RJ Writing Ink

Earlier in the month, I did a writing about a Dragon Ball Z Abridged Christmas Special: The Christmas Tree of Might. Last year, Team Four Star produced a follow up: The Plan to Eradicate Christmas. I was browsing through the internet, and I thought it would be fun to watch this again. 

Like Christmas Tree of Might, this is not really a Christmas Special. This is actually based on an OVA that came with the game Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast 2. Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was about a supercomputer made by a species the Saiyans wiped out trying to get revenge for it’s deceased creators. That is disregarded in this special.

Evil Santa

In keeping with the Christmas theme, this special sees the Earth being threatened by a giant cloud of coal dust and naughtiness, and the ghost’s of Christmas Villains past. You know how this song and dance goes. Fight, Goku and allies first lose, they rally and win. 

What I liked about this special is that it once again shows how creative Team Four Star is able to get with their work. They took an OVA that had nothing to do with Christmas and make it into a holiday special. They even added Santa Claus into it.

Everyone is Naughty! Except Gohan!

Speaking of Santa, he’s the one behind this mess. Team Four Star must have taken a page from the evil robot Santa from Futurama, because this Santa has deemed everyone on Earth naughty. And the Saiyans and Piccolo are at the top. Piccolo for him and his dad trying to take over the world, Trunks for the time travel thing, and Vegeta. Dear god, where do we begin? But Goku is the worst because he’s put the universe at risk. And as if to prove a point, Team Four Star puts up an ad to the watch the Tournament of Power arc on Crunchyroll. Gohan is the only one who’s on the nice list.

So, Santa has clearly gone evil, which means the group has to waste him. To the tune of “Carol of the Bells”, which was one of the best things I’ve ever seen.

So, Santa is dead, but the point the group is about more than just Santa. I know that’s been said time and again, but we still need to hear every now and then. After that, everyone goes home to Goku’s home for Christmas dinner. Even Vegeta, and he hates everyone. Christmas miracle.

So, that was a traditional Saiyan Christmas, I guess. It was, it was weird. I wonder if Team Four Star would do another Hellsing Christmas Special? I got to go find out! Or maybe they’ll done another Dragon Ball Z Abridged Special for Christmas!

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Ahh, Batman: The Animated Series, one of the greatest cartoons of all time. This show spawned a successful shared universe long before the MCU was a thought, and it gave my generation its definitive Batman and Joker: Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill.

Sadly, I was too young to watch this it as a kid. I wasn’t even born yet when the Christmas episode came out.

Christmas With the Joker

That’s right, I watched Christmas with the Joker for today’s special. Of course, how can we not talk about the episode without it’s a most important moment? The moment where the world got the voice that would be synonymous with The Joker to this very day?

Animation history was just made, people. I am only sorry I was not here to see it myself.

At any rate, Joker decides to spend the holiday with his family. Since he doesn’t have one, though, he decides to mess with Batman and Robin’s Christmas by kidnapping their friends: Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson, and Harvey Bullock.

So the hunt is on for the Joker before he kills the police officers, but Joker has plenty of distractions in store. He blows up a bridge to derail a train, turns the observatory on Mount Gotham into a cannon, and then sics an army of toys on the duo. The last one happens to the tune of the Nutcracker Suite.

The episode is not particularly memorable in the grand scheme of things, as we know Batman and Robin will stop the Joker like always. Still, I like this episode because one, it’s Christmas, and two, it was the start of Mark Hamill’s legendary tenure as the Joker. After the original Star Wars trilogy ended, I don’t think he got that many big roles, but I could be wrong. The Joker ended being one of his best performances, though, and it gave him a new career as a voice actor. For that reason alone, I think this episode deserves to be remembered.

Batman eventually takes down the Joker, the cops are saved, and Batman, Robin, and Alfred spend Christmas watching a recording of It’s a Wonderful Life. Personally, I think Joker did all this because he just wanted to spend Christmas with Batman. That idea reeks of crazy logic, but I think it makes sense considering how obsessed Joker is with Batman. Then again, I could be wrong. MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Oh, yeah I forgot: I met Kevin Conroy at NYCC one year, and he is super nice. 

