Don't Dragon's Usually Eat Knights? The First Episode of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight

Whelp, dear reader, the first episode of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight officially premiered on the CW this past Saturday, and I got a taped copy to watch a few times. So compared to Power Rangers and Kamen Rider Ryuki, how was it? Let's find out. (For those who haven't seen the first episode yet, head on over to http://www.henshinjustice.com for the full episode.)



The story so far centers around Kit Taylor (played by Steven Lumsford), the 18 year old son of a motorcycle racer who went missing several years ago with extremely bad luck who always seems to be in trouble. We first meet Kit in jail, where we are told that he has been in trouble for the last time, and that he would be arrested if he saw Kit again. Kit moves back into his father's home shortly after leaving his aunts, where he is assaulted with flashback memories of his father. We learn that his mother died sometime when he was young. Here he also finds the Dragon Knight advent deck, and first comes into contact with Dragedor, the monster he will later make a pact with to become Dragon Knight. With this advent deck, he begins to see things in mirrors. Things that don't make any sense. He sees a young woman being kidnapped in broad daylight by some weird giant mechanical spider that comes right out of a mirror. He soon meets another woman who is being attacked by some odd bipedal creatures who also try to kidnap her. It is here that he meets Len the first time, who carries the woman out of the mirror she was dragged into. When Kit tries to thank Len, Len begins searching Kit for the advent deck. Kit manages to get away, but in doing so, falls through the mirrored surface of a car. Here he automatically transforms and is attacked by the giant spider from earlier. Len saves him by killing the thing using his advent cards and his contract monster. However, Dragedor appears and blasts fire at them, leaving a cliffhanger for the next episode.

Overall, the episode was definantly one of the better premieres I've seen in a long while. The characters definantly feel real, and there is some emotional trauma in Kit's life, with his mother's death and his father's disappearance. There's also an overarching plot about the mysterious disappearances and one journalists journey to uncover the truth.

The transformation is unique and looks really good. The presentation of the belt is much better than Ryuki, with the belt sorta growing out of len's waist, as opposed to it sort of spinning onto him like in Ryuki. The overall effects are ok. Not the best in the world, but they didn't really have the biggest budget so did good with what they had.

I especially love the way that they incorporated the JP footage with the new US footage. Most of the show was actually US stuff, where as the last bit in Ventara was taken almost directly from Ryuki. The way they set the footage up though, it was an almost seamless transfer between the two.

So yes the actors or good out of suit, but what about inside the helmet? They sound pretty good. Instead of going the Power Rangers route and just having their regular voiceovers, they added a sort of echoey mechanical quality to the dubbing. It's different, and adds a really cool level to the voiceovers. It really seems like they are wearing a suit of high tech power armor.

But I could go on about it all day. I think the best thing that can be said about Dragon Knight can't be said about someone who's been waiting for the show for the past year and a half, but form someone who had never heard of the show until it premiered. My grandma recorded the show for me happened to watch it while it was recorded. Her exact words were "This show is great. I'm putting it on my record list."

I think that if this show is good enough for a 45 year old woman to want to see the series, then Adness has something very powerful on there hands. Here's hoping the keep it up.

So on the Nori Scale of the Awesome, where does this first episode stack? I'm gonna give it a 9/10. It was a wonderful premiere, it just didn't hit every single cylinder.

Anyway, if you don't like my review, watch the show and come up with your own conclusions. And with that I say wait for January when the show gets its full premiere before you pass judgement on it. Until that clearing comes to the path, dear reader, Henshin!

No More Twilight Reviews...For Now!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the third Twilight book to come back into the library here, but it doesn't look like its coming back for a while, so I've put all my Twilight reviews on hold for now. Hope no one has been waiting for them. Sorry for any inconveniences.

Children of the Night. What music they make. = Kenori Reviews Twilight

Velcome, dear reader, to de House of Mellik!!! Mwahahahaahahahaha! Hahaha....ha...

Yeah, so if you can't tell, I'm a bit of a vampire fan. So, when all these preteen girls squealing about this new series, Twilight, and about all the vampire-y goodness there within, I was a bit skeptical. So like everything I do when I’m skeptical, I meet it head on. I picked up Twilight from the bookstore and did some reading. How is it on the Vampy Scale of the Awesome? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.

A Vague representation of Edward Cullen

*NOTE* Just for clarification, this review is only on the FIRST book, not the other three or the new movie. Also, and I think this goes without saying but, this is a REVIEW, so expect spoilers.

Twilight can really be broken almost down the middle into two completely different stories, which I will dub “Bella’s Story,” and “Edward’s Story,/span.”

