RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 50: Golden Age

Hello and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny. My name is Kendall and I will be your host and fact master for the evening.

(And I’m Alexia, your other host and dealer of sarcasm and extra comments.)

So, we’re almost done with the series. Fifty episodes and more. Fifty!

(That’s a whole five tens, dontcha’ know?)

Yes it is, Alexia. It feels so weird, knowing so much time has passed since we started this show.

(Yeah, you start this on your own over a year ago, didn’t you?)

I did. It’s scary and exciting and it just sorta reminds me that it’s my last Spring Break as a college student because I’m graduating this year and I’ll have to get a real job that pays and-

(Calm down! You’re scaring the viewers! Let’s get to the episode before you have a breakdown or something. Can you try to segue?)

Yeah… Actually, today’s episode deals with looking back on the past. So let’s join the Monkey Team on a trip back to the Golden Age.

(Very good.)

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with the hyper force  and the Super Robot looking for Valeena and Mandarin. They wonder about the Skeleton King Skull and its danger when Otto picks up a human bio sign from underground. They discover a man in a costume in deep hibernation. He’s wearing a helmet that looks like the hyper force emblem.

(Shouldn’t they have copyrighted that thing or something?)

They take him to the Super Robot. His hibernation was caused by the old fashioned sleep cannon they found with him. Otto reverses the polarity and the ensuing beam awakens him. He opens his helmet to reveal an old man with a long white beard and mustache.

(Dumbledore? Galfore? Judas Traveller?)

Apparently, he didn’t know he was asleep for years as he panics at his old face. He was young a few minutes ago (Not that you’d be able to tell.).

His name is Captain Shuggazoom, defender of the city (Name trademarked.). He recognizes the monkeys and reveals that he knew the Alchemist- they’re best friends.

(Cue the flashback!)

FLASHBACK

Dr. Malicious (Nice name, buddy.) stole one of the Alchemist’s inventions- the Magna Ball Blazer (Oh, I wonder what that does?). They fought over the weapon until the Doctor takes a car and its driver hostage and sets an ultimatum. Captain grabs the car before it hits the ground, makes sure the owner is safe, and throws the car at the Doctor.

(And he totally misses.)

Hush, you. He wins and decides to visit the Alchemist.

(And now we get to see him and the monkeys before their transformation into cyborgs. And they’re all so cute- even bratty little Mandarin.)

The Alchemist is working on the Silver Monkey (Why? Captain Shuggazoom wants a sidekick.) when the hero walks in. There’s a bit of talk before the Alchemist brings up a portal that peers into the soul of evil itself- the Netherworld. The monkeys- minus Mandarin- seem scared of the portal.

Inside the portal are the Dark Ones and their evil grows out of control. The portal allows them to study and monitor them directly. Captain thinks it’s dangerous, but the Alchemist says the grid is utterly impenetrable.

After the Captain leaves, Mandarin decides to gets close to the grid and start jumping around, screwing up the containment grid. A Dark One breaks free and the Alchemist is imbued with Dark One energy.

(Well, that’s one mystery solved.)

Later that night, Captain Shuggazoom (as his alter ego-millionaire playboy industrialist Clayton Carrington.) is off duty (On a date) when the Captain Shuggazoom signal goes off in the sky.

The Dark One is flying around the citdy, destroying stuff when the hero arrives and throws an attack at it. They fight and Captain gets trapped long enough for the Dark One to release more of its kind. He frees himself and hits with another attack. He lures the monster out of the city and gets it stuck at a crack in the earth.

Captain goes to the Alchemist and find worried monkeys and a changed Alchemist. The Captain takes the sleep cannon and promises to return.

The Dark One is still where he left it when he returns and the fight resumes. He fires the sleep cannon, but misses. Using his Sting Ring to collapse a cliffside on the beast, but it breaks out and grabs the Captain, who blasts it with the cannon. They both fall into the crevice.

END FLASHBACK.

