Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney First Turnabout Review: Mr Did It! (Spoiler Alert)

I will admit this, I found a new series that I am just going crazy for right now. I started playing the Ace Attorney series last month and I have already made a huge jump on that. I got through the first three games and the spin off title with Miles Edgeworth and as of right now almost done with Apollo Justice. Now while I could review the whole games in one go, I feel like that will not do my new obsession justice. So for the time being I am going to review all separate episodes from all the games. I feel like observing and talking about each episode of the series will really help paint out what the games are doing. They are clever with tons of charm and the very first case does a great job of highlighting that. So get ready to slam some desks, it is time to review the Ace Attorney series!

I guess I should put this here... all of these reviews will have SPOILERS!

For the first case of the franchise we deal with Phoenix's friend, Larry Butz. Already you can tell the names of the many characters will be full of puns. To start it off is Larry Butz which is dead obvious and this will not be the only time we shall meet him. So what has happened to poor Larry? He is on trial for being the suspect of murdering his girlfriend Cindy Stone. Larry is a defense attorney's worst nightmare as Larry is screaming it is all over and that he will just turn himself in. This guy is just trouble in one package as there is a saying for this guy, "If something smells it is usually the Butz." Now since this is Phoenix's first trial, his mentor, Mia Fey is here to help him. Phoenix took this case because of his friend and even though Larry is essentially screaming his is guilty, Phoenix knows he is innocent,,, or at least until he starts to get tricked. I loved how Wright started out, he is a bit dumb and just starts to buy any story he hears, but luckily Mia is around to smack some sense into him.

The first ever prosecutor Phoenix has to tango with is Winston Payne who is known as the rookie killer or at least he was. Payne already starts out playing hardball by getting Larry to burst out. He display the facts that Larry's girlfriend was actually not that loyal to him and to be frank they have already split up, even though Larry is in denial. Cindy has been known to have some sugar daddies and Larry was not happy hearing about this and even says the next time he sees her he is going to make sure to he finds everything out while yelling, just great. Then Payne brings his eye witness to the stand, Frank Sahwit and if you have played the game already or at least seen the first episode to the anime, we already know that this is the true culprit. So with that knowledge that he is the killer, it is up to the player to direct Phoenix to making sure this man is arrested. At first though he buys his story about seeing the body, way to go Phoenix!

 Thanks to Mia who gets Phoenix into cross-examining the witness, we find out a flaw in his testimony. This is the meat of the game, looking at the statements of the witnesses and seeing if we can break them down or simply add more information to them. Frank says he say the body at 1 PM and that is already a lie! The time of death was 4 PM and presenting this information gets Frank to think of more lies. Again thanks to how we already know this guy is a criminal gets you thinking of how to break his case. Then if you get one lie, the lies will keep coming. To prevent getting caught, Payne tells the court that he heard a television say the time which is why he thought it was 1 PM, but again this is not possible again. There was a power out during the time of the murder so there is no way he could hear any television! Frank now says that a clock told him the time and it was right on the table, but there was no clock! There only thing on the table was the murder weapon itself, the statue of The Thinker! This little statue will be a major player for another case which I am surprised how much this was used in the story. Catching someone's lies is extremely fun at this point because you just keep breaking someone down and just waiting for him to commit his crime, but everyone is so stubborn in this series!

For once Payne himself actually says something that actually helps him at this point and reveals the statue is actually a clock. When the head is turned, it will tell the time. So this is actually a clock and who made it you ask? Larry Butz of course! Still there is one big problem with this knowledge. First the clock itself was three hours slow and how could Frank know it was a clock. This is when you start dealing the big blows to his testimony and start fully accusing Frank as the murderer! The only way one can know it was a clock was to use it, which means Frank was in the apartment. Then with the time being three hours slow, Frank must have heard the clock when he used it as a weapon which left an impression to the murderer. With those blows Frank loses it and throws his toupee at Phoenix and starts screaming about this accusations. Frank saves himself though by saying there is no proof that the clock was behind three hours on the day of the murder and with that, Phoenix case is broken, or is it? The final showdown now occurs as Phoenix finds evidence that the clock was actually ahead and not backwards, why because of Cindy Stone being a traveler! Cindy was in Paris and had the clock with her during her travels which means the time zones were different. The clock was actually nine hours ahead and she did not adjust it when she got back and by presenting her passport, it reveals everything! Frank starts to foam from the mouth, passes out, and is quickly arrested.