“Bella’s Story,” tells about the main character, Bella Swan, as she moves into Forks, a backwater rainy little #### of a town somewhere in Seattle of Michigan or something that, on the surface, seems extremely boring. The entire first half of the novel is the story of Bella as she settles into her new life in this town after moving from Phoenix. She moves in with her dad, gets everything set up, makes friends with some people, and that’s about it.

“Edward’s Story” on the other hand, begins when she meets, and subsequently falls in love with, Edward Cullen, a young man who…wait for it… wait for it… is a VAMPIRE! But no, he’s not an EEEEEVIL vampire (there aren’t any X’s in his name, so you know he can’t be EEEEVIL) but a GOOOOOD vampire, who doesn’t drink people blood, but animal blood. Anyway, he falls in love with Bella because of some sort of smell thing where her blood smells better than all the others or something, and they have their vampirey adventures which include not being hit by vans, running through the woods at high speed and…baseball. Yeah, I said baseball. What are you gonna do. So anyway, while Edward and his vampirey clan are playing “baseball” with Bella watching, a clan of EEEEVIL vampires shows up and one of them, the natural hunter James, catches a whiff of Bella, and decides to track her.

This causes a big uproar from all the Cullens who don’t want to see Bella chowed down on faster than a cupcake at a fat man convention, so they try to secret her away. She won’t have any of this though (being the plucky, headstrong, empowered woman that she is. Also because James has her mother) and sneaks away from the vampires to go find James. Well, she promptly gets her ass kicked and is nearly killed, until HERE COMES EDWARD TO SAVE THE DAY!!! So she spends a bunch of time in the hospital, complains to Edward about wanting to be a vampire, and that’s about it.

So what’s so good about this story? Well, it’s a romance story first and a vampire story second. You can feel every bit of emotion that runs between the two of them. It’s definitely something you don’t get in a lot of books anymore.

The vampire’s themselves, while romanticized, aren’t really like any other vampires. There are no fangs, sunlight doesn’t hurt them (It glitters off them, making them look like Boy George or something, which is why they don’t go out much in the daytime. Because honestly, how many times have you seen Boy George in the sunlight)

Really the only things that they have in common with the preconceived notions about vampires are that they drink blood and they’re immortal.

Also the process of feeding and of becoming a vampire, unlike most works of romanticized fiction, is not sensual in anyway. Quite the contrary, there is venom in the vampire’s teeth that cause excruciating pain for days before turning the person into a vampire. All of these things breathe new life into a stagnant idea about vampires, leaving us with a new and refreshing take on the franchise.

There is also this nice little nod to werewolves in a scene with Bella and a young native American boy named Jacob. This might turn into something much more later. Only time will tell.

Also many vampires have special powers, such as Edward being able to read people's minds, and one of the other Cullen kids (Alice) being able to see the future. Stephanie Meyer really does a good job of writing a seer-type character and making her not to terribly power, but still a good part of the plot.

So with all this good, what could possibly be bad about the story? Well, other than Edward and Bella, the characters are very 1 dimensional and completely forgettable, that might be how Bella sees things, but it doesn’t really make for good storytelling. The Cullens and Bella’s Father don’t suffer nearly as bad as Bella’s school friends. I sit here typing this and I honestly have no desire to even look up there names to write them down.

Also, because the novel is done in first person perspective, the story really feels like you’re in a haunted house on rails, with little things popping up. Though you get a good sense of Bella’s feelings, it would maybe have been better to switch the POV around, but honestly that’s my gripe with the fpp in general, and not with the story.

Another major point of the book is that anyone who goes into this looking for a good vampire story are going to be sorely hurting. The vampire aspects don’t appear until much later in the story and the first part is only good to read if you are a preteen girl.

So, with all this said what is my verdict. Well, I liked “Edward’s story” mainly because I like the character of Edward. The story is well written and balanced, and the tension can definitely be felt. The love between Bella and Edward feels real, and even mirrors some of my own real life experiences.

So, yes I like the story. If this makes me a preteen girl, well then let me go get my miniskirt and start texting OMG to all my BFFs. As an avid reader, the story does exactly what it should do: it draws me in and leaves me wanting more. Say what you want about Meyers living through her characters and whatnot, but the story itself it just what you would expect.

On the Vampy Scale of the Awesome, I’m going to put it somewhere between Lestat and Blackula.



So, be watching for my next review, probably the next in the series, Bad Moon. Until we reach that clearing at the end of the path dear reader, Henshin!