Captain Shuggazoom never saw the Alchemist again. He asks how his friend is doing and learns the horrid truth. He blames himself, but can’t dwell on it for long as there is a shaking of the ground. Gibson and Otto discover that the Demon Beast is also waking up. They shut the cannon off, but it is too late.

It flies back to the city. The team and the Captain take the Super Robot and go after it. The Robot fights it while the Captain tries shooting the sleep cannon at it. The Demon Beast knocks them all down before attempting to open another portal. Captain gets up and tries again.

(Déjà vu, anyone?)

The Dark One pops the Captain in its mouth and Captain shoots the cannon off. The monster falls atop of the Lasertron Fury and through the portal, which closes.

Captain Shuggazoom and the Hyper Force say their goodbyes. The captain is headed back to the Alchemist’s laboratory to discover what happened to his friend in his final days. He may not like what he finds, but it is for his own piece of mind. He flies off into the sunset.

And that was the Golden Age, and it was quite the journey. I liked it. What about you, Alexia?

(It was an experience. I’ve got my thoughts on it, but first we have to get through the usual.)

NEW CHARACTER(S):

Captain Shuggazoom/ Clayton Carrington (Bruce Campbell): (It’s very obvious where the influence for the Captain’s backstory and abilities came from- a tie between Batman and Ironman. The character himself, however, is a bit lacking. I know he only appeared, but it would be nice to see him a little more fleshed out.)

As for his abilities, he has what looks like some prototype versions of Chiro’s own costume and the monkey powers, such as Sting Ring and his own Chiro Spear-o. And that the team’s emblem originally belonged to him.

Unfortunately, the episode does some rather corny things with him, mostly as jokes that don’t really work. And because of his character’s obvious influences, it means that we automatically assumed his personality and background instead of learning it through the show.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):
1) How did the Alchemist and Captain Shuggazoom first meet?
2) Was the Alchemist always planning to turn the monkeys in cyborgs?
3) Who built the portal to the Netherworld in the first place?
4) How did Captain Shuggazoom first get started?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode was a wonderful exposition dump for the monkey team’s backstory. It takes us way back before the team we all know and love were the team, and we see how the city had other protectors. Captain Shuggazoom is a good character for them, being one of the last good ties to their past lives.

(Speaking of the monkeys, it’s cute to see they all had traits that followed them through the transformation- Gibson is smart, Nova and Sparks still argue. Actually, it’s Mandarin that gets the biggest character nod. Apparently, he was always a little jerk, threatening his siblings and getting in trouble. In fact, it’s his fault the Alchemist even changed in the first place. What a jerk!)

The rest of the episode is decent. Again, what they do with the Captain is silly, but it isn’t insulting in any way- it’s just a little stupid. But his last moment on the episode was touching and I can’t deny it worked.

(This episode makes me want to see more backstory for the city as a whole. I want to know how the men met, how the city failed to take care of itself back then, how the feel of everything was. Modern day Shuggazoom is boring outside of the attacks.)

Hey, there’s still two more episodes to go. And on that note, this episode is over and done with. Thank you all again for joining us once again for this little section of the past.

(We hope to see you all in the future. Until then, we’re Kendall and Alexia, wishing you all a good day.)

THE MAD HATTER AND REI THE BLUE CATERPILLAR

So, a few years ago, I discovered a comic being put on YouTube called Amy in Wonderland. It isn’t an exact retelling of the original story- no, not by a long shot. And it isn’t  copy of the Disney movie, which is a plus. In fact, Amy (Alice) isn’t the main focus of the plot. Rather, it’s the characters of The Mad Hatter and Rei, the Blue Caterpillar.

(Or to be precise, it’s the fight between Wonderland-Sonic and Wonderland- Knuckles and Rouge over Wonderland-Shadow wrapped in a plot about fighting for freedom of sorts.)

Hey, Alexia. I didn’t know you finished reading it.

(Thanks for introducing it to me. Seriously, Hatter is my -our- favorite character in the entire comic- probably the most fun to read. And he and Rei are quite the pair.) 

