Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber - Episode 1

I'm still trying to figure out what the fuck is going on here.  I can figure out that the Dragon Saber that Third Brother had on him is a big deal, so much so that he got poisoned and his shit got broken seriously by some villainous sect and that there's a Heavenly Sword out there to counter balance it, but other than that, I'm kinda lost.

Kung Fu sprinkler!!!

I was so glad when t turned out that the opening of this show was a flashback...I really wanted that annoying kid to die.  Die a horrible, painful death.  But it turned out that he became the master of the temple where it seems the main protagonists hail from.  Again, I really feel lost here.

Third Brother came to the rescue when those bad guys were attacking some dude for the Dragon Saber.  Kinda knew that shit was REAL when they attacked used hang gliders

Some woman with the surname of Yin (according to her story) had stepped in when those jerks were going to kill Third Brother and let him have his life.  She sent him off with the Dragon Gate Escort (insert puroresu joke here) back home to be there for the master's 90th birthday.   Third Brother is still paralyzed from the poison needles that hit him during the attack for the Dragon Saber, so he ain't saying nothing.  What I'm saying is that the woman who stepped in makes me a little bit scaroused.

There's some masked chick running around the forest that came to Third Brother's rescue against some jerks faking being Brothers from the temple, a couple of the Brothers have been sent out into the world, and Third Brother has a month before they'll know if he's going to survive.

And I still feel really clueless over here.

Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei - Episode 25

Everyone is still up in arms about the Emperor being missing.  The officials are even keeping it quiet so there won't be chaos and the one lord who actually cares about the country has called in Yi Zhi Mei to help.  Speaking of Yi Zhi Mei, it seems that Sanniang has gone all housewife towards Gexiao, even steaming and filtering his wine.

As they investigate the missing Emperor, Gexiao hopes it isn't Song's son, who's a genius on Gexiao's level as far as being cunning goes, so he has Sanniang, with her superior lightfoot, go and check on him

Yeah, he's totally up to no good, you could tell that even if he wasn't Yan Song's son.  I'm thinking that he's going to be the Moriarity to Gexiao's Sherlock.

During a meeting of the officials regarding the disappearance of their Emperor, there was another Lord that was also concerned, Lord Liang.  So, Lord Hai has an ally...

OK...HAD an ally. Note how he burned up in a flame that looks an awful lot like the ghost flame that Shifan was manipulating when Sanniang was spying on him.

Afterwards, Lord Hai had Xiaomei and Gexiao come with him to examine Liang's body, disguised as personal guards.  It was during this that they found that Liang had been soaked in kerosene, probably from the freak rain that occurred moments before he got lit up.  Then Gexiao realizes what's up.

Yup, Song is consolidating his position in the court while he's got the Emperor sequestered somewhere.

Gexiao decides they should trail Shifan and figure out what's really going on and  hopefully get some evidence.  It's while they trail him from the theater, where they suspect a message has been passed between him and a co-conspirator, that we get a Sanniang Moment of Hotness!

The entire thing ended up being a trap.  Sanniang got stabbed, Hu and Xiaomei are attacked by Wuqiu and the Brocade Guard, and Shifan and Gexiao have a meeting of the minds, so to speak, and we find out that they have a history together...in fact, Gexiao is the reason why Shifan has only one eye!

Cue the flashback....yet another flashback...shit.  The episode ends with past Shifan busting a bottle on Gexiao's head!

I was really hoping that the flashback scenes where behind us, but I guess not.  Oh well, it'll be kinda cool to have these two engage in a battle of wits!

Chinese Paladin - Episode 34 (FINAL)

Nope, no spoilers or my usual recap...all I'll say is:  soul crushing sadness.

Here, have a bunch of screencaps from the episode:

Yeah, Tang Yu was pretty badass here

HADOKEN!!!!

Baby don't hurt me...baby don't hurt me....no more.  Sorry, couldn't resist.

Trust me, that's an exploding Leviathan

Such a damn good series overall.  There were a few places where I wasn't keen on it and the pacing had dragged down to a crawl, but in the big picture, it was good.  Loved the ending, because sometimes there are no real happy endings.  Now excuse me, I have to go dry my cheeks

Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei - Episode 24

FINALLY!  This arc is moving on!

