Toei Animation's Precure franchise is reaching its 15th anniversary ever since the very first Precure TV anime series came out in February 2004. It maybe too early to celebrate Precure's 15th anniversary but in honor of 2018's recently aired Precure installment, HUGtto! Precure, the producers of the Precure franchise are giving the newest Precure heroines a chance to shine at the big screen alongside their predecessors, Kira Kira Precure A La Mode and Maho Girls Precure, in the new film.
Precure Super Stars!
It's called Precure Super Stars and this year's film is part of Precure's 15th anniversary celebration where it follows the tradition of past Precure crossover films that involves past and present Precure superheroines joining together to fight one of the most ruthless baddies known to them. Like it was mentioned, it brings three Precure installments such as Maho Girls Precure, Kira Kira Precure A La Mode, and the brand new HUGtto Precure in one magical adventure the whole family would enjoy. In the film, Hana Nono (also known as Cure Yell) faces off against a powerful supervillain plotting to spread darkness worldwide, but she is not alone though because while she, Cure Ange, and Cure Etoile are on a magical adventure to save the world, they get teamed up with their predecessors while making a fateful encounter with a mysterious Prince Clover.
This film packs twelve Precure superheroines in the film. Not only you got the newest heroines from the newest Precure series; Cure Yell, Cure Ange, and Cure Etoile, but also predecessors such as Cure Whip, Cure Parfait, Cure Gelato, Cure Custard, Cure Macaron, and Cure Chocolat from Kira Kira Precure A La Mode, and Cure Miracle, Cure Feliche, and Cure Magical from Maho Girls Precure. Just by looking at them joining forces in this film, you will realize that your five year old little girls are going to be super happy to see their past heroines coming back alongside the newest Cures to fight against a powerful supervillain bent on world domination. It's magical and because by PreCure standards, downright cute. Of course, this film is cute as well as the Cures' magical familiars tagging alongside them, especially the cute little baby Hugtan.
Although not quite the dream team longtime PreCure fans are expecting for, this film is chance to show what these new Cures can do while teaming up with their predecessors. Yes, it's too much to talk about it but while this film packs too much cuteness to burn your eyes off, not to mention the musical number you can expect at this film, there's so much to love about this film even if you're new to the Precure franchise. It didn't do much justice for some but this is just the beginning and we can look forward to see what's next for the newest Cures post-film.
How can you say about this film? It's not just good, it's HUGTTO GOOD PRECURE!
When Square Enix brought back Tomb Raider in 2013, fans of the legendary action adventure franchise experienced the early youth of Lara Croft and how a disaster made her from a young, defenseless woman, into a battle-scarred survivor, and then in their 20th anniversary offering, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Croft faces against Trinity in the race to the Holy Grail. Having enjoyed the first two games of the revived franchise, there's a film version that seems to be as similar as when this game brought back years ago...
Tomb Raider (2018 film)
Starring award-winning actress Alicia Vikander, this year's Tomb Raider film promises to delve deeper to the origin story of Lara Croft. A daughter of a world renowned adventurer who vanished without a trace, Lara lives her normal life in East London until a message about taking over her father's business puzzled her. While she denied taking over a company that knows nothing about her father's death, her search for the facts behind his death is not a mistake. Learning from her father's message, a shadowy organization called Trinity is plotting a global genocide and with that, Lara springs into action, using her survival instincts and her wits to make sure Trinity won't stand in her way.
This film is needless to say is like mashing up the first two games of this generation. There was the part where Lara survives the shipwreck from the first Tomb Raider game and then the one where Lara is up against the full force of Trinity from Rise of the Tomb Raider, so in other words, it's nothing special for longtime fans of Lara Croft's death-defying adventures even if you didn't play those two games.Although not as exciting as the old Tomb Raider films of the last decade, this film adaptation of the revived video game franchise really packs what you should expect in a Tomb Raider fashion; natural calamities, shooting, running about, doing somersaults, even high-speed driving of course. It's everything what an action film should be and in the case of the new Tomb Raider film, it simply is a good action thriller to get used to even if you're not a fan of the remake saga.
Well, now that with Square Enix announced a new installment to the Tomb Raider saga, best to be prepared with this film whether you like it or not.
