On Star Ratings

"I should talk about Star Ratings.[...]I'm one guy, giving my opinion on a match.[...]I give stars cause it's a fun little thing. you read the thing, you look at the star ratings, if a bunch of them are high, you go 'Wow, Bryan really liked this show. I should go see it.'[...]"
-Bryan Alvarez, The Bryan and Vinny Show


So I felt like I needed to make this small aside to post to all of my reviews that involve me giving matches a star rating. Just because I wanna dissolve any idea that I have a high opinion of my taste in wrestling, one that would usually come with thinking people care what I rate a wrestling match.

At the end of the day, I do the Star Ratings on my blog posts for myself. I use the star ratings to track how I felt about certain matches for the benefit of my own memory. So I can compare how I felt about certain matches with other matches, and to see what I subconsciously think about certain wrestlers, teams, or companies. I in no way feel like my word should be taken with any grave seriousness by a wide audience. My Taste is my taste.

Okay this is really short, but maybe I'll come back and revise it some day.

NOAH Kohai 2: The Road to New Sunrise 2020

This review article is part of a series where I Chronicle my attempts to watch all of Pro Wrestling NOAH's 2020 catalogue. The previous article can be found here and the next one chronologically, if I haven't fallen off the reviewing wagon, can be found here. Give them all a read if you want the full context of what I'm talking about.

If you have issues with the fact I use Star Ratings for some of the matches I review here, kindly follow this link for my explanation.

Alright, the biggest show of the year is over with. There's a new singles championship that the entire roster can gun for with the National title, RATELS have control over both of NOAH's Junior titles, and Kongo went 0-2 in their attempt to take over the Heavyweight Division. The next significant show in the timeline, to me, is the New Year's show on January 4th of the cursed year 2020. But that doesn't mean we have nothing to do until then. We have four title matches over the course of three regular shows. On top of that, we have a trio of "Produce" shows run by three of NOAH's factions; RATELS' Showtime, Kongo's DIAMOND, and Sugiura-Gun's All Dogs Gather! (That Exclamation is part of the show name, not reflective of my excitement for the show). 

If I tried to attentively give every match on all of these shows a full blown review I'll probably burn myself out, almost definitely not finish by the time Budokan show gets here. So there's select matches I'll definitely give the full treatment, title matches or important singles matches mostly, but the best I'm probably going to do in between the big shows on my timeline is to glance over and give general feels on the smaller build up shows. I guess, at this point I'm trying to figure out if I can even FINISH before Budokan, I thought the show was on the 21st of February and not the 12th. But the success is in the effort, not the results for this one. Let's get started.

Pro Wrestling NOAH Starting Over, Night 5 November 16th 2019

This was the first show I watched after Aesthetic and I honestly wasn't expecting much, barring the crown jewel match I knew was coming. But, after the first two matches, all three of the 6-man tag matches on the show ended up being really good/ The RATELs/Stinger War was a break neck match which somehow surprised me, Kongo vs Kaito, Marafuji, and Hi69 was a good bounce back performance for Kenoh's unit, and the main event was a great prelude to the National title match coming up between Sugiura and Taniguchi. But the obvious reason anyone would watch this show was-

IPW UK Junior Heavyweight Title [1st Defense]

Atsushi Kotoge (c) (STINGER) vs Daisuke Harada (RATELS)

The Peach Twisters EXPLODE for the...Jesus Christ Daisuke Harada and Atsushi Kotoge have wrestled 34 times. I'm not joking, it's all right here. 

 

Anyway, THIS MATCH RULED. Oh my God this match was so good. It started with Daisuke outmatching Atsushi in the grappling department and keeping on the offense for the opening stretch of the match. Any time Atsushi gained the advantage, it was due to a high risk maneuver or from brawling outside the ring and into the crowd. You can see throughout the whole match that these two men know each other so well; each man at one point went for a splash that was countered with the same knee raising and quick pin, while later in the match each was able to easily avoid or endure the other's sugnature maneuvers. Technical exchanges turned to crowd brawling, which itself turned into an exchange of strikes in the ring. First  Elbows, then slaps, until both men were brought to the ground while the crowd rose to their feet. Finally, Atsushi gained control and almost had Daisuke with a top rope Spanish Fly. This is his one shot and I think he knew it as well. He landed a vicious headbutt on his old friend and a Killswitch for the two count. Desperation set in with some amazing and baffling roll ups from both men. Kotoge's luck ran out, as all luck does against the Young Master, who railed the champion with a knee and rolling elbow, a Katayama German, and finally the infamous top rope Katayama German Suplex for the Three Count. What a Goddamn War.

