For a long time was beginning these posts with musing about how I and you have been missing a favorite of ours. But had stopped doing that for had run out of women which actually is a plus. There is a newbie to add to the 'Where are they now?' list and that's Ruka Kitano, she had twenty posts from August 2024 until this past March. She was always an under-the-radar favorite of mine while with SKE and after her June 2024 graduation thought we'd never hear from her again. But she fooled us all and weren't we glad of that for Ruka became a FT gravure model and very few could top her scantly clad photos! She was also doing a lot of acting and think modeling opened up many doors for her. However at the end of March Ruka announced she had just gotten married and to whom remains a mystery, so doesn't her future. For since then Ruka has done zero gravure modeling which happens frequently when a woman gets hitched. But Ruka has also had zero acting gigs and so little has been heard from her, she hit the age of 27 on May 25th. Guess it appears Ruka is another favorite of ours that has pulled a Houdini act which I've gotten used to and in two years how many others will have joined Ruka in doing so????
There is another favorite of mine who has disappeared and I like her more than the above gal. That's Nana Owada and have to say she's someone who I haven't been thinking about too much the last year. She too got married and that was two years ago but as of now she doesn't have any children so why hasn't she been working? Can understand why Nana wouldn't be doing any gravure modeling but she's done hardly any acting nor any regular modeling. Sigh, so also add in Nana's name in to that ever growing list of 'Where are they now?' and can I fit any more names on it????? Nana was close to being my all time fave AKB member and she was also very close to entering the list for my all time top five gravure models, her photos from 2021-24 are sizzling to the Nth degree!
On to the first watch of this post and for a while now have been starting off with an American TV show, up until the Summer of 2024 had only seen three of them. The only one I watched a lot of was "The X-Files" and viewed the first five seasons, need to start watching that again. I was growing a bit weary with Japanese dramas and to a slight extent Korean ones, needed a break from them and thought with so many thousands of American shows sure there had to be a few that would appeal to me. And there has been and what I've done, which isn't recommended, is buying box sets featuring the complete series. That's not the odd part but buying them cold certainly is plus knowing so little about a show and a criteria has been of those shows not having any major stars or at least present day ones. For the most part have lucked out as there's only been one clunker along the way, some have been only so-so but my opinion may change if I start up on them again and watch more seasons. So almost every purchase has been a blind one though haven't done any for five months, it was time to whittle that 'To Watch' list down! Of all the shows I've purchased bet the one that would shock you the most is the one I'm about to discuss, I picked this up on a whim and for now what a terrific choice that's turned out to be!!!!
For months had noticed "The Vampire Diaries" sitting on the shelf at my local store and seemed as though not one copy of the boxset was ever sold! I kept looking at it for those months and it intrigued me but thought it was a teen show which isn't my cup of tea. While the stories do revolve around older teens it's not a sappy show in the least and this has turned out to be the most suspenseful and intense show I've started on in months! Not sure but have a feeling the series will be getting even better as the seasons go on, the characters will be getting older plus they'll no longer be in high school so am looking forward to the rest of the series. Did watch the first sixteen episodes five months ago and took a planned mini break which turned out to be much longer than planned. So viewed those episodes again plus the final six of this 22 episode first season. In a rarity will only be taking a two day break between seasons to watch the other three things I'll be reviewing today and that's because that first season was simply a must watch, will give it a grade of 9.7/10, the final nine shows get a 10/10 from me! The season ended on such an intense cliffhanger and I don't want to take a break from the series quite yet so in the next post for this 'My Current Watches' series will be looking at season two. This series had eight seasons with a total of 171 episodes, it's a series that both older teens and adults can enjoy which may not be so common these days but then again I'm out of the loop as far as current fads, trends and whatever else is popular goes.
