#the best imo is something like 9-5 for only 3 to sometimes 4 self chosen week days

[avvocarlo]

the way it's practically impossible to get anything done that you can't do yourself if you work monday to friday. what do you mean I have to apply for leave so I can get my car serviced? are you insane?

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff’s Best of 2018

WARNING: I just want to say cheers to you for making it through another year. I send you best wishes for next year to be fruitful. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

Dedicated to Stan Lee, Stefán Karl and Stephen Hillenburg, the number ones of children entertainment

Bow Whacka Wow, playas and players. 2018 gave us quite a lot to consume while society continues to fumble like a Tumblr update. While hopefully the chaos has died down for the final weeks of the year, I’m counting down the best cartoons/animations I’ve seen and loved this year in no particular order. Only two rules, no sneak previews of future projects (sorry 101 Dalmatian Street and MP100) and no potential entries from last year’s list (sorry True). With that said, roll it....

10. UNIKITTY!

I love the Lego Movie. I’ll potentially like the sequel. I like Unikitty. She got a show, and it was a great show to start off the year. Upbeat, colorful, off the walls sometimes, perfectly capturing the spirit of the eponymous character. I’m glad the other characters are just as enjoyable, I never get tired of the theme song, every episode had me smilin’ one way or another, it’s just a quality bottle of positivity juice. Don’t know how else to explain it, Unikitty, the show and character, just makes and continues to make me smile.

9. POP TEA-- SIKE!

This anime ain’t nothing but unfunny randomness and skits with a forgetful arc in the first and final episode. I don’t get it, never gonna get it, so I don’t want to get it! MORE LIKE POOP TEAM EPIC, ‘nuff said. Which is why the actual number nine is....

9. BOB EPIC TEAM

Honestly, there is something endearing about the way Bob Epic Team presents itself. The simplicity and variety of its animation is remarkably good and makes it feel timeless sometimes. The comedy works in a way that gives you a clear grasp on the two characters while letting them do whatever they want. The surrealism of this is fun to think about, showcasing a hedonistic philosophy that rivals that of Epicurus. The duo’s chemistry is what especially got me, as they felt like the best of friends, potentially love birds *wink wink*. This anime was just creative in every sense of the word and, like Unikitty, it was a great anime to start of the year.

8. CRAIG OF THE CREEK

The ska is RAH. I honestly find this to be the loose spiritual successor to Hey Arnold and Recess. Like the playground, the creek is a well fleshed out setting with the many characters that hang there, from the TAZ trio to the loving witches of the creek. Though I will say the best episodes are when we get insight on the main three’s personal lives with their families and when the characters themselves go through a personal trial to understand themselves a little better. The shows thrives in the theme that the creek is a place where you can enjoy getting your hands dirty and work towards something you want, even if it doesn’t add to any concrete long term benefit beyond learning a thing or two about yourself and others. And I say for somebody that relates to Craig as a character, that’s a welcoming thought that the show has yet to perish. And the ska is a welcome choice of music, IMO.

7. THE EPIC TALES OF CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS

It’s funny in how a little over a year of getting a movie, Captain Underpants gets an animated series with not only original stories in lieu of just animating the already printed stories, but puts it all in a format similar to reading a book with a sardonic narrator and separating the plot of the episode into chapters with subtitle cards; one of the first I’ve seen do this. But really, a “Captain Underpants cartoon” is something I can’t say would turn out bad, and I’m right as this is a show that revels in what made CU great in the first place. George, Harold, Melvin, and Mr. Krupp/Captain Underpants are all great characters with the additional supporting cast providing welcome life to the world. Every Incredible Violence Chapter is brilliant in their own right, and while I wasn’t a fan of the ending they had for the season, it’s great that almost every episode is self-contained, boosting its replay value. Honestly, any compliment I have for this was already said in my review of this and the movie, so I’ll just say this too was faithful to its source material and benefited heavily for it.

