Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

This week's episode is a continuation of the cliffhanger that happened last week  where Isamu gets hospitalized. It's going to create some conflict especially when HumaGears are already doing some jobs to help human doctors. This would create a conflict especially when you think that Gigas (a weapon by AIMS) is already leading an army of HumaGears gone rogue. It's been some time since we saw Jun or "Dr. Evil" who once again makes me think, "Just where's Mike Myers when you need him?" I really get conflicted with the emotions here. There's the decision to shut down the HumaGears or not. This creates some scenario because the shares of Hiden Intelligence go down AND you can imagine the public eye right now. News reports feature the assault of rogue HumaGears and their eyes turning red. "Dr. Evil" then says the best thing to do is to shut them down. I guess "Dr. Evil" is still unable to accept that his superior is a mere ...

Yesterday's episode was already an intense one involving smuggling people literally from Morocco to South Korea. Chief Min himself is still unaware of his hated rival Director Kang to be still very much alive. At this point, the government is, in default, under the control of John & Mark as a result of the actions of Chief Min and Secretary of Affairs Shadow. Speaking of Shadow, I really think he looks like Nariaki Utsumi (a henchman from Namba Enterprises) from Kamen Rider Build. This really makes it intense when you've got the good guys who seem to be Kamen Rider Agito' s Hojo Toru (Tae Woong), Akibaranger's  Hiroyo Hakase (Hae Ri), and  Solbrain's  Jun Masuda (Dal Gun) all the while they're facing their own version of Super Science Network (a villain faction in Janperson ) under the control of Reiko Ayanokouji (Jessica). The situation looks pretty dire for the heroes. Both the president and his prime minister at the Blue House still don't know wh...

Last week's episodes really have a focus from Morocco and back to South Korea. Both Hae Ri and Dal Gun are on the boat. Dal Gun starts to troll everyone over and over again and this time so does Hae Ri. It's really easy to see how corruption has taken over the National Intelligence Serve. This reminds me of a scene in While You Were Sleeping where a high school student attempts to poison her own father because of dumb prosecutors. At this point, I wish that Lee Sang Yeob reunited with Suzy Bae as a villain here because of how well he carried out the villain part.  What really is amazing here is that Chief Min is now getting suspicious of what's going on. Tae Woong is supposedly on the side of Chief Min but it doesn't work that way. It also turns out that Director Kang faked his own death. Did they get the wrong corpse cremated in order to do it? Somehow, I do find these fake deaths in spy series to be rather boggling. The risk of Director Kang's faked death c...

There's the saying that science without a heart or conscience is meaningless. Apparently, Kamen Rider Zero-One seems to be exploring that direction. If you happen to watch older Super Sentai (and not everyone can click with that) -- that kind of concept was explored heavily in Bioman , Flashman , Liveman , and Megaranger . The opposing views between Aruto and Isamu are now explored in what would be a two-parter. Side note, I may consider slowing down the summaries by combining several arcs into one review. This looks like it'd be a two-parter with how it ended. A hospital ran by HumaGears does sound both promising and deadly. Personally, I tend to side with Isamu a lot due to his childhood trauma. He does have valid concerns about HumaGears developing human-like thinking. Granted, we know how deadly humanity can get with the trope Humans Are Bastards. Robots developing their own free will can lead to a crisis that heavily defines the Megaman(Rockman) X series. The HumaGear...

A time bomb is ticking if you know what I mean. The reality is Vagabond is just three weeks away before it concludes. That means I might consider either taking a break from K-Drama or watch Yong Pal (which I haven't). The time bomb is ticking as explosive revelations are about to begin to enter into the fray. There's a lot of interesting gun action too as two sides of the coin are really about to clash. Just remember three more weeks (six more episodes) to go and the TV drama is about to conclude.  The Friday episode has some high stakes there. I wonder who put the bomb there. There's the call to dial this number, get to Bullet Chicken, and the codename is "Vagabond" which is the title of the show. I really found it weird (at first) as to why Dal Gun is ordered to set his timer on his smartphone. As it turns out, there's a bomb in the embassy. I guess Chief Min isn't competent enough to realize that there is some hidden information. The whole gunni...

This Friday's episode with Vagabond has to be rather pretty intense. Last week's Friday episode had Kim Woo Gi the co-pilot finally getting arrested. But the orders from Super Science Network John & Mark is to make sure that he's finally gotten rid of. Side note, I really have to think Kim Woo Gi's actor Jang Hyuk Jin resembles Takeshi Ishikawa who played as Dr. Shiina in Janperson and Garoa in Fiveman . Dr. Shinji happens to be a guest villain in Janperson working with the Super Science Network. Okay, is this getting really freaky we've got some coincidental Toku references? Not really. this episode is pretty intense. Woo Gi must be kept alive at all costs to testify against John & Mark. Dal Gun even offered his blood for that reason but he's too disgusted to do so. Chief Min, Shadow, the Sleazy Attorney Hong, and Jessica all discuss their next move. It so happens Shadow is working with the government. Jessica has had a habit of murdering her own ...

