#which in retrospect makes a lot of sense since most Pokemon are

[illusory-nicole]

why not have a nice juicy gelled cheese sandwich

Dude I'm lactose-intolerant

[amelikos]

Some character and episode notes from HZ003, which I’m writing down for future reference.

- The fact that Friede and his crew were literally hired to be Liko’s bodyguards wasn’t something I expected but it makes sense in retrospect! They could have gone to the school and ask where Liko was like Amethio did in the first episode instead of looking for her, which is fun that the antagonists had a more professional approach than them. I wonder if Liko’s mom is a bit like Friede in the way that she doesn’t think of bringing up important information. Either way, I like that Liko still thought about whether she could start trusting Friede and the others. 

- That being said, I wonder if Liko comes from a well-off family if her parents can hire bodyguards? I expected Amethio to be more the “prince” type who comes from a rich family, but perhaps Liko is? Liko does seem very polite (she was seen bowing and apologizing when there was trouble in HZ001 and HZ003), so she might have been raised being conscious of manners. Liko mentioned in HZ001 that she wasn’t going back to her place for the break because her parents would be busy so I assume that they have jobs which take most of their time so they wouldn’t be able to spend lots of time as family? And if her grandmother passed away, she probably would prefer staying at school for the break since she wouldn’t really have anyone to spend time with at home? Liko also mentioned that she never traveled outside Paldea before going to Kanto for school for the first time, so I wonder if she used to spend a lot of time with her grandmother in the past, if her parents were too busy with work to go on holidays. I’m very curious about her background. 

- Small bits I liked: Liko casually making small talk with the girl whose Rokon got hurt at the Pokemon Center. Liko might have a bit of a difficult time to approach others (like at school) and be more on the introverted side, but it doesn’t mean she can’t make small talk with people she doesn’t know. These kinds of details make her feel more rounded and real, I think. 

- Liko using Nyaoha’s Leafage as distraction to run away is good. I like that they aren’t forcing a battle to happen and that she is thinking strategically. She did the same in HZ001 and thought about how she didn’t necessarily need to win against Zir, but needed to buy time. Friede cutting the battle with Amethio short, too. We could expect someone like Friede to want to “honor” the deal until the end and conclude the battle but he didn’t really need to in this situation since Nyaoha was saved. I do wonder if Friede will help Liko train, though.

- Something I found interesting: Liko being worried Nyaoha was treated badly and that something could have happened to it, and the scene cutting to Nyaoha being properly fed and having toys to play with. Amethio then brought up that he didn’t intend to use Nyaoha as a bargaining chip and it stood out to me that he mentioned “doing this in his own way.” He doesn’t seem to want to hurt Pokemon or get outsiders involved in his mission, and it makes me wonder if there will be a time when his superiors (one of the people he was reporting to in the preview) will give him orders he doesn’t necessarily agree with or conflict with his way of doing things? Perhaps a drastic way of getting the pendant that would endanger people and Pokemon alike? Liko noticed in HZ002 that the Pokemon on Friede’s ship felt relaxed and at ease, so it meant that Friede and his crew might not be bad guys. Which makes me wonder if this will be a plot point between Liko and The Explorers eventually? Her noticing that they seem to care about their Pokemon? Or someone else from The Explorers taking over the mission to get the pendant and using more violent means that hurt Pokemon, which makes The Rising Volteccers notice that something is off? (I could see Friede noticing that Amethio is usually not like that so something is off, for example)

I’m just very curious how the dynamics will evolve going forward. Liko is perceptive about Pokemon and began to form an opinion on Friede and the others by the way the Pokemon around them were acting. So perhaps something similar will happen with The Explorers in the future.

- Amethio’s composed facade crumbling a bit is interesting to see. He appeared very professional at first, but it’s cool to see that there are some things that get under his skin? In HZ002, he felt like he was being underestimated by Friede. And now, he fell for Friede’s whole “are you afraid you’re going to lose?” thing. Like, his eyebrow twitched a bit there so it looks like it annoyed him a bit to hear that w

[klonoadreams]

Sawyer omg. Is she gonna be ok? Is she just staying w juniper until she goes on her journey?

She's sticking with Juniper until she goes on her journey since she doesn't have anywhere else to go and while confused about it (because she doesn't know), her anxiety keeps spiking the longer she sticks around adult-adults, so while she sticks around, it's not for too long (given her Team Plasma upbringing, can you blame her despite the safety???)

(It was not a happy upbringing, there's a reason she ended up in the pinwheel forest and got poisoned, and it's because she walked off without any Pokemon)

(you better believe she's effectively on the run, so every Team Plasma encounter is a lot more dire to her, versus someone like Touya)

btw I know I said no twins, but despite it all, Sawyer still DOES have resemblance to Touko/Hilda, and to Touya/Hilbert, it makes him do a few double takes at a time, because Sawyer looks eerily like his mom - and maybe a bit like himself, save the tanner skin tone

so make what you will of that, and the fact that even though most people would disown someone like her, Sawyer still has to avoid Team Plasma...

Also fun fact: due to my decade's worth of worldbuilding, the one thing that remained of my weird writing quirks is that Professor Juniper is the BW/BW2 player's aunt (the moms are twins - because they look alike, and then gave birth to twins as well - that's what I mean by weird quirks that I will die on this hill for), and Alder is actually the BW Player's father - he's just absent often because of work and because he likes to travel (this played into some sort of sensitivity I gave Touya to being called a bastard, but whether or not this sticks in this is up to chance)

(N is legitimately the only one Sawyer can kinda trust, because he REALLY doesn't know her, since she was raised separated from him while in Team Plasma. So their interactions are very genuine, and he really does care for her wellbeing after seeing her get hurt so many times)

(this is actually pretty funny, given N Harmonia's tendency to get hurt in the Pokemon Anime)

(can only imagine what it'd be like for him when he realizes that it goes further into it when Ghetsis likely spills the beans on her. But like in retrospect, it helps N ease into the reality of his abusive childhood and the grooming he underwent by the one person he calls his father)

(by the by, due to the way I refuse to believe that these two AREN"T related by blood due to their physical similarities since Ghetsis is apparently an foster/adoptive father. I like to think Ghetsis genuinely abandoned his own child to either die in a forest, or for an actual experiment - maybe even both. Either way, he came back, and grabbed this wild child who could communicate with Pokemon and decided to use him for his own needs)

Anyways the adults that Sawyer can 100% trust without severe anxiety spikes in Touya's Mom and maaaybe Alder, because he actually coaxed her into a sense of security, which carried over to the Elite Four (since he gave them a heads up on one of their challengers)

N doesn't trigger this because he's barely sixteen to Sawyer's 14 (and by extension, Touya, Cheren, and Bianca), and even then, he's so stunted, that he comes off even younger than usual - none of which is his own fault, but rather a severe consequence to his upbringing, which made him so susceptible to Ghetsis and Team Plasma's grooming. Time will pass during this situation, given that I do like to show the effect that Team Plasma has had on Unova, and why Ghetsis was as dangerous as he was, given how LONG he planned all of this. But also, we need some quality healing times for N and Sawyer's abusive childhood bonding times. :V

We got like a minimum of two years for Sawyer's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Pokemon Journey. after all, it isn't just the Pokemon she has to worry about. :V

[cherryonigiri]

the retrospective: alice’s 1k special || lover masterlist

matchup requests: CLOSED

Anon asked: Congrats on 1k! Your content is amazing and I love reading your stuff❤️🥺 Ok so here’s the matchup info: I’m an INTJ, Ravenclaw w/ Hawk patronus, I’m an ambivert, observant, patient, helpful & ambitious. Hobbies: playing piano, going on evening jogs, dancing hiphop, gaming, listening to classical/r&b music. Go to outfit: leggings & an oversized t-shirt or hoodie. Comfort over fashion for sure lol. Favourite beverage: Mango boba! N E WAYS i’m so proud of u & i hope u have a great day❤️ take care!

A/N: Thank you anon 🥺🥺🥺 omg i’m glad u enjoy my writing apiofjaiwpfji - omg how are you so talented I can barely play one instrument well lolol also I now crave mango boba -Alice

Your matchup is: Kenma Kozume

How you met: You guys met online. One of your passion projects is the stream gameplay - and specifically you’re really good at rhythm games (courtesy of your natural sense of rhythm and beat you built from playing piano + dancing). You stream at night because that’s when you’re free, and one day someone recommends you to Kenma on one of his livestreams. He watches a few of your streams - he finds your reactions really funny - whenever you get stressed trying to clear a hard song/level or when you make comments about how you would have arranged the beat differently - he enjoys your sarcastic personality + paired with your dedication to clearing/playing games. He reaches out via DM and the two of you begin talking. You talk with each other upwards of half of a year before he thinks he might be catching feelings for you.

Your first date: He’s nervous about asking if you want to meet in person - even though both of you show your faces on stream, it’s different from talking online to actually meeting in person. The two of you frequently video call, but haven’t met in person. Also, since he’s a famous streamer, he doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself when he’s out. One day on a video call, he seems a little nervous/withdrawn, so you ask him what’s up. He pauses for a bit, but you’re patient and understanding that he may have something a little more serious on his mind. After a moment, he asks if you want to meet him at a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop (recommended to him by Hinata, who says it’s hidden away so it’s harder for fans to find). You happily agree and he messages you the address. You don’t really think much of it, but at the end of the call it suddenly occurs to you to ask “is this a date?” Kenma’s a little blushy but he replies “yes” softly. The two of you have a nice chill coffee and he invites you over to his apartment for a games/movie night for the next date (KENMA IS SMOOTH)

Your first kiss: both of you are very patient people who would rather wait until both of you are ready before initiating any new kind of physical intimacy. I think your first kiss would be on the day/night you guys decide to make things official (not publicly, but between the two of you). I think it just comes up in conversation - the two of you were not in a rush to put a label on your relationship, but he asks if he can introduce you to his other friends as his girlfriend. It just happens, after you nod yes he leans forward on the couch to swiftly press a kiss on your lips and then your cheek. 

Anniversary: Kenma is so THOUGHTFUL - in the weeks before your anniversary he quietly observes what you’re browsing online - whether it’s online shops that he can purchase your gift from, or noticing which spotify playlists you’re looping when taking a shower/doing work. He silently catalogues all this information and tries to figure out what kind of gift you would appreciate. I mean we all know Kenma is super wealthy but I think if he bought you something expensive he’d buy it because he knows it means a lot to you or it’s something you’d use a lot! One thing I could see him getting is a set of matching gameboy terrarium/planters for the two of  you so you can both have them on your desks as a reminder of each other. (I found this on Etsy, wakuwakuisland does super cool recycling of old retro gameboy consoles by turning them into pokemon themed terrariums. I love these sm i put a photo of one and one day when I am not broke i WILL order/commission one). I think it ends up being a fancy dinner at home - and the two of you exchange gifts and spend the night cuddling on the couch while gaming. 

(A picture of the terrariums i mentioned:) 

How they propose: So at this point his followers/your followers all know you two are dating so you guys will help with streaming/show up on each other’s streams. Under the guise of asking you to help him film something - he sneakily sets up his surprise. Ofc he still streams like normal, wanting to wait until the last moment and really make it a surprise, but as the game ends he asks if you can go grab him a glass of water from the kitchen. So you pad over to the kitchen, he quickly pulls the ringbox out of his pocket and ends his stream. When you come back he’s already standing in the middle of the room with the box open - silver band glimmering. You drop the glass of water in shock and start crying and nodding and he gives you the SOFTEST hug and the two of you just stand there for a few minutes hugging. (And then you go grab the paper towels bc yes there is water all over the carpet RIP)

What your wedding looks like: small, private ceremony. Probably in a remote chapel somewhere outside of the city. Kenma and you both wanted a day where you could focus on each other without all the hustle/bustle and distractions from the city + you didn’t want the press showing up or nosy people in general. Since Hinata is from a more rural area of Sendai, he suggests a local venue to Kenma who gladly takes him up on his offer, since a bunch of the people he wants to invite are from the area anyways. The wedding is filled with lots of laughter and joy, and just in general it feels good to be surrounded with all the closest people in your life. Ok but also for your honeymoon he takes a full 2 month hiatus and travels the world with you - wherever you want to go you’ll visit. 

Newlywed/domestic hc: Towards the end of the giant honeymoon trip around the world the two of you start to miss home. So when you finally arrive back at your shared apartment (you moved all your belongings in the week before the wedding) it’s the most wonderful sense of relief and wonder ever. It’s like you’re reliving your firsts all over again - your first time going grocery shopping together, your first time cooking dinner together, first time in a while doing a stream together, first time falling asleep in your full sized bed together. After months of travelling, it just feels good to be home again and to be able to revel in the fact that you’re married.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #262: Selfie Battle (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

Raihan: (Filming himself in front of his phone) Yoo! What's happening, Galar Region! Your boi, Raihan here is about to compete- ('Heh') Scratch that. I'm about to take home the Selfie Challenge!!!!

Crowds of Raihan Fans: (Roaring in Cheers Right Behind Him)

Gordie: (Look Towards Raihan as he's Filming himself in front of his phone) ('Scoffs') Please. Like he could actually be me in a Selfie Challenge. (Starts Acting Smug like) Everyone knows that I already reign supreme when comes to these kinds of challenges. Am I right, people?!

Crowds of Gordie Fans: (Roaring in Cheers Right Behind Him)

Nessa: (Watching All of this Madness Unfolds) .............Milo, what am I looking at here?

Milo: Oh they're just competing to see who can make the most selfies within the week.

Nessa: (Rolled Her Eyes) Is this seriously their way to boost their own ego status?

Milo: (Chuckles Lightly) You can say that. But I dunno....It kinda looks fun in retrospect.

Nessa: I'm not too sure about that, Milo. I mean taking some selfies is fine every once in a while, but making a whole contest over it for whatever reason is just plain ignorance. ('Sigh') Surely this couldn't get any dumber than this....

Three Days Later.....

Raihan and Gordie continuously take multiple outlandish selfies as both of their respective fans are cheering them on the background.

Nessa: I was wrong......This actually got way more dumber than I thought it would be.....

Milo: I'm surprised they still have more Gigabytes after all the pictures they've taken those days ago....You know I'm actually supposed to be their semi-judge in all of this, right?

Nessa: Really?

Milo: Yep. No one else was interested in to doing it. So I was practically the last person they'd come to.

Nessa: (Place a hand on Milo's Shoulder) I wish you the best of luck in this, big guy.

Milo: (Smiles Brightly) Thanks, Nessa.

Two Days Later......

Raihan: (Clap his Hands) Alright, Milo my man! Let's see those results!

Gordie: (Smiles Confidently and Smugly) I'm not the one brag or anything but I say I'd take the win flawless.

Raihan: (Starts Glaring at Gordie) Don't get your hopes too high there, Rock boy. Cuz the only person who's have any chance of winning this thing is yours truly!

