Animini: Samurai Flamenco – Episode 19 – The Quiet Life

Konichi-holy-doodoo! I did not expect this episode of Samurai Flamenco to go as dark as it did my dear Island guests.. I mean Digimon bummed me out.. but beaver-dam I did not see this one coming. I expected a nice slice of life episode with maybe some elements of boredom.. but this… eeek! Unlike Digimon I did end up enjoying myself more.. though I still feel the series should have ended after last weeks episode.. I mean I did get closure for that thing I wanted closure about earlier.. I just did not expect that closure to be sledgehammered in.

The Summary

This episode starts with a 6 month time skip after the defeat of Alien Flamenco and Masayoshi’s  encounter with the Will of The Universe. Like the latter said the universe has returned to normal.. or did it? The world is so peaceful that we are moving into some advanced negotiations for a joined “world” government. The one that enjoys the most votes to be it’s president is Masaysoshi himself.. even  though he does not seem interested in the job .. Everyone else wants him to be the president of the world due to his heroic antics.  While he is still training his combat skills, we see him discuss “settling down” with the rest of the cast. His agent and Mari in particular. With no more enemies to fight, the idea is brought up that Masayoshi should find a girlfriend, his agent should date Kono and Mari even suggest Masayoshi to date his agent himself. He doesn’t know what to do.. and he doesn’t want to be world leader so he goes to his best friend Goto. He sees on the calendar of the cop that it’s soon to be date night .. he finally goes to see his girlfriend.. whom he is in a long term relationship with.  Curious Mari and Masayoshi plan to chase him to see if they can help.

This leads them to travel to Goto’s home town.. they lose track of him because they can not board the same train, but since Mari lived in his closet for a while during her great depression she snooped around and found his home address and remembered it. So she moves to the Goto family residence. Here they talk to Goto’s mother in the hope of figuring out where Goto went. Telling her he is on a date. The mother looks shocked and tells a story that Goto had a girlfriend only once in his life.. one day she disappeared while waiting for the bus.  The bus was found empty with no driver.. evidence showed a single passenger had boarded the bus, leaving only an umbrella with a Takoyaki Tako strap behind. Goto’s girlfriend disappeared many years ago.. and he was never able to let it go. But who has been sending him these text messages then? Could it be some kind of trap?! Mari and Masayoshi go to find out.. Mari .. who feels a bit  lovescorned, snatches his phone crossing the street when a bus blocks Goto’s path to find out who is responsible.. it turns out Goto had been pretending to be his own girlfriend all along.. unable to let her go.. he just imagined what she would text him back.  Mari gets bummed out and invites the girls to stay with her at the inn she is staying at while Masayoshi wanders the streets.. bummed out he could not be there for his friend.  A young boy shakes his head.. when suddenly an explosion goes off behind him.. This young boy.. seems to be A new enemy!

The Positives

I feel conflicted about this episode again.. because jeesz the truth about Goto’s girlfriend hit me hard! I always had expected her to be the final villain or something and I am pretty sure this new guy will find out and abuse Goto’s broken hard someway later on.. the building blocks are fairly set up for that.. but this?! I was surprised and I think it was a very strong choice to make. It balances out the sugarry , morale victories Masayoshi had lately! That  basically always involved him being such a great hero that the situation he would get himself in more or less resolved itself. We needed a taste of bitter.. but I did not expect it to leave me with this much of a bleeding heart.  I do think this is a great engine to keep Masayoshi , Mari and Goto involved together so as far as continuations go this is actually a quite briljant way to pull it off. Goto finally got his little moment, even showing why he became a cop and why he bites so much onto mysteries. All the events basically take place in the same day, where the sunshine is being used for when everything is perfectly fine. The peaceful world that Masayoshi is going to be president off.. but as they discover someone they love is in trouble we transition into dusk! Not everything is as bright as we would like to believe .. and when they realise Goto can not be helped right now.. we move into night!  Where a terror attack happens as well.. showing things have gone bad once more.. it is all quite beautifully done.

There are also some great character moments for basically everyone that was once relevant , we see where everyone is. Even the Flamengers. Even the pink ranger got accepted back into her home again.. but she has to deal with regret of never getting the love of her life. The other rangers all get a neat little reference to! Kono is bored with the news being so peaceful and our adorable , best dude, gadget guy has become super famous and successful for contributing to Samurai Flamenco’s success so much now becoming the most successful stationery producer, like now one ever was. The episodes manage to nail both the peace and conflict images very successfully and thus doesn’t leave as sour of a taste in my mouth as the Digimon episode! That being said there are some odd choices in this episode I can not really get behind.

The Negatives

While I really enjoy the episode overall, there are a few choices I do not really like. For one the whole “making Masayoshi world president while he doesn’t really want to” thing  I find very stupid and not an interesting conflict. I do get WHY he would get a majority of the votes,  as people would only vote for someone not of their country if it’s a symbol..  Yet at the same time we see Masayoshi is constantly being interviewed and he is very open about not being interested in becoming the President. So I do feel that whole plotpoint really isn’t going anywhere.  If the world is so peaceful.. Why would you make someone president against his will? He makes a fair point that he is not fit for the job.. as he isn’t all that political .. or smart enough to get that done..which again.. is a fair point. Kaname would make a better ruler that way and he would be a much better choice.

The second issue is that this new villain person is something I find very iffy! It’s a bit as if Masayoshi would be the Tony Stark from the Marvel Universe.. and this new guy is Spider-man is he felt inspired by Tony.. but to go in the wrong direction.. we get a little but seemingly very brainy .. kid as a  villain.  I do like the idea of a final villain that is grounded more into a harsh reality.. bringing the series back to the hero in Masayoshi and not in Samurai Flamenco.. but to make it a kid?! It feels like it’s a bit overshot.. like saying Rallo or Rollo or whatever the guys name was from Geass would be the actual final enemy.. or have Selmin Bradley be the ultimate bad guy in FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The final thing that got me annoyed is that we do not see Moe react at all when Mari is feeling heartache that the cop she is pursuing dumped her for a figment of his imagination.. She is just supporting..  but she is clearly in love with Mari .. or she used to be at least.. why don’t we see any of that here? 

The Score

For what it is worth, I am happy they went this route for the “epilogue”   of the show, this first episode of the final four does show some very competent writing and offers an idea to close this show out on that is of substance enough to justify its existence.  Outstanding plot points are being resolved, and they are doing this in a bold and exciting way. I really loved this concept of Goto being super broken and his best friends being unable to see it!  He always seemed so composed.  Politeness and etiquette prevented Masayoshi to dig deeper… he wants to follow the rules after all and that fits him so well! It really is a great twist and a legit established conflict. So basically everything that would go into the episode synopsis is very amazing.

It is the rest though that still makes me wish that the show ended last episode. I do not find the idea of Masayoshi becoming world president to be even remotely in character, I do not think the new enemy is as strong as I would like him to be. I think it should have been someone more familiar to the cast.. like Kono wanting to create news, or maybe even Kaname becoming a terrorist because his student pushed him from the spotlight. Heck even Flamen Pink because she blames Masayoshi for ripping her and Kaname apart would have had more of an impact. This new guy now has to be established in three episodes and I feel like I can’t take him all that seriously.  Alien was not build up.. but he was strange.. otherworldly he did not need the build up. Same goes for From Beyond Flamenco.. but .. with a normal human… I feel like they will stumble in the end.  I really hope that Mari and Goto don’t end up together either..  because poor Moe! All in all an episode with a very sweet core but a rough exterior.. and I have just the fruit for that.

Pinkie plays Poirot with Pokémon: Theft on The Magnet Train Express

Hello Island Guests, I played another Pokémon Fan game! A Detective one at that!  Based on the Hercule Poirot Novel, Murder on the Orient Express I shall have to investigate some thievery shennanigans on my way too of from Goldenrod city! I can’t completely tell which one.. but in this one hour romp I can most certainly  tell you I will be investigating a “Theft on the Magnet Train Express”

Going for Gold

Theft on the Magnet Train express is a fun fan rom game  that is set in the world of Pokémon Gold and Silver.  Using Gen 5 Battle mechanics.. but deliciously old school 8 bit graphics we immediately get something that distinguishes itself from all the other fan games. For the vast majority of fan games and rom hacks out there all use the gameboy advance (Gen III)  tilesets and sprite work.  So from the get go we get a very unique game. This comes with it’s own strengths.. such as having a great atmosphere, the excitement to see sprites of Generation newer generations get a downgrade to 8 bit and the delightful nostalgia factor.  There really are very few games feeling this unique when it comes to the rom hacking scene.It does come with some flaws as well though. This is arguably a non issue for those who do not dabble in Pokémon fangames on a regular basis.. but among all fan games there usually is a consensus on how these games are controlled.  z,x and c are your main keys to operate menus and save while a or s activates sprint and either the f-keys or the keys surrounding s are used for registered items.

Theft on the Magnet Train express uses x to cancel actions but spacebar and enter as confirmation buttons. This is quite annoying.  It’s very manageable but it feels very unnatural for me. There is this muscle memory and during that entire hour of playing this game it never really grew on me. I managed to pull it off but it never felt as comfortable as z , x , c. Now I could try again for the multiple endings this game has.. as it has 3 of them but  this branching path does not come into play until the very last moments, almost making it more feel like an Endscreen difference than a different route. Which isn’t bad ..but it makes back to back replayability low. I will go back to experience the other two endings and find the hidden Pokémon.. I just won’t go back right now.. or anywhere this week! It’s one of those “I have an hour to spare.. let’s give that another shot type of deals’.So while I do commend them for choosing the harder and untrodden path you can sense and feel that the lack of proper assets kind of played a factor into making this game. Going for Gold .. made it a title only worth the silver.

