Top 5: Favourite Poison Type Pokémon

Hello Island Guest welcome to a post about another pokémon typing!  The final typing that is super effective against its predecessor (except for the last one being super effective against the second to last)  is my second favourite typing of all times.  The poison type! This might be the only type where there isn’t a single pokémon I dislike. It is also the only type in which I have used EVERY single one of them at one point or another in some form of game at least. So here we go!

Rules and Honorable Mentions

Pokémon who appeared on older lists are not welcome here, which excludes at least 6 older entries and more if we encounter their evolution line. The Nido’s , Bulbasaur, Venusaur,  Toxtricity, Scolipede, and Vileplume are amongst them and all their evolutions are poison type from the get go too. A special shout out to Venusaur here who was passed over in favour of Bulbasaur on my previous list. But also a shoutout to Toxel..who basically looks like a poisoned baby-like creature! I love it so so much! It’s pretty worthless in battle so I gave it a spotlight here!  Venusaur is here because…well! He’s my buddy!

Another rule is only one entry per evolution line. Where in the past I put pokémon off my list because I did not like the final evolution this week I had to do the opposite! This did not make my top 5 because I am not the biggest fan of Foongus. Amoonguss the bulky grass poison type mushroom is a favourite tank of mine. Yet it suffers a bit from Voltorb syndrome. Where, I do like the voltorb idea. Encounter an item and go….. Oh no it’s Voltorb” encounters were repeated with Foongus! Only where Voltorb is optional.. Foongus route is not! There are some pretty good things hidden in there as well so you have to endure static encounter after static encounter.. which made me like the pre-evolution less! The rom hack Reborn uses it too! So while I love my tank-shroom, Foongus encounters are a bit jarring.

All Pokémon have to feel like what type they belong to and the poison type actually really does this well.  There isn’t really a Pokémon I would not place on this list. The only exception where I find the poison link a bit flimsy is with Victreebel. That is just a flesh eating plant and though I am sure it’s saliva is highly poisonous it is the one Pokémon I feel did not exactly need the poison type. Bellsprout and Oddish are counterparts of sorts. I had blue and got Bellsprout while my sister got Oddish in Red.  I would have loved to see Victreebel get a different typing to reflect that. Like Grass ground or normal even.. who knows. All in all it just feels like a pure grass type to me so it will not be on this list.

Temporary forms also do not make it to this list and the one that is my favourite in that.. and also the only temporary poison form.. is Eternamax Eternatus. While the story in Sword and Shield was very lackluster it did have an epic evil fight conclusion unlike most pokémon games where the final fight against evil is a bit….meh!  Obviously this isn’t as good as Ultra Necrozma  but hey! For being thorough! Here it is.

Poison Type #5 Muk & Alolan Muk

This is one of the few Alolan Pokémon that kept its original typing and gained one. The other being rattata and meowth got a typing that was kinda harmful to it. Normal and Dark is NOT a good typing, regardless how much I like Galarian Zigzagoon and later Obstagoon. Muk however got a Dark type added to it’s poison typing. Poison Dark is a great typing! It’s only weakness being ground! So this is one of the few pokémon that arguably just got an upgrade. The colourful palette also made it stand out more but nothing to me can beat the classic Muk design! I loved it when Ash had it on it’s team and I have used Muk on several occasions myself. Including my run of Pokémon Infinite Fusion.. where it got fused into even greater things!  Muk is such a great example of simple done right! It’s Alolan form made it a lot more special when it was about to fade into obscurity so this is just a Pokémon to me that is solid through and through. Rainbow coloured pokémon.. great! A rainbow colour pile of stench and poison crystals even better! Still I would love to hug a Muk! It’s weird but if Pokémon would be real that would be on my bucket list… probably as a final thing!

Muk and it’s pre-evolution Grimers primarily live in sewers, this has several reasons.  First of all they like to gather in smelly places where sludge gathers. Making the stench of the place worse. It can take shelter in these places and nearly become invisible. It also keeps it safe from things that might prey on it because it’s own scent is already so bad it can cause fainting.  Added with the sewer smells and it’s hiding it is perfectly safe. How it detects those places though are very unclear because to degeneration Muk have lost their ability to smell.  My plan of hugging one might prove challenging because touching a Muk will spell trouble. It is very poisonous and a single touch will give you high fevers and cause you to be bedridden for days! It feeds on anything repugnantly filthy so the sewers do seem like a great place for it to live for that as well. This trash eating is what in fact causes Alolan Muk to look so rainbowy.. As the trash moves through its body it sparks all sorts of different chemical reactions as there are some many poisons in its body! It’s teeth and claws are not actually teeth and claws but crystallized poison.. which can prove fairly lethal. The weirdest pokédex entry though states that even the footsteps it leaves behind are poisonous.. uhm…it as feet?!

For combat we shall lose Alolan Muk as it has fewer weaknesses and more same type attack bonuses. It fills the role of a bulky physical sweeper, that means it uses its attack stat , defence stat and health stat which are all in their low hundreds. While 100 is no where near bad and in fact good, it is lacking to some others so it’s set is a lot more situational.
First of all you give it Knock Off, which is a move that deals very good damage as well as it disables your opponents item..which is super important in Pokémon.. Knockoff wins matches. It also gets pursuit which is yet another dark type move that doubles  in damage if your opponent switches out. That means Alolan Muk is a pace setter. Fire Type and Poison Jab for other physical attacks complete the set and with an Assault Vest, which increases defence but at the trade of you only being able to use offensive moves make this a great momentum attacker!  Watch out for ground types though!

Poison Type #4  Garbodor

This is one of those pokemon that gets hated because they are a thing rather than an animal.. and worse than that.. they are just trash. Well being a trash pokémon DOESN’T make you trash! Trubbish and Garbodor are something I really want to protect… also I want to hug them again… not sure what it is with me wanting to hug fictional waste material but I imagine trubbish all jingly with all the cans and bits and bobs in it when you hug it and the trash garbodor is made off seems super fluffy! Kinda like bad mash potato or something. I bet a real life Garbodor would be more composty but I bet it would be mighty interesting to dig around in it to see if you could not find any “treasures’ ‘.  Perhaps I am so in love with Garbodor because when I see him I see a ripped teddy bear..stuffed with Trash. This pokémon also got one of the very few Gigantamax forms I like (the other being Chonkachu and Orbeetle and Allcremie.) I love how there is like a giant wind up boat.. but then a real car that is smaller and a Pokédoll that is almost as great as a taxi.. it feels so random! Also why would anyone throw away these amazing toys! It would be amazing if Garbodor plays with them!

Pokédex wise this pokémon is kind of interesting. It is one of the more unpopular pokemon yet it has never skipped a pokédex entry since it’s introduction so I guess that Game Freak must love this guy as much as I do!  While originally it’s pokédex entry says nothing special.. it eats trash which gets turned into poison and the poison that it makes depends on what it eats. Therefore if you get poisoned by a Garbodor, you are in very much trouble as no doctor in the land can tell you with what type of poison you have been affected. Regardless of what the poison is .. it is so concentrated even if you are hit with it for a bit.. you suffer through all of its effects. It can completely cripple an opponent this way by covering it in random toxins. Sword and Shield added some darkness to that changing it from “the poison will cripple you” to. “anything that is already weakened can instantly die from this poison”  while Sun and Moon  described how the arrival of Grimer and Muk reduced the Garbodor population.. If you read my previous entry we see that Muk eats trash.. as a result Garbodor of the Alola region are slightly stronger..because they constantly have to fight for their lives to not be eaten by Muk.

Garbodor is a Never Used Tier Pokémon meaning in the  competitive scene  it is in the lower bracket. In it’s tier however it is the BEST hazard setter you can have.. and a hazard setter is what Garbodor is. Entry hazards deal damage effects on switching in pokémon in. Examples are webs that slow your opponent, floating rocks that heavily damage flying types or in case of Garbodor.. spikes that can damage or poison your enemy.  Spikes can be set in layers, two layers for toxic spikes (one layer causes the poisoned status and the second treats poisoned as if hit by toxic)  while regular spikes can be set in three layers. The first layer deals ⅛ of a pokémons total health in damage with two layers it stacks up to ⅙ and the third makes it so that any non flying pokemon takes ¼  of their total health in damage upon switching in. This means Garbodor is a good lead (first pokémon to send out)  with moves like Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Gunk shot and Explosion.. equipped with a Toxic plate for extra gunk shot damage.. or Black sludge for recovery. If your opponent has a ground type do not lead Garbodor and if your opponent has a poison type replace Toxic Spikes with the move Stomping Tantrum. Garbodor thrives when having an adamant nature.  It has very average stats but when you put EVs in  Attack and Speed.. it should not matter THAT much and it can still punish pokémon in its tier.

Poison Type#3 Salazzle

Gen VII introduced a lot of great new poison types. I love Toxapex as well and how they feed on corsola.. and as a result can come into Corsola SOS cries.. in which case they begin to kill Corsola to eat it instead of your team.  Well actually that’s it’s pre-evolution but that is not even the pokémon we are talking about here. Salazzle is a pokemon that only evolves from a female Salandit.. it’s a gimmick! It is so poisonous that it can poison the unpoisanable. It can poison steel and other poison types. Due to its second typing fire.. making it’s acid much more corrosive. I love the design. It looks like one of those egg stealing dinosaurs and I used to watch a lot of dinosaur series like The Land Before time about Littlefoot and his friends. There were these egg stealers as well that always scared me. Added with its graceful colour scheme and that weird look Salazzle has on her face she really seems quite powerful for a pokémon that small. Just by looking at it you know it can deal a lot of damage. It has this “evil” vibe which I really dig for a pokémon like that. 

Now.. normally I would give my own worded interpretation of Pokédex entries but in Sazalle’s case I have to quote her Pokemon Sun Pokédex entry because it’s just weird to me . “For some reason, only females have been found. It creates a reverse harem of male Salandit that it lives with.”  That’s right the term reverse harm is used in a pokémon game…for a POKEMON! Uhm..ewww… I doubt the reverse harem is will they won’t they type of scenario here as it’s still animals. It makes the Salandit males gather food for her and if they fail at this task it slaps them in the face..with a flaming palm.  Jeesz this pokémon is just getting weirder.. and we aren’t there yet… no.. this Matriarchy determines their leaders or a winner from their fight not by who wins a battle but who has wood the most male Salandit. They achieve this by some poisonous pheromone that draws them in. This pheromone however  seems to draw in any males.. as Salazzle pheromones are being used by human women as a thick and luscious perfume that helps them attract men. Do they get to slap their spouses in the face when they come home without food?! “You forgot the milk!!” WHACK! Now I want a Salazzle even more! Even if I don’t like men! I do like food!

Salazalle can be found in the RU tier, standing for Rarely used which is one tier higher than Garbodor. In its tier it’s one of the deadliest most feared pokemon! It is a glass cannon but if your opponent lets a Salazzle set up a bit.. he or she  is deader than dead! With an excellent 111 special attack and 117 in speed there is little that can outspeed it if you EV train both of these. With the move Nasty Plot it can boost its attack by two stages.so if you lead it and your opponent sets out the wrong pokémon to begin with.. you will do amazing damage. Fire Blast, Sludge Wave and Hidden Power (Ice , Water or Grass depending on your opponents team composition)  will make it blast trough your opponents as if they are nothing.  A single misclick and your opponent can feel if they just got hit by a firey bitch slap in the face

Poison Type #2 Crobat

Zubat is probably annoying Pokémon out there. Every cave is filled with millions of it…billions of it! If you are a bit like you will probably have traveled across Kanto numerous times and played pokémon mystery dungeon a lot.. where it is JUST as annoying.. so when you see a zubat you might want to strangle.. it until the light leaves it’s.. ey…. darn it!  Anyway one time I was playing Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness and I caught a shadow zubat.. I needed a flying type on my team because I had a big fighting weakness.  So I ended up purifying it and naming it Bruce… Bruce soon evolved into a Golbat and we become close friends.. which resulted into Bruce becoming a Crobat.I fully expected it to be bad because it was gen 2 of a fairly lackluster gen 1 but oh my! Bruce was a stone cold killer. It was so strong it became my team’s ace! So then I trained one up in Pokémon Diamond… which I named X-Wing  as I nicknamed all my pokémon after Star Wars things.. With Piplup being Jango Fett.. and Bidoof being Slave 1.. (which is a funny joke if you know Bidoof)  Anyway X-Wing… soon became my ace. It’s speed and attack made it amazing and the bright purple design made it cute enough for me to use as well!  It even made me appreciate Zubat and Golbat.. though their horrible early gen sprites.. really put me off them for a while.

Pokédex entry wise Crobat is quite bland. Nearly all it’s pokédex entries state that it’s legs that it has as Golbat evolved into wings. This makes it a lot faster but this speed makes it tricky for it to stop. It also has almost completely loses its ability to walk on land. It can still crawl but it looks really clumsy when it does so. Becomes it no longer has legs only wings it has to sleep upside down using its back wings as legs. This makes it more uncomfy and costs it a lot of rest.  That honestly would be it if it were not for our favourite pokédex entries in the sun and moon series. One of them states that  That Crobat constantly hungers for blood even if it does not feast on it for a little while it will become to weak to fly. Like a vampire it targets trainers and pokemons neck able to drain their blood in an instant. Another entry seems a bit more innocent but paired with that last one just now tells us the absolute horrible truth.. It fangs are so sharp if a Crobat bites you in the dark you’ll never even know that you have been bitten.. I am not sure if that is because you die or it can painlessly suck but given that it’s always hungry for blood, can drain you in an instant.. I can make assumptions.

Crobat is in the Underused Tier  which is the second highest  normal series (if we do not count Ubers which is basically for the strongest only) that means this pokémon is actually very well respected. All of that comes from the ability to have a move called Super Fang which halves hp regardless of defensive stats.. and Brave Bird.. A high Damage recoil move. Crobat also has Infiltrator as an ability so it becomes a fast sweeper. Super Fang and Brave Bird should not be accompanied by a poison move but rather by Taunt and  Roost. Though Taunt can be swapped out for a powerful poison move if your opponent does not require a great amount of set up. Like almost all Poison types on this list EV’s go into Speed and Attack and then you can have a lot of fun with this pokémon. A physical poison move instead of roost  during gameplay can also work as you have access to potions and all in there. 

My Favourite Poison type: Poipole

So my favourite Poison type is a bit of an odd one out my dear readers. It is not very useful in combat ,  it doesn’t get too amazing moves, it’s stats are bad and it basically just exists to evolve. Yet it is my favourite Poison Pokémon on it’s sheer design and flavour alone. Also it’s shiny and absolutely briljant. It’s evolution is still very amazing but not as greatly designed as it’s main. It’s soooo…..pink … and purple! I love it! It has a bit of a mythical pokemon quality like Celebi, Victini or even Mew and   yet also very starter-like qualities but very much twisted towards something more unnatural. It is one of my biggest inspirations for the Eldritch Baby Luma in my online Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Since Poipole  basically counts as an evolve Legendary I am also not discussing a moveset for it. It has no real place to shine. It’s usable in the main game and I had so much fun with it like that but basically it is the Sunkern of the legendaries (Sunkern has the weakest stats of any pokémon) ..So a pink weakish creature that doesn’t get enough love? I think you are beginning to see why I love it so dearly. Also it’s evolution Naganaendel is pretty amazing as well. I just love Poipole that much more!

Poipole is an Ultra Beast, it comes from Ultra-Megalopolis which is a city  in Ultra space. However this Ultra Space and these beasts have some fair overlap with Lovecraftian Horror. It’s  codename for Ultra Beast hunters is UB adhesive, but unlike all other beasts, Poipole is never causing a rampage. It is a gift given to you by Ultra Reckon Squad (Yes there is a lot of Ultra’s here) Poipole in it’s world is a popular starting pokémon. It does seem to be more akin to Eevee and Pikachu upon inspection though. So basically we are dealing here with the Pokémon Mascotte of another world. In sheer concept alone this of course is very interesting. The little thing seems to have a lot of joy in spraying it’s opponents with poison. For this it has a horn on its head that is actually a needle.. like one from a syringe. It isn’t described as particularly lethal or vicious but it will laugh gleefully when you are covered in it’s poison. Bodywise and lore wise it seems to have been based on a bee or hornet larva where it’s evolution becomes an Eldritch Hornet. While in this world they have no gender, in Ultra Space they dwell in groups and hives. These take the structure of that of a wasps nest. 

Since Poipole only featured in one game, and it was an updated version game rather than a new version not that much is known about Poipole besides that. It has appeared in the Manga where it followed Zosie around and even followed her orders from time and time again even when not being owned. It works like all other Ultra Beasts where it’s ability allows it to get a stat upgrade after taking down your opponent. It’s evolution also gets that with better moves to boot!  While Poipole is not useless it feels like running the game with a Pidgeotto .. not Pidgeot.. Pidgeotto it’s prevolution.. or heck an even better comparison. It feels like running with a Nidorina. You know you aren’t getting the maximum potential out of this thing. Poipole is a pure poison type but gains the dragon typing when it evolves into Naganadel. For this to occur it must level up while knowing the move Dragon Pulse. Yet while Naganadel is better at every step, it looks cool as heck, it has good movesets and is a pretty good Ultra beast, I can not help but love Poipole so much more.I really want to try and see if I can get far in the game using just a Poipole at one point.. but I would need to learn how to hack my games! Please make a UB fangame for someone! Let us show the Ultra Megalopolis league gym challenge or something! I want more Poipole in my live.

So sometimes to be my favourite pokémon, you do not have to have Nostalgia on your side, you don’t even have to have great stats. Heck you don’t even have to be all that useful. Sometimes love just happens for no reason.  I could easily say it is because it is quite pink..but even if the shiny would have been the normal one , I would have loved it all the same.. Sometimes Pokémon is just about the ones you like!  Those you want to hug , protect and keep safe.. but also want to keep a part of your journey. Poipole is that pokémon for me! While I do think everyone has one of those picks among their favourites… I would never have thought it would be the poison type that made me a fall in love with a cute and innocent thing! The winner is Poipole!

And that concludes this list! Who is your favourite Poison type? Do you like the typing?
Let me know and let’s have a nice pokémon talk! Now it is time for me to have lunch so I am off! I will see you guys again some other time! Hmm Lunch!

So Guess I am writing a blog today! I was nominated for the Let’s Blog award!

Sweet Island Guests! It’s time to b-b-b-blog ! This time with a sparkly brand new award!  I only have to break one rule!   And only kinda! It’s time for the Let’s Blog Award.

The Rules of Let’s Blog!

1. Mention the creator of the award and the blogger who nominated you.
Okay so this award is made by a person called Renee from Renee’s Corner!  She makes a lot of chibi comics and stories! So be sure to check that out!

EggSandwich04 From KS BLOG nominated me for this tag! 04 is apparently not the year he is born in..are sandwiches even born?!  I found out through this tag!  Does that mean there are three others?!  EggSandwhich is a super fast growing blogger who nearly surpassed my blog size in like a month or two!  He is active in a lot of scenes! So I expect him to become Egg-Baguette before to long! That’s bigger than a Sandwhich!
Check out this amazing Aniblogger
2. Copy paste the rules.
Whoops I made that a bit harder didn’t I? All the more Reason to visit Eggy then!
3. Answer the 10 questions sent by the nominator.
Okay
4. Write your 10 questions for the nominees.
Did So
5. Nominate 5 bloggers for this award and let them know via comment on one of their posts.
I won’t comment but I’ll tag specific posts, they should get a ding ding thing!
6. Keep the thumbnail as the thumbnail of this post.
Can’t do that, it would mess up my site!  I will put it on top of the post though! Just on my home page it will be in a cocktail!
7. Answer your own questions.
Cool post feature but this should have been rule 5, Pinkie is a good girl though so I will go back and answer them! Speaking off Answers!

EggSandwhich Questions

So Eggy asked me these! In these I will be a bit more trough as I assume he would really want to know my answer and that is why he asked me! In one I dug really deep in a bit of a self analysis (it’s amazing how Insomonia can lead to self discovery as I had nothing better to do as i lay awayke) so feel free to first paragraph skim trough!

3 songs you recently discovered

Oof … I am not big on music.  I don’t listen to a lot of music for music sake so for me to discover music I have to stumble upon it through another way. This question is better viewed on my site as it will display Youtube videos.. reader doesnt show that! So one song I recentely discovered would be Lohse’s song from Divinity  Orginal Sin 2. I really liked it.. it feels quite poplike! At first I thought they just stole it from something! But I could not find where they would have gotten it from.