Gordie: (Glares back at Raihan) Keep telling yourself that, Dragon boy!

And with that, the two Gym Leaders began to clash heads with one another....that is until Nessa manage to smack both of their heads.

Nessa: (Extremely Annoyed) Would you two just knock it off and let Milo read the results already?!

Raihan/Gordie: (In Pain) Yes ma'am...... We're sorry.......

Nessa: (Turns to Milo with a smile) Go ahead, big guy.

Milo: (Smiles Softly at Nessa) Thanks a million, Nessa. (Turn back towards the computer and look up some selfies) Now let's see here......By the looks of it, you two have took some pretty impressive selfies so far....(Saw a few Pictures of a clearly Embarrassed Gordie taking a selfies with his loving mother, Melony) Aww, Gordie....I didn't know you would take selfies with your ma.

Gordie: ?!!!

Nessa: (Saw the pictures herself) Aww... That is precious.

Raihan: (Smirks at Gordie) Guess you really are a Momma's Boy after all, huh, Gordster?

Gordie: (Blushes Even Harder) Yeah?! Well at the very least it worth something!! (Turns Away while mumbling silently) And besides....I was only trying to make my mom happy with those posts....

Nessa: (Smiles Softly) And that's very sweet of you, Gordie. (Smack Raihan on the shoulder) Stop making him feel bad, Raihan!

Raihan: Alright! Alright! (Turns to Gordie) Sorry, man.

Gordie: ('Sigh') It's fine I suppose....

Milo: (Chuckles Lightly as he pulls up pictures from Raihan, most of which involves him and Leon just hanging out) You know, for rivals, you and Leon sure do hangout a lot lately.

Nessa: (Saw the photos herself) No kidding. How the hell were you guys able to afford a freaking yacht?!

Gordie: (Starts Smirking At Raihan) So, Raihan, is there any particular reason you would hang out with your fierce rival so very often? Any reason at all?

Raihan: (Starts Blushing while turning away) We're not a couple if that's what you think!

Gordie: (Smirk even wider) Never said you were.

Raihan: I- ('Heavily Sigh') Look, man, we're just two bros, hanging out with each other. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Milo: (Smiles Softly at Raihan) That's perfectly okay with us, Raihan.

Nessa: (Smiles as well) Yeah. We have no room to judge. (Glares at Gordie Menacingly) Isn't that right, Gordie?

Gordie: (Completely Terrified by Nessa's Glare) R-Right! There's absolutely nothing with that at all.

Raihan: (Smiles Brightly) Thank, you guys. You too, Gordie. It really means a lot..... (Went back to Smirking) Still gonna beat you in this challenge, though.

Gordie: (Glaring Back at Raihan) We'll see about that, Dragon boy!!

Nessa: Annnnnd they're back .....(Turn to Milo) You think you could wrap this up so we can go home?

Milo: Sure thing. (Tallying up the votes from Pokemon fan viewers) And now....the winner of the First annual Selfie Battle is.............(Check the results)........huh.

Raihan: What is it, Milo?

Gordie: Did it said who won?

Milo: Well...... according to the votes, it said that....neither of you won the challenge.

Raihan/Gordie: WHAT?!

Nessa: So...if neither of these guys won, then who did?

Milo: You guys aren't gonna believe this....buuut...the actual winner of the challenge of the whole thing.....is Alli.

Raihan/Gordie: ALLI?!

Nessa: Huh. I.... honestly didn't see that one coming...

Raihan: But that doesn't even make any sense!

Gordie: How was Allister able to beat both of us?!

Milo: You guys remember those paparazzi that usually follow us sometimes?

Gordie/Raihan: (Slowly Nodded his head) Yeah......

Milo: And remember how we all agreed that Alli is the most precious being in our lives?

Nessa: Yeah. Alli's such a peach.

Milo: Yeah well.... apparently everyone on the internet thinks so as well. (Shows the gang pictures of Allister being completely camera shy as he starts sprinting away) It seems like these were taken for awhile.....(Shows pictures of Bea punching the day lights out of the photographers) Up until Bea stops them, of course.

Nessa: (Smiles Softly) I'm glad she's being a good sister to the boy.

Milo: (Smiles Softly) Me too.

Gordie: You know....In all honesty, (Smiles a little) I'm actually happy for the little guy winning the contest.

Raihan: (Smiles Brightly) Me too, man. I'm more than happy to take 2nd Place anytime.

Gordie: (Slowly Turn towards Raihan) I'm sorry. Since did you get to decide who gets 2nd Place or not?

Raihan: Since now. (Shrugged while acting Smug like) I mean, With all due respect, Gordie, but I believe my selfies are clearly superior to yours in every single way.

Gordie: (Glares up to Raihan yet again) In your dreams, Dragon boy!! The only one who truly that runner-up spot is me!!

Raihan: (Glares up at Gordie) Yeah right! Like you had any chance to beat me in the first place!

Nessa: (Watching Gordie and Raihan argument unfolds) I'm getting tired of this....(Place a hand of Milo's Shoulder) Hey, Milo, let's ditch these guys and go out to eat somewhere. I'll pay for the both of us on the way there.

Milo: (Happily Accepts Nessa's offer as he got up from the chair and walk away with her) D'okay!

@keyenuta

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

@ink-correctsmashbrosbloo

@ma-lemons

@mariah2014

@gengar-sans

[eri-blogs-life]

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

This has definitely been one of the games that I played this year.

So I have... a lot of thoughts about Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and I wanna talk about. These thoughts might not be super contiguous or all track logically, but honestly, that’s just kind of the same as the experience that I had playing Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (I’ll just say CS for short going forward). CS is a good game, and I enjoyed my time with it a lot, but it also is a bit baffling at times and so it’s like... I like it, I had a good time with it mostly, but there are bits that made me just feel confusion as to whether I could actually call this a good game. 

So... I’m gonna try organizing my thoughts here based on the game’s title to start, cause that seems like a fun way to start out with this writeup of my thoughts.

The Digimon

So, I’ve attempted to play through this game 3 times now. The first time, I picked up the version on PS4 second-hand from gamestop and made it maybe 4 chapters into the 20-chapter story before a better big game captured my attention. The second time, I bought the Complete Edition when it came out on Switch and attempted another playthrough. I think that time I made it 6 chapters in, but issues with the game’s difficulty and my bigger interest in other games that were out at the same time made me fall off of it. Lately, I’ve been on a kick of playing through really big JRPGs on the Switch, and I figured this was the time to really push my way through. But to do that, I had to find the fun. Because my previous times, I didn’t find it to be a ton of fun - the story was meh, the experience was extremely linear, the difficulty had weird spikes and valleys all around, and it just didn’t seem that fun. But I was recently watching a retrospective on the digimon franchise (shout out to Billiam on youtube for that if you’re interested), and while watching I came to the realization that the fun of digimon has always been different than in pokemon (the comparison to pokemon is, unfortunately, always inevitable when talking about digimon - the two were so closely intertwined in popular culture in america in the late 90s / early 00′s that it’s hard to deny there’s something to connect them)

Pokemon’s about catching them all. Digimon’s about raising a partner. Digimon started as a tamogatchi brand marketed towards boys, with cool monsters you could fight with each other. The fun of digimon has always been seeing your partner(s) grow and become new forms. And that’s where I finally found the fun in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

The fun is in bonding. I found out in my second playthrough how to nickname digimon, and that became my go-to when I would get a new digimon on my team in this playthrough. Every digimon had a nickname. Early on I had a team consisting of Willis, Stinky, Specty, Babby, Evil Babby, Big Bird, Tomato, Axey, and Beedril. Over time, I got to watch these fools grow - Willis from a Terriermon into a Gallantmon CM, Stinky from a Guilmon into a Diaboromon, Specty got fused with someone called Shellby and went from Specty the Patamon to Shellspecty the Cherrymon, Babby fused with Big Bird and the two ended up as an Aeroveedramon, and so on. 

The fun of the game was in watching as these monsters I’d bonded with became stronger and changed into new and different forms. And that was the fun of the game for most of the early game for me, and continued throughout the game, mostly.

Ultimately, the game has some weird difficulty spikes at times, especially in some of the sidequests, which feel nearly impossible. I ended up focusing heavily on trying to find all my digimon final forms that had penetrating moves (moves which ignore the enemy’s defense or intelligence when calculating damage), because a lot of the game’s main story bosses are heavily focused on having high defense, and relatively low HP. So, that meant that I couldn’t just use all my favorite digimon. Some just didn’t have what it takes to hold up against certain fights, and I had to move them away from forms I really liked to try to find them stronger forms so I could complete the sidequests. It was still entertaining to play, and did have me continuing to see my digimon grow over time and we bonded, but it also felt a bit lackluster that some favorite mega-level forms just didn’t have what it took to deal with some of the late-game sidequests (at least in hard difficulty, which I played through on - thankfully you can change the difficulty during a playthrough, so I could have dropped it to try to do the sidequests, but I didn’t opt to do that. I just still haven’t beat all the sidequests, instead focusing on the main quest). 

the game doesn’t have a lot of animated cutscenes but those it does have come out strong

The Story

CS’s story is... fine. I think it’s probably a decently good story that’s just told confusingly. And I think there’s a couple reasons for that, but one of the biggest is that the translation is not the best. It’s passable, but it doesn’t always feel like things were translated in a holistic way to the whole game, rather it feels like each line was translated on its own, which leads to things feeling like they don’t all track together naturally at times, and a bunch of mistakes like the Eaters being referred to as Bakemon (a digimon name), because in Japanese they’re referred to sometimes as bakemono, which is just the Japanese word for a monster.

The other big issue I feel I have with the story of CS is that it feels like it’s all over the place, at least early on. Early on in the game, the story starts to set up a lot of different characters and plot threads that don’t seem to really connect with each other until much later in the game. That kind of story can be told well, but in this case, I just feel like the execution left a lot to be desired. For a long time, it felt like I was just playing through a bunch of different unrelated stories rather than a singular story. I’m not sure exactly what would be the right way to implement the idea to help keep the early game’s story interesting, but as it is, it felt a little lackluster.

However, that really only applies to the early game. And the late game, though in a bit of a different way. Around chapter 8 out of 20, the story starts popping off, and the individual stories concerning all the side characters start coming together to reveal the bigger picture of what’s been happening in Tokyo and Eden lately, and what issues that’s leading to in both the real and digital worlds. And from about chapter 8 through 19 or so, it feels really good and strong and there’s a clear singular direction that the story is taking, and every new piece of information seems to feed into the major plot in some way. 

And then as you get into the last chapter, things start to feel a little less narratively tied together again. See, yes, the mysteries were building into a singular situation that was threatening both the real and digital worlds, but the game feels like it lacks a narrative throughline, or even multiple narrative throughlines for each major character. It feels like there’s no moral being focused on here, rather, it feels like there’s just a series of events that happen because it would be cool to have them happen. And they were cool. But... to really make a story feel good to me, I feel like there needs to be some sense of a complete narrative moral, and I just didn’t feel that way from this game. The closest I could tell was one line from the ending,

“You will now be the master of your own future.”

But... that feels weak. It didn’t feel like being able to control their own future was much of a theme for any of the main characters, except maybe Arata. And even then, it was a pretty weak theme. (I suppose an argument could be made that the game’s very linear story means your character doesn’t have a lot of freedom from a gameplay perspective, so the gameplay supports you not having control over your future, but... that’s a pretty weak argument.)

So, the story is interesting, but it’s also pretty weak. 

fusion evolution is apparently gay as hell and i love it

The Cyber Sleuthing

There’s not really any actual sleuthing in this game. It’s really just a narrative device to give your character a reason to help out with a variety of random situations. You very rarely, if ever, have to actually solve mysteries/puzzles during your journey. So... not much actual sleuthing. But the greater mystery of the story does get really interesting in the mid game, so I’ll give it that. 

Other stuff

Here, I just wanna talk about some other miscellaneous thoughts I have about this game, and then kinda sum it all up. 

I loved Persona 5. It was a wonderful game, and such a powerful turn-based JRPG, that it’s influenced my perception of basically every JRPG I’ve played since. And it feels weird to do that. Like I feel like CS is a really decent game taken on its own, but when I’m comparing everything in some way to Persona 5, CS feels like it sucks. Like there are so many aspects where I can see ways to improve upon the game - the translation is lacking, there’s no english dub, combat is fairly smooth but Persona’s combat always feels like it’s a puzzle to be solved but CS’s combat feels like it’s just ‘have the right type digimon in play’, add more social elements to let me grow closer to Yuuko, Nokia, Arata, and other characters. 

There’s this narration near the end of the game to explain how things change after the big final boss battle, and it’s narrated by one of the in-game characters, Nokia. And it’s amazing, because Nokia’s character can be kinda... ditzy, I guess is the right word? So there are parts in that bit of narration where she’s just like “and, you know... stuff changed” or whatever. It’s both funny, and leaves things fairly up to the player to have their own interpretations for what happens with everyone after things are over. There’s some small scenes after that narration that show some of what the main cast has been up to since the events of the final battle, but nothing that gives too much of a clue as to what happened.

----

There is a running gag throughout the whole game about how your mentor character likes experimenting with coffee, making weird blends like adding red bean paste or seaweed to her coffee, and she loves pushing this on other people who often react in horror. But there’s also this really nice scene in the finale where it shows the main character, without Kyoko around, drinking mayo coffee, and I think it’s just cute as heck

There’s a canon nonbinary character in the game, who complains about being forced to choose between either a male or female avatar when logging into the online system, and I absolutely love that kinda shit <3

My favorite status effect is one called Dot, where it converts your digimon into a sprite form and prevents them from using special attacks. And I love when JRPGs add fun unique statuses like this, which make sense within the context of the world

In Summary

So, to tie it all together, here’s my final thoughts:

I enjoyed my time with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth a ton. But I’m a fan of digimon and jrpgs. I think the game has its fair share of problems that mean I couldn’t really recommend it to just anyone, but if you like digimon and jrpgs, it’s worth picking up. And the complete edition comes with two games for the price of one, so all the better. 

[recentanimenews]

Licensing of the Monsters: How Pokémon Ignited An Anime Arms Race

  "Hey, what do ya' got there? A rabbit?" Batman asks his mentor, staring at a video of Pikachu on a massive underground computer screen.

  "It's a Pokémon," Bruce Wayne replies.

  Five seconds later, Batman is shocked so hard by the tiny yellow creature that he ends up flying headfirst through another computer monitor (Using a clip from the "Blackout" episode of Batman Beyond, an episode that would've aired for the first time just days earlier.) It doesn't make much physical sense, but this bizarre 1999 crossover promo did establish two things: 1) Pokémon was coming to Kids' WB, and 2) Pokémon was important. So important that Batman actually took time away from obsessing over crime and vengeance to care about it.