6. GARY AND HIS DEMONS

Rick and Morty done better. BOOM, send tweet! It is safe to say that this was quite the sleeper hit and I can’t help but say it’s lowkey one of the best adult cartoons this year next to Ballmastrz and Final Space. And while I certainly appreciate the other two *hint hint* this one got a step above on the grounds that it works as a comedy and a solemn tale of a chosen hero that stumbles through years in the office life. It’s improv humor feels natural and it can be as melancholic as Bojack Horseman without making it all too deep like so; has a great balance of both. Main man Gary, unlike Rick for the most part, is a guy that’s both reasonably reprehensible yet pretty relatable. Not to mention, while it was bittersweet, it had a very satisfying finale to where I feel like this was a complete series all together. With a rough art style that compliments it’s tone, this was a series that surprised me in its sharp quality.

5. APPLE & ONION

I’ll admit. Initially wasn’t a fan of it as it felt like a knock-off to Regular Show (may it rest). Just had a duo of bros living together, doing mundane labor while coming up with impromptu tunes along the way. Then again, I was gladly proven wrong because the charm of it generally being a simple show, even with every person being food, somehow more regular than Regular Show. Every song they make is upbeat and catchy, all of the characters are endearing, and with only 10 episodes, each one was well paced and had quality writing to the point where I teared up a couple times. It stinks that this and Summer Camp Island have generally been receiving the shaft this year after their premieres, but I'm just glad that they haven’t been truly forgotten by CN and are getting more episodes next year. Plus, I love food and this show is about food. Debate over.

4. LEGEND OF THE THREE CABALLEROS

I was familiar yet never saw The Three Caballeros, ironic since Donald is one of my favorite Disney characters. But then, out of the blue, I found this and I was stunned, amazed, confused, nonetheless invested. It has a bumpy start, but it’s a joyous adventure from that start to end. The look of it is something I’ve rarely seen in animation since... freakin’ Wakfu. I love Xandra and I was glad to see her be an active player on the team. The villains are such a hammy delight. And Jose and Panchito were very lively and entertaining foils to Donald’s cynic nature while all three work as well together like the 3 stooges. Donald himself gets a great arc of his own throughout the season. And the theme, HO MY GOD I LOVE THIS THEME! It’s a damn shame Disney hasn’t released this already (since it’s all online already) because this series is much better than it has any right to be.

3. GOLDEN WIND/VENTO AUREO

I say, the beauty of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is that regardless of what part you start from, you’re enthralled into its world and ya feel compelled to dig into it more. Parts 3 was what got me into Jojo, like most I bet, but it was part 5 that got me “Oh yeah, this series [just] works on more than level”. The characters are what keep me hooked, regardless of Crunchyroll refusing to give their stands proper English names [Zipper Man, CR?], Fighting Gold and Freak ‘n You will never get old, and David Productions putting great effort into the small details and giving life and style to the original manga. I’ll just say, as one who’s read and loved the manga, this anime has not ceased to keep me impressed and guessing for more.

2. INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Funking superb, you afro having web-slinger. I hate to say it, but 2018 didn’t have the most impressive line-up of western animated features. Most were average, entertaining sure, but nothing felt like 110% was given. Until Spidah-Man came on the scene and I was like “WIG...

The only major problem I have with this film, besides a bit of slow pacing, is more of a missed opportunity where the stakes of getting the Spidermen back to their dimensions before dying felt like an afterthought. Then again, that’s ALL I have for problems. It looks fantastic. The action is smooth, coherent, and satisfying to see. The tiny details and comic book aesthetic of it was a blessed touch. I loved almost every character here. Nick Cage and John Mulaney. The fact that it has so much yet was able to juggle it all blew my mind. Even the post credits scene made this such a love letter to the wall-crawler. This film was refreshing to say the least and the central theme behind the idea of Spider-Man made this as great of a superhero movie as Infinity War and Lego Batman. Just saying, this better make its budget back and THEN SOME. It deserves it.