Inspector Pinkie on the Case

In this game you play a woman named Ellen. After a blackout occurs in the magnet train from Goldenrod to Saffron city…. or the other way…  Ellen goes out to investigate what is wrong and stumbles upon the best detective in the Pokémon world.. Looker! I love him and his theme has been given a 8bit rendition which made me squee with joy!  There is a lot of love for the franchise in here and it shows in the tiny details. He challenges you for a Battle and I discover I have a Shiny Vulpix on my team. I beat the lookers Croagunk.. which I love because it is his signature Pokémon, and he names his deputy researching the strange events on the train.  I will have to make way through the dangerous carriages of the train that are invested with trainers , Pokémon and even Team Rockett to solve a mysterious theft.. of something worth over 4 million Poké-Dollar.

Much more than just Pokémon battling you are engaged with solving this mystery! You do this by finding a certain number of items in each carriage.. Looker is such a good detective he exactly can expect how much evidence you can find in each carriage furthering your case.  Some people want to battle you and with 30 ultra balls on you.. you also have a chance to start catching your own squad of Pokémon to assist your Vulpix. Some follow the wild grass mechanics but for the special ones.. you will have to go through some effort. What makes this game shine so much is that the story is not told through you to the things you need to do.. but through the things you CAN do. The Evidence you find will not cue the player in on what’s going on.. it all seems random.. but then if you check that other bookcase and find some exposition you suddenly start to piece stuff together.  Depending on how well you piece things together you may get an ending for better or worse!

Inspector Pinkie is on the Clock!

Because of how the game is structured it let’s YOU do the work. It drops hints on what is going on, or where to go next but it never holds your hand.  That one character that mentioned an item may become relevant three carriages later and you have to go back.. but where was he or she?! The game doesn’t tell you… it just whispers to you.. did you not talk to a person mentioning said item earlier?! The same style is chosen for the battles. Every Pokémon hits hard!  You have a Vulpix so it’s defensive stats are not high even though it levels all wild Pokémon by level 10. It brings this new level of strategy to the table, you can easily knock out wild pokémon but trainers can easily knock you out as well. Even the wild Pokémon can!  So you are going to have to strategize. Use Will o Wisp to burn and weaken physical attackers, yse Payback when you are being outsped.. go for high damage with flamethrower. You have a lot of options.. but you will also need them. You will need to work for your success.

The game never gets insanely hard but you are not used to having a pokemon with 0 IV and EV investments at level 35..  so the game feels weird. You need to work for success. From beginning to end you need to keep your head screwed on straight.  There aren’t a bunch of  healing items you can buy.. you are stuck on a train you will have to do with whatever you find. Burn your resources too much and you might get a bad end. I ended up catching a Sneasel for my team which I named Tracy and a Skiploom which I named Nancy.. which later evolved into Jumpluff.  Tracy would use Hone claws to boosts it’s attacks and use Beat Down to strike down hard while Nancy would use sleep powder, mega drain and leech seed to stall my opponents to their doom!  Vulpix would inflict burns  and deal big damage with Flamethrower and Extra Sensory! I also had a Lickitung named Sherlick  but he was just there to power up Tracy’s beatdown! I would have loved to use him.. but I could not make him useful enough other than giving me more leech seed stalls and bigger Beat Downs! All of it felt more “designed” and “clever” than my average Pokemon teams!  So I like that here you really have to put in work.

Riding the Rails

While I do not mind putting in the work .. the game at times can feel a bit to chore like. That is mostly due to it being set in a train. You find enough evidence to unlock the next set of carriages go back.. talk to Looker..  and now you can access the next part.   There is a road block so you need to go back.. grab an item.. make progress again, find the evidence, go back to Looker and so forth. It is all due to the fact that you are only on a train. It makes for a great setting for a mystery but too many of your events are contained in these new rooms. I would have loved it if old rooms now would trigger new events as well.. maybe there is something going on in the engine room, perhaps some earlier passengers are getting rowdy and you have to pacify them with a battle. Give us a reason to go back to these locations other than to just fetch an item. Looker is doing his own investigation while you do yours, have him get into trouble, have him instigate an event instead of you it would help the world feel more alive. Other Pokémon games do this as well. In fact even in Gold and Silver .. other characters than you “further’ the plot and you stumble upon it. This game lacks that element and as a result.. it feels a bit “colour by numbers”.

The mystery is also not THAT nicely paced. About during the middle part of the adventure you will have all the clues you need to figure out what is actually going on and while that might actually be by design I think it could have been paced a bit better. Let that one bookcase stand in a carriage near the end not near the middle. Maybe I am too trained into these type of stories that I  figured out what was going on..but I think most of you would get it right away as well.  A good thing about that though is how it is all very much discoverable with in game resources.. you do not need to know lore about Carkoal or about the Magnet train from Gold to understand what is happening here. It is a satisfying plot that does feel like it can be lifted from an actual Pokemon game.. thus not being overly dark.. it feels like it can be a part of the world. Some fun characters are created both in the present and the past of Pokémon so while the ride is very enjoyable it arrives at the second to last station early.  Being early can be amazing..but since it’s not the station you need to disembark from you don’t get the benefits.. you know the train will just sit there and wait arriving at the end as scheduled. You can appreciate the environment a bit more.. but in the end it’s a bit of a  moot advantage.

The Usual Suspects

To properly find out how this Pokémon detective game did we need to check how it functioned as a Pokémon Game, as a Mystery and as a game in general.  Let’s start with the latter because that is where it scores the highest. For the hour that this game is long it is nice to see a non- hand holding game that lets you explore some rooms, uncover evidence but also sleuth for the REAL story yourself.. as you will notice inconsistencies. I really love that part of this fan game and I think this is my favourite short fan game all together.  As a Pokémon game however this game falls short. It is great that they use the gen II tileset but  Pokémon it plays into my nostalgia so hard and the music in 8 bit is FANTASTIC! I LOVED LOVED LOVED.. that..  yet it also comes with some hefty downsides. The Pokémon count is REALLY low! They had to make a lot of old looking sprites and while they do look amazing I would have wished for at least a few more.. Pokémon in it’s very concept is something of abundance… and while I do get that what I want makes no sense on a train I just don’t think the setting and core concept are that great of partners. 

As a mystery it offers a very satisfying story and the way the mystery unfolds before you , I have rarely seen done better.  Usually we all get all the important clues highlighted and here the important stuff is in the subtext! I adore that! We are just given a bit too much stuff to uncover that subtext. Some dialogue is a bit to on the nose. There are several characters that are aware of a situation that really tell you how everything works. It would have been more satisfying to encounter them closer to the end.. or have them experience the same confusion everyone in the train is experiencing.. enough to make you feel “hey something isn’t right here.. we got two conflicting stories here” At least it made me feel SUPER DUPER smart for figuring it out so fast!  So that is nice.. but I loved this little romp so much that I wished I ended up just a bit more surprised.. and that’s what makes me grade this game with a medium high score. It is still one of the better short games out there.. when it comes to Pokémon.. yet it also misses some crucial elements.. it hyped itself up in the beginning..  just to let it weaken in the mid-section!  it is passable by all accounts.. and it looked like it was going to knock it out of the park.. but the landing rough!  I would love to see them tackle another short detective game in the same vein in a bit more open setting. That way it is easier to miss clues, put in more pokemon and get that extra diversity! A nice demo for a hopefully bright future! Please make another Looker game soon guys!

Animini: Digimon Adventure -Episode 12- Lillymon Blooms

It’s a new week my Island Guests! I doubt this week will be as amazing as last week but let’s give it a shot! Given the episode title and the set up of last week it was not that hard to figure out what this week’s episode would be about and how it would end. Yet.. something happened.. after this episode ended , it got under my skin! I ended up feeling really REALLY blue and bummed out. It wasn’t because it was a bad episode either.. I mean I would not call it great…but … well let’s just explain while I blog.

The Summary

In the previous episode we saw Mimi plummet to the depths of the ruins she was exploring with Taichi and Koshiro. She now is all by herself.. Palmon’s vines can’t grow up high enough to get them back up, or even communicate with the pair upstairs. Because these ruins are so deep and brimming with a strange energy they can not even use their digivices to communicate.  All of these little elements used .. have been established before.. Palmon’s lift.. the energy in the digiscript, the way digivices work.. once again showing a good plausible set up for this scenario.  Koshiro, with some lag,  works trough the interference to translate these runes and find out of there is a way to save Mimi, while the latter searches for a way up. Both parties soon discover that this place was once an ancient factory for mechanical Digimon. A soundbirdmon makes his way into the ruins and awakens a pile of deactivated digimon.. including Andromon.. the Ultimate level machine Digimon.. many fans of the series know and love. Like in the original series though he gets corrupted and tries to eliminate Mimi. She however is saved by Guardromon. Earlier Mimi uncovered a dusty body of a digimon.. and Mimi being Mimi, wanted to make it shine and polishes it off and smiles to it.. this act of kindness makes him her guardian!

Togemon is no match for Andromon and quickly gets critically injured ,  but Guardromon uses his missiles to attack the environment and collapse it onto Andromon. Thus highlighting that a lower level digimon can take on an Ultimate by fighting smart. It knows Andromon is not defeated yet so he flees with Mimi! Resting up in a little safe haven he gives her a little flower to reassure her and promises he will help her go to the upper levels of the ruins again.  Meanwhile Taichi and Koshiro are descending into the lower levels of the ruins , not knowing what awaits them.  Just before Mimi reaches the elevator Andromon catches up with her and he and Guardromon fight.. leaving Mimi’s new friend Critically injured. Taichi and Koshiro save her but Kabuterimon is easily tossed aside. Taichi evolves Agumon into MetalGreymon.. and here we see a new element come into play.. match-ups! MetalGreymon while super powerful has slow attacks that Andromon can easily take out on the account of having a gatling gun!  Metalgreymon is defeated.. and just about Mimi is about to be killed, her guardian Guadromon grabs onto Andromon and stops him. Andromon then kills Guardromon.. and Mimi feels tremendous pain and anger. These pure and raw emotions trigger her crest of Sincerity and Togemon evolves into Lillymon for the first time. Having no option but to kill Andromon. Using her attack to consume him in leafage.. makes the android snap back to his old self.. just to realise he will die for his sins. Mimi cries and the trio enters the elevator upstairs right after Mimi places a little flower onto the also overgrown corpse of her Guardromon’ friend.

