For a while…
Life was good and Puroresu was easy to come by…. But now it a rare
commodity… But I am a
philanthropist at heart so I give to you… my readers, a Free Joshi Puroresu show! So here it is
the latest OZ Academy Show : Gakuen Heaven
I love OZ. I really need to go to Japan and see the show Live. It is always cool and the girls always
fight all over the arena! (BTW if
you want to thank me for upping this show… I wouldn’t say no to a donation to
the- send Shawn to Japan so he can see Joshi shows and buy anime and toku -
fund! )
Mayumi
Ozaki vs. Sakura Hirota (the winner of the match takes on Nao Komatsu in Match 3. By the way Sakura is hilarious. I really want to see her do a mixed tag
with Santino or Eric Young! After
that, there is some sort of eating contest? The next actual match is a huge six
woman Skill Limitation tag match.
Earlier on each wrestler drew an envelope and inside is the move that they could not use in the match. Next
up was winner of the 1rst match vs. Nao Komatsu. That was followed by AKINO vs. noki-A
The
next match is a
tag match. As per the stipulations
Sonoko Kato & Ayumi Kurihara had to dress up like members of AKB48. For some reason Chikayo Nagashima &
Yumi dressed Sukeban. After
that OZ started the tournimet to determine the number one Contender to the OZ
Academy Openweight Championship.
Between the emi-finals and the finals we had another tag match with Ayumi
and Koto still dressed as AKB48.
This time they faced off against Chikayo Nagashima and Mayumi Ozaki.
I have thought about doing this for a while. On one hand I know how hard it is to get your hands on this... but on the other hand I know these many small feds make all there money on PPV and DVD sales... So while I want to spread the word and help out fans... I don't want to hurt the Joshi scene in general. So now that you enjoyed it... please go to amazon.co.jp and buy a show or two and help support Joshi Puroresu!
People have asked me from time to time, why do I like anime
so much. While I can’t speak for
the entire Otaku Community, for me it is great stories. It was that itself that attracted to me
to anime back when I was a little boy and I didn’t what anime was. I just knew that the TV shows had a
continuing story arc, or the move had an epic feel that set it from other
animated shows or movies. Soon I
noticed that these shows and movies I liked had a certain visual style so I
kept my eyes out for that because if it had that “look” most likely it was
going to be cool. Back then there
wasn’t much of it in America, so every anime I found was a treasure.
Now
Anime is plentiful, some of it great and some of it not so--- But every once
and awhile there comes an anime that is so incredible, it just slaps in the
face, grabs you by the collar and screams, “THIS IS WHY YOU BECAME A FAN OF
ANIME IN THE FIRST PLACE!” Gyo is one of those anime. It is strange, horrific
and captivating at the same time.
Gyo
literally means “the fish” and the fish have risen from sea and are invading
the land. They can do this because
they have bizarre mechanical legs attached to them. The fish are accompanied by
revolting smell. Kaori, the female
lead, describes it as the stench of death. It is an accurate description, because the fish are
dead. Makes sense, Fish have gills
and can not breathe on dry land.
Although the fish are “hard wired” into their mechanical walkers, it
doesn’t seem like they have a breathing apparatus. Since the Fish are dead then why are they moving?
Koari
is on a trip with 2 of her girlfriends, when the fish epidemic starts. She is worried about her Boyfriend
Tadashi, who is still in Tokyo. Unfortunately, things are just as bad in the
city as they are on the shoreline, Kaori soon discovers as she travels to Tokyo
to find Tadashi. The city is
overrun. The mechanized sea life
is everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny guppies to sharks. To
make matters worse, there is a mysterious disease that is spread by contact
with the fish. What is the secret behind the walking fish? How do the walkers operate? Will Kaori re-unite with Tadashi? I could tell you but then I would be a
horrible spoiler.
First
off, I want to say that the animation is truly beautiful (even if the subject
matter is not). I am pretty
certain that is an example of digimation.
That is when you draw the characters but instead of animating them on
film, you scan the drawings into a computer and animate it through the computer
instead of using animation cells.
I haven’t read about the making of it so I could be wrong. It also uses 3D CGI animation, and
while many films have combined traditional animation with CGI, I think it works
better in this film than any other.
Now
I knew this was going to be good because I had read the manga it was based
on. When I saw the anime, I
thought, “Is that what I think it is? “ and it was. Gyo is based on the manga of the same name and is written by
Junji Ito. Ito is one of my
favorite Mangaka. His stories are
always very creepy and extremely
bizarre. He also has an amazing
art style. His stories are often gory and graphic. Several
of his mangas, Like Tomie and Uzumaki have been made into live action films. While I think Ito’s art style is
incredible, I think this might be the first of his works to be adapted into an
anime.
