Death by Steel : Pinkie’s First Pokémon Randomiser Nuzlocke Journal Part I

Hello Dear Island Guests! It is time for a new Pokémon series! While this one will not be weekly I am going to share my adventures of the first ever Nuzlocke I will try to complete! Every so often I will update you on my adventures in a journal form!  Taking you through my first ever Nuzlocke in the game Pokémon Heart Gold… but with a twist! Every Pokémon is Randomised.

About the Nuzlocke

What is a Nuzlocke you might wonder? Well it is a special way of playing trough Pokémon.
In it you have to nickname all your Pokémon, you can only catch one pokémon per route and only your first encounter ..and if you miss it.. no luck! If you encounter a Pokémon you already have you can  search for another though.  If a pokémon is reduced to 0HP in battle and it faints it is considered dead and you have to box it or release it and can not use it during your challenge again. If you lose your entire team you lose the Nuzlocke and have to start all over again. Then there are  several ways to play, like in some forms your items are limited or you can not leave a gym once you enter it.  Since I don’t want to be too depressed I made a few light rule tweeks.  So here are my rules:

Randomiser Details

-Pokémon have been randomised, thus I play this game emulated, I do own a legal copy of the game but for entertainment purposes a randomiser seems more fun. Because I know this game by heart and it is a lot more fun to highlight random Pokémon. Every Pokemon deserves love!
-Pokémon will also have their abilities randomised! This makes things a lot more fun! However evolutions and movesets will not be randomised.. their teachable move capabilities HAVE been randomised as .. I love randomness but I am not a strong enough Pokémon player to be prepared for ANY move! I got to have some structure.
-Starters are randomised into anything, and legendaries have been randomised into other legendaries. All trainers have randomised trainer class names and personal names just for fun.
-Items that can be found on the ground are randomised as well as pokémon held items! 
-If I ever lose the game I have to make a new randomisation so I don’t know what is ahead.

In Game Rules

-If A Pokémon Faints it dies and has to be boxed. Since I made sure everyone can learn all HM’s I can not use dead hm slaves. HM moves can only be taught to one party member to make sure I don’t spam surf or fly.
-If I encounter a duplicate pokémon I can search for a new pokémon on that route OR I can catch it to add a life to that Pokémon I already have.
-If I get knocked out by early Dragon Rage, or get stuck on an early Wonder Guard user I am allowed to keep the knocked out Pokémon in return for discarding all my Pokéballs or healing items.
-If I encounter a shiny I am allowed to try and capture it! However it then MUST be used on the team.
-I am allowed to grind and leave gyms!  I am not allowed to hack in rare candies to skip a grind.
-Mom has to collect money for me.. she is so happy to help me out.. it would be rude to tell her no!

With that ruleset I was ready to play my randomised copy of Heart Gold which I named Pokémon Pink Gold! I also made a nice visual for that so I can skip this block of text next time and keep you all updated even if you aren’t reading!

Today I became a Pokémon Trainer

I woke up groggily in my like 32 bit bed! Mom called! Today I was supposed to help Professor Elm out  with a Chore! I hobbled down the stairs and saw mom sitting at the dining room table. She gave me my Pokégear for my adventure even if I had no Pokémon.. a person can’t do without their gear. Before I left she also gave me a cellphone and a bag! It isn’t even my birthday Mamma! How sweet of you! Then she said she had something else that seemed pretty useful and she gave me the possibility to save and an options Menu!  That is super nice! The mamma I have in the real world never gave me an options menu! Perhaps that is why I am such a NEET now! After I got so many new stuff I ventured outside. The Neighbour Kid Ethan was out there playing with his Marill. Man he sure liked to run that thing in my face!  I did not have a Pokémon!  He reminded me that Professor Elm was looking for me! .. Jeez thanks Ethan.. he is the reason I got up this early in the afternoon! 

So I waddled over to the Pokémon Lab. I am not a strong walker so it felt a bit sluggish but eventually got there. There was a suspicious kid standing in front of the window and he shoved me off when I asked him what he was doing! Super rude! I got inside and Professor Elm told me that he had a friend named Mister Pokémon who made an amazing discovery.  He was tied up at the lab and he needed someone he could trust to go there. Despite having like three aides.. it was me he chose to send.. Odd to send a 10 year old to gather important research but hey!  He told me I would get a Pokémon so I had no complaints.  I walked up to a machine holding three Pokéballs. One held a Hitmonlee, one held a Feebas and one Held a Vigoroth.  Feebas I think is actually useless in this game, I am not sure if you could even evolve it and I am not getting far in a Nuzlocke with a pokémon that only knows Splash.
So I had to choose between either Vigoroth or Hitmonlee! Since Vigoroth would evolve once more and would turn into a Slaking who doesn’t know the ability Truant but instead has a Random ability I chose him!  He had a nice beard so I decided to name it Raist.

Raist and me set out to travel to the tall grass! We saw a few amazing Pokémon along our way to Mister Pokémon’s house. We leveled him up until he was almost level 10.. since he already evolved once his leveling took a bit longer than a random pokémon like .. let’s say Cyndaquil would take. On route 29 I saw a Machamp which would compliment my new friend nicely.   There was also a Heatran and a Houndoom there so straight away we had some good options!  Yet we did not have pokéballs yet so for now it had to wait! On route 30 we fought a few Uxie so we even had some legendary options.  I was looking forward to it all. Yet first we had an errand to run! We encountered an old man who had magical shoes! When you wear these shoes. a person would develop the ability to RUN! He gave me a pair that he had on him! It is kind of creepy that an old man who shows a 10 year old girl around town hands you shoes in your size.. but let’s be honest! He already had these running shoes on himself.. if the creep guy could run and I could not I would be in much more trouble so I accepted them.. he later came running after me.. to give me a map.

After fleeing from that creep I walked into some random guys house who was so glad to see me that he gave me a little satchel to store Apricorns in. This is hard fruit in rainbow colours that a man named Kurt might be able to turn into pokéballs for me! I accepted the gift.. looted his tree and traveled on to Mister Pokémon’s place.. who had a visit from the famous Professor Oak. The man talked about a lot of stuff , mostly promoting his radio show and then he gave me an egg for Professor Birch and a pokédex.. okay so this was his discovery? How is Mister Pokemon evolved?! If you have traveled so far why would you not go the extra mile to see Birch yourself?! The discovery that pokémon might hatch from eggs seems like a big responsibility to leave to ten year old me! But hey it got me cool stuff! I was now an official pokémon trainer! Or so I thought!  A phone call from professor Elm would change a lot. I had to rush back home.. as something terrible had happened.

Pinkie makes new Friends

Using the perverts shoes, I sped as home as quickly as I could! I had full confidence in Raist’s abilities as an evolved pokémon and then we encountered that red haired Douchebag from before! We fought him and Raist  smoked his ass. He carried an exeggcute! It was no match for my wild white beast!.. it even got Raist to level 10. The trainer dropped his passport.. which all trainers carry on them and I saw that Red Douche’s name was Indigo! He told me that he would become my rival and he would get stronger. I shrugged and ran off! It turns out that Indigo stole a pokémon from Professor Elm! .. Well he certainly did not take it from the machine then.. but no time to dwell on that.  I handed over the egg to be done with my responsibilities.  The professor was shocked that eggs existed.. even though we are in a remake taking place in a generation that already invented these features! Later remakes would tackle that issue a lot better!  But hey I played along and as payment I could keep Raist. Well yeah.. I already named it guy! I was gonna keep it anyway!

I walked outside and Ethan was in the grass with his Marril..he showed me how to catch a pokémon and handed me five Pokéballs!  Now I could make new friends yay!  However Raist disagreed! He killed both my encounter on route 29 as well as the one on route 46.. which had a small patch of grass you could pick pokémon up from! He both killed a Yanma and a Mankey! I guess he did not like to share!  So we had a little talk and I told him that if he had some Tomodachi it might mean he would live longer..as I showed it Yanma’s broken corpse he nodded showing me he would be more careful on route 30! There we were lucky enough to encounter one of those Uxie Legendaries again…but I ran out of pokéballs and we failed to get Raist a friend. I sold everything I had to scrounge up a few pokéballs for route 31 and there we finally encountered a cute Gorbebyss which is a pink fish pokémon wearing a purple shell bikini like thing. It is a Pokémon that sucks up it’s opponents bodily fluids as a way of battling. Since it was rather pink and happy as well as a male I decided to name it Dylan.  In a nearby cave I discovered a quagsire I named Heather. She was so durable and sturdy!   I leveled Dylan and Heather up a bit by murdering some Uxie and Zubat as well as killing the Pokémon of former Bugcatcher now turned dancer!  As he sat there among his dead pokémon I merrily continued my way to that blasted city!

Raist had reached level 11, with Heather and Dylan being at 8! I knew there was some work to be done before I could face the gymleader.. believing his ace to be at level 12. So first I went to some ruins to the south of the city where I solved the ancient puzzle of the Unown in like… 30 seconds or so! How did no one ever solve this before?!  If it was a complete slide puzzle I could understand but this was about as hard as one of those children’s block puzzles with a square shaped hole a triangle hole and a round hole!  I caught myself a Misdreavous there which I named Mallow. In a patch of grass I also found a Snubull which I named Lyn. My team of friends was beginning to grow!

 |, ||,||, |_

We were nowhere near ready to face Falkner though so.. it was off to beat up some monks! Which usually are fairy big pushovers. With random Pokémon though it turned out to be a tad harder. As I had killed two monks entire teams without much effort it was up to Heather to level up next. During one fight a monk sent out Kabuto! I had switched out of Heather before as his former pokémon was a grass type and she is 4x weak to that and Mallow fought in her stead. Upon switching in to the Kabuto Heather missed a Mud Slap or Mud Shot.. I always confuse those  and the pokemon used a water gun on her. Quagsire is a Bulky pokémon so she took it fairly well. I could easily survive even a critical hit of that. Heather surely could obliterate this tiny Kabuto. Her second attack missed again.. and that’s when it happened.  Kabuto revealed to have the move Absorb! .. I did not expect it.. I didn’t even know it learned that move.. and just like that Heather was gone! Drained of all life! My Quagsire was dead!

Misdreavous exacted revenge for Heather and we destroyed all the monk’s left! It gave us a useless TM . Indigo had also just fought all the monks so the place was literally littered with piles of dead Pokémon! While he got an escape rope.. I got a chople berry! So I had to walk past all the corpses again. On the way down I found a Cleffa I named Meg. We gave Heather a small burial and went on to take down the Gym Leader Falkner. While everything was randomised for some reason every gym trainer got given a ghost pokémon so we had to use a lot of potions to keep Mallow alive. We went back out to stock up again and I realised I got a lot less money than I would have hoped for! I bought three potions and healed everyone up and it was time to face the gym leader .. Falkner!  Little did I know I would discover about THAT power I had.. or that this would already be the last battle I would ever have with my new friends.

We started out fine.. Falkner opened up with Spinarak!  Mallow eats tiny spiders for breakfast and with a few ghostly moves it was gone..then the message on the screen read. Dancer Laura is about to Sent In Registeel.. Do you wish to swap Pokémon?! Excuse me?!  Registeel?! I also forgot I boosted levels a bit..thinking it would let me grind faster as well.. and so came a level 15 Registeel! I kept Mallow in, knowing sometimes the Regi’s get Explosion at an early level hoping that it could explode and we would be fine! Yet it used Metal Claw.. a high power metal type physical move that can boost attack.. sometimes. Of course he got the attack boosts!  I swapped in Megan and Lyn as sacrificial lambs.. while I came up with a strategy.. and both were clawed in half.  Then.. I swapped in Raist.. hoping it might trigger him using explosion, switching back into Mallow.. hoping for a miracle. The metal cleaved the little ghosty as it could no longer maintain it’s form! It fades away from the after life into complete death.  Raist came out next and he could take two hits.. such a champion he went down fighting!  Next was Dylan.. perhaps he could use confusion to keep the steel giant in place… but no!  My little pink fish soon got turned into sushi!.

Surrounded by my dead friends Falkner laughed at me diabolically and in panic I passed out!  However Falkner’s gym is several  meters in the air.. lets say about five or six stories high. And you walk through him on a balancing beam.. so passing out did not end well for me! I fell six stories down and left a pinkish red crater in the floor.. I was dead!  Then suddenly … I woke up again.. I was in my own bed!  Mom called me downstairs.. and said Professor Elm had a chore for me.. she handed me .. a bag.. a cell phone and even an options menu! What was going on here?  Outside Ethan stuffed his Marill in my face again… but something was different. Out in the grass to the West I heard other pokémon.. instead of Magikarp swimming in the river to the east there was a Kricketune.. what was going on? There was only one possibility! I returned by death! And the world becomes more randomised!  I stepped in the lab of Professor Elm as he told me for the second time, my very first pokémon adventure was about to begin!Mallow, Heather, Raist and Dylan you will be remembered. Lyn and Megan.. you were just death fodder! You will return.. in the next life!…maybe!

Days Past: 1
Number of Deaths: 6
Game Overs: 1
Gym Badges: 0

And so my Nuzlocke was not of to a good start! Luckily I wasn’t that far into the game yet so I felt motivated enough to try again! Will I have more succes in my second run?! Find out in the next episode! Will a Pokémon be named after you?! Maybe! Be sure to follow the blog and be active in the comments and you will have a good chance to be part of my team! And if you like being a small creature why not be a coconut?! By supporting my Kofi you can have your own little unique Coconut minion on Paradise! Or just leave a nice comment! Did you ever play a Nuzlocke? What is your favourite game to Nuzlocke in?! Let me know in the comments and I will see you on the next adventure!

The Perfect Saturday! Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 19

Yo Island Guests! So I’ve decided to give these things episode titles now! Why?! Well if you can’t guess from the title you don’t deserve to know! Teehee!  So how was this week for me?! It was pretty solid! I haven’t heard of my new rental contract yet so I am a bit anxious for that. Dad quarantined himself so we did not get to see him again either. So instead me and my sister went to visit mom and we had a nice afternoon. Board Game night at Bean’s place was pretty fun as well and tonight my GBF is coming over and I am sure that might be nice! Speaking of Nice… this week’s anime… it was perfect.

Digimon Adventure Episode 7

Wow.. normally I’d rank my episodes saying which spot in the top 5 they take. This week however everything was really really good! It began with Digimon really impressing me and I was sure it was going to be my favourite episode of the watch as soon as I saw it.

In this Episode the Chosen Ones travel towards the sea in an attempt to cross it.  Mimi is lounging in a chair enjoying the tea that her butler Palmon made for her. Having no sea worthy digimon in their team they decide to evolve Biyomon into Birdramon to scout ahead.  When they encounter a strange vortex in the water , Bidramon gets hit with a mysterious attack and takes some serious damage. With a defenceless Biyomon the group has no chance but to retreat. They are helped out by a cheerful young Digimon named Gomamon who tells them he has a partner as well and he brings them to Joe. Joe Kido is the senpai of Taichi and Sora and they vaguely recognise him but something is wrong! Joe isn’t at all interested in being a chosen one. He knows he lacks the physical strength and the courage to be a hero and besides that his family RELIES on him to become the next generation of doctors to help people in a way where he CAN make a difference. He refuses a partnership with Gomamon because of this as he can’t let people down.  Gomammon travels with the group and they decide to cross the canal but they have to deal with the tentacle digimon named Gesomon.

Since Birdramon got injured last time and used a lot of energy to keep her evolution up so long to scout the last time she is out of the fight for now. Thus Gomamon decided to be bait and lure Gesomon to shore so Greymon and Togemon can fight with an advantage. However because Gomamon gets injured the squid like digimon flees back in the water again and the group is at a disadvantage. Gomamon gets slapped around and Joe, who came to spy on them, feels responsible. Gomamon needs him just as much as his family needs him to become a doctor. Gomamon being aquatic is the only one who can help them here.. they have to rely on him. Joe realises this and talks to Gomamon, who tells Joe that it doesn’t matter if he isn’t;’t brave or strong, they are a group he can rely on others just like they can rely on him. Joe accepts this which causes Gomamon to evolve to Ikkakumon. Using his Harpoon Vulcan technique he alongside his friends defeat the evil squid. Joe joins the team and on Ikakumon’s back they travel across the water-straight. 

Okay so that is a whole lot of plot.. but I had to because that was the strongest thing in this episode. I loved how everything was so connected into a compelling narrative where everyone was needed. Bidramon is established as a scout.. but also gets taken down  for understandable reasons. This gives Joe and Gomamon a perfect opportunity to step in. Joe not having time for Gomamon was established as a problem in the earlier show as well but it came AFTER they had bonded so much which always made me hate Joe.. to make him start off with that trait and to burden him with his virtue however was such great thinking. It feels like a much healthier version of Joe. Early on he was amazing but after S2 was launched and especially in Tri he was this mean selfish bastard. This actually fixes Joe for me.

The way they kept in the princess Mimi thing with her having a luxury chair out of nowhere also felt funny and it made her stand out so much more yet again. Having Taichi rely on Mimi instead of Sora like he did before also spreads the screen time across the chosen ones and for every narrative problem that could arise in this situation they had a valid solution. This way you can unlock the Ultimate stage digimon way sooner as well as everyone really is working on that virtue they have so I expect this to be much better paced. Maybe not even needing a mc-guffin like the crests. I loved the animations and the camera angles for this one too. We got much more close ups which allowed for much more detail to be inserted here as well as it made the ocean more vast and the Digimon bigger! It really did everything right for me.

