Have you seen this cat? If you have then please call me @860-388-2883, tweet me @King_Ghidorah or email me ASAP. My cat Rory went missing. i have been looking for him for days T_T He is an orange tabby indoor cat who got outside, who was formerly feral. He is very timid and scared. He was last seen June 29 between 540 and 536 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT (near intersection of North Cove Road)
I have thought about posting this for a couple of several days, But I don’t know how many people local to me actually read this….. so I am not certain how much this will help, but anything that gets the word out is good. Any information would be appreciated.
The best wrestling match of the week arrived early! I probably should have bought a ticket to Slammiversary when they announced it was in Boston, but TNA has been rather hit an miss for me this year and I was waiting for them to announce the card. I became very excited when Gail Kim was given a match. I become even more excited when TNA announced it was a last Knockout Standing match! I just knew it was going to be good! I really wanted to see it live, but unfortunately while Boston Has decent public transportation, I couldn’t figure out a way to get back to home after the show :( If TNA had announced it earlier I might have been able to get a hotel room, but as it was last minute, I ended up having to watch it on PPV.
Now if you know me, then you know I am a Gail Kim Mark, but I am not marking out when I say that Gail Kim’s match stole the show at the PPV. It was awesome! It was so good, that it I couldn’t concentrate on the next match. It was hard hitting. Both women looked like they wanted to end each other careers. Gail pulled out the flying dragon and applied the figure four on Tarell around the ring post. Taryn got her receipt on Gail by putting Gail in ringpost figure four after Gail went her sideways splash and hit a chair that she wedged in the corner! Both women took huge bumps. The bit were Taryn went for a cross body and Gail countered her with chair was awesome. Taryn at one point tried to spear Gail but Gail got out of the way and Terrell went through the ropes and landed face first on the entrance ramp!
As a Kim Mark I would have preferred Gail to go over, but I can’t say that Taryn winning the match is bad. TNA has done more in building up Taryn Terrell then they have with just about any other Knockout except maybe Gail Kim herself. A lose for Terrell might have killed her momentum, while, Gail is still the big bad of the KO’s and a lose doesn’t change that too much for her.
The rest of the PPV was good as well. It made me very excited for Thursday, which unfortunately was a huge letdown. I was really hoping that TNA would do something with the Knockouts, but I guess TNA creative didn’t expect the match to as incredible as it was.(then agin TNA dropping the ball isn’t anything new. As one show is live and TNA then pretapes the next weeks show right after, I can tell you that things don’t sound too exciting for next week either. No Gail on either show. I am hoping she will be back at the next taping. The question is did this finish the feud? If not where else can it go? Monster’s Ball?
Sunday was a great night for women’s wrestling as not only was there Slammiversary on In Demand PPV, there was also Evolve 22 on iPPV. Evolve featured one of my favorite grapplers, Mia Yim. I have saw Mia Yim in one of her earliest matches and I knew right then that she was headed for greatness and every time I have seen her she has gotten better and better. The match was Mia Yim vs Ivelisse Velez. The match was good. It was a little shy of 10 minutes and had a lot of back and forth action. I think you can still order the replay.
It was a pretty good week because not only did the week start out with Slammiversary and Evolve, but both Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling WAVE had shows this week. Right now my two favorite promotions are WAVE and OZ. WAVE has a weekly ½ hour webshow while Oz has a monthly 2 hour show that airs on GOARA TV!
The main event of WAVE was cosplay tag team match with Kana and Ryo” Aniki” Mizunami vs Yumi Ohka and Mio Shirai. It was a pajama match, in which all the girls had to wrestle in their PJs. Back when WWE RAW was doing their guest host gimmick, every divas match was a costume match catered around whoever was the guest host. Because every match was like that, I don’t think any of the girls enjoyed it, but when it isn’t a regular occurrence, it then becomes rare and special, I think the girls probably enjoy it. It certainly looked like they were having fun with it. Kana is amazing. She can do anything in the ring. While known for her stiff style, and technical wrestling skills, it is interesting to see Kana in a light, fun comedy match. A couple of great comedy spots in the match is where Mio is facing off against Aniki and is brandishing her stuffed cat like a pair of nunchaku and when Kana is wrestling Yumi. Yumi is blocking Kana’s kicks with pillow like someone holding a punching bag during a training session!
