Am I Blushing? Or is it the heat?! Sunshine Blogger Award 5 A Love Story

Hello Island Guests! Welcome back to my blog! Right now we are in a HUUUGE heatwave which is has me deal with temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius, which is in between 95 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  So this week I decided to take it a bit easy! I am catching up with by blog tags and not sticking to a rigid schedule!  So expect a lot of tags and fun light stuff. In this post we tackle yet another nomination for the sunshine blogger award.  Number six or so!  But this one is special! Not only was I nominated by my Senpai! It also it is one of the most creative version I have seen of this post!   So here goes!

The Rules

Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog so that other people can visit them.

Irina is a very important blogger to me! Her unique voice and her passion really make me look up to her and call her my blogging senpai. I doubt I even know anyone in the bloggosphere who doesn’t know Irina but if you haven’t go check out her site! If you do, you probably visit her daily anyway because that is how awesome she is! I feel like I pushed her away a bit recently.. so I do hope things will become super bright in the future!

Answer the 11 questions put to you by the nominator

I did this with great joy I loved this question line so sooo much! So thanks Senpai for offering this sunshine!

Nominate 11 bloggers of your choosing and provide them with a new set of 11 questions to answer.

No I am not going to do that! I will follow Rini’s style of questions and will nominate 3 people to keep the tag alive.. and if you want to play.. you can do so by telling you want in. I will edit this blog than to have relative links in as well! I have a feeling some of you would not like a post this quirky!

Notify the nominees by commenting on one of their blog posts

No to this as well, I do not like promoting my blog on other peoples posts by saying “you have been nominated” I do not mind saying stuff like “Oh recently I wrote a similar post” as it invites for talks..and exchanging ideas and saves on space.. but self promoting my tag posts is something I refuse to do! Also I want people to have their comments relevant! I tag a post instead of a block which means people SHOULD get a notification.

List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger Award logo within your post or on your blog site.

You see a job offer for a job you didn’t even know existed but is your dream career. What is it and how do you prepare for the interview?

Well clearly I have moved to the United States in that case because that job would be crew member of Critical Role.. with pay!  So social stuff surrounding it and their twitch as well! Basically what Marisha Ray does but less power woman.. more Pinkie!  Someone needs to play an adorable trickster gnome.. or a shy young elf girl who is afraid to socialise so instead she sends out a duplicate.  Critical Role for those who do not know is THE D&D webshow featuring Matthew Mercer and his team of nerdy ass voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons!  Now they are looking for an extra cast member that gets to do a lot of fan interactions! Wow I am so game for this.  

I would prepare by having build just a ton of amazing characters and introduce them all to them! Now that I gave up my position as a DM the need to roleplay has never been higher and come up with a few good promo’s as well. Perhaps even make something of a bit of a trailer so highlight what I could bring to the table.  Both as a player and part of critical role! With a bit of humor.. kind of like Barney Stinson’s video resume but geekier!  I do feel these guys have a lot of humor and most of all they have their hears in the right places and truly are fellow geeks! that is what I would like to appeal to with them because I think I can still shine there! Now I do need to invent a new word and tie it to myself! The video will not show up in WordPress Reader.

On your way to the interview, the most beautiful person you’ve ever laid eyes on trips and spills the contents of their bag all over the place. They are looking around obviously hoping someone would help but you don’t have a minute to spare. What do you do?

She is a Dojikko, probably slightly older than me, because I am done being the oldest.  I really need an energy that pulls me instead of me pulling them. She is lanky,  a bit awkwardly tall. Brunette with a tainted lock.. white , blue or purple.  er  bag is filled with knick knacks. Like Gachapon esque keychains.  Tissues but one in very colourful boxes or that have the picture of cute animals on it. She wears a long sleeve but embarrassed that I have to help her she pulls the sleeves over er hands and now it’s just sleeves. Her hair slightly dishevelled, eyes that are really pale underneath her slightly darker dominant hair tone. She is pale but a bit red with fluster. She wears glasses that really should have been thinned but she could not afford it so now it slightly warps the size of her eyes. Making them look bigger.. like anime eyes.  To me there is two kinds of beauty. 

There is the easy beauty and contains people I do agree are gorgeous.   People like Liv Taylor, Megan Fox.. the “I would not kick it out of bed”  type of beauty! Symmetrical, healthy looking and if you walk across the street holding their hands heads would turn.. I can appreciate that beauty but I experience ZERO attraction that that. True beauty to me.. is when you love something you know is a deviation of the status quo. Like how I like girls that are to tall or wear thick glasses. I want a girl that is too much of something. To chubby, to skinny, or whatever because that is beauty I know I am really drawn too. I could build a porn body.. but I prefer to love  something real.. something specifically would like.. this amazing person would probably be described as flawed in the common eyes.   

I definitely would help her, because I read ahead! I read question 10! I can be late! But yeah I want a job that thinks helping a person in need and showing up a minute late because I did is a good thing. We aren’t machines! I should not be a minute late because I stopped to smell some flower sure but if I helped! People should be like.. well done .. rather than.. YOUR late.  I would rush to help and look at them to see if she is embarrassed and if she is I would pick up a few things and tell a story on how I dropped my groceries and got tomato all over a dog.. or how I had this really great treat for myself and a dog ate it.. so I look like bigger fool than she does.  Groceries can be easily replaced and I want to make them feel better about themselves! It is quite beautiful to see that happen in a person. That chuckle and smile.. that regardless if you made a joke or were for real shows appreciation and hope that they aren’t the idiot they thought they were.

That evening, while you are casually walking home, you meet that person again and something compels you to go talk to them. What do you say?

If a am to be  myself I’d probably stare at them a bit dreamily and walk into a hedge, this time prompting her to save me.. I genuinely feel I am might not add value to others as they would to mine and that is something I can not talk myself out off. It’s a fear but people have confirmed this. Friends told me I stood in the way of their career.  I’d choose friendship over an career and that made them do the same.. and I was holding them back like that. I think I could to to someone’s party and nobody noticed I’d was gone.. but I do have a charisma I deny myself… but it’s a reactionary charisma. I respond well to people I don’t reach out well to them. Part of why I blog is because I would belief I have things to tell as well! I can talk to someone back no problem..but initiating a conversation.. is going to be difficult.

So  I’d probably place myself in a reactionary situation .. by purpose or accident and draw their attention to me.  If I HAD to act first..I’d probably just say Hi probably looking scared like a deer staring into approaching headlights. Then making inaudible noises or saying “nice weather for a walk.. in a way like I am reading a script as a really bad actress”   I’d not say Hey It’s you.. the girl who dropped her stuff.  I’d embarrass her again. I’d probably stutter a bit and ask her if she’s out for a stroll or something innocent.  I probably would not be Pinkie but Tomato right now though.

You suddenly realize you should introduce yourself and ask their name at the same time – what is it?

I really like names like that end with vowel sounds. Lucy, Mara, Erica, Charlie etc. I would however not take away that magic of hearing her name for me.. I caught the name.. but for onlookers and readers that is secret.. I just hear her name and introduce myself as Denise,  but her name it’s hidden.  

A Dutch singer and attempted politician Henk Westbroek once wrote a love song describing his perfect woman in super vague terms.. but he describes that feeling of being in love perfectly well. Saying that his girl seems so bright.. that even her shadow can blind him. The best line in that song.. and one of my favourite descriptions for being in love however is about names. Translated (so it doesn’t flow as well in English)   it says. Even your name is Beautiful. More Beautiful than that of anyone…..who shares that name with you. I LOVE that line. Whatever my new acquaintance name is..   let’s say Charlie as a placeholder name, her name is the most beautiful I have ever heard.. among all who share that name with her. Also Y.. I do count as a vowel sound. 

Your new very attractive acquaintance is chatting away happily and you can’t believe your ears. What are they saying?

Well judging by question 6 they aren’t talking about anime yet so that is out! So let’s say she mentions she was heading home from her walk to watch the Critical Role live stream which she then realises she overshared with and when I react like OMG did you see what Jester did .. she takes my hands and does two excited hops! OMG YES! I can’t wait to see what happens next.  Or maybe that she is hosting a D&D game herself that night.. something in that nature. I like it when girls have a hobby of their own .. something that isn’t particularly interesting to me but if they talk about it through great lengths because they are so passionate about it! Perhaps she can love plants and be ranting some amazing plant facts. Like how my dress would remind her of a pink flower and flowers become pink because it actually shares genes of red and white plants.. like it’s one of the few plants that actually can be crossbred. .so animal crossing is right? Something like that would be super cute.

Turns out they like anime. No way? What are the odds of that. Here’s your chance to appear all cool thanks to your deep anime knowledge. You lean in and confidently recommend this series.

School Live or Sweet Blue Flowers/Aoi Hana

Why?

I do not know her well enough yet because we have only talked for a few minutes based on the next question.  So it is hard to recommend something so I need a hook!  Sweet Blue Flower is something I can hook onto er earlier topic of gardening and it would further my agenda of putting a little yuri into her mind.. in a very cute and innocent way. Hoping they would identify with Fumi.  I could just go like “speaking about flowers” …  if the conversation doesn’t flow that way I’d probably recommend School Live. Because  reasons! I can’t spoil it without ruining the show! It offered such a unique viewing experience for me and I really loved it for it.  It is a great conversation anime and it has a few sad scenes that might prompt her into letting me cheer her up! Like me coming over for a hug.. or watch the rest with her so she has a shoulder to cry on .. or at least someone to share tissues with.

After a few minutes, almost 60 of them, your companion excuses themselves. It’s getting late and they did have some things to take care of. You reach around for an excuse to see them again. It worked as they are agree. Please tell us how you managed that!

I passed my charisma check?! Wow not sure how that happened , pretty sure I would convince her to go flower shopping with me.. like .. I do not have a lot of plants in house and I’d ask for er advice what plants I can put there with low maintenance effort. Like I would say.. we could go to the city together and she can help me pick out a few plants and I would buy her lunch for her time. Something like that.. that is kinda a date but not really a date. Like should things not really work we could just do our chore and I would gain at least a nice plant out of it. She could rant on her hobby and would get a lunch out of it. I know I am interested in her and I think she is in me.. but when I go on a date, date.. I always feel super insecure.. so I give her a purpose.. if things don’t work they can leave after without feeling awkward. If it’s fun we can both look for excuses to hang out more and we make our intentions pretty clear. 

I will go into a date mostly thinking.. what about if we fall in love and I have to kiss.. how would I approach that.. or thinking of a positive angle. I found out penty approach a date from a negative angle.. so if I give them nothing to lose. At worst they can feel good about themselves as they helped me cheer my place up. At best they notice I am clearly making excuses and just really want to see me as well. When you go out for drinks and are expected to woo each other, things feel very wooden and there is this awkward dance.. but if you have a secondary purpose.. you flirting is optional.. and the romance effort is less.. obvious so you can read intentions much more clear. Way less awkward! She would appreciate that as well.

It’s finally the day to meet them again, you have to make the perfect impression. How do you do that?

I’d probably find my pinkest dress, and put on a very nice perfume!  Like the expensive stuff.. not the cheap stuff I use when going out for minor things.  Lots and lot’s of time go in my hair and make up then as well.. I am very sucky at initiative taking or so I want to give off a signal that I dig her and I definitely look more dressed up than I need to be for buying plants. Not something overly sexy.. as that might push her away again.. but clear enough that I cleaned and brushed myself up a lot lot!..If she can read a little between the lines she’d know I probably did that for her. I’d also tell my friends and social circle.. to not bother me during that time.. so  I can give her my undivided attention.  It’s a shame but the number of times someone watches on a phone is a pretty solid  interest meter.. I want to not have to look at my phone.  I would make sure I am very much me though! I am not trying to look less weird than I am. I am not going to lie about my career.. I am jobless for the duration of this question and I would be open about it but tell her I might join Crit Role… which hopefully leaves a great impression as well.


Bean a friend of mine  really tries to cater to everyone when leaving a good impression. Wearing a decent dress, a social acceptable colour.. driving a car that makes you look decent and hang art on your walls even your mother in law finds respectable. I am not like that. If I had a car it would either look like a Duck or a Hippo, all art on my walls has some deep personal ties to me.. so it’s not just that hotel lobby art everyone has in their house.  On a first date a lot of people treat themselves like hotel lobby art as well. Talking about very standard things like “So do you have any pets?’  “What are your plans for the future”  En Masse we don’t ourselves in classic colours and socially acceptable outfits. I don’t want to make you like that false impression I want you to like me! I am prone to the little gift trope though.. like a cute plant she really liked.. or a adorable d20 dice. Like a nice personal little gift.. perhaps something geeky for in her garden.It symbolises willingness to put energy into the other for me.. and having things she associates with me in a good way does leave a good impression!  If we work out she could look at that dice and miss me.. or water the plant and think… Oh I should hang out with Pinkie again.

Turns out you miraculously got that job. You’re not entirely sure how that’s even possible but you’re not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. How do you celebrate?

I had to move to the US for said dream job so I probably do not have much friends there yet so I would call Charlie and take her out for dinner and drinks.I probably would break my twitter as well! The day I get my dream job will truly be celebrated… hungover the next morning style.  So maybe I’d actually play one of Irina’s drinking games with Charlie.  She’s into anime as well so that could be a great way to celebrate. I’d also treat myself to something I really want, like a game I desire or a figurine I always wanted. Maybe some crazy expensive steel dices. If possible something that fits in with the job I would get. So.. I most likely would play Irina’s drinking game and drunkenly order a figure I always wanted not thinking about the cost! I know I am going to need aspirin in the next morning.

Now that you have your dream fantasy job and a great relationship with the most attractive and surprising person ever, what’s your next move?

I finish my blog post and sigh! Ah would that not be wonderful?!   I walk to my bed, hug all my unicorns and Miss Luckybutt the Giant Micro Pig and put her on my lap as I write this final piece. One day we will meet our Charlie and if not I will always have this unique cute little fantasy! Now it’s time to eternalise this dream with some images and think up some questions for my nominees. Thank you Charlie you were a wonderful dream!

My Questions and Tags

Now it is time for my questions and I do like Irina’s narrative style so I  am blatantly copying it! It is a nice twist on the tag.

1. It’s a very nice day , you are returning home from doing something special, that you like to do but can’t do at your house! What is it? (Convention/A Date/ Shopping etc)

You are whistling a jaunty tune when the camera suddenly pans away from you.. unknown to you of course and we as an audience see it.. the famous anime truck! .. Or truck in anime… if you ever seen an Isekai you know exactly what I am talking about.  The Isekai truck!

2. What would happen that ends with you getting hit by said truck?!  (Save a kid, thinking to much about Yaoi, a Meteor struck and cut your leg off ..making you fall in front ot the truck etc)

You open your eyes and you are nowhere.. a warm glow appears in front of you and speaks with a familiar voice to you.. an almost indescribable.. but to you very familiar and pleasant feeling  entity appears to you.

3. Describe how this god of the new world looks like to you and how do they sound?!

Like always in a deep respectful voice they tell you, you have died but it was not your time yet so you will reborn in another world! But in trade for the inconvenience you can pick a boon! That will help you in your next life!

4. What is that boon?!

You are then send to your new world, it is a world you have always dreamed living in.

5. Describe that world!

Immediately you hear a squeaky voice.. in being teleported in you stepped on a tiny creature.. which is now sunken in the mud a bit. This will be your animal companion!

6. Tell us how it will look like and what you will call it.

You notice you have a bit of a warrior(or a fantasy class more accurately)  like outfit on.. an anime protagonist outfit.. h

7. How does the outfit look and what does it tell you about your combat abilities (Are you good with swords, axes, daggers, magic, laser weapons etc)

After seeing your new outfit you hear some towns people cry… their village is under attack.. being the newly reborn hero that you are..you of course rush over towards the town!

8. Describe the scene you see there and what is the first enemy you fight in this other world?

You saved the town and are hailed a hero! You are recruited into a group of heroes or mercinaries that allow you to travel across the world and do quests for them

9. What is the name of the organisation you join and why do you join them?

After numerous missions with this group and losing a few of these people in very emotional anime series they decide to give you a nickname… based on your fighting style and how you have grown as an anime character!

10. What is the nickname and why did they give it you. (This is a bonus question you could skip it)

Oh no! It is revealed the guild master… your boss was evil all along… or good if you decided to be evil.. anyway this DEFINITELY will  be in the Top 10 anime betrayals.They clearly  are your antagonist..even representing.. something or someone you hate in real life very much! There are strange parallels at work here!

11. Describe your Antagonist!  Give us a name a look and a motivation!


After a long and hard fought battle your anime series comes to a close and your antagonist lies defeated. Along the way you have fallen in love! But now that there is no more need for you, you need to make a decision.

12. Where will you go from here?

A) Will you go back home and find your worlds counterpart of the person you fell in love with?
B) Do you stay in the Isekai world and settle down with the person who stole your heart?
C) Do you keep wandering this world or a next one.. in search for evil or good to vanquish.. remaining ever alone .. but ever vigilant!

Since this tag is super strange.. I am not doing a lot of nominations just three! For reasons!
If you want to join! Just let me know and I will edit you into the list! Including links to your blog. So I nominate EVERYONE! A lot of people really only want to do this if they are tagged but just leave a comment and you can do this one!

Celestial Sparkles DOES get nominated because I promised to get my “revenge” for bouncing a nomination right back at me!
Anime and Fan Fiction gets a nomination because I am taking one of her..sorta tags but I am going to do my own thing with it so she can do that with this as well!
Raistlin gets nominated because he is sorta back! People should know! and rejoice!
Foovay gets a nomination as well because one of my pillows told me, she would really want to partake in these questions but would need to find a way and courage to ask for a nomination otherwise!