This episode did not really have any weaknesses for me that at least are not inherent to the genre. The monster of the week was a logical complication for a problem that needed to be dealt with the way things unfolded made perfect sense for what this episode needed to do and Gomamon and Joe got a fantastic introduction. This show seems to be way more focussed on the characters rather than just the adventure and it works out so great for this show. Now that they polished away last weeks cinematography/graphic issues nothing can stop me from giving this show my highest rating.

Samurai Flamenco Episode 14

After last week, thoughts of dropping this show came into my head if it did not pick up by episode 15. Yet by Arceus.. this episode improved SO much!  It threw some amazing twists at us and it felt “fun to watch” again

Last week’s episode  was a rather big downer for me tonally it seemed to grim and while this episode continues that dire situation there is much more a hint of positivity again. The Hero’s dilemma has been dealt with and Masayoshi is receiving positive feedback from it.. as well as negative but he stands by what he does.  From Beyond will attack the next day and the government is not playing very nice only wanting to evacuate VIPS. This results in Masayoshi making a plea to the people to help the Flamengers out.. but mostly to stay safe. The president scolds him for his mistakes but it seems the choice is made and so we move into the final battle. A battle against the 60.000+  members  of From Beyond. The group uses their Robo’s to fight them but quickly get overwhelmed.  There are to many tiny monsters, and also a need for the combiner robo but they can’t do everything. When Flamen pink is about to die she gets rescued by Red Axe  who recruited all the other Sentai who now have actual Sentai powers. I love that trope in Sentai episodes.  They all fight together when the strongest member of From Beyond contacts the Flamengers requesting to meet with Flamen Red.  It is then revealed he is From Beyond Flamenco.. Massayoshi’s brother.

This episode is gempacked full of sentai goodness. The Sentai cross over is always my favourite moment in any power ranger series and even though we only saw the other sentai as fictional characters in this world somehow seeing them show up still feels amazing and powerful. The monster designs as well as the silly sentai designs make sure that this episode is also gem packed with humor, even if there are no actual jokes. There are just so many visual gags that this episode is a delight to watch. The action is fun and I worried for Flamen Pink. We get a few great scenes where Mari is being picked up by her friends as well as Mrs Kaname finding that handkerchief revealing it is actually from Flamen Pink trying to convince Joji/Red Axe to commit adultery but he refuses it.  So many characters here get a redemption arc just before Japan is destroyed and that is pretty amazing. The glum atmosphere is washed away with tons of fun references and a lot of negatives are revealed to “not be as bad” as they think! Yet with Japan at stake with a big monster in a Mount Fuji.we can’t rest yet! I am so excited for next week.

Do I have any negatives to this episode?  Not really and that will be a theme across this installment of Anime Adventure. The only thing I will say here is that I am a bit dissapionted that Masayoshi’s brother was not hinted at before. In a way it makes sense because it’s always a mystery family member that shows up  but I would have liked to see their twist on this rather than them doing this trope.  This is only a nitpick though as I am happy with this one as well. The one sloppy thing  I found a bit dumb is the fact that non of the Flamengers family decided to be rescued. Some have a great reason like just having triplets and thus the flamenger only having five spots to give away.. and not having room for the childeren.. but others felt dumb. “We do not want to be saved, because you are in love with a married man”  seems like a stupid reason to die for. 

The fact that both Sentai and human’s fought side by side paid tribute to what this series is about for me and it shows the two sides of Masayoshi.. this entire episode to me is a perfect mix between season 1 and season 2 and works towards a great conclusion of that story arc. I adore this episode not only for being vastly entertaining but also fixing some past mistakes! I know this series has a habit for that.. but today I was completely blown out of the water.. and that is why it earned today’s rating.

That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime Episode 13

I can’t believe they actually gave Gabiru a good fight, I also can’t believe how badass this episode was without Rimuru even doing a single thing. This episode made the “side” characters shine and shine they did in a very good episode that was the great buildup to an even bigger battle.

Now that Gabiru has betrayed his father and taken the crown he takes the offence to the orcs, not knowing about their Hunger ability that allows them to steal abilities from the dead. When a Lizardman gets eaten by the powered up orcs, suddenly they can move through the swamp without problems and any advantage the lizardmen have gotten is gone. Luckily Rimuru’s ‘dreamboat’ Souei  saves Gabiru’s sister who then meets up with RImuru a bit later on. The slime names her acting chieftain and forms an official alliance. Now the ogres and Gobta can  official step into battle. Ranga as well. While the dryad confronts Gelmud in the forest Ranga, Souei, Shion Benumaru and that old guy.. I forgot his name.. show of their skill. Which easily wipes the orc army of the map. The lizardman king is also rescued and he is glad to have these powerful allies. Rimuru watches from the sky and finally finds the Orc Warlord as Ranga effortlessly deals with an Orc General and evolves into a Star Tempest Wolf.

While nowhere near as narrative as any of the other episodes here, this was such a “power walk” episode.  One of those HECK yeah. Where Digimon was one of the best written episodes, and Flamenco was the ultimate redemption and the best “on brand” episode.   This one made me feel so good and it was such an epic feeling. I love how these creatures can decimate entire armies with a snap of their finger. The way it is all brought onto my screen is really good. The poses, the difference in height, the colours, the motions. It all felt very satisfying. Yet my favourite moment is when Shion reassures Gabiiru’s sister he is going to save her. Not only reflecting her perfect faith in him.. but also doing her job as his secretary. When she used her Getsuga Tenshou like attack and waved at Rimuru after having created a giant crater was great too. It had the perfect tone for such an episode for me. 

Dislikes.. well.. I am kinda sad Gabiru did not die.. but that is more personal. He had a pretty good fight against the general, which actually works as a great measuring stick to how powerful the rest is. Gabiru is slightly below the Orc General and Gobta can knock out Gabriu in one attack so he is most likely above.. and he is one of the lesser warriors of the village. Gobta not getting the kill on the general is a bit of a missed chance and maybe powering Ranga up more was not needed.. but man his special attack looked so great.
So while I can come up with a few flaws I can also give a counter argument.

This episode is something slime really needed. We finally get to see what the evolved henchmen of Rimuru are capable off and despite them being so powerful I felt thoroughly entertained. It is a nice twist on the Isekai genre to not only see the protagonist overpowered but his side characters too! This episode just really worked for me and it  made me a very happy Pinkie to be able to watch this. I could come up with flaws but I was happy so who cares.

Flip Flappers Episode 9

I never would have thought that I would like an episode with a negative mindset so soon after seeing Cocona restore from one, but this one really worked for me. I also begin to suspect some things here as the plot thickens.

Cocona is angry at Papika for calling her Mimi. Thinking she is insensitive for misremembering her. Papika isn’t aware of any ill actions on her behalf and gets angry at Cocona for ignoring her and treating her like filth.  When they dive into Pure Illusion again they arrive in a scene almost like the loading room in the Matrix. Yayaka is send to deal with them and steal their Amorphous.. a new Amorphous sister who kinda looks like Papika is to be her replacement if she fails. When Cocona is trapped with the other two twins Papika and Yayaka fight over Cocona and the Amorphous. We find out  how Yayaka and Cocona met over medical testing.. but we also find out their friendship has been staged as Yayaka is supposed to monitor her.

Papika gets pretty beaten up by Yayaka but despite the twins lying to her Cocona eventually finds out Papika really DOES care about her.  Breaking the trap. The two are reunited but once more attacked by Yayaka. Papika gets taken down and the two childhood friends face off with Cocona losing. When Yayaka is forced to cut out the shard in Cocona’s leg.. she refuses and the twins attack and nearly kill her.  Papika saves the pair and the twins leave with the shard. Papika and Cocona bring Yayaka to Flip Flap where she is about to be nursed back to health.. waiting for any news Papika has a drew and yels out for Mimi again revealing it was her former partner.

This episode was the most emotionally powerful of todays line up. I felt genuinely concerned for Papika , Cocona and even Yayaka.  I understood this conflict as well.So I get why this became an issue. To me it seems to indicate that Cocon indeed is falling in love with Papika and coming to accept it more and now being mistaken for someone else hurts. Yayaka balancing friends and duty might not be a theme directly related to me as I would not be in her shoes but it is a place I saw some of my friends be in.I loved that Papika finally stepped up for herself and would not let Cocona treat her the way she does. She is indeed a super loving grl and she doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.

The empty world with the defective trap fascinates me.. I think this is once again a reflection of Cocona.. and with the mystery that has been building up, pure Illusion might resolve more around Cocona than we are led to think. That medical test that happened on her.. the fact that she has a shard in her leg. I also think Papika’s former partner is the third amorphous child. The other ones are called Yuyu and Toto so Mimi would fit that same namesake. Meanwhile Papika, Cocona and Yayaka also have a very similar naming convention. So I still think Yayaka might become a third Flip Flap girl if she doesn’t die. 

Okay so these weren’t exactly positives about the show but any show that makes me thing this much must be captivating. I don’t see animated characters , I genuinely care about them!  This episode made me realise that more than ever. I felt for all of them! It is structured in a way where it really does that very well. The fact that nothing except the characters exists in this episode highlights that.. Well there is the defensive trap which I think symbolises Cocona constantly putting up walls towards Papika. First because she is so dangerous, because she is so weird, because things happen she did not expect etc. I should be talking about the negatives in this paragraph but as you might hav guessed there are none. 

I never like the break up trope, so when I saw how this episode started I was super worried, however unlike episode 7 I think this episode did it well. This fight stems from a bigger narrative that drives the plot further much more than the incident in episode 7 did.  The fact that the fight was mutual this time helped that as well and the fact that these emotions feel earned. Not only is this is the first  “our heroes” fight episode in Flip Flappers that I REALLY like., I think this one is an example on how it should be tackled for other shows. This is my new benchmark for that trope! So with that honour what other grade could I give…

Hikaru no Go Episode 19

After last week I was afraid that I would be shoved into an arc about Akira and Waya and I would not see how much Hikaru improved after the Internet Go arc. Luckily I was proven wrong.. I was so wrong.. and I am super happy about it!

The deals with Hikaru’s return to school and people noticing his growth during the holiday.  He beats Mitani with a handicap in his favor and he beats Tsutsui without a handicap! Finally he  seems to have caught up! Sai now wants to play Hikaru but there is one problem. Hikaru has no Go table. So he goes to his grandpa and ask him to buy one for him, he even wants to play Go with him to buy an expensive one.. or get the table that Sai possessed. His grandpa is astounded by  Hikaru’s talent showing he was a prize-winning Go player himself. While grandpa would win he forfeits as he thinks Hikaru has become so good in such a short timespan that he deserves one of those go tables with legs.

  This allows Hikaru to play Sai and after working out some “bugs” in their playing we see he grows stronger so fast that he can even beat Mitani on equal grounds.  Akiri meanwhile gets a new female recruit for the Go club and gets confronted with her feelings for Hikaru..Mitiani become more serious and Tsutsui is having to graduate this year so we are introduced to the new rules of this year and a new “season” of Go.

This episode was the most rewarding viewing experience of all the five to watch. You finished the Internet Go Arc “here you go.. all the character development that happened during that arc will be neatly presented to you”  Once again I love it! This is what I said I  wanted to see last episode and it is exactly what I got.  While it lacks the spectacular imagery that the previous episode had it was a great touch to show the next tier of this story to begin where it all began. At Hikaru’s grandpa’s house. To show the progress by taking him past the Go club he used to visit by making him face both Mitani and TsuTsui!  There is cleverness in that design.  We know how weak Hikaru was at the Go Club as he got kicked for his weird behaviour and barely could follow, now he can beat their strongest student. We can see him face Tsutsui and Mitani and they acknowledge him for his own skill not Sai’s now! We see the passion he has gotten for the game. This episode did so much for Hikaru!

The title of this 19th installment is not for nothing. This anime also gets my highest score! I had little to no gripes. Seeing Akiri do her thing was nice and we even got to see her develop and recruit a female friend. I am so happy for her. However there is one gripe I had with this episode and that is how Sai is depicted. He has been depicted like this before but he is obnoxiously playful when begging for a game.  His awkwardness around the board feels unprofessional. His demeanour doesn’t fit that of a ghost who commited suicde over losing a rigged match in front of the emperor. I don’t mind if he gets like this sometimes but this guy is supposed to be the absolute zenith. He displays this whimsical a bit too often and when facing an extremely strong opponent I get it.. but for facing Hikaru it seems a bit much! Still a nitpick but it was an actual gripe I had here.

The fact that Sai can be a tad annoying did not make me think that much less of the episode though! It is still  very good and I do get why it happens. This show needs that kind of flavouring as well. I just wish I could respect him a tiny bit more! Now I just like him/ I like him well enough though so all in all I am still very happy with what unfolded for me today! This weekend was the perfect weekend! When it comes to anime at least!

And my weekend ended perfectly! At least when anime is concerned! Besides a bad migraine on Monday I had a great week! For the next week I will actively pursue my rental contract for my new home! So it will be an exciting but also kind of stressful week. I would see my dad again but he cancelled out yet again, which this week is actually nice as I have more liberties to chase that contract I want so bad! I am so happy if I can get out of this place! We have a verbal agreement already just waiting for the paperwork!

For the blog next week! I am going to tell you about the adventures in my Pokémon Heart Gold Randomiser Nuzlocke started this week, I watch a movie about a very jumpy prince person and I play a retro game one again! We will also see Sunny’s first post go live! Telling us an amazing story about fishing! So you can look forward to that! Speaking about something fishy!?! Did you know the fictional museum of Paradise holds a cursed jewel that is said to be worth a lot of money?! Well I know of a shady guy who really wants it! If you don’t want me to do anything FISHY, like that please consider supporting my Kofi page!

Magic, Missiles and Magic Missiles; Project Warlock Review

Hello dear Paradise guests, it’s Indigo, your friendly neighbourhood Security officer here! Today is a special day, at least for me. this will be my first ever blogpost on Pinkie’s Paradise…..or anywhere else for that matter! Today’s post will be about possibly one the world’s most unprepared game protagonists as I’ll tell you about Project Warlock!

Project warlock is a Doom/Duke Nukem- style First-Person Shooter with some RPG-elements sprinkled in here and there developed by an indie company Buckshot Software and published By Crunching Koalas and (I’m not kidding here) Gaming Company, created with the Unity Engine. The game follows the titular Warlock as he rips and te-Oh wait, wrong game- I mean blasts his way through different corrupted realms and even the plains of Hell on his quest to…. Well, I’m not exactly sure since the game doesn’t really have anything one could call a plot. There are few text crawls about the world the warlock goes through, but not really any reason WHY he’s doing it. Revenge? Obligation? the Devil beat him in Call of Duty and said something mean about his mother? we can only guess why…. but we don’t have to guess how…The answer is with violence….And lots of it.

”Hey Warlock, The DOOM Slayer called and said you stole his pose.”

Putting the ‘War’ into ‘Warlock’

The moment the first level loads, one thing comes clear… The Warlock really hadn’t prepared for his ‘cleansing of the worlds’ at all! his starting arsenal consists of a knife, an axe, and a wand that is fueled by his mana….and that’s it! No spells, no guns, despite clearly showing them on the title screen! Granted, he amasses himself quite the arsenal on his quest not unlike a certain other man with a raging murderboner against the forces of hell, but you’d expect him to pack a few spells weith his weapons! The Warlock’s arsenal will grow from barely having anything to packing multiple firearms, ranging from your basic pistols, shotguns and submachineguns to more exotic pieces like miniguns (still bit unsure how he carries it one-handed, rule of awesome?), laser rifles and flamethrowers, last of which is a rare thing to find in a 2.5D game at least in my experience. All of the Warlock’s weapons can be upgraded at his workshop, the hub/rest area before the next proper level, with upgrade points found in the levels (hidden or in plain sight) or dropped by bosses, for example the classic double-barreled shotgun, or boomstick as it’s called in game (groovy) can be modified to have its barrels even more cut down to increase the damage spread….or go completely nuts and add two more, making it an absolute shoulder decimator were it ever brought to the real world if judged by the knockback and sound it makes when fired. The amount of available customisation to weapons gives incentive for multiple playthroughs, as does the perk system. instead of spending it liek every other normal person, Warlock collects money to level up! paying fees for his patron in exchange for power, perhaps..? leveling up gives the player the possibility to shape the warlock into a fighter they want him to be.
A pure mage with shallower pockets for bullets? easy! a hulking Lead farmer? go right at it!
Evey five levels the warlock gains a perkpoint to spend on perks. Unlike gun upgrades, perks need a prequisite for certain skills, which makes sense, since having next to no spirit wouldn’t make sense for someone with magic potential perk, or trying be a melee master when your strenght is weaker than a wet noodle. With the right stat and perk allocation, almost everything is possible. hmm, why do I feel i’m forgetting something….

Hmm…..I DO like the the smell of napalm….

Oh right, i forgot to talk about the spell system…. Truth to be told, it feels like the developers added the spells as they are as an afterthought. You start the game without any, the first spell you get is a flashlight…and while it looks pretty it’s not all that useful, the game is quite well-lit already and you need to buy the spells after finding a spellbook. A neat idea in and of itself….if the spells didn’t use the same upgrade points as the weapons do! Now I can only speak for myself, but if i had to choose between throwing magical dynamite via a spell or having napalm filled missiles in my missile launcher i’ll take napalm any day! In my playthroughs, aside from one attempt, I haven’t used a single spell aside from the flashlight that’s given for free as a semi-tutorial kind of deal. Using the plethora of guns is just so much more fun! And boy oh boy….. you’ll be using them a lot….

The flashlight is pretty….
But I find this more entertaining!