- Following last Wednesday's passing of the bill that will deregulate 30 out of the 40 biggest banks in the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren expressed disdain over the recently passed bill that was criticized for bringing back discrimination on banks that resulted in the world financial crisis ten years ago. "This makes me sick to my stomach", she said in an email sent to the public.
- New York congresswoman, Louise Slaughter, passed away at the age of 88. Slaughter had been recently been hospitalized for a fall. She was the oldest member of the US Congress.
- UBI Soft announced that they will release The Crew 2 on PS4, XBOX One, and PC on June 29th.
- Konami announced that they will release Super Bomberman R on the PS4, XBOX One, and Steam this June 14. The Switch version, meanwhile, gained an update.
- Josh Santana, the singer behind the Tagalog version of the Meteor Garden theme song is now a licensed doctor.
- Writer Danny Boyle will be collaborating with John Hodge for the upcoming installment of the 007 James Bond film series.
As the summer season draws near in the Philippines, Star Cinema's offering for the month of March pits two of the most high profile celebrities for the very first time as actor Gerald Anderson pairs up with former Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach for a rom-com film about an odd couple living in two different lives until fate brought them together.
The film is titled My Perfect You and it was directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina, well known for her works on romantic films you are familiar with. In this film, Wurtzbach plays the role of a woman who runs a hostel, and Anderson plays a role of man who tries to lost his job because of his bitter heartbreak. When one fateful day brought them together, it's hard to guess the possible outcome between the two and how the film unfolds is also worth the guessing.
We know that this is the second time we saw Wurtzbach starring a film ever since she appeared at last Christmas' The Revenger Squad, but the film is downright regular by the feel of it. It maybe too decent and too average by rom-com standards but this film is as smooth as a nut and it takes time to get used to the backdrop of the film about two different people living in a quiet place for a second shot of love. It may not be exciting to look at but it's worth relaxing to watch this film from start to finish with no questions asked.
The very first meeting of the preparation committee for the inter-Korean summit in April took place today at 1500 hours local time.
According to a key Blue House official, details of the summit will be discussed by the committee before being finalized through working-level contact with North Korea.
While there is speculation that the summit will be a one-day meeting, the Blue House says it is too early to officially confirm such details. Meanwhile, the Blue House announced the line-up of its eight member committee on Thursday.
- Alleged Pork Barrel Queen Janet Lim Napoles is now under provisional coverage of the Department of Justice-Witness Protection Program. According to DOJ Usec. Ericson Balmes, Napoles was granted provisional coverage because of the affidavit her camp’s submitted to the said program. Napoles, just to clarify, is not in the actual care and protection of the witness protection.
- PNP Director General Ronald Dela Rosa expressed his dissatisfaction to the Department of Justice Panel of Prosecutors for dismissing the charges against suspected drug lords Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Co and Peter Lim.
- The wife of Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the US President Donald Trump, has filed for divorce in New York, according to court records.
- Toys R Us asked the US Bankruptcy Court for approval to stop paying all of its suppliers while it tries to line up buyers for its international business ahead of a planned liquidation of its U.S. operations. The news comes following the iconic toy store's plan to liquidate inventory and close down all stores in the United States.
- Mexico's economy minister urged officials to push for a speedy renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying his country and Canada must be ready to go it alone if the United States pulls out. Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said if no deal to rework NAFTA could be struck by April 30, then the new political complexion of the region would cast doubt on how incoming lawmakers would view it in Mexico and the United States.
- Western nations jointly called on Russia to explain a military-grade nerve toxin attack in England on a former Russian double agent, which they said threatened Western security. After the first known offensive use of such a weapon on European soil since World War Two, Britain has pinned the blame on Moscow and given 23 Russians who it said were spies working under diplomatic cover at the London embassy a week to leave.
- Seven-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi signed with Yamaha for two more years.
- With the Tomb Raider film now showing, Square Enix announced the third installment of the newly revived franchise, titled Shadow of the Tomb Raider, coming this September 14, 2018.
- Actress Kristen Stewart will portray the role of Actress and Activist Jean Seberg in biopic "Against All Enemies".
For some bothersome speedo boys, the partnership between Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG can be downright bothersome ever since the British sports car maker announced that they will borrow AMG's V8 engine for their forthcoming models, including the DB11.