Of coursel like always all coconuts get auto nominated! A coconut is someone who supported me on Kofi.. so if for some reason you are to scared to comment you can also get yourself nominated by supporting my Kofi!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 14

My dear Island guests! It’s the end of the week again! So that means I watched a whole lot of anime like it is a Saturday morning cartoon program. Five shows with fake commercial breaks in between, set time slots (so if I am late I skip part of an episode) and a bowl of cereal! The past two editions quality was pretty amazing with over half the shows getting perfect scores! Unfortunately that streak ended this week!  I still had a good time watching my five shows but the overall viewing experience wasn’t as great. Let’s take a look at what we saw. Of course since these are episode reviews they will contain spoilers!

Digimon Adventure Episode 2

Digimon is a great way to start your morning and this second episode.. really surprised me!  I did expect to see what I ended up seeing. Other than that it was just perfect low brow entertainment befitting of a Saturday morning… with a seriously dark undertone though! Jeesz!

This episode is a direct continuation of last week. Taichi has just encountered Yamato while Koshiro tells them about the attack on the  United States army.  Inside the digital environment , Taichi and Greymon and Yamato and Garurumon have to rush towards the new location where the virus digimon are causing trouble. The “new kid” seems to know what he is doing but he has difficulty playing in a team and communicating with Taichi which causes some problems. As we cycle through a set of techniques and digimon forms from the viruses we discover the point of this hack is actually to fire a nuclear missile. The group is unable to stop the monster in time which keeps evolving. As the missile is launched it is headed towards Tokyo as a strange feather falls down on several places in town .. going to the youngest two digidestined of old but also to Koshiro.  As Garurumon and Greymon are about to be finished off.. we see blue and and orange lights swirl intermixed on their digivice… and we see….. OMNIMON?! Huh!?!

This episode was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I really liked the darkness of the ending. A nuke being fired at Tokyo killing Kairi , Toshiro and Taichi’s family in nuclear fire if they fail? Man that sure is concrete… and a very heavy consequence for episode 2 and a children’s show.  Greymon and Garurumon suffering defeat this early on is also very powerful! It establishes this show is something completely different from the old Digimon Adventures. I like how characters are more defined into a role. Yamato clearly has much more of a road to travel.  The old one was a jerk but he was pretty easy to lean into the group dynamic making his crest of friendship an easy journey. Here it seems a much more tangible element.    I also like how the enemies seem to have more of a style. While it does make them more interchangeable with the plot being chosen so far I can really see this being much more of a designed attack. While it is still monster of the week-like it feels much less so due to recurring design.. it feels much more like a designed attack which makes this the most high stakes digimon series from the get go I have seen so far. I also like that we only see hints of the other digidestined drizzled in. Kyoshiro’s laptop had an effect and the feathers were a thing but it’s not all.. bam! Happy group here and ready. These guys don’t bond over years we never saw.. these guys bond over a experience we also experience and thus I feel their characters are all much stronger already.

Yamato’s personality however also puts the first half of this episode in some trouble. He says nothing.. so we only see him say like.. Watch out! GO!, or “where do we go” . It creates a bit of a weird dynamic where the new character being introduced is basically just “shown” we learn nothing about him. We SEE Takeru so we assume is in Tokyo as well.. but I have doubts. He did not seem as startled, does he even know of Takeru?! Do they even live in Tokyo? We don’t know anything he is just there. While the fighting in digimon never looked as good and fluent as this did.. by having the villain constantly evolve all previous fights are basically nullified unless they took lessons out of them.. and to be fair .. they didn’t really. In te penultimate phase..which is in the second half of the episode they begin to sync up and come up wit some more advance tactics but the first half is just about shooting fireballs or blue fire beams.  Which in the end do not do anything..so it felt a bit wasted. Entertaining time waste but still time wasted. It’s not bad but if you did not see the first 15 minutes of this episode you would have not missed anything establishing. So I would  have loved to see maybe a shadowy figure of an evil guy telling the virus to hold on.. or sending it some energy to evolve. Maybe have Yamato spout a line that he only trusts one person.. or give us a gander at where Joe and Mimi are.

It’s still a nice episode but clearly less than the first episode! The Omnimon reveal in the end is super cool but only if you know who Omnimon is. Also the design still has Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon arms so .. how is that explained?!  I know DNA digivolution is something else..  but if you are not a fan of the series this reveal might not have any impact. Also DNA there a very much visual clues for a fan.. but if you are new to the franchise or joined in post Adventurers you might be very confused to what happend. I am a fan though and the reveal was pretty cool!  Regardless how it happend! I want to know more! So with that in mind my score is quite favourable for this episode! But lower than last episode.

Samurai Flamenco Episode 9

Another mixed bag episode for me! On the one hand I really loved WHAT happened but I kinda hate HOW it happened. There was this air of negativity surrounding this episode that just made EVERYONE super petty or bratty save for one character. When everyone acts unlikeable you are going to have a hard time making a likeable episode.

In this episode we make another time jump. Masayoshi has been steadily dealing with monsters and is becoming arrogant over it. He deals with them with more and more ease. Even so much ease the Flamenco girls just bailed. He can do this by himself. No one has died since the Gorilla and all monsters just end up exploding once Samurai Flamenco is done with them. The people now rarely react to monsters anymore. So when Branding Piranha shows up which tosses like poisonous business cards .. everyone sees it as a hassle for their own reasons. Masayoshi gets smug, Mari gets resentful and challenges Lord Torture and Goto is fed up with doing te paperwork and quits working with Samurai Flamenco. Mari tries to seduce him after he scolds her for trying to provoke the dark lord.. but as he refuses her again she pouts and sulks for te remainder of the episode.  Mister Konno, the tv guy who tried to unmask Samurai Flamenco gets captured by King Torture and his mind twisted near the end..and ends up betraying Flamenco Diamond’s identity to King Torture. Samurai Flamenco is summoned to fight is final battle against him but is stopped by henchman! Jun.. the gadget guy however steps in and fights in his place as he Masayoshi dashes off on his bike to save Mari.

What this episode does great is tying in consequences to the actions of the characters. They had a few episodes everything was going great and now they have to deal with the fallout of that. No one really appreciates a hero anymore when it becomes that common. The show shows how tv and reality work differently. This is best seen in my favourite scene! When the Torture Boys try to stop Samurai Flamenco when he is heading towards King Torture. He scolds them for being bad henchman being very annoyed. They tell him that they are very passionate about being evil.. so even if they are deemed of grunts they all dream of taking him down. Just because their leader wants to fight him too doesn’t mean their dreams and ambitions suddenly stop!  Great! This is the writing I want from this show and it is in here pretty deep! Jun stepping up with his gadgets to take these people down spouting lines like! Do NOT  underestimate STATIONARY are great and remember me why I fell this in love with this show!  The fact that the hero doesn’t remember all the villian names is also great. It’s like Sentai actors who forget monsters they fought because most monsters are just total pushovers and leave little impression even if they do with a crowd.  There is a lot of subtle references to tropes and expectations here that are being challenged and it was time for that. The narrative timing of this show is impeccable as always.

However the smugness people got over them in this episodes makes me care little for people. Mari’s envy getting her captured and tortured feels deserved, Masayoshi being shown some sentai tropes do not stick up in real life feels earned..but as a result there is no tension. Everyone in this episode except for Jun..who is the hero of this episode for me.. felt very shallow and deserving of the bad things that happened to him.  The fact that Masayoshi is just annoyed at the henchmen who stop him..instead of panicked he might not make it to Mari in time.. kills suspense though. The episode is to somber to be funny and that is fine.. but everyone is to flawed to be forgiven for their mistakes. Akira Konno, Masayoshi, Mari and even Goto all react super petty at several things and my least favourite moment is how King Torture made Akira flip over by simply saying.. it will give more interesting tv if you turned evil here!  Think of the entertainment value.  This is explained a bit trough that he got to know how the man works trough torturing him for hours, but the calmness of the flip made it feel a bit forced.. it does play in my theories though!  So we will see next week how things go!  I could have done without this episode if I am honest. It’s not bad but all the main characters took a bit of damage for me! 

Had they at least kept Masayoshi a bit more pure or Goto a loyal supporter I would have probably liked this episode a whole lot better. If they did not have Jun step in and fight the Torture Boys I would have given this episode a grade lower and it would slip into the “bad”  third of my review system. I love the world building..but I hate what they did with the characters this episodes! It does look like they are on their way to redemption so I doubt the bad taste will stick..but this might be my least favourite episode of the show yet.. as it did deliver what I wanted to see.. but in a way I really did not enjoy.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 8

Man I was not ready for this! I half expected to see what I was about to see.. but it was an episode where I constantly fought a battle against tiers.. and then Eren made me lose that battle.  Hard. Wow… I did not expect to cry over a show like Slime.

The plot of this episode is all focussed on how adorable slime Rimuru gets the body he has in the opening. I had seen it had to much similarities to Shizu  to be a coincidence but I had hoped for a slightly more light hearted explanation than what we got. Shizu is dying after having her Ifrit removed from her.. having unfinished business she asks Rimuru to hear her out.  A bunch of exposition is given about the powerful demon lord, Leon Chromwell. We mostly see what she did with her life after that. How she met another Iskaid character.. like I already expected.. that thought her about Dragon Quest. We see her attempting a few things but failing at most things which she did in live.. even though she also had some great successes she recounts herself mostly trough her failures. As she starts to slip away from live she asks Rimuru to eat her..saying she does not want to decay in this world she had come to despise so much she does not want to be absorbed into it. Rimuru agrees and swears he will fufill her final wish and get her existence at least acknowledged by Leon Cromwell. The girl dies and Rimuru and her party say their final goodbyes as she is send into a perfect dream of meeting her mother again.  She is gone.. and now Rimuru has a new mission!  As we see a plague doctor like figure give an Orc a name and tell him he is Gleb or something.. the one that shall conquer Jura Forrest.. which is where Rimuru and his clan live. A new phase of adventure is about to begin! 

Man seeing Rimuru turn into  a human body just so he can cry tears over the lost Shizu was hard enough.  Seeing everyone shocked over her loss made me all misty eyed as well.. and seeing a woman die seemingly young..upset that she did not achieve what she wanted hit very close to home for me! It was not an experience I minded though..I just did not expect it. I fought against tears and I was winning. But when her old party asked Rimuru to transform into a human I was like.. oh they hug him for everything he has done for them.  When they used it as a way to say goodby to Shizu and talked to her and thanked her for everything they had done for them I knew I wasn’t going to win the battle anymore. When Eren then broke into tears… I followed suit. In fact I cried again just writing this review. This one really hit me right in the heart. Dying a failure is a big fear of me and the whole, wanting to say goodbye to someone..in such a way was really beatifull to me. Everyone got closure. Everyone moved on pretty fast sure.. but it’s a fantasy world.. people die a lot.. so it made enough sense.. they had their closure.. they thanked her from saving them from those big ants.. and for being their party member and that was enough.. it might be my favourite scene in Slime so far.. and I love how the fantasy world this show creates feels quite down to earth.
This was a great goodbye.

I am not  sure if the death was necessary to tell a tale  and her flashing back telling her tale felt kinda fast paced.. but she knew she was running out of time.. so it makes sense it was going fast as well , so I am not sure if I really have negatives to tell.  Eren doesn’t look great in her white mage like outfit it doesn’t seem to match her colour-scheme and design all that much, then again she is an ice mage.. but yeah ..that would be a nitpick!  Their story is probably closed now at least for a long while. I don’t think I will see them again in season one but I might be wrong..these characters really grew on me so while I said before I did not like them much..that has completely changed. I do feel Rimuru will leave the village behind after stopping the orc next episode so with that said I do feel like there isn’t much being done with that but I might be wrong. While I do love the set up of the bigger story the tinier subplots like building the village and the minor characters, they are parked a lot.. but it would not have fitted this episode either.. they should have done it before.

If an anime can make you cry it is doing something right. I would not cry for characters I did not care about and this show made me cry three times. Once during the viewing..once when writing my positives and even made me sniffle when I thought about crying for the characters typing these lines just now. I assume people dislike this episode .. but I cried..it was a good cry! I had closure in the end and it was a nice way to end a three episode arc.. in a more powerful way than i could have ever imagined.. it sets up plenty plot for the future as well .. so I can only give this my highest praise! 

Flip Flappers Episode 4

The fourth episode was the one that broke the perfect streak it had going so far! It still scores very high in my book but it slipped up a few times to many here to be the absolute best. It did not help it came after such a powerful other episode of it’s own AND Slime either.

In this episode Flip Flap established Papika and Cocona are out of Sync. This causes them to land in different spots which made them lose the important artifact to the other organisation and Yayaka’s group. To prevent this they must live together for a few days.. so from so from Friday till Sunday they will have a sleepover..which Cocona first calls a camp to patch up issues.. not for fun.. but as Papika is her usual self and shows her more and more wonders, around the school and later even on a deserted island Cocona warms up more and more to the weird girl.. although with some reluctance. She starts to respect the much more feral girl as she managed to turn a sewer pipe into a cozy but weird little house,  some weird vegetables she doesn’t even know into food.. and even can survive in the wilderness no problem. Cocona is confronted with her own shortcomings and realises Papika is very much an addition to her as they grow closer. The sinking of Papika’s rocket board leads them to having to escape by building a raft that quickly manages to get sucked up in pure illusion. In a Myriad of colours instead of getting blown apart the two now hold hands as they venture into a new adventure together saying they will never let go of each other!

I love this show! I love this show I love this show! Even when the episode is a bit weaker I can not help but to adore it. It does flirt around with one of my least preferred tropes.. and that is the “doubt of the partner trope”. You know “I only do this to save the world”  and claiming not to enjoy their company while the last three episodes proved otherwise. Where it shines though is in the fact that it doesn’t linger on that. Cocona is depicted throughout the episode more as someone who reluctantly accepts Papika only to find out more and more that she needs Papika in her live as much as Papika needs her. She is the brain while Papika is the heart. She is the break that keeps Papika in check.. or functional while Papika keeps her alive and while not very well adjusted in her own way she is just as skilled as Cocona.  In fact Cocona even begins to look up to her.. we are shown her limits on the deserted island.. which is my favourite scene. We are shown that these girls are not like each other and will most likely not change that much.. they need each other compliment each other and that’s what makes them such a great pair. They really do fit together like heads and tails on the same coin! With the exception of Papika’s house the colours are a lot more real as well..there isn’t anything strange going on. Showing us that this bond is not just needed in Pure Illusion but also in real life as well. 

The downside of this episode comes for me in the form with how Feral Papika is. She is almost a Tarzan to Cocona’s Jane.  While adorable it also dehumanises Papika a little.  At times she can almost seem more like a pet. Like A Pikachu to Cocona’s Ash..even though Uexkull and Bu-Chan are also there.  Papika isn’t THAT simple. Also what happened with Cocona’s need for glasses?! She doesn’t wear them at all anymore. It kind of invalidates Papika’s effort in episode 1. I would like to see some equality in that relation .. we constantly see Cocona huffing and puffing at Papika’s action but I would like to see Papika depicted as slightly less of a simpleton.. who doesn’t blindly love Cocona.. it’s nice she is a counterpart but I would love to see how she gets upset that Cocona doesn’t like spending time with her as the other way around. In the last episode we saw glimpses of that.. we could see Cocona shutting herself out because of doubt. or  maybe doubting Papika’s soup hurt the soft orange haired girl. The Cocona she adventured with would not say that or something.  Instead she is a bit over simplified and to me feels a bit like a puppy following her master. I do think more highly of her though so I think she is sold short by showing not even being able to tie a scarf.. even if it results in a super cute scene. 

Regardless of the route they walk I do really love this show still if Papika is a puppy she will is still a puppy I love! My gripe is more so that I do fully sense the equality the show is trying to aim for.  I hope this will fix itself as the show goes on.. if it doesn’t I am still perfectly fine watching the show.. but in episodes like this it will be fairly noticeable.  I still found it very very good but where the rest of the episodes really gelled for me.. this just sold a character slightly short!  So it gets a slightly lower grade than the other three episodes. Can’t wait for more though!

Hikaru no Go Episode 14

The long awaited third match between Akira and Hikaru. I knew Hikaru should not be able to win as it would cause narrative problems.. and while it was a very dramatic episode..what some might see as a nitpick or a misinterpretation from me .. really soured this episode for me and it all has to do with worldbuilding. 

There is not that much plot to discuss in this episode! Kaze Junior High is playing Akira and his buddies and they soon find out they are getting more than they bargained for. While Akira finally gets his rematch against Sai we see he is super nervous.  When Hikaru notices the change in the eyes when Akira plays Sai.. a moment of clarity causes Hikaru to take over the match from Sai.. trying to see how far Hikaru stacks up to Akira instead.. which of course he doesn’t. Sai is surprised by Hikaru’s initial play and allows him to make his own mistakes once more he spots the raw seeds of talent in the young boy  but has to acknowledge he is not there yet! Akira consumed by rage that this was not the match he was looking for makes Hikaru cry and walks away crying himself.  Tsutsui and Mitani also get dominated in their matches and cry over their loss as well. They did not stand a chance. Kaze High now being eliminated must now come to terms with their loss and Akira must leave knowing this was not the match he wanted. Everyone.. lost this day that much is clear from the episode. 

Since I know there are well over 60 episodes left into this series alone, and there is a second, I knew this is how the story had to flow. Something like this had to happen given how much the show had focussed on Akira. The grim everybody loses atmosphere made for a very very powerful statement. It left everyone with goals to strive for. Sai allowing Hikaru to play was a nice call from the spirit as well, which really endeared me to him. He wants to perfect the godhand trough Hikaru but to that he realises he has to let Hikaru bloom but also fall. He has to show Hikaru how much he still has to grow.. so Hikaru himself can improve. He really feels like a man with a mission and the way Hikaru seeing that golden spot was depicted on the camera, with a little beam of light brought back memories of episode 6.. the beautiful duel which still is my favourite episode. This simple visual showed us how Hikaru is beginning to blossom as a player. Akiri crying for the loss of her team members was kind of beautiful to. She saw them shake and struggle and can’t help but feel for them. She is just such a trooper and I am really glad she is there. She makes it so that this is not only about personal pride but also about their little clique! This episode is super important for the future of the show and that much is made clear. There is very much a weight to this all.  I can easily see people really liking this episode. Unfortunately it all came crumbling down for me due to a very simple situation.