The Positives

Wow… a Mimi episode. A Mimi episode that did not portray her as shallow but as a genuine and lovely bubbly girl that just loves when things are pretty.  A girl that has never faced too much adversity but now is finding herself on an adventure.. and an unwinnable one at that. In this episode the group experiences their first massive loss. While they won in the end they could not save Guardromon. Sure it kind of happened with MetalTyrannomon before.. but that was the noble sacrifice of Ogremon.. it had something heroic. The way Guardromon lost his life felt desperate.. and futile. He did not keep Mimi safe for longer than a few seconds! Yet he wanted to try anyway.. and the last thing he remembered was her genuine smile!  Such a powerful thing! It really embodied Mimi’s Crest well.. but I never would have expected for them to go the negative route and let her experience sincere pain and grief. 

To accompany this episode that packs a serious punch.. is this odd.. pacing and direction. Normally we see the classical three act structure .. where the heroes face a big problem, flee , strategise and return to a fight just to do well but be surprised by a hidden ability that forces them to “awaken” into a new shape or form. This episode does not really do that.  Togemon does not just get defeated it gets put on death’s door.  This is the second time this happens to Palmon.. so I am kind of afraid she might end up dying even if the show continues long enough.  However in the first act.. the enemy is already temporarily beaten and out-strategised.  The second act has no analytical part at all. Mimi is not that type of character, she makes friends and gets taken along for the ride and that is executed quite literally when  Digimon carries her. The third act shows the group suffer complete defeat.. there is not really a moment where tides look to have turned.. sure Andromon goes down one time but there is no epic music beat.. no victory song.. the normal music just drones on. We know this isn’t it. Even when Guadromon gets killed and Lillymon finally arrives, we do not get the regular digivolution theme.. instead the transformation happens to a much more subtle piece of music.. showing it’s too late! The group has survived.. but they haven’t won!

The Negatives

For some reason seeing the friendly metal man get taken down and lose his life made me extremely sad. Sure it is sad to see an episode from the very concept of it but the way it was done .. that final goodbye.. it landed very hard for me, which can be deemed as a good point.. but there are deaths that make me cry that feel like a good cry.. this just bummed me out.  In a way the odd pacing of this episode is very powerful but it makes it also a very unsatisfying episode.  That kick of feel goodness the show has given me so far is nearly completely absent from this episode. Gone are the bright colours, the hype music, the music and imagery synergising. Even the digivolution sequence of Agumon this time felt “off” as if it was forced in.. He had to kill Digimon that were nowhere near his level.. but he could not waste time.. so he could not show mercy. As a result though the fight felt kind of more uneasy than satisfying. 

Andromon I know as one of the best and most amazing allies of the digidestined so to see him snuffed out like this felt.. “wrong”.. In a way I really LOVE that they did this. There is no shooting lethal attacks into someones face just to break whatever spell makes him evil! No .. he got corrupted and they have lethal digimon.. so they had to put it down. Because they are the ones that need to save this world… there is no plot magic saving the good guys. There are bigger stakes at play than a single kindhearted digimon.. he needed to die for the greater good. This stuff is my jam..I love that morality where a good guy needs to make choices and sacrifices. Yet at the same time.. because the original Digmon series exists that gave us our shot of Dopamine.. this course of events feels completely unsatisfying. I love that they went this route.. but I did not enjoy myself persé in this episode. I suffered a bit and actually felt bad after the episode and had to take a long shower to get back a bit. So this one will be hard to grade again.

The Score

Death are a part of anime, and even digimon has richly used death in the past. Some deaths in anime even really hurt.. but there can also be a sense of beauty to it.  This one however did not give me any positives. It is very well written and I really appreciate them going this route in hindsight but I REALLY REALLY REALLY did feel bad from this episode. Not crying my eyes out bad.. just “I can experience no joy” kind of bad. So there is no way I can give this episode a perfect grade. I can’t even say this episode is very good. In a way it is.. but I can’t shake that terrible feeling this episode gave me. On it’s own I think this episode would be horrible.. like if someone sees this as their first episode of Digmon I don’t think they would ever return. The pacing is off, the music is unsatisfactory , the action feels dulled and the colours are super grey, it feels off in every way.

In the bigger picture I can see how it is designed to be like that.. how it is meant to contrast with the other episodes. This episode did confirm that only Taichi and Yamato will get those stock digivolutions as the Togemon digivolution happened without the cool animation and that is a bit of a let down but hey.. Taichi is the leader and Yamato is the second ..  I can live with that. Still though in an episode that bummed me out so much I can not help but crave for seeing that satisfying animation.  In the end I chose to grade this Okiwi.. but it is the wrong grade.. on many levels. It’s both worse and way way better than that.  Yet it is the only way I can express my feelings for this episode. I love the direction.. I hate the episode.  I love the journey. I hate the events. There was enjoyment there but it was dulled by that sensation of being bummed out to my very core.

The Paradise Weekly Gazette 2: 16 to 22 November

Konichi-greetings my dear and precious Island Guests. With another week  of blogging we have taken another step in me being recognised as the pinkest geek blogger IN THE WORLD. Because it was my Birthday week and my Laptop crashed I was not able to write as big and much as I wanted.. but  we still got a week’s worth of blogging!  So how about we take you through this week of blogging to see if you missed anything! And of course take a peek in my personal life as well!

The Animinis

Digimon Adventure – Episode 11 – The Wolf Standing Atop the Desert

Samurai Flamenco – Episode 18 – Flamenco in Space

That Time I got Reincarnated as A Slime -Episode 17- The Gathering

Flip Flappers – Episode 12 – Pure Howling

Animini: Hikaru No Go -Episode 22 – The Insei Test

Animini: Natsume Book of Friends -Episode 2- The Dew God’s Small Shrine

Animini Cowboy Bebop -Episode 2- Stray Dog Strut

Once again  Flip Flappers was my favourite view of the week, but Natsume Book of Shadows came very close!  Digimon was very exciting as well and I will remember  the dog episode of Cowboy Bebop for a good while to come!  Slime.. was okay.. but has been in a bit of a rut for me.    Hikaru no Go was a miss for me this week. I don’t expect anime to be good all the time and there was a lot to set up.. so it’s forgivable.. but it really was the weaker view of the week!  Next week will be the finale for Flip Flappers! So I would like some suggestions for a new Magical Girl show in the comments! Yes I am replacing the magical girl show with a magical girl show! 

Pinkie’s Other Posts

No Staff posts this week still, so we move into my other content straight away. This week was my Birthday so I had a lot of cleaning, shopping and socialising to do which made the other posts this wek just a bit shorter!  Still I had some great fun!

I watched a few fish stream and play Pokémon! And am even following their next Pokémon adventure as we speak!

I interviewed myself for a sort of Birthday Q&A .. but I actually asked Job Interview questions instead of Q&A/Magazine Interview Questions

I rewatched Detective Pikachu and saw a REALLY good video game movie! That is even fun if you do not like Pokémon! 

I probably made myself a lot less popular by listing my favourite consoles and explaining why I don’t like some of the classics as much! 

I wrote this post so you can linkception again!

Camp Coconut Updates

The home of the coconuts has been fairly quite! I think! Due to my laptop crashing and having a big  driver conflict I had to reset it to factory settings. As a result I was logged out everywhere and I forgot a lot of my passwords.  So I have been searching to get those back! Luckily the Playful Coconut was there to provide me some help!  I also got a nice help offer from the Shy Coconut again. So the little guys have been supporting me in more ways than one. The newest project I started with the Coconuts is to be able to build a PC and get a desk for it! As I now have the space to do so!

To learn more about camp coconut you can click here!  You can even be a coconut yourself!

Posts that Impressed Pinkie

I haven’t been put on the blogosphere as much!   I used to have all sorts of folders with bloggers to visit but that is gone now that my laptop is reset and I have mostly been focussing on getting things back in order.  I have noticed a few posts though! Click on the image to visit them

Irina-Senpai is looking for Guests Bloggers and if you want to be featured on one of the most amazing , Sugoi,  blogs out there here you can find out how to do it. I certainly plan to participate! .. As soon as things are back in order!


Senpai’s Senpai is having summer feelings and wrote about Free. While there is a lot of Christmas stuff starting to happen it is nice to see a post that has such summery feelings!

Some guy with a letter for a name wrote a very big and clever masterpiece.  It’s a very interesting read that admittedly makes me feel a bit  dwarfed. I could never blog from that angle. Luckily other people do it for me.. well not FOR me.. but they do it in my stead… well not in MY stead.. they do it.. so there is varried content! Check it out if you want some level in your post!

Voyager, who is behind the amazing Bullet Toon YouTube videos has released a chapter of their web novel Extra/Normal! The title card already is amazing! I will admit I will still have to read it.. but I love their insights on YouTube and I love writing fiction myself.. so this really impressed me! I just need to find some time to finish reading it! Which I will probably do after this weekend! Untill then I will already send as much people their way as I can! It will be amazing! I did read the post I am linking to by the way so it’s fair game!

Pinkie Away From Keyboard

With my Birthday being this week my week has been all about having family over! Dad gave me a Panini Maker, Mom bought me a Dolce Gusto and and my sister gave me carpeting for on my stairs and she made food to serve at our little gathering.  I have been giving a lot of love to the oddish flower pot my friends gave me last week and yesterday I got a new plushie friend which I named Heather “The Horn” Heterochromeow!   Tonight a friend is coming over and he arranged for some kind of birthday dinner because he really wanted a sort of event.  So he arranged something of a surprise delivery dinner as my birthday gift.

