A Talk About Anime Filler

Few words are hated so much by anime fans as the word filler. Empty episodes to slow down a plot so the manga can move ahead.. or a story has more time to be developed. These are often treated as a crime against anime but are they really?! Today I give my opinion.

<Disclaimer> This blog shall only deal with the filler I have seen or know and any statement I make will always be a opinion be it my own or public opinion. I do not disapprove of anyone who does not share my views or  claim there is anything wrong with your opinion please do not take offence <End of Disclaimer>

One of the first words I learned in terms of anime was the word filler. While I got into anime Naruto was busy with their Taka arc in the manga. My classmates were sick of the Naruto filler and wanted Shippuden to happen. They read the manga! I did not, so I never really knew what was filler.  So …. I might look at this at a slightly different angle then most. Unable to confirm what is and what isn’t in the original story. While sometimes I noticed, like the Fake Namek Arc and The Garlick Junior Arc being not to me liking, sometimes I was rather oblivious, like for example the Bounto Arc in Bleach. While I did not enjoy that last one nearly as much as the arc that came before I thought it was okayish (mind you I was only watching 3 anime at the time, being Naruto, Fate Stay Night and Bleach). So I figured maybe there is just something about knowing when something is filler that makes it worse.. simply because we define it as filler?! I looked into this idea a bit further. 

Which brings us back to Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super. I never read the manga of Z and the manga of Super is vastly different from the show.. so what exactly do we qualify as filler here? The manga is behind the series for Super and follows its own course. Still episodes like the copy Vegeta Arc feel “fillerly” I am pretty sure that it is.  Yet there are also episodes like Goku and Piccolo learning to drive in Z or the Baseball Game in Super that were really good stand alone episodes that do enjoy a fare share of fans. So if we consider that everything that is not part of the manga and does not factor into the main story in any significant way.. both Copy Vegeta as well as those somewhat beloved episodes can be quantified as Filler.  The  same goes for the Fake Namek Arc and The Garlick Junior Arc , while the first one is objectively very bad I’d say Garlic Junior would be rather painfully mediocre than bad. Still I do see more active hate against the arc of the immortal little man than that cluster fuck that happend before.  Why? I theorise it is because Garlick featured in a movie… so people KNOW this arc is filler as it considers a well known non canonical character

.  This theory isn’t fool proof, back when I saw both arcs I did not know either of them was filler, and disliked them both to an extend as they aren’t particularly well written from the get go.. but since the Garlick Junior Arc now can easily be identified as filler, due to the Dead Zone movie being out there, I do actively remember it more as filler while Fake Namek faded away in my head much more. Identifying something as filler has plenty of implications from the get go that are detrimental to your experience ..like actually harming tension arcs and expectations. So by being aware of the label it can actually decrease your enjoyment, I did not mind the Bounto Arc when I watched it because I did not know what filler was, I wondered what would happen and while the answer turned out to be ..not much I did not mind being taken for that right. Filler has a stigma on it simply as a word that can doom excitement from the get go. It isn’t contained to just “fillers be bad” it works much deeper than that, on our expectations and on possibilities…so something labeled filler in a way is already on the back foot.

A reason for this is probably because filler arcs suffer from the same detriment as the “it was all just a dream”  trope. Nothing significant will be gained or lost. After the arc the status quo will be the same as before. It’s just more content. However you know Ichigo will survive a filler arc, you even know that not a single character you knew before this arc will suffer to much. Not even mentally.. after all , once the arc is done it’s gone and forgotten. So knowing something is filler can obviously hurt your viewing experience . As soon as you know it’s filler, you know the ending. At least to the extend that the protagonist will not have learned any new techniques, none of the main crew will be to damaged and no friendship they made will last to long. Thus a filler arc is “boring”  to some extend.  Stakes are very low and the only things that might get lost, broken or hurt are the new elements.. based on how they interact with the main character you can completely predict this as well. 

A great example is the “The New Captain Shusuke Amagai Arc” Due to the awkward timing I knew this was a filler arc, which by the way Bleach is a star at ..but we all know that. As a result I knew that Amagai could never stay. The manga can not skip introducing such an important character, so clearly by the end he has to go. The more the story progresses.. the more that path becomes defined the more boring the outcome becomes. This is where I feel filler arcs will always fall through. Since 99% of all arc based filler move like this I think fillers are damn near factually more inclined to be boring than canon content.

