CELLS AT WORK

Cells at Work written by Akane Shimizu

Released as a manga March 2015 and still ongoing. Just recently this manga aired its anime adaptation.

The story is about how cells in the human body works and function, much like that PIXAR film Inside Out where the story shows how ones personality and memories develop as a person grows old. While this series follows the flow of blood and each of their functions.

The story follows the Red Blood Cell

Running along delivering nutrients to specific areas of the body. Looks tomboyish right? Recently saw some forums saying that the lead RBC character is a guy who looks like a girl but that is to be seen since some wikis end up having wrong information being posted and later are corrected by the admins.

Our main character later meets White Blood Cell and Platelet (yeah Platelet is the little girl riding the shoulder of the White Blood Cell)

This series also does not only follow the cells but also bacteria as well

Makes you want to ask if they are related to someone from another legendary anime

Yeah the character design for the bacteria seemed to have been based from this guy. Made a quick research on that and well I ended up empty handed so I will update this on a later date.

One thing caught my attention are the character designs to each personification of the cells and bacteria. At first it seemed like a lazy design since each cell group has one basic character design

ADORABLE LITTLE PLATELETS!!!

But they were able to make some changes for each characters to distinguish one from the other... somehow

To date there are two episodes that has been aired and so far it has been entertaining and will make you want to see the next episode right away.

For now this will by my take on a review for Cells at Work anime series and I might read the Manga later on

Pictures from the internet and other information from wiki and forum sites.

WANGAN MIDNIGHT RUN

Wangan Midnight Run, one of some car racing anime series that I have seen. This one is more like Initial D without the drifting, downhill and uphill race. This one much more like random race along the highway with drivers who wants to push their cars to its limits by upgrading parts and tuning the engine beyond the limit.

Written by Michiharu Kusunoki the manga came out around 1990 to 2008 with 42 volumes under the publisher Kodansha.

Another manga came out again by Michiharu Kusunoki 2009 to 2012 with 12 volumes under the same publisher Kodansha.

Third manga 2014 to 2015 by Michiharu Kusunoki under the publisher Shogakukan with 2 volumes.

All manga I have not read a single one up to now.

Anime series adaptation came out 2007 to 2008 directed by Tsueno Tominaga through studio A.C.G.T. with 26 episodes.

The series follows the young car freak Akio Asakura who owned a red Fairlady Z (Z31) at the start of the series. Driving along with his friend in high school posing as university students with the ladies with them in the car. Later a black Porche passed them and Akio recognized the Porche as the Blackbird. He attempted to pass the Blackbird by challenging it to a race but they were left to eat the dust.

Jumping along Akio was told about a wrecked Fairlady Z in a car junkyard by Ko-chan a fellow car freak. Akio hurried to see the Fairlady Z and ended up seeing the blue Z30 almost a total wreck but the engine intact and all the shocks were still in place. He bought the car even though he was already warned by the junkyard employee that the car was said to be turned into a total wreck before it falls into another driver. The car was believed to be cursed or something since there has been three owners before Akio that met a very not so good fate. Being the fourth owner of the car Akio still bought it and repaired the vehicle back to its original state or close to it. Another name for the Fairlady Z30 is the DEVIL Z.

The original owner of the Fairlady Z30 was also named Akio Asakura and lived in the same town as the current Akio Asakura. But the original owner ended up dead during a race with the rival Blackbird being driven by his friend Tatsumi Shima who now a sort of guardian of the younger sister of "Original Akio" Eriko Asakura.

Reina Akikawa a fashion model and TV personality who also race in the night after work and she drives the GT-R. Along the story she passed by the Fairlady Z30 one night while driving. Meeting Akio and tried to drive the Fairlady and almost ended up dead, she still tried to race the Devil Z and Akio but the gap was too much for her and her car even after all the upgrades and tuning.

The entire series is all about cars and the racers that drive each car which in turn almost similar to Initial D where racers wage with their pride as the best drivers in their territory. But here in Wangan Midnight Run it does not seem like territory is at stake but only the pride of the racer and the tuner of the car.

In this series the cars also seems to be alive and is choosing its driver which is how it was described by some of the characters. Akio being the chosen one of the Devil Z as its true driver and the other cars that at first was seemed to be the drivers were the ones being pulled to race the Devil Z but it turns out the cars were the ones telling their drivers to race the Devil Z and try to win.