1. HILDA

Netflix, we’re not on good terms mind you, but ya done did it again. This is honestly one of the few shows that I genuinely took my time with as opposed to binging it, because binge watching is a devil in itself. Like the Spider-verse movie, it got the style of its source material down to cozy colored T with its autumn color palette and etched lining in the characters. Like the Captain Underpants series, while having a grounded arc of Hilda journeying through the city life and her colliding wildlife, each episode can be generally be enjoyed on their own. Like Gary and His Demons, it felt like a complete season and the fact it’s getting a season two made things all the better. But above all, it was a generally peaceful yet captivating fantasy cartoon to watch with incredible animation, an endearing main character, amazing looking folk creatures of all sizes and powers, and a cuddly deerfox for a pet. I say this is to the fall what Harvey Beaks was to the spring, and if I can compare a show to Harvey Beaks you know you’ve achieved greatness. Like True and the Rainbow Kingdom, gives you a moment of honest bliss and happiness that can influence your outlook on looking forward to better things because like Hilda herself, you push forward and have some fun exploring.

Just saying, I cannot stress this enough this is NOT my number one favorite show of the year, hell of all time. THAT goes to....

1. 👏TEEN 👏TITANS 👏GO, BABEEEEEEY!!

ONCE AGAIN, Teen Titans GO reigns supre-- Huh, what’s that? Oh my god, you’re serious?! The Number One is

TOTAL DRAMARAMA OUT OF NOWHERE! IT IS NOW CARTOON NETWORK’S ‘NEW FAVORITE SHOW’.

THE STREAK *DING DING DING* IS OVER

[clearinz]

Pokémon - Top 10 Signature Moves

Okay new Pokémon list time, which will hopefully become much more common.

Decided to start off this semi-revival with my top 10 favourite Signature Moves in Pokémon. A signature move is a move that has been, at one point, a move exclusive to one family of Pokémon. For this list I’m not only counting moves that are still exclusive, since that would be far too limiting. I’m also excluding moves that became exclusive AFTER it was first introduced, e.g a few Pokémon could learn Pay Day by TM in gen 1, but in gen 2 it was exclusive to Meowth, so it won’t be counted on the list.  Z-moves are also excluded.

The list is based more on what the move brought to the table rather than just looking cool, so I had to make a crap ton of cuts to awesome moves :[

List is below the break because it’s very long.

#10 Spore - Paras line (Gen 1 and 2)

Starting off the list is a move that has been around since gen 1. Back then the otherwise forgettable grass/bug type managed to make a name for itself by having the only sleep move in the entire game with 100% accuracy. Sleep is a really powerful status effect, but it often comes at the cost of low accuracy, so being able to immobilise one of your opponents Pokémon risk free is great. 

The move is still useful today, admittedly by stronger mons like Breloom.

So the reason it makes this list is because it showed what allowed mons to have a place on teams for reasons other than just pure power.

#9 Chatter - Chatot (Gen 4 onwards)

I had to include this move just because of how absolutely ridiculous it is. It has lost a lot of it’s novelty since gen 4, but back then, the sound that Chatot played was actually chosen by your own recording, which makes it one of, if not they most interactive move in Pokémon. The idea of being able to turn your own voice into a weapon is hilarious. To make it even better, the chance of confusion was based entirely on the volume of the recording.

The compensation for no longer allowing your own recordings is that Chatter was buffed so that it ALWAYS confused when it hit. Making it one of those few moves that can cause damage (and a somewhat decent amount at that) while also promising a status effect.

#8 Megahorn - Heracross (Gen 2)

This might seem like a bias choice, considering Heracross is my favourite Pokémon, but I do have a legit reason to put this here. This move pretty much single-handily allowed Bug type Pokémon to be an actually threatening offensive presence. Until then all bug type moves were weak and underwhelming. Then Heracross comes in with a move that ranked among some of the strongest, like Fire Blast and Blizzard.