Ruyi got captured and then beaten to death under the order of Yan Song.  Ruyi was fucking awesome during her torture, and now I think I get it as to why Gexiao fell in love with her.

Then Song kicked her in the gut and killed the baby.  He didn't know and got really pissed that the first person he killed with his own action (instead of orders) was an unborn baby.  So he had them beat her to death and hang her up in the square. Gexiao and Laiying get there too late to do anything about it and we get that original moment of true betrayal.

Gexiao manages to get away and then later recover Ruyi's body and take it somewhere to be properly buried.  Laiying parlays these events to a promotion to Commander of the Brocade Guards, but Yan Song doesn't think that Bao Laiying is a good name, so he gives him one.

Later, Gexiao returns to the place he buried Ruyi only to find that Wuqiu had improved her burial.  He didn't do it for Gexiao, he did it for Ruyi.  They then part ways and the story goes back to the present time.

Gexiao faked his death and Xiaomei disguised himself as Wuqiu, with Wuqiu being unconscious and disguised as Gexiao.  Hu and Sanniang were also captured and when they got to the prison, the kid from the school was there.  They broke free and Tutor with the kids took off to the Pass to escape Yan Song's bullshit.  This brings two things:  The end of the arc and a Sanniang Moment of Hotness!!!!

OK, maybe it's more a Moment of Cuteness, but that doesn't roll off the tongue as well in my opinion.

And now, we move on to the next story arc!

The Emperor has been away for the past 49 days meditating and it's now time for a Celestial celebration, complete with a crazy kid locked in a box and brought out so he can get misted and have a message revealed on his chest.  So, with Yan Song there, you know shit is going to get hinky.  One of the other lords is concerned that the country needs it's leader instead of that leader being in seclusion, but Song twists it around and maneuvers the situation to his advantage.

Later, the Emperor wants to walk and talk freely with Song away from everyone.  Yeah, that's a good idea.  He has an idea for the Emperor and the scene fades out, only to come back with Yan Song stumbling up the stairs.

If this isn't the prelude to some elaborate scheme for power by Yan Song, I'll eat my hat!  Can hardly wait to see how Yi Zhi Mei thwart these plans!

Chinese Paladin - Episode 33

It finally starting to hit the fan now with only one episode left of the series.  It's been a serious journey, this one, and other than like 3 episodes that were obviously filler, I've enjoyed the ride.  This series has covered many themes in such a short period of time and that was one of things about it that worked for me.  I'll hold off on watching Chinese Paladin 3 because it might be a series that will be run as part of an internet show that's been batted around, run through the Google+ Hangout platform.  If anyone is actually reading this thing, I'll be sure to keep you posted about it.

Now onto the recap...

Turns out the world is round!  That's why nothing changed from when Xiao made his trip to the past, he flew around the world and put Ling'er on Divine Spirit Island anyways.  Upon Tang Yu and Xiao leaving, they ran across Number 7 being all lowly jerk for the Lunar Sect (fuck 'em in the neck) and 7 tells them that they wouldn't understand why he joined the cult, but did warn them that Ah Nu was on her way to go harm Ling'er, so they rush back just in time and Ah Nu ends up stabbing Tang Yu!

This snaps her out of the spell she was under and Head Priest bugs out because he refuses to believe that real love exists.  Deal with it, dude.

Number 7 sends a formal challenge to Xiao to fight...you know it's not going to go well...Xiao is pretty badass right?  Although, I will have to admit that Number 7 looks pretty fierce right here

SRS BIZNZ!!!!

Xiao pwns Seven, of course, but goes real easy on him...as Xiao's walking away, Seven once again calls him Sifu which makes the guy turn around and get this for his troubles...

Man, you just can't trust a guy anymore....or can you?  Remember the Deathless Point?  Seven does and after he gets Head Priest to trust him with the "death" of Xiao, some kind of plan begins to take shape.  Number 7, you sly bastard!

After he recovered, Xiao said they should attack by retreating, using the news of his death as cover.  So Ling'er goes to her dad, the King and gets all Betty Badass

She also convinces the King to shut down the Lunar Sect (fuck 'em in the neck) which he does because the last 10 years of letting them have their way has just caused Nan Zhao to decay as a nation.  It also lets Number Seven rifle through Head Priest's books and if he is onto something there, then there's totally something there!