Also just like the Inital D this series also had its own arcade game where gamers gets a magnetic card where they can store the racing data and tuning of their chosen vehicle. One vehicle one magnetic card.

I also got a chance to play the game and raced with a number of racing gamers, My vehicle was also the Fairlady Z but I was not as lucky in this game as I was in strategy RPG  games. In the game there are race course that requires the skills to drift and good control on the driving wheel. in most arcade machines the driving wheel control were all messed up due to some players that has no or less respect to the machines and to those who will play after them. The arcade machine also has a gear shifter that looks like an actual manual gear shifter on real cars and not just the up and down shifters that were installed on the Initial D arcade games. One thing on racing arcade machines most of it has no clutch pedal but only with acceleration pedal and break pedal I guess it is for those gamers who wants to use the Automatic shifting option rather than having one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the shifter.

The anime series has also received a lot of fan made stories having Akio driving through some road and passing by the Ghost of Akina, Takumi Fujiwara and ends up racing with one another. The Devil Z vs the The Ghost of Akina, which car is faster and which driver has the real skills to drive and race using machines that can push itself beyond the limit.

So this anime series which I got hooked on from start to finish was really interesting no blood, gore, flying limbs, fanservice, mecha, super robot. Just plain guys and gals with their cars and tools in tuning the cars and having a race in the middle of the night until the sun comes out. Yeah racers running their engines on full until the sun comes out and greet them. Not sure if there are real life racers that does the same thing in Japan or any other place here in the Philippines or other countries.

There was also a live action film that came out and I was able to watch it as well. The adaptation of the manga to anime to live action seemed to be real close (I was able to read some manga but I never got through 1/4 of the entire volume which is why I never counted reading it sorry). The transition of the story of the racer/driver Akio in the series from a car enthusiast to someone who looked like who was possessed by the Fairlady Z30 was slow but you can see his addiction to the speed that the car will give out not mention on his first actual ride for the Fairlady he almost died when he lost control of the steering and the the car crashed on the the same spot where the first owner Akio died which looked like the possessed car wanted to kill its new driver on the same place where the original owner died.

Would I recommend this series to anyone? Yes I will recommend this series to anyone even though the viewer has no interest in car themed anime they might start to get hooked not only because of the upbeat opening theme but also the story of the series from start to end is really interesting to follow and no dull moments unless you don't want to listen to some car freaks talking about how the engine works and how to customize the body kit of the car for it to have the required down force and how to get the speed up beyond the limits.

credits of the videos to the original owner

source material wikipedia

and my personal experience when I watched the series

REMI SANS FAMILLE

Remi Sans Famille and upcoming film and live action adaptation of the Remi Sans Famille novel by Hector Malot in 1878. Title translated to English as Nobody's Boy.

Personally I have not read the novel so the only comparison i can do is between the animated version and the live action. Well not really a comparison but only a quick review of the anime series that originally aired in 1977 to 1978 and a movie which I also never got to see that came out in 1980.

The Nobody's Boy Remi anime was aired and became part of my 80's cartoon series that I have watched. Not one of my favorite but this seemed to have become one of the forgotten anime series since the only series that many remembers was the Remi Nobody's Girl version that came out much later.

Three opening versions that I know (credits to the owners of the videos)

Two versions of the anime adaptation of the novel although the boy Remi is the closest to the novel since it took the same male character for Remi.

The girl Remi came out in year 1996 to 1997 so this one is on my 90's cartoons/anime list. This series was the most remembered version for most people that I had a chance to talk about the story I guess because this had more charm and it came out much later than the boy version.

Both stories are almost similar both boy and girl version had the same story lay out both were sold to a travelling old man who performs for a living. Remi was sold by the foster family in order to have money.

Remi traveled in different places and cities performing on streets as he/she got used to her/his new life as a street performer with the old man named Vitalis along with the animal performers a monkey and a dog. Cannot recall if both version had same set of animals in their troupe a monkey, french bulldog, two dogs which I have no idea what breed.

The story started off with a not so good kick off for the story a real heavy drama for an anime and for those who's tears are easy to come out yes you might cry in both versions but so far most I have talked to cried a lot in the girl version.

