My Boruto Uzumaki collectible (Review)

So, another great collectible I got just the other day is my newest one, Boruto. I was kinda debating on whether I'd actually get Boruto, but, recently, someone was selling him on eBay for a really good price and this is also around the time a lot of new anime collectibles were being put out so I was thankfully able to get him. The one I got is actually in a set with an adult Naruto and, while I'm not gonna get that for a few reasons that I explain in the video, it is still pretty cool and I'm really happy to have gotten this Boruto. It's a Banpresto figure, like I've said before, I'm always impressed with how amaingly accurate they're able to make these figures and this is no exception. I'm glad I got him and, and this is something I explain in the video, but I put him in the case next to my Asta figure and they look really cool together. Anyway, here it is and I hope you all like this.

Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime Review)

So guys, this is an interesting one because I'm doing another anime review here, but for this one, I'm doing the original Fullmetal Alchemist. I've already talked about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood so many times on here, but, recently, I was finally able to get the original Fullmetal Alchemist series from 2003 on Blu-Ray and I watched it. I also recently got the two Fullmetal Alchemist movies. The first is from the original anime's timeline and is what finished the story and the second is a normal offshoot anime movie like a lot of other ones based on Brotherhood's continuity. I've been trying to get the original series for a while considering how much I love the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise and I knew that after they ran out of manga material, they went off and did their own thing. But, when I started watching it, that wasn't really true because, even in the first few episodes that were the most faithful to the manga, there's a lot of weird changes to it. In fact, that's probably the best way to describe this show, weird. There's a lot of things in this that're so strange and bizarre. I'm not saying this show is bad, it's just weird with how the story is told and what they do in the early episodes. So, let's get into it and, like always, this will have spoilers for the whole series and the movie that finished it, so, if you don't want anything spoiled, go watch it then come back and read this. So, the beginning of the series starts off pretty similarly to the manga where it shows Ed and Al after their failed human transmutation then skipping ahead a few years after Ed becomes a State Alchemist going to Lior to investigate the whole thing with Cornello and finding Rose there. This first episode mostly follows the first part of the manga there except for some weird changes like how they kinda spoil the whole reveal of Al being a suit of armour before it should have happened with his chest opening in the desert and Cornello using a bunch of birds to make a humanoid shape to trick Rose into thinking it's her boyfriend who died and Lust coming to meet Cornello in one instance by going through some big ouroboros mark above him and so on. Again, it just makes me wonder why this much was changed in just the first episode, but that's not even the weirdest part because after the first two episodes that tell the Lior story, which is already strange because I don't think it needed two episodes to tell that story, we get a filler episode where Ed and Al have to stop some guy named Majhal from taking souls from girls in his town to bring back some woman he loved. Just the way episode is told is really weird with how it's paced and how it kinda goes through everything really quickly and the way the events happen just shows that more. But I think the weirdest part of the early episodes is that a lot of them are showing the events of the manga happening in the past. The whole thing in Lior happens as normal in terms of the timeline, but then the whole thing with Tucker and Nina along with Ed and Al stopping the train hijacking happens in a flashback around the time Ed was getting ready for his Alchemist Exam and he and Al were staying with Tucker and Nina while studying for it and they develop more of a relationship with Nina because of how long they spend with her. I guess it's nice they develop more of a relationship with her, but it's also kinda strange with how they tell the story of their time with them, especially since in this version, it's actually Gracia, as in Hughes's wife, who's pregnant and they do the whole baby delivery thing with her and Alicia instead of the whole story in Rush Valley, yeah, we'll get to that part later. So, in these early episodes, they spent a lot of time with moments and characters that weren't that important in the manga, especially in regards to Basque Grand, as in the Iron Blood Alchemist. In the manga and Brotherhood, he's just some random alchemist that Scar kills, as in we only see him for about a minute and then he dies, here however, he plays a significant role for a while and, while I kinda get that they knew they were gonna be doing what they wanted so they figured they could explore characters who don't get a lot of time in the manga, the problem I have is that I think this character is in this way too much. He's a big part in the early episodes and I kinda think he's in it for too long. Also, here, they decide to show Barry The Chopper to be a person that Ed actually fights and then he's arrested and it's around here Ed first sees Scar as he doesn't know who he is and they don't fight. So, yeah, the fact that Barry's a person in this before he's put inside the armour is odd, though, I will admit, I like how Ed is terrified to face him, as he should be considering this is him fighting for his life for the first time and, afterwards and even during the fight, he has severe trauma and I like how this series sorta adds more things to Ed of him seeing so much horrible things that traumatise him over and over. It was done well in Brotherhood too, but I like it here too since we see him do things we don't see him do in the manga or Brotherhood. Though, and I guess this is also a point about Brotherhood as well, but, I like how they do the Youswell story here since that was never covered in Brotherhood, but