Batman: The Brave and the Bold = The Beginning of Campy Awesomeness

At first I wasn't going to do a post today, but I thought "What the hell, why now." I got bored the other night and happened upon this little show of Batman: The Brave and the Bold on Cartoon Network. I was a little skeptical about this show before it came out, considering this was the first promo pic we got:



Yeah, not exactly awesome potential there. So when the show started I was of course skeptical. And after it ended? I'm still skeptical. There were a few things I really liked. Jaiyme as the new Blue Beetle and the inside thinkings of Batman being one of them. Then there are some...odd things. Batman pulling of his emblem to make a batarang was odd to say the least, as was the laser sword that came from his belt. When was the last time you saw Batman use an lightsaber?!

Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. The first episode of Batman: B&B, entitled Rise of the Blue Beetle! Tells the story of Jaime Reyes (Pronounced HIGH-may. Who knew) the brand new Blue Beetle with the scarab and everything. If you don't know about the new Blue Beetle, go Wikipedia it. It's there.

Anyway, Blue Beetle and Batman get sucked into a wormhole created by Blue Beetles not-exactly-in control suit, and are taken to a planet full of squishy little glob things that are being attacked by a big baddy who wants to use them as fuel for his...errrm...ships? Beetle and Batman have to stop this guy. He beats them, the globby things find their "Inner strength" and are able to protect themselves. Blue Beetle and Batman go back through a wormhole (which BB somehow has control over now) and Batman talks about how Blue Beetle has become a true hero, yadda yadda yadda.

So again as I said before, I don't really know what to take of this show. Batman seems pretty campy, but also at the same time he seems very badass. His fighting is really good, similar somewhat to The Batman. Then there are times like when Blue Beetle is beating the crap out of the big bad that are pointless little stills. Might as well have BIFF! and POW! on them. Also the theme song is VERY much like the old Batman campiness. And there is even a scene with him climbing the side of a building.

So is it campy or is it awesome? Well, it's both. I think its best to just take it as face value. This show is definantly for the kids. I think they arent gonna get to deep with it, and thats a shame. But after the retardedness that was The Batman, I think a little camp might not be so bad.

Also, did anyone ever think that Oswald from the Drew Carey Show would ever play Batman?
























Neither did I, but that's definantly his voice. He actually does a pretty good job, giving Batman a kind of a Film Noir quality, which seems to go pretty well with this series.

So altogether what rating would I give this show. None just yet. I think its definantly going to take more than just one episode to get a full scope of the show. Stay tuned though, dear reader, after a few episodes, and We'll see from there. Until then, Henshin!

Dragon Knight vs. RPM: Round 1 FIGHT!

I gotta tell you, dear reader, that it’s been a long time since I’ve been excited for a brand new American Tokusatus, considering we haven’t had a brand new American Tokusatsu in a long time. Why am I so excited? Well, sit down, open you text books to chapter 5, and lets have a history lesson shall we?

Back around 1993, Saban created and aired a little show called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. No one in there right mind believed this show would get past its first season. Underestimation is a bitch, aint it? So anyway, Hollywood (as it is wanton to do) decided to capitalize on PR’s popularity by, you guessed it, making a bunch of duplicate shows. These ranged from the Creative and Funny (Big Bad Beetleborgs, VR Troopers) to the Abysmal (Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills).

Now one of the particular beastly shows was a little show called Masked Rider, which was basically a Power Rangers-like show using footage from Kamen Rider as opposed to Super Sentai, the particular season of Kamen Rider used being Kamen Rider Black RX, which is considered to be one of the best Heisei era Rider shows. You would think that, with that kind of footage at their disposal, Hollywood could not possibly #### it up.

Well, you’d be grossly underestimating Hollywood’s capacity for #### ups then wouldn’t you. The show was terrible, with horrible characters, cheesy dialogue, and some of the WORST transitions between scenes ever. There are many times in the show where you can CLEARLY see its not the same rider. Anyway, the show ran for 40 episodes and was quickly canceled and ignored like the bucktoothed, redneck step-child it was. And Power Rangers continued to reign on top.

Now skip ahead, oh say about 15-16 years, and Masked Rider is back to fight Power Rangers for the throne of Best American Tokusatsu (which I’ll agree isn’t a very illustrious title at the moment), in the form of Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight.

So what does Kamen Rider Dragon Knight bring to the table? How about drama? From what we’ve been told, Dragon Knight, which will be based on Kamen Rider Ryuki, will be a much more mature story than seen in most Power Rangers seasons. The story (at least what we’ve gotten from the trailer) is about a young man named Kit Taylor (played by Stephen Lunsford) who is searching for his father. While searching for said parent, he finds an Advent Deck and, with it and his Dragon partner, become KAMEN RIDER: DRAGON KNIGHT!