****

NOAH Kohai: Best of the Best, Battle of Aesthetics

 Happy New Year!

With 2021 coming around the corner, there's a lot of change in my life. I turned 27 a few days ago, just got my MBA from the University at Buffalo, and I'm about to finish buying a condo. With all the shake up in my life, I'm hoping I'll have a lot more time to work on my blog (maybe finally find a good name for it) and watch a lot more wrestling.

I've always called Pro Wrestling NOAH my Soul Mate promotion. Since I started watching it on and off in 2016, I've always felt a connection to it somehow. Maybe I appreciated the story behind it's founding, maybe it's because I like a good underdog story, or maybe (definitely) it's because I followed Katsuhiko Nakajima here from his performance in the 2016 G1 Climax and he immediately won the Heavyweight title at NOAH's next show right after that tournament finished. On the 21st of February, NOAH returns to Budokan hall and I wanna be there...in a metaphorical sense. So I'm planning to take the next month and a half to power through the end of 2019 and all of 2020's shows to get myself ready for the company's return to Budokan. We're starting with their biggest show from 2019 that also had the best name of the year; Battle of Aesthetic.

 

KAZMA SAKAMOTO, El Hijo del Dr. Wager, Jr., and Kinya Okada (Sugiura-Gun) vs Hitoshi Kumano, Mohammed Yone, and Quiet Storm

I wish I could say I payed attention to this match at all, but I used the time this match was on to set up the bones of the review...so Hijo del Dr. Wagner won the match with a Moonsault press that got a lot of hangtime and I miss Hitoshi Kumano.

Akitoshi Saito and Masao Inoue vs Mitsuo Momota and Tamon Honda

This was a comedy match, mostly between Masao Inoue, Momota, and Honda. The moments that Akitoshi came in resembled more of a match than when Inoue was in, but that's about the best I can say about it. No disrespect meant to the four men, but it just wasn't for me. The best part of the match was watching the 71 year old Mitsuo get a pretty complicated roll-up on Masao.

Hi69, Junta Miyawaki, and Osamu Nishimura vs. Hajime Ohara, NOSAWA Rongai, and Kazushi Sakuraba (Sugiura-Gun)

Miyawaki has a shirt here that says ORANGE RIOT and if I can get my hands on it I would like one. A good, fast paced match that mostly got me excited to be watching more Kazushi Sakuraba in the next few months. Actually, this match had more than a few of my low key favorite NOAH roster members in it, including Junta with his creamsicle gear and Hajime Ohara. Definitely can't wait to watch a whole bunch of Junior Heavyweights having respectful, peaceful matches.

Kazushi won the match for Sugiura-Gun with a heel hook into a Figure Four on Nio Hi69.

Masaaki Mochizuki, Minoru Tanaka, and Super Crazy vs. Atsushi Kotoge, Chris Ridgeway (Stinger), and Eddie Edwards

Another good exhibition of the NOAH Junior Heavyweights, mixed in with some outside talent. I was reminded how much I liked Chris Ridgeway and I'm sorry that I wont be seeing much of him in the next month of my watching. Good finishing scramble that left Super Crazy and Eddie Edwards in the ring together. Eddie used the Tiger Driver and a Shining Wizard to put away Crazy...so mixed message there.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Shuhei Taniguchi

Alright, the show really starts now; Kenta Mother Loving and Respecting Kobashi is in the commentary booth. 

 

This match was brutal but in an amazing way. To give a really short and probably bastardized rundown, Fujita was an Antonio Inoki prospect and three time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. MMA trained and 1st degree Inokism, I wouldn't want to fuck with Fujita. But Taniguchi, it seems, wants to fuck around with Fujita, taking him down early in the match and punting him in the head. The whole match is characterized by long bouts of Taniguchi having control but occasionally losing it to a much stronger and harder hitting Fujita. Shuhei showed amazing spirit here, more than I have ever seen out of him, and while ultimately coming up short got me to think differently of him. If you prefer your wrestling to be hard hitting, I would go out of your way to watch this short but brutal contest.