At one point Hikaru can be heard thinking to himself that 11-8 would be the perfect next move to  make while Sai has to think. Until now Sai has always been able to understand Hikaru when he had thoughts like this.. but this one he misses.. because he is thinking?!  That already feels a bit weird but when Hikaru makes an interesting move ..instead of complimenting Hikaru he also does not communicate with him. Hikaru wants to see how well he stacks up with Akira.. but he knows exactly where his strength lies. He is not able to defeat Tsutsui.. he says this several times.. so measuring this gap.. seems odd. Instead I think it would have made more sense to let them play a hybrid match. Where Hikaru made that move and Sai could show him how stones flowed afterwards. Instead without communicating he just lets Hikaru suddenly take the loss. At least establish this with a small conversation.. or give him some advice.. 

I do really get  Hikaru wants to play and that seeing how far he is away from Akira is something he’d want to know.  Yet a minute before he SAYS Akira is totally out of reach.. so it really feels Akira had to take the win here for the story to continue. There were better ways.. Have Hikaru play a few bad moves and and let him realise is out of reach but when he wants to resign Akira resigns instead.. saying if he won’t give him the match he wants.. he won’t take the win either.  Having Akira take the in here feels extremely detrimental.  Sai not hearing Hikaru’s move and playing off it and making it more interesting also feels against the rules we know so far. I really disliked it. With just a SMIDGE of communication this could have been so much more interesting and much more a lesson than it was now!


While the episode in theory is very well written for the sake of the story, I felt it was written throughout. Where in the past few episodes these characters felt like real people in this viewing to me they were anime characters throughout.  Maybe I know little of honour and pride in games..but in no way the events of this battle felt natural to me.. it felt like they needed to happen but with what characters said, how their “bond “ works and what characters know about their own strength, this felt did not feel like part of the same story for me. Stuff happens because it had to happen.. it did that but I can’t give it more than just an okay for doing so.

With that the week is done again! All in all I had a nice view but the extremely high quality of the last two weeks  made me a bit spoiled for what was to come today! The 40 degrees out there might not contribute to enjoyment either so do take this review with a grain of salt as I am somewhat uncomfortable. I also had an annoying little wound on my foot so I had a bit less chill than before!

On a personal level not a lot happened!  A few days break did me some good and all sort of good stuff happened when I got back.  I have been playing a lot of Divinity Original Sin 2  now nearing the end and been I’ve also wrapping up my playthrough of Pokémon Sweet 2th, that’s not a great pokemon game.  I went swimming for the first time in a long while last Friday and got a Chinese soup fondue at the end it felt nice to be out for a bit.  I struggled for a bit with mental stuff but this week would be very much in the theme of recovery! I had a great week even if it was uneventful. Little by little we are crafting happiness!  Next week we should see Kuro’s first post and maybe even the introduction of another staff member! I am quite a happy camper! A half melted happy camper but a happy camper non the less!

If you per chance would like to prevent me from melting further! Please consider supporting my Kofi so I can buy a fan and some ice-cubes! If you do not have money to spare, a like or a blog follow will also do! I have to put myself back together again for my fans so don’t feel free to just leave a comment or anything positive! I hope you had an amazing weak and will have a even better next one!


I tribute summon this Retro Review: Yu-Gi-Oh Stairway to the Destined Duel

I like older games! So I write a lot about older games! The game I am replaying today is one of those games, you just sink so many hours into.  I truly adored this game when I was a little Pinkie, nothing made me happier than just wailing endlessly on Mokuba with my Slate Warrior and Harpie’s Brother! Which now is named Sky Scout! Yu-gi-oh changed..so has my perception of this game? Let’s find out!

Back to Battle City

Stairway to the destined duel is a Gameboy Advanced only game that came it mid April 2003 around the world. In this game you play a nameless protagonist without any sprite of their own.. as you see through their eyes in a visual novel esque way. You  travel across Battle City to defeat duellists and compete in tournaments hidden all over the map. Each day of the week you can travel a bit, and interact with one location. Each duellist you have beaten gives you a choice of a card pack to improve your deck with.These opponents usually are the series staples such as Yugi, Joey and Kaiba. Of course there is also a number  the famous opponents such as Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood and Mako Tsunami. In total the roster contains 23 opponents you can face and everyone of them uses their themed decks.. which gradually improve like yours as time goes on. Your goal is to find and duel all five Ghouls before having a showdown with Marik for the faith of the world.. but there is so much more to do.

Unlike the story driven GBA games  “The Sacred Cards”  and “Reshef of Destruction” there isn’t much plot to follow. By winning duels and by being  at certain spots on the map in particular days you unlock stuff. New duelists become available if you win or lose against opponents or get specific cards, Rare Hunters, show up at certain days in certain areas. It is all very random and casual. You pick this game up , not because you want to complete it or rush to the ending you pick it up because you want to play a few duels. It should be noted that this is in the classic Yu-Gi-Oh erra. When I say classic I do mean classic. This game doesn’t go much further than the Labyrinth of Nightmare Booster packs which was only the fifth ever series of booster packs ever to be released. It was really the age of the anime and as such I think it works better if you see this as an anime game than a yu-gi-oh tcg game. At least nowadays there are plenty of “more expansive” games to collect cards in. While the options feel quite limited today I must say some elements really pleased me. More so than some later instalments of the series. 

It’s time to D-D-D-Duel

What makes this game stand out is how fast it actually plays. With only 1000 trading cards and effect monsters , and your extra deck being limited to fusions thi game has to make very little checks! It shows.. these duels are paced so nicely! Coming of Reverse of Arcadia, on of the alleged best Yu-Gi-Oh games I must say that dueling in this classic game feels so much snappier. The quick play spells or constant monster effects are sparing so we do not get that “AI”  lag later games have to reveal that they have something activatable on their field or in their hand. Later games have this prompt you press to skip activation points for a certain card. For example the spell card Rush Recklessly can be activated anywhere in a battle. Mystical Space Typhoon is a quick play spell and Solemn Judgment can negate any cardplay. When you know a bit about the card game you can tell when a trap card is not going to be something scary like “Mirror Force”  if your opponent stalls.  While the player can skip triggers.. the AI can not and you see it think to activate a card.  It can result in matches feeling very stally!  So pacing wise..with maybe an exception for Legacy of the Duelist, this is the game to play.

The story based games often also have save points while in this game you can just pick up your GBA,  play two matches while you wait for your pizza to come out the oven and put it away. This is what I loved so much about the game and this is why to this day I love it so much still. There is a simplicity to it that Duel Links used to emulate, but in a much more greedy money hungry way. If you want a good and nice old classic deck..You just have to pick it up and play! Within a minute after booting  the game up you are already in the first turn of your duel and can play some nostalgic matches and little by little improve your deck! All duellist differ enough from each other to also play for a bit longer if you say prefer but the monotone basic graphics might make that a bit of an underwhelming experience in the long run. Dealers choice though! With just 1000 cards to collect this is also THE Yu-gi-oh game to start with when your new to the game. Yes you mis Xyz summons, yes they haven’t heard of synchro’s and hell no there aren’t any pendulum or link summons.. so there is still more to learn.. but this game off all the Yu-gi-oh games I think is best equipped to teach you the core mechanics in a very easy way. I had no rulebook but I learned to play Yu-Gi-Oh just from this game alone bu looking at all the visual clues and text you can get far. 

Obviously knowing how to play will let you get further. For example the character Mokuba is unlocked by losing five duels. Tiny Pinkie unlocked him right away , as she stumbled to learn the rules she took quite a few losses. Nowadays Pinkie however has much more insight in how to play cleverly. Sending Dark Magician to the graveyard seemed bad when I was young.. but now with Premature Burial in my deck and Monster Reborn, I rather have it in the grave than in my hand. Now I know with Change of Heart I can steal a monster.. but I should not just swing in with it because after one turn I lose control! I better use that stolen monster to tribute summon. I am only one Hunter or maybe two away from facing the “final boss”  and I have yet to unlock Mokuba in my current run. Which does bring me to the downsides of the game.

Trap Hole

This game was made in a time that people didn’t completely understand the whole mechanics behind Yu-Gi-oh yet! It was fairly new and there wasn’t t THAT much of a Meta. You played a deck because you thought it was cool and you made it work. Now people realise to keep their deck very small and utilize your graveyard. It isn’t bad to have monsters be in your graveyard. Combos like stealing a Maha Vailo (who has an effect to gain 500 attack when he is equipped with something)  with Snatch and Steal.. weren’t familiar yet.. but they are now!  As a result I find this run to be somewhat too easy. I only lost to Kaiba, Joey and Ishizu so far and have almost five victories on everyone so far. And that was upon my first writing this post Since my margins have increased a lot further. The Duelists do get stronger as time passes.. but I can’t help but feel they are meant to grow alongside you.. if you are already grown they do seem a bit amateurish. To be fair Joey, Yugi, Ishizu, Kaiba Odion, Pegasus  Bandit Keith and Meric.. heck even Tea for some reason can give a run for your money but if you understand how their deck works , which isn’t that hard..it is pretty easy to build in counters.

Tiny Pinkie for example used to love to play “The Bistro Butcher” which is a 1800 attack four star beater card, which meant you can summon it directly and in 2003 there weren’t a lot of higher beaters out there. It had an effect as well which was super cool! Butchers forces your opponent to draw two cards, which could lead to decking out! Deck destruction in the anime was always depicted as something really brutal and all, but giving them +2  is actually great for them. It’s like paying 1800 life points for Pot of Greed…which is still legal in this game as well., But while it dealt massive damage it also boosted my opponents hand. Now that I know to avoid it and play seven coloured fish instead I take almost to little of a beating. It doesn’t mean I flawlessly win all the time (though my deck is approaching that point)  but yeah.. I know how to play Yu-gi-oh and getting a pack with a chance of good cards after every match is quite a lot like the easy mode. Later games like Reverse of Arcadia. give you money from which you can buy packs! I have a lot of trouble beating that game! Mostly because of the plethora of useless cards to pull with a more finite resource!

I am not sure if I want to call the card reward a negative though.. it does mean I can really see my deck get better after a particularly lucky duel and that made me a lot happier than the lucky draws in later games ever did. It makes the game easier.. but now each duel feels so much more rewarding..So I will keep this as a pick your poison. If you want a challenge you are better of elsewhere! If you want to have fun with deck building and feel like a bad-ass for whooping Kaiba’s butt! This is your game! It is really rewarding for playing and I do really love that about this game! It lacks a bit of love in the translations though! There are a few weird dialogue lines, there are typo’s and Tea gives her sub Japanese name as they forgot to change it. I kinda chuckle at the these.. old retro games did this all the time and I am happy to see it on occasion! But if you want a sleek experience..Legacy of the Duelist once more is the better option. I find these flaws.. to give it some soul!

What IS a negative though is the huge amount of RNG. For example there is a contest called the target competition in which you are given two duelist you need to face and defeat.  All duelist randomly walk across the map like you and I am not  fully sure if everyone is there every day, but whether or not you find that specific guy  or not really depends on where you decide to stroll too. The same goes for the elimination tournament.. it will be held on Fridays on a “secret” location If you aren’t on a space adjacent to a tournament on Thursday.. you can not compete. Not that winning tournaments does much anyway you just get a more “weighted” back with some chance to find rare cards. Yet again this reward is RNG. I was lucky to get a Jinzo very early on which really made dueling easier and I really want to use it against Odion just for a laugh! Yet the rare hunters that show up..start on random days and the one you do encounter is… you guessed it RANDOM! This is forgivable since the game is basically made to just pick up and play but if you want to beat Meric and get it over with.. you really should know.. in this game you are playing with more RNG than anime version Joey Wheeler.

Like i said earlier the textures can be a bit boring as well. The overworld map is  fine but its just a map with some icons on it and your duel background is just a pyramid wall. Monster art is only visual on a basic attack animation and cards are just represent as rectangles in their colour with a black square. This can make it easy to not notice a monster has been tributed and you attack into a to powerful monster or you  swap your monsters and thought Battle Ox was left and Giant Rat was on the right.. while in truth it was the opposite and you see your Rat kamikaze against Alligator Sword by accident. Again though I am not really sure if I mind I like having  to check the field and be on my guard.. it keeps my head in the duel. In Legacy of the duelist where you can see every monster crystal clear it is easy to check your messages in between an opponent thinking if it should activate Rush Recklessly on your draw phase but here.. if I look away and miss Mako tributing his 700 attack point fish for a 2300 attack ocean monster and attack into it.. it could lose me a duel. The lack of animations can get kinda boring but it also keeps the pace of the game up. This game is my favourite paced yu-gi-oh of the all.. so I am not sure if I would trade that away. As long as I keep playing this game in short bursts this is fine!

King of Games

All in all I do not think Stairway to the destined duel has aged all that poorly!  It is not a game you’ll want to play to play some modern yu-gi-oh.. but I am going to be honest here.. modern day Yu-Gi-oh is not fun to play anymore anyway. One Turn Kill Decks,  Turns that last half an hour due to all sorts of activations and combos, flooding the field in a single turn.. it has turned Yu-Gi-Oh away from a battle field where people deal blows each turn.. to people tossing stuff on the board and them making it go boom in a single turn maybe two. This to me is the Yu-Gi-Oh i like to play.. a style that would linger up until the early synchro days.
This is nothing to the actual trading card game.. but this plays pretty darn close to how the anime feels. If you want to feel like an anime character without having t o deal with stupid changing banlists, (I do not know why some games did that)  and take on the King of Games of old.. if you want to learn how Yugioh works.. this is still my highest recommendation! Jus run Seven Coloured fish over The Bistro Butcher!

It is intuitive, you keep oversight , characters look and act like themselves and there are a few hilarious glitches and exploits to take advantage of! Tea introducing herself with her japanese name but after that going back to Tea.. using cards to break the return to owner effect of Change of heart .. and other fun stuff is there for you to try.This is one of those games that might be to easy but you can just play with a more gimmicky deck! There is a lot of fun to be had with this old cartridge and I will be playing it on and off for a while I think!
I will go play a few matches and play my own Blue Eyes White Dragon! Let’s go WHITE LIGTHNING ATTACK!

Do note that this review is from a very specific standpoint! There are plenty of reasons why this game could score much much lower. For what this is however, being a callback to the purest and classic Yu-gi-oh , with a retro feel to match I do very much stand by my view! What is your favourite Yu-Gi-Oh game?! Have you even played any?! I am considering buying Legacy of the Duelist for Switc and reviewing that for you was well. Want to see that happen than please consider supporting my Kofi page!


STAFF Introduction: Kuro the Bartender!

My Island Guests today is a special day! Today I shall introduce you to the first of my STAFF members , who will come join the team! Please all put your hands up for Kuro Let’s take a peek!

Little Bar of Horrors

Kuro joined my staff wanting to serve you refreshing cocktails of content. With ambition and boundless creativity this addition to the team will offer you one mean son of Pina Colada! If you like they can also offer you a derriere-whooping in games like Overwatch and they laugh at the challenge of Seikoro or Dark Souls…. Kuro is for real! So  straight away we can see why they will compliment the team very well! They aren’t much like me! Which is a very good thing because when it comes down to me being me, no one can beat Pinkie! She really the best Pinkie! Kuro definitely is the better Kuro though! I imagine them being a bit like Sebastian Michaelis ,one hell of a Bartender.  Their content cocktail speciality will be the Write-Tai cocktail!  For those who do not know what is the cocktail in which we explore stories we have written ourselves. Be it based on other properties , like fan fiction or completely original stories. Kupo’s  Write-Tai’s will usually be spiced with flavours of the orient. In particular flavours of the land of the rising sun… so you weebs and otaku are in pretty good hands here!

Stories can vary of course but Kuro has a taste for the dark! With a slight hint of opiates in their cocktails, much like in the classic Absinth of From Hell is to be believed, Kuro will bring us tales and spookums that play with the human mind. That sounds so much more impressive than anything I do already! So I do hope you all keep rooting for your Pinkie girl as well.So please be kind to me as well. As one of the island bartenders Kuro will have some strong tales to tell, some drinks to mix and they know exactly what  tanning beds at the pool will get occupied by hot anime girls!  Kuro is only the first joining the team! They will soon be joined by possibly a cleaning fairy and a security office. Contract negotiations for them are still pending though so we might find out they other talents as well!  Kuro’s talents however are already pretty well defined!  Kuro is a specialist in psychological horror! They even have their colour in their favour! Kuro is Japanese for black for those who don’t know and if there is a colour I tie to Japanese themed psychological horror it’s black! … and red.. but they have a lot of red details on their chibi so hey!  Great design from them!

Get to know Kuro

So today’s post will not be a long one! I have a day at the water planned and a massive 38 degrees Celsius which is 100 degrees Fahrenheit heatwave making things miserable for me. So it is okay to coast! But do you know who never coasts? That’s right it’s Kuro! Not only do they play their Soulsborne games and keep trying their utmost! Besides writing for Paradise they also are a part of team Kawai Paper Pandas. That’s right! Our Kuro is none other than Tsubaki Kuro! Blogger AND Novelist! Now that is dedication to the craft. Meanwhile I abandon you to play in the water for a bit! So aren’t you all glad you have a little Kuro in your life as well! Black as a colour really harmonises with pink as well so Kuro is also fashionable! Most important they are a coconut as well! That’s right they supported my Kofi and got a coconut representative as well. Check out Camp Coconut if you do not know what that is! So to those asking the question.. I want to be a coconut but also join the STAFF as well.. what do I pick?! You can do it all!