  Echoing a 1997 promo where the comedic Bugs Bunny let us in on the "secret" that the serious, dark Batman was coming to Kids' WB, it almost seems like a passing of the torch. Kids' WB, up until then, was a programming service chock full of classic Warner Bros. cartoon properties like Bugs, Daffy, Pinky, Brain, and various members of the Justice League — all animated Americana. 

Pokémon wasn't a huge risk as the 4Kids Entertainment dub of the show had done well in broadcast syndication, they had plenty of episodes to work with (sometimes airing three in a row), and it was based on a game series that was already a worldwide smash hit.

  But the show was ... different.

  And it would end up changing cartoons as we knew them.

  Part 1: Batman Jumps Ship

  It's hard to think of a better scenario when it comes to appealing to kids than the one Fox Kids had with Batman: The Animated Series. Debuting in September 1992 and airing on weekdays just after school let out, it received immediate acclaim due to its moody, beautiful animation and storytelling that didn't talk down to anyone. Little kids could get into Batman throwing crooks around and adults could marvel at plots like the one where a former child actress with a medical condition that keeps her from aging takes her former co-stars hostage and ends up holding a gun, hallucinating, and sobbing into Batman's arms.

  It did so well that Fox tried to air it on prime-time Sundays and though this was short-lived — turns out, Batman was no match for Ed Bradley on CBS's 60 Minutes — it solidified the show as "cool." This was a show that could hang with the big boys. You couldn't say the same of something like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

  And then, in 1997, it was gone. A five-year contract ran out and Batman leapt completely to Kids' WB, where a continuation of the show (the often even grimmer The New Batman Adventures) aired later that year. There, it joined Superman: The Animated Series in a one-two punch of programming called The New Batman/Superman Adventures. When it came to Kids' WB, competitors not only had to deal with the Merry Melodies crowd, they now had to face the World's Finest Heroes.

  This, along with a departing Animaniacs, left Fox Kids with a gap in flagship programming. Sure it had various incarnations of the Power Rangers (which was still holding strong) and Spider-Man, but if you look back on 1998 programming, little of it would survive the year. Silver Surfer? Gone by May. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation? Out by December. Casper? Dead in October. By May of 1999, Warner Media would announce record ratings thanks to Pokémon, while its competitors, including the Disney-led ABC, Fox, and even Nickelodeon, would suffer losses in the Saturday morning area. Pokemon would have the best ever series premiere numbers for Kids' WB at the time.

    A chunk of that has to do with 4Kids Entertainment's (or to be more specific, 4Kids Productions) handling of the show. Again, Pokémon was a proven concept. If you love monsters, adventure, and collecting things, you'll probably find something to enjoy in the franchise. But the dub was particularly strong. For years, dubbing was seen as an inherently laughable thing in America, full of exasperated voice actors trying desperately to convince you that they weren't portraying three different characters, and lips that didn't match the dialogue. Entire Japanese series were reduced to laughing stocks in the U.S. because why focus on the lovingly created miniatures and top-notch tokusatsu action in Godzilla if one of the actors sounds weird?

  But while Pokémon wasn't the first great dub, it was a remarkably underrated one. Veronica Taylor's work as Ash Ketchum was relatable, funny, and consistent. And Racheal Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein's turns as Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth gave us villains that could've easily been the most repetitive parts of the show  — you can only try to capture Pikachu so many times before you should logically find a second hobby — but instead were one of the most entertaining aspects.

  Aside from some easily meme-able bits — Brock's drying pan and jelly donuts, for example — Pokemon became a seamless addition to the Kids' WB lineup and would end up giving many fans a lifelong love of anime. And it was great for 4Kids, too, as in 2000, they would be number one on Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies.

  Fox Kids wanted an answer to this. And it would soon find one.

  Well, two.

  Part 2: Monsters Rule

  Saban Entertainment was no stranger to Fox Kids. They'd been the one to adapt Toei's Super Sentai into The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for American and international audiences, creating an unexpected sensation that combined monsters and martial arts. And in 1999, they nabbed Digimon Adventure, a series about kids that gain "digital" monster partners when transported to a "digital world," which had begun airing earlier that year in Japan. Based on a fighting virtual pet that had already been around for a few years, Digimon was a natural fit for an anime series and also a natural fit for a climate that was desperately trying to find the next Pokémon.

  Renamed Digimon: Digital Monsters, it premiered in August of 1999. Of course, accusations followed that it was a Pokémon rip-off, considering that they were both about befriending terrifying laser critters, but they offered fairly different things. While Pokémon was more episodic, Digimon gave viewers a more Dragon Ball Z-esque experience (they were both Toei productions, too) with the titular monsters evolving and gaining "power-ups" due to fighting increasingly powerful villains.

  Almost two months later, Monster Rancher would join the Fox Kids lineup, airing on Saturdays at 8:30 AM after Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (a Fox Kids lost relic if there ever was one). Together, Monster Rancher and Digimon would cover the programming block with monster action, sometimes airing twice each. Meanwhile, Pokémon would do the same for Kids' WB, and if you look at their Saturday morning schedules from 1999 and 2000, it appears they just shoved Pikachu in whenever possible.

  Looking back on Monster Rancher is always odd, though, because it's so specifically trapped in the time period where it originated. The video games used metadata from readable discs to create new monsters for the player, meaning that as soon as people gained the ability to download or stream media online without having to travel to their local Circuit City, the game would look absolutely archaic in comparison to its peers.

  Monster Rancher is a very fun show based on some very fun games, and the dynamic array of personalities and their particular squabbles in the core group actually reminds me a lot of One Piece. But even the show itself deals with reviving monsters on giant stone discs — a prehistoric-looking adaptation of a video game gimmick that would, a decade later, appear prehistoric itself.

  The Monster War was waged across 2000 and 2001. And though it appears Pokémon was the clear winner — in 2020, it's the most popular franchise with the widest reach, even if Digimon does produce some stellar shows and movies — the ratings tell a different story. In the May sweeps of 2000, Pokémon (and Kids' WB) took the prize among kids 6-11, but in the end, Fox Kids would score a victory of a 3.1 rating to Kids' WB's 3.0 (the first sweeps win since 1997, the year that Batman left.)

    Early the following year, Fox Kids would score again, narrowly beating Pokémon on Saturday morning in the same timeslot and even coming ahead of properties like X-Men. And what would propel this February 10th victory? The first appearance of BlackWarGreymon, the Shadow the Hedgehog to WarGreymon's Sonic.

  However, Pokémon would still help create ratings records for Kids' WB, even though late 2000/early 2001 saw a slide that would often cede dominance to Nickelodeon. Jed Patrick, who was president of The WB at the time said: "I didn't think Pokémon would fall off as much as it did ... every fire cools down a little, but that doesn't mean it doesn't stay hot."

  Even though, in retrospect, claims that "Pokemania" had died seem a little ridiculous — the latest games, Pokémon Sword and Shield, just became the highest-selling entries in seventeen years — big changes were ahead.

  Part 3: It's Time To Duel ... Or Not

  In early 2001, Joel Andryc, executive VP of kids' programming and development for Fox Kids, was looking for a "Digimon companion series to create an hour-long anime block." He felt they were too reliant on Digimon, as they were airing it three times in a single morning. Likely not coincidentally, that summer Fox Kids Fridays were dubbed "anime invasion," advertising Flint The Time Detective, Dinozaurs, Escaflowne, and Digimon. In one commercial, a single quote zips across the bottom of the screen: "Anime Rocks!" Nicole, TX

  That it does, Nicole from Texas.

  Meanwhile, 4Kids Entertainment would provide Kids' WB with another monster show: Yu-Gi-Oh! Known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan, this anime adaptation absconded from retelling the stories found in the early chapters of the manga — which were mostly devoted to Yugi running into jerks, only to have his Egyptian spirit "alter ego" deal karmic retribution on them — and instead focused on the parts that involved the cool monster fights. So basically the parts that were the most like Pokémon.

  But how would this be received? In 2000, Canadian studio Nelvana had licensed the anime Cardcaptor Sakura and turned it simply into Cardcaptors — an extremely edited version that removed many important relationships and plotlines and tried to streamline the show into a pseudo-Pokémon story. It's gone down in history as one of the most questionable dubs ever, and never really made a splash on Kids' WB. So they wouldn't want a repeat of that.

  But would kids be into a card game? The cards did summon monsters, but in Pokémon and Digimon, the monsters are just there, moving around and not relegated to a glorified checkers board arena. It turned out, yes, kids would be REALLY into that. Yu-Gi-Oh! debuted at number one in multiple demographics in September 2001, and would remain a steady part of its lineup for years to come.

    And how did Fox Kids respond? Did the "anime invasion" work out? Well, sort of, but not in the way they were hoping.

  In 2001, due to diminishing ratings and audiences, Fox Kids Worldwide (along with Fox Family Worldwide) were sold to The Walt Disney Company. By November 7th, they'd canceled their weekly afternoon blocks, and the next year, they'd end up selling their entire Saturday morning block to a company that had provided their rivals with the very same TV shows that aided in sinking them: 4Kids Entertainment. The final show to premiere on the original Fox Kids was Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension, a live action series that stood beside Alienators: Evolution Continues (a cartoon sequel to the mediocre 2001 comedy Evolution) and the underrated Medabots as the block's last gasp. 

  Renamed FoxBox in late 2002 (and later 4KidsTV in 2005), the 4Kids run schedule would, over the years, include anime like Kirby! Right Back At Ya!, Ultimate Muscle, Fighting Foodons, Sonic X, Shaman King, and eventually, in 2004, the infamous One Piece dub. The first Saturday of the new FoxBox lineup would also outdo the previous Saturday's Fox Kids lineup. Disney would acquire the rights to Digimon and it showed up on ABC Family in late 2001 (eighteen years later, a reboot of the original series would air, which can be watched on Crunchyroll).

  Eventually, in 2007, the Monster War would come full circle. 4Kids Entertainment announced they would be taking over the Kids' WB Saturday morning block entirely, renaming it the "CW4KIDS," as The CW had been born after UPN and The WB had ceased to be. Pokémon was long gone by this point, having been dropped by Kids' WB in 2006, and was now overseen by The Pokémon Company International on Cartoon Network.

  "We wish Pokémon USA much success going forward," the CEO of 4Kids Entertainment said. Later sued over "illegal agreements" regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, the company would eventually file for bankruptcy in 2016. Pokémon Journeys, the latest installment in the franchise, launches on Netflix on June 12th. 

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[patchdotexe]

I DONT THINK IVE EVER REALLY. talked abt that actually. like ive brought up a few times abt like, how i experience “pop culture osmosis failure” often but not like. how / why? and its entirely bc of like. regional stuff. and the stuff i DID get into ended up being like, years behind, like i remember getting super excited abt digimon adventure 02 getting aired and rambling abt it on neopets and getting made fun of by somebody bc it aired in the states years ago (which. in retrospect makes sense bc before we moved to india id been watching the tail-end of digimon tamers on tv.)

also like even ignoring that, the stuff i ws into as a kid was like... really obscure and weird? like uh i remember watching. fighting foodons or w/e. and ultimate muscle. (before we moved) but also i got way fucking into digimon after we moved and like, obscure anime that aired on animax like fckinggggg daigundar! DAIGUNDAR WAS GOOD. also getbackers but i think that one’s less obscure. maybe. i dunno. point is digimon was like the most ~mainstream~ thing i was into for A While and even then i was like years behind the curve bc i think fucking digimon frontier(?) was coming out by the time i moved back but i was like. i saw adventure and the first half of adventure 02, AND IT WAS A DUB I DONT KNOW HOW TO FIND where they used the japanese names for everybody, like tailmon & yamato, but it was like. fully english. im still doubtful on if the names i use are eng or jpn sometimes

and i didnt have many videogames besides some popular psx titles like crash and spyro and croc, but i couldnt bring my psx with me so i had No Videogames until 2007 when i got pokemon pearl. i played maplestory a whole lot bc that was one of the Free Online Games i found (and also played a lot of Ultimate Flash Sonic bc that was one of the only sonic games i had access to)

GOD ITS HILARIOUS ACTUALLY ive been a huge sonic fan since 2006 but i was literally unable to play a single sonic game so i just. played ultimate flash sonic. and then i found out about srb2 and went fucking Wild on that for Years

and theres this story i love to tell abt like, i found the opening fmv to sonic adventure, but i was skeptical abt it being a Sonic The Hedgehog Game bc i didnt know anything and yknow it. doesnt have “sonic the hedgehog” in the title, it just says “sonic”, so i figured it could be Any Sonic. and i got so scared by perfect chaos that i closed out of it literally SECONDS before you actually see sonic in the opening

man this is a long-ass ramble, ive just got like. a weird perspective on stuff and honestly it can feel pretty alienating but maybe people’ll think this is weird/funny

[0poole]

Some Retrospective Thoughts on Gen 7

Galar’s making me go nuts. You already know. Let’s look back on Alola because why not. I feel like I have stuff to say about it. Also, I just watched the last episode of the Alolan Anime, so there’s that.

Whenever I first think back to Gen 7, I think “Eh, it was alright. Nothing special, I guess.” The Pokemon were decent, apart from being almost universally slow, apart from like 3 speed demons, the starters weren’t much, the story was alright, the location was alright, etc. etc. 

Then, I ACTUALLY think back, and I realize… I have no idea why I was thinking that. This generation was actually amazing.

First of all, they finally put the motif of the Sun and Moon into game types. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air after they tried to use the fucking dimensions in 3D space for titles in Gen 6 (Loved that gen too, but seriously “Life” and “Death” would both be more fitting and not as strange. Maybe they don’t want “Death” as a title tho). Really fits in with how naturally themed everything is too, which is obviously for the best, since this is the most “natural” game to date. Even though we technically already had an America-based region in Unova, Hawai’i is so unique in its own right it definitely fits for a region. I’m usually the type who doesn’t like super overt themes in things, and kind of just wants a very generalized experience, but it’s probably for the good of everyone that they don’t actually follow through with that idea. 

Probably the biggest thing to come out of this generation is the new habit of them posting short little videos on Youtube revealing new Pokemon/features/etc. Obviously they were super trigger happy with them then, but now it seems they’ve taken a step back a little. I do love this idea, though, because it actually hypes me up more than anything else ever could. I remember before, even though I was kinda-sorta trying to follow the updates on Gens 4-6, I never really felt like I could, and even though I was going to get the games no matter what, now I realize I really want to know what I’m getting into. 