In my early youth, I always wanted AMG to be the one that bears exotic power on everyday models ever since the G65, the SL65, and the S65 hoping that one day, all models bearing the 55 nomenclature should advance to 65 and become an all-V12 lineup but no, they'd rather want to keep the V8 at bay and introduced the 63 nomenclature to everyday models like the E-Class, the C-Class, and so on, and even though today's 63 models are turbocharged and sourced from the AMG GT flagship sportscar, it wasn't enough to whet my appetite. Even the newer Aston Martins with AMG V8 engines fared worse than ever in my mind. This is the Anglo-German quagmire I didn't see it coming and to explain what I'm on about, I'm gonna have a shootout between a V8-powered AMG and a V12-powered Aston to see if V8 power is the way forward or not.
For this shootout, I'd picked the Mercedes-AMG GT R, which has a 4.0L V8 BiTurbo on it, and an Aston Martin DB11, which has a 5.2L V12 Twin Turbo engine. Yes, the DB11 has more power than the AMG GT R but is the V12 really faster than the V8? To find out, I'm standing here at the Top Gear Test Track to explain what I'm on about.
For some incumbent reasons, Mercedes-AMG wanted the V8 to stay rather than transforming itself into an all-V12 lineup. That's how the world rattled when they introduced the 63 nomenclature in reference to the 6.3L V8 but with times are changing, the 63 models had their engines downsized and at the turn of the new decade, there was the 5.5L V8 BiTurbo engine, and now, several years later, this engine. the 4.0L V8 BiTurbo engine. Introduced to the normal AMG GT, the 4.0L V8 BiTurbo engine can be tweaked out depending on the model and in this hot version, the AMG GT R, it produces 585HP of power and 700Nm of torque while mated to a 7-speed AMG SPEEDSHIFT MCT, and it's not even the most powerful AMG offering yet, you know, but in the world where downsizing is becoming mainstream in most carmakers, this engine never fails to impress and this is the main reason why I love this AMG GT in every point of view because I tried it before.
Aston Martin has been well-known for their V12-powered grand tourers but with the introduction of the DB11, they've thrown the world a curve with the introduction of the 5.2L V12 Twin Turbo engine, which is smaller than the predecessors' 6.0L V12 engine but it sounds very smooth indeed and produces a lot of power than the old engine. 608PS of power and 700Nm of torque, that's how the V12 works and it's great to know that downsizing aside, they've still retained the V12 for the purity of it but annoyingly, Aston Martin added the AMG V8 BiTurbo engine on it, and care to guess how the AMG V8 BiTurbo fares against Aston's own V12 Twin Turbo engine? That's why we're here at the Top Gear Track to settle this issue once and for all.
Obviously, it's very impossible to beat the lap times set by The Stig in real life, so what I'm gonna do is do the shootout my way to see which one is the best. Is it the one with the AMG V8 BiTurbo or the one with the Aston Martin V12 Twin Turbo? Time to roll the clip.
And now, the results...
AMG GT R - 1:20.231
DB11 - 1:23.402
It's a shocking result! Although not as fast as The Stig's the gap between them has been narrowed to just almost three seconds! But still, I find that surprising that V8 power is the way forward especially if it comes from Mercedes-AMG.
I had to admit that what they did is not a quagmire to sports cars because Mercedes-AMG really know what they were doing, creating the best engines made specifically for their kind of cars, and with the 4.0L V8 BiTurbo engine, it's all about getting acquainted with all the right grooves and the right place. The Aston V12 Twin Turbo may be smooth and powerful but in the end, looks like David beaten Goliath at the very end and looks like Aston Martin did surrender their fate to the Germans, knowing that the AMG V8 BiTurbo would look good on their forthcoming models, even the DB11.
Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak returned home after almost a day of questioning by state prosecutors on corruption allegations five years after he left office as South Korea's chief executive.
Lee appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul on the previous day as a suspect on various charges, including bribery and abuse of power. Prosecutors said the questioning ended at around midnight, but it took over six hours for him to review statements compiled by the investigators.
He has denied all accusations, denouncing the investigation as political retaliation by the Moon administration.
- A certain lawmaker expressed discontent over President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. According to Magdalo Partylist Rep. Gary Alejano, he admitted that President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to withdraw from the ICC was a big lost for the country, especially when the Rome Statute condemns dictatorship, and is a proponent of human rights.