that's also done slightly different here than the manga, so that kinda makes me wonder why they didn't cover it in Brotherhood since it wasn't fully faithful to the way it was done in the manga here either, so the fact that they did it like this here makes its absence in Brotherhood even stranger. I also feel like this series kinda holds on some things a bit longer than really necessary like the part where they go to Rush Valley. Speaking of, let's talk about that because, in my opinion, the whole segment in Rush Valley in Brotherhood and the manga is one of the best moments and one of the most entertaining moments in the whole story, here though, it's kinda weird because they have Winry get mad at Ed for using alchemy to win the arm wrestling segment and they do it in a way that kinda makes her a bit unlikeable for a little bit, and this was something that was only used as a joke in the manga and they only stuck on it for a few seconds but then she meets Paninya and she's the one who suggests that she steal Ed's watch. Again, all this was just making Winry seem kinda unlikeable and this takes up a substancial amount of the episode. We never get to meet the family Paninya is staying with with the pregnant woman aside from Mr. Dominic, and, again, that was one of the most entertaining moments in the manga and Brotherhood, but it's not here and I feel it goes on for too long. Speaking of Winry, there's another really insane change added here because in this version, it's shown that Mustang was actually the one who killed her parents after he was ordered to by his superiors and it left him traumatised and depressed. I really don't like that change at all. Even if Mustang was ordered to do it, I don't like that he actually did it because Scar being the one to do it in the real story was a huge part of both his character arc and Winry's, so having it done like this was so weird and didn't fit well into the series for me at all. After this moment, this is where they start going off to do their own thing. I mean, the whole series was pretty much all Studio Bones series, but, it's at this exact moment they stop doing anything that's an adaptation from the manga and just make everything up themselves, because we then see Izumi after this like they should, but then she brings them to the island they were at when they were younger and there, they meet a small boy who can use alchemy to apply a substance to his own body and it's at about this point the writing for the new plot the writers were crafting really begins to show more. Sure, you could obviously notice it before, but this part here is when it's beyond undeniable that this stuff wasn't in the manga. And this plotpoint is really important for the series. One, they show that his right arm and left leg are actually Ed's limbs from when he lost them during the human transmutation, and two, here we learn a lot of other new information like how Homunculi in this version are actually created from a person who tried to use Human Transmutation and they're made from the remains of the person they tried to create. Not only that, but they also show that whenever a Homunculus gets close to the remains of the person they were being transmuted as, they weaken. And, again, this becomes super important. And, there's a whole bunch of information being shown at once that it was pretty nuts trying to keep track of it all, and I don't mean that as a bad thing necessarily. When you really just realise that this is just kinda how the series is gonna be and accept that, there are things here that're really enjoyable. I really like in a show, especially an anime where you sorta put things together with the characters and come to understand more about how the world works. But this all leads to the reveal that the main villain in this series is a lady named Dante who was actually Hohenheim's lover originally and they became immortal by transferring their souls into other people's bodies until Hohenheim became guilty for sacrificing other people to achieve it but Dante wanted to keep going and she's been using the Homunculi to do this. And, I will admit, something I actually do think this series does better than Brotherhood and the manga is making its villains more sympathetic. In Brotherhood, some of them were just bad guys, even though I loved that about them with how they were written, they do manage to make them more sympathetic here. The number 1 example I can think of is Lust. Here, it's shown Lust was created by Scar's brother trying to bring back a woman he loved and she's remembering more about her past life. Not only that, but she actually becomes an ally later on when she helps Ed after she realises more about her past. Also, speaking of villains, this series also rearranges the names of the Homunculi because that boy that Ed and Al found is actually this series' version of Wrath and Sloth is actually a woman who was acting as Bradley's assistant. Not only that, but Sloth was created when Ed and Al tried to bring back their mother Trisha. Wrath is also the product of when Izumi tried to bring back her dead baby and that's why she clings to him so much and it's pretty sad seeing her trying to get through to him and treat him like a son only for Envy and the others to make things worse. And a good point of when a lot of things come to fruition is when Ed and Al sorta team up with Scar earlier but then Al meets him again and they fight Kimbley which ends in Kimbley's death and Scar also uses Al as the centre for a Philosopher's Stone he's trying to make with a whole bunch of soldiers he led to Lior and we see that even Scar dies in this version by sacrificing himself to make the stone and then the Philosopher's Stone is literally inside of Al's armour. Again, it's really, really weird, but, it's also kinda cool to see that happen. This is also after Rose and the rest of the people of Lior left and she's sorta seen as a holy person. But Rose is also being used by Dante because she's hoping to use her as the next person to transfer her soul into. She's also hoping to use the Philosopher's Stone in Al's body to make that happen. And this begins a really long, but really cool climax where Mustang goes to kill Bradley, who, in this version, is Pride and he manages to kill him by showing off the skull of the person he was supposed to be transmuted into.