It’s not just Sonic characters in an Alice in Wonderland setting- it’s more like Sonic characters taking the Alice in Wonderland setting and doing something different with it.

(Sonic makes an awesome Mad Hatter- and I want that top hat so BADLY! Actually, I want both outfits, but especially the top hat.)

(Kendall just found out today that the comic was finished and she introduced me to it almost immediately. You can find most of it on YouTube under the name Amy in Wonderland with links in the descriptions to the rest of it.)

Go check it out- maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. But it still deserves a look at either way.

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 49: Secret Society

Hello and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny. My name is Kendall and this is my co-host, Alexia. Sorry for the long wait, but if anyone’s been following the news, they’d of heard of what’s happening to my university.

(If you haven’t, well- SCSU just might be getting shut down for a number of years. Kendall is graduating this semester, so she’ll be fine. It’s any first semester seniors and below that are in trouble. And all the faculty as well. And the school’s reputation.)

It is because of this that updates have been rather slow. I want to finish this season before I graduate as a short term goal and I can’t do that if I don’t work. So without further ado, this episode is titled Secret Society.

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with Valeena torturing Mandarin for the location of the Skeleton King’s skull. (Seems she’s still sore about the Night of Fear thing…) The mistreated monkey refuses at first, but ends up caving and taking her to the hiding spot… only for it to be missing.

(Dramatic music now: DUN DUN DUN!)

Valeena realizes just who the thieves were- the Skeletal Circle. And this upsets her to the point of falling to her knees and saying that all is lost.

Cut to the heroes- or at least three of them- at the arcade. Nova, Otto and Chiro. As they play, Ma Cinco comes over with a bowl of cookies and everyone happy with the way the day is going.

Even if the sky is filling with red clouds…

Meanwhile, somewhere else, a group of red cloaked individuals have the Skeleton King’s skull and begin absorbing power from it into two of their followers.

Cut back to the heroes, who are just leaving the arcade when Otto gets beaned with a frog from the sky. Soon enough, more of them start pouring down and the city is in a panic as the three start doing something about it. They end up going back to the Robot for some help.

(Also, aren’t frogs from the sky some sort of sign of the apocalypse?)

Speaking of the Robot, there the other team members are, discussing what’s going on. Antauri senses supernatural forces at work. Chiro walks in and instantly comes up with a culprit- Valeena.

(And speaking of her, she and Mandarin are hiding out somewhere so Valeena can give some backstory:

Valeena: I was once one of them. A small group of Shuggazoomians who worshiped the Skeleton King in secret. The leaders of the Skeletal Circle chose me to present to the Skeleton King as his most loyal disciple. He rewarded me by transforming me with his power.

Mandarin gets impatient and demands that she go and get the skull.)

The two leaders, finished with their frogs, end their curse to do something a little deadlier: RATS (And they’re huge by the looks of things. Ew.)!

The team disengage the Super Robot to play Pest Control until they start escaping into the sewers. As they travel, they start hearing moans and weird noises and discover a weird chamber. They free a man chained up to an altar and take him back to the Super Robot for medical attention. According to him, they tried to feed him to the rats.

The man explains to them that he was taken as part of the sacrificial part of a ritual because he heard them chanting and making noise and told them to shut it and that Ma and Pa Shenko are involved somehow. Chiro sets off for the arcade to make sure the old pair are alright. He discovers a secret elevator and finds the underground cult.

(Valeena and Mandarin arrive and there is a small confrontation before the leaders reveal their identities as Ma and Pa Shenko. And they’re apparently Valeena’s parents. DUN DUN DUN! There’s a more violent confrontation as Chiro and Mandarin attempt to steal the skull under their noses.

(They get caught however, and Chiro laments that two people he liked turned out to be monsters. Mandarin taunts him about trusting anyone when irony strikes and the rest of the monkey team arrive. They noticed something going on at the arcade and remembered Chiro was there.)

The Shenkos transform into monsters and blast the team away. Antauri frees his leader and ex-leader as the skull starts shining and shooting energy into the sky. The final curse has been cast.

