Teen Titans and Thundercats: remake injustice

I just have a question for Cartoon Network: why do you keep showing Teen Titans Go and yet Thundercats did not get renewed?

First off let's talk about Teen Titans vs Teen Titans Go. It has come to my attention that fans are not happy with the new series, and I agree, it's crap. Teen Titans was based on a DC comic series wherein Robin, Batman's sidekick, goes off on his own and forms a team with other superheroes, specifically other teenagers of possible sidekick origin like himself. In the cartoon the team consisted of Cyborg(the least imaginitively named character ever as he is literally a cyborg, but still cool) Beast Boy, a green guy who can change into any animal limited only by the fact that he is always green, raven, a dark brooding sorceress, and Starfire, an alien with the power to fly and shoot laser blasts. They gave more background to Starfire as an alien who played like a foreign exchange student who didn't understand our culture, customs, or subtle nuances of language. They gave even more background to Raven who is the daughter of a demon and has the power to potentially destroy the entire world and is constantly suppressing this power. The boys don't get much background though, even Robin manages to avoid any mention of Batman so you have to know in advance, though most people do. And Beast Boy is a vegetarian because when he can be any animal, he finds it hard to eat something he was at one time. The new series has the same cast of characters and the same voices, except that the original was serious and dark in line with Batman. The original show was badass and cool about superheroes saving the world from legitimate threats. Teen Titans Go is a self-parody that jokes about the Titans every day lives blown up to superhero proportions and very rarely has anything to do with actually saving the world, or saving anything for that matter. Admittedly, i only catch it when I first wake up on Sunday and my TV is still tuned to that channel after watching Toonami the night before, but I see enough to know the voice actors should be ashamed of themselves for letting their hard work be diminished by this reboot.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Thundercats. A few years ago Cartoon Network rebooted the classic Thundercats. I know some people didn't like the reboot and complained that it wasn't as good as the original, I actually saw a few of the original episodes rerun a few years before the reboot, that old show was crap. We liked Thundercats because we were kids, we had no standard of taste and animation studios weren't giving us any credit so we ate whatever crap they fed us and Thundercats was the best of it's time, but compared to what has followed since, the new Thundercats was a much needed breath of fresh air making the show what it should be. The remake changed the story up a little bit, in the original the Thundercats were humanoid felines from Thundera who end up on thir earth fighting mutant Beastmen and Mumm-Ra who all have different origins and are now in conflict on this new world where none of them belong, whereas in the remake the Thundercats are one of a number of species of humanoid animals that once served Mumm-Ra but rebelled leading to everyone being on Third Earth and Mumm-Ra is finally awakened and seeks revenge on the Thundercats who are now determined to stop him by any means possible. The cast is basically the same, just a few details changed to make sense in the new world as opposed the old canon, in both versions Lion-O is the lion-like leader with the Sword of Omens and a gauntlet/sheath, Tigra is the whip wielding master fo invisibility, Cheetara is the female cheetah who runs real fast and wields a quarterstaff, Panthro is the big old strong gruff fighter with nunchucks, Wily Kit and Kat are kids who rely on tricks more than serious weapons, and Snarf is their mascot, while the antagonists include Mumm-Ra the mummy who is just pure evil, Slythe the lizard man and the unimagintively named Jackalman, Apeman, and Vultureman. The animation was done by Studio 4C, a Japanese Anime studio that does a lot of American projects and makes them the most badass cartoons ever. The voice cast was pretty good(they even got the original Lion-O to voice the new Lion-O's father) and the writing actually made some impressive episodes. One that stood out to me was an episode about tiny plant people who go through their entire life cycle in one day. It starts with a baby being born and then we see a little boy grow up rapidly befriending Lion-O and dying of old age in one day, and then you realize he was the baby born at the beginning and we just witnessed his entire life, and it was quite moving how he made the most of it. Another good episode was when Lion-O meets a sword maker and a swordsman who claims the weapons of his opponents, a story which played out like a cheesy samurai flick, but with enough spirit to actually pull it off. Most of the rest of the series actually followed a storyline with purpose, mostly nodding to the original series and reusing old characters to tell a fresh new version. Sadly, after just one season when they had just picked up steam and had really gotten rolling, the series simply ended with no renewal.