 To end things off, Larry is still sad by all that has been revealed. Larry's poor heart is broken, but thanks to Phoenix presenting the clock to him it does actually shed some light. Cindy must have thought Larry was someone at the least because she carried around this big clock around with her. With that Larry feels a bit happier and already hits on Mia (oh Larry!). Larry even gives her a present which was another Thinker clock that he had made. With all done, Mia starts to wonder about Phoenix's past with Larry since Phoenix has said because of Larry and another friend of his, he owed them for helping him out and it was what soon had him thinking of taking this career path. Phoenix does not to get to tell the story yet and will he ever get that chance to begin with?

Even if the first case is extremely easy compared to everything else the series will throw at you, this is still an extremely fun case. It plays with the basics extremely well to get anyone the feeling of how things will go done, Usually if someone is on trial there will be hidden information and if you are defending someone, you should be defending them. Having Larry be the first one to defend is fun and annoying at the same time. Larry has some great funny lines, but imagine being his defense attorney, that would be a nightmare to deal with. Then there is already good amount of humor being thrown around, like the toupee for example. Then the heart racing feeling of catching a criminal along, just makes you want to scream "Objection!" There are even some great lines like "Well Mr Sahwit, or should I say Mr Did It!" I will say the only flaw would be how the prosecution did not even stand a chance, Payne is weak compared to anyone else you will face, but that he is why he is tutorial case material. Overall it is a fun first case that gets the huge fundamental of objecting presented and shows of these trials will be going from here on so it gets an A.

Next Time: Husbando Alert!

Kamen Rider Amazons Season 1 Review

Hey I am actually talking about current Toku and in its entirety! Only because this was like thirteen episodes long and I had a blast with it (not the way you are expecting though). I watched this with my friend and fellow reviewer over at Toku Warriors and you can go see his review on the show (http://tokuwarriors.blogspot.com/2016/07/kamen-rider-amazons-season-one-review.html). Now my friend and I had similar responses to the show, some different, and many jokes (mine being better). I will say a quick way to say my opinions on this show is how I describe my reaction for Shadow the Hedgehog, EDGE LORD!

Now I am fine with edgy shows or premises here. Recently I just finished Zero Time Dilemma and that game is full of death, betrayal, misery, and chaos. Amazons clearly has all of those things, but how it presents it is boring and uninteresting. The color scheme of the show needs to not take pages from director Zack Snyder and actually have more color! I hate it when a show or movie just goes with the terrible grey filters. There is nothing wrong with having color in these types of shows. Personally color can actually make things more savage, like the color red which the show mostly uses it only for Amazon Alpha (because his suit is red, got it... moving on). Anyways the use of the grey filter is done horribly because the show can literally forget when to use it. I remember in the final episode that the filter jumped on and off the screen and it is obvious because things looked brighter all of a sudden. Now one can say it was meant to do that, but if the filter leaves for a second and then just pops back on, something tells me that was not supposed to happen. Then there was the funny addition of giving Omega's bike the lion’s roar sound effect. I remember yelling at the bike to shut up because the roaring would not stop. It just kept playing the sound effect every time the bike would show up on screen!

Then for the gore of the show... it is weak. This is a big reason why I call this show an edge lord because it is trying so hard to be edgy. Yet for some reason the gore in this show is low. Most of the blood in the show is Amazon blood and that just looks like black tar or green goo, something that video games had to do to get around certain video game ratings. I guess now these days gore is just gore no matter what the color is. To me the real gore is red blood and the show does have it sometimes, but when it does they get rid of it right away. Like when there was a pool of blood on the floor and when it starts to spread out, it is black... what? It is even worse when the camera focuses on the open wound for a brief moment and you can tell that the actor is simply wearing a black shirt to make it seem like it is an open wound. I know this show is lower budget, but this is where camera work can be used to avoid little flubs like that.