 

***3/4 This is a weird case. The high rating is for the intense heat from the crowd moreso than the the actual wrestling. If you watch this match on silent the rating drops hard. But as it is, everyone likes a good outsider dick story.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles [6th defense]

Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinari Ogawa (Stinger) (c) vs. Daisuke Harada and Tadasuke (RATELS)

Oh my God RATELs feels so long ago. The story of this match was an easy one. "AYY! Tadasuke! you can't step up to the plate." At least that's the feeling I got from it. It was otherwise a basic tag team match. Daisuke is NOAH's best Junior Heavyweight in my opinion. I'm torn between wanting him to step up and fight heavyweights and maybe go after the National title or be the Ace for NOAH's junior heavyweights. Match ends with a Lariat/German Suplex combo and a...well, it looks like an Eight Second Ride, James Storm's old finisher, so we'll go with that. Tadasuke gets the pin.

**3/4, but the audio got desync'd on my video towards the end so it might be better.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title[2nd Defense]

HAYATA (RATELS) (c) vs. YO-HEY (RATELS)

I know I just gushed about Daisuke in the last match, but I would like to take a hot second to gush about my boy HAYATA. I sincerely believe that if they wanted to, NOAH could build the Junior Heavyweights around HAYATA like they could around Daisuke. Maybe he's a little more flashy than the Young Master, but he's got the look and the crowd behind him and the handsome face...yeah, I think HAYATA is handsome, fight me. Early on in the match, HAYATA hit The Headache as YO-HEY was hanging between the ropes and it was terrifying. Both men bring out some serious high flying offense and high impact good shit in pursuit of the blue and silver belt. I was waiting the whole time for the match to slow down but it never really did. It was a great exchange of two men who each knew the other's moves and thought processes. HAYATA eventually planted YO-HEY with a Thrust Kick, a Headache in the middle of the ring (for a 2 count) before going for a moonsault but getting caught with YO-HEY's knees for another 2 count. YO-HEY kept fighting for kickouts, but after another Headache the match was over.

***3/4

GHC Tag Team Title 

Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura (KONGO)

 First RATELS and now AXIZ. Leave the memories alone, damnit! This is an awesome match up; Brute power from THE TOUGH against the focused technique of AXIZ. The young determination of Yoshiki, the sadism of Nakajima. This match fucking ruled. AXIZ isolating Inamura early for punishment, Nakajima taking joy in humiliating his opponent as he took him apart. Shiozaki got in on the action himself, showing a brutal side we don't often see today (I know it's only been a year but this still holds). The hot tag was eventually made to Masa who came in a house of fighting spirit, vinegar, and fire. He would stay in the rest of the match and get several close falls on both men. The Kongo pair did their best to put AXIZ away, but their raw power and determination couldn't match the skill and focus of their opposition. The match ended the way one would hope, with Nakajima in the ring with his old tag partner and friend, knocking him out with a high roundhouse kick and a Vertical Spike Brainbuster. I can't do this match justice, this is the first match on this show I would highly recommend anyone who's a fan of pro wrestling watch. THIS is NOAH.

****1/2

 

Great Muta vs. Naomichi Marufuji

Alright, I guess we have to cool down from that awesome tag title match we just watched, right?

God bless both these men and bell their knees. They tried but the result of this match was a plodding, gimmick filled match. I love both men (not enough to want Mutoh to win the GHC title at Budokan in a few months( but this wasn't a good match. Quite frankly I don't know how good it could have been. Out of respect to how I feel about Mutoh and how great I know Marufuji's matches normally are, plus what I feel for sure is a match that wasn't structured to be conventionally good, I'll pass on rating this one.Don't watch this one.

