sir-sharky

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All the trigun based thumbnails I've made part 2.

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All the trigun based thumbnails I've made part 1.

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Hiten vs akira otoishi. 2 lightning users make an electrifying fight!

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Jason Voorhees vs Casey jones. Battle of the mask wearing psychos.

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Rugal vs akuma version 2.

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Finally done with green blood and...

What a spectacular and powerful experience.

Almost everything about this is nearly perfect and is something I would recommend to anyone. I thoroughly loved almost every moment of this manga. Even through some of the more unfortunate parts of my life, this manga was there with me to deliver a fantastic story with flawless visuals and character arcs to rival some of my favorite pieces of media ever. From the shocking first chapter to the fantastic and satisfying last chapter and just about everything in between, this was amazing.

Now there are a few story and pacing issues that hold me back from Giving this a full 10/10 but for everything else spectacularly this does, it's still great

9/10.

[sir-sharky]

Been a few since I did one of these so: Street fighter 2 the animated movie mini review:

A good but flawed movie. Has a ton of great animation and fights, good representation for most of the characters (unless you're a fan of vega, fei long, dhalsim or DJ which on that case get fucked), a decent story to carry all of it. It also has a pretty bleh 3rd act and wierd amount of subplots that get shafted and forgotten. It also goes on for a tad too long but that could just be my usual impatient self.

Still though I did have a good amount of fun with this and I would recommend it.

7.5/10.

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Another essay/review I made. Pretty unique one too if I say so myself.

Something that I don't think gets enough recognition in media is characters that didn't have much screentime but we're incredibly memorable nonetheless. And I'm here to show off some of my favorite examples of this. The nanto seiken master: shin and the user of the emperor: hol horse.

HOL HORSE

Out of all the part 3 JoJo villains, aside from Dio and maybe vanilla ice, hol horse is definitely the most popular with fans. Now there is crazy diamonds demonic heartbreak (I think that's what it's called?) But I haven't read that so I'll just stick with the main series. Hol horse only appears in 4 out of the over 40 episodes of stardust crusaders but he still made a crazy impact with his character in the sea of other minor villains.

His stand: the emperor is a type of stand that's really unique and I can't think of any that are quite like it. The closest one is Anubis but even then Anubis was more of the stand user than the actual stand. It's a gun that's a stand. I don't need to explain why that's awesome. But I will anyway. A gun with infinite ammo and the bullets can be controlled to go anywhere. That is a kickass concept that is taken advantage of in the fight scenes he's in.

The fight with centerfold and polnareff is probably one of the best fights on stardust crusaders pre battle in Egypt. The combination of hanged man and emperor made a pretty interesting and exciting situation for polnareff and kakyoin and even served as a bit of character development for polnareff with the (fake out) death of avdol and one of the cooler kakyoin moments with the (actual) death of centerfold.

And the (kind of) fight with boingo/mondatta was a good amount of light hearted fun in contrast with the constant threat of Dio and the potential death of holly. That part with horse man holding polnareff up at gunpoint always makes me die laughing.

Plus in some ways, Mr. Horse goes through his own mini character arc. Goes from working with someone as evil as centerfold to kill polnareff either because of the money or just for the sake of it, to trying to betray Dio from how sick he is of his shit to hospital because he got his ass shot by his own gun, to whatever happens in the josuke thing but again I'm not talking about that.

Hol horse is a great part of jojo and one of the best examples of a memorable character with little screentime. But how about the other side of this coin? What about the very first major antagonist of my absolute favorite story of all time?

SHIN

Consider this part 3 of my endless shilling for fist of the north star. (Part 1 and 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/q30mop/i_absolutely_love_kenshiro_and_he_is_one_of_if/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/s6u32s/the_fangs_arc_is_the_greatest_arc_i_have_seen_in/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)

If hol horse was one of the best examples of a memorable character with little screentime, shin is THE best example. Again I'm only going off the original series. In this case the manga. So no movies or side series's or whatever.

The main reason I believe shin is better than hol horse is because of how little he actually appears in the manga. To put it into perspective, hol horse appeared in episode 10/11 of the first half of the part and episode 12/13 of the second half. The first time shin is even mentioned is about half way through chapter 6 and is noscoped at the end of chapter 10. Less than 5 fucking chapters with this guy and he feels infinitely more developed than anyone in dozens of other animes/mangas I have seen.