I can’t figure out which match stole the show at OZ Academy! Pretty much the entire card was awesome! I wish they hadn’t clipped the 1rst match as I am a big fan everyone involved. If you’re going to shave a match for time constraint then please don’t post the time of the match. If you post graphic stating the match time was 13:09 and the show has only been on the air for 5 minutes then it just makes me feel like I am missing all the good stuff. But other than that it was great.
02. Hikaru Shida vs Mayumi Ozaki - (OZ Academy...by SenorLARIATO The 2 best bouts were Aja Kong vs Ayumi Kurihara and Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikaru Shida. Ozaki vs Shida was just amazing. For those who have never seen OZ before, think ECW but with women. They fight into the crowd every show and this match was no exception. Shida even got busted open! I have always like Hikaru Shida but I didn’t expect this type of match from her. Kurihara vs Kong was incredible as well. Ayumi is sporting new yellow and orange gear. Kong is so big Kurihara was grounded for much of the match, but Ayumi was still able to give Kong the urange several times! This match was very good and very exciting but I liked Ayumi’s Dress Up Wild Fight against Mayumi Ozaki a little more. Both matches are incredible!
Originally that was going to be it for this entry…but I got busy and didn’t upload so I guess I will talk about the following week as well… Well this week wasn’t so hot in my opinion. TNA might have been great at Slammiversary but failed to impress me on iMPACT on the following weeks. Instead of following up on the great action told at Slammiversary, TNA opted instead to continue the Mickie and Velvet angle. One June 6, edition of impact Micke dodged Sky because she was already signed for a match against Taeler Hendrix. It was a decent match but I really wanted to see where they were going with Kim and Terrell. The men’s action was bland as well. The main event between Jeff Hardy and Bully Ray was O-K but it had a lame finish. The next week on iMPACT was worse. They didn’t even have a Knockouts match…just an inring segment between Mickie and Velvet. wouldn’t have been so annoyed by this if there was an actual women’s match on the show as well. I am fine with the building of match. Infact I applaud and approve of the girls not only a storyline, but I want to see action in the ring and it would be nice to see two storylines active at the same time. There was a time when TNA routinely had 2 women’s matches per show. It is not like there is not enough women on the roster to fill 2 segments.
Now I hear this was a big couple of weeks for the WWE Divas. Supposedly there was lots of build to this Sundays Payback PPV and lots of stuff going on in NXT. But I didn’t watch it, so I can’t comment. Given that WWE has done so little with the division in the past couple of years and WWE Diva fans are so starving for something to talk about, the cynic in me, thinks the fans are making mountains out of molehills, but back when Gail and Melina were still in the WWE I so wanted their feud to go over that I read way too much into everything that happened. Although if you ask me, Gail Kim vs Melina was still the best feud in WWE in the year 2011 even if it got no coverage, only played out on HouseShows and Superstars and barely anybody remembers it.
The week was not a total bust because Pro Wrestling Wave delivered as expected. This week started out with a fun comedy match between Ayako Hamada and Kana vs Ranmaru and Apple Miyuki. At one point in the match Ranmaru uses her ninja magic to make Hamada dress up like a school girl. Hamada tags Kana in and Kana has to wrestle wearing an AKB48/school girl outfit. I think Ranmaru might the funniest person in all of puroresu. Is just me or does everytime that Ranmaru says, "Oh My God!"in English do you just burst out laughing!
The match itself is very solid. There is a reason that Kana and Hamada are known as two of the best to come out of Japan. WAVE followed that with Mio Shirai vs Leon. This was a grat high flying match! The last match was another tag match. This time it was Toshi Uematsu and Ran Yu Yu vs Moeka Haruhi and Shibutani Shu. Another solid match, although the 1rst two were my favorites in the program.
