Monday, July 30, 2018

S.H. Figuarts - Injustice Batman




Injustice: Gods Among Us is hands down the best story in a fighting game I wasn't looking for. When I initially bought the game, I basically just wanted to match up fights with big-time DC villains and heroes because hey, fighting games are a fun way to pass time without needing a big time commitment to enjoy. What I got instead was an interesting story that was interesting enough to spawn several ongoing comic series and a second game (which I will definitely buy at some point!).

S.H. Figuarts made 4 figures of characters from their appearance: Superman, Batman, Harley Quinn and Joker. I like how each of these characters is a unique take in the game. In fact, the game has two versions of many of the characters: original versions and the alternate reality ones under Superman's One Earth regime, where he is High Councilor and is a pretty hardcore dictator/tyrant. 

In this universe, Batman and many others are sent to an alternate reality (I won't tell you how, no spoilers!), and find themselves under Superman's regime. Some heroes (and villains) have allied themselves with Superman (who is looking kinda sickly!) while other heroes (and former villains?) have joined Batman's Insurgency group. This version of Batman is a bit more ruthless. He's got a bit more obvious armour plating to his suit, but it adds to the more unique world and takes on the characters. He's voiced by Kevin Conroy, so that makes most other things good in my books!

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

S.H. Figuarts - Gaara


Gaara's first appearance in Naruto is as a very disturbed kid who can manipulate sand imbued with his chakra. His character has many parallels to Naruto's if Naruto had never had friends, became a psychopath, and tried to destroy the Leaf village!

Gaara's tragic past includes having had the One-tailed Shukaku beast put into him, in the same way, that Naruto had the Nine-tailed fox sealed into himself. Upon being defeated by Naruto, he comes to realize a little about others and himself and basically becomes rehabilitated.

He is from the Hidden Sand Village and his father was also a pretty cold-hearted psycho himself. He has a brother and sister how also featured quite a bit in the show. He has the power to manipulate any sand around him, and so he also carries sand imbued with his chakra on his back that instantly protects him from harm. The only one who was able to beat the speed of his protective sand was Rock Lee (see the previous review!).