GHC National Title Match (vacant)

Takashi Sugiura (Sugiura-Gun) vs. Michael Elgin 

Some one call Big E, cause we're about to have two meat men slapping meat for a Meaty, red strapped title. Great touch in the opening package to show why both men were chosen to be in this crowning match; Sugiura was the losing finalist in the N1 League (missing out on the Main Event tonight) and Michael Elgin killed Marufuji with a Burning Goddamn Hammer at Impact Wrestling's Bound For Glory event the month before. It's rare to see Takashi "Murder Uncle Mk II" Sugiura being the sympathetic wrestler in the match, but for the first part of the match Michael Elgin was able to take it to him hard. When Sugiura got his feet back under him with a big ol' Spear the match became the hard hitting contest I was excited for it to be. In the vein of New Japan's NEVER Title, Big Japan's Strong Divion title, or seemingly any ZERO1 Heavyweight title match, these two men set the pace and the taste that the National Title seemingly promised to give. As the year goes on, we'll see that advertised style be refined and evolve. If you don't like the strike heavy, fighting spirit focused matches of Japanese pro wrestling, this match won't be for you, and that's okay. but if you're all for this kind of wrestling I can't recommend this match enough, An accidentally hilarious exchange saw Elgin his Sugiura with two rolling German Suplexes, shortly before Sugiura got an Ankle Lock. That'd be incidental at best, but Elgin transitioned into a Crossface from being in the Ankle Lock. Which just makes me want to watch Angle/Benoit after this. Not to mention Sugiura going for the Olympic Qualifying Slam a minute later. After failing to put Takashi away with a rocking Lariat and a Post-Bucklebomb Powerbomb, Big Mike went for the Burning Hammer, which you can't do in Misawa's house. His hubris cost him as Sugiura locked in a Guillotine that almost ended that match. The strike exchange at the end of the match lead to two Olympic Qualifying Slams to crown Sugiura the first National Champion.

****1/4 A Hell for Leather (is that how it's said? I dunno) contest that set up the new title extremely well

GHC Heavyweight Title [6th Defense]

Kaito Kiyomiya (c) vs. Kenoh

Okay it was a hell of a struggle to watch this match. I went to go watch this match on Youtube and about ten minutes into the video the audio desyncd. I went onto Dailymotion and found a different version of the match and...okay no Dailymotion's version is way too pixelated on my bigger screen so that one ended up being out, too. Last resort, my hard drive that has this full show on it. Finally, I had a great looking and properly sounded version.

I could watch Kenoh and Kaito feud for the next decade and, hopefully, that seems to be the actual plan. The opening moments of this match were arguably some of the best, with Kenoh belittling Kaito on a rope break that lead to an opening exchange of strikes. The contest was pretty even until Kenoh caught the champion with a rocking DDT on the apron, followed by a scary Double Foot Stomp to the back of Kaito's neck. For the next stretch of the match, Kenoh kept the champion down with submissions and beat downs, letting Kaito only come back with one or two strikes before being smothered once more. Kaito made a proper comeback started with an AMAZING dive from the ring to the floor over the turnbuckle pole onto Kenoh, followed by one of his beautiful top rope dropkicks to the back of Kenoh's head. Shit's on. Both men start going for Tiger Suplexes and Double Foot Stomps, but most miss and the other takes the opportunity to swing the match into their favor off of it. I thought it was over once Kenoh nailed a Dragon Suplex on the apron (Baba help me that was terrifying) but somehow, somehow Kaito managed to kick out. Finally, Kenoh was caught by a trio of dropkicks strait to the face and a par of Tiger Suplexes for the successful defense by Kaito in what was an awesome match that did good by the name of GHC.

****1/4

Was every match on this show a homerun? Not exactly, but every match I expected to be great at the very least met my expectations.I'm really looking forward to watching more of the shows as I carve my way through 2020. I'm really hoping you join me, and that I've convinced at least SOMEONE to watch Pro Wrestling NOAH off this review. Next time, before I watch the New Sunrise show that kicked off NOAH's 2020, I'm going to be taking a look at the handful of shows the company ran in 2019 and give selected recommendations from those shows. Keep a lookout for those!

Thanks for reading! I'm glad that I can turn my passion for wrestling into something that so many people enjoy. If you want to get regular updates on when I release more reviews, you can follow me at Twitter at @LSWayne21. Big shoutout to Hisame, the one woman workhorse translating NOAH news and interviews. You can catch her updates, translations, and overall charm at her Twitter here.
See you down the Road.

On the Rocky Road to NOAH: The Best of Budokan Hall, Disc One

Yo fuck the Corona Virus, and fuck the mentally and emotionally sapping world we live in right now. It made me not want to watch the art I love for months.

Alright, now that the sorry sap part of the blog post is out of the way, Wrestling!

So I've been sitting on this 3 disc set for a while now, but recently I purchased (Beyer help me) Best of Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs for the years 2001-2014, because I have mania and the rum I was drinking determined that my mania was for NOAH that night.