The story came out as a tragic one since along the travels of Remi with Vitalis and the animals one by one the companions died having only Remi, Jolicour (monkey) and Capi (dog) was left to survive on their own while performing and travelling from one place to another.

Reviewing some articles on Wiki for the two versions the stories of both versions were hardly changed since most human characters had the same names and only Remi got the gender change for the story. Both were stolen when they were babies and the mothers were looking for Remi ever since.

Both went through similar hardships as they travel their worlds striving to survive the harsh world where in order to survive one must earn the food they put in their mouths and shelter to live in.

Very true to how the actual world runs since not everything is for free and that a person needs to push each day to work in order to survive and provide for their families.

The story ended not the same but in a way both Remi's got their wish and got a family to whom they can return to and say they are home.

Which ever version of Remi for me is a great story to watch and may be once I get a copy of the novel I will read it.

As for the upcoming live action adaptation film by a French Film movie production I might get a copy of it. As for my tears to come out... not sure I haven't cried for a film for a long time now.

Recommend to watch anime yes recommended to read novel I can say yes since the anime adaptations were really good.

credits of the videos to the owners

source material wikipedia

VISIONARIES

Classic 80's cartoons, not really much about this series since I don't know if I was able to finish this one.

Originally aired in 1987 and I don't know what year this was aired here in the Philippines but one thing I somehow remember, the series was aired in two versions. One version was English dubbed and the other was Tagalog Dubbed.

Aired as an afternoon cartoon I think and the story covers what seemed to be a post apocalyptic Earth where technology has reached its peak and has destroyed civilizations. Humans has returned to the Dark Ages and the age of Knights and Swords or other primitive way of living since technology has been long forgotten.

A battle between two kingdoms was raging on in this story between the forces of Leoric leader of the Spectral Knights and Darkstorm of the Darkling Lords. Merklynn a wizard one day appeared in front of the knights and offered assistance by giving them magic. Those who can receive the magic are those who will finish the race that he has made for the knights.

The magic consist of animal totems being placed on the chest piece of the armors and those who have staves were granted additional powers that can help them.

Later on along the story some vehicles were found trashed and were found out that it can run with magic. So this also shows that Magic and Technology were being used before the destruction of civilization.

Kind of weird too to see that the one of the machines had the capability to remove totems disabling the user or even trapping the user in their animal form just like what happened to Leoric on one episode where he got trapped in his lion form and was said to be a possessed beast.

For a classic series this was one of my favorites when it comes to old school cartoons of the 80's and 90's and if given a chance to get a copy of this series I will have some kids of the right age to watch this, not really violent or even have any foul languages and no blood and gore as far as I can remember.

Recommended as an old school cartoon series for those looking

Yes

Credits to the owner of the video

REVIEW FUSHIGI YUGI

Fushigi Yugi also known as Mysterious Play and Curious Play, released in Japan in Manga, Anime, OVA and Light Novel.

This review will only cover the anime version which is the only thing I was able to watch.

The TV series aired in 1995 in Japan with 52 episodes and 9 OVA in from 1995 to 1998 and another OVA titled Fushigi Yugi Eikoken from 2001 to 2002 with 4 episodes.

Fushigi Yuugi not really in my list of favorite anime that I have seen. But the opening theme really got me and during the time this was aired I have very few options to watch since this was aired right before the evening news.

The series starts off with two high school girls Miaka and Yui, going to a library checking out some books (cannot really recall if they were going to study or do their assignments) they find a book and starts reading it. Later a flash of light suddenly burst out of the book and later only Yui is left inside the library near the book and Miaka was nowhere to be found. out of curiosity Yui started reading the book and sees that Miaka was inside the book. Panicking she later reads on following Miaka's sudden adventure inside the book.

Miaka realizing that she is no longer inside the library and noticing that the people around her are all wearing outfits of ancient China and later meeting the first person that will change her life forever. Meeting Tamahome she begins her life inside the book figuring out how to return to her own world. Later meeting the fourth emperor Hotohori, she realized she was inside the book that she was reading along with Yui and she was later said to be a destined priestess of the god Suzaku and she needs to find her guardians who bears a mark of a chosen warrior of Suzaku.

