Legacy #14 - PPGZ ~ MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remember the timeless CN show called Powerpuff Girls (abbreviated PPG)? It defined the early 2000s and, next to Dexter's Lab, Ed Edd n Eddy, Cow & Chicken, & other classic CN shows ~ it was a huge nostalgic hit. Now add Sailor Moon to the mix & we have the Japanese equivalent ~ Powerpuff Girls Z. To be honest, this show is an atrocity on PPG because it took away what made PPG so nostalgic. 3 crime-fighting little girls who fought evil beings such as a Redneck, a Transgender, A Rich B!tc#, 3 Sperms with hats, and, of course, Caesar from Planet of the Apes. Why give them weapons? Why make the show even more cheesier than it needed to be? Sure, PPG was for the kids, but I will admit, watching it as a 21 year old whenever it's on Boomerang, it's pretty cheesy at times. PPGZ makes PPG look normal by comparison ~ Z is 10x cheesier than the American classic. I guess at the time Sailor Moon was so timeless that it needed to duplicate its attributes & styles onto other Anime. PPGZ spawned 52 episodes. FIFTY-F*CKING TWO!? You know the American classic spawned 78 episodes AND a movie. Those 78 episodes are much more memorable than the 52 PPGZ episodes combined. Sure, PPG changed it's animation later on, but man ~ PPGZ stayed the same for 52 episodes ~ the over-the-top-nonsensical-cheesy recreation didn't know when to stop. When you put Sailor Moon & PPG together, it don't blend well. Yeah, it's true I'm ranting on PPGZ, but it's still considered a Legacy Anime because although it's cheesy as f*ck, it's still nostalgic for those who grew up in the early 90s-200s. It's been 7 f*cking years since PPGZ was last seen and do people talk about it? Well, I wouldn't know because I don't honestly know anyone who would go out of their way to try and watch/download PPGZ? Wait, there is one person ~ MechG. Yes, THE MechG downloaded (I don't know if he watched all) all 52 episodes of PPGZ. Can't decided whether to be embarrassed by this fact or to acknowledge he's a die-hard PPGZ fan. Perhaps it was the norm to watch PPGZ just to see if it holds up to the American classic? But nope, it didn't stand and as such, both MechG & I have gone on long @SS rants on PPGZ (well, notably me). Sorry for those who are fans of the Japanese retelling, but it's not my cup of tea. The story is pretty much 3 little experiments named Blossoms, Bubbles, & Buttercup (names changed in PPGZ) who are superheroes who defend the city of Townsville from villainy. PPGZ is the same, but, like I said above ~ it's cheesier, had less episodes than the American version, and catered to the Sailor Moon crowd than it did for PPG fans.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Legacy post/rant. Look forward to Legacy posts on Thursdays. Until then, you all stay classy now and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL/HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

BCC 2 Match #14 - Sniper Wolf vs. Mine (Metal Gear vs. Akame Ga Kill) ~ MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

Vs.

Welcome back to another installment of BCC 2 with featured collaboration from my best friend & author of the Trueraiderlaker blog,  MechG. BCC 2 is pitting the best of the best when it comes to Videogames & Anime. The emphasis on BCC (Big-BEEWBED Catfight) is on the lovely ladies from each franchise, judging their story, personality, and appeal as the basis of the subject matter as well deciding on the consensus on whose the better woman in our personal opinion. The Videogame Babes are leading 7-6 against the Anime Cuties. MechG will be deciding the consensus for this Christmas week. Today's Matchup is Metal Gear's Sniper Wolf & Akame Ga Kill'a Mine. Let's jam! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE! 

Story (Sniper Wolf)

Throughout her early life and childhood, born and raised in the Middle East, Wolf was accustomed to violence and conflict constantly hearing gunfire, sirens, and screams. She was lucky to be alive countless times, but her loved ones and friends would not make it with her. During the real-life event of the Iran-Iraq War, Wolf witnessed countless deaths of her family and friends at the hands of Iraqi soldiers. Growing up, Wolf would be trained by the group, Gurkhas and they taught her everything about the art of sniping. Wolf’s sharp expertise as a markswoman caught the eye of the legendary mercenary, Big Boss, who took her back to the U.S. She constantly looked up to him. She would eventually become a lone sniper to witness war from far away. After Big Boss’s “death,” Wolf was taken in by FOXHOUND lead by Liquid and partook in the Shadow Moses Incident. She was tasked to watch Dr. Hal Emmerich (Otacon), the one responsible for designing Metal Gear REX. He would develop an affinity with her after she convinced Liquid to not kill off the wolfdogs residing in Shadow Moses and allowed him to feed the dogs. Wolf would get Snake’s attention after she shot Meryl point blank, critically wounding her. She developed an obsession with Snake and desired killing him in the battlefield. In the open field to REX’s Lair, Wolf would do battle with Snake again only to be shot in the lung. Dying in the snow field, Wolf told Snake about her life and how she reminded him of Big Boss. At her request, she asked Otacon to hand her PSG1 and Snake proceeded to “put her out of her misery,” covering her face with her personal handkerchief after.