I guess the second song that I would have to nominate is Serendipity, the opening to a show called Flip Flappers, It is a very catchy song with a nice power spike! The show has become my favourite watch of my Saturday Anime Adventure posts so this opening has me pumped!
Since I watch it as if it’s on tv I want to skip them either ! Yeah! 

As for a third.. this is going way .. way further back. to the 5th of june.  When I discovered  Megami 33 and her amazing cover of the Dragon ball Broly song.. main theme.. Blizzard. I love her voice in this  and her interpretation of the song  Pretty sweet over all!  

What’s one thing you don’t like about yourself?

Oh there is plenty! The shall talk about the most noticable one for WordPress though. I do not have a whole lot of self confidence, even while I logically can see I am not disliked at all and am generally well accepted in the blogging community, I have what I call this demon on my shoulder. As soon as someone who likes me on a daily basis suddenly doesn’t leave a like I think  they actually do not like me.. that they finally lost the ability to stomach me. Many people in the anime community are very important so if someone of the big people ever does so I actually have nightmares about losing my blog.  I recently did some self investigation and I think I know why.



I was a fairly popular girl when I was a kid. My dad had a company and made a fair amount of money so I had a NES and SNES, I had some pretty cool toys, I was smart and the only thing that was really wrong with me was that I moved weird. My motions were stiff and it seemed i was stiffening up. I was good friends with the popular kids.  One day during gym class my friends began exploiting my physical limitations. We played knock out soccer, which I loved .. but I wasn’t given a single moment to play.  As soon as I came in again I was eliminated by physically fit soccer players so they could score the highest elimination number.  At one point I got intensely frustrated and told the teacher they were exploiting what was wrong….

I should not have done that.. the teacher did indeed see that they were doing this.. and me being smart made me somewhat of a teacher’s pet. So he disqualified their score for just hounding the weak and ruining their fun.  Poor sportsmanship at all.  It turned my classmates to pick on me.   It resulted in 4 years of intense bullying. Friends were people who threw worms at me..that was 2….since those other kids we so popular 16 other kids tormented me day in day out. I could not play outside anymore cause they would throw trash at me.. or trap me in a trashcan. They once even tossed me in barbed wire. Yet I never blamed them.. I blamed me.. I made the popular kids hate me. So now whenever a Lita ignores me, Irina disagrees with me or Scott or Jon do not understand my point of view.. I feel terrified it will happen again… it’s been 25 years and I can’t let that go… So what is bothering me most?Maybe its my self esteem issue issue I have, maybe it’s that demon, maybe it’s my fear of losing everything yet again.. but that part of my life is something I really do not like about myself.

Name one thing you like about your blog

Awww just one?! I love my blog! It’s very precious to me! I think my blog is really my own, I mean. I share it with other writers now.. but  there is a uniqueness to it that I really like. I really walk to the beat of my own drum. It is a mix of everything geeky and everything me.. and I think writing for this blog is the happiest I have been in years.  It really feels like my geeky resort where I can finally relax and let things go. It reflects so much of my character, with the bright colours, the random elements and the blending everything together in a bit of a chaotic mix! This is me! I need to update that tagline though as soon as the others being posting their writing.

One thing you want to improve in

Focus, ever since my  burnout in 2018  I have had a hard time keeping my head straight. Sometimes I have some many strains of thought in my head I can barely keep them separated. There are times where I am working on a blog but also think on what groceries I need to buy and what I am going to do in the evening and it blends.. I  end up looking in the supermarket for stuff to make cocktails with even if I went there to get some flavoured water. It’s worse when I try to sleep. Sometimes I have to sort through  video game menus to “save” just so I can get the compulsion out of my head, usually there is a song or two playing as well as a lot of blog ideas going for the next day.  As a result I work incredibly inefficiently during a day and I struggle to keep everything in order.  So a bit more focus would be nice! I should be able to do that. 

What TV show/anime could you watch over and over again?

There aren’t a lot of shows like that. While I have no focus I do have incredible memory. At age 33 I am not as good at it as I was anymore but I used to be able to identify CSI episodes by soundbites or fairly standard sentences like “I parked and sat there for 2 minutes crying then I got out’  Or by one of those Horatio can glasses phrases. I know exactly if we saw an episode or not while playing a game of Quake III Arena and if it was a new one I would come and watch if not I would tell my family we would have seen them.  Remembering something phrase by phrase makes it a whole lot less enjoyable. I can watch a show on repeat as background noise.. you know to have someone talking in the background so I don’t feel as alone in my house.. but I rarely focus on something I have seen before. Friends in an exception  from a kid on my sis controlled the vcr and she would watch friends every day. To socialise with her I had to watch that as well .. we watched it a lot and to this day I can still repeat that with friends.. and series in said style. A family super power of sorts.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I live in a tiny bungalow.. lot’s of pick pillows on grey elements. A white wooden floor and a fireplace is lit. A spectacled woman is sitting on the couch reading a tablet. I come in with two cups of tea, she smiles at me and tabs a spot on the couch next to her. I put the tea on the table and fold my entire legs onto the couch. She wraps a little pink blanket around me and puts a grey blanket around herself.. she then hands me my tea and while both hold her our tea with both hands she gently leans her head against mine. “I read the thing you wrote today,” she says to me. “It was really funny, that new artist is really good’ 

I live with a woman I love and make my money writing or promoting something, my health cleared up a bit but is most likely still somewhat frail so I got into a low effort job while she makes a lot of money doing something techy. We aren’t that rich but get around well enough.  Suddenly Fish comes waddling in the room, he is our pet duck. We live in the city outskirts but close enough so I can do all my grocery shopping by foot.  No desire to have kids. We sometimes geek out and we have a nice library of comics and Manga. Every thursday we receive friends and I DM for them.. with an official and neat game table, otherwise we go to parties of friends a bit like barbecues and every so often a trip to the pub but it’s all very low key. We put a silly hat on fish. We have a drawer of silly hats and put on the tv. We watch the Mandalorian Season 10 or that feminist Star Wars show.. after it is over we pull out a retro game console the NES as we play trough Ducktales together. Where she sings Della Ducks version of the moon theme to me.. replacing some words to sing them to me! So no Darling Baby Boy.. but Darling Pinkie Girl or something! We are happy! Also it’s been almost three weeks since I inserted this sone somewhere!


Your most desired place to go

Tokyo, the Pokémon Café. While the Mew Fluffy Marshmallow drink is on the menu!
Nuff said!

If You Could Change Your Name, What Would You Change It To?

For real to Pinkie.. maybe.. or Elle I really like Elle.  She is a beloved character of mine who I identify with very much. She’s super weird and very much asexual  and clumsy as heck.. but in a way she is just a characterised version of myself.  So in a way she is almost more like an ;ess nuanced me.  More pure me! So that would be a great name.  Pinkie of course would be great because when I inevitably (this is a joke)  reach internet fame everyone knows me by my real name. .. In fact when  I have been writing a lot.. I sometimes address myself as Pinkie in my head. Pinkie don’t forget to go to the store dear! It will be rather crowded if you wait any longer. Don’t forget you have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow Pinkie get a bit of an early rest. I am using that handle in games as well makes it even more convenient. Most mortals and fleshy people I know call me Denise still though.

If you’re an actress, which one movie would you like to play?

I am a little old to play Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim or Ramona’s lady love But that would be a role I would very much like to play.  So does voice acting count?! I count it as action so I would count it! I would love to voice Webby Vanderquack in Ducktales.. but that is more of a series. There is a character in the Lego movie I would love to voice as well.. so perhaps that one! Which character that is I will answer in the next question.

Name one fictional character that resembles you the most.

That would have to be Princess Unikitty. While she is more of an extravert we both love random stuff, we both love pink and we both can have a fairly short temper.. We also cry a lot more than we let on. We love to fool people and we both rule over our own Paradise. Both of use move a bit awkwardly and are quite stiff but we have a metaphorically good heart. We also both get sea sick super easy!  So she is also a voice I would really like to do if I was an actress. Pinkie Pie from my Little Pony as well ..as long as the character is pink I will voice it ‘Jigglypuff!’ 

My own questions

So I will answer my own questions briefly as this tag makes you answer your own questions.. That is pretty awesome! I love that feature! I won’t have to dig that deep for an answer though so these answers are short ones! I would love to explain more if you ask! Remember these are the ones YOU have to answer as well if you get nominated… also saying it here! If you are not nominated You can ask for a nomination and I will make it so!

1.If you could live in any other country in the world where would you live?

Tokyo Japan of course, though Spain would be a second great option..if I could live in some comfort of course. Japan I would never go to without speaking the language at least a bit but there is so much I would like to explore there. From a fairly new cuisine and ruleset to an almost alien culture. There are also of course my favourite things in the world there. Heck it would kinda feel like an Isekai.. and I am at a point in my life where I really would love a start from zero. If I land in front of a truck there I might even actually be isekaid. Also I heard Tokyo has a really neat café!

2. Do you believe in ghosts

Yes I have had several experiences, I saw a man in my house whose picture I only later saw on a nearby graveyard, a woman named Melanie reached out to me in my flat.. I got a piece of paper and asked her to make me write something. I wrote out a much clearer message than I thought which was information I later was able to verify. It had to do with town history stuff i was not aware off (consciously)

I do however not believe that ghosts are apparitions of the dead.. I do belief they are memories of other people like them.. So for example a school teacher tells the kids a story about Melanie.. they vividly imagine her and for some weird reason I pick up that memory As if I am receiving a brain wave of someone else sort of. 

3.  If you’d reincarnate as an animal of your choice what animal would you be.

A tamed duck!  Just waddling, making cute sounds..and being an actual duckling at some point in my life! That would be grande, I could swim, I could fly, I could have a family that makes me wear silly hats. I love ducks! I do not know why but they endear me so!  I would also not mind being a Micro Pig.. I mean I’d be too small to eat and I’d be a pink pet so that would be a great shout out as well. In fact I’ll go with the Micropig and the duck can be my best friend!

4. If you could learn any skill instantly what would it be?

The Japanese language, it takes five to ten years to develop that skill fully and I have only dipped my toe in the water for a teensy tiny bit! If I am ever to reach the pokémon café in Tokyo I would need some magic! It would be pretty awesome! Plus I might be able to make a few bucks out of simply that skill here in the Netherlands! So please Arceus make that happen!

5. Do you ever use Weeaboo speech?

Yes I wish people Oyasumi instead of Good night on Twitter, I use terms like Tomodachi and Nakama and sometimes use Nani! I am inclined to start posts with Konichiwa but as soon as I did that one guy on WordPress made a post on how much he hated such antics.. so of course my demon told me I would be outcast if I kept it up! So now the terms are only used on Twitter and Tomodachi and Nakama are only used for award tags or if I really do not think there is a fitting english word for it!  Please do not exile me!

6. Is there anything you are passionate about , that isn’t a subject on your blog?!

Hmm I made this very hard on myself since my subjects are very broad.  Something I rarely talk about on my blog , but I have mentioned is that I love Board Games. Just with my boardgame friends having moved away and Covid running rampant there is a lot time for me to play it. My favourite Board Game is Dead of Winter! That game has everything for me! I am also quite a big foodie! My current kitchen is a bit small to cook properly but I love experimenting in the kitchen! To varying degrees of success I might add.

7. Are there any bloggers you take inspiration from?

Obviously one of them would be Irina for me, but I also really like how Ospreyshire and Blerdy Otome do their blog!  Then there are Lita and Scott as some figureheads for the community! I do like the quirky bloggers a lot so K from K at the movies is also a form of inspiration. Do your own thing and what makes you happy as a blogger. I really get that from all these people and they all helped me mature as a blogger. No tags! No pictures! Just love!

8. Name an experience that would be on your bucket list

For those who do not know what a bucket list is.. it’s a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket/pass away. For me the biggest one and most obvious one would be a trip to Tokyo.. one where I do not really have to hold back financially either. A fourteen day trip at least! I would like to do so many things!  I want to go to Sanrio Puroland, I want to go to a shinto temple, I want to go to an Izakaya and of course I want to go to the Pokémon Center and the Pokémon café.

9. If you were a flavour of Ice-cream what flavour would you be?

Raspberry! Everyone sees the punk frozen paste in a bin and thinks I am Strawberry! Because that’s the first thing their mind goes to! But I am a little different! Slightly more of an aquired taste and way way waaaaaaaaaay less erotic.  I mean what’s up with strawberries in that perspective!  I also am a little awkwardly shaped. I am not oftenly people’s favourite but every once in a while I am really appreciated for who I am. I am actually quite enjoyable if you pair me with champagne..but heck..that goes to strawberries again! So if you get me drunk or get me chocolate you’ve got a friend in me…but if you want to wrinkle your sheets stick with a strawberry or a pineapple!

10. What is the next thing you have in your agenda/planned after writing this post.

Oh I am going to Mamma Pinkie for a day and a half! We are going shopping together, and having dinner together and sharing a few drinks together and talk about a very mean man as we gossip! Other than that I do have an appointment with my psychologist scheduled on Friday and a dinner with possibly a walk with my friend. It will depend on how much energy I have in my little body! I am plagued by Insomnia so I am running on fumes a lot of these days! In the agenda is Dinner +?. So we will see about that +?! I will tell you about it sometime I am sure!

The Nominees

As for my five (plus one) nominations here we go:

A Geeky Gal: While you are on Hiatus it is my mission to give all tags you haven’t done yet! Since this one is fairly new! This nomination was an easy one.

The Otaku Author: Lyn is also someone I want to give as much sorts of tags to as I possibly can. He is a collector as well!

Celestial Sparkles: I saw you were searching for content recently so here you go! Pinkie provides for her friends.

Foovay: I know I tag my blogging besty in a lot ,but I need someone who doesn’t call me weird for believing in ghosts. Even if one question she answered in a recent tag already.

Geek Girl Joy: I need to thank her somehow for making a Pink finder bot! Even though I am scared she might be scared for believing in ghosts!

7mononoke also gets nominated: I know it is a sixth nomination but I can’t help it!
I had great fun with their recent tag post so I want to do something in return!

Oh of course if you want to partake feel free to ask me for a nomination! All Coconuts are always nominated so this includes: MikeKelyy666, TsubakiKuro, Indigo, Ospreyshire and The Multifacted Ocelot. You are very important to me guys! If you want to be a coconut as well, consider supporting me on Kofi! Cause that is how you become a coconut!

Gods, Bugs and a Kraken: Divinity Original Sin II Review

So a while ago I told you how COVID tore my D&D group apart for a bit! While there is nothing wrong with online tabletop , when 3 players and a D&D read body language of other players to make plays or steer the story.. you end up in trouble!  So I ended up breaking it off for now..keeping an online game.  Now for my blog anniversary, my friend The Multifaceted Ocelot gave me the gift of a game that would allow me to play a D&D like game..but on my pc! Without people that were being mean to me! I could also play it WITH people that were nice to me.. however.. for this review I played by myself! Did I like it?! Find out in this review!

Pinkie the Sourcerer

Divinity Original Sin II (DOS2 after this)  is a game made by Larian Studios. Launched for pc in 2017 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018 and for MacOS and Switch in 2019.  It’s not to be confused with Divinity II which is a whole other game.. and a much lesser one at that.
DOS2 managed to sell very well selling a million copies within two months and is considered among the best role playing games of all times by fans and critics alike. This game is a multi character top down rpg being comparable to games like Planescape Torment and Baldurs Gate.  To me it was very comparable to the Dungeon Siege series.. but much more open ended with a lot more inspiration from classic D&D tabletops and less crappy movie adaptations. 

In this game you pick OR create an avatar, which goes on a quest to ascend to divinity to free the lands from some horrible eldritch bug like creatures known as the Voidwoken. You yourself are blessed with the gods and with up to three other god woke you shall travel the world in pursuit of this Divinity. At the source of it all is….. well.. It’s Source. A powerful form of magic that comes from life itself it seems or from the gods..and it’s users are called Sourcerers heh, puns!Yet there is much more to this world than this simple quest and ritual that repeats every so often. There are plenty of factions who all want to be the one to produce the next divine for their own reasons. Will you stand in their way or with them?  For a healthy chuck of this ..the choice is yours. You will meet colourful characters along the way, whom you can recruit, kill or just leave them to their own devices and whom you will interact with will decide the faith of the world. Through real time overworld interaction and turn based tactical combat.. you make your way across this world and power yourself up.. readying yourself for divinity.


For this playthrough I created a custom character. A flesh devouring elf that can read memories of the dead by feasting on their body parts. She could also speak to animals.  Her occupation was a witch.. which actually meant she was a necromancer..who can summon mosquitoes for some reason! Maybe it’s an UNDEAD mosquito… She was also very good with a bow.. because life drain and ranged .. is such a neat little combo! Being part Hunter made her able to leap around the battlefield and haste herself. ..How do you call an insane Elf who talks to the dead and Animals? Pinkie of course! She teamed up with three named characters for my adventure and did it on the Story playthrough difficulty. I did not get to choose so I assume it’s either normal or easy!  Pinkie’s journey began when she woke up on a ship with a green glowing disk around her neck. What the heck! So unfashionable!

The Illusion

I shall not tell you how Pinkie’s journey went because.. spoilers! There would be a lot of them! I shall just tell you it is one of those games where you have a whole lot of options to get from A to B. Yet in the end you are still traveling from point one to point two. It is a great game that offers you “the illusion of choice”  rather than choice itself. As a DM I know the Illusion of choice often leads to the best story telling. This game uses it a lot. While it seems like a negative it is actually quite strong for story telling. For example you can follow a plot thread of one of your party members, listening to their request and doing exactly what is asked to the letter. This will maybe result in you discovering some evil guy or gal is tormenting them and you need to deal with them.  However if you pick another party member you can still do that story. Through rumors or exploration one way or the other the game will put that quest on your list.  If your mission is to deal with a certain character and you spare them, they either betray your trust  or have to lay low for a while pretending to be dead. So while you made a unique choice.. in the end it all results in the same narrative.Each choice feels as valid as the next one because all are enforced by the plot of the story. During the credits the effects of those minor  choices are shown at a custom ending narrative but in the world everything has a certain flow.. nothing feels out of place and everything is structured very nicely.

In a lot of moral choicey games we see faction A clearly being more fleshed out than Brotherhood B so if you join those guys.. you get the better flowing story. Here the story auto-corrects itself.. without you really noticing and as a result we always follow a strong narrative. You can side with an evil bastard but eventually his plans will always involve discarding you.. so you never get narratively stuck.  Having played Kingdoms of Amalur recently that game was a good example of doing that wrong. You reach multiple points where the story should end..or E.V.O. Search for Eden on SNES where your morale choice can lead to an early game end..  so instead after that the game is just reset. Divinity walks a golden path! I felt like I was in control of the story.. Yet a great story was still being told to me that makes sense no matter what decision I would take.  This means there can be extra factions, extra sides within those factions so the world feels incredibly vibrant.  Like in real life everyone has their own agenda and what you do .. doesn’t really affect that agenda it just influences it slightly. A guy planning to murder you doesn’t suddenly trust you because you brought them a single stone. 

Since Necromancy is a thing in this world , it can even get around any limitations of conventional storytelling. If you kill a character that has a new thing you need to know.. that info will be available to you through a multitude of ways still. Be it you talking to spirits , eating their flesh to gain their memories or even them being pulled back into the moral realm now as undead. Death isn’t that final in DOSII and mostly in a good way.  There are a few characters the game designer really likes though and those can be brought back painfully often… at least if you try to do everything.. because this game is long. There are a lot , and I mean A LOT of  things for you to do. Quests that chain rather impressively.   I tried to do as much as I could explore but I decided not to go for 100%. I roleplayed my character a bit so if a thing did not make sense for my character to visit I did not have her go there unless she happened to stumble upon it. The game really allows you to approach this in any way you want. I got enough experience points to reach level 20, which is the max level in D&D  and it was enough to face the final battle.. with a few attempts so my way of doing a lot but not all certainly worked.  If you do not do a lot some party members will abandon you and you can get more experience points making it possible as well. Again an illusion of choice but in the end the experience is more or less the same.

A Divine Experience

There are very good reasons why this game is named amongst the best roleplaying games. Not only is the way you can interact with the world incredible , the combat system is amazing as well.  It is so tactical and fun, yet forgiving enough to run a build you like.. you do not need healers, you do not need to balance magic and melee equally. You just need to adapt your strategy to your way of playing.  And for the love of god never pick the glass cannon perk.  If you don’t want a healer, buy potions, if you do not want to focus on swords balance all sorts of magic out including some closer ranged.  Have one character focus on summons cause summons.. deal melee damage!  (most of them anyway) Every spell or ability has a range, a cooldown and can combo a bit with certain perks or other abilities. 

