Hi all. Yes I'm still alive.

First off, I want to apologize over my 6 month hiatus from the site. As you can see, I have dedicated more time on my actual office job than my old flash hobby. so much that it has been rather time consuming and I  have been feeling burned out these last few months, considering the ongoing political unrest that has been happening over here in Venezuela this year.  Long story short, to quote Rocky Balboa: "The older I get the more stuff I got to leave behind, that's life!"

Second , Like i mentioned before, I have been having Mac issues since my hard drive crashed on me, again. No joke. it happened twice in  4 months and now I have it running on an external 1TB hard drive. Don't know for how long. that and my current laptop is more of a business machine due to the eMachine's graphically limited hardware.  so at some point I'll have to get myself a better laptop to work on flash

Third, for those who aren't aware, Four Swords Episode 9 has been available on youtube for nearly a year now. See the episode below

Also there was the planned ending that as made for the episode, thanks to Osuka and Memphiston for their Collaboration. I'll see when the NG version will be up. There were also some hidden features in the project, but the impatinet fans kinda spoiled it...

For those wondering if the series will continue, well, I haven't touched on the subject much, but fans want me to keep it going. I'd like to continue but my current job has been rather life-altering these last 7 months, so I have more important things to work on. Though I'm not cancelling the project altogether, I'm just saying that i don't have the time that I used to now... also I should point out that the series is officially 10 years old a little over a month ago http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/199847. It's late to mention this I know, none the less I never expected to have such a cult folloing that I am thankful for and I enjoyed the feedback from it.

Episode 10's script has been in development hell, so I chose to get back on it with some additional help.  i do plan on bringing back the cast again. I'll keep you posted sometime about it.

One last thing, during my hiatus I felt inspired to add a new non-profit Youtube channel called the Nostalgic Newgrounder Channel  It is dedicaded to the random hidden gems that made this site so awesome to visit over the years, but have been obscured and overshadowed by Youtube. I am aware that this is kind of a no-no, but sometimes you have to break the rules in life. Each flash will be properly credited and the channel's intention is to promote the site as well as the authors and their creations.  I want to think of myself as a NG Goodwill Ambassador, if you will. I'm open to suggestions if you want me to promote an author's work and share it with the people who are missing out on what made Newgrounds what it is. A community full of creative and original content that predated youtube.

That's all I have to say for now.

Thanks for your time and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

PS: One last thing I forgot to mention, I lent my voice for an Android game called Jump 'n Sheep Made by Ideas House studios.  one of the guys that worked on the project is a fellow Newgrounder Chemscobra, an old buddy of mine.  It's a simple yet fun and addicting game, so check it out, we would really appreciate it.

Hi, sorry for being AWOL for a while. Apart from my country's current situation, I should inform that I found a new job recently that's been keeping me busy recently and I have been cautious in the streets with the current events going around and all.

Also, on another note, I've been having computer issues 3 weeks ago. Surprisingly, both my Mac and Laptop failed on me on the same day which left me incummunicated for quite a while. To get an idea, my iMac Aluminum has been having trouble booting up, even on safe mode. Once it starts up, it shuts down immediately after. I sent it to the shop recently do se if I can recover my data and fix the issue. So for those who never used a mac before, they crash too. Any computer does eventually. As for my laptop, a Dell Inspiron 710m which I had for 8 years, has been crashing a lot with constant blue screen errors. It's gotten to a point that not even the taskbar appears on the screen. curiously this all happened days after Windows stopped supporting XP updates (I have XP SP3). Thankfully I was able to recover most of my data in an external hard drive. I hope to find a way to fix the hardware and software issues with this one.

In short I had no choice but to get a new laptop, an Acer Emachine E625 with Windows 7, and while it works well for the most part, it oddly feels inferior to my Dell. Maybe it requires Ram Expansion, Don't know really. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

So, due to the current issues, any project I had pending would temporarily be on hold. I do plan on making four swords 10 and other projects but with my new job, it will get tricky to find the time for it.

Also, I should point out that Osuka is still having Internet related issues and is still looking for a new internet provider to contiue working on his projects again. This has put his projects to a near halt the last 8 months or so and he's trying to get out of this mess.