Other than that there was the Laptop crash. It all started on wednessday evening when my keyboard suddenly shut down.. the laptop one. I figured I might just hit a wrong button and that by closing it the next day it would be solved. A loud beep startle me the next day and it said , keyboard not found! Well that sucks! So I thought I would find a way to fix it when plugging in a usb keyboard.  That resulted in me getting a blue screen of death every other minute. I could not scan for viruses, I could not not acces my system settings to acces a recovery point as every minute I got a blue screen of death. Because the keyboard did not work I could not even boot the laptop into safe mode!  So after managing to trigger Auto Recovery.. I had to reset to factory defaults.. all my software was gone.. and with it a lot of issues. All my blogging systems and auto log-in things where gone. So that was annoying!

I was playing Deponia for a review .. and that save game was gone now as well but luckily the Multifacted Ocelot gifted me Tales of Beseria for my Birthday.. which cheered me up quite a bit!  I have been playing Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair on Switch .. and deleted Govenor of Poker 3 after I did not like it anymore!     Yooka is something I am in the final stages of and I am having a blast with it! Tales of Beseria is SUPER good so far!  Even though I just  cleared the first “dungeon” .  I am hooked! So besides having some bad luck .. and lot’s of people over I am also having a lot of Cyberfun.

Plans

I am planning a few new posts for next week! I played a very unique Pokémon Rom Hack,  I plan to review Yooka Laylee and want to talk to you about an experience I recently had in anime!    Of course you’ll need to take everything with a grain of salt because I do not know if the Laptop Issue will not come back!  Tuesdays and Fridays and I will try to keep free for Staff Blogs from now on.. this will give me more time on Mondays to focus on my online tabletops and on Thursdays to do the physical tabletops post Covid again!

In December Paradise will have another theme month and today the poll to determine what it is will go up on Twitter. The options for the first theme month will not include a christmas theme. After a bit of tweaking I have come with four possible themes.

Egypt month: Pyramids, Mummies and ancient mysteries will await you if you vote for this one!
Steam Punk Month:  Let’s shift christmas into high gear… and ornamental gear as well by reviewing and playing some interesting Steam Punk products
Beyond Paradise Month: A month in which we would push beyond our comfort  zone. Reviewing movies I would not normally review, playing games I would classify as not for me. Let’s embrace what lies out there into the unknown.. or the things we would not give a chance at first shot.
Space month: Let’s check how Paradise would be IN SPACE! Sci-Fi shows, Spacey Games  and Anime set on  other planets will be played, watched and enjoyed in SPACE MONTH!

The facial Expression in no way reflect my willingness to use a theme!

Vote for your favourite and do not forget to leave a suggestion to for a new magical girl show for the animini’s after next week! If you want to become a coconut please support  our Kofi. Most off all I just want to have you all have an amazing week and enjoy the blogsphere!

Animini: Cowboy Bebop -Episode 2- Stray Dog Strut

If you have read my latest Natsume Book of Friends  review you’ll know I often have issues with second episodes of anime. These are usually exposition dumps that have very little interesting stuff to tell in favor of fleshing out the world.  Cowboy Bebop takes a bit of a different approach and I like it!  It isn’t a flawless second episode but we got no exposition dump here.. instead we get Corgis. 

The Summary

Spike and Jet travel to Mars where a new bounty rests on the man named Abdul Hakim! Using Bounty Hunter TV we discover the universe knows roughly 300.000 Bounty Hunters and an 8 Million bounty is sure to attract some attention right?!  Hakim allegedly stole a precious lab-animal. Spike decides to go to shady pet-shops to track the man when he eventually wants to unload the precious pet.  Spike quickly slips up however when  Hakim seems to have used a proxy to make the sale. Seeing a “worthless” Corgi sitting in a box the petshop owner with a turtle on her head values it at just 200k which apparently in this world is nothing… maybe it’s even just 200.. I am not sure how much the currency of this world is worth and heck it might even be called K… *Checks around if she accidentally summoned a movie blogger* 

Hakim walks into the store and tries to take the dog back.. but Chaos ensues.. the dog escape and Spike pursues Hakin.. eventually the dog Jumps of a bridge onto a boat and when  Spike leaps in to pursue.. the dog latches onto his face causing him to miss the jump and the dog escapes from Hakim.  Jet and Spike don’t care much for worthless Corgis so they use the dog as bait.. only to lose it  to some scientist who made a super sonic dog whistle van.. as all dogs in town chase the car, Hakim steals a car and Spike goes in pursuit with his airship.  The scientist snare up all the other dogs but the Corgi escapes, it seems super smart..almost like a person.. it can not escape Hakim however.. who basically  Chloroforms it with an Aerosol (And I know Chloroform doesn’t actually work like that.. but it’s a detective novel/film noir trope,, that I think fits the setting)  The scientist start using guns on Hakim and Spike.. who tries to use his landing gear to bash the roof of Hakim’s car open. This makes the Corgi wake up who jumps on the wheel.. pushes some buttons and then falls out the window once Hakim’s car gets harpooned by the dog whistle van. Spike chooses to save the dog and forsake his bounty. Hakim turns himself in.. and Spike gets himself a genetically engineered super smart Corgi…even though he dislikes dogs.

The Positives

For those who have followed me for a while and actually read what I write, you probably know I love randomness. It’s a big elementi I try to incorporate in my life as much as I can… so when I see what i believed to be a dark Space Western with some dandy elements ..be all about chasing a Corgi I was amazed. It felt so random and nothing like a second episode normally is. We get no long tales of Spike’s tragic past, we get no flashback to how he and yet met.. no we get a guy who goes and tries to earn some money and ends up with hyper intelligent Corgi instead. I love it! The weird pet shop lady, calling all the animals her babies but looking like a heavy smoker and boozer  felt almost out of place.. but also not.. THere is a turtle on her head that nobody questions.. which is kinda amazing and seeing a Corgi do that classic bridge leap to land on some canvas instead of the human characters?! I certainly haven’t seen that before! This episode was entertaining with a capital E.. Maybe a capital N as well. 

The character designs were amazing as well. Abdul had so much flavour, the Petshop lady even more.. even the random mook who had to sell the Corgi had this design element to him.. kind of looking like a young Leorio from Hunter X Hunter. Last week I complained that the grunts looked a bit like “video game mooks” which instantly told you how easy they would be to deal with.  This week we have some new grunts but there is a sense of design in them, unique hairstyles different body types even a bit of personalities.. as a result you can push them way further and get a much more interesting chase in the end. I also love the design elements in Mars so far.. taking a more Chinese like approach in design it feels a bit like Macao City… the Chinese Vegas but more seedy and filled with underhand deals and earlier .. opium trade and the likes. It is also established as such.. on Mars “Everything” is for Sale. Under the counter shops are everywhere , and people don’t take kindly to you asking questions.. unless you show you are a cool guy. I like that money isn’t the only rule here.. Spike adresses an arms dealer based on his passions and it works, it lifts these characters from cartoon characters in a stereotypical town to something a bit more real.

The Negatives

I really enjoyed this episode but it also does feel a bit sloppy at times, because of how weird the plot is.  The Corgi can bend his shape to operate a steering  wheel but can also latch onto a face and for whatever reason Spike and Jet have a dog collar in it’s size on board..while they don’t really seem to like dogs. Jet seems to be fine with him.. but he calls the Corgi a Mutt anyway. When it hopped onto the steering wheel it kinda felt to “liquid” also Hakim not yanking it off his steering wheel feels off! If I was driving a car.. and Arceus have mercy on the soul who is in the car with me,  I would not allow a dog to make me crash let alone push it several buttons on the wield why I just quietly tell it “stop it”. I would punch the dog of my steering wheel.. and No that doesn’t make me cruel I am driving on a bridge while being shot at that just makes me sensible.. and sometimes this episode misses that sensibility making the characters cartoony… it’s very entertaining but it isn’t “ engaging”.

I am willing to believe this dog is hyper intelligent.. I just don’t think ti can change size… To make this episode a bit more powerful I would have at least liked to see Spike and the dog bond a bit… I am pretty sure they are going to keep it..but now it staying on Bebop feels kinda un-earned.. I would have loved a brief scene where the dog found Spike a half eaten Peking Duck in  one of those take away boxes that he could finish.. or stealing him some actually food out of a restaurant.. heck even a look would have been fine! Just something that makes Spike want to save the dog when it falls out of the car later on..That is not really a negative though ..but more of a suggested approvement. 

The Score

I really liked this episode a lot LOT more than the first one, and that already was great.. yet I have to give this episode the same grade. This episode is a lot muddier than the first one and a bit more clownish. It is really something I want to see in this series.. the ability to have fun with itself  but I can not escape that feeling that there is a lot of rickety parts either. It’s kind like comparing A Tardis with Bell and Teds Payphone time machine. I’d probably have more fun with Bill and Ted but if you ask me which is the better time machine it will be the Tardis. The payphone is a bit of a joke so it lacks that same wow factor and I think that is a good summary of those episode as well.

I loved this episode and I am super excited to see if they will keep the dog and name the dog. I am super curious to see if the dog will live and heck.. I am also super curious to what other worlds are out there.. what else Mars has to offer and what is in store for the crew of the Bebop. This is quickly turning out to be one of  those cases that Science Fiction really works out for me and Mari pointed me out why. One of the few sci-fi shows I really like is drawing HEAVY influences from Bebop to a point where I now feel that Firefly really copied HARD.  The way these characters are, the banter, the level or airiness and the whole Cowboy/Space world building it clearly was a love letter to this. So seeing a prequel to one of the greatest Sci-Fi shows ever seems to become quite an enjoyable ride.. but who knows.. which of these two will be my favourite Sci-Fi Serial in the end?!

Pinkie ignores the Master Race: My Top 5 Video Game Consoles

With a subpar laptop and a very big lack of competitive spirit .. PC gaming is oftenly not my thing! I use it for point and Click Adventures and I do enjoy some retro platformers on the medium but overall I must say I have always been more of a console and handheld girl! There is just something a bit more magical about these devices for me! They have a charm…but which ones are my favourites?! I see no way this can be taken the wrong way so here is my console top 5.