Yu-Gi-OH on the other hand included filler character Duke Devlin in so much thing, though mostly filler arcs that felt of consequence still. He was there in the Battle City Tournament to support his friend, which also led into him partaking in the Noah Arc. I do not think that hurt the main story at all and the way they chose to include this side track felt much more natural.. I didn’t know it was filler and even if I did.. Duke is included so they still have a character I have come to care for and they can kill off. Tension remains and there is always some guess work involved. However this way you almost force people to watch filler content and risk polarising people. Which can enforce making filler arcs feel like an additional slog. But not only we as vieweres are limited.. so are the creators.

The No Consequence arc doesn’t only make the story less boring because you know where it has to end , it also limits what you can do. In the Garlic Jr arc you can not have Vegeta show up and take a beating.. this would result in him getting a Zenkai ..which might proof significant later on, you can not  have going turn Super Saiyan because that would impact the main story.. and you are not allowed to. So you already have to tell a story from point A to B .. but everything that was pre-established.. can not move from A to B.. they have to stay at A. Ichigo can not learn a new technique.. unless you make him realise the method is to dangerous in the end and still then your pushing your luck. Naruto can not move past an obstacle that still might an issue in the main story. So not only do you have to write flat character arcs for everybody relevant to the main story you also have to make sure nothing is gained by them that might alter the outcome of later events. Luffy can not make a super powerful friend that could have helped in Marine Ford prior to the Arc, (unless you pit them against other filler characters for show) Kirito can not gain a life lesson where he learns how to trust people more. So writing good filler is damn near impossible! So maybe we should go a bit easier on the people making them. No consequences for the characters, no consequences for the writers!

Does that mean that there are no good filler arcs? I think there are. One of the filler arcs I really liked was the Twelve Guardian Ninja bit in Naruto Shippuden. Not for it’s story exactly  but for what it set up for me.  While in terms of narrative it did not bring anything significant to the table .. it perfectly set up Asuma to…. die.  While the enemies encountered clearly looked off designwise to the series, (I did not know it was filler but realised it due to character design being in a different spirit than other Naruto characters)  and the main plot felt a bit meh.. it made me really bond with Asuma, I felt he was a great character, such a good spirited and respectable man. So when he lost in his fight against Akatsuki I cried… I would not have without this filler.  That to me is what smart and good filler should be like. Look past your limits. With Asuma they could do whatever they wanted because he would die soon after anyway. They could make him into whatever they wanted deepen him and that worked out wonderfully for me! While I did not enjoy the episodes that much.. they sure as hell made me appreciate what happened next more and I think that’s where anime filler could shine. 

Dragon Ball did this as well , in Super even more so than in Z.  During the Baseball Episode we got some amazing Yamcha moments, simply because Toriyama and Toyotaro didn’t really do anything with the character anyway! They had fun with it and even made his memed pose into something quite cool! A fun callback that felt like a bit of a redemption for the character  since he would not prove significant for a long time.. only know the Manga has given him some glory! Two years after super ended. The driving episode in Dragon Ball Z was done in a similar fashion. We do know that Goku has a fairly flat character arc and that the show intentionally stays away from seeing their family life. Having your filler set within that realm gives us something we all want to see but that does not influence anything else. It’s not what the show is about nor will it ever focus on that. So instead of a railroaded story we deepen our understanding of Goku and Piccolo without their characters changing at all. 

Bleach however did this completely wrong.. by announcing this new arc is set in an alternate universe you CAN have options opened up sure.. but you know nothing major is going to come out of this anyway. It would still create discourse , while Renji might be killed in the alternate world people already do now even care less because it’s not THEIR Renji. (Not saying Renji was killed but to make a point imagine if they did)  Like how blowing up Evil Android 18 felt justified even if we have come to care for the main timeline one. Different character, we don’t care about her. Filler should me made to hold fans over until the time is come to move along. By creating a new Ichigo .. you do not add anything you just make events even more trivial.  While ironically the Alternate Story Arc wasn’t that bad in terms of narative, I felt ZERO investment in it. Of course the way they introduced this story did not help either. I did care about Asuma though and I did care for seeing Goku’s escapades..I wanted to see those.. not from Alternate Universe Goku..but from the one we grew up with. Perhaps that is also why I care so little for Dragon Ball Super Heroes the Anime.