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Hey, it’s me. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry again for missing out on last night. My bad! Let’s put that behind us and talk about the Christmas Episode I watched today: Merry Christmas Mordecai, from Regular Show.

This premiered alongside The White Elephant Gift Exchange, but I’m doing them separate for a reason: I like White Elephant more. To be honest, I was dreading this episode.

Margaret had left for college at the end of Season 4, leaving Mordecai heartbroken. Then he ended up bumping into CJ at that New Year’s party, they started hanging out, and then they started dating. Even though I did like seeing them dating (and Real Date is one of my favorite episodes of the show), I was against it at first. The reason was because, in the back of my mind, I knew that Margaret might come back. When and if that happened, this was going to lead to an awkward love triangle. Lo and behold, I WAS RIGHT! 

The entire special revolves around Mordecai wigging out, or as Rigby calls “pulling a Mordecai” and trying to keep things from getting awkward. Thankfully, CJ was perfectly understanding about Mordecai’s plight and shook it off. After that, everything seemed like it was going to work out. That is, until Mordecai and Margaret get caught up in their good memories and kiss each other!

Then, because the plot demands it, CJ inconveniently comes in and sees them kissing, and runs off before Mordecai can explain or apologize. In other words, my worst fear came true. Then it got worse. Margaret is now Eileen’s new roommate. From here on out, things were going to get awkward.

If you watched the show in its entirety, you know that CJ was never able to truly get over her jealousy of Margaret, which led to her and Mordecai’s eventual break-up. Considering how CJ is no longer a main character after Season 6, I consider this to be a huge waste. At the same time, I have to acknowledge how this special ends up being a huge milestone in the show’s plot. It may be my least favorite of the Regular Show Christmas Specials, but it’s still good. After all, it’s Regular Show.

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Christmas can be just as big a holiday in Japan as it is in other parts of the world, but not for the reasons you would think. There are not that many Christians in Japan, so they don’t celebrate for the religious aspects. It’s celebrated more for the romantic aspect, decorating trees, and eating KFC. That is, in fact, a thing in Japan, thanks to a promotional campaign KFC did in the 1970s. 

After reading D&A Anime Blog’s post about anime Christmas Specials, I decided I wanted to do more myself. So I went online and found a Christmas episode for an anime I’ve been meaning to watch, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.

Here’s the synopsis first. This office worker named Kobayashi rescues this dragon from another dimension named Tohru, causing Tohru to fall in love with her. She (Tohru) then reveals she can turn into a human and starts living with Kobayashi as her maid. Then she gets joined by Tohru’s friend, Kanna, who is probably the winner for cutest anime character in 2017. It’s a cute slice-of-life anime, and the dub by Funimation is fairly good. If you like anime that are more laid-back and not as heavy on the action, I’d recommend it. Now onto the episode!

When one of Tohru’s friends from the town mall injures himself practicing for their annual Christmas Eve show at the local retirement home, she volunteers to put it on. So she gathers her friends, which include other dragons living on Earth, a young mage named Shouta, and Kanna’s classmate Saikawa who has a massive crush on her (as you can see in the above video at 1:50).

After trying to think up a bunch of ideas, they settle on a play of The Little Matchgirl. They try getting Shouta to dress as the matchgirl, but he’s too embarrassed. So they settle for Kanna, who is already cute enough (again as seen in the video)

We also get this cute little subplot during this whole thing. When Kanna gets worried they won’t be visited by Santa because they don’t have a chimney, Tohru…installs one for their apartment, right into Kanna’s room. That makes it hard for Kobayashi to give her her present without being caught. The struggle of every adult, I guess.

So Christmas Eve comes, and the play is performed, but it’s not the same as the story. The group ended taking some creative liberties with the story. The next thing I know, Shouta shows up as an old man selling straw hats (have to find out what story that’s from) and they turn into Magical Girls fighting alongside the 47 Ronin. That is literally what happens!

Fortunately, the elders love it, which is the whole point of the thing, so the play is a huge success. They then all head back to Kobayashi’s house for a Christmas Party, and the episode ends with Kobayashi and Tohru going for a ride in the night sky for Christmas. Well, the whole “Santa” thing happens after that, but that’s not the point. 