He is accompanied by a young man known only as Len (or technically as Kamen Rider Wing Knight, played by Matt Mullins) who is one of the last Kamen Riders of Ventara, the world behind our mirrors (Where, if the mirror is any indication to me, I’m still just as fat and ugly in that world) after the EEEEEEEVIL Xaviax (You know he’s evil cuz his name has two X’s in it) takes over that world and steals 10 of the Kamen Rider’s Advent Decks, giving them to corrupt men here on earth, with the idea to take over our world too.

Now did any of that last statement catch your attention. That’s right bitches, this aint about evil monsters, or some outer space threat, the Kamen Rider’s in this show will be fighting corrupted, flawed, or otherwise easily manipulated people, a far cry for the Space baddies or demons in Power Rangers. The visuals are also top notch. From what I’ve heard, Dragon Knight had about half the budget of Power Rangers, and they came up with some incredible effects. The characters, though we don’t know too much about them yet, look like they might be some of the most human characters we’ve seen in an American Tokusatsu since…hell since Lightspeed Rescue. To say that I’m excited about this season is to say that fish swim, birds fly, and scouts hurt people.

So can Power Rangers RPM stand up to this onslaught of awesome? Hard to tell, since the last few years’ executive producer Bruch Kalish will be stepping down. While this might seem as a bit of good news for the haters of the “Kalishplosions” of previous years, that leaves the future of PR hanging on a thread. Will the new producer be any better? We’ll he/she be worse? Again, we really won’t know until the show premieres. Fortunantly, I was able to find a small bit of information on RPM on the wonderful Henshin Justice Unlimited Forums, no doubt bartered out of Satan in exchange for the souls of 100 Fanboys:

“In the near future, the mysterious and sinister Venjix Computer Network is attempting to conquer and lay ruin to the entire planet. Mankind has retreated into environmentally-shielded domed cities to protect against the pollution and machines unleashed by Venjix. In the shining city of Corinth, an elite force of Rangers must learn to drive and operate an arsenal of radically advanced biotech vehicles in order to battle the attacking machine army bent on world domination.”

If we take this, and put it together with Engine Sentai Go-Onger, the basis for RPM, we get……………I got nothing. Seriously, if they’re trying to do a more mature series this year, they’re gonna be #### outta luck with the goofiness that is Go-Onger. Hey I’m not saying it’s not possible, I’m just saying they’re going to have to swim up a waterfall. Hey, if salmon can do it…

One little nugget of information comes in the form of the “Venjix Computer Network” Don’t know who Venjix is? Well that’s understandable, he was in, like, one episode of Wild Force. That episode being “Forever Red” not withstanding. He was the leader of the last of the Machine Empire’s generals. What’s awesome about this is that its possible that we will get a reawakening of the machine empire.

One big hurtle that RPM has to jump is Go-Ongers similarity with Power Rangers Turbo. Turbo was BAAAAAD. Like “Slam my head in the oven repeatedly” bad. So bad it almost got Power Rangers cancelled originally. So will RPM be the downfall of PR, or will it rise it back up to heights of In Space proportions. Only time will tell.

So with these two great shows duking it out this year, who eventually wins. Simple: We do. One of the main problems with PR over the years is that it pretty much has a monopoly over American Tokusatsu. This has allowed it to become stale and just plain not fun anymore. Disney has grown lazy with the franchise. But, now that Dragon Knight is coming, which obviously looks like a labor of love from the beginning to end, maybe Disney will wake up and either up the production value or hand it over to a more willing and able company.

Either way, February feels like a long, long ass time away. I can’t wait, and I know you can’t either. So until we reach that clearing at the end of the path, dear reader, Henshin!

Power Rangers Jungle Fury: A Year In Review

Let me start off by just saying that I’m new to this whole blog thing, so bear with me and I’ll try to write something worth while.

Power Rangers Jungle Fury has been wrapped up for about a week or so now, and I thought it should be about time that someone did a Year-end Review for it and see where it fits into the Saban – Kalish Scale of Awesome. Jungle Fury is the first Power Rangers season that I watched as a Toku fan, having finished Gekiranger shortly before Jungle Fury premiered. For those of you who don’t know what Gekiranger or Toku is: why the hell are you reading this? Get your asses over to Wikipedia or something and look it up. We’ll wait…

..Done? Ok good. So how does Jungle Fury compare to Gekiranger? Well that’s not what I’m here to do. The two shows are great and awesome in there own ways. I’ll let the fanboys argue over syntax. What I’m here to do is review Jungle Fury on it’s own merits.

