Scryed, X-men+Jojo-Fabulous and women= this.

Scyred is a rare example for me, of preferring the adaption to the source amterial. Scryed's anime did indeed come first, and it wasn't bad, but it lacked the punch of and overall badassery of the manga. Kazuma is a much different character, though the rest of the cast acts largely the same, at least til the anime decides to kill everyone off, but more on that later. Scryed has been in my top five favorite manga for over a decade. I've seen the anime three times as well. Unlike the rest of my blogs, I'm writing about the manga first.

 Both Scryed series have the same basic premise. An area of Japan rose up into the sky one day, and of the children born there a small percentage gained super powers known as alters. They can range from being stand like to creating a seperate entity, or enhance your body, or even heal others. The world is a wasteland similar to theworld of Fist of the North Star, and our hero Kazuma is similar to it's protagonist, Kenshiro. Kazuma is known as the treasoner, he takes jobs that his friend Kimishima offers him, usually rescuing kids from bad alter users. He lives with a young girl whom he takes care of, Kanami.Early on, he clashes with Ryuho, a member of Holy, a police force dedicated to order in the last ground. Kazuma escapes, but vows to kick Ryuho's ass next time they meet. Kazuma gains fame taking down corrupt Holy Officers, and soon Ryuho arrives at his door. The two of them head out into the middle of nowhere to throw down, and an epic battle commences. Ryuho has the upperhand, but Kazuma refuses to give up, to the point where he manages to reattach his severed arm to crush Ryuho's alter, Zetsuei. Kazuma passes out, satisfied, and Ryuho, despite being impressed knows he has to arrest him. Enter Lawless, and their two leads, Akira Mijou and Hannish Lightning.

    Hannish and Akira take Kazuma back to their compound, while the nurse in charge of Kazuma reveals she is a childhood friend of Ryuho, Mimori. She heads out to get medicine for Kazuma, but is captured by Holy. Kazuma absorbs the medicine through his skin, and with Akira and Hannish heads out to save her. Kazuma's brilliant paln is to bust in there and kick some ass. Kazuma breaks into the facility, and finds  Mimori about to be raped, and saves her. He also finds Kanami and Kimishima in the facility, and just when he's about to free them, Cougar Straight shows up. Cougar was a childhood friend of Kazuma's, and a fast alter user. The two of them fight with Kazuma getting his ass kicked, until Kazuma absorbs some of Cougar's speed in his arm, and uses his falling speed to attack quicker. Ryuho shows up to witness this, but Cougar stops him from attacking.On his death bed, he reveals that he joined Holy to get more food to the poor people of the lost ground, and that the true villain is the man in charge of HOLY, Martin Zigmarl. He is quickly killed by one of Zigmarl's men.Ryuho and Kazuma team up to quickly deal with this threat. They part ways, with Ryuho and his partner Cherise heading to Holy for some answers, and Kazuma returning to Lawless.

   Ryuho and Cherise get their shit kicked in by a member of the new Super Holy,Mary Jane, and Cherise uses her alter to merge with Ryuho, saving him from death. She leaves him to recover, and heads back to sneak into Holy, but is brain washed into being a slave by the second member of Super Holy, TT. Meanwhile, the third memeber of Super Holy, Taiki Aono destroys Lawless Headquarters, leaving only a wounded Kanami and Akira in the wreckage. Kazuma and Akira head off to get revenge at Holy Headquarters. They easily wipe the floor with any Alter users in their path, until they come face to face with Taiki Aono who overwhelms them. They are saved by the Alter Hermit, and pulled to another dimension. The alter hermit was originally Martin Zigmarl's teacher, but was killed by him. Cougar had told the Hermit about Kazuma, and how he would be the most powerful alter user and able to use the word of evolution, Scryed. The hermit passes this knowledge onto Kazuma and Akira, and passes away for good.

Kazuma's true final form.

    Kazuma comes up against Taiki, while Akira engages Mary Jane in a room full of clones, grown and created to have alter powers. Taiki reveals he is Kazuma's brother by way of a matching birthmark, but Kazuma doesn't belive brotherhood should stand in the way of beliefs. Kazuma kicks his ass after he powers up using the word Scryed. After the fight Kazuma reveals he is the treasoner because "In a guilty society, it is treason to do what is right." Mary Jane is Beaten when Akira uses Scryed too. During this Ryuho has entered the fray, coming up agaisnt TT, and Cherise under his control. Ryuho kisses her, they merge, and speak the word of evolution, Scryed. Ryuho's alter gains it's final form. The two of them head to Zigmarl's office, where he reveals he can take the form of a pretty boy, and he does.