So with that I think we have created a recipe on how filler could be good! Fix the flaws of anime, listen to the fans and choose your time pieces carefully. For example had the Alternate Story Arc instead have taken place in the past, focussing around Ichigo’s father losing control of his Zanpakuto with a hint of how Ichigo was born.. that arc could have been fantastic. He could have encountered characters like someone named Yuzu and Karen and even an Ichigo which inspired him to name their kids this way..characters that got killed in a big .. all you had to do was ask the Mangaka.. do you ever plan to do anything with those names or are they randomly chosen.  Super simple.. the status quo can still not be altered but we get something else! A form of fanservice… and I don’t mean the jiggly kind. We could get name drops, technique origins, we could see unimportant side characters being deepend out.. or in Asuma’s case.. those who’d pass away.  Deepen your story on a horizontal level, not vertically, and what I mean with that is add lore to support current one rather than flat out create new lore that in the end doesn’t even matter.

Filler could be used to emphasis or foreshadow what happens next. I do not feel like filler has the power to stand on its own if you use the same characters, but it has the power to amplify. This goes for both the creator as the viewer though. While it is easy to focus on how Sora is a bit of a lackluster character in the Naruto lore and how the idea of a cloned/fake Jinchuriki feels a bit shoehorned in we can also focus on what did work. Sometimes something can be really good for you but it doesn’t taste great right away. Filler can do that still, it does still offer us more content of something we love. Just because it has that stigma doesn’t mean it has nothing to add. That only happens if you set it in an alternate universe.. in that case it only adds more content for content sake .. which will still please some fans. We still see anime movies for the same reason. The Story of Bardock was a pretty good special.. yet if it had been slotted IN the middle of the Namek Saga as a filler Arc I am pretty sure people would have hated it. Even in the same form as is right now! Look past the story filler tells (by nature it barely can be good)  and look at the added content it brings by it’s nature and maybe it is not so bad. 

Filler is like the lettuce leafs next to your steak and fries or one of those puffy potatoes!  Yes there is a lot less taste to it.. but what did you expect .. it is lettuce.. that’s bland by nature! It can cleanse or pallet which deepens the pallet of the steak and the fries! It’s watery crunch might really appreciate the cuisson of your steak as a nice counterpart.. something you would not realise without the lettuce. A good restaurant knows this and they know when to serve that lettuce leaf even if you see it and all you can do is “eeeew veggies”  a bad restaurant however  will slap that same leaf on everything just for a bit of colour of the plate and do not think of your dish as a whole. Even when you can not flavor something properly due to limitations you can make the dish in its entirety shine.. you can NOT make the lettuce the star of the dish it’s impossible! Do not make it into “just garnish”  Garnish you can cut into al sort of fancy shapes.. but when I see a lettuce flower or carrot carving  on my plate.. I usually just toss away. Be wise make your Filler a fitting side dish to enhance your meal.. not something fancy that makes the plate seem less empty!

With that I am done talking about Filler! Are there any filler stories your particularly like?
Any that you feel really added something to a show you loved? Any you feel very strongly against or are you one of those.. filler is never good types?! Let me know in the comments.

Pinkie’s : What If Raditz Turned Good Part 3

Last Time on Dragon Ball Pinkie!

After seeing Gohan’s potential and see his power level go up several hundred times Raditz though he might be the one to set them free from their tyrant and switched sides to the Z-Fighter. Knowing he could not convince his Saiyan fellows who were coming to earth after his betrayal he Goku and Gohan travelled Snake Way to investigate rumors about a large power boosting technique called the Kaio-Ken. Finding a beautiful woman named Princess Snake, after a short scuffle Raditz swore to her to find a way for her to walk on earth! After which they proceeded to train with King Kai.. ..overcome by the sheer gravity Gohan kept getting rage boosts which scared King Kai away from teaching him his fabled technique! While Raditz and Goku mastered it.. they knew the evil saiyans were drawing ever closer.. would these new techniques be enough to deal with these monsters? Find out today! …Or check out part 1 or part 2 right here!

