My Two Cents: Love in My Barnes and Noble? WROOONG!!

I don’t get it. Here I am listening to the new podcast of LEOG and the discussion was talking about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World leading into the members talking about how to find love and their worse break-ups. Once the gang got into talking about the places to meet people who have common interests who could end up being some people’s other halves, I called bullshit on everything they said. Why? To bring up a piece of my past, I met two girls at a Barnes and Noble with one who titled me the ‘Mama’s Boy’ through Myspace when I began talking with her and her best friend who, back then, had a boyfriend. While the best friend was okay with me excusing them to talk about Tigercon, my school’s one-day anime convention, and told them what made me the person I am today, I still remember the other girl blowing me off. In fact, if I didn’t think back to that incident, I could think of many times where I saw some attractive women who never paid any attention to me. I can go so far back to my high school days or the beginning of my attendance at Towson where even when I talked with some girls, I wasn’t going anywhere with them. Returning to the present, I told myself plenty of times that if I was driving or was gifted enough to play an instrument that I would have gone from being a watcher of Internet porn to being one who lost his V-card with someone who hopefully would stick with me for the long haul. I believe that I’m not going to find anyone and it’s simple as that. I know about the changes I have to make but I feel that, even with some misfires with past relationships, I should had already found someone and I don’t. I know that this is me complaining about me not being able to find love, but I don’t know what else to say about the matter. I know that I can be better than this but if you feel that everything said in the link around the 119:34 mark is filled with false information, post your thoughts below.

All rights of this podcast go to Spill.com:

http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/league-of-extremely-ordinary-338

6 Seasons in One World? Well, There's Always Fanfiction

Who would had thought that 4Chan was the place where fans of the famed anime series Digimon could come up with theories about how all six seasons could fit in one world? There may be others that could answer the question about whether or not there's continuity through all six seasons of the series but it made me think back to when 4Chan was all about spamming threads and starting Internet memes. The people on the site still make sure that it holds up to that standard but the possibilities of all of the Chosen Children, Tamers, Digidestined or whoever you want to call out heroes and heroines of the show meeting up or assisting each other against a common enemy are in the hands of fan fiction writers. Toei Animation could wow us with having all of the leaders fight the good fight instead of having the first five being shown on an album cover to label a collection of theme songs that branched through the years of 1999-2009. 

Some of the information written here may/may not hold true to Digi-fans but who knows? I saw everything going the route ofPower Rangers with the continuation stopped once Power Rangers in Space ended though there were portions in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy that tried to put both of them together. By the time Power Rangers DinoThunder came around, we were to believe that everything from Mighty Morphin to that particular series to be one ongoing storyline. With Digimon, continuation died after Adventure Zero Two. Every generation was either a fictional season of the Digimon series in Digimon Tamers. It would make sense since but we never knew if Takato and his friends played the Wonderswan games that talked about Ryo and his connection with being a part of Ken’s (Adventure 02) past. With Ryo being a part of the team, it blew Kazu’s mind seeing one of the greatest players of the Digimon card game working alongside him. Had everyone put two and two together, imagine Tamers having an alternate universe plotline where the gang would actually go back to the past before Tai and the others from Adventure 01 came around to save the world. Come on, there should had been an extra season that talked about the very first group of children destined to save both the Digital and Real World. Since the previously mentioned Wonderswan games were never translated into English or heard by anyone except the hardcore fans, someone should had asked Toei to create that season to have everything make sense. Whatever, here are the so-called theories:  

 1) After the Highton View Terrace incident, Gennai and the Sovereigns send out a beacon to summon Takuya and the gang creating Frontier. Unfortunately, they failed at saving the Digiworld, so Gennai and the others decided to pick Tai and the gang and give them partners and Adventure and 02 happen in 4 years. The ending of 02, however, wasn't real, and one of the kids (possibly T.K. because of his children books about his past with Digimon) decided to make an anime, videogame, and card franchise of their adventures, while Kari changes her name and becomes a teacher, and either Gabumon or Patamon get killed or something and an enraged Matt or TK changes their names to Yamaki and forms Hypnos, and Tamers occurs. After the D-Reaper incident, Spencer Damon and some former Hypnos members go to the Digiworld. When they get back, one of them decides to form DATS and Savers happens. After all of that, Xros Wars begins.