I am not certain what lies in store for next week. I know that Pro Wrestling WAVE will be great as it always is. Pro wrestling WAVE can be watched here http://gyao.yahoo.co.jp/p/01034/v00013/ Although you will need to go through a proxy to watch it.
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.
Creepy Hide and Seek (Hitori kakurenbo gekijo banひとりかくれんぼ 劇場版 ) is one of those films that I think every low budget horror film maker should see.Not because it great example of the genre but that it holds together very well even though it is a low budget picture. One of the problems with American Horror cinema is that the movies have no atmosphere.Mood is just as important to a film as the story.If filmed the right way this can even make up for a lack of budget.Many J-Horror films are adept at this and Creepy hide and Seek is no different. Check out the trailer below:
Back, before I became a man of leisure, I used to work at BlockBuster Video.At the time, the horror movie was at an all time low.Most Horror movies seemed to go straight to video and it occurred that BlockBuster criteria when purchasing these movies was how inexpensive they were.Then when they didn’t rent well, the suits could say that people are not interested in Horror movies or at least take comfort that the company didn’t spend much on them.As I like Horror movies and must be a glutton for punishment I rented a lot of them.(at least as an employee, it didn’t cost me anything)Anyway to get to my point these films had no money, poor production values and often times a weak script.But if the directors had seen a film like Creepy hide and Seek, then they might have learned that moody music, and lightning can cover up a lot of a films flaws. A good example of this is the scene in the original Japanese Ring ( or ringu) were Sadako crawls out of the TV and kills Ryūji. Compare it to the end US remake and while Hollywood spent a lot more money on makeup, I still think the original Japanese one is scarier.Sometimes not showing you something is more scary than seeing the entire thing.Of course sometimes not showing something makes it look like you couldn’t afford to show it…so even if the effect is not within your budget, the director has to make it look like her could have showed the whole monty but chose on purpose to hold back.And it is that skill that I think more American filmmakers need to learn and Creepy Hide and Seek does this very well.
While the movie itself is B movie material and is filled with every Japanese Horror Movie stereotype around (it has troubled angsty teens, creepy long haired ghost girls, concerned teacher and the old occult know it all), I was impressed with the mood of the piece.The movie is very somber.The music is somber and creepy, the sound effects deliver the same message, everyone wears washed out and dark clothing, even the buildings are dank and paint chipped like they themselves are depressed.I will point out that pacing of film is slow. I didn’t mind this, as it seemed to fit hand in hand with the somber oppressiveness of the narrative itself.I think this may turn some views off though.
I also enjoyed the “modern spin” on the concept.Basically, Creepy Hide and Seek is a game of tag for people who have no friends to play with.The players perform an occult ritual to summon a ghost and then play hide and seek with the ghost. Bad thing will happen if the ghost tags you it.In the movie the people who play this game are on the internet. The players only communicate through texting, email and chat rooms.It is often said that computers are casing people to become more isolated, so it seems fitting that these isolated people would choose to play a game of tag by themselves.
While I can’t say it is the best of the genre, still I say it is worth a watch. While it doesn’t break any new ground, I think it does accomplish what it sets out to do.I also think it is a lot better than most of the B horror films that are produced inb the states these days. If you don’t want to sit through the movie but you do want to play tag with a ghost then check out this blog here as it tells toy how play Creepy Hide and Seek http://sayainunderworld.blogspot.com/2008/09/one-man-hide-and-seek.html
Have you seen this cat? If you have then please call me @860-388-2883, tweet me @King_Ghidorah or email me ASAP. My cat Rory went missing. i have been looking for him for days T_T He is an orange tabby indoor cat who got outside, who was formerly feral. He is very timid and scared. He was last seen June 29 between 540 and 536 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT (near intersection of North Cove Road)