Knee-deep in shells

Why do you use guns a lot? Because the enemies are as numerous and varied as they are relentless! The second one of them spots you, you can be sure his mates are not far behind ready to show you a world of hurt! And they will not stop until you or they themselves are dead! The enemies range from little floating eyeballs and skeleton soldiers in the medieval levels, to battledroids and massive Gundam-expies in the far dystopian future. The enemy design is something to be praised, they all look really nice and fit their chosen time period/ location well, and despite having the same-ish overall roles, no two enemies behave exactly the same and have their own set of attacks, soundbites and animations, most of which are really well done! As the resident edgelord of Paradise I especially find the dystopian future mechs and fully armoured soldier mooks really cool-looking! What also surprised me was that some enemies really didn’t want to give up. Huge mech loses it’s legs? It will keep shooting to get some payback! shot off an arm of a yeti? congratulations, you just pissed it off and it attacks faster and more frequently!

Though it’s not all muzzle flashes and lasers, sometimes the enemies can get a bit..wonky. I’ve witnessed many times enemies accidentally killing either their buddies or themselves when trying to fire arching explosives at me…while their friends are either in front of them. or aim stright and not take the arc into the equation….causing them to shoot at their feet in front of them. Yet despite that I never saw it as a true flaw, it adds to the chaos!

One big issue i have with the enemies are the damage types. Some of them are straight-up melee types, others use projectiles…and some are straight-up hitscan. this in and of itself wouldn’t be such of a big deal, but sometimes the enemies i’d think were projectile-based are hitscan instead, riddling me with lots of bullets, leading to an early grave… though as i’m going to reveal in the next paragraph, isn’t all that heartrending anyway!

”Uhmm….parlay?”

Around the map in 80 seconds…. Wait have I been here before?

The levels are…actually quite short. like, seconds short, but that needs some elaboration.
Ther maps themselves are actually quite solid with big open arenas and tight tunnels for cqb-action, with more of the map opening as you collect keys or grab certain trigger items. However, some of them, while looking huge with lots of explorability, can be completed within minutes, sometimes even seconds due to secret areas hidden in the maps. some simply open up to reveal a room with more health, ammo, or even a new weapon earlier than you should get it like in DOOM 2016, while some have a teleporter that almost literally whisks you at the exit, skipping most battles and loot, oftentimes without a teleporter to take you back. while this might be a godsend to speedrunning, I myself feel a bit bummed when my curiosity is rewarded by taking most of the exploration out, especially when playing the ‘story’ mode where you can’t revisit completed levels. My personal record is getting through a non-boss stage in 1 minute 34 seconds…. and I wasn’t trying to be fast!

On the rare exception the maps can also be total mazes, especially on Egypt-themed world. I guess that’s apropriate, the pyramids being built to deter thieves after all, but having wasted 10 minutes running around to find a door i haven’t opened yet really grinds my wheels! at least the game is generous enough to spawn enemies when you make progress to show you are doing the right thing!

The secret rooms I mentioned before do earn bonus points for being simple, yet sometimes challenging to find. to find one you don’t have to perform a complex set of actions or pull levers, most of the time you just need to find a piece of a wall that looks off, that usually hides a room, though until you learn to spot the difference between wallpanels you’ll be spending quite some time hugging the walls like an over-enthusiastic building inspector. And some rooms even hide yet another hidden room in them, adding to the layers of wallhugging!

Hmm….. this looks like a good spot for a hidden room….

When you go to kill Satan you wanna look nice

Like the enemies and the guns, the overall design,artstyle and sound design are a real treat to the eyes and ears…. or eye in my case. The style reminds me a lot of Classic Doom games and Blood, with a modern-ish twist, the world having what i’d call shell-shading like in the Borderlands series. And while simple, the areas and buildings still manage to show a good deals of detail and never feel bare, random breakable objects thrown around the area to give the sense you aren’t just waltzing through an area that never had any life-form step a foot there

The music is a mishmash of heartbeat-rising intensity, calm yet pressuring droning and at times odd creepyness, yet none of the tracks feel like they should be in a different game.
the early medieval stages have Castlevania-ish vibes, but with the Warlock in play the tracks have that subtle electronic undertones, creating a more unique sound experience. I like it a lot!

I wonder if these guys are the reason these docks are abandoned…..

With all that said and done Project Warlock is a good choice when you have few hours to spare but no idea what to do. Sitting down and clearing a level or two really helps kill the time! while it had some hiccups with the map design or me rushing in to a fight i didn’t prepare for properly, not once was there a moment where i wouldn’t have had at least some fun! Were someone to ask, i’d gladly Recommend this to them! As the Manager would say…it’s Berry Good

And that was my first actual blogpost ever! So, if there’s anything I should improve on or add, please let me know in the comments! Constructive criticism is always welcome, how else am I to improve!? Project Warlock is available on Steam and GoG for a steal, so if you feel like my review piqued your interest go take a look! Have a nice Day, and stay safe while visiting our Paradise!!

The Charisma of an Anime: Why Pinkie Doesn’t Always Need “Quality”

Why do we like certain Anime? Is it the quality of the animation?! The depth of the story, the characters? I have noticed that quite often I can’t follow the opinion of the crowd. I very much dislike anime like Sword Art Online, Code Geass, Attack on Titan, Death Note and am less enthralled by My Hero Academia and Re: Zero than most. I think all of them are good series in their own way, I also like a lot of anime the public doesn’t think is very good! Mostly childhood classics.. but is that just Nostalgia or is it something else?

<Disclaimer>
This is my personal opinion throughout, even if I decribe them as factual that is only because this is the truth in MY head for me as a person if you prefer to think of it another way, you are not wrong for doing so, nor am I for feeling this way. Multiple opinions can exist and for each and every one of us our opinion is true please respect each others opinions in the comments as well
<End of Disclaimer>

Charisma over Quality?!

If you have read my favourite anime A-Z challenge you know that I do not necessarily favor the BEST anime. I have always preferred the one that speaks to me the most. Sometimes it can be a really low quality anime. I prefer Cardfight Vanguard over Clannad or Code Geass. Now I dislike Geas so that is not saying much..but I still recognise the quality of the latter. It is a good show! It just has no appeal to me! I do think the writing style is pretty bad too.. but I can’t really say I think Cardfight does story better. However Vanguard feels much less pretentious to me. Where Geass aims high and in my opinion strikes out due to some plot events feeling incredibly forced. The card battle anime basically aims to be a commercial. Within their respective parameters I feel the trashier anime of the two exceeds my expectations of what a show like that should be, while Geass to me fumbles in being that high stakes political war game. It doesn’t fail badly but enough for me to be dissapointed.

Each time I tell this a picture of him crying shows up! Such a crybaby!

Compare it to two passengers on a plane. Code Geass is the hot woman sitting next to you and Cardfight Vanguard is a plain mousey looking woman with a baby. You expect the baby to cry and have a hell of a journey, but it is surprisingly quiet. Even though it is still a baby and doesn’t offer much in terms of conversation .. you still think… WOW that was such a sweet child.  Meanwhile the Hot woman next to you yawns and despite being nearly perfect in every way she has one blacked snaggletooth in her mouth. It’s just one tooth and you can probably get over it, yet you can not help but think about that one element that is wrong with it. It’s NOT that I would not date Rotten-Snaggletooth if the rest is good enough don’t get me wrong but as for a general impression one is much more likely to talk about that thing that was not in line with your expectations than the things that are. You could pretend to be the one that would not do that.. but as humans I think we are kind of rigged to spot that one off element.

Every anime has an innate charm. Which can be anything. Sometimes you see this really is a passion project of it’s makers. Like for example the sort of anime Oban Star Racer.  There is this effort in it to present itself well, people clearly wanted to make this, and even if it is not perfect that anime has an amazing vibe to me. You can see the intent to make something unique and something they cared about. Big companies never talk about that in their reviews its just visuals, story sound and usually some fourth metric.Lots of stuff in Dragon Ball isn’t that well written but there is a charm in the way Toriyama forgets things, in the way he cheats things. You see the humanity behind the creator in the series if you pay attention.  You see that through its flaws. 

I might be the Guilty Pleasure Random Girl of Anime?! Oban was Great though!

As such I find Dragon Ball  a much more human product than say My Hero Academia which to me feels much more “mechanically” constructed. It feels as if Dragon Ball really is a story Toriyama wanted to tell versus my MHA being a story that was made because people want to see it. The Mangaka’s most of us know by name aren’t know because of their amazing work.. They are often named with their quirks. Toriyama forgets, Araki has this weird thing with dogs, Miuara put some people on a boat for a few years to play with Idol-Girl-Games. It brings humanity to the manga and anime medium.  This also explains my draw towards the weirder shows it is a story  a person  really wanted to tell. Then take Geass again for example where Mecha’s were added to the story to make it cooler, while not a thing in the early manga and you can see that the anime is not a passion product of one person. It is that vision of a person of a person, shifted by a marketing department and maybe a think-tank on how to sell it to the public. While it has all it’s flaws polished out.. it lost a bit of personality or charisma if you will.

The Classics

It is no secret that I really like Dragon Ball and all it’s series. I love Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh and even Beyblade and Medabots. I like Zoids New Century, Yu Yu Hakusho, heck I had a lot of fun with Shaman King as well.  While plenty of us love at least one show in this list, much less would put them in their favourite list. They are too silly. they have too simple plotlines or haven’t aged well. Yet if we take a look over the internet.. millions of people are still talking about the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, analysing Dragon Ball or doing Sailor Moon fan content. Now there are a few newer big anime who get this too..but it’s still on a smaller scale. Re Zero and My Hero being the most noticeable exceptions. Yet there is a difference. My Hero is less quirky then those old shows.. no pun intended. Back in the early days there was much more ambiguity on how a power worked, less was explained about the world.

Plus Ultra! You don’t need Magazines to understand HIS power!

 Did you know for example that it took until Dragon Ball Z Kakarot to explain why the King of Central City is a dog?! Why do there live animal people?!  Techniques were forgotten, more loopholes to get around problems were needed.. and then the fans came together and tried to find explanations to it.  To this day people still try to polish the mistakes out of Dragon Ball with weird theories! We do that to certain games or western series as well. Is it all due to nostalgia?! No! That would blind us to a lot of their mistakes but we are aware of them! We just have grown to love them DESPITE these flaws. The modern modus operandi however seems to really nitpick the shows that we love and even go as far as drop them and shun them for having one character that portrays a gender or race in a less than adequate way.
It’s easier for me as well.. because I don’t feel like I am demeaning Horikoshi’s work when I say My Hero is something I think makes a few wrong choices… it’s more sterile. 

Modern anime have so many benefits that it makes them objectively better. They have the internet  to easily look up what happened before, they have fans point out a flaw so it can be retconned immediately. Yet because this happened in anime.. and media in general for that matter feels much more like a team effort. It does no longer feel like it came from the pen of a single man or woman. Teams are often very big and we get a joined effort that is always increasing in quality!  I really think anime is getting consistently better over time. At least objectively! Stories make more sense, animation has less and less flaws.. (at least in a situation where corporate doesn’t force people to use cheaper studios..but cheaping out is a whole other problem) but because of it. .that airplane is more and more filled with “generic” people. With a whole team monitoring who gets on board you get less weirdo’s. So no tranquil baby and no Snaggletooth woman. Maybe a woman with a slightly loose tooth and a baby that cries at a less annoying pitch..but they now fulfill much more their intended roles.. everything is as it should be .. but does it really have to be?!

While it might seem like a critique on big names only it is not.  Isekai Cheat Magician, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two Hit Multi Target Attack and Uzaki Chan wants to hang out are for me deeply flawed products. But their main gripe is the same. They are boring and generic.  They lack a passion. They are made for the audience as such if they offer you what you seek they can still be a hit with people. Yet once they stop providing that they die out quickly.  Dragon Ball Z and One Piece might have tricks in them for cash and to sell more figurines but they are also MORE than just that. Märchen Mädchen that I watched recently was also more. It’s not just what fans one.. it’s a love letter to classic stories but also an awareness on how poorly they aged. The author was in there.. somewhere!

I don’t understand why this screenshot is so popular! But Welcome new viewers!

You will always remember your first kiss. You will always remember your first anime. What defines a classic to you is also up to your age. To some Naruto is a classic.To me.. it is a transition period. For everyone that golden point will shift. Too many people much younger than me Naruto may already be that cheesey flawed product that Dragon Ball was to me. Something they love despite what they see as flaws.. as Anime become objectively better and better and more mainstream accessible.. much more tools are being used, sales are being measured so precisely, polls on the internet, fan magazines whatever.. no matter when you start anime, in a few years that gateway of yours will show some cracks and you will learn to appreciate them I think. 

It creates a much stronger love for anime for me at least than a series that just is good. Would I use the visuals, music and story metrics to measure what I think about all the anime I watch? I would be much more positive about most anime At least if I compare it to the quality I need, not so much if I compare everything to the 10/10/10’s out there. Yet to me they often  lack the charisma Sailor Moon has. When I hear that poor quality transformation music I become genuinely happy. Even the quiet shrill sounding opening song bestows me with so much more emotions. Even though the Soundtrack of MHA is vastly superior to Moon’s.. the highs I can reach with Moon are much higher than with the more recent anime. I do love  You Say Run a lot and rock out to it, but I like it because it IS good. I am not sure if the Sailor Moon transformation song IS good..but I love it for it’s personality! That retro vibe, the over usage, I don’t like it because it is good. I like it because it is the Sailor Moon transformation theme. Somehow that love feels purer to me.Less earned maybe.. but that makes it more intoxicating.

Even as a Duth girl THIS is my drug!

It’s all relative

This is a weird kind of love, though as it has zero base in objectivity. There are people like me who love Dragon Ball.. but I can’t tell a random anime fan I love Dragon Ball and expect to be understood. When you love something despite of its flaws you really need someone who loves it as well to get that. Goku’s Japanese voice actor for example gets a lot of flack from the Dub loving people.  “He sounds like a kid that is so stupid”. No he does not sound LIKE anything, he sounds like Japanese Goku.. that is the voice of Goku. I find Japanese Goku to be more versatile than Sean Schemmel. Still, Sean Schemmel is also the voice of Goku. There is nothing wrong with him…well that might be pushing it.. there is nothing wrong with his voice acting. However, to explain why Goku works in Japanese..  you gotta like Goku in japanese ..because it is one of those things. My love for the Digimon universe is much the same. The new show really does show me how poorly the first run did on storytelling.. but it doesn’t make me love it less. It just makes me glad I now get a good story in addition to that and makes me enjoy both even more. Yet to understand that.. you really have to love Digimon like me. 

I can safely walk up to someone and say “You Go Run goes with everything” and a random animefan probably will go heck yeah! If I walk up to a random guy or gal at a convention and tell them I genuinely love Digimon, they have a much bigger chance to be weirded out. It is because all guides on blogging or journalism tell us to be objective. To write objective reviews. It made us believe anime can objectively be bad. It made us afraid to love something that isn’t well reviewed. It allows us to unify behind a single vision or at least with confidence step up to someone and say! Hey the visuals for this anime are stellar! Yet in the process we lose something.. the ineffable part of loving something. When I fall in love with a girl it is never because she has pretty eyes or a nice rack. It’s not because she has a great personality either because otherwise I would fall in love with all of my friends and most of you too! It’s not because of her voice or clothing choice either.. It is that hidden factor , something unspeakable, something that can not be put into words. It can only be stated. It can only be understood by peers who fell for that girl before.

Awww crabcakes! Okay bring forth the evil exes! *Cracks Knuckles*

Let’s say that girl I fall in love with is an anime… Let’s say she is also on the plane I used earlier, because why not! I see her much more in the past. If she is Digimon she might tell me some weird stories or maybe she is built a bit awkwardly.  If she is Dragon Ball , she might not be the prettiest and has a bit of a weird voice.The girl is out in the open though.. not hiding displaying her flaw for me to see and acknowledge.  If she is a modern anime…she is wearing the make-up that got the best rating.. We now know what tests best. She is a pretty smooth talker because she saw a youtube video on how to talk to strangers. As we now know so much more about properly fleshing out dialogue and there are bigger teams who proof read stuff. She wears the most popular clothes as found on review sites. All in all in her modern form the girl is a lot more marketable and she will find someone who will like her , heck it still could be me.  Yet I have to look much deeper to see her true self beyond that stuff everyone wants. I will like her faster because she is wearing a pretty as heck mask that I can deeply enjoy! However it would take me much longer to fall in love, because for that I have to see behind the mask. I am not saying it doesn’t happen but it will take me longer to fall in love.

 So my plane experience has shifted. From an uncomfy ride with one or two people who rock my world I now found myself in a plane full of pretty and acceptable people..I have a much more pleasant flight but by the time I take off next season I will have forgotten most of the pretty people… while that girl I saw 20 years ago is still haunting my  mind. She had her quirks.. but she wasn’t there for me.. she was there for her! That is a charisma I like to see in everything I love. If we only judge and measure objectively at one time that experience might fade away. For now it’s fine.. in general it’s as simple as switching over to a smaller airline and taking some risks. Just remember that if you review something it’s okay to look at quality.. but look at the charisma sometimes. It might not be as useful to the people reading your review but I do think it would be healthy in the long run!

Heck even in Airplanes they get THAT seat

I really hope I have not offended you guys or that you think I am super shallow now! In the end we all like what we like! If you came here for objective reviews , I might have shot myself in the foot! Because you will not be getting those! I am just a pink avatar, telling you what I personally like and what I don’t like! Speaking of what I like! I would really appreciate it if you support my Kofi by clicking on the link below! Or if you can’t spare or want to part with the money leave a comment below! I really appreciate you all in every way you support this blog! So while I might not approve of your favourite anime! I approve of all of you!

