Never Have I Ever done a Tag like this: The Have You Ever Gaming Edition Tag

Hello Island Guests I would describe myself as a bit of an odd gamer. While In recent years I have played a lot of video games I have found myself mostly fond of the retro stuff. I have enjoyed some Indie-game but they rarely appear on my radar. I do enjoy each installment of games like Pokémon, yet these days I mostly play the classics I never could , some fan made stuff, or like some retro like stuff like Cave Story, The Messenger and  Shovel Knight.  How will sticking to the classics effect this challenge?! Let’s find out!

Of course we would not start without thanking Winst0lfPortal for tagging me! I needed this tag really hard at the time of writing it.  As my review of Spanky’s Quest for SNES fell through.. that game is really weird but there is very little so say about it. So I might use it for something like a list or something. Anyway those are worries for later, time to start the tag.
Also for clarification.. all Have you evers are gaming related even when my titles do not have “gaming” in them…because obviously this is the GAMING edition! Also Spanky’s Quest is not a lewd game! You vagrants!

Is there really anyone who hasn’t?!  I can throw a hissy fit for a lot of things. I regularly rage quit Pokémon Showdown matches, while I am fairly well composed, the fact that I play random matches and not get a single counter to my opponents team..  and if my opponent starts taunting me .. that really gets my blood boiling. The thing that makes me rage quit more than anything is other players. It made me quite World of Warcraft entirely or at least the gameplay. Each time I got a dungeon I did not know I was kicked for stumbling into a wrong hallway or even for letting a cutscene role. Other times I would get called worthless or be called an idiot if I asked for Boss Strategies. I usually would be very petty about it too. Like if I was the healer I’d apologise .. put myself on auto follow and then promise to heal properly but if we reached the boss I would /sit get the ones being mean killed and then log off the game. Eventually I just stuck to roleplaying. So I did not rage Quit the game.. I rage quit the gameplay?! Beat that! 

Now games I completely quit happened as well. Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden is one of them! I was so happy to finally play a duck!  That game is so insanely hard I just could not get past the fourth mission. Which feels like it really is just the beginning of the game. It’s just one of those things I can not finish a mission because of some weird RNG freak moments. That made me quit! Another game that made me rage quit a lot was a game I actually really loved “The Messenger”. Such an amazing retro platformer that really helped my normally very low blood pressure. This game made  cry in anger when I died again but it was so good! I had to take breaks I had to take breathers .. when I get upset/stressed or whatever my motor skills really get clunky.. which really affects my gaming, which makes me more stressed and eventually if I keep fighting it  I really brick up.. like I can make myself so stiff I am in physical pain.. so calling it quits is important.. Then again I am one of the few humans  who can mimic Kirby’s Down B is I don’t quit! That’s special too!

I think so, I am not completely sure because I usually don’t do that kind of thing.. biggest reason. I barely and I mean BARELY play on my PS4 or Steam. I am a hardcore Nintendo Girl and nowadays I mostly emulate SNES games I was never able to play here due to not having an european release or an insane price tag for Retro Games. I might have like a few indie games on steam like Under Hero where I accidentally stumbled upon all the achievements.  The only game I am fairly certain I achieved everything was The Simpsons Game from 2007. You get most achievements from playing the game and get an achievement for starting up the game so it was really easy. Given I played trough this game twice , once by myself and once on Co-op really made that a breeze.  Games I came close with where Kameo: Elements of Power and some of the Lego “Movie” games. I think I got closest with Lego Indiana Jones 2 and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. The games I do near complete all come close enough to the collectathon action platforming genre with some adventure like games in the mix for good measure.

However since most games require me to measure my cyber-penis when I don’t even want a real life penis, take that Freud,   by the amount of kills/ headshots / wins I  sign to my name I am out when it comes to achievement hunting. I am mostly against the principle of achievements  Not with a passion but I do feel they play into a sense of elitism, not for everyone but for a particular bunch of people who ruin my pleasure with some games. I was happy to finish Cave Story with the happy end, I was proud I finished Shovel Knight with “relative ease” but then there is always a guy that says… “weh… did you get all the armors and that super secret thing that you get if you beat all the stages without taking a hit… of not you really have not finished anything”   I was super happy to complete the Messenger! It was hard enough! But  people reacted “Wah.. you gotta find all the green coins.. or it doesn’t matter” Achievements are an addition to a game that allow you to enjoy it longer.. I would rather finish a game and check out some other amazing things out there after I had a fun time.. I do not like to grind out these things.  I use achievements to find out if I missed some secret stages or content that I might have missed.. but that’s about it! 

Twice that I can remember that I pulled an actual all nighter, but there were several cases of severe Insomnia where I gave up on sleeping and decided to game instead and just slept the next morning but I do not count those.   The first time I pulled an all nighter was during a competition we did in Star Wars : The Old Republic MMO.   A match where everyone made a new character and we had 24 hours to see how far we could progress in the game.  We started at 2 PM in in the afternoon. Me and this guy named Charleigh or some other variant of Charlie both decided not to sleep. As I suffered a lot  we kept each other going.. alongside our third friend whose gamer name I can no longer remember.  I know she played a Body Type 3 (Big Beefy) Pureblood Sith Male Warrior while I made a female Sith Warrior named Desdemona and had A Sith Sorceress named Levina.. I am not sure which one I was leveling anymore..but we had a lot of fun racing each other.  I was in the lead for most of the night..mostly because Charlie was constantly chasing after Type 3 males or even type 4 (fat)  and flirting with them, and  the other girl really struggled to be productive suffering in speed because she was a tank class.  At around 10:30 AM in the morning though I had to hand victory to Charlie because I was wrecked. Playing a game for nearly 24 hours was just to much. My English went down the drain and I could not follow the story anymore.. so I backed out and went to bed. 

The second time was when I hosted “Bad Video Game Night” the first edition. We played games like Hong Kong 97 and Wizard of Oz on SNES but also games like Race Drivin, Superman 64, Big Rigs and Ghostbusters for NES by the time we reached Ghostbusters it was like 5:00 AM and we wanted to at least complete one game. At around 8:30 we did decide to give up though. We had only reached the stairs game a handful of times and we were too tired to remember we could save state it… so one guy literally fell asleep on my couch the other began to completely talk nonsense and I  almost poured myself a glass of window cleaner. We decided we would return the next day after some sleep to beat it but after we all had a few z’s  we all decided.. THAT game sucks .. Fudge that game! I don’t want to play it anymore! So next time ..when the Corona madness is over and my friends dare to sit on my couch again we are gonna play some Sonic 06!

No and I probably never will, I really have a weak voice , I assume it’s part of my muscle issue but it’s all a bit up and about. I twitch a lot so talking with a wired headset is pretty iffy as well. I lack the set up and other fundamental problems. I don’t think I need a live stream either. I don’t really like watching most live streams either, there are really only a handful of people whose life streams I enjoy!  One of the is Patterrz a British pokémon streamer whose Nuzlockes I really enjoy following!  I just don’t think people would really enjoy hearing me play Spanky’s Quest or play Pokémon Fan Games my way. I always said this and games should be fun for me .. playing a game with a dozen of backseat drives telling me to go there ..use this or fight using that combo doesn’t sound fun to me at all.  Telling you guys to not backseat pilot and just watch and talk to me instead also doesn’t sound really fun.  Again my motor skills and issues also require me to pause every now and again, unless I play games like Pokémon and even there I misclick due to twitches and such so I never really Nuzlocke or do anything exciting. 

No and I have never needed it either, okay Pokémon Shield got pre-ordered FOR me because those new games always release like super close to my birthday (November 17th)  they either release ON my birthday or at the very least within that week. However I am not the type that has to play a game on release.  That doesn’t do anything for me. I can stay clear of spoilers well enough since I want to play at my own pace anyway and I don’t really belief reviews… Pokémon SWSH and Pokémon in general have always had lukewarm receptions but to me they are much more than that.  They are hours I can relax a lot! A lot of Yu-gi-oh games are the same. I picked up Animal Crossing New Horizon two days after release ..because well it got released early but I got stir crazy from all the people texting me to tell me my turnip prize that day, come visit their island to check out one new chair they got  or a little path they made. While part of that is the appeal  of Animal Crossing I felt like I could not play my game anymore I had to not landscape in the time I wanted because they needed to check what was in my store or they would only give me an item if I visit their island.. it made me leave my island behind.. so  many people shouting.. so I prefer to play a game when it’s a bit older.. less voices cluttering my experience. I also think playing it on release date doesn’t make me a bigger or true fan either! I rather play a 2002 Yu-Gi-Oh game than a 2020 release all day long.

Well I am a Nintendo Girl, so yes! I mean who buys a Switch because they want to play Skyrim on the console and on the go?  Or who buys a Nintendo Wii U because it is the superior console over the Xbox One  and PS4? No you buy a Nintendo Console because you want to play Mario, Kirby, Zelda , Metroid or Pokémon. I got gifted a Switch so I can play Pokémon Let’s Go. I bought a Gamecube because I wanted to play the Wind Waker, I got a Super Nintendo because Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World looked so much more awesome than my Ducktales and Megaman 2.  Heck I even got my NES because Mario 3 and Ducktales looked better than what the competition had to offer.

I got a PS3 hand me down but I haven’t ever played it because it was handed down by a Call of Duty players, I had nothing to play on it so I did not care.  I have an XBox 360 with about 80 games and not a single game comes close  to being as beloved to me as anything I own on Switch or Gamecube. It’s fine.. but I’d give it up in a heartbeat.  I even got my PS4 to play Destiny.. back when I worked for a company that let me do game Journalism and Blogging for a possible career and I fell in love with Destiny after playing it along with some dutch celebrities at Cologne Gamescom. Safe to say I should not have!  I ended up resenting that game and console quite a bit. I bought Shadows of Mordor which I twitch locked myself out of enjoying (I hyper leveled one particular Orc a lot by dying against him over and over again)   I would not enjoy most of my games on PS4 until I got Xenoverse 2 and South Park the Fractured but whole! I also really liked the Spiderman game so in the end the price was kinda worth it..but it was the least enjoyable console I ever bought

So like my prefered games I might be stuck in the past, I do not see myself evolving anymore as gamer. If gamers where like Pokémon I’d be a fossil Pokémon but doing this tag was really fun! Now I am off to play some Pokémon Uranium followed by some Hong Kong 97 for SNES. Chin has still  met his quota and I love  I Love Beijing Tiananmen especially if it’s on a loop! That’s the kind of gamer I am and I don’t need no pre-order, no streaming or no achievements to do that! All I need is my trusty Nintendo Love, some gamer rage and then I can go all night!

I am a bit new in the gaming-community part of WordPress so I am not sure how old this tag is and where it went so I am just selecting a few people on tags based on random ideas and things.

First of all there is Ace-Asunder’s Solarayo who’ve I’ve seen do the Seriously Geeky Sunday Tags a lot of you share! So I am thinking they will be a fine candidate!

Second will be Megan of A Geeky Gal, because I have made it my life-long mission to tag her for every new tag post I either create or experience.. so I had too!

Finally will be Leek, From Leek Plays, based on their blog name there is plenty of gaming content and their logo and icons have pink elements in them! Us pink themers have to stick together!

Patterrz is you ever happen to read this, which I seriously doubt! I will nominate you to do this one on YouTube! One question will be very boring though!

Of course if YOU my dear reader want to take up this tag you can! You can earn your nomination by telling me what my favourite video-game song is in the comments! For those who do not know! I will reveal it in the post that comes after this! You can reply as long as you want! Oh! And if you don’t want to read tomorrows post all my Coconuts I shall nominate by default! So yay! Options! See you in the next post!

It wasn’t GLORIOUS: Mortal Kombat Annihilation Review

Hello Island Guests it is time for more video game movies! Today’s movie is one of the more infamous movies among the list and for good reason. Where the original is an okay movie.. like legitimately there was enough to like in that flawed product..that is the first Mortal Kombat movie.. but this second outing is just….

The second movie picks up exactly where the first movie left off. Our heroes Johnny Lui Sonya Kitana  and of course Raiden come back to Lui’s temple for a well earned celebration for saving the world. Except.. something looks different. Something is not right. Raiden, Johnny Cage and Sonya have all been recast which already is a pretty big flag. The big name actors did not want to participate anymore! While I did not like Christopher Lambert’s portrayal of Raiden in the last movie.. I do think he made the right call here. While James Remar, who is probably best known for playing Harry Morgan in Dexter, in my opinion does play the superior Raiden that is much closer to the personality of what a Thunder God should be, I really did not like how much the persona had flipped over the last few seconds since we saw Raiden in the last movie. Somehow somewhere Raiden suddenly became a much more religious duty filled god. I would cheer for that in a remake, or even a sequel that took place years after the original..but you can not have an actor play a role as “their thing” if it is set seconds after the last one!  

The whole Shao Kahn reveal thing happens differently as well, in the first part they just saw Shao Kahn’s face in the sky before stuff went down.. that doesn’t happen at all now! Instead his face is only show last… in some sort of dramatic pose reveal! That’s not how this happened?!  Guys if you are going to break continuity at least set this as few moments later to facilitate what you are trying to do! Obviously that is not what is going to happen here! Shao Kahn reveals the new fighters that need to be defeated and says the the earth will be destroyed in 6 days just like it was created and on the 7th day mankind shall rest IN PEACE!
Now that kind of sounds cool in a speech! You know a christian parallel.. but you are literally telling this to people who revere a thunder god named Raiden at a Shaolin temple!  So that whole bible quote is made for us as an Audience.. because there’s literally like two people there that even have the slightest chance to be christians!  With the deadline set people have ot find new fighters as they climb into giant steel balls that go through the core of the earth to anywhere. Sonya goes to America to find Jax… you know the guy she left behind three days ago to apprehend Kano in Hong Kong.. apparently when his partner vanished the thought… let me return home to America take a few days off and let me get my arms mechanically enhanced.. you know like any good special forces partner on the job of apprehending a criminal ganglord would do.

This movie is super painful , where the original does tell an okay job of giving a version of the original Mortal Kombat, Annihilation just throws darts at a player select screen  to pick which character to introduce next.  Obviously they could not continue to play the game or read some in game lore text because there were arrows through the screen… See movie what I did.. I set up one event… and let it have a logical effect on the subsequent events.. that’s a thing! This movie’s story telling is a mess. While Raiden and Sonya chase after Jax…oh right Not Johnny Cage died in the first minutes by the way… Kitana and Liu have to find a man named Night Wolf so he can teach Liu Kang the power to defeat Shao Kahn. When suddenly the Scorpion that exploded showed up..working for Shao Kahn and then kidnaps Kitana. New Sub-Zero shows up (and this IS a thing)  and fights New .. (I hope) Scorpion in one of the most awkwardly stage fights ever. Scorpion captures Kitana in the end and flees.. and he stops existing from the movie.. meanwhile New Sub-Zero tells Lui … well though luck for losing the princess better find that Night Wolf guy .. bye bye .. and he stops existing as well.  Now it’s nice to see Scorpion and Sub-Zero duke it out as this is cannon but the current Sub-Zero had a beef with Scorpion because he killed his brother Bihan. Yet in this movie Lui killed Bihan…or Bihan mostly killed himself  yet for some reason the blue ninja  still has a beeft with the yellow ninja.  He also is an earth fighter now while his brother represented Outworld.. I guess with the fusing worlds it can happen…but it feels so weird to suddenly see an Outworld fighter side with Earth Realm.. because…?! Cameo! This movie is very poorly written.

This movie is insane, which gives it some entertainment value but also makes it really hard to sit trough.Don’t get me wrong I like crazy but there has to be some sort of payoff and that isn’t always the case in this movie. For example those steel balls which you steer by leaning into.. being moved by the thermics of the  magma flow of the earth… how do they not burn alive in those! They have to hold the metal that uses the earth’s heat and termics  to go fast… you are holding a steel object right above lava… But sure I am willing to believe that one.. what I am not willing to believe is Night Wolf. At one point our main Hero finds Night Wolf who instead of a wise indian Shaman.. is Raiden from the last movie.. unhelpful. To beat Shao Kahn look has to do a few trials.. like he did in the last movie.. He also must have a vision on how to unlock his animality. To get this vision Night Wolf…..throws an axe to his head and knocks him out.  While Lui doesn’t really take any trials as he is interrupted by the cleary treacherous but .. I trust her anyway, Jade…in the end it turns out that axe to the back to his head was enough to unlock his animality…even though the world is at stake Night Wolf also just ceases to exist…All this wise man did was mention the word animality and then throw an Axe at Lui’s had… and arguably that was enough to save the world!

