It’s your typical workday week, and the rush hour traffic outside turned out to be typically egregious. After pondering, you decided to wait for the hustle and bustle to calm down and stay a …
Oct 23, 2023 • Subscribe
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One Shots / “Silhouettes”
2007 was a great year for the Transformers franchise, thanks to the first live-action movie that brought the brand to the mainstream audience. 2007 was also a great…
One Shots / “The Earth Guardian”
This weekend marks the start of a new Ultraman series, Ultraman Arc. It’s a constant reminder of how time flies really fast as around this time one year…
One Shots / “One and Seventy”
Being the genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist that he is, Tony Stark has come a long way from the clunky Model 1 and has built up quite the…
One Shots / “Unexpected Assistance”
In an alternate reality where neither Great Mazinger nor Tetsuya Tsurugi exists, an unknown yet familiar robot comes to aid the badly damaged Mazinger Z. The unidentified robot,…
One Shots / “Nostalgia Gundams”
Back in the late 90s, I often found myself rushing to get home from school to catch the latest Gundam episodes from a local TV station. Starting with…
One Shots / “Tools of the Messiah”
Love him or hate him, Kira Yamato is undeniably one of the most bankable characters in the Gundam franchise. And for the first time in twenty years, he…
One Shots / “Passing the Beam Rifle”
Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury is the latest ‘mainline’ Gundam series to follow Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS along with a seven-year gap. It provides a…
One Shots / “Pockets and Waltz”
The Holidays are once again upon us, and Gundam enthusiasts have a particular way of celebrating it. Some do a tradition of watching marathons of either Gundam 0080:…
One Shots / “Double Axe Salute”
It’s already 2022, but I’d like to insert this last One Shot for 2021. Earlier in December, fan-favorite creative Derrick J. Wyatt passed away. He was involved in…
One Shots / “Triple Getter Attack!”
Summer 2021 saw the release of Getter Robo Arc, the anime adaptation of what Ken Ishikawa intended as the final entry in the Getter Robo franchise, if not…
Armageddon, Getter Robo, Getter Robo Arc, Getter Robo G, New Getter Robo
One Shots / “Subversion of Expectations”
Mobile Suit Gundam made its premiere in April of 1979, making 2024 the 45th anniversary of the franchise. Subsequent Gundam series followed suit, having premieres in April before…
One Shots / “Gadgets in Disguise”
Time and time again, Optimus Prime has become a beacon of hope and saved countless lives across the multiverse. In the process, he has already taken countless forms…
One Shots / “Fists of Fury”
As seen during the Gundam 45th Anniversary special, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Mobile Fighter G Gundam. To those unfamiliar, G Gundam is the first non-Universal Century…
One Shots / “40-Year Legacy”
Every year is an anniversary, and 2024 is a special one for Transformers fans as it’s the 40th of the franchise. Besides the usual deluge of commemorative figures…
One Shots / “Sunset and Silver”
On March 21, 1974, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla was released in Japanese theaters. This marks the first appearance of the mechanized kaiju in the franchise and for fifty years,…
One Shots / “A Simpler Explanation”
Outside of ancillary literature, none of the sequel trilogy movies provided an explanation why C-3PO had a red arm coming into Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I’m inclined…
One Shots / “Phantoms and Witches”
Happy Halloween! The Gundam franchise only had phantoms previously with the Phantom Gundam. But ever since Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury came out, we now have…
One Shots / “By the Numbers, and Letters”
Do not be caught off-guard by their short hair and unassuming demeanors. Remember, they are androids. They may be the prettiest of warriors, but they are all about…
One Shots / “Adventures in the Multiverse: Optimus Primal”
While cruising as a Cybertronnian cargo ship, Optimus Primal spots a bright green light approaching him. He tries to evade but the mysterious light seems to be catching…
One Shots / “Same Idea, Different Interpretation”
In no less than 10 years since the First Bloody Valentine War, mobile suit and mobile weapons technology in the Cosmic Era has progressed continuously, and aggressively. The…
One Shots / “Some Samus Aran Business”
I wasn’t really planning on taking a One Shots photo of this figure. It just so happened that I was doing some maintenance following the arrival of my…
One Shots / “Creative. Classic. Comic… Gimmick?”