Pinkie’s Geeky Solutions 1: Japanese Gadgets to Date Japanese Girls!

Welcome again my dear island guests. Pinkie’s Paradise does not only have the sweetest coconuts, most delicious cocktails and best staff you get in a resort! We also really like our gadgets. Well at least me the manager does! The Japanese culture is something a lot of us people here love and strange gadgets are a part of that “Japanese” Lifestyle! Since I love randomness so much I decided to create a series in which I solve every day trouble.. with odd Japanese gadgets. Since last week I talked about my inability to flirt.. I decided this week to start off with gadgets to help me….and you guys.. date a Japanese girl.

This post will feature some YouTube Video’s so reading this post on my actual website is advised

Getting Ready for Your Date

All these gadgets came from the same website! Japan Trend Store! The first step towards a successful date comes with preparation of course. You want to look nice for your date. If you are a bit like me though.. you HATE ironing! It is so awful. I go out of my way to avoid having to iron and for the measly price of €206 euros or $243 respectively I can look pristine without having to iron again! All I need is a Laundry Dryer and Wrinkle Remover. Just place an airbag over the steaming device, put your blouse or pants on the air bag and bam! Within “minutes” you have a dry outfit.. and if you look at how it bloats around the bag a lot more body confidence as well. 

A blouse or a gentleman’s shirt will only take about 30 minutes to dry and it can even blow dry denim jeans within 100 minutes! If you have a dryer though you can even use cold air and do it even faster. And look how amazingly fun it looks! It’s like you have a bloated friend over! I would definitely build a head for it! Imagine your mother coming over and she sees  two legs sticking up from behind your couch! This can be used for dating AND pranking! If you use cold air, you get a perfectly huggable buddy if the date doesn’t go well either.. and based on the comments I got on my flirting post we all should very much consider that option.

Now we are all geeks here so I would assume like me, the prospect of dating terrifies you all and causes immense stress. Stress that can manifest physically!  When I get stressed I turn into a wooden board or even a brick!  Muscles cramp together and I look like one of tangled up marionettes. Not very attractive to my date to say the least. I know Japanese people are a bit more tense.. but that does mean I won’t be able to get a relaxing massage after! So I should massage myself before and I have found the perfect one! A quadruped chicken! It’s name is Rilacocco! You can relax those tensed up muscles by letting it waddle on your skin!

Setting you back €96 euros or $114 dollars this is not a cheap massager, or from the looks of it a particularly good one!  Maybe if they are really finely built but I doubt this counts as a deep tissue massage. It looks Kawaii as heck though so you can even bring it to your date and show it off! With stickers you can customise it’s looks! What kind of eyes do you want it to have? It is yours to choose! You can even have a great conversation on why you customize Rilacocco the way you did! She is a Japanese girl after all.. I mean these things might not work AS well on a Western Girl.. or in actual real life… but for fictional Japanese girls.. it’s perfect!  You can compare your massagers! She might even have a Rilapiyo the Duck variant, which is cheaper and comes in pink and instead of wiggling it beams heat into you… okay.. I gotta steal my date’s massager now!

Now one thing you need to do before you go on a date is the Sniff test! You know! Sniff your armpits and see if it’s passable! Yet what if you are scent blind to your own smells?!  That could easily ruin a date!  You could ask a friend but we are all geeks so chances are we got those in short supply!  Let alone that they would like to smell our armpits and are available on the day of a date! Plus they are our friends! Those who’d do that for us would probably have been our friends for years so maybe they are also scent-blind.

Luckily one again there is a gadget that now can tell us how stinky we objectively are! Introducing the Konica Minolta Kunkun Body Odor Checker. A device that analyses your scent and rates your body scent on a scale from 0 to 100%. Now I am not sure if 0% means that you are 0% clean and you stink like that villian from Dragon Ball  or 0% noticeable so that could be awkward but we can experiment. Like I wash and sterilize and then measure it and if it’s closer to 0% I wash and sterilize till we reach that or if it’s closer to 100% we wash and sterilize till we reach the big score!

I am not sure if it detects perfume so best not perfume before I use it!  Then during our date check a few times and if needed visit the bathroom to clean my pits! So this device seems kinda pointless at first when you think that a normal human would regularly shower and clean their pits and stuff.. but apparently in Japan , body scent shaming is a very big thing!
Nothing kills romance harder than your date calling you Nioi or Stinkui. Well her being a psychopath murderer maybe.. but I would be kinda into that to be honest. Her calling me Stinkui.. instead of Pinkui would crush my soul! This gadget comes with a price tag of €487 or $576 dollars which is a rather soul crushing price to find out if you stink or not..and I still prefer the sniff test.. but this is objective! Maybe she carries one with her herself and if the reads are too high she will dump you and leave you with the bill of that cute Izakaya you visited. The thing sends data to your smartphone from which you can read stinkiness so you can also hide this device in the bathroom and use the app to make a documented list of who takes the stinkiest number 2. Or if you hate baths you can say! Mom! I don’t wanna take a bath. I am only at 12% stinkiness!. This device is worth its weight in deodorant.

Going on the actual first date!

So now you might be wondering! Pinkie .. did you make her a Japanese girl just so she can counter every argument not to buy these silly gadgets.. to which I say… mostly yes! But it is also so I could promote a very special gadget. You see the Japanese people have many skills. Most of them involve writing amazing 2d characters or deciding who in the world is gay and what not trough the art of Yaoi and Yuri art. They are also very good with using dead fish in creative ways, like making it go across little conveyor belts in the most colourful forms! Also making it very delicious! Yet they aren’t very good at speaking english! Luckily they are good at making gadgets so they made a device that seems like something out of Star Trek. The Startalk Voice Translator Hatsune Miku! A Translator that can translate 53 voices using an interface of 9 languages. So English is properly required to operate the device.. but it can help you understand your date.

What is even better is that the device is equipped with the voice of the adorable vocaloid. So if your Japanese Date whispers sweet nothings in your ear as the date progresses Miku will electronically repeat them understandably! So if you ever wanted to hear Miku say.. I think you are very handsome/pretty, this is your best chance! Plus your date can hear your compliments in the voice of Miku too! If you ever  have seen a concert of her in Japan we know Japanese folks LOVE her! So if she on a subconscious level ties you to the idol you are golden!  Even if your date doesn’t go well you can always talk to Miku.. she will just repeat after you but you can make her speak another language so you can just pretend it is something else!  Let just hope Miku never tells you your date thinks you are stinky, but since this gadget will run you about €382 or $452 you might have to cut down on a certain scent detector.

Now if you are like me you will be pretty nervous during your date. Miku might translate things with a bit of a stutter! However, nerves means sweating!  Even though  we can detect our scents to wash all the grime away.. and new sweat doesn’t stink.. only old sweat does.. you still can see stains on your coloured clothes. I like wearing brighter colours so sweat stains kind of stand out! For a date I would also usually wear something fancy.. which usually means it’s a lot hotter. I will never wear a short sleeve to a date so I either have to wear a vest or a long sleeve dress. Make up will also make me hotter hopefully also in the figurative sense.. but also in the literal sense.. so bodyheat is  a thing that quickly goes out of control! Most Japanese cooling gadgets do not look very sexy!  I will discuss more of them in a future post but today I will discuss something you can wear under a dinner jacket or a nice pretty vest. It’s the Surei Water Cooling Vest Lite! 

This vest can move water around it’s lining with temperatures as cold as -10 degrees celsius. Which is like 14 degrees Fahrenheit! Which means I definitely won’t sweat. It might even make you shiver with cold so she is forced to give you a warming hug! It won’t help because -10 is being created underneath the hug but hey you gotta take your victories. Also since it is so cold you can’t really put it on your skin as that won’t end well.. but this is invented for people that want to wear a jacket.. but don’t want the heat the jacket provides. That kinda seems like a bit of an jackass thing to do..to wear a jacket just for the looks but wanting to negate the heat and it definitely will come to haunt you in the ass if it is a date that ends in the bedroom.. because.. a cooling pack is not sexy.. but for date number 1..it will keep your pits clean! Plus and this is a big one.. it can be worn inside a Hazmat suit.. let’s face it it is 2020 after all. For just $376 euro’s  or €318 if a blonde man doesn’t destroy your currency value you can have this sweet vest. With icy temperatures us girls can even use it to perk up a little! 

Securing a future!

Now one successful date is not enough to get a Japanese girlfriend! I think at least.. There are bars where us Gaijn can go to pick up ladies looking for some western meals but let’s be honest we all want love and not lust right?! *Pm me for the bar name I can help you out if you don’t*  So.. how do we make our date our girlfriend. Well I was born in the 80’s. Back then and in the early 90’s the way to secure a date is to give her a romantic mixtape!
However providing her with a YouTube playlist isn’t exactly the same. Since we want to go retro all the way and you want her to have some cute song quality.. why go for a mixtape when we can upgrade it to Vinyl! Presenting the Gakken Otona no Kagaku Toy Record Maker! A toy that allows you to make an actual record for your lady love using recordings you have on your smartphone! This means you can just put your favourite love songs on there.. but you can also sing a song yourself and put it on a record! So if you always wanted to be printed on Vinyl while not having a girlfriend I guess you can do that as well you narcissist meany! For just €168 euros or $198 dollars you can blow the mix tape people out of the water and give your love a record album of your love!

It also melted my date!

Skipping ahead a few months you are now in a relationship but of course your visa has expired so you had to go home for three months. Things are still good as she still has that record with your voice on it! Everytime she listens to Hatsune Miku she thinks of you too! So everytime she listens to either she calls you up on Zoom! How sweet! But also really annoying because that is the time you would go out drinking with your friends..or play a western game. Yet you can not blow your girlfriend off! You need a ruse to talk to her for a bit.. then go do your thing without doing the I love you more thing.. No I love you more! Yuck!  So you just say your internet is very bad and you buy the Loading Circle  Online Meeting Escape Machine! It costs $75 which is just €63  and while chatting with her you freeze up and pop the button on this machine then pause your camera.. and she will be none the wiser.  You can then send her a text on discord or whatsapp saying my phone just crashed.. I am going to bed. I am sorry Uwu! I wuv you!  Then you go out with your friends, have fun and your relationship will not suffer for it either!

The final gadget can be for yourself if you are a girl or for her if you happen to be a guy! It is the Ravijour Love Tester Bra. Three months have passed and you can move back into Japan..and it is time t o wrinkle the sheets.  Yet being a geek we are all devoid of the knowledge of opening bras. Nothing is as unsexy as you wanting to get things on and you are yanking on a bra of your significant other trying to get it off. Most of us will lack experience in that department.. so instead of letting her undo it herself.. you gift her this electronically locked Bra that is controlled with an app! She can undo it herself with the app but if you can get her heartrate up enough within a certain interval for a little while.. the app will make the bra pop off itself. The sad thing is though.. as for right now this thing isn’t really for sale! It was a promotional thing in 2014 aimed at offering protection to intoxicated women who could easily be sweet-talked into doing something they don’t want!  Yet for us geeks it could also be a sexy toy that lets us avoid our kryptonite so I say bring this back!

Don’t worry! I have no Japanese girlfriend yet.. I first need to gather upwards of 1757 euro to go on a date in Japan and that is excluding the ticket, and of course the actual date. So you got time! Until then I hope I made dating a bit easier for you people! Now you can find your Japanese Angel! If you want to find these gadgets for yourself go to Japan Trend Shop! I am not sponsored but I love this website and will make more of these posts in the future! So maybe one day.. they sponsor me.. and I could actually GO on that tech date! Of course you can help as well by supporting my Kofi!

The Bad, The Worse and The Ugly: BloodRayne 2 Review

Dear Island Guests , while reviewing all video game movies I have to deal with this man a lot. Uwe Boll , he is european like me! He seems to like video games like me and he leaves quite a few errors in his content much like me. We both aren’t exactly the best fiction writers out there and I acknowledge writing a good story is hard.. but when you point a camera to that flawed writing.. it will stand out much more! So mister Boll. I shall review the second BloodRayne movie as my suggestions to you!  As one hobby writer to another.. well you might be professional in name….but well like with your video game adaptations.. it is just the name that you have in common with the pro’s.

Please! Give us a plot

Dear mister Boll, I commend you for your bravery for your choice in setting the second BloodRayne movie in the Wild West. For the second time in a row that is a time  setting that has little to nothing to do with the actual games. I am glad you did not forget she could cross water and walk into sunlight now so at least it feels like a sequel but why set both movies  in the wrong time period?Rayne adventures mostly in the early 1900’s, with the majority being set in world war II. I will assume that you could get some Wild West outfits on a budget.. because they sure as heck look like it! You could not even dress up Rayne with cold weather gear in the snow! Instead she wears a crop top in the cold with a duster coat making sure to show some belly button. That is hot!…at least to some I will admit! Yet why make her upset when people address her like a harlot.. you made her look like one!

I commend you for your bravery to only introduce the main character to us after twenty minutes, and even then she is still not involved in the plot still. Now cleverly you basically omit a plot from the movie up until about the midway point. For the opening twenty minutes we see random stuff unfold, like a Vampire grabbing some kids.. and that same vampire taking over a town. Yet we are not told what he does there. Rayne just happens to be friends with the people whose children you took.. out in the middle of nowhere.. but why did you take children out there?! We later find out you wanted the town! So why get those specific kids? There is no connection, it happens just so that Rayne can get involved. Since it is snowing in the area the kids are stolen from and muddy and dirt filled in the town.. I can assume that these areas are a fair bit apart. Given how much snow there is!  It doesn’t seem like very good and rather convenient writing mister Boll. 

Also why does the plan of the evil vampire guy named Billy the Kid have to be so lame?! The bad guy wants to spread vampirism across the land using the railroads, so he can be the boss of them all. You go to lengths to tell us he is a old vampire and in a short time he has made 30 vampires in this town. If he is so old.. why does he not travel around and make vampires all across america. He is immortal.. he can take his time. Sure he can spread it faster.. but he has not been spreading vampirism before? Because he waits for a railway station in a sleepy town to be fixed?  He could just kidnap children and travel across the west creating an army?! I probably lack your insight but to me his goal seems super achievable.. if he actually had his vampires spread around the states. Since he is so old, clearly he came from elsewhere himself. When using a mc-guffin it might not hurt to think on how else a character can achieve their goals.. like taking over a town that actually has a Railroad already?! Or making the children vampires and let people find them.. and spread vampirism to them.. or using your immortality to build that army over the years. I just gave your villain a hand full of backup plans and I wasn’t even really thinking about it either! So I don’t think you really told us a story here! Well you did but it makes no sense other than within the confines of a script! If the villian is this stupid.. he was never a threat anyway.

Please use your setting!

Dear mister Boll, I love a good western..from time to time. I think it is brave to spread Rayne’s journey out across a wider variety of time pieces I really do! You do not have to take textures and game size into account so you can move from an medieval setting to a wild west one to a world word II setting without filling up disk space with 1000’s of different textures and weapons and playstyles. I like that now guns are a thing..but if you tell Rayne’s tale through time.. you gotta use the time as well. It is super clever to make Billy the Kid a vampire! It allows for some interesting ideas.. but Billy the Kid was named the Kid because he was so young! Why did you cast a middle aged man to play him? And why did you make him look like a cartoon character rather than a real person. And what is with that wig the guy wears. The hair looks so gross. I do like the idea of saying that Billy never was killed when he did because he was a vampire…but instead of making him a revolver hero.. you made him bad with guns, which is stated.. way too old and he isn’t a bandit at all he is a megalomaniac mayor like person.This baffles me? If you want him to be Billy the Kid why make him nothing like it?!

Then there is the dialogue. People do not really talk like it is a wild west setting. The first big line Rayne has is telling some stranger who wants to kill Billy the Kid that his fly is open. That does not seem like an insult befitting the time period. Partially because women would not talk like that in those days neither would men nor would they care because they are out in the wilds..secondly the idea of the fly that  can be open was only really popularised in the 1940’s…the period BloodRayne is supposed to be set in! Back then they mostly have flappy things or buttons! This is only but an example of dialogue not being written in the time period. It happens quite a lot. You end your movie with the quote “Life is like a Penis.. if it is hard you get screwed and when it’s soft you can’t beat it’ that is a recent quote that was not around in that time. The way most people talk feels modern, watch any western to notice the difference please.

You might also want to think of how a western setting contributes to vampire hunting. For a bit you do! Vampires can not be killed by anything but silver bullets with garlic oil!  Which is clever…well maybe not clever but after seeing four of your movies I am not expecting much anymore!  However dear mister Boll. If you put silver bullets in a box with some unpeeled fully intact pieces of garlic.. not even cloves but the whole thing. Those bullets are not going to become covered in garlic oil. If suddenly the citizens can pick up their guns and kill the vampires as well. Where did they get silver bullets? These people can’t leave and trade is very low since there is no railroad yet, how did they suddenly get resources. Most of all why.. oh why.. would have the sleepiest and most boring town in the west…as established by yourself.. gatling gun in a random barn?! The vampires could have gotten it somewhere I guess…but if they were in a place where they can steal gatling guns..why not make your army there! Clearly that would have better arms?! If you want to make it a wild west setting with guns.. don’t use such a sleepy town.. if you want the civilians to be meek and compliant don’t give them the most powerful weapons of the time period! These two do not match. You are not creating a believable world here!

Please hire a proper crew!