The original Amazon was not afraid of the gore

 

Before getting to the plot of the show then there is like two more things I need to cover with the ascetics of the show. First off, many of the designs are bad to okay and with only one great design in my opinion. I agree with my fellow reviewer and pretty much everyone else that Amazon Alpha has the best suit design of the show. Hell I might say he is one of the better rider designs for the franchise in past five or six years. Now for Omega... he is the reason why most of modern rider designs are horrible. To me he just looks like he is made of plastic and trying a bit too robotic which for Amazon should not happen! The monster designs are just boring overall, I will say though the caterpillar Amazon took my interest because it actually worked with a cocoon design. Then as I said before the other designs are just forgettable at best and sometimes I had to wonder what creatures some were, oh and one had nipples for some reason.

The final ascetic would have to be the action of the show and yea... it sucks. In the whole show there was barely any fight that impressed me. A part of that has to do with the lack of gore for the most part. Still many fights will just end with no big payoff. A big example would be how a fight was escalating and then Omega just hits it with his bike and boom! The direction for it was terrible since Omega was barely even going that fast. I will say the fight that was at least something was where they were surrounded by Ant Amazons and Omega just went all out because he was showing off his arsenal and killing off foes by tearing and splitting others in half like the true Kamen Rider Amazon. Now what slightly ruins that and some other scenes in the overall show is how the bodies move. I swear a Photoshop master would love cropping images from this show since it is funny how the bodies are placed in the action shot. Now there is the execution team which I will bring them up again later on, but their fights go the same way for the most part, just shoot, shoot, oh and have the girl just stab the monster a bit with the knife. I will say I did like how they were implemented with Amazons like Omega and Mole, but still their style is the same and sometimes they barely do anything that is impressive.

Now for the plot of the show, the whole story of the show is simply unoriginal. Include the aspect that it is trying to be edgy you got a cliché show with both concept and execution. The reason why the Amazons are even a thing is because of science! Yup a bunch of scientists let the Amazons cells go out to too many people and now we got an infestation. There is even a scientist who used it on himself which is Alpha and he is out to kill all Amazons because he feels that it is his responsibility. For Omega he is a caged bird, wait a fish stuck in an aquarium (don't want to confuse the two) and just finds his Amazon to finally wake up. If you thinking this sound familiar, then high chance you have played Resident Evil. Things even get worse as there are conflicts for no reason, philosophy is going back and forth between characters, then top it off with (SPOILERS!!!!) scientists trying to achieve the next step of humanity. So this is a blended mess of Resident Evil, Kamen Rider Ryuki, and with a bit of Gaim mixed in. None of this was even a surprise because of how the company was acting towards the situation and it seemed like they were letting things be and that is pretty much what is happening. Even the identity of Omega Amazon is straight up predictable because of how his mother treats him.

Then reminding me of the characters I can say I only like a handful of characters by the end of this season. At first I liked Jin (Amazon Alpha) because he had a sense of humor with this terrible situation and was actually doing things for the most part. Jin never walked around with his philosophy, he knew what he wanted to do and he would die for that. Sadly by the end the show just paints him as the villain even if he is fighting for humanity, but he is crazy so that makes him the bad guy. Meanwhile Omega is just this confused child, at first he wants to kill off the Amazons, but then he finds out they are people too and will only kill the bad Amazons. Even though for most of these Amazons their awakenings are sort of out of their control and some try to find ways around it so they do not cause chaos. Even when one of the main Amazons eat someone, Omega simply goes "It is okay to eat people, it is kill or be killed, but maybe we can find a new way," way to jump around there boy. Then for the execution team, I like them. They are simple characters as most of their back stories are surprisingly a bit subtle. I like how unknown these people are like the captain who does have some family issues, the sniper who is trying to help his mother, a young girl that simply helps at a daycare, a con man with his luck turned around and people taking his money, and then the Mole guy. The Mole Amazon was actually a nice character and I can say looking back he had a tough path of him trying to stay away from being awakened. Mole loved being with the team as he found new friends within that and so did the others by the end of the show.

