The Alternative

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I don't want to watch Metal Fight Beyblade, just like I don't want to watch Digimon Savers.

Not because I think they're bad or anything like that...far from it, I have heard both shows are extremely good, but my (potentially stupid) reasoning for not watching them is that I'm afraid something like a Digimon Tamers will happen.

Before I watched Digimon Tamers I loved Adventure and 02 and especially Frontier quite a lot. I loved them all pretty much equally (okay 02 is falling a bit behind in that category) and it felt like the ol' nostalgic (how many times have I used this word in the blog?) cartoon I remember as a child, and it felt good. Then, years later, I watched Tamers.

I loved Tamers. So much so that whenever I talked about Digimon, it would be about Tamers. I wanted to talk about Adventure, 02, and even Frontier with a bunch of other people because those people liked those seasons as well, perhaps even more but all I felt like caring about at the time was Tamers. Tamers Tamers Tamers. Not Hikari or Kouji, but Jenrya. And well, I suppose it doesn't sound like a bad thing to anyone else, but for me it is. Why? I would start saying things like X character is superior to Max! I know I will start comparing and being crazy about it like this entire blog is pretty much about, and that would make me sad. Instead I rather go into brand new things that can't be compared with as easily, or something I won't have to rant about. But ultimately, the whole liking Tamers thing didn't go so well because no one else I know likes Tamers.

Who would I discuss it about? Should I go to a forum and discuss about it? No because no one is talking about Tamers anymore, they're talking about Xros Wars (which I did try to watch but I'm not following it at the moment) and well, MFB is actually fairly new but the type of fans that like that are those who like watching the fights, the battles. I know the MFB battles are TONS more exciting and even logical than the original (because I DID watch an episode, lol) but the characters...well, it's all about the characters for me. I read the Beyblade manga, it was okay, but the characterization was a bit poor compared to the Anime's take on it. (In contrast the animes' plot is poor compared to the manga, lol) People who say "WHY WOULD YOU BE WATCHING BEYBLADE IF IT'S NOT FOR THE SPINNING TOPS NOOB!?" very much annoy me. Yes, it's a show about spinning tops but if the show also has other points that are good I'd like to watch it for that. Can't I? Can't the battles themselves be just a bonus for me? Do I HAVE to watch some mainstream anime to get  good characterization and plot? That's not how it works all the time. It's not like Beyblade is the ONLY thing I watched either. That kind of attitude annoyed me.

Again you could argue that the point of Beyblade is to advertise the tops, well I liked the characterization enough to actually BUY them. I have a Driger MS sitting right in front of me. I may not be the target audience, I may not be watching the anime for what it's about, but I do contribute to the beyblade revenue and isn't that enough? There are TONS of things I like where I'm not the target audience. Hockey is normally aimed at a bunch of guys who like...well, hockey. I love hockey. Starcraft also is for a bunch of video gaming guys, how many girls play Starcraft? Well I watch and play that too. Negima is aimed at (at first single young male adults, lol harem, but now seems to be aiming for boys as well (shounen) ) I'M reading it. PPGZ is aimed at little girls and I actually started liking it MORE at nineteen than at fifteen! Even the original PPG though SEEMINGLY aimed at young girls was more like it was aiming at boys because of all the violence and action, I WATCHED THAT TOO. To denounce someone for watching something besides its obvious reason is stupid and ignorant.

Also as for the whole competition badass super awesome intense beyblade battling thing...I think I rather watch something like that in real life. And no I don't mean real life Beyblade competitions (because in real life you can't destroy rocks with your beyblade >_>) no, I rather watch something with unpredictable results not (THE MAIN CHARACTER WILL WIN, AND IF THEY DON'T THEY WILL WIN THE REMATCH AND BE THE WINNER IN THE END TOO) something fictional. In that case I watch hockey and pro starcraft games. If I watch something like that in fiction, it's because the character will probably get some development as a result of said battle, and so I will enjoy how it occurs. The action itself is the bonus. Besides in real life I can have a favourite player and there's a chance they'll reach the top...and then you'd be proud, being a fan of them since they were rookies, in fictional settings though unless your favourite character is the main one...you're pretty screwed.

Ultimately though, I'm not watching it because no one else does. And I don't have anything to talk to them about it, which is what happened with Tamers. Aoi-dono is my Digimon loving buddy, but she's an utmost Adventure fan. You can always say MAKE NEW FRIENDS, but it feels as though all the fans of MFB are little boys. And again the characters I refuse to let replace my beloved old ones. I suppose you can't REALLY say the same for Savers because it's more mature and so makes more sense if I DO watch it, but eh, I don't really have a reason to not watch it, maybe I should.

