Death Note

Imagine you could commit the perfect murder and get away with it. Now imagine there was a detective who could still catch you even if it's literally impossible to connect you to the crime. Death Note was the story of how these two impossibilities create a pardox that challenge eachother until the system breaks. The most impressive thing is I never realized the villain was really the villain until a magazine pointed it out to me, he was the most insidious ever.

The story begins with Light Yagami, a picture perfect young man, handsome, smart, promising future, life comes so easily he's bored. Then he finds the Death Note on the ground, a simple empty black notebook that says nothing but "Death Note" on the front and on the back two rules, #1 write person's name and they will die in forty seconds #2 you may take an additional six minutes to write specifics of how death will occur, otherwise the default method is heart attack. Light thinks it's a joke, but he can't stop thinkng about it. He decides to test it, but he won't risk an innocent life, so he waits until he's watching the news and sees a hostage situation. They release the name and picture of the hostage taker, Light writes it down and then checks his watch. Exactly forty seconds later, the hostages leave the building and the perp is found dead of a heart attack. Light still has doubts, it's impossible, it's just coincidence. He goes to a store in a bad neighborhood and waits for his next opportunity. A girl gets gang raped outside the store, one guy is dumb enough to admit his name out loud. Light writes down the name and adds that he will get hit by a car. The girl manages to escape and as that one fool chases her across the street, he gets hit by a car, just as Light wrote it in the Death Note. Once is coincidence, twice, Light realizes he is a murderer. He begins to rationalize, he has only killed bad people, he can make the world a better place by killing the bad people. He starts researching criminals and writes their names in the Death Note. In just a few days, hundreds of criminals have dropped dead of heart attacks in prisons. Most think it's merely coincidence, others believe it is the death god "Kira" but only one knows the truth. Then the Death Note's owner shows up, Ryuk, the shinigami or grim reaper. His kind sustain themselves by taking life from mortals using the Death Notes, subtracting from their predetermined life expectancy and adding it to their own. He says he left the Death note in the mortal world because he was bored and wanted to see what would happen. Ryuk is amused to find out that Light is now a self-proclaimed death god and dreading the boredom if he ends this now, allows Light to continue his little game.

Enter L, the world's greatest detective. L has figured out that Kira is real and he will catch him, he just has to figure out who he is and how he's doing it. L is eccentric, never wears shoes, has awkward posture, holds his cell phone by it's edge like a stinky wet sweat sock, and never seems to blink. L very quickly deduces that Light is Kira, but doesn't know how he's doing it. He does have the guts to reveal himself to Light, knowing that if Light does kill him, he will prove L right in the process and expose himself. The game is afoot, Light must figure out how to kill L before L figures out how Light is killing. Light gets some help, Misa Amane, another individual who has a Death Note and worships Kira as she is the only one who knows who he is and is thankful he killed the man that killed her parents. She is surprisingly friendly with her shinigami Rem, and they are also dragged into the game of cat and mouse. Light becomes obsessed with maintaing his secret identity using everyone, human and shinigami alike, as mere pawns in his game. I can't say anymore without spoiling the ending, but trust me, this one is worth watching. What it lacks in action it makes up as a cerebral thrill ride.

