Squid girl is back, with a whole new season of adventures! Broadcast at the tail end of 2011, this 12 episode second season continues the story of Ika Musume (aka Squid Girl in English), a tentacle haired girl who vows to conquer the surface world as revenge for human polluting the ocean. Only her invasion hasn't gone quite according to plan, and she's found herself working in a beach restaurant in order to pay for damaging a wall upon her arrival. With her friends Eiko, Chizuru, Takeru, Kiyomi and more, Squid Girl continues to fend off the advances of the oh-so-slightly-obsessed Sanae, learns new things about the world she's come to conquer and forms her own 'Invasion club'. While I did enjoy the first season, all in all it was a pretty average show at best. So going into the second season I was happy to discover that the show had really upped its game, and the stories were a lot more enjoyable. The format remains the same (2 or 3 short stories in one 22 minut...

Truth be told, my interest in Character Option's Doctor Who figure range has been waning of late. Besides their high price point (which seems to only be getting higher), there's been an increasing focus on one off monsters paired with releases or remoulds of existing figures. But among the god-knows-how-many sets they announced over the Christmas period (seriously, there were LOADS) was a set themed on the 1965 first Doctor/Dalek story 'The Chase', including a figure I've wanted to be made since I was five. Alongside two Daleks, the set also included a Mechanoid - the spherical robots that not only battled the Daleks in the final episode of the story, but was also one of their main adversaries in the TV21 Dalek comic strips. Given its size, I was expecting the Mechanoid to be hollow. But nope, its a solid figure and therefore as you can imagine quite heavy. The sculpt is perfect (although the arm did suffer some bending in the packaging) and the colours, while ...

The third in the Gokaiger figuart collection is one of my particular favourites - the comic relief but at the same time awesome Don Dogoier, aka Doc and Gokai Green! Since I've covered the figure mould somewhat extensively here and here this will be a somewhat shorter review (the Yellow and Pink ones will be longer again, given its a different figure shape). The photo shoot also suffered from a lack of Red and Blue to pose him with (they're back at my university accommodation), which unfortunately meant no dual-pistol wielding action for poor old Doc either. Just like Red and Blue, the sculpt is excellent and the shade of green is effective despite not have that gleam that the spandex suits in the show have. While I found hand swapping a little more difficult here than I did with the other two, its still by no means frustrating. Green has all the accessories included with the Gokaiger figures thus far (the extra hands, Gokai saber and gun, mobirates, minuscule flippe...

Fate/Stay Night is a 24 episode anime series from 2006, based on a Japanese visual novel by Type-Moon. While the visual novel had three divulging scenarios, the anime series follows only one of them (the 'Fate' scenario) while showing glimpses of the others. The second scenario, titled 'Unlimited Blade Works', was made into a theatrical film of the same name. Orphaned in a catastrophe ten years again, Emiya Shirou lives inspired by the man who took him in following the event, wishing one day to be a hero of justice. Soon, he becomes tied up in the sixth ‘Holy Grail War’, in which seven masters with seven servants battle to the death to obtain an ultimate power with the ability to grant wishes. Despite having limited magic skills, Shirou experiences a twist of fate when he summons the most powerful servant, Saber. Along his battles he learns that each servant contains the spirit of a fallen hero, and that the event that orphaned him is not only linked the las...

Power Rangers Ninja Storm is the 11th season of the Power Rangers franchise, the second to be made under Disney copyright and the first to be filmed in New Zealand. While Ninja Storm is considered by many to be a parody of sorts, lovingly poking fun at both Power Rangers and ninja tropes alike, its also a series that meets mixed response. Shane, Tori and Dustin are students at the Wind Ninja Academy. One day, the academy was attacked by Lothor, a banished ninja master who has returned to take over. Shane, Tori and Dustin are the only three remaining students, and along with Sensei and his son Cam, retreat into the underground Ninja Ops. There, the three are given morphers, which allow them to transform into Wind Rangers to protect the city of Blue Bay Harbor from Lothor's forces. Lothor soon raises the stakes by sending his new allies to battle the Wind Rangers - the Thunder Rangers Blake and Hunter, who are on a mission to destroy the Wind Rangers' Sensei, who they believe...

It's been a fun ride, but sadly the last of the 'main' Gokaiger mecha is upon us (I say main because there's a rumour the Gokaiger vs. Gavan movie will feature another Gokai machine) in both DX and mini-pla form. But the last usually proves to be the most exciting, and it's no exception with Gokaiger! The final machine in their arsenal is a brand new character, rather than new decos of characters that featured in previous series. Machalcon is the son of Speedor and Bear RV - the red and yellow engines from Engine Sentai Go-Onger. Machalcon takes up three candy toy boxes, however his wave is included with a re-release of the Gokai Galleon. This is because box 2 of Machalcon also comes with (scaled down versions of) Gozyujin's arms, meaning that the ultimate Kanzen GokaiOh mecha is completely self contained within the assortment. As you could expect from a figure that takes up three boxes, Machalcon is considerably larger than his Gokai machine friends -...

Traditional Western superheroes aren't something you often see in anime. In a universe populated by mecha, vampire and magical girls, there just didn't seem to be much demand for costumed heroes with a variety of superpowers. Other than Marvel's poor effort at bringing four of their properties to life as anime over the last year, no series really spring to mind. Until Sunrise's Tiger & Bunny came along that is. Released this year, Tiger & Bunny is a 25 episode TV series that saw two heroes with the same power (but VERY different personalities) team up in a futuristic world when superheroes are part of a reality TV show. Taking place in the fictional Sternbuild City, superpowered individuals known as NEXT have been around for around 45 years, with some of them becoming heroes. Each of the city's most famous superheroes work for a sponsor company and their uniforms also contain advertising for real-life companies. Their heroic activity is broadcast on the ...

Another month has passed and that means another Gokaiger figuart is available! Bandai's second figuart Gokaiger release is none other than Gokai Blue aka Joe Gibken. Gokai Green is the next in line (he saw release last week in fact) and Yellow, Pink and Silver are to follow in December and January. I'll keep this review shorter as to not repeat myself six times over, so anyone looking for a more detailed review check out my Gokai Red review from a month ago. Once again Blue has the excellent sculpt and build I've come to expect from this line. The shade of blue is perhaps somewhat darker than I originally expected but not by too much, and this helps the gold highlighting stand out more vividly. The joints are very flexible and removing hands doesn't prove too tasking, while at the same time when attached the fit firmly and there's little chance of them dropping off during posing. Gokai Blue has a very similar amount of accessories to Red - the mobirates,...