Story (Mine)

I'm not that familiar with AKG because I only watched the first episode, but I'll do my best to outline Mine's character (Please don't be mad MechG). Mine was born in the western borders of the Empire. Unfortunately a lot of her childhood was filled with ridicule and misery from people because she was foreign. Mine joined the Revolutionary Army after having discovered it was forming allegiances with countries from the West. She fought for the sake that no one faces the childhood she met. To be honest, that covers Mine's backstory only and what I know about her is that she's part of the Night Raid and develops feelings for the main character of AKG. Her weapon of choice (Teigu) is a sniper rifle that is capable of shooting in 3 modes: Sniper, Machine Gun, & Long Barrel. Her rifle fires highly concentrated piercing shots of spirit energy. As a sniper, Mine is pretty proficient with her weapon and, of course, is masterful in precision. However, a weakness of hers is that she leaves her back exposed. Like I said, I need to invest my time in AKG so I can better know the characters. I didn't cover much of Mine's role in the story (other than her backstory), but maybe one day I'll finally understand MechG's love for Mine's character.

Personality (Sniper Wolf)

As a skillful and deadly sharpshooter, Sniper Wolf has an obsession with her targets. She was capable of waiting for them for days, weeks, heck let’s throw in there, even months without having to eat or sleep. She eats, sleeps, and breathes killing her target from long range in cold blood that she develops an emotional attachment to them before killing them. Although she was born to kill, she didn’t kill for sport as she dislikes harming innocent women and children. She has unwavering loyalty to people who have earned her respect, such as her respect and loyalty to Big Boss. Aside from her obsession to kill her targets and her loyalty, she has a deep affection for dogs and had strong beliefs that women make better soldiers than men as evident in her conversation with Solid Snake during the Shadow Moses incident.

Personality (Mine)

Mine is prone to outbursts and is easily irritated. She has a fondness to tease the main character of AKG, but over time develops feelings for him. Despite her cold exterior, she can be a warm and kind individual. She's compassionate sometimes towards the main character such as when she tried teasing him to get his mind off someone's death. Ever since she started dating the main character, Mine is shown to be jealous whenever Leone gets too attached to her man and has shown great worriment over his safety.

Appeal (Sniper Wolf)

I see nothing wrong about a blonde-haired, bad@$$ chick with a sexy foreign accent that’s out there to kill you from a distant. Even though she only appeared in the first MGS game as one of the bosses playing second fiddle to Liquid, Wolf has always headlined along the overlooked list of hot girls in the Metal Gear series. She was the one who made it cool to show cleavage on those nice @$$ TEETS before EVA did it in MGS3, especially displaying it in the cold snow of Shadow Moses. Mind if I be the one to warm those up? *Headshot, X_X.*

Appeal (Mine)

Judging from the picture I found of Mine, she's not bad. Sure she doesn't have big BEEWBZ, but her cuteness is so appealing that you can't help but root for her whenever she wields her bad@SS sniper rifle. Not many characters can rock the pink look, but Mine does and girl....she looking FABO. Tatsumi (the main character of AKG) is lucky to have Mine as both an ally & a girlfriend because she surely isn't someone you'd want as an enemy. Mine is a pretty well-drawn character much like all the females in AKG.

Verdict (By MechG)
And the winner is....