And, yeah, it's pretty tragic when Selim is killed. But, anyway, Dante has Al kidnapped and tries to use the Philosopher's Stone he has but then Ed finds them in a city underneath Central and sees Rose there who's under some kinda trance or something but then, and this is where another super, super weird moment happens, there's some kinda other world inside the gate and Ed is sent through it but his body stays in the gate and his soul is placed inside the body of that world's version of himself and he also meets Hohenheim there who Dante put there. Again, really, really insane stuff happens here and, while, I guess is kinda cool, it's just so weird and so not what the series should really be. As someone who's a massive fan of this franchise and is seeing this, this is just so not what this series should be. I guess in terms of how the writers created this version of the series, it does work, I suppose, but it's still just so strange. Not to mention that the other version of Ed is stuck inside the regular version's body which is still inside the gate and after Ed talks to Hohenheim, Ed is then killed and brought back to his world in his own body which means that the other version of Ed died. I'm honestly really surprised I could follow this as well as I could because I would have thought I'd get confused really quickly. Anyway, after going back to his world, Ed then begins to fight Envy and this might actually be my favourite part of the series. I think this fight with the two of them is cool. It's really short, but it's pretty intense and it actually ends with Ed himself actually dying. No joke, Envy actually manages to kill him. Watch.

Again, it's a really gut wrenching moment and it's really intense since it's established how blood thirsty these guys are. But then Al is able to use the Philosopher's Stone to bring Ed back and we see the Homunculi leave in different ways. Envy goes through the gate to find Hohenheim because he wants to kill him, Wrath runs off and Gluttony kills Dante after she used him earlier. Also, earlier, Ed killed Greed and Sloth and Wrath killed Lust. This is actually what Wrath tried to do after a while. He believed Sloth was his mother and so he wanted to be with her despite that not being true. So, after Al brings Ed back, he's sent inside the gate and Ed decides to sacrifice himself by sending himself to the other world in exchange for Al to be brought back. He also manages to get Al's body back but Al's memory of a lot of what's happened is gone. He does remember Ed being his brother so he decides try to find a way to get him back, but Ed is sorta taking over the life of the other world's version of Ed and he's living in that world's version of Germany and he's also trying to find a way to get back as well. And that part right there is where the series itself ends and then that leads into the movie called The Conqueror Of Shamballa. I'm gonna talk about that too, but, for now, I'll just talk about the series. Overall, the series itself is so weird. I do applaud the crew for being able to take the material they had at the time and making something out of it and being able to create their own world and series out of it too, and, like I said, I actually do think there are some things this does better than the manga and Brotherhood, but, overall, this was such a weird series. Like I said, the early episodes were done in a weird way. Not just the filler, but just the episodes that were canon were done in a weird way which, again, makes the fact that they're absent from Brotherhood even more bizarre. And, I dunno, the quality of the story felt like it was up and down for me a lot because I liked when the story was moving in a way that felt smart and like a real story with the reveals being shown and all that, but then sometimes I felt it stuck on some things too long in terms of the story itself and characters like that Basque Grand guy I mentioned. Also, and I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but they also bring back old characters in weird ways like Tucker. In this, after he's supposedly killed, it's revealed he's still alive and is part of a chimera and is trying to bring Nina back to life. He does pop up once in a while and sorta helps in different ways, but it's still odd. And, in general, I dunno, I was mostly just puzzled by how different this series was from the manga and just how much they change the rules of the world. I'll also say that there's elements here that're really interesting. Like I said, I like how they develop some other characters like Lust. They actually make her into more of a real character here and not just an evil villain. Again, I like that about her in the manga and Brotherhood, but it was nice to see her have more of a character here. But, at the same time, there were characters I didn't like, like Dante for example. I dunno, I just didn't like the writing for her character. Something about her just didn't sit right with me. She felt like a weaker version of Father. They