(And it’s GIANT SPIDERS! Gah, that’s nasty!)

The team attack the Shenkos, but they don’t do much damage and end up with most of them taken out. Nova and Chiro attack and get the skull away from them, only for it to split in two and reveal a completely new skull. The cracked skull means that the Shenkos lose their new power and the curse is lifted (Yay!).

Chiro and Nova attempt to investigate the new crystal skull when Valeena and Mandarin come and knock them out from behind. When they awaken, they two of them are gone. Ma and Pa are prepped to become the newest inmates of the offworld prison.

Chiro is still upset at the betrayal. Antauri gives him some words of advice:

Antauri: Evil does not always advertise, Chiro. Sometimes, it hides behind a smile.

Otto: Or a plate of cookies.

Chiro: If Ma and Pa can be evil, then anyone can.

Antauri: No Chiro, most people are good by nature. But we must be vigilant against those who exploit goodness as a weakness. That is why we’re here.

The episode ends with the twosome of Mandarin and Valeena talking about the skull and their future plans- the resurrection of the Skeleton King.

And that was Secret Society- quite the interesting episode, wasn’t it? We’ll talk about it in a bit. First we need to get the usual stuff out of the way Let’s start with the

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. How long has the Skeletal Circle been around?
2. Why do Shuggazoomians worship Skeleton King?
3. What are the other items Valeena and Mandarin are looking for?
4. Why did Ma and Pa sacrifice their daughter? Did they choose her specifically?
5. What will happen to the arcade?

NEW CHARACTER(S): (These aren’t really new characters- they’ve appeared as background characters before. But this is the first time they’ve ever had real significance in any episode, so we’ll talk about them.)

MA AND PA CINCO: These are two background characters that appeared from time to time. And I think that worked out well for them. They were familiar faces that we didn’t know much about. So making them villains was a rather good idea.

As villains, they’re unsuspecting and have the hero’s trust. They don’t really reveal their reasons for being the way they are- most villains don’t now that I think about it- but what they’re doing is good enough.

Their actions, however, leave a lot to be desired. Yeah, rats and spiders suck, but if they really wanted something to destroy the city, make a supernatural flu virus of something. And then when they turn into giant monsters, they don’t do much but stand around and laugh at everything.

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode was decent. It involves the entire team, a few new villains and some old ones. It’s interesting to see that it isn’t just the big bads of the universe against the do-gooder heroes, but the normal citizens as well. There’s nothing wrong with that.

(Something that we will complain about in this episode is the animation. There are times where it gets obviously choppy- I noticed it mostly with Valeena.)

But what got me the most was the pair of Mandarin and Valeena. Those two have every right to hate each other- they see each other as below themselves and an interference to their identical plan of resurrecting their master. Yet in the end, it is very obvious that Mandarin needs her for information and access to the magic he can’t get to.

One last thing we can nitpick about is Chiro and his lesson about people betraying him. That was done with the Sun Riders and it worked so well. They didn’t need to rehash the idea.

But with that, we’ve said everything we wanted to with this episode. I am Kendall, and I would like to say thank you all for joining us once again for another episode of Retro-Scrutiny.

(And I am Alexia, hoping you will all join us again for the next episode. Please wish us luck on getting up sooner than this one. Have a fantastic day.)

The Lindy Hop

So, it’s stuff like this that makes me wish I was some sort of professional dancer. They’re so energetic and it looks like so much fun!!!

RETRO-SCRUTINY EPISODE 48: Demon of the Deep

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Retro-Scrutiny! Yes, it’s been a while since we last saw each other, hasn’t it? In case you forgot us, my name is Kendall-

(A while? It was like, early January!)

-and this is my co host, Alexia. Thanks for the reminder, by the way. I feel a lot less guilty with you yelling at me.

(Don’t talk to me like I’m your momma!)

Then stop acting like her. We need to get this show on the road again.

(Okay, sorry. Well, the last time we all got together around this campfire, we were full of annoyance and rage. This time, we calm down and take a dip into the Demon of the Deep.)