Like hol horse, shins fighting style: nanto seiken is an incredibly unique power. Unlike hokuto shinken which is focused on destroying the victim from the inside, nanto seiken is focused on destroying the victim from the outside by just slicing them to pieces like blades with just the users hands. I don't know how you can get a cooler martial art than that (aside from hokuto shinken of course)

Shin is also very good at playing both sides of the villain coin. On the one hand he's great as a Dio type MENACING over the top crazy villain with the actions he does plus his personality but also great at the sympathetic and tragic type villain with his backstory and the death of yuria.

And the fight with kenshiro he has is one of the greatest fights I've seen in any manga. It's so well drawn and has so much emotion to it that it trounces every other fight scene in almost every other anime/manga in both ways.

The fight and shin as a whole also serves a lot for kenshiros character. His whole character is about loss and shin is kind of the thing that sets it all off with the indirect killing of yuria who was the only one kenshiro truly loved and who loved kenshiro. And shin killed all of that when he bullied kenshiro at first and stole yuria from him.

Shin is one of my favorite antagonists in manga and the absolute best example I can think of when talking about characters that made a big impact with short time in the spotlight.

But that's only 2 characters. What are some memorable characters that you can think of that didn't have much screentime? Hell, how about the opposite of this? What about characters that have the majority of screentime but are ultra bland and boring? I want to what you all have to say.

[sir-sharky]

My biggest review yet. The fangs arc of fist of the north star. Enjoy:

Welcome to episode 2 of my endless shilling for fotns (part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/q30mop/i_absolutely_love_kenshiro_and_he_is_one_of_if/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)

This time around instead of one character, I'm sucking off an entire arc and explaining why the fangs arc is the greatest I've ever seen.

So the arc begins after the noscoping of jackal and right at introduction of the biggest side character chad in manga/anime: REI. As he's seen brutalizing several bad boys after they realize he's not a women. I'll talk more about him later but for now: this dude is awesome. He is literally seen slicing fools up with his martial art: nanto seiken. A kickass contrast to hokuto shinken (kenshiros thing if you need a reminder) and his character design goes just as hard as kenshiros. (Rei https://imgur.com/gallery/uUMIcsU) look at this mf and tell me he doesn't go hard.

I'll talk about him more later so let's put a pin in that and get back to the story. So time warping a bit, rei swaggers up to kenshiro and talks about how he will not die until the man with the 7 scars is down and out. But before he can talk more, rei, kenshiro, mamiya (put a pin in her too, I'll come back to her as well) and the entire village they're in is attacked by the fangs (technically they were here before but they become more important here). Where one of them holds a child known as ko (K O?) Being used to make a big speech about killing everyone in the village because they killed some of the other fangs. And they keep that message up by ACTUALLY KILLING KO. I was incredibly shocked by this moment. I was majorly expecting kenshiro or rei to super speed their way to the dude that was about to do the killing and kill him right back but no, they exterminate a child. This series does not hold a damn thing back. This was an incredibly shocking moment, not even talking about the part where mamiya says to not do anything to try and save him.

The one that killed ko then says that he is only the beginning and then they piss off leading to an even more mindblowing moment. Rei is berating mamiya and the the others for not doing anything to protect ko and one of the other villagers say KO WAS MAMIYAS BROTHER. Incase we didn't have enough insane moments this part swings in. Afterwards, mamiya is at the grave of her parents. All of her family is now dead and she does not know when the bloodshed will end. Rei looks at mamiya crying over her dead family and sets off to end the terror of the fangs. At first I wasn't really feeling this moment. It felt rushed and was the closest thing to a bad moment in this entire arc. But now I feel this moment is just as perfect as the rest of the arc. It does everything it needs to. It makes the character sympathetic and vulnerable, it makes the villains seem hateable, it gives good motivation for the previously established asshole character (rei) and it's incredibly shocking. It's infinitely better than I first gave credit for. And I already really liked this moment.

After all of this, kenshiro swaggers his way to the fang's hideout to exterminate all of them only to realize rei got there before him. They both give each other a smile and decide to kill the fangs together (side note: name a single smile in manga/anime that goes harder than this: https://imgur.com/a/sgKgbMe) and they all have a scuffle. This fight between rei/kenshiro and the fangs is an outrageously great time to watch. I think it's illegal in some countries to have this much fun in a single fight scene. It gives the good boys some more opportunities to show off their kickass abilities, (before this, rei was only seen briefly slicing fools up and everyone needs more kenshiro in their lives) the bad guys have some pretty interesting (and pretty goofy) tactics to try to take rei and ken down (case and point: https://imgur.com/a/33rw24b) and it is insanely well drawn.