Dear mister Boll, one of my best friends is a cameraman and once I helped him out a bit so I know how heavy camera’s can be! But when you make the heroes of the movie do a power walk.. the camera man is not supposed to shake the camera so hard that I get nauseous from looking at the scene. Yes this actually happened! The most badass scene is meant to look professional not as if someone is filming it on a seesaw. This is not the only time the camera work sucks. A hand-held camera has a place but when the terrain is rougher and your camera man can not handle it.. perhaps you should not choose to do shots like that. Using a dolly or two fixed cameras instead of course having more equipment means there is less money to embezzle so I understand your choices here I am just telling you it shows. I am not even being nitpicky here! Never EVER have I said something bad about the cameraman other than.. that shot could have been framed better..but your crew is more fundamentally flawed.

This becomes very clear when we look at your editors. Shots linger way to long, fight scenes are cut together way to fast.. and most important scene transitions aren’t scene transitions.  In a good movie we see a shot of a sunrise over a tree, to indicate it became day again then that same tree is used to show a character riding inside the frame.  Or we see blood pour out of a wound that transitions into the villian pouring win into his glass and smiling. There are two transitions in this movie.  Other than that it’s just a fade to black followed by a fade in, it makes this movie feel super cheap mister Boll. It is like I am watching an amateur film and even those use transitions better. The shot in which you introduce Rayne we see her galloping on a horse.. but there is a piece of straw for the camera blocking like half the shot! Who told you that was a good idea?!  That’s not artistic it feels like something got in the way of your shot.. and that is not the only time!  That should have been taken out on the cutting room floor!  And what is up with the obsession the browned out teeth. There are so many mouth shots in this movie. I counted like 25 seperate ones at the very least. Not always fangs either.. sometimes it’s just brown teeth or Rayne playing with a toothpick. This is a vampire action movie yet about 3 minutes of the movie are just close up of mouths! Eeew!

When I saw this movie start I was like , oh no… this looks like a cheap porn movie.  At least as far as I have seen those. It has a slightly better camera than Birdemic Shock and Terror but not by that much! It is somewhere halfway between that and a 90’s action movie. Raynes swords look fake and impractical as heck, revolvers look okay.. I think?! I am not a gun expert but they do look samesie a lot!  I would think there would be more diversity. Still everyone can use the same bullets here regardless if they have a rifle, a revolver or whatever. The gatteling gun is different though. It completely blows up the chest of one guy.. while lightly grazing a guy that stood closer’s shoulder. I will be honest I do not know what happend in that scene. I saw a character die. .and then he was alive again..it might be a different character that wears the same coat and hat with a similar style beard but because you can not tell the difference between vampires and the hunters.. I had no idea what was going on. Sometimes images are slowed down for no reason  sometimes they are sped up and it all looks so weird.

The worst part of the crew however are the actors though. The cast is basically everyone who played in Postal the movie. They constantly phase in and out accents that can range between texan and a louisiana accent and basically any state in america that is ever ridiculed for their hillbilly accent. At one time Rayne has southern pronunciation, shifting back to current day american again while in reality she should have a british accent. The preacher (and yes that is the characters name as he is never named in the movie)  is not understandable at times and then suddenly loses his accent entirely just to replace it with another one by the end of the movie! Billy the Kid is SO overacted I felt like I was watching an  amateur stage play! Mister Boll I know no one wants to return to working with you once they done it.. but just because a single cast was as talentless as you are does not mean you should use them again.  Everyone acts insane.. like they think they are soap opera actors or something.. it doesn’t work! Again normally I still see the character.. and I notice an actor has trouble with a line or two.. but here.. I see an amateur giving a drama club performance.. Honestly some of them are approaching the level of Wiseau. Most of them have acting skills equal to the level of the Mother in law with breast cancer in the Room. Bottom of  the barrel acting.

Please roleplay your characters just a bit

I can go on.. but I am running out of space here! Dear mister Boll for once please try to roleplay some of your characters so you can see how  wrong the situation is and how much it doesn’t work. My biggest example is the gatling gun scene.Our heroes chase some vampires in a barn and 20 of them point their guns at them. Instead of shooting them then and there.. as they clearly plan to kill them they tell them to throw away their weapons. This is stupid idea number 1 mister Boll you already established these vampires will kill those standing in their way so there is no need to  force them to surrender. Then the heroes refuse and a rip of Ennio Morricone’s theme begins playing rather dramatically ..this is the only western flavoured piece of music by the way and it is everywhere.  The heroes are ONE STEP from  stepping underneath the second floor of the barn..but instead light a cigarette, and then fire at random vampires in the attic allowing the gatling gun guy to gun them down.  If they took one step .. NONE of the vampires except for maybe one or two guys with a pistol could hit them.. but they stay out in the open and shoot at everyone.. except for the greatest threat.. the guy with a f’ing gatling gun! No character made a normal decision in that entire scene.

The conclusion is even worse.  Billy the kid has used a millstone  to make a contraption that will hang all the children when Rayne enters his room. Why does he not just shoot. her the moment she walks through a door.. but no .. he tries to convince her to be evil with him.. she enters the door and grabs the rope and saves all but one of the children who gets really visibly hanged. Instead of attacking the defenceless Rayne they start talking even after she refuses to join him he keeps talking to her.. and when all her allies have been killed…she suddenly realises she can launch herself using the stone and cut all the ropes of the kids before they choke. She saves  everyone.. and even then Billy the Kid allows her to get up and fight him.. not threatening the kids. In the first movie mister Boll people gave you critique for the plethora of dialogue in the final encounter so just to spite them you added more?!  At one point Billy manages to pull out his guns on Rayne during the fight but he doesn’t shoot them!

He has to load them still..if he does have to cock the gun why doesn’t Rayne attack him.. if he had them cocked and ready to fire why would he not fire! No one acts like a person in this movie.. they are all forced to do stuff by the plot! Nothing.. and I mean NOTHING makes sense.  The allies they recruit are swindlers and bandits and no one knows of vampires.. but when a weird girl ask them to join her in death to fight vampires they say sure!  It goes against everything established. In the end you make the coward have a change of heart but then when he gets a shot to save the day he chickens out.. and the people make him a sheriff for it?!  Dear god mister Boll .. did you ever stop to think about these things for longer than a single second?!

I think that NEVER have I have seen a movie where characters make this little sense. At least Johnny from the room had a reason to shoot himself. At least in Birdemic the characters fought for survival. Ed Wood movies made more sense than this, he could not afford reshoots so he had to make due with one take.. but even in Plan 9 from Outer Space there was a motivation… here there is nothing. Story happens for no reason, scenes happen for no reason and characters lack any sense of being able to think logically.  Why certain shots are chosen makes no sense.. mister Boll this movie feels like  you just had  three cool shots in your head..failed  to make them come true and settled for a movie student version of it..then strung those three scenes together with the cheapest attempt of plot possible! Where the last movie was kinda fun to watch in it’s badness. this one doesn’t make ENOUGH SENSE for that.. This is “movie” is as much of a movie as a four year old kid’s  robot he made during arts and  crafts is a robot… and that comparison is MUCH closer than anyone might realise.. dear mister Boll.. upon review I have to conclude this is not a movie.. this is …

There is one more BloodRayne movie left! Third Reich! It is the only one that is set in the proper time period of the movie so just by existing it is already more faithful than the other two movies… so I got a good feeling about that one. Well good might be a big word! It has the same main actress after all! If you want to help me get some bravery for what is to come.. or if you like me to make a video game movie of my own please consider supporting my Kofi Page! I can’t do much worse so just a kofi’s should help me make a better thing than this!

The Saiyan Rebels: What if Raditz Turned Good 5

Hello Island Guest and welcome back to my fifth part of this alternate reality story set inside the Dragon Ball Z universe. In this timeline we take inspiration from a Bardock who did not see Frieza’s decimation of the planet Vegeta through a vision but from common sense. Like the Bardock we saw in the Broly movie! This resulted in Raditz hating the galactic tyrant more and always doubting the story of the Meteor. More focussed on taking down the Tyrant Raditz was much more aware of the legend of Super Saiyan’s and seeing Gohan’s Potential turned him into a believer! Now he just wants to stop Frieza and his men and free the galaxy and return saiyan pride.

In the last Episode we saw the battles against Nappa and Vegeta unfold. While the Z-Fighters were much more potent.. since Gohan trained with Raditz and Goku at King Kai’s and Snake way.. Piccolo never softens up! When he downed Nappa in his fight, he wanted to kill.. going against the wishes of Raditz and Goku. Tien and Yamcha fought him off..but an unexpected Powerball from Vegeta caused the downed Nappa to turn into a Great Ape that totally lost control!  Killing Piccolo and Tien. Chiaotzu blew himself up to sever Nappa’s tail. In the fight against Vegeta, Goku pretended to lose to trigger Gohan’s power boost and he discovered False Super Saiyan. Vegeta lost the battle.. but his pride prevented him from joining the team. Only leaving the group with a regretful Nappa and No More Dragon Balls.

You can check Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.  This part will be a bit different. With a bit  more explanation on how the story would change rather than act it out.  Most what if’s I follow tend to go into the bigger lines and this way we can cover events more quickly.

Team Namek

In this version of events Goku is not as wounded as he was before. The most wounded person on the team was Gohan and Raditz thought he was the one to gain Super Saiyan. While Gohan did not learn Kaioken unlike his father and uncle Gohan did manage to dabble in the spirit bomb technique. Though in his case it would more be a shield as he lacks the strength to toss it around.  He can just put the energy of others in between him and his enemies. As a result though everyone is much more comfortable training Gohan a bit.
Him displaying signs of something near Super Saiyan god makes them believe the legends are true. As per usual the idea of going to Namek arises but since all the Saiyans want to travel with Gohan.. the Namekian ship is not used. Instead everyone will go on Goku’s ship but without the long recovery time.  So they are going to arrive on Namek early. 

The team that will be going is Raditz, Nappa, Goku and Gohan as for the Saiyans. Yamcha Krillin and Bulma will also come. Yamcha is still alive and saw his friends die trying to save him and Bulma is there in case something goes wrong with the Ship. Saiyans can be rough after all. This ship is much speedier than the Namekian one.. but everyone starts training immediately.  Except for Bulma who stays in an area with less gravity which she also designed. Yamcha and Krillin have issues with the gravity training as they are the only ones who haven’t trained at King Kai’s or are used to the heavier gravity. Surprisingly Nappa takes onto mentoring these two giving the others who are stronger than him a chance to move ahead. However since Nappa easily was the most wounded of them all, even on death’s door he actually caught up to Goku and Raditz. With a power level of 7000 before training starts. Gohan is also in that area now.. probably a little below.. but he already is close to unlocking Super Saiyan as he experienced False Super Saiyan. Which is a non canon form ..but here we use it as a non complete Super Saiyan. While Goku, Raditz and Gohan train and go all out.

Nappa whips the earthlings into shape. Sometimes even using some of his beloved Saibamen.Sometimes Raditz alternates with Nappa so Nappa can train with the main group as Raditz tries to teach the humans Kaioken. Probably a much better teacher than Goku would be if he actually manages to make Krillin and Yamcha learn Kaioken x2, it’s not much but it is a whole lot better than what they got before. Raditz, feeling he was not pure hearted enough skipped training with the Spirit Bomb at King Kai’s and focussed more on Kaioken so he is actually more proficient at it than Goku. He should be able to teach this at least a bit. Now the one who actually comes out ahead here is actually Gohan. Raditz is convinced that this Hybrid Saiyan is the actual person who shall become a Super Saiyan and  that means training is very focussed on making the young boy the most powerful. In the end this results in Gohan surpassing everyone, but also meaning that Goku arrives on Namek a fair bit weaker than in the original story. So here are our Power Levels

1. Gohan: 25.000 instead of 1500
2. Goku 22,000 instead of 90.000
3. Raditz 21.000 instead of 1200 at time of death
4. Nappa 15.000 instead of 4000 at time of death
5. Krillin at 10.000 instead of 1500
6. Yamcha at 8000 instead of 1480
Goku really missed out on his intense Zenkai and worked to pass on the torch to Gohan. Yet Combined  the group already is almost stronger than the group during the Ginyu bit of the arc.. and this time EVERYONE except for Gohan, even Nappa knows at least a bit of Kaioken. With that the group lands on Namek

Dodoria and Zarbon

The group ends up on Namek around the same time as they did in the original timeline. A little while earlier but not by much  It took Bulma a bit to finish the ship but it is much faster than the Namekian one so the group arrives only a smidge earlier. Which means Frieza’s forces have already begun to invade the planet. Yet there aren’t any Namekian Fatalities yet, the Frieza force is only just preparing.  The atmosphere is completely different though. Instead of fear for some intense power levels the only one that is TOO high for the group is actually Frieza. Nappa and Raditz tell them that Ki comes from Frieza but many of his troops are attacking villages. Everyone wants to help the villages so they all scatter about. But right before they do they detect Vegeta’s power as well. He is almost as strong as Gohan so he might be trouble. The group wants to lay low so their Ki can’t flare up to much! “Do NOT use Kaioken,” said  Raditz. His father’s tactical mindset always shines through in the man.  As the group goes to rescue the Namekians we get a few interesting matchups.

We get a fight between Raditz and Vegeta, because Raditz wants to convince the prince to join their side still, Nappa versus Dodoria and Gohan versus Zarbon. In the fight against Raditz versus Vegeta both fight on fairly equal ground. However it seems Vegeta’s heart isn’t fully in the fight.. when he was in that healing Pod.. he thought about that kid that overpowered him a lot. That change… could he truly be a Super Saiyan?!  Would his pride prevent him from defeating Frieza? Vegeta might be prideful but throughout the show he also has a few moments he realises he has been wrong.. and if the boy can achieve that form maybe he can learn it as well. He will eventually surpass them again.. after all he is the prince of all Saiyans. However Vegeta being Vegeta shows he is more powerful than Raditz. Not fully releasing Raditz has Kaioken he takes a cheap shot and blows a hole in Raditz… one he can recover from.. but  as punishment for talking down to him. 


Nappa has trouble taking down Dodoria without Kaioken. While he is at a respectable 15.000 Dodoria is at 22.000 and is still a bit much for him. As he is about to be beaten however behind him he hears the words “Wolf Fang Fist” and Dodoria who isn’t that aware of his Surroundings get Winded.  Together Nappa and Yamcha fight the pink brute and with Yamcha using his pesky Spirit Ball he is able to annoy Dodoria enough that Nappa can land a killing blow with his Bomber DX. The fight of Gohan against Zarbon however doesn’t go as planned. Obviously Gohan should be the one to go after their strongest fighter.. and Nappa and Raditz showed they had no idea about repressing Ki and so it is safe to assume all these fighters are at their maximum potential. Unfortunately for Gohan.. Zarbon had his second form and he was overwhelmed taking a serious beating. Zarbon’s Beautiful form is already at 24.000 so in his ugly form unfortunately he is strong enough to defeat Gohan. Sensing this Krillin and Goku rush over, having one their fights fairly easily.

Goku sees no other option as to go into Kaioken to save his son as fast as possible! Having bonded so much more with Gohan over this past year and a bit , unlike in the original timeline Goku’s love and understanding of his son has exponentially grown. This Gohan being allowed to be a fighter.. by Raditz bluntness silencing Chichi. This means the two actually are that much closer. Briefly while Goku flies over there his Red Kaioken aura flares up golden and his hair seems to shift colour.. not that golden brown Gohan got.. but a more golden tint.. however it briefly fades away. Using Kaioken x3 Goku is easily able to defeat Zarbon but Gohan is very injured. He might be fading. A Young Namekian steps up and says he might know someone who can help. He introduces himself as Dende and urges them to follow him to a man named Guru.

Potential Unlocked.. and an Early Wish?

Since the earth team now consists out of six fighters and everyone has won their fight.. they all have a Dragon Ball, Dende carrying the one Zarbon had.  Detecting the final Dragon Ball at Guru’s place the other earth fighters show up there as well. Including Vegeta. Vegeta says they should wish for immortality but is quickly shut down by Goku. The wish shall be used to bring back everyone on earth so the Dragon Balls return hopefully they can ask to not bring Piccolo back as he went evil. Vegeta scoffs but thinks two sets of Dragon Balls are better than one, the namekian of earth could always grant them a wish from a distance if need be.
At Guru’s place , Guru does offer them the final Dragon Ball..as a reward for saving all his people.. Guru is much healthier in this timeline. He also has a gift for those who came from Earth. Vegeta makes trouble for not being granted this reward but Guru tells him he is not worthy. While all the others fought to protect he fought to destroy. Guru promises Vegeta however that if he shows he can be pure of heart he will unlock his potential later. He does not seem like a lost cause. Vegeta reluctantly agrees.. but tells that if the old man dies he will blow the planet up. Guru simply says that this  shows why Vegeta is not ready yet.

Everyone else including Bulma and Dende have their potential unlocked. With Bulma becoming even more technical and smart than she already was and Dende unlocking his healing. Upon hearing this Vegeta gets an idea and checks out the powerful Namekian named  Nail asking him for all out spar. Lying that he fought Frieza before and that he might be able to tell if Nail can face the man. The Namekian humors him, aided by Vegeta explaining he might be able to get strength from this fight as well. Vegeta that is.