OVERVIEW

The episode begins with the Super Robot chasing some fish men into the waters around Shuggazoom. An attack from one of them takes out their main engines and causes them to start sinking and taking in water. An unidentified object is caught headed towards them and they can’t escape because of the ocean dwellers blocking their escape hatch.

(I’ve heard of being up the creek without a paddle, but this is just ridiculous!)

A fishy submarine arrives and takes care of the fish people and rescues them just before the Robot gets knocked down completely. On the sub, they meet Captain Protesis and are welcomed onto the Revenger. He tells them that the city’s attack is just the beginning… of the end.

(Cue dramatic music sting here!)

Apparantly, something called Kro’Gar’Yoth will be released to destroy the city and they need to go deeper underwater to find a black crystal that can stop it. As the team walks through the ship, Gibson and the Captain start bonding over the technology aboard it before he tells them about the crystal’s defenses and why he needs their help getting to it.

That night, strange noises keep our resident tough girl from sleeping, so she goes exploring until she reaches a door and gets caught by the Captain. The door leads to his private quarters, according to him. Suddenly they are attacked by Shuggazoomian Men of War- giant jellyfish that he never prepared for. Luckily, they have Gibson to come up with a plan to save their skins. This gets him the permission to make enhancements to the ship.

Later, they reach the hostile depths and start the ‘dangerous’ part of their journey. They head out of the submarine and reach the box containing the crystal. A trio of spirits suddenly arrive and warn them away, but are ignored for the purpose of plot. They fight a rather generic sea monster and grab the crystal.

Back on the ship, Gibson tries to take a look at a wound the Captain sustained. It turns out he ‘was cursed many years ago’ and that the ocean water will turn him into ‘one of them’ if it comes in contact with him.

(Isn’t that a sign that he should’ve moved to the city? And one of who, exactly?) 

They examine the crystal and discover coordinates and a warning: Use this key to seal your doom. The Captain blatantly ignores it and they go on their way. They make their way through a system of hydrothermal sulfur vents, though they do have a problem with the magneto hydro ion drive.

(Sparks to the rescue! Well, they reach the crystal city of Kro’Gar’Yoth and uncover his tomb. The team takes a moment to huddle up and discover the creatures- the same ones that attacked the city- are being held behind the private door. Protesis arrives and explains that the creatures are his people, mutated into monsters by the same curse that affects him. They can either help him or let Kro’Gar’Yoth terrorize the city. The team realize that they’re stuck doing what he wants. Dirty cheat…)

 

They go in to insert the crystal, and it is then that Protesis announces his true intentions: releasing the monster on those who cursed his people and took their home- Chiro’s people. The monster starts whooping their butts and to add to the misery, Gibson’s new torpedoes attack them as well. He goes back to disable them and ends up confronting the Captain. Backing him up are the transmutated people of the water. They start tearing up the ship and letting water in. 

Once the ship is down, they group go to rescue the rest of the team and Gibson removes the crystal, sealing the monster and freeing his teammates.

(And now that the action is over, Otto decides to bring up the fact that they’re stuck 40,000 mega fathoms under the sea. The sea people coincidentally find them a way back home as Protesis is dragged under the water.)

  

Cut to the team back on dry land. Otto has fished up the Super Robot while Chiro is thanking the fish people for saving them (Aww, everyone’s friends!). Gibson, however, is in the dumps. So it’s up the his team to end the episode on a high note with this last bit of character interaction,

Nova: Don’t blame yourself. 

Antauri: He tricked us all, Gibson.

Gibson: How could I have been such a fool? Logically, I should have seen it.

Chiro: It’s okay, Gibson. You were listening with your heart, not your head.

Gibson: I just thought… that he was someone like me.

Nova: You stopped him to save the entire planet. He was nothing like you.

 

(And that was Demon of the Deep, a vast improvement over what we got over last time! We are so happy that this episode exist solely for that reason. But before we gush, we need to get some things out of the way.)