Meanwhile Raiden visits “the temple of the Elder Gods” With gods named like Fuijin, Raiden and heck even Shinnok  you would expect  some for of eastern themed, perhaps shinto like temple but no! Clearly they dwell in Central American Ruins. Probably because that was cheaper…and instead of talking to someone in person they just are a water wind and fire effect. ..When Sindel the evil Banshee queen wants to destroy her enemies whom she can look straight at she firstly collapses the temple a mile away..because….. frick if I know. Not only does this movie pay no attention to telling a flowing story, it doesn’t even care if characters act completely invisible. Sonya can’t tell the difference between Kitana and Mileena who have a vastly different fighting style, one wears Pink and got sent to the different side of the world and she doesn’t even look like Kitana, not the same actress.. it’s just a reference to the in game sprites…if you wanted to look so alike have them acted by the same actor with a different haircut or something.. No one makes sense in this movie not one single person has a logical goal. Jade for example turns out to be a betrayer… why did she not just kill Lui in his sleep, why actually take him to outworld and in the right direction?  What did she gain from that betrayal? Why did Nightwolf run away if he has an animality himself he can help stop Shao Kahn, Why does Sonya act like she was Johnny Cage’s lover? That never happened!

Then of course there is the final fight against Shao Kahn.. where the animality thing.. which was the big gimmick of the movie doesn’t even matter in the end.. the fight is not finished in animal form it goes on a bit after that. While Lui is the only one that can stop Shao Kahn Raiden tries anyway and dies because obviously he would as he knows he is not the one to stop Shao Kahn.. I get why he fights since they are brothers and all.. but .. basically he ignores the entire quest they are send on just to get hit by a slow projectile.. He has also been hit by these things before and it did not do that much damage.. sure Raiden was weakening but it felt like a super odd kill.  Then Liu Kang changes into the wrong dragon..and Shao Kahn changes into….something.. and  Shinnok gets the same punishment general Zod did. For an all powerful god he certainly got super surprised. It is all super weird and feels much more like a kid trying to string each other a few cool scenes than to make a semi decent film product.

When I called the  fights in part one poorly choreographed I did not remember how much poorer these fights were.  There is so much sloppy CGI in these ones that there is almost no actual fighting going on. Fireballs speed up kicks, flying bodypresses, all the stuff from the games is here now..bit since the movie doesn’t have the budget or the skill to pull it off now nothing feels like it actually connects. This is solved by making the camera blink in and out of a scene within mere seconds, motions aren’t rounded off and the moment a cgi attack impacts a character we usually see an angle switch or two, maybe some slow motion too to make the landing of a hit feel real?! It doesn’t help that now half of the cast is either a cg character, or horribly a super gimmicky character either. Like half the evil generals are killed by accident or by Shao Kahn himself.. who throws Rain in a bit of fire..because he defeated Striker and Kabal and he captured instead of killed them?!  Why.. they are captured you can kill them still.. the heroes are still days off and you know it. Sheeva gets crushed by a chandelier… not kidding.. she gets Looney Tuned to death and Baraka falls in that same fire pit again. Jade gets fed to some ugly cgi for no reason at all. Had the Emperor of Outworld not had offed  half of his own allies he would have even won most likely. Yet this saved in having to come up with fights for characters not designed to fight.

Sheeva and Rain for example never did anything, never threw a single punch. Sheeva being one of those four armed Shokan with a smaller body than Goro I can see be very difficult to realise so instead of not having there.. they opt for having her be there and be crushed by a chandelier. Ermac who fights magic and telekinetic powers was not visual enough so instead they give him Noob Saibot’s abilities. Honestly the only enemy that sort of mattered were Motaro and Sindel and while Sindel is plot relevant you can completely leave Motaro out of the plot and nothing would change. Raiden’s fights are the worst though.his fight against three reptiles is so weird. There is one moment where both he and a reptile stand there doing three  spin kicks.. but they are so far out of each others range clearly they would miss. While Raiden is running away for a more tactical ground instead of just backing up he decides to cartwheel around burning energy.. and as soon as they land punches.. we see each hit from three angels.. once is the stunt actor doing the fight, the second is a limp prop hitting the target and the third is a shot on the actors phase to say..yeah that’s clearly Raiden. I had to take a short break to give my eyes a bit of a rest that’s how flickery it was. The absolute worst parts in his fighters are when they add Raidens game cry to  to his attack.. like the Aybabayay flying thunder god attack. There isn’t too much stuff good going for this movie. 

This movie is quite terrible, like I can almost honestly say there is nothing good about it, the soundtrack is not bad but it’s as good as the first one! It’s just a repeat of the same thing. What saves this movie is the terrible acting. It is so poorly done… that is is just soooo funny to watch. Sindel, Shao Kahn and Motaro in particular are so insanely over the top I just  laugh out loud.. I honestly think if Shao Kahn gave this speech about conquering our world for real..but if he did it the exact same way I’d be rolling on the floor laughing. If my own mother would go evil and go missing and I’d say Mommy.. you are alive and she’d be “Too bad YOU!… will… DIE!”  I’d soil my pants. This movie is definitely in the category so bad that it’s good. However where movies like Troll 2 , Rubber , Birdemic and The Room kind of reward you with some lovely weirdness here I feel the movie is just a bit to derailed.  In Troll 2 we get scenes where we know not to take this movie to serious… like the sex scene that is so hot that popcorn starts popping.. but he also eats vegetables so he can turn into a vegetable.. it flags the movie as a mess! Rubber which is about a car tire with psycho kinetic head exploding powers is like that as well. The Room almost has this alien-like quality to it as well. As if the writer really doesn’t understand humans.  

Annihilation lacks that self awareness. It’s not made to be this bad it’s not made to make you laugh at the wooden acting. It has to many drama moments for that and a story that is written as if it should be really taken serious and it becomes a lesser movie for it. Where I can watch The Room and be “hahaha oh my Arceus, that is so dumb” while with Mortal Kombat I more oftenly found myself going Mewwwz that is dumb!  *Annoyed sigh*  Where Troll 2 told us a bonkers story with bad acting it at least told it consistently in how it tells it. Heck even Rubber with it’s fourth wall breaking plot. With Mortal Kombat, so many characters just stop existing that it feels a bit like a unfinished childrens drawing.  You can look at it and laugh at the silly figures but you can’t laugh to hard because it’s not finished.. is the mistake intentional or would they come back to add to it still.. what is in the background it seems to have been erased, so all in all you can take in some elements and laugh at that.. but as a whole.. it’s just there….it’s good for a drunken night but if you really want a so bad that it’s good movie.. keep following this blog and maybe in a week or two or three … I’ll offer you something better… I have seen this movie three times now.. and that is more than enough! Just no!

You can watch this movie perfectly fine on a bad movie night and there is a chance you might enjoy yourself.However there is nothing positive about this movie other than ..it’s bad enough to just laugh.That doesn’t mean it deserves a better grade though. Normally I end with an analogy so here it is.. this movie is like an SM session, if pain is your thing this is enjoyable but the damage is still real. Unfortunately the branding Iron we get in the beginning is quickly swapped out for a rubber band with only a few cattle prod moments.. so mostly it is annoying.

That being said it’s no where near as bad as the next video game movie I will be watching Uwe Boll’s: Postal! You will not be getting that the next week though as we start my anniversary special! The week after that my OWLS post goes live..so only on the 27th will I talk to you about the movie..that scored lower than Mang-No! Subscribe to make sure you do not miss it!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 11

Hello again Island Guests it is time to watch some anime again! Last week we dropped Tower of God that really felt like a nothing show to me and replaced it with Flip Flappers this week! Karma must have been with me on that call because I think I had the best Saturday yet!

I loved this episode of BNA , I really did I am actually beginning to feel some sense the story may be a bit salvaged for me yet! While I previously thought it would  end up going nowhere with a super rushed ending I feel like everything falls into place a bit more naturally than I had first anticipated.

The episode begins with Michiru going to see Nazuna, who is throwing a big Live event where she can be the idol she really wanted. She and Michiru even decide she will sing “their song” .. that is the one that is on ending of each episode.  Apparently Allan has told Nazuna to confess she is human so that Beastman can see they are not that different after all, and that their symbol of hope can transcend species. This should relief them off the stress between human and beastman relations and should prevent the virus. Meanwhile Shirou tries to prevent Nazuna from doing exactly this.. aided by Flip that mafia whale we saw in the first few episodes.  Shirou beliefs that seeing their idol is a false one will actually trigger Nilvarsyl-Syndrome and allow Allan to force the beast man cure onto people. So he and Michiru face off as things become increasingly clear and agenda’s all fall into place. We even see characters from episodes that I deemed throwaway make a return to at least make these episodes a bit more digestible in hindsight as well. For example the major is rescued by Pinga. Nina flip is at the concert so that might deliver some tension still as well.  When Michiru stops Nazuna from confessing after a tense episode the weird priest dude unmasks her and triggers the mutations in beastmen causing them all to go feral. We see this plunge Shirou into a deep despair and he too succumbs to the syndrome as he becomes a giant wolf mutation. When Michiru tries to knock some sense in him she seemingly gets killed and that’s where we end the second to last episode of this show.

This episode did a great job of putting everyone into the mix for the final fight, nothing felt to forced or convenient unlike earlier episodes. It finally feels like the show is paying off and that results in a very satisfying and tense build up to a conclusion. I think this episode featured every single named character at least for a bit. Most plot points have been revisited and the sequences felt properly tense. The twist on the main character slapping sense in the deuteragonist was great! My favorite ..but most feared scene as well! I really did not think he would “kill” Michiru.  Of course her state is most likely not dead but I am genuinely worried about her! All tools at the disposal of the series seem to be used in this episode and I felt almost completely satisfied by this episode. I still think this series could have been a lot better if it had more time to tell this tale but with the allotted time left.. I was pleasantly surprised how dense yet manageable this episode felt. It didn’t use as much cheap gimmicks as some earlier episodes but instead banked on plot treats without forcing in a ton more exposition unlike the past two episodes. I loved the some of the fight moments now that there was more at stake. Shirou’s immortal body made some of the earlier fights a tad dull. 


The episode did not really have a lot of negatives, Pinga being there to rescue the major felt a bit forced, and water purifier boy was a bit obnoxiously present in the first part but all in all this was an episode I really enjoyed a lot. I do hope that Michiru isn’t actually dead or it will really sour the last episode for me , because I don’t really care about most people’s fate but Michiru I really want to live. I also noticed how a few beastman look a bit weird like Flip’s Killer Whale form. Finally I am not sure how I feel about how the ending is used in so many episodes as a relevant song. On the one hand I really like that the anime score matters to the series itself, on the other hand I find it a tad lazy since most of the times when Night Running plays characters just sit down.. or in this case just fly over a crowd it feels a bit like “dead air” with a mellowness that doesn’t really fit what Nazuna wants. As an Idol I expect her to sing something a bit more peppy. I get a vibe the singer really wanted the song to be made into a plot point for some reason.

This episode gave me faith back in this series and I hope for a conclusion that I can at least great as fine-apple. This series will probably not make any list of favourites for me any time soon but overall I had a great run so far. This episode makes me look at the final episode with hope instead of despair and I did not think it would be able to do that. If I had to change anything I might not have let Shirou change .. I am unsure if his Immortal Body blessed onto him should actually be prone to this. I liked it for now it build tension but whether I love this episode or think it is fine shall be only revealed to me next week.

This show continues to surprise me! I loved this episode a lot! I’d say this is my second to favorite viewing of the day due to the incredible progression the story makes, the development of all characters and the overall world building. This show is great.

In this episode we see how Samurai Flamenco and Flamenco girls move on after their separation in the last episode.  Mari has recruited her fellow idols into two new Flamenco Girls, Ruby and Sapphire and is teaching them the art of dickstomping. She is also trying to make moves on Goto who blows her off. Meanwhile the promotional guy whose name I can never remember puts out a bounty for 10 million yen for the reveal of Samurai Flamenco so everyone is after him. Luckily some Office Supply store decides to sponsor him and makes some office supply secret weapons for him.. like a Pencil case that can launch eraser that work like riot bullets or stapler Nunchucks which which he can staple enemies together or to the floor. Him getting silly sentai weapons is once more, advancement towards his journey to become an actual sentai. Mari recruiting two more magical girls makes it so that she is well on her way as well.. and when Goto saves Samurai Flamenco now even he seems very deeply involved.

The best moment in the episode to me .. is basically.. the entire episode where Samurai Flamenco is being chased by fans and social media people trying to unmask him. One Salaryman in particular seems to be riding his ass quite heavily and despite the danger to his own identity and safety Masayoshi says he has to take these risks because there is a small chance people actually need his help and that is his entire purpose! He is such a great hero at least when it comes to mindset.. he is aware of his flaws and embraces these  and we really see that model just trying to do right by the world! I love it so much! The way how the characters design slowly evolves is reflected by how Masayoshi evolves but that goodness in his heart is the one constant that keeps him the same character nonetheless. He grows but he doesn’t change. He simply adapts which makes him into a much more respectable character than some Shounen heroes who learn a new technique and suddenly act all heroic and noble out of nowhere at all.  Masayoshi has his zeal and it seems unwavering. The one constant element in a show where a lot can happen and it just feels really really strong in this episode! I got so much respect for the man! His new gadgets are hilarious as well! Bless him and bless this show!

The element I liked a bit less was Mari, she threw herself at Goto and failed because text-girlfriend showed up again. While she seems head strong and has her own sense of justice she got so bummed out from a simple rejection that I thought it messed her character up a bit for my taste. She manipulates her fellow idols with kisses, can flirt and manipulate everyone.. but she isn’t that much of a spoiled princess. She had more important things to do.. this made her a bit more shallow… now  don’t get me wrong she always had shallow traits but still this whininess she has to it seems contradictory to how Samurai Flamenco left her and how head strong and determined she is.Text-girlfriend annoyed me a lot less her text were kinda cute this weak but darn that woman can type fast. Also I am unsure how the Flamenco Girls dye their hair in a lighter shade, do they use spray on hair paint?  I am not sure but that  would really limit story options when a character is held up a bit.. it might result in a bit iffy moments later on.. though I think this show is clever enough to make it work but in a show this sensical that stood a bit out to me. And yes I know this show is weird.. but everything that happens makes sense within the confines of the world at least.

I really loved this episode , it introduced so many new elements to the story and nothing felt rushed. It is funny how each episode also follows the structure of famous sentai tropes but takes it in a very low key real world way. The episode with Red Axe for example was the fake Ranger while this episode reflected  the hypnotised innocents.  It’s a cute way to see that not only Masayoshi is a big sentai fan but the creators too. It feels satisfying on all levels and I was happy I saw this! This is better than just very good! So this episode gets my highest seal of approval!

This was another good episode of Slime! It was a lot of talking which was new for the show, but I was surprised how well those talks paid off! I was quite invested in them. 

The story picks up where we left it of in the last episode with Rimuru still being in the host club!  He’s being quite cute with the ladies when suddenly Vesta/Bester the minister steps in. He is surprised Kaijin  finished his order revealing he set him up to fail on purpose. When Rimuru gets a prediction from a Roma like woman who shows an image  of a woman he is allegedly meant to be with , Vesta interupts by trying to ban the slime from the club and pouring his beer on it. Which makes Kajin punch the guy and a trial starts.. which of course has been bought. The hero king Gazel Dwargo who watches the trial however intervenes and instead of a life working as slaves the dwarf artisans get exiled and adopted into Rimuru’s community instead. Vesta gets fired for his antis.. because he also faked injuries and the king orders a mysterious hooded figure to follow our beloved slime!  It’s very powerful. 

I liked this story better than the last episode! This one had some weight to it, yet still showed a lot of charm. This story reflects Rimuru’s life on the other side, where his life as a salary man had him suck up to his boss, be the one to entertain and not be one that is entertained. He was a guy that was afraid to step up for what is right.. while Kaijn does it without a second’s hesitation. It polarises these worlds and once again it reminds me of D&D. As a Dungeon Master myself I see a lot of these people who are oppressed by the shackles of daily life, who break free in the world of fantasy and just are unleashed. Kaijin represents that a bit for me while Rimuru of course kind of depicts the real life aspect of it. I really like world building like that! We flavour our fantasy worlds like that.. so stuff like this would happen in fantasy worlds! My favourite scene would be the speech of the king, he cares for his retainer and helps the dwarven blacksmith make up his mind.. using the trial to make him stick to the oath he made to Rimuru. The talk with Vesta afterwards telling him he severed bonds with a potential powerful ally using the potion as an example was very satisfying and him  fearing the slimes power asking it to be shadowed made me excited for the next episode.  The teasing with the mystery lady was also kinda clever.. how will a slime be with a girl?  I was intrigued!

