RANDOM SHOW AND TELL WIRELESS KEYBOARD and MOUSE

My wireless keyboard and mouse that I use in playing games and doing some blogs.

TEKKEN

TEKKEN

A fighting game that came out for various and almost all game platforms from the classic arcade to home gaming consoles to handheld consoles and the modern mobile devices that has gaming features.

Tekken is one of the longest running fighting game that was released using 3D graphic engines that gives almost human accurate movements when it comes to the martial arts aspects of the game. There is a mix of 2D animation for some of the cinematics for the storylines or cutscenes for specific characters when you use them under story mode or arcade mode.

Tekken was released back in December 9, 1994 and the latest release is Tekken 7 back in June 2, 2017. The game was published under Bandai Namco Entertainment, Namco and Sony Computer Entertainment.

I am not a Tekken gamer or a Tekken fan, I just had my chance to play the game in arcade, game console like PlayStation and the mobile version. Let’s just say I am just another random gamer who plays quite a lot of games that I can play in any platform that I have or have access to.

Tekken was not only a game, for some they made a community and a tournament where Tekken gamers can have discussions with one another and maybe have a chance to meet the creators of the game like Katsuhiro Harada and Seiichi Ishii and other people behind the game. The Tekken Community is one of the biggest fanbase community that I know other than the Gundam and anime community.

I know a handful of people that can play Tekken so well that I think they can play the game with their eyes closed.  Not to mention they also know backstories of most characters if not all of them.

Tekken did not only came out as a game but there were movie adaptations as well. An anime adaptation movie was released.

The first that I came across with was the Tekken: The Motion Picture back in 1998, and I barely remember the storyline since I just watched it once. The only thing I recall is that for me the anime adaption did not excite me as much as Anpan Breadman series. I was able to watch the anime when I got a copy I think back in 2000.

The second movie was the live action film that came out back 2009 starred by Jon Foo as Jin Kazama the protagonist of the film, Ian Anthony Dale as Kazuya Mishima and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Heihachi Mishima. The movie was “meh” for me, they changed too much in the storyline except for the relationships of the three generation of the Mishima as main casts in the film. Heihachi, Kazuya and Jin. I have only seen the movie twice, and the second one was quite recent which was Oct 22, 2020 along with a friend who has not seen the movie. Too many questions for those fans of the game. But for those who has no clue of the game I think they will like the movie for the action.

There is a third movie and that is the Tekken: Revenge of Kazuya which came out in 2014. In this film three characters from Tekken are in the movie. Kazuya portrayed by Kane Kosugi, Heihachi Mishima by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Bryan Fury by Gary Daniels. Among the three actors only Cary and Gary reprised their roles in the Tekken movies. Just like in the first film this is another film I am thankful I did not watch in the theaters.

With three film adaptations if I were to choose, I will choose the anime adaptation over the live action adaptation. Not because the characters look like the ones in the games but because the storyline is much closer compared to the live action adaptation that has a different story to tell the audience.

Not sure how Tekken fans accepted the various film adaptations of the game but for me I can only recommend the anime adaptation.

But between the first and second live action film, even though they changed the storyline and how it was delivered to the audience, there seemed to be much more fight scenes in the second film compared to the first one. Not sure on the move sets of the characters if they got it accurate or even close to the game version. There are just too many questions in the live action films if the viewer has some knowledge in the game storyline. The second movie was too slow paced for me while the first movie they could have done better. Well for both they could have done better on both live action films. If someone will ask me for movie recommendations to watch these two will not be on the list but if they will ask for worst movies, I have watched I will put this in the list.

If I will rate this:

Anime adaptation 6 out of 10

First live action film 3 out of 10

Second live action film 3 out of 10

Yeah that is my own personal rating for the film adaptations of the Tekken Game series.

I will be making another review for the game only, the reason why I made this kind of article for the Tekken game and the three adaptations is that, I don’t have that much to say for the three adaptations.

I forgot there was another film Tekken Blood Vengeance which was done in 3D and here in this movie we get to see the actual characters of the Tekken game in the film. I have only seen the movie once and not much to say as well in this movie except that they featured a storyline that took place in between the Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 games. The movie featured Xiaoyu and Alisa as the main characters of the game while the father and son Kazuya and Jin are butting heads in the film. Out of the four films I might say I will recommend this one but too bad. I remembered this last while doing this article which means I cannot fully recommend this as well unless I remember that it existed. Bad memory or I guess the film was 50/50.