I remember exactly where I was for some of the major announcements. For the starters, I was in my high school geometry class, where I watched and re-watched that video dozens of times just so I could keep looking at them. I started off on Rowlet’s side of course, but once I realized he was getting all the attention and ol Popplio was getting basically none, I changed my allegiance and stayed there to this day. Ignoring the fact that I don’t really like any of the final evolutions enough to actually use them in game, I LOVE Popplio himself. It’s seriously a shame that he didn’t become some clown seal like everyone was speculating. Unlike how it seems, I really, really like “normal” clown characters (as in, not “horror” clowns), so he could’ve easily become one of my favorites in that case. Decidueye is definitely my favorite of the final forms, and Incineroar I think is still underrated. Sure, whatever, he’s bipedal, and it’s weirder than it otherwise would be, but for some reason I love how his mouth was an actual modeled mouth and not just an image slapped on there like most Pokemon. It really made him more expressive than the average Pokemon. Plus, the animation for Darkest Lariat is really cool, with his hands flashing against a flat back background for a second before actually doing the move. Even better, it’s great meme potential when hacked onto other Pokemon, like Wailord.

I don’t remember if Solgaleo and Lunala were introduced in that first trailer too, but either way I love both of them. I was a bit more drawn to Solgaleo at first, but Lunala has since grown to be one of my favorite legendaries of all. The starry wings, golden rims, and white skeleton-y body are such a great combo. And yeah, sure, Solgaleo would’ve been more fitting as a fire type or whatever, but since stars form the heavy metals that make it onto planets it’s fine. I won’t accept that Lunala should’ve been a dark type, though. The Moon is a major embodiment of light in the night sky, so if anything it shouldn’t be related to darkness. As for Necrozma, I love his base form a lot. It’s such a strange look, especially how the back of his head is transparent. It’s the perfect “evil prism” pokemon. I really just wish Ultra Necrozma had more detail to him, though. He looks so flat for such a major figure in the games… At least he had a good battle and an even BETTER theme song, hot damn

Guess that’s a good transition to talk about the music, and I guess tangentially about Team Skull, since they were probably the best possible departure from the usual “Evil Team” formula. Them just being random hooligans causing trouble instead of a formal organization trying for world domination is a good change of pace, as pretty much everyone agrees… It wouldn’t have been so great if they didn’t at least try to incorporate rap/trap music into their themes. They’re probably the most music-oriented Team canonically speaking, so they’d have to have a great theme. Also, the idea that they feel left behind by the traditions of the Trials really makes sense, since something so important in their culture would definitely make someone feel left out if they couldn’t get through it. 

Other themes for the more calm situations, like Hau’oli City’s night theme, are also extremely good. I didn’t even realize how much I loved that track until I heard Insaneintherain’s cover of it. It almost sounds like something out of Steven Universe, for how pleasant it is (apart from the piano). Lillie’s theme still gives me the warm fuzzies every time I hear it, too. I don’t think a single game before this has ever done the credits so well, too. Apart from the fun artwork, the last shot of Lillie and the game’s legendary actually just kills me every time. She’s such an adorable, pure soul, it’s crazy to think that when she was first revealed, we thought she was the secret supervillain of the game, just because she looked kinda peeved in her official art. We weren’t far off, though, with the Aether Foundation and all. I love both the calm theme of the Paradise itself AND their evil battle theme. Even though one is obviously an evil theme, it does feel like it came from the same source. Same goes for Lusamine’s theme. I really love the Aether Foundation as a whole too, where we can now have “Good” Foundation archetypes to counter the Evil Team archetype. Plus, their designs all involve white with gold accents, which is basically my brand. I tried to design my own Aether outfit the instant I saw them, since I love their look so much. 

As for battle themes, I love how jazzy Galdion’s battle theme ended up. It made him so much more interesting than just a generic edgelord. The Elite Four’s battle theme might actually be the scariest theme to date for some reason, and yet all I can picture when listening to it is Acerola bobbing joyfully back and forth… Basically the same way, the Tapu battle theme is also pretty crazy, with tribal chants in the back of it. The Tapus are probably the coolest group of legendaries in the game, considering how unique they are, with their oddly wooden shells that represent animals. It really makes them feel like spirits brought about by the people of Alola themselves, instead of just some being that came out of nowhere. Probably the one theme that is the most nostalgic (yes, I know it was only 3 years ago, you can still feel nostalgia damnit) for me is the Kahuna battle theme. It was probably just some random comment on Youtube, but somewhere someone said that it was the perfect theme because it starts off intimidating, but quickly switches into a super fun melody, because ultimately, the Island Challenge is for fun. I just love that. I’m always looking for “Fun” stuff in pretty much everything, so I like a theme that represents that. Also, it’s just super catchy, and even expanded upon in Pokemon Masters. Let it be known that Hapu is the best Kahuna by the way. She cute. Also, watching her become the Kahuna is the best world building you could possibly muster up for this kind of setting. 

Of course, I’m intentionally leaving out a certain group…

You know what I think of when I think of Hawai’i? Pearly white sand beaches… Palm trees… Fruity drinks… oh, and let’s not forget fucking interdimensional aliens. 

The Ultra Beasts are the exact type of thing I’d want to insert into the Pokemon world, and that’s why I love them. They’re so weird in the best ways possible. When they were introduced in a trailer, I had the same reaction as I did with Type: Null. They put him up on the screen for a bit and was like “Haha here’s ‘Type: Null,’ okay next” like EXCUSE ME? YOU CAN’T JUST SHOW ME A POKEMON CALLED “Type: Null” AND NOT EXPLAIN WHAT’S GOING ON. Of course, that’s kind of what the games were for, but it was seriously a shock to the system to see Pokemon with code names instead of actual names. You also can’t convince me that Pheromosa wasn’t designed after Lusamine, and to a lesser extent that Xurkitree wasn’t designed after Guzma. I think it’s canon that Lusamine styled Lillie after Nihilego in her crazed state, but the uncanny likeness between those other two is pretty darn notable. I think from the first batch, Celesteela was my favorite of them all, being like a rusted copper rocket ship or something, who can even smack you with her two giant rockets. Also, Pokemon directly based on folktales are always welcome, no matter what. Meanwhile, with the Ultra games being the first sequels to introduce brand-new Pokemon, Blacephalon easily took top spot. I did say I liked clowns, didn’t I? Plus, the biggest evidence that he’s best boi is that in the anime when he appeared, he didn’t even try to attack anything. He just wanted to show off (specifically, believe it or not, by moonwalking… Whoever’s idea that was needs a raise). I also love detachable heads, which is a great idea to mix with clowns, and I guess also fireworks in this case… I just love him. I really hope that there will be future instances of Ultra Beasts, since it’s apparently super easy to just make them however the hell you want them, and since you’re not limited to a region’s natural environment. Lord knows whoever designed Buzzwole didn’t have any limitations. Exploring his, and really all of their worlds in USUM was extremely fun. It’s a damn shame Blacephalon and Stakataka (again, what a name) didn’t get the same privilege. 

As for the Pokemon as a whole, like I mentioned, off the top of my head I don’t feel super crazy about many of them, even though that’s a total lie. Shiinotic appealed to my inner mushroom-character-lover so much that I basically designed a character that looked identical to him. He’s easily the best mushroom Pokemon to date, where he looks pretty cute while also being just slightly creepy enough, with those souless eyes. The concept for Araquanid is amazing, where he’s a reverse Diving Bell spider. I might’ve designed him a bit differently, but he still looks super cool. The ideas behind Oranguru and Passimian are also cool, since we haven’t delved much into intelligent ape Pokemon enough. Wishiwashi is another great concept, and probably the best fish Pokemon in my opinion because of it. Lurantis and Minior are total cuties, the latter being one of those Pokemon that isn’t always in the forefront of my mind, but the instant it is it reclaims its place as one of my all-time favorites. Golisopod and Kommo-o are two of the coolest Pokemon designs to me, the latter being my all-time favorite Pseudo-Legendary. Vikavolt looks awesome, despite being deceptively slow. Dhelmise looks weird until you realize it’s actually insanely large (like, Wailord large). Mudsdale is just an all-around good-looking horse. Oricorio also looks really cool, especially in her fiery form. Tsareena is, well… Tsareena… That’s not even including the adorable Magearna and Marshadow, who are in generational limbo… Also, I think Mimikyu might be the overall best addition to the franchise ever. No Pika-clone could ever compare. 

I mean, specifically as far as a single Pokemon goes, Mimikyu is definitely the best addition to the franchise. Meanwhile, as far as concepts go, the absolutely HUGE idea of Regional Variants is the best addition. Again, I remember where I was when I heard the announcement: it was some sort of weird fantasy house, with a ton of cool details in it to make it look like a setting in some movie or something. It was awesome there, even if we were staying for only a night or so I think. Either way, the concept of different Pokemon adapting to different conditions in the region is the most perfect way to bring attention back to older Pokemon, and I’m so glad they seem to want to keep the idea for all future generations too. It’s especially fitting for Alola, since it’s a super remote island. I love how goofy Alolan Exeggutor is, especially because everyone else seems to love his goofiness too. Same sort of goes for Dugtrio, since his hair is actually based on a real thing… Marowak becoming a spiritual fire dancer is definitely the best possible iteration for him. My favorite might be the colorful Alolan Muk, though, even if Alolan Vulpix is infinitely cuter and better than fiery Vulpix in every way. I cannot be convinced otherwise.

Also, she’s a perfect fit for Lillie, so I guess I’ll use that as my transition into talking about the characters/anime. I’m just gonna be real with you. I’m not going to hold back. Alola has some of the cutest girls in the entire franchise. But first of all, let’s divert that train and instead lust after a man who is easily the hottest professor in the games yet, Kukui. What self-respecting researcher wouldn’t wear his professor-mandated lab coat without any undershirt? He needs his bulging abs as target practice for his Pokemon’s moves, people. He needs to let them breathe. Also, I was kind of enamoured with Sycamore before him, but you can’t deny the tinted skin gets to you a little. Burnet’s a lucky gal, let’s just say.

Okay, now that we’ve established that my pants don’t discriminate, we have to talk about Wicke. So now that that’s covered, can I just say I love Mina? I’d say she deserves more attention, but she was the only Alolan to make it into Lets Go for some reason, so I guess she’s well off? First of all, I love hippie-esque girls (idealized hippies, at least), so that’s a major plus… I mean, I should probably stop using the word “cute” altogether because it applies to every girl in the game, but yeah. Lana’s highly deserved spotlight in the anime made me love her too, where she was a perfect combination of extroverted while still more soft-spoken. I don’t know if that kind of characters’ an anime trope, but lord knows it’s not in western media, so I love how unique her personality is. Her interacting with Mallow and Lillie in cute, girly ways felt so wholesome. If the anime’s anything, it’s wholesome. 

One sec, though. I have to mention that I really like Hau. He’s obviously the one pinned as “Boo, he’s not a giga-asshole! That means he’s bad!” because I guess the fandom’s hive mind has collectively agreed that the only good rivals are assholes now. Like I said before, this stuff’s more about fun now. Hau’s a fun friend to fight, to the point where you beat him as the Champion you kinda feel bad for knocking him down so much. You feel bad because you like him, you know. Also, I forgot to mention this earlier but even though he isn’t entirely difficult himself, the trials in these games are actually both a difficult and interesting challenge. A 2v1 where you’re at the disadvantage is a great boss battle idea, especially with the strategies set out by a Pokemon’s different abilities and moves. Probably the best was Totem Lurantis, who of course summoned a Sunny Day-based Castform to activate her Chlorophyll and buff her Solar Blade, while adding a diverse fire type into play. It was really difficult, to be honest. Those who say it wasn’t either got lucky or have insane standards that cannot be met because they’re Pokemon Veterans who know every little thing about everything. I’m pretty much in that camp, and I still had to actually plan during the fight. Same goes for Totem Araquanid in USUM. I literally had to poison (not toxic, base poison) stall that guy because I couldn’t do anything to him otherwise. He was pretty much one-shotting everything I sent out, anyway, so I had to stall however I could. You can’t argue that that means it was “easy” because I knew how to beat him. It’s only “easy” if you can just send out pretty much whatever and do whatever and still win. Then there’s the Rainbow Rocket episode in USUM, which is just crazy… There’s not much to say that isn’t obvious there. It was fun seeing the villains that were victorious in a different dimension.

Anyways, for the anime, I also have a similar stance. It really seemed like the only people who started off hating it were anime nerds who had no concept of an in-between frame. I will say that it was a step down from XY/XYZ though, but those seasons’ quality was unusually high. Compared to the animation quality of every other season, it was so much better. First of all, I really don’t even like “anime style” that much, so a slightly more western style was very welcome. Like pretty much every show ever, the animation quality is seriously high where it counts, so there’s not much to be said about that, but I’d say the overall animation quality is a step up in general. The more simplified style only really looked weird in Ash because we’re so used to his more pointy style. Every other character looked totally fine, in my opinion. 

As for the story, I will say I would’ve wanted the scope of the plot to be much larger, like how with the other seasons Ash was going on an adventure, whereas here it was very contained, and centered around the Pokemon School. But, still, like I mentioned, I did enjoy the casual wholesomeness of it all. Not only do I just like mindless fun, but it made the crazy shit feel even crazier. The episode where Faba was trying to catch Nebby is a perfect example. It begins with a nice fun game of all the Pokemon and people jumping rope and having a good time, with some slapstick humor with Faba failing to capture Nebby. Then he does, and shit goes down. First of all, he’s torturing the little thing. Then, ASH (not his Pokemon, Ash himself) tackles Faba. Tell me, what other season had humans fighting other humans? I honestly can’t think of a single time when fighting was done with fists and not Pokemon (although surely I’m forgetting something, there’s gotta be at least one other example, right?) Then, Lillie re-experiences her past trauma of almost being abducted by Nihilego, except now her mom gets abducted in her place… Like, what happened? It was so cute a second ago. That’s always the selling point for any cartoon, for me. Stay casual for a decent amount, then break it with some uncharacteristically high tension. The same goes for the segment where Ash goes into Guzzlord’s post apocalyptic dimension. As for mega-feels, It’s great that they made Litten/Torracat an actual character instead of just some random Pokemon, with Stoutland and whatnot. The episode where they go into Tapu Fini’s mist and Mallow meets her mother, and Torracat meets Stoutland just destroyed me. It was strategically remedied by Lillie and Gladion not seeing their father, suggesting he’s still alive. There were some really great episodes in the season, for sure.

So, yeah… Alola was a good time. Don’t deny it. Galar’s gonna be great too. No game’s ever going to be perfect, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun.

[hitoritravels]

☆Japan Trip 2019 Day 1 Part 1: RE:Start☆

こんにちわ、ひさし ぶり

...erm hello it’s been a while. Nearly a year and a half if I’m not mistaken.

It’s been...one heck of a year. 2018. I took a first step that was beyond my wildest dreams. And it only got more...wondrous. I met a longtime friend for the first time for an unforgettable night. I broke out of my shell and had the pleasure to meet and play Pokemon with people I had never met and they were some of the nicest people I had ever met. I got to meet the man who helped me feel a little less misunderstood in the world and tell him how much his work has helped me. And cried into his shoulders I even got to see a childhood hero sing right in front of me and sing a song that just...carries a lot of emotions for me. 