Overall Kamen Rider Amazons is a show that goes back and forth too many times which cripples the pacing of the show. You know it is bad when the show ends without anything finished, but hey there is second season coming up so let us just end season one with nothing. Add on the fact the show will actually shy around the gore and will have bad effects for most of them anyways. The only thing that can actually brighten up the show are the few amount of the characters since the main character is just confused, many of the scientists are just cliché scientists, Jin just goes crazy, but the execution team is what dragged the show to at least not be a complete failure. Still this is not a good show in my opinion as I give it a D. There are few good things here and maybe for the next season they can focus on those more and then fix some major issues with the effects. Still I had fun laughing at this show for being edgy which kept me watching it so you can say I also got some guilty pleasures with it. The final thing I can say is that at least the theme song is awesome.

Choujinki Metalder Review

Just like with anime, current Toku has been giving me some issues lately. I still liked some of the Kamen Riders like Wizard and Gaim, but with Drive and Ghost I lost interest. The last great Sentai for me was Gokaiger, but I will admit watching Kyoryuger still felt like it was worth my time. After Kyoryuger, I gave up on Toqger not even half way and Ninninger got no interests from me at all. I am hearing great things about the recent show from my good friend Fantasy Leader, so I will give it a shot when I can. For now I want to go backwards with Toku and watch the ones that caught my interests and most of those shows are Metal Heroes. The Metal Hero franchise has some great concepts to their heroes like Jiryaya, B-Fighter, the Space Sheriffs, and the show in question today, Metalder.

The story of Metalder is that long ago the robot known as Metalder was built, but it was kept in hiding for many years. The inventor, Dr. Koga decides to awaken his creation after the discovery of God Neros, the merchant of death. Neros wants complete control of all criminal organizations and with these high finances and strong military power, he will soon control the world. Koga’s plan goes successful, but at a cost. When the android, Metalder woken up he was given the name Ryusei Tsurugi and yet this android has not been given any purpose yet. Koga sacrifices himself by having himself get killed by God Nero’s troops and as they begin to attack Ryusei, his rage activates him. Ryusei suddenly transforms into his battle form known as Metalder and after surviving a battle against the army, he starts to question why he was brought to life by Koga. Throughout the show, Metalder starts to experience life as Ryusei and as Metalder. With Ryusei, he starts makes bonds with real life people and as Metalder he bonds with the people he fights or fights with.

Metalder himself is a strong character and I know this show was heavily inspired by Kikaider, anyways, the show really dives deep in the philosophy of robots and fighters in general. A great way to describe this is that Metalder feels like a strong war story collection. There are many stories being told in this one show and while some can easily mess this up by simply focusing on certain parts, Metalder knows how to give make the stories connect together. This is thanks to how side characters were implemented into the show. Many of them have their roles as Ryusei’s friends start to teach him about being a human and actually learning about emotions. As Metalder though he starts to learn how these warriors are, some who are sadly forced to fight, some fight for their dreams, or some simply love the mayhem. Metalder learns many things about emotions and conflict and it actually shows since the actor knew how to show that in the character. In the beginning he is heavily robotic and bland and then later on he starts to smile and even shows other expressions like confusion, anger, and even sadness. 

Along with Metalder himself there are a large amount of villains in this show and I have to say, these are the best villains I have seen in Toku. Kamen Rider Double with their Dopants is a close second, but the Neros Empire is full of amazing characters. There is the emperor himself as he is the most threatening man I have seen. He knows what to do on day one! He quickly learns what Metalder looks like and have assassins after him. Neros even knows how to utilize his men. He upgrades and repairs his men even if they failed, because he knows they will have use still. He quickly gets rids of traitors though because he wants no one to stab him in the back. I even love how he keeps his plan B all the time. A great example of how this man thinks is that his best warrior suggests he should go to kill Metalder, but Neros stops him because if he loses him, he loses his strongest warrior. This has been a problem with current Toku and that is that the villains stopped feeling threatening. Neros puts many villains to shame since he his evil, smart, and strong at the same time. My favorite moment of his is when he tries to make the perfect robot that can take Metalder’s attacks and even keep the musical aspect of what the robot originally was because Metalder was built with the love of the arts, the biggest one being music. This is a villain that analyzes his foes and tries new ideas around them and each one can be effective.