- Former solicitor general Atty. Florin Hilbay insists that the Department of Justice is making President Rodrigo Duterte look like a liar for dismissing the charges against suspected drug lord Peter Lim in a decision last December. Furthermore, Hilbay said that he is disappointed and cannot comprehend the decision of the state prosecutors to acquit Kerwin Espinosa, a self-confessed druglord, and Peter Co, a convicted druglord who is jailed in the New Bilibid Prison.
- A UN report states that Finland is the world's happiest country, with Burundi dead last on the happiness index and found Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.
- Some international observers urged Myanmar not to drag out legal proceedings against two Reuters journalists, as they appeared in court for the 10th time since they were arrested in December and accused of possessing secret government papers.
- Last night, in a stunning blow to the Republicans, Democrat Conor Lamb won a stunning victory against Republican Rick Saccone even though votes are still being counted in a certain district in Pennsylvanian where US President Donald Trump won by 20 points. However, the fight continues as the DCCC tries to push Greg Edwards out of the picture in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, and in Illinois, where another key primary is happening next week, corporate centrist Democrats are pushing the offensive against Marie Newman, a progressive champion.
- Singer Kiana Valenciano got banned from walking the runway as part of the LA Fashion Week because of her ethnicity. In a post on her mom, Angeli Pangilinan’s social media account, the young singer narrated how they were confused on why she, Miss Earth 2014 Jamie Herrell and five other Filipina models were not allowed to walk the runway. According to her, one of the producers said that "no Filipinos" were allowed.
- Kia Motors showcased another teaser sketch for the second-generation K9, this time the interior.
- Ford unveiled a special edition Mustang GT California Special for 2019 model year, featuring rev-matching on 5.0-liter manual-equipped models, the first-ever custom-tuned B&O Play premium audio system for Mustang and three new vintage-inspired colors and over-the-top stripes.
- Toys R Us will sell or close all of its remaining stores in the United States and also likely to liquidate or sell its operations in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Last September 2017, the company field for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
After having a blast with the first part of the STELLA MASTER CD range, with the Vertex Meister song on it, the STELLA MASTER range, inspired by the PS4-exclusive video game THE IDOLM@STER Stella Stage, continues with part two titled Seisai Stepper.
With performances made possible Iori Minase (CV: Rie Kugimiya), Miki Hoshii (CV: Akiko Hasegawa), and Ami and Mami Futami (CV: Asami Shimoda), the extended version of the song as heard from the DLC in-game is as jolly and whimsical as you can get for being a fan of those idols featured in this album. Of course it sounds cute but if you had enough with it, you can go behind the scenes with some audio dramas on how the girls come up with it as well as one of Shiika's logs while doing a stakeout on the 765 ALL-STARS behind the process. Sneaky little beauty she is. To top it all off, there's a bonus track to wrap this installment up.
With this and the other installments out in stores, expect the conclusion to this range soon and don't miss the last DLC Catalog on the PS4-exclusive video game THE IDOLM@STER Stella Stage game this week.
Spring has arrived and so is the latest installment of THE IDOLM@STER STARLIGHT MASTER CD range, inspired by THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage app game, where the latest song has the feeling that it's already the dawn of spring.
THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS STARLIGHT MASTER 15 Sakura no Koro
For this installment, the highlight song is titled Sakura no Koro and it was performed by Yoshino Yorita (CV: Yuuki Takada), Sae Kobayakawa (CV: Rika Tachibana), Karin Domyoji (CV: Hiyori Nitta), Ayame Hamaguchi (CV: Masumi Tazawa), and Tamami Wakiyama (CV: Misa Kayama). This song is the definitive point that Spring is already here and it's the perfect time to listen to this extended version after you spent days mastering it from DEBUT to MASTER.
If you enjoyed this song, you can check out two new songs such as the one made for Frederica Miyamoto (CV: Asami Takano), titled フレデリカ、猫やめるよ, and the last one is キミのそばでずっと by Karin Domyoji (CV: Hiyori Nitta), Ayame Hamaguchi (CV: Masumi Tazawa), and Tamami Wakiyama (CV: Misa Kayama).
Enjoy the herald of spring with the newest additions to your STARLIGHT STAGE playlist and be sure to keep playing THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage for more. Enjoy!