felt kinda similar in a sense and she actually felt like a mix between Father and Orochimaru, as in she was trying to achieve immortality by transferring her soul into other people's bodies and so on. The series also made me miss characters who weren't gonna show up in this series like Ling, May, Lan Fan and so many others. If you've seen Brotherhood before this like me, then it's hard to not notice their absence. So, I guess with that quick analysis out of the way, I'll get started talking about the Conqueror Of Shamballa movie now. This film picks up, more or less, around the time the series ends, Ed is still working on ways to get himself back to his own world but he doesn't have his alchemy anymore and he's told of some dragon or something that some filmmaker, who ressembles Bradley, wants to hunt down and it turns out to be Envy and Ed also finds Hohenheim there who's killed by some lady who wants to get to Ed's world and destroy it. I actually saw this before I got started on the series because I got both the Fullmetal Alchemist movies before I got the series and saw them first before the show itself and I remember thinking that this was really strange, and I attributed that to the fact that I hadn't seen the show yet and so it felt weird to see this series at the very end without seeing the series beforehand. And I thought if I saw the show first, I'd get it more, but, regardless, this film is still pretty weird given how it's following the continuity of that show. Also, the lady I mentioned is obviously the villain of the movie and she kinda has the same problem I had with Dante, I didn't like the writing for her character, she just seemed like a crazy villain and not much else. I do think there's some cool ideas like when Ed goes back to his world by going through a portal that the lady was trying to make and there's a big climax there that ends with Ed and Al teaming up to fight her and then Ed decides to bring the soldiers that came there back to their world and then Al shows he came with him by jumping into an armour one of the guys was in. This is also the part where Wrath dies. He sacrifices himself to help Al open a portal to get Ed back, but, yeah, again, it just kinda seemed strange with how this world was being presented. I remember thinking that once I got into the series, this would make more sense, and, I guess technically it does, but, yeah, it makes sense in the world they made which still pretty strange. So, yeah, the movie, and I guess technically, the whole series ends with Ed and Al in the other world and now they're just kinda living their lives there from now on. So, overall, I guess I can say I'm at least happy I finally finished this series. I remember talking about how I really wanted to see this at some point a few years ago and it just left me feeling kinda baffled with how different this story is to the real one. And, weirdly enough, watching this actually made me appreciate Brotherhood even more. I realise how mean that probably sounds, but, yeah, whether or not I can say I actually really enjoyed this is kinda hard for me to say. I guess I do acknowledge that this show is good, but, considering how humungous of a fan I am of the manga and Brotherhood, especially since they're both my favourite manga and anime of all time, it was just really peculiar with how different everything in this was. I also do know that Hiromu Arakawa herself said she was pleased that the crew were able to do something with what they had and make their own story and world with it and, like I said, I do applaud them for being able to do that too, but, I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I just prefer Brotherhood and the manga's story a lot more. The dub is clearly something that's absolutely fantastic. Vic Mignogna is of course still the perfect choice for Edward, and Aaron Dismuke does a fantastic job as Alphonse. Though, and, again, I guess just because I've seen Brotherhood so many times, I personally prefer Maxey Whitehead's performance, I just feel like her voice fits Al's character a bit more, but Aaron Dismuke still does an amazing job, especially since he was only 12 when he actually started voicing him, which is really, really impressive. And I guess the last thing I can say is that I'm glad I finally watched the show and I do think it's good, especially the last few episodes that had some cool reveals and action scenes, but I don't think I would ever want to watch this again, but I am also happy to be adding this and the two Fullmetal Alchemist movies to my anime and manga collection. So, I realise I was probably kinda harsh on this series unnecessarily because I do get when people say this is good and I guess I do agree with them, but, those are really just my overall thoughts. I guess if you're interested and like Fullmetal Alchemist, I would say you should give it a shot. So, anyway, yeah, guys, that's really my review of Fullmetal Alchemist. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Trailer