Now for the Neros Empire in general there are many names to mention here, but I will pick my personal favorites. Top Gunder, Neros greatest assassin who soon starts to learn about what he is actually fighting for and does not kill with no purpose. He is often seen as the lone wolf and has a hard time working with anyone in the army, except for his commander and emperor. He even slowly becomes Metalder’s ally thanks to how Metalder shows mercy to his opponents and saved his life from when Neros tries to kill him. Hedogross was a mutant that never got any help from anyone and was always looked down upon. A slave of the empire named Wisdom was his wife and he promises to make both of their lives better and he gets his chance by fighting Metalder and I was surprised on how much his story opens to other characters’ stories like Wisdom and his son, Junior. Ben-K of the Armored Army, one the first foes of Metalder and was spared by Metalder as well. After being left alive and being told to value his life, Ben-K became a traveling monk living in peace with himself and when he notices the Neros Empire and Metalder, he decides to help Metalder protect a family from being murdered to atone for his sins.

Big Wayne was a former general of the robot army and when one someone close to him is almost sent to death, Big Wayne frees him by entering the battlefield once more. Rhapsody, a musical robot who is forced to be changed into a fighting robot, after his fight with Metalder he gives him a performance and barely survives from Neros attack and continued to be the performer he always was. Valski, the commander of the Robot Army, always thinks the best of his troops and never wants them to die; he will always defend his own and is actually jealous of Metalder in a specific way. Coolgin, the commander of the Armored Army and the right hand man of Neros, he is the most loyal member where he vows his life to Neros and becomes a strong rival for Metalder. Geldring, the commander of the Mutant Army and easily the biggest scumbag of them all! He always takes the cheap shots to win his battles and would abandon his men or send them to die in a heartbeat. The overall presentation that many of these characters have is amazing and I only have a sample of these characters.

The biggest aspect of the story is the tone of it. I will admit the show can be straight up depressing at many times. Again this is why I would call it a collection of war stories, usually they never end well. Now the show does have happy moments, but at many points they are bitter sweet at best. The final three episodes in particular left me a broken man. The overall philosophy they explore with all of their characters and the final three really reveals what some characters’ thoughts were. The show has a powerful sense of sadness and it really creates a sense of beauty with it as well. Metalder shows the true bitterness of the battlefield, people die in battle and sacrifice themselves for others, their dreams, and their own desires.

The action of Metalder is even a high value of the show since the show had a high budget and it even blew that! There are times you can see it with some certain uses of characters. Even though some can be repeated, they find new ways to use these characters which really helps to keep things fresh. My favorite example would be how the ninja master soon becomes a master stage magician. What also helps the action is that each foe has a new aspect of fighting. One simply put Metalder into a dream state and was not much a fighter in general. Again this was the beauty of Neros, he knew many aspects of his army and used that to the highest potential. Metalder is constantly on the run or put to the test in his abilities. I really love when Neros uses certain armies for training or just to send an all out attack on Metalder. There is a constant surprise to the fights and how Metalder learns to embrace his human spirit he actually learns new ways to fight. The big advantage of having a robot super hero is that the show can really show the damage the hero goes through one time being his arm falling off and yet uses that as a weapon! The movements of the fights are strong as well and you clearly feel the power of many fighters, like when Metalder can destroy boulders or bash off his opponent’s heads with his kicks. Overall it was one of my favorite experiences in terms of action because of the constant surprises and how well Neros knew how to use his troops. The other saving factor for the action; is that it was not just limited to Metalder even if he is the main character. There are many fights between different members of the army and each other. It just build this nice world making you remember that there is more than just the main character.

Some may know what I think of Metalder already, but I finally got this review done and I can easily say this is my favorite Metal Hero show, but just one of my favorites in general. As a personal best, I will put it with Kamen Rider Double and Dairanger, but on the critical side of things this is probably the best of the three. Kamen Rider Double and Dairanger have many aspects that Metalder has as well like the great action and strong stories that really built their worlds well. With Metalder though, the constant philosophy the show explored and kept it consistent and kept true to its tone. I know many shows that tried to have too much in terms of philosophy and just having it is the end of a show because it jumps around too much with the tone. Metalder was just beautiful with how great the characters felt and how sad some of their stories turn out and yet leaves so happy that a show had the audacity to do the things it did. The 80’s and 90’s of Toku were simply amazing! Metalder gets an A+ in my book!