This episode was great, though the talks could go on for a bit long. While we establish a trial is unfair it just kinda drags on, the talk about recreating the swords was given in the last episode so I find it unlikely that they would discuss it again. I see why you want to bring that element back and remind people but it felt a bit expositiony. The episode feels a bit like a setup episode and those usually aren’t the strongest in a shows lineup though this one had a strong twist at the end. My least favourite scene is when Rimuru gags Gobta in jail and tells him to call out for his tempest wolf partner to free him. As he did not want to get him involved in this trial.. which makes Gobta completely useless in this story.. he came for no reason at all other than a few gags on how much he sleeps. Now not everything has to be destined so I do not mind him doing less than Rimuru but taking him for nothing felt a bit silly. He could at least have woken up and had a bit of story or character added to him. Now he’s just there!

I liked this episode better than the last one , but I can see people easily being a bit bored by this one as well, so I would not be surprised if people would put this up as their least favourite episode so far. For me it reminded me of the D&D trope of the trial for misbehaving in a town .. that  I oftenly see happen. I liked that it was more narrative and less slapstick than the previous episode. While the episodes get the same grade this one is very close to being a grade higher while the last one was very close to being a grade lower..so within the grade they are about as far apart as they be .. an amazing episode regardless.

Eeeeeeeeek! Oh my Arceus!  This show has pink trains/street cars!  Also that art-style that surrealism … I think I might be in love! Forgive me if I use some terminology wrong I am afraid to google the correct one because I would not want to spoil myself but my! I loved this first episode.

We are introduced to our main characters Cocona and Papika. Papika seems to be some sort of witch/magical girl that flies around on a surfboard followed by her robot with a brain in it called Bu-chan. She apparently is looking for a partner and tries to find one manually while an Organisation tries to stop her from being silly but she escapes and quickly finds Cocona. A run of the mill schoolgirl who has to make a big decision  for a follow up school or something.. I could not quite  get what was going on.. but something like that! Stuck in her choice on where to go, she is bothered by her one friend who is a lot looser than she is.. picking a handful of schools including a boys school . She decides to seek out some peace and tranquility and finds a concrete sewer pipe thing in the wooded area near the school.  Papika had been sleeping in there waiting for Cocona to show up.. suddenly the organisation activates Bu-Chan and he takes them into a blackness.. using the concrete pipe to dive into Deep Fantasy.. I think that was what it was called.  Transported to a snow world the two discover this new magical world with sweet snow. Having snowball fights and making snowmen! At night when they try to camp in an igloo they are attacked by some big creatures that cause Cocona to lose her glasses. Chasing the creatures Papika ends up in a deadly situation when suddenly a power awakens in Cocona that allows her to save Papika.. the two then are returned to the real world where Papika returns the glasses of her presumed partner who refuses to go on more adventures with her.

That plot seems to make no sense but that is basically what happens! Darn I loved this! The way how Papika flirts with Cocona was cute but forcefully making it funny as well. I dislike the lewding stuff,  but this felt innocent even if it might not be! I liked how managed to display so many of the tones it might have in a single episode. We saw the cute slice of life stuff from Cocona, the weird CGDCT stuff from Papika with the snowball fight with her and her robot, the Yuri stuff between the two girls and of course surrealism that reminded me of Kyousougiga blended with Madoka. Kyousougiga as in it felt very much like a world that was “designed” to be weird like how the world behind the painting was created.  The Madoka elements came from the monsters, the way the powers are used and also the implied darkness when Papika is being whipped and seriously injured by these attacks.  Visually I got some Liz and the Blue Bird vibes, that picture book, casually coloured in aesthetic.  I really like that they do with the eyes, they felt super unique and particularly crazy and surreal contributing to the whole atmosphere. The harder colours and brighter colours on the characters really makes them stand out and like it  feels genre wise I also feel design wish it is a bit of a mishmash of styles.. which I really could appreciate. My favourite scene is the one where Papika tries to seek some closeness with Cocona in a build igloo. She knows  why Cocona is there even if Cocona doesn’t know herself yet and she just runs with it!  Having had that one meaningful gaze. The school-girl however is much more uptight and shoves her off. It was cute and unlike some other shows it did not feel  to forced Tsundere or something. Just cute and funny!

Negatives are up next, but I already told you I have fallen in love with this first episode so there isn’t a whole lot for me to tell here. I guess my least favourite scene was the cliffhanger of Cocona telling Papika she won’t be going on more adventures. Which isn’t really bad but  that was a bit of a generic ending.. it makes total sense for the character to say it but we all know she will have a change of heart or be dragged in anyway. So  I always feel this rejection bit is somewhat pointless. There would not be a whole lot of show if she never saw Papika again or went on an adventure with her nor would they reveal her powers if she isn’t going to use them! So while I totally get it  and in character it makes sense I don’t think they will fool anyone into saying ‘OMG did she just reject her.. will they not go on adventures?’  So I might have appreciated it if they just went…”well obviously these two are going to do stuff together let them just accept it so we can focus more on the stuff you want to watch this show for’.. but that really is a nitpick here!

I LOVED this! I almost had anime girl eyes sparkling while watching this! There was something there that just caught me and from the first scene I already knew.. okay this is one of those shows you are going to love! Love at first sight! Everything so far tells me I am going to love this show, the animation, the world building , the themes, the tones. It all sang to me. Having read Mari’s review of the show and having seen GalvanicTeam’s  YouTube video I knew I was going to like it a lot.. but this first episode made me sad… sad that I put it in my Saturday morning lineup and that I am going to have to wait 13 weeks to be able to finish it! But it will be weeks that I will cherish because I love this! Highest Grade obviously!

Oh my I did not expect THAT to happen. Hikaru no Go manages to give me one of my favorite episodes so far, after perhaps “the beautiful battle”. This episode was intense, heartbreaking and really made me warm up to Hikaru again whom I had begun to cool of a bit too over the past few episodes. Man this shows creators are good at dragging me back in when I am about to fall out!

In this episode we see Hikaru and Sai rush to the Go-Lounge to stop Mitani from cheating any longer, but when they come in they find Mitani already dueling a drunkard for 10.000 yen. Believing he is an easy target, Mitani forgoes any handicaps and plays the man, seemingly to easily win over him fair and square. Yet then the man suddenly reveals he is not that drunk and it was a ruse to win the bet! He switches hands and suddenly starts playing seriously, cheating himself to claim a swift and harsh victory over Mitani!  Revealing he has been hired by the lounge owner to teach the boy a lesson , crushing the boys spirit in the proces. So now Hikaru and Sai turn on this man.. trying to win Mitani’s money back for him.. losing his money briefly and being betrayed by the few people he trusted should be a lesson enough! It turns out plenty of people were aware of Mitani cheating, but when they made small bets, the’d happily sponsor him  knowing how poor he actually was. Like a grandparent would sponsor their grandchild in need, simply because e played with them. However when bets grew bigger the lounge owner could not stand for it anymore and hired this guy..who brutally took all his money.  Sai and Hikaru face off against the man hoping that giving him the money back would let them join their club.

Jeesz what talk about a lucky stroke on episodes! This episode was incredible as well. The whole Sai/Hikaru Dynamic is enforced here! This really felt like a match for Sai in the end, while in the last episode I’d say both would have a stake in defeating Mitani. This subverts the problem of either underusing Sai or not letting Hikari fight any relevant battles on his own the duel with Mitani would have caused.. either way would have left something to be desired but this way.. I was 100% on board. Such a great call!  It also made Mitani a lot more human  simply by facing himself a sort of “adult version” of himself.. a “if you keep going on this track you become this guy”  vibe so much narrative room has been given for the character to develop. It also shows how the main character does not drive the plot.. it happens on it’s own like an actual living world. Without Hikaru , Mitani would still have learned his lesson.. just quite possibly harsher. In Yu-gi-oh or Beyblade or name your sports/game anime bad characters usually are only redeemed by losing to the main character, they stand still when the protagonist isn’t involved in their live. Both Akira and Mitani so far have not been bound by this. While Akira wants to face Hikaru and get strong enough to face him it is not as if he can’t grow without Hikaru. The  world lives without the main character and this episode highlighted that with the duel between Mitani and the cheatbusting guy!

Sai’s duel against this guy was a bit of a let down as most of it is skipped. Now this comes with the sport so it is perfectly understandable but I would have liked to see the main gain some despair during the duel not only after, I would have loved to see the forfeit happening rather than the pan the camera to reveal a shocked face but like with most episodes today that is just a preference rather than an actual gripe. The only true negative I had was the shopkeeper using an exposition thing to ruin a beautiful scene.  When Mitani loses he comes up 20 yen short of having the full amount of 10.000 yen and Hikaru wants to lend it to him ..but Mitani wants nothing to do with him lending it from the shopkeeper.  When he finds out it was the shopkeep that set him up however he puts back those 20 yen and asks it from Hikaru.. making him the lesser evil of the two. Also stating that Mitani now plans to never return to this place after finding out.  A bit later when Mitani left the old man more or less explains this and it took the shine of that amazing imager that really represented Mitani’s character.

That could not ruin this episode for me though! It was beautiful!  The clever twist solved narrative problems and also made me embrace Mitani in case he does end up joining the team. While I still feel this shows pacing is a bit off, resulting in a bit of an up-down-up-down-up episode structure.. in terms of enjoyment this episode was definitely an up. In fact it was one of the biggests ups I have had with this series to date. I was really engaged with the matches and the stake being something more than “honour” this time really made me relate to it a lot more. It wasn’t just about the love for the game or the honor of a match, Mitani plays to be able to enjoy his life a little, to not be so dirt poor! Hikaru played to redeem a guy.. and to win him over, while Sai had his code his memories involved.
Highest praise! Highest grade! 

And with that another is done! I had a great week! Thursday I had lunch with Fatima Minusima (Fake name from an earlier blog) which was great to see her again! We had a good talk and it was nice to catch up in this social distancing time! Friday I went to the zoo and head diner for a friends birthday! One of my best friends I shall name Hub-Hub Pilana. I saw plenty of weird types of ducks at the zoo and I had delicious tapas and a pink cocktail! So it was a good day! Yesterday I saw the movie Unicorn shop with my lady friends.. we had a girls night with some wine, snacks and this delightfully odd chick flick. At the moment of writing though I had a big fight with a friend! I will probably have to cut her out my life! She gossips about my health situation, both mental and physical behind my back and tries to force me to adhere to a standard I am unfit for. She literally gives me nightmares when she is like this and last night after I found out she has done this.. it was the same. So I offered her a chance to apologise because she really hurt me but those calls have gone unanswered.. so next week I think I will start with a friend less, but a brighter cleaner future ahead! May your next week be clean and bright as well!

How Pinkie Got Into Anime

Hello there Island Guests, by the time I am writing this it is a nice toasty 30 degrees Celsius out there, the water is great and I might have a slight case of heat stroke! So rather than giving you a deep and insightful dip into what anime means to me, I will just tell you the story of how I got into anime in the first place. I have mentioned this before but now I can really go into depth and it’s a story that’s fun enough so here we go!

The story begins when I went off to college, my health was still finish then and I tried to hide my geek side from the world.

Instead I joined a fraternity of sorts.. we don’t have that Gamma Gamma Pi or Beta Beta Beta Beta stuff them american folks have we have co-ed groups of people who study at the same school branch that just needed some drinking buddies.  We even slept in mixed dorms during a our introduction camp. A fact that was used by several people. Talk about classy! I tried to fit in so I joined up went to the camp and made a few friends in the camp. One was a camp leader named uhm lets call her Liliana.. ..it’s not her actual name, but it works on her. She was cute and shy and my type ..before I knew she was.  She was a bit of a book geek, mostly a Potterhead. Then there was ..uhm Roland.. who due to a spastic colon was sick during a lot of the camp activities when he spend time reading Artemis Fowl novels.  We talked a lot about fantasy stuff. So three days into the camp and I was already befriending geeks again…whoops.  I wanted to fit in and both of them took studies far away from me.  (The school had several buildings and both lived fairly far from the pub the frat group would chose so we could barely hang out) I found a girl I knew from Middle School and hung out with her and together we befriended a guy named Morris. Vicky as I shall call the girl was the super shallow type.. do drugs in class etc.. she would make me fit in I thought!

When camp was over Vicky and Morris were all the friends I had left Roland dropped out of school entire because his health got worse and Liliana was older and went abroad for an internship .. and apparently fell in love and stayed there.  I however was still on my mission to normalise so it might have been for the best. Morris was one of those guys that was heavily into soccer, heavier into drinking and basically one of those Jersey Shore guys without the six pack or “handsome” looks. Just an average cool guy.. that certainly DID kiss and tell. He once spiked my drink.. just to see what would happen with me.. I was fairly uptight when going out and he had fun with it..I never knew it was him way until after we stopped being friends. At one point he made it his thing to pick up the losers and made them cool and that’s how I met Lao! A geeky Dutch-Chinese with the classic tiger-mother who pushed him to be a prominent banker. Lao , not a real name again,  once caught me playing an emulation of A Link to the Past , during an  hour between class and he wasn’t aware of emulation so I let him play for a bit and we bonded a bit.  For the first time I had made a school friend whom I was completely genuine with. He once one of Morris’s projects like me so we suffered his pranks together.. though where I am just under-social Lao was anti-social so he struggled a lot more. 


After six month all classes were separated, those who took the fast track to a diploma and those who took the normal track. Morris and Vicky where fast-trackers as well as basically everyone I hung out with except for Lao.

During this time a first group project came out, writing a business plan and managing and doing fictional finances etc for your little start up as well as promote it and sell people on the concept. Lao had two friends in the class we were in I just had Lao..but we were separated in groups of three. So I was out of luck and got sorted in with two randoms. A Latino Dutch boy named Enrico and a backstabbing woman by the name of Daniella! Daniella took the lead over our group project because the leader had to present in front of the school and she looked prettier than me..which she even said when I said I wanted to present.  Less work for me though… I was super excited for our business concept which was basically  a mediation system to learn skills from a peer. Think having math explained to you by someone your age in your terms rather than a stuffy old teacher, or having a recipe being taught to you by another stay at home mom rather than a french schooled and technical chef. At one point I was so far ahead of my work I basically completed all my work in 25% of the allotted time! I had such great ideas.Everything came to me naturally. I had a lot of fun knocking out all the costs, I even found a way to cheap out on rent and an office. Little did I know she would ruin it all!

Then Daniella quit school without warning , while still having the flash drive that held all my work. After calling her, she blocked my number, refusing to give the work back we were about to fail the most important project of the year because she was a total bitch! Since some things were tied to her account, (we got her log in data so we all had access to the same spot as a co-op method)  our project was stuck .. she had deleted her account and everything was just lost and with her not wanting to give back my flash drive irretrievable.  I suggested starting again ..but Enrico got demotivated and said with two people we could never do what she could do and that he did not like the school anyway and now that they failed to help out he just quit. Since I was unable to do this myself I got bumped into Lao’s group since the teacher knew he and I were cool and no one else would want me because Daniella had been talking trash to me to the rest of the class on phones for trying hard! Lao’s project was an Anime and Manga Store set in the capital of Limburg (our province)  the problem was I had no idea what Manga and Anime was. I came from a hick town and went trough tremendous bullying before, due to my clunky motor skills, the fact that I liked gaming already painted a big target on my back so I watched my Dragon Ball Z , Pokémon Sailour Moon and Maple Town, before I ever knew what it was. As much as possible I had tried to find hobbies that would not get me bullied, not a single person in my middle school watched anime or at least they hid it very well. So I was completely unfamiliar with these terms.

Lao  Antony and Jerry (for the life of me I can’t remember Jerry’s real name)  were welcoming to some fresh blood, they were stuck on some project issues, like finding out rent of a certain property, which could be answered by a phone call but they were to scared.

So instead I just went to the store in question with a folder and some questions and got the info for them.  I became the sociable one because they could not do that. Like they were about as sociable as Tomoko from Watamote.  Lao perhaps even worse.  I was in a Law class project with Lao and that was my strength I got us a 8/10 while the entire rest of the class.. over 30 people all failed it! Lao was so excited he cheered out loud in class.. we never made any friends again …because people now hated us… and the worst part was I didn’t even try it came naturally so I could not even really help others with their homework, they resented me to much for having it come natural to me and being a bit awkward.  Lao chose weird moments to be happy. He felt as human as Tommy Wiseau at times That was his charm was to me and what I valued in him. In a weird way he refused to be anything but himself and it prevented me from being fake..simply by association. When I asked my new task group who was their leader they told me they had not chosen yet because none of them had a business suit to present in and none of them wanted to do it. I did not know a lot about anime..so somehow that ended up in getting me up to speed on anime so I might take this job in the spotlight.