Console #5: Gamecube

The gamecube was a bit of an odd duck when it came out. It had less power than it’s rivals and it was so oddly shaped.  With Luigi’s Mansion being the only “name worthy”  Launch TItle Nintendo had to back it up.  Sure there was a new Wave Racer and Doshin the Giant but it would take this machine a while to get some steam. Yet what we did not know was how good Eternal Darkness was, we did not know how good this machine would end up being.  Yet the game-console that   featured a miniature disc to play it’s game had very poor third party support.  Almost all hits , with the exception of a very VERY few were all First Party titles.  Super Smash Bros on the Gamecube is hailed as THE Best version of the game.  The Wind Waker was amazing and many gamers have fond memories of Paper Mario and The Thousand year door.  I am STILL waiting for a sequel to the amazing F-Zero GX! Mario Kart Double Dash was a bright pinnacle in the series and nowadays most of us know what a Pikmin is!

Yet no one really played the Gamecube ports of Call of Duty, Prince of Persia or Fifa. We had Super Mario Super Strikers instead!  Resident Evil 4 , for a long time was a gamecube exclusive and it was amazing but if I had to think of a third party top 5.. I would struggle.  So it was a very static console.. that did offer us some amazing and innovative experiences.. such like Four Swords adventures .. by linking our handhelds to our console! It had two very nice Pokémon titles as well in the form of Pokémon Colosseum and Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness.. in these days the XD is kind of unfortunate but back then we did not juste that emoji yet! It was all about that 🙂  on MSN! The worst thing about the console.. and this is a genuine pet peeve of mine was the fact that it was really hard to get controllers if you did not have the purple variant!  I had to buy a black one back in the day because all the purple ones were sold out.. and I ended up with four different colours of controller.. I don’t like that clowney look! It as a console that had too many quirks but strictly based on its library it would easily be a few places higher.

Console #4: Playstation 2

The PlayStation 2 is the only PlayStation I ever liked. I prefered the N64’s soft but grey look over the edgy but more crisp graphics of the original PlayStation, I did not like Crash Bandicoot’s  jumping into the depth of the platforms.. I lacked the feedback that Mario 64 gave me!   Spyro I liked better.. but the collectables were a bit generic and lacked that level of satisfaction Mario’s one up sounds give you, or Donkey Kong’s soundtrack bestows upon you.  I missed out on LSD-Dream Emulator and the amazing Bubsy 3D but overall I never missed the Playstation. PS2 However, I did it right for me! The controls felt more robust, I liked the graphics a lot better and it had better platforming heroes in the form of Jak and Daxter and  Ratchet and Clank.  While I do not dislike Spyro these had that flavour I was looking for.  It also had the nicest controller and a very solid memory card. My gamecube ones kept breaking!

Playstation 2 had Final Fantasy X.. the last Final Fantasy game that I liked (excluding a realm Reborn) ..a game I have never finished.. not because I could not but because I refused. It also had the best Dragon Quest game off all time! In the form of the 8th installment. The cursed King. I really love that one! Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist of the Roses came out on that as well and I had way too much fun with that game.. even if it’s not all that good! There was this “ease” to Playstation 2 games, that kind of felt it was an evolution in some ways of  Nintendo.. say if Nintendo was a Pikachu, PlayStation 2 was it’s Raichu.. everything worked just that slight bit better over there.. I do like Pikachu over Raichu most of the  time in terms of design, cuteness and how Iconic it is .but Raichu just performs better. It became my defacto game for jRPGs and more mature platformers. I would play it until years after its expiration date.

Console #3: Xbox 360

When the next generation came along however I jumped off the PlayStation bandwagon. Xbox would get Oblivion Sooner, Xbox 360 got Kameo , elements of Power.. a collectable creature adventure Hybrid that really felt like a unique title and one I have always deeply enjoyed. This is the age where I did not really see a benefit in having a very specific console ..besides Nintendo for its titles.. because PlayStation and XBox became a bit more generic to me. If preferred Halo vastly over Killzone and since Microsoft now owned Rare .. I preferred that studio over Naughty Dog so  I was pretty confident about my choice.. and while I never got my amazing platformers on the system I never regretted it and to this day it is the console I own most games on. With well over 80 games.. this kind of was my STEAM. Just.. a bit more space consuming and not holding it’s value as much.


I got the red ring of death but I neatly got it replaced so while maybe not as durable I really liked it better in almost every department. I like a white Console over a black one.. I like the flat surface so I can put more stuff on it.. over the weird rounded one of the PS3. I like the controller better and I certain as heck preferred Xbox live over Playstation online. I still feel the difference between a PS3and a Xbox 360 is almost neglectable but Xbox had more exclusive features I liked. Fable, Alan Wake, Halo, Gears of War. Back in the day I also emulated a lot of SNES because and the Xbox 360 Wired USB was by then the best you can get. I could combine both my gaming passions with this device! Plus it was very fun to annoy my friends in Soul Calibur by playing Yoda! Darth Vader wasn’t nearly as broken and not nearly as fun! I never liked Kingdom Hearts..which to me is the stand out reason to buy a PS3. So since I did not feel that compulsion the 360 became my mass gaming device! .. it did help that it had actual video games unlike the Nintendo Wii…which is mostly a pile of shovelware with a few impressive tech demo’s.

Console #2: Nintendo Switch

Number 1 and number 2 are miles apart in terms of favouritism from the rest. I genuinely think the Switch is one of the best consoles of all times, and the handheld  to full on console format this device follows makes it unsurpassable.  During the N64 era I considered.. should I get a playstation.. There are some cool license games on there. During the next generation I owned all the consoles save for the Dreamcast.. but PS2, Gamecube and the OG Xbox I all played.  I always felt a call to the other consoles.. but not this generation. I have no pull yet towards the PS5 and the Series X..The Switch is all I need. It has the games I like more.. by factor a lot, it can be used as a handheld AND a console and it is more fun to play couch co-op. I do not care about the prettiest graphics, I do not care about the competitive online scene. I am here for the most complete and adorable singleplayer The Switch is a unique thing, with unique games and there is no real substitute. Spider-Man Miles Morales is just a very much shorter.. not even a full game.. version of that Other Spiderman game I own. I have A Call of Duty and I don’t like the 2000 extra mechanics they added in later on. Mario Odyssey though is a completely different game from Galaxy and I can play it in a different way. Pokémon might not be that different from previous generations yet the only real other way I get to play that is by playing clone games.

I like the menus on Switch , they are super easy.. I love that I can get Pink Joycons for it (even though I don’t have them because I just moved and they are super expensive)   I love that I see it played everywhere around me and it’s not a “I am the biggest COD player” kind of culture. It’s .. “hey do you want to visit my island” .. “Hi do you want to trade this Pokémon”.. There is no T-bagging there not that drive to over-achieve. Sure I occasionally play Super Mario 35..but it’s more a “how long can I last” kind of thing rather than.. let’s humiliate my opponents. There is no flexing like “prestige” or golden Pokéballs   if you win a lot in Pokémon online. Mario Party might kill friendships… which can be hilarious but it all feels so much less as measuring your online cyber fallus..  than I get from the other two.  It does it’s own little thing and because of it is such a sexy little beast.

My favourite Console: SNES

Little video game consoles have actually shaped me as a person, but I do think the SNES had an amazing impact on me as an individual. Arguably the NES did as well but I was a much more passive participant in that one. I just got games for the NES from my parents and played them and sure Ducktales had a big impact and I fell in love with Mario 3, Megaman 2  made me me a better gamer and all that.. but it all was stuff that was handed to me.  On the SNES I chose my games. I actively influenced what I wanted to play.  I was much more busy with solving problems in Goof Troop, or finding a way to pass that Moose chase level in Micky Mania then I had ever been with beating Rocksteady  in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.. the Arcade Game. Getting my SNES is the point where I start to remember my entire life..  my conscious memories.. it is also in the time I started to slowly lose friends and be bullied. So in a way this console became my safe haven.. my escape from my bad reality!

The games on the system are amazing. Genesis Does what Nintendon’t .. oh Bitcharizard please. The music on SNES was so more Vibrant.. the first Sonic game.. isn’t all that good meanwhile SNES had Super Mario World.. which was amazing.  Star Fox showed us what was possible on a console and showed us we could move beyond 2d.  Link to the Past is still one of the best Zelda games ever. Maybe it even IS the best Zelda game ever.. it’s a close one for me between that one and Ocarina.  When we get Retro Games these days.. they are almost all modeled after what they would have been on SNES. I still love the heck out of that classic controller and holds the best RPGs that ever released.  Final Fantasy VI (Or III)  Chrono Trigger, Lufia II  and Tales of Phantasia. It had some pretty sweet Sailor Moon games (though not available here) and other anime games. It had the Donkey Kong Games which to this day are some of my favourite games of all times.. and it let me feel pride for the first time in a long time. I might not be able to run properly.. I might suck a sports.. but I was the first in class to kill K.Rool!  I just want a different direction. On the SNES I became a geek and laid the foundation for the weird amalgamation I am today and that makes it my favourite console! SNES Is part of my soul!.. The european version.. not the american version!

And those are my favourite game consoles! I would have liked to bring you a review of a game instead but my laptop crashed and I lost all my progress in Deponia as I had to restore my laptop to factory defaults being unable to complete it! So this had to make due instead! If you want to help me get a pc instead of a Laptop .. this is my newest Kofi Project so if you want to convince me of the power of such a thing.. please consider some Kofi support! Or just be a pal and leave your favourite console in the comments below!

Animini: Natsume Book of Friends -Episode 2- The Dew God’s Small Shrine

I had a lot of reactions to my first review of Natsume, my dear Island Guests. After telling I thought it was very good but a fairly predictable first episode I was told the good stuff would start a few episodes in.. so I was fully prepared for this episode to be even a bit bland.. as usually Episode 2’s of series are my least liked episode (exposition and such)… I was not prepared for what I was about to see when I watched the second episode of Natsume!

