorry this is so late.
(I do not own any rights to the images used throughout this article. All rights belong to the original creators)
Lets do a little background info as to why I am even doing this review and why I am a little annoyed. For starters, when characters got leaked(Wonder Woman and such). Everyone got so pumped. In the final days leading up to BvS the same people started saying the plot was convoluted and the cast was crowded and so on and so on. In fact, that seems to be the main reason it’s getting crapped on. So the way I see things is that big reviewers hyped it up when they knew they were going to crap all over it. Though I tend to stay away from big time reviewers and form my own opinion (and you should too!)
Spoilers: Yes. Enough to warrant this message anyway.
Quick note: I am not a huge Superman fan nor do I pretend to be so I will mostly be reviewing this as a movie and not a strict faithful retelling of the comics.
Let’s get down to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The Good:
The action! It’s the same Zack Synder here who directed The Watchmen and 300 among other movies as well. Anyway my point is the action is good. My favorite fight scene was the final Batman vs Superman fight. Watching Batman beat Superman to a pulp was wonderful (i prefer Batman over Superman honestly).
Ben Affleck. I loved the Dark Knight with Christian Bale and I so scared when they announced a new Batman. But boy, Ben was everything I wanted from a Batman. The old, edgy, push the chips to the center of the table Batman was wonderful. He stole the show in my opinion.
Visuals. The visuals were beautiful. I think notably the final action scene against Doomsday looked really pretty(If that’s the right word for it). The movie is probably underrated as far as color goes. There’s a series of scenes where they are showing the good Superman has done and the color is ominous and heavenly. When the citizens are on the roof and there’s a massive flood and the woman is holding out her hand. The camera then pans to show Superman in the sky. Yes, it is very metaphoric but also a gorgeous scene on it’s own.
The Bad
The Betrayal of Superman- To me, this is the part where the script/plot is the weakest. The propose makes sense. The goal is to turn Superman from a god to a devil. Simple enough. I see what they were going for. But I was not overly convinced by them. The shootout in the desert and the bombing of the court just seemed forced.
Lex Luthor
I wanted this to be awesome and it started out awesome. I should start with a disclaimer. I do not honestly know that much about Lex. I should say as far as backstory and motivation goes in the comic. This is just another point where the script missed the mark. So, Lex was trying to ruin Superman’s image. He wanted to show people Superman was not for the people. How do you do this? I’ll borrow a quote from my good friend the Joker. “It’s simple, uh we kill the Batman”. This sounds epic in theory. Have Superman bring the bat’s head to Lex. Batman being the metaphor for man. The introduction to a new villain and a similar name brought this to a halt. Anyway he seemed to be caught in this weird mix between the insanity of the Joker and the ambition of Kingpin . That might just be me?
The Ugly
Villains- If you avoided spoilers on the villains up to this point, stop reading now. If you’re interested, keep reading. Okay so Superman has to fight Batman, Lex, and Doomsday. This is the part where the plot gets crowded in my opinion. They should’ve just cut out Doomsday. I mean he’s famous for being the guy to “Kill Superman”. It was waaaaay too early to bring in Doomsday. The Batman vs Superman angle was amazing and the first two hours is fantastic. However, the addition of Doomsday I think is where the plot went too far. I know what you’re thinking, we needed Doomsday to bring the Justice League together. Here’s one alternative. They had been hinting at The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman. Aquaman should’ve come out and beat them both to pieces and tell them to grow up. The camera kept hinting at the the pool where they throw the spear. Have Aquaman grab the spear, hit Superman, and than beat Batman to a pulp. Boom. No need to add Doomsday, or anything like that. or B. Have Lex build his combat suit and make Superman and Batman fight him. I do not know the best course, but they should’ve cut Doomsday. He is way to high profile of a villain to be a second tier baddie.
MARTHA- Yeah, this scene got made fun of and rightfully so. I know Bruce missed his mommy and we get constant flashback of her grave so it’s not out of place or anything like that, but it’s two titans dueling it out to the death and a single name makes them buddy buddy. Now if you enjoy this scene and this resolution, than great! But it was just kinda cheesy to me.
Final Review: 7.5/10
It’s not terrible and probably not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. The movie is visually breath taking and has a nice mix of developing plot and juicy action. Bruce is well developed and Lex is off to an okay start. I assume he will play a bigger role in future films. Also, if they cut the Doomsday part and just replace it with something other than Doomsday, this movie would probably be an 8 or 9.