So I ask again, Cartoon Network, why is Teen Titans Go still running and you cancelled Thundercats?

Fairy Tail: the campaign for a new Toonami show begins!

So last week while I was chatting with my new friend Todd Haberkorn I asked him why his show Fairy Tail is not on Toonami. He said he didn't really know, but he does wish it were on. He said a little more, but I don't want to get into specifics lest I get him into trouble. So now I intend to start a campaign to get Fairy Tale on Toonami, let's raise the demand on Twitter #FairyTail.

For those who are not familiar with Fairy Tail, it's like if Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Naruto and One Piece are the Big Four, Fairy Tail would make it the Big Five. It's a fun, goofy, fantasy adventure show about wizards. The world of Fairy Tail is a lot like a modern world, or almost modern with magic being used in place of technology in a lot of places, the end result is the same but wizards can make a decent living using unique magic skills. Most wizards join guilds and one of these guilds is the Fairy Tail guild. The story begins with a young wizard named Lucy who wants to join Fairy Tail. Lucy is a celestial wizard meaning that she comes from a special order that makes contracts with celestial spirits and summons them with magic keys. Lucy is a beginner with magic but finds her order stuffy and boring and wants to join Fairy Tail because they seem like more fun so she runs away from home with her magic keys and hopes to find a way in to the Fairy Tail guild. We find her in one town pursuing a wizard who she believesfits the bill and crosses paths with a stranger who seems to be looking for the same person. This stranger is named Natsu and he is traveling with a blue talking cat-like creature familar named Happy. They help Lucy out inadvertently and she repays them with lunch then gets in even more trouble and Natsu comes back to help her again. Natsu feels bad about taking advantage of her kindness at lunch because he had only helped her by accident the first time and isn't sure he deserved to be repaid, but he has the perfect way to repay her, he can help her join Fairy Tail because he happens to actually be a member himself. Natsu is a Dragon Slayer style wizard, one of only three known in the entire world. The style was named because it was first invented to slay dragons, but now that their number has diminished it ironically is used by dragons to make their human friends more able to tolerate the potentially harsh conditions of living in their presence. It involves three powers, Dragon Skin that makes one invulnerable to a particular element, Dragon Lungs which allows one to consume that element as if it were food, and Dragon Claws which allows that stored element to be released as a weapon, usually covering the hands to enhance natural punches etc. In Natsu's case his element is fire and he is looking for his adoptive father, a fire dragon who gave him his powers. Happy is an Exceed, a creature from another world that can sprout wings and extend his tail to carry objects when he flies, and also retract these appendages in a decidedly magical fashion. Soon Lucy gets to join the guild of her dreams and the three continue to take jobs from the board and explore the world!

I have only seen the first two episodes, I do not have the patiece to watch anime on a computer, I just keep feeling like I need to do something else on the computer and can't sit still for 22 minutes at a time. I want it on Toonami and I think I'm not the only one, if you want it, let's tweet #FairyTail on #Toonami all the way through the block, midnight to 3:30 AM!

Roc Con 2015 Review

That is me with Todd Haberkorn, I paid $20 for that and I'm using it dammit! But seriously this guy is awesome, and much like Vic last year he actually sang "Let It Go" from Frozen. When I first saw him, I said, well screamed, "NATSU!" Bless his heart he didn't freak out he just acted happy to see me like all his other fans. Seriously voice actors are the best.

I also had a delicious Harley Quinn cookie from my neighbor Haley who bore a striking resemblance to a Harley Quinn cosplayer I saw at Tora-Con.

And now I leave you with pictures of all the other cosplayers who came by my table.