Is it me or are we getting more Megaman X (or Rockman X in Japan) vibes once more? The reason has to be that HumaGears are developing sentience like humans. Last week's episode has a HumaGear voice actress who'd take over the bad Tagalog dubbers if she were real. Now, this week as a basketball coach who is developing more human feelings. There's the quest to reset the basketball coach HumaGear known as Kobe Sakamoto. Is it a play on the name Kobe Bryant? Granted, I'm not a fan of basketball and I only play it for fun. The problem has to be that Kobe himself has been too focused on basketball. A parent complains that her child is spending too much time with basketball. Kobe seems to also show the problem if humans could accurately estimate things like a computer can. A computer is meant to help simplify complex things. Kobe seems to be doing the opposite as a computer with human emotions! The conflicts in this episode are somewhat there. I don't want to stop com...

This week's second episode is really getting intense. There's also the conflict of ideas between the two characters. Dal Gun is pretty much in conflict with the National Intelligence Service (NIS) agent Tae Woong. Tae Woong is pretty much the professional smug and Dal Gun is the head-on impulsive guy. Trying to see these two work together isn't going to be very easy. The web of corruption here is really that intense. It turns out that the Blue House has been in cahoots with John & Mark. I'm just having chills looking at how Jessica acts so calm, pretending to be innocent, all the while she had said in episode five  that money and might make right. Jessica is supposedly arrested for investigation but calmly lies through her teeth. That's what makes her a good villain. She knows how to play innocent and infuriates you with how hard it gets to take her down. But that's what makes a good villain. She has the confidence and the facade to keep the show running...

This is another flight to Morocco. I have to admit that there's a lot of stuff that caused me to do research such as that a 13+ hour flight will be there and that the water supply isn't so safe either. This would be the mission to capture co-pilot Kim Woo-Gi who is very much alive. This episode has some really thrilling aspects that make you wonder about what's wrong with the system? I really think sometimes you just got to defy the system if it does bad. Apparently, John & Mark has control of some government sectors resulting in cover-ups. They have Chief Min and yet another mole inside the National Intelligence Services (NIS). Also, I could be wrong about last week's summary when Dal Gun supposedly saw his reporter friend still alive. Later, we have Dynamic Systems' CEO Edward meeting with Dal Gun. Dal Gun may or may have not been mistaken about seeing a person who's supposedly dead to be alive. Edward says that maybe, just maybe Dal Gun could not be...

Well, this episode has a HumaGear for a Seiyuu which reminds me -- she's far more lively and vocal than the dubbers at ABiaS-CBN and GMA-7. The HumaGear Seiyuu is named Seine Kanazawa who happens to be a "replacement goldfish" for Seiji Tazawa who lost his daughter three years ago. This also delivers the dilemma especially Aruto was raised by a replacement dad of a HumaGear at a very young age. Last week featured a Manga-based HumaGear and now it's an Anime-based HumaGear. What in the world is going on, huh, Toei? I always like the conflicting ideals between Aruto and Isamu. Isamu is very much concerned about public safety especially when it comes to an illegal HumaGear. I guess he still hasn't recovered much from the childhood trauma he had during the Daybreak Town Incident. I still think about how Aruto still tries to get along with AIMS in saving civilians. Is it me or are Aruto and Isamu like Top Cat and Officer Dibble minus the con artist concept? Aruto s...

Thrillers to thrillers as Vagabond seems to focus on betrayals at this moment. I would admit that there's some predictability going on especially with who's been behind some of the major incidents in the show. Last week had a lot of tense moments. Dal Gun's life has been frequently put in danger thanks to Lily's orders by Reiko ahem Jessica of Super Science Network ahem Johnson & Mark. The whole episode does reveal one predictable element in the show. As expected, there is a mole inside the National Intelligence Service (NIS). There's some interrogation about a woman whose husband is purportedly dead but he's revealed to be still alive and hiding. Just who is this mole? Well, it's quite predictable. You may be able to get the answer when you realize somebody's actions such as shredding away important evidence is already a clue. Just read on to find out who is this mole. Dal Gun is already a man targetted by John & Mark as a liability to the...

Episode 4 really has had it with a heavy dose of alcohol . This episode adds more alcohol to the characters. Would you bother to do a drinking game of the number of times that people drink alcohol here? Trying to convince anyone of a hardly unbelievable truth wouldn't be easy as we're going to find it the hard way. I really have to admire Jessica Lee's rather calm demeanor. She's a bitch witch but she knows how to act dignified. I can't help but think of Reiko Ayanokouji in Janperson with how she puts up a dignified front. Rather than throw Dal Gun out of the office -- she tries to act innocent. She tries to negotiate and talk sweet with him -- something Dal Gun isn't buying! She doesn't get defensive about Dal Gun. She acts rather dignified and convincing. She knows how to play her cards like Madame M would in the movie Naked Weapon . She makes sure that her secret of having manipulated events isn't discovered. Any good villain will put on a good ...

As said, I didn't want to write episode reviews for this series was for this reason. By the time I started watching it was when all the episodes were done airing on Netflix. I would admit I wanted to write detailed reviews. Instead, I decided to just focus on random rambles about the series. Now, I'm done watching it and what are my thoughts? Team Happy's road to victory isn't an easy one. There was some interesting conflict when they first lost and how they got back together. Even one of the members was a former team captain Wu Cheng is overaged. Ye Xiu admits that one day their glory will be lost. He was to start from scratch with everyone. The whole team had their share of losses. A precious weapon was broken in one of the matches. Yet, there was still that aim towards victory. It was nice to see more of Ye Xiu's family life even if his twin brother only appeared for two episodes . The interesting part was with his father who initially didn't like the idea...