For example a Geomancer can toss a rock containing oil.. a Pyromancer can set that oil ablaze. A Hydrospoholist can create a raincloud to put out the fire on your party members, an Aerothurge can shock that puddle of water once enemies are walking over it.. or the  Hydro person itself can freeze the water to slow down her opponents. You can also run a healer on your team.. along with a necromancer.. the necromancer diseases the enemies and now the Healer can cause damage on the diseased person because.. the diseased condition reverses healing. There are so many field effects you can cause.. you can even create divine fire which turns fire into a field of healing. If you do not use a lot of spells, you have arrows and grenades to set those effects, your options are endless.


Out of combat you can use persuasion to get yourself out of trouble, you can sneak , you can search for hidden objects using your wits, you can steal your way to success or spread out your party members by disassembling your party, you can change field of views by having one separated party member talk to a person and when locked in dialogue allow your thief to take advantage of their change point of view. You can position your party members to a high ground allowing your tankiest one to engage the enemy at first.. only triggering combat when you are in an advantaged situation. The amount of freedom you get is amazing.  For the most part.. later in the game that liberty does take a serious dip but more about that in a bit.  For 70% of this game or so you can be super creative with these things.  You can sneak past objects you should not be able to sneak past if you are clever enough. You can use combat skills outside of combat for this.. for example how I used Tactical Retreat to sneak across some magical turrets I could not defeat at the time.  Then using a magical pyramid to teleport my party to me.  You are given so many tools that this world really feels like your sandbox. A magic mirror in your homebase constantly allows you to respec without a money penalty or anything so if you ever find yourself to be stuck.. you can just swap your stats and spells around until you find a solution that works for you! It is very much amazing! This truely for the most part is YOUR game.

Crisis of Faith

For 70% of this game, this may very well be the best RPG of it’s kind that I have ever played. In fact during the first 4  and a half chapters this IS the best rpg of it’s kind I have ever played. However in the final city and a bit before troubles show up.  As the difficulty picks up your options become significantly more limited. Mostly when it comes to solving quests.  There is a point just before the final city that you must make a choice. If you haven’t done enough quests for your party and your avatar’s (the character you picked first)  persuasion isn’t high enough your party falls apart. There is no real work around for this other than maxing out persuasion on your avatar, which to be fair at that point in the story you are easily able to do.. but this is your only real solution remaining at that time.  Losing a party member just because you must be a certain quest giver earlier and make your main character a bit shy can feel a bit harsh.  Realistic but.. harsh. I was fully invested in their story and wanted to complete it.. now I always run persuasion on my main character.. but MultiFaceted Ocelot was not as lucky and he lost his favorite character.. which later turns out to have MAJOR implications on the story in the end . A single persuasion check means failed forever.. so it means a reload.

Reloading would not bother me as much except for one little fact, autosaves happen way to few! Only when entering a new location  you hit an autosave. If you run back because you aren’t strong enough yet.. and later forget to quick save you can find yourself in trouble. In total I have lost almost 3 hours of progress like this. Part of the reason is my laptop does not have standard F keys.  I need to hold a button to make them F keys..sometimes I forgot and just pressed the button.. not doing anything in game. Upon loading I found my last save was an hour ago.  Of course catching up is quicker but still quite annoying. Sometimes you do not get the same item back either.. which can be doubly salty! But that is mostly a laptop issue. I rerouted the keys and this made it manageable.. However in this day and age we are so used to constant autosaves that you should at least be aware that this game is really REALLY stingy with autosaves.  Since it is very possible to just run into death as well or battles you can not win it should at least be noticed. Save oftenly and save with names.  Sometimes a choice will only come back to bite you in the ass after a little and if you are ill prepared that could be fatal. For example I did not want to finish off a little void invested chicken.. it was cute! But then it turned into a monster and killed me… I had taken a lot of damage from battles before and I thought a chicken delivery can’t hurt that much!  Yet due to a series of unfortunate misses.. and having the Glass Cannon Perk still .. I got send back! Waaaaay back! Because that last save file gave me no options as I accidently quickly saved a bit late!

In Arx ,the final town, puzzles can get a bit frustrating as well, as usually there now is only one solution.  There is a painting you need to make complete to open a hidden door. No matter how high your wits are, there is no other way to enter that new room, followed by you being forced to carry a heavy painting this means no matter what you build one character has to have strength investment.  My adventure nearly ended early on when a quest item I needed got bugged out of existence. Luckily a lockpick would help me..but it meant leaving a dungeon , selling supplies , finding a vendor who sells lockpicks, wearing a certain set of gear , because at that level your skill cap is lower than the threshold needed..  so you need certain pieces of gear.  Which resulted in my character not having the armor they should have when combat starts.. which meant I had to reload.. to a point where I was before that door.. with no lockpicks. You can even softlock yourself.. if you are like me.. there is a church which I went in.. and quick saved as it had a puzzle.. however I needed a few items to solve that puzzle, which I did not have.. if you fail that puzzle it keeps instantly killing you.. if you played the way I did .  So I had to quickload again.. and ended up in front of a door which needed a key.. with no lockpicks in my inventory. 

There are a few other gripes as well. Some of the later fights really require you to have source points active to use a certain skill to get around a certain enemy mechanic, usually revolving around them being reborn. The controls aren’t always tight.. if you click next to an enemy in stead of on it your action points will go to to waste as they will run up to him (Action points are how many things you can do per turn) and these hitboxes can be finicky.
Sometimes you get persuasion choices mid battle but it reroutes to the character whose turn it is not your persuasion character.. so these almost always fail unless you know in advance and very specifically plan around these..which still almost never works. There are also a fair few glitches that can get you stuck or make quests non completeable, for example there is a magical chest that is being firebreathed upon.. my thieving character though can stoneskin to avoid damage and he picked the locked of the chest.. but now the quest doesn’t trigger. I completed the quest to open it yet nothing happens and I miss out on some sweet exp! It doesn’t really make your experience THAT much less fun.. but it is noticable!

Just one step from heaven

The final chapter requires you to  actually read some of the tomes you find in the game, to keep an oversight of your quest logs and play a bit more rigid characters, to my knowledge the final puzzle in the game isn’t solvable unless you have an elf or a necromancer with at least a point in water magic s well.. Maybe there are arrows that can help you.. maybe grenades or maybe you can just attack a party member.. but it felt very specific. It makes sense as a continuation of the difficulty of this game and the final puzzle itself was quite nice, but with a softlock being in place in front of it.. a few scenes that deadlock you into leaving an area even if you still have quests outstanding and a much more subtle way to tell you what to do .. the last part of this game I had to play with a guide.  Not because I could not solve the puzzles but because they differ from the way you had to think before.  Instead of “I can find a way around this”  it becomes.. I need a way to solve this.  If you aren’t at the right place at the right time.. you may find yourself having to deal with a lot of frustrating stuff. Which is a eternal shame.

Had the game ended the way it was played at Driftwood, the largerst part of the game, this would probably be my favourite RPG game ever, it offers me so much. It really still does and anyone who likes tabletop rpgs I can recommend this game.. yet in the end it becomes a little bit frustrating to do it all.. too many things are too obscure and having to constantly switch between the gear you want and the gear you need is just needlessly frustrating.  My advice! Keep some gear that boosts thievery, keep some gear that boosts persuasion, preferably a ring or a belt and update the rest of your gear accordingly. Had I sold those gloves that boost thievery I might not have been able to beat the game. It is amazing but there are a fair few glitches.  Save plenty however and most annoyances will be avoided. Still I can’t give this my highest rating as the last part I just did not enjoy playing through all that much.. That gripe however pales in comparison to the other 70% of this game so it’s still very amazing. It might not be divine..but it is god-woken I guess? And with 60 hours in a single run (Which is faster than most people complete it in) you are getting a lot of bang for your buck!

If I had to compare the game to something I would say it’s like a long island ice tea. There is lots of flavour, enough to get you drunk on.. it’s well worth the money you pay for it but even as you get buzzed it does leave a slightly bitter after taste. How bitter you are however depends fully on how drunk you would have allowed yourself to get from this game! And any cocktail that gets me drunk on it’s own I’d flavour as….

Have you played this game? What did you think about it?! Can you commit to 60 hour+ games?! What game should I play next? Let me know in the comments and let’s make Paradise a nice and chatty place!

A video game movie… about video games?! The Wizard Review

In an attempt to watch video game movies , except for the in universe ones, (as in they exist besides the games as part of the same universe)  I wondered. What counts as a video game movie. BloodRayne was up next but I could not stomach Uwe Boll right now. So instead I looked for something more innocent, a road trip movie about a boy and his autistic brother, wanting to travel to California.. for unknown reasons. That is right I watched 1989’s  The Wizard.

But Pinkie! The Wizard That’s Not A Video Game?!

How Astute of you.. my dear Island guests.. or me pretending to be an Island guest! That paragraph title is Correct! The Wizard is not a video game movie in the classical sense as we do not follow the story of a video game… not that any video game movie does that ..but I mean … non of the characters in this movie is a video game character.  Instead this is a movie about video games. A boy playing video games to be exact. One could call it a 90 minute Nintendo commercial. It has received.. a fairly poor reception. Having a Metacritic Score of only 2.3 and a critic approval rating of 32% on Rotten tomatoes. With an Audience Score of 60% and a 6,1 on IMDB.. this however promises to be one of the better watches I get in all 43 video game movies I counted.  It scores less than Postal on Rotten Tomatoes though.. which is absolutely wrong. I enjoyed this movie… .okay enjoy might be a big word.. but I certainly did not hate it.

The movie was made in 1989 and directed by Todd Holland. It stars Luke Edwards as the autistic  young Jimmy Woods, who later gets the nickname the wizard. He is in an institution for his heavy form of autism. His family has broken up after his sister died a few years ago and now the boy constantly tries to run away from home to go to California. One day after his father played by Beau Bridges, kinda distances himself from the boy his brother Corey played by a young Fred Savage breaks him out angry at his father for ignoring Jimmy’s wishes. Together they travel to California but they discover.. they need money. A young girl named Hayley joins up with them and convinces them to let Jimmy play Nintendo games ..in arcades.. for money! They can use the money to travel.. when they discover that in California there is a big video game competition with a big cash price.

Divorced mother and now involved with the owner of the institution Christine hires a professional Child returner/kidnapper. This angers Father Sam who sees the error of his ways of neglect and travels along with his eldest son, played by Christian Slater in order to find his two boys!  While they travel Nick.. the Slater Characters, brings along an NES and father and son bond over playing video games like Mario 2 and Zelda 2.  While also playing a very hillbilly esque cat and mouse game with the Childnapper guy. Who finds Jimmy first.. and can he make it to California, will he win the elusive tournament or will it go to the almighty gamer Lucas.. who wields THE POWER GLOVE? All these questions as well as why Jimmy wants to travel to California will be solved in a hundred minute movie. 

Nintendoes

First of all it should be noticed that the movie has a fairly competent cast which already is a good sign. Secondly a big name to Nintendo is connected to this film. I don’t mean in the way like “yeah go ahead and make a movie about us” either. This movie was the World Wide reveal for Super Mario Bros 3 of all things. One of my all time favourites if not THE favourite Mario game.  So there was some confidence in this movie.  We also see the movies antagonist Lucas use The Power Glove, a peripheral/weird controller I talked about in the past. It’s so bad.. and hey.. that line is in the movie!  We also take a peek inside Nintendo Power magazine in america.. or the Nintendo Hotline for tips and tricks! I am not sure if it’s one and the same back here in the Netherlands it was so I assume it was a similar type of deal.  We get this type of movie we don’t really see anymore. Three kids on the road..united by friendship. It takes inspiration from movies like Stand By Me which came out three years before.  For those who don’t know that movie.. well  remember that first screen in Pokémon when you click on the tv? “Four Boys walking on a railroad.. time to get rolling myself?’ Well that’s the movie they got that from! As a result the movie has this solid “frame” to build itself onto. Which benefits it.. it does feel fairly focused..which is hard to do for kids travelling across America. 

It is also not afraid to do it’s own thing where Stand By me is very set in the wilderness this trip of the Wood Boys and Hayley is much more suburban, which comes with a different set of challenges. Challenges this movie handles fairly well. They have to deal with people wanting their money back after a lost bet, they have to deal with robbers, using their tiny statues to get what they want easily, they have to deal with stuff like.. wanting to gamble for money..but not being allowed to play in a Casino so.. having to arrange a mule. It shows Universal Studios theme park.which is funny because that later became a video game on Nintendo,, and has a few interesting choices. The kids in this movie for the most part act like kids.  For example how Hayley lies about how awesome her life is .. only to later reveal her father left her because her mom had a gambling addiction. The skills she have stem from having a gambling mother and a trucker father not from some form of greater intellect. Jimmy being so autistic he easily sees patterns in video games is a bit iffy.. but hey he’s kind of like Nintendo Rainman that’s kinda enjoyable. 

The kids deliver a fair performance and the whole being unable to communicate with your little brother thing and that sometimes they have to guess what Jimmy is feeling makes the kids part of the journey very fun to watch. It is funny so see classic NES games like  Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon and the first Turtle game  be played on camera.  While there are plenty of movies of games.. movies about gaming are fairly rare.. the only other ones that come to mind are Ready Player One, Gamer and Pixels.  All the others are exaggerations though.. this one has no superpowers, no virtual treasure, no aliens.. no this is just a story about a boy who is talented at video games. It’s “romanticised” enough to be entertaining bu in the end all this movie is about is how video games can strengthen your bonds and a trip that started because a family was unable to communicate. In it’s own way it is kinda cute! For a lost 100 minutes it isn’t even that bad. …. However…………

Ninetendon’t

Unfortunately this movie is plagued by a myriad of flaws as well. The most glaring one is that the movie is not written by a gamer. “Wow Jimmy you got 50.000 points in Double Dragon” sounds a bit cringe.A beat them up is not about points it is about survival.Later they even do points in Mario and Ninja Gaiden.. and while it is true that Championships do mention points there is a clear dissonance here. You can tell the team here doesn’t understand video games.  A lot of the writers and the actors don’t understand video games. Why does Cristian Slater have to hold a controller that awkwardly and instantly tab buttons when playing Mario 2.  The gameplay doesn’t match his hands.. how hard is it t to actually make him play or at least learn him how a video game works.. even if you then use a pro all he has to do is understand the controllers and you make him do the actions he sees on screen.. then you put that shot a second or so earlier in your timeline and voila. But no people feel rather like incompetent games..even the amazing Lucas seems to make way too many button clicks for a game he is playing. It does seem like he knows how to use a Power Glove though! So maybe he is just that BAD.

That brings me to a second element of this movie that isn’t great. It has aged incredibly poorly. It has been written with a fairly “hip” language for 1989.. but we do not talk or dress like that anymore. While that can be a hilarious time capsule effect this time it affects everything. Where for example Sentai are a timeless concept so a time setting just gives it body.. like an aging wine..only not persé as good.. more like a distinguished flavor kind of thing. Yet in this movie, it’s the lingo people speak in, the games that are being played, the way that tournaments are being held, the way plot devices work and in fact the whole complete type of storytelling. Gaming isn’t as strange anymore so 90% of those who watch this these days will be able to tell you  gaming is not about score.. that is the gaming of a generation before. The way they say Mario works.. “You gotta score points Jimmy score points”  doesn’t work and the fact that they know.. how an item works in an unreleased game is odd at best. Finding a Warp doesn’t give you more points! Back then.. you could pull that stuff “Mew Under the truck”  was a thing. The lingo sometimes makes characters hard to understand. Bad was good back then.  The whole running away story would not work these days.  As a result the focus on the movie becomes.. how different were those days which takes you out of the movie.

While that point gives the movie a positive point as well, a new angle to watch it from doesn’t fully work with how the adults in this movie work. Which in my opinion is the greatest weakness. For some weird reason, they always end up in exactly the right places in exactly the right towns. One would assume that the kids may find themselves unable to travel in a straight line, because they are dependent on hitchhiking. They might travel to the west but have to settle for moving a bit more up north?! Yet both the kidnapper guy and the father and son keep up ending up in the right towns. Where then they are able to run in each other’s cars and attack each other with shovels without consequences. Weirdly enough it’s the Adult scenes and not the kid scenes that show we have to deal with a movie aimed at children. The adults go to a car repair shop and hook up their Nintendo to their tv.. while waiting for their car to be repaired. The Kidnapper ask a towing guy.. “do you want to make a quick 50 bucks.. tow my friends car away”.. which is fine.. some tow goes would that. I can accept that.. but then they bring it to a scrapyard that immediately begins to disassemble it?  Jumping the shark a bit there. Beau Bridges not wanting to stop playing Zelda II is a funny joke.. because we as kids did not want to stop playing games.. but he is trying to rescue his son from a sure to be traumatic experience…you are just turning him into an asshole by making him want to get another item in Zelda first.

Nintendo’s Entertainment System

Comedy in this movie is great.. but some jokes really do not land. Haley getting the Kidnapper guy in trouble by repeatedly yelling “He Touched My Boob” every time he almost captured Jimmy is good for a chuckle.. She is creative and cunning in this and it both works for the plot and would actually be helpful to draw attention…so when he hears truckers tell him “so you touched a young girl’s breasts you pervert” and we see him sigh we can chuckle. It’s lowbrow and will make a kid chuckle as well. Even the awkward kiss between Corey and Hayley which is a stereotypical childish joke works and it’s great.All comedy from Beau Bridges and Christian Slater however ….DOESN’T work.  They are needed in the movie but they should have been made more caring. It’s nice to see father and son bond on a journey and it would not even be that bad to make them bond over something Jimmy enjoys like video games..  yet almost all their scenes feel disconnected because Nintendo just had to make the old man enjoy games as well… at the cost of his sons!   The whole Power glove scene in fact is quite redundant as well.. we already know he cant use it at the tournament.. so it is just a tad too commercial. This scene is better now that it has aged because of how BAD it is yet somewhere along the way it feels as if this movie is having an Agenda.  

This movie can be compared to something like Ice Age. The story of the human baby being taken ot a certain location is the main plot. Jimmy has to be delivered by two caretakers to a certain location. Along the way is a lot of child friendly humor but also a heartfelt journey with people becoming friends for life and really bonding. Then there is Scrat. You know that rat thing that wants an acorn and just ends up getting hurt? Imagine taking those scenes out of ice age and replacing them with Ola Ice Cream product placement. We see Ice age baby humans looking for him.. but when a Scrat scene would show up they get distracted by Ola Ice cream. In the end you will be a bit upset that the baby finds his way back. The ending of the movie makes up for this a bit tying the desire of the boy together with a deep trauma and making him hug his father for the first time in forever. His father needed to be there at that moment.. things needed to be broken for things to heal yet to me he will now always be the jackass who thought getting through Death Mountain in Zelda 2 is more important than finding his kid. Up to a  point where I almost found that the movie failed because it wanted to promote gaming for adults.. cause Nintendo makes such addicting games you forget your family?!…

I was gonna visit my mom.. but then I saw this scene in the movie! Now I don’t know who she is! I just wanna play Contra.

I do think that the critics are too hard.. but The Wizard is a series of odd choices which leads to a conceptually strong enough movie. How good this movie actually is  depends on how forgiving you are as a movie go-oer. Let’s compare this movie to Star Wars Episode 1. It is a very different story than what we are used to from Video Game/Star Wars movies. Yet that can be good or bad. It is catered at a slightly younger audience and while it certainly had some great revelations.. it makes some very stupid choices as well. If you are the type that thinks.. JarJar ruined that entire movie.. than this  will also be a movie that you are going to hate. If you take everything face value that one broken element breaks the entire movie.  If you are more like me though you can see that other element as just an element. “They tried to make a comical character, it did not work out, let’s take that at a loss but judge the movie on the merits it has. If you are like that you can have an enjoyable time with this.. if you at least have an affinity with old timey games.  Then there is the type like my friend Bean thats like.. “It’s meant for kids writing doesn’t need to make sense’  Then I think a little bit less of you.. movies should always be for everyone no matter who your main audience is.. but heck as long as you have an affinity for old games and love to dig around in time capsules this movie will be your jam.