The warriors included Tamahome, Hotohori, Chichiri (wandering priest), Nuriko (crossdressing guy in the group), Tasuki (a former bandit), Mitsukake (group healer), Chiriko (the youngest member of the group)

Yui later along the story ends up inside the book as well but her fate was not as good as Miaka who was found by a gentle person, Yui was found by a bunch of hooligans who cornered her and thought of Miaka would try and help her but to no avail. She was found by Nakago the warrior of Seryu and was the one who told Yui that she is the destined priestess of the god Seryu. The same as Miaka she is to locate her own warriors but compared to Miaka, Yui's warriors were close by and seemed to be ready for her arrival

Seryu warriors, Nakago, Amiboshi and his twin Suboshi, Soi, Ashitare, Miboshi. Having her own set of warriors complete right away and all ready for combat they prepare to fight the warriors of Suzaku.

The Priestesses to be chosen gets to have one their wish granted by the god that they represent, but there was a condition the priestess is to remain a virgin until the ceremony which I got confused of. Yui was thought of to have been defiled when she was found by Nakago and Miaka was tricked to make her think that Nakago got his way with Miaka making her loose her virginity.

In the end of the series where almost all warriors of both sides were almost killed in the battle Miaka was the one who got her wish granted. So I guess she realized she is still a virgin.

The series later got some OVA telling the story of the characters after their adventure inside the book. Everyone were still alive and Tamahome was reincarnated in the real world as Taka. Both Miaka and Taka meet and remembers everything from the time they met inside the book and started going out and later marries.

So yeah spoilers for those who has not seen the series.

There are other anime series that has similar theme as Fushigi Yugi one of them is another series that I managed to finished which is Ayashi no Ceres which I will make a review on.

The fight scenes well I know there were a lot of cuts but I have no urge to re-watch the entire series anytime soon just to see what were removed from the Tagalog dubbed version here in the Philippines.

Since I have not seen the original Japanese dubbed version I am sure that were a lot of scenes that were removed from the local telecast of the series here in the Philippines along with some foul languages in order to censor it out. The series was good to watch although the target audience seems to be the female ones since it was basically a reverse harem genre but during that time i cared less about those since I was still clueless about those stuff.

Would I recommend Fushigi Yugi as a classic anime for those looking for old school anime, the answer is yes even though it is not on my favorite list. So all those who have not seen the series you can give this a shot all depends on you.

video credit to the owner

DAWN OF JUSTICE

BATMAN V SUPERMAN : DAWN OF JUSTICE

A recent movie that came out 2016 and I just recently got to watch it on HBO which was followed by the Wonder Woman movie which I still need to see in full.

So this review and reaction is only for the Dawn of Justice

Boy are they looking real old and stubby. Wonder Woman did not appear in this animated version of Batman vs Superman but a new Robin did appeared out of nowhere a young girl for this movie.

There are any other versions of the Batman vs Superman stories out there but these two are my well favorites for now.

At the start of the film i was all WOW i finally got to watch that talked about movie at the office and in the internet. I was going "thank you HBO".

While watching they started out at the scene which I think was the battle of Superman against the invading General Zod destroying Metropolis and we see Bruce Wayne (took me a while to figure out that it was Bruce Wayne riding in a car making his way which I think was the Daily Planet and he was talking to someone on the phone, audio was bad while watching not sure why)

So in that scene it looked like Superman was going berserk blasting that heat vision which I don't know if this was that scene from the Superman vs Zod I think this was the part where they were throwing each other from building to building wrecking everything in the area. Made me really wonder why is it that when the good guys get involve in the battle there are more destruction than when it was only the bad guy wrecking the city.

Other than the part where heroes get to wreck more stuff than the villains, this Dawn of Justice seems to have happened in an alternate timeline. The reason for me to have this opinion is that The Flash appeared out of nowhere in the Bat-cave trying to reach Bruce telling him to find "them"which I thought was the members of the Justice League. I still have no idea as to how this movie will go except for some rumors I have been hearing about both from the internet and from some friends and co-workers.

The scene where the Flash was trying to reach Batman seemed like Flash is stuck and trying to get out of some vacuum but was not successful and was only able to tell Bruce to "Find Them" and then vanished. Are we going to get a Flashpoint movie as well? 