He wipes the floor with them, until Taiki reappears, and helps Kazuma land a direct hit. Taiki passes away, and Martin Zigmarl summons his Alter, Galan Du. Shortly after, Galan Du turns on Zigmarl, killing him.  Galan Du controlled Zigmarl, and is planning to wipe out humanity, with the help of his time machine. Kazuma and Galan Du are sent back to the time of the dinosaurs, where Kazuma summons all his strength and beats him. In the present day, a glacier in unearthed with the word Scryed scrawled in it. A battle worn Kazuma reurns to Kanami, and leaves us with the word "Your destiny is what you make of it, sometimes it just requires a little force." In the epilogue, it is show Kazuma regenerated his arm and missing eye.

From upper left: Cherise, Ryuho, Mimori, Kanami, and finally Kazuma in the front.

   The anime of Scyred is similar to the manga for the first few episodes, before diverging wildly. Kazuma is the Shell bullet here, not treasoner. he's also many times weaker than his manga incarnation. He still takes jobs, but early on he is captured by HOLY, before managing to escape. The aniem also loves it's death with Kimishima dying early on, and Kazuma going to the Alter Forrest to power up Alter. Despite this power up, Ryuho still kicks his ass, but the fight tears open the dimension, Ryuho loses his memory, and Kazuma becomes some sort of Gladiator. The interesting thing is that the world below the lost ground interacts with the island, sending people and the generic silver haired villian to the lost ground. No matter what happens in this world though, it all just feels forced and generic to me. Martin Zigmarl dies, but he's a good guy, Cherise dies, most of the alter users Kazuma helped early in the series are experimented on and die, the series is just a mess. It doesn't help that this series shares a character designer with Gundam Seed, so expect plenty of same face. The villian is so forced even when they beat him, nothing changes.

     Kazuma's alter also destroys his body, for whatever reason. Yeah, no one else has this problem, it's to make Kazuma for more tragic. Kanami is also an Alter User here, she can see the future in her dreams, she narrators the opening where she recounts her dreams about Kazuma. There's plenty of Alter Users here, but overall they don't add much. Kazuma struggles when fighting most of them too. This Kazuma is kind of angsty teenager to the bad ass of the manga. Still, the series is okay, I like the fight scenes, but the characters are a mess, plus the final episode is Ryuho and Kazuma beting the shit out of each other for no reason. C'mon guys, you beat the final boss together, why do you have to keep fighting?

Anime's Cat thing/ Guy Shishio rip off Final form

Same as the manga's final form, I give it a pass.

    Scryed is a series I'd like for sunrise to revisit at some point, the manga at least. The anime can stay dead for all I care. It had two compilation movies a few years back, but they were never translated due to lack of interest really. Scyred aired on Adult Swim, but personally I hate the dub. In addition to sharing a character designer with Gundam Seed the leads also share a vocie actor. Kazuma is also voiced by Soichiro Hoshi, same as Kira. He turns in a much better performance here though, most likely due to understanding Kazuma's emotions. Still the anime is a 7/10 to me, whereas the Manga is a 10/10. I have no idea how many times I've reread the series, but I know I'll do it again. Kazuma is a bad ass, kicking ass, taking names, and never giving up. We could all learn a few lessons from ole Kazuma.

Code Geass manga rodeo, because this blog is severly lacking in Geass.

When I wrote my Code Geass manga fun blog, I was disappointed at my self for not remembering the contents of the manga series. I went searching and found out almost every Code Geass manga released by Ban Dai was scanned in by the denizens of the internet. Hooray! So I reread them sll, and now here's a  blog! I'm not reading that Shit Renya manga though, you couldn't pay me to touch that series again.