Now,
I could get on my fanboy soapbox and complain about the changes that were made
from original manga to the anime adaptation, but I wont because I really
enjoyed the anime. Whenever something is adapted from a
book or comic there are often changes made along the way. Some are flawless transitions and some
are not. For the most part, I
think Japan does a better job of adapting books into movies than we do in the
west.
I knew there were changes. The obvious one being that in the manga
the main character was Tadashi not Kaori.
Their roles are somewhat reversed from manga to anime. It was also updated. A lot has changed from 2001, when the
manga was released. So it had to
be updated to make it more contemporary.
Smart phones didn’t exist back then, nor was the internet such a major
part of our lives. There are
several characters in this anime that didn’t exist in the original manga.
But the tone of the anime was the
same as the manga. Both are
bleak. All the key elements are
there, from the invasion of the walking fish, to the breakdown of human
society. The secret behind the
walking fish is the same in both..
Both versions have the ultra creepy Citrous Circus. But the changes
didn’t bother me to point of not enjoying the movie. In fact I enjoyed the movie so much I decided to re-read the
manga . (Which I will be doing as
soon as I post this blog!)
Gyo is one of the best animes I have seen so far in 2012. It is
available on Japanese Blu-Ray. While both Japan and the US are the same region
code the Blu-Ray has no English subtitles. I am hoping this film gets a English
subtitled release because it is awesome! Check out the trailer below !:
It has been close to a fortnight, since I viewed the final SMASH. It was a great show. I really enjoyed it…. But at the time it didn’t hit me…that it was over. I was stunned when I heard the announcement on February 10th that Tajiri was breaking up SMASH. At first I didn’t believe it, but then I saw the press conference and I knew it was true. It was announced shortly before SMASH.25 which was to be their biggest show. Still for me it was a long way off. I was still very excited about seeing the previous show (WE ARE SMASH) where the main event was Kana vs Tomoka Nakagawa. It had happned on January 19th and it wouldn’t air on TV for a month. So for me at least I still had SMASH to look forward to.
SMASH was my favorite wrestling promotion. One of the many things I loved about SMASH was Tajiri booked the women as well as he booked the men. Unlike the WWE and TNA, the Joshi (women’s wrestling matches for those you not in the know) often got multiple matches on the card. Quite often they were the main event. Many of those matches were as long as men’s matches and were given the same build up. The thing is while I like women’s wrestling, I also like men’s wrestling. Usually if I want to see a great women’s match I would have to watch a woman’s promotion… it was great to be able to watch a promotion that had both.
I actually 1rst discovered SMASH almost by accident. I was trolling for torrents and a stumbled upon a Download for SMASH.4 I knew it was Tajiri’s new promotion and I was excited to see Tajiri. I am a huge Tajiri fan and I was excited to see a new Tajiri match. AKIRA (whom I knew from new Japan) had a match on the card. So did Isami Kodaka. He competes in crazy deathmatches…so you know that his match was going to be good. And the main event of the show was Kana vs Syuri! I was already a fan of Kana so this was a win/win for me. Several matches featuring guys I like, and a main event match with my favorite Joshi. And although I didn’t know it at the time, I would also discover 2 other Joshi that would become my favorite---Lin Bairon and Syuri! I had to download it. It was the best wrestling I saw that month.
--> Still, as I live in America… it was difficult to get… but I was hooked. I already wanted to see SMASH.5 I found out where and when it aired on TV and I discovered website that posted shows recorded from that station and I also discovered places that rented Japanese TV shows on DVD-Rs. And SMASH seemed to get better with every show. Many of my other favorites like Sabu, Ultimo Dragon, Makoto, Tomoka Nakagawa, Serena Deeb, Finley and SuperCrazy joined SMASH. And I became a big fan of StarBuck, Hajime Ohara, and Michael Kovac. By the time SMASH.10 happened I had worked out a system where I was confident I would not miss any SMASH. I started scanning the website. I would like to say reading the website…but I fairly illiterate when it comes reading Japanese and often times google translate gives you gibberish at worst and at best you get Engrish…but I followed the website anyways. I watched the press conferences on youtube. I even read the results a (tried not to spoil myself but I often couldn’t wait) and went to the SAMURAITV website to find out when it would air on TV.
I discovered SMASH at a time when my frustration with the WWE and TNA were at there highest. I often felt at that time (and unfortunately I still do today) that watching RAW is a chore. But there was a time when I was so excited about the WWE that I couldn’t wait for the next episode of RAW to air. While WWE nor TNA didn’t excite me in that way---SMASH did. I literally was so caught up in the storyline I couldn’t wait to see the next SMASH. And when you consider that my Japanese is only so-so it speaks volumes of how well the show was put together.
