Ongoing Investigations: Case #132

Broken Blade‘s 5th movie really takes the series down a notch I am sad to say. The focus of the film is Girghe a lot, a character who as far as I’m concerned has no soul in their design. Perhaps this movie was trying to fix that impression, but it doesn’t work and the “reasoning” behind his past seemed like a cop-out full of holes. I just refuse to feel for the guy and I think they really wanted me to change my mind. While Girghe is acting crazy, Rygart isn’t helping the situation. They decide the best time for a vendetta fight (which they are having because why again?) is right in the middle of a major mission. Probably the only redeeming scene in the entire movie is the fight between Brocuse and Rygart, looks amazing, just try to forget why it is happening and why it ends the way it does. This is the problem with most of the film, it isn’t well put together and thus you start questioning why anything is happening the way it is.

Sadly since the defeat of Zess the Broken Blade series has not been nearly as strong as is started. Rygart just seems to lose a lot of strength as a lead character as he seems way too interested in dealing with Girghe but not nearly as invested in doing anything else as he should. And Girghe just comes off as an unrepentant and unlikeable psychopath despite them trying to soften him up during the movie. I think they want him to be the dark mirror to Rygart’s noble intentions but he just comes off as a big waste of time. Their last confrontation actually annoyed me. I don’t see why Rygart would waste time with his theatrics when everyone else is getting slaughtered. General Borcuse on the other hand as at least a little more subtle in his villainy. He sometimes twirls his mustachio but at least I can understand being a completely wretched human to your enemy on the battlefield. The dehumanizing effects of being a solider can do that to a man. Also his fight with Rygart was pretty good which was the highlight of the movie. Hodr and Sigyn mostly seem to show up in this movie to wishfully wonder how Rygart is doing. And Sigyn has to have more slumber part-time with the POW Cleo. I had such high hopes for Broken Blade. It started off so well but it seems to have sadly lost its focus.

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Nine Spiral: Gackt Played By Gackt

I don’t make it a part of my typical routine to look at Sket Dance, but when I heard Gackt was going to grace the show’s 15th episode with his melodious voice, I made sure to check it out. When reading up on the role that Gackt was to play, I found out that the character is actually an homage to Gackt in his Malice Mizer days.

For those who don’t know Gackt’s history, Malice Mizer was a goth/visual-kei band during the 90s. The image currently associated with Gackt is somewhat far from that gothic period in his career. Although, he is still as eccentric as ever, which is why he was more than happy to voice a parody of himself.

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Pretty Cure Merchandise: Welcome to the Machine

I will start this off with a disclaimer. If you are a major fan of the Pretty Cure franchise or children’s toys in general all these observations will be incredibly obvious to you. It will be like me letting you in on the secret that the sun rises in the east and then sets in the west. But for everyone else this might be interesting.

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