So this moves on the list for basically saving an entire type from another gen of being forgettable - at least offensively since bug types in general were a lot better in gen 2 (Scizor comes to mind), they just lacked any good bug moves.

#7 Flying Press - Hawlucha (Gen 6 onwards)

Flying Press gains a spot on the list for an interesting concept - dual typing moves.To this day it’s still the only one of its kind, and I’d love to see more.

It’d be higher on the list, but unfortunately Flying and Fighting are relatively boring types to mix together. The flying type part of it basically loses all of it’s Super Effective power other than against grass types, while fighting type loses a rock and steel type effectiveness. It still has 5 types that resist it, and one completely immune to it. There’s basically no reason to run this move outside of the novelty of using a signature move, but the concept is so cool that I had to include it.

#6 Magma Storm - Heatran (Gen 4 onwards)

I wanted to include Magma Storm since it took a concept that I always liked, but were essentially useless - trapping moves, and adding some much needed power. When the move was introduced it dealt a massive 120 damage, later reduced to 100 with the compensation of an accuracy increase. This way you can fire off a massive amount of damage in one turn and then guarantee some damage in the following turns, plus prevent your opponent from switching (not as useful ingame however as AI never switch).

So it makes it on the list for turning an interesting concept that was otherwise ignored due to all available moves being useless, and turning it into something powerful and fun.

#5 First Impression - Golisopod (Gen 7)

It’s basically Fake Out, but bug type and 90 base power. This is the kind of move that can just save a Pokémon from being useless. 

I don’t have too much to say about this one. It’s basically here because it showcases how a signature move can actually define a Pokémon and make them fun to use, and powerful.

#4 Outrage - Dratini line (Gen 2)

This one is on the list for almost the exact same reason as Megahorn, but it’s higher for multiple reasons. For one thing, while you might expect bug types to be weak (not that it’d make sense from a balancing standpoint), when you think dragon type weak is the last thing on your mind, so the fact that gen 1 only gave them a single STAB move with a set 40 damage was insanely underwhelming. This move brought destructive power to a type that you’d expect it from. The other reason it’s higher than Megahorn is just due to the fact it has cooler animations, and a generally better concept, what with the whole rampaging dragon aspect. 

So, yeah, Outrage is here thanks to it giving a move finally worth of the dragon typing.

#3 Prismatic Laser - Necrozma (Gen 7)

What’s this here for? It’s basically just Hyper Beam? Well kind of. Basically I’m adding this to the list because it’s the strongest signature move, outside of Z-moves, and even the 2nd strongest move in the game outside of Explosion and Self-Destruct which have the obvious drawbacks of death. The first strongest would be V-Create which I really wanted to include right here, but apparently it’s not Victini’s signature move (Rayquaza can learn it in gen 5 too), so I guess this is the next best thing.

Sometimes all you want is pure power, and that’s what this move provides. It’s your typical Hyper Beam move, but with even more power, and when Hyper Beams power is too low for you, that’s when you know you have a move of immense damage.

This move, imo, best represents those overly powerful and flashy looking legendary signature moves, so I think it deserves this spot.

#2 Judgement - Arceus (Gen 4 onwards)

A 100% accuracy, 100 base power move that can be any type and has no drawbacks? Hell yeah that’s awesome. Not to mention the entire concept revolves around GOD passing judgement on your enemies. 

#1 King’s Shield - Aegislash (Gen 6 onwards)

This move definitely deserves the number 1 spot imo. This single move pretty much defines an entire unique play style for a Pokémon. I don’t think there’s any other move in the game that’s as vital to a Pokémons identity as this one. 

This move allows Aegislash to be a huge defensive and offensive presence, play massive mind games with the opponent, and is even pretty powerful in its own right, creating a semi-protect-like effect, while crippling physical attackers.

I’m putting this move here at #1 because pretty much no other signature move that actually created a brand new play style for it’s user, to the point where it’s nothing without it.