RWBY

No, I did not misspell the title, RWBY is the correct spelling of the greatest independent American Anime other than Avatar, and I'm tempted to say they are tied for first place. RWBY just started its second season on Rooster Teeth and proves anime can be made by Americans and be totally awesome, and may pave the way for 7th Moon. RWBY is the story of students at Beacon Academy for hunters and huntresses. The world is briefly described in the first epsiode, soulless monsters known as Grim threaten humanity's survival until people discover Dust, a source of power that can be used to fight the Grim. Not everyone is cut out for this work, so those who do specifically train to hone their skills as elite fighters to protect a now flourishing civilization. Among them is Ruby Rose, a prodigy and one of the few people who can wield a scythe that also functions as a gun and has an innate ablity to enhance her speed and agility to perform extreme combat movements. Her powers are not entirely unique, her (slightly older) sister Yang is gifted in hand-to-hand combat, Weiss Schnee is a skilled fencer and Dust sorceress, and Blake Belladonna is a cat-eared Faunus(people with animal traits) who can use a katana and a whip ribbon with deadly accuracy. Together the four form team RWBY, and train to fight the Grim along with their friends team JNPR including Pyra a gifted swordswoman with telekinetic abilities, Nora, a hyperactive but surprisingly capable fighter, Ren, Nora's extremely patient and possibly more talented life-long friend, and Jean D'Arc a hopeless goofball who cheated his way into the academy but somehow managed to become team leader thanks to his leadership skills kicking in when the chips are down to make up for his lack of actual ability on the battlefield. The first season is largely about introducing these eight characters and Beacon Academy with the premise that they will fight Grim, generic unsympathetic decidely evil monsters that allow for plenty of combat without any question of concience, which can be very useful when getting past censors but lacks much depth for story potential. Fortunately a mysterious criminal organization which seems to be led by a fiery sorceress named Cinder voiced by the amazing Jessica Nigri adds some drama, though we don't know much about them other than that they engaged Ruby in combat in the first episode and come back at the end of the season to cause more trouble and are clearly the big bad of season two. My favorite character though is Sun Wukong, a blond monkey-tailed Faunus who has the hots for Blake and so far seems to be one of the good guys, but what he can do with his gunchuck staff makes you want to be on his side whichever side that is. If you haven't checked this series out, please check it out right now, you won't regret it.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods

Well it finally happened, after nearly two decades, we finally got a new DBZ film and it's in theaters. I enjoyed it, but honestly, all I could think of was a meme that showed a DBZ fan begging Akira Toriyama for more until he finally angrily sodomizes the fan screaming "There's more! Are you happy now?" and the fan smiling and replying, "Yes thank you sir!" That's what it felt like, there was a lot of ridiculousness, enough self parody that Team Four Star isn't necessary, and some characters even broke down enough it was like Akira Toriyama just didn't really care this time, but the fans do and we're so happy to see the gang we took it up the rear end with glee. Visually it was awesome, some computer graphics and special effects were used to make superior fight scenes. Unfortunately, leading up to that fight scene was an hour long joke of an exposition, which on the whole is actually par for the course for DBZ, and it managed to fit in everybody from the series who wasn't dead. Only in the DBZ universe can the God of Destruction crash a birthday party and threaten the fate of the planet because he didn't get pudding.

So the movie starts out with King Kai and the Supreme Kai discussing Goku and Lord Beerus after the latter had awoken from a three and a half decade long sleep. If you're not in the know, the hierarchy of deities is every planet having a kami, then the kamis in a quadrant answer to one of four Kai who in turn answers to one of four Supreme Kai. And then there's the Elder Kai, which is just a previous Supreme Kai, though there's only one left after Majin Buu ate the others, but more on that later. The Kais are worried about Goku and Beerus fighting each other, which they are sure will happen(of course they are right, there's no movie if it doesn't happen). Meanwhile everybody else is at Capsule Corp. celebrating Bulma's 38th birthday. And when I say everybody else, I mean literally everybody. Bulma invited Goku's whole family, which includes Gohan's wife Videl and her father Mr. Satan and his friend the now reformed Majin Buu. There's also the Z Fighters including Piccolo and Dende the Guardian of the Earth and reigning Kami, both of whom are green namekians. And in case you forgot, Krillin married Android 18 and they have a daughter who is playing with Goten and Trunks. Everybody is friendly enough, even the two green guys and the big pink glob of goo, so when the purple cat man shows up askign about a Super Saiyan God, everybody is cool about it. Then Emperor Pilaf shows up with his cronies Mai and Shu, we haven't seen them in years and now they have turned themselves into kids thanks to a botched wish for youth. They bump into Goten and have traumatic flashbacks, and also meet Trunks, who promptly claims Mai is his girlfriend. The trio tries to steal the dragon balls, but fail iserably thanks to intervention from the Great Saiyman(Gohan) which leads to an accidental shooting of Videl which is healed by Dende who also discovers she's pregnant with Pan. Beerus also gets hit and gets angry but Vegeta manages to distract him with song and dance leading to bingo. Beearus settles down until his partner Weiss suggests pudding and is denied by Majin Buu who licks all thpudding and eats it right in front of Beerus. This turns out to be the pivotal moment that causes him to try to destroy the planet. Everybody pulls out their best tricks, Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks, nobody does better than a single blow. Bulma gets mad at Beerus for ruining her birthday party an slaps him, he bitch slaps her back and Vegeta goes apeshit right back. Goku shows up finally and buys some time while they summon Shenron to find out about the Super Saiyan God and finally figure out that Goku can become one if five other Saiyans give him power, which conveniently is exactly the number of other Saiyans present including his unborn grandchild. It's enough to make Goku transform and fight Beerus which is an awesome battle for the last third of the movie(I won't bother describing it, it's purely visual). Of course Goku saves the world and everybody goes back to the party.