NEW CHARACTER(S): 

CAPTAIN PROTISIS: He’s not bad. He’s just an old captain at first, then a backstabber in the later half of the episode. The old captain made for an okay villain of the episode. But he’s not the character we want to talk about, so scroll down for the gushing.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. How long ago did the Shuggazoomians kick the former inhabitants out of their city?
2. What lives or has lived under the city?

FINAL OPINIONS:

This episode is much better than the last one! Yet, we can honestly say that it’s only average. Still better than The Hills Have Five, but still only average. The villain is somewhat generic, and the monsters could have been better designed. There’s actually a lot of missed opportunity to learn about the planet, seeing as it’s just a city and some abandoned, monster filled areas.

(The real treat of the episode is Gibson, because this is an unofficial Gibson episode. He’s the one who gets to be excited about something he likes and finds a new friend. He gets to enjoy himself and he gets to be heartbroken at the end of the episode. And he gets to look cute during it, which is an added bonus.

But at the same time, Gibson has a moment of unintentionally appearing as a bit of a jerk. When the captain comments on how it’s nice to meet someone who like tech just as much as he does, Gibson acts like he’s never even heard of Otto’s skills. Otto, his brother and companion and teammate who wants nothing more than to rescue their Super Robot and fix it up. And he does act a bit out of character, ignoring the logic in what’s going on around him. I don’t really blame him for that though, since he was excited and all.)

The rest of the team don’t really do much since it’s Gibson’s episode. They’re there to try to keep him grounded and save the day. And honestly, I wish we’d seen some more destruction from the fish people, because they didn’t seem like that big of a threat. They scared some people, but then they wreck the Super Robot, then they’re shown as prisoners. There’s a weird tone shift with these guys.

And that’s all we have for this episode of Retro-Scrutiny. Thank you all for being so patient with us and we promise we’ll get more to you all as soon as possible. Until then, I’m Kendall and she’s Alexia and we hope you all enjoyed this little adventure with us. Until next time.

(BYE!)

Punk Rock Japanese Kimono Jacket

(Hi everyone. So Kendall just finished posting up our latest update, so I decided to post up something that I just now discovered. It isn’t much, considering what we normally post, but I think it’s better than nothing. And it looks so cool…)

It looks like a punk rock ninja outfit of awesomeness!

RETRO-SCRUTINY SRMTHFG EPISODE 47: The Hills Have Five

(Sorry we’re late!)

Hello. I am Kendall and she is Alexia and together we make up the two faceless voices of Retro-Scrutiny. We would like to thank everyone who waited patiently for our return.

(We would have been back sooner if there weren’t a mountain of distractions that come with the holidays. Older siblings, their kids, shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking and cleaning, tree decorating- the list just goes on and on and on!)

And if I’m being honest, I’m kinda glad for all the distractions. I think I might have mentioned it last episode, but this episode is just AWFUL and I think you’ll see why in just a few keystrokes.

(Well, I’ve never seen this episode, so who knows? If anything, I’ll have fun watching you get madder and madder.)

Gee thanks. Well, no use wasting time, so let’s get this over with. This is episode forty-seven: The Hills Have Five.

OVERVIEW

The episode begins innocently with the Hyperforce ladies picking up a fast food order when Jinmay detects danger. The two move out of the way in time to avoid getting hit by a small missile.

(Who tossed the missile? Destructive bikers. The girls leap into action and bury one of the thugs under a pile of bricks, but are quickly surrounded and taken down by-)

A FREAKING NET! They are dragged out of town in a net by bikers! Can you see where the problems start? Gah! Well, after the opening theme, the boys arrive to survey the scene and end up facing off against the leftover biker, Squatch. They take it out relatively quickly and take it back for investigation.

(Meanwhile, the bikers arrive at their hideout and start showing off their loot. One of them, named Pigface for obvious reasons, gets ragged on for bringing items for the lot of mutant animals he cares for. Then they turn their attentions to the girls, dragging Nova to Pigface’s pets and taking Jinmay out to mess with her…

…And this scene is so bad in so many ways- it tries to make us feel sympathy for one of the bikers, it tries to make the bikers threatening, it shows the girls get dragged around like their overpowered. And it fails tremendously. In fact, it fails so much that it makes me want to check up on the boys.)