We are a happy little community that support each other. Come on and geek with us in the comments , twitter or  twitter! That’s right Tsubaki Kuro/Our Kuro has a twitter as well!  You should totally check it out to see some really funny.. but also at times slightly ‘naughty” stuff.  When I do say naughty do note that it is being said from the perspective of a Demisexual..it might be super vanilla!  Kuro is an American living in Ontario CA.. which is California not Canda! So that means Paradise might now be represented during proper US like times! It will also mean that I write in British English while Kuro shall write in American English! So while I represent the colour pink! They represent the color black! I measure in meters.. and Celsius, they will do other things. I hoped they were Canadian so we’d spell colour the same but Center differently! But alas! Twitter fooled me! So if you like to know all about Ontario California! Send them a dm on twitter! Also I am still looking for Canadian staff apparently!

For some reason these folks also seem Canadian to me!

On this blog we will see Kuro return to their routes of writing fiction! Will they write about other stuff as well? Time will tell! If you want their amazing voice to be heard be sure to leave a like and some love behind! I would like to ask you all to at least give them a warm welcome! Say something nice! Like “Welcome to Paradise Kuro” or “I  will have a Bacardi Cola” Kuro. Because if you read my Blogger’s I’d invite to my island party you know! If you wanna party on the island you gotta work! So our first bartender we will have.  I think we shall let Kuro man the pool! There are more girls there! The guys are out surfing at the beach! I also occasionally surf but then the guys go “Pinkie you are not really surfing you are just sitting on a Pikachu on the water” .. .and I’d be like.. but it knows the HM Surf you guys! We all good! Anyway yes Kuro will man the Tiki cantina so they have good look at the hula dancers and Jimmy Buffett. Gotta have Jimmy Buffett in Paradise as well. But don’t worry Kuro .. it will mostly be Hula dancers. A wise man once told me to also invite Barry Manilow! See now this is a party! Join the party and praise our new hero Kuro!

More STAFF to come!

It won’t be long before yet another STAFF member will join the ranks! Who is it?! Well one of them is another coconut and another is a WordPresser I very much adore! One will represent hotel security but we don’t have a Chibi for them yet! Nor introduction stuff. It could be a few days! But they have the time! Paradise is a place of vacation there are no deadlines! No stress. Just cocktails. Plus a lot of bloggers so old we do not even know what G-fuel is! So it’s a haven for the geeks and a retirement home for geeks as well. Can’t wait to play our Storm Trooper Shuffleboard! Which is Shuffleboard but you do it blind! How droll! Luckily Kuro and one of the other new Staff are a bit younger.. so they can help us old folks (I’m 33,7 by the way) connect to the young whippersnappers!

Joking aside Paradise will always be a place of inclusion! If you feel like you want to write but don’t feel like you are good enough to pull off a blog off your own.. you are good enough for Paradise. If you would like to blog but can’t be bothered to do all the images and blog managing stuff , we got you covered on Paradise. Just be geeky and don’t exclude people from our beautiful paradise! Me and Kuro will welcome you with open arms. If you are a hot anime girl Kuro will be delighted to show you around and if you are not your lovely pink manager will very much take you on a little island tour! Regardless of what type of geek you are, games, geeks movie and more. Regardless your beliefs , skintone or past. Paradise is about inclusion, and walking to the beat of your own drum! (Within the bounds of the law of course) Not having to change for others. No matter how many demons you have on your shoulders, no matter how often you feel defeated.. Paradise will always be a place for you..both as a reader and as a writer!  And since this is a place of inclusion! I really hope you will all help me in giving Kuro a warm welcome so they can feel loved and included as well.

Now this part is specifically from me to Kuro as I would very much like to be the first person to say welcome home! I have read some very and creative pieces you made on Kawai Paper Panda’s and I know you have a delightful imagination as well! I also know you can be strict on yourself and even if I have a few rules know I will always welcome you! You are a geek! I am a geek! While I might feel less euphoric about centipede girls as you do , and would prefer a squid girl a demon girl..or a psychopath yandere who may or may not end me forcing me to sleep with a knife under my own pillow! Know that as long as you welcome everyone here, you will always be welcome here! I have no doubt the content you share will be amazing because in our talks I could really feel your desire to get back to this content you can produce here! I felt passion! With that passion I am sure you are an amazing addition to this team that will help Paradise grow bigger and add some very unique stories!  I love psychological horror stories  so I am a very lucky person indeed. I will be able to read amazing content on my own blog!  And no I do not mean a self devaluating way.. but if anyone ever read their own posts you know that sentiment!  Now I can read stuff on my own blog and be surprised and amazed just as I have no doubt our readers will! I wish you good luck! And once again welcome!  I hope you will enjoy yourself here!

Much love

The narcissistic manager who now will like posts on her own blog,
Pinkie!

To conclude I will tell that writers on Paradise can have their individual Kofi. Pinkie’s Kofi will pay for site and will be the only one featured on the home page but if you wis to support Kuro wit their writing career and their posts you can do so by clicking the image below and go to their Kofi as well! That way everybody wins and we can gather our own loving group of supporters….and make them battle like Pokémon later on the road.

A Rock going Ape: Rampage Review

Dear Island Guests, Welcome back to my attempt to watch all video game based movies ever made. By Arceus, I did it! I watched a video game movie that is not total shit! I mean sure it isn’t great.. but heck it is based on a button bashy game about a wolf a lizard and a ape destroying cities! How did this happen?! Have I killed to many brain cells with bollshit?! Or is this actually a fairly competent movie? Let’s find out together. Also my apologies the changing image format. I watched this on Netflix so I got the screen grabs from IMDB..who apparently takes their screens from everywhere!

It’s not Congo

Rampage came out in 2018 and stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as primatologist/former black ops and poacher murder Davis Okoye. He now works at the San Diego Wildlife sanctuary when unbeknownst to him stuff goes awry in space. An evil company by the name of Energy has been making a flexible DNA pathogen on a space station where one of their rats broke out. A lonely scientist trying to escape gets locked in until she retrieves the pathogen samples. She manages to retrieve three samples before fleeing back and escaping the exploding space station. However  the rat has damaged her escape pod and upon reentry in the atmosphere the little window cracks and see is burned to a crips! The pod explodes and the three samples land on several places in the United States. 

One in the Everglades where the Pathogen gets eaten by a crocodile, one lands in the forest lands of Wyoming where a wolf gets infected and one….what are the chances strikes at the San Diego Wildlife reserve. Here it infects George, an Albino Gorilla that happens to be Davis best friend. (That’s kinda sad)  But George is a good boy gorilla who can speak in sign language! …Wait a second.. a Gorilla that is a best friend, whose sign language and Albino Gorilla?! There is a lot of stuff from the movie Congo here!

As George suddenly begins to grow and more  erratic and aggressive a totally legit woman working for Energyne shows up telling she made the pathogen that made George like this. She has a cure but Davis needs to help her proof Energyne is using this pathogen for weapons. Being the evil company they are Energyne builds a radio tower to draw in these beasts so they can retrieve their pathogene.. but that doctor trying to save the world, Doctor Cate Caldwell she has to go! Can our hero use his bond with George to save Chicago?  Can he bring back George from madness. All of these questions will be answered, in a vastly illogical but fun to watch movie.  I mean there are plothoes the size of Kaiju here but hey this is a movie about a albino killer gorilla wrecking some stuff up and being almost immune to everything humans can throw it. Al becomes of some diamonds..wait no that’s not right! No diamonds! Flexible DNA pathogen that’s it.. this movie is not Congo.

A Man and his CG Gorilla

I played a lot of Gampage as a kid and George was never my favourite..but it makes sense to tell the story with him as a hero! A Gorilla that knows sign language makes a lot more sense than a wolf that follows every command or a a story about a man who trained Velociraptors that gone and mutated into something else. In fact I could argue that the interactions with The Rock and George are best thing in this movie. George is a fully CGI Gorilla obviously but there was a sense of bond I got from them still. I did not really feel the Rock was talking to nothing.. There was a legit bond between this Davis and George. Only in the action and funny moments though!

There are a few dramatic moments and here the Rock falters. He has become a pretty good physical comedy actor over the past few years. He even has some comedic timing to his lines. When he needs to be sad for a cgi gorilla though.. he isn’t always there..Still there is this very enjoyable bond between Davis and George I can’t help but like!  Even though George is way too intelligent take seriously for example, this movie really establishes it is going over the top from the first moment! It starts in space! With an evil space rat and super evil organisation shenanigans. This movie practically is a 90’s cartoon including the talking animal sidekick.. but it leans into that.. and for that reason it really works. It’s camp but if you expected anything else after the first 10 minutes or heck even from the beginning you are in the wrong movie more so than the movie being wrong. If you see this movie as a live action cartoon you might have a great time with it!

The movie uses a lot of foreshadowing. After the first scene with Davis and George I was like… oh they better end the movie like such and so or I will be upset! I got exactly the ending I wanted..but also predicted. Well there was one joke I didn’t see coming at the end that made me giggle but all in all this movie is fairly predictable. Yet in a good way. After having seen a lot of video game movies this one at least feels capably made. It isn’t a masterpiece by any means but this movie does deliver what it promises. Character traits in both George, Davis , Cate and heck even the cowboy government agent they meet somewhere along the way are fairly established.

We know why Davis does the things he does even if it is not beneficial to a situation. We understand. Sure making him a former black-ops guy feels cheap and allows him access to a set of skills that are very convenient, yet at the same time he utilizes almost ALL of those skills. So it is not a wasted plotpoint to make him more cool.. it’s a trait so insane action sequences make some semblance of sense. Plus this movie is basically a 90’s cartoon! Of course he is a black-ops!

George is even used as more than just ape, Davis actually learns from him, and while again it is very convenient to the plot it happens for a reason. Davis has a reason to care for George and the fact that George cares for him has deeper implications. Cheap but it’s there.
So every time the Rock interacts with this CGI monstrosity is when the movie really does shine! You can see George sometimes breaking out of it;s aggression because it cares about Davis as well but never so much that it becomes that much more than an animal. In a way this movie creates a symbiosis. Both need each other, and the movie also needs both. it just doesn’t really need the side characters.

A Saturday Morning Cartoon

The weakest point is definitely the villains. Brother and Sister leading Energyne, which by the way is such an generic company name it hurts, are really clearly evil incorporated. I also do not really get their plan. Their plan is basically, make a pathogen that can make Kaijus …..  …… make money!  Clearly there is a step missing there! They have no way to control the big beasties , so they make them freak out with a radio signal to draw them all to the city and let the military blow them up.. so they can take blood from their corpses. Or something?!
They also decide now.. after she got locked up for trying to break the project that Cate has to die… why not when she stole from you?!  Why when she already told the cops about you and is just hanging with a Primatologist, do you decide that now she is very dangerous.
Why would you build that radio signal on top of your own company when you know the military has to bomb these animals to death. The nervous brother and the cold sister again seems like something of a Saturday morning cartoon. They also act a bit like Pinkie and the Brain.. if Pinkie was a corporate weasel instead of an dumb dumb. They are so in your face evil you can tell they are evil by just saying hello.

This comes with a few issues. At one point the heroes realise that Energyne is luring the monsters there into the heart of chicago by a signal on Energyne’s roof. In the middle of Chicago. They don’t care the city gets destroyed.. but your still a company.. if people are going to find out it was you who drew the monsters to Chicago even if they are blown up.. you are in trouble still.. I don’t think you can freely walk about and just take these monsters blood. Also you need to sack another multi billion dollar asset. The space station you blew up cost them 20 billion already and they just shrug it off. I am pretty sure no company can take a 40 billion dollar loss without any consequence. Their plot makes very little sense and their acting is quite poor! Funnily enough .. they end like 90’s cartoon villains. Like really..  (And no this is not a spoiler unless you think the Rock losing in a younger audience movie is actual a viable option)  this brings a charm to the movie but also a makes  it a bit of a guilty pleasure. Why was I so entertained by this?

The action is similarly over the top and delivers you some fun moments such as the Rock swinging a woman in a crashing plane to launch a forklift truck into the giant Gorilla, only to see them then do similar antics to yeet themselves and a cowboy cop out of plane grabbing Parachutes while the plane breaks up. A  battle royal between Lizzie , George and Ralph is pretty good as well and given that there is a fair amount of environmental destruction, which was what the games are all about , it is at least somewhat faithful to the source material. Not that there is a lot to be faithful to. We see the most ridiculous action scenes and they are all fun. Yet they also  recognise the  limitations of their CGI and while it does make things more believable it also makes some of the camera work very unappealing. When a mercenary company is hunting Ralph in the woods of Wisconsin for example we get very dark shots, fog is used to bloom up details and most kills happen off camera. Never do I cringe that much at the CGI but at the same time I do wish that some of these scenes could have been a bit more visceral. There is almost no blood in the movies, which makes sense given that it seems to target a younger audience.. but the actions shots.. do not justify the lack of blood.
I am talking bisections, a beheading and impalement here.. all relatively bloodless. That just seems odd.  But hey  damaged characters do get dirty and get scuff marks… kinda like… you know where this is going.

I tend to use analogies to compare the movie to somewhere around the end of a review and in this case.. the best thing I can compare Rampage to is the game Rampage. Both are just a good bit of fun, with a story that is to dump and makes so little sense to put to words.   Both have scenes that drag on and on but also some great action moments. It can keep you entertained for a good 90 minutes but after that you do not feel enriched or satisfied.. you just had 90 minutes of fun and that is it. I appreciate the movie for knowing that is is exactly that. It never oversteps that and that suits the movie.. yet at the same time that lack of ambition to ever be more is also its greatest flaw. 

It’s like as if the movie makers saw this movie as a school exam. They answered the questions they knew the answer to REALLY REALLY well and got enough points to score a passing grade.. but if they had taken a moment to try to figure out one of these other questions they just might have gotten a better grade by scoring some half points on other subjects. If you ever want a  movie to just turn your brain off with and enjoy stuff blowing up and the Rock doing Rock things.. this is a solid movie to watch! I watched it in this mindset and definitely will have to put it in my top 5 favourite video game movie adaptations. It isn’t anything special but fun can be good enough.

This movie is on the higher side of the fineapple spectrum a nice popcorn-flick that feels like a Saturday morning cartoon. As long as you don’t expect more this movie doesn’t dissapoint. If you do expect more.. you probably have not played rampage before! Did you see this movie? What did you think about it? Do you think Dwayne Johnson might be overused in movies?!
Let me know in the comments! If you want to prevent me from ever starting my own genetics lab to make evil super creatures..please consider supporting my Kofi page! Support money is better than evil super creature money! If you have no money to spare! Just follow the blog, leave a like or a nice comment! I can’t start an evil firm if I never turn evil anyway!


Brand New Animal or just Fluffy X-Men? BNA Review

Hello Island Guests! My four day mini break is over! And I decided to shake my schedule up a bit…mostly because I had this prepped as my next post and are not that far ahead but I TOTALLY did it intentionally to have some fun as well… TOTALLY! For Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure I watched through and fairly recently finished BNA! As I only did episode reviews in Saturday Anime Adventure I feel like I have to end this one up with a series review! A series can be stronger or weaker than the sum of its parts after all! So how do I feel about BNA two weeks after finishing the last episode?! Let’s find out.

Info

Brand New Animal is a 12 episode Anime by studio Trigger that was licensed by Netflix. The series was written (as anime) by Kazuki Nakashima and features the vocal talents of Sumire Morohoshi. Yoshimasa Hosoya and Takehito Koyasu, It follows the tales of Michiru the Tanuki Beast-Man or so we think! She takes on the role of a young girl that falls into a group of Beast-man who are almost like a mutation of humanity. She falls in with a grizzled grumpy old man who can uses his claws to defeat his opponents, though rarely does. He becomes her protector of sorts. They are led by this wise older bald person who can’t walk that well and needs a cane. She is a mayor and wants to build a city where beast-man can learn and utelise their abilities and proving to the world that these mutants like creatures are nothing to be feared. Also when the young girl uses her powers she sparkles a lot.

I’m with Storm here! I really need to think where I saw this story before!

This review will mostly be spoiler free! For detailed reviews of each episode you can Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventures Episode 1 trough 12.

Hopping Like A Bunny

BNA sketches a world divided by the rise of an alternate species called beastmen. These are humans more in touch with their inner animal and as a result can access and prefer their beast forms. Their true selves. However humans fear beastman and their improved ability and hunt them regularly. Thus with permission of the Japanese government a  city for beastman has been build called Anima city. Here beastman live together in harmony! Or at least that is what Michiru our protagonist thinks when she goes there. She claims to be a human that got turned into a beastmen for some reason. This should not be possible because you are a beastman from birth..so she moves to Anima city to find answers. Only to find a whole lot more trouble than she bargained for.

As the series moves on we see her team up with a mysterious man named Shirou who fights hard for beastmen rights and thinks very low of humans. As terrorists begin to strike at Anima City and in particular the pharmaceutical Sylvastra corp, a larger scheme is revealed that puts humans and beastmen against each other and much much more. Anima city and beastman ‘s future is threatened by a whole lot of lies and intrigue. It almost feels as a plot from a Cyberpunk movie taking some clear inspirations from Blade Runner where beastmen and Replicants are in a sort of similar position.This little dash of cyberpunk story telling mixed with some politics manages to create an intriguing enough story that builds an amazing world in the first four episodes, yet then starts to falter a bit but climbs back up and falters again.. and so repeats this until the show is ended at episode 12. Besides Blade Runner there is another analogy on the tip of my tongue! There is this point where robots hunt down beastmen send down by people who hate them.. oh well! I can’t remember! I guess I will refer to that other show as X for now.