The rating that I will give this will be 6 out of 10 as well the same as the first anime adaptation of the game as a movie. I guess the reason for this is because we now see the Tekken characters in another full-length film and not just a compilation of cutscenes in between match in the game.

Now I wonder why I forgot about this film. Oh well maybe once I watch the film again I will recall why I forgot about this.

So there you have it four film adaptations that I know for the Tekken Game. Check them out at your own leisure.

HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD

HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD

HOTD

An anime based on the manga of the same title and written by the late Daisuke Sato. The manga was never finished and there were 7 volumes of the manga that was published from 2006 to 2013. The anime came out in 2010 with 12 episode and 1 OVA.

I am one of those who followed the manga and the anime before I heard or read news that the author died back in March 22, 2017. Just to make things clear I am not one of those who has been sending messages saying or suggesting that the publisher or whoever was in charge of the HOTD series along with Daisuke Sato, to just get someone else to continue the series. For me if it does continue then so be it if not that is not a problem since I have seen anime and manga that has been left on hiatus for a long period of time already so I don’t expect HOTD will continue any time soon. That is after I have come across a Reddit post that the production who worked with Daisuke Sato have no more plans on continuing the work of the late Daisuke Sato. Link is below for more details.

I was first introduced to the anime before I got into the manga. The anime was so fluid in the animation so fluid that it felt like I was watching cinematics of one of the latest Dead or Alive video game where we get very fluid jiggly breasts which was one of selling points of the fighting game. HOTD was one heck of a fanservice series considering that it was a zombie holocaust series where we also get to see women who turned into zombies who are almost naked and still jiggly (I don’t have necrophilia just to be clear but I like the fanservice). Just like what I said the series is flooded with fanservice for those looking for various sizes of oppai this might be the series for you if you also like zombie themed series.

The series follows Takashi Komuro, Saeko Busujima, Kohta Hirano, Rei Miyamoto, Saya Takagi, Shizuka Marikawa and Alice Maresato. From Takashi to Saya they are students of the Fujimi High School and Shizuka was the school nurse who was rescued by Saeko during the zombie outbreak in their school. Alice was the young girl whom they rescued after her father was attacked by zombies and she adjusted quite well to the party since she was often being taken cared off by Saya and the rest of the party and they did not left her alone making her feel more comfortable considering that they are strangers to Alice who was just 7-years-old in the story.

For me it seemed like the author made the characters adapt so fast in the situation since they are young adults and an adult who seemed like an airhead with huge boobs. I just wondered with Alice who was fast to somehow recover and get enough strength after she witnessed her father getting stabbed by the folks who were in a house whom they thought would let them in to take shelter from the horde of zombies but instead left them for dead even the poor Alice. The good thing that happened to her other than having a caring father is that Takashi was brave enough to go and rescue her from the attacking zombies considering their number and he had to walk over the cement wall fence to cross back to where his friends are. Lucky enough they survived, yeah because he is one of the protagonists of the story.

I don’t usually watch zombie genre media unless I am in the mood to watch it. Heck I have seen Land of the Living Dead years ago and I don’t remember how old I was when I saw it or do I even remember if they censored some scenes back then in our local TV stations since there are a lot of gore in that classic film. Anime zombie series I have seen other zombie anime series and I will put a list later. I did got hook on HOTD not only because of the idea of high school students fighting off zombies in order to survive but well who am I kidding I also watched the series for the fanservice specially that OVA where they thought they got stuck in an island where they got drugged by some herb that they ate in order to kill off the hunger thinking that they have drifted off in the middle of the ocean.

Regarding the flow of the story in the series for a 12-episode series it was not bad although it made viewers wanting more and that was the bad thing. Not many fans or followers of the series nor the author outside Japan accepted the fact that the series may not have another season after it went on hiatus at first due to the health of the author and after the untimely death. In respect to the author of HOTD and other series that he has made, as far as I understood the article on Reddit, they will no longer touch HOTD or have someone take over the series. Same goes with his other works, they will stop as to where his manuscripts have finished and no more.