It was something. Last year.

But it wasn’t all roses

I started to...fall back into bad habits. Old patterns started to show up again. I started hurting those that were just trying to help. Making decisions I knew would make me unhappy. Starting to choose to be lonely rather than be alone for my own good. Making the wrong people happy.

But I fought on. Because shortly after I returned from my last trip, it was decided that I would be returning to my happy place. The place where I took my first step. A place where all of my dreams came true and more. It was decided that I, along with some friends, would be returning to Japan for Spring 2019. For some of them it would be an exciting first time: they had never been so it was going to be something memorable. For others, it was a chance to try out things that they missed out on last time. And in part it was the same for me as well.

But it was more than just that. For me, it was the next step. It was time to see if I really had made any meaningful progress. If I had really changed for the better in any way since the last time I was here. It was...as odd as it is to say, a reality check.

And so despite a rough few months leading up to the trip, the time finally arrived. It was time to take off and return to Japan. Let’s a go-go~★

Popplio is ready to take off★ Prepare to see my friend more than once as he is my partner on this ride this time ^_^

...is what I’d be saying if we actually took off at that time Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

So unfortunately as soon as we boarded the plane, it was announced that the plane had broken down in some fashion. They tried their best at fixing it on the spot but sadly it just did not happen. So we had to leave and it was announced that our next plane would arrive five hours later at soonest. This made a lot of people disgruntled and at the time I wasn’t bothered by it. Oh boy was that a mistake in retrospect.

At any rate I had planned on eating the lunch provided on the plane but since that didn’t happen, we were all given basically free lunches by the airline a la discount coupons that basically covered full meals from pretty much all of the surrounding restaurants. So I ate, played some Pokemon Platinum (starting Piplup was a...mistake? I don’t know I’ll let you know as I make more progress) and eventually, despite the chaotic scramble, we were all boarded and ready to take off for Japan.

Ok this time for sure. I hope >_<;

Our...dinner? Breakfast? Time was a super messed concept for me at this point. being up for practically 16+ hours and running off of...maybe one nap. Send help x_x

But eventually, we made itttttttt

I did it! I made it to Japan! Things can only start getting better from this point on!

...and again, if only things were that easy =x

So let’s start off with something I realized the moment we landed: my lodgings were fairly far away. Like about an hour or so away from the airport. I had stayed with them previously so I recalled that they had curfew hours. Knowing that, I started to change over my SIM card that my favorite recommended to me and my other friends so that I would have data in Japan so I could contact my lodgings and tell them that I’d be running late.

Turns out the SIM card was not. I repeat. NOT. Compatible with my phone. No fault of anyone’s really, my phone and the SIM card just didn’t play well. Everyone else had a grand time with the SIM card so if you’d like to have a nice simple SIM card, delivered to your house prior to your travels, not to mention coming with a bunch of free boons, why not give it a chance? It was a shame it didn’t work out but now it’s all water under the bridge so all is well ☆

I immediately start panicking. It was around 11 PM, I’m still in line for customs, I have no immediate access to data (and therefore directions), the vast majority of all of the places selling SIMs and Pocket WiFis were closed, and even if I rung up directions, by the time I got out of airport customs with all of my stuffs, I would basically be catching the last trains the whole entire way until I got to my lodgings at approximately 1 AM.

Basically I needed access to train maps right away and I needed to not miss any of the trains I needed to catch. Otherwise I’d be out of luck.

Push came to shove and I decided to start roaming on my phone. It was a costly option but dammit this was an emergency and I’m on vacation. I have money to burn. Sort of. >~<

I hastily called up maps, navigated my way from the metro up to the Skytree line, and with the luck of the Gods, the stars aligned and as I started to make my way to the last train, I was told by a friendly officer that the last train I needed to catch was stalled for just a few minutes just to accommodate for any remaining stragglers. I thanked the officer and rushed my butt up the platform to a completely packed train. Running up the platform with no room to comfortably squeeze in, I thought to myself “screw it”, hauled my luggage, used it as a means of opening up space (and since this is a normal affair for Japanese subways, they immediately made enough space for me and my luggage, bless) and I was able to get onto my last train in time. I also managed to get in touch with the Manager of my lodgings and he told me he’d be up waiting since he was still expecting customers to come in anyway. Super blesss.

I pull into a familiar sight. Nisharai station. The last time I was here it was all unfamiliar territory. Now walking down those steps felt like re-visiting an old friend, and despite being in a rush, I still had enough time to really be in the moment. I was back.

After getting setup at my lodgings and quietly putting my stuff away, I sadly realized that I had no chance to really have dinner. Plus I was still fairly tired at this point so I quickly hopped into the showers and hit the hay. It was a very long day. But in the end I made it. I’m back in Japan. And it was time to start going down a very long list of personally important things that I wanted to do get to this time around

Good morning Nishiarai. It has been a long time my old friend★  

Despite everything I didn’t sleep very well. A combination of jet lag and a general sense of fatigue that just wouldn’t go away no matter long I slept had me...groggy at best. Nonetheless, I somehow pulled myself out of my slumber; after last night’s mishaps, I was ready to make up for all of it. I was going to give myself the right start that I was hoping for since I got here. So after ordering myself my pocket WiFi from EConnect (bless their hearts they are amazing), I knew what the first thing I was going to do was. It was one of my more fonder memories from last time and this was going to mark the start of a good day

Kohikannn★

For this trip, I decided that I am going to try out more coffee places this time around. Kohikan really surprised me last time and opened my world to just how delicious properly made coffee could be and I was looking forward to seeing what some of the other coffee shops in Japan had to offer. But more on that later~

After having a nice hearty breakfast and a delicious cup of coffee, my next stop would be a Lawson Mini-Stop. Which is basically a Lawsons but smaller? I couldn’t quite tell you the difference to be honest. But at any rate my reason for visiting one is because....

How do I work this darned thing

This is Loppi. Long story short, the convenience store chain Lawson has a system where you could order tickets for a variety of events: concerts, sports games, cultural events, you name it. As long as you’re able to navigate the Lawson website or the Loppi terminal, you could place your order, input some information and a confirmation pin, print out your ticket, pay the price printed on the ticket, and voila: you have yourself a ticket to the event you wanted to attend☆ Sadly my reading skills were not yet at a point where I could confidently navigate the terminal but thankfully there was a dummy option of scanning a given QR code (which I had) and that made it all the more easier to get my ticket. A ticket for what was probably one of the most important and memorable nights of my trip.

Last year I went to go see MAMY live, one of, if not my most favorite Japanese band out right now. This year, the stars aligned and I was given the opportunity to see not one but two of my favorite bands live: SECONDWALL and AliA. When this live was announced I could not believe my eyes and while making reservations wasn’t easy, I still made the attempt: I wasn’t going to miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime

To be honest, once I had paid for the ticket I felt a huge sense of relief: I really wanted to have the opportunity to see the stars in my sky once more and have the chance to tell these people just how important their music was to me. Now all that was left to do was hope that everything would turn out fine on the day of the live. Now with that burden off my shoulders, I took off with a hop, step and jump towards my next stop☆

Last time I was here I made a memorable visit to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa on a whim and it was arguably one of the more memorable and important parts of that trip. I had however had after the fact that it was known for housing some fairly top notch coffee shops, and so I decided to try one of them out and see what it was like. But I there were also a few places I wanted to visit first, so it was time to get back to what I loved doing best

Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Park, right next to the gardens! What led me here (aside from the scenery) was....

Volbeat! This is one of the more odd regionals, currently only available on the East Hemisphere. Now to find some Farfetch’d and Zangoose★

There was a school trip happening around the main area. I didn’t stick around long so it wouldn’t be awkward

Snack time~★

After walking around the park and playing Pokemon GO for a bit, I wanted to revisit the gardens to see if any seasonal flowers popped up this time around (there was nothing the last time I was there; unsurprising considering that it was winter when I last visited =x)

Pretty flowers! 

As always this place is beautiful☆

There was a bit of an early/late hanami going on here? There was surprisingly less sakura in here than I expected

Our water denizens! Also every black spot in that last picture is a tadpole. There were A LOT of tadpoles 

A brave turtle majestically posing

Later days Kiyosumi Gardens! Until we meet again~★

As tradition calls for, I...relaxed and reflected in this garden for a bit. While I didn’t hit as much of a “eureka” as I did last time, I came to realize that despite all of my recent setbacks that maybe...I was a bit on the right path. I remembered what it was that made me happy and however heavy the burdens may be back home, I should not lose sight of what’s important to me and continue to try for what makes me happy in a meaningful way. Being here made me happy in a meaningful way. Changed me for the better. I had come this far: not just by taking the first step but also thanks to the support of my most precious friends and family that have been there for both of my happiest and saddest moments. I remembered what drove me to come here in the first place and how it resulted in me meeting one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. 

A singer who upon hearing her voice, hearing her sing...inspires me to get up and try again. And again. And while that may not be the deepest reason out there, music has been a very important part of my life, expressing everything I never could. Expressing my happiness where words failed and expressing my sadness when it was too hard to say anything.

And that’s a lot of the reason why I travel halfway across the world, to visit Japan: to meet the people whose music have helped me so much when nothing else could. To meet the people that inspire me, tell them how amazing they are and...maybe try to see and understand what inspires them to be the the way that they are

To hopefully tap into some of that inspiration and...someday hopefully become someone that can help and inspire others in a meaningful way. At least what’s I hope for  (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) ☆

Feeling a little more peaceful inside, it was time to move forward. For now it is time for coffee! But that part of the journey is best saved for a different time. There’s quite a bit more from that day to share so I will save that for a different time

Until then,

See you next time ☆   

[neni-has-ascended]

I noticed on your anime list that you’ve completed Yu-gi-oh! Dark Side of Dimensions & the old Sonic the Hedgehog OVA. May I ask for your opinions on these movies? I’d love to hear them!

Ohhhhhhh boy… Heh Heh, alright.

Yu-gi-oh! Dark Side of Dimensions

I love Trading Card games. I used to play YGO and the Pokemon TCG, I regularly play Weiss-Schwarz and WIXOSS and, well, recently I’ve gotten into the Duel Links version of the YGO TCG too. I may not be very good at this sort of games or most games, but I get hooked on them very easily. 

So really, as much of a guilty pleasure of mine YuGiOh is, it’s still a *pleasure*, so as soon as I learned (by accident) that the DsoD movie exists, I decided to check it out.

I… honestly got a lot more than I expected, not gonna lie. I was kinda blown away in a good way. Like, it wasn’t a Master Piece, but by the standards of someone who grew up with the 4Kids version of the Anime, it might as well have been.

The movie was written in the Manga continuity by Kazuki Takahashi, and it actually really shows. A lot more effort is paid to highlighting the characters’ humanity and a lot of fluffy and slow character moments, which were almost always cut out of the Anime when the Manga was adapted (yes, even in the Japanese version and season 0; the anime adaptations were both kinda really bad, regardless of language), are fully present here. Like, Joey/Jounouji, Tristan/Honda and Tea/Anzu get to do things other than badly playing card games and being friggin’ cheerleaders. Heck, even poor Human!Ryou gets some actual screentime! It’s kind of impressive. And the way in which the movie elaborates on Sato Kaiba’s unhealthy obsession with Atem to the point he fails to be able to continue his life with the guy gone, while Yugi is able to move on perfectly fine (albeit with some residual grief) is downright scary and haunting. It kinda feels like a dig at the fanbase too, in a way; going all out saying “Look, you guys, the story is over. You can stop reviving the poor guy in your fanfics now. Don’t be a Kaiba.” 

The weaknesses of the movie come in in two forms: A) How it deals handles having multiple card battles on-screen over the short time span given to the movie, while still having a proper story and B) Diva Aigami. (I know, those are technically two names, but his disguise is never given a proper first name, so I’ll just use it as one game.) 

Okay, so Dimension Summoning. Works on no level, and like, I mean NO level. It claims that the stats of a monster are decided by the willpower of the person summoning it, but thanks to this movie being set after the end of Duel Monsters, everyone’s will-power is already so far off the charts, this detail never even begins to come into play. All the other extra rules are just excuses for bullshit plot twists and to speed up the games. By the end of the movie, the progression of the card games is harder to follow than in the WIXOSS Anime, and I don’t use that insult lightly. I guess that it’s hard to make a less than 2 hours long movie featuring several fully-played card games with a working story, but like. Just don’t. Cut down on the number of card games played, if it really doesn’t work otherwise. I’m sure nobody would have minded that. 

Then there’s Diva’s story which is a mess, from beginning to end, tearing gaping plot holes into the established lore of the Manga, mostly by virtue of making Shadi Shin look like a total and utter moron in retrospect (it’s almost like his Abridged Series portrayal is supposed to be canon now.) The concepts introduced with the Plana are cool and could make for a great plot point, but they don’t really fit with the established lore of the Manga’s Universe, coming across as more science-fantasy than the outright fantasy the manga mostly went for, which makes the Plana’s connection to Shadi, one of the most outright “magical” characters in the Manga all the more puzzling. All in all, the Plana feel like something that would fit better in the worlds of YugiOh GX or 5Ds, but not the original Duel Monsters. Makes you wonder if Takahashi’s tastes just changed over the years.

Diva himself is an utter mess too. His whiny-ness and sense of entitlement make Shinji Ikari look like friggin’ Kamina Jiha. He had every chance to take a moment to breath and think about how stupid what he doing is and he just failed and let the Millenium Ring- the very thing he SHOULD have been angry at from the start, rather than Yugi,Ryou&Co - take control of him. In the process, he ruins paradise for his sister and everyone else involved, for no other reason than screwing things up so badly that Atem is *forced* to exercise some divine intervention, lest everyone he knows is to join him in death prematurely. Ultimately, Diva’s entire character boils down to: “Brother, why did you ruin shit for everyone else?” “BECAUSE UWEHHHHH”.

However, all in all, I still really enjoyed the movie a lot for the way it portrayed Yugi&Co. It really did feel like a tearful reunion with old friends and I appreciate that. The Animation was amazing too. If they re-adapted the Manga with this overall style of quality (in characterization of the main characters and in animation), I’m sure it could easily become one of the best merchandise-driven Anime out there. Not that I need that in my life, but it’s a nice thought. It’s definitely a better candidate for re-adaptation than friggin’ Sailor Moon …*COUGH COUGH*

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA

I… don’t have as much to say on this one. It’s a weird, weird take on what, at the time, was a weird, weird game. I get that it was supposed to be the pilot for a Sonic Anime that never ended up being made (which is a good thing, since I’ll take Chris Thorndyke over Princess Catgirl ANY day- YES I SAID IT.) but it does have merit. The characterization of Sonic as a bit more of a morally grey character, rather than a Shounen Hero who’s overly apathetic to anything that moves slower than 180mpH was a nice take on the character, and Tails’ characteristics as the genius gadgeteer were used well. I don’t get what they were going for with Knuckles, tbh, if Sonic Boom didn’t exist I’d say this was the weirdest take on him I’ve ever seen. I think if Sonic Boom Knuckles were to put on the hat of Sonic OVA knuckles, the Master Emerald would implode in shame somewhere out there. 