Let me get this point out of the way because everyone has spoken up about it.. 12 episodes is to short for this show! Yet I do not find the ending atrociously bad.. and it certainly reaches the finish..it kind of feels like a Mario Kart pro-speed run Rainbow Road on N64. Sure it was enjoyable and colorful and a sight to behold.. but we didn’t see all that much of the track* . So as well is the biggest pitfall for Brand New Animal. It asks you to see injustice in a world.. but we don’t see the world all that much. Again the first four episodes do a great job in fleshing out a world but after that, there is a lot of one location episodes and to make up for it they need to pick up slack with a LOT of exposure episodes. When three episodes of the twelve solely exist for exposition that is a lot! As a result this is one of the most awkward paced anime I have seen. It still tells an enjoyable tale but it’s as if it 1 to 12 instead of a count is more like one of those hopskotch drawings. Instead of flowing we hop!

*For those who don’t know that is a 7 minute track you need to do three laps on..unless you skip the track right at the beginning by jumping to that last corner

Strong Like an Ox

Despite this Brand New Animal is still quite an enjoyable show that does a lot of things right. Studio Trigger once again manages to create a visually appealing show whose colour use and artwork really appeal to me. There are lots of colours, the design of characters is unique and now has the added layer of having two designs (or more) per character. As each beastmen has a human and beast form and the forms mirror each other a bit. It works nicely and all characters are immediately recognisable in both forms. The buildings in the series also have this slight futuristic look, but not quite, which really sells the “newly built” city vibe and  it allows us to suspend our disbelief well enough for all the weird tech introduced later on in the series.Aided by a good music score including some synthwave tracks, it really sells itself as a near future show. A setting that is always tricky to flesh out but BNA does this very well.  It really helps the worldbuilding. Soundtrack wise I also like how they use the ending song as an in world song.. it gives it meaning.. it is overused but it is a fun little gimmick and saves out on some money! So clever as well.

As for the worldbuilding itself, I think this show does an excellent job at building it’s own words with not one but two asterixis behind it which will come up in the next session. I personally really think in terms of worldbuilding they have thought a lot of elements trough. For example beastmen are much more hot tempered than humans much more in line with their instincts. Anima city is a much more dog eat dog environment than any human cities. Much more in touch with their instinct Anima city relies much more on the survival of the fittest concept.  This bleeds into their sports as well! Even something as simple as baseball often has deadly results.

People do not seem to mind all that much because this is the normal way things would go in such an environment I really like that concept. I loved the idea that to commit a crime in Anima city you have to consider your scent as a factor as well because there are beastmen with a great sense of smell. Awesome! Yes they totally would need to do that!  was even more impressed when they established that Bird-beastmen would have to get a permit for flying trough nation controlled airspace. The government would like to know who is flying in their terrain, since they can go anywhere they want they have to keep some way to track of them. Clever that they think on how the world would change like that..when we add in the writing of the actual characters though things go a bit wonky but more on that in a bit.

Finally I would like to shout out how the action is done quite nicely. There are a fair few fights and encounters and each has a bit of a different solution. Sure Shirou who is the main muscle will usually beat up the bad guy in a particular way.. but that means his fighting has a way he works.. he has a strategy.. this is consistent throughout every episode I really have a feeling he has a fighting style. A lot of anime characters finish their enemies of with whatever is coolest or switch techniques on the fly. Take Naruto for example who while using some stable techniques goes from throwing ninja stars, to kicking and from wielding a Kunai to  digging underground. Up to a point where he even is a sage and a summoner. Now of course Naruto spans over many more episodes  but still Shirou fights like he has fought before! He knows what he does and his fighting style is consistent right until the moment it’s not.. but even then there is a good reason. Michiru’s fighting style is more flexible but her entire character is build around this. She has certain abilities that allow her to shine as the versatile combatant making her actually useful throughout instead of your usual liability.. even if she fills that trope as well.

A Lamb to the Slaughter

With a solid story, nice visuals, great world building and nice action you’d think that this is a pretty good show right?! You are correct! Unfortunately though .. pretty good is where it stops for me. The biggest reason that it can not ascent from there is because it is way to ambitious. This show bites of way more than it can chew.  The show tries to force in a message that in my eyes should have been left out completely. Or the worldbuilding should have been adapted to fit it. (Which is one of these world building asterixis)  Brand New Animals wants to tell us that we humans are racists and small minded bigots and that these people deserve to live in the lifestyle of their choice. On top of that they also weigh it down even more by putting a lot of religion talk but rather than adding a new religion to the mix, they add in a cult that follows the same religion as every beastman out there, which makes it all a bit convoluted.

 The example they make this the clearest with is an Albatross. He entered Japanese airspace and is chased by two fighter jet who kindly but urgently ask him to lend visit a post or police office so the birdman can get a permit to fly in Japanese airspace.. so they know he is there.  He feels his rights are being limited because he is an Albatross they roam. Apparently all Albatross people have been refusing these types of request and have been shot down for invading airspace… which then is portrayed as a horrible crime. Meanwhile I look at this as … “That rule makes a lot of sense”. The series already established terrorism is a heavy and ongoing topic, this makes spying super easy and you can literally go anywhere. He also just has to fill in a form saying he is there!  Two minutes later an actually flying terrorist shows up using the airspace to get to the city undetected proving that that rule is needed. That is not a good idea of humans being bigots. Instead of giving the good bird albatross the W, and justifying his heart we see the church meddle in. Thus the albatross stays a guy who wanted to rob the mayor..and justifying once more the human reaction. Weird

Humans are reluctant to accept beasts among their ranks, which I can understand can be and should be viewed as racist as long as both are sentient and follow the same morale standards. Except.. this show shows they do not. If anything humans and beastman share criminal tendensies , gambling, mobs, scamming etc. However when it comes to we belief what is right and wrong..or what is normal we are off by a fair bit.  Beastmen kill each other during baseball. they can toss their feathers as weapons and possess superhuman abilities. Since they are prone to follow the principle of survival of the fittest and all beastmen are basically humans with a mode that upgrades some of their strengths I can see why humans would not really like that mentality among their ranks. If a bear man can just rip of your head because you cut in line..and te bear is stronger.. yeah that would pretty much suck. Beastmen are more likely to think it’s okay, so I would feel a genuine treat to my citizens if I allowed them to give into this beastmen nature. So I can see humans be wary of that idea very easily. That isn’t racist that is common sense. 

Of course we do not follow the beastman who rip each others heads off..but they are out there. We follow a kind hearted girl that wants everyone to be happy and a private investigator/merc who works for the good of beastman kind. The fact that we follow two who don’t do those shenanigans doesn’t change the fact that it happens and the mayor is like “Sure you can Kill each other during baseball but you can’t gamble on it’ Racism is bad is a great message but you need to have sides that are actually equal and share more or less the same moral compass. There isn’t equality here. Compare it to X-men.. they aren’t equal either but if mutants were like but they share values.  They do not fight to use their power even when it endangers people! At least not the good guys ..so we can relate to them. In Brand New Animal that same vibe is sorely missing. Now at times for me it felt more like the message was “racism can sometimes be justified if the threat is high enough’ and I do believe that is a message would need to steer far away from just among humans.

The second asterix from that world building comes .. part from the poor pacing and part from the way the story is told. The story does really work and there is some logic  in their science. There is a lot of space for exposition and as such it is easy to tune out to information that isn’t brought in such bombastic manner. For example in a fairly generic conversation it is told that when a chicken-woman loves a whale man very much and they whoohoo a bit their child either will either be a chicken or a whale but never a whicken or a chale. As a beastman can only have one beast to transform into.. if it would have more they would be unable to transform. Nor can you crossbreed species. This comes back later in the show.. but if you missed it.. this feels like something completely out of the blue and forced. It wasn’t but unlike most some things near the endgame are very poorly telegraphed. It is still there but this is a show you definitely want to binge AND keep your attention to it. The thing is that is is really in your face about “hey this important hey! Hey Listen” then on some things it really isn’t. 

The show also  does this in reverse. It sets up characters to be really important later on but than they simply becomes means to an end. Like ..”Look this guy is super important”.. Later he offers Shirou a Ride and gives him some supplies…it didn’t even have to be that guys.They do this on numerous occasions as well such as a gag with a water purifier.. I was like.. “that’s going to be a thing at some point” .. but no it was just a crack at the poor. You will need to remember just about everything and that will both reward and disappoint you.
On the one hand I love them for including very subtle references ..but you can’t make your show seem this handholdy and then go like… but if you noticed THAT you would have realised.It’s kind of like playing Clue but when you solve the puzzle someone tells you! Bonus points if you can tell me the motive!?  I wasn’t looking for that! Murder Murder Weapon and Location right?! Then everyone says sure but you missed something really important!

My final gripe is wit the shows ending. While it isn’t exactly terrible, the plot twist feels more like a retcon to fix the message. As if the makers realised ‘our message about racism didn’t really land! We now need a way to make everything cool and make people learn a lesson still!  how about we make people realise they are closer and add in an extra party?’ It came out of nowhere and wasn’t needed at all. Sure it allows for a bigger and more impressive battle but there were tools to make that battle different. Michiru rode in a giant robot depiction of god.. that was just made as a cosplay thing. You could have just made a big robot weapon as a final enemy. There were even ways to tie in Michiru’s “disease”  in this but no…. out of the blue we get something super powerful that needs to be taken down… then it gets taken down within five minutes of it’s introduction. Breaking the lore that was introduced for it..within those five minutes as well. It served no point other than to make up  for it’s own writing failures and wrap the series in a pretty ribbon. That said I do like how it wraps up after that.  Michiru’s personal journey has been very strong throughout the show and they ended like that as well. Her road made sense for each episode… it’s just that blasted analogy that is in the way of her world feeling the same.

Goldfish

Brand New Animal is a fine show to watch that unfortunately suffers a lot squandered potential syndrome. Where a decent show is experienced as worse as it is because it simply could have been more.  If you added 12 more episode to this series it could have been one of the greater once but because of its short run it is forced to live into mediocrity.  “I would have loved to see more about that Mob Boss”  ‘I wish I saw more of Mary the Mink’.  ‘I really wish they explored Shirou’s past more’ ‘I wish I could have seen more about Michiru’s mysterious accident and what happend after’. These are ponderings I had after the show. I liked it enough to want to see more because they really do create an interesting world

. However it is not a world we can dive into.. it is shallow! Kinda like a bowl for your goldfish!
The water is still refreshing (to splash in your face not to drink)  the goldish in the bowl is quite amusing to go around and round and nestle in it’s little castle.. but you can not help to wish there was more out there. Had it not squandered time with it’s really forced “lesson”  I might have wholeheartedly called it good. Do note that I do not mean you should not speak against racism but that what the show wants us to see as racism isn’t racism it’s self preservation and while I do think those can intersect trough ignorance.. that is not a tale you can tell with a series like this. It’s not a goldmine of life lessons.. it really is just a goldfish in a bowl.

I like goldfish but I would not say it’s a great pet! It’s still something that can bring you lots of joy! Yet sometimes you just want to pet something or put something on your lap and then you realise.. I have a fish!  As much as you love it.. it will never be all that great.. it’s fine!
It’s just fine…

Did you see BNA?! What are your feelings about it?! I really liked the intro by the way! I am not sure if I said that! It’s catchy! Speaking of liking! If you like this blog why not consider supporting my blog on KoFi! You can become a coconut and get nominated for all my blog tags and will have a cute flavour text written about you! Or if you don’t have money to burn why not subscribe to the blog, leave a like or write something to get in touch!

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TamagotchU

Hello Island Guests! Last story I wrote about an egg got quite the positive response! So here is another story about an egg! This one however is not about a particularly friendly egg! This one… is out for only one thing!


The year was 199(X) Lyn lay on her bed listening to her discman! Tunes of the Spice Girls B*Witched and  other girl bands were playing as she flipped through them rapidly with a bored sigh while chewing some Hubba Bubba Gum. Some might have said gum was perfection but to Lyn it was just a cool thing to do. A sudden knock on the door scared her out her mundane kidlike ponderings. Lyn’s mother Maria came in and told Lyn it was time for bed. Lyn nodded and took off the overhead phones and put her discman in a little treasure chest that held her most valuable stuff. Lyn noticed the egg shape thing in there and her heart stopped. “Please be okay” she said while she flipped the plastic egg over to reveal a heavily pixelated tombstone being depicted there! ‘Darn it’ she said to herself! Not again!

She had loved this Tamagotchi pet and took really good care of it for a while..but then she and her friends Cherry and Lianne went to the mall yesterday and when she came back she was so tired she forgot all about Mister Plucky! Now he was dead. With a sigh Lyn walked to her window to close the blinds. Seeing  falling star pass by.. she wished “I wish my Tamagotchi would never die, I don’t want to start over all again’. She then pressed the most left and most right button at the same time and the screen of the tamagotchi went blank for a bit.  Then a pulsating egg showed up. That will be nice and hatched by the time I wake up tomorrow, Lyn thought to herself before she put it back in the box wished it goodnight and named it Cluck Norris. 

The next morning Lyn woke up to find Cluck Norris did indeed hatch. It was weird though, normally the baby chick looked a bit cuter. This one looked… different it’s eyes a bit angrier!  She never knew you could get possible different tamagotchi! Perhaps she should just reset it! As she moved to the buttons to reset it though Cluck Norris made the same cute squeak sound as every other incarnation she had before. Given she named it after a badass action hero.. maybe this look was okay! Her friends did not have it so she could show them! Maria called Lyn down for breakfast and Lyn placed the pet back in her treasure chest. For a good while Lyn would actually take good care of Cluck.. she would sometimes forget it for a day but it would always be happy so see when she was back. Even when she went on a school camp it managed to hang on!

She showed it to her friends and they liked the new look as well. Yet Lyn noticed that Cluck would not grow and evolve as much as his fellows. “Ugh Cluck why don’t you change” she would tell it.. ‘I might reset you if you don’t change’ .. maybe you are some kind of glitch? ‘ Lyn learned that word in the cartoon show Reboot. She them smiled at the device and told Cluck ‘Tomorrow is my Birthday, I can’t wait to show you what gifts I got’. Yet Cluck never got to see that. One of the gifts Lyn got was a Furby doll it made her instantly forget about Cluck and as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into years that plastic egg got covered in all kinds of new treasures..including movie tickets of first dates, pictures of her and her friends going out for drinks and vacations and even a little pin she got for graduation. Yet at one point..even the box did not even opened anymore.

Between 20 and 30 years have passed as we move into present day. Lyn is driving a car. A pained look is on her face. Her parents think they have become to old to live in their current house and have decided to move into a smaller place. This means Lyn had to come and help clean up the old supplies. See if there is anything she still wants and toss some other stuff away. As well as provide some support with the heavy lifting. For this she has brought her boyfriend. He likes to be called Maximilian but really his name is Ed. Unfortunately for Lyn her local friends.. who decided to help her all know this and blatantly call the guy Ed or Eddie. It makes sense they tease him though she moved away from all her friends to go live with him.. so of course he has to endure some jokes! Luckily he had a loving family! Including a niece that she totally adored! He loved her so much and she loved taking care of this niece as well! She would come over to sleep over at her place tomorrow! That gave Lyn the strength to work herself trough today manual labour..despite of her having worked so many hours already. She was spend.

He is a professional skater so he can take it. Even though his career is might be coming to a close soon there is hope on the horizon… hope enough to even consider having a kid in the near future. She smiles at her short haired buffed out man when she suddenly swerves after seeing something on the road. “What .. What was that?”.   Ed looks at her somewhat frustrated and tells “Lyn.. that was just a bird keep your eyes on the road we are almost there okay?’  Lyn takes a deep breath and decides to pull over at the next gas station to calm her pounding heart a bit. “You know we will be late right? Should I drive’ Ed asks. Lyn shakes her head. “I just need a minute”

Twenty minutes later Lyn decides they might as well eat something at this gas station and fetches her and Ed some sandwiches.  She was quite hungry..she hadn’t eaten in over two hours. After having their lunch Ed asks if they are good to go and Lyn decides to clean up the car for a bit. Lyn is a big person in the R&D department of a big video game company. She had been doing some research on a new pet and follower system for one of the worlds greatest RG series. A system where you have to take care of your follower or pet as well. Pay their upkeep, make sure they rest and get food. She has been stuck for a bit.. but her friends are not allowed to see this it is all top secret.

About 20 more minutes later the pair arrives at her parents home where Lyn’s friend are waiting outside looking slightly annoyed. Lyn smiles and pretends like nothing is happened. “I had to take a short break’ is all she said. Her oldest friend Denise seems the least salty and tells her that her parents already went home for the day. Her father sprained his back and the group promised to help you and that the heavy stuff would be removed by the end of the day.  Lyn agrees and assigns the guys Kevin and Ron to assist Ed. While Lyn asks Sara to wrap up some cups in the kitchen. She takes Denise up to her old room to help sort some stuff out. Denise has a pretty good eye on what is important.  As the pair moves the the room several boxes are being labeled.. some to keep some to throw out. Some for Lyn others for her Father Patrick and her mother Maria. 

When the pair reaches the attic Lyn suddenly hears a weird.. but kind of adorable sound coming from some boxes in the back. Looking for what might cause this ruckus she finds her own little treasure chest from way back when. She smiles in blissful memory and looks through the box, top to bottom. Her old Discman is in there.. and oh! An egg! She totally forgot she had this. She shows Denise the Tamagotchi when suddenly the device chimes. A angry looking chicken is hopping around.. crying out in hunger! Lyn scratches her head. “Did Mom ever replace the batteries?’ “Did it go into standby mode?’  She puts the device aside but as soon as she does that the device begins chirping even louder. Frustrated Lyn picks up mutes the device and tosses it into a pile of old plushies. 

“Batteries only last if you don’t want them to’ . Denise nods and smiles but walks to the device and says. “True but Lyn don’t be mean.. I bet your Tamagotchi is just really hungry…or not” As she fetches the device to feed the pet Denise notices the screen has gone blank she shows it to Lyn. “Well I guess the batteries ran out after al’. Lyn tells the story about how the thing glitched and it must have been a programming error that it did not die or some weird easy mode she accidentally triggered. She might put new batteries in and rest it and start anew though, she wonders how well she could raise it now  that she is an adult. Both girls yelp as trippely feet can be heard and some of the plushies wobble!