I'm...I have imposter syndrome, I think. Like with Pro Wrestling NOAH, I feel like I haven't earned the right to be a NOAH fan, somehow. This didn't happen with New Japan, I think because I came into that company with a wave of other new fans, so it was a very mutual feeling of discovery and it made me feel comfortable coming in. But with NOAH I don't get that. It's not that the fandom hasn't been welcoming. In fact, everyone I've interacted with has been incredibly helpful and friendly when it comes to getting invested in the emerald brand. But I feel like...I dunno, I don't Deserve to be a fan somehow. Cause the company and it's fans have been through a lot the last twenty years, and here I am just kinda like a tourist with a camera around his neck and a Hawaiian shirt.

So, what to do?

Walk the King's Road up to the Ark, I guess. As I wait for the Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs to come in, I'm gonna go through this DVD of a VHS rip, and try to...absorb? the power of 90's All Japan, so that I can be ready for a decade and change of Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Join me, won't you?

9.3.1993
Triple Crown Championship
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams [5th Defense]
Start as you mean to go on, I guess. I really didn't want to go into this review like "KING'S ROAD IS THE SUPERIOR STYLE OF PRO WRESTLING AND MY EYES ARE OPEN" because I try not to be a hyperbolic guy (just manic). But...like I watched this match and I was blown away. It was so simple, but they got so much out of the crowd, who was WILD. Even through the background noise of this being a VHS rip, I could tell how amazingly alive the crowd was. There was one true moment of 'Heat' and it came when Dr Death pressed Misawa and dropped him sternum first into the ringpost. The crowd went nuts and it just stoked the fire. I don't wanna do a play by play, but at the same time I also really cant. It was all about momentum in this match. Doc would have control, Misawa would try and fight back, Doc would get it again. I loved it. My favorite moment of the match was when Williams went for the Oklahoma Stampede multiple times and Misawa kept slipping out each time, but never truly gaining an advantage. The match ended when, having gotten the momentum for just a moment, Misawa nailed the Tiger Driver, two massive elbows that still weren't putting the gaijin down, and hit a second Tiger Driver for the pin. I NOW GET MISAWA HYPE
****1/4

9.3.1993
All Japan Tag Team Championships
Holy Demon Army (Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada) vs. Stan Hansen and Ted DiBiase [3rd Defense]
So as I've said above, my experience with 90s All Japan is extremely limited. But I'd always felt a very soul bound attraction towards Toshiaki Kawada. I can't tell you why really; maybe it's his loyalty to All Japan when NOAH was formed, maybe it's the black and gold aesthetic, maybe I just really, REALLY like Taichi and that affection transfers over to his teacher. But after this match, I can tell Kawada is going to be one of my favorites on this DVD set. He's just a bottle of piss and vinegar fueled by wanting to be the best and I can appreciate the hell out of that.

There's really not much to tell about this match beyond that. Stan and Ted are big motherfucking gaijin who wanna take the tag titles. Kawada cannot abide by this insult and takes every opportunity he can to fight the two men. By all rights, Taue comes off as the level headed one in this tag team. Heat's on Kawada forever before Taue makes the tag. Taue runs wild but eventually he gets shut down, while Kawada gets thrown out of the ring. DiBiase hits Akira with an atomic drop and Stan bops him right after with a Lariat for the pin. Stan then goes outside just to fucking murder Kawada with a Lariat as well. To quote Bane, "That was Unnecessary." Not great, but it endeared Toshiaki to me.
***1/2

Joined in Progress
THAT Misawa/Kawada match
This DVD has the last twenty odd minutes of the June 3rd 1994 Misawa/Kawada Triple Crown match. I've never seen this match but I knew the legendary status of it, obviously. I'm not going to review what I saw, because I don't want to disrespect the match by reviewing part of it. But what I saw made my brain explode like I was attacked by a Scanner. I'll probably go back to this one day on this site.