The rest of the team have discovered that Squatch belongs to a group called the Wild Five, a gang of interstellar criminals (With a real original name) who roam from planet to planet, looting and creating mayhem. Squatch won’t talk, so Antauri (Somewhat reluctantly…) decides to mind meld with it. The team discovers nothing they can really use, other than the toaster sized flea hidden in its purple fur.

(Since nothing important is going on at the Robot, I think it is time we checked back in with the other side of the story. Jinmay is made to fight the leader and he decides that she’s spunky and a bit wild but not very cooperative, so they make to change her mind. They bring her out with a new attitude and a look to boot.

 

Oh and Nova plays nanny with Pigface. Next!)

 

Otto manages to plant a tracker on Squatch and they let it free to try to follow it back to their teammates. Unfortunately, the hairball and the flea outsmart them and lead the boys to a trap.

 

The gang take out one of Pigface’s pets and torture it for a bit, including Jinmay, before she rides around with the leader in a gross parody of a romantic scene.

(Does this mean the leader is a pedophile of sorts or something….? EEWWW!)

The Squatch returns, gets into a tiff about being replaced as the token girl (Surprise: Squatch is a girl! And that only makes everything stupider…) and reveals that she led the rest of the monkey team into something called the Squiggly Pit. The two teams meet and Jinmay demands to keep Chiro and they take him back.

 

Nova is watching Pigface and wonders why he’s with the bad guys when the bad guys return so Jinmay can push Chiro around and show off her new heart beam.

 

(The boys escape the Pit and fly away- something they should have done earlier in the episode!- and go to rescue the three missing members as Jinmay is welcomed into the Wild Six, as she provided the feast- mainly the main course, Chiro. Pigface is told to toss one of his mutant animals on the grill, but Nova and his gang’s differing attitudes talk him out of it and in return, he sets the golden warrior free… only to get beat up by Jinmay.)

And then it goes from a cat fight to a Super-Robot-Monkey-Disgusting-Stinky-Biker Fight as the rest of the boys arrive! They take out the main group while Pigface disables Jinmay’s mind control.

(The episode ends with JInmay uses her newly installed heart beam to take out the leader. The team frees Chiro and Jinmay apologizes for trying to get him eaten as Pigface gets to play with his pets and the others get to go to jail.)

I am so glad that part is over. I just want to reiterate that I hate this episode, and you’ll see right after our usual spiel… 

NEW CHARACTER(S):

THE WILD FIVE: There is so little to talk about them that it’s a shame. They make up half the cast and I swear we spend more time with them then our main heroes, not counting the damsels they snatched up. Bagface and Metalmouth -I don’t care about their names!- have no personality outside of background groupies. I think they just might have the exact same personality

Bossman is just badly written. He starts off as just a biker creep, then turns up the creep factor to eleven. He’s a threat and a non-threat at the same time. He leads the gang, but it seems like both his girls can do that themselves. Squatch is the token girl that came before Jinmay and still manages to do more than most of the others on her team do.

Pigface is the one we’re meant to feel sympathetic for, but his personality is lacking. He likes his pets and he hates seeing them get put in harm’s way. It would be enough for a better episode, but this episode isn’t the one.

UNANSWERED QUESTION(S):

1. How did the Wild Five manage to evade police for however long they did?
2. How did they reprogram JInmay?
3. Why was Pigface a part of the group?
4. When did Pigface obtain his mutant animals?
5. Were they really going to eat Chiro?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

(Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. This episode sucks in a big way! So many problems, so many words to get out. Where do we even start?)

The beginning. First off, I can’t buy that Nova and Jinmay got captured that easily! I know this show makes it seem like knocking the team around is easy, but Nova is fully trained and experienced in fighting much bigger threats. Jinmay took care of herself and an entire city, plus has eyebeams and who knows what else- like, flight! And turning into a giant robot!