It was a course of watching 3 episodes of Naruto, three episodes of bleach and one or two episodes of Fate Stay Night every day, on project days they would quiz me, or talk anime with me. We gave the company a new angle and since I quickly became a fan we would use that sensation and emotion I just experienced to promote anime onto people. I really got into it quite fast. For once I could let my geek out .. I did not have to act normal anymore or socialise with people i actually did not like..since those gave up on me! I was an outcast once more, but without the bullying just blatant shunning. I could break my own self imposed , be normal conditioning because I had to study anime to sell people on this and each episode I fell a bit more in love with anime. Mostly with Bleach in the beginning. Though I loved the opening scene of Fate Stay Night! I remember those train crossing chimes going off  and then the intense fight! That was sweet! This was me! Naruto was sweet as well and within no time I finished the first story arc. I loved the music, so much I started listening to it on the train as I was quickly turning into a weeb before realising it. The project lasted fairly long, and while I was doing my anime homework I overheard Jerry talking about Elfen Lied and One Piece being amazing. So I picked those up as well. Elfen Lied I first turned off after one episode … what was that.. why did I like that?! I should not watch that! One Piece however I completely adored.

The Project came and went and while the teachers still thought selling people “cartoon items” was a stupid idea , I at least managed to put on a convincing presentation showing I REALLY loved anime, they said.

I got compliments for completely winging a section where they attacked me on how viable it was by on the spot coming up with the idea of free movie viewings or manga evenings to get people hooked like how I got hooked. I did not know there were conventions in the country yet so instead I came up with this idea and even stuff like first volume discounts and the suggestion of dressing people up like characters and have them walk in the city..so people would wonder what that is about.. Our business plan sucked.. but I wanted to make it a success and I was very vocal about it.. so we got a fairly decent grade. After that I was still shunned by the rest of the class.. I was a geek now so each project I had to do was with Lao.. because no one else would want the weirdo. 

This means my normal anchor began to fade fast.  I had some “normal” friends who on occasion came to balance me out when the geeky thing was to bad.. but that did not stop me from catching up with Naruto, Bleach and eventually even One Piece. I also watch Death Note, though I did not care for that one to much. I  started a bunch of things, dropped a few and mostly stuck to the Shonen shows. Which Lao was very much into.. then my health began to falter and bad luck struck. My grandma became terminally ill during a series of exams I once failed due to not being very skilled with taxes. Since the study I was following would seize to exist.. because of a merger.. I could only repeat this once. That re-do happend right after Grandma  had her funeral. I was mentally fatigued and failed .. and had to leave Lao and the school behind. Lao having a tiger mother basically only hung out during school time.. so our friendship ended soon after that unfortunately. My health waning made me struggle to hold onto a school or a job.

This however did result in me watching wackier stuff, but also more classic stuff. Stuff like Beyblade Metal Fight, Card Fight Vanguard, Gantz, Monster, Steins Gate and eventually it would lead me to Kill la Kill and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann..though that last one not until a lot later. .  I was very much into Yu-Gi-Oh and I could finally finish Metabots! I watched a Zoids show Battle Century I think was the one.. with Bit Cloud,  and more. I also watched Code Geass..I hated it and gave up on it.. Yet I missed people to talk about anime with! I got my cousin hooked but he hid that he watched it! Being just a closet geek! My normy friends wanted nothing to do with it and did not give me the light of day. A friend of mine named Suzie was a fashion blogger at the time and she advised me to start writing about it and people would come! So I did …but no one ever came to my blog!  When I searched I came across two bigger dutch blogs writing about anime.  One of them was recruiting so I applied. As an assignment I had to write about either, Japanese Food, Japanese Gadgets or something geeky Japan related that was not directly video games or anime.. it could only refer to them on the side.  So I wrote an article on how to survive the T-Virus using Japanese Gadgets.  She loved the article but told me I needed to work on how neat I write.  Still I got the job!.. Well I did not get payed, I just had people to hang out with and talk anime with. I found out that the blog founder lived super close to me and when she invited to join their DnD because they needed a healer.. I was hooked to that too.

This new job made me watch a lot more anime and with the founder of said blog, lets call her Fatima Minusima.

I formed quite a strong bond quite fast. She took me to events with her, she showed me her favorite anime (Tengen Toppa).. well she told me how she loved Kamina and I looked him up, found the show watched it and now it’s my favourite show too.  She even let me go to my first Con for free.. in order to promote our blog! She was big enough in the country to do so and she had a sponsor and fans so quite soon I found myself giving a presentation at my first con ever! I worked my bum off during the second con as well trying to sell Japanese EShop cards. Staying in a hotel at the convention with breakfast included and two overnight stays! I had an amazing time and fell in love with the atmosphere and the fanbase even more. While I am a geek much more in the broad side, than a few people here, I game  a lot more, I tabletop, I fan fiction and I am a big movie geek and all I very much love anime and even more so the saving power it had on my life.  Without anime I would have never been me!  I would have been that push over that got betrayed by people at a whim and who got walked all over.

Now I am a person who knows what she likes and who is passionate about that like as well. I am an Otaku and I am a geek and I am proud of it! While I wish the community mostly, in terms of gaming and other geekism was a bit more open, the warm blanket of Otakuism and how accept it is of stranger cultures was something so special I just wanted to be part of it forever.  About three years ago I began more liberally introducing people to anime which involved taking a super normie friend to a convention.. he wanted to experience it’s for one. Now that friend is gay and has always had to deal with some sort of squinty eyed looks when he was acting like himself. On the convention floor sure there were some socially awkward geeks that ran at his sight but there were also a lot of people who were super curious about what he’d buy or who wanted to hug him.  He was surprised when he saw a half naked boy carrying a rainbow flag and a free hugs sign get hugged by so many guys. It moved him to tears how wholesome the community could be. Before that day my interest in the community had dwindled a bit, I had great friends I had a good solid base I did not need anymore..  but on that day I knew I wanted to get back!  I fired up my laptop and binged Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, I devoured One Punch man and I even started Code Geass again.. which I dropped right after Shirley’s final scene… I really did not like this show! That didn’t matter though.. I had found my way home again! Right where I am here now!

Thanks everyone you for reading this post and a big thanks for Fatima for giving me my new life! I love you dearly as a friend and without you I could not have been as happy and as strong as a person like I am now. You are a BIG influence on my life, perhaps even the biggest. Even though now we can only see each other under heavy constraints.. I hope one day you will read this..knowing you though that might be a bit late.

The Balad of Tamago Tomodachi

Hello my Island Guests! I wrote this thing when it was really hot! A little something different from my usual stories! No Titles, no chapters! Just a small bardic verse about an unlikely hero! With a bit of inspiration from books i have never read! Also with a bit of Bananya in mind! I just watched that show before writing this and maybe it messed me up a bit!
<NB This post has been formatted to look the best on visiting my website on PC.. the Phone or Table version look passable..not sure if it works in WordPress Reader so be warned>

Our story begins with a girl who is really nice,
she is the pink manager of a place called paradise!
While her blog felt so pleasant and continued to thrive,
Pinkie had some difficulty adapting to the heat in real life!
But make no mistake, this isn’t a story about Pinkie in the end!
No this is the tale of her very special friend!
You say when day Pinkie was so hot she, she melted to her seat.
When she yelled out! “Omg my drink is now boiling in this heat!’
She was crying in panic “I am going to die of thirst”
When we meet our protagonist, even if this encounter wasn’t their first!

Suddenly an egg sat down on the table looking kawaii as fuck!
Daiyobu! It said to girl hugging her duck!
Pinkie sparkled and said ‘Thank Arceus, Tamago Tomodachi it is you’
The egg smiled back at her and said “Hi Pinkie, it’s nice to see you too!’
He then picked up an ice cube.. he had used as a stool!
He dropped it in Pinkie’s drink which now again was cool!
Which she used to cool herself, with gulps so big and greedy!
“Thank you Tamago Tomodachi.. you just helped the needy!”

♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Yes you are my best egg friend!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
You are with me till the end!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Thank you for keeping drinks cool!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Oh yes my friend, you rule!

Yet it was not over, Pinkie still was melted to her seat and could not run!
When suddenly she began colouring all red from the sun!
The girl tried to dive away, whining “Oh no! That shade of pink is not on brand!”
Her Egg friend swiped away some sweat and said “It’s okay I understand”
He then threw some plushies and pillows of the couch to build himself a ramp!
He then rolled of that slope and nearly smashed himself on a lamp!
Yet Pinkie would boil.. that much was certain,
If our egg friend would fail to reach the curtain!

So he pushed himself on and bravely rolled and zoomed across the floor,
until he finally done it! He reached the balcony door!
The curtain was there all he needed now was to pull it the right!
Yet this is a feat that is hard to accomplish with egg like might!
Yet if he not do it his friend would soon be completely red!
So he latched on the fabric and began rolling before miss manger was dead!
With an oomph and a sigh the curtain zipped shut,
ass the egg got unborn and landed near Pinkie’s butt.
Both egg, and manager now we’re safe and well!
But Tamago Tomodachi felt a power inside him beginning to swell!

♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Yes you are  my best egg friend!♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
You are with me till the end!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Yes you roll at egg like speed!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Closes curtains in your time of need!

The sun was now shut out, but the war was not yet won!
There was still more out there that had to be done! 
Pinkie was still stuck to the couch and had to be freed, 
otherwise soon her raw egg friend was all in range for her to eat!
‘Leave me behind Tamago Tomodachi, I’m done take my money and go’
The Egg shook his head and said ‘No my friend… I can not….. just no!’
Girl and Egg then loving held hands,
When the egg got an idea and yelled ‘Pinkie take of your pants’
The manager just plushed and yelled in distress!
‘HENTAI!!! Baka!  I do not wear pants I am in a dress’
Tamago Tomodachi sighed  ‘I have a plan but you won’t find it sweet’
‘Yet it will certainly help you get back  onto your feet’
‘Do it’ said Pinkie mimicking Emperor Palpatine,
And so the egg would go on with his plan even if he wasn’t too keen!
He rolled outside and yelled to the sky!
‘Oh yellow devil, monster of the buzzing nest I summon thee, please come nigh!’

After a meeting, Tamago Tomodachi hopped inside.. as eggs can clearly hop!
He knew this thing would scare his friend..but at least it would do the job!
Moving back to Pinkie, he hopped feeling buzzing but also bloated.
‘Look my friend what I just brought’ said the egg all sugarcoated!
Pinkie gazed at her egg friend with six legs resting on it’s shell.
When Pinkie cried in Terror ‘Tamago Tomodachi.. WHAT THE HELL’
On his head was a wasp , Pinkie’s biggest fright!
Who ripped herself of the couch to flee from this demon with all her might.
The egg them rolled over the wasp, killed it dead by making it flat.
It dusted off it’s kawaii little hands saying  ‘Well that takes care of the that’

♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Yes you are  my best egg friend!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
You are with me till the end!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
That wasn’t a funny Yolk!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
They are Kowaii , yes these wasp folk!

It was finally over, the day , it was saved!
Egg and girl , many trials they had braved!
Yet Pinkie felt troubled, a feeling so strong,
She looked at the egg and asked “Tamago Tomodachi, is something wrong?’
The egg heaved and sweated as it began to crack.
‘I don’t feel so good Mister Stark’ he said.. ‘I can’t feel my neck’
‘I am Pinkie not mister Stark, you may not be snapped and just have a heat stroke’
The egg just looked at her.. ‘Something is growing inside of me..it hurts..it..’ and then Tamago Tomodachi suddenly broke broke!
‘Holy Crab Cakes’ said Pinkie ‘my best friend just exploded before my eyes’
Pinkie looked shocked.. before adding “Just when I was craving for some omelet with rice!’

Egg shells where everywhere and on her face a single tear,
When “swoosh!” a tug on her dress ‘You should not eat me I’ve been in your fridge for over a year’
Pinkie looked down and saw a white body with a sunshine yellow face with on it a beaming grin!
‘I am here Pinkie, I guess I was never what I appeared on the outside but the good stuff within’
Pinkie softly hugged her friend and said “You are just like a Kinder Egg, just filled with surprises.
And that my dear Island guests was the story on how this protein filled hero rises!
It is also where this  weird story now ends!
If you enjoyed my weird outing, please let me know in the comments!

♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Yes you are  my best egg friend!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
You are with me till the end!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
I really thought you died!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
But thank god you just got fried!

♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
Yes you are  my best egg friend!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
You are with me till the end!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
You really smell quite strong!
♫ Tamago Tomodachi!! ♫
We have been friends for very long!

Pokémon Top 5: My Favourite Steel Types

Rock gets beaten by steel! While Ice and Rock are arguably the worst typings in the game, Fairy , Steel and Dragon are commonly seen as the best . Mostly Fairy and Steel, where an  argument made for steel to be the absolute winner. So this must be an amazing list of pokémon right?! Well.. I don’t really like the steel type! It’s my least favorite type in the entire game..with some margin. So for the first time I had a hard time selecting Pokémon I actually like.

Now same rules as all my others lists apply but this one has one additional rule, but before we get there let’s discuss what we already know. Pokémon that were on a list before already can not be on this list before. Otherwise Magnemite and Lucario would be on this list.

I identify them by the type I most identify them with. Lucario I don’t find that steel like, and Magnezone’s evolution line was introduced in Gen I as a pure electric type.. hence I came to see it as electric. There is a pokémon on this list though that would have made the Rock Type list, if I did not see it more as a steel type as well so it can work both ways. If A pokémon doesn’t feel like a steel type to me at all it will not make this list either. Example and otherwise number 1 for this list Mawile! I love the Pokémon and I have used it as a steel type before.. I just don’t feel it is. Reading it’s lore I can get it but ask a random person to look at it’s picture and say what typing is that.. I bet you almost no one would ever call it a steel type. Jirachi for me is the same.

Another rule is that there is only one entry per evolution line, while i am free to pick my favorite of a line.. if the pokémon at one point becomes not fun for me to use or I find it ugly or stupid in terms of lore or whatever I have to deduct points. While I love Bulbasaur more than Venusaur I do not mind the big boy either.  Cufant however is an adorable cute elephant pokémon that really makes me go n’awww! I love how cute it is for a steel type and the typing really needed a cutie!  However it’s evolution and even worse it’s gigantamax are just square blocks of green metal with the trunk being a digging tool. It isn’t all that bad but a big missed opportunity to warm me up to the type a bit.

Temporary forms do not count as separate entries so was a pure rock type that only upon mega became steel it would not be allowed. However the steel type has no qualifiers as for that! It does have one extra rule though that no other type had before! I have to exclude pokémon I haven’t played a lot with yet. Perseker for example  is a pokémon I can really get behind, however I have no real grasp of its abilities or moves.. as opposed to Copperajah who is used by some major characters in the game. I have also dabbled with it in Pokémon Showdown.. Perserker however is a big unknown to me and I know it has gotten some love in the community and it does appeal to me.. so at best I can give it a mention.

The first time I nominate a basic pokémon while it possesses a stage 2 evolution, but not the last time. Aron and me go way back!  Way back when I was a kid that tried to fit in at school and never really did!  Pokémon no longer was hype and after Gen 2 it became a only for geeks kinda thing. So under pressure I did not buy the game. One day though trough my dad mentioning it..before I remembered I could emulate! I wasn’t allowed to buy Pokémon Ruby in stores because I should play more grown up games or do things with my friends in person so I wasn’t allowed to own an official version. On a day a school kid made me trip into lockers than threw his sandwhich meat on me I got at home feeling sad and misunderstood when I found a rom of Sapphire.. I could play the game…. but it was illegal. I decided that my mental health was more important to me then the legality issue and since I would have bought it if I could I figured let’s do this. I picked up a Torchick as my starter and decided not to capture anything else before the second gym.. and there I found Aron. Which I named Hummel. It was the first steel type I liked it was so cute!  It was pretty good and when it evolved at level 32 that was it.. Okay I still like Hummel.. but then it evolved again and it was actually really good!  Yay Hummel!

Lorewise it is pretty interesting as well..Aron to me is like a tiny steel dog, not bigger than the size of a poodle being about 40 centimeters tall  which is like 1 foot 4 or something and not that much longer. However it weighs about 60 kilograms and with the right ability even double. Double these weights is you measure in pounds and you know this is one heavy metal poodle.  Aron’s body is made by Iron and it sustains itself by eating metals and extracting stuff from it to grow/maintain its body! Aron is not very able to recognize what it eats though so at times it causes trouble for everyone by eating train tracks or tackling dump trucks , which it is able to take down.. before eating those as well. I like my pokémon clumsy or clunky and this sort of thing is my jam when it  comes to pokémon lore. Unfortunately my beloved steel baby has not been getting lore in Sun and Moon or we would have learned something about the horrible accidents it causes when eating cars or train tracks.. then again it does keep my baby innocent.