Let’s start with the heart and soul of Jungle Fury: The core three rangers, starting with the red of course (Why would we start with anyone else?). This year’s red is Casey Rhodes (played by Jason Smith), who is, in my honest opinion, one of the best reds since…hell since Lightspeed Rescue. We get to watch his evolution into a hero and a leader. And it felt real, unlike those other reds who become leaders by hording all the powerups. No, you actually feel like this guy is gaining knowledge and experience. And his argument with Master Mao is probably one of the most dramatic scenes in Power Rangers in a long time. Sure he had his problems: Jason Smith’s suit acting wasn’t exactly the best, but he more than makes up for it in his suit-less performances.

He is backed up this year by two very strong Rangers: Lily Chilman (Played by Anne Hutchinson), a bright, funny, character who can also be just as tough as her boy counterparts. She exudes warmth and compassion, and at the same time could kick your ass in a heartbeat.

Theo Martin (Played by Aljin Abella) is a tempered and dedicated blue ranger, always in control of his own body and emotions. There is even a nice little side romance between him and Lily which evolves quite nicely.

The core rangers are joined later in the series by Robert “RJ” James, as the Wolf Ranger (Played by David Le Hayter). Starting out as the Ranger’s master, RJ quickly became an internet superstar. Some people even began calling him the greatest ranger of all time, which makes a lot of sense. David plays a very fun loving, almost stoner-ish mentor, sorta a cross between Captain Jack Sparrow and…well…a stoner. Though he doesn’t seem much like a fighter at the beginning, he definantly comes into his own by the time he gets his morpher. We suddenly realize that his bite is definitely as bad as his bark. He definitely made Gou proud.

A little later in the series, we get a new ranger in Dominique Hargan (played by Nikolai Nikolaeff). In all the 16 years of watching Power Rangers, I have never felt such a connection to a Ranger like I did with Dom. He starts off as a clumsy, somewhat awkward young Pai Zhua student who no one really seems to understand, or even like. However, he soon proves his usefulness with the Rhino spirit and his willingness to help the rangers, and the Rangers eventually welcome him as a friend and ally.

We get a surprise later in the season with the addition of 3 American rangers: the Elephant, Bat, and Shark Spirit Rangers. Though not rangers in the sense of men in suits, they are in fact extensions of the 3 core rangers spirit energy and work independently. There was a huge source of debate within the PR community as to if we were even going to get these spirit rangers. Unfortunately, the spirit rangers have a sort of luck warm showing. The suits aren’t of the best quality, but the helmets looked really good and honestly these are the first American rangers we have had since the Titanium Ranger in Lightspeed Rescue. Even though he was cool, I think we can cut these guys some slack.

The rangers also have a friend named Fran (played by Sarah Johnson) who has more or less become a geek goddess in her own right. Starting out as a gawky and much abused worker at Jungle Karma Pizza, Fran ends the show as a…Gawky and much abused worker at the Jungle Karma Pizza. But at least she gets a love interest in Dominic!

But as good as the rangers are, they are only as good as their enemies, and what enemies they have! I’m going to ignore the generals here, who have about as much personality as a wet shoe, and talk about the true villains of the show: Jarrod/Daishi (played by Bede Skinner) and Camille (played by Holly Shannon).

I originally had my doubts about how Bede Skinner would portray Jarroshi, but my fears were quickly squelched, and he quickly became one of my favorite characters in the show, and definitely one of my favorite villains in a long time. Jungle Fury is just as much Jarrod’s story as it is the Ranger’s, as Jarrod tries to gain more and more power. We definitely see the struggle as Jarrod tries to retain his own humanity, while also fighting for control of his own army with the other beast generals (who, as I said before, have the personality of a wet shoe).

He is joined by his loyal servant and assassin Camille. Though she starts out as a merciless assassin, she slowly begins to change. By the end of the series, she realizes that the path she is on is the path of destruction. It is a wonderful and very natural feeling change.

So, overall, how does Jungle Fury stack up with the last few seasons of Power Rangers? Pretty damn good in my opinion, especially considering the debacle that was Operation Overdrive. The story flows quite naturally, and the characters are very well fleshed out by the end. It has its faults, such as the beast generals and the horrible sunglasses morphers, but the problems are small and inconsequential to the overall story and characters. Basically, we got a fun season with expressive and dramatic characters, good fast paced action with much less explosions, and even some custom American stuff. Its not perfect, but it’s the closest thing we’ve gotten in quite a long while.

I give this season a 8/10, Right under Saban on the Saban – Kalish Scale of Awesome.

Now with Bruce Kalish leaving this year, I can’t wait to see the changes that are in store for RPM. Until next time dear readers, Henshin!