The boost the other fighters get is enormous. Their power completely skyrockets to incredible levels.  With both Gohan and Goku having tapped into new forms their potential is incredible and the boost received reflects that.  Gohan went from 1500 to 10.000 after his unlock before so that is an 8x modifier. This version of Gohan should even receive a bit more due his tapping into False Super Saiyan in my earlier part.  Thus him and Goku would now almost be around a power level of 200.000. Nappa gets the least potential boost of them all. Not having the purest heart and being a bit old he only gets a 4x multiplier. Making him the weakest on the team with a power level of 60.000  Krillin and Yamcha end up with a power level of around 70.000 ..frustrating Nappa immensely. Raditz would get the classic 8ish times multiplier and would end up at around 160.000 in terms of power level. Most of them are strong enough to even defeat Ginyu but still no match for Frieza.

But there is more , all the Dragon Balls are in place so the group now can make their wishes Guru says. “Wait Wishes?” Gohan would ask the man. He would indeed explain there are three of them. Two more than on earth! That is amazing!  Unfortunately it is soon revealed that they can only bring one person back at a time with this Dragon Ball. They ask if Kami can be restored without Piccolo. Porunga says he can not do that. The two are one, their lives are linked. This spells trouble for the group as there is no one left to defend earth. Then Nail gets an idea and he asks if the Dragon can fuse him with another Namekian if he mentions their name. This the Dragon CAN do. So he suggests to wish Kami and Piccolo back and for their second wish to fuse Piccolo into him. He will be able to help them fight Frieza better. The group thinks about this and it is a great way to seal Piccolo for good and it might even sever Kami from the life link.. or bound someone much stronger and pure hearted to him at the very least. So the group makes these two wishes. Piccolo is restored from HIFL but with a final scream his consciousness is absorbed into Nail. For the Final wish Vegeta coins immortality again, Raditz considers wishing for a way for Princess Snake to be able to walk on Earth.. the two hit it off earlier but then gets an idea. Maybe they can ask Porunga more about Super Saiyan.  On how to achieve it?!  But how do they phrase it.. maybe it’s not exactly like in the legend and using the wrong name will waste a wish. So he thinks for a moment then asks Porunga to tell them more about forms they can unlock to kill Frieza.


Porunga says that he sees three ways.  One is the single Namekian that is actually many, the other is the gold form of Saiyan Rage.. Super Saiyan..and if Five Pure Hearted Saiyans channel their power into a sixth they can defeat Frieza with the Power of Super Saiyan God!
After this the Dragon Balls Scatter across the planet and become inert. An enraged Frieza called the Ginyu Force and is heading towards the Namekian Village.  Everyone is dumbstruck. Super Saiyan God?!  But they are one Saiyan short.. it seems hopeless. However can they go into this rage and unlock Super Saiyan without losing anyone?! They do not want casualties. Darn it!

They feel Frieza’s power level drawing in closer and while Nail might be enough to face him now.. Dodoria told Nappa about his other forms during their fight. It all seems in vain. Everyone is frustrated! It’s not enough!  Frieza’s first form power level is 540.000, it will take their strongest three to even stand a chance against that form. Who knows how powerful his other forms are. Then Vegeta breaks the silence. “Kakarot.. can you communicate with the green dork on earth?’. Goku says he can not but he might be able to relay a message via King Kai.  “Tell him to gather Earth’s Dragon Balls, I got an idea”. Goku says they are NOT gonna wish for Immortality. Vegeta shakes his head. “No.. that ritual.. “ Gohan points out they are a saiyan short and they are the only Saiyans left alive and the Dragon Ball’s cant bring back Saiyans that have been long dead. Vegeta shakes his head again. “We might not be the last of the Saiyans… there just might be ONE more’

And that is where our story ends this time!  Since this group has been aiming for Super Saiyan since the beginning and gathered the Dragon Balls much easier due to how powerful they had become, they might have stumbled upon a form that was not made up yet during the time the saga originally ran. However with Raditz being cautious as his personality even was in the official series, it seems plausible the form would come up. Do you know what Saiyan Vegeta is talking about?!  What will happen next.. and how would Ginyu react to a body with its potential unlocked? Find out next time!

Pokémon Top 5: My Favourite Fairy Types

This is it my friends! A Journey has come to an end! The 18th.. and final.. Pokémon typing top 5! Ending up with my favourite typing ever  was always the plan.. but it left some unexpected results. This list might not be the least factual top 5. Though my  top 3 is stable numbers 4 and 5 are fairly random picks! I will explain why in the final time we discuss our rules.

Rules and Honourable Mentions

As always only one entry per evolutionary line and if I dislike a final form it will be held against the previous form if said form does not have the ability to stand on it’s own. For example I really think Spritzee is cute but Aromatisse is a bit odd! I don’t dislike it as much as the community does so it is actually not my pick! That one would go to Floette! I love Floette and Flabebe but the final evolution is weird to me.. I can’t really recognise it as anything. I see the flower theme still but why did she have to go so big all of the sudden. I liked the subtle changes! Eternal Floette of course is viable without her but a normal Floette not so much. Hence this spot goes to Floette.

Now why this list isn’t as representative as others.. like always if a pokémon already made an appearance on another list, for example if I put Charizard on my Fire Type list it can’t also be my favourite flying type because that would be boring and really reduce our options.  Before this hasn’t really been a big issue. It usually involves maybe one pokémon slile Salazzle who I choose not to include on my favourite Fire type list so I could make her poison. Toxtricity was put on my electric list instead of the poison list. It’s  single exclusions. However.. here we go with all the pokémon that I mentioned in the top’s before that are among my favourite pokémon that share the fairy type. Mimikyu , Primarina, Klefki, Magearna, Diancie, Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Rapidash, Togekiss and Gardevoir. Gardevoir would actually take the number four spot  and Togekiss the number 5 most likely but all of these are insanely close to one another! I love the Fairy type that much! But shout out goes to Gardevoir.

Temporary forms are not allowed and this affects two mega-evolutions. I love both Mega Audino and Mega Altaria! Mega Audino because she is such a different Mega evolution as the rest, focusing more on support and Mega Altaria just looks nice and silly which I really like! So now I have to decide which of the two I have to highlight and I have trouble with this because I love them both a lot! Mega Altaria is slightly more useful and being a Fairy Dragon is amazing!  Still I feel Audino would cry more if I would not put it on this list! It deserves some love! So look up Mega Altaria in Google and praise the amazing Mega Audino here!

Finally a pokémon has to feel like a fairy type and while the type usually has that covered for me, I guess there is one exception! A pokémon I very much adore but I feel that would have been better off with the flying type to depict the “cleaner” air theme! That pokémon is Galarian Weezing. The design is amazing and fun and whimsical and I totally adore this pokémon in every single way! Including its ability! It just does not feel like a fairy to me!

Favourite Fairy Type #5 Tapu Lele

I really do not like putting legendaries on this list as I never really use them, they feel like cheaty pokémon and the island guardians are very much the same. Yet Tapu Lele has something the others do not! I use her pokémon card in my old school fighting type deck! For her ability to add a supporter card to my hand for placing her on the bench! She is a good wall to build up my field as well so this pink spirit person is close to my heart. I have used her in game as well since it’s a pink Pokemon..but let’s be honest here the entire top 5 is pink coloured! It’s fairy Pokémon after all!. Of all the Island guardians though I feel Tapu Lele embodies the type the best Along with Tapu Fini they have this pixie like feel that I think my blogging bestie would be deeply able to appreciate! I love how she is depicted in the anime and psychic terrain is superior to Fini’s fairy type field.

The pokédex entry for Tapy Lele is very strange. It is being called a very cruel pokémon and lacks the ability to feel guilt about her cruel actions. Which is something you do not seem to suspect from such a lovely looking creature! When we look up what she does however it only gets stranger. Firstly.. let’s delve into what drives her.. what fuels her cruel nature! Well it’s the scent of the flowers of Akala island of course. What does it do with that energy?! It heals the people and pokemon of Akala island but gives them her shiny scales that have these healing properties. This is also what she does in the anime, where she fights to defend the Alola league and later in an exhibition match she even heals Tapu Koko and Ash with her scales. That does not seem evil now does it?! Well a bit of a research shows that she REALLY likes healing people and covers people with these scales because she thinks it is pretty and fun! I am going with her here.. because that’s how I see the pokémon.. sorry it has a very femine energy!  Humans and Pokémon sometimes have a bit of trouble handling more scales than one and suffer overdose effects. Tapu Lele doesn’t really care because it’s too much fun to spread it’s sparkles around!  Odd!

With Tapu Lele being a legendary pokemon there is no real use in giving a battle set but it is usually used as a revenge killer. That means it swaps into something that has taken damage already to finish it off. For this reason the de facto item to equip it with would be a choice sash. Psyshock is nowadays preferred over psychic since it can attack the lower defensive stat which is usually better than psychics dedicated hit towards special.  It runs moonblast for Same type attack bonuses and then should be given Shadowball to cover it’s ghost type weakness. Focus Blast or Hidden Power fire can deal with it’s own Steel Type Weakness with focus blast being more unreliable but dealing way more damage. Since Lele is a revenge killer though and the enemy normally will have taken damage already and it’s special attack is great at 130, I personally think hidden power fire is the better of the two!

Fairy Type # 4 Jigglypuff

The Pokémon Mallow will strangle me for putting so high onto the list. But Jigglypuff is here for a simple reason! It is so super iconic that I had to put it on. Now do not get me wrong, I do find the anime Jigglypuff to be rather annoying myself but in Alola it finally got closure to it’s arc making it one of the few pokémon that got a narrative arc spanning over several seasons that came to a conclusion. That is commendable and an achievement. Besides that Jigglypuff is  probably my favourite character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and most of the Super Smash games! I know it probably is not a high tier character but I love using it very much! Especially against 7 other Jigglypuff in the Classic Donkey Kong stage: 75m. It’s the most fun I ever had with Smash and even if my joy comes from outside the main franchise it Jigglypuff is amazing in Pokémon Snap as well.. being chased by that Koffing in one of the later stages! With it giving a performance at the end of the stage! It is a great pokémon and one of the most iconic fairy Type Pokémon out there.

What can I say here that people do not know yet about Jigglypuff?! It’s pokédex entries tell what everyone in the entire world knows about it! It has cute eyes.. and if it sings a song you will fall asleep! Eight generations of pokédex entries have not changed that at all.  What you might not know is how it works. Jigglypuff has the ability to sing in a range that exceeds 12 octaves. That range is boosted by the fact that it can manipulate it’s soundwaves and can match them to your brainwaves thus  directly making you drowsy. A jigglypuff song is so potent that cd’s with it’s sounds are sold near the bedding department ..just hearing a bit causes people to want to buy beds and hearing a lot.. well you all saw the anime. Jigglypuff’s lung capacity is insanely large. It just seems to be able to keep singing until his last opponent has fallen asleep. The song they sing isn’t always the one we see in the anime though! The song varies per region and in some regions in the world it would almost seem as if they are shouting! I bet that regional variant has a metal subtype!

The best way to run jigglypuff is with the moves, Sing, Mega Punch, Rollout and Rest then use his ability to grow larger on the battlefield to quickly defeat your opponents!  That is right I am talking about the Super Smash Bros Jigglypuff here! In the main game  running a Wigglytuff is fine but given that Igglybuff became a thing in the second generation there is no true format where Jigglypuff as a pokémon can truly shine. So just have fun with it in Smash Brothers! Rest is very hard to use but if you can use it consistently against your lesser skilled friends  it is amazing! Causing Knockouts at very low damage! Mega Punch is just fun to use! Hearing Jigglypuff’s determination! PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!  As you use it in rapid  succession!  Sing is a great way to get in  close enough to be able to use Rest on them and finish them off and Rollout can be lots of fun if you manage to keep the control a bit. It really is a trooper that can deal some serious damage.. even if it’s not in an actual Pokémon game!

Fairy Type # 3 Slurpuff

So from here on out these are absolutely my three favourite fairy type pokémon! Slurpuff has the honour of being my favourite physical attacking  Pokémon so in it’s own way it already is a winner! I adore both Swirlix and Slurpuff! They are goofy, pink and adorable!  Their evolution item the Whipped Dream is my favourite evolution item of the game and due to the amazing magic that is pokémon fan games I got to use a Slurpuff during a gameplay run as well. I named it Coolio and it was amazing! An absolute hero of my team! In fact Coolio pulled me almost that entire game and I became very attached to it! The love never faded though.  During the 24 hour Glimwood Tangle lifestream when I first saw a Swirlix I got so excited that I knocked my drinks over! Coolio-two would be a thing and even though it did not end up being named Coolio-two and was named Giga-Puddi..  as I loved to Dynamax it I had my second Slurpuff!  It shows up on Pokémon Showdown fairly regularly as well so this one is a keeper!

Slurpuff is an amazing pokémon that hasn’t been around for that long! It existed only since Gen VI , or the Kalos region so not a lot is known about this pokémon! By far the cutests fact is that its fur is filled with air so it is super soft to the touch and much lighter than it looks! It is airy, nice and huggable. What it is best known for however is that its  nose is 100.000.000 x more sensitive  than that of a human. This means it can pick up even the faintest smells. While dorkly made it suffer for it in a funny sketch , there is no actual dark lore for it in any pokédex entry. It seems to love helping out the pastry chefs of Kalos with it’s amazing nose! Making sure the pastries are finely tweaked!  It is so good at smelling that it can smell when people are sick and scientists and Slurpuff are working together to use this skill to develop all sorts of medical breakthroughs!  Slurpuffs nose is so perceptive that it almost can see a completely different world with its nose!  I imagine it is a bit like Daredevils sight ..but with smells instead of sounds!


Slurpuff loves to eat berries in combat because it’s main ability is Unburden.. something that boosts it’s speed when an item is lost. The combo that is pretty much used by everyone is along with the move Belly Drum! A move that cuts your hp in half but that instantly maxes out the attack stat to 4x its original value! Slurpuff does need to use this move because it’s attack  is only a lackluster ish 80 but after Bellydrum it is a scary 320!  With unburden boosting it’s speed and moves like Drain Punch to recover its health and  Play Rough for a powerful physical STAB this pokémon means game over for your opponent if they do not have a counter!  Coolio and I have gathered many victories using this tech and Giga Puddi , while I never used it online kicked some Gym Leader ass with this set! Against a skilled opponent  you may not find success..but if you do get success with it, you almost have a guaranteed win!

Fairy Type # 2 Alcremie

So this one hurts me a bit!  While I love Sylveon over any pokémon in the world, as for a single pokémon I have never loved a Pokémon more than Whippy the Alcremie. Whippy came to me early in my playthrough of Shield and even if it is the most generic strawberry, right-spin whipped Alcremie I love it so much! The sounds that it makes , the goofy smile when I call it over at a pokémon camp, the way it eats! Heck even the way it’s eyes go viciously angry when it wants to attack the cat scratchy thing!  I could have used a Sylveon but I did that a million times! Shield was Whippy’s moment!  I started my journey with a Sobble.. but he got boxed after he fully evolved. I  had a cute little Wooloo but that got boxed as well. Yamper was the only other pokémon that predated Whippy on my team.. and that one got boxed when I obtained Toxel. So Whippy  was the only Pokémon to accompany me from the first gym until the championship match! I haven’t played the DLC yet as I want to do both in one go but Whippy will be the first to eat the Gigantamax Curry! I love it very much and I gave it a lot of brothers and sisters since.. but none I love more than Whippy!

Alcremie has so many forms that it in a SINGLE generation has as many pokédex entries as most Gen I pokémon!  Most of them are fairly interchangeable depending on how you evolve it, which means when you make your character spin , what direction you make them spin, how hard you make them spin etc. It determines what flavour your Alcremie has. Pokédex entries define these flavours.  The flavours are : Vanilla, Ruby, Mint, Lemon Salted,  Ruby Swirl, Caramel Swirl and Rainbow Swirl! So this is the tastiest pokémon out there.. but also a very weird one to evolve. Given that there are quite a few decorations there are 63 possible ways to make your Alcremie look.. excluding the shiny I think! When it is Gigantamaxed Alcremie changes from a dollop of cream to a Giant birthday cake that fires Missiles of cream at their opponents. Each of them contain roughly 100.000 kilocategories and getting hit by one of those will make your head swim! Now that is one heck of an Epic Mealtime! When an Alcremie loves it’s trainer it will bring them berries/fruit they have decorated with whip cream.. so it’s just such a cutie! Oh  and in case you wonder.  the cake part of allcremie is not made out of batter.. no it’s hardened cream! So only the tastiest part of the cake as a Kaiju! What is there not to love!

Alcremie is not a slouch in terms of offense or defence either. With it’s special attack being at 110 and special defence being 120 it is a perfect pokémon to use Calm Mind in combat which buffs both these stats! Alcremie you see is more so a tank! With Dazzling Gleam as its same type offensive move and recovery to regain health it can outlast a great many opponents. The final move you add to it is of your preference. Mystical Fire is a good shoutout as it can cover it’s metal weakness! Alcremie has a very special Gigantamax move though, it’s move G-Max Finale not only allows it to recover ⅙ of its total health, so do its allies! Thus with a moveset like this Alcremie becomes a tank that can also apply a lot of offensive pressure. It lacks a bit of type diversity in it’s learnable movepool but for a wall role pokémon you get a pretty sweet deal if you side with alcremie!