In the competitive scene Aron is a Little Cup Pokémon, one of the very first featured on here.. with the exception of Cubone being in there as well. Little cup is format where you duke it out with unevolved pokémon (that still can evolve)  with the exception of a handful of them for balancing reasons. There is also a catchable at level 5 rule but I am not sure how that work because  you can get later stuff as well. It excludes some evolving legendaries and such I am sure. Regardless Aron has two major uses in battle. You can use it to set up hazards like stealth rock and sand storm or it can be used as a physical sweeper. The physical sweeper set can be super fun since Aron has some serious power in that department when it comes to little cup. Using It’s ability Rock Head, Head Smash becomes an amazing move that allows it to trash anything weak to rock or even neutral to rock! Earthquake  is that move that you always put on a any ground type unless you do double battles and you add Iron Head for Same type attack bonus moves and flinch chances.  Aerial Ace for Weakness covery as Little cup fighting type pokémon prefer to set up using Belly Drum or Sword Dance and you got a solid set and a very useful and lovely Aron. Top it with A Choice Band a voila! A steel wrecking ball that is super cute!

I am one of those girls that really takes a shine to a pokémon when it gets hate. I want to show the little creatures that someone cares for them even if the world is being mean and cruel to them, and so I adopted a Klefki from a friend which was calling it stupid. I asked them to rename it Sesame for me before they send it over. Sesame and I quickly became great friends. I did not run fairy type moves on it as I had my sylveon! No Sesame was there to save my other guys! I really like it’s cry and it has some pink elements! I imagined Sesame was like Ash Charmander.. with its original trainer leaving it out to die.. not caring for it at all. It became a sort of thing for me to adopt people’s Klefki after that.  Due to the excellent friend system Pokémon X and Y had as well as some communities. I became a Klefki Mamma and it was fun..it did not help me with the game as I mostly kept an almost full  box of Klefki which I had to play with in Amie so they would at least get some love..but it was a fun side activity. Sesame eventually got replaced right before the pokémon league so I could focus a bit more on offence but it was the pokémon that made me like using defensive strategies.

Lorewise I am also very charmed by this pokémon too because it has gotten of of the silliest pokédex entries among this list. Klefki is a ring pokémon that uses the “horn” on it’s head to suck the ions out of metals. For no reason whatsoever it adores keys. It likes them so much that giving it one.. is like giving it the greatest gift in the world. It will be super happy, and while you can still use said key it will do everything it its might to keep those keys safe. Never will you have to worry anymore when you go inside a rollercoaster,  that you would lose the key, never will you lose a key anymore because it will never ever lose one!  You just ask it to lock something up for you or if it can help you open it and tadaa! Such a  pure an innocent little thing. It’s beyond beautiful. But that is not even the silly part what I love about it so much.. in Pokémon shield it was revealed that this pokémon likes keys SO much that it’s head had to look like a key as well! In other words it likes something so much, it became that in a way.. talk about mind over matter! I see a symbol of hope in it that people can be what they want to be if it truly makes them happy!

Klefki in competitive was pretty amazing for a while. Mostly as a Hazard of Barrier setter, but a particularly fun set I like to use is a Prankster set with Thunder Wave, Foul Play Torment and Flash Canon. It makes Klefi into a pesky little sweeper. Foul Play allows you to use your opponents physical stats instead of Klefki’s for damage calculation, Torment prevents opponents from using the same attack two times in a row and Thunder Wave paralyze your opponent and halves their speed.  This can result in a little mind game on when to swap out when to t-wave, when to foul play and so on that can make this set of keys give you a lot of battle field momentum. This is exactly my kind of pokémon! People get annoyed if they are being destroyed by a set of keys! Since Foul Play is a dark type move and not a lot of typings are resistant to that.. it really is fun to see Sesame and it’s friends take revenge on those who cast them aside! Mwhuahahaha!

Time for the legendary entry on this list.. and yes it is a legendary and no I do not care it is also called a mythical. While it never really became a part of my journey this pokémon really is a bit of a spirit animal for me.. well not really a spirit animal as it is more of a homunculus pokemon somewhat ..but still .. it reminds me a bit from the owl Clash of the Titans (1981 version) that was a great animal companion and Magearna is no different. The combination of Metal and Princess as well as parts mechanical pokeball make it a cute addition to the line up, and one of the cuter artificial pokemon out there, along with Ditto and Porygon….hmm Artificial pokemon sure come in pink often enough! Guess people really know what is the best colour in the pokemon world.

Lorewise this pokemon is a bit of an odd one you see it’s body is not the pokemon, that little round sphere in the center is the pokemon and not even that, this monster is basically what is inside that sphere. It is best comparable to a Kinder Egg, its not the chocolat, its not the yellow container it’s the toy that is inside..oh and its also banned in some places. Magearna is one of the few pokemon that fully understands human speech, while it may seem like all pokemon can this is not actually true, I guess Ash super specific instructions were just a lucky shot. Mageaena can not just comprehend language though, it can also understand peoples emotions, train of thought and can  even feel their pain, so it is always willing to help! The monster was made as a gift for a princess who lived about 500 years ago, over time her colour faded away and we get the metally grey pokemon we see today.

As with all legendaries this pokemon is not really usable in any form of battle.. Where pure in game legendaries are usually based around one or two incredible stats, the event distributed legendaries, also known as mysticals  always get a more even stat distribution. Magearna’s highest stat is it’s special attack which with 130 is nothing to cry about but compared to the Mewtwo’s and Arceus’s and it’s other peers out there it isn’t really to much to write home about. However it shines through because of it’s typing Fairy Steel is an incredible typing that allows many defensive bonuses.  First of all it negates ALL the fairy type weaknesses. Fairies are weak to poison, which steel type is immune to so cant damage this soul at all, it’s weak to steel..and steel resists steel so that hits neutral now. Metal has three weaknesses, fighting, ground and fire. The fighting weakness gets resisted due to it’s fairy typing so it has only 2 weaknesses , 9 resistances and 2 immunities. That is some good typing.  Almost as good as Water Ground! As a result Magearna is very beginner friendly. It’s signature move Fleur Cannon is like a counterpart of the Draco Meteor move, high power but lowers its own stat after use.  The ability Soul Heart negates this drop a bit however.. so i’d say pick up a robot and soul today!

A crowd favorite along Lucario I am sure but only my penultimate steel type! Metagross is a Pseudo Legendary that is known as the signature pokémon of Champion Steven Stone. One of the trickier champions to beat. (Lance was such a weak champion) The pokémon looks amazing has a great moveset and it evolves early enough to use endgame (level 45) but late enough so it really does feel rewarding. However there is one flaw that keeps Metagross from the number one spot here. Beldum’s Catch Rate of 3. This means that a Beldum (or any of it’s evolutions) have a 1.6% chance to stay in their pokéballs if you throw it at a pokémon with no status condition and green health. This catch rate.. is shared with Mewtwo… this means that a Beldum is as hard to catch as a MEWTWO! So imagine chibi pinkie playing her game, encountering this weird fist shaped pokemon with an eye… that just doesnt want to stay in it’s friggin pokébal! I did not know it was a pseudo back then! I wasn’t even allowed to play this game so I played it in secret! I was like.. well fudge this pokémon! I am out! It took me until Omega Ruby until I got myself a Beldum.. A shiny one from an event! I loved it! I named it ..Hi Ho..because it was silver.

Hi Ho would grow up from a little stubby fist like, missile looking thing to a four legged tank/super computer with one of the most badass mega evolutions out there, ever. Metagross is formed by the fusion of two Metang, (the stage 1 form of the pokémon) while it’s mega evolution is A Metagross, A Metang and Two Beldum forming together. So in other words this is the combiner robot of the pokémon world. It has four separate brains which allow it to analyse things faster and  better than a super computer does. Meanwhile it is still incredibly strong as well. It has the strength to pin an enemy on the wall with it claws after which it will begin devouring them alive. It will also use it’s big brain to win the fights it is in, analyzing it’s optimal moves. Making this a fearsome foe. When it Mega evolves it gets even smarter and leaves behind any decency it might have had before, now dictated by cruel cold logic. Any means of victory is now allowed and thus its fighting style becomes so gruesome most people can only avert their eyes and wait for it’s battle to be over. If it senses it can not win a fight it will impale an enemy’s limb with itself and then self detonate. Ouch

Metagross is fairly universally run as physical sweeper, and with a base attack power of 135 that isn’t too surprising. It doesn’t get much better than that.  The moves you’ll want to put on this monster is Earthquake, Agility, Zen Headbutt and Meteor Mash.  Agility and Zen Headbutt can be adapted if your team  specifically requires anything else, like calm mind if you need it to tank out a few hits for reasons or Grass Knot if your team is weak to ground but over all Zen Headbutt, and Agility will allow you to sweep if Meteor Mash gets one or two attack boosts. Meteor Mash is almost it’s signature move, only learned by Jirachi, Clefairy, and Lucario otherwise, a 90 base power physical attack that can boost up your attack stat.  Agility once or twice can take care of it’s meh speed and as an item a life orb can give you more damage output.  It’s not to uncommon to run aforementioned explosion either to kill something completely dead if Metagross is about to die! It is one of those pokémon that pressures your opponent into making the right call.. mess up once or twice and this pokémon has all the cards it needs to wipe your entire opponents team of the board.

This sword and shield pokémon was obviously introduced in X and Y.. huh that seems weird now huh! However this pokémon quickly became my favorite steel type. I have never really liked wall Pokémon much .. for the simple reason that I never found a wall that was better than Chansey. While Chansey’s physical defence isn’t great I’d use something like Shuckle. A pink egg and a worm in a rock.. those clearly are the superior tanks. I always like to mess with people when playing pokémon.  I don’t play with the pro’s so people never expect that Dugtrio is one of the fastest Pokémon ever.. they do not expect Chansey can  take a Draco Meteor like nothing has even happened, no one suspects Shuckle to survive a normal gem explosion..but they sure do! When people make mistakes people play poorly.  Aegislash is one of those guess what’s coming next pokémon I love so much because it is both a sword and a shield! It’s either a sword resting in a shield or a sword wielding a shield.. guestimate what it does wrong and you will be sorry! Also I really like object pokémon apparently!

Aegislash begin their live as Honedge. Honedge become pokémon when a person on the battlefield dies. Their soul becomes entangled with the blade that kills them and and the sort gains a blue  cloth that it can use to attach itself to those who dare touch the hilt. It will then begin to drain their life force completely. It evolves when it fed on enough life force, usually draining several people completely and it becomes two blades, who communicate with telepathy to form deadly attacking patterns that slice their foes to ribbons. After evolving it they become attendants of kings in history. Their past has allowed them to judge those who possess leadership qualities, hanging around those who it deems destined to be king.  However it does not do this from an altruistic stance it possesses over might spectral powers that allows it to manipulate people and pokémon alike and they use these kings to create a kingdom of their liking. One kingdom was particularly mentioned with a powerful king wielding an Aegislash creating an amazing kingdom, eventually however the sword drained all his life away and the kingdom since quickly fell. Aren’t ghost pokedex entries the best?

Like Metagross , Aegislash has a fairly widely accepted build. That being it’s signature move King’s Shield, which is a form of Protect (a semi perfect shield move)  that negates all damage and lowers your opponent’s special attack. It should know Swords Dance to heighten it’s already high attack, and Shadow Sneak and Night Slash or Sacred Sword as it’s attacking moves. Shadow Sneak is a move that always goes first and is boosted by the same type attack bonus and Night Slash or Sacred Sword you slap on there depending on what type of team your opponents run for maximum damage. What makes this pokemon so fun to use though is its ability, Stance Change. With this it can go from defensive mode into offensive mode and vice versa. In defensive mode it’s defensive values are 150 and in blade mode it’s offensive stats are 150. With all it’s other stats being only 50 though it’s a one trick pony… well it’s a one trick pony twice to be exact. However this does keep pressure on your opponent, if you sent it in against a physical attacker, the fun begins! Since its secondary stats are super weak it is a pokémon that does require you to know who is physical and who is not so it is a bit on the more advanced side of things. Yet it is through all of it’s quirks that and the brain game that this pokemon is so fun to play!

Callum and the best Steel Type…that will kill him!

It was wonderful seeing so many steel types still have plushies! I would have been in trouble with how I handle my images otherwise! What is your Favourite Steel Type? Do you like this typing? Do you use it oftenly?! Can you guess which type is next? Let’s get those comments going! Now excuse me while I go feed my hair!

Random Talks Again! The Random Topic Generator Part 2

On Wednesdays we always talk a little about me, blogging or things related to online mental health! Since I am super happy right now, I feel like an airy look in my life and mind! What better way to do that.. than random! So I found a new random topic generator on the internet and asked myself some questions! For those willing to partake I used , this random topic generator.. now let’s get started.

Most of my real life friends live here! There is Bean who is my bestie and Bear who is her boyfriend! Those are the people I hang out with the most and go out for spontaneous drinks and nights out! Then there is also my Dragon Ball Pal and the guy living in the same building as me! He plays D&D with us so that is always fun! Having a group to play D&D with would actually thus be my favorite thing… but Bean and Bear do other fun things with me as well. Bean and I go out for lunches and sometimes meet our loud friends as well! Who do not D&D unless it stands for Drink & Drink some more!  This Thursdays my D&D friend and me will finally see each other in person again, at least some of us well! So I am happy about that! I missed them so much!

Disclaimer: Not my Actual Table! I wish I had awesome stuff like that!

Having said that though my city is a pretty terrible place, there is a lot of crime , including murder, drug trade and of course violence and whole lot of intolerance which does not really match with a Kawaii Pink Girl like me! So I am looking to move away to greener pastures. Not that the pastures aren’t green here, the chemical plant I look at when I watch out my windows leaks chemicals so often  that not only the pastures are green.. they are fluorescent too! Cows don’t just say moo they say Kaijmoo. Cowzilla! Of course I am kidding here…..about the cows and the grass only is slightly glow in the dark. The chemical plant does have a lot of leaks of fires though so .. to better places in the future!

My backyard


That really depends! Would I know my life span?! Say if I know I have at least 10 to 20 years left I’d say yes! If it’s a gamble and I can drop dead right here and right now then my answer would be no. I do not believe that the key to happiness is longevity I believe the key to happiness is doing what you want to do. Being rich or famous would open a lot of doors and allow me to do a lot of stuff I can not do otherwise! If I was rich  I would probably eat so much great food, drink amazing wines, travel to the weirdest places that my lifespan would be reduced by ten years already. So it does sound like a sweet deal, I just don’t want to be rich and not be able to use it. That is a sin in my opinion. Sure people can donate to a cause they’d think I like but I could have a lot of fun with a lot of money! One of my dreams is to visit the pokémon café in Tokyo and to visit Japan in general. With my current income that is never going to happen at least not if my health doesn’t improve, I do not see a short term way of getting out of that.  So if I was guaranteed some years of life left to spend the money and have fun.. I’d do it.

The mileage on this image is insane!

We always say that life is the greatest good, but life just like money isn’t all that amazing if nothing happens with it. I have seen my grandfather waste away in an old folks home his dementia claiming the last memories of us. Covid set him free, but if I can prevent even one year of that I’ll happily die a little bit earlier.  Health care staff is constantly given less time with you and less and less people are wanting to train for it as the management keeps cutting away at the budgets to make everything work by the time I get old enough to be taken care for, there will just be a pit of sand with some cloth to keep the worst of the sun away and we will tended by a hunchback named Igor.. whom they have cloned from Florence Nightingale’s DNA. Just making it human enough not to give it human rights and wages. So yeah I will trade Igor in!  I think I can live more in a year without limitations than in 50 with normal limits. I can experience joy until the day I die and even if it’s sooner I’ll die with a big wide smile on my face. Still I would not waste it! So if I can drop dead right here right now I’d not choose the option because I do not want to hurt people! However if people know I died with a huge smirk on my face I think that is solace enough to risk that!

Now this is a weird question… I like it!  Saying I take you Rachel while you are  taking Emily as your lawfully wedded wife is probably a stupid thing to do on your wedding. F.R.I.E.N.D.S was such a wise show like that! Yet I do not think  that is what this question is about. I think it means more like stuff like “we should see other people” or “You are not of my preferred sex when it comes to engaging in the physical act of love’.   Maybe something like “Sweety did you make sure to turn the oven off when we left”  when your partner has trouble with that sort of thing.  There is plenty of jokes to make here with obvious ones like “sweety that dress makes you look fat’  or “Well guys she is wearing white but I can assure you…she’s now pure..whassssuuup!’ I mean lets be honest here there is a lot you should not say at the wedding. “That gift your parents gave us is horrible” ,  “Did you see Stephanie caught be bouquet? Like that’s ever going to happen.. unless she marries Ronald Mc-D am I right?’ Honey “I slept with a bridesmaid”.. ..”Oh Me Too”. You are getting comedy gold here everyone!