Head Priest allows himself to be incarcerated by the King, but when he looks to the sky, he sees a star that has returned when it was gone, so he magics himself out of there and oes to Xiao's grave, only to find it empty.  Later he confronts Seven about it and the Deathless Point and then Head Priest puts one through him there and then pardons him (?) and this is where the episode wraps up.

Damn, it's gotten so good and the ending is promising to be pretty epic.  Not sure how they're going to get past the fact that Head Priest is totally out of their league and that only maybe Sword Saint could put the hurt on him, but it'll be cool to find out.  One last thing:  damn you, Head Priest, for saying something really awesome and true and something I wholeheartedly agree with

Kamen Rider Fourze - Episode 37

So now we begin an arc about the students being tested to go out into space.  Why Yuuki and the rest of the Kamen Rider Club seem pumped up for it escapes me because Rabbit Hutch is ON THE FUCKING MOON!

OK, enough of me shitting on the entire premise for this arc, let's meet Elise, exchange student from America

The first of a few Nihongo botches from her...she meant to say Chuui (be careful) but instead went Chuu (Kiss).  I'll have to say, she does look like a nisei, so this is believable casting!  Good job, TOEI!!

So everyone we know gets tested to go out into space.  Eline is quite impressed with Kengo, but then he has one of his spells and falls to the floor.  Eline walks away for a tick and then suddenly...

Yeah, good question!  It's the Aquarius Horrorscope and she hits Kengo with this water attack, but it doesn't hurt him, it cures his spell!  Her and Fourze still fight it out, though.  Mainly because it seems that she doesn't like Yuuki.  Her identity is revealed (as if we hadn't already figured it out) when Aquarius botches the language...

She meant to say Flawless, because one of her powers is to instantly heal.  Makes her kinda impossible to beat.  Gentarou manages to convince her to give up the Switch if Yuuki beats her to go to space and they go back to the class, Gentarou keeping her kayfabe.

Next test was to build a robot, but the camera section was missing, so Yuuki comes up with an idea and it works, so Elise is pissed.  Next thing we know, Libra shows up and Elise uses her Switch and Fourze and Meteor are neck deep in minions and a pair of Horrorscopes.  Libra powders out the second that Meteor borrows Fourze's Fire Switch and does a Limit Break.  A pretty awesome fucking Limit Break in my opinion

Elise then goes back to the testing area and in a huff knocks over Yuuki's Hayabusa-kun doll and the camera part of the robot falls out.  Elise is now pissed again over Yuuki's cheating and lord knows how that's going to play out.

Chinese Paladin - Episode 32

This series is coming into the closing stretch and things are definitely picking up!  Ling'er and Xiao have returned to the court where Ling'er is the daughter of the King and gets decked out accordingly.

Her being a descendant of Nv Wa is apparent with her regal bearing in this gear.

Saintess is being tried for adultery (which ruins the people's ideals in the gods.  I guess that makes sense) and Drunken Sword Immortal, Ling'er and Xiao go and break that noise up.  Xiao even turned the tables with his words and got the King to pardon everyone, including Saintess after he made it so Head Priest of Lunar Sect (fuck 'em in their neck) would also have to be executed.  His bainwashed followers said they'd die with him, so the King, in order to prevent his country's populace from committing mass suicide, pardoned everybody.

As DSI, Saintess, Ling'er and Xiao leave the scene, Ling'er has contractions and their baby is born!

She gets named Yi Ru in memory of Yue Ru...pretty cool, if you ask me.  Girl's got some shoes to fill, that's for sure!

That night, Xiao, Saintess and DSI head out to handle Head Priest.  His shit's gone on long enough!  During this scene, I couldn't help but think of Quinten Taratino

During the battle, Ah Nu of all people kills Drunken Sword Immortal!  (O_O)  At the funeral, Saintess pours one out for her homie

Meanwile back at the Lunar Sect (fuck 'em in their neck) Number Seven is still being a part of that cult.  He has a conversation with Head Priest and that jerkoff told him that Yue Ru was dead...which totally slotted the guy up.  That fucker.

the armless Tang Yu leaves the following morning to try to save Ah Nu and is joined by Xiao, and with that the episode wraps.

As we head into the last 2 episodes of the series, I'm kinda hoping for some major battles and for heroes to die glorious deaths as they take down the villains.  I blame Roy Fokker's death in Robotech as a child for my liking it when heroes die in a series.