It is the day that Kami has told everyone the Saiyans will arrive, with everybody being much more powerful as in the original, all having better sparring partners, Yamcha Krillin  and Tien training under Piccolo, and Gohan training with his father and Uncle. Raditz plan to ask Bulma to gather the Dragon Balls is also well under way. In this version of the story we use the 2018 Broly movie version of Bardock.. and the man had passed his distrust of Frieza onto his son.  Raditz always had suspicions Frieza was behind the destruction of planet Vegeta and using the earth Dragon Balls he sought to proof this to Vegeta and Nappa should he fail to convince them Gohan is the “chosen one”… which was fairly likely because of Vegeta’s ego. Gohan however was much more powerful in this timeline! Much more like his father and his uncle. He’d be around the same power level he would be when he first set foot on Namek around 1500. Plan A was to convince Vegeta , Gohan might be the legendary Super Saiyan, Plan B was to use the Dragon Balls to convince Vegeta to join them to fight Frieza.

Call it a back up plan in case his original plan failed.. if that second plan failed he would beat Vegeta himself by force using his new Kaioken technique. Yet he had a riskier plan for today one that Goku and  most of the other Z-Fighters were aware off. They were skeptical but if that would lead the conflict to be resolved without bloodshed they would give it a try. In this timeline Raditz was not yet completely trusted and this plan but that trust on edge but he did offer them a lot of information that was confirmed by either Kami or King Kai. Besides Raditz was much more powerful than them…better not risk him turning on them again by shutting him out. The only one who seemed to disagree was Piccolo who seemed more eager to just kill these Saiyans and fight Frieza by themselves. His demeanor was a lot more cold and cruel than in the orginal timeline.

The landing of the Saiyans on earth happens about the same way as in the anime. Including Nappa destroying a fair chunk of a city using his Volcano Explosion. While the Z-Fighters would have the power to prevent such a tragedy now, they lack the ability to determine where the saiyans land, so the plan to gather all the strongest power levels in the wasteland was chosen. Then the saiyans meet up with the group in the wastelands to do battle, however this time around Vegeta is much less patient to have Nappa do his thing first.. because of the traitor now joining the Z-Fighters. “Well well well, leave it to the low class Warrior to abandon his prince and conspire against me with this filth” Vegeta spouts towards Raditz, while checking out everybody’s power level.”Heh! You haven’t improved at all… Nappa humiliate them with those stupid thing of yours” 

He prompts Nappa into using is Saibaman as Yamcha steps up he gets taken in a hold by a Saibaman who then glows white!  A bright white explosion covers the sight and Vegeta snickers “One down” ..however when the smoke clears.. Yamcha is standing there..unharmed.. Vegeta scans his power level again and reacts shocked. “Three..Three thousand?” “His Power level  wasn’t even half that a minute ago”.. Suddenly Vegeta’s scouter goes haywire as Krillin, Tien, Piccolo, Chiaotzu and even Gohan power up and the Saibaman quickly fall, in a style that is similar to how Gohan dispatched the Cell Juniors. Yamcha even disposes of an extra Saibaman for good measure when Nappa uses another one for him..thinking the first one might have been defective. Of course this green guy gets his own crater! Since.. we do love the Yamcha meme!

“Vegeta what the heck Happend.. these guys where nobodies right?”  The big bald Saiyan looks confused. “Shut up Nappa, they just tricked us.. these Power levels are nothing to fear still.. take care of them , I’ll take the traitor and his brother”. While Nappa prepares to fight the Z-Fighters Piccolo shoos them away telling them he will take care of this fighter alone. Not having trained with Gohan means he had not learned compassion so he is harsher, less friendly, he still plans to defeat Goku, who he unfortunately can not stop right now, he still wants to proof he is still relevant though and a force to be reckoned with so he decides to face Nappa by himself. He must get stronger to get his revenge. Having trainer with stronger allies though he is now about equal his level as Nappa.

While the bald saiyan and Piccolo begin to prepare for combat Raditz beckons Gohan over. Gohan I want you to pay close attention to this next fight okay? Your father is going to beat the prince of all saiyans it will be a historic moment in our people’s history. Vegeta pops a vein in anger telling Raditz he should not underestimate him and that he can take them both on Raditz just grins and tells Goku will be more than enough to stop Vegeta.  As they fly off he yells to Krillin.. Shrimp.. you should come with us. The man gulps and follows as they fly to the exact spot where Goku fought Vegeta before.  The clash between Nappa and Piccolo begins while they travel.

Vegeta’s bodyguard  talks down on the Namekian a lot as the latter circles around Nappa, trying to see if speed is enough to get past his defences. However, while Piccolo is a clever fighter, Nappa still has way more experience than the Namekian which puts them on an even more playing field. Any advantages Piccolo might have, like his stretching arms , his speed and various techniques are negated by Nappa knowing about Namekians and having fought people who were faster than him before. By stomping the ground he creates obstructions which Piccolo can’t pass.