After this comes one of the greatest moments I have ever seen in any story. Kenshiro asks rei why he wants to end the man with the 7 scars. And then this moment happens: https://imgur.com/a/7TCiWcT I don't think I need to explain why this is an incredible moment. But I will anyways. 1st: it gives rei a good motivation for noscoping the 7 scared man, 2nd: it gives a good backstory for rei, 3rd: it makes a previously tough as hell character now vulnerable emotionally 4: it's a pretty sad backstory and motivation. And 5: the artwork is off the charts I'm this one. Especially that last page of rei. That one page is more powerful and goes harder than the entirety of most other mangas/animes I have seen. (Side note: in the version I read, reis sister is named airi but in the version I'm using as reference, her name is aili but both of those names are stupid so I'm gonna call her ari for future reference.) This then leads to this moment: https://imgur.com/a/luL1YfA which seems like a cop out at first but I actually really enjoy it for 2 reasons. 1: it shows that rei can still joke around and is not just a one note character and 2: it shows that he's still good at heart and not a cunt. So this scene is also a banger.

One funeral for ko later, the big boy villain for this arc is revealed: the father of the fangs. After receiving the word that most of his sons are down and out, he has himself a good cry and decides to kill the hostages from the village he was keeping. Put a pin in this moment as well (I swear I'll come back to all of these pins later)

After this moment that I will not be talking about: https://imgur.com/a/a9Gvws8 and this moment which I will be talking about later (I swear to whatever religious figure you believe in I will come back to all these pins I've set up): https://imgur.com/a/xafX24T kenshiro, rei and mamiya all set out to end the fangs once and for all. While that happens, it's revealed that reis sister is still alive! But is also being kidnapped by daddy fang. And then this moment happens: https://imgur.com/a/fX2OL7A I don't have anything to say about that. I just wanted to show off the absolute chadasaurus rex kenshiro is again. But the awesomeness is short lived as rei is taunted by the image of ari. Being so surprised that she's still alive and right in front of him, rei runs right into a trap and almost gets himself piked.

This moment then happens that legitimately made me cry: https://imgur.com/a/vP5LiUa now would be a good time to say that I have never cried at any manga before in my life. Yes, this one moment made me feel more than any other manga moment ever. I felt the sad rei was feeling. Also, put ONE MORE pin in this moment. All of this will come up very briefly.

Daddy fang then steals ari away and forces the other 3 to stay back and watch her get tortured or else he'll kill her. And NOW is where pull out all the pins and talk about all of them at once. First up is the character of rei: image polnareff mixed with kakyoin and all of r/sigmagrindset. This dude kicks so much ass! He is easily my second favorite character. He has all the great things that I adore about kenshiro but is still unique and badass in his own special way. And I love how he starts off as a supposed villain and becomes just as much of a hero as kenshiro. Now for the rest of the pins I set up and as such the central theme of the arc: family and losing them. Rei loses ari, mamiya loses ko, fang dad loses his sons, ari loses rei (and her eyesight) and kenshiros whole character is all about loss. This theme is constant throughout the entire arc. From something as big as reis entire arc to small as the moment with the children and chocolates.

Anyway, skipping forward a bit, mamiya and ari are captured and tortured by the fangs. Being used as knife throwing target practice. And here is where I want to talk about daddy fang a bit more. Specifically how he fights the good guys. In that he doesn't fight them. We had brute force with the card boys, military tactics with the golan army and intelligence/cunning with jackal. Now we got a guy that's not even fighting ken or rei directly (tips on fighting kenshiro and rei. #1: don't.) He just uses lies and bluffs to try to take down the good boys. Such as what happens right after this: ari is still being tortured and rei has had more than enough and begs daddy fang to let her go. In response, daddy says that if he kills kenshiro then he'll let her go. Another lie he says but rei is too blinded by his desperation to see through him and he fights ken.

And now would be a good time to talk about the art of fist of the north star using the fight between rei and ken as reference. Yeah it's fucking incredible. There are far too many examples of SSSS tier artwork, not just in this fight but in the entire series. The art in this entire series makes dragon  ball look like amateur hour: the animation and berserk look like my 1st grade drawings and hasn't aged a day. It's so timeless. I don't know what black magic tetsuo hara used to make this whole thing look so good but I want to know what the fuck it was.

Back to the story again: mamiya is looking on to the fight between rei and ken and begs daddy fang to just kill her and oh wait, what time is it now? That's right, time to talk about mamiyas character. While not as kickass as ken or rei, mamiyan is still an amazing character and probably one of my new favorite females in manga/anime. She's interesting and complex, never annoying and always a great time to witness. If she ain't your waifu then what what the hell are you doing with your life?