Finally, to end things on a personal note, what I feel what Metalder was trying to explore into was the philosophy of our fate. The show explores with robots, mutants born into battle, and humans forced to fight or even some feeling they need to offer their lives to a man who saved them and gave them a home. Metalder was even originally made to be used for combat in World War II and he ends up having to save the world, but in the end our fates our undetermined. We simply must live doing what we think is right and hopefully that will bring us the happiness we need. That happiness can even just be giving happiness to someone else, but it is what we want to do. Man, machine, or mutant, it does not matter, we all live in our own ways. We interact and bond who we want to and being able to have those is life itself and again anyone can have it and experience it in their own way. I just found this beautiful as the core concept of the show and I would love to bring that to a deeper focus for another time.

Halloween Special: Army of Darkness Review

Halloween is today and while I could cover a Toku with a haunting theme to it which would be… uhh… Kiva? Well I already reviewed that, but I do have some new thoughts on that show. It is still the first rider show I saw, but it does not hold up at all. I still want to say in my personal feelings it is a “C” or “C-“ and then my critical views is probably in the “D” or high “F” area. Anyways I want to talk about something that I love that actually can be a spooky scary movie or not… Screw it! While I could start with the first Evil Dead which is my favorite horror film around, but I just want to talk about Captain Supermarket!

Army of Darkness is the third film in the Evil Dead series and man what a change of pace for the series. Now Evil Dead 2 did have more humor compared to the original film, but it still kept the horror fashion the same for the most part. Army of Darkness is a whole different beast where Ash is sent to the middle ages where he continues his fight against the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Now even though I can say Evil Dead 1 and 2 are stronger films in the terms of the horror concepts, but Army of Darkness is just my type of fun.

So what does Army of Darkness have over the other two films? First off the action is way higher with an amazing final fight where Ash rides a moving table while firing his boom stick like a mad man. While the Deadite pulls off amazing acrobatic skills while getting shot up. Also the Deadite bounces off a trampoline, why you may ask, because it’s awesome! This film just pulls me in with how insane it can get because things will just happen. Ash will fight an evil version of himself where it can make tiny versions of him. Again Ash is dealing with the Book of the Damned; this thing will pull any feature to stop its foes.

Another reason it is fun is because of the many lines of dialogue. I can remember some quotes here and there from my favorite films, but Army of Darkness just carries some of my all time favorites. “Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun.” “Well hello mister fancy pants, I got news for you pal you ain’t leading but two things. Jack and Shit, and Jack left town.” “This is my BOOM STICK!” “Shop smart, shop S-mart.” The list can go on which it will. “Name’s Ash, housewares.” “Come get some.” I can't forget about, "Groovy" either. The lines are memorable to the highest value because of what is happening in this film. I don’t want to spoil most of the scenes because spoiling them will get rid of the surprise factor for those who have not seen this film.

Now this is a factor that all three films have, but I still have to mention it or him to be exact. It’s Captain Supermarket himself, Bruce Campbell. There are many actors who had to start with the silly and fun films and soon moved onto doing films of the higher art. I mean even the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger have done many different films compared to what they are famous for. Bruce though likes to stick with his A-game though which are mostly the B-films. Now he has done a show like Burn Notice and Xena, but in the end Bruce stays true to what he loves to do with any project and that is to have fun. He has said before that doing lawyer, cop, and that usual type of stuff would just bore him and I can see why he says that. He also loves the feeling that being a B-film star that he doesn’t have to please everyone, but he knows there are many who still do. Bruce is simply one of the actors who loves showing off his fun and to spread that to as many people as he wants to and it clearly has paid off. Army of Darkness is simply of those films where he is having a blast doing nearly everything in this film, even if the copyright policies got weird with Evil Dead. The character Ash Williams has been one of his key roles since it was the beginning of his acting career and he will be playing the character again in Ash VS Evil Dead.

Overall, Army of Darkness is pure fun and there is nothing wrong with that. Pretty much it is the Spiderman 3 of the Evil Dead films, but actually good. It may abandon some of the usual elements of the original two, but it makes a brand new image for itself and that image will continue in the upcoming series, Ash VS Evil Dead. I will probably do a review on that show or the first episode itself, either way though “Hail to the king baby!”

Also for a special bonus a spooky scary LP video from my channel!