Still the bald man begins to get slightly frustrated as while Piccolo can’t lay a proper strike on him.. neither can he on the Namekian. This Namekian isn’t playing for fun either.. his gaze is set with an intent to kill. Luckily Nappa knows a technique Raditz father developed, something that would allow him to blow the Namekian away completly.. yet the bald man wanted to try if he could beat the green guy like this. For a moment he considered firing a Mouth Blast at the little emperor the weakest of the group.. to see if the Namekian would save him…but then he stared into those cold eyes and he knew.. he had to win the fight on his terms.

Piccolo however still had that technique the one he planned to use on Goku. While it had a big downside.. Piccolo had since developed a way to deal with that downside.  Tien was an expert of the Multiform and After Image techniques. Plenty of Z-Fighters are actually quite adapt in the latter and he had also learned the Solar Flare. He would proceed to use the latter. Not Only Nappa would be blinded , every fighter would go blind for a moment and as Nappa cried out ina shout of pain and frustration he began to wildly shoot some blasts and bow around with his arms to keep his foe at a distance.  When he finally regained sight the Namekian would be standing a few meters away from him..touching his forhead. A bit of sweat appeared on his head..”Darn still not fast enough”. Nappa grinned and yelled I got you now! As his Bomber DX was hurled at Piccolo, the man locked into his technique was unable to dodge.. and suddenly Piccolo was gone nothing remaining but smoke! “

Yes I did it I beat the Namekian!” Hah.. Whose next Earthlings I’ll Kill you all.. I will start with the little make up sissy bo……….” Nappa’s words suddenly got interrupted as a pink, purple and yellow spirally beam pierced his chest. Piccolo stood behind him.. at about half his power level… his special Beam Cannon creating a big wound in the Saiyan.  Having used Tien’s copy technique to create a double.. to keep the Saiyan oaf distracted for long enough worked and now he had won. All he had to do know was finish his opponent. He readed his nails ready to tear out Nappa’s throat when Yamcha and Tien stood in his way. No Piccolo! Goku’s brother told us we needed these people in the fight against this emperor character, you won!  Piccolo pushes him away. “Shut up , we do not need these guys.. they can not be trusted.. let Goku and his brother do with their price what they want! I am going to kill mine and you shall not stop me! Yamcha stepped in as well did the little Emperor.

“We will not allow you to do this Piccolo” The namekian looked at them coldly.. “I know your techniques way better than you know mine… I can crush you all if I’d want to.. starting with the weakest one’ He stands at them looking menacing. ‘Our enemies should be exterminated.. Goku’s ways are weak.. one day he will be defeated and at this rate it will cost the earth.. I shall not allow it!’ Picollo takes a combat stance as the three Z-fighters get ready. Tien yells to Chiao Tzu ‘Get out of here, me and Yamcha can take him’. The little guy flies off and Piccolo allows him to do so. A cruel smirk appears on his face. ‘I wanted to kill Goku for revenge.. I guess destroying his friends will have to do for now’

Meanwhile Goku and Vegeta began to face off, but something seems very off. Goku while landing a few blows on Vegeta isn’t using Kaioken at all. He yelled the technique name once but seemed to realise nothing is happening. He managed to do it on King Kai’s planet so why could he not do it here?! Something was very very wrong. Raditz tries to turn on his Kaioken on but is unable to do so either. “Tsssk, that blue idiot , he gave us a no good technique’. Raditz wants to jump into the fight but gets dismissed by Goku. ‘No Brother keep Gohan safe, if he is the key to the future he is more important than I am right now…if things go wrong you can always use the Dragon Balls to bring me back!’ Vegeta gut punches him..causing Goku to cough up some blood. ‘When I am done with you there shall be nothing left to bring back’  the prince says hurling the saiyan man away.

Krillin wants to rush in too but gets stopped by Raditz. ‘Don’t be a fool! If you die we can’t bring you back!… We need to come up with a plan.. we need to figure out why we can’t use this technique.. Kakarot is the strongest of us.. so he is the only one that can buy  us time.’ Krillin stops.. reluctantly, he knows Raditz is right, as things are now he can not make a difference. If anyone can find a way around this situation it’s Goku.  Gohan, Raditz and Krillin stare in horror what happens next. Goku gets slammed into a mountain and Vegeta flies up. Goku seeming dazed or knocked out isn’t responsive and just stuck in the rock. Vegeta gets surrounded by a purplish pink white energy as he yells the world Galick.. the beginning of a devastating beam attack begins to form as Gohan yells in anguish.. Vegeta yells GUN and a huge wave of energy is sent towards Goku.