In 2021, the stars might have aligned for the folks within Tamashii Nations and Sen-Ti-Nel as they came up with practically the same gimmick for their next set…
One Shots / “Straight Out of… Box”
“Straight out of camera” is what I wanted to say, but this photo was created though focus stacking in post, a technique I should’ve tried sooner. Anyway, I…
One Shots / “Samus Aran, Bounty Hunter”
As of this post, Nintendo has revealed the next installment in the Metroid franchise, Metroid Dread. Thus, it’s only fitting we get ourselves acquainted, once again, with the…
One Shots / “Let’s Talk About Tendencies”
Having seen what Aerial is capable of doing, RX-78-2 quickly decided that an immediate therapy session is definitely needed as they wouldn’t know what to expect if Aerial…
One Shots / “Tribute to Toriyama-sensei”
At the time of posting, it was recently announced that Akira Toriyama, known to most as the creator of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball has passed away. I…
Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam Build Fighters Try, Iron Man
One Shots / “Aesthetics: Artistic and Stylistic”
We are very much in the ‘SEED’ zeitgeist with the release of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM, so I will take this opportunity to express one particular nitpick.…
Arina Tanemura One-Shots (with Loyola Rankin)
Covers: I.O.N., Short-Tempered Melancholic and Other Stories, and Mistress Fortune, all by Arina Tanemura Put on your frilliest dress and lace up as Loyola and Ashley discuss a bunch…
One Shots / “That’s Just Prime, Part 2”
Two years ago, I made this One Shots entry called “That’s Just Prime” to quickly account for the numerous Voyager class Optimus Prime figures being released at that…
One Shots / “Completely Same Yet Completely Different”
In 1999, Sunrise launched the Gundam Big Bang Project to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. It involved several productions, but the two most notable were Turn…
One Shots / “Extreme Versus: Maxi-Boost I”
Outside of great animated series, movies, and Gunpla, another great thing to come out of the Gundam franchise are the Mobile Suit Gundam EXTREME VS. arcade games. And…
Invader Zim: Orphanhood’s End [BloodyMarquis]
Picture yourself like this: You’re a new kid in school. The unwanted misfit of the class. No one there really likes you because you don’t act like anyone…
One Shots / “Adventures in the Multiverse: G40 ✕ RX-78-2”
While doing routine patrols in the Gundam, Amuro starts to notice weird cracks and patterns appearing in the sky. A flash of blinding light follows and then a…
One Shots / “That’s Just Prime: Shades of White”
When “The Transformers” came out in 1984, it was a simple good-versus-evil story with character motivations clear as black and white. Nowadays, white isn’t the best representation…
Logan The Hero Fallen
If you don’t want any spoilers for the movie LOGAN don’t read any further. This movie moved me to tears, but not in the place you might have thought.…
Stuff on the Office Desk: THat’s one Heavy Prime
When I started collecting Optimus Prime figures oh so many years ago, I restricted myself to the Deluxe class size/price point. This limits the figures I can buy,…
Jojune Phantom Blood: Episode 1- Dio the Invader
And so it begins…Welcome to the start of Jojune as we start things off at the very beginning of the bizarre occurrences of the Joestar bloodline! The pilot…
One Shots / “That’s Just Michael Bay’s Prime, Part 1”
As far as the Transformers franchise goes, the name Michael Bay stirs quite the discourse among casual fans and enthusiasts. You may love him or hate him, but…
One Shots / “That’s Just Michael bay’s Prime, Part 2”
It’s not clear whether this was intentional on the part of writers and producers behind Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, but the fandom generally agrees that over the span…
Stuff on the Office Desk: Overcompensation, and one is Valid
I’m still playing catch up on several Transformers figures, while getting the new ones at the same time. And for this round, we have a couple of figures…
Review: The Fallen Bridge (2022)
The Fallen Bridge 断•桥 China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 113 mins. Director: Li Yu 李玉. Rating: 4/10. Gloomy, suspense-less drama about a daughter solving her father’s death lacks any…
Evanescence – Fallen (Retrospective)
I wrote this album review on a forum I frequent yesterday and I thought it was actually kinda good, enough for me to put it in a more…
It’s Spooky Season! – Day 30: Some Shorts and One-Shots
Have you ever had a memory that you weren’t exactly sure was real? Recently, when I was coming up with the list of episodes and series to cover…
Stuff on the Office Desk: Both are Lions, One Looks Less
Over the past weekend, I finally got two of my more anticipated Transformers purchases which were made available at the last part 2022. First is the HasLab-excluive Victory…
Six New Indie One-Shots by Chiharu Shinagawa and Yuzuki Momoi
It’s new license announcement time! We’re adding six one-shot manga stories published by SOZO Comics and created by indie authors Chiharu Shinagawa and Yuzuki Momoi. Look out for…
The Parasite Doctor Suzune, bonus shots
Nude shots. When I made my review of the Suzune figure, this site was hosted on WordPress.com which doesn’t ban adult materials but does not encourage such contents.…
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a hard-hitting action game that plays well with my tastes and sensibilities, but I'm struggling to objectively see how broad its appeal is.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Sekiro is my favorite game from the last 20 years. I finished it many times on PlayStation 4 and bought it again on Steam for another playthrough. It…
The Anime Maru Office Tour
We at Anime Maru have been in the media business for quite a while though despite all these years many still don’t know much about how the most…
Writing About Race, The Office
Race is a challenging subject to discuss, and I almost didn’t write this piece, but it seems like a hard topic to ignore if I’m going to continue…