Difficult verdicts part II. Let’s just clear the air here, Mine is my favorite character from Akame ga Kill, alongside Leone. She is “Mai Waifu.” She’s everywhere from my login background picture in my windows 7 laptop to my main background on my Galaxy Note with Akame, she’s everywhere. But am I seriously going to let my feelings for her get in the way of my competitive nature to win this BCC for the videogame babes? Let’s be perfectly honest here, Metal Gear Solid’s storyline, Hideo Kojima’s storytelling, kills the f*cking sh*t out of AGK any day of the week, just flat out embarrasses it. There was one thing that MGS has that AGK doesn’t have…DEPTH. Even with the minor characters like Wolf, she played second fiddle to Liquid, but she has a thorough, crisp backstory and the way she died and how Snake gave her a proper burial was one of the most emotional moments in the MGS games. Don’t get me wrong though, I cried manly tears when Mine died in Tatsumi’s arms after her showdown with Budou in the Anime. Maybe reading the Manga will wipe that away, but everybody in AGK dies at some point. With the exceptions of Akame and somewhat Esdeath and Najenda, most of the other characters’ backstories in AGK were just too generalized while literally every character in the Metal Gear series, even the minor ones, Hideo Kojima does a great job of elaborating on them to relevancy instead of being forgettable. And that’s where I feel Wolf trumps Mine in this matchup. Kojima’s storytelling made Wolf look like a million bucks even though she just made her lone physical appearance in the first MGS as second fiddle to Liquid. I said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Mine, but that’s not going to blind me to see from a broader perspective, unlike some Red and Gold hack who wants to threaten people if any of his “Baes” lose against any female he’s not familiar with. And if that happens, he gets all butt hurt like a typical 40 whiner bandwagoner would. Consider your “Bae” lucky that she didn’t have to go up against another female character that made quite an impact in a franchise’s story arc. I chose against “Mai Waifu” and that was the hardest thing to do, it pained me inside, but you don’t hear me whine about it or kicking myself or sending death threats. YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME! Nonetheless, Wolf wins here. Sorry AGK fans and above all, sorry Mine, my lovely Waifu. We’ll make it up once this whole twisted $#!t is all said and done.

So who do you think won? Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear or Mine from Akame Ga Kill? Comment below and let me know. 2 more BCC 2 Matchups to go ~ One on Friday & the last on Monday. Until then, you all stay classy now. Videogame Babes are winning 8-6 against the Anime Cuties. Also be sure to check out MechG's blog: http://trueraiderlaker.blogspot.com/ that covers sports-themed topics on the LA Lakers & Oakland Raiders. MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM STILLMATTIC & MECHG. 

Affinity #69 - The Brave & Odd (2 more days til Christmas!)

I discussed Kensei in last week's 69th Throwback, but here we are on the 69th Affinity post to discuss his relationship/affinity with lieutenant, Mashiro Kuna. These two are polar opposites in every way. One is a bad@SS Captain whose considered by others as brave, aspiring, determined, courageous, and stoic. The other is a odd Lieutenant who is considered by others as immature, unladylike, questionable, and downright weird. So why is that their chemistry works? Well the expression "opposites attract" comes to mind as the two seem to get along just fine despite their different personalities. Now do they have a "thing" for each other? Well, I think their relationship strictly is professional only. When Mashiro's mask broke when fighting Wonderweiss, Kensei genuinely was worried for her safety and pretty much fought in her place. This level of care shows that their relationship, despite being opposite, is one that is unmistakably expresses care & protection for one another. Most Captains & Lieutenants have each other's backs because they're partners-in-crimes. It's pretty much a Superhero & his Sidekick. When a threat is too much for one, someone is there to lend a helping hand. Mashiro is no exception as she enjoyed kicking the sh!t out of Hollows whereas Kensei enjoyed using Hollows as punching bags. I am a fan of the Captain-Lieutenant relationship and what attracted to me to them was that despite their differences, they still get along, rely on each other's backs, and try to get the job done right. Well I'll be the first to admit that if they are indeed a couple, then more power to Kensei & Mashiro. Looking over Mashiro again, she's not bad & has a good set of knockers. Sure she has a personality of a 5 year old, but hey ~ to each their own. If Kensei wants to 69 her all the way, then he's truly the man that can pound her.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Affinity. Look forward to Affinities on Tuesdays. Until then you all stay classy now. 2 more days til Christmas! Happy Holidays to everyone out there! 

BCC 2 Match #13 - Lightning vs. Satsuki Kiryuin (FF XIII vs. Kill La Kill)

VS.

Welcome back to another installment of BCC 2 with featured collaboration from my best friend & author of the Trueraiderlaker blog,  MechG. BCC 2 is pitting the best of the best when it comes to Videogames & Anime. The emphasis on BCC (Big-BEEWBED Catfight) is on the lovely ladies from each franchise, judging their story, personality, and appeal as the basis of the subject matter as well deciding on the consensus on whose the better woman in our personal opinion. The Videogame Babes & the Anime Cuties are tied 6-6. MechG will be deciding the consensus for this Christmas week. Today's Matchup is FF XIII's Lighting & Kill La Kill's Satsuki Kiryuin. Let's jam! 