Why isn’t the Kaioken working? Can Goku be Saved?! Will the Z-Fighters be able to keep Nappa safe from the now hostile Piccolo? How will the fight go from now?! What is that mysterious aura Pinkie photoshopped around Gohan! Find out in the next episode of Dragon Ball Pinkie!

Pokémon Top 5: Favorite Rock Type Pokémon

Hello Hello my sweet island guests! Even a restyle can not stop me from continuing to do top fives on one of my most beloved franchises in the world. Pokémon! By the time you are writing this the DLC will have been out for about a week or so. However I plan to take my time with that.. plus I work ahead a bit so I will discuss that when I get there. Most likely on a game cocktail as well. So keep an eye out on tuesdays! Today however we will discuss a pokémon type that is super effective against the ice type! The Rock type!

Unlike the ground type , which is counted as one of the stronger pokémon types, the rock type oftenly along with the ice type is considered on of the two worst typings. Rock type moves are quite okay .. but due to how many enemies are weak or quad weak to rock, you do not really need the STAB bonus for it.. rock type moves are often better of being used on a non stab pokémon. And  that is mostly due to the insane amount of weaknesses rock has as well. Water, Grass, Ground, Fighting , Steel. While it is super effective against Fire, Flying, Bug and Ice that already forms a problem. Bug Ice and Flying are all part of the weaker, less (end game)  represented typings.

In the competitive scene.. nearly all fire types learn will o’wisp which burns an enemy and harms physical attack.  Most rock moves are physical and stat wise.. these pokémon are oftenly specced on the defensive side.. for example Oddish has a better physical attack than Onix.. that means a beet..can punch you harder than a rock snake! Halving their offence so easily.. is not that good! Since it’s so bad! Onix is not my favorite but he does get a mention.

This snake lifts less than this beet!

Like Always one entry per evolution line, while I can use prior forms if I like them better, I’d have to like the final form at least a bit. It has to be usable.. if the final form makes me not want to use it.. it gets reprimanded. As is the case with Tirtouga and it’s evolution Carracosta. While I really like the energetic looking rock turtle Tirtouga, Carracosta is just a cranky boring as bipedal version of it and it feels extremely lazy in design! It doesn’t have a fun move set either and it lacks any form of charm. Gen VIII finally showed us how a rock turtle is properly done with Chewdle and Drednaw. I do love Tirtouga design wise.. it just doesn’t got anywhere.. which is a shame. 

Now this typing is the worst offender by far of my.. it has to feel like a rock type to me rule as well. The biggest reason is all the fossils being rock type because they are ancient pokémon and came out of a rock! (Well except for the Gen VIII fossils but so many of them miss the mark. Aerodactyl should have been a dragon type.. while I get the redundancy with dragonite nothing really screams that this thing is made of rocks until it’s mega evolution. It’s a flying dinosaur. Flying Rock and Flying Ground and Flying Rock types I have difficulty believing. Minior and Archeops being the only exceptions because one is a meteor.. so I get both typings.. and the other is a dinosaur that can barely fly.  I know Aerodactyl has some pretty solid rock type moves but I’d rather see either an Ancient Type or giving Dinosaurs the Dragon type. 

Another rule is that a pokémon can not show up on a list more than once. If a pokémon was on an earlier  typing list it can not exist on the list of it’s other typing as well. Shuckle, Archen and Archeops are therefore out of the running. Still I would like to name one of my favorite Ultra Beasts here, Nihilego.. it’s a starry Jellyfish that shoots poison .. but for some reason they gave it the rock typing! Not only does this make my precious like super weak to sooo many types.. it should not be a rock type at all! It doesn’t have anything that ties it to a rock type other than that it learns Power Gem and possibly Ancient Power?!  Blegh! Bad call Game Freak!  So unfortunate that lovely will not be on the list either! Now let’s see who did make it.