Before I forget, since the series is flooded with fanservice and a lot of adult related themes I do not recommend this series to minors unless supervised. The series also has some sort of love triangle or rather uncontrolled desires that the heroes are being drawn in to due to the situation they are in. Takashi and Rei who has been having their own issues in their current relationship and later Saeko enters the mix having herself being drawn into her own issues with men and seeing Takashi being someone that she can trust, the series has implied that something happened between them in one of the scenes where they got separated from the group and in order for Takashi to get Saeko back in to the game he seemed to have gave in to what she has been wanting to do.

There are a lot of heavy implications in the series and considering that they are thinking of the big “What if” in their heads like “what if their end suddenly comes I have to do something that I have not done before” or “I should grab this opportunity to do something before I regret it later on not doing it”. Something like that, and since the series is in the gray on not having a continuation all fans are using their imaginations or looking for doujins and fanfictions as to how the series will end.

Even though I still want the series to have another season all I can do as a fan of the series is to respect the decisions of whoever was left in charge of the works of Daisuke Sato. But still who knows maybe someone might adapt the story and give it a new life sometime in the future. There are other zombie genre anime out there and just like HOTD which I recommend to viewers regardless that season 2 is close to not going to happen anymore.

Sankarea – a boy whose girlfriend became a zombie and he is looking for a way to turn her back into a human.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka - a guy who became a zombie with the help of a loli Shinigami or Death God and he can also become a magical girl well a guy in skirts.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – two half-zombies who are still human enough to protect the people who does not trust them and are trapped inside a train fortress looking for a new safe place for them live since the world is being over-run by zombies that has skins as strong as steel.

Hellsing – Alucard the strongest vampire in the world fighting to protect his master Integra Hellsing with the help of his busty apprentice Seras Victoria they take out ghouls and those who oppose their master.

Sunday Without God – a loli who lost her family and found out that she is one of those chosen people who can bury the dead before they become zombies.

School-Live – this is one hell of a series where another group of high school girls and just like HOTD are one of the survivors on Earth in the middle of a zombie holocaust. The sad part of this series is that the main character is living in a fantasy that everyone in their school are alive and well and they are living in the school as part of a school program and only her friends knows what is actually happening around them.

Gungrave – just like Hellsing the main character in the series is out to take wipe out zombie-like creatures.

Tokyo Ghoul – a young man who got turned into a ghoul as a result of some experiment done to his body after he was heavily injured and close to death when he was attacked by a ghoul who was also the girl whom he likes. Good thing Alucard of Hellsing does not exist in their world since the ghouls in this series are either good or bad but they still tend to eat human flesh.

Zombie Loan – two guys who are zombies who also hunts down other zombies. The reason for them hunting zombies is part of their agreement to Zombie Loan who brought them back to life as a form of payment.

Corpse Princess – a young girl who was brought back to life by some cult. Even though she was brought back to life against her will, she took this opportunity to take revenge on those who murdered her and her family.

Check links below for other details on the series regarding if it will continue or not

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/a4ktrc/high_school_of_the_dead_is_officially_cancelled/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisuke_Sat%C5%8D

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highschool_of_the_Dead

 pictures from the internet

 

HELLO WORLD

HELLO WORLD film

An anime movie that came out in Japan in Sept 20, 2019 plus a spin-off 3-episode anime which also came out in Sept 13, 2019 titled Another World. The movie was directed by Tomohiko Ito.

The story takes place in year 2027 and revolved around Katagaki Naomi and Ichigyou Ruri both first years and classmates who were both assigned to be part of the Library Committee of their school.

 KATAGAKI NAOMI

ICHIGYOU RURI

Katagaki Naomi is a rather timid looking and undecisive young man who loves to read books in most of his time. Him becoming a member of the Library Committee was a majority vote among his classmates since he was very silent and seemed he will not object to the vote.

Ichigyou Ruri is a rather opposite of Naomi who would voice out her objections as well as her being straight forward with her decisions. Although it was not shown in the movie if she volunteered to become part of the Library Committee, but I guess it is safe to assume that she volunteered herself for the position. She also has a tenacious personality making most students keep their distance from her.

The movie is tagged as sci-fi, slice of life, romance and action. The movie involved time travel, well technically it is still time travel, another character in the movie is the Katagaki Naomi who is from 10 years in the future supposedly. Future Naomi came back 10 years in his past in order to correct or rather to prevent an incident that rendered his beloved Ruri comatose for 10 years.