It’s a movie with just one very broken element and to come to a correct judgement I  will compare the show to a car you want to buy. The engine .. in this case , the story is fine, the steering wheel is fine, the movie goes where it needs to go and addresses relevant story points and it feels paced fairly neatly..though it tends to drag at some points. It isn’t very user friendly.. the car makers didn’t know much about driving so your direction indicator has some super colourful flashy symbols and kinda makes a lot of noise and your car horn is a jaunty tune making the car a bit more tacky. However your brakes.. are completely broken.  The handbrake works fine but you only apply that when you have come to a stop already.  Sure you can throw out a land anchor or just install new brakes.. but you would not pay full price for this car. Nor would you say it’s a star on the road. You wouldn’t even call it very good.  If you get a hell of a discount it can be fine if you really want to drive this particular car.  If you have other options this one will just be okay.. and if you are a nag.. this car is clearly sub par.
I had a fun drive.. and when it comes to video game movies.. being forced to use a land anchor is the least of my worries! But you have been warned!

So my quest to watch all Video Game movies goes on! Next week I probably should watch BloodRayne, now I just have to find the courage to put it on! What is your favourite Video Game Movie? Which movie should I watch next?! Let me know! Have you played NES?! Are you some sort of video game Rainman I can bank on by making you go to tournaments?! Very important questions being asked here! Speaking of making bank! I also have a Kofi. If you want to help out please click the cute picture! However I also really appreciate likes and comments all the same! So let’s have fun interactions together! Have an amazing day and I hope you’ll visit Paradise again!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 15

Even though it was really hot this week and I barely have gotten any sleep, the week has come to an end! When the week comes to an end Pinkie celebrates by watching five anime as if they were a Saturday morning cartoon line-up. Last week I was a bit disappointed but I also cried a lot! So much so that I labelled two episodes wrong!  No biggie though! I fixed it and this week we got proper episode numbers again! On both this post and the last one! Yay for me!

Digimon Adventure: Episode 3

So as expected this was the weakest view of the day. Yet once again this is saying more about my line-up than this actual series. Digimon Adventure is surprisingly good for what it needs to be. I saw the adorable Sora today! I really like her character so far! Even if we did not get to see a lot.

The episode picks up after the early omnimon digivolution! I had not noticed it yet but the logo for this show is basically omnimon.. so him coming out so soon kinda made sense. I am not sure exactly what happened in this episode as we leave the world of the Network after the virus from the last episode has been defeated. The nuke is still on it’s way to Tokyo but using their Digivice Yamato and Taichi manage to destroy the web virus infecting the missle.  A chain of mysterious events start, the missile flies up and explodes into space and an EMP cripples the city..but not for good.. everything restores itself. Taichi gets booted back to the real world seperated from Yamato again. Koushiro and Taichi head home and talk about Summer Camp.You know that location where everyone was at last when they got sucked into the digital world.  Yet nothing happens there.. they meet up with Sora and we see Jou stress out about wrongly cut meat and veggies.

Sora is the popular girl everyone heard of her and thinks she is cool. She also seems to have a bit of a thing for Taichi, setting her up more immediately as the crest keeper of love. Then time skips a bit ahead , people no longer talk about the mysterious incident when suddenly all the systems that the nuke shut down before began to shut down again. More malicious this time slowly crippeling Tokyo.  Koushiro and Taichi’s digivices begin to glow and they decide to meet up!  Sora runs after Taichi after meeting him up at the street and as the two known digidestined lock hands they get teleported to the digital world.. with a visual of a third thing being teleported as well.

Is it Yamato who get teleported? Could it be Sora?  Who knows?! The show offers us a few mysteries that feel much more concrete as the start of the original show. Why are these viruses targeting Tokyo , what are Digimon? Where does Yamato live?  Did he or Sora get transported? We don’t know yet  are able to ask questions. Unlike in the orginal where stuff just kinda happened.. here everything seems to be happening for a reason. As a result this is much more like a proper show with attention and care to it’s story writing. It is as if we are watching the story the original SHOULD have been. With some clear hints of dark elements, but also a lot of mystical isekai elements and cute interactions.  Whatever happened to the Network after the nuclear strike seems not to have created a much more beautiful digital world.. or is the Network just what connects the two worlds? I am not clear yet but I am intrigued. Compare this to the Original and there you just wanted the next episode to happen to see more digimon.. here I am finding myself invested in the story. The way Sora and Jou are just teased, yet so in line with their crests was definitely my favourite scene.. the camp scene is a great homage  and with just two lines of dialogue each I already feel.. Jup that’s right! That’s Sora and Jou! Sweet!

The Omnimon fight was a bit weird though, that guy is Beyond Mega level. Yes I am using the English terminology here because in English an Ultimate is the third form of a digimon after Rookie and Champion, while in Japanese Ultimates are the final form after Youth Adolescence and Perfect forms since I feel people are more likely to be familiar with the english branding I will use that indicator even though I am watching the sub version. This is how most people remember it… regardless Omnimon feels REALLY underpowered here or this enemy is already stupidly strong. It makes me worried for the future, the power scaling seems a bit skewed. If Omnimon now already is an option will the others even be relevant?
They go through a lot of effort to make him look cool but that also involves breaking earlier established rules.. if you kill a boss you kill the virus.. yet here Omnimon has to use a special technique?! I am not sure if I like that. Let’s keep everyone relevant and not make Omnimon  some kind of digi-jesus. It will all depend on the rest of the series though.

Despite the slightly convenient start.. which very well could end up becoming a big writing trap I really enjoyed myself with this episode.  There is plenty of potential for the future, but unfortunately the show also sets itself up to fail in the future. Dropping landmines in its own court alongside nuggets of gold. Whether we will get rich or blow up remains to be seen but this episode was a double bladed sword. There is not much wrong with this episode. It’s a bit like  making a delicious tea when your favourite, but dumb,  nephew is around.  You may end up with good company and some good tea or you may end up with screaming company and hospital coffee. While nothing is wrong yet when the tea is on the stove.. those minutes until you pour your tea aren’t as enjoyable as they could be.

Samurai Flamenco: Episode 10

The final battle has been fought and we aren’t even halfway through the series! What the heck! Also I was wrong! There go my  predictions I really thought we would get a Fight Club like scene but no! Instead my favourite girl gets tortured, the  poor thing. Pinkie is here for you Moe!

The episodes opens up with Samurai Flamenco on his bike speeding to King Torture’s secret base to do his final battle and save Mari. Mari meanwhile gets tortured by King Toture, I never suspected he would be into that. He tells her she is a side character and he has no interest in fighting her. When she refuses to believe this he tells her she is a horrible person and it is revealed she is not the only one in there. King Toture has captured Moe as well.. as he begins to crush her finger and she cries in pain he offers her to give up her life for Mari and agrees  without any doubt. She tells that she lives and breathes for Mari so she would happily die for her as well. Which makes King Torture respect her.. she is an actual good person an actual hero. He then tells Mari she is a fake hero, who only told Moe to save herself because it’s a hero line.

Mari goes silent as King Toture reveals that Moe is aware that Mari said it to spout a line as well but hoped that Mari hoped she would sacrifice herself. Samurai Flamenco drops in and the final battle begins! It is revealed that Torture plans to use a missle to make his monsters grow.. he was a Sentai fan like Masayoshi but saw the benefits of evil and began turning people into cyborgs. Goto is warned and joins Masayoshi in the final fight with him being tasked to stop said missle, which he does by ramming Mari’s car into it.. and Masayoshi rips out king Torture’s robotic heart. With the fight over, Flamenco walks outside and reveals his identity to the world.

Wow last episode was kinda lame but this episode was SOOOO strong! I can’t believe he did an Iron Man.  And Moe.. I love her so much! That scene  with her was so touching. Even if she knew Mari wanted Moe to die in her stead and be the one that is tortured , Moe loves her anyway. Her friend and the woman she is in love with is hurt so she just hugs her and tries to keep her safe at all costs regardless of what that friend did to her. King Tortures dialogue with Mari really felt Tarantino-esque.. I am specifically referring to the “Superman” talk  from Kill Bill 2. The way he twists Mari’s beliefs, yet speaks truth and makes sense is briljant. That whole Moe, Mari interaction is my favourite moment in the SERIES not just this episode. The dialogue with Samurai Flamenco and that he is a Sentai fan who took lessons from villains is friggin great. His bond with his monsters, his logic.. I get it! Even Samurai Flamenco being his trigger to finally dare to do this is amazing.  There is so much heart in it. I even had a chuckle when Goto’s girlfriend texted him while he was busy driving a car into a missile. Finally that stuff paid off. It even tried to make sense for why monsters exploded.. I love this show a lot for how it brings Sentai much more down to earth and in such a clever way. This episode is filled with that.

There are few minor gripes I have with this episode though. Reality has been a bit floaty around these bad guys, which I do not mind but all our human characters have been very much exposed to normal human limitations, which makes this show so good. Yet they make Goto jump out a moving card drop three stories into an exploding room and walk away without injury?! That seems slightly against the point they were trying to make. I will go lenient here because we do not see exactly how deep the drop is and maybe he landed better.. but still a bruise or a shoulder injury would be nice there and help keep the story feeling a bit more humble. Secondly a few things did not make sense. We saw that first guy transform in a monster as far as I remember. King Torture here says people willingly let themselves transform into monsters by surgery.. that first one did not look willingly..also he would have had sugery again to make him fold into a human again then?! I don’t get it.. maybe I missed something maybe it’s a plothole.. maybe it’s intentional?! While it did strike me as odd.. unlike Digimon.. I have the faith that this show will explain this to me.. it’s good at that. So for now this is only a small issue!

Thus this episode does it again! I might have found a plothole but even if I did, I don’t really care. I am willing to accept this retcon because this story is so amazing!  There is so much cleverness hidden in here and the dialogue in this anime is absolutely among the best I have seen. Top 20 easily if not top 10. That Tarintino influences once more is shown and along with the whole concept of this show it blends so well into this episode! Highest Score possible.

That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime Episode 9

So obviously this episode wasn’t going to top last week for me! I cried so much last week! I thought I would see a battle against the orcs this week.. and in a way I wasn’t too far off. Instead we are introduced to Ogres..I think it’s the guys in the opening before they are named or something but I am not fully sure.  All I know is, we got a pink character introduced! She seems important as well so YAY!

Rimuru is exploring the benefits of his new human form and discovers in his natural state he has no gender. He can give himself one if he so desires but he seems to opt out of it wanting to honour Shizune. He carries her mask along as a keepsake. Shizue had a skill called degenerate which allows him to combine skills I think.. allowing him to grow even more powerful and develop black fire.  He also discovers the mask Shizu wore completely hides his magical presence. So he decided to wear it when facing new people… suddenly Ranga cried out for help when the village is under attack. Rushing back he sees the Goblin Lords overwhelmed by a pack of ferocious fighters who protect a cute pink horned girl who puts their defeated opponents to sleep. This leads Rimuru to believe they are not evil and he tries to talk to them..however they think he is a Majin,.. as their village was attacked by someone in a similar mask.. an orc. I assume Gelm or whatever that orc at the end of last episode was called. Since RImuru refuses to remove the mask not wanting to show his true potential yet.. things escalate and he has to fight the ogres easily defeating them.. wanting to talk to them by sparing them does not yield any results as the Ogre Leader is willing to die.. while fighting with his head held high. When the Pink ogre stops him.  She tells him Rimuru might not be evil as he is so powerful.. he doesn’t need to work how their Majin did.. he gets convinced and decides to talk with Rimuru at the village. That’s where the episode ends. 

Surprise surprise, I liked the pink Ogre, there is a mystique to her and this group seems powerful. I think they will lead us into the story that is the season’s main “arc” both based on the opening and the fact that we are almost 10 out of 25 episodes in without having a main mission to focus on. I doubt demon lord Leon Cromwell is in his direct sights unless he is responsible for the attacks on the Ogres, but we still need to find out the identity of the plague doctor as well. I like how this episode feels to have some weight to it and I do like Rimur’s battle with the ogres, with my favourite scene being the moment his hand gets cut off and he casually puts it back on. Also having another character that recognises the skills he uses is nice. The old man ogre might have a great sage like ability as well. I also like how snappy great Sage can be from time to time.. she doesn’t do it often but she can do sarcasm which lifts her beyond just an exposition tool for me. The pacing is nice and we get a very solid episode throughout.

This episode does stick very much to the clichés thought. The Red Ogre has fire power, the big ogre is strong but slow.. and the tiny girl ogre with pink hair has the support skills and might be a princess.  As a D&D player I know these tropes are super common in any tabletop and it helps us evaluate danger a bit, yet it also means it does never feel amazing. Even the old man .. being white.. being super fast feels kinda cliche.  What is it with fast old guys. Gran Torino (My hero academia) , Yoda, The Whizzer (from Spiderman)  and much more. Then Rimuru disappoints me a bit. In the beginning he makes a female clone of himself but matures up and gets all embarrassed by her breasts. It feels a bit needlessly fanservicey even if nothing is shown. Also he used to be a 33 year old guy.. a virgin but still.  He also has been buried in elf boobs earlier so I don’t get why he is THAT awkward about it. Part of what gives Rimuru his charm is that he is actually a matured character. A bit of an otaku sure, but here are a few moments where he feels a bit too much like a sixteen year old boy to me. It’s not like I hate it , I would just have loved to see him act a bit more mature and less .. again…cliché.

That could not ruin my fun with this episode though and this episode is makes me understand why people call it one of their trash-taste-favourites or lower class gems or whatever else they use for a show that isn’t deep but very entertaining. I do even think these terms sell it short. Even if it has no deep message , this show has won a place in my heart regardless of what standard it adheres to. And it rarely scores lower than my second highest ranking. 

Flip Flappers Episode 5

I love it when a funny show tackles horror, that was why I was so upset Bofuri skipped the horror locations each and every time!  Flip Flappers though delves into a Victorian Horror World this time, as our heroes get their transforming items and their catch phrase. Having won my heart yet again , it was time for some Flip Flapping.

This episode picks up post whatever pure illusion they got sucked in at the end of last episode..which made me a bit grumpy at first, but briefly it was explained that they lost more amorphous thingies to Yayaka… which made me grateful for not seeing it. We could feel the sense of loss, and get their frustration but we do not need to see that loss. As it would not have meshed with the tone of last episode.  This time the girls get a magic item that allows them to help transform for this they need to pick an item they cherish. Papika has plenty of stuff and chooses a bracelet while Cocona has difficulty deciding  She has no items she cherishes so Papika gives her a twig. She rejects it at first but then settles on it anyway.  I began to notice how Cocona always has trouble when she needs to make choices. They then travel to a Victorian horror world where they find themselves stuck in a time loop. Occasionally encountering Yayaka who isn’t making that much more progress than them.. but always seems to be a step ahead rubbing it in their faces. 

There are creepy dolls, girls with no faces and time loops, so I assume this might be Papika’s fear.. of a mundane life.  I am not sure thats what I make out of it. Of being locked inside the house as well as there is a fairly deadly sort of rain that knocks them out and bloody.  Lots of freaky stuff is happening here. Eventually though the girls find a secret exit that allows them to enter the mysterious clock tower. Where they race Yayaka and her fellows.  When Cocona ends up in trouble along with Yayaka .. her allies betray her  and basily leave her to die.  Papika transforms to save Cocona but also saves Yayaka even if the doesn’t care for her.. surprising the latter. Papika tosses Cocona towards the bell to destroy it before it can ring 11 times.. and resets time but misses.. Cocona transforms and hits the bell with a hammer, actually allowing it to ring 12 times breaking the curse and revealing the artefact. Yayaka saves them from Pure Illusion and the episode ends with Cocona refusing to give her the item saying she earned it herself.

I loved how the creepy girls spoke and the two girls being slightly endeared to them after finding out they are not that scary, The girls give them tea, do embroidery with them and live the same life day in and day out. Meanwhile Papika and Cocona are actually different, that is not for them. They have a mission! They have to break that routine and can’t be shackled down by it. This resonates so hard with me. While we have taken a look in Papika’s and Cocona’s mind with Pure Illusion this could be a look into my fears.  The rain prevents me from going out maybe not so much, but as a metaphor of not having other options than stick to what is done there.. It still works. So yeah my favourite part of the episode is basically the entire episode. At least the parts in Pure Illusion. I loved LOVED the visuals in this one.  The red glowing clock, the faded out colour palette, the creepy faceless masses. I adored the design.  I also loved what they did with Yayaka in this episode. It made her a bit less stuck up. She has some redeeming qualities so yay for nuance!

What I liked less is once again that Papika is very dumbed down. This time for some reason she is not smart enough to remember Flip Flapping.. she can just remember the Flip Flap part… the magical spell to transform them. She overcomes this but come on! This is a girl who worked for Flip Flap for a while. She can identify poisonous and good berries on instinct. She is capable of having normal conversations. I guess Flip Flapping makes more sense in english so maybe that’s why.. but remembering to end a ping behind the organisation you worked for , for quite some time seems quite easy. I don’t know why they do her dirty like this. I don’t mind her being a dunce it’s cute.. but they push it a lot at times.  This event only occurs twice though so it’s not that overused and it is not like Cocona has higher success who knows the words so it’s rather irrelevant I just love Papika as a character so it feels a bit bad they make her THAT ditzy. But that’s like five to ten seconds of this episode.

That’s right, it’s a bit more brief about my positives and negatives.. because it’s just that good of an episode again.  I could highlight more specific points within the episodes that were good but I loved 21 minutes and 50 seconds of it dearly. I am very scared though.. Cocona has trouble with making a  choice in almost every episode. Let’s hope they dont build up to her having to make the ultimate choice in the last one.. I would be very sad. This episode however made me far from sad.

Hikaru no Go Episode 15

So there is a pattern for every two episodes or so of Hikaru no Go. I like there is oneI like less. More in favour of the positive.. never two negatives in a row.. so that would mean this episode would be good again.. as last week I was very dissatisfied. This turned out to be true! I really enjoyed episode 15. Also I was surprised to learn that the Netherlands has a character and apparantlu a Go Scene? I mean .. they based it on something right?

In this episode we see Hikaru and Tsutsui visit some sort of Go convention, as the main event it has an exhibition with pro players.  While Tsutsui is fascinated by the match Hikaru can not focus thinking on how he did both Sai and Touya wrong! He doesn’t want to be called the luckiest Go Player in the world for playing over his skill level either though so he has to find a way to let Sai play..without it affecting his own reputation. It harms people. So Hikaru discovers about online matches. I assume this series takes place before 2002 then because everyone is using those bright colourful macintosh things that were very popular in the 90’s. He is being instructed by some guy and reveals he wants to use this system to make Sai play.. as himself! Build up his own reputation. So together they visit an internet café  where Mitani’s sister works so they can play for free. Sai beats a few people including a really good Dutch player who is like fourth in the world or something and they promise to play more during summer break. Akiri Mitani and Tsutsui also make plans to meet each other and play go during summer break.

And that’s the entire lot summarised. Unlike all the other shows this one could be recapped very easily and it’s in part of what I like so much about this show. It’s always a simple humble tale that is the perfect anime to end my Saturday Morning Cartoon block on. After Flip Flappers blew my mind I can have a cooling down with this, and  this episode really does that well. It shows a boy wanting to redeem his mistakes, this is a logical consequence. This is also a logical solution to Hikaru’s problem which in its own is a conflict within himself  that feels validated by what happened before.The whole concept of online matches opens up the level of challenge we can get as well. Maybe even Akira’s father, big man Touya can now be a target. The Dutch guy did say that some Asian pro’s play online. It could give Sai an arc alongside Hikaru as two separate entities while Hikaru  can still learn from his mentor that way. Akiri learning Go and becoming more skilled at it was also great. She is so humble but I also felt my heart warm when she wanted to play team matches and hear her tell Tsutsui about what she learned from Mitani.. I like how she has a small arc but it is still kept measurable.

There wasn’t all that much I disliked about this episode either. Hikaru finally does right by Sai.. but he forgets about Akiri and his other friends again..which needs to be tackled soon. I also felt a slight lack of a closure on  the Touya front. For the tournament his match had been really built up, I would have loved to see him at least quit the theme or cry into his pillow or something with next week’s episode fleshing it out a bit. He was just as important as Hikaru but it feels like a lot of time has  passed since their loss. I also like the cinematography of the online matches less. That could have been done a bit more dramatically.  Not a lot but they could do something like where you replace the mouse in their hand with a go stone and place it on a board in their head.  Most matches are skipped anyway which is a shame because I really would like to see Sai play for once. Finally Sai’s crying when Hikaru walked out of the demo felt a bit lame. Where everyone’s tears mean so much normally this cartoony approach annoyed me just a tiny bit. Not anything major but it was my least liked scene nonetheless.  Just less heartfelt as all the other moments.