Story (Lightning)

The eldest daughter in the Farron family, Claire had a tragic upbringing in her early life, losing both her mother and father from unknown circumstances, leading to raise her only family in her little sister in Serah. Though the loss of the parents greatly affected her, she believed she had to become an adult quickly in order to ease the pain and that’s when the legend of “Lightning” was born. After finishing high school, she enlisted in the Guardian Corps Security Regiment in Bodhum under the wing of Lieutenant Amodar and was promoted in the ranks as sergeant. Though she did this to support Serah as well as support herself, Lightning began to stray away from staying close to her sister and found less personal time with her as she worked long term hours. After realizing Serah is in danger as a Pulse L’Cie, Light resigned from the Guardian Corps to join the “purge” train. She eventually got branded by the Fal’Cie, Anima along with Snow, Hope, Sazh, and Vanille. After the completion of their focus and the crystallization of Cocoon, Lightning was dragged down to Valhalla to become Etro’s champion and do battle with Caius Ballad across the timeline. While battling Caius, Light rescued Noel from falling down Valhalla’s surface and tasked him to watch over Serah. 500 years after Serah’s death, Light was de-crystallized and called in by the almighty Bhunivelze to become the “savior” and guide the souls to a new world at the end of 13 days in exchange for Serah’s soul. She eventually took on the role, managed to do Bhunivelze’s bidding, but turned on him and defeated him, ensuring a world where gods cannot control humanity’s fate.

Story (Satsuki)

When first introduced in KLK, Satsuki was suspected to have killed Ryuko Matoi's father. Ryuko did everything in her power to stop Satsuki & her Elite 4, but when it was revealed that a even bigger threat was behind the death of Ryuko's Father, Ryuko & Satsuki find themselves having to rely on one another in order to stop the bigger target. That bigger target is revealed to be Satsuki's Mother & an even bigger shocker is Satsuki is Ryuko's long-lost older sister. The very enemy/rival Satsuki has come to known is revealed to be her sister. Satsuki was the leader of Honnoji Academy & as such, ruled with a stoic & absolute rule alongside the Elite 4. Everyone who didn't possess a Goku uniform was considered trash to her and Satsuki wasn't about to let the school's reputation go downhill just from the sudden arrival of Ryuko Matoi & her scissor blade. Ryuko & Satsuki were quick to dislike one another, but when their was bigger fish to fry (Ragyo), the duo teamed up, reconciled as sisters, & learned to put aside their differences and see the bigger picture. The world is a vast place and labels & cages shouldn't outline a person's way of living. Satsuki learned to accept Ryuko as her sister and to live life without any worriment of her mother's reign of power or Nui. 

Personality (Lightning)

When we see Lightning in the first game of the FFXIII trilogy, she’s tough, serious, and cold-hearted; she would go about her business without asking favors from someone or asking for anybody’s help. She can throw a fit when she is annoyed and irritated, specifically if she feels if someone is trying to derail her from her agenda  (Exhibit A: Snow). But as the games rolls on, she starts to develop a little camaraderie with her comrades as they were branded by L’Cie and she begins to build trust and friendship with them, especially with Snow to ensure that he keeps Serah safe and sound. She also turned Hope from being a weak-minded kid to a strong individual. Nonetheless, the main glue that elevates her personality altogether is her younger sister Serah as Lightning displays unwavering drive to protect her sister from all harm.

Personality (Satsuki)

Satsuki is a calculative, intelligent, stoic, and iron-fisted individual that was the leader of the Honnoji Academy. The only person who is unafraid of Satsuki's reign of power is Ryuko Matoi. Satsuki was a very prideful person and wouldn't allow the reputation of her school & fellow students diminish just because their was one student (Ryuko) who couldn't oblige to the rules & standards of Honnoji Academy. However, her character went through substantial change the moment her mother became the enemy & she find out Ryuko was her long-lost baby sister. Satsuki became more open with Ryuko's allies & soon learned to mellow out. She came to accept Ryuko as her sister & family and even befriended Ryuko's BFF, Mako. Satsuki went from antagonist to protagonist and that kind of transformation is just astonishing to witness 

Appeal (Lightning)