Switching back to the fight, rei and Ken are continuing with their scuffle where something incredibly shocking happens. Again. Rei actually wins against kenshiro and successfully kills him! And then rei goes down too! I would also like to point out that I also cried at this moment. I legit thought my favorite characters in fiction were down and out! I was scared for mamiya and ari and wondering what would happen to them now that the other 2 are done for.

But this ends up being the coolest fake out death in fiction. Daddy fang tells the other fangs to make sure the 2 are dead, they all go up to the bodies and then this happens: https://imgur.com/a/HZurj2T I don't even need to say anything. Just absorb the most awesome implausibility in manga/anime.

With his men dead and options removed, fang is done for, even after his supposed ace in the hole which is to turn his skin to steel, it doesn't work and he's taken down in one of the most satisfying beatdowns I have ever seen. And in another kickass hokuto shinken moment.

Now it's conclusion time for this arc but it's far from the end of the series. Kenshiro heals aris eyesight with hokuto shinken (it was shown to cure deafness and I think it cured blindness so this isn't just a cop out either). Kenshiro reveals to rei that he indeed has 7 scars, but ari tells rei that it wasn't kenshiro and that the man with the 7 scars that kidnapped ari away all those years ago wore a black mask. Perfectly transitioning to the next arc. But that will have to be saved for another day.

Soooooooo. I don't know if you can tell but I kind of enjoy this arc. It's perfect example of how to do everything in a manga in the best way possible. Everything about it is the magnum opus of the entire manga industry (I don't know if I spelled magnum opus correctly.) And I recommend everyone who hasn't already read this series to go buy the first 3 volumes that were rereleased by viz and experience the masterpiece that Buronson and tetsuo hara crafted.

[sir-sharky]

So as well as thumbnails I also make reviews/rants on anime/mangas. Here are some that I quite enjoy and hopefully you will too:

I absolutely love kenshiro and he is one of if not my absolute favorite anime/manga character, maybe even favorite in fiction and here's why. (Fist of the north star)

Tldr: I enjoy kenshiro a lot because he's a good boy and he cries and this is me anytime he does anything: https://youtu.be/-neUQUQ3yyI

I'm only 2 volumes into this series (waiting for the 3rd rerelease to happen) and already I can not stress enough how incredible of a character kenshiro is. And I will be explaining why he is one of if not one of my favorites.

Let's start off with the thing you notice first when witness the greatness of kenshiro, his design: http://imgur.com/a/mtaT9qS I challenge you to look at that awesome design and tell me you don't see a powerful badass warrior/assassin. Look at all that beef and muscle on him! (no homo btw) and the scars on his chest imply that he's been through some shit and he's not afraid to throw down. It's too cool for me to put into words. (Ok maybe some homo)

But of course, looks aren't everything. He can look cool but can his actions back him up? And the answer is yes. Yes he can. This guy is the most badass character I've ever seen. (And I've seen hellsing ultimate so that's how you know I know what I'm on about). His signature fighting style: hokuto shinken, is literally the art of making people explode with martial arts through touching people. Please explain to me in what dimension that isn't badass. Spoiler you can't because it is objectively awesome. And if you need proof, here it is: https://youtu.be/9_kgxSbt3eQ

Although looks and actions are only superficial things, what about the writing and dialogue of Kenny boy? Oh, they're spectacular as well thanks for asking. In fact I don't think I even need to explain why this moment of his is phenomenal: https://imgur.com/a/m4PEr9b but I will anyways. Imagine how easy it would be for ken to just abuse hokuto shinken and just turn the wasteland into his bitch and make everyone his slave like it's fucking redo of healer (I haven't watched redo and I never will but I can still guarantee you it's roughly a billion times worse than fotns) and imagine how much pain he has gone through, hence his "I am a man who has lost everything" line that I also adore. I always appreciate characters that go out of their way to help the people they care about no matter what (goku, vash, luffy etc.) And that moment and this character is pretty much a supped up version of that and I think that's amazing and another reason why he's my favorite character.

I could go on and on about the genius of kenshiro and how tetsuo hara made a perfect character/series (and I probably will at a later date) but I think if I go on any longer I would start to sound repetitive and I think this is enough for all of you to see why I absolutely adore kenshiro.

If you haven't already, I 100% recommend getting the 2 rereleased volumes of fotns by viz that came out recently to witness the glory of this series and to see the masterpiece that tetsuo hara crafted. It's phenomenal.

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Joker vs nahobino. SMT protags clash! The ultimate JRPG battle!

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Rugal vs akuma (SNK vs capcom)

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Mock ups part 10: miscellaneous.

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Mock ups part 9: ok now we're done. For now.

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Mock ups part 8. Almost done.

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Mock ups part 6.

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Mock ups part 4. Some of my older ones.