But let’s assume real people are not cartoon characters  or roles of Sean William Scott or Katherine Heigl. Let’s assume we are all well spoken people with at least a semi functional brain. That would change everything. If there are things you can not say at your wedding then, you are marrying the wrong person. If your spouse to be or their family would ruin your day based on something you say, things are not  well in your family. If I am ever gonna get married I sure as heck do not want to say I do!  I also do not really want a wedding dress… well maybe a fake on that I can rip off for shock value to reveal a magical girl outfit underneath! I would stare at my partner and go take a pose! While I speech! “I am the pretty guardian of Love and Friendship in a Sailor Suit! Sailor Pinkie! In the name of Love I will marry you! I would like my partner to look shocked and then she’d take out a makeup mirror and yell Pretty Cure, Smile Charge! Ripping of her dress to reveal a magical girl outfit. Then we’d hold hands slide the ring on each others finger and yell ! Pink Thunder! Yellow Thunder! (or whatever her colour would be) Pretty Moon! Married To! And then each others name! Then a fake as a sort of fake beam effect it rains tiny plushies and ribbons, tossed by the bridesmaids onto the isle!  If someone expects me to be normal at my own wedding.. clearly they would not know me!

Oof thats a heavy one. Do I believe in God? The short answer is no, I do not believe in God, Allah, Yahweh , Lord Xenu, Eywa or the Flying Spaghetti monster. Even Todd Howard might be fake. On paper I am an atheist as I do not believe in a divine being. I think subconsciously a lot of people feel that way. If we look at sci-fi for example we often see that sci-fi writes dabbling in the concept of theology project other divine beings upon the galaxy. As if they should have another god. Yet god as a creator should be shared amongst the galaxy. As in.. in Star Trek they encounter “god” several times depending on times. A sentient being judging if I lived my life right is also a super depressing thought. I can only go to heaven or paradise if I put myself last? That’s not how things work! Who is a force to judge over my life while not having lived it? The fact that my live can be invalidated by a single opinion makes no sense to me.  Sure it’s an all knowing opinion yada yada yada except it’s not! I should live the way I want.. not an incorporeal flying buffalo head with a ginger wig and gag goggles or not a guy floating on a cloud going hmmm Soka!  If my friends have some awesome memories of me and will remember me with a smile.. I lived a good life! Because that is what I want to achieve!

The DnD eye guy and pink ninja woman are still there.. they would just cry which moots my point!

I however would not say I believe in nothing… no I believe in order and chaos. Balance, I’d almost call myself a Jedaii (a Force user before the Dark and Light side split). Things happen for a reason and that is not always quantifiable there is a bigger order, a bigger rulebook out there, it’s not a sentient rulebook and most certainly not a DM but it influences us all. Miracles like mothers finding strength beyond their limits to save their children the way everyone’s, the fact that all our upper and under arms have a 1.61803398875 difference ratio , the fact that bees are segregated in that exact same ratio, these are the proof to me that there is an order out there a force keeping everything together. Sometimes it gets a bit lost.. so it’s almost algorithmic like YouTube, a force that can adjust and a force that we can influence. Our thoughts , our postivity…our Karma as it were shape it bring some order in the chaos.. but it is mostly just a set of rules still. Beyond us to understand…again like the YouTube algorithm.

I believe that for me there is no god, but that balance can be controlled to an end. If you are happy and you exert it it’s more likely positive things happen to you. If you are in a negative mindset, bad things are more likely to happen to you. By believing you can do something without a doubt in your mind you can break your limits.. point and case the mother lifting a heavy object to save her baby again. Your belief must be absolute but this works for a god as well. If you believe in god..like believe without a shadow of a doubt god is real to you. If you believe god whispered you the right answer to the test.. then maybe you did. We can explain it with a chemical process in the brain trigger something or whatever ..but who cares. I hear my plushies talk to me.. it’s not something that can be measured but if they go Ganbatte, to cheer my on I still feel inspired.. that inspiration IS real. No matter if I deluded myself into doing it or I actually pick up sound waves from another realm, it doesn’t change the fact that I got inspired..by my plushies. Their motivating me is real. Much more than a concept of god for me ever could!

 Yet God is stronger because he is shared among so many people that it is even easier to pick something up! If your fate wavers others can help you steel your mind..strengthen those thoughts.. No one will tell me.. yes Pinkie your plushies really talk back. Our brains are super powerful, something can be so vividly imagined if we belief in it hard enough. Research shows that if we play a video game and get invested enough our brain treats it virtually the same as going on an actual adventure.. that makes that adventure real right? I think god would be the same .This to me also explains the existence of ghosts. A ghost is not a manifestation of a dead person but the memory of said person by a living person. They belief they remember and they think of them so much that it’s almost tangible to see.. like reading a really good book or an amazing description of food where you can basically taste it. So do I also believe people can see god! So I do believe in him? No .. but he is real… just not to me personally.

To me god is just.. that thing!

By the time I am writing this, which is about a week and a half-ish from when this is going to be posted, I learned the word portmanteau from Irina, I had no idea but it sounds pretty. I guess I have created a few in my blogging history as well. I also learned that this topic generator was less amazing as the one before! This one asked some really basic questions! The religion one I made a post off before but it is so long ago I could revisit it. I tried to find another but the next one and i am generated was “do you believe in the afterlife” and then “do you believe in ghosts”.. clearly the order ..or Karma wanted me to explain my answer on that question so I guess Karma must think I am right ..which makes little sense because then it would be sentient and my entire thing goes to waste but still.The biggest lesson I learned though  is that sometimes a small gesture is good enough to forgive a major thing. 

I saw my friend Lauren this week who has treated me a bit poorly in the past. She treated me a bit how Fumi gets treated by Yasuko in Sweet Blue Flower. She wants to be normal so bad that she kinda “prayed the gay away”  on herself. She stopped our relation because it would not be white picket fences and 1.5 children.After that she hooked up with a male friend of mine, a closet geek, better job also likes to keep up the pretense of being your average guy. I kept the friendship with her alive as I hoped she would one day realise there is more in the world than being mundane. She increasingly drifted towards adhering to the standard and constantly critisised me for finding my own way..usually behind my back though which I had to hear from others. I kept the friendship up though because I really cared for her However fairly recently we had a major fight. Another friend asked us if we could delay a meal for 15 minutes so they could join and she refused stating that “6 o clock is the normal time”  It’s the time she eats at home and if she eats 15 minutes later she’ll have to go to sleep 15 minutes late as well.. cause of her schedule.. normal people don’t eat at 6:15 they eat at 6 so, so should we. A friend who can’t even spare 15 minutes for a friend is not a good friend at all so I timed her out for a bit.. quite mad with everything festering up. 

Yet she came in here with a smile and a bar of chocolate she gifted me and she just said in the most sincere way that she really missed me.  Suddenly everything else did not matter.. and I had missed her as well. I almost hugged her! But Distancing rules so no hugging. Still I felt lighter as a cloud after that, sure we are drifting apart because I am becoming stronger in me being unique and she deeply beliefs she will be happy from being the perfectly average woman and if that makes her happy she should pursue it. I am not sure we can be friends forever, I might become something that holds her back in being as normal as she wants to be.. and I am not going to give up myself so she can be normal..because she would not do so for me either…and that is fine.  For now I know I have a friend, whom I love. The friendship isn’t as easy as others, it’s not perfect but it is something I missed and something I will enjoy sharing with her for as long as we are capable.  Grudges are stupid and as long as you gain something from a friendship and not from a grudge.. even the littlest hand reach can be enough to rekindle a bond. I’ll just hate the anime character instead!

Now that was long enough , I am hope you learned something new about me! Next time I will try to look for a bit more of a whimsical topic generator! Yet this was something on its own accord?!Anyway! I got some chocolate to eat! Sayonoodles! That is a portmanteau  of Sayonara and Toodles!

<In two weeks my Blog will turn 1 so on the Wednesday of my Blogs Birthday..and Pinkie’s Birthday in a sense..I will be holding a Q&A so feel free to leave me some Q&A Questions in the comments or poke me on twitter!> Sayonoodles once more!

Poké Ball Z?! Pinkie Reviews: Dragon Ball Z Team Training

My sweet Island guests! Hi how are you doing today?! Hope you are well! Two of the fandoms I am most active in is Pokémon and Dragon Ball, so when you get the chance to play a rom hack that combines these two things are bound to be good. Time to evolve to a Super Trainer and use Explosion on a wild Yamcha as we venture into Dragon Ball Z team training!

<Editting Pinkie Here! What Bad Luck I lost my own images! I posted them in a wrong place and now I can no longer acces them so while the images you see will not be of my journey! I can assure you I definitely finished the game!>

Dr Brief introduced my female trainer Pinkie to the wonderful world of Dragon Ball, in this world I have to train up powerful fighters and make my ways across gyms all across the land so I can prove my worth as a fighter trainer and eventually I can take on the four Kais. It’s a journey that will take you through locations such as Mount Paozu , Namek, The Red Ribbon Army Base and Makyo City.

Yet before I can venture out into this , slightly,  Dragon Ball themed world I have to pick my starter first.  We get the choice out of Goku, Vegeta and Adult Gohan. All can evolve multiple times. With Gohan being able to go Super Saiyan and Ultimate, Vegeta being able to go Super Saiyan and Majin Vegeta and Goku being able to go Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 3.  However End game all can go beyond, with everyone learning super Saiyan God and even Super Saiyan Blue.. and Goku being able to go Ultra Instinct as well. Goku also is able to go Golden Oozaru and Super Saiyan 4 and if you pick Goku you can also catch a Vegeta later on and can fuse them together.  Goku gets a tiny bit more love than the other two ..but hey  that’s how the show does it as well!

I picked up Goku…as I really wanted to make him go Ultra Instinct.. mostly because I wanted to see how ridiculous his stats would be!  I did not give him a nickname because… well I kinda feel bad giving these characters nicknames as they have their own names so ..I decided to go nickname-less. If I had chosen to go nicknames I would have made silly ones…like naming Piccolo Eggplamber or something! Still I had a serious job..defeating the four Kais.  So I grabbed  hand full of capsules and began tossing them on Krillin and Piccolo  as I build myself a team of canonical good guys! Choosing that route proved to be a mistake. 

Dragon Ball Z has always been about transformations, stronger opponents and bigger challenges, this is reflected in the game as well.

Perfect Cell at level 30 has way higher stats than Lvl 30 Final Form Frieza. Lvl 20 Super Saiyan Goten is stronger than Lvl 20 Yamcha, by a fair margin. This makes the game get it’s unique feeling.. your team is always changing. Krillin is quite good to have until level 25 or so but after that he becomes utterly useless as even the wild encounters you meet will have better stats. My level 22 second form Frieza had better stats than my level 31 Krillin. Some characters are exceptions to this, for example Piccolo stays fairly relevant throughout the game in terms of power, he can match with the non legendary characters. Not being that much weaker than Perfect Cell or even Kid Buu. 

He does however..get in trouble later on because he does not learn any good new moves. The third gym lets you fight the androids (Cell is the fourth gym)  so around the low level 30’s Piccolo learns Hellzone Grenade and after that.. nothing really.  Capsule Moves  you find can help.. but overall .. Dragon Ball Z Team training focuses on advancing getting better stuff rather than making stuff work.. so it plays quite a bit different from regular pokemon. It’s a change I hated at first, but later came to appreciate. It is willing to move away from Pokémon to be more Dragon Ball, not the Dragon Ball Hero stuff either.. where suddenly characters all become hyper powerful.. no it follows the Z story..if a character stops being relevant in the story it kinda becomes less relevant as a game character as well. That does make this game a bit grind heavy though…and for the first time ever in a Pokémon game.. I had to use 3 legendaries plus two characters who have near Legendary stats in order to win against the Kais.  You always have to be aware of more powerful creates and you have to make that swap. (Well unless you like grinding into insanity.. but still your better of improving) 

This does mean the game is not as tactical, rather it’s a bit of a resource management like game. Finding fighters with good stats or move pools, searching for fusing items and good techniques and the best way to do this is to know stuff about Dragon Ball Z. You’ll want to pick fighters that evolve and how do you know people evolve? By having watched the series but also the extra content. Super Saiyan Bardock is a thing, but you can also transform him , Raditz or Nappa into an Oozaru using a Moonstone. You can catch a Trunks and Goten and fuse them together into a Gotenks and yes you can even make Gogeta or Vegito. If you do not know about these though, you’ll never guess the Fusion combinations because there are well over 100 fighters in the game. If you do not know Frieza is stronger than Aqua or if you don’t know Bunyon and Giran are just from Dragon Ball , you will struggle to know what is good on your team. So If you are a  just a Pokémon Fan, wanting to play a interesting Rom Hack this isn’t for you. If you are a Dragon Ball fan who knows nothing about Pokémon but just want more content..this game has a few quirks and issues as well. So this game is only for fans of both. It’s literally a fusion!

While on the surface combining these two ideas can still result in a rather interesting game, this Rom Hack doesn’t really pull it off for me.

Mostly due to its poor balancing. There are only a few types that really matter in the game, being Fire, Fighting, Steel and Dark.  Ice , Grass and Electric are in there as well as a few rock and Psychic type moves but it’s extremely sparingly.  Officially typing matchup should have remained the same.. but I don’t think quadruple damage is a thing..or maybe it’s only quadruple damage that is a thing.. I can’t figure this out. Hitting Frieza who is a Dark Ice type with a fighting  type move is super effective, while hitting him with a Kamehameha is effective normally. I can not just forget the old typing system and since it does still refer to the old typing system this is something I seem unable to master. Fire not super effective against Ice? I just don’t get it.. Electric still beats water, fighting beats dark. Who knows! 

As a result I just end up doing “something” spam powerful attacks, 90% of the moves are fire of fighting type moves anyway.  This feeling is enlarged by the fact that the game is mostly based on the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Z. What I mean by this is that we for example do not get Android 18 but instead C-18..as in the original they are referred to as cyborgs or just numbers. That isn’t a bad thing but it might leave you scratching your head if your a dub kid. What IS a problem for Dub-people is that all the techniques are phonetic Japanese as well. So  Special Beam Cannon is Makankosappo, Solar Flare is Taiyoken, After images is Zanzoken and the Spirit Bomb is the Genkidama. I love the sub and I know the techniques by those names but if you are one of those Dub is better folks, you’ll wonder what techniques are which.. and since half of the charm this game is recognisability of all the characters and such I can see that being an issues for you! There still is plenty there and once you get used to it , it will be fine but I can imagine how this would not feel as YOUR Dragon Ball… so  this is a a game for fans of both Dragon Ball and Pokémon but mostly catered to those that watch subs?! That’s a specific niche right there.

While that did not effect me I felt it did needed to be said, what did bother me however is how poor the artwork can be at times. While I do use techniques for my content very similar to these.. like using pre-existing assets wherever possible this game really uses a lot of different styles. Most character sprites come from games like Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors, but Bunyon’s sprite is from Dragon Ball Advanced Adventures, while some sprites like general Red are made by the team itself. As a result it can feel a bit hotchpotchy.  Goku base form for example is a very thick outlined sprite and when he evolves he goes into his Super Sonic Warrior Sprite, while Gohan and Vegeta  already use earlier sprites from the get go. It just takes a bit of consistency out and makes some evolutions feel REALLY disappointing.The same can be said for the order towns are laid out in, while we do progress throughout the story , Pewter City is Saiyan Saga, Into Cerulean being the Namek Saga, into  The Android saga.. we suddenly get Makyo town after that which is Garlic Jr’s story…which takes place before the Android saga.. I do not mind persé that stuff is out of order.. but I have a bit of trouble with doing  both in AND out or order it makes the game feel needlessly sloppy.

Since this game is a Romhack the map is exactly the same as it was in Kanto.. just buildings have replaced sprites , like Mount Paozu having capsule homes and Namek having green water and blue grass.

Yet in its core the game is still the exact same game as it was in Kanto, the official Pokémon game however explained way better where to go to next. If you do not know, this game can have you search a bit.  Some buildings and locations HAVE been replaced however, for example both “rocket hideouts” are  now in the same town. Capsule Corps and the Game Corner are both in Gingertown, While Satan City now has the developer building. The way to the Power Plant is also different. So since it is so familiar but randomly tosses stuff around , it can also be a bit confusing to fans. It’s a shame  the game choose for this half and half route as I like that some things are different but treading familiar ground for 90% of the adventure makes those 10% a bit frustrating. I actually do love to explore, but when something is so familiar with for like the majority of the game.. .Either I find myself disappointed they did not do more stuff like that.. or I search around aimlessly as they chose to change one trivial thing.

The game would also have been more fun if they chose a story slightly more Akin to fighters where not everyone can use their full abilities so the playing field could be more even. I at first struggled big time during the pokémon league. Everyone around their level 50’s  gets so little Power Point in moves that you burn out in no time and the level hike was quite large. I was seriously underleveled by the end.. but since every Kai had something like A Krillin or a Zarbon 2 in their team I just send out Shenron, let him boost up his attack  since weak characters can barely damage it, heal up and sweep a team. This also worked if I used Broly, or Frieza or whoever had a setup technique. Everyone has that one weak fighter that completely unbalanced any fight. It was nice that some technique was required for the final part.. but it felt more like an exploit and not that excited.