The story is nothing to write home about. It’s kinda cool to have a version of Metal Sonic that ends up redeemed, but that plot point was kinda poorly explained and also sort of horrifying. Like, think about it, if the reason he was redeemed is because his AI is actively an exact copy of Sonic’s Soul, does that mean SONIC DIED IN A FIRE? Just… think about that…

(Some people would love to, I’m sure.)

All in all, it’s yet another strange, strange, animated takes on a series with loads and loads of strange, strange takes on it. One of these days, there needs to be a joking crossover where all the different animated Sonics meet one another. It’d be utter chaos, I’m sure. 

[faeiri-tft]

abe? :o

during the kakuna wars i was stuck at a club event, which meant i couldn’t go on stream, but i COULD intermittently check the live updater. i got basically nothing done that day, and when charizard got released i almost started crying into a robot. that’s still basically how i feel about anniversary red

anyway. headcanons:

he’s always wanted to Do A Science–specifically, to learn something new about the world, to put it there for everyone to see. because pallet town is so small and he knew like 5 entire people, this meant he wanted to be a professor

he spent a lot of time around the lab, sometimes reading stuff, sometimes helping oak

blue actually spent a lot of time in the lab too, but that’s partly because it was the only place in pallet town with internet

oak’s computer had the outside world’s 2014 internet, and no one figured out anything was up until postgame

abe used to look up to professor oak a lot, which is…unfortunate, in retrospect

he’s pretty quiet naturally, and he’s not good at interacting with people and will generally default to doing stuff by himself, but at the same time, if you show anything remotely resembling friendship toward him, he will get Immediately attached

after AR ends that probably…contributes to why he doesn’t interact with others much

on the current point on the timeline he’s getting better about that but Everyone He Knows Fucking Dies, so. hoo

he’s pretty forgiving of people in general as long as they actually demonstrate that they’re changing. still, it’s kind of a “forgive but don’t forget” thing

abe’s a huge nerd but you already knew that

i picture him looking basically like FRLG!vanilla!red but with glasses

he has a tendency to pretend he’s doing Perfectly Fine for as long as possible which leads to the inevitable crash being like 10x worse than it would have been if he Admitted His Life Sucks

he spent the whole time between the kakuna wars and the battle tent in partial-shutdown pure-determination only-kinda-verbal pretending mode, and not even pretending well because, uh, i’ve never decided EXACTLY how old he was at the time but it can’t be more than 13

the battle tent was SO bad that leech king had to fucking telepathically confront him about it, which was the only reason he worked out that if he didn’t let himself have an emotion he was literally going to die

but it still took until way after AR, once the Voices weren’t watching, for him to sit down somewhere and have the good long cry he needed that whole time

the funny thing is that his Big Science Thing might have turned out to be the pokedex even before he got possessed and told to do the impossible?

he likes putting names to stuff, having a list of This Is How This Works. hence the whole map thing, and the dome thing, etc

after AR and until the end of anicrys he spends basically all his time tracking the glitches, seeing what forms they come in, and trying to figure out what the fuck they want

a lot of this involves sulking in a damn mountain (because mt silver in any universe is Important), which a) relatable, and b) works out pretty well for him because he’d. rather not deal with people right now anyway

 the thing about abe is that he can be oblivious about things while being scarily smart about others. he theorizes that the dokokashira glitch might be a thing before the Voices even enter a universe where it’s possible. and yet…actually i can’t think of a good example right now. i was gonna say something about time but i realized time doesn’t exist

plot stuff:

the PC was always a bit of a sentient location–the Voices thought it was specifically a murder machine but that was mostly because we suck–but there was always a world inside there, and it was always kinda alive

after bill died, oak got his hands all up in this interior world and, after fucking up a bunch of times (and with the help of the PC itself, which wanted to Be Something, had absorbed a lot of knowledge from deposited pokemon and what stuck was a lot of PC war lore shit), managed to make it into a copy of runwun kanto, from a few months before the Voices arrived.

oak designed this virtual kanto as a trap for the voices, where, once they got a Host, he’d give them an impossible task to keep them there forever

and protect all the REAL people out on this side of the PC. and it didn’t matter if anyone in the PCverse suffered, and it didn’t matter if the Voices helped create something that would rip that whole world apart–because it’s not like they’re real, right? they do a good job of pretending, almost fool him a few times, but they can’t be ALIVE, right?

oak only really feels guilty when interacting with AR!blue, and the first time he feels regret is when he realizes that somehow, AR!blue is starting to remember the “real” world (and also tpp1!blue is starting to remember the PCverse, but that doesn’t come up until way later)

oh yeah, and then it turns out that olden doesn’t just have power in the PC

even with all the ways oak miscalculated, it still takes him a long time to understand that the PCverse folks are, like, Real People Who Exist

fucking asshole

uh i witnessed the battle tent incident and it was like a creepypasta and my favorite part is the individual parts of that glitch (especially the “no pokemon -> black out forever” part) can mostly happen in the original games

i’m still upset about the whole “char comes back as a fucked-up glitch hell ghost and probably tells abe it’s his fault because Glitch Angery” thing

ahhhh fuck that makes a lot more sense in retrospect actually. that was already my lore and then we got the reason Glitch Angery being a double serving of “pissed off because they died and everyone moved on like they didn’t give a shit” no WONDER. huh. i’m aware i made half this up but still, why does everything in tpp happen so perfectly

character stuff:

i think AR is the most i’ve ever cared about the actual pokemon instead of getting too distracted by crying over hosts, so:

i started typing something about leech king and i think it’s turned into a full-fledged ficlet, which hopefully i can post in the next couple days, so thanks

charizard was The Best, and a huge sweetie who also loved just fucking destroying shit–in one of my personal runs i had a gyarados like that, he’s great–and i’m still fucked up about her

we have a charizard ‘M in sidegame right now, which because i love pokemon glitches is Hell The Fuck Yeah, but at the same time when i try to lore about it i’m not sure if i’m…ready?

like, i want to believe but, if it IS her, how much of it is really her and how much…isn’t? i mean, i keep applying the same trope to Every Character In TPP but idek. i miss char

kakuna was more of a symbol than anything, but then i’m generally of the opinion that the casualties of our PC wars are no one’s fault but our damn selves

(anicrys is weird because it’s post-canon and post-given-save so it’s like, schrodinger’s releases, so it messes with the mood in all my lore)

the fact that abe and alice are now in the same universe and can interact with each other is Terrifying

in my kanto fusion timeline, they were the ones who got the multiverse transfer working, since it needed one person on each side. i think alice figured out how to communicate with the PCverse too–oak had a window to the outside but he couldn’t go back and forth, and he burned pretty much every way in (but alice is Also Smart)

together they design and invent a bunch of shit that, uh, it’s cool, but i’m also afraid, although i also love them

abe was pretty sure baba died in the pc and had no clue about her situation until a random girl walked up to him and introduced herself as his fish, so it took him awhile to, like, believe that

i’m really big on tpp multiverse theory so i headcanon that a lot of our repeat-design hosts are AU selves

this doesn’t always apply–like, i usually headcanon napoleon and pepe/petrov/whatever-his-name-is as brothers. but all our male hosts from pallet town are from the same stock, is what i’m saying

abe is a lot like (but not exactly like) how red would have turned out if we hadn’t hivemind overloaded him straight to hell

their relationship is complicated. the only time red tried to kill abe was the first time they met, which all things considered is probably a good sign

abe mostly views red like a weird older brother he didn’t know about. red’s thoughts on abe vary a lot (and he still can’t believe abe’s a domist what the Fuck) but eventually he’s kinda fond of him. he Gets It in a way that most the other hosts don’t   

this isn’t a CR but i, personally, IRL, will tear a window into the tppverse and punch oak with my own bare hands

[mochibuni]

I watch a lot of YouTube, and I think some great and quality YouTube channels, and I really feel like putting out some goodness today. So here is a list of my YouTube watch list, with descriptions and why I think they're worth watching. Updated 3/16/2020.

GAMING

brutalmoose - Ian's reviews tend to be around edutainment games and old PC games, which he delivers his brand of comedy in a dry and deadpan tone. Which is hilariously contrasted by the comedic editing of his videos, some the most creative I've ever seen. I can't even adequately describe a typical video from him, other than it's creative and hilarious. I enjoy his style so much that I'll watch his reviews on 60/70's educational films.

The Completionist - Once a week Jirard chronicles his journey and struggles in 100% completing a video game. His reviews are earnest with a touch of comedy, but largely trying to accurately convey the sense of the game and his experience with it. He does, however, make bad decisions like 100% completing Hyrule Warrios and Fire Emblem Blazing Sword, which of course it's fun to laugh at his agony.

Game Theory - I usually stick to MattPat's videos, but all of them are quality in both editing and substance. However I enjoy MattPat's style and delivery the most. Even if I 100% don't agree with his theory, I 100% enjoy listening and watching him talk about it. He has energy and a great sense of humor, his voice really sells what he's presenting, but I also find a kind of mellowness to it that I enjoy just listening to. He also hosts a live stream with his wife playing games together, and they are adorable to watch.

Kshaway - If you're a League player, you probably already know about Kshaway. He makes the Wood Division series, chronicling everyone and his own fails and bugs with the game. His video style has no voice overs, just well timed music and text for the punch line.

Did You Know Gaming? - They do what they say, offering 5 to 10 minute videos with lesser known facts and production history on video games.

Pokemon Rusty - Made by Dorkly, this is a parody series following Pokemon trainer Rusty as he attempts to become a Pokemon Master in all the wrong ways. It is graphic with very adult humor, but I laugh ridiculous amounts at each video.

MOVIES AND TV

Film Theory - The sister channel to Game Theory and it does the same thing, only this time it’s about tv shows, movies, and web series (remember Salad Fingers? Mattpat made a great video series about it). They also do Did You Know Movies from time to time.

Be Kind Rewind - One of my new faves, she follows the history and culture surrounding movies by discussing female Oscar wins and their cultural significance.

Folding Ideas - Foldable discusses film theory and larger themes usually with movies. His 50 Shades series is probably my favorite, followed by how he accidentally made colonialism in his Minecraft server.

Jenny Nicholson - It’s like listening to your best fandom friend rant and rave with you at 3am in your bedrooms. Jenny has a very lowkey tone and attitude wrapped in a very silly and dry sense of humor. She talks about movies and theme parks. Her review of Avatar Land is probably my favorite.

Lindsay Ellis - I’m not even sure where to being with Lindsay’s work, I adore every video she’s made thus far. It is all film critical theory, but like talking to your smart and sarcastic fandom friend who goes out of their way to explain critical theory concepts.

New Rockstars - These are the guys going over every trailer, every second of a movie looking for easter eggs and fodder for their theories. Really great if you’re into superhero blockbuster movies.

OTHER MEDIA

Comicstorian - I love this channel, they break down comics (either series or single issues) and read them dramatically with visuals. Periodically they also give complete histories of comic book characters, especially when there is a universe reboot.

NerdSync - Somewhat similar to Comicstorian, NerdSync delves into the history and stories of comic books. They’ve moved down the path of being more history based, which is great for me since I know little about the American comic book industry. 

Sideways - Remember the music theory video about singing in native languages using Moana as an example? Yeah it’s this guy’s channel, and while he has few videos, all of them are great. My favorite is his analysis of Rogue One’s score.

Atop the Fourth Wall - Linkara reviews comic books, but I largely come here to watch his retrospectives on Power Rangers.

THEME PARKS

Magic Journeys - Largely a Disney centric channel, Mig V and Lovely Jannell explore any and all types of food at the Disney parks, largely sprinkling their videos with relevant Disney history. They’re expanding to other parks in the area, but Disneyland and California Adventure are where they film. Mig edits their videos wonderfully and I greatly appreciate the bits of history he provides. Jannell also makes sure to try a variety of dishes for those with dietary restrictions and has recently branched out into trying kid’s meals. They also started a Disney Foodie group on Facebook.

Defunctland - This channel talks about the history of now defunct theme park rides.

Theme Park History - This channel also talks about theme park history, defunct or currently running.

Expedition Theme Park - Okay sometimes you just need multiple channels of the same content. Another theme park history channel.

FOOD/COOKING

Laura in the Kitchen - Laura cooks largely easy to make, no hassle meals and deserts, and is warm and personable at the same time. I’ve tried many of her recipes and each have come out very well. I also find Laura very endearing, with her genuine love of food and cooking coming through in every video.

Maangchi - Maangchi is the adorable and sweet host of her Korean based cooking channel. She provides step by step instructions, with tips and tricks, on several Korean dishes. She also talks about her time in Korea, relating dishes to stories of her life there. I have made several of Maangchi’s recipes as well, but I’d watch just about anything from her as she’s sweet, funny, and has a soothing presence to her. She’s basically everyone’s Korean Mom.

Strictly Dumpling - Mike Chen talks all about his favorite Asian food, largely Chinese, as he travels around exploring and eating at Asian restaurants. And when I say Chinese, I mean that he talks specifically about provinces and the differences and types of food each have. He also has a variety of cooking videos and traveling videos. Mike is informative, energetic, and hilarious, with a little bit of Chinese humor peppered in that makes Dan laugh.

How To Cake It - If you’ve seen the gif set of the realistic watermelon cake, then you know what Yolanda can do. She makes elaborate cakes ranging from multi-tier to recreating non-cake objects. Yo gives step by step instructions on how she makes her cakes and also sells baking supplies and cake inspired shirts on her website.

Binging with Babish - A charming and dead pan cooking series recreating food from various media. This channel became a must for Dan based on the sense of humor alone.

Destination Flavour - A mini series that aired in Australia, you can find the whole series on YouTube and I highly recommend it. Chef Adam Liaw travels to 9 different prefectures in Japan exploring the local food, culture, and recipes.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - An older documentary about the history of breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Britain, also all on YouTube. I love this documentary, it’s very thorough and I learned tons about British food and eating customs that of course influenced my own culture.

Lofty Pursuits - Based in their candy store in Florida, watch the workers at Public Displays of Confection make pulled hard candy.

ARIKITCHEN - A Korean baker with super cute bakes and a personality to match. Most of her videos have English subs.

Christy Carlson Romano - THAT’S RIGHT, REN STEVENS/KIM POSSIBLE HAS A YOUTUBE CHANNEL! It’s usually cooking videos where she invites celebrities she’s worked with to make fanservicey foods.