   The main manga series simply titled Code Geass : Lelouch of the Rebellion. It's essentially a straight adaption of the anime series, except with shitty changes. The first big change is the lack of Knightmares. The scenes with Knightmares usually just give people guns, or tanks. It's obviously not as cool as robots, but the art kind of sucks, so I can only imagine how bad the robots would look. The series also contains 60% more school hijinks, to the point where its retarded. The Student Council takes the trip to Kamine island, instead of being transported there. Suzaku had been at the school prior to the series start, and Euphemia also attends there. What. Certain characters are changed, or all together removed. Lady Mariane uses her Geass to enter Viletta Nue, Orange is shot by Shirley, and the Knights of the Rounds appear on roughly 3 pages.It loses quite a bit of the fun of Code Geass though due to there series being lame, Lelouch doesn't seem to be accomplishing much, and then suddenly he's the emperor and dead. Awesome. 5/10. For Hardcore fan like me only.

At only two volumes, Suzaku of the Counterattack is a pretty fun read. It follows Suzaku in his Lancelot Kamen Rider suit as he essentially becomes a super hero. Yes, Suzaku runs around in costume with Lancelot's face on the helmet. Lelouch doesn't do much here, it's Suzaku's game. The main villain is Schneizel here. Lelouch tries to kill the emperor, but Schneizel already had done it! He blames Lelouch, and Suzaku takes him down, and becomes Schneizel's Knight in the process. Schneizel's goal is to capture C.C. and become immortal, which he does at the end. Luckily Lelouch and Suzaku team up to save the day. Lelouch's Geass doesn't work on Schneizel for some reason, and his eye is torn out. Suzaku kicks his ass though. The art is really good, and the story is unique at least. 7/10.

 

Nightmare of Nunally, which should have spelled it with a K, is next up.This series is . . .  weird to say the least. Nunally is obviously the lead here, but normal Nunally, that's boring. Let's give her a Geass that allows her to summon a Knightmare frame! Wait, that's not enough, she can see the future and develops a split personality. YU-GI-Ohhhhhhhh!!!She also makes a new friend, who is despite being 12 is a bad ass Knightmare pilot who shows her panties constantly. She has a Geass too! She can move super fast!Yeah, this series . . . It gets dumber, don't worry. Apparently Nunally's second personality is a Demon sent by CC to protect Nunally. Lelouch's Geass here is a suit that makes him invincible. He can fly, fight Knightmares one on one, and take over other Knightmare frames. I know, wtf. The series is kind of an incoherent mess with Geasses everywhere. No one dies though except Rolo, who is Lelouch's twin brother that was powered up by Charles. Lelouch Continues to be Batman after the series ends.Nunally can walk and see by the end, checkmate Handicapped people. If you like panty shots, asses, and Batman, you will love this. Otherwise, run the other way.  3/10

Code Geass: Tales of an Alternate Shogunate was something I had never read before, so I didn't know what to expect. It's hilarious! It's a Code Geass take on what it Commodore Perry had come to Japan and used his Geass to enter the country. The story follows Suzaku, a Knight/Samurai, and Lelouch/Zero as the leader of the Shinsengumi. Lelouch does have his Geass, and for some reason everyone still has Knigtmare frames. The two clash, but end up realizing the true enemy is Commadore Perry. Even his transforming ship can't stand up to the power of team work., It's fun, cute, and is only a single volume. What's stopping you from reading ? 8/10.

I've never read Code GEass Queens, but it has two hot animu chicks eating pizza on the cover, so what more could you need to read ? It's a series of goofy chapters that poke fun at Code Geass an its characters, each chapter done by a different person. The humor is really hit or miss, and because it is "For Boys" It's very fanservicey. Not that this is a bad thing. The humor ranges from things like is Ohgi a cross dresser, or Schniezel helping Suzaku study for a make up exam. There's no substance here, and the art ranges from good to barely legible. It's worth a read, the first volume is easily the best. 7/10.

Hooooo Boy! I can sense the homolust radiating off this cover. It's almost palpable in the air. Then again that was prominent in the main series, what else could you expect with Clamp character designs? It's not quite as funny as Queens, but the art work is better overall. Many of the jokes rely on homosexual innuendo, but some break through and manage to be funny, Schniezel is particularly a goldmine, along with Rolo and Lelouch being Geassed to believe they live in poverty and in constant fear of living in a cardboard box. Obviously this is aimed at women, and homosexuals, so I'm not the target audience, but it was enjoyable overall. I give it a 6/10

Renya of the black was awful and forgettable, and I refuse to touch it ever again. I guess Tales of an Alternate Shogunate is the best Code Geass manga, with Suzaku of the Counterattack as a close second. Expect a Gurren Lagann Blog at some point tomorrow, unless I get pulled back to my Tomestone addiction in FF14.