The Summary

Natsume and Nyanko-Sensei  are growing a bit closer together as Natsume continues to deal with Yokai in his daily life. We begin the episode with what I assume is a potential romantic interest for the boy asking him for a signature to do a Trial of Bravery in the old School building.. a ghost hunt of sorts! A hunt that I am sure will be one of the next few episodes!  There Natusume sees a Yokai that chases him and attacks him thinking he is Reiko again. Nyanko-Sensei saves him because the spirit trying to kill the boy wants the book for himself.  We see that Natsume’s daily life has changed since he became his lucky cat “pal” . There are two types of Yokai in his life. Those trying to kill him and those who come and talk and ask for their name back.  One of these is the tiniest cute little Yokai guy who is described as the “Dew God” A former rain god that has shrunk in size after losing followers. We also discover Nyanko’s real name is Madara. 

When Natsume tries to give the little guy his name back, he discovers his grandmother did not take to great care of the book and two pages are stuck together.. if he tries to peel the apart and give Dew’s name back.. he might cause him imense pain or even death.  So the only way to solve this is to find this other Yokai that is stuck to his page as well. Natsume lacks time at the moment and will visit the shrine of the guy later. On his way there he meets and old Lady named Hana who is nice enough to give him a peach. She turns out to be Dew God’s only follower.. his lore is told and she experienced it and is thankful for the mircale a man has caught still. Praying devoutly every day.. even though she is sick and doesn’t have a lot of time left on this earth. Natsume searches for the other Yokai..which turns out to be quite hard because the Dew God only gives him a poor drawing to go by.. this causes the hunt to go on for several days but eventually the little guy tracks the Yokai down and Natsume can give them back their names.. the Dew God thanks him.. but tells he is dying. Hana died and with his last follower gone.. a god will die as well. Natsume tells he will be his follower and worship him but the Dew God refuses.. telling Natsume that they are friends.. those should not worship each other… he then fades.. finally coming eye to eye with Hana in a form of afterlife.  Thankful for what she has done for him. Reliving their missed  opportunity encounter.

The Positives

I did not expect this episode to impact me already!  That was such a sweet but also heartbreaking episode.  I mean there is still a lot to be established here but as far as second episodes go I have never been as deeply emotionally affected like this one. I went misty eyed! I managed to not cry.. .but I really came to like that little guy in the span of a single episode.  The idea of a god dying without worshippers was something I was quite familiar with by playing the game Sacrifice WAAAY back in the day.  I beat that game with every single god and had a blast!… So when I heard Hana had died.. I was afraid for the little guy.. and without remorse he was taken from me!  I liked the message he left with a lot too.. friends do not worship each other , they are equals. Even though I am not familiar with Shinto religion and the idea of shrines and paying offers, the end scene of Natsume leaving an offering for something that someday might be in the now empty shrine was a nice little sentiment.  If we do not appreciate things they might be gone before we know it.. so let’s already be thankful for whatever blessings might be bestowed upon us in advance!

I like how we are exposed to Natusme’s social life in a rather organic way. Tired from all his adventures and releasing a spirit he ponders over his relation with his legal guardians, telling how much he appreciates them and can not bother them with this little quest of his. It does feel like a fairly genuine string of thinking though.. I am so tired from the job but I can’t bother anyone with what is going on at my work right now for it would make my loved ones worry. The subtle way he wants to sign something to help the female classmate and pronounces her name are all much more subtle cues to tell a story then him going all hearty eyes telling in his mind she is his secret crush.. this also leaves more room for liberties.. maybe I read it wrong, maybe the two are just friends.. maybe something awkward happened between them.. there is so much more you can narratively do with this approach and it also feels a lot more natural than how anime crushes are conveyed normally. This is a great episode that really plays on emotions in a sensible way. Also those peaches Hana was known for and gave to Natsume looked SUPER TASTY! So some nice visuals and creature design as well!

The Negatives

I struggle to find anything negative about the second episode of Natsume. Yet I can’t fault it that much. The comedy with the drawing was funny. The attempts from Madara/Nyanko to off Natsume in his sleep had chuckling and the story elements nicely clicked together. If I had to nag about something.. and I set myself up for that it’s that getting the little guy his name back and him fading away happens fairly close next to each other.. but I am not even sure that is correct. We see a day pass but for all we know it could be several days. Still it felt a bit “coincidental”   that the old lady died JUST after the quest had been complete.You know.. storybook pacing and such.. still I probably would have enjoyed the episode if that did not happen.. so it’s not really a negative!  Reee! Let me try again!  Sound?! No I loved those Cicada’s in the middle of nowhere? The  plenty of flashbacks? No those were quite lovely!  Darn it! Oh wait maybe this!

So in the school Natsume encounters a Yokai that gets stopped by Dragon-mode Nyanko/Madara  it then turns into a fluffy ball with an eye and floats away. That plotline is not pursued at all anymore, it’s just a random fleeing Yokai.. which I would have liked to see addressed a bit more.. but I am sure that it will return in the next episode or in a few so that way it would be more awesome! But if it just vanished from here on out.. that would be a negative. Hey I’ll take a potential negative point over having non in a section where I am supposed to list negatives!  I am also sad the Dew God and Hana are gone forever.. I liked both characters .. but that is what made this episode so impressive already.  Yeah.. really that is it.. this episode already was quite amazing. 

The Score

You don’t need to be paranormal to see what grade I am about to give this episode . There is this thing between me and second episodes that always is a bit iffy. There are a few series of which I don’t mind the second episode.. but there are very VERY few series of which I love the second episode.  Samurai Flamenco being a Noteworthy exception.  However I am going to call it and say this is my new favourite second episode of a series! So that is pretty high praise! It’s my tribute to a show which one day might even become better.. and I am actually pretty sure of it. 

Natsume’s Grandma seems like a horrible person though! She steals Yokai’s names and takes bad care of the book and she tricks people into fighting her by offering them food when they need to eat. I am not sure what kind of person Reiko is but she seems like quite a Bit-Choo-Choo train to me! An interesting specimen still and I want to learn more about her.. but I think I would hide a lot of tabasco in her tea if I ever got to serve her some.  She’d probably beat my pink face in or send Yokai to deal with me… but yeah! These are just some random thoughts! Really REALLY good episode! .. Now I am off to find some dissapointing peaches in the SuperMarket.. but i really want one!

Animini: Hikaru No Go -Episode 22 – The Insei Test

Welcome back to another episodic review of Hikaru no Go my dear Island Guests. This series has been the first one I have faithfully kept up with. It sure has its ups and downs .. although mostly ups. The last few episodes have been stellar so I was kinda disappointed that this episode broke that streak. It isn’t bad it is just no way up to bar with the rest of the episodes that came after the Internet-Go Arc started. 

The Summary

I will have a bit of trouble filling two paragraphs with the plot this week because it is really quite simple! Last episode we saw Hikaru move on from his Middle School Go Club to go and head on to the Insei Exam, this week picks up with the start of the test. At first glance Hikaru seems rather unimpressive with the examinatior. His matches are sloppy, his playing style is too aggressive  and he doesn’t have any notes of playing  worthy opponents.  As the exam goes along he discovers more and more about Hikaru’s potential though.  For example he finds out Hikaru has only been playing Go for a year and he played his 3 matches simultaneously. After losing the match to the examinator Hikaru.. barely .. passes the test. With some doubt in the head of the examinator and a lot of stress in Hikaru’s body!

The second part of the episode we see Hikaru play matches against the other Insei about a week later.. they are all intrigued in himn because he blabbed about being Akira Touya’s rival which makes everone want to play him..and Hikaru loses all his matches, showing he is back on the bottom of the foodchain again. We slowly see him becoming.. “half” friends with Waya and a guy whose name did not stick yet for me!  Waya’s buddy at least  They have lunch together and Waya jokes about a very weak player from Kaio High. We get a bit of an explantion to how the Insei classes work.. there are two tiers , first and second class Insei and by winning your way among your class and against superiors you can climb up the ladder. This Kaoi guy was known for how unremarkable he was and the lack of talent, eventually leading him to drop out.  This guy turns out to be Kaoi’s First Board.. a guy Hikaru thinks is way out of his league… demotivated Hikaru leaves the class.

The Positives

This episode is significantly weaker as the episodes that came before. Many of the show’s normal strengths are not present in this episode. The cinematography is a lot more bland, the pacing seems off and the natural flow the series has is stifled with a few plot points here and there.  What the show does well however is creating that sense of unfamiliarity. Hikaru had to give up playing with his friends for this.. he is in a strange environment and he basically went from the strongest player to being the weakest again. The show does a very good job at fleshing this out in the second part of the episode. My favourite scene is where Hikaru loses to a girl. He  has always disrespected Akiri to a certain level as a Go-Player so making him suffer a loss like this is a good way to put him with his feet on the ground again and awaken a passion to grow.

The fact that we do not cut to see what the others are doing helps in establishing this sense of Isolation. We see Waya’s cruel and mocking side. In a way to me this  reminded me from the behaviour change from primary school to middle school… or whatever definition is used from the one you leave at 11 onto the next one. Suddenly all the people you grew up with are gone or in different classes, the whole Kumbaya atmosphere has dried up and kids are more cruel and mocking to each other. This truely made it feel for me like Hikaru has indeed advanced to the next level.  We also finally get an explanation on why he on occasion ignores Sai.. apparently Hikaru can’t speak to him when he is concentrating really bad… I kind of wonder how that works with a voice in your head.. but sure!  As long as it’s established it can happen I am a happy camper!  Sai addresses it so .. that issue is fixed for me now. All in all I would say the episodes nails what it is trying to tell… the way it is dressed up though….

The Negatives

I was super excited to see the Insei exam… it could have been something really special .. but instead it’s a rather bland match against the examinator that get’s plagued by the shows weird sense of comedy again.  There is a cultural thing about the sitting position and etiquette that did not land..but well that of course is forgiven.. but all in all it’s just a bit of an odd element. We see the stress in his eyes in the beginning..but as soon as he learns he does not need to win to pass the test all tension is broken. The exam isn’t over yet and I would have liked to see that reflected a bit more.. perhaps maybe even offer a written test with several Go puzzles to solve.. like the ones Hikaru got  in Go School earlier on.. having it all come down to a single match, lacked some serious tension. This also comes into play in the second part, where Hikaru first doesn’t seem to bothered by his losses.. which DOES make sense with the character he is but it doesn’t make for a great and enticing chain of events.