I knew SMASH was over when I talked to Kana at SHIMMER...but it didn't seem over to me as I had yet to see the show. I watched it on 3/21 and enjoyed it...but it is today when I am hit with the realization that SMASH is done :( How will I get my monthly fix of Kana, Tajiri, Makoto, Lin Bairon, Hajime Ohara, Jessica Love, StarBuck, Syuri, AKIRA, and Ultimo Dragon :( At least Tomoka Nakagawa and Mio Shiria are heavily featured in OZ academy. (Which like SMASH is another show I have grown confident I can catch each episode of.)
The final SMASH match was AKIRA and Tajiri vs Starbuck and Ohara. After the match was over, Tajiri announced his intention of starting a new promotion. I am anxiously awaiting more information on this. I hope that I will enjoy this new Promotion as much as I enjoyed SMASH. I hope that Tajiri brings in all my favorites into this promotion I hope I am able to find video of it as easily I did for SMASH. Time will tell. So, goodbye SMASH. I will miss you. WE ARE SMASH FOREVER!
I was going to do this last month…but for some reason I didn’t get around to it…odd since I really didn’t do anything the entire month of January…but I digress… so in no particular order... here is a list of some of the best shows /events that I went to in 2011. As it was the most recent…
TNA Wrestling House Show in Poughkeepsie, NY on 12/30/31
I haven't been to a TNA event since 2008. There were more people at this show than the last ones I was at. In the past at intermission, you had alot more time to talk with the wrestlers that were signing, but this time they rushed you through it (one item per person…although they didn't have a problem if you then went back in line to get a second item signed)like how WWE does a signing. I miss the intimate feel i got from the early house shows of 2007 and 2008 but I guess this is more professional... As this was the last show on the tour... most of the talent left quickly. I don't know if they would have hung out for a while like they did back in 2007-2008. The crowd was very pumped for the show and there was a lot of chanting. This time I sat next to a girl who I sometimes wondered if she really wanted to be a strip club instead of a wrestling show. She spend the majority of the show yelling at the wrestlers to “take it off’ It was kind of funny at 1rst but become less funny as the evening progressed. Still trying to figure out if this was better than my usual “loud fan” experience. Usually I sit near a “smart mark” who does nothing but loudly complain about how awful the show is and how XX wrestler should quit and wrestle for XX company instead of the show we were attending. While she could be annoying… at least this woman seemed to be enjoying the show which I guess makes it a better experance than the so called Smart Mark who does not… But onto the show itself…
* Vik Dalishus beat. Hale Collins in a tryout match. If this were a televised show I would call this a dark match. Didn’t know anyone in the match. Hale Collins was over with the local crowd though…
Pretty fun match to “officially” start the show. Didn’t get any pictures of it.
* Crimson beat Matt Morgan
* TNA Knockout Women’s Champion Gail Kim vs Mickie James
This was the match that I bought a ticket to see and it was a great match! For much of 2010 and 2011 I have had disappointing experiences with the WWE as I often went to s show just to see Gail and WWE wouldn’t put her on the card. So I was thrilled to not only see Gail wrestle but I also get to meet her at the intermission.
AJ Styles beat Bully Ray
I know Bully is the heel and i am supposed to boo him... but there were several kids that ran up to the front row and wouldn't sit down. They were kind of annoying me because I spent good money on my seat and couldn't see the show. Bully Ray yelled at these kids and told them to go back and sit in there assigned seats! My hero LOL.
* James Storm beat Kurt Angle
Another great match. Kurt Angle is simply amazing. Got some heat by tearing up back stage passes. Before the match started James Storm asked if there were many Beer Drinkers in the crowd and shared a bear with some fans. the crowd interaction didn't end there as both wrestler fought all over the arena.
*Garrett Bischoff b. Gunner w/Ric Flair
* TNA Champion Bobby Roode vs Jeff Hardy
Another great match. Roode got a lot of heat on him by announcing that this was not going to be a title match. If you want to see him defend his title, then cough up $40 and buy the PPV. So it would be Roode vs Hardy in a Non-Title match. Lots of good back and forth action. Bobby slammed Jeff to the match. Rhoode got up on the 2nd rope and mocked Hardy, doing the Jeff Hardy taunt. He took to much time making fun of Hardy for when he launched himself off the turnbuckle, Jeff was able to kick Roode in the face. This allowed Jeff to get the pin.