In the end it is hard to fault this episode. It did not have me in awe as much as Flip Flappers and Samurai did, but I probably placed it a slight nodge above Slime this week. So while it doesn’t gain my highest ranking it is on the cusp of it. It’s like a fifth glass of wine during a wine tasting where you don’t use the spitbucket. The taste sensation is a bit dulled in comparison to the bold flavours that came before and you are not given the best wine and the staff just pours you a rather mundane but passable wine. Yet somehow this one in all it’s humble origins can measure up with the best. Is that a merlot grape I am tasting no.. it’s a :

So this week is over. With temperatures this high my focus had been very low! I had a bit of trouble writing! I am lagging a bit with my posts as a results. So some slight struggles! So my backlog is a bit dried up! I had a few days I got some heat nausea. Had a lot of fun though. I finished Divinity Original Sin 2. I started Pokémon Ranger Shadow of Almia. I got a few shinies in Pokémon Go and other than that , I mostly isolated myself. Too hot to hang out with friends! A new wave of outbreaks for Covid have made me a bit more careful to go out, and well I felt like Cheddar for the most part of the week though. It’s not fun to go out for drinks if people just see Cheddar sitting on that chair! Pink Cheddar would be awesome though… so I am going to make a hamburger now!
I hope your next week will be amazing! And I will see you all when I see you! Stay Safe stay Happy!

Now I have enough Sunshine to create a mini sun now: Sunshine Blogger Award 7

Hello Island Guests while I am writing this my brain still is very much like cheese on a Pizza.. it’s so broken I hallucinate Pineapple on the pizza as well! Ewww! Tropical though! So yeah I might have a heatstroke! Maybe it is because of all this sunshine?! That’s right! Siesta Week is concluded with YET another Sunshine Blogger award! If you are a regular  you know this would happen because I told you.  If you haven’t! There are TWO other Sunshine Awards of mine and both are pretty good! I had a hard time saying that because I should not say that off my own posts!

The Rules Again

I am gonna be brief again about the rules. Show the logo, thank the one who nominated you. Answer 11 questions, nominate 11 people, and ask them 11 questions.  Of course I change that up! I nominated 11 people over my 3 posts. Targeting people with more specific questions. If you want to join in one of these tags all you have to do is ask. I will put your blog in the list including links so that is free promo right there! That excuses me from the rule breaks right?!  If you want to check out a copy pastable list of the rules check out my other sunshine awards or even better visit my amazing nominator!

The amazing 7mononoke nominated me this time around. They have this completely unique blog that delves deep into the mindset of characters, with a few amazing reviews to boot! So if you want to read something with a bit more substance and than my usual posts they are definitely checking out! Speaking about the checking out, let’s check out their questions. 

For you, how do you tell if an anime is high quality in terms of visuals?

Honestly.. I don’t.. There are styles I like and I dislike and usually the flashier and more extravagant the more I like it. I HATED the visual style of Tower of God and really dislike some screenshots I saw  of The God of High School.. but I love the graphic style of Kill la Kill, The Rolling Girls, Tengen Toppa and Kyousougiga. I rarely call animation good.. I just say what I like. Flip Flappers is something I have recently fallen in love with.. so yeah I guess the answer would be . .bright colours? Super Natural visuals?! Jojo’s is yet another example …ooh and  No Game No Life. So yeah COLOURS!  I am pretty sure! So if I ever say I like the visuals I say I like the colours. The brain is such an amazing tool that can fill in blanks so I for one seek out the impossible rather than that which moves smooth! I like big contrasts as well.

Maybe that is also why I dislike visuals in anime like Attack on Titan and stuff like Vinland Saga as well. I want a certain level of surrealism  in my animation. It helps the  suspense of disbelief. If I see a very gritty drawn anime,  more often than not feel less invested.. as if I know the limits more. I really love anime with intentionally bad animation as well! It makes me laugh! One style I have particularly come to enjoy is the new fluent animations in Dragon Ball Broly. The most recent movie yet again I am not that facinated by how fluent the motion is but how different the colours are. It might look simpler, but what is there feels really right and it can be contrasted so much more! Yet in reality I do not really know.. I can see stuff I like and go like.. ooh pretty.. and then see the faces in God of High School and go like…eew..in the end it’s not that important to me.

Do you like to listen to anime OSTs sometimes?

I do that a lot. Music to me is much more about memories rather than inspirational texts. Not being all that active in the romance scene, the whole break up songs or love song idea already doesn’t gel with me.  I can’t relate.. and even worse.. I do not care  about other people’s love lives. Sure I want my friends to be happy.. but hearing how Rihanna had a bad boyfriend does NOTHING for me. So that’s a lot of music out of the window already. When music invokes a memory however.. for example the fight music for an anime fight I really loved it gets my blood pumping.. sort of. I am slightly more inclined to listen to game soundtracks than Anime variants but when I write my anime fan fiction I almost always listen to anime music. Every once in a while I do listen to my favourite anime openings, English covers or the Love Live stuff!

What’s an anime that you consider a masterpiece?

This is a hard one, a masterpiece is something I would recommend to everyone. My taste is a mix of super generic and super weird. I generally dislike Iscar movies. I do feel that The Godfather is no doubt a masterpiece.. but I don’t like it. The thing that is closest for me would be Kyousougiga. Make sure to watch the explanation episode to see the deeper themes and this is a very deep show.  It is certainly not for everyone. but there are a lot of artsy elements in it to fit the brief.  My biggest recommendation at the moment  would be Flip Flappers though! I just think that one is a bit more accessible and slightly more low brow so I am not sure if I would call it a masterpiece, I love a lot of anime but calling something a Masterpiece usually ruins it for others. Overhyping kills anime. I have my gallery of sweethearts though.

What’s an anime that’s so horrible you think it shouldn’t exist?

That is a bit of a meanspirited question. Every anime has a fan, and as long as an anime has a single fan..it has the right to exist. There are also very few anime I passionately hate as I usually just think an anime is not for me.  I think  saying you are a fake anime fan because you do not like (x)  is the same as saying stuff like. “You did not like Game of Thrones?..Well then you just don’t like TV Shows” The world of anime is so vast and the fact that it exists means it has an audience. Just like Mobile games.. A friend of mine actually plays Raid Shadow Legends *hurling sounds*  and she loves it. Good for her.. so my feeling towards it doesn’t mean it should not exist.  I feel the same way about anime. Every anime has a fan and as long as one person gets joy.. it should exist. We aren’t forced to watch something we don’t want, we can just walk away and pretend it doesn’t exist. No need for erasure!

I have spoken out against a few anime that I really dislike.. but I mostly dislike them as much as I do because I can’t say anything bad about them. A friend even kicked me out of his house once for saying Geass is just okay, I had some issues with the writing and the way mechs felt shoehorned in. I didn’t even say it to hurt him.. he ASKED me , what Anime do you think is overrated. That hurt! and it made me shift from not liking the anime to actively disliking it. Yet no matter how much I dislike something  The fact that it is out there doesn’t make my life worse, I don’t have to watch it if I don’t want to. If I’d delete it.. I might gain one night with my friends where they initially planned to watch Geass, but my friends clearly would lose so much more. If that anime is worth kicking me out of their house for.. by saying I thought it was okay..but not great.. than clearly it means more to them then to me.I would never take that away from them.. and I think that goes for every anime. Even the ones worst reviewed on MAL..someone out there in the world is super proud that their mommy or daddy helped made this.. or voiced that  character…for them it will always be more important than to me. So all anime should exist. Maybe I would erase, Erased… just for the memes…

Awww snap! Wrong Series

What are your favorite colors for anime eyes?

Let’s see how many people can guess this one! For those who don’t know the answer yet.. it’s a bit of a mix between red and white and if you look at my blog you may find hints. Others than the obvious I really like golden eyes or bright yellow ones. I also like it when they are special like Nia’s eyes in Tengen Toppa, or like people who have galaxy eyes. I don’t like Naruto eyes though! So I guess my absolute favourites would be pink ones with something special like a pink iris, white heart shape pupil! Sorry if that shocked your world!

Can you help 7Mononoke think of some cover/banner image ideas for Anime Rants?

Sure.. I will add in a few suggestions. The general idea I have is based on the fact that you take a lot of inspiration from psychology. So I would either use a psychiatric couch  with an anime character laying on it and your avatar being there as the psychologists. Talking.. ranting.. or I would find a  picture of a brain and use it in a sort of diagram with some anime characters surrounding it. I will show you a suggestions. Because that is kinda my thing!

Something in this vein! Of course this version has a lot of errors in it because it is just a suggestion but I could see you use something like this. It shows your intellectual and psychological take on anime.. is in green which is your main colour and has a few nice contrasting tones. The inkt blob stuff is to even add more credibility to the shrink theme and of course your avatar is there! Cause she looks smart as well!

 Did you know I, 7Mononoke have a Patreon account now? Check out the question on my blog for a link!

I did not know this! I checked it out it seems cool but did not know what your tiers meant! But how cool you offer extra content for those Patreon followers. I am to scatterbrained for that I would forget! Did you know I have a KoFi?  In fact  every writer for Pardise can have their own Ko-Fi or Patreon.  I might get a Patreon myself one day.. If I can think up a cute banner for it. Untill then here is my Ko-Fi.


I am unable to support you right now even if I like too.. but if I ever get sponsored by a Billionaire who wants to pay me millions for my site.. I will be there! I am a total sell out!  Heck for a big enough cheque I’d even say Raid Shadow Legends is awesome! For just a bit more I am going to keep up that lie that I like that game as well. Heck I might even say Kirito is amazing to make bank.. or put Lelouche on anything other than the Kill spot in Kiss , Mary , Kill.  But until people come with big checks.. I am just a NEET. So I am sorry 7Mononoke I’d love to help……

Disclaimer: No need to feel bad though! I have enough to pay my rent food and occasional outing with friends, just no money left to burn after that!

How old were you when you got into anime?

While I watched Alfred J Quack from my earliest days and loved Maple Town when I was three years old or so, that real anime moment for me did not not come until April 2008. That meant I was already 21 years old.. the same age as I am now.. just I have been 21 for twelve years now. .. getting close to my 13th 21th birthday. So yeah.. much like with anything in my life I was a late bloomer.  Part of this was due to me being very much bullied and trying to be normal.  It did not work out and now I am a weeb.. Yet as a result I have only reached my anime maturity after I was 25. When I was a lot more emotionally calm. This is why I still very much treasure some of the super classics even if they are not THAT good. Like Digimon, Dragon Ball Z and Medabots heck even Oban Star Racers. So this is why my taste in anime is like the super kiddy classic stuff.. and the super weird stuff. Maple Town is still pretty cute as well!

In your opinion, can an anime still be “good” and have poor, cheap art/animation?

Have you ever played a retro game and loved it? Of course!  Manga draws in people even when it is non animated in the form of Manga.  That means that story can just be as enjoyable with cheap art. Plenty of Manga don’t have great art either. Not that I am a big manga buff. I love retro games.. stuff where the visual quality also matters less. To me the best games and anime aren’t the ones that do everything right.. to me the best anime are the ones that do some things so amazing that you can forgive their other flaws. The flaw I prefer the most is bad visuals.. as I can sorta spot them but don’t care that much.

There is a  visual design that can kill shows for me like Digimon Appmon or those shows that use a lot of that quasi cgi..but design is but an element.  An anime has to have heart. A lof of anime with bad quality visuals now have that and they have to try harder.. kind of like that South Park episode about ugly kids.  I would rather date a girl with burn scars in her face but who is witty and has great stories than date a beauty who can not shut up how coveted she is. Anime is exactly the same.  I will NEVER EVER watch an anime just because it has good visuals.  At worse bad visuals reduce the number of episodes I give an anime a chance to win me over. Weird visuals do draw me in but they don’t need to be good! Yay for Gal and Dinosaur.

Do you have trouble getting motivated to write blog posts and if so why do you think that is?

In this day and age, everything can be measured. We see how fast our own blog grows, how fasts others grow and how much likes we both get. As a result it is easy to start comparing.
For example my Breaking Bad X Shokugeki Crossover Challenge blog did pretty terrible. A lot more effort went into that one than say.. One of these blog tags. I score pretty well on those.
I won’t on this one because it will come out late. If I post past 13:00 oh clock my time, my posts usually go dead. Because bigger and better bloggers post around this time as well. I get flooded under bigger names. That can be very demotivating. Add in the fact that we are brainwashed over social media over the importance of likes. Trough YouTube we get a feeling that people are here for you, while in reality they are here for the community. It’s very easy to get caught up in toxic self importance. When it seems like 40 people like what you read the brain is quickly to say .. people love me. Which to an extent is true.. people do notice us! Yet it is easy for those 40 likes to become your new standard. In that case only getting 8 likes.. will make it easy for you to think.. People are done with me now.

However all those measuring tools we get mean nothing.. because we can not look inside peoples heads. I know some people who mean a lot to me only click like on my blog without reading…or so I think..perhaps they just do not know how to respond. Perhaps they are on their phone and typing a response is annoying.. and perhaps i am right and they did not even read my post.That is only a handful of options yet we tend to assume the worse. If I get less likes than normal I think people hate me now cause I preformed better earlier. While maybe there is like a big press conference in the states and everyone is watching..by the time they return to their reader my post is pushed way down.. that has NOTHING to do with me. Perhaps WordPress is not showing my posts in reader.. it happend before! Yet because we as a species let our highs become our new standards.. each time I break a record I could wonder.. why doesnt this post preform as well. As long as you write for others, WordPress will start to burn you out. If you are a hobby writer like me.. do it for yourself and the rest is a bonus. Any like or comment is a bonus not a new benchmark! How others score should be completely left out create your own happy little world.

Have you ever taken a MBTI 16 Personality test and if so what type were you?

Yes I am an INFP , mediator type personality. I am sure 7mononoke can tell you much more about this role but it is said that these persons love to act and play a role..As a Tabletop roleplayer that makes sense. They are also inclined to pick up writing.. I wonder when I will start doing that. They talk using metaphors  and compare stuff with other things oftenly to make their point. If you ever read ANY of my blogs you have seen me do this a lot. Like A LOT.  INFP people can easily get consumed in their causes.  Like me wanting a more positive internet.. and they can get consumed by that. Which you have seen me do as well.

I do think these tests a a bit like Horoscopes,  and people are  always in flux. There are times I turn off my emotions and are ruled by logic. There are times I am more extroverted so to say that his label defies me is going a bit far. I do think at best the tag will help you understand me. I do not act a certain way because I am INFP.. I am INFP prone because I act a certain way. I am not definable by my bias to logical or emotional thinking. Being an introvert doesn’t mean I can not be extroverted in fact some of my friends might call me an extrovet because they do not remember me being introverted. In the end I am Pinkie.. Pinkie will act like Pinkie because she is Pinkie and not because she is INFP .. so while you can take a gamble on how I will respond, Pinkie reserves the right to surprise you still! This might not even be my final form.

My Questions and Nominees

So normally this tag tends to stick into the anime Community a lot! So I decided to let it break out of there a bit and nominate some more gamely guys and gals. I also made a gaming inspired questionaire! Should any of the nominees want to want to change this to a medium of their choice, comics, anime, tv shows.. just reword the question! If you want to join this gamer edition.. let me know in the comments and we will add you and all.

So Here is the questions:

1. Pick a video game character to make your new head of State. Why that character?
2. What fictional character would be their running mate (or whatever you have below your head of state)
3. If you could implement a gameplay element of any game into real life what would it be?
(For example Quikload, Character customisation in front of a mirror, or two player mode when you wiggle a stick)
4. If you could implement a real life element into a game.. what real life element would that be and for what game
(For example Tasting Food in Senran Kageura Bon Apetite)
5.If you could replace a video game villian.. who would you be.. and how would you do better than them?!
6. What was the first game you ever played?
7. What was the first game you have ever beaten.
8. What was the first game you ever co-opped.
9. What is your proudest gaming achievement.
10. Tell us about a gaming buddy that means/meant the world to you.
11. What is the weirdest game you have ever played?

My Nominees are:

Heather from Just Geeking By , I know you might not be able to write well right now but know that I love your content and whenever you are ready I would love to see these questions answered.

Winst0lfPortal, haven’t heard from you in almost a week so I hope you are okay! You made me do some amazing tags so I felt at least i could offer this to you back in return.

Pix from Shoot the Rookie: They recently had their third anniversary and i haven’t given them a gift yet! One of my answered questions will explain why! So a blog tag will have to do!

Solarayo from Ace Asunder: Recently they have been trophy hunting.. and a Blog Tag Award is like a trophy right? Trophy’s and Awards are the same thing right?! So here is a very unique one!

I hope you all enjoyed! I wish everyone an amazing weekend and if you have something bad to say.. be careful I HAVE An infinity glove! Proof is above!


Breaking Bad X Food Wars: The Crossover AU Challenge!

Hello my Dear island guests.  We all get inspired by our fellow bloggers sometimes. This time I was very inspired by the very first person who ever replied to my blog.  Anime and Fanfiction as I know her or Fanfiction Anime World as her blog is known now. I knew her real name.. but I must admit it slipped my mind a little ago, so if you read this, please refresh my memory! She created a lovely idea of splicing two fandoms in some crossover! What fascinated me most is how she spliced a western show with a Japanese video game. She spliced The Owl House with Pokémon Sword and Shield. This could make a great series of blogs for my fanfiction. 

As I still can’t play enough boardgames to keep up my board game versus… this would be a great substitution. So today I take part in her challenge.. and will use it as a pilot for a potential series! If I have fun writing it. Today I shall Splice Shokugeki No Souma or Food Wars.. and Breaking Bad.


Note: This Post will contain major spoilers for Breaking Bad, though most spoilers are only implied. The ending of Breaking Bad directly influences the plot of my new show. So a spoiler warning is in effect.

Breaking down the Elements

No, I will not be calling this show Bad Food. Nor will I be going with Baking Bad. Instead we will be calling it  Shokuji Aoi which translates into “Blue Meal” or “Blue Food” While I could make the show a super silly spoof , I opted out of that idea. There are real stakes in this anime and the theme would be less commercial than Food Wars itself..Tonewise there are elements of Madoka in this series. manifesting more in ways like Wixoss. But still mostly being a splice between just Breaking Bad and Food Wars. It would be a one season series consisting of about 12 to 20  episodes. It would go up on Netflix or HBO. While in a “complete” series” there would of course be more depth and fleshing out I will discuss the major plot points. And thus the major characters/battles.

The Important Characters from Breaking Bad

Walter White/Heisenberg

Gustave “Gus” Fring

Jane Margolis

Mike Ehrmantraut

Lydia Rodarte-Qualye

Lydia (Laura Fraser) – Breaking Bad _ Season 5, Episode 16 – Photo Credit: Ursula Coyote/AMC

The Important Characters from Food Wars would be:

Soma Yukihira

Alice Nakiri

Ryou Kurokiba

Hisako Arato

Megumi Tadokoro

There would be other characters from each show but these would be the main five for each.
I used Western naming conventions as the setting would be Albuquerque New Mexico. Yet set in an alternate version of the Food Wars universe.. In this show teams of two would compete in a cooking war. But unlike the Shokgeki this would be much more buisness like. While the Shokugeki cast fights for rewards, the Breaking Bad Members fight not to be punished Losing teams would be eliminated. For one half of the cast .. eliminated would be very literal. 

The Set Up

The show would oddly enough be directly set AFTER the events of Breaking Bad.  We see the final scene of the show repeated. Walter White being on the ground with the cops drawing closer to his location. On his mouth a smile.. his eyes staring into infinity. When suddenly the cops are nowhere to be seen. Jesse Pinkman shows up.. voiced by Aaron Paul …only it is not him.  “Yow Bitch.. you should not have gone and done that “  he tells Walter. “Game Over Bro’ . Walter looks confused, the place he is at seems to glow blue, he sees a lab, but it almost seems to exist in negative space.. as if he sees a negative of a lab. Jesse then changes into Walt Jr ‘Dad you promised you would come home”  he says. Walter groans and asks the presence in front of him to cut the bullshit.. “What is happening”. Walt Junior changes into Skyler and tells Walter he never understood. It is okay though.. he gets one more chance!  Walter had been a bad person in his life.. and normally people like him do not get reborn.. but this spirit got bored so he could do with some entertainment. Walt could come back.. and reunite with his family.. but for that he would have to cook!

The presence then changes into  the classic Walter..before he had been diagnosed with cancer and begins to explain to him that he will be sent to another world.. to live a new life .. a form of purgatory if you will.  There he would meet a few of the people he (had) killed and would have to do battle with them.  The one who loses a battle would fade away forever.. send to hell where they all surely belonged. The winner however would be able to return to their old life.. as if nothing ever happened. Getting the life they wanted back.Walter asks if he has to kill them again.. because whoever it is.. if he killed them once he can do it again. The god shakes his head and tells Walter he has to cook!