So what is your guys opinions? Was it good, bad, or just straight up ugly?
Life Update: BatmanVsSuperman, moving
The drought is almost over.
My moving situation is basically solved and figured out as long nothing changes between now and the first week of April. I am so excited as this change of scenery is what the doctor ordered! I plan to finally have office space(If youll allow me to call it that) I plan to renew my subscriptions and buy some mangas. It’s going to be a fresh spark that I think will add energy back to the blog and create some momentum for the youtube channel.
That wont be until roughly April 5th. In the meantime I have a “Let’s Talk” session lined up for BatmanVsSuperman, as well as trying to read a manga Ive owned for like 4 months. God willing, I will start Random Wednesday next Wednesday, But I make no promises as it seems my time flies by here currently.
Thanks for reading this and sticking by. The ambiguous uncertainty has really taken a toll on me but I can see a light. Here’s to a bright future!
Life Update: New category, Youtube, and time away.
I fell in love with blogging almost a year ago. It was place to talk about anything: Mangas, School, games, you name it.
So why is it I havent made a post in nearly a month?
Multiple reasons.
- I’ve been sick and and unmotivated.
I had this cold back in February and it was not that bad. It keep me bed for long periods of time, because more than I was sick, I was just always tired. I don’t sleep right to begin with but I was always woke up before 11am. I can’t really say I have since I got this cold. Which makes being productive hard when I sleep for half the day.
2. School work out of nowhere.
If you follow my blog any you know in January I was doing a daily blog(If you didnt check it out than I highly recommend it) and was taking five classes and trying to start working. I was completely fine than. However, somewhere along the line my classes up’d the work out of nowhere and so many test, and written assignments, and discussions were due. I had to drop 2 classes just to even be able to balance all the things I was doing. It sucked.
3. Started a Youtube Channel
I’ve stated before Youtube was my first love. I started my first channel back in ’09 and slowly fell out of it. I went out and bought my first mic and editing software and fired up the dream once more. I started blogging back last summer. This Youtube channel has been in the works since the summer of 13. While the blog was a spur-of-the-moment thing and the youtube channel has been very calculated, I wanted to give equal attention. Sadly, I have not. The blog actually takes a lot of time and money(in some instances). Somewhere along the lines my time shrunk. This also goes hand in hand with motivation. Sometimes recording a youtube video is as easy as hitting record, playing the game, and just talking along with it. The blog, however, I either have to watch an entire anime, read a volume, or what have you, and than plan it out.
4. Decreasing Quality
Maybe the biggest reason. Watching anime, reading manga, playing the games, is not the the hard part. It’s the planning the post. I like to be insightful, unbiased, and salt in my own brand of off beat humor. I begun waiting to the last moment and just throwing together material and it got to the point of asking myself “Would I actually read this myself”. This has slowed me down greatly. Everything stems from being unmotivated. I get basically no hours at my job, my apartment is up for inspection later this month, I’m in this weird transition period between possibly transferring colleges and moving nearly 6 hours away, and everything kind of has me in a funk. One of the few things making me happy is making videos and my voice has been gone for the better half of a month so I cant even do that.
*Next topic*
As the title suggest, I am going to talk about youtube.
I am currently doing a Pokmeon Golden Age Let’s Play. I think it is going to finish up with 8 or 9 videos. I also do unboxings every Saturday. I’ve already opened two mew collection boxes and will be opening the Celebi box sometime this week! I also will be opening the dual box for Magic the Gathering and the latest structure deck of Yugioh. My top fives will eventually migrate over to the channel as well. I’m working on putting together a let’s play of Pokemon Gray Topaz and Zelda: Minish Cap. I’m debating on doing Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku 2 and Super Mario 64. Anime and Manga reviews may or may not move over to the channel(They may stay a blog exclusive)
Go Subscribe to Dahubbz on Youtube.
*Last Topic*
A new category. Crunchyroll has a random feature that will assign you a random episode to watch. I want to integrate this into the blog. I will watch episode one of a random anime that crunchyroll spits out at me and give my opinions on it and call this “Random Wednesday”. It’s just a test run but I’ll try it out either this Wednesday or the next so be on the look out!
Da_Hubbz 