It's like me liking Little Fighter, but only a bunch of twelve year-old boys liked it, and it makes sense because there is absolutely no story or characterization for the game. There are people like me that DO like it beyond the whole "OMFG DRAGONBALL Z" thing because I've seen fanart and fanfiction and such for it, but it's of another language. It's similar with Metal Fight Beyblade too, in Pixiv there's TONS of fanart for it, all the Japanese love it, but I see not as much in deviantart....which makes me more sad because pixiv art is usually very very nice in comparison to dA...if only it was the other way around so there was more original Beyblade art, oh well.

But you could argue, "Well maybe it'll end up like a PPGZ to PPG thing, you like them both equally rather than denouncing the one you loved before!" The problem with this is that PPGZ is DRASTICALLY different from PPG, yet at the same time has made effort to keep the characters from the old version there to at least throw in some nostalgia despite several personality changes, so it just works better in comparison to BRAND NEW CHARACTERS you have to suddenly love or at least try to.

Also I like giant beasts fighting each other, though it wasn't done very spectacularly in V Force but still. YOUR SPINNING TOP HAS A MOTHERFUCKIN' PHOENIX! That's not lame, that's cool. I sound like a nerd, but I think it's cool. Your phoenix can also burn things. The problem with V Force was that the whole beast wrestling was not executed well so they just looked...wrestling-ish rather than potential epic fights (which can be done the SAME with the spinning tops too!) Hell, instead of bit beast in G Revolution it looked more like the PEOPLE were fighting rather than the BEAST, so you get instant transmission, kaioken, and super saiyan 2 instead of Pokemon.

Well I rather watch Pokemon! Except even in Pokemon the battles weren't that super actiony, but I'm taking this from really bad memory. If a white tiger was shooting thunder bolts from the sky simply by glaring, and then dodging attacks while leaping into the air for an aerial attack, and then rebounding off the ground after the other beast dodged, then...well, WATCH THE LION KING SIMBA VS. SCAR or SIMBA VS. NALA, they looked really cool. Could they not have done that? Then threw in some fantasy with LIGHTNING BOLTS and FIRE like a phoenix enveloping itself with fire and then...

Okay Beyblade did do that kind of, but not very well! They could've animated them better! Made it more epic and such. You get my point.

Oh right in my last post I said the next post would either be a PPG review, school, or family...erm...I guess I'll try to cover the latter two. My first classes started and they're okay, except they're morning classes and I kept playing Starcraft until sunrise with my guy friends so by the time school rolled by I was NOT that tired in the morning (because I attempted to sleep at night) but I wasn't able to sleep THAT much at night time so by the time the afternoon class rolled by I was exhausted.

There's this kid who sits next to me, I think he's pretty cool...can't tell what his accent is though. Oh it doesn't help that the professor has the most boring of voices when she lectures, and lectures for like an hour straight without even writing a thing on the board or the computer or whatever, egads none of my other instructors were that linear X_x, hopefully it will change.

As for family, my uncle from Hong Kong came over on his birthday. I'm not sure why he came during September when Summer (our only dry season) is ending and the 9 month long rainy season begins, but oh well. Also I hope those clouds go away in time for Moon Day or we won't see the moon! D: I watched some sort of little short on TV that explained Moon Day as actually the "Harvest Moon" in some cultures, where an optical illusion makes the moon A LOT bigger just after it rises for a few days of the year (thus why it is Moon Day!) and because of this extra light farmers go outside and harvest their crop later than usual.

As for the PPG review, it would REALLY help if the first two episodes weren't completely stupid. After Firefox crashed I lost my reviews of them, so I guess I have to rereview bad episodes and yeah. I'll try for next post! Oh and HOLY FUCKING CRAP WATCH THELITTLEONE VERSUS HYPERDUB GAME ONE RIGHT NOWWWWWW GSL THAT WAS AN AMAZING 80 SUPPLY BEHIND COMEBACK FROM TLO, DO EET. DO EET NOW.

Sadly he lost the next two games though. Egads. @_@

You see what I mean? Lol. An epic awesome game, but it is realistic in that the fan favourite and arguably "main character" for westerners lost in the end, yet at the same time contributed an extremely entertaining match and earned experience. It's kind of like Pokemon how Ash doesn't win anything....except HE DOESN"T WIN ANYTHING WTF BE A CHAMPION OF A REGION SOMEWHERE PLEASE, ORANGE ISLANDS IS NOT CANON!
Actually perhaps he wins at the very end of the anime whenever Pokemon actually ends because who watches a character after he wins everything--oh wait.