In Albuquerque a few kids , some of the greatest cooks in their world can assist them.. he is to partner up with one and report to a battlefield.. if he fails to reach a battlefield in time .. he will automatically lose and be sent to hell. Walter Agrees , no one is a better cook than him.. even if he would encounter Gil.. and starts his challenge. Walter asks for the mysterious god’s identity who only introduces himself as Tet.. now looking like Hector Salamanca. Still thinking Walt is the best chef he moves into the streets of Albuquerque. Yet when he meets Yukihira..he realises.. that his style of cooking ain’t just going to cut it. That trickster that had  fooled him. The winning cooks from the Shokugeki universe get promised one wish of this world’s god upon their return to their world. Yet if he loses.. he gets send to hell! Who is this god that likes to play games with them?! Can he get his second chance?

The Pairings

Walter White.. who introduces himself as Hank Heisenberg to Soma immediately notices how different he and the boy are.  This guy is impulsive, simple and somewhat brash. He reminds him of Jesse but less of pottymouth. Both had that glint in their eyes though, both follow their heart over their mind. Over the course of the series they would develop a similar, but less toxic relationship. Their foodstyle would be Yukihara’s simple but bold dishes mixed with Walter’s chemical bag of trickery. Turning a tomato blue by causing a reaction, making a cold dish suddenly heat up by triggering a chemical reaction that would suddenly Flambé a dish. Think Soma’s dishes with a bit of magic. Over the course of the series we see them get further apart and closer together. Soma is actually interested in “Hank”’s Science and we see Walter take a mentoring role towards the kid as the show progresses.. even if they do not always trust each other. Unlike other cooking matches, in Shokugeki these challenges are done from Foodtrucks, elements that much better fit the Breaking Bad theme as Soma and Heisenberg’s food truck will be a converted camper.

Lydia the slightly timid woman working with the neo-nazi’s would be paired up with Hisako. Both characters have shown somewhat similar character traits and both are very concerned with their health in their own way. So Hisako’s healthy cooking style would be amplified by Lydia’s knowledge in that department. To keep things fair everyone has been granted your typical Isekai skill boost so suddenly Lydia knows all sorts of chemical secrets to make stuff healthier.. or heck even more addictive.. Some challenges will be weighed on sales numbers and Lydia is pretty good at making deals. So all in all this pairing would work rather well. Their Food Truck is an Eco-friendly vehicle with a slightly pretentious tone to it. To reflect Lydia’s twisted values.

Mike Ehrmantraut and Ryou Kurokiba would be paired up as both are depicted as fairly volatile right hand people. Both can stand up for themselves as they need to and both have that “hunter” quality over them. Mike in this team plays a bit the role of gatherer. In Breaking Bad he takes care of people so it is safe to say he might have a similar skill set when it comes to hunting animals to get the better produce. He also seems like the type that really enjoys fishing. Which bounces off with Ryou well. Both have this psychotic quality as well that doesn’t always show. Oftenly they are just the silent right hand man but when stuff hits the fan both can get very dangerous! And because they are the right hand man the next pairing makes a lot of sense as well. Their Foodtruck would be something of a Burglars van, with no licence plates, blinded windows and a whole lot of black!

Gustavo Fring and Alice Nakiri are a pair made in heaven. While Alice isn’t as blatantly evil as Gus she does have that same cold and logical personality quirk.. a sense of entitlement and superiority while also not being too afraid to be humble. Both are manipulative and cunning. Alice focuses on molecular Gastronomy, and Gus his catering  experience will make them great rivals to Walter and Soma. They are basically a role reversal of that pair.With Alice doing what Walt does.. and Gus doing the humble style fried food Soma is known for.  They are just more willing to cheat than Soma would. Alice above anyone else has a wish to rise above the rest of her family. We let this play out before the third Food Wars season when tensions between everyone were still super high. This would allow for more personal development and also keep the plot from stranding due to friendship being in the way to much. They work from a Pollos Hermanos food truck and when Alice asks what it means Gus lies to her telling it means Chicken Geniuses.. praising her intellect and skill. Alice believes this and his happy to be validated.

The Final pair would be Megumi and Jane. While Jane is hardly innocent in the series she is also the one who least deserved her faith. She just ends up being in over her head. She has the least impressive skillset. However as a drug addict she spends plenty of her money on forbidden substances. Still having to feed Brock her specialty is making something out of nothing. Managing to turn an egg and some soy into a delicious umami rich sauce, or creating a herb crust out of chives and garlic when all other spices run out. There is an honesty to her cooking .. of caring for others. Of all the Breaking Bad characters her personality comes closest to that of Soma cooking for others rather than herself. Megumi is of course a great pairing with a bit of the good guy personality and we have already seen she can bounce of Soma’s creativity rather well so this pair would do much the same.  Their food truck would would have bright colours and cute fish. Jane as a mother knows that it would be hard to draw in kids to eat fish..so they have to go with something bright so they can also draw in younger people.. and thus their parents. Jane is also the only one who will not tell Megumi she will be send to hell if she loses. The poor girl is just a kid, she can not handle that.

We need to cook!

Walter and Soma would not be very compatible at first. Walter feels guilt for what he did to Jesse but at the same time triggers heavily on any boyish behaviour Soma shows. Heisenberg is very prone to be overzealous throughout. So to have a chance in this competition none of the major teams can be his first match.  Instead their first match will be against Tuco and Nao both characters have shown signs of being somewhat deranged and it turns out their madness is incompatible. While Nao’s style of creating a foul smelling dish that is actually amazing would normally work, Tuco unblances her dish and the pair gets easily eliminated. As Tuco is sent to hell and Walter and Soma win by sheer luck Heisenberg realises he must take this seriously. Meanwhile Soma struggles to steal wishes from other people..because Soma doesn’t really have a wish!  He just wants to keep on cooking. This will be his battle.   The battle will here are less like a classical Shokugeki and more like Soma’s battle against Kuga where profit raised determines the winner.  There are judges however that taste the food which may persuade some customers. In case of Tuco and Nao’s cooking this became very clear where suddenly no one wanted to eat at their truck! Even if Tuco held people at gunpoint.

Fairly soon in the series Heisenberg and Soma face off against Lydia and Hisako. Hisako confesses to Soma she is in love with Erina and wants to wish for the strength to confess. This triggers Soma to almost forsake a match.. Without Soma Walter can not win and he will not be sent to hell by Lydia.First he tries to talk Souma into focusing on the match! “Souma WE NEED TO COOK” he would shout but to no avail.  So instead he begins talking to Hisako and discovers she is in love with Alice’s sister, he has seen Alice before in an earlier episode but did not face her. He then manipulates her into thinking that even if she would confess to Erina there is still a chance she could turn her down. She might be wishing for herself to go through unspeakable pain. Soma at this point is too oblivious to Walters intentions and tells her she might not do that.. but then realises Erina has been spending a lot of time away from Hisako. Walt’s words then make her mistrust Erina and almost sure she would be rejected so she states that she will wish for her heart to be closed off so she never would have to feel that pain. Now Soma gets in the fight to protect Hisoka from herself. Putting up his best dish yet.. and Lydia is sent to hell as Walter just says “Bye Lydia”.  Soma, still oblivious to Walt’s cruel nature, just comforts Hisoka and tells her she will help her gather the courage to confess… he also cheers her up with his food. She nods and accepts defeat gracefully. 

The Henchmen and the Pizza


This match triggers the god Tet to go discontent! It’s no fun if people take their loss so gracefully! So he alters the rules to make it more enjoyable for him to watch. Those who lose shall never have their wish granted and everyone has to write their wish down and keep it in a special sealed envelope. You can no longer change it, and if you reveal it your team is disqualified. The next important match Walter and Soma fight is Ryo and Mike.. a match against something minor would have occured in the form of Etsuya and Gil.  Etusya’s wish would be very gatekeepers prompting Souma to properly dominate him to prevent him from ever corrupting their school that much. However when it is time to face Ryo , Soma struggles to let him give up his dream. In this match Walter is also having some guilt feelings in his battle against Mike. It is one of the few things he regrets. He has also been getting closer to Yukihira. In that minor match, he thought Soma a lot..who was very grateful and they made an amazing dish. Using fish eggs.. but making neutral pop rock candy in between to create a literal flavour explosion.

The challenge this time is to make a Pizza. Ryo makes a fantastic seafood Pizza but Walt comes up for a chemical reaction to make the most light air filled crust in a pizza ever.. light as a feather, while Soma comes up with a with a way to mix blended anchovy through a sauce for a less intense anchovy experience but still a flavor explosion. Before they are able to plate up though both find themselves to be unable to finish the others off.  They know this will put them on top.. but both struggle to finish of their rivals. The other team sees this and begins to scream at them.

Ryo yells and Soma for just letting him win, who does he think he is.. his wish is not worth it if he did not earn it.. If Soma would let him win that wish would just be as toxic as not having the wish in his entire lifetime. In fustration Ryo throws one of the Pizza’s on the roof of Walts foodtruck. This resonates with Soma and he is back in the game. Mike tells Walter that even if he thinks Walter is an asshole.. he did nothing Mike would not have done.. he would have just done it less stupidly.. this business they were in is about survival. He would love Walter to go to hell but he would much rather send him there himself. If he really is such a quiter, he is free to give up but then he would be even less of a man than Mike thought of him now.  Shocked Walter looks at the Pizza on his roof, he  is reminded of his son, of his wife, of the little one!  He can not quit here. Walter gets back in the game.. and he and Souma win by a small margin. Walter apologises to Mike and who scolds at him that he did not learn anything from last time. Before he is sent away he tells Walter to beat that son of a bitch Fring.

Antagonistic Battles

Before they face off against Gustavo though Soma challenges Tet to a Shokugeki. If he wins all the invalidated wishes become possible again. If he loses the Shokugeki he can get sent with Walt to hell should they lose. The god refuses this stating that only Soma’s soul would not be enough to feed him the despair of the others. So Soma changes the bet. If Soma wins he gets to alter his wish, if he loses he can be sent to hell like earlier. The god agrees and we see a classic Shokugeki. Here we see a jury appear consisting of Saul Goodman, Dojima Gin and a food critic from our world.. anyone who wants to make a cameo will do. Just a third world. A blind tasting will determine the winner and while the god conjures the most luxurious ingredients of the world, Soma manages to blow him out of the water with the first dish he ever made in the series.  The bacon wrapped Pork roast… but with elements of what he learned along the way. The jury can taste that dish tells a story while the other almost felt self indulgent and arrogant of the chef. So Soma can alter his wish.. he smiles as he writes down a new one.

The match against Gus and Alice begins.. This is set up as the final battle, their biggest competitors, if they win here they can take the entire tournament.  Becoming more and more aware of Walt’s cruel nature however Soma tries to redeem the man. Seeing how bad Gus is however.. makes him quickly play this match very serious! He states that he made an important wish and he can not lose!  Alice and Gus cheat throughout the match, changing their prices, giving people back false change for better results..Tet ignores any plea to rectify this as he is just having fun! Alice molecular gastronomy skills allow a chicken to fry in it’s own fat. For our  protagonists, as a dish the young boy and the drug lord create a steak remicincent of the chaliapin steak don, which is tenderised by the enzymes in onions.

However in this case they create gelantisnied cubes of onions that tenderise the meat and due to the gelatin texture make the brain think it has both a sauce and is even more tender. The gelatine cubes are of course also blue. Blue is also a cuisson being a way of meat being cooked.. being even below rare.  So on top of the dish they present a Blue salted carpaccio with rocket leafs.  The Heisenberg Double Blue they call it and with it they defeat Gus and Alice super special, chemical reaction fried chicken. As Gus’ face melts off as he is sent to hell he straightens his tie one more time and then it is over. Soma thanks Heisenberg for teaching him this. While Soma’s food style is very honest he loves messing with people’s minds so he does really learn a lot and really sees Walter as a mentor..something that changes something deep within Heisenberg. 

Breaking Better

Soma and Heisenberg have reached the finals. Where they face Megumi and Jane. Megumi was super worried as she wished for her entire village to prosper. If her wish gets corrupted they will all suffer because of it. Soma tells her not to worry and that he has her covered. She should just cook to the best of her extent and make this a final worth fighting for. Walter faces off with Jane.. who stares at him with eyes filled with hate. “I was weak, but you let me die? Why”  The bald man stares back and with tears in his eyes he says “I was weak as well’. ‘For the first time in my life I was someone.. not just a teacher.. I was Heisenberg’ … he then swallows. ‘But Heisenberg was nothing.. without Jesse, nothing without Saul, without Skylar and without Junior.’ I could not see it back then Jane..so you were in the way.. you had to go. I needed Jesse’. Soma and Walter whisper a bit. Walt scribbles down a few notes.  ‘Soma follow this process in the exact order  that way we have our winning dish , you will have your wish’.

Walt looks at Jane and tells her she would have killed Jesse as much as he would almost had.. at least he had the strength to save him.. she was weak.. she even left her own son behind for drugs. “So did you Walt so did you’.  The man shakes his head. ‘No I left my son behind for his future! I pushed him away because I wanted him to be happy’. ‘You left your son because you were weak.. and you’re still weak, if you’ll go back you’ll be dead within a week so I am sending you to hell where you belong with all your weakness. Jane cries in anger but instead of breaking.. like she is sure what Walter is aiming for finds a passion to oppose this horrible man. She finds a strength within her she will prove him wrong.. IF she gets back she will never do drugs again, she hated that this man was right.. but she would force him to be wrong! Megumi gets angry at Heisenberg as well! Causing her to lose any anxiety she might have. She is particularly angry at Soma though who seems to be laughing with what Heisenberg is doing.

When the final dishes are to be revealed Megmumi shows a take on her rainbow Terrine, while she missed several flavours Jane refused to give up on this dish as this could definitely give them the win.. even though her mind was being assaulted she came up with some great choices to supplement the dish. The jury is in awe of the dish and tells Soma he has to have come up with an amazing dish if he wishes to compete. He grins and lifts a cloche. As Megmumi sees the dish she gasps. ‘Soma .. Mister Heisenberg….why?!’ Under the cloche is Soma’s Squid with Peanut Butter. A chemical reaction in the Peanut butter has turned it purple making the dish look even more gross.  Soma laughed and said it was Heisenbergs idea. Walter speaks to him and tells him his name is not Heisenberg his real name is Walter White. Jane looks confused. “Walt why .. did you give up” .  Walter smiles… “I am the one who decides who lives and dies.I am not the man who waits to be killed. I decided…. You did a horrible thing Jane.. but I did plenty. This Tet guy may make people able to live with what I did.. he can not make ME able to live with it. Junior.. .. he is grown up.. he doesn’t need me anymore.. but there are two people out there in that world who need you.’  She thanks him and nods. 

Hellsenberg

Tet scoffs.. Hah but now Soma will not have his wish. Soma tells he trusted Mister White he saw him change.. from a cruel drug lord into a loving teacher, trying to do what is right for his family and the people he loved. He knew he would do the right thing here. Soma then reveals his wish. “I wish for everyone’s wish to be lost forever’ “By your own rule.. this wish now must be negated.. and can never come true”  The God yells in frustration..but then laughs. “Well played, you have bested me twice’ ‘Young Tadokoro , plenty of fish and wealth shall descend upon your village and it will prosper during your lifetime and the next.. now you and Jane go Home. “Walter White.. it is time for you to go to hell’ Walt nods but asks.. “Could I ask you for a final goodbye.. I know I was a bad person but this has to give me some good will’ The god thinks.. ‘No one will be able to see you.. just a final look’ Walt nods. That is plenty.
A little later Jane suddenly is back.. she’s in a hospital. Jesse is sitting next to her bed.. he seems to have thought she slipped in a Coma.. misremembering her death.He looks weak.. cried out.. like he has been through hell since her death.. As she opens her eyes a flicker of hope returns to his eyes.. it’s not much.. he is almost too weak to stand up.and give her a hug. Almost… A single bag of Heisenberg money is suddenly underneath ther hospital bed.. they do not know how it got there.. but they do not care either. They will use it to start anew.

Walt Junior is sitting on the couch watching some tv when suddenly there is a knock on the door. “Don’t open it” says Skylar.  It’s late.. they can come back tomorrow. Something compels Junior to go to the door .. as he opens it there is no one where.. yet he can not help but feel watched. Weirdly he feels loved at that very moment.. A big gust of wind shows up.. it’s about to storm. .a lone black pork pie that blows across the street, but no one can be seen.  Just for a flash old memories overwhelm Junior a bit and a single tear rolls down his cheek.  He closes the door and walks back into the living room. “Who was it?” Asks Skyler.. As Walt takes one last look at his wife and baby Holly.. as his spirit transitions into the afterlife he says “I told you Skyler. I am the one who knocks’.

And that brings and end to this crossover between two series that should not really cross-over! Yet that is part of the fun! Check out Fan Fiction and Anime World’s take on her challenge! I might turn this into a series on here taking the challenge up on a monthly basis! Do you have any idea for a cross over let me know!

It’s always Sunny in Paradise: Sunshine Blogger Award 6

Hello again my sweet Island Guests! It is Siesta week! That week where it is so hot outside that I coast myself through it writing mostly using blog tags. Almost all of them ironically are Sunshine Blogger Awards! Today I will handle my sixth! Saturday one more will follow!  So come on join the Siesta and check out some blog tags! Like always in my posts you can get yourself nominated all you have to do is ask!

Rules and Gratitude

This time I am not going to copy the rules! I seriously do not think there is anyone who doesn’t know them by now.  Display the logo, thank the one who tagged you, answer 11 questions, come up with 11 questions.. nominate 11 people.  Eleven people is too much to nominate so I will nominate three. By the end of doing these three sunshine blogger tags I have nominated 11 people!

Celestial Sparkles is the one that tagged me and of course she deserves my gratitude! I am honoured that so many people keep tagging me! I do feel loved and that is a great feeling that makes these questions so much more fun to do! I am not just writing for myself.
My dearly appreciated blogging buddy also has taken a shine, pun intended,  to my style of doing these and adds Pinkie Pie.. to all her stories which I really love! As a result I now imagine she is a pony in real life.. but Pinkie Pie is so emotable it makes for amazing visual presentation! Check it out here! Since  Celestial Sparkles uses Pinkie Pie as her avatar, Pinkie frequently interacts with Pinkie! Which is lovely and both confusing. So now let’s see if Pinkie can ask the questions of Pinkie.

What is the most geeky thing about you?

Well I dream that I have to patrol the city with Darkwing Duck, or that I have to do a Shokugeki against a vampire girl making Goulash, that’s pretty geeky. My house is filled with Pokémon, there isn’t a piece of non geeky art on my wall and if I could drive I would certainly drive in the Pikachu car. I don’t think there is a lot that is not geeky about me. I go out for drinks.. but I play games a lot more. I watch anime weekly sometimes more.

If you really want to know what is the most geeky thing about me.. it’s probably that with a picture I know like 95% of all Pokémon.. if not 100%.  I can recognise a fair few  by their cry, I know the stat distribution of most, in a lot of cases I even know what colour they are slotted in according to their pokédex.. and no it’s not as easy as it might sound.  I even had a pokémon adventure at conventions and my lifelong dream is to visit the Pokémon Café in Tokyo! Like it is my second highest dream.. with the first one being hidden because it’s too personal.. some might be able to tell what it is.. but yeah Pokemon Café Tokyo is the place I would visit if I could go anywhere in the world. That’s pretty geeky I’d say! Though some might call it being a Pokémon Loser.

What is the next Anime that you are planning to watch?

Actually It is time for me to generate another random anime to watch so for me to answer that question I go to randomanime.org generate a list of anime and then roll a random number between 1 and 50 as I pick that spot on the list. So the next anime I am going to watch apparently is Nanana’s Buried Treasure! I am not going to read anything about it and watch the first 5 episodes and then check if I will continue it!  I really like random elements in my life! I know there are so many great suggestions to see.. but I like not knowing what will happen or what I will experience the next day. So I don’t plan a lot.. I just go with this stuff and somewhere I decided that once per month I roll a random anime and watch it.. last month’s pick.. unfortunately was not good enough to write a blog about. It was Stan Lee’s The Reflection.. I just could not find words to write about it! So let’s hope Nanana’s buried treasure fares better.

If you could write out your life story, how would that story go?