“Aaaaiii, Lyn do your parents have rats?’  Denise squeaks her friend. Lyn shakes her head. ‘Dad was always really careful about that.. maybe lately though he hasn’t been able to take care of the attic well? It looks really dusty. Both of them try to hear for more trippeling noises then suddenly the basement head slams up! Causing the girls to scream in a jumpscare.  Kevin , Ron and Ed look upstairs and chuckle. “There must be a ghost up on that attic’  says Ed.. “Or worse ..a mouse” jokes Kevin.. Ron then snickers and says “whatever is up there I bet it’s fat’. All three laugh.. Making posture jokes about Lyn has always been a thing..she is very slim but whenever there is a chance they  crack that joke. It’s a sort a mix between Irony and commenting on her being more “one of the guys”.  Kevin and Ron  take a heavy lounge seat with the two of them and move it out the house. Onto one of those rent a trailers they are using to dispose the heavy stuff. Ed would pick up a glass coffee table to display his strength when he suddenly sees a little pixelated chicken under the glass plate stare at him. To his surprise it speaks. ‘Help me I am hungry’ it says. 

Ed blinks and tries to shut this figment of imagination out, surely he is imagining things. However it would not go away. “Help me.. please.. I am so hungry”  the chicken says again.
Ed shoos it off .. pretty sure that gas station sandwich was bad or something.  “Shoo” ..he tells the bird  swatting and kicking to make it run away. “There isn’t any food here”. As soon as he said that line the chickens eyes glow red and it stares at Ed with a deep intense stair as drool walks past it’s mouth. “Yes there is” it says maliciously.  As Kevin and Ron drop the chair onto the trailer they hear Ed scream. “Lyn told us he gets really emotional at times, wanna wait out here for a bit?’ Kevin asks to Ron.  “Sure I will just do my Dragon Ball Z Dokkan dalies” Ron says sitting out on a step firing up his mobile. When they also hear Sara scream they decide to scream as well since everybody does it. Believing it was a joke they chuckled. After a few minutes of dailies the pair gets up and sees the window behind them is stained completely red smears dripping downstairs. The two look at each other and decide to bail on their own accord.. Running away in panic.

Meanwhile Denise and Lyn are terrified at the attic. They have heard the screams from the people downstairs. “S-s-should .. we call someone?’  Denise aks to Lyn. ‘Probably they are just pranking us right? You heard Kevin and Ron.. they did not sound that sincere..luckily they can’t act.’ Lyn is often the butt of jokes so carefully she opens the Attic hatch making sure to bring along a heavy object. Denise follows and does the same. As the pair makes their way down suddenly Lyn’s mouth is opened in a soundless scream as she sees Ed.. mostly eaten lying on a glass Coffee table.. on the table also seems to be a bit of pixelated poop! Lyn makes weak sounds as Denise falls to the ground gasping for breath in panic. As a shadowy tiny figure emerges from the kitchen. A pixelated tiny chick is covered in  blood, donned on its face are pieces of the clothes Sara was wearing. A wicked smile only interupted by a loud burp.

“Ah.. good!  It’s been almost thirty years since you last fed me Mamma thanks for the meal”. It then chuckles cruely! “Do you have any idea how much it hurts to be immortal and not eat for 30 years?.. A whole lot of pain I will tell you! It made me REALLY angry!’  Lyn is to stunned to speak and Denise only manages to utter the words “please don’t kill us”.  The shadowy glitch monsters softens up a bit. “Oh You I plan to let walk out of here.. you wanted to feed me.. I will spare you.. and I promise I will punish Mamma but not kill her okay?” . The shadow glitch chicken hops over to them and Denise flinches in terror! The creature warps it voice to sound sweet..but it has a deeply ironic tone to it. Meanwhile Lyn  has gone nearly completely catatonic in . The creature scoffs at her weakness..looking at the bones of her boyfriend and then turns to Denise again. “Hey.. Mamma’s friend.. is that okay?!’ . Denise overwhelmed with survivor instinct, that makes her consider betraying her friend for her own live asks weakly “Will you hurt her?” .  The chicken shakes its head..which is also its body. “No.. she will receive no more pain, she ignored me and left me alone..for years.. I was so lonely! I just want to make that clear to her’ 

Denise tormented by terror but also wanting to keep her friend save still seems to doubt. “If you refuse I will eat you in front of her.. that will hurt her as well.. and I will torture her as well’. As the creature utters these words something inside Denise breaks. She can sense how powerful it must be to overwhelm her friends that quickly.. it’s aura.. she knows she can not fight it. Agreeing with it is the only way she will live. Then Lyn.. regains her composure and brings down the heavy object on the Tamagotchi creature which is flattened. “That’s what I think of your punishment” Lyn says. Then her heavy object gets eaten. “Mamma… don’t you remember you wished I could not die… well you got your wish! I can not die’.  Cluck glares at his mother then  gently presses itself Denise crying face. “Do we have a deal, Your safety and I shall not kill or hurt your friend’? “

Denise nods, whatever may happen she has to safe herself, she could sacrifice herself here.. but what good would it do.. The chickens eyes glow. “Good for this next bit I am going to have to borrow your body for a bit though’ Before Denise can object the chicken glitches into her body.  As she writhes in pain and fights off the presence she notices how easily she gets flung out of the control seat.. now somewhere very deep she is floating. As the creature takes more hold of her she can sense, it will indeed keep her alive. It will also never be the one that kills Lyn.. Denise is happy but tired… the creature forces her sink deeper and deeper within herself. She tried to fight it for a bit… but to no avail. She then let’s herself sink until she almost stops existing. She is still there but hidden deep , deep away..like a childhood toy buried under new memories.


Lyn shakes the spasming Denise on the floor. Seemingly not having heard what the chicken told to her friend. It just disappeared after it whispered something to her friend.  Denise Denise.. are you alright?!  When her friend finally wakes up she nods confused and stands up. “I am I think..” Lyn sighs in relief just to be whacked on the head by the heavy candlestick Denise was holding. When she wakes up she sees Denise. But from far away.. Denise looks huge and looking down at her, staring at her through a screen.. but her eyes are much more cruel and her lips twisted in a cruel smirk. She sees she is in Lyn’s  actual house. How long was she out. It feels as if Lyn is trapped in a box.  She taps the glass plate and looks up the ceiling. It seems the room she is trapped in is like an egg shape! Could it be, she was trapped inside the tamagotchi?! Denise then smiles to the Lyn that now appears on the other side as an LCD pixel animation. Denise holds the screen so Lyn from the other side can see her little Niece.  “Look at this” tells Denise the niece’.. doesn’t that look like your auntie Lyn? I bet she will be here to play with you and this toy very soon she told me I should give it to you.”.. ‘I hope she’ll be here soon though.. otherwise we might have to eat lunch without her.’

Cluck Norris in the body of Denise winks to the screen as Lyn bonks the screen in terror of harm befalling to her niece. “Let me out she yells”.  On the other side of her screen her niece chuckles only hearing some bleeps and bloops. ‘I really wished it was a puppy on this toy’  she says to Denise. ‘Well I am not sure this game can make a dog.. but it has a pretty cute chicken’ The possessed woman pets the child lovingly and smiles to her.  “Oh how do we get that” Lyn’s niece asks excited. The woman chuckles as Lyn’s heart and breath almost seems to freeze. “Well you can reset this one by pressing those two buttons on the side at the same time” In a last attempt to get out Lyn charges at the screen in all her might she bounces of the screen and walls back. As her niece without a doubt hits the two buttons Lyn can feel consciousness being ripped away as it disappears into a void…everything goes white.  On the screen is an egg. Denise beckons the girl to the kitchen. ‘That will hatch in a little bit.. first it’s lunch time though.. I’m starving.”

Pokémon Top 5 : My Favourite Grass Types

Hello Island Guests, we are nearing this series completion! Five more types and we covered every single Pokémon type and made lists of my favourites for all of them! Today we discuss the grass type! One of my favourite typings over all that oftenly blend with another favourite typing of mine! The poison type! This does mean I had a bit of difficulty with the the number 4 and 5 on my list.. but my top 3 is something that will never change!  I love almost all grass types though and except for my top 3 they are all incredibly close to another.. except for a few but I will never tell them cause it will make them cry!

Like always time for some honourable mentions! As per the rules I can not state more than one entry per evolutionary line and if I like a final form less and it makes me want to use it less  than it can go on this list. While nowhere near as strongly as some of the other types this is how I feel about Bayleef!  I LOVE Bayleef! I am however not a big fan of Meganium.  It’s a bit safe, it doesn’t get great moves , let alone good grass moves. Since Typhlosion and Feraligatr do get some great moves with the Same Type Attack Bonus.. Meganium is just really the lesser choice. It is really outdone by most other grass starters which is a shame. Bayleef has so much personality though and will always be one of my favourites.

A Pokémon also has to feel like a grass type. Grass types usually have this covered except for some legendaries like Kartana the Ultra Beast and  Tapu Bulu the Island Guardian. Paper and a Tiki Bull do not shout Grass Type to me…However I don’t like to use Legendaries in general..only the earlier ones . There is one other Pokémon that I dont really find a grass type and that is Whimsicott. I see the fairy part, and I guess I can see how you look at it as a tree spirit thing or something.. but I just see a pixie like creature. It usually doesn’t rely on grass moves all that much either! It’s hella cute and a great Pokémon.. I am just not sure I see it as a grass type!

Speaking of almost not using legendaries there is one I do really like, no It is not shiny Celebi.. I know it is pink.. but it is just a lesser variable and more fragile version of Mew..and Mew is pink base form.  No I am  talking about Shaymin… I do not mind it’s normal form but I find it a bit meh design wise. Shaymin Sky Forme however is amazing!  I LOVE that design and the extra typing it gets puts it as one of favourites. However it is just a side form of Shaymin so I did not feel it was right to put it here as I really find regular Shaymin to be quite lackluster.

Pokémon that appeared on earlier lists will not make the cut either! Which actually includes what would be by definite number four! This Pokémon is Breloom! I love Breloom soooo much!  In the pokémon scene it has become very popular to react to Jaiden Animations , My First Nuzlocke!  In it a Breloom dies and I felt the pain! A Breloom is such an amazing grass type pokémon that it would just feel terrible to lose it! This is why I do not Nuzlocke these games. I’d cry my eyes out! In am a sucker for mushroom Pokémon and even though none of them made the list.. because they are all below Breloom.. a swarm of mushrooms would show up if this was a top 10 and every Pokémon was allowed! Breloom! You rock!

In the past I made an argument of including the “sound” type in Pokémon.. and a lot of my top five Pokémon so far would have fitted in that typing. Ludicolo, Chatot, Exploud, Toxtricity and now Maractus. I have a thing for sound based Pokémon. I am not even sure what it is because Maractus isn’t that amazing when it comes to gameplay! I just completely adore it anyway!  On a Stream of a Pokétuber called Patterrz he had a Maractus named Jeb! Jeb was amazing!  My own Maractus I used in a fan game was pretty sweet as well!  It is just such a nicely designed cactus Pokémon. A dancing cactus that has pink little flowers on its head. It is just one of those pokémon that makes me go N’awwww every time I see it. I think in part it’s it’s bunny like design , a bunny was my first plushy so I have something for bunny ears. Bunny eared cactus is definitely a win here! In the anime it’s adorable as well.. and I would like to hug it so much! It would be a bad idea! But still it’s just one of those things. 

Maractus live out in the desert where they would fall prey to some of the arrid region birds if they had not had their secret weapon! The power of dance! With a little uptempo dance they become some weird sort of scarecrow. A Marcatus can only move rhythmic and if it does it produces a Maraca like sound which scares of Pokémon..I assume because it sounds like rattlesnakes.. but maybe Pokémon are scared blind of Samba de Amigo games as well! Who knows?! The scarecrow thing they do to protect their very nutritious seeds once a year they shed ove these seeds and scatter them all across the desert. These seeds are an important food source to animals and humans in these regions alike!  Birds want to eat them while they are still on the Marcatus though..and pecks are super effective.. so you can’t really blame these cactus pokémon for defending themselves can you.

Maractus is a Never Used tier Pokémon and it’s base stat total of 461 is quite low! It has a very decent special attack and a fair amount of health though so it’s best if you equip it with a Big Root, and teach it Leech Seed and Giga Drain. Big Root boosts your health gains and it’s ability Water Absorb let’s you freely switch it in against water types and provide some extra heals even. Acupressure will help you give it some boosts on the turns your opponent is free to swap out but you can go with Growth as well.. but Growth will make speed an issue. If your opponent runs a lot of physical moves Spiky Shield is a good shoutout.. or use Maractus to counter your opponents walls and teach it toxic!  Personally I prefer to use it as a Wall breaker! A careless opponent can really let you buff your Cactus up nice and easy!  If you do run Acupressure, which gives you a random stat buffed you could take poison jab instead of toxic as well in case you get lots of physical attack buffs!

The pinkest grass type I could find (except for maybe Shiny Celebi)  is definitely on my favourites list. While again it’s stats are a bit lackluster, it is just such an interesting Pokémon.  We all know the walking twig bug is a bug pretending to be a plant. So Creatures Inc, Game Freak and Nintendo came up with a plant pretending to be a bug! Amazing! It’s a Totem Pokémon as well so if you play Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon you can get a special version of this pokémon.. which was a huge selling point for me to use it. It’s amazing!  Sun and Moon really made their mons so much more memorable. The design looks very feminine and elegant but you can also tell it is a physical attack that will use it’s sickle talons to attack. Its pre-evolution is absolutely adorable and I just want to hug it till it heads pops.. but not literally I’d be super super upset. I like cool evolutions fine but I love the graceful evolutions just a bit better.  Primarina , Gardevoir, Milotic and Lurantis, it is nice to see some “grace” in the pokémon world. This is definitely a monster I have taken a shine to.

Lurantis is very themed in with solar light! Not only is grooming  this pokémon an effort that requires a lot of love and sunlight, this makes it quite popular among non Pokémon Trainers who want to have the Lurantis with the most vibrant colours. So it has a pretty nice life. It has little defences against bugs however so it just pretends to be a bug itself! In its habitat there are still a few  bugs so that is probably a good move. However if you look closely you can spot that the cloth over its arm is actually flower petals. These petals are harder than they look super thin and razor sharp. So they are often used as a sickle! However these petals can also actually shoot laser beams! Yes it is actually called a laser in the Pokédex! These beams are so powerful that they can blow holes in , what else but, thick steel plates. The steel plate industry in the Pokémon world must REALLY be thriving with how much of those get destroyed! Of course this pokémon is a Alola region creation so  it has a more twisted pokédex entry as well. When it is slashing and cutting into its opponents and great speed and grace people almost look like it is dancing. If you see a Lurantis cutting up it’s opponent you will think it’s the most Glamorous Pokémon you have ever seen.

There are many ways to build a Lurantis  for battle. It has Contrary as it’s hidden ability so a Leaf Storm using Lurantis is a good way to build for victory! Z Sunny day for some speed and bam!  But that is not what we are after! Today I want to give you a build that does that whole laserbeam from it’s petals thing! So we make a set that has the ability Leaf Guard (which prevents status changes in the sun)  Sunny Day, which sets up the sun!  Toxic, to prevent your opponent from setting up (As toxic damage stacks over time) Aerial Ace  to deal with bugs and (most) poison types and Solar Blade.. which is buffed up by Sunny Day.EV’s  go into Health to make it sure it can take a hit and Attack to make sure it deals Maximum Damage. Your laser plant is ready for use!

Vileplume is just another Pokémon I am just in love with! From it’s simple but appealing looks, to its cry. Every time i see a Vileplume I want to use one. When I saw  it in Pokémon Snap it was my favourite Pokémon to put on camera. Vileplume has been on plenty of my teams and will continue to be for the future. It is great and bulky so it allows you to scout new Pokémon a lot as a result  I really like to use it during first runs and as a lead. That means I always see what nickname I give it first and most.. and our bond really grows! I also still like the fact that Oddish it’s prevolution can punch and tackle better than an Onix. Vileplume has that level of clunk in it..it doesn’t seem to be able to run very fast and the way it’s hands are shaped make think with how it’s head is shaped it can get into a few awkward situations! So in essence I really like this pokémon because I think it could easily get it’s head stuck in a door!

Right away from the first generation we begin with a zinger of a Pokedex entry. It’s big head is heavy and hard to hold up! Oh my Arceus I love it so much for that!  Mamma will help you with your head Boo! It also seems to be the thing with the largest petals in the world… Don’t tell it about Galarian Venusaur! The larger the petals are the more poisonous these things are. As it waddles about it spreads those toxic spores around oftenly making the sky tint yellow . This poison causes ravaging allergic reactions that sometimes can even lead to paralysis. Once a Vileplume has paralysed its prey will will walk up to it and devour it. It seems to prefer jungles as its natural habitat and it can be dangerous enough that people are advised to stay away from any pretty jungle flower because it might be a vileplume and it might not end well for you.

In combat Vileplume is one of those, Jack of all trades master of none type pokémon. It’s Special Attack is it’s best stat and the rest is actually “fine”. So EV it’s special Attack to the maximum and split what’s left across it defences and equip it with Moonlight, a powerful healing move, Effect Spore as ability to help you with you defences, Sludge Bomb And Giga Drain for offensive moves and toxic to status non physical attackers. It will be a nice set that allows Vileplume to do it’’s thing and hold it’s head up high proudly when it comes out of it’s battles victorious! It is a set focussed on enduring and out-stalling your opponent. Vileplume can also work well on a sun team but still can be a bit sluggish!  Trick Room might be an option as well if you give it a slowing item to equip, but I’d say it is best equipped with something like Leftovers who heal a little between turns.