My Favourite Pokémon: Sylveon

That is right! Not only is this my favourite Pokémon this is also my favourite pokémon of all time! That being said.. Alcremie is also my second favorite of all time! Unlike other pokémon with Eevee I am not likely to give it a nickname! While I mostly go for Sylveon sometimes I accidentally end up with other evolutions so most of my Sylveons end up being Sylveon the Sylveon. Yet since I hoard them so much they aren’t as dear to me AS Whippy!  I love them a lot and they love me a lot.. as that is the whole point of Sylveon. It’s about love! That is what makes it the greatest pokémon in the world. It evolves because it loves you….while knowing a fairy type move! It is cute, it has an adorable cry I can recognise anywhere, it is pink and I identify with this pokémon!  I want to cosplay Sylveon Gijinka before I die…I don’t think Alcremie Gijnka is a good idea.. though I can see that being fun with a girlfriend or something! Where Alcremie is my favourite pet.. sylveon is more than that.. it is my soul. It is my Blue Eyes White dragon, my Kamehameha! Sylveon is MY pikachu. It’s eyes, it’s ribbons I love everything about it’s design and it is probably the strongest Eeveelution in battle.. closely followed by Umbreon.. but hey Fairy is Super effective against dark.. so I win!

I have spread my “My Little Pony” beliefs here before! Friendship is magic!  I am a pacifist and believe that we fix the world not by fighting injustice but by creating happy places so we can stomach those injustices. I do not believe in a perfect world but I do believe in us creating our own little piece of heaven. Our own little perfect PLACE.  We can not always be there but we can try to reduce the toxicity in the world through kindness rather than through zeal.  Sylveon embodies that idea too. It uses its feelers.. which feel like ribbons but are actually it’s flesh to reduce hostile feelings in it’s targets. It wants to stop conflict! Except when facing cruel dragons like Hydreigon! When It knows nothing else can be done a Sylveon will jump into the frey and pound that dragon until it is defeated. Dragons are often a metaphor for obstacles people put in their own way and while Sylveon shows us that we should not fight others.. It teaches us it is important to fight our own demons . It loves us.. so we are lovable! We are worth fighting for!  When Sylveon walks with its trainer it wraps it’s ribbons around their arms as if you are walking with a very important person you love by your side. Showing that love does not have to come in shape, ways or forms. Loving a partner, loving a pokémon and loving family is all love! None is better than the other! Love is a deep friendship and as we know.. friendship is magic!

In combat Sylveon has seen a fair bit of use. Most commonly with its ability Pixielate, which turns any normal type into Fairy Types. This is often used to make its move Hyper Voice into a Same Type attack boosted move that pierces substitutes.  With 110 Special Attack and  130 special defence it basically can do what Alcremie does . However Sylveon has a more offensive presence. As a result you can equip it with moves like  Hidden Power Ground, Calm Mind and Shadowball along with Hyper Voice to make it more offensive. You can also turn it into a toxic staller like Umbreon by giving it toxic , protect and wish. Both sets are very viable though the offensive set is a whole lot more fun to use in non competitive gameplay. The fact that Sylveon can both be used as a wall and a sweeper makes it harder to counter than Alcremie. Hidden Power ground covers both of its weaknesses and if your opponent prepares for the wrong Sylveon.. they might make mistakes from which they can’t recover.. making Sylveon more mindgamey than most of the fairy types on this list and I love myself some mind games!

Sylveon embodies an ideal to me! It signifies me as a pokémon trainer, how I would be in the pokémon world. It has sweet lore, it has stellar design and it is even still pretty usable in battle. It does everything a good pokémon needs to do! I love pokémon! I love all 896 of them! That is right even the new Reggies and Calyrex are included, but none of them I love as much as Sylveon. At the end of this 18 blog post adventure I have written about 90! of my favourite  pokémon. Shouted out little more than half of that so even amongst the .. let’s say 150 I love most Sylveon .. and Whippy as well take a special irreplaceable place in my heart.
They mean a lot to me.. almost as if they are existing friends that always make me happy!
Pokémon like Mew and Bulbasaur will probably accompany them in my all time favourites but no matter how much I will play! I will always be most connected to Sylveon!

And that wraps up this series! It took me nearly half a year to finish this including all the times we had to skip a week!  Yet now it is finally done!  Now you know what my favourite pokémon! For one last time I shall ask you guys! What is your favourite pokémon of this type? Do you use the fairy type often and what Pokémon content would you like to see me do next?! If I was an eevee all of you would allow me to become a Sylveon! It was fun doing this series and see you in our next Pokémon adventure! Time to flutter off and scatter some pixie dust that makes people happy!

Check out the Entire Series right here… but be fast this only will works until the next Pokémon post!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 18

My dear island guests! Yet another week of the less beloved year of 2020 has come and gone!  It has been an interesting week in which I experimented a bit with post order and I will continue to do so in the near future! I want a bit more liberty with writing and all! I started doing a Pokémon Randomiser Nuzlocke, picked up Oblivion again and started Fall Guys! I watched another video game movie and this week the blog featured Kuro’s first ever post! Check it out if you haven’t already! I also finished a random anime and loved it.. and then I watched 5 anime I always watch and that is why we are here today!

Digimon Adventure Episode 6

The introductory chapter for Mimi sure left some impressions. Some good, some bad, some a tiny bit ugly! Yet like these past few weeks this series is yet again among my favourites of week! This week though it had some stiff competition and it fumbles just a bit too much to end up as my favourite but still taking a very honourable second!

The plot of this episode as predicted deals with Mimi joining the group! Sora and Taichi are trying to find the holy digimon while Japan is drawing closer to their power outage. However spending so much time in the digital world has already made the group hungry! When they discover purple trees with golden pumpkins they get trapped by Mimi and Palmon who are defending the trees from some monster called Tuskmon! Revealing Mimi is a princess of a village of Tanemon and Palmon is her butler we see classic Mimi.. but with a twist. The group does not know her and thus she mistrusts these new people  thinking they may work for the Tuskmon. When Ogremon wants to kill the children he uses the Tuskmon and a Drimogemon  to attack. Taichi and Sora fight the  Tuskmon but Palmon gets nearly killed by Drimogemon.. Mimi who through some of Kochiro’s tech saw her Grandpa is in danger in the real world and now is about to lose her friend.. as Palmon lays dying manages to activate her digivice and evolve Palmon into Togemon. Defeating the boss monster of the week with Coconut Uppercut!  A second technique! Greymon breaks off Ogremon’s horn who cries out in revenge as we leave this week’s episode.

This episode is amazing yet again! I love the way Mimi is introduced to the group! Being a princess of this village and it all feels very happy and very Mimi! While a bit snooty to call Palmon her butler it feels more like a childs play than actual belittling.. and through her we can see .. “oh that’s right these chosen ones are only children” Mimi likes protecting these girls and is clever and shows great tactical insight. Which could bounce off nicely of Koshiro’s insight, Taichi’s bravery and Sora’s powerful support.  She adds to the group instead of just being there. I don’t know if it will last but for now.. she has a role!  Something else she has is a REASON to be involved. She has her own goals and missions. She sees her grandpa is working hard and is stressed trying to save Tokyo.. so she wants to help him. She isn’t just a girl that got teleported to a mysterious world and now follows the group. Mimi is an established character! Yay!  Palmon laying on the ground dying was a very powerful moment in the show and through a strange form of sincerity that did not feel forced we see her identified as the Crest wielder she is! Kudo’s! The time slow down is also introduced in this episode which is a great choice as it gives so much more pacing options!

That being said, it was introduced in a bit of a weird way. I can understand how Koshiro does not experience it because he isn’t deep enough in the network yet but because they communicate through their digivices the fact that it is “patched” out seems a bit of a cop-out.  At least it IS explained which is great but it feels slightly cheap! It has implications that all the digidestined should be in the digital world and Koshiro is the last one heading there and if that turns out to be true ..credit where credit is due but for now.. I found it just a bit meh! Taichi gets a spotlight again and once more the only stock footage evolution and that is a shame. Sora using Birdramon would have made more sense in the moment but she was passed up for the hero! She joins in later.. but much less spotlighted. Taichi doing his thing was my least favourite moment!  That however did not affect my appreciation of the show however and it would have gotten a maximum score if it was not for … weirdly enough. The animation. I noticed this episode had worse animation than before. Not persé in battle.. but because of all the Tanemon a lot of wide shots were used. These very much lack detail, not uncommon but when you hold on shots like that or have conversation IN shots like that it really stands out. I actively questioned many shot choices and it took me out of the episode.

I love what this show does with it’s writing.. even the parts I like less I am still glad they include. It’s like an extremely detailed figurine. Sure you might see a slight imperfection here and there but you still get a lot more detail than from a basic Funko Pop! This show really feels as if the original series was just a Funko. This episode contributes a lot to this new world so I love it! It doesn’t look very pretty this week though! Which makes drop it from a perfect score to an almost perfect score!

Samurai Flamenco Episode 13

For the second time in a row this show offered me my least favourite watch of the day, with quite a bit of distance to the other four! That being said this episode is a lot better than the previous one! Yet it is also less special! I am glad it returns more to its roots and offers some interesting choices but what this episode really lacks is charm.

We skip ahead in time yet again and we see the Flamengers deal with the aftermath of dealing with the Four Generals of From Beyond. They were only rookies. Part of the 64 ..Elites or something.. who are nothing compared to the 256 .. other words.  The group discovers that the evil army has about 65.000 monsters or something! Forgive me for not knowing the exact number.. but let’s just say! They will be overwhelmed and they will lose.  So for that reason they want to try and evacuate Japan when the Prime Minister steps in and tells them not to tell people! He wants to ready the police and evacuate some VIP’s first before wide panic ensues. He pleads with the group to let him do this and talks about the politics and the purpose behind it. He looks insanely evil though for some reason! But he grovels for the group and they decide to trust in his instincts. As a flamenger they all can save five people important to them.. and Masayoshi wants to save 7. Who will he not warn.. who will he put in harm’s way?! We see him struggle with this.. and his doubt about the politicians view. His mentor tells him he will go down fighting and not evacuate and he will not tell anyone but the next day he is gone! Tossing a memento of his wife. While Masayoshi deals with more of the responsibilities and the real politics behind being a hero.. he cracks and on live tv warns the public of their upcoming disaster.

While it lacks the charm of the first 10 episodes this episode at least follows it’s themes a bit closer again.   It is about how real heroes have to make choices that aren’t always “morally white” and Masayoshi’s inability to cope with that. What the Prime Minister said to get the police ready  for the chaos that is to come makes a lot of sense,  to evacuate VIP’s first to keep structure in these times does make sense.. but is it right? Is it the hero way?  Is putting those people endangered to save everyone more heroic or is that actual evil?! It is good writing. I like to use this trope in my roleplaying games and I do like it here! I also like the fact that the enemy doesn’t blankly send out monsters one by one as they know they will get slaughtered like this so now they go for an all out attack instead. Goto’s talk with Masayoshi was my favourite scene, really reflecting the struggles very well! But why doesn’t Goto know about anything?! He is a cop right?! Should they not be getting ready?! Is the Prime Minister up to something here?! I am curious to know so at least the show has me eager for the next episode again! We are only half way through the series so a new enemy has to come at some point still and we still have one form of Flamenco to be introduced!  The real form! The one we see in every opening! 

This episode though is extremely glum! Only the first two minutes have a hint of a joke.. unless Mari walking out of the bathroom of Goto counts as one. It feels so somber. It fits.. but at the same time it doesn’t.  There is an energy to this show that is completely lacking in this episode. It makes sense that it is.. and it has somewhat done it before..but at least then we had Mari or Yun or Red Axe to balance it out. Here I felt  as if I had been punched in the gut. It just goes on and on about this choice and shows us how hard the choice Masayoshi has to make is. It shows all these lovely people who care for him.. and him throwing up at the stress. We see him have nightmares of children being crushed to death, we see him struggle with the fact if he wants to save his agent or Goto’s girlfriend. These types of choices should not be taken lightly so I get why there is no comedy from him.. but alleviate it a little at least. A brief Mari in the shower scene doesn’t recharge our battery. It feels as if Christoper Nolan (Batman Begins) suddenly took over directing this series from Joel Schumacher (Batman and Robin)..same IP but the tone just flipped!

In the end I do think this is a lot like  my feelings about Flip Flappers last week! It is a needed episode, but it is not a fun episode. It makes the story stronger but I found only appreciation and no entertainment here. So I will rate it as fine! It does everything it needs to do and it works.. it really does.. I just do not care for it that much.

That Time I got Reincarnated As A Slime

I HATE the Gabiru character so much! I find him so annoying and of course this is the episode  where he ruins everything for Rimuru and friends. To make things harder for them! I really REALLY hope he dies! No redemption please just kill him! Please! While I did find enjoyment in this episode it is only on the 4th spot of overall enjoyment because of that stupid lizard!

The Dryad we met in the last episode enlists Rimuru for aid, confirming what we have known for two episodes now! And the Orc Lord is coming! But he has a unique skill! Starved! In which he is very hungry and consumes everything on his way gaining their ability. Thus mimicking RImuru to an extent. This prompts the slime into a call to action and he sends Souei to form an alliance with less idiotic lizardmen than Gabiru. When the idiot lizard wakes up he finds there has been a jester in his camp! Someone who tells him lord Gelmud thinks  Gabiru needs to step up if they wish to defeat the Orc Lord, confirming this new threat to him. in order to make him believe his father is weak. The Lizard King does not wish to accept an alliance with these strangers unless he meets Rimuru so arrangements are made. Souei asks the lizards not to fight alone because their dead will fuel the enemy army and the king gracefully agrees.  However since it takes 7 days for RImuru to get to the marshes.. Gabiru shows up before and overthrows his father. He fights the orcs out in the open and sees them power up as they devour their dead while the narration tells that the man has made a horrible mistake.

This episode functions as an exposition episode and those usually aren’t good..but by using the skills of the dryad the show does manage to do some exposition spam  without it feeling forced.. it is just her ability! It also does a great job at keeping Rimuru’s neutral stance intact. By offering him a treat he can not ignore he is forced to intervene as the threat becomes to large to ignore. It really establishes Rimuru’s thinking style more as that of a regent of sorts rather than an OP hero! He doesn’t want to lose anyone so he does not want to take needless risks!  This episode all brings it in balance without feeling to “change of heart like”  My favourite scene is Rimuru having a massive man crush on Souei calling him a Dream Boat.. to me it shows how Rimuru’s mind is changing and how he likes it not having to be the one who always tosses the first stone! I laughed a lot! Shizune was cute in the brief moment she shined and all in all I did get those good old feelings the good episodes of this show gave me.. I just got a whole lot of other stuff as well.

All the Gabiru stuff is pretty bad, I really hate the character.. not in the good way as in I hate his qualities.. no I hate that the character exists. I hate that for no reason at all his followers keep clapping for him no matter how often he gets his but kicked or how often he is made to eat his words. I hate how he basically is named in SO much forsight for this weird plan of Lord Gelmud whatever it is. I hate how his father’s weapon actually recognises him! With everything that happened so far it just feels SO un-earned. The show goes out of his way to show he is weak, delusional and not very tactical yet expects me to buy that he has so much respect because Lizards are a warrior race?! A warrior race knows when to fight it doesn’t just like to fight there aren’t barbarians! When another army approaches that will chop you to bits a warrior race would fight tactically.. look at the spartans..but no! Just because there needs to be a complication everyone follows Gabiru! The father barely tells him he is waiting for a super powerful ally that can resolve this situation much better than they can. He doesn’t tell the orc lord can consume the dead so he must not attack.. he just gets send to jail so Gabiru can make the stupid mistake. Everything about the whole character is dumb!

While the episode does a lot of clever things with Rimuru and raises the stakes it also enforces complications on the story that are completely not needed. Just raise the base power of the orcs a bit to give the same level of difficulty from the get go .. and  you could have the exact same story. Heck tell the orc army ate half of their own so instead of fighting 200.000 average soldiers you fight 100.000 that are twice as strong that is still pretty darn scary those numbers are scary enough! There is no reason for Gabiru to exist here other as to make the plot trample. While I did enjoy myself with this episode more than I did with Samurai Flamenco this episode feels pointless to me.. pointless but entertaining versus useful but no entertainment. The fact that I enjoyed it more..keeps it just a smidge above the formers grade as I mainly want to be entertained.. but please let the show pick up again!

Flip Flappers Episode 8

Lasers, Gatai, Aeroplanes and buff bodybuilding pigeons!  Apparantly that is what I needed to give Flip Flappers my number 1 spot of the week again! After the slow paced episode of last week and the somber Cocona this high energy , positive episode was just what I needed.  Thank you Flip Flappers!

Cocona , Yayaka and Papika are playing by the pool! Yayaka is glad to see Cocona seems to be a lot better than last time! Showing she truly cares. When Papika gets a little too playful she and Cocona end up in the swimming pool but instead of taking a dive into the cool water, they are plunged into deep Illusion. We see a cold and sterile world.. very cyberpunk like. I would assume this is a look in the mind of Yayaka but as always I can’t be sure.  While Papika tries to eat some electric cables Cocona gets attacked by a laser spitting pidgeon monster with more muscles than a Jojo’s character. Papika saves her and together they go Flip Flapping. The monsters are a bit much for them though so Yayaka steps in to save them much to the dismay of her partners. Failing to get the amorphous shard she retreats. Laser Pigeon gets back up again and gets killed by a tiny professor guy who claims to have built this city. It turns out his city was a utopian paradise filled with tech and cyberpunk coolness! But it all changed when the laser bodybuild animals attacked.  Lead by something he calls a big creature that he fears. 