The series began in 2009 and followed the time it aired up until 2017. Elena Gilbert lived in Mystic Falls, Virginia with her fifteen year old brother Jeremy and their aunt Jenna. The parents of the Gilberts had died five months before and Jenna had moved in so the siblings could remain in town, as it turned out Elena was actually the biological daughter of her creepy uncle John. Elena and especially Jeremy had a rough patch after their parent's death but now it's September and time for the new school year, Elena had dated the popular boy Matt but they broke up after the tragic deaths. There's a new boy at school and did he make the heads of the females swivel round and round!!!! That's the boy on the left above and is name is Stefan Salvatore, he's moved back to Mystic Falls after being gone for many years and will be living with his human uncle Zach. Added in human for Stefan is no longer one of them but a vampire who was born in 1847 and died in 1864 but became a creature of the night after that death! Stefan can only live in Mystic Falls for a few years at a time for he never ages so can only make an appearance once a generation. To his fury soon joining Stefan was his slightly older brother Damon, would say he's about five years older. The two are constantly at odds and for the first half of the show Damon was not well liked by most of the people in Mystic Falls, could him killing a few people along the way have anything to do with that?! But I like Damon and he's my favorite male character, as the season went on the brothers began to get along somewhat well plus Damon did see how better life was when he wasn't so mean towards everyone.
At school Stefan took an instant liking towards Elena and she was a dead ringer for Katherine Pierce, of all things Stefan was so smitten with her and so wasn't his brother Damon way back in 1864! At first Elena wasn't too comfortable around Stefan but slowly their relationship began to blossom and halfway through the first season Elena would have laid her life down for Stefan which did happen. Stefan isn't alone as far as feelings for Elena go for Damon also has them and it's not just a case of her looking like Katherine's double. For a dozen episodes Damon was Elena's #1 enemy but he did change his ways so wonder if we could see Damon pushing aside Stefan in the second season for Elena's affections? Think that may happen as time goes on but then again so much more will be taking place and there's no way to give you enough details of what's taken place in four paragraphs which is my limit for these mini reviews. The series has been strong since the first second but with each episode the show has gotten better by leaps and bounds, my favorite show in season one was the fourteenth episode. In that one the tomb where the 27 vampires have been doing a Rip Van Winkle act since 1864 was opened by Bonnie and her grandmother. Bonnie is one of Elena's two best friends and is a witch, so wasn't her grandmother who died shortly after this episode due to her using so much of her power opening the tomb. A main reason for opening it was because of a plea by Damon to release Katherine who should never have been in that tomb but to his bewilderment she was nowhere to be found! But 26 other vampires were and they soon were planning their revenge on the citizens of Mystic Falls, especially to the distant relatives of the founding families as they were the ones who had entombed them. Elena and her brother Jeremy are now targets of these hungry vampires along with a boy named Tyler Lockwood whose father is the mayor. His role wasn't too important in this first season but will in the second as Tyler has discovered that he has Werewolf blood in his veins!
Final segment and it took a while but those 26 vampires were all slain by the 22nd and final episode but quite a bit of blood was shed. Did mention a few other characters such as Bonnie, she despises the Salvatore brothers and will be a thorn in their side as her Witch powers are growing. Katherine is now back in everyone's life but after the first show in season two has gone back to hiding in the shadows and will be making a few more deadly appearances. She's been roaming the Earth for over 145 years and no one has been aware of that until recently, she seems to be very powerful as far as recruiting vampires for her army goes. In the first episode of season two she bit Elena's other best friend Caroline and I like her the best of the female characters, she's the blonde below and is played by Candace Accola(King). Because of Katherine's bite Caroline quickly became a vampire and one who cannot not get enough blood but Stefan has assured all that he'll be watching over her at all times. Damon had used Caroline as his 'Informer' for a while to gather info on Elena and other residents of Mystic Falls, vampires have a power to make humans forget anything associated with them. Him and Caroline even had few romps in the sack and after the below photos is a video of the first one, Caroline is such a ditz but she's hotter than the Sun!!!! I enjoyed this first season so much after a two day break began on the next and am already up to the sixth episode, so far this second season is somehow better than the first! Which contained much more horror and action than you would think, there's very little down time and the intensity grows with each episode along with many interesting subplots being added in. So after viewing 28 episodes give this one of Nao's highest recommendations to date and in the future perhaps it would be better to talk about half seasons instead of full ones so I can give even more details of what's taken place.
