Journey to the Stars

Even though I haven't finished playing Dragon Quest II and V yet, I tried to play some of Dragon Quest VI. A bit of it was because I'm both grinding for V and II but another reason was because of curiosity. Dragon Quest VI is often seen as the black sheep of the series, despite having of vocation system which in theory seems like an logical progression for the series. After playing it for sometime(I've got Milly/Muriel in my team), I got some good and some negative things to say about the game thus far. Off course since I'm not finished with this game my opinions can change. I can't really talk about vocations either since I'm not in that part in the game yet.

( First impressions behind the cut )

I finished a new drawing with PrismaColor markers. It turned out pretty well but the fumes from the markers made me feel really sedated.

I'm thinking of making fan made figurines by taking a base of a pre-existing figurine and editing it into a new character. I have several ideas in mind but I think I should start simple. What I have in mind is taking a Astro Boy Moderno and editing it into a Jetter Mars Moderno. I'm trying to find out what material would be good for this project but I haven't found anything yet...

Me and my sister watched this obscure Japanese only Transformers anime, Transformers Go!, last night. Transformers Go! was made rather recently(in 2013) and was released direct to DVD. It was made to market a toyline in Japan and the series takes place after the Beast Hunter's "subline imprint" of the second part of the Transformers Prime series. We were able to watch the series in one siting because it was very short.

Despite this, you really don't need to see the Transformers Prime to understand the series. Optimus Prime (he's actually called Optimus Prime instead of Convoy) is the only character in the series that appears in previous incarnations and the story itself is pretty self contained. The show's premise is about how the Predacons want to find the Legendary Disks so they can rule the world. These Legendary Disks are located in Japan, hidden in different time periods. So it's up to two boys, Isumi and Tobio to lead a team of three autobots (Isumi leads to Samurai team while Tobio leads the Shinnobi team) to find these disks before the Predacons. The disks that the boys find are usually owned by important historical figures in Japanese history and they usually they give them the disks when the boys prove that they are worthy to own it.

The series is actually similar to the mainline Pokemon games, as it's divided into 2 sub-series, Transformers Go! Samurai and Transfromers Go! Shinobi. Like the titles of this sub-series subject, the big difference between the two versions is that the plot of each series centers around either one of the two teams. The historical figures that they meet differ too, Isumi meets influential samurai and swordsmen (such as Miyamoto Musashi and Tsukaha Bokuden. Tobio, on the other hand, meets ninjas that also have historical importance, like Kotaro Fuma (he also meets Sasuke Sarutobi, who's a fictional ninja that was popular during the Meiji period). These historical figures give the boys life lessons that helps the Transformers during the last battle.

Aside from that the two versions of the team, they are almost the same, which makes the series feel very repetitive. Sure, the lessons they learn differ from historical figure to historical figure, but the episodes still follow the same formula. Isumi, or Tobio, and their autobots get zapped back into the past, they meet a historical figure, they or the historical figure learn a lession, a Predacon attacks, they fight back. The Historical figure gives them a disk, then when they come back to the present, the disk disappears. Granted this formula applies more to the Samurai version just because it has more episodes than the Shinobi one (Samurai has 6 episodes while Shinobi only has four). The last episode of each is nearly identical, so it really doesn't matter if you watch the last episode of the Shinobi version or the Samurai version.

As you can guess from what I said about the series so far, the series was very much influenced by what's popular with kids in Japan. Transformers isn't nearly as popular in Japan as it is in the West. Therefore, there are notable changes made so that it will be more appealing to a Japanese audience. The series takes a lot of cues from popular tokusatsu series such as Kamen Rider. Most battles are not won individually but through the Autobots combining into one being. Similar to a lot of popular Giant Robot series, like Gundam and Macross, this series focuses on the humans more than the Robots. Unlike those series, the robots are still sentient beings but they have little personality. Their motivation mostly revolves around them protecting Isumi or Tobio. If anything, the series is focused more on Isumi and Tobio's growth.

As for Isumi and Tobio's characterization, they are both typical shounen hero archetypes, and in a lot of ways they are very similar. So similar, that they speak the exact same lines in scenes that are in both versions. Isumi is more level headed than Tobio, but they're not that much different from each other.