7.29.1993
Triple Crown Championship
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. Toshiaki Kawada [4th Defense]
I don't get why this DVD is going out of order, but I don't mind too much.
First off, Toshiaki Kawada's entrance robe/jacket

I Just want it for Around the House

You can tell this is definitely not the first time these two have fought. They each have easy counters for each other's strikes and holds; Misawa puts his guard up for every other enzugiri, Kawada has a block for the Elbow, etc. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't take many notes for this one. I think watching the end of the June 3rd match blew me up emotionally and showed me how much they can do. One thing I've written multiple times that I should bring up is that all of Misawa's finishing level moves are awesome. The Elbow can be sudden, and the Tiger Driver/Suplex can be switched around based on the opponent he's applying them too. Too heavy to hit the Tiger Driver? Tiger Suplex. Keeps slipping out of the Tiger Suplex? Tiger Driver. I love it.
What I don't love is Kawada getting donked on his neck twice on really, really scary German Suplexes. By the time Misawa brought him back up for the Tiger Suplex, he was out on his feet. Pinfall in an extremely good match that I haven't really talked all too much about. I, once again, blame the previous matches rabid excitement for the dulling of my expectations.
****1/4

Man, I hope the final match on this disc can wake me up and get my spirits high again.

8.31.1993
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs Kenta Kobashi
 OH MAN I NEEDED THIS. If you've never seen this match, I linked the match above. go watch it now, this post will definitely be here when you come back.
You could tell right away from the immediate hyper aggressive lockup that this match was going to be meaty. I was pumped. Surprisingly, Kenta took over early, working him over for the first stretch of the match. It was weird, mostly because I was expecting Steve Williams to at least try and steamroll Kobashi.

But then.

Kobashi was beating on Dr. Death and he starts...kinda running in place. Kenta pummels him again, Dr. Death is dancing more.
He's firing up.
You made him angry.
You. Dumb. Motherfucker.
Steve Williams is fucking done with this bullshit now. He picked up Kobashi in a press slam and dropped him outside the ring. Not slammed him outside of the ring. The mad bastard faced away from the ring ropes and just let his opponent fall from the press. I was amazed and terrified, knowing I would never want to make Steve Williams angry. I have the words "Steve, no, please stop" written twice in a row.
It was about this time, when the match boiled down to the two men trying to hit each other as hard as they could, running corner to corner, that this thought came to my mind.

This was like any New Japan NEVER Openweight title match. Two beefy men hitting each other with their beef and the crowd is going wild. This might get me in trouble with the All Japan fanbase but I don't care, I say it like it is. I'm not saying that it's inherently better than the Misawa/Kawada matches, but it's something that feels familiar, which to me makes it some shade of evergreen.

Kobashi hit a moonsault (and it was fucking beautiful by the way) for a two from the referee and this audience is screaming. He worked over Dr. Death a little more before going for a second moonsault, but this time Williams got the knees up to collapse an Orange Rib cage. Doctor Bomb attempt lead to a really weird moment of Kenta...falling back first...on Williams? He got a two count but that didn't end the match. No, there was a worse fate to suffer for young (27) Kobashi.

Earlier in the match, Kobashi had countered a football tackle by putting Steve Williams in a sleeper hold, leading to a tense period where Williams might have been choked out. Kenta tried this again, but Steve wasn't a fool, he kept his momentum from running to gloriously get in position for the first of three brutal, amazing Backdrop Drivers. It was so amazing, I had to make a gif of it.

That's horrifying. But Kobashi is healthy and well today so I'll continue to watch this on repeat.
Two more Backdrop Drivers end it. I'm gassed.I need a cigar.
*****

Well, that was the end of Disc One. I can't see how the rest of these matches can get any better, but I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised

Otaku Kohai: Failing to Summerize my Feelings for Cowboy Bebop

It's a very odd feeling, being overwhelmed with emotions from a piece of media.

Usually for me it's melancholy. It happened to me once I finished the books My Antonia and The Things They Carried. When I finished Tales of Symphonia for the first time I felt it, knowing that the story and the characters I grew to love was over (until Dawn of The New World happened, but that's for another time). I'm feeling it now, less than 48 hours after finishing Cowboy Bebop. I'm left feeling almost haunted by the ghost of this show, that was born and made it's bones when I was 5.

I watched the first handful of episodes when my friend grabbed me in my senior year of college, looked me in the eyes, and said "We're watching Bebop tonight." I knew Bebop existed, but never got around to watching it. After those few episodes that night, I went into hibernation until a few months ago, when I found the show again on Hulu. I powered through half then and finished the back half in the last week. Ever since I finished it, I've been sitting in a daze, mulling over what I just experienced. I hoped that writing put how I felt about the show would help and it did. Is it coherent? Maybe not, but I wanna share it with you anyway, in the hope that if you've never watched this show to give it a chance.