For the first time I flipped a coin to determine my number 5. It was a close one between this and Minor, the cute jelly filled rock which has a pink form!  Ultimately when I think about it though Sudowoodo is definitely the more iconic one of the two! It’s one of the famous roadblock Pokémon, it has that level of clunk to it which I really appreciate in pokémon and like Minior it has a bit of a deceptive nature.  Where Minior looks like a rock but is actually a rock covered.. alien thing.. this looks like a tree that is actually a rock. Comparing those statements next to each other does make me think Sudowoodo is the better pick! His anime voice is amazing as well! This pokémon actually became a part of my first Pokémon Gold Team for a brief while! I would later travel with a Bonsly that would turn into Sticks the Sudowoodo in another pokémon fangame, whose name I am not sure off. It might be Pokémon Phoenix Rising.. but it might have also been something else. I play a lot of those!Reason enough to have a personal connection with this pokémon though! So yay for number 5.

Lorewise Sudowoodo is quite an odd Pokémon which endears me to it! It hates fighting so it pretends to be a tree to avoid being attacked.  While up close you can see it seems to be made out of rock rather than out of wood it really sticks to the practice. It is so rigid that if you see a twig shake in the wind.. you know it’s NOT a Sudowoodo! While it is not moved by the wind.. it starts fleeing as soon as it begins raining as it hates the rain so much, which I find adorable.  The fact that it hates rain and water so much is mentioned in nearly every pokédex entry.. and it had a lot!  It allegedly has has gained tremendous strength keeping its muscles so stiff. However by far the best pokedex trivia comes from the fact that old folks tend to collect and groom Sudowoodo. The greener their finger orb things are the higher the collectors value. Old people like to compare their Sudowoodo with each other, trying to find one that has the perfect arm length and angle with as green as possible orbs. This practice has become so popular it even sprouted it own magazine! So if you ever want a magazine filled with posing tree rocks travel to the pokémon world!

Sudowoodo is not a very competitive pokemon. With a Base Stat Total of only 410 it’s about as powerful as a Ponyta, Bibarel or Pyukumuku .. it also has the same base state total as the number four on my list.. and that one is not even fully evolved… neither is Ponyta though. While it’s defence is a great 115 and it’s attack a very respectable 100 the rest of it’s stats are VERY poor. Speed being at 35 as Sunkern and a Metapod and with it’s Special Defence, and Health being below par means it will not take kindly to even a water gun!
Sudowoodo however can learn the devastating move Head Smash and is one of the most punishing sucker punch users to send out against psychic types, ghost types or fire types.  While Woodo will go down with just a splash of water or a Giga- or mega drain  it can still take away a large chunk of enemy hp. Counter or Lowkick and Wood Hammer are pretty solid to run on this pokemon as well. It could also set up the sun if you have team build around that.  All in all a great monster that does show the rock type it’s flaws very well. It might be physically defensive..but three out of the  9ish predominantly physical types are its weaknesses.. 4 if we count the pretty solid grass physical covery.  So it is a mon you need to swap out a lot.

This pokémon is a bit of a weird pick! It’s the first, and not final evolution of Rolycoly, the cutests named rock type in existence. It is on this list because with some distance it is my favorite designed rock type. A coal cart! That is so random.. but what won me over is that Coltrane  my Carkol was so fun to play with at Pokémon camp! I had a blast tossing the ball for it and see it play fetch. There is something about seeing a mine cart filled with fire and a head smile gleefully at you that felt deeply satisfying. I also really like the combination of fire and rock types being used as non-lava pokemon for once. Coal seems a perfect metaphor for that type and since Galar is based on England making a pokémon to represent that part of their history I found quite enjoyable. There is so much recognisability in Galar pokémon, one might call it gimmicky but I actually love this style. You can glance at a pokémon and say! Well yep that’s from Galar!  It’s a great route I hope they will take in the future and this pokémon to me might be the epitome of it. 

Now lore wise Carkol is lacking a bit as it is only one generation old and DLC has replaced alternative versions so less dex entries for it to be had anyway! Carkol  apparently can form coals deep inside its body which it then “drops”  these coals have fueled many generations of people living in Galar. So there you have it , steam trains in Galar run on Pokémon Poop! I never thought I could make a PooChoo train joke but here I am! Thank You Game Freak.  Not to speak of Poop-Power Plants! Pooper Plants?  Of course this is never really stated to be poop.. but it is a dropping the pokemon forms out of waste inside its body so that does sound awfully familiar.  Carkol rolls around on its little  stumpy legs, they can spin around like wheels.. but not as round.. which