Rowlet is just SOOO adorable.  It is one of my favourite starters ever. I wrote a lot about Rowlet before just before I joined OWLS!  Rowlet’s line is based on an Owl that is a plague in Hawaii.. evolving into an Owl that is becoming scarce on Hawaii into an owl that has gone extinct in Hawaii. I love that it is a bit a story of human hubris. First we see something as unwanted , so we try to bring back balance but we do not know what we do.. and we end up with only memories. This pokémon is so well designed and has so much personality! When the starters were revealed everybody loved Rowlet right away and I mean everybody! The little owl with a tie on it’s neck won over so many hearts including mine. The anime where Rowlet sleeps in Ash backpack just made me love it so much more. I love my grass starters but rarely do they turn out so well as Rowlet. I do think Chespin and Snivy are the weakest grass starters, respectively and seeing Creatures Inc return strongly in the form of this was amazing.  For a good chunk of my first blogging year Rowlet has also stood for OWLS. The Otaku Warriors of Liberty and Self Respect.. and a message I very much support which makes this more than a Pokémon it is a symbol as well.

Rowlet nesting in Ash bag is something that is actually explained in it’s pokédex entries. Rowlet do like to nest in caves or dark and tight spaces. It is even known to nest in Trainer’s Pockets if they are big enough! Which of course is completely adorable! Pocket Owl! It doesn’t mind being in the light all that much as well as it does sleep during the day to photosynthesis and store energy to use at night. It is a very silent flyer and on dark nights it will go out hunting for prey! When it spots something it will toss it’s feathers at it which are sharp and arrow like.. as a little..hint and what is to come. Rowlet is quite hot tempered though. It it moves too close to its opponent it doesn’t retreat of fly up and try to throw it’s feathers again.. no It just moves in close and treats their opponents to some vicious kicks.
So even though Rowlet is only 30 centimeters (or 1 foot)  tall and it only weighs 1.5 kilograms apparently it’s kicks are formidable. For those who need to know 1.5 kilograms is like 3. a bit  in pounds. This one is definitely on the list of Pokémon I would want as a pet.

Rowlet is first form pokémon, so the moveset here is a Little Cup Set, which means only unevolved pokémon.. that at least evolve ones created at level 5.  EV’s  are used to max out attack, just a little bit into special defence to tie it up with its other defensive stat and the rest goes into speed. Rowlet is a physical attacker and like most little cup Pokémon it is quite weak which means you will want to bring some set up. Rowlet’s best set up move is Sword Dance. Fittingly enough it’s best grass move is Leaf Blade. Brave Bird will give it it’s flying Same type attack Bonus and Sucker Punch will give it some hard hitting priority move your opponent really has to work around! Depending on your opponents team you give it either a Life Orb to maximize damage ,if you plan to burn it out quickly and need it for a few specific takedowns like ground or fighting types. If you want to use it to chip at your opponent you better be off equipping if with some Berry Juice though to let it endure for longer. While this format may not have the prestige of an O.U. (OverUsed Tier)  fight bringing Rowlet to a little cup fight certainly can be a hoot.

Was there ever any doubt in my mind that this would be my favourite grass type? Hell no! Not only is Bulbasaur my favourite Grass type, it may very well be my penultimate favourite pokémon just behind Sylveon. This was the first pokémon I ever adventured with and with very few exceptions, whenever I can pick Bulbasaur. I think I used about 18 different Bulbasaur in games. Not counting Delta Bulbasaur in Pokémon Insurgence and Browniesaur in Pokemon Sweet Version. This is more than a Pokémon to me.. even more so than Sylveon. Bulbasaur is the single most important pokémon in my life without a shadow of a doubt. That first journey I went on with Bulbasaur the Bulbasaur changed my life. I would not be writing this today without that little guy.  Bulbasaur was something I nurtured, it started my trent for rooting for the underdog! We had Pokémon Red which meant Charmander.. and we had Pokémon Blue which meant Squirtle and while I indeed actually picked Squirtle first..empty batteries soon fixed that.. as if I got a signal from above that the little leapfrog with the bulb on it’s back should have been my partner. Now well over 20 years later.. I still partner up with Bulbasaur whenever I can.. it made me fall in love with Pokémon and taste the geek community!  It is just a super big part of me! It is part of my soul!

Pokédex entry wise Bulbasaur isn’t all that facinating though… but there is an interesting factoid all the same. The moment a Bulbasaur is born a seed is planted on it which grows out to be it’s bulb. This means that a Baby Bulbasaur technically is born without it’s bulb.. just as soon as it is born it gets its own bulb. After that moment the bulb rapidly grows every day. Bulbasaurs like to sunbathe and nap in the sun a lot as this allows them to store nutrients in said bulb. If the bulb is filled with nutrients Bulbasaur can survive on whatever nutrients it stored for days. Not having to eat a single Morsel. That is about all there is to tell about Bulbasaur’s Pokédex entry. Yet there is a question I can not shake. Who plants the seed on Bulbasaur.. is it it’s parents? What if you get a bulbasaur egg from the daycare.. do you get a seed to plant on it from the old folks taking care of the daycare?  Does the egg itself maybe plant the seed?  Is there like a sandman of bulbs?  What does a bulbasaur say when it comes out of the egg bulbless! Is it just called Saur or Asaur until it’s seed grows?! I do not know! One of my favourite pokémon in the world and I do not have an answer!

In Little Cup Bulbasaur is an amazing Pokémon as well, but I don’t think Sword and Shield have the little Cup format at all. So we are going for a Sun and Moon build here! Which means taking advantage of Z-moves and in this case Z-Celebrate. Z-moves are a form of super moves and while Celebrate is a worthless move that just gives your opponent a present Z-Celebrate will be a big and useful stat Buff!  Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain and Sleep Powder will decimate your opponents team in the later phases of the fight. If you burn out there counters against the little thing early game you are sure to sweep your way to victory using this amazing Bulbasaur build. It looks festive too!  If your opponent runs a lot of grass types, or steel types take hidden power Fire instead of sleep powder to get around those. Z-Celebrate and Little Cup will make sure that Hidden Power still has enough oomph to realling bring the pain! Who says you need to evolve to be strong!

Bulbasaur and I go way back..it is one of those pokémon I’d say I have a genuine bond with! It  opened up a new path in my life! It went with me to the  first geek gathering I ever had.. even if it did not play. I have a Bulbasaur plushie watching over me at night, I have a hard time not picking Bulbasaur whenever I can.. I genuinely feel bad.. as if we belong together. That First Bulbasaur may be gone.in terms of data, it got reset over.. and I played the other two starters as well. I also made a new game and came back to Bulbasaur. A new one! Bulbasaur accompanied me in Pokémon Leaf Green, it was on my team in Let’s Go Eevee. Bulbasaur was there for me in Pokémon Reborn, Bulbasaur was there for me in Pokémon Mega Adventures. I played variations of it, I ran a grass TCG deck just so I could play a Bulbasaur and if someone asks me what is the best starter I can without a shadow of a doubt say it’s name. My sweet Bulbasaur you will always be my number 1.

What is your favourite Grass-Type? Which of the starting types you like best? What was your first ever pokémon? Do you have any loyalty toward it?! Let me know in the comments! Next time will be the last time I can add to the chain of typings that are super effective against the previous list. Next time we discuss my five favourite Poison types! Now it’s time for me to be all plantlike and play in the sun for a bit!

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Geeky Dreams Explain: Pinkie’s Weirdest Bizarre Vacation

Hello Island Guests! In this blog we are going to do something special! We are going to analyse one of my most vivid and geeky little dreams I have had in awhile. I still remember the story very well. So I thought it would be a good and funny tale to tell. It turns out…it might have had deeper issues than I thought. I have had this dream twice now with only minor variants.. like in the second run I was aware I had this dream before so I could alter some of the events.. but only to minor effect.  For all intents and purposes I shall tell you the story of the first variation of the dream.

My dream begins in the Southern of France, there is some sort of Formula 1 like race going on.. but the cars are also racing Sonic the Hedgehog and a few other video game like characters. This being a great bridge between Dad and me we decide to go watch.. but we still need to buy tickets and no one has money for it. Yet then Fred and George Weasley show up on their brooms saying they have a plan! We could rob the local beer Factory and sell beer for the races cheaper than on the circuit itself.. it would be a gold mine. So I go along with them and we steal a pallet of beer! I nearly fall but Fred and George save me! We bring the pallet to dad who managed to get a sales license but he betrays me.. he only got permits for himself Fred and George as he does not want me talking through the race. Fred and George give me a few beers but really want to see the match so they agree with Dad. I try to get in anyway but dad puts the blame for stealing the beer solely on me and reports me to the authorities so I have to flee.

The dream skips ahead a few days and I am in a different hotel a really weird one. I made some new friends there, some based on my real life friends ..well one.. and the others are new friends.  I help out in a hotel to stay there but now I got some free time and I am able to swim with my friends! But the pool is made entirely out of milk!  People do not seem to mind and bring up the name of the hotel is Cleopatra resort. One of the other pool guests is a Wailmer pokémon and for some reason Widget the alien is sunbathing there. All the other guests are like minor geeky things or elements of my life. The weirdest thing is like a stick of Butter who once tosses us our beach ball, me and my friends play with when in the pool of milk.  Suddenly a wall explodes and there is Deadpool! Who has been hired to kill me for stealing the beer!  (Thanks dad) , he murders everyone in the pool first and I try to hide under a bed.  He comes after me and says I can not escape. I get fed up with him and tell him I will haunt him from the afterlife.. so he says he will hunt me there as well. He stabs me in the heart and then cuts off his own head. I try to escape but the wound kills me as I fall and sink in the milk.

I then wake up in a indoor pool.. the walls are very bland. there is but one big pool with a huge diving board. My friends are there… but all as 6 or 7 year old school girls. I notice I am a six year old or so as well. I notice there is one extra girl who peels of her face.. to reveal Deadpools mask behind it.. but Shoujopool realises she doesn’t have swords. So she points  at the diving board way up high and tells we should hold a diving competition instead. The loser will go to hell and the winner can return to earth. So that is what we do. We realise there is no judge so we decide to let my friends score.. and give a score ourselves.  Deadpool goes first and I talk my friends into giving him bad scores. 1/10 from all.. but that friend who was a real friend who gives him a 9/10 ..saying  he now she loves Deadpool laughing loud at the silly jump. I climb up but my motor skills really make me slow.. I finally get there as I think I already disappointed my friends… This pool is filled with water…but to make the water appear I have to drop a peanut into the pool. Which luckily I had on me and a fountain shaped like an M&M begins spraying water.. he was in a dream before and he was a chocolate fountain then.. each time I need a liquid I need to toss a peanut at him this is a recurring thing ever since I was 16. 

More on  that later though… I jump into the pool.. but flop real sloppily so I think my one friend will give me a bad grade.. but he doesn’t ……because Deadpool ripped the heads of all my friends and build himself a tipi (native american tent)  of their bodies and a hat of their heads. He tells me I scored zero and I lost. I tell him he cheats and he should give my friends back.. so using some of those cocktail sticks he puts their heads back which revives the girliest girl among them somehow.. but not the rest. He says whoops! Then the girly girl tells me to fight him and Gonna Fly now  begins playing and as we both yell Ding Ding.. We punch each other in the face.. the Screen pans out slightly and we become dwan animations on parchment..slowly zooming out while Subtitles roll to reveal we are actually a trading card. After the subtitles are over that trading card is at the Milk pool..I pick it up.. look around and realise everyone is still dead. I swear.. and that is the moment I wake up.

So now I will use a book of interpreting dreams I once got to identify elements of my dream and come up with an analysis! I haven’t done this before but I felt like it might be a funny post so here we go! The father stuff is fairly obvious.. he is increasingly ignoring me from his life so the way he acts in this dream makes perfect sense. A vacation appearing in a dream according to my little encyclopedia stands for desiring a change of pace or wanting to renew my energies. I have been dealing with a very pesky fatigue as of late so I assume it is the later. A racetrack means can mean I feel my life is going in circles according to this book.. given that a vacation is a thing theme as well.. those two might meet.. since we did take a vacation TO a racetrack. Combined with my father I begin to see a connection. Fred and George I did not think had a deeper meaning. Looking it up though Wizards in dreams mean there are hidden forces at work.. so I guess they could represent Dad’s girlfriend who is manipulating him against us.. but never openly does so. Stealing should mean I feel misunderstood and that I feel like I lack emotional support and appreciation.. that in context makes a lot of sense. Beer apparently is an indicator for hiding behind a mask, now showing my true face and that is a big issue for me.. especially around my family, mostly dad. I fake a lot so I don’t get into conflict but I feel sad that my true self can not be appreciated by him.

The scene that my life is being saved by Fred and George apparently means my head thinks I should let go of a unhealthy bond which makes an awful lot of sense in this part of the dream. The betrayal of my father at the end neatly wraps it up as Betrayal means the dreamer is doubting between the bond between the betrayer and themselves. So yes.. my relationship with my father is indeed not a very good one.. the time I had this dream was just after he had successfully had a malignant tumor removed. Before when he was sick he reached out to us and as soon as the operation was done and he was going to live .. he began shutting us out again. I saw this coming from before and even spoke this out to the rest of the family that it would really hurt me.. they said that would not happen but it did.  Nowadays Dad just criticizes us wherever he can so if I need to drive back home with him (as I can not drive myself)  I feel super uncomfy and just talk to keep him from condemning me. Each time we meet he promises things will go better and every time we are shoved out further. So this first act.. makes a lot of sense! Except for Sonic!


The trait that stands out most in the second act of my dream is milk.  Milk stands for the desire to have a better relationship with your friends or family…which makes this dream quite scarily consistent. Imagining friends who aren’t real  stands for having elements of myself that I really suppress.. or at least according to this book. In real life I have indeed been pretending al lot to have a semblance of fitting in. Seeing friends of old signifies a desire to go back to a simpler time and seeing friends die shows i am worried about my friendships continuing to exist. Each time I had these dreams a friend the friend of old in question I dreamed about really distanced himself further from the group. The first time he blamed us for not going anywhere in our lives and how that marooned his ambition and job comes before friends. Second time he was really negative about all the people I care about in our group and wished for a return to the super male energy of before my coming and of my bestie. 

A pool with water I can not see through.. and I assume milk counts as that, shows that I might be emotionally confused which again was true for the time at the dreams. I wish to continue this friendship..with the male energy person and at times he is a great friend. Yet the fickleness at which I can be tossed out when I am not convenient at the moment hurts. I am not sure I can live with that. I am worth more than be a friend when convenient. Butter , also has a meaning, it represents happiness. I think it stands for how I cope with that relation. Some of our other friends are very focussed on how he acts now at them. Hate him for his unreliabilty, he’s hurting us an selfish. I do not want to lose him so I focus on all the good memories. Widget the Alien.. might mean someone pushes me to my limits or beyond. I am not sure he counts but well I bet we can explain that. If we consider Wailmer the whale pokemon to represent a whale it means something is currently overtaxing me or pressing heavily on me …which again makes scarily much sense to me. 

It gets worse when Deadpool shows up. See my book does not mention a fourth wall breaking super hero as a possible analogy thing.. but a masked figure I am scared off like I was in the dream .. is  actually in my dream book thing again. Apparently a Scary Mask means that I feel …. And I wish I was joking… A lack of harmony in my family or friends. When I started this I genuinely thought this might be tons of fun.. but I am kinda weirded out by how consistently accurate these elements are in my dream. I am not fully sure if I believe in dream analogy but this is a pretty big coincidence at the very least. You can easily say.. but deadpool’s mask is not scary..and I’d say sure.. but I was terribly afraid for him in the dream so it counts! I  also think it is safe to kill Deadpool a killer. When you see a killer murder others the dream book explains it means for emotional sadness another has caused in me.

This can both reflect on my dad again as well as that friend who moved away because he chose ambition over friendship. Ever since he left a few members of our group gave up.. he was the host and now even if I try to host some others just don’t come ..because they rather would go to the other guy.. I am not good enough. Being murdered myself by a killer ties in with that quite well as it shows my brain  feels like people are working against me together.  While I do not feel they actually conspire against me.. I do feel that the negative actions of one.. trigger negative actions in the other yet another stays at home because that second guy is not coming and no one wants to break this cycle. So yeah I have to say.. the second chapter of my analogy also makes a lot of sense. It’s more intangible than the first but these are worries in my head at the time of dreaming. I am not lonely but I can feel myself slipping.

Now onto the final part of this dream. Luckily the implications of this part are a bit more positive! I think they actually represent my blogging life because these dreams occured on the time I felt quite empowered by my blog!  The being reborn part stands for getting a second chance to obtain something I thought was unobtainable, to deal with stuff I want to deal with but could not before or it can represent that I am ready to move on with my life. I am getting close to accept how things are and move on from the pain and start a new phase in my life.  Since I see myself as a younger person now I am more inclined to believe it represents that second part! Because seeing yourself as a young person represents the desire to make up for mistakes I made in the past. Or seize opportunities I did not before. 


When my clique was very tightly knit I never had any reason to make new friends.. I loved this group of friends and having these people was more than enough for me. At conventions I rather would hang out with them as new geeks because they were all I needed. They went out to socialise with others a lot though and now I do regret not doing that as much . I was content with what I had but I wished I could have reached out to others and now I can. Seeing a group of kids ..which in this case are my imaginary friends.. which we already discussed were reflections of sides of myself I could not show.. means the merging of several aspects of my personality… In other  words I suppressed a lot of my persona.. and blogging brings this out more and more and I accept more and more those traits of my personality around you guys! I also show it more in real life! If people are slipping anyway, I might as well make friends by being the truest me!

