X-Men Animated Series Cohesion

In my recent entry, I have discussed a retrospective view of X-Men the animated series. True, I have finished watching all the 76 episodes on YouTube. However, when we moved to Episode 71, I notice that the art and character design had changed a lot and no longer reflects the Jim Lee art that is seen in the first 70 episodes.

As said, that's because Saban had taken over the ownership of the production and produced the last six episodes before it was canceled by September 1997.

Now, going back to the cohesion thing, I have mentioned that Season 2 is the most cohesive season as it deals with the Savage Land arc, all episodes inter-related with one another with no continuity problems, culminating with the showdown of Mister Sinister at the end. In season three, the season is called The Phoenix season as it deals with Phoenix Saga..nine episodes and it also has a sub-plot that is a character study of Cyclops.

Some episodes that are slated to appear in Season 3 were broadcast later, in other words, got jumbled up. The main reason was due to animation problems, where animators had to fix those problems. For instance, the episode, No Mutant is An Island was slated to appear after the first Phoenix Saga. It was moved to season 4. Putting that after Phoenix Saga will actually provide a clear exposition of how Cyclops was in grieving mode after the Phoenix aftermath.

The inconsistencies appear mostly between season 3 and 4. Courage serves as a the resolution for Morph. One episode in Season 5, Longshot was supposed to appear as the interlude to the Dark Phoenix Saga. If that happens, it clearly resolves, in timing continuity of the Mojo episode. In place of Longshot, and Courage are two episodes that are actually written for season 4. In fact Nightcrawler was intended to be introduced at Season 4.

The list can be very confusing. But you can check the comparisons between the slated ones and the actual broadcast episodes.

Again, the success of the first season would resulted in Fox ordering another 3 more seasons or 39 more episodes.

The Black Lagoon

I haven't been writing for many days already - today the fourth day if you keep counting.

When I went back home to Ipoh, I was introduced to a new Japanese animation series that my brother is currently watching - called The Black Lagoon.

Didn't show me the whole thing though, but he wanted to show me the best bits of the first season.

It is an adaptation of one of the manga comics that is well known in Japan.

Now don't brand me as an anime freak because of this incident. I watched one of the episodes that he said it as "must watch" and after that I found it kind of funny.

The Black Lagoon is actually a crack team of mercenaries for hire to the highest bidder. The team is led by a black man - Dutch the Boss. He is accompanied by Revy Two Hands - the only female of the posse with Benny the Mechanic and Rock the ex-businessman.

Okajima Rokuro is a poor limp=ass salaryman who was ordered to carry a special disc around for a top secret errand. Unfortunately, he was captured by the mercenaries and winds up being part of the team as Rock. Most of the time, their employers would be Hotel Moscow - a cell of ex-Russian military led by Balailaka.

Unfortunately, this is the only group picture that I managed to get my hands on. So:

From L-R: Benny the Mechanic, Rock, Dutch the Boss and Revy Two Hands.

Much of the premise can be found here and here.