Stupid Beyblade.

BEFORE THIS ENDS I must praise one more thing.

Beyblade attacks sound awesome! Okay yes I now sound even more like a nerd but hear me out.

First season the attack names were...erm, uncreative.

Dragoon STORM!
Tiger Claw ATTACK!
Fortess Defense!
Etc. (I did like Phantom Hurricane though, and Flame Sabre is not particularly creative but I still think it sounds cool.)

But I did like season two...Hyper Victory Tornado! Volcano Excellent Emission! (I like how these attacks are actually stronger versions of Victory Tornado, Volcano Emission, etc.) my personal favourite from V-Force is Heavy Viper Wall though, just the way Max says it makes it sound awesome. Rei has Vulcan Power Claw which sounds okay but I must rant about his attack names...THEY ALL SUCK. Every single one of them has CLAW in it, can you not be anymore creative!? It sounded good in the first season because it was his first attack with claw (and you can't beat him defeating Bryan with that epic Tiger Claw Attack) BUT GEEZ. Tiger Claw Attack, Vulcan Claw Attack, Gatling Claw, Thunder Claw...REI YOU NEED TO BE MORE CREATIVE.

Season three has some good attack names...nevermind I lied, it doesn't. The only thing that sounds alright is Blazing Gigus Tempest (why the dub changed Gigus to gig I will never know. Let me do a google search! According to urban dictionary "Gigus" means enlarging anything...erm, I suppose that could be inapproriate, but I think it might be a foreign word. Anyway the similarly spelled "Gigas" is a Greek term for giant, so perhaps "Gigus" is some form of verb form of "Gigas" but that's just a guess and there doesn't seem to be many helpful results on google for "gigus" ...nonetheless...I suppose it makes sort of sense? "Gatling" on the other hand probably came from Gatling Gun, since his blade smacks like 800,000 times when that attack happens.

OR a possible reason for Gigus being translated into "Gig" is because "Gig" is actually the proper "verb" form of "Gigas" and the Japanese just pronounce and spell it like "Gigus" because that's how their language is like (similar to something like...having a random U in a name, such as Shounen or Shonen) but....Gigus sounds cooler :D OR they MISSPELLED GIGAS and people who translated the Japanese just assumed GIGUS because that's how the Japanese romanji of it works and it how they would PRONOUNCE IT, so I actually think it should really be Dranzer GIGAS but all the official merchandise spelled it Gigus too so I guess Hasbro just has no knowledge of the Greek language and went off what they read as romanji/heard.

Man, can I talk about anything less significant?  Lol. Anyway as for the others, Galaxy is okay, I don't really like Gravity because....I dunno I don't really like that word at all and I was hoping Max would've gotten a water-related name....nevermind he never gets a water related name until his final attack (Aqua Shield) because he got "Fortress" and then "Viper" and now "Gravity?" Perhaps there is no G word related to water, hmmmm. But how does gravity affect defense? And if he can control Gravity (his attack is Gravity Control) can't he just crush Beyblades similar to Albeiro Imma crushing Kotarou in the tournament during Negima? Aqua Shield though is worse than all of Rei's attacks, that's CREATIVE. I am a defensive blader and my element is water, therefore my attack is AQUA SHIELD! Oh em gee!

Takao's attacks in G Rev caught Rei's uncreative disease and he put "storm" at the end of his attacks besides the "Twister" one but I personally find  twister less powerful sounding than storm or hurricane or tornado, so yeah. I guess my favourite attack names are Kai's attacks, what with Flame Sabre, Volcano Excellent Emission, and Blazing Gigus Tempest. He also had an attack called Fire Arrow, wasn't that creative but it reminds me of Henry's attack so okay P: However my absolute favourite is again Heavy Viper Wall! Just hearing it is awesome "Heavy Viper Wall" "Heavy Viper Wall" it really works best with Max's dubbed voice, but I think his seiyuu did fine too.

Particularly in episode nineteen of G Rev when he says "Heavy Viper Wall" with his deep voice, it just sounds awesome. HEAVY VIPER WALL , HEAVY VIPER WALL!

Okay! That is all from this rant. Actually you should be expecting a continuation, possibly conclusion of that really random Maxman fic I wrote earlier. Toodles.