GTO and all it's Spinoffs. Onizuka for life, screw Pontiac.

   The first anime series  and manga series I went into blind was GTO. The premise of a formers gang member turned teacher was too funny to pass up, and I did not regret it one bit. GTO stands for Great Teacher Onizuka, for those not in the know. Onizuka was a member of the Pure love Gang of Shonan, but as he grew up, (physically) he decided to become a teacher. As you can guess, it's full of wacky hijinks and fun. That is, til the author realized he would never have a series as good as GTO, so he wrote a mediocre side story, and is currently writing an awful sequel, but more on that later, shall we?

   The logical starting point for GTO is Young GTO or Shonan Junai Gumi. Onizuka and his best friend Ryuji Danma form the unbeatable Devil Bomb combo. They're too idiots who go around getting in fights and always kicking ass. They're dumb as hell, but they're both ridiculously strong, especially Onizuka. The two of them unsuccessfully attempt to hide their gang habits in a chance to pick up chicks. The story basically endlessly repeats itself in an endless cycle: A new guy starts shit, Onizuka and/ or Ryuji, they get their shit kicked in, Onizuka gets revenge. Sometimes they becomes friends with the defeated, or at least less hostile to on another, but the new characters add little. The only real long term change is Ryuji gets a girlfriend named Nagisa, and moves in with her, until her parents find out, then they have to sneak around to see one another. Onizuka never does, and this is where plenty of the humor comes from. Onizuka is a bad ass and pretty handsome, but he's an idiot and unlucky.  The series is hilarious, and does feature some really cool fight scenes. Only a hand full of characters carry over to GTO: Onizuka (DUH) Ryuji, Nagisa and Saejima, a classmate and formal rival.

GTO takes place  a few years after Shonan Junai Gumi. Onizuka has graduated from a third rate college, and now attempts to be a teacher with little luck. His attitude, gangster style, and unrealistic expectations keep him from employment, but he finally gets a job at a public school full of troubled students. They harrass him and fake sexual harassment charges, so he gets his gang friends to kick their asses. Expecting to get fired the next day, Onizuka trudges into class the next day fearing the worst, but is commended by the principal for turning the problem students around. They want to hire him full time! Too bad he forgets to take the teacher exam, and despairs. Lucky for him, private schools will hire you without the exam certificate. Onizuka applies at Holy Forrest Academy, and after German suplexing the principal and charming the chair woman, he gets hired to fix the problem class, and live on campus.

Some members of the problem class (No they don't have downs)

    Onizuka's first problem is a student tries killing himself due to bullying, so he saves him by jumping off a building and destroying the principals car. He then gets revenge of the bullies, one of whom's mother is the head of the PTA. Onizuka is almost fired, but saved by evidence from a student. The series follows it's own cycle,  A student or teacher gets Onizuka into trouble ( Photoshopped pictures, money scandals, etc), Onizuka almost gets fired, and Onizuka overcomes the ordeal, winning over students. The main student though who is seemingly behind everything is a girl named Miyabi Aizawa. She lied about being raped by a teacher whom they were all friends with, when in reality she was jealous he had a fiance. The teacher was beaten, fired, and had his fiance left him after this incident. This is complicated by a new headmistress who has it out for Onizuka, and sicks her attack dogs on him, one of whom gives Onizuka a brain injury. Onizuka is legally dead before reviving to save the headmistress from the burning building. The series ends with the students creating a tribute to Onizuka at the school fair.

Don't worry, half this cast isn't relevant halfway through.

     GTO Shonan 14 days is a side story, it takes place during one of Onizuka's hospital stays. He heads off to his home ground on Shonan Beach to lay low, but of course gets caught up helping abused children fight their abusers. The series isn't bad, but it retreads the same ground as GTO with less memorable characters. The girls are cute, and a few GTO characters make cameos, but it doesn't add anything.