The World
Cowboy Bebop takes place on our Earth...well, sometimes our Earth, but always in our solar system. It takes place in the near future (nearer now in 2020 compared to when the show came out in 1998), across various planets and moons in the solar system. It's a dirty, wild west kind of colonization with pockets of civilized life here and there. But that's not to say that every town feels like the American West. There are several full cities we see in the show, along with the before mentioned ghost town style settlements and near rustic Asian style towns. Everything feels natural to what the future expansion of our race would look like, if a little optimistic on our advancements in space travel.

Plot
The year is 2071, and bounty hunters Spike Spiegl and Jet Black are just trying to make it through the solar system. They do the job, then they get...paid...look there's gonna be a LOT of Firefly references for this and the next two anime I'm planning to watch, so buckle up. Along the way they collect three more members for their Ragtag crew; con Artist Faye Valentine, Eccentric Tech Genius Edward Wong, and Best Boy Corgi Ein.

If you watch the first 6 episodes you'll get everything you'll need to understand the pace, tone, and important bits. One of those six is the first of five truly "important" episodes for the main story of the show, with Spike and his history in the forefront. But I'd argue that the "main story" isn't the reason you watch Cowboy Bebop. You watch for the filler episodes in between. The slice of life, quarry of the day stories that let you see a bit more of the main character's personalities. We're watching them on a journey, which is framed and presented to us as a series of quests (many of which they fail at. I think the team successfully bags 3 bounties in the entire show.) In these episodes we see how every character approaches their problems. Through this, we can see more of what makes these characters who they are, or what happened in their pasts to make them this way. Spike, Jet, and Faye don't just have skeletons in their closet, their closets are catacombs. Except for Edward; she's is the outlier in the main cast, not having a horrid past or actions or hobbies she uses to cope. In this, she easily becomes the most genuine member of the crew that isn't the dog.

The Music between Notes

I had always heard that the most memorable aspect of Cowboy Bebop was the music and the people who had told me that weren't wrong. While the music itself is great and can be listened to on it's own  (I can't stop listening to Real Folk Blues and Space Lion), the beauty comes from how the music is used. Fight scenes are set in beat to the music playing. Characters are always walking and driving in step with music. Much like Baby Driver, it feels like the show's driven by the jazz and blues that plays, as opposed to the music accenting the show. Without the music, the show is a skeleton, both aesthetically and emotionally. This was the first time that I ever intentionally let the credits of a show roll, just to listen to Real Folk Blues again. I can't understand the lyrics, but in a way I don't have to. The importance of the piece comes in the contrast from Tank!, the intro that I also let play all 26 times. Tank! promises a romp through a wacky sci-fi world, paralleling how our protagonists outwardly project their personalities. Real Folk Blues, then, is the reflection of their cores; the losses and pain they feel. Beyond being good pieces on their own, like how the music is used in the show, the intro and outro of the show reflect the overarching theme of the show, the pain and demons we feel every day (Real Folk) and what we do to compensate and carry on daily (Tank!)

Conclusion
 I can't recommend Cowboy Bebop just as an anime to anime fans. I would sincerely recommend this show to anyone who wants to watch a show with great characters, soundtrack, and action. I'm so glad that I watched it and honestly want to go back and watch it again right now, But, I need to move forward with my progress through this wacky world called anime. Next time you read an edition of Otaku Kohai, we'll still be in the 90s and still in space. Not sure which show yet, but that's where we'll end up.

KAI-GO GO NOAH Rangers (Kaito Kiyomiya, Volume 2)

[Hi! This is the second of a three part series of my look at Pro Wrestling NOAH's current Heavyweight Champion and all around good boy Kaito Kiyomiya. The first part is here, it focuses on some of the matches he had when he was still a Young Boy, along with the first big singles matches he had upon his return from his learning excursion. Definitely suggest you read that article first, checking out the matches you want to, before coming back to this entry. Thanks!]