I was going to play the post game and get myself a Ultra Instinct Goku but the post game is locked behind having to have caught 60 fighters. Since most of them are so useless, I did not particularly bother with catching so I had just so many work left to do that I just gave up. Dragon Ball Z Team Training is not a bad game, it’s just a crazy little Dragon Ball experience but the system is to unbalanced and fighters are too useless to sell me on the collecting aspect. In the end these two franchises do not mix very well.  I had my fun exploring the world, I had an enjoyable time but I would have had a better time playing either pokémon OR Dragon Ball Super Sonic Warriors. In the end I’d compare it to a Peep Box.. it’s fun to stare at it for a while wondering where everything goes and discovering the scene but if you stare at it long you notice some things are cut out a bit iffy and there isn’t that much going on. Fun to experience  but in the end what you get is only paper thin. It’s fun to recognise things but not particularly fun to play.

The Verdict!

I had some good times time with this game but mostly in the first half the second half got quite frustrating having to substitute my entire time all the time, also I do not really know who this game is for.. it really asks some knowledge of Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon to play.. and in terms of Dragon Ball the sub specifically. Do you know of a Rom Hack or Fan Game I should play next? From now on once per 4 weeks I shall review a Pokémon fan game! You can help me determine what is next! Thank you for reading and if you like my content and would happen to have some funds you do not know what to do with..consider supporting me on Ko-Fi and join Camp Coconut!

The Sequel Even Uwe Boll Would Not Touch: House of the Dead 2 Review

Hello again my dear island guest! Welcome back to my quest to review all video game movies!  When Uwe Boll makes a movie, Uwe Boll usually makes a sequel..or two! However even Uwe Boll jumped ship with his House of the Dead movie, so someone took over this video game adaption. A movie so bad that even Uwe Boll doesn’t want anything to do with it? Now that’s what I would call a horror movie!

In my attempt to see all video game movies, I have stumbled upon a new mood, something that holds a middle between stupefied and fascinated. I call it stupenated. It holds somewhere between NANI!!!! !and Hmmmmmm SOUKA!  So it might be called Hmmm NAKA!. This  sequel movie left me Stupenated a lot.

While somehow managing to make me aggressively bored at places as well. A rollercoaster of sub-par experiences that as a whole come out as a much more interesting experience as the sum of its parts, because by Arceus this movie is soooo badly written. However it is so culty and campy and stupid.. that it is quite a bit more enjoyable than Boll’s first outing. Terrible still but at least this felt like a movie. Biggest contributor for that is the movies story.. it actually has one! The first movie basically movie, whose review you can find here, basically had the story of..some (clearly not) teens go to an island to rave..but zombies live there and shit happens, luckily they hired a weapons smuggler so they have guns. Part 2 at least tries to do some world building…it fails… but it tries.

Dr Curien, the father of the main character of the first movie saw his son get killed by his girlfriend who had been given the immortality serum after she was killed by the Spanish priest bloke in the final bit of the first movie. Now he is killing school girls and trying to revive them, however he gets distracted and one of his test subjects he thought was just dead..gets away and kills him.. turning him into and the campus he worked on into a new batch of zombies.  The secret organisation AMS who are professional zombie hunters think this new outbreak might be connected to generation 0 or at least generation 1 zombies. (Those turned by the serum of movie 1 )  From which they hope to synthesise a vaccine. So general Carter sends in some military guys along with two AMS members to find this Gen 0 or Gen 1 blood sample. There even are some wavering allegiances, complicating this important mission. Unfortunately for AMS the military people are more brain dead than the zombies.

Now of course that last embellishment was not a part of the actual story but it is true! These military guys are SOOOO dumb that like half of them gets killed in the first few minutes for the most stupid reasons. One guy just starts punching on a zombie for no reason.. he has guns.. but he just starts fistfighting him and gets bitten. The second gets bitten by that guy after trying to restrain him by .. putting their hand his shoulders and pushing him down so he can get shot to death… of course he bites out of resistance and the next guy is toast as well. These experts in making things safe have to keep the scientist Nightingale and former Secret Service Agent Ellis safe from zombies.Which of course is harder than it might seem.

While Uwe Boll had little to do with this movie the director goes for for that typical Uwe Boll cinematic feel. For example it has that “porn” cheapness to camera images and a really harsh lighting. You half expect things to escalate when a girl walks out of a shower into a locker room full of men.

That means that means except for the “gross” crippled woman from part one.. you know the one whose legs were chopped off, bled out for hours and lay their in an exploding zombie infested house that now has become a leader in a top secret organisation that puts her in a military suit for some reason,  all women are introduced to you in a bikini. bathrobe or in a slutty schoolgirl outfit that gets cut of her body by a professor trying to reanimate her… for which of course.. she needed to be naked. This time however it is blurred out!  …At first.  IN the second half of the movie woman don’t strip as much but we do get a few “odd” moments. Almost as if the writer thinks zombie girls are hot?! I am not sure.. but I think we got a few naked zombies.. at least the zombies look like zombies though … sometimes.

The movie has this campy feel to it.. with woman being a bit stereotypical ..but stereotypical badasses. I think we get one gay woman..maybe two I am not sure, it’s implicit .. there is just this tension between two girls.. although I should not say there is..but I feel like there should be.. based on their dialogue and interaction. Between the bad acting and weird storyboarding it can go either way. There is this also a cool badass science chick with a deep back story and a campus hippie girl…who by far is the best actress in the movie that is like exposition incarnate. It feels like I am watching one of those Full Motion Video , video games. You know something like Night Trap, or those Tanya scenes from those Red Alert cutscenes. It has that same feeling as games like Phantasmagoria.. maybe even Wing Commander. It’s not like there is something wrong with that but they feel like their own thing. Like how a Soap Opera is filmed differently than normal series..FMV games had this “cheapness” to it.. which is very much shown in this movie. 

This is reflected by the amount of exposition in this movie.  “As you Know” is one of the stupidest lines a movie can use for plot revelations..because why would you tell someone something they know?! Well The whole story of AMS is done like that.. In a school that has been abandoned for weeks two people survive and they happen to know everything the doctor did including stealing corpses from the morgue and after the school told him to stop… he went to find other ways.. they tell them how he tried to splice genomes and details of his research and so much more! Why would they know the professor killed a student? There is no reason they would.. why would school allow a guy to keep working there after he stole corpses, why isn’t he in jail?! Why even if they covered this up.. would two hippies know it and have their fingerprint or Bio-signature tied to a cage that holds the first zombie?!  I was stupinated! Everything is acted, filmed and written so clunky you feel like every shot has a big B branded into it.

That is what saves this movie from being worse or as bad as it’s prequel. It is so far distanced form reality it can actually surprise you. In the scenes where it doesn’t it can be boring as heck..but boy when the stupid virus strikes again .. I had a blast.

There is something hilarious about a trained soldier seeing a guy sit in a zombie infested library and say “Oh a survivor” … while being questioned by his peers “Zombies do not read that is a survivor”  meanwhile the guy has a rotting face and is bleeding all over his book and the soldier doesn’t even notice.. while knowing there are zombies everywhere. He even scolds him for being rude… WHY would someone go read a book amidst a zombie infested school?! Why do you think that is feasible?!  Even if he did it to calm his nerves why would you get annoyed he has headphones on and ignores you.. why would you not think it’s a zombie. I was Stupinated how can you think this little about your chain of events it made the movie quite hilarious though.

Soon after a part of the squad hears noises coming from a dorm room which is clearly a news-anchor reading the news.. yet for some reason TRAINED MILITARY staff, ..three of them all fail to notice this and they all think there are survivors in this room! After which they ask people to open up.. kicking in the door 5 seconds after making the request. English is my( arguably)  third language yet I as a untrained civilian, non native English speaker can hear this is a radio or a tv… yet the army can’t ?  That is funny! These people deserve to die so much! One of them does.. because he got bitten by a zombie mosquito?!  Now that is funny! Well he doesn’t die right away but he is written off. He gets bitten by a random mosquito, and just because the girl in this room zombified without any traces of forced entry?! Huh!?! So that must have been the mosquito they say. I have a few problems with that theory. Mosquitoes will only sting those with the highest body temperature in the room, so how it ever would prick a zombie is beyond me already. Maybe these zombies still have warm blood?!

Second that mosquito was in the room for days..meaning the mosquito would have to be a zombie itself, but decay is accelerated so I am not sure it would last that long, it’s not clear if it was THAT mosquito that made the girl turn.. they just guess it was and it’s totally unclear if the disease can be transmitted beyond species.. since the last part took place on an island.. you’d figure they would know if the mosquitoes there transformed. It isn’t even brought up again until the very end, the moment you discover that bugs can spread the deadly disease you might want to inform your colleagues but they just decide to just knock out the guy and leave him to die…I get you would not want to take a risk but this is a colleague, he’s instantly written off, without even asking the zombie scientist, which they can contact on their Walkietalkie thing. Instead they just decide.. well you are dead now. It felt very throwaway and out of nowhere and into nowhere.. nothing is done with this concept. 

The most hilarious death takes place around the same time. A guy sees a weeping woman who beckons him into another room, separating him from his group. It turns out that this woman is misleading him..she is actually a zombie..who acts like a siren of sorts..again.. I’d imagine her rotten face would reveal her to be a zombie or her non response to questions would at least make the man on his guard ..but no .. he gets blindsided by her! He does manage to beat her and lock her into a locker as he tries to exit the room a big zombie is behind the door… while he is already pointing his gun at the big zombie it startles him so hard he just screams and gets eaten……Trained military men everybody! They are so skilled.

If we look at consistency this movie is a lot weaker than the original! The movie does not match up with the world building at all. The set-up for things is super flimsey and it feels a lot plot whole heavier.. then again part 1 did not have a plot so…..

Mosquito guy by the way ends up being the villain of the movie..which of course is not set up at all , why am I telling you this..well because the movie first does set him up as the bad guy! He loots corpses, takes selfies next to a dead half naked girl ..with her camera he “stole” , he tells people they are going to die and basically he is just SUCH a huge douchebag that he went on this mission to get the blood sample for himself and bring it back to the big pharmaceutical companies and sell it for millions. Which to be fair is a much more interesting villain plot than “I want to be immortal because I want to live forever”  from the last part. The problem however  he is “killed off”.  Even when he turns out to be alive.. why would he still try to sell the vaccine so only the rich can buy it…Would he not help get it back so the experts van make a vaccine fast enough to save him. Also upon depolyment he left in a squad of 10 or so who took their jobs seriously! How would he ever get away with that?! Still it had a lot of potential as both sides race for the cure..but no he is killed off only to be brought back again for a weird twist ending. Why make him such an asshole not use him?  I was stupenated!

House of the Dead 2 is nowhere near as bad as its predecessor because it’s possibly worse. Plot happens for no reason at all throughout the entirety of this movie and it can be funny as heck. For example at one point Ellis and Nightingale get trapped in a zombie cage that needs the hand-print to open up… for no reason at all and never explained the door suddenly opens up. The woman who could open the door just got killed by  zombies all the way across the room. While she was bitten by 20 zombies she could still find humanity to crawl all the way across and open the door? If she even did.. not sure just assuming here as it’s the only way to open the door,  while …here we go again.. a trained Military captain began transforming in a zombie within mer seconds of a single bite?!  Sometimes they even transform instantly.. sometimes characters can give entire epilogues.  There is no rhyme or reason to this and it is stupinating to see how often a situation just goes completely derpy!

While the biggest charm of this movie is how dumb it is.. for example a character that got swarmed by zombies and only had a knife.. survives a missile strike without any scratches  while all zombies die, there are actually a few good things about this movie.

First of all the soundtrack is way less stupid than the original and those stupid game flashes are not here anymore.  Characters do actually develop over the  course of this movie and zombies look like actual zombies.  So it looks and sounds a lot better with much less aggressive muzzle flares, a much more believable setting to be decked out in these weapons used and in general a better set of world building. Of course this is nullified by dumb decisions like randomly running around a campus filled with zombies without knowing the schools lay out. At one point one character suddenly knows that in the next building  there is a science lab and this is a good place to start searching for Zombie 0 …. This happens when there are only 3 out of 10 people left… If that is a great place to start… (and sure.. if someone is suspected of making zombies… I’d say the science lab is indeed a fair starting place) why would you NOT start there first then… Stupinated! 

 The acting revealed that the actors could not believe the characters as well because it feels atrociously bad,  think Birdemic Levels of bad.. which is worse than House of the Dead 1, but a whole lot more entertaining. The dialogue is super funny at times as well. For example when Hippie girl fires at the science team thinking they are zombies they flee behind a desk an yell “Ceasefire we are AMS we are here to help” .. the response is  ‘Hmmm .oh. okay..sorry” I had about five other  moments there where I like actively thought like..’they could not just have said that’? Those bad lines are always also almost inaudible.. like tiny easter eggs of weirdness almost as if people accidentally talk trough footage. So bad.. yet some magnificent. This movie might have shown me the least logical action/reaction movie I have watched since the room. It is so bad in every single way..but the fact that it actually has a story and it leans so hard into the bad.. makes this a view I actually enjoyed.. unlike Boll’s movie. So in this case.. the worse movie is the better movie!  That doesn’t make a lot of sense but neither does this movie so it fits as a conclusion.

The Verdict

The movie is still bad and I would not recommend it to any of you guys but I guess when Uwe Boll doesn’t direct a movie it does automatically get better. This movie kept me entertained….at some parts. I still had to take break and come back for it! This movie isn’t even recognised by Wikipedia among video game adaptations so that is saying something.
Did you see this one?! Do you know of any video game movies that do not make the IMDB movie list?! Let me know and I might review it! Among the 38 sh other movies I still have to watch! Next week we will look at the Mortal Kombat Sequel and after that..we take another dip in Boll.

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 10

Hello Island Guests, the week is all over again! So I watched some anime again!
This week I had a few issues that prevented me from watching Saki in the evening so I did not make any progress with that! Yet for Saturday I finally have gotten myself some Unicorn Fruit Loops and I poured myself a cold bowl of milk and I watched five anime!

I actually really liked this episode of BNA , the past two were so so with an increasing fear of things going south at the end.  While this episode made me worry even more about the future I actually had some fun with this.

As we slowly so the plot begin to unravel  we see that Allan Silvasta is trying to create a cure to turn beast man into humans, which upsets Shirou because he does not feel he is something that needs to be cured. Alan however tells him that part of the Beast Man Genetic code has a defunct that turns them wild and feral when they live amongst other species of  beastman. This is called Nirvasyl Syndrome named after the city where Shirou once lived. Where the event actually happend. The humans attacking the beast man city where also lead by a Sylvasta causing the god wolf to go feral and attack Alan and his cure development production line. Michiru stops him and he goes renegade. The mayor also finds herself in a lot of trouble after the minister of Japan betrays here.. who also has contact with Alan. Shirou seems to team up with flip, Michiru with Nazuna and  who knows what happens to the Mayor.. in the end we know little as we move towards the finale of this series.

This episode to me succeeded quite well in building up tension, it also put the last two episodes a bit in place. We needed those elements  because they all play a critical role in whatever deception Alan is up too. Even now I am not fully sure what he is up to.. or if he is even that evil. It fits that cyberpunk dystopian undertone that had been in this show without the actual cyberpunk element. This was enforced by the synthwave music during the explanation, the apparel of all the medical droids and tech devices that stopped Shirou. My favorite scene was in fact that synth wave supported exposition scene. I am not sure he is that evil because he did not mistreat Michiru in any way either, would she be something in the way he could have easily dealt with her there… so this is a strength that can later turn into a massive weakness if it turns out her is like , evil-evil.  I do think I can understand his motivations though and I do think that is what a show like this needs. It is on that political side of the spectrum.. that should deal with grey areas and not make it very black and white. I do fear this a fake out but for now.. I do like this set up.

What I liked less about this episode is the fact that it once more is almost entirely a single set episode. The last episode was the room where Nazuna was being scanned the episode before it was only the terrace where Michiru had a talk with mamma Melissa and episode 6 mostly took place on the square.  BNA can feel very static at times. Almost theater like which is a problem if you are trying to show how people in the city are slowly going crazy. We see this in episode 1 until 4 that is true but after that we have mostly been having very tiny self contained stories where these elements drift to the background a bit. Alan’s talk is so convincing his betrayal of the major seemed odd. It seems as if the show could be resolved without action but trough smarts and that it might be a battle of health versus basic rights which could be very interesting to see people struggle with that.. but it also feels like they are going to backpedal out of that idea. Like watching a circus actor do a really interesting stunt but there is a safety line and a net and they drew a target on the net for them to drop in as well.  It takes away the tension.. so the way the Major was framed or seems to be framed had to be my least favorite moment of the show it felt confusing to me.  Could you just not stall her out bureaucracy is a thing and she knows it so you could have played that string.