After the success of GTO Shonan 14 days, what else could be done but make a sequel to GTO? In comes Paradise lost, a terrible blight on the Onizuka chronology. Onizuka is back at Holy Forrest, and Principal Uchiyamada once again hates him. Onizuka is still getting screwed over by the school, and is put in charge of a class of idols (models, actors, writers, etc). Despite taking place at the same location as the original only fellow teacher Fuyutsuki and Uchiyamada make a cameo in the first chapter. None of his formers student stop by, though I bet they will if the ratings dip. The problem I have with this is that Onizuka proved himself worthy of teaching at Holy Forrest, that he was a good teacher and man. Paradise lost does away with this, and we're back at where he was at the beginning of GTO. I get that he wouldn't have much development with his old class, but that just shows how worthless this sequel is. And a class of idols, really ? So far Onizuka is just going around in a wrestling mask pulling pranks against students who hate him. I hate this series so much.

     GTO was of course adapted into an anime series. It covers roughly half of the manga, but the end is different. Miyabi is such a bitch because her friend was knocked up by a teacher who abandoned her, then killed herself. The teacher is found stabbed, and Miyazawa is the prime suspect, but of course it was someone else. Fuyutsuki also confesses to Onizuka, whereas she only admits it to herself in the manga. There's five Shonan Junai Gumi OVAs as well that adapt the first few volumes of the manga. I think they were made later in the manga's life because Onizuka looks like Ginji Amano of Getbackers fame, a look he only had in later volumes. There's a live action GTO series, movies, and spin offs, but I have yet to watch them. Someday I will and update this blog reflecting that. Now here's some scores!

GTO Manga-10/10
GTO Anime- 9/10
Shonan junai Gumi-9/10
Shonan junai Gumi OVA- 7/10
GTO Shonan 14 Days-6/10
GTO Paradise Lost- 0/10

Harlem Beat! No, it's not that Yaoi manga or a New York soul group, the Manga!

Since I've written blogs on almost all my favorite anime series, it's only fitting it's time to write one on my favorite manga! With the announcement of the new Fate/Stay Night anime being an adaption of my beloved Unlimited Blade Works, There is only one anime I crave, one on Harlem Beat. I love this series so very much, which is strange because I think sports are queer, and don't follow any. So what sets this story apart ? It's a drama that involves basketball. The cast is varied, fun, and loveable. So let's slam into the jam! I'll be using Tokyopop translations, since barely anyone read those,and no one reading this in English will know what I'm talking about otherwise.

     Harlem Beat follows the story of Nate (Naruse) Torres, a loser who always gives up. Be it sports, music, whatever, he quits and moves onto something else. But not this time, this time he's going to give basketball his all. He makes his school's team and while going out to buy gear he meets an old friend, Mizzy Kusada. She introduces him to street hoops to help him improve. Nate starts off week, but it turns out he has a secret weapon, he can do the Air Walk! Soon he's joined by Kyle, a street thug who has a crush on Mizzy, and Masahiro Sawamura, a smooth talker with a rough past. The four of them form Scratch, and head off to the Skykiss tournament.

Main Characters:
Nate (Naruse) Torres- Our generic shonen hero! He's got an amazing ability to learn, and loves basketball.
Mizzy Kusada- The girl next door and former classmate of Nates. Her father walked out when she was young, and she lives with her rich mother.
Kyle Ozman- A gangster with a crush on Mizzy, he's a teddybear underneath it all and admires Nate.
Masashiro Sawamura- The best character in the series, his father abandoned him at a young age after being betrayed by a friend and amassing a large amount of debt. He's street smart, great at three point shots, and loves money.
Shuji (Shu/ shoe) Shurman- The hero of Johnan's basketball team and local street player. He comes off as sort of a big brother.
Sumisugi Kobayashi- The samurai of the team, he becomes captain when the Seniors quit to study.
Tomomi Koizumi-Nate's love interest he meets at the High School Basketball finals.

Nate, our hero.

Mizzy, a cute girl with daddy issues.

A good looking man who likes money and gambling.

A gangster who wants Mizzy.

At the tournament, Scratch faces off against local heroes Three Man group, and discovers their main player is the hero of Nate's Highschool Basketball team, Shu. Nate sees him as unbeatable, but Shu encourages him to keep playing. Scratch barely wins the match. They go on to face other teams, but withdraw during the semi finals due to fatigue. The series was a hit at this point, and could go onto longer serialization. Hence back to Nate's school team, with Shu the team's leader, Kobayashi the teams samurai type, and joined by Sawamura to form a great team. In the past Johnan's current seniors were freshman the team was pitiful. The seniors didn't care and they lost every game. This year will be different, and they did well the previous year, losing to Harada Commercial high in the semi finals. They manage to overcome them this year,and head to Sapporo for the Finals of the tournament. This ends Harlem Beat, at least when it was released in America. It covers volumes 1-9 of the source material.