Where we last left our hero, he was...well Kaito was getting his ass kicked. Coming back from excursion didn't bode well for Kaito, even with a handful of multi man victories and one singles victory against Andrew Everett. But, now under the tutelage of Go Shiozaki, a man some guy on Cagematch says "has an air of royal arrogance about him and in that sense he reminds me of Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z" which is fucking poetic, maybe the young man will finally find his way and do better for himself. But the Global Tag League is no play-date for soft men, the competition is tough, a title shot awaits at the end of this road. Will the newly forged team of KAI-GO make it to the finals?


With Go Shiozaki vs. Akitoshi Saito and Masao Inoue, NOAH Global Tag League Night 1, 3.18.18
I had to look up what a "Dark Agents" was finally. I now have a...vaguely general idea. The answer is "It's Akitoshi and the lads defending Christmas". If anyone who works for or with Pro Wrestling NOAH somehow reads this, first off why? Secondly, Bring back the Great Happy Christmas Championship.

Anyway, Kaito and Go took the majority of the offense in this contest. I hate to say it, but they didn't seem to sweat their opponents here. Kaito started off handily out wrestling Saito, before letting Go come in to chop a motherfucker or two. Barring the laziest Total Elimination I've ever seen, nothing special actually came out of the Dark Agent camp (Note: I'm not trying to be overly critical of the Dark Agents here, but it was a clothesline and a calf kick. Saito may as well have been giving Inoue emotional support for all his kick did to bring Kiyomiya down). A few minutes later, Kiyomiya rolled up Masao with an O'Connor with a Bridge for the pin.
**1/2 (Despite how low I'm rating this, it was a pretty fun watch. If you only have 10 minutes on your hands I would actually recommend this.)

Kaito, The Agumon (Kaito Kiyomiya, Volume 1)

So I really like Pro Wrestling, but I haven't been watching a lot for it lately. Blame Grad School, blame work, blame the pit of despair and self loathing depression's sunken me into (but mostly that last one), but I just kinda stopped after the G1 this year. So I want to try and kick my ass into watching it again. So instead of trying and failing to cover big shows...I'm just gonna watch wrestling. Sometimes it'll be a single wrestler, other times a string of title defenses, and sometimes I'm just gonna watch random matches during the week. Fuck it, I don't have a format anymore.

Ask literally anyone who I'm friends with or have talked to for more than 5 minutes at a wrestling show, they'll tell you I love Pro Wrestling Noah. I don't know why. Maybe I like the little guys. Maybe it's the fanatical fan-base. I got in just as Suzuki-Gun and New Japan's booking influence was heading out, so a lot of my opinions on the company are skewed compared to contemporary fans. I never knew KENTA in NOAH, or Morishima, Kobashi, or Akiyama. I call Takashi Sugiura and Naomichi Marufuji "Uncle". I consider Junta Miyawaki, Yosiki Inamura, and Kinya Okada my Young Boy class (and occasionally think of myself as being in that class. If you tell me you've never even briefly fantasized about being a wrestler, you're lying). So I'm hoping to use my new style to watch literally as much NOAH as I can, as well as some good 90s All Japan to kind of grasp where NOAH's roots came from.

So, Kaito. I...I don't know how I feel about Kaito. My emotions are mixed. There's something about him I don't like, but everyone else loves him so I find myself grudgingly biting my tongue. I guess I'm hoping to use this and future entries on my blog to suss out what it is I don't like about him. So thanks for coming with me on this journey, for the three of you who didn't violently close the tab to this blog.

Vs. Minoru Suzuki, Great Voyage in Yokohama Vol. 2,10.26.16
Look at Kaito here. So tiny, so full of hope.

Suzuki's gonna crush him like an orange.

This match is from the first whole NOAH show I ever watched, the same show where Katsuyori Shibata and Go Shiozaki went 20+ minutes and Katsuhiko Nakajima won the GHC Heavyweight championship (Put a Big Ol' pin in this match, we'll be coming back to it and the following title reign one day.) I remember liking the whole card, but besides the two above mentioned matches, Suzuki vs. Kaito was the match I remembered the most vividly. Probably because I love any time Minoru (rocking his old theme here) takes apart Young Boys on a whim. The same proved true in this match, but Kaito honestly got more offense in than most trainees usually do against Suzuki. After a flurry of offense and trying his hardest to stand up to The King, Suzuki brutalized him with strikes for a good 30 second stretch, which includes Kaito being stood back up to take more by Suzuki more than. A great mauling.
**1/2