Yeah, thigs have gotten really shitty for us for some reaon...oh well. We will get out of this somehow.

Hi. First off, for those who don't know, I'm from Caracas, Venezuela and my country is going through a crisis. I'm not one to talk about politics often, but If you haven't been paying attention to the news, there have been a lot of protests and riots in the last month over here. The streets have been getting filled with protesters, mostly students, who are against the current government. Several deaths have been reported due to numerous clashes between the protesters and the national guard,curiously many of them were reportedly by head shots.

There are many reasons why these protests have started:  Government corruption, scarcity of staple goods,the economic situation (high inflation),and  the high crime level, strict currency control,and alleged police brutality. In short things have been rather chaotic over here. For those concerned about my well being at this time,I just want to say that I'm OK. Due to the current situation, I rarely step out of my own home, either due to the current insecurity in the streets or because of burning barricades that have been blocking roads and highways not just all over the capital, but nationwide.

This post was meant to inform people of my country's current status.  The local TV stations here have been largely censored and and give out little to no information as to what's going on. Our freedom of speech here is at risk. Currently our only sources of information are CNN and Social media networks, Mainly Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The government has threatened to block Twitter and CNN, but it's been backfiring on them after word spread of their actions. Even Anonymous took action by hacking several Governmet accounts in response to the censorship.The protests have been escalating more and more as time passes and in some areas it's been turning into war zones.

Over the last few weeks we've been getting a lot of international support via twitter and the world is watching the country's every move. 

All I ask to whoever is reading this is to please watch and share the embeded video below. It was Posted on feb. 14th, but it sums up what's going on over here.Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Thank you for your attention and pray for us.

Hey guys Happy New Year. Sorry for the lack of updates. I had my hands full with a part time job since early December, so I haven't made many atm aside from Four Swords 9 being a youtube exclusive.

Here's the thing: Osuka's parts for the episode are ready, but apparently he's been having a lot of technical issues with his internet provider, which was to blame for the delays these last few months. My working schedule was also rather complicated and couldn't work my way around it either. As much as I wanted to get the episode ready before the end of 2013, he was having trouble with his internet, so I had no choice but to upload a last minute rushed version on my youtube channel last month just to get most of the impatient fans off my back. Despite how well received the story was in my channel (thankfully), I find it frustrating that some people just don't give a damn about quality or the issues that happen behind the scenes...oh well. :/

That being said, there will be a completed version uploaded soon once this technical issue is settled, which includes several medals and the ending credits. There are still things I haven't shown yet from episode 9.

On a side note, Youtube's new copyright policies have been pissing me off, just like everyone else. so much that I had to re-edit some of my episodes on my channel to prevent anymore issues

As for the future of the series, I do have an Idea of what to work with in the next installment, but currently I feel like I only have like half of the script's concept ready. so if you have any ideas I can use, feel free to post them on the comments below. I appreciate the fan feedback.

Also aside from Four Swords, I will be continuing with other side projects and maybe a few more vlogs in my channel every once in a while. Currently I'm developing a short sketch based on Final Fight and I'm planning on some additional sketches for Harvest Mooned vol.2. I'm open to other suggestions too so feel free to post other projects that I can work on.

As for voice actors, I get them a lot, so send me a demo reel of what you can do and I might get in contact with you.

Till next time.

An early Christmas gift. Here's the episode.

I know you guys must be wondering why I haven't uploaded the episode in the NG portal, well, that's because I'm still waiting on a few more things to be completed, mainly some medals and the ending credits. Due to several issues, it's still not 100%, so I decided to just upload the episode as it is just to satisfy the fans who are in it for the story alone. There will be a more completed version with a lot of bonus content coming soon once I get everything together.

I hated to rush this, but I had no choice. I might make some sacrifices in the next episode since people just don't care about quality these days. But we'll see.

in the mean time, enjoy it on youtube and I'll have a NG version up ASAP.

Merry Christmas!