Papika and Cocona who are double the size of the scientist think they are big as well and step outside to fight the creature.. that is about the size of a Kaiju! With their magical girl powers unable to do enough damage.. they get into tiny mechas.. that can Flip Flap into a combiner robot!  The girls are easily defeated though so Yayaka meddles in and Flip Flaps along them into an even bigger combiner robot that destroys half the city in a giant beam attack.. but also the Kaiju!  Of course all these mecha’s have a golden eyebrow thing because.. it’s mechas! When the bad guy lies defeated the twins Yayaka tags along with snatch the Amorphous but the tiny professor steals it back and hands it to the girls who earned it.  Yayaka lets them have it and the twins swear to tattle on her!  Post credits we see Papika call Cocona Mimi by accident which triggers her and that is yet another episode that required me to summarize the plot in two paragraphs.

This episode was bonkers again and I needed that! After the last two humble episodes I needed magical girl transformations and little did I know I needed combiner robots as well. I theorise these  stand for Yayaka’s feelings towards teamwork. Her old team is clean.. uses hi-tech stuff and operates with precision and a sterility that is not seen from the girls. Yet somewhere she really wants to work as a team. And so the combiner robots come into play! Who only works to their maximum potential if you shout and let go! Emotion is needed as that is what really makes a team work, you can strategize all you want but if you care for each other you can achieve more than what you thought was possible! I love how this message is combined with very Gurren Lagann like visuals! The way fusion is first achieved, the whole shouting thing, it seemed very similar. Even the way the golden eyebrow thing is more a crescent than a certain v shape  like in Gundam made me think of Gurren Lagann a lot. The ridiculous combinations helped. And Since Tengen Toppa is my favourite anime ever.. this episode almost seems as a tribute to it REALLY sang for me!  These are the messages I like to see in a magical girl show and no one was really depressed for once! Great!  It looks like Yayaka might switch teams and might become a third magical girl maybe..and I really hope that she does but I will have to find out in the future! I am looking forward to it at least! The Mimi thing in the end could maybe give Papika something to go through instead of Cocona all the time!  So  yay for that as well! Oh and I loved loved LOVED the visuals of this episode!  The tiny professor was also very cute and the cramped mechas made me laugh!

Was there anything I did not like? I am not sure actually! Maybe the fact that they could not keep up their Flip Flap form in the mecha and were instead there in their bathing suit?! Then again the suit most people wear in mecha feels kinda bathing suit like so that might have been a joke?!  Papika trying to eat electricity cables was a bit dumb.. she is still a person people , she isn’t an animal?! At least I think! She might be an alien or something! I have no  idea anymore! She has a weird thing around her foot she can not remove. I am not sure what that was about! That felt kind of random. But yeah really that it’s this was one heck of an episode!  Not my favourite! I still think that goes to episode 3.. the Mad Max looking one but this is pretty much in my top 3 so far!

I do not mind the more humble episodes this show has but I am really glad they steered away from Cocona’s constant doubt, she took on a more pragmatic stance in this episode and for such a short series I love that. In a 100 episode series sure let your main character doubt about their mission but in a 14 episode one..this feels so much more like the way to go.. I felt like actual progress is made instead of being put back on course and it is what I want to see in Flip Flappers.. it is short so please blow my mind! Treat me to these fantastical landscapes as much as you can! I love this!

Hikaru No Go Episode 18

Sai versus Akira, we have been waiting. I wanna say 14 episodes for this now?! And it is finally here! I did not expect it to be As I really felt Touya’s father was being build up to something.. but here it is! And it was handled sublime! At the very least in the cinematography department.. The aftermath though made sure this one ended up on my third spot.

The big rematch is finally here.. but Akira is not sure if it is a rematch or not! It is at least important enough for him to  skip his match to become a pro! Apparently there are more of them but Waya has a great point in thinking this shows Akira thinks very little of them. Sai plays Touya and ends up winning yet again. It leaves Akira conflicted. Was that Hikaru he faced or was it not. He is unsure, so he goes back to the Go Parlor where he first met Hikaru. He finds out Hikaru spends time at the internet cafés somehow and now is convinced that he is Sai. So he runs towards some local internet cafés and finds Hikaru behind a computer… reading webcomics.   Hikaru gets told by Akira everyone is looking to find out who Sai is because he is so good. Not being able to live with this kind of pressure Hikaru decides to pull the plug on his little internet arc. Touya also seems disgusted by Hikaru’s mentality and promises that he will never see him again after some intense staring again.

Once more it’s a plot that I can fit in a very tiny bit of text but my oh my is that first half presented beautifully visually. We see Touya stand in front of a big blue glowing Go Board placing his stones. The environment is pitch dark. From the darkness with an accurate thinking pause Sai’s hand is shown placing a stone on  the board.  As he plays white the board seems to get brighter and brighter as he is closer to victory, while for Touya it feels almost as if he is encountering one of those retro video game final bosses. I loved it!  This is my favorite match so far, and Sai’s conclusion that both he and Hikaru grew but Akira did not is very strong! Touya chased something and became so obsessed that he did not really progress. He just wants to face that demon of his and it changed him as a player. I like that. The doubt he has as he now can see the playstyle from an adult but with some of the choices he knew are from Hikaru’s playstyle are great as well. The stakes, the outcome and how it is all brought to live is done amazingly well! The fact that the greats in the Go world know about this loss can become important as well.

What I like less is the second half. Akira finds the exact right internet café , Hikaru, to be reading webcomics instead of playing Go at that time.. and their logic in that part seems off.  Hikaru now feels like if so many people search for his identity he better stop now.. but if he stops right after Akira confronted him would that not confirm to Akira that he IS in fact Sai?!
The fact that Akira seems to blame Hikaru for not taking the sport as seriously as he does seems very hypocritical when the day before you skipped a tournament. Akira seems to really sever his bonds with Hikaru here and burn those bridges which makes it a bit hard to see where the show is going next.  Why set up all these pro players if they do not get to play Sai anymore.  Touya’s father also gained some focus and now it all seems tossed away?! Surely this can not be the end for them playing on the internet?! Can it?! Will we take a break from Hikaru and see the story of Waya and Akira placing for the pro’s maybe?! Yet when will we see Hikaru’s results from this training then?! I just don’t hope they will give us a proper payoff! 

Strong first half but the second half squanders a bit of potential in my opinion! It seems again like some trouble only arises for it to be called trouble! I think after having played so much Go on the internet Hikaru does realise he can just switch nicknames to keep Sai playing but it does not seem to be the case. Summer vacation is almost over .. so it would be nice to see him go back to school and suddenly completely outclass Mitani and Tsutsui!  Yet everything in that second half of this episode to me screams that they are blocking off to much content for themselves.. much more than I would like!  So while it is still a very good episode I liked it less than my number 1 and 2 of this week.

Tonight a friend will come over and treat me to dinner, tomorrow I will host my online tabletop! They are playing trough a Kingdom Hearts themed arc and just destroyed the world of Beauty and the Beast by removing the rose from their story. They looted it.. now they have to deal with the fallout and take their anger out on some Huns when they venture into Mulan’s world. I have a family day on Tuesday, also meeting my father, something I look less forward to and on Friday I should meet some friends for board games, we are gonna play Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards and Gloom, amongst some other thing! I really hope the contract for my new apartment will come soon so I can start cancelling things here!

On the blog we will conclude the Favourite Top 5 with the final type, the Fairy Type.. my favourite Type! I got the next chapter of What If Raditz Turned Good already written out and we will discuss another Uwe Boll movie with my review of BloodRayne 2! Indigo’s first post should drop as well so yay for geeky content! Speaking of content! I would be very content if you decided to support my Kofi down below or leave a nice comment below! Thanks for reading and I hope you have an amazing next week!

Pinkie Falls and Gets Up Again: My First Win in Fall Guys

If you watch YouTube , if you have even a bit of gamers’ blood in your system or if you follow anyone on Twitch you will have probably heard of the game Fall Guys! It’s a hot commodity and Fall Guy content is all over the net! Since it basically is a Free For All 3D platformer and I love 3D platformers, I decided to throw myself into the madness! And so Fall Guy 1149 was born! I made sure he was pink and together.. we went hunting what all those YouTubers I follow have been hunting for! A Fall Guys win!
It did not take me that long at all!

Pinkie becomes a Fall Guy

I bought the game four days ago from when I am writing this and the first day I pretty much knew I was not going to win. I got the game on Steam since I do not want to pay for PlayStation Plus.. I always forget I have that and let in run for months on end. I did hook up my PS4 controller to my Laptop though so if I ever can show you personal screenshots.. which is unlikely because I wanna win, so I probably take stock screenshots from elsewhere,  you might see PS4 controls on there. But before I forget  let’s explain the game to those who do not know about it.. I would genuinely be surprised if people miss it but maybe it’s just hyper inflated in the Pokémon and Dragon Ball community.. and the other YouTube communities I follow.

I’d describe Fall Guys as Takashi’s Castle meets Wipe-Out the video game. With fairer challenges than Takashi’s but games that are VERY much inspired on Takashi’s castle. In fact one of the games is straight from that show!  Each game you start with 60 Tsum Tsum like bean-men and compete in a five round free for all. Each round a new game will be played and so and so many players will be cut! This can mean you have to reach the finish of a stage in time, be one of the so many remaining standing after a gauntlet of obstacles or sometimes a team challenge where your team has to prevent.. ending up with the lowest score. The fifth game always reduces the player number to 1 and thus gives us a winner in more unique finale games. Most of these games are obstacle courses to navigate through but sometimes you also have to play…platformer style soccer of “capture the flag” Trough competing you win credits and trough winning you get crowns which you can trade in to customise your Fall Guy as you progress. Each day the store has new items on sale! So en masse the internet is trying to be the last guy standing!

Not every mini-game is as good as the other and not every game is as fair as the other, but since we are only on season one I do expect this to be fixed over time! Yet my review of all the separate games comes later! I  still haven’t played them all but expect a post about that in the future as well! I really like Fall Guys! It is probably the pinkest video game I have ever seen!  There are lots of blues and Pinks and so visually I am already intensely drawn to this game and I want to play more and more of it!  On day one I had nothing fancy unlocked so I went for a sprinkley looking Fall guy with a ugly yellow and bright pink looking colour scheme.. with some furry feet! Customisation options are very limited upon start up but by playing daily or tossing money at the game you can quickly change that! It’s one of those types of games! I just paid for the base game and want to earn what I wear as trophies!  Rather than paying for vanity items.. even though I deep down really want to get that unicorn outfit… like really really! I don’t want to pay 10 bucks for that though! 

Day 1

The best thing about Fall Guys is that it does not have voice chat, or text chat even.  You just play against 59 other Tsum Tsum guys.. or minions even and all you hear is the plopping sound of the characters. No weird taunts, no stupid dances just cuteness. There are emotes but nothing seems vile or vexing. It doesn’t seem like a toxic 12 year old’s favourite pastime unlike Fortnite! Which I find to be a HORRIBLE …HORRIBLE game. Well rather than that I usually find the players horrible but the game itself I do not like very much either. Fall guys however  had me hooked from the first game.  All games are very self explanatory..with nuances for you to discover through play. I knew the first day I would probably not get a win as I did not know any of the games yet.  Yet much to my surprise I made it to the finals twice on my first day!  Just by paying attention, a bit of luck  and sometimes clever thinking you can make great progress. Some platforming skills make it easier as well. Yet I discovered there are many ways to win Fall Guys! You do not need to be the most skilled, you could just be the most lucky just the more skill you have.. the more chances you have to get lucky!

I really like this type of game design! It makes it so that the guy with his super pc and mega expensive controller doesn’t always get the win. It means I have a shot to win even if I am not a “diamond tier “. The game is super competitive..but also kinda… not there is a sense of wanting to win..but it feels also if players really want to have fun, unlike some other games out there where the win means everything! You just plop into a game with 60 people and have fun for as long as it lasts. I can have fun whether I win or lose… but I can also get pretty invested so that I get angry if I lose because of other players’ stupidity.  Yet that is a great choice! Even if I can get weighted by players below my skill level so do stronger players it is part of the chaos and that’s what makes it work. It can be frustrating but a new game is always around the corner so you  just sigh or shout a no no word and already  set up for the next game. If you want a break you can also follow the entire rest of the game and cheer for your favourite Fall Guy! Your friends if you take them! I can’t voice chat on discord due to my laptops and my voice’s limitations but hey I can easily see it being lots of fun.

The first day I had lots of fun too!  I familiarised myself with most of the mini-games and came to the discovery I really liked “The WhirleyGig”  mini game. An obstacle course filled with propellers to avoid or jump over. I also discovered I do not like Tail-Tag a lot.. a game where you have to steal others tail! Lag is most notable here and hitboxes are a bit weird so sometimes I miss when I was sure I grabbed a tail .. or my tail gets grabbed when the guy is super far away from me. I grew to dislike the team matches as people really tend to quit or stop trying if they are far behind. At least this was the case on day one! I  reached the Jump Challenge Finale twice.. which is basically like a skip rope challenge on a decreasing space with a propeller trying to sweep your legs from underneath you.. but there is also a propeller overhead, decreasing your jump window and preventing you from sticking to a single spot.
I like this game but I also encountered a big problem in Fall Guys for now… cheating! One guy had some auto jump tool and kept making the perfect jumps.

Day 2

This would be the day I got my first win, and not even that late in the day. I was having as much fun as I did the day before! I learned some strategies for games like Fruit Fall , which was to move via the sides and do not jump but run onto the conveyor belt. This is when I noticed that some things were very counter natural for me as a platform player.  Having been used to Hat in Time the dive jump lets me be faster than walking.. Mario Sunshine does that as well.. so the fact that running here is actually a bit faster unless you need a very short dash and still needs some time to get used to. I make mistakes based on platformer instincts.. but Fall Guys works a bit differently.. which is both a bit of an annoyance as it is I really like that it has its own unique flow.  Fall Guys do not react like Mario! Their jumps are much clunkier, they do not get on their feet as fast in a way they feel more as a mix between  actual humans combined with ragdolls that can take a lot of force. I would not say violence because I am not sure if getting hit by a giant pear or a pink windmill fan counts as such. Yet your Guy can be tossed around like a dogs favourite chewtoy!

During day 2 I really managed to get in this magical flow!  I cleared the first game I got a good rank without much trouble ,being much more aware of the little details of the obstacle courses than during the first day. Keep your eye on that object Pinkie, take a left here .. the crowd is going the other way  they will trip on each other you can make up for lost ground by running solo!  Then I had to play the memory game and I did not find an apple ..which was the safe tile. .the memory game is a game where all tiles get designated with a increasing number of possible fruits.. then at the end of brief memorisation period you get designated one fruit and all tiles marked with that fruit will stay while others will vanish.. if you fall you get booted out of the game. Lucky for me one tile had a big crowd on them so I just jumped to that tile and it was a good one! Yay!

For the third round I had to play Fruit fall. A climb up a slippery hill with fruit and logs being launched at you! I wanted to jump on the conveyor belt again but just in time I remembered to walk on instead. I did not need to respawn and found a golden route by following the sides! I got across the line in second place and my Guy was happy he did not fall! A team challenge of jumping trough hoops was new to me but was by FAR my favourite team game I played! This was such fun and our team aced it! The final challenge was a race to a crown.. with balls being launched at us, hammers spinning around and a few  gates and other things in our way. I was in third place but number one and two got impatient and missed their jump for the crown! I had my shot and with a press of R2 I latched onto the crown and onto victory!

This was my fall guy at level six! He is level 11 now!


Winning felt good! I was prepared and I knew what I had to do by keeping the pressure up on the guys before me. They had to jump at an awkward time or see me surpass them and try my desperate jump .. probably of their heads! I unlocked a new skin! I got a crown which allowed me to purchase a heart skin! I took a break from there and came back to gather more wins later.. it wasn’t that easy. At the end of Day 2 and the entire Day 3 of playing I was confronted with cheaters.  Big time!  Day three I had a hard time finding a fair match. One time a guy cheated so bad at the Seesaw challenge during the first round.. by clipping into it on the bottom and making the last  seesaw unavailable to us that he got the win by timing us out and finishing.  That sucked! This happens a lot. There were plenty of games where as soon as the game began one person already finished because they simply seemed to be able to fly or something. This is the biggest flaw of the game so far. Sure there are a few unfair games in there, graphics can be quite clippy and the controls feel a bit clunkier than I think it would need to be but those all give it a certain charm as well. The cheating however basically invalidates the entire game. You can still compete for experience but a crown only goes to the victor.

While it doesn’t prevent me from playing Fall Guys it does at least make me less invested. I pretty much assume I can’t win but there is still plenty of outfit stuff I want to grind out so advancing a round is good enough! Should I ever have enough coins ..because I am very picky in what outfits i like.. I can see the issue of cheating later on , when I have the perfect outfit later on stopping me from logging in. Luckily the creators have already said they will work on putting this to a stop and since I just play an hour or 90 minutes a day I think it will be fine!  A great game that could REALLY use a “vote between one of two challenges”   options to prevent the stupid games from showing up so often and a bit sharper controls but one that makes me smile by simply hearing the sounds, that Kenny like voice and the ploppity plop of Fall Guy feet! and seeing those cute graphics! It really helps that like being Fall Guy 1149 and I am hungry for more crowns.. and there are very few games that make me this competitive.. without ever feeling toxic! It’s amazing!


Imagine you got a mysterious money bonus from your boss! Or have recently acquired some funds you do not really know what to do with it. Well it it might be a sign your boss is trying to frame you for something! In that case you should NOT be a Fall Guy! Get rid of that money quick! Kind as I am I offer you a way to get out of your boss his evil ploys! Donate some of it to my Kofi! It will make me very happy and keep you out of jail! I am also here for none dubious funds! In case you feel like becoming a coconut! I promise I won’t spend it on a unicorn suit! Ah I love Kofi Promos! Of course blog participation is also appreciated!