As in how will it go from here?! That would not be something I really like to do.. I do have my struggles and gripes with life right now and I went to a very depressed spell thinking of just giving up a while ago but I think writing my life out would be worse. Always knowing what is going to happen?!  I mean.. I’d use it to get filthy rich and support all of you on Kofi and donate to your websites and all.. but also get a super comfy home and probably host my own convention or such. That’s a dream I also have.. hosting a con!   That might actually make a neat  story on how I’d accomplish that. Talking to dealers, dealing with my own social anxieties to realise this dream.. and of course visiting the Pokémon Café in Tokyo to have a conversation with a band we are booking.. my trip and food of course would be factored into the admission ticket price. Yet if I write out my life.. I set up expectations for my life.. dreams are nice but if dreams become expectations it can lead to unhappiness and discourse and I want to avoid that. So if at all possible.. the story of my life remains unwritten until it happens. If I know stuff is going to happen life would be very boring.

What was the saddest Anime scene you have watched?

That is something I could not spoil.. it involves a little girl, a radio and the sweetest most helpful teacher you ever saw. While it is a somewhat comedic scene I knew how the dialogue flowed and what was going to happen. I yelled to the screen. No! No don’t do this!  But the Radio.. came into play exactly as I had expected. Later on we get a recall to that scene and it made me feel even worse. I don’t worry that much about spoilers but this anime..was something so special as an experience to me.. at least for the first half of the series that I would not even want to spoil the series name now. The girl has a cute black hat and pink hair and the teacher has lavender hair and a dark purple dress .. and that is all I am willing to share about it. It might not have been the saddest scene.. but the scene I least wanted to happen.

I shared more than that in the past but it was in a different context. If I have to name anything by name.. I  could say Ushio’s death from Clannad but to be fair that didn’t do much for me. The death of a hero and the death of a loved one, in a certain very over the top mecha show I talk a lot about that made me cry a whole lot.  Then there is this story about a girl and her beloved dog.. and the plight of a father to bring the two closer together… that messed me up pretty much as well.Actual Spoiler Coming up!  Recently an episode of Slime I watched made me ball like a baby as well! The ending of Tengen Toppa left me feeling deeply saddend as well.

What was the best thing you have done for a friend?

That’s a bit relative. For one guy who is very dear to me I picked him up and helped him get up after his bride left him at the altar after ten years of being together. I spent any waking moment I could with him so he did not have to feel alone, even helped him get back in the saddle a bit by helping him ‘chase’. That is an energy I very much hate.. but I did it for him cause I wanted to see him happy.  Yet in the end that all seems to have been gone and forgotten now that he has a new relationship.

Another friend I took into my group of friends after his father passed away and introduced him to new people and helped him grow into the amazing fun person he is today. I helped him come out of his shell by having fun with him myself. I would classify the latter as maybe a lesser thing as it was only natural..but it had such a great impact.  Another friend I helped build up after she was mentally completely spent..she had nothing left.. I helped her rebuild her life but recently she told our friends she sees me as a huge failure because I am too sick to get a job currently..she was glad that even though she was a failure in life I was a bigger one.. I’d classify the effort I put in her to be amazing.. but it meant nothing to them.

Once I had a friend.. who was once a very popular kid! He was exiled because he broke his arm and could not play Soccer anymore.. we were very young like 10 or so. He even became suicidal. He was a former bully of mine.. but I offered him a friend in his time of need and desperation. He missed being popular though and even if we made good friends.. I knew he wasn’t happy. The rest of the class bullied me as well.. so I sacrificed our friendship to make him popular again.. the place where he was happiest.. among the jock kids. I told him where to bully me so it hurts. If he bullied me again.. saying he did it to win my trust just to crush my spirit they might think he is cool again..because I was really hated because I moved weird.
He did not want to do it at first.. but when he found out that he could not make it back to the soccer team because people did not want him there..he decided to go ahead.. he was very passionate about the sport but was to poor to travel to another town. I made sure he made me cry and break.. and it worked .. he was accepted back in the folds. He never really bullied me after that and even kept the other bullies away but we could not hang out anymore as on the record we on opposite sides. During a Reunion he came up to me and thanked me.. he even got a job in the soccer industry.. and getting back on that team was his first step.. and he had a very happy live.

What were your plans this year before the pandemic?

Hmmm some of the things I had planned are a tad on the personal side. Health wise some changes of plan had to be made, as some treatments I had scheduled both mentally and physically got postponed due to risks and rules etc. My plan to move away from where I live to a more open minded less racist place went south due to schools and jobs going in the fritz. I would also visit a few conventions but they poofed of course. Luckily I don’t really form expectations so I did not do the 2020 will be my year kinda stuff, not really .. so it’s not all that bad. It’s just very much not my year.. but I  that goes for everyone.. so at least I am not that disappointed. It is not like I planned to go to the Pokémon Café this year! I would have been utterly devasted if I missed that. Luckily I can still dream about Mew’s Fluffy Marshmallow Drink.

If you could pilot a mech or Gundam, which one would it be?

The Power Rangers Ninja Falcon Megazord combination with me flying the Pink crane I want the Falcon Zord combination so I can fire lots and lots of missles.. .. Thunder megazord with me flying the pink phoenix would be great as well. If you are in your regular Mecha show you are going to die! Also there are hardly any pink mecha’s out there! I am very big on mecha shows either.. only Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and heck if I want to pilot anything in that world! No sirree.  So since Power Rangers never die…except for one…and she was pink.. that seems like the safest mech to pilot! Also it comes with a cool pink suit! I could hang out in a juice bar, the job automatically comes with at least two friends.. but usually more, there is usualy something cute on my team as well and I get fireworks and get to take poses?! Heck yeah!

If you could marry an anime or video game character, who would it be?

Currently it would be Lohse from Divinity 2.. She is a perfect match of selfish but aware of the rest of the world. She has a hint of playfulness, but is also serious… Maybe a tad lusty.. for me.. but maybe she is a very cute and fairly mature woman which is a big plus..usually these days it’s all kids .. or like 3000 year old women looking like kids… I just don’t see that working mentally.  Lohse knows how to fight for herself and fights for a happy live of her own and she is willing to  let go of strangers for it.  I find it very important that my significant other has a will to live. She realises who she is ..and that she deserves happiness as well and doesnt just put everyone else above her! Self love is important. If Lohse loves herself I can love her.. and I know she will be with me because it makes her happy! She isn’t just setteling to make me happy! Lohinskie as a shipping name or maybe Pinshe?!

For similar reasons , Sayaka from Bloom into You  would be a great anime pick for me. I love how strong she is in the fact that she is actually gay. She is open with it and accepts it unlike most the other characters in the show who either blindly lust or are oblivious to feelings including their own.. She also seems like a person I could be with in terms of tranquility! Very high energy output people can really drain me.. and Sayawka walks that line very well for me. I could see us sitting on the couch watching a movie together. Or me playing a game and she leaning onto me with a book. Cute!  Sayakie sounds adorable as well.

Tell me about the last game you have played?

No! I review a lot of games I play so I would like to shoot myself in the foot with that!  I recently completed Divinity Original Sin 2, a review is probably coming next week!  I am currently playing Pokémon Rangers Shadows of Almia.. and I plan to finish it by next week or the week after.   Pokémon Rangers is a game where you draw circles around pokémon to befriend them and you solve little puzzles with them. I had to touch a bidoof, to make it tackle a crate for example or make friends with a Gastrodon.. which required me befriending a Nosepass  because it was trapped behind some rock and only Nosepass was strong enough to break that rock! Every time I do something ell my character takes a super sassy pose with a spin and a twirl. I have only just unlocked side quests so I am sure that this one might take a while. It’s a fun game so far but a girl can only draw so many circles before her hands get tired and she has to take a break.  You can also expect a review on Pokémon Sweet 2th.. the Sequel to Pokémon Sweet version I am not gonna tell you much more than that it left me a bit bitter. Darn it! I told so much already!

Is there a character out there that is most similar to you?

Weird as it may sound I really identify with Princess Unikitty from the Lego movie. She is a bit more extroverted than me but we are still pretty similar. Not so much her series counterpart but the one in a movie(s) specifically. Someone who really tries not to confirm her own and constantly goes around with a smile, sometimes sincere sometimes fake.. but the theme of being your own person is something I very much see in her.. we also share the cutesiness coat.. and once we get angry we turn into an all consuming all destructive force. You would not like me when I am angry.

Last book you have read?

Oof that has been a hot minute the last book I held was around the world in 80 dishes. A cookbook! But I used that to toss it at a wasp I had just trapped with hairspray! I was so scared of it! It’s dead now though. The last book I read I think was called Corona .. ..how oddly applicable in this day and age. It’s about some group of science people that are in africa and get themselves trapped in another dimension to the sun teleporting them there and it’s a place of evil apes and stuff. It was not a very good book but it came on the tail-end of my reading fatigue.. everything felt very samsey..mostly because I really prefer the “Dan Brown” Mystery genre.

I tried to branch out into fantasy but that was hit and miss and since it’s all series it’s also super expensive,  and movie like books like Corona that was like Congo with more supernatural elements. I also read a book around the same time called the stonehenge mysteries.. which is like Dan Brown books based on a cult and Stonehenge.. the dutch translation though sucks sooo much.  The original is written in very formal english  Very expensive looking words.. translated in dutch though no one speaks like this.. it feels like it has been translated and then passed through a thesaurus.. like the wedding speech  Joey wrote for Chandlier and Monica in friends… it put me off books and I have never been back! I wonder what happened to the book about the monkeys in the fire dimension though cause I can’t find it!

Questions and Tags

Eleven questions answered so now it’s time for my 11 questions
1. Which is your favourite Power Puff Girl. If you don’t have a favourite or don’t know the series make one up!
2. If anime could be taken in as actual nourishment..what genre would be your favourite breakfast.
3. How are you holding up in these times? Are you doing okay?
4. Did you ever have an imaginary friend?
5. Have you ever had impure thoughts about an anime/video game character?! What was the character?
6. Have you ever had impure thoughts about another blogger? Who thought I was gonna ask which blogger? I am not going to do that! But tell us a story anyway maybe drop us a hint!
7. Tell us about a weird thing you own.
8. How does the room you are writing this post in look like?
9. Have you ever cooked/eaten something because you saw it in an anime/game?
10. If you could switch lives with an anime/game character and could make other choices as the character in the anime would.. Who would you swap with and what would you change?
11. Come up with a final question you really would like to answer.. then answer it!

As for my Nominees!

Egg Sandwhich gets a nomination! He recently tagged me so he gets one back! I know he is fairly young so question 5 and 6 should be answered with very little detail please. I really hope it goes a bit like “Oh madamme I do not know what you mean with those questions “.. but if not.. well as long as you keep your answer PG I think we are safe!

We Be Blogging Gets a nomination because I havent interacted with them enough and this might be a nice way to do that!

The Unpopular Popular gets a nomination , I think I might be a bit far away from their style but anyone with Senpai’s seal of approval is bound to have some great writing techniques in their arsenal and I would love to see what they would do with something as silly as my style of questions.

If you are a Coconut you are always nominated for these posts and you can become a coconut by supporting my KoFi. If you can’t spare any money but would love a nomination all you have to do is click your heels three times and say Pinkie nominate me. In case I live out of hearshot though.. you could just ask me in the comments and I will add you! Do be sweet and leave a like and follow the blog before you ask for a nomination though! I get friend you get a nomination! Once more if you are to shy to ask.. you can always go the KoFi route!


STAFF Introduction: Indigo the Head of Security

He-he-here we go! He’s finally here! To write stuff for you! If you check this page! You can join us too!  Put your hands together! I want you to clap! As he’s introduced.. with this cool rap! Huh! Indi! INDIGO! Indi! Indigo is here!

One Hell of A Security Guy

Points for you if you got what that intro is based on! Clearly I am in a cheerful mood today and that is with good reason! I get to announce that my long time friend now going by the name of Indigo has joined the fray! I have known him for longer than I blog and as per today he will be on the fictional Payroll of the fictional Paradise, receiving fictional income for his fictional position as my head of security!  I think you know what his task is! That’s right he is trying to save you from fictional treats.. like pickpockets and pirates. He will do this by creating some amazing characters in his original stories that will walk around on Paradise  keeping you safe.. but he is also quite skilled in playing some video games and telling  you about them! It will keep you distracted but also that nasty pickpocket! How neat huh! If I put up to much party lights, he is also skilled enough in the electrical work so that we don’t all die in a blaze of fire and colourful glass so but yeah mostly he is just here to write his own things.  I bet he can tell you amazing tales set in the Fallout or Warhammer 40K Universe. 

Indigo is a fresh face on WordPress, with their only experience so far leaving likes and a few comments! So his content style will be a surprise to us all! We can expect some game reviews and fan fiction from him. I suspect we will mostly see character driven stories about warriors wielding  swords and armors. With an edgy grimdark twist. He’s probably also the guy who will keep me in check! “Pinkie have you read that comment yet?” ‘Don’t forget to reply to that person who @dded you on Twitter” If you are angry and mean.. I will also send him after you! If you think I am ignoring you.. you can send him after me! Perfect balance.
He is a  hard working confidant sort of speak who has his own.

I know for sure he is combining the  world of my tabletop and videogames to tell you an unique “what if story”  Yet he also talked about not one but two game reviews!  He mostly plays  shooting games.. but also the deeper rpgs and Soulsbornes! Sometimes even stuff  in between… as long as he gets to kill. I made him play Ducktales though! For breakfast he rips and tears into Deathclaws and in the afternoon he does scientific research how much fatboy mini nukes it takes to kill a demon. His knowledge of weaponry is also impressive so if you like to discuss Alucard’s guns.. our security officer will be here for you! You can recognise him by his unique look. Donning his Indigo outfit with pink belts!  Because when we play or work together, he always does something with pink! Such a good guy! That coat is a tad edgy though!

How I met Indigo

To introduce you a bit more to this man I shall tell you the story of how we met. In fact I have talked about some elements he brings to the table. I met Indigo trough Star Wars roleplay.. like four or so years ago. I was playing a Sith woman named Sy’ra  who felt like friendship is magic and the path to Power in the Sith.. starting out as a rival for a Zabraki love, soon Sy’ra won over his character Lelianne because of her sly and cunning ways. Which later blossomed into a nice and warm friendship between the two characters. My character formed a house of her own which resulted in a private Skype-group for friends and family members. Indigo was in that chat!  As time passed we bonded and enjoyed playing a lot. His characters a Mandalorian clan leader named Kraleth became my security officer and his daughter Lelianne, became Sy’ra bodyguard.. and they even had a short romance.. but Lelianne saw herself to much as a tool. Living only for Sy’ra. My Sith taught Lelianne to love herself for those who can’t love themselves and see themselves as items only can never be truly loved either.   It was a lesson Indigo also had to learn still. Indigo is a bit of an anime edgelord. The type that will sacrifice themselves to safe you.. even if the treat is a flew splashes of rain… because dying for someone is cool!  This mentality brought Indigo in trouble  a few times as a roleplayer. This selfless trait is a great thing for a security officer to have though! And he has experience with the job! Nothing will phase him anymore!

Indigo is a fair bit younger than me as well.It’s not like I could be his mom (there is only one person in my online tabletop, which by the way is not the D&D that stopped, that’s young enough to be my son). He might be able to tell me what G-Fuel is.. even though I never hear him talk about it.. and those who drink?! (it’s a drink right?) usually talk about it so I am unsure.   I bet he would love the Vinland Saga anime as he really likes dark and Military themes in stories. So I think that will tell you a bit what type of stories we can expect. I always tease him for the sheer amounts of edge he has in him. His coffee cups have bullets and skulls on them and he listens to so much metal that if you have a magnet on you it will stick to his ears… if there aren’t people with lots of piercings around or a living suit of armor of course. He’s the type of guy who drinks their coffee black just because it looks cooler in front of the others, but that also means there is more cream and sugar left for me!

For little over a year now I have made a tabletop game on mondays, that is basically an anime tabletop.. people can create their character and from all known media they have to fight against treats from other worlds.. like Hol Horse  from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures or Dracula from the Castlevania games but also 4 world leaders and their Eldritch Horseman.. they employ to summon a big Eldritch evil upon this world.  During their journey the group can encounter characters from all across anime. For example they are working with Krul Tepes from Owari no Seraph and they have a rivalry with Perona from One Piece.. who works for Elon Musk to use her Horro Horro fruit to change the little Eldritch baby the has into a ultimate weapon to stop the greater evil.. at the cost of a few cities. Indigo here plays the seventh courier from Fallout New Vegas.. a fictional character that was supposed to be there as well..but ended up Isekaid..into our world.  As this game requires very much communication to build your character (as you can literally build whatever you want)  Indigo and I started to talk more and more and our friendship became tighter. 

When he asked to stream a few games in our Discord group I noticed how he would lack the platform there to show the games he is interested in.  Regardless how much I love Indigo.. Warhammer stuff is completely wasted on me and the one that is interested.. is only so when it’s convenient to them! So that’s why I thought! Maybe writing in a place like mine could let him tell those stories to a bit wider of an audience. Also based on some follower names I score surprisingly well  with those with edgy nicknames… so maybe you will like his style as well. His different palette compared to  mine when it comes to stories and games can make us cover such a wide arrangement of stuff. I feel he can compliment me very well! I will still be the best Pinkie.. but Indigo will provide the contrast to make my pink look even brighter.  Indigo hasn’t blogged before and is fairly new to WordPress so I want you all to give him a warm welcome! To Indigo, you will have to socialise a bit.. so use the WordPress reader to find yourself some Warhammer, or Soulsborne blogs, take a peek at the people welcoming you and be an awesome tomodachi for the amazing people in the community! A security guy can be scary but make sure to let them know you are secretly just a big cuddly bear . 

Even More STAFF to come?!

I could tell you plenty of stories about Indigo but instead I rather direct you to his Twitter, and ask you to wait and see what their posts will bring. Indigo is from Finland so like me he is a non native English speaker. I assume that means like me they are schooled in UK english so expect to see his top five FAVOURITE guns in video games and not his top five FAVORITE 40k Races, but I might be wrong here!  For those who think we spell Colour wrong I got good news! The third person that applied to write on this place is American! So we will be evenly distributed then.  I am still looking for a Canadian and an Australian to join so I can get all English variants gathered!


If you want to write but don’t want to maintain your own blog or if my blog covers topics you can’t put on your own website feel free to apply under STAFF wanted.  As long as you do not expect to be paid and as long as you respect everyone like I ask everyone to respect you things are totally going to be fine and you will always be good enough! I went through this phase myself.. where I felt like the lesser writer. Maybe I am the lesser writer to most.. but Indigo as well as Crow and Fred helped me remind me that no one writes like me.. Somewhere there is a guy.. in my case like Indigo.. who will like that style and the same goes for you! I wish for Paradise to be a platform for all of you who want to share your thoughts in a more low key way!  We are a holiday resort!  Ambition is for when you get back to real life! This is all about fun! So if you want to share stuff you feel you can not  share elsewhere.. feel free to apply even if your not Canadian or Australian! We will make you feel welcome.. and with that please everyone leave a comment to welcome Indigo! I want him to feel right at home!

As for my own words to Indigo! There is little to say I have not said yet in our chats! I am so happy for everything you did for this blog, for me so be able to offer you this platform for your thoughts makes me really happy. I know we have vastly different opinions on media but that is what makes this work so much I think! I have every bit of faith in you! I have seen your voice in Roleplaying and your writing and I know this is something unique to you. With a dash of Warhammer, a Dash of Hellsing but also a healthy does of old warrior values and an appreciation of tech I am 1000% sure you will add something new to this blog! You might have to check if there are blogs around in your posse using WordPress reader but I also think quite a few people around really will be interested in your voice so never be afraid to let it shine! Be yourself.. no matter how much flack for being to edgy I give you for it! It’s all in good spirit! Friends teasing each other and all! You are a dear friend and probably my most supportive friend..at least when it comes down to this hobby! So I am super thrilled to have you! Welcome to the team!  Welcome to Paradise! Also could you please look into that Yellow looking fellow. I was walking in the lobby today when I faceplante… I mean gracefully landed after tripping on a yellow bucket. He had a mob with him as well but he was just staring outside smirking at some daffodils….weird.

Indigo has no Kofi page to support yet! However if he ever does decide on doing this a banner to support him will show up on his own posts! All writers have their individual Kofi Pages, though Pinkie’s one is also used to maintain the website. Keep an eye out for ways to support Indigo and for now just make him feel welcome! Time for me to melt some more! And see you all very soon!