Years ago when I heard Nickelodeon was making an anime inspired Nicktoon, I wasn't that interested at the time. On first impressions alone I originally had low expectations about it since it was a Nicktoon and it wasn't going to be taken that seriously. I was sorely mistaken and, looking back, I admit that I missed out on it back then. Osuka, who is one of my closest friends, has been recommending the animation ever since I met him years ago. Then When Doug Walker started his Avatar Vlogs, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.

I was not disappointed, it's a great series. Fun likeable characters, interesting plot, occasionally legit funny moments and beautiful artwork. From the very beginning the show took itself very seriously but at the same time not losing that optimistic sense of adventure. it even has an accurate explanation of the concept of Chakra (In comparison to Naruto where Chakra is compared to Magic in RPGs or "the force" in Star wars). Watching the entire Last Airbender series during the summer I can assure you it is a highly recommended show for all ages. The first season was a little rocky at times, but the show improves in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.

Originally I chose to watch the first three seasons in order to get an Idea as to why Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" was so bad. And it is! The story is too rushed (season 1 squished into a 90 minute film), the actors are awful, extremely odd casting, way too many plot holes and the visual effects, though OK at times, just comes off as poor. in short, M Night Shyamalan should stay away from Avatar. There are rumors of a sequel, but it shouldn't be made at all.

Now when it comes to the spin off series The Legend of Korra, it was a bit hard to get used to considering the drastic changes that were made in comparison to the original(TLoK taking place about 70 years after the original series), but overall the new series grows on you over time. The best way to describe both shows would be to compare the first Avatar series to The Never Ending Story in terms of fantasy adventure and the Korra spinoff to 90s Batman cartoon being dark, serious and somewhat adult with the political turmoil and terrorism.

Now the first season of Korra was a bit rushed considering that it was originally given a 12 episode run, but none the less it was an enjoyable run. Thanks to this, there will be 3 more seasons out and I'm looking forward to them. I'm currently watching season 2 right now and, just like the first series, it has started to gain momentum halfway through.

In closing, if you're new to the Avatar universe, I say check it out. You have to let it grow on you before you start to appreciate it. You will not be disappointed.

For those who haven't seen this video, it explains the delay behind the project.

Like I specified in the video, I aimed for a July release and things got delayed due to many issues that got in the way. On a related note, I graduated from my university last Wednesday and I'm now a Telecommunications Engineer.

Anyway have some patience guys, the project is almost done. I'm currently waiting on Osuka to finish his part.He has been wanting to work on an idea that he's had in mind for quite a while, though over the last few months he had his hands full making CGI commercials.

I'll have things ready before the end of the year hopefully. And yes, there will be more medals.

Originally I was looking forward to this new Superman reboot, so much hype went into it because Chrstopher Nolan, the director of "The Dark Knight" trilogy was involved in the project, as a producer and in the story'. Zack Snyder, the guy behind 300, Watchmen and the Dawn of the Dead remake to name a few is in the director's chair for this film.

then I started to see the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes which initially started off well, but then it oddly slumped to a near polrizing 56%. Out of curiosity I also went to see the film and, well... It sucked. If you guys liked it I won't argue with you, but it just didn't do it for me.

First off the "shaky cam" technique was distracing as hell. It only works during actions scenes, not during dialogue scenes.

Second, most of the acting was rather bland with a few minor exceptions from Henry Cavil (Kal-el/ Superman) and Michael Shannon (Zod) and Antje Traue (Faroa) at times. I really didn't care much for the other characters that were skimmed out through the story like Pete Ross who had largely nothing to do with the story.

Third, they altered some of the Superman mythology, like having Pa Kent choosing to die in a tornado instead of dying of a heart attack. It would have made more sense if Clark rescued his dad from the tornado and then died from a heart attack due to the shock of the current events. This scene was better seen as a personal family tragedy, not as a natural disaster in my opinion. Even the whole story between Lois and clark was altered, too much if I might add. They traditionally meet in the Daily Planet, not in Superman's Fortress of Solitude in the second act of the story. the "mild-mannered Clark Kent" concept was thrown out the window for the most part and saved for the very end, it just felt pointless to me.