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Haven't viewed the next movie yet and don't know what my choice will be but it'll be tough to top this El Santo movie which is the fourth one I've reviewed. And the newest one too as this came out in 1970 and Santo this time had a partner but that didn't last long for he was transformed into a monster though at the end did help Santo bring down a horde of monsters. This partner was a friend though not close one of Santo's in real life and his wrestling name was Blue Demon, in the ring they were rivals though not enemies but were for a while in the 1950's and have done two other of these movies together. Like Santo Blue Demon was also a champion wrestler and one that was so immensely popular in Mexico, he too had his own series of movies. If I get some of those will give more bio info on Blue Demon whose real name was Alejandro Munoz Moreno, he died at the age of 78 in December 2000. Two weeks before Santo died in 1984 he finally revealed his true identity and took off his mask, Blue Demon never once took off his mask and was buried in it! Will try to keep this review at three paragraphs and viewing the subbed screenshots really help you follow the story better. The title of this 1970 film was "Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters" and what a huge army of them the heroes had to defeat to once again save Mexico and the Earth!!!! At the beginning of the film the main characters were introduced and you can see the famous monsters such as The Mummy, Frankenstein and Dracula plus what their names are in Spanish. The opening minutes were of a pair of wrestling matches, Santo was viewing them from a corner and the second was of a tag team match featuring his good friend Blue Demon, besides wrestling the pair seemed to be partners in a detective agency for this movie.
There was a first in this film which is that Santo had a girlfriend and an attractive one to boot which was to be expected. Her name was Gloria and she lived with her father Otto Halder, you can see the pair just below that newspaper clipping. Which had the story of an evil doctor named Bruno Halder, he was Otto's brother and why are most doctors in horror flicks referred to as EVIL? Bruno was a genius though and had been experimenting with transplanting brains(!), unknown to most humans he was successful in raising the dead and he had done so with criminals which he did before his death. Bruno's death was very short lived as his dwarf assistant Waldo brought the diabolical doctor back to life, his three goals in order were to kill his bother Otto and his daughter Gloria. Then to take down Santo for he had thwarted the doctor's evil schemes on a few occasions, once those are accomplished it'll be time to conquer Mexico and the world! First learning of that plot was Blue Demon, he snuck into Bruno's HQ which was the castle below, while he is tough in the wrestling ring Blue Demon was no match for all these crazed zombies and was quickly captured. The doctor then put the champion wrestler into his new Duplicating Machine and before long a terrorizing clone of Blue Demon was created! He would do battle with Santo on three occasions but his wrestling rival knew it wasn't the real Blue Demon he had been fighting.
There's quite a few screenshots below of the action and most of the 'classic monsters' weren't much of a factor in this war to kill Gloria and her father plus then to control the world. But one ghoulish fiend was a factor and that was Dracula who did kill many innocent people and was in the movie's best scene. Dracula had donned a mask and challenged Santo to a match in front of an arena jam packed with wrestling fans. Dracula did have the upper hand for most of the match but when Santo ripped off his mask his true identity was revealed. In front of thousands Dracula transformed into a Bat and flew back to Bruno's castle, that was such a terrific scene. This was an 84 minute movie and the final showdown lasted for about ten, Gloria and her father had been kidnapped by Bruno and were on the verge of death! But to the rescue was Santo, he beat the clone Blue Demon once again and was able to find the real champion wrestler soon after, now it was the two against an army of Zombies plus Dracula, The Mummy and Frankenstein, sure you all know who came out in top! Of course it was our heroes Santo and Blue Demon who showed more ruthless fighting skills than Santo. The pair rescued Otto Halder and Santo's girlfriend Gloria, in the melee there was an explosion at the castle and the good guys barely made it out in time before the place burned to the ground! Had to rush through this paragraph but sure enough was explained and once again a Santo movie was such a winner! Did say it was the fourth film of his I've reviewed but it may have been the fifth, have just obtained two more movies so those will also be reviewed in the near future! Below are many screenshots of the action and when they're subbed in English it makes the action much easier to follow, there's also a trailer for the film after them.