We had some laughs and an awesome battle, it's just another day for the DBZ crew. I give mad props to the gang at FUNimation who must have had a ball, especially Chris Sabat who played Vegeta, Piccolo and Shenron, meaning he was talking to himself at some points. However there were some inconsistencies, Goku feels bad about using the power of others to become Super Saiyan God, but never seemed to feel that way when he used others power for the Spirit Bomb or fusing with Vegeta to become Vegito, and Vegeta seemed to be very caring towards Bulma, even referring to her as his wife, which I don't remember happening in the series. Mostly though, it was just great to see everybody again, I hope they do another soon.

Dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods Prep

IT'S ALMOST HERE! This Tuesday is the premiere of Dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods, the first DBZ movie in about two decades and the very first to get a US theatrical release. This is huge! I got my ticket and I'm looking forward to watching it at my local IMAX(Kamehameha in IMAX). But first, let's get caught up on the story. About a month or so ago, when Toonami had Cooler's Revenge, I brought us up to the arrival of Trunks and then left you hanging. I did that on purpose, I wanted to save the rest for now.

Trunks came from the future when androids have taken over the world. Goku died of heart disease before the androids showed up which is why he didn't save the world, but Bulma kept working on a cure and a time machine so that her son Trunks could go back in time to save Goku. Trunks is also the son of Vegeta which means that he is half-saiyan and can go Super Saiyan and can make short work of Frieza, but he's still not strong enough to defeat the androids, so he's hoping Goku can turn the tide with the heart medicine from the future. With the warning of the androids, the Z Fighters train to be ready and three years later, two androids show up, one of them a self-reconstructed Dr. Gero. Dr. Gero was a member of the Red Ribbon army that Goku defeated when he was a kid and Dr. Gero is the only remaining member bent on revenge working on android assasins. He has made at least twenty as he himself goes by the title Android #20 and is accompanied by nother known only as Android #19. Goku's heart disease kicks in late, just when the androids show up, and Yamcha makes his biggest contribution in the Z series, he gets Goku off the battlefield to treat him with medicine. Meanwhile, Vegeta shows up and reveals he is now a Super Saiyan as well, "I am the Prince of all Saiyans once again!" and then proceeds to destroy Android #19. Trunks shows up and says these aren't the right androids, and Gero retreats to his lab where he activates Androids #17 and #18 who Trunks recognize are the true harbringers of doom. They in turn activate Android #16 and kill Gero. Their next move was to kill Goku, but since he's not present they go on a Bonnie and Clyde crime spree instead while Android #16 gets really Zen because his programming is so focused on killing Goku that in the absence of his only target, he decides instead to just go bird watching. Then Cell shows up, he is also from the future, another creation of Dr. Gero, Cell is a chimera made from cells of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Frieza, he is the ultimate fighter, but to achieve operfection he must absorb Androids #17 and #18. The reason he comes back from the future is that by the time he is born/activated, Trunks finally becomes strong enough to kill the androids and they aren't around in his time so he steals the time machine and comes back to the present. Piccolo becomes so desperate he begs his other half Kami to fuse with him, and Kami is deperate enough to do it so Piccolo can stop Cell. Krillin falls in love with Android #18(female by the way) and tries to protect her from Cell but Cell manages to absorb both androids and achieve his perfect form making him too strong for anybody to defeat him. However, as he has Saiyan cells, he has Saiyan pride, and when someone mentions that the real challenge would be Goku, Cell announces the Cell Games, a tournament that will take place in ten days when everybody who dares can challenge him and he will destroy the world f nobody can stop him. Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Trunks train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber where time moves differently and you can get in two years training in two days, allowing Goku and Gohan to maintain Super Saiyan form indefinitely. Goku uses the remaining time to replace Kami with Dende, an old friend from the planet Namek and collect the dragon balls to wish back everybody who died at the hands of the androids and Cell, but holds off on the wish until after the Cell Games. Then enter Hercule Satan, a world champion pro wrestler who believes he is the the strongest man on Earth and is the only non Z fighter who dares to challenge Cell in the games. Mr. Satan demonstrates jst how far the Z Fighters are beyond normal humans because his best attacks have absolutely no effect on Cell, he doesn't even care, he just flings Mr. Satan to the side and moves on to the next challenger. Goku goes a few rounds with Cell, lasts longer than Mr. Satan, then says he's done with the warm-up. Goku goes a few more rounds after that before finally giving up and volunteering Gohan. After seeming to get nowhere, Cell generates Cell Juniors, mini-clones of himself to fight the other Z Fighters and goad Gohan into using his full strength. Surpisingly the key is Android #16 who pleads to Gohan to let it go, and then gets crushed by Cell's foot. Gohan ascend to Super Saiyan 2, kills all the Cell Juniors with one blow each and beats Cell so hard he actually regurgitates Android #18 and Krillin rushes to her side. As a consequence, Cell reverts to a weaker form and desperately self-destructs in an attempt to kill everyone, but Goku teleports him away to King Kai's planet to save everyone at the cost of his own life. The weakness of the Eternal Dragon is that he can not bring Goku back to life a second time, so he's done...or so we think.