So guys, today, we finally got a trailer reveal for Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. This is actually a movie I am pretty excited for. Sure, the other Ant-Man movies aren't among some of the M.C.U's best, but I think this movie could be the Thor: Ragnarok of these movies, especially given the look of this trailer. We get to see that Cassie is trying to help Scott and the others with work on the Quantum Realm and we see they all get stuck in it and we see some civilisation there. So that's interesting, it'll also help explain how Janet was able to survive there for so long. We also see some other things like we see Bill Murray's character and we also get to see some other new version of Kang. And it's still Jonathan Majors from Loki, so that's really exciting. We even get to see Kang have his classic look from the comics, so that'll be cool to see in live action. It also looks like he wants Scott's help with something, so I'm curious to know what that's all about. So I'm really curious to know what the main plot for this will be like. Anyway, here it is and I hope you all like this.

My Guts collectible (Review)

So, guys, another new anime collectible I've gotten recently was a new figure of Guts from Berserk. I've been thinking of getting a figure of him for a while. I'm a massive Berserk fan and so it was great to be able to get one of Guts himself. Speaking of Berserk, chapter 370 of the manga was released recently and it closed the Fantasia arc of the story, so I guess you could say this was a way of celebrating that and the story of Berserk continuing since Kouji Mori is continuing the manga since Miura passed away last year. And it's just great to finally have a figure of Guts along with the other characters, and especially protagonists I have in my display case. Anyway, here it is and I hope you all like this.

My Ichigo Kurosaki collectible (Review)

So, guys, this is something I've been trying to do recently, I've been trying to get a collectible of Ichigo from Bleach. I have a whole bunch of protagonists from a lot of anime as collectibles, so it felt kinda weird to not have one for Ichigo, especially given how long I've known Bleach as a series. Also, recently, I've been trying to get back into Bleach again. I've recently been getting the DVDs and I'm in the middle of watching the whole thing. I know I did a review for Bleach about 5 years ago, but that was when I didn't really know that much about the series as a whole and I'm kinda annoyed at myself for making that then. So, I'm gonna watch the whole thing and hopefully do another review one day, especially now that the Thousand Year Blood War anime has finally been released and is in the middle of being made as well. So, this is a nice way of commemorating the anime's return and so on. Also, now that I have this, it means I have the protagonists of the Big 3 of Shonen Jump with Ichigo along with Naruto and Luffy. And so, here it is and I hope you all like this.

My paintings of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure characters

So, guys, this is a really big one for me. I've been thinking about doing a paintings entry for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for a while. I've thought maybe it would be tricky, mostly because Araki has a very unique style that I was worried I wouldn't be able to do. But, today, I finally tried it out and I'm really, really happy with the way these came out. Maybe a couple didn't come out very good, but I'm mostly really happy with these. For this, I actually did paintings for the six JoJo protagonists from the first JoJo universe like Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, Josuke, Giorno and Jolyne. I know I still haven't done reviews for Diamond Is Unbreakable, Golden Wind or Stone Ocean yet, but, thankfully, the rest of the Stone Ocean anime is coming out in December, so, once I finish it, I'm definitely gonna do the review for them afterwards. So, yeah, like I just said, I'm really happy with the way a lot of these came out and hopefully I can do more anime painting entries soon. Anyway, here they are and I hope you all like these.

Jonathan:

Joseph:

Jotaro:

Josuke:

Giorno:

Jolyne:

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer

So, the news for more Marvel stuff has been kinda quiet lately, but, today, we got a real trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. We got a small teaser three months ago, but, we finally got a real trailer for it today and this honestly looks like the best thing from the M.C.U in a while. Not only is the cinematography really impressive, but the ideas they seem to be showing seem really interesting. As for the content of the trailer itself, we get to see more of Namor and they seem to be putting a lot of focus on Wakanda mourning T'Challa, which is clearly a way to honour Chadwick Boseman, which is nice to see. And then, at the end, we get to see Shuri as the new Black Panther, which looks awesome. Her suit looks different from T'Challa's and I can't wait to see what they do with her action scenes and what they do with her character. I also already love the world building for Wakanda, so I can't wait to see what more they do with expanding it more. Anyway, here it is and I hope you all like this.