The trigger that pushes Hikaru into the next phase is most stupid yet. It’s a conversation about black coffee. The subjected needed to land on Kaio’s first Board and apparantly he was a student that at a young age like the Insei already drank Black coffee.  Waya and the other Insei remember this trough a wrongly purchased drink.. and seeing the man Hikaru admires in terms of skill being nothing but mediore at best deflates him. It’s a natural chain of events that can occur in daily life.. but it isn’t a particularly interesting one. As the audience we are not in  the know of this and can not link that to the guy so for the majority of the talk it’s just banter about black Coffee. The eventual reveal isn’t that impactful either.. because if Kaio’s first board really had the talent to become a pro.. he would have done so.. so it makes perfect sense that he is a mid tier Insei. While I do get the impact it would have on a kid as Hikaru we as the audience don’t really get anything to be excited about from this exchange… not even that much from this episode even.

The Score

I do get that this is where the story needs to go, but it doesn’t match up with the pacing we had of the last episodes, suddenly everything stagnates.. which is fine.. that happens, but it happens with a whimper.  If we could see Hikaru struggle more with his own confidence from the moment he passed the Insei test and see him start reading more about Go to close the gap already that would have made an impact. Instead we just gloss over the test and then see Hikaru struggle..but that struggle only becomes a burden when some kind of obviious knowledge is revealed. It just doesn’t flow very well.  Had this episode been a two parter, with the exam in this part and the introduction to class as a second this way of approaching things could work.  With the relief lingering in episode A and the Road ahead being paved out in Part B. This does the right thing but it has no weight.

I do not feel as frustrated as some of the other “bad” Hikaru no Go Episodes, but this one genuinely had me bored.  Obviously Hikaru is a .. barely passable.. level Insei because he loses to Kaga and Kaio’s players still who don’t even try out for Insei. The exam isn’t exciting because it is glossed over and half of it ..is comedy. The early losses don’t matter because Hikaru doesn’t care yet.  Had he heard Kaoi’s first board was weak just after passing the exam and would have frustrated him prior to coming to the school doubting his skill, everything would have had a much bigger impact, yet as things were now I did not care. With no investment I can’t rule otherwise than to me this episode was just Okiwi.

Cyberpunk…Film Noir… Disney.. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu Review

Konichi-welcome back  Island Guests!   This blog has been around for a year and a bit now and while I was just starting out fresh as a Pokémon Blog, a movie came out recently that I JUST missed out on being relevant about.  Before Halloween Month came along, I decided to review video game movies and.. luckily that Pokémon Movie was specifically based on a Video Game! Even Better .. it’s NOT a sucky Video Game movie! Hurray you guys, I finally reviewed Detective Pikachu.

Researching History

In February a short, almost demo like game called Detective Pikachu hit the markets in Japan. It gained a lot of popularity and in 2018 it saw a Global release in a much more fleshed out, full game  version because of it. In it we would play Tim Goodman, a do-good boy that solved mysteries with his gruffly voiced Pikachu! It did not take long before the rumors of this becoming a movie began to pop up! With a huge petition for Danny Devito becoming the hatted electric mouse. Ryan Renolds however wanted it more.. and with Justice Smith taking the role of ..what in the game was a very white Tim, we  in may 2019 we got Detective Pikachu the movie. I must say.. I am SOOO happy with these casting choices. 

The Tim in the video games was a super generic blank sheet of a character that was like Phoenix Wright if you take all his dialogue and charm away. Just a guy who responds to something and occasionally solves a puzzle in a very kiddy way.  The movie while still clearly aimed for kids aimed at kids at least decided to age the characters up a bit to give them actual stuff to do and make them feel like a cohesive part of this world. For that I am grateful. Ryan Renolds clearly cares more for Pokémon than Danny Devito ever would so we got a bland character that is made more interesting and actors who are really involved with the franchise! This is how you do re-casts and change up the status quo! Very well done!

Finding Evidence in the Story

The movie does follow the plot of the game for a big part, with some twists here and there! Since this IS a detective movie and there is fun to be had in solving this riddle.. even if it is quite an easy one, I shall try to maintain spoilers to a minimum but I will spoil what the plot of the movie is about. So if you think that is a spoiler, this review might not be for you. Tim wants to be an insurance guy and live without a Pokémon.. because having a Pokémon reminds him of his neglective father who Tim has since banned out of his life. That ban is put to a screeching halt though when Lieutenant Hide Yoshida calls him from Ryme City!  Apparently Tim’s father has been in an accident and he died!  Now Tim has to get there to wrap up some business and say goodbye to his estranged father.

However things do not turn out to be that easy! Tim finds some weird “drugs”  that turn Pokémon feral in his father’s apartment as well as a talking Pikachu. This Pikachu believes his father might still be alive..but is struck with Amnesia and together the two discover a plot that involves fighting many other pokémon including the most powerful pokémon off them all, Mewtwo. … but since it is not Mega Mewtwo… I gotta say that technically is not true..but hey!  We will roll with it. We will see a lot of interesting locations within and just outside Ryme city and are introduced to Pokémon in a way that is less intrusive or knowledge intensive in a plot with some interesting twists. While it all is very predictable there are enough events and plot threats to keep the movie interesting to the slightly older audience.  Even if you don’t know that much about Pokémon…because in reality.. Pokémon is just a dressing put over a cyberpunk story for children. Only instead of robots helping society it’s pokémon… or animatronics. It’s Blade Runner for kids!  

Interrogating The Pokémon

Without the whole Pokémon thing we have a 6/10 movie I’d say.  There is still some very funny jokes in the movie like the interrogation of Mr. Mime working even if you do not know anything about Pokémon. Detective Pikachu making jokes about Cocaine in a Pokémon movie.. and the whole litle “drug” subplot .. and the finding of the father that has gone missing/is dead  it can carry the story well enough. The movie is well acted and shines best when Tim is meeting with the lieutenant. Those two bounce off of each other REALLY well. Weird but some of those scenes really hit hard.  The heartfelt talk with Pikachu works well enough without any Poképuns with it alll feeling really endearing and there is enough sense of adventure and science for everyone… However the more you know about Pokémon the better this movie becomes. My Arceus the sheer number of easter eggs here in this movie are insane.  Everything oozes Pokémon.. even though it somehow is on a completely separate layer than the rest of the movie. This movie would have worked just as well for people not knowing about Pokémon if the plot was with little robots or something fitting in a cyberpunk Scenario.

From the moment Tim tries to capture a Cubone that is very sad and lonely.. right until the very last second of the movie there are some may callbacks to everything pokémon.  Mostly in Ryme city itself. The neon lit streets of this magnificent city feature so many pokémon.  Every single commercial sign is a reference to a pokémon or something in the pokémon world. From a call to the berries in the pokémon mythos to having brands based on pokémon names, pokémon models and so much more.  Pokémon are very much a part of this world.  The Jigglypuff singing at the bar.. standing on a table with guests who have fallen asleep. Pikachu riding into battle on a Pidgeot feels like a callback to the original opening of the anime, There is just so much to unpack here! So many layers and on a single view you will never see it all.  There is a cleverness in how this world has been built. For example there are Loudred at a club working as “speakers’. Machamp is being used on a crossroads because it can hold up four signs due to having so many arms.  Dodrio being a flightless bird thus being seen walking in the city all over and Aipom being mischievous little miscreants it all works wonders. 

It is a bit weird to place this in the Pokémon timeline though, as the rest of the regions seem to have the traditional.. capture a Pokemon system.. Ryme  city works on a Pokémon buddy system.. humans and pokemon befriend each other and walk across the city as friends and equal partners.. ..but outside the city it is the traditional pokemon world.. I honestly wish they left this scene out.. even though I love the Cubone in the beginning ogf the movie.. it means that Kanto exists in this universe and so the idea that Mewtwo exists suddenly happened twice.. it’s an implication that is tricky to unify. Luckily even then there are small visual cues that could provide an answer. Maybe this research station had a particular organisation funding them ..something from inside the Pokémon world. However since this is set in the future from Red and Blue a few problems still arise with that.. so let’s just not think about it and take a look at how cute Snubbull is! Yes, who’s a good pink doggie!

Effects under the magnifying glass

Like I mentioned before the movie does a pretty good job of following the plot of the movie though some significant twists are made towards the end. Which I think is a good thing, we get a new case with a new perpetrator and new developments. Which means even if you have played the game before the mystery is still yours to solve.. which also is quite in line with the puzzle type of game it is.  We do see Tim hunt for clues and little scraps of hints on what happened yet it never feels as Mundane and trivial as in the game.. which isn’t nearly as good as the movie. Not even close!  Strangely the video game movie is better than the video game.. as it feels a whole lot more love went into this one.   The game felt a bit cash-grabby but here there is so much attention to details it really feels like it is made for the fans.   While obviously there is a LOT of CGI in this movie a lot of the pokémon are also made practical. Their faces have been animated in later but there is actually something on set.   We get a strange atmosphere of effects that are decently enough to be believed.. but you are aware there isn’t anything there..

I would like to compare it to seeing a ghost..  in real life and you know it’s a ghost.. but you can’t walk through it.. it is still there.. you can bump into it.. this movie feels a bit like that.  Pokémon have another wordly quality  yet also  something tangible. They aren’t there but it feels like you CAN touch them. I think this is the best way to go about this to be honest. Pokémon are strange and if we had to make them realistic they would lose lots of features that would make them so recognisable.  Feathery pokemon feel feathery, fluffy Pokemon feel like they actually have fur … and Mr. Mime has that sense of creepiness that his game counterpart has as well. Every effect is a bit like that.. in the fact that it really doesn’t feel like attack..but an effect yet if you saw it in 3d you’d probably still duck dip or dodge.  Almost on a seperate layer.. which calls back to how animations worked in the sprite based pokemon game that also was just another layer. So weirdly for me this level of fake.. sells it more as Pokémon. The Squirtles and Bulbasaurs are adorable.. and seeing Greninja, Charizard and Torterra.. gave me that sense of wonder again of first encountering them and thinking they were really cool!  Everything is just different enough.