This is also the only Batman version where I saw him use a gun except that Flashpoint Batman which was his father who has been using firearms along with his gadgets to fight (If we are going to have Flashpoint movie we might also get to see Bruce's father as Batman and his mother as Joker not bad although we might see a skinny Superman as well).

Superman in this version also looks like he is about to take over the entire planet since he is being praised like a god by majority of the people who has seen him.

Wonder Woman well I did not notice much except she seemed to be more of a war hungry amazon just like in Flashpoint as well.

Flash well is Flash and it really looked like he really did something in the timeline.

Aquaman looked like a scared fish in that video.

Cyborg he looked like a toy kit that is slowly being assembled but with missing parts and that cube assembled him. The cube I assumed is a Motherbox Unit used by the New Gods which seems to be a sign that we might see Darkseid in the future.

Lex Luthor is also different here, he looked like a guy with many screws loose in head and his brain is about fall out of his head. What happened to his character here.

The fight scenes in the movie is well entertaining having to see how Batman made Superman bleed, how Batman prepared for his fight with the Last Son of Krypton and later how their fight ended by just mentioning "Martha" which in turn is the name of both their mothers. This triggered a lot of memes where fighting were stopped by mentioning Martha and ending up they have mothers of the same name.

Doomsday, I think that was Doomsday created from the carcass of General Zod altering his genetics with the help of Lex Luthor mixing his blood with General Zod.

Wonder Woman appearing to help the two muscle brains in the fight against Doomsday ( I am calling him Doomsday )

Personal reaction to this film I was legit surprised on their character representation I was not used to seeing Batman using guns even though I have seen a Batman version in the Flashpoint animated movie using guns to fight, but in a live action film it was a first for me.

The actors:

Ben Affleck - Batman / Bruce Wayne
Henry Cavill - Superman / Clark Kent
Gal Gadot - Wonder Woman / Diana Prince

The main cast of superheroes in the film

Ezra Miller - Flash / Barry Allen

Jason Momoa - Aquaman / Arthur Curry
Rey Fisher - Cyborg / Victor Stone

The superheroes to join them in the next film Justice League, which I have yet to see.

All in all the film was great to watch although not without the parts that got me saying "what the heck"

I will watch this again and the Justice League film and I will recommend this film and I stop myself from spoiling the fun ( I did try my best to not say too much about this film right? )

Robin Atkin Downes - Doomsday the guy who... well those who read the comics and who knows the Superman story this guy is the drinking buddy of Bane who got bragging rights after well you know with Batman.

Well time to look for Justice League

pics used in the review are from the internet and credits to the real owners.

SUPER BOOK and FLYING HOUSE

SUPER BOOK OPENING

FLYING HOUSE

Both series aired in 1982 with several seasons and a number of episodes.

Two of the morning weekend cartoons I watched during my elementary school days. All stories are Bible related for both series.

Super Book where two kids a toy robot magically enters a book which is assumed as the Bible. As they enter the book the toy robot gains a life and moves on his own although he runs out of energy and the kids need to turn a giant wind key on its back to make him move again so yeah a kid sized wind up toy walking around ancient times in a random timeline and place that the book send them.

Flying House is well a flying house which three kids found in the woods when they were caught in a strong rain and enters the house for shelter purpose only. But for some reason the kids were startled when the robot guarding the house saw them and started running around and hits a control console and made the house fly and began to travel through time back to the time of creation and other Biblical events. As the Professor the owner of the house and the kids with the robot try to find a way to return to their own timeline, they travel through the timeline and meet with many Biblical characters along the way.

The Super Book series later on had a similar incident where a new character young boy and the same robot accidentally got stuck inside the book and had to travel in random chapters until they get back home in their own world.

So basically this is an old school series which also later got a new version of a series I think for both which i never got to watch.  A cartoon series which covers the story within the Bible and kids meeting with famous biblical characters may they be the ones who we say are the protagonists of their own stories and the antagonists of their own stories as well.

For a classic cartoons the art itself is really well made and if they were remastered the kids today may not even notice that these two series were aired in 1982 and still enjoyable to watch (yes I enjoyed watching both considering my current genres that I am watching these days)

Not much really to tell about both series except that once I have a child of my own I would start them off watching these kinds of cartoons before exposing them to some other series slowly.

So yeah both series look them up very highly recommended for viewing even for adults.

video credits to owners