Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (two seasons) is 52 episodes long, making this the most episodes I've ever watched to review for these videos. Not only that, but it's definitely the most I've ever watched to review for a single video. I didn't even break this into two or three parts! I probably could have stretched the material, too. But I felt like one succinct video was enough to give the right impression of this classic anime.

Well, actually, it was a tiny bit longer, originally, but I had to edit it down because it was blocked in some areas. Always a pain in the ass, YouTube and Japanese companies. But you get the drift.

More wrap-around material in this one. This will be the last one for a while, though I have plenty of ideas for that stuff. I wanted to do something with Ambassador Morran and thought I'd throw in the assassin Ravex as well, since I've barely used him. Here they're visiting Golex's people, the Lithos, for some reason. I'll get to that another time. After this, I want to concentrate more on the reviews themselves.

Speaking of the reviews, I'm glad I didn't have to suffer through too many lousy dubs in this half of the year. I didn't plan based on dub studios, just based on what I felt like reviewing or what I had time to review when I scheduled everything. I only have a tenuous schedule for the second half of the year, though I did name drop some of the things I'll be doing at the end of this video.

This will probably be the last Dragon Ball Month. It's not like there's not more DB/Z to cover, but I feel like I don't need to dedicate an entire month to it anymore, I've made most of the points I wanted to make about the franchise. This is one of the reasons I chose Wrath of the Dragon to review last, because it was the last DBZ movie until 2013's Battle of Gods (or maybe you want to count 2008's Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, which we still don't have over here, with an English dub).

The wraparound material is just explaining or showing bits of the last Penguin Chronicles (one of my old strips) arc that I never finished in strip form. I have fun.

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The wraparound material this time covers some of the storyline I never completed in my Penguin Chronicles comic strip, involving Prince Cassus' previous airship, the Gaizu, among other things. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with completing it via these videos (as flashbacks), these are anime reviews, but I guess I just like toying around with the sprites and backgrounds. And the pre-opening credits bit is set to Shunsuke Kikuchi's "M742", or "The Suspensful Intermission".

DBZ Movie 9, Bojack Unbound, is probably my favorite of all the DBZ movies, or indeed DB movies overall. It's nothing deep or profound, but it features a lot of great elements, from its settings to the action to the music. It's not perfect, it's just my favorite.

I thought I'd get back to the "storyline", or bookend material, this month, because the videos are pretty short. I know you probably just skip to the review portion (I'm glad anyone even bothers with that much), but I like doing this sort of thing now and then, because it allows me to play with more sprites. I love playing with my (and Rob's) sprites!
 
I have toyed with ideas I mentioned here about a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fanfic, but I feel like I'm getting a little too old to be writing anime fanfics. And yeah, I was going to do a separate video series, aside from Otaku Evolution, on the DC animated films that come out straight to DVD/Blu-Ray. I had a lot of things ready for it, too, like a rating system for each feature. I somehow just never got to it. Should I still do it? Eh.

Also, Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure, folks. It's a Dragon Ball movie. With Arale in it!

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I don’t really have anything new to say about this kit that I didn’t already cover when I built the Unicorn ver TWC Lighting Model a few years back. The Banshee version is the same, save for the design differences and a LED setup that’s yellow instead of red. 

I love Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, but a lot of what he makes, in terms of direction, is a bit wonky. I suppose the Gundam The Origin OVA is an exception, but don't think that's because he made the manga, because he did that for Venus Wars, too. I guess he just improved over time, because Venus Wars, a bit like the Crusher Joe movie, is kind of a mess. No, Venus Wars is especially a mess, just a lopsided, but gorgeous-looking wreck of a film that I want desperately to love. It certainly has nostalgic value to it, as it was one of the first anime movies I ever saw, back when it aired on the Sci-Fi Channel's Anime Saturday block.

I have to be honest, there's not a whole lot to say about Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01. It's a very short, very straight-forward mecha action feature. And my approach to it? Basically a good, old-fashioned blow-by-blow of the unusual events that unfold. But I felt like I needed something relaxing and untaxing in the middle of 80s Month. Also, the 80s was so mecha-oriented, I had to put something mecha-related in this month.

You know, to get hyped to do this month's videos I watched a lot of 80s commercials on YouTube. There's a YouTube channel called Dave's Archives that has tons of collections of old commercials that are worth checking out. It had me singing that damn Mac Tonight song for nearly a week.

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Here's a quick build report on my MS IGLOO/Zeon inspired PL-01 tank from Takom. The PL-01 is a prototype Polish light tank with a very distinctive stealth (as much as a tank can be stealthy) design. This is my first tank in a long while, and first kit from Takom.

For the most part Takom’s PL-01 kit is pretty straight forward and easy to put together. There are a few issues though starting with a ton of visible seam lines. I did my best to hide all of them by welding and sanding which was, for the most part, successful. The most obvious seam is on the front, which isn’t glue on my build, because I wanted to paint the top and bottom parts independently. To go back and glue would have screwed up the paint quite a bit and I was just lazy enough to not care. 

It's 80s Month! I'm pretty fond of doing this theme month, even if this month's specific offerings aren't exactly the greatest anime of all time. Yeah, I kind of cornered myself by already having covered most of my favorite 80s anime previously (Bubblegum Crisis, Gundam 0080, Royal Space Force, Patlabor, Char's Counterattack, The Fuma Conspiracy, and Night on the Galactic Railroad). But hey, They Were Eleven is decent enough, and I get to put on my 80s aesthetics again! Bitchin'.

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