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In a change didn't watch one B&W movie or drama for today, back in the 1950's most films weren't in color and that remained the norm until the mid 60's. Back in the 1950's there wasn't much difference between a horror and sci-fi film, this second movie from 1956 is an example of that. "World Without End" is considered a sci-fi movie as it takes place in space but only for the first twenty minutes, it was an 82 minute film. Then the next twenty had more of a horror theme as the four main characters battled two massive spiders and a group of cavemen. You can see that above and I really think those old lobby cards looked so terrific and they're worth so much $$ these days. This was one of the first ever movies that dealt with time travel and though a B-movie was very well done, the actors did a superb job plus the sets did look realistic though the spaceship below couldn't have cost more than a dollar! In the film the year was 1957, a group of four men had taken the first trip to Mars which still hasn't happened seventy years later. The quartet didn't land on the fourth planet but orbited close enough to take thousands of photos and to observe the planet but there was no sign of life. The four men were the ship's commander/doctor Eldon Galbraithe, the oldest of the four plus there was a scientist named John Borden. Rounding out the group was the radioman Herbert Ellis who was the youngest and then there was the engineer Henry Jaffe. He was the only one currently married and had two young children who he would never see again.
For as the ship began the trip back to Earth it began to accelerate at such a massive speed, over a thousand miles a second and the four were knocked out. During that time the spaceship had entered some sort of time warp/dilation, when they arose the ship had landed on a planet and they were sitting on a mountain of snow. None of the four were hurt though the ship wasn't going to be flying until repairs were done and that may not happen without new parts. In a shocker this unknown planet was very similar to Earth as the gravity was the same along with there being breathable oxygen, the team quickly began their journey to wherever. Soon enough they were out of the snow and the temperature was a very comfortable 60 F, after a few more hours of hiking the crew began to realize they were back on Earth and what year could it possibly be? They did find some gravestones with a date of 2188 on them, it appeared there was a nuclear war then and the doctor Galbraithe surmised they were in the year 2388 for after two hundred years the radiation would disappear which it had. The group also surmised they were in what was once known as Colorado but where was Denver or any other large city, as a matter of fact where were any humans? Those would soon be found but before that while exploring a cave the group of four came upon a pair of spiders that were almost the size of a man! There's a screenshot of that below and that was the most exciting parts of the movie. Humans were soon found however they seemed to be out of the Stone Ages for they looked and acted like cavemen. There were a pair of skirmishes where the group killed some of the cavemen in self defense but they were so numerous so the group once again hid out in a cave. The spiders and humans were mutates and that was because of the nuclear war over 200 years ago but as mentioned most of the radiation has disipated.