The Clear Swimming pool, stands for a much healthier emotional life. Since my tonal shift on the blog around May.. which was around the first time I had this dream means, I have been much more honest about my emotions. I accepted myself a lot more and the implications being myself had and even if something sad happens like a person not liking me I was more okay with it because at least it was real. The diving board stems from a temptation and the empty swimming pool I saw for an emotional emptiness. Around April and recently..when things were at a low I was very tempted to harm myself…in the permanent way. By jumping from a great height even…a temptation I had a hard time to fight off. There were times that I felt so alone.. and unheard I was empty.. much like the hall this dream was set in. My health sometimes makes me feel like a time-bomb. I want people to have a positive memory of me. When everything is slipping..sometimes the thought occurs that I should exit stage left now! While I still have some some semblance of control The competition however stands for a will to fight..  so I fight that temptation. No matter how often the thoughts are in my head.. I know I have people who love me still. For them I fight! For them I live! So that temptation..will only just be that. A easy to resist temptation that sometimes nibbles in my mind. But let’s not dwell on that.. this part is about positivity!

The Peanut.. believe it or not also represents something.. it apparently signifies gaining popularity on a personal level. The M&M I am going to interpret as a piece of candy because brands are not considered.. candy represents social Pleasures and an increase in friendships and love. I have actually made friends by blogging.. by being more personal with and more me recently I have gained a bit of popularity as well. I know some people still just like a post without reading it and I know who.. but I have gained this “pack” as of sorts.. a group of people I regularly interact with and it has made me so happy. and at ease with myself.. Again showing a full  clear swimming pool.. much more healthy on an emotional level. It’s like as if my mind says! Don’t worry girl you got more people behind you then you think!

The decapitation allegedly stands for me not wanting to think on certain elements and everyone who read my anniversary special knows that this is indeed a worry. I have a demon on my shoulder telling me people actually hate me. I want to starve that demon, not think about those doubts! The boxing shows I have an inner conflict. Like I mentioned I have that little demon on my shoulder that tells me you all hate me.. so you are a source of pain.. yet also a source of happiness and stability. Boxing also represents throwing up to much barriers for myself.. like what I did before!  People can like me well enough without always having to respond to me.. by making them react to me.. I place a barrier on my happiness while just sending them a message or getting a like or a smile can be enough. The Card I pick up at the end allegedly shows I want some form of attention .. which is true of course. I would not be blogging otherwise. The fact that I appear at the world of the living  again means I won from Deadpool and victory stands for successfully overcoming attacks  from rivals or obstacles. I can beat that inner demon and I can have that attention! I need to accept myself for it and accept some relationships do not work! Not everyone has to be a bestie as either. Support and positive energy can come in all sort of quantities and from all sort of places. I just need to be willing to accept it. I should not be scared to lose bonds over time.. I should be happy and excited to form new ones.

And on that high note I will end today’s post!  It was much more interesting to analyse this dream as I thought.. such a silly dream had a lot of elements that really seemed applicable to me and I actually feel a lot more sane now!  Even though my dream was weird.. I think in the end it was mostly about very normal desires that have been a bit fritzy lately! I know I talk about this subject a lot but before I started translating I did not know this was going to be what it is about. Have you ever analysed your own dreams?  Let me know! And for everyone reading truly thank you! You are the reason I do not swim in milk anymore! You gave me a peanut and a card. You give me a reason to decapitate people in my dreams..because in such an awesome community I have better things to think about than my woes and worries!


Pinkie Reacts in writing! Full Xbox Games Showcase July 2020

Hello again Island Guests! Today I am gonna do something I haven’t done in a fair bit. Be somewhat relevant. Now I know this post will go up when the news is almost a week old.. but that still passes as relevant for me! Rather than talking about Retro Games or Weird games.. or a new pokémon one! I will tell you what I think about what is coming!  Today I react to the Xbox Games Showcase of July 2020.

Okay.. guys , I think presentation wise Microsoft blew Sony out of the water. There was a lot more gameplay trailers, more release dates and more hype.  Heavily focussing on first and second party developers was such a smart move because this is all stuff you might buy the Series X for. Well stuff will come out for PC in some cases.. but let’s be honest.. PC Gamers and console gamers are by now almost completely different demographics. Regardless this really felt like a lineup for just about everything Microsoft! There was less room for technobabble which I appreciated. Let’s be completely honest here, Haptic Feedback doesn’t determine what system you will  get it’s the games. At least for me .. and this showcase was all build for that! No Price Range for the Series X though either.. are they waiting for each other to announce their price?! It’s not like I can afford one right away anyway.. and with how the console market works getting one day one seems a bit silly now.. but I would have at least like that bit of info.   Anyway let’s look at the games and I will judge them on how likely it would make me buy an Xbox series X if I had ample money.

All screenshots I use have been taken from this video that I will share with you so you can follow along in intervals if you wish!

This took a big chunk of the presentation! About a fifth of the entire presentation was Halo and I can see why. The last two Halo’s have not been received all that well and this one seems like a return to format. The Old armor is back, the colours and the general design reminds me of the original trilogy and in particular Halo: Combat Evolved the first game. I played the trilogy and liked it fine enough! This looks like a First Person shooter I actually  would sort of like to play. That being said the fact that I would like to play it because how retro it feels might make it a bit safe at the same time. There is a grappling hook thing now that looks quite fun.. and similar to something i have seen in Doom Infinite. Not only can you zip to other places it can also help you grab and toss items.  The music is awesome again, the characters I have seen are appealing so I already felt a bit engaged with the story..but I am not fully convinced yet I should play this over Halo 1. 

Would I buy a console for it?
Maybe! If I still feel like Halo after replaying Combat Evolved?!

State of Decay is not my brand of Zombie game.. I prefer the chaos of Left 4 Dead.  So when the third game was announced I did not feel much! I am happy for the people who love this series but to me it just isn’t my brand.  The fact that we seem to get more zombie animals is cool but I am already not very appealed by winter settings. This trailer in my opinion did not really need to exist, this type of game screams Gameplay. I would like to see how combating Zombie deer would work how this weapon functions and if camping is a in game gimmick.  What this trailer shows could have been reached with a poster. Great for people wanting a sequel but it will not convince anyone new to this series I think.. I was not convinced at least.

Would I buy a console for it?
No but I might watch a let’s play

My days of wanting pretty graphics is something I left far behind me.. but there are always those who want to look at amazing graphics above anything else. While I have no doubt the gameplay of Forza is adequate I have always found the series incredibly boring. Much like Gran Turismo. I prefer PGR as a “realistic” series or Burnout as a fun racing series. I even enjoyed The Crew a fair bit when I tried the trial. This to me feels empty. Again no gameplay so I have no idea how good the game will look when actually racing.. and if I was part of the demographic.. I think that is what really matters. The visuals in this trailer look amazing but if this is not what happens in game.. I don’t think people very much care. I am happy for Forza fans they now know they get their title…and since nowadays everything has to be announced as a trailer.. I get why it is here.. but again.. this does nothing what the words “Forza Motorsports is coming to Series X”   could not do.

Would I buy a console for it
Heck No! sleeping meds are cheaper! Both would just put me to sleep

Rare’s new game peaked my interest.. this game looks like it might be a mix between Avatar (as in the last Airbender one)  Pokémon and stuff like Horizon Zero Dawn.  Yet I could be completely wrong, I do not know because this once more is not a gameplay trailer. The Breath of the Wild aesthetic it has to it appeals.. but makes it feel a tad to “artsy”  for me.. given how the trailer runs.  I am not sure if I am going to think this game is actually FUN or just beautiful and impressive. For example I found Breath of the Wild Beautiful and impressive but not every fun. It is clear that creatures will play a very important role in it.. but what that role is exactly is unknown! Are they just creatures you need to help with a task or do you actually use them to complete tasks?  I have no idea. I am intrigued.. very much so.. but I am not sure what this is. It has potential , it has beauty, and it looks very original ..but I just do not know what this ends up being.

Would I buy a console for it?
I do not know!

No this game has nothing to do with the Backstreet Boys. This game developed by Dontnod is basically Life is Strange 3. We see a choose your own adventure type game where a brother and sister reunited and bond over their past.. but mysterious powers reveal that there might be more playing than they initially would have thought. Life is Strange was one of my favourite playthroughs of the last decade while the sequel did not do all that much for me. This story seems more appealing to be, the plot lines that are thrown out in this trailer do feel intriguing and this trailer manages to capture a certain tension I would like to see in a video game like this. At the same time I do tend to find these type of games overly expensive as you can really only complete them once. Maybe twice but then the joy is gone a bit. The fact that this one will be episodic as well makes me think this will be very much the same thing. I would probably love to play this one.. but only once the parts are all bundled together for a sweet deal. Definitely something I will be keeping an eye out for ..as the vision mechanic seems neat.. but also something I do not mind waiting for.

Would I Buy A Console for it?
No but I would buy it if I had the console!

This trailer made me incredibly uncomfy and slightly hurt my eyes. Ori 2 as I will call the game was a well received game that now gets a 120 FPS + enhanced music version on the Series X.  The trailer however was two screens next to each other with one running at 60fps and one at 120 fps.. slowed down so we could really see the stutters in the 60fps one. It felt like seeing one of those spot the differences books but it is really hard for me to notice. I mean sure I notice there are more animation frames in the 120fps version.. now that it is slowed down but it hurt my brain to look at it like that. Ori is a great platformer that unfortunately is not for me due to all the jump linking and me being very twitchy. Focussing on trying to spot a difference made me a bit queasy so while I think it’s great that this is here for Ori fans .. I am not convinced you can actually notice the framerate difference with human eyes… at least when it is not slowed down.

Would I buy a console for it?
No I need the money to buy a bucket! And some aspirine!

I love Silly expansions. Old World Blues for Fallout New Vegas ,Far Cry Blood Dragon and TIny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep  are among some of my favourite expansions and this does that same thing. I love the style, I love the humor and I would have enjoyed the game a bit more if this was more the overall tone of the game. I found myself a bit bored when playing Outer Worlds though and I wish this had been in the base game instead. So it is a step in the right direction. It makes me want to pick Outworlds up to give it another try! So I can say it’s a good trailer. I will probably try the game again, back out and not bother with the DLC though.. but who knows things might change. I might actually get some fun out of this.

Would I buy a console for it?
No but I would give a game I dropped another chance for it!

More Obsidian goodness came in the form of Grounded. A team based survival game that holds a bit in between Fortnite (Building wise)  Honey I shrunk the kids (the movie) and  your typical survival shooter. It goes into early acces on steam on the 28th of July I think and it looks actually quite fun! It was also by far the funniest trailer! “If You are waiting for the biggest game of the year” …… Wait for Cyberpunk 2077.  I laughed out loud! Thank you Obsidian.  The game looks to good for my Laptop to run but this would be something I would play with friends had I had friends who like to play this. The friends who do played team based games said “I don’t want to play as children” so they were out!  I’d probably not be able to run the game either way but man.. this trailer was funny, special and I loved this games feeling.

Would I buy a console for it?
Yes! If I could buy the friends as well!

This gave me some heavy Lord  of the Rings Vibes.. in a good way. I could almost see imagine seeing a Balrog come.. after those first moments of “gameplay”. The trailer just shows us an arrow landing and a swordsman using runic magic to gain a buff for something ominous coming. This looks like a game I want to play, this sounds like a game I would like to play! There is a lot of atmosphere in this and has got me semi hyping over a fantasy for the first time since I saw the Dawnguard trailer for Skyrim! Maybe even stronger, this checks all the fantasy boxes for me.  The arrow part with the narrator I could not care very much for.. it was just those last 5 seconds that grabbed me.. but that grabbed me so hard  that it would not let me go that easy.

Would I buy a console for it?
Yes….if I had the money I totally would!

Another Interactive Drama ..but without the paranormal aspect. I did not like this one! The style of the trailer.. and if this is the graphical style of the game as well.. which I’ve seen in a few games before, isn’t for me. I see nothing gripping in terms of story yet. Where  Tell me why really seems to focus on the mysterious elements in its storytelling it is why it justifies being a game to me. This seems to focus more on the drama and that jittery style really takes me out of it. I am not much for visual novels either so I am not the demographic here, but while I might enjoy this as a movie I do not think  I’d like this as a game. The style CAN work .. but again I would need a mystery game for it.. where I get pieces to my puzzle. The missing frames are like info I am missing. I do not mind mind the style in Phoenix Wright or Danganronpa but this feels to artsy..like it’s done to be different not to make the story better.

Would I buy a console for it?
I would not know if I’d even play this game right now.

A trailer, with  a thankful guy in it. I didn’t even know Hellblade 1 was a thing and upon looking up it’s gameplay I don’t think this is something for me. It looks very epic and warrior like , with a lot of mysticism and stuff.. but this also looks a bit to gritty to me. To Feral. It seems really catered towards it’s current fanbase and isn’t a good bit to call in new players I think. No gameplay, no story..just shouting and fire. I have no doubt it will be a good game to some but as is this was one of the most forgettable presentations to me!

Would I buy a console for it?
What even is it?! I might need to play part 1 first!

I like this game and I loved the original! I would play this if I could .. but the thing is .. I already knew that! There were already a lot of good trailers showcasing both the settings and the gameplay and to be honest I didn’t really want this trailer.. It’s just more!  Like how Pokémon reveals to much Pokémon. My reaction to this trailer was mostly like.. What the Giratina happened to Jack Black’s beard! It looks so wild and .. not very good! Why is his voice so dark all the sudden! Such a change from his old style.. it’s cool that he sings a song for this game and it works.. but it would have been so much more awesome to discover this if I ever played the game than seeing him sing it .. with that beard! Great game.. WEIRD presentation

Would I buy a console for it?
Yes.. but I will never be able to unsee that beard if I do!

I am skipping this one! I have very few nice things to say about the franchise after my first two weeks playing the first game. I really dislike the reaction they took and I have some stronger feelings I should probably not discuss! If you like Destiny 2 .. please check it out in the showcase Hope you enjoy. I skipped it.

Man does Pripyat trailer well, every game that has it I instantly want to play. There is just something about it that is the perfect mix of gloom and tension. This game also adds a lot of supernatural elements to the town near Chernobyl. I wonder if this game will actually arive on schedule unlike the first one.  I wasn’t a big fan of the gameplay of the first one so I need to wait until the gameplay trailer to see if the second one might be better. If I am fair though I kind of had my fill of post apocalyptic gathering and survival games. They are kind of the Isekai genre of the video game industry. It’s all pretty good but it is all very samesy as well. The fact that this could be Metro, could be a radiation zombie apocalypse game and more.. and a lot of youtubers did not recognise it tells me  something this game might lack that thing to make it it’s own still.

Will I buy a console for this?
I need to wait until the gameplay trailer before I can truly tell.

It looks pretty! Vermintide in the 40.00 universe. The best thing I liked about this trailer is the Fat Shark Logo. Warhammer 40k is one of those things that is simply to dark and edgy for me. It’s about angry man shooting their guns at angry things and killing and getting killed makes more people angry. There is evil stuff that needs to be shot down.. and there’s alien races that need to be shot down. Valor in combat isn’t my thing. Warrior Races aren’t my thing, and I just discussed dark survival horror like shootouty things in a derelict setting before. I hope King Coconut will have fun playing it if he can but this universe and me are polar opposites. I don’t hate it and I think it should exist.. but keep it away from me please.

Will I buy a console for this?!
I am to pink for Warhammer 40.000

I love Tetris 99 for Switch! Such a great evolution of Tetris.. and once more they did it again. Tetris where you can play your Tetriminos on other players fields. Big blocks?! Psychedelic colours and the gameplay of Tetris Effect that was one of the best games of 2018? I am on board!  That’s all I have to say about it because.. it’s tetris! The trailer is people having fun playing Tetris. Tetris is great! This Tetris might be better than all the other Tetris.

Would I buy a Console for this?
I bought Tiger Electronic Tetris so why not a Series X!

This feels like Super Mario Sunshine on Xbox Series X for me.. you play a person going to an alien planet and you can clear up “The Gunk”  Not by rinsing it up by sucking it up.. so in a way this now seems a bit like a hybrid between Luigi’s Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine. So far I love it!  This is my type of game! The main character looks super fun and unique as well and the world as far as we have seen it feels quite unique being quite dark and gloomy but also really steering into the alien like aspect. It almost feels a bit Ridley Scott’esque in terms of design and I don’t think we have seen that into many video games. We mostly get really luscious worlds or snow covered worlds or purple words…This has me more excited now than Psychonauts!

Would I buy a console for this?
I would even get one out of a pile of gunk for it!

The game of the show for me! This is something I might ACTUALLY get the console for if I ever had the money!  I will probably stick with Switch.. but The Medium being a console exclusive game makes this machine at least a bit coveted for me! I like horror games in the Resident Evil and Evil Within sort of gameplay, mainly the latter seems to have a lot in common with this one.. but the chance to play each level as both the regular level and some sort of hellscape sometimes even at the same time seems so awesome! The character design between both worlds is awesome and the tone of the trailer is fantastic. We see both gameplay and world building and it is truly amazing. This is stuff I’d like to play!  No! This is stuff I want to play! I will probably end up following a YouTuber play this start to finish and be enthralled by every minute of it! This is the stuff Pinkie likes to play.. well that and cute and retro platformers.

Would I buy a Console for This?
I would build a machine to be able to play this!

Phantasy Star 2 , A super generic Call of Duty like shooter, some information about Game Passes … I honestly do not care.. I am happy people still get to play their beloved Phantasy Star ..and yay for Xbox series X having options but yeah .. meh! Generic Shooter X is just a gun go brrrt  game! Bam we are done with those things! Onto the final thing!

We just saw a pixie being eaten…and a title..and that is enough for me to want this game so bad!  No gameplay.. no world building.. no story reveals.. no characters…just a single Pixie being eaten and I already want the game! And it is developed by Xbox Game Studios..so I am pretty sure this will be an exclusive!  So……

Would I buy a Console for this!
OMG THAT PIXIE  SHE JUST GOT ATE! GIMME MORE!

What was your favourite presentation?! Will you get a series X? Would you like me to review games on Series X? If so please consider supporting me on Kofi! If you rather want me to get a playstation 5.. same story and if you like to see me do retro stuff?! Well you are in luck then!