Johnan's team

   Volumes 10 and 11 were skipped before Harlem beat was re branded as Rebound in America. I revently bought them both due to them being cheap on amazon.com. The important parts form these volumes are that Nate goes to Sawamura's house and sees a photo of his father. This is important later. Mizzy and her home life are shown, and she talks about her crush on Shurman, which really seemed to come out of nowhere in Rebound. Finally fellow street players help train Johnan for the finals in Tokyo. I can't read moonrunes, so this is me guessing based on the pictures.

    Rebound begins with Johnan arriving in Sapporo, and meeting their first opponents, Kyan High. They're tanned punks with attitudes, but they play street ball and comes off as cool guys. Nate meets Koizumi during this time, and the two begin a friendship.Johnan barely wins, though they have their eyes on the tournament favorites, Kanakita, who have a player favored to compete in the Olympics. During all this, Sawamura is reunited with his father who he hates. The two make peace, and his father offers him a place to stay, but Sawamura declines.After winning the right  to face Kanakita, Johnan trains hard to overcome their defense. Despite all of this, Johnan loses. It's heartbreaking to see them make it so far, and lose.  They head back to Tokyo afterwards, with Nate and Koizumi promising to keep in touch.

The final few volumes are enjoyable, but they feel unfocused. The Johnan seniors retire and leave the team to Kobayashi. They all go on a beach trip together, where It's revealed something is going on between Shurman and the team's female manager, Kim. Mizzy confesses to Shurman, but is turned down. The next few volumes deal with someone trying to conquer all of the street hoops in Tokyo. Sawamura joining up with an old friend in a high stakes Basketball gambling tournament. Nate, Mizzy and Kyle defeat him, and then face the head honcho, some random guy who wants to find a hero among basketball players. Yeah, whatever, Shurman shows up to help, and Nate defeats the head guy. The last three volumes seems lost, with Johnan failing to make it to the finals, and Nate and Sawamura being forced to work as ushers during the events.Koizumi and Nate get as close as they can be, and Nate promises to tell her he loves her the next time they meet.

     Finally comes the end of it all, Shurman and the other seniors are graduating, so they hold a party for them, and the new team tearfully says goodbye. Shurman and Kim head off for Doctors without borders together, while the Three man hoop where Nate and his friends met is threatened by a construction crew. Eventually the hoop is moved to the local playground where all can play together. The end!

   What I loved about this series is the characterization. Everyone has a distinct personality, even if the art makes it a bit hard to tell faces apart. The artist loves to draw SD chibis, and she is much better at that than regular. It's more about drama, compare this Slam dunk, which was about energy on the court and awesome moves. Sakuragi has no real depth to him other than being a loud idiot who loves basketball. Nate falls in love, faces defeat, and trains hard to do his best. The real draw is the supporting cast. Sawamura is an amazing guy, he has a rough life, works to support himself, and does his best to help Nate and make money. He's very funny, and amazing at three point shots. Kyle is an idiot whose awkward attempts at romance and making friends are enjoyable to watch. Mizzy is hot, but she does seem to have some depth. Shurman is the older brother everyone loves. Kim is the team manager who loves to torture the team, especially Nate. Even the rival teams have stand outs, like Sasuke Amagi, Higa Yuuta, or Kuwata. They're all such interesting people that make this manga about Basketball a joy to read.

    As with most series in the 90s, there was spin offs. First up is a Playstation game- Harlem Beat- You're the one! From what I gather it's a visual novel with basketball in between. I won a copy, but my lack of understanding of the moon stops me from playing such a text heavy game.There's two novel spin offs, but once again I don't know Japanese. maybe someday I will and shall buy the two volumes and the new G Gundam manga. I have more money than common sense anyway.

Harlem Beat manga- 99/10!

Novel 1

Novel 2

Yeah, I have no idea what I'm suppose to do here . . .

    I'll probably write a blog on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Code Geass. I'm fairly certain this blog is fueled by Code Geass, so it's only fitting that my 200th blog is on it. I'm rewatching it as I write this. This Dub is truly terrible, but I must suffer for my craft.