Fourth, He's way too dark and serious.He was never like that as far as I know. Most of the stuff that made Superman a fun character is largely missing. People criticize Superman's campy funny moments, especially in the Richard Donner movies, but that's the whole point. Superman is the epitome of oldschool! He was created in 1933 and was known for his kid friendly inage. Then his story got rebooted in 1986, but essentially it was the same noble character only more mature. In the film he's a mopey loner and constantly questions his origins instead of just helping out more after realizing that he has the power do do so before getting the suit. he bacame a largely bland and generic superhero . There are scenes that do work, but the rest just falls kinda flat.

Fifth, The Fight scenes focus more on debris exploding and falling instead of focusing on the fighting itself. I wanted to see more fists flying and Superman rescuing people, not have metropolis turn into Ground Zero x10 (no offense of course). He's supposed to save the city without completely destroying it.

And finally that dumb joke in the end where a female sloldier smiles and says to her general that Superman's hot...I FACEPALMED!!! it's quite possibly the dumbest thing I've seen in a Superman film and I do acknowledge a lot of dumb moments in earlier films and TV adaptations, but they were at least funny.

I can go on and on ranting and nitpicking about this film. It's not the Superman I grew up with since I was 2 years old ,but maybe that's the whole point. Still, I've seen better origin stories in other adaptations. Here it just ends up being a rehashed recycled retelling of "Batman Begins". I have nothing against Chris Nolan, his films are amazing. Keep in mind that the problem is mostly Snyder here, not Nolan.

What I want to point out here is that dark and gritty stories only work for dark and gritty characters like Wolverine or Batman for example. Superman was never this dark. I've always seen him as a mature, triumphant, noble "boy scout" character (labeled by Batman) and always did things "...for Truth, Justice and the American way" (before getting rid of his American citizenship). He's an old school character that really can't shake off his campy past like Batman did over the years and a good amount of fans don't want him to change this drastically . This film shouldn't treat him like Batman! Apples and oranges people! They have their own mythologies.

Anyway if you enjoyed this movie, I won't question you. It has some good moments. But I prefer the old supeman movies(the first two) , the cartoons, even the Smallville TV show. I enjoyed them a lot more than this.

As for Ben Affleck as Batman in the "sequel"? It's the Michael Keaton effect all over again. I won't question it until I see it.

I grew up on Dragon Ball just like most fans. Enjoyed the characters, story, the fight scenes, the humor and everything else that made DB and DBZ fun. Though I'm curious over the fact that most people hate DBGT with a passion. what do I think of it? Well, it was ok for the most part, but not as awesome as DBZ was. My main gripes with it were the inconsistencies in the story and that it was treated more of a parody of itself than the previous installments.

The reason GT started off on the wrong foot was because the cretor Akira Toriyama wanted to put the series to rest after working on the manga and the anime for 10 years straight, which can drain anyone's creativity down a lot. Of course he tried ending the series many times, most notably in the end of the Frieza saga, until he finally had his wish while finishing the Majin Boo saga. At the time he stated that he wanted to take a new step in life and work on other projects, but the problem was that fans wanted to see more of Goku and his friends, so DBGT was created as a non canon continuation of the series with the creator having very litlle to do with the show aside from character designs.

the first thing that was done wrong was Goku accidentally being turned into a child by Pilaf at the first episode of GT. From what I understand, the reason for this was that the creative team behind the show wanted to have more of a "return to roots" concept and make GT revive the things that made the old Dragon Ball series fun.

With that idea in mind, new dragon balls were introduced that apparently were spread across the universe after the wish was made and Goku, Trunks and Pan (Goku's Granddaughter) were on a mission in space to retrieve them in less than a year before the Earth explodes. Then after about 16 episodes of the "more adventure and less action concept", ratings declined because fans wanted more DBZ type action stories.

After that the series took a radical shift in tone that made it look less campy and more serious by having another alien villain, have most of their deceased villains return from hell through a portal and finish the series with the black star dragons that were created from negative energy of the old dragon balls.