FUTURE KATAGAKI NAOMI

The movie is like another anime movie “The Girl who Leapt Through Time” which came out last 2006 that has a rather similar flow of events. Just like any other or most time travel sci-fi films there are those characters who wants to tamper with the flow of time changing history and most of them involves the main character changing their instead of preventing it from changing, but for some reason the intervention seemed to be part of history as well, according to their scripts.

The form of future Naomi being somewhat digital or a hologram reminds me of one American sci-fi TV series called Quantum Leap where the main character was accidentally sent back in time and he is being guided by his friend who appears before him as a hologram that only he can see but cannot touch at the same time. Which is the same with young Naomi he is the only one who can see the adult Naomi but they cannot touch each other. Quantum Leap series by the way was aired way back in 1989 which will be for another review.

QUANTUM LEAP ZIGGY

Future Naomi also reminded me of both Black and White Woz from Kamen Rider Zi-O who plays the role as the guide of the main character. But Woz is not a hologram like future Naomi but rather a physical body that travelled through time since he is somewhat an observer and one who makes sure that the flow of time is not tampered with, technically. Kamen Rider reviews coming soon as well as Sentai and other Tokusatsu series.

WHITE WOZ and BLACK WOZ

The movie is also like the Matrix film and those anime series that involves main characters playing virtual reality games and being stuck in the game or the virtual world. I got this vibe after the future Naomi mentioned that the world of the young Naomi is just a recorded data inside a huge computer that has recorded history for future references. This movie also reminded me of SSSS Gridman since the main characters living inside the virtual world as well.

 THE MATRIX

SSSS GRIDMAN

The flow of the story transition in the movie from start to finish was also quite good since it showed the character development of the characters namely Future Naomi, young Naomi and Ruri. There are some boring parts for me but in general the movie was interesting enough to watch from start to finish as well as several plot twist in the movie which will leave viewers asking themselves “How did that happen?”, “When did that happen?” and “What the heck is that?” as well as other questions. That was somewhat amazing, great movie but still there are questions left about to the viewers to figure out if they want to.

Another thing to take note of and this will be a spoiler, if you guys have read the Golden Boy manga you will see similarities as well specially the ending although this movie kept an almost friendly parental rating since the movie was clean enough with no crazy fan service.

GOLDEN BOY MANGA

Before I end this review blog. The side story Another World takes place on the world of the Future Naomi and shows his perspective of the story but don’t expect his diary is accurate.

If someone asks me for a good anime movie, “Hello World” will be one of the titles that I will give for them to watch and enjoy with some snacks as if they are in a movie house.

I don’t give ratings but in case anyone will ask 1 being to lowest and 10 the highest I will give it an 8 as my personal rating.

DARWIN'S GAME and AIR GEAR

DARWIN'S GAME (2020) and AIR GEAR (2011)

couldn't help but notice a bit of similarities

Both series is about a secret tournament held and in certain locations and only those connected to the founders or those who were invited can enter the tournament. Both have watchers or overseers that reports the result of the match between individuals or clans. Clans from both series have their own territories and leaves their marks in order for their opponents to know who rules certain territories. Winners depending on the agreement and the wager can win everything from the loosing team including the looser's territory.

For the characters:

Kaname Sudou the main male character from Darwin's Game

and

Itsuki "Ikki" Minami the main male character from Air Gear

both almost similar not because of their personalities but their character development although Kaname was a bit late in the game before he completely got used in the game. Ikki on the other hand was more aggressive.

they are similar because they were both guided by a veteran player and the main female character of the series. Shuka for Darwin's Game and Ringo for Air Gear. Both also carries an alias Queen of Thorns and both fashions twin tails except Ringo is a lot more bustier than Shuka.

both girls were key characters for the development of the main male characters of the series.

Both characters also chose the bird crow or raven a black bird.

Sunset Ravens chosen by Kaname

Kogarasu Maru or translated into English as Little Crows chosen by Ikki

Too bad Darwin's Game only had 11 episodes, they could have pushed for more but I guess they might be planning on making a second season for the series.

Might as well wait and see if there will be a second season for the Darwin's Game which was quite hinted in the last episode of the series. With that Air Gear is another that also made me feel that it needed a second season and not an OVA, but it is still something to wait and see since a long interval for a sequel or a new season for an anime series is quite common in anime.