(Actually, the entire episode only seems to remember that its main heroes can fly only when necessary, like at the end of the episode. If Nova and JInmay had flown around in the first scene, they would have lasted longer. The Plot would’ve gotten them captured no matter what, but they wouldn’t look so bad doing it. They could have flown when the bikers arrived or while they were netted.

(Scene two: The boys find Squatch. That’s it. The scene is both important and boring.)

Scene three: The audience is shown that the bikers are evil, except Pigface, and the girls do nothing but act helpless when they could fight or FLY AWAY!

(Scene four: The boys investigate and learn nothing of importance to them. That’s it.)

Scene five: Jinmay FINALLY fights, but does so poorly you’d think she wasn’t a battle-trained flying, transforming robot and a fresh-off-the-belt maidbot. Boss gets creepy and decided he and Metalmouth are smart enough to work on living, thinking robots to make them their comrades and underaged arm candy. Nova does nothing because she’s in a cage and doesn’t think to fly out of the roof.

(Scene six: The boys hatch a plan that ends up being stillborn and start walking into a trap. That’s it.)

Scene seven: Squatch returns to fight over her spot as arm candy and not about an underaged robot girl under the influence of mind control being let into their group just as Boss made himself extra creepy. She ‘wins’ the argument by telling about her little adventure. They kidnap Chiro.

Scene eight: Chiro gets thrown around by Jinmay back at the camp. She beats him without really trying because Chiro barely defends himself. Nova laments her uselessness.

(Scene nine: The monkey boys escape. Woo…)

Scene ten: Nova finally gets loose as the group is about to eat Chiro (They’re being evil for the sake of being evil now.) and the two teams finally meet up to fight. The good guys win and Jinmay is ‘set free’.

(Scene eleven: Filler before the end.

Do you see the coffee stains on the schematics? The girls don’t do anything useful unless a the plot wants them to look good, and they have the personality of toast. Most of the boys are just there and the most important guy in the episode is a pervert. It’s like this episode is trying its hardest to not be good and it’s working.)

And that’s just the plot. The rest of the writing is unfunny and the animation doesn’t do anything to impress anyone. But the biggest complaint I have is that this dishonors Nova and Jinmay, two characters that could easily take on whole crowds of enemies.  It disregards both of their abilities just to make everyone useless and unlikeable.

(And bikers? Really?!? If this was season one, I could buy that they fought a stupid biker gang, except that this biker gang seems to be so incredibly dangerous that they’ve gone looting from planet to planet and haven’t been caught until they met some kids and some metal monkeys.)

So, is there anything in this episode that works? Jinmay’s bad girl design is cute. That’s it. So I’m going to tell everyone here to avoid this episode. It doesn’t impact the overall plot of the show and it will save you a headache. You’ll thank us.

(And with that last comment, I would like to bring this episode to a close. Do you all see why we hesitated to do this episode? I don’t even have anything remotely clever to say right now- that’s how tired this episode made me! We would like to thank you all for sticking with us for so long and we promise we’ll have the next episode up much sooner- the next episode is tons better than this one!)

Until we meet again, I’m Kendall and she’s Alexia, signing out.

Zebrahead- Fly Daze

So, if the last song was considered funky, this is the ideal perfect song to fit the meaning. It’s my favorite song on the album. I kinda wonder if I could play this to some older people and see if they could figure out the band and the time the song came out.

Zebrahead- Move On

As I listen to the album again, a familiar thought runs through my mind. “This album sounds funky, like they were aiming for an 80’s sort of vibe.” And that’s cool- who doesn’t like the 80’s? Kendall and I really should listen to the other albums, but this one is just too good for now.

Zebrahead- Waste of Mind

A single from the album of the same name, it’s another song that Kendall really should put on her playlist. I never actually listened to most of the albums that the band put out that weren’t ones that we owned or knew about. And this is one of their older albums. But over the break, we’ve been listening to this one and I now have to decide if I need to listen to all the albums in order to choose a favorite one or just be lazy and pick this one.