The ‘A to Z of Favourite Anime’ – Challenge

Hello Island Guests! This week is easy mode week for me! It’s so hot my brain doesn’t work so I will mostly just answer questions and tags and do ..that kinda stuff! Sending my brain to the repairman in this heat and these times is just awful, so we will take it nice and easy. Today I will be finally taking part in the A to Z Favourite Anime Challenge! And I am breaking rules to do so!  Why?! Well because I love some of these anime to much and this is the best way to insert them all! It’s not like I play by the rules of blog tags other times anyway?!

I was nominated by Irina Celestial Sparkles and Foovay for this one so a big shout out and thank you for them. This post is originally called Railgunfan75’s Anime Favorites A-Z Challenge as it was created by Railgunfan75 but I do not put another bloggers name in my titles. Do check him out if you have never heard of him before! But since I am late on this tag I doubt that you don’t. I used the title Lina from TIny Ugly Animal came up with because I really prefer to leave names out of the equation.

Nominating Three People here

Mallow: I do try to acknowledge him a lot! He is the heart valve of the aniblogging community! He is a bit hidden among us but he helps out so much and keeps us very much alive! I really admire what he does so let’s see if I can admire his taste just as much!

Blerdy Otome: I know like me you can sometimes experience a bit of gatekeeper behaviour so let’s show everyone how Otaku we really are!

Fred: I really like your general taste in anime! So by making you list 26 of them I might find a new gem or two! Up to 26.. so this one is more for me! He does deserve all nominations he gets a million times over though!

These are the rules

-Pick a favourite series/movie for each letter of the alphabet. For titles starting with “a” “an” or “the” use the first letter of the next word of the title.

Okay this one I rule I shall stick with, due note that my favourites do not necessarily mean the series I think are best.  They are my favourites that can be that they mean something deeper to me despite their possible flaws.Some of them I would not even like to rewatch again but I love them deeply.

-Since many titles have multiple names based on the language that you are using please pick one language for the entire list (Use all English titles or all Japanese titles) and let the readers know which language you will be using. If a title has the same name regardless of the language then it can be used in any list.

This is the rule I am going to break as I find it a bit of a silly rule. I should show my favourites here, if I had to classify them all in the same language I would have to pick anime I like significantly less in their favour?! Nah! I will give both titles to the japanese ones as I tend to stick to the English ones, but I love these shows dearly they deserve the shout out instead of other in favour of naming consistency.. I haven’t seen THAT much anime so I am not going to limit myself even further. This is my island and here:

-If you don’t have a title that fits under a particular letter, you can name another favourite from a different letter in it’s place, just indicate which letter spot you are using for that series. This can be done up to three times. If you can’t fill a spot then you can leave it blank. No more than 26 total series are allowed.

No more than 26 series are allowed? That I will determine myself. I will probably stick to the rule but shoutouts of love should never be limited! I will mention a few other names that did not make the cut though more so that I can explain myself on why I did break the language rule.

-Including a picture for each series is encouraged

Now that I can agree on!

-Share who tagged you for this challenge and nominate 3 more to try it themselves and include links to their blogs.

That is totally normal I did that by instinct!

-Just have fun with this challenge. 

Now that I have stated I will break some rules to make it more fun for me, I will thank you very much! Now onto the actual list!

A: Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers

So I start with a Japanese title right away, while I do prefer English titles, this show is just way better than Air Gear or Akame Ga Kill so I am going with the Japanese one..so I can highlight my actual favourites It’s just a beautiful small story that had such relatable characters. I identify with Fumi , the series main character a lot and Achan is just a great little bubble of energy. I hate Yasuko because she is very much like a person I know in real life.. someone I could never hate and Yasuko became the perfect vent. So this show helped me deal with stuff as well! Cute and very human!

B: Bloom into You

This series gave me a semblance of a Waifu but also made me identify with a main character a lot. While Sayaka definitely was the strongest character for me in the second half, this story about a girl who can not fall in love is very in line with my Demi-Sexual nature and while I do crave some affection, I always understood her mindset perfectly. The soft animation is also something that really called out to me. B is a really good letter anyway. I could think of a lot of candidates. Few however resonate so strong with me as a person! A lot of these themes feel like a bit of my life.. and it is the series that made me want to have a phonestrap. Those are Super cute!

C: Cardfight Vanguard

I like card games, I like Card Game anime and I really liked this card fighting anime.   Sure quality wise it can’t hold a candle to Clannad, but this show I watched with my friends to teach ourselves how the Card Game worked.  We played a lot of matches with decks we got for no money at all oftenly after a few episodes of the show. That experience really trumps anything other C anime could throw at me. This gave me more than just a show. It gave me a pleasant experience with friends. So while I could easily discredit this show as just a Yu-Gi-Oh knock off  this is my favourite despite any quality problems. Misaki is the female on the team and I really liked her as a character as well. Very different from your usual girl. 

D: Digimon

The Adventure series was a big part of my childhood but even well after that Digimon remained a large part of my life. I hosted a digimon roleplay, I played a lot of the Digimon games, I read a lot of Digimon lore and I love series that have fictional evolving creatures battle each other. The music of this show  up until that series with the guy who punches digimon to make his evolve was great. The series also showed a more grim world than Pokémon.  So I am not specifying the series, each part up until rescue squad had a memory to me! Tri and the new series are pleasing to me as well.. yes it has all the rights to be called my favorite. Once more.. it’s not the best D I have seen.. but it is the one I will keep coming back to.

E: Earth Defence Club Love

I know the show is actually called Cute High, Earth Defence Club Love.. but I had no serious contestants for E otherwise I would have to give this to Elfen Lied. I haven’t seen any other shows with an E and I am not the biggest Elfen Lied fan. The first episode is nice to experience but after that the quality just dips! Cute High Earth Defence Club Love however is amazing! I like how it’s a genre spoof but does it really well.. (in the first season)  I can watch their transformation scene over and over again and still roll on the floor laughing satisfied.  The whole concept of the monsters being stuff and people there are unloved is so amazing and resonates with me really well.  I deeply love this show! Just for it’s silliness.

F: Flip Flappers

I haven’t even finished this show yet but I love it so much already that I am very sure that at the end of the run it will beat out FLCL for me. Flip Flappers is well on it’s way to make it into my top 10 of all time. This show is cute, sweet, weird, colourful and completely surreal. There is a level of depth in all the antics too and much like Kyousogiga it has this Alice in Wonderland feeling I really appreciate. Even the character names are super cute which make me not mind that the shout each others name all the time. Their weapons are cute, and Uexkull is adorable. This show makes me giddy to get up every Saturday. The show has a very girly energy, bright but also somber at times at it makes me smile the biggest of smiles.

G: Gakkou Gurashi (School Live) 

This one will make rule sticklers pissy because not only is it a Japanese name in a list with English names.. I also switched Gurren Lagann to the T also giving that it’s Japanese name. I use names mixed and the Mecha Anime I have always called Tengen Toppa so that’s where it will go! Gakkou Gurashi is my favourite thing to recommend to people who want an anime to watch, just because of the mind games this show plays if you at least avoid spoilers. I can’t talk about it to much but just know it is one of my absolute favourites!  This is an experience! It’s certainly weird but it’s sheer concept is something I really REALLY like! So much that it is one of my all time favourites. Sure it got a bit bland in the end but nothing gave me a viewing experience like this one.

H: Hunter x Hunter

My Favourite Shounen show should definitely make this list, I could not get into the volleyball anime everyone talks about so even while I am not a big fan on Gon, this show itself is very amazing. In part because it doesn’t rely on it’s main character that much. I love the whole set up of the main character more living through the story then setting it. Gon gets caught up in events rather than be a trigger.  He has to deal with the world instead of the world dealing with him. This results in the world feeling so much more alive and real! The way Nen is fleshed out really appealing to me as well and with people like Hisoka they and Killua they have such a strong line of slightly creepy characters.

I: Is this a Zombie?

Switching back to the English title, for the same reason as I always switch.. I love this show and want it to be features.. but the population in great anime in the K department is very dense for me. It’s Japanese title is Kore Wa Zombie Desuka.. and I feel like that’s the name it’s more widely known as as well? Yet the letter I had no noteworthy contestants to how great this show is! It’s funny and has some amazing characters! It’s colourful , it’s weird has magikewl girls.. and magikewl girl guys!  What more can a girl loving random anime want! The end credits are amazing as well.  There is a bit of a trend visible to what I like and I do require a certain does of whackyness in my anime in general.. that or being really heartfelt. So yeah Intial D would not make the cut even if it tried.. bitchin soundtrack though!

J: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures

I usually am not that big of a fan of very male energies in anime so I would have thought I hated Jojo’s. I watched it reluctantly because a friend really wanted to watch it fully expecting to despise it.  But it has one thing going for it that apparently is a bigger pull for me. It’s Bizarre.  I love Battle Tendency a lot and most of the other parts I really enjoy as well. There is just this thing to me about it! The music, the colour shifts into unnatural pallets for no reason at all. It glues me to the screen and each time we see a new Stand I adore how this weird thing works again. If I need to pick a part it would be part 2, but since that is included with Part 1 which is my least favourite part.. I am not sure if I could pick Season 1.. in that case it would go to the Stardust Season 1.. but for me Jojoj’s is Jojo’s so I nominated them all in one.
I might have cheated here and there with my list but I can definitely STAND by this pick!

K: Kill la Kill

Man if I had to use Kore Wa Zombie Desku Ka this would have been a four way tie.  What pushed Kill la Kill to this top spot is the memories it has given me besides the anime itself.  Just listening to Before my Body Runs dry with friends and singing along at a super hot convention day. Rewatching Mako Dialogue and try to speak like her as some form of game.. and of course, this is a show featuring a Magical Girl (close enough at least)  taking on weird people..and of course the weirdest alien life form you might have seen. The plot is bonkers with organisations such as Nudist Beach trying to protect the world from evil clothing company Revocs.. and a girl fighting with half a scissor What’s not to like!

L: Love Live School Idol Project

Love Live has a special place in my heart! I discovered it through a free rhythm game on my mobile and I just fell in love with the songs.  When I saw gundam toys mimic  dances of some cute anime girls I just had to check the show out and it did not disappoint. Love Live is just an energy boost for me. The original more so than the newer series as I like the music a lot better, but Start Dash and Snow Halation and Aishiteru Banzai are songs I sing regularly.. this show gave me those so it goes on the list. Kotori would be my favourite person from the group.. but admittedly also the one I’d strangle first if she is in a talkative mood! This show has taught me how to be an idol as well.. so since I want you all to love me.. and this post here goes! NICO NICO NIIIIII!.. please don’t unfollow!

M: Madoka

I know Madoka isn’t the official title and it’s actually Puella Magica Madoka etc.. but no one calls it that. The Japanese name is Mahou Shouja Madoka Magica I think so at least one of the official titles starts with an M but if I call  Madoka I don’t think there is ANYONE here.. who is confused to what show I mean. While I do find this show to be overrated by my friends who say it’s the best thing ever.. I love the surreal worlds, the dark undertones,  and the magical girl aspect of it.  There is a gravitas around Madoka that you do not expect and it has weird elements, yuri elements, it has  pink protagonist, cute looking monsters? Speaking of Monster.. barely missed the top spot! Madoka did so much more for the anime and copsplay community Do I even need to explain why it’s here?! It’s Madoka!

N: No Game No Life

By now I bet you can imagine  why this makes my list. It’s a weird, colourful show that has some magical elements a lot of amazing characters and it’s the one place where it can seem people have already won a game of Rock Paper Scissors before the game is played! Take the explanation from Yu-gi-oh and put it in a more Yu-Gi-Oh season 0 like jacket.. then add a pinch of Madoka and a dash of Jojo and you have No Game No life. Season Zero Yugi was super murderous as well and some of these battles in this series really resemble that. It all adds to the bizarrity of it which makes it so amazingly watchable to me. The whole idea that the main character is actualy two seperate characters trying to achieve godhood.. by putting the Win before cest..was very creative and slightly disturbing. I could have done without the family love..but I can appreciate the anti social tone it is presented with.

O: Oban Star Racers

I am not even sure this is anime but it is a French Japanese production so I decided it counts. Now that Mangwha can become anime.. I think if Western folks try to make an anime it still should be called anime! It looks anime enough and is super heavily anime inspired. There is a beautiful story on how this show was a passion project and that shows in the series itself. There is not a lot of money or amazing talent involved but people loved what they made it and it shows so hard. One of the things I haven’t told you I liked yet. is Tournament Arcs…This series I could describe as Madoka meets Star Wars  Podracing Meets Tournament Arc. There is a bit of Zoids in there as well I guess! I saw this on western tv and noticed how different it was .. in a way I like to think this is the serie that rekindled my love for anime. Also the hair of the team boss.. is amazing! They don’t design anime characters like that anymore.

P: Pokemon

I mean those who follow me for a long time probably could see this one coming. Again this is not the one I’d rank as the best. However this show and in particular the first series had such a great and in the end positive impact on my live I can hardly say it’s not my favourite. Without this anime I would not be writing this post. Without the series I would never would have asked for Pokémon Blue for the fest of Sinterklaas. Without the adventures of Ash I would never have fallen in love with the geek communities. I would have never bonded with some of the geeks that made my life the way it is now. I didn’t even follow the series anymore but when I read and saw that Ash finally became a champion after so many years, I shed a little tear of joy! It’s also why I cant bring myself to watch the new season. I love this series for what it did for me.. more so than what it is..but this definitely deserves a spot.

Q: (Q)Kyousogiga

Did you know that Kyousogiga is written with a blind Q.. ? A silent Q would be a Q you can not hear so a blind Q is a Q you can not see. Just stare at the title for about an hour you will see! It’s a story about a man who paints a bunny and due to a special power he can make it real.. but then the bunny falls in love with him and begs a female Buddha to borrow her body so they can be in love together.. the Buddha allows this and the two deside to found a new world inside a painting. A perfect little family with a boy who killed himself. A buddha and a demon girl.  Yet then both mother and father disappear leaving behind a world that is full of weird colourful things with amazingly weird  rules and things get weirder when a girl with a giant Hammer filled with colorful orbs shows up! This girl shares the name of the lost mother.. and a weird battle to find family in this new world begins… Weird colourful and a girl protagonist using semi magical powers and a schoolgirl outfit to ward of evil.. no surprise why I pick this.

R: Reborn

This is the English title of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.. but well K  was taken a few times over. By a lot of clever swapping around I was able to put this little treasure of mine onto my list. Reborn does a lot what Hunter X Hunter for me does as well. It shows a perpetual growth in it’s character. Where Naruto just gains new techniques, Hunter x Hunter and Reborn show that the fighters actually enter new stages of fighting.  From doing random tasks naked Tsuna learns to control his zero flame, uses to learn his rings, which can unlock box weapons, which can fuse with their main weapons. It’s great! Add in a bunch of babies, colourful pacifiers, a tournament arc and really great characters and yes this show is right up my alley.  Of course you have to get trough quite a large amount of bad episodes at the start but it’s worth it.

S: Samurai Flamenco

This is another show I haven’t finished yet but deeply love so far. I really love Sentai shows, they are colourful..weird and you know where I am getting at with this.  Samurai Flamenco is not exception to this preference of mine. Yet it also is extremely down to Earth at the same time. It explores territory that I have not seen before.. Anime weirdness..with real life Logic.. and I adore it for that.  The characters , while I have my grips with some all feel pretty real and if you are a geek who ever imagined having super powers  they are pretty relatable, this is also a show about being a fan of something a lot! There is a lot of Meta humor in there which pleases me as we.. like characters recognising Sentai patterns.. but by stating they are aware of it thir enemies can then adap! Just a very clever and fun show.

T: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Just Gurren Lagann in English apparently.. I thought it was Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann there as well.. is my favourite anime show of all time.  So obviously it would make this list.  It did so by the name I know for it. For those who don’t know what it is about. Humanity is driven to live underground. When a young boy with a drill finds a head like thing.. he discovers it’s a big mecha! He takes his best friend to the surface with this Mecha and discovers it’s ruled by beastman! They steal another Mecha and the best friend decides to slam the head mecha into the tinier one to see if they can combine.. from there on out their adventure just becomes weirder and more colourful with the plot going so insane that in the end people end up throwing galaxies at one another!  This show made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me sick with grief. 

U: Unko-San

This show tells the adventures of a little brown fairy that lives in the bowels of a certain island. For those who do not speak Japanese .. Unko being a brown fairy means it’s a log of poop! A log of poop that has the ability to grant luck to the unlucky. So for example when one little poop commits suicide because he can no longer pay his father’s hospital bills, it sinks into a clam farm..because they do not want a poo resting between them they give it a pearl which it can use to pay of it’s fathers depth.. Who keeps getting gored by a bull. This show had like 7 or 8 episodes each of 2 and a half minute long. It’s hard to find nowadays but back in the day I watched them all. So since it is the only anime with a U I ever finished .. it’s on the list. But you can put Konosuba here instead if you really want.

V: Vampire Princess Miyu

Not a great show but a very solid middle of the roader that made for an enjoyable watch in my vampire phase. It was one of the first random anime I ever watched..except for the word vampire and was one that really introduced me more and more to Japanese culture. I do not have a ton to say abot this one as even considering Unko San this is the my least favourite of the list and there are better Vampire shows out there.. but if you  really want  to watch a show starting with a V you can do a lot worse as well! It has a nice mysterious and tormented main character, a plot that is a bit retro but still quite engaging and interesting visuals.  There is also a lot of pretty music in this show!

W: Wixoss

I thought the show was called Card Selector Wixoss but apparently it can be called Wixoss as well.  This show is something I really like a lot more than what it’s worth! This is a mix between the grim elements of Yu-gi-oh and the grim elements of Madoka.  What seems like an innocent cardgame ends up being the most sick and twisted game I have ever seen. If you win, you lose , if you lose you lose.  There is SOOO much darkness in this show and it is amazing.  It also has Card Battles? Heck yes! It seems like a weird but fun game and the fact that the characters are all female prevents that super dominant male energy I dislike from sneaking in. This show takes a little to get started but once it has you by the lady parts it doesn’t let you go until it is done. Since the original run of the show more content has released with new rules.. but just as dark of implications! I should really continue it sometime.

X: X- men Anime

For a little while there was a small project where western products got remade into anime. I think it was X-men, Blade and Wolverine, possibly Iron Man as well.  I watched the X-men show and really liked it. It had a grit about it and a interesting story about secondary mutation that tied into Jean Grey’s phoenix origins but this time influenced characters like Emma Frost. It was nice to see a different take on the western show and it really felt quite anime like. I loved the visuals and the colour usage. Maybe because I compared it to the 90’s cartoon but still… It is a nice quick watch and if you are an X-men fan it surely is worth a peek. Again I am sure there are purists that say “this isn’t anime” but to me it very much is! I experienced it AS anime so it IS MY favourite anime starting with an X. Also my only one.

Y: Yu-Gi-Oh (5D’s)

Originally I planned to let GX win but then when I was writing why I realised I liked 5’ds Better. I do agree that playing cardgames on motorcycles is dumb but the entire world building with organisations like Arcadia, the way the slums in Satellite worked, the importance of the five dragons, the signers, the prison tattoos it all mashed so well with that holographic technique. Kalin’s zero hand deck was super special, the dark signers were great and I felt so bad for people dying. It had sticking deaths, duelists forcefully having to kill their own friends and of course death races. The Synchro Summon mechanic also made the cheating characters had to go through a little less noticeable..even if they could grow cards out of thin air. The way people dialogue when summoning their synchro’s was super cool and the music was very strong in both the sub and the dub!  YuYuhakusho was a close contender, but I did not care for the last arc.. and Yu-Gi-oh once more is just more than just an anime. 

Zetman

Not sure how I got to see this one but I think it is the only anime with a Z I have ever finished maybe even watched. The story of two friends being placed in a fight for justice on oposite sites of the spectrum has always facinated me, I also like in in Owari no Seraph for example.. but this one was really visceral.. deaths were messy.. Innocent girls turn into monsters with no way of returning then are slain by the hero of justice, while the hero of dark befriended her..As the monster is cut in half we see her soul be cut in half as well as she yells out as she begins to fade away into the abyss.  Stuff like this made me really respect this series. It  had a bit of a devil may cry vibe.. with a Dante versus Virgil feeling (not talking about the DMC anime in this case but the the games) . What is right might not always be the good and what is good might not always be right. This is a theme that was heavily dominant in this show and you could easily side with both parties.  Yet are also gently nudged to look at things from different perspectives from time to time.Not all to special but hey it’s a Z!

Editting was a lot more work than I expected! I hope my taste has not made you unfollow! So now that you know my favourite anime from A to Z i’ll just slink of into a cold shower and ponder about Oban Star Racer a bit more! Have a great day and see you all soon!