Dynamite Warrior: Dan Chupong’s Back, With Fireworks!

As I promised another badass Dan Chupong film, with some intense use of firepower! In this one, as it suggests, Dan

Dan Chupong. Ready to spark it up.

Chupong is the Dynamite Warrior, Jone Bang Fai (Bang is right). Appearing out of nowhere at the beginning of the film, Jone Bang Fai launches his dynamite-fueled rockets at a pack of thieving buffalo herders. With direct impacts and a few good, swift kicks, Dan Chupong dispatches the thieves and takes the buffaloes for the poor farmers who need the buffalo to attend to their farms.

And therein lies the genius behind this film. With a hint of Disney magic (from Hell), Dan Chupong becomes the Robin Hood-fox, and steals from the evil and gives to the just. With his skill with explosives and Muay-Thai, Jone Bang Fai becomes a force to be reckoned with. But not all is well in Nottingham Forest. Lord Wang (Leo Putt) has struck a deal with the American manufacturers of the West and plans on stealing all the buffalo to force poor farmers into utilizing the tractors. Did I mention this is early to mid 19th century Thailand? With this evil plan, Lord Wang plans to make a fortune and bow his little slice of Thailand to his will.

Dan Chupong. Rocket rider.

But there are a few men who wish to stand up to his tyranny. An “evil” group of magical warriors, led by Naai Jan (Jaran Ngamdee) blocks Lord Wang’s plans from seeing their full fruition. His fellow warriors, a lion and a monkey (well not exactly… they have the fighting styles of those animals…), he taps them on the head and they become lethal warriors, unable to quell their thirst for violence and blood. With Naai Jan and his fighting force, it appears they can’t be stopped. Unless Dan Chupong stands up to these behemoths of pain, no one can truly be safe. But oh, the twists.

And how many twists there are. You really have to check out the film for all the suspense and…

And there's these guys. Legendary director/stuntman Panna Rittikrai on the left!

unfortunately… hilarity that ensues. There’s talk of period blood, virginity, and an awkward relationship that mirrors the idea of incest. It’s all rather a freak show wrapped up into one action packed film. But that doesn’t change the fact that this film still kicks ass. Ignore the poorly dubbed acting (rather unfortunate I couldn’t get a chance to watch it otherwise). Ignore the strange overuse of fireworks. And the strange magical and mythical twists. This movie stands out with its plot and bare knuckle brawls. No holds barred, stunts and blunts, beat-down of an epic proportion film. With a crossover of the small amount of Thai action film stars, you see parallels between Dan and Tony Jaa, but it doesn’t detract from the film. It enhances the appreciation and experience. And that’s what counts with this film. It’s all about the presentation. That’s why I give the good ole Dynamite Warrior at 6.6 out of 10.

Aquarion/Genesis of Aquarion: Bad Plot/Characters, Yet Redeemable… Sort of

I watched this Anime for Christopher Sabat, my favorite voice actor, and was surprised by what appeared to be a decent mecha anime.  But, unfortunately, it really wasn’t that good. And so I was a bit disappointed. And then I got through 21 episodes. It got better, and I was surprised again. This whole roller-coaster of surprise and disappointment left me with mixed feelings about this anime, but, in the end, it’s up for you to decide.

This show focuses around the struggle between the humans that are left on Earth and the Shadow Angels, a race of “angels” that wish to harvest all the humans on Earth to add to their power. But there are some humans who won’t stand for it. These humans are known as elementals who can control certain powers that make them a threat to the Shadow Angels. These humans use what is known as Aquarion, a mechanized battle suit that, when combined by 3 elementals, will create a Gundam-like battle suit that can effectively battle the Shadow Angels’ Cherubim monsters. As the plot unfolds, the DEAVA, the last defense of the humans, comes upon Apollo, (Chrisopher Bevins) also known as Solar Wing, the last hope of the human race. With his help, Aquarion battles countless enemies in a effort to stop the Shadow Angels and bring an end to the war.

There are a lot of good voice actors in this show. Brina Palencia plays Silvia, the royal, yet prissy psychokinetic elemental who is said to be the reincarnation of Celiane, Apollonius’ human lover. Erica Vale plays her brother Sirius, the wind sword expert and other suspected reincarnation of Solar Wing. Colleen Clinkenbeard plays Reika, the girl with the worst luck in the world. Laura Bailey and Todd Haberkorn play the techie nerds Tsugumi and Jun Lee. Brandon

LET ME MERGE!!! (Suggestive?)

Potter does a great job as the strange, yet master-status Gen Fudou. But most memorably, this show has Travis Willingham as the hispanic Pierre (at least I think he’s hispanic) the footballer with the foot of fire. His voice acting, though undermined by the sexual obsession episode, is quite good in comparison to the rest of the cast.

But this begs the question. Why, with an all-star cast of voice actors was this show so poorly voiced? I think this has something to do with the premise of most of the episodes of the show. As the first episode indicates, this show is strangely devised and the episodes drag as its one battle per episode after another. With this slow progression of the characters comes a strange way in which to develop each characters. Whether it be the concept of virginity or anorexia, this show contains all kinds of strange premises with which to relate the characters. The best episode though deals with Travis Willingham’s character mocking/cosplaying all the other characters. But it isn’t until the last 5/6 episodes that the story progresses and becomes rather good. And if you can get through that much, my hats off to you.

This mecha anime really dropped the ball. As some claimed it was a mecha that really didn’t make a name for itself. It wasn’t unique and it wasn’t really anything special in its scope. Some of the animation itself was good, but overall the anime left me with a feeling of something to be desired. (It ended a lot like Xam’d.) But all-in-all, this was just a generic show. With sexualized merging/transformation sequences. I won’t even get into that. But yeah, 4.7 out of 10.

But really, what is this?