Now pesonally this series could have been a lot better if they didn't choose the return to roots concept and just kept it more like DBZ. What hurt it were the inconsistent fight scenes, odd transformations, misused characters, the odd story and many plot holes (though Dragon Ball is known for is inconsistent writing at times)

As for the main cast, well Goku always had a naive personality most of the time and was essentially the same character, although a bit more laid back and childish this time round. Trunks, instead of acting like a lone wolf character similar to his father Vegeta as well as his future self in the android saga, took more of a geeky side working as a business man in capsule corp. Pan I can only describe in just 2 words: annoyingly cute. Being the bratty tomboy character raised by Videl, she still has a mixed reception among fans. Just imagine how different she could have been if she was raised by Piccolo the same way Gohan was raised, but that's just me rambling. Still I should point out that despite her annoyance most of the time, Pan does have her sweet and funny moments, especially with her grandpa Goku. It's odd to say but Pan and Goku were portrayed as if they had a sibling rivalry here, with Pan acting like the bossy older sister and Goku acting like the naive little brother when he's in his child form. It's a shame that Pan never became a Super Saiyan. Toriyama just couldn't figure out how a female SSJ would look like.

As for the rest of the cast, many were misusd, others were ignored, Krillin dies again (shocker), it was clearly poking fun at itself. One character who should have gotten more screen time was Uub. Once he fused with Fat Buu and became Majuub he could have been a much more important character than the rest of the Z warriors, but like the rest of the fighters he gets pushed aside and Goku still saves the day. after the Baby saga he ended up being another minor character, which is disappointing considering how much he was developed as a newcomer in the last episodes of DBZ

Speaking of Goku, his SSJ4 transformation, though an amazing and emotional scene, especially with the Japanese soundtrack, is very inconsistent. He has to grow his tail back as a kid, grows into the golden ape comes to his senses and turns into a saiyan-beast hybrid, though it was never explained where he got his new pants after the transformation (weird anime logic). And to make things even more confusing he turns back into his child self and doesn't require to go through all of the SSJ transformations to reach SSJ4. Vegeta's SSJ4 transformation is even more inconsistent requiring a Blutz wave machine made by Bulma which I simply consider as cheating his way to SSJ4. it must have been added at the last minute. Oddly, though the transformation is not Canon, it has been added in several DBZ fighting games.

That being said the last episode is the most memorable, Seeing Goku say farewell to most of his friends, Fusing himself with Shenron and at the end when the credits roll and they show all the memorable stuff that dragon ball went through in the last 10 years while the opening theme plays is enough to make any DBZ fan shed a tear.

Overall, the anime series is very nostalgic to me. It's a mixed bag, but I wouldn't say it's god awful. It could have done a lot more to fix all the bad stuff that happened earlier. None the less it does have it's replay value. I always find myself watching random clips of the old episodes. If you like it or not, I'll leave that up to you.

The Good:
The Japanese soundtrack
The SSJ4 transformation scene
The emotional last episode
The show's sense of humor

The Bad:
Misused charcters
Short and odd fight scenes
Ridiculous plots
Poorly developed villains
Inconsistent story and fighting techniques.

This is actually the first time Osuka and I ever go to a Con, and it was a lot of fun. We decided to check it out yesterday and spent most of the day there. On a curious note, there was not one Brony in sight. I'm not kidding! The closest thing there were a couple of Furries that we encountered, but for the most part there were a lot of Anime cosplayers as well as Marvel cosplayers, Star Wars Cosplayers(Princess Leia, Boba Fett, a few storm Troopers and a Jedi) and Trekkie corner too.

There were even some fun Tournaments as well. We tried to get into the Smash Bros Brawl Tourmanents, but they were all full, way more than the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 corner. We eventually decided to play MVC 3 anyway. There was also a Naruto Fighting Game for the PS3 but I didn't recognize it.

Finally to close the Show, we got a Q&A Session With Walter Jones, aka the original Black Ranger from MMPR.
He even did a Salsa Number to close the show.
Earlier that day we even met him in person and took a Photo with him. A bit pricey, yet it was worth it. :D

I hope to return next year and maybe save up some money to buy some stuff next time.
in the mean time, here's our Photo with the Black Power Ranger!