Overall, this was a nice Christmas episode. Like I said, Christmas isn’t as big a deal in Japan as it is to America, so there are not many anime Christmas specials. I loved this one, though, hilarity and all. Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a fun little slice of life.

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Kneel Before Zim!

Do you remember this show? Invader Zim, the cult classic of Nickelodeon. Created by comic book writer Jhonen Vasquez and premiering in 2001, this show isn’t like other Nicktoons. It was extremely dark for a kids cartoon. Too dark, it seems, for some kids to watch, and it worried a lot of parents.

Me, I didn’t care one bit. I loved Invader Zim because it was dark and different from other Nicktoons. I did think some of the episodes were a little too scary (I don’t even remember the “Dark Harvest” one that well). But it holds a special place in my heart for the amazing use of CGI. It was one of the first times I had ever seen CGI in a kids show, so I was mesmerized by it!

All the love can’t help with bad ratings, though, and the show got pulled in the middle of its second season, with a bunch of episodes remaining unreleased or unfinished. The last episode I ever saw was its Christmas Special, which aired sixteen years ago tonight. In honor of that, I decided to rewatch it for my 25 days of Christmas. So without further ado, I give you The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever.

Zim Ruins Christmas Forever

The entire story takes place in flashback, being told by a robotic snow who is a clear parody of Frosty the Snowman. He explains that two million years ago, Zim discovered the concept of Christmas, and more importantly Santa. 

After seeing how much humanity loved and adored Santa, Zim got an idea. An awful idea. Zim got a wonderful, awful idea. *cue the evil Grinch smile*

Using alien nanotechnology, Zim creates a robotic Santa suit for him to control, then with a flourish, presents himself to the world as the real Santa Claus.

Humanity successfully fooled, he summons them to the North Pole for a huge rally. In hindsight, the decorations, chanting, and the sinister overtones of the song, reminds me of a cult rally. It does give us the most oppressive and tyrannical Christmas Song ever, though. And I loved it!

Zim’s master plan is to build a teleporter and beam humanity to the Irken Empire to use as slaves. The only one with enough sense to oppose him is Dib. But since humans in Zim are stupid, they don’t believe Dib and Zim throws him in Jingle-Jail.

Fortunately, Dib doesn’t have to do anything this time around. Zim made the Santa Suit too good, and it’s started to think it’s the real Santa. Anything Christmas-related makes it take over.

Despite his best efforts, the suit manages to overpower Zim, trapping him inside.

So Zim’s trapped forever and Santa is real. Happy ending for all! Until Dib shows up with a giant robot suit and causes the suit to go berserk. 

The Fight I Couldn’t Show You

After a giant monster fight, Dib weakens the suit enough for Zim to escape, shrink it down, and have Dib throw it into space. There might have been a moral behind all that, but for the life of me, I still don’t know.

But despite thinking him destroyed, the Santa Suit, in fact, survived to gather power in deep space. Now it comes back every year on Christmas and terrorizes the Earth, so everyone has to live inside domes and placate him with milk and cookies. Dark

Dark Show, But I Loved It

Yeah, Invader Zim was a dark and scary cartoon more often than not, but that’s what it was supposed to be. That’s why I liked it so much: it was different, and not seeing it canceled leaves a hole in my heart. I know it’s sounds sappy, but I wanted to see where the series would go. This Christmas Special was the last episode that ever aired; the rest were released years later by Nickelodeon.

In hindsight, maybe it would have been a good idea to just leave Zim trapped inside the suit. It would have been a good way to end the series: Earth saved, Santa is real, and Dib got what he wanted with Zim stopped. At least we still have the comics and the upcoming movie. And even after all these years, I still love this Christmas Special! Ho-ho-ho, Happy Holidays one and all!