The portrayal of Optimus Prime is a Prime example (pun intended) of this series attempts to appeal to a Japanese audience. In Transformers Go!, Optimus Prime doesn't turn into a tuck, he transforms into a bullet train. The scene when he arrives to save Isumi and Co. is hilarious and over the top. Optimus shoots down as a meteor in space (I guess he takes his job as mascot for the Goddard NASA spinoff awards too seriously), then he turns into a Rayquaza like dragon. When he arrives on earth, he transforms into a Bullet Train, and travels on a set of rails in the sky, Galaxy Express 999 style. It has to be seen to believe.

Overall the series is everything that you expect it to be. It's riddled with shounen cliches, the story is rushed and it's pretty repetitive. However, it's faults can make watching the series pretty amusing at the same time. Also, this series does have educational value as well. In the end, it's a pretty silly series but it's kind of fun because of it.

I've felt pretty sick recently. Whenever I eat a lot, my chest feels sore. Then hours afterwards, my neck has this strange feeling like I want to vomit. It might be because I haven't eaten regularly for awhile so my body isn't used to digesting so much food any more. I don't know.

On the brighter side, Pokemon Red/Blue and Yellow are being released on the Nintendo 3DS virtual console for next year. Although I already have multiple versions of this game, I can't help but feel excited for it. I also love the fact that they've found a way to trade through the wireless connection because I lost my link cable years ago. I wonder if Mew or the Missingno glitch is still in the game. Hmmm...

This is probably Nintendo/Game Freak's attempt to get people interested in the Pokemon series again, especially since Pokemon X and Y didn't do as well as people hoped. But I think this is better than their previous attempts because unlike Pokemon Origins, this is a port of the original game, not new content trying to pull at our nostalgic heartstrings by making constant references to the old games and trying to market the new games at the same time (it feels cheap whenever they do that). Anyways I'm glad that they are finally releasing it on Virtual Console. It's strange that they waited so long to do it, although I think it's because they couldn't make the trade function work on the DS, which is an important part of the game. Hopefully they will release Pokemon Stadium on Wii U virtual console and find a way to make it compatible with the 3DS version.

I have so much to do but I'm to anxious to do anything right now. I kind of wish I can find someone to talk to...

The Rainbow Brite doll that's going to be released in August isn't going to follow the look of the 1980's doll as most fans hoped. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the design they are probably going to use is really ugly.

This is the design that Halmark showed in April:

and this is what will probably be the final product (although it says the designs aren't finalized):


At least the Starlite and Twink plushies didn't undergo a radical change for the worse.

The good news is that this new toy revival is giving more attention to Murky and Lurky than the past post-1980's gens. Mostly it's because the Rainbow Brite Facebook page is making jokes about Murky and Lurky in regard to the new toyline. The Rainbow Brite's Facebook account wrote this: http://i.imgur.com/q2OBvUH.png



Oh please let there be Murky and Lurky merchandise. Aside from the dolls that where released in 1980s', Murky and Lurky merch are hard to come by nowadays. Of course, Halmark could be making a reference to their joke about how Murky tried to prevent the Red Butler, Indigo, Romeo and Hammy itty bittys from reaching Halmark stores, but I really hope that this post is hinting at something bigger than a little Facebook joke.

So I met Peter Cullen in person yesterday. It was an amazing experience. He was probably one of the nicest human beings I've ever met. I wrote my experience of meeting Peter Cullen here: http://tetsuro-hoshino.tumblr.com/post/124528766443

Tfcon itself was great. The staff were really nice and professional. However, I'm still tried from yesterday.

Luckily, there were no complications during the surgery. I woke up when they were still doing their finishing touches so I was worried that they would have to give me more anesthesia. However, even when I was awake, I didn't feel anything and they were finished with the surgery soon after. I guess one of the reasons why I was afraid that it wouldn't work because I fell asleep so fast and I didn't have any sort of dreams. Also blood was coming out of my mouth on the way back but that was taken care off rather quickly.

So now I'm just resting. I took a nap after eating my lunch but I'm pretty awake now. I can also talk rather clearly now. I pretty much spent the day playing video games and watching TV shows(episodes of Mst3k, Jetter Mars, and Rainbow Brite). I'm going to write my fanfiction again; probably tomorrow but now I'm just relaxing.

I finished my first fan fic. It took longer than expected but it's finally done. It just needs to be edited. I'm going to miss writing it but I'm glad that I finished it before my surgery.