A few years later, Gohan is a teenager, and he has a brother named Goten. Gohan decides to be a superhero named the Great Saiyaman...thankfully a shortlived storyline that serves to connect him to Videl, who is the daughter of Mr. Satan and sadly, significantly more powerful than her father. Gohan teaches Videl how to levitate and they join in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Goku even gets brought back by Roshi's sister Baba who can bring back the dead for one day and Goku is back to join the tournament. Unfortunately, the tournament includes two zombies under the control of a wizard named Babidi who is collecting energy to revive Majin Buu, a monster so powerful he ate gods fifteen generations ago-that's fifteen god generations, so this is an ancient and powerful evil. Now, Buu is a goofball with great potential but lacking the mind to use his power. He's still the greatest threat the world has faced and Mr. Satan is daring to take him on. In a twist the two become friends, but first, Vegeta gives in to Babidi to unlock Majin power and fight Goku on equal ground, then turns on Buu, loses, and then Buu kills Babidi. Just when Mr. Satan gets Buu under control, the world military attacks and pisses him off so much his evil manifests as a second Buu.  The two Buus fight and the first Buu tries to use his magic to turn the second Buu into candy, but second Buu deflects it back on first Buu and eats him turning into Super Buu, then proceeds to absorb the Z Fighters and transform into more powerful forms starting with Piccolo. Goten and Trunk fuse into Gotenks, goes Super Saiyan 3 and almost defeats Buu, but then gets absorbed. Meanwhile Gohan gets the ultimate power up from the ancient Elder Kai, but gets absorbed as well. Goku fuses with Vegeta to become Vegito and gets absorbed by Buu. Vegito splits back into Vegeta and Goku within Buu, and then pull everybody back out and Buu transforms into his original form from the past, which in it's purity is actually more powerful than any other form. Goku finally finishes Buu off with a Spirit Bomb using energy gathered by Mr. Satan. Goku wishes the Buu he killed back as a reincartion named Uub. And Goku gets to come back to life too.

This brings us to the end of the series and Battle of the Gods. Gohan marries Videl and she's pregnant with their first child and the whole family has gathered for the bg announcement. This happens to be the moment in time when Beerus the God of Destruction awakens and comes to Earth to fight Goku. To find out what happens, get your ticket and watch the Battle of the Gods, in theaters for one week only, next week!