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I think that by now, you guys will have noticed a trend behind my choices: several have been from Nickelodeon. That’s what I mainly watched in the first half of my childhood. I didn’t discover Cartoon Network until after I was ten, and I didn’t get into Disney Channel until a year or so later. So, I have a fondness for Nicktoons. That’s not what I’m here to write about. I’m writing about Holidays Specials I’ve watched every day, and I picked an old Nickelodeon one, Holly Jolly Jimmy from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Jimmy Doesn’t Believe in Santa

The premise behind the special is simple: it’s Christmastime in the town of Retroville, and everyone is getting into the spirit of the Holiday. Everyone, that is, except for Jimmy Neutron. As a boy of science, Jimmy refuses to believe in the idea of Santa Claus, as most of his abilities defy science. When he openly says so in class, it makes his best friend Carl run out crying.

The trope of “the kid who doesn’t believe in Santa” is not a new concept, but I can’t remember where I first saw it. Plenty of kids will go through a point in their childhood when they doubt in the existence of Santa. Almost every special that deals with this trope end up reaffirming the belief in some way. Personally, I don’t care if Santa is real or not. Historically, he was, but that’s a whole other ball game.

At any rate, Jimmy and his friends, Carl and Sheen, go to the North Pole to prove whether Santa is real or not. Despite all evidence saying so, Jimmy refuses to admit the truth out of pride. Then his DNA tracker accidentally “breaks Santa”.

So, now we have a “saving Christmas” story as well. The three decide to deliver all the presents, but fail and end up being rescued by Santa himself, finally affirming Jimmy’s belief in him. Then, in typical Santa fashion, he manages to save Christmas and deliver the boys and all the presents back home.

Simple Premise

Like I said, the ideas in this episode are not new, and while much of the special stands out as particularly memorable. Still, I did like Jimmy Neutron as a kid, and it was fun to see the main character grapple with an idea that went against everything he stands for and ends up accepting it.  I liked it enough, and it was a good reminder of one of my favorite memories: the Merry Nickmas theme Nickelodeon did in the early 2000s. 

Well, that’s about it for tonight. Gotta blast!

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I may not have watched it as long as Nickelodeon, but once I found Cartoon Network, I loved it just as much. But after Ed Edd n’ Eddy came to an end in 2009, it was the end of an era. I mean that both literally and emotionally. It was the last of the 90s era cartoons to go off the air, and the one I loved most on that channel. There was Adventure Time next year, but that was it.

Then, I found Regular Show.

I may not have liked it much at first, but once I warmed up to it, I fell in love it. Watching the surreal adventures of these two slacker best friends, Mordecai and Rigby, something just clicked. It had a great mix of humor for both kids and adults. I loved it, especially the numerous holiday specials. 

Regular Show did a bunch of Halloween specials, and while those are my favorite, I have a great love for their three Christmas episodes. So, why not? Let’s look at a Regular Show Christmas special.

Full disclosure: this one is split into two segments, so I’m going to do each in a separate article. With that out of way, here’s White Elephant Gift Exchange.

The park gang is getting ready for their annual white elephant gift exchange, which everyone despises. Why? Because every years, Muscle Man steals all the good gifts and leaves them with prank ones. And not just used tissues or gum: we’re talking gloves made out of underwear and sweaters with itching powder.

So, Benson and the others decide to rig the game this year to make sure Muscle Man won’t steal their gifts and instead open their prank gift. 

It seems like they went overboard, though, with the prank. Especially when Muscle Man reveals he got them a flat-screen TV to make up for being a jerk.

The gang gets banished to the temple of the White Elephant, who chastises them for not getting the spirit of the game: you give gifts you hate, which makes it fun. So, lesson learned about the spirit of the Holidays, they go home and have a fun time, the end.

PSYCH! Muscle Man pranked them again. Sympathy gone, they go ahead with the plan, leading to what has to be one of the funniest moments I have ever seen in a cartoon:

When I first saw this on TV, I couldn’t stop laughing at how funny it was. Seeing Muscle Man’s reaction to one prank after another in slow motion while everyone laughs at payback was funny enough. But doing it over “Holly Jolly Christmas” sung by Burl Ives had me in stitches! By the time the elf elbows him, I was practically rolling on the floor laughing.

This was comedy gold to me. The pacing, everyone’s reactions to the events, the choice to play it over a classic Christmas song was perfect. Some may say it was still pretty mean, but Muscle Man never knew when to stop pranking others. He needed to be taught a lesson for a while, and I doubt he’d hold any ill will over it. This is one of my favorite Christmas episodes, and I hope you like it as well.