 I DID have a few issues with some of the stunts though, it all feels just a bit safe.  The stuff human actors have to put up with is kept to a fair minimum except for one scene.. which is such a shame because I think that is a missed opportunity.  It would be hard to realise, but the idea of a human facing against the raw power of a pokémon or facing trouble from a pokemon seems very under explored here.  There isn’t as much of a sense of danger as I would like. That does fit the videogame .. but it fits the world a lot less. Oh well.. we always have the upcoming Monster Hunter movie for that type of stuff.. *cough*

One level short of evolving

I had a blast with Detective Pikachu but it has issues. The biggest gripe is the “Disney” vibes we get from some dialogue.  We get the classic boy whose mother died and now did not want to live with his father.. but now everyone is dead and he must go look for the truth.. while encountering a girl. Who tries to be way tougher than she is.. Luckily it isn’t the Late 2010’s “I can do everything” myself kinda woman.  No she acts like this .. but it is shown to be an act to be tougher then she is.. it gives her a sense of frailty and makes her different from most of her peers who are actually that sassy .. bratty ..I can do this by myself type.  No, she is actually the footwipe of her boss, not taken seriously in her career and dealing with actual problems instead of being strong enough to rise above them. Making her feel more real. She has some Misty vibes so giving her a psyduck is a bit unfortunate and feels as if this is Misty.. but if we look closer we can see she is different enough!  We just need to really look.

Other than that.. There are a few instances of weirdly written dialogue that are not akin to normal speech but are needed to further the plot in a certain way and create barriers. For example at one time Tim gets his hand on a part of dialogue.. which seems a clear indication of some dark motives, however later in the movie we see this message has been pulled out of context.. . this trope can work.. but with the reveal that is made later on.. it seems strange that the dialogue flowed like that in the first place. It is just a very awkwardly worded conversation that has been designed to sound confusing if you only hear a specific part of it. It is here that we realise this is a kid movie and then the writer did not want to bother making it more compelling and sensical. There are a few moments like these.  where “it’s good enough for children” It’s a shame because so much of this movie seems to be made for all and new fans alike.  I know that little kids will not notice this.. but most times kids movies are just as much watched by adults as Mommy and Daddy have to come along… or any combination of the two and not forgetting a non binary parent.. regardless of who sees it with their kid.. there usually is someone.. so that excuse.. it’s just a kids movie.. I find  a bad one.

In the end we got a delight of a movie that I had very gleeful feelings watching, both times.Yet it is also a movie whose faults are very apparent from the get go.  The predictable plot, the sloppy dialogue and the low stakes make me realise there is more potential in this type of story than we got out of it right now. This is good for everyone… adequate for the non pokemon fan and a blast for the actual pokémon fan. It does get better the more you know about pokémon and the more things you can spot in the background. Having seen it two times now though I doubt I will watch it again any time soon.. at best just to stare at the backgrounds of the more crowded scenes.  I would like to compare it to a level 19 Tyrogue. It’s cute.. can kick your ass and we know it has a whole lot of potential. It is not fully clear where this could go.. but it just needed that little push to be better! Now it still great but it will not endure indefinitely.  It still is one of the best video game movies made!

Animini: Flip Flappers – Episode 12 – Pure Howling

Hello my Island Guests!  Sometimes you want to address a show as if it was a person, and if I could I would say “Flip Flappers  Dai-Dai-Daisuki”  My Arceus this episode yet again is so amazing… if the last episode can stick the landing at least a bit this will become one of my favourite shows ever, alongside Tengen Toppa Gurren more recently Kyousougiga. Sometimes a show resonates super strong with you and the message of Flip Flappers is basically the way i want to live my life. Dai-Dai-Daisuki!

The Summary

Jeesz.. this one is a bit trickier to describe without sounding like a raving lunatic!  I will do my best though! In this episode Yayaka and Papika chase Cocona and Mimi into Pure Illusion while the real world is still invaded by the snow monsters. While they are chasing their dear friend , Mimi is brainwashing Cocona to only listen to her mother.. she is one Disney song removed from Rapunzel’s mother.  Salt meanwhile has his mind set on finding the Elpis.. held by the evil organisation which seems to me like it is the original Flip Flappers now. He takes Nyunyu, Buu-Chan .. and the tracksuit Flip Flap girl whose name I forgot along on a perilous journey!  His leads him eventually into descending into the enemy base where Buu-Chan finally transforms into a muscle mode mecha.. and that gets defeated right away.. but Salt manages to get into Elpis. The Amorphous twins meanwhile can peer into deep Illusion as they try to recover their injuries and they actually see Yayaka made the right calls.

Inside pure Illusion we essentially get a boss-rush!  Evil Mimi makes Yayaka and Papika fight through the original stages of Papika and Cocona’s adventure.. but when facing that desert lady that brainwashed Cocona in episode 3.. Yayaka and Papika really struggle.. that is until an Amorphous shard lands into Yayaka’s possession. Papika tells her to think of her treasure and draw power from that. Yayaka realises her treasure is not the Amorphous but here dear friend Cocona.  Determined to take her back, Yayaka manages to Flip-flap into a magical girl much like her two friends. The Boshrush now gets pretty easily cleared until they end up in the cyberpunk world of episode 7.  Here Mimi alters Papika’s memory to break her resistance and make her believe she is right. This prompts the good Mimi to show in front of Cocona and tell her she should fight to make her own choices in life.. she might lack the courage but mother will give her that.  Mimi steals the magical girl powers of the girls.. but when Papika and Cocona confess what they mean for each other .. they transform into a new form of magical girls!  Together they easily punch the boss of the cyberpunk world away.. paving the path to the final episode and the fight against evil Mimi. Who wanted to use her power of Pure Illusion to create the perfect safe space for Cocona.

The Positives

I loved practically everything about the episode! Basically everything I had wished for in previous reviews of this show have been handed to me. It is confirmed that Cocona has a father, the Amorphous Twins got their head out of their ass, we got to see more magical girl stuff and best of all Yayaka got her magical girl powers.  Her power relaying around speed is a perfect accompaniment to the girls who respectively form the sword and shield together.  Now we have Strength, Bulk and Speed… amazing!  I really really liked her design as well. Her switching to a green hair colour was a bit odd..  but since Cocona swaps colours with Papika.. it kinda is fun to see how Yayaka combines colours with Cocona and giving her a green hair colour. Seeing Buu-chan transform but easily be defeated I like because this kind of reminds me of the powerscaling in Dragon Ball Z.. or Super.. how people suddenly become relevant again.. Flip Flappers basically just says… NAH! Just kidding this character still kinda sucks in terms of battle prowess.   

I still really like the choice of having Mimi who was captured and experimented on all her life as someone that is quite broken and it does work wonders in this episode. Clearly deep down she never was able to make her own choices so it makes sense that a part of her really wants to see Cocona do that. Yet she was als tremendously hurt, betrayed several times and she had a pretty horrible life. It makes sense that she would not want that life for Cocona either. Those choices are preventing each other.. those who make their choices freely will eventually end up getting hurt. And those who try to avoid being hurt at all cost never have a real choice in life. So it does make sense that these sides conflict with one another. I also like that these conflicts have been in Cocona from the start. She wants to have fun with Papika.. but she is also afraid to do the wrong thing. The new magical girl form looking more like their regular selves is also pretty empowering.. just be yourself and trust in who you are!   I haven’t even begun to talk about the awesome battles in this episode!   There is just too much goodness here!

The Negatives

I would love to say there are non.. but unfortunately one thing kinda missed the mark. Nyunyu tags along with Salt on her adventure and the way she does it is cute.. but also kind of annoying. It results in a few visual gags that while I did not mind in particular I did not really care for either. It’s there and I realise I rather would see something else than her sitting on a drone or using Buu chan as a helicopter swing thing…. which is weird because Nyunyu is my type of character. So the only conclusion I can make here is.. that I don’t really dislike her.. I just like the rest so much more that those scenes seemed annoying by comparison.  We are talking about her being like an 8.2  of entertainment while the rest of the show constantly is around 9.5 or higher. It’s not bad at all but it kinda feels like a big dip?!

That really is it though so since I have another paragraph I am gonna just rave about how awesome this episode was. The callback to old locations can be called cheap but I am the type of person that likes Boss Rushes.. because it can show how much you have grown and that is exactly what chain of events meant for me.  The ease with which Papika transforms, the way how they strategise now. That is delightful and I kinda disliked how Cocona constantly flipped between hating and loving Papika I get it now.. that is once more Cocona lacking the courage to make a choice.. following what society would say about their relation or having a friend that is so odd.. or doing something  not normal. It fixed my biggest issue with this show!  The ending might be a bit sudden.. but  it is quirky enough to work and it leaves expectations wide open.

The Score

I would like to give this a score beyond Star Fruit.. this episode while not my favourite in the long run did so much for the show for me.  It is more than just an episode.This episode for me is my favourite moment off all those Ocean Eleven movies.. you know when the jazzy funk music begins playing and they explain how they did it and we see some awesome shots of them sitting in a vault when we thought they failed the heist.. That is this episode for me.. I love that kind of thing and this is it’s own unique spin on that kind of thing so I love it even more!

I mean I could just rave about Yayaka finally being a magical girl and yelling Flip Flapping for the second time and I would be right to do so but….. aww .. who cares I am going to do it! SQUEEEEEE  YAYAKA FINALLY BECAME A MAGICAL GIRL! THATS MA GIRL! WEEE! This to me is one of those episodes where you scream and your screen  hoping to “send some energy” to transform along with them… I did not transform yet.. but I know one thing.. if the last episode is even half as good as this one I might very well choose Flip Flappers as my treasure to transform with!