CULTURE

CGP Grey - This channel is rarely updated, but goes in depth into cultural and political ideologies and misunderstandings in an easy to understand way. His videos are worth a watch if you’ve ever been confused about “once removed” family members or don’t understand how the electoral college works in America.

Begin Japanology - An ongoing NHK series exploring Japan, each 30~ minute video explores one item in depth, from sushi, to mushrooms, to the importance of umbrellas in Japan. These videos are in English and are also dubbed, though many of them have deleted audio in places due to copyright restrictions.

Japanology Plus - The sequel and current version of Japanology that continues to explore Japan and sometimes revisit old videos to update them.

Lunch On! - Also provided by NHK, it explores what the Japanese eat for lunch and the history and culture surrounding those dishes. The segments also tend to explain and explore the background of the people they’re following for lunch, such as the balloon industry or bus scheduling.

ARIRANG TV - A Korean channel, it provides a variety of subbed and dubbed videos about Korea. I usually just watch the food videos, but they also have videos about current affairs, media, and variety programs.

Crash Course - If you haven’t seen this show before, it’s mini video essays hosted by John Green discussing history, literature, science, and so on.

MISC

Buzzfeed Unsolved - Another Buzzfeed series, this time exploring the supernatural with a believer and a non-believer. This series is just hilarious, the supernatural cases are presented in a matter of fact way with visuals, but often intercut with commentary from the two about the cases that brings a nice comedic tone to the otherwise serious video.

Bright Sun Films - Jake’s current video series explores buildings and establishments that were abandoned, their history, as well as projects that were cancelled. Most videos are about the Disney Corporation, but also include Target in Canada, Blockbuster, and the McDonald’s Barge. His videos are well researched, great visuals, and his voice and personality are great to listen to.

AKB48 - 48g is one of the biggest music franchises in Japan, based on the idea of Idols You Can Meet. Since the COVID outbreak in Japan, AKB has been streaming their daily theater show on YouTube. If you want to relax to some cute Japanese pop for a few hours, check out their VODs.

Laura Price - Laura is a professional artist and most of her videos are either about her life as an artist or tips and tricks on art.

Royalty Soaps - Soap making! I find Katie really relaxing to watch and listen to, and she often talks about her soap making process.

Safiya Nygaard - Quirky and adventurous, Safiya tends to make beauty and fashion try videos, and some travel videos as well. Safiya is probably one of those YouTubers you need to watch a video of to see if you’ll like because her channel is all about her and her husband’s Tyler’s personality.

The Try Guys - Four very different guys who try things together. I’m assuming you all know who the Try Guys are, but.

Watcher - Shane, Ryan, and Steven left Buzzfeed to make their own video channel and brought many of their ideas over from there. Shane and Ryan continue to be a delight together in just about everything they do. So far my favorite is Shane’s Puppet History Theater.

ENGLISH SUBS

AIDOL - One of the last English subbers, though they update infrequently now. This links to their DailyMotion account as AKB videos are largely removed from YouTube quickly. If you enjoy the older AKB generations, this is a great resource of older subs.

Animegg.org - My go to English subs place if Crunchyroll doesn’t have what I’m looking for. Their adds aren’t evasive and they accept adblock.

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Gen 1

So with the first 151 Pokemon under our belt, let's look back on this ol' bunch of weirdos.

I was pretty young when Pokemon was first released in 1998 in the states, a whopping six years old. And even then, I think I was slightly late to the Pokemon craze. Maybe? Apparently, the anime had been airing the US for some time before the games actually came out, which throws off my mental calendar a bit. The very idea of Pokemon was unheard of, and this little sub-genre of Monster Collector RPGs had only just started. I know Digimon's still kicking, but is Monster Rancher still around these days? I know today we have the likes of Ni No Kuni and Yokai Watch. Ni No Kuni's a little closer to a traditional RPG for my liking, and Yokai Watch just isn't my style, but I appreciate that Monster Collector games aren't exclusive to Pokemon.

Like I said, traditional RPG games really aren't my cup of tea. It ends up feeling slow and I would much rather be swinging a sword myself than be telling a character to swing it for me. Pokemon comes to a beautiful middle-ground where it makes sense that you wouldn't be performing the actions yourself, you're the one giving commands to your pretend mice and dogs! It's that distinction alone that attracted me to the idea of Pokemon. It's an adorable game where you collect your little freaks of nature and grow attached to them as they wreck face across your journey, growing stronger and stronger until you got a super-dog biting the faces off of anything that stands in your way. That right there is the core spirit of Pokemon.

But that's more like my feelings about the series as a whole and what attracted me to it. What about Generation 1 itself?

It's a shame Pokemon's golden years are over. It's so weird to think about. For me, Pokemon's always been massively important, constantly there. To look back at it in retrospective, it's mindblowing to think Pokemon became a world-changing phenomenon for a while, to a point where Pikachu was probably a bigger face for Nintendo than Mario was for a bit there. Hell, there was a second wave of that when Pokemon Go came out!

I can see why Gen 1 has that kind of appeal to it. The First Generation of Pokemon has a flavor to it that's hardly touched upon in the series anymore. I can get why some old fans that dropped out of Pokemon feel the way they do. Me, I both love and am a little tired of Gen 1. Moreso love, I’m just the kind of person that likes to see new stuff. There’s just no denying Gen 1′s style was classic, and with Pokemon shifting the style every generation, it’s a bit no wonder why more “casual” fans of Pokemon were put off at one point or another and left. I'd rather each Generation has its own flavor than feeling like one gigantic entity of creatures.

And, in all honesty, Gen 1 hasn't aged amazingly for me. It aged better now that I've dug through them all to pick out ones I like, but also I sure did find a pretty handful that I actually kind of dislike. While yeah, I’ve always known there’s Pokemon I’m not too much a fan of, I never quite realized how many are from Gen 1. That’s why I’ll end up saying Gen 1 is one of my least favorite Generations if you ask me. Least favorite, not that I dislike the generation as a whole.

I don’t think it’s necessarily Gen 1′s fault either, a lot of it is just how my taste in my pocket monsters changed a lot since I was younger. I appreciate that they're there, but I've wound up gravitating more towards newer Pokemon that have wilder color schemes, and with designs that look a little more exotic. Gen 1′s very much a product of its time, and I’ve been of the opinion that Pokemon’s generally (barring a few hiccups along the way) has only gotten better with Pokemon designs. Sadly, the sacrifice has been that newer designs are little less weird until recently.

No matter what I think, Gen 1′s clearly done a lot right. It’s spring-boarded the series into success for a reason, even if it’s not likely Pokemon will slam into the level of success Gen 1 had. At least, not unless they make some major revitalizing game like Pokemon Go.

For now though, I'm gonna follow suit with Bogleech and create a few categories to sort some Pokemon into.

Top 10 Favorites of Gen 1:

For future Generations, there's going to be a “Favorites as of this far”, but obviously with just Gen 1 done so far, that'd be redundant. Also, clearly these are from left to right in order.

My tops change quite a bit throughout the years. For a while, I could comfortably say Flareon was my favorite, but then I had a little rediscovery with Vulpix and Ninetales. Vaporeon and Victreebel are also newcomers to my list from recently.  And man, Venusaur’s probably gonna remain on this list for good. That nostalgia factor is too strong.

Bottom 10 Least Favorites of Gen 1:

My least favorites hardly change at all, really. I've pretty solidly not been very keen on any of these Pokemon for the better part of all these years. And really, Dragonite and Persian are only lower than Machamp because not only are they kind of boring, but they’re evolutions to things infinitely cooler than they are. The squandered potential!

I dunno if I'll give this category the treatment of the above one, where I'll keep track of my least favorites the longer this series goes on. Maybe, if nothing else to find out a list of my least favorites. Because I'm actually not that sure which Pokemon to call my least favorites.

Though, I got nothing against Dewgong or Tauros. They're just eh.

The Cutest:

These will be 6 instead of 10. And also in no particular order.

Perhaps what you'd expect where you ask someone to name off the cutest Pokemon. I'll stick Kangaskhan there for being a Pokemon with an adorable mother-child thing going on. Other than Kangaskhan, probably my official “would keep as a pet” tier.

The Coolest/Most Badass:

While having a little more variance in terms of which are my favorites or not, here's a pack of Pokemon that are unmistakably cool.

The Prettiest:

“Pretty” feels like a rare subtype of Pokemon compared to Cool or Cute, but I'll take a jab at it anyway. These are Pokemon that have pleasantly flowing designs and are just plain nice to admire. Maybe “Eyecandy” Pokemon would be a better name for them.

Most Creative:

Because my tastes are pretty conventional, the Pokemon that are more atypical deserve a shout-out too. I find them all neat or interesting, with varying degrees of how much I like them.

Weirdest/Most Unique:

And of course, here's some designs that are just plain out there, and very much unlike any other Pokemon. Gen 1's got a lot of these, but here's a handful.

Most Forgettable:

And of course, here are some designs that just strike me as generally unremarkable, and thus I just end up forgetting about them entirely. I may be “meh” about quite a few Gen 1 Pokemon, but these are just so thoroughly “meh” the only thing bringing em to mind at all lately is Pokemon Go. (And Sun and Moon, in the case of Persian and Tauros.)

Most Under-Appreciated:

There's a few Pokemon that either go totally unnoticed or are outright hated on unfairly. The latter are hardly ever in Gen 1, but there's quite a number of Gen 1 Pokemon that are under the radar by this point in the series. This one's a bit hard because I found it difficult to find Pokemon that I both liked a lot and that other fans don't like. Like, Raichu's not neglected by the fanbase exactly, it's got its fair share of fans. It's just there because of Gamefreak, really.

Summing Up Gen 1 in 6 Pokemon:

These are 6 cherry-picked Pokemon that I feel best encapsulate the spirit of Gen 1. You got your saurian badasses in Scyther and Rhydon, the cutie, pure animal-types in Raichu and Eevee. Pikachu aside, Charizard's basically the mascot of Gen 1, whether I like it or not. And then you got goofy little weirdos like Poliwhirl there. Possibly switch out Scyther or Rhydon for either Magneton or Koffing, because this generation also feels more industrial than the usual.

And finally...

My Gen 1 Team:

Though, bear with me. This was 18 friggin years ago and I was 6 or 7 years old at the time. I remember watching the anime and playing the spinoffs vividly, but for some reason playing the main-series game of Blue, in particular, is such a blur I honest to god can't remember my entire team. Hell, I'm not even sure if I had a full team of 6! For all I know I just cruised on through off of Venusaur, Raichu, Pidgeot, and Lapras alone. And then when I got to the Indigo League, I caught all the Legendary Birds and wrecked house using them. All of them probably had Hyper Beam too.

I'd also put my Leaf Green team here, but honestly I don't remember it either. And I'm fairly certain I never completed Leaf Green.

And at last, that’s all we have to say about Gen 1. I’ll take a brief break (About a week or so) before we move on to our next subject, Gen 2! See you in Johto!

[Archive]

[sage-nebula]

Besides the black and white games which Pokemon games did you find to be the most well written.

HMMMM . . . I’m going to go ahead and rank them by region, with 1 being the best, and 7 being the worst.

Unova

Hoenn

Alola

Sinnoh

Johto / Kalos

Kalos / Johto

Kanto

Hoenn is a bit difficult to rank, because Emerald Version is vastly superior to either Ruby Version or Sapphire Version, which means that Hoenn should technically be broken up to show that Emerald comes before either Ruby or Sapphire. However, both AlphaSapphire and OmegaRuby also have elements---namely the Delta Episode and that amazing gift to the Pokémon games known as Zinnia, but also distinct personalities for the characters of Archie and Maxie---that Emerald didn’t. So in a way, the remakes kind of tie with Emerald, but Emerald is still superior in other respects (e.g. two antagonistic teams, a much better climax, et cetera). It’s kind of like how it’s impossible for me to decide whether Gen VI or Gen VII are better in terms of gameplay. They keep wrestling with each other for top spot because they both have glaring strengths and weaknesses.

With that said, though, although it’s difficult for me to decide whether Emerald or ORAS is my favorite Hoenn game (honestly, they could have solved this problem by giving us DeltaEmerald, but alas), I still think the Hoenn games are the second best written games in the series. Unova is first for obvious reasons. Alola could have been second (or even first!), but the more time I spend away from it, the more the issues become apparent to me, and I’m never going to be over how disgusting Lusamine’s “redemption” was in the end, particularly since it has led to the fandom woobie-fying and excusing her blatant, on-screen abuse of her children, in ways I’m sure they wouldn’t if she was a man. (I mean, the disgusting “alas, poor villain” the game gave her certainly contributes to it, but I’m positive the Unova games could have done the same for Ghetsis and people would still hate him, because female abusers always get less harsh treatment than male abusers do. As someone with a very abusive biological mother, this is the sort of thing that personally upsets me to no end.) Gladion and Lillie both deserved better than what they got, and so while the Alola games do have strengths in the narrative, ultimately the way the Aether Foundation part of the plot was handled drags them down.

I’m personally not a fan of the Sinnoh games, story-wise, but I do think they were still written well, and I think that perhaps my dislike of them stems from my dislike of Sinnoh as a region (and most of the Sinnoh ‘dex due to how many of them are pre-evolutions / new evolutions for existing pokémon). With that said, I haven’t played the Sinnoh games in years, and because I’m me I will buy the remakes when they’re announced (come on, we all know they’re going to be), so it’s possible that improvements will be made and my opinion will change then. Depending on how much I like the story this time around, the Sinnoh story might move up to spot three, particularly considering (again) the glaring flaws and weaknesses in the Alola narrative. Even if I don’t personally feel attachment to Sinnoh’s characters or story, this is a question of what is more well-written, and it’s entirely possible that Sinnoh has a stronger narrative than Alola. We’ll see.