Final segment and there's a lot to squeeze in but as mentioned that's what makes screenshots so handy. This cave was actually the entrance to a small underground world of regular humans who greeted the four though were leery of them for they had come from a time on Earth that was violent. The leader was an elder man named Timmek who told the group of four his colony of humans had been living underground for 320 years as the date was was 2508 and not 2388 as the group first thought. The cavemen above ground didn't make it to safety when the nuclear was happened in 2188 and they've been dubbed as Mutates by this new group of four from the year 1957. The normal humans never venture out of their underground world and though they're safe the race is dying. The women still look beautiful but the men are weaker and are smaller than the ones from 1957, without new humans to have children their race is doomed! The group of four were so frustrated with Timmek and his people for they are very advanced yet will make no effort to improve their lives such as venturing outside and eliminating the race of Mutates. Which the group of four did even though their pleas for their spaceship to be repaired was denied and for a while they were even branded as killers. The group of four from 1957 were basically all equals and worked so well as a team, they did defeat the Mutates in a battle which meant the 'normal humans' could once again live on the Earth's surface. As the film ended the four remained on this Earth which was 550 years into their future, even if their ship could be fixed they still couldn't return to the past. But the human race will live on as the four are healthy enough to father children and the movie did end on an upbeat note. This was no must watch or classic movie but one that was certainly fun and enjoyable, those are my two keys when viewing a movie. Plenty of screenshots below from it plus there's also an exciting trailer.
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Did make a major change for this final review for today as there was going to be a second section to it. If you've read my regular drama and movie reviews prior to the Autumn of 2025 you'd know I began off with a lengthy yet very important intro section. Where I would list all of the major characters and give much of their bio info along with some screenshots. Would also have the details of the air dates, ratings, trivia facts, a mini overview of the plot and a video, it was long but quite impressive. For the 1967-68 Tokusatsu series "Ultraseven" was going to write one of them up for today and then carry it over to future posts that would feature a review of the series. But I'm a bit strapped on time as those intros do take a while to do and want to make that section be the best to date so let me take a bit of time on it. Want to make sure it's done right and perhaps there's some other ways of formatting it which could be better so look out for those upcoming posts for this very popular franchise, guess you could say Ultraman is Japan's version of Superman.... who would come out on top in a grudge match!
So won't give a regular mini review for today, have watched the first five shows and below are many screenshots from episode one. A show last for 25 1/2 minutes and that was the norm back in the 1960's, these days a Superhero episode is just shy of 24 minutes. "Ultraseven" was the third in the Ultra series of shows, I did review the first which was "Ultra Q" from 1966. I enjoyed that show immensely and recapped all 28 episodes which was similar to the 'Outer Limits". The second Ultra series introduced us to Ultraman and have viewed that 1966/67 show twice which was quite good, didn't review it as there's enough of those out there. This third Ultra series aired from October 1, 1967 to September 8, 1968 and had the whopping total of 49 episodes. Unsure how I want to recap this third Ultra series, just have the two sections I talked about for every five episodes for a total of ten times I would discuss the series? Or should I recap all 49 episodes which would be such a time consuming feat or is there another way to just feature "Ultraseven" in it's own series of posts without having 49 of them? Do have time to work on an answer to that and let me watch another five episodes before thinking more about it, would love to find a third solution for my enigma which I could use for other dramas or TV shows.
As you can see Ultraseven is almost a clone of Ultraman and was dubbed Seven for he's helping out a team of six protecting the Earth, he's their unofficial seventh member. The group of six belongs to the Ultra Garrison Unit of the TDF.... Terrestrial Defense Forces.... which protect the Earth from Alien invasions. The group of six are below and the newest member is Dan Moroboshi who can transform into Ultraseven. He was the reason the Earth was able to defeat an attack in this first episode by an alien race that could make their ships invisible, the human Dan was key in helping the TDF team so as the episode ended he became a FT member. There's plenty of screenshots below of what took place in this first episode but I thought the next two were even better. Ultraseven has many of the same powers as Ultraman has such as being able to fly and a warning device when he's in danger but Ultraman only has a three minute period being able to use his powers and as of now Ultraseven has no such limit. My favorite new weapon is a laser beam which can cut through anything, have seen our hero cut off a head with it! But like most Tokusatsu shows we only see the hero for about 3-5 minutes a show but if the cast is strong and the stories are interesting that's fine with me, so far that's been the case for the first five episodes. So will leave off here with plenty of screenshots and after them is the opening theme song, it shows how Dan transforms into Ultraseven which is of donning some special goggles.
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