Well you guys should know my history with Lightning. If not, let me remind you: Lightis (Noctis x Lightning), my smash hit AMV tribute to her using AJ Lee’s WWE theme song “Light It Up”, coming up with one of the more ballsy, yet genius mashup ever using her theme song and mashing it up with “The Way You Move” by Ne-Yo and Trey Songz and “Gibberish” by Ryan Leslie and titling that mashup “Blinded by The Way You Move” (soon to get an AMV with that mashup up as soon as possible, hopefully). However, I’ll be honest here. I didn’t realize Lightning’s beauty until my 2nd play of XIII; she was one of those FF female characters I had to do a double take on. At first, I was like “meh Tifa and Rikku are still hotter,” but then I did a play through the 2nd time and then I realized, she’s not so bad after all. In XIII-2 and in Lightning Returns, she got a lot more beautiful and I mean A LOT more beautiful and due to Square Enix’s excessive fanservice in LR, her hotness went full overload. Lightning is what I like to call a “dual threat” female FF character. Yeah, there have been strong, yet attractive female FF characters like Tifa and Garnet and there are straight up bad@$$ chicks like Paine, but Lightning incorporates those two elements together in her appearance and characteristics. She can be attractive, “eye candy” to some and I repeat “to some” people, but she can also be a bad@$$ and a character to look up to in terms of a strong and independent personality for the ladies.

Appeal (Satsuki)

When I first started watching Kill La Kill (or KLK), I was rather fond of the protagonist, Ryuko Matoi. When laying my eyes on Satsuki, I thought she was just "okay". Her stoic nature & eyebrows kind of threw me off a bit, but overtime, I grew to admire her just like Ryuko Matoi. Much like Ryuko, Satsuki's character went through substantial change the moment they both found out their Mother was the real antagonist. Whenever they're in their Senketsu & Junketsu outfits, their "assets" & "BEEWBZ" greatly stand out. Satsuki became more appealing to the eye the moment her character went through a change and whenever she was in her Junketsu attire. I tell ya, her Junketsu attire is so awesome to look at ~ wouldn't you want to be by her side? I think she exposes a lot more of herself in comparison to Ryuko and was the first to openly be fearless to show herself in front of everyone. To me, I fell in Satsuki the moment she allied with Ryuko. She's a total bad@$$ and isn't afraid to let out her true strength. She doesn't lose her way in battle and when she does fight, I can't helpt but be in awe of both her strength and her attire. DAYUM she one fine @SS chick. 

Verdict (By MechG)
And the winner is...

The degree of difficulty to select a winner is through the roof here. Kill la Kill, besides Attack on Titan, played an intricate role for me to get back into Anime, FFXIII played an intricate role to get me back into the FF series and start re-reminiscing about VII and X as well. Aside from all its linearity and short duration to beat it, I personally liked XIII. For KLK, I had to find ways for my brain to STFU to enjoy it and put in my “like” list. Personally, I enjoy both. However, to some people’s disgust, my verdict goes to Lightning. Why? Because. And that’s my verdict. Nah I’m kidding. As much as I’d like to give it to Satsuki because they did a magnificent job of building up the twist that she is Ryuko’s sister and not the primary villain and she’s gone naked a couple of times, I just can’t sympathize with her because she has the Elite Four, the trust with them was there, and then the whole story with Ryuko. I just can’t go against how tragic Lightning’s backstory is and her $#!tty luck throughout the trilogy just to try to reunite with Serah and live a happy life. In XIII, they’re reunited and oops Serah becomes crystallized, now Lightning has to be a L’Cie and complete her focus. XIII-2, reunited and it feels so- gets dragged down to Valhalla to become Etro’s champion. LR, Bhunivelze had Serah’s soul ransomed for Lightning to become the savior and then finally “reunited and it feels so good,” they destroy the almighty god together. You also can’t deny the significant change she underwent to trust her friends more and not to go all “lone wolf” when the going gets tough.  True Satsuki had more scenes naked and she’s a lot more appealing since finding out Ryuko is her long lost sister, but Lightning just has the overall beauty; there’s something about her you can’t take your eyes off of whether you like her or dislike her. It sucks that she gets all this dislike because of the comparisons to Cloud. You can’t compare the two! Just like you can’t compare Kobe to Jordan! Although I’ll admit, none of this would happen to her if Square Enix didn’t shove her down our throats too much. I have no problem with people disliking her. I come from the Bruce Blitz way of thinking that if you like something or do not like something, more power to you and I personally like Lightning. Not everybody will and that’s understandable, I respect that from them because it’s subjective. Anyway, this dragged on too long. I love both KLK and FFXIII. Ryuko-Satsuki and Lightning-Serah are two of my favorite fictional sister combos, but at the end of the day, Lightning trumps Satsuki on this one.

So who do you think won? Lightning from FF XIII or Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill La Kill? Comment below and let me know. As always, look forward to BCC 2 Matchups on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays all throughout December (3 more to go). Until then, you all stay classy now. Videogame Babes are winning 7-6 against the Anime Cuties. Also be sure to check out MechG's blog: http://trueraiderlaker.blogspot.com/ that covers sports-themed topics on the LA Lakers & Oakland Raiders.