Johto and Kalos are difficult for me to rank because Johto barely has a story (though it still has more of one than Kanto, but that’s not saying much), but the story it does have is good. I’m still salty that they weren’t willing to change enough in HGSS to flesh out the story more. I get why they didn’t---an in-game Game Freak NPC straight up says that they tried to change enough things to keep them fresh, while keeping enough the same to keep fans happy---but it still upsets me, because with the Johto games there is so much potential to make them more than they are, and yet that’s potential that is wasted. Still, what is there is good. All of the characters are likable, there’s good development (Johto Rival has some of the best development), the legends and lore are fascinating, et cetera.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot more to the Kalos games, but even though there’s more, I still dislike it and find it to be a mess. And keep in mind, I played both X and Y; it’s not as if I only played one of them and made a judgment. I played them both. The rivals were aggravating and shallow, Team Flare was written to be a “lighthearted, joke team” according to Game Freak and yet they wanted to commit mass genocide, and the fact that these two ideas---that they’re a comic relief team that wanted to commit genocide---existed in the same game led to not enough gravity being applied to the situation. LIke, for fucksake, in the Unova games all Team Plasma wanted to do was make it so that Ghetsis was the only person in Unova with pokémon, and everyone in the narrative flipped their fucking shit over the idea that they might not be allowed to train pokémon anymore. We had an entire showdown at N’s Castle with all of the Gym Leaders (minus the Striaton Trio) showing up at the end of the first game. Yet in Kalos, Lysandre makes a region-wide broadcast about wanting to commit genocide, and yet the only ones to do anything about it are the player, the rivals, and Sina and Dexio on Sycamore’s orders. And then there’s Sycamore’s speech about how he wanted Lysandre to “set his pride aside” which just . . . it seriously reminded me of Cho saying that Marietta was “a lovely person who made a mistake,” which, okay, that’s fine for Marietta “I Sold Out the DA” Edgecombe, but not so fine for Lysandre, who wanted to commit mass genocide, ugh. (And I’m not bashing Sycamore here so much as I’m criticizing the writing; while I felt angry at Sycamore for phrasing things like that while playing, in retrospect I’m more infuriated at Game Freak for actually writing this.) I felt like the same level of gravitas was given to Lysandre wanting to commit genocide as was given to Team Rocket’s shenanigans in the first two gens. Had the Kalos games been games from an earlier generation, it might have been more excusable; but they followed the Unova games, which were such well-written Pokémon games that really filled the player with a sense of urgency and appropriate drama and determination, and as such they were a complete letdown. 

So tl;dr on this: The Kalos games had a more fleshed out plot, and that should theoretically put them above the Johto games, which were pretty bare bones. However, the bare bones we had in the Johto games were better written than the flesh we had in the Kalos games (which were terribly written even though they could have been so much better, as the PokéAni proved by miles, god bless the PokéAni), and as such it’s hard for me to decide where they go.

Finally, the Kanto games barely have a plot (they have the least plot of them all), and what is there is . . . unimpressive, to say the least. I mean, it’s actually a little hilarious to me how Giovanni is taken so seriously in Pokémon fandom, because in all honesty he’s a complete joke. I think part of this is due to the PokéAni; Giovanni is far more powerful, strong, and intimidating in the PokéAni than he ever is in the games, and Team Rocket’s influence is far more wide-reaching as well. The TRio aside, the rest of Rocket’s agents and executives and scientists are actually frightening in the anime. But in the games? Giovanni loses a couple of battles to a child and then tries to disband his entire organization. They reform without him and he’s about to go help, but then he loses another battle and leaves once more to go continue sulking. It’s pathetic. Team Rocket may be my favorite villainous organization in Pokémon (could have been the Aether Foundation, but Game Freak fucked that one up), but the game!Giovanni is pathetic, and since the Kanto games don’t have a plot beyond “be the very best like no one ever was and I guess beat up Team Rocket sometimes,” they’re at the bottom of the pile as far as narrative quality goes.

[thiefking]

What's the Two Looker theory?

the tldr version is that there are currently two lookers existing in the same universe, and that its going to be very relevant very soon.

but of course, that shortened version is worthless, because who would believe that without enthusiastic and lengthy elaboration? GET YOUR SEATBELTS ON CAUSE ITS TIME TO TALK POKEMON THEORY

(spoiler warning for sumo postgame ahead! also, seriously, you might want to go get a snack or something. this is long. really long.)

first up: you gotta know that gens 1-5 (and the remakes in those gens) are all in a separate but similar universe to the one in gen 6 and beyond. for convenience, ill call the first universe uni a and the second one uni b. 

(fyi most people refer to uni b as megaverse, but i want the names to match and nonmegaverse doesnt really... roll off the tongue quite as well, so,)

so you might be wondering what the fuck that means and how we know its true; to answer this we need to take a quick look at pokemons current timeline!

im unsure on which one of them came before the other in the timeline, but xy and oras both happen chronologically before sun and moon do. we know this because of dexio and sina appearing with the zygarde and mega evolution stuff, and wally appears at the battle tree as an older and more experienced trainer. 

these are canon, however for right now its mostly just hypothesis that chronologically speaking, after alola its sinnoh. the pkmn breeders from alola look IDENTICAL to the cowgirls/farmers from sinnoh, which doesnt seem to prove much about the order of things but it doesnt disprove anything either; its more like retrospective icing on the cake, since ill be explaining why i think this will be the timeline later on.

so, keep the idea of sinnoh coming after alola in mind. its also important to consider the idea of mega evolution as not just a game mechanic but an important plot point! basically, universe a has no mega evolution, while universe b does, and the differences in the plot between rse and oras are NOT retcons; theyre entirely different universes!

that might not look like it makes much sense on its own (without elaboration or if youre still attached to the belief that mega evo is JUST a game mechanic and not plot relevant or an indicator of anything) but its important to mention now, since as i explain more itll hopefully make more and more sense. 

believing this theory means you have to think about it like this, so while this isnt completely canon yet, its necessary to treat it like it is until you fully understand what this theory is all about and why it would make sense. if youre not convinced afterwards, then so be it! ... i mean, i dont understand how you WOULDNT be totally on board with this, but im not you and maybe youre not quite nearly as into spacetime shenanigans as i am.

now we head into sumos postgame stuff with the interpol! during this, we learn that there are people known as “fallers” that “fell” into a universe from another parallel universe through a mysterious portal, and seem to have lost most if not all of their memories. fallers attract ultra beasts, as the ubs believe they can somehow get home using them, sensing that this person is also not from this universe. 

looker explains that he was once sent on a mission to detain/kill an ultra beast. his team included a faller, who was unwittingly being used as bait for the ultra beast. looker felt pity for the ub and neglected to kill it, unfortunately giving the ub a chance to kill the faller, which it promptly took.

then its revealed that anabel is a faller, who was found washed up on a beach muttering something about protecting the battle tower, which is where you could find her in rse. 

but see, the battle tower doesnt exist in oras, instead replaced by the battle resort, and you do not meet anabel at any point in oras. the battle resort is also where you meet an amnesiac looker, muttering about a mission, speaking in a peculiar way, which is noticeably different to the way he speaks in xy and sumo. he did not make an appearance in rse, this isnt just reused dialogue.

hmmmmmmmm.

lets put looker aside for a moment though and focus on anabel. while theres a possibility that right now there are two anabels, it seems that she and the battle tower never existed in this universe... but mega evolution does. the anabel we see in rse is the same as the one in sumo; she crossed over from uni a into uni b.

now, lets look at some facts here!

in platinum, bw and oras, looker has a... peculiar speech pattern. if you look up his quotes on bulbapedia, youll see what i mean; its very noticeable.

... looker completely lacks that specific quirk in xy and sumo. hes goofy, yes, but its nowhere near the same. its important to note that oras happens between xy and sumo, and again, that looker didnt show up in rse and that dialogue is completely new. the differences in these speaking patterns are not mistakes. they are fully intentional.

next up: lets crush a few doubts about this theory you might be having right now!

“this is a kids game! surely this is WAY too convoluted. pokemon isnt that deep, they wouldnt bother with a plot this complicated.” wrong. nope. incorrect. buddy, did you play sumo or any gen 5 game? i can only assume you havent, cause not only were the plots in those games the most detailed and involved and emotional, they were BY FAR the best. additionally, kids are a lot smarter than youd think, and i also not only know theyre going to explain everything, i know HOW theyll do it; but i digress.

“youre implying there are two lookers because one speaks a certain way and had amnesia but isnt it possible theres just one, who either isnt a faller or is a faller but had no megaverse/uni b equivalent, and he got his memories back by the time you meet him in sumo?” wrong there too! remember, its CANON that xy and oras happen BEFORE sumo.

now remember anabel, who doesnt have her memories back and had no idea she was a faller.

and remember that xy/sumo looker is very, very explicitly stated to not be a faller, because otherwise, HE would have been the bait on that mission and HE would have been the one who got killed.

xy/sumo looker is definitely not a faller.

but dppt/bw/oras looker is.

if at this point youre still having doubts, heres a question. can you offer any other explanation that is all based on canon information, without retconning anything or making something up, and have it all make perfect sense and resolve all of the issues that come with going against this theory?

yeah, i cant either.

hopefully at this point you should be fairly convinced, but hold on! i still havent explained why i think sumo will chronologically happen before the plot in the dppt remakes! i was all like “this will make sense later” but i didnt talk about sinnoh much at all and havent completely gotten you on board with this yet! well guess what yall ITS SINNOH TIME

a quick note though: past this point is a lot of personal observation/opinion and speculation. its meant to explain why i think this theory is spot-on, and elaborate on what i think is going to happen. im not speaking for anyone else but myself and im not stating my own opinions as fact or concrete proof; though i am saying that i think im right about this.

with that out of the way, lets begin! its going to take a while, but the buildup is necessary (imo at least) and yes, this is in fact relevant to the theory.

something to notice is that the stories in pokemon games have been progressively getting more involved and interesting. there was hardly anything in the first two, gen 3 started getting more involved but its not much to write home about, gen 4 took it up a notch, and then gen 5 the life ruiner broke the fucking scale and punched me in the face.

so, we have all these plots, getting more detailed, but... not a whole lot is tying them together at first. sure, a few lines make reference to other games, johto and kanto are connected both plotwise and literally speaking, theres even that cameo character in bw who was a rocket grunt in a previous game! but theres nothing really significant that ties things together.

well, at least until gen 4.

in gen 4, we of course meet looker, who as a member of the interpol has reason to make further appearances in other games. and then he shows up in every game afterwards, sometimes for a while, sometimes only briefly. less significantly but it does help the point im about to make, we also get caitlins first appearance, who ends up being part of unovas elite 4, and johto is a part of gen 4 as well, which was already a point of connection between regions, but gen 4 added the sinjoh ruins, connecting the games within the same gen!

after gen 4, the games vary in how much they connect to the others, but it definitely changed the standard.

and then sun and moon came out.

even the very start of the game: you move from kanto to alola, meet alolan variations of kantonian pokemon, meet grimsley and colress from bw/bw2, meet dexio and sina from xy, and watch sadly as lillie breaks everyones heart and leaves for kanto.

then, after that, you can go to the battle tree and meet not only red and green, but cynthia, steven, and wally, and you can find grimsley, colress, dexio and sina here too. or, you can go participate in the postgame plot with looker and anabel, who are also returning characters; though anabel is significantly more unexpected than looker. it was pretty unexpected finding out caitlin was part of unovas elite four, huh?

and hey, didnt sinnoh have a lot of weird space/time shit? palkia and dialga are the gods of time and space, and giratina has a whole other dimension where everything seems wrong and alien and mildly uncomfortable, with a strange area theme that seems just slightly off, where you meet/battle the games biggest antagonist, who has become mentally unhinged by spending time there.

oh... and alola has fallers and ultra beasts, who came from other timelines/universes... and you go into ultra space, which is a whole other dimension where everything seems wrong and alien and mildly uncomfortable, with a strange area theme that seems just slightly off, where you meet/battle the games biggest antagonist, who has become mentally unhinged by spending time there.

plus, gen 4 is the first where you can at any point walk around with your pokemon behind you, making you feel closer to your pokemon than ever, and alola shows a significantly stronger connection between humans and pokemon than ever seen before, even compared to xys introduction of pokemon amie (the trials, ride pokemon, the fact that humans are specifically stated to have influenced several alolan variations, z moves, the ceremony for choosing your starter, everything about the aether foundation/type: null, if you consider ultra beasts pokemon then lusamines a very literal example, there are LOADS of examples)

... and diamond and pearl are next up for remakes.

in gen 7.

paired with alola.

i wonder if the two games are going to be EXTREMELY connected?

personally im willing to bet that the distortion world IS ultra space, i think itd make a lot of sense of cyrus knew what happened in alola and became interested because of it, and that team galactic will be pursuing ultra beasts (which there will likely be more of). 

i also think uni a!looker and uni b!looker are going to meet.

imagine with me for a moment.

diamond and pearl remakes come out. you enter jubilife city, where you meet looker! you have a conversation, he introduces himself, then disappears. 

you move on, and-- oh! theres looker again! you say hello, but he strangely doesnt recognize you and introduces himself again. ... odd.

you see him again. he recognizes you and references your first conversation, but doesnt seem to know anything about your second.

a fourth meeting. once again, he doesnt remember your previous conversation, and also seems to be doing something entirely different, and... hell, he doesnt even SOUND the same...

now, after a while of this, hes realizing somethings up. hes a fucking member of the interpol, hes goofy but hes not an idiot. he guesses that he has an impostor, and begins searching for this impostor so he can confront/apprehend them.

sometime later, maybe in the postgame, maybe in the maingame, you meet him again and have a short chat, when hes suddenly interrupted by a phone call. he hangs up and informs you that someone spotted his impostor, and speeds off to go deal with this. he doesnt tell you where hes going, but he didnt need to; you can easily guess from the phone call that you should head to jubilife city.

there, you see two lookers arguing with each other, and loads of shenanigans ensue because looker is so goofy and endearing theres no way its not going to be hilarious and silly at first; but then when everything calms down, shit gets serious, and anabel ends up showing up.

im willing to bet shes going to feel some kind of connection to uni a!looker; nothing specific, just an odd, unidentifiable feeling that... ah, it eludes her. strange indeed that he seems to also feel... something, that he cant identify at all; he just knows its there. is it... kinship of some kind? but that wouldnt make sense, theyre both certain theyve never met, and theyre certainly not related. how curious!

of course, that only remains a mystery until they figure out this other looker is a faller, and everything starts simultaneously making more and less sense.

of course thats all just my own prediction for how itll happen, but i dont think im far off base at all and i think itd be completely in line with both lookers character and how pokemon games operate.

now, a lot of people believe that this theory means one of the lookers has to die, and to that i say what. no. look, that “there can be only one” shit is completely unnecessary and i REALLY doubt that theyre going to kill off a looker, especially considering how much everyones grown to like him (or at least everyone ive ever spoken to who knows who he is. seriously, hes too lovable for this.)

instead, i think the following will happen!

1) the lookers partner up and work together (and tell people theyre just twins)

2) they find a way to send uni a!looker back to universe a, or somehow create a way to communicate/travel between universes

3) we learn more about what happened in universe a, and why both anabel and looker were mumbling vague things about urgent missions when they were found washed up on beaches

im not sure that all of these will happen in the same game (in fact i highly doubt it) but it seems like the logical progression of things. 

i think im out of things to say so there you go! thats the two looker theory and how i think itll play out in canon! there are likely a few things im missing, but im fairly certain the information i provided isnt incorrect, just possibly incomplete (sure hope not though cause ive been writing this response for no joke four hours straight). hope it helped and also converted you to the two looker theory club, or the tltc. if you join you get a free croagunk sticker and also a heart-shaped locket with a picture of looker in it if you dont already have your own