All in all I had a sweet time with BNA Episode 10. It wasn’t amazing and the episode themselves really begin to creak with the building pressure of the approaching end. It doesn’t do much wrong other than suffer under a to strict countdown. I do still quite like this show but I think it will be a solid 7 out of 10 and maybe a 6 or even a 5 if they really fumble ending for in the long run. This show is like a taco,  but in some bites there is to much lettuce, in some bites we only taste shell… but this bite was pretty well mixed.. however those last two bites are bound to be overstuffed. I am happy I had a good bite .. but I am at the point where I can enjoy it less, because it is such a sloppy overall experience.

Episode Score

I really enjoy this series and this episode was no different. Samurai Flamenco and Slime is what get me out of bed on Saturday! Super excited to watch another episode! They consistently make my day!

We see a very natural continuation of the Samurai Flamenco and Flamenco Girl dynamic as it slowly reaches it rupturing point. Maya wants to be in the spotlight so much that she pushes Masayoshi away using her cruel and harsh techniques. She is a hero for fame while he is a hero for justice. It makes the two non compatible and doesn’t  adhere to Masayoshi’s code.  When he is cast as an extra on a Sentai Show and he can finally make it big in that industry he also begins to see the darkside and the hypocrisy of that world.. he begins to see what he does is fake. Meanwhile Goto is given a “fake” job as well forming some project that deals with the Flamenco fighters in a PR stunt like thing.  Even as a blogger I have dealt with that.. why am I doing this struggle, I think most of who ever pursued anything ungraspable can relate to this struggle. A postumes gift from his grandpa on his 20th birthday offers us some origins of the Samurai Flamenco concept and on Masayoshi’s values as we see him return to his ways with new found confidence and making sure he follows HIS path! Kudos!

I think I had one of my favorite moments in the series when Masayoshi got that gift from his grandpa. It shows so much goodness. It basically validates that Samurai Flamenco should exist.. because Masayoshi believes.. he is a symbol for justice because that is the value Masayoshi pursues.  While he loves Sentai shows.. he always to an extend knew they are fake and he has to find his own way in the real world that is real.. while he can be inspired by them he isn’t a 1 on 1 copy of them. Most of all he won’t have his treasured values be corrupted by someone who looks at it from a different angle. The separation of Girl and Samurai was also very strong in my opinion! Both value their dream to much to give it up for the other, even though one seems more noble than the other I am very happy they did not make Maya flip like that.. No one should ever have to comprise on their dream! Placing Goto in a similar situation as Masayoshi made this episode even more relatable, the two seem to reflect of each other. Both are unhappy and struggle with their job, both have partner issues and question if what they do now is the real thing.. it gives the episode a strong sense of theming throughout.. they mirror each other with some different choices. 

My biggest gripe was this episode was the exact same as I had with the previous episode. Goto’s girlfriend who only exists in text messages. I can’t read Kanji and the subtitles are a bit slow to follow it all because they only appear after a whole message is being typed and since we have never seen her it lacks any form of impact. Sure he stares at her umbrella with that cute octopus a lot which shows he cares for her but it is still pretty hard to care for a character you have never seen.  Maya crushing on Goto gave me a good chuckle when she rolled around with her Dakimakura of a uniformed man saying she needed more but again her relationship with Goto is from afar with him being unaware of it.  So as far as the “romantic” subplots go  I do still feel rather un-engaged.  I am not sure if I should be engaged by it but these moments are fairly frequently present so perhaps I am.. I am not sure! I would prefer this to be a bit more minor or at least be told through dialogue with Goto telling Masayoshi his girlfriend blew him off again or something. It would impact me just that bit more, I could “hear” in his voice that he is hurt… in text not so much.

While not as strong as the last two episodes this one still was very good from throughout it’s entire runtime.  It deals with a lot of stuff that needed to be resolved in a very human way. The writer seems to really understand what drives these people and Goto Maya and Masayoshi all seem quite real to me. Representing something like the Realist, The Dreamer and the Idealist yet all pursuing the same keyword “justice”.  It really dig how this episode highlighted that to us and how  we can be different while being the same and it doesn’t mean blindly having to support others if it endangers your own desires!  Being able to understand the mindset of characters is super important in a show that is THIS character driven. This episode nails that brief yet again and provides some good entertainment to boot.

Episode Score

My least favorite episode of Slime so far that still was a very enjoyable experience to me. If this is going to be my “low point” Slime might even become a personal favorite of mine.

In this episode Rimuru, Rigur, Gobta Ranga and some other goblins and tempest wolves have reached the dwarven city in order to trade for knowledge in craftsmanship. However when some Ruffians at the door give Rimuru a hard time an act of self defence and trying to scare them off results in a small disaster with people massively losing their minds and soiling themselves in fear leading to the slime and Gobta being imprisoned. After helping the security forces of the dwarves with potions and saving their lives in combat with some underground monster, whose name I forgot on the account that it is fought of screen. Rimuru stays behind in jail but is released after the potions helped them in the battle and he is to meet a great blacksmith, using his devour and copy skills he makes him a few magic weapons and earns his gratitude and a trip to an elf host club where he is hugged and held as pet under some blobs these woman carry themselves.. as a mysterious figure approaches the club. 

This episode was a bit “simpler” in nature than the other three episodes, less is set up and it’s mostly enjoyable on a comedy level that just feels satisfying and cute.  My favorite scene is where Rimuru goes out and makes swords for the master blacksmith, from the way he talks to the showmanship on display it just felt great. You can really see this former salaryman starting to love his new life as a slime and finally getting some respect. The fact that Rimuru’s power comes from something other than sheer combat force and more so on a reliance in strength pays off once more!  It really endears me to this character a bit more. As a 33 year old myself I find traits in him of a person who has seen and experienced the other side a bit..that insignificance that a teen doesn’t quite get.. so yes I really loved that.  I also really enjoyed the innocent of Rimuru in jail, not breaking out as well as getting in trouble for performing to well in a certain situation. It reminded me off classical D&D adventures.. this stuff happens a lot there! So I really liked the jail bit as well, especially since there was no way to hold Rimuru properly since jails and slimes don’t combine. But yes that just felt so right to me.

Kicking in an open door, the scene I did like the least was the scenes where Rimuru was lewding the elves. I get it to a certain extend.. he is a predator after all and he likes the concept of boobs and all that since he never experienced any so to a point I could get behind this. Still I have some questions.. for example it does seem that Rimuru is really prone to share slime biology so I would imagine that it doesn’t have that high of a libido in the physical sense. A lot of girls think the slime is cute and hug it like a pet underneath their breasts but I sure as heck would not cover myself or my breasts in slime..let alone sentient slime. I guess they were paid but even then.. why would the dwarves think a slime is interested in elfen women? It doesn’t really seem like the first thing you think of when you see a slime. Most of the goblins and all the wolves stayed behind so Gobta and Rimuru could visit the village, why did they come in the first place then? Clearly Rimuru is strong enough  to hold his own ? Maybe because they want to follow him? I do not know but I lacked the sharpness  from before, like how comedy is more set up for comedy’s sake again.. which isn’t bad.. just not as awesome as some stuff it did before! 

I had another blast with Slime so while I can point out a few flaws ..it’s all more in the “less awesome than” category than the actual flaw category. I just like the world building of this show a lot , while the humans seem like total jack-asses this show puts a light on the other races still. I just liked the goblins a bit more than the dwarves and well .. the elves felt a bit to Twi’lek like for my generally Gray-Sexual like tastes.  It’s was still perfectly enjoyable and I laughed and got excited. I felt good and cheered up while watching and want to watch more of it. So that’s always a good sign.. a very good sign!

Episode Score

I did not like Tower of God Episode 3 a lot, I felt the plot droned on, had poor pacing and little interesting character development. It felt very colour by numbers to me, not surprising me and just feeling like a bootleg Hunter X Hunter. 

I planned to give this a chance untill episode 6 but after today’s episode I think I am going to call it quits right here. While this episode definitely was better than the last one.. I felt overwhelmed by not giving caring about anything and I still think the writing is extremely lazily! Given that the big cliffhanger on episode 3 basically is the same cliffhanger as the one we got in episode 4 as it had no pay off before. When I started Saturday Morning Adventures I decided to follow very strict rules to make it feel like a Saturday Morning show line up .. I had to put a bit of effort in my shows and give each show at least 6 episodes to win me over. However I found myself so painfully uninterested in this show that I am pretty sure 0% of those watching Pinkie’s Saturday Morning Channel is having a good time with this show..because I am the only one I am doing this for! So why waste more time writing about it after todays episode? It’s just not for me!

While I take you to this episode I will explain my feelings as to why I will drop it. We continue to crown trial in this episode and Anaak has to defend her crown from a few assailants. Including that sleeping guy whose name I forgot.  We see the two bladed samurai guy take out a lot of people while the little lizard girl uses her special weapon to defeat the sleeping guy who turns out to be  powerful mage . While it’s nicely brought visually it lacked any impact for me, we already knew she had a blade similar to Bang’s because the same logo has been shown several times.. so that was not much of a reveal. The sleeping guy being a mage did nothing for me either..mostly because the only trait the guy had so far was that he sleeps a lot. Obviously he must be powerful… but the fact that he is a mage.. well that is nice but it didn’t do anything for me, he had no build up yet so he could do anything and I would believe it, it doesn’t tie neatly in the sleep theme either so it doesn’t feel rewarding.. for example say if he woke up super grumpy and turned into a barbarian like rage.. THAT I would have found rewarding.. here it felt like just a power to give him a thing. I know liking a character theme to their powers can feel a bit forced, but at least I would have felt something. It felt like he was really meant to be impressive.. but he did not actually hit anything nor was it show how powerful his magic could be..its just there. Anaak’s whip is nice but it felt like something that would be in Bleach.. and now this show had two shows  I saw heavy influences off and both are better than this show (for the most part).

Bam’s sword begins to react to Anaak’s sword and she wants to kill him because those blades belong to the princesses of Jahad, of which there are 13 named after the months.. +1 I guess. His blade representing March and hers April. Okay.. that’s neat I guess?! A bit boring flavoring to be fair. Leaving the throne to eye up Bam gets Anaak disqualified though so her group can leave the arena without being killed, just as the group with the sleeping guy  retreated seeing Anaaks weapon. Conveniently this happens to all the important characters. Once more contributing to me how forced this plot feels. Everyone has to make it out alive Due to the animation style you can sort of tell which characters are important as well, though I cant tell extactly what.. but side characters seem to get al lot less love and attention. After big Deus Ex Machina 1 and 2, Bam’s group participates in the game. When Khun uses his magical bag to beat all 6 opponents with a knife and wind skills.. making him feel even more like Killua to me.. both are air elementals as well. Unlike HunterXHunter his powers aren’t really explained.. he just absorbs a huge spell attack with his bag, can clone items in that bag and he can conjure up Tornado’s from Arceus knows where. When a guy EXACTLY  dressed like Zorro from One Piece showed up..next to a shadowy guy who proclaims his powers were that of a rubber body I completely tuned out. Thats 3 shows it mimics now that are better than this.

Every fight so far felt completely inconsequential to me and stakes extremely low.  Obviously Anaak is important so she can not get hurt so BOOM , disqualified, obviously sleeping guy was build up so he could not stay and fight to the death even if he wanted to, and obviously Rachel isn’t going to kill anyone who matters in this next trial so that set up of her character will not pay off at all. To me this show is the equivalent to someone setting up a line of domino’s and then live streaming topping them over, some creations are creative and look nice but we can still tell what is going to happen with very standard type characters that just seem to be  taken from random shonen shows and put together again.  While this show isn’t particularly bad I just find it very VERY uninteresting.  Like a german car! It goes vroom, it is fuel efficient and it does what it needs to do.. but it will never surprise you. It can go fast enough to keep you somewhat entertained but to me it lacks any form of own personality..it just took what works well from others and makes something that is okay.

I feel if this show had focused on one battle at a time and let us learn more about a characters abilities as we go on I might be more into it.. now it’s basically Deus Ex Machina solving problem one, into the fortunate event solving the second. It’s a show where the characters are powered up by the plot to drive the story fourth because the story needs to be move forward. I feel  like the characters are completely interchangeable with each other Anaak could be on Bam’s team instead of Rak and nothing would really change! Khun could be replaced with the sleeping guy.. and instead of the magic bag he would just dream up chocobars for Rak..it doesn’t matter. I can’t help but feel like I am watching an okay fan fiction turned into an actual anime when I watch this. The visual style feels to layered to me with characters being on a different layer than the world making me feel even more disengaged.
No need for an episode score for this one because Tower of God’s status is:

Today i saw Aa nice set-up episode with some minor flaws that most likely will be among the lesser memorable episodes in the series for me. Yet also an episode that tells me that the guys responsible for this really know their cinematography and storytelling. 

We return to Hikaru after two episodes of Akira just to be introduced to another addition to the cast.  Mitani is a guy from Hikaru’s school who solved their Go puzzle poster which was seen by Akiri .. who apparently was not a part of the Go club despite constantly being their. Surprising even the captain. After eating some Ramen when Akiri runs away angry again Hikaru finds out there is another Go Lounge nearby where he conveniently meets this Mitani guy, quite a promising Go player who plays matches for money! Yet what makes him different is that he cheats! After beating Tsutsui in a match by once again cheating he runs off again not interested in the Go club! Hikaru chases after him to challenge him to a match and change his mind and his ways.

I love the introduction of the new character Mitani , while arguably seeing him in the Go Café felt a bit to convenient I love what he brings to the table and how his motivations to play are so different from the rest. Mitani is a poor guy who plays Go for money because he wants to buy stuff he can not afford otherwise.  Since he is poor and can not afford to lose money  he also resorts to cheating, something Hikaru did not have to deal with before.  Something that makes him truly unique. Go isn’t a passion for him, neither in the good way nor the bad, it is just a thing he happens to be good at and can make a buck with. He is also a pace disruptor and manipulator, in his duel with Tsutsui he eggs the guy on to make moves faster and faster.. in order to force him to to think of his move in Mitani’s turn instead of his own, by calling him slow. This results him to not pay as much attention the cheaters move who then tricks Tsutsui into making another move, disqualifying himself. I also like how Sai finally speaks up about not having been able to play for a while that was what started this whole thing in the first place so I am glad it was at least acknowledged.. the show really answered the questions I had as a viewer..why isn’t that a thing? I also feel that facing a cheater could be both interesting to Sai and Hikaru as an opponent due to the unpredictability of it all.

Akiri gets completely duped again though. Hikari makes her angry again and she leaves upset and no one chases after her, despite how much time and effort she has put into helping this Go Club and how much she provides. By now I would even expect Tsutsui to follower her and given how important this club is to Hikaru I would have loved so see at least some decency towards his lady friend who supports him so loyally. I really feel for the poor girl  and as a result I do think less of the two boys so that is a bit  that  could be improved upon.  The pacing of the go matches this week also felt a bit off, they did not feel exicting or tense they just happend.  That cinematography though.. how the camera angels in to see Tsu locked in though.. in order to also distract the viewers attention of the board as if we are watching trough his eyes.  The way the camera does a frog perspective shot from the Go board in the go parlor to show what part of the field Mitani’s opponent is counting.. showing what is in his sight form a reverse angle to emphasise that this is all he sees. I really loved that. 

I was impressed by this episode of Hikaru no Go but from a much more clinical perspective. What impressed me is more on a technical level than the actual episode itself.  The writing the cinematography, the way stuff is set up smartly. For the actual events in this episode I feel less excitement it, I wasn’t bored exactly but like I said I doubt I will remember this episode for to long, it just feels a bit irrelevant.. considering what’s about to happen next. The whole Sai committed suicide over being tricked into “cheating” and all raises the tension for next week’s episode for me! Meaning I will probably only remember that part of the encounter in the end. It’s too good to be just mediocre though so this week we are happy with the new review system and will use one of the new rankings to the maximum effect! 

Episode Score

Another Week’s worth of anime done! Real life me had a bit of difficulty coping with humanity as it is right now, spread across all factions ideologies and belief I see so much mean spirited behaviour as each other. I considered getting of Twitter but I opted out of that for now. I had a family event Thursday and my father really shunned me a bit which..always was the case but after not having him seen him for almost six months this time it hurt a bit extra. Which resulted in a bit of Somatic Stress Disorder Nausea that still lingers a bit. While I love the summer, the heat in this case did not help. So if I was more silent to you this week or missed a post.. I have in a bit of hide away mode this past week.

In more positive news! My blog Aniversary is coming up and I am looking for ways to celebrate! If you have a good idea please leave it in the comment or poke me on twitter…while the profile lasts of course! I hope you had a great week though and I wish you all an amazing next one as well!