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This is one of the stranger Christmas Specials that I’ve seen. I actually found it by complete accident one day. Supermansion is this show that is done in the style of Robot Chicken: with action figures for the characters. It’s got a lot of good talent on it, with Bryan Cranston playing the lead, and Matthew Seinrich and Seth Green from Robot Chicken working on it as well, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Plus, Jim Parsons is in it, and I like him from The Big Bang Theory. So here is Supermansion: War on Christmas. Lets see some Santa!

Evil Santa is Born

After Cooch the talking cat learns from Titanium Rex that Santa Claus isn’t real, she stumbles into his hall of confiscated villain weapons and meets a magic alien doll thing, voiced by Jim Parsons. I wish I could show you the video of his song and dance, but Sony won’t let me.

Bottom line, Mr. Skibumpers grants a person a wish in exchange for his freedom, and Cooch wishes for Santa to be real. It’s awesome at first, but Santa is quickly freaked out by all the job entails and goes crazy!

Honestly, I think this special is supposed to be a commentary about how scary it would if Santa were real. I don’t really know. The good news is the heroes resolve everything and turn Santa sane again using his magic bag to give him peace of mind. He moves to the North Pole and promises to come back every Christmas like the legends say.

This is not your normal holiday special, but it pretty much admits that at the end, courtesy of Mr. Skibumpers… who says that if he gets out of being wood (he got tricked by Titanium Rex), he’s gonna kill everyone. It’s still a laugh riot, though. I thought this was one of the most original holiday specials I had seen in a while, hence why I came back to it. If you haven’t seen it, you can buy it on YouTube or watch it if you have Sony Crackle. Just make sure no one under 17 (16 at the least) watches it. Happy Holidays!

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Now I know what you’re thinking: this is not a Christmas Special, it’s DragonBall Z. Normally, that would be correct, but this is DragonBall Z Abridged, a popular, fan-based parody done by a group of fans in Texas. Known as Team Four Star, they do a hilarious re-dub of the original DBZ, keeping the story intact. The characters and even some of the events, though, are greatly changed. Goku’s even dumber, Krillin has his own “own’d counter”, and Vegeta’s ego is bigger than ever. Oh, and Nappa comes back as a ghost.

DBZ Abridged Is Awesome

Fans love DBZ Abridged, and even the cast of the official dub like the show. They even managed to sneak themselves onto the Abridged series in guest roles. The cast has even been invited to provide voices for official DBZ games, plus this.

But then they couldn’t air it, because of legal reasons. And some companies don’t understand the concept of “fan-based” parody.

So, they retooled the movie The Tree of Might into a Christmas Special. Here, you can watch it for yourself, and then come back afterwards. One more thing: they have these captions called “English “Canada”” which are way funnier than normal captions. Turn them on:

I really liked how they made Shenron incredibly frustrated with the Z-Warriors. Not only with the fact that they’re the only ones who usually summon him, and the ridiculous wish. And that song: “Yamcha The Scar-Faced Bandit” is so hilarious. A running gag is that they always make fun of Yamcha for how weak he is. He doesn’t deserve it, though. At any rate, here’s part two:

A Team Four Star Christmas

That wasn’t a traditional Christmas Special, but I like it because I think it shows just how creative people can be with abridged series. All it takes is the use of old clips and new voice acting and Team Four Star was able to make this fun re-imagining of a DBZ film. 

The jokes were pretty spot-on, too. Remember Icarus, that little dragon that is sometimes Gohan’s pet? Team Four Star hates him apparently, as they keep killing him in the films he’s in. Same with Maron. 

This was made early in the series’ run, and in hindsight, it shows how imaginative TeamFourStar is able to get with such a beloved anime. Now, they have connections to FUNimation, Screwattack, and RoosterTeeth, among others things. They even got Kyle Herbert to play Santa. How awesome is that?

Yeah, this wasn’t a regular Christmas special, but I liked it nonetheless. TeamFourStar, I hope you guys keep making amazing stories! Merry Christmas, everyone!

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