2)   02 prevented any kind of sequel because of its crappy ending. Your best bet is to retcon Frontier to a prequel of Adventure (through the original chosen bit), then put that all as a fictional universe relative to Tamers (which puts some unfortunate implications of "fictional character" Ryo becoming "real") then put Savers and Xros Wars in Tamer's universe.

With theory 1, while I mentioned that T.K. was the one who wanted to write and publish children’s books about his adventures in the Digital World, the only people I can think of who would develop a Digimon animated series to exist for his child and the rest of the children of the Adventure 01 and 02 kids would be the production team who worked with his and Yamato’s father. It would make sense since they lived through the onslaught of Myotismon and his Digimon army trying to find the Eighth Child. It would also had been funny if, in the season finale of Tamers, the camera zooms out and we find out that it was all a television series within a television series. It’s almost like Inception: another mindfuck waiting to happen.

Theory two? See my explanation about Theory one. Then again, theory two didn’t mention anything about Adventure 01 and 02 except to suggest people to ignore that the ‘who married who’ ending that made the fans rage for years on out even today. Anyone else have any possible theories about how all of the series in Digimon could had been all in one world?

My Two Cents: No Drop-in Co-Op or Online Gameplay for 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World?

I could care less about online co-op. To me, most game reviewers have seen the absence of it to be an Achilles' heel for the game's final rating. For example, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World for the PS3 and XBox 360 has a single player mode yet you have to play as all four characters: Scott, Ramona, Stephen and Kim.

Since the game isn't available for the handhelds which I consider THAT to be more of a unforgivable crime from Ubisoft, if I were playing the game, I would be fine going through all seven levels alone. That's how I've been playing all of my games up until today unless you count Pokemon Soul Silver for trades with friends. I don't know if anyone feels the same way I do but check out IGN.com's review of the game.

http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/22138/scott-pilgrim/videos/spillgrim_vdr_080910.html

While the game might be repetitive with you having to defeat the same enemies over and over until you have to face against Ramona's Evil Exes, it still looks to be a lot of fun.

Thoughts on the Weekend Box Office August 13-15, 2010

Let's get this out of the way: The Expendables didn't have every major action celebrity ever. Has anyone read about why Van Damme declined to be in the movie? How about people talking about some of the other action stars that weren't in here like Steven Segal, Wesley Snipes, or Chuck Norris? Plus, for a film that said that it was going be the only time we would going to see Stallone and his men on the big screen again, once the news came out about him writing a sequel, I knew that the film's advertising was nothing but a lie.

As for Scott Pilgrim, don't think of the failure having anything to do with people getting tired of Michael Cera or the fact that people have a snooze fest in a film that's full of fight after fight after fight with jokes and conversations between the main and supporting cast. It's because, unlike Captain America or Iron Man, the graphic novel series never had a big name. It might had received some good comments from Joss Whedon and Ain't It Cool News and awards praising on how great the combo was with video games and anime mixed with a teenage rom-com, but when a film that was made for geeks by geeks, it'll gain a cult following but some critics will tear it to shreds even though they were very harsh of Expendables and Eat, Pray, Love. Personally, I could care less about the latter AND the other films coming out this week. Vampires Suck? My one word review: Horrible. Piranhas 3D? Not interested. Those last two one word movie reviews can also be related to the film Lottery Ticket.

This movie season's over for me and I'll try to satisfy my cravings for a good time in theaters with seeing Scott Pilgrim again. The odds of it being thrown out of theaters within a week or two are a bit higher since it was unable to make as much as Kick-Ass, another indie comic book film that most critics hated, we loved, and made back its budget yet came off as a disappointment if we add the advertising costs. With that said, for everyone checking out any of the new films this week, have a great time but I'm moving on into the possible mediocre Fall Movie Season.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Movie Review

"Next time, we won't date the girl with the 11 evil ex-boyfriends." - Stacey Pilgrim

"Seven." - Scott Pilgrim

"Oh that's not so bad." - Stacey Pilgrim

From being a title of a Plumtree song to being the star of his own film, Scott Pilgrim has gone far since the beginning of his graphic novel origins back in 2004 with Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. What I loved about the books is that it was something I never expected. Along with Megatokyo, it was a twist on the story of finding your true love and realizing that everything you've done whether it be dating other people to see who can be the other half or dreaming about that perfect person and finding out that she/he has a lot of baggage coming into a growing relationship, you've never had a fun time than this.

             Even if your head's hurting from being smashed against brick walls, thrown against a castle, or sent through the sky by a superpowered Vegan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was great. Sure it'll be another Kick-Ass judging by its small audience and six showtimes in my theater compared to the 12-13 showtimes of The Expendables and Eat, Pray, Love, but the film, when announced, made fans of the books worried about the casting of Michael Cera as our lovable jerk should worry no more. He knew how to play the character from the behavior to the fighting, even with stunt doubles, he was someone who grew from his repetitive character from Superbad and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Edgar Wright knew how to use him as being a parody of himself in being a film that didn’t play out like an average teen flick. The rest of the cast was solid from Allison Pill donning the red wig to play the drummer of Scott's band and former flame with back story separate from the film to Ellen Wong who delighted me as a beautiful girl who will do about anything to gain the love that was thought to have been stolen by Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers. I’ll even give props to Anna Kendrick who has shown that she can do no wrong in any of the films she has been this summer, this being having the most fun. This won’t be the straight-through adaptation people wished it could be but I loved every single minute of it with more love towards the boss battles with some jokes sprinkled throughout.

It's hard to choose the best battles but I loved the insert song with Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel with his Demon Hipster Chicks and Mae Whitman putting on a Southern accent and whipping out her elastic metal belt as Roxy Richter. Even the final battle, a mix of Ramona and Knives battle in the library in Volume 2 and that of Volume 6 was fast and quick with Scott redeeming himself in front of his friends and Knives. I have to say near the end, I thought that the way Scott and Knives took out Gideon was so beautifully choreographed after the training from Ninja Ninja Revolution, I wouldn't had minded them trying again to be a great couple without Scott having to be forced to break things off with her. Even if it would make fans upset that he didn't end up with Ramona, again applauding Winstead for training for the stunts to pull off that great girl fight with her and Roxy again, Scott and Knives would had worked. It might also because Ellen Wong was cute portraying everyone's favorite Chinese high school stalker girl.

          My gripes, more in my mind than what’s written here, with the film is that it's a shame that the drummer of The Clash at Demonhead, as mentioned before had nothing to do but be in the background even with the conversation between Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), Envy Adams (Brie Larson) with Ramona, Scott, and Knives interrupting inbetween exchange of words. Another gripe is that Envy and Scott didn't get closure like they did at the end of Volume 6. Once the fight with Todd was over, Scott and Ramona walked away without Envy realizing that she still had a great friend in her former flame. Also, what's with Scott being stabbed by Gideon and not bleed? I know about his 1-Up and the film having all of the villains transform into coins but to some people, it would come off as a 'No, that wouldn't happen in real life' scene. I can see where it was going since most animated shows would have a main/central character die without having blood anywhere to show that he/she was heading to the grave. Everything else missing from the books, hopefully, will make it to the 'Deleted Scenes' section on the inevitable DVD/Blu-Ray release. Would I see it again? Yeah I would. It may not be as many times as I saw Kick-Ass, but it's a film that should be seen on the big screen. If the film doesn't fit your tastes, it's alright and I understand. The summer movie season's about to end and this was one film that definitely put a cap to it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World receive 4.5 stars out of 5.

         Also, I think Chris Evans deserve to have a movie spin-off as Lucas Lee. I don't know if Universal would be keen to the idea but I wouldn't mind. It would probably be better and funnier than Get Him to the Greek.

Where's the Otakon 2010 Love?

Well, so far, my pictures from Otakon are still on my Facebook. Just hope that I don't end up disappearing off the site again. I never understood why I was removed there the last two times. With no explanation, it almost made me think to myself, 'Oy, Facebook doesn't want me to talk with my friends or tell them about the glorious finds of the Internet when I'm surfing through the Web day after day. Does anyone still use 'Web' to indicate the Internet? Anyway, if you get the chance, friend me and you'll be able to see what I captured last weekend although wished that I could had gotten more video from the Masquerade.

First Post of the Day. Still New to Blogging

Well this is the first time I've done something like this so hopefully everything will be alright. Hey there to anyone who's new to the site. This is DevRenard inviting you to join me as I jump into bringing you news and information related to anything in these categories: anime, film, and video games. The last choice: not too much. The others: They'll be a lot as the year goes by. I would like to say thank you for everyone who participated in this year's Otakon and with making my photo count number go above and beyond that from last year. Then again, that was mostly me acting so excited every time I saw a character I knew wanting to get a picture. Starting today, I'll post up my feelings as well as the cosplayers who worked so hard to make this year's celebration of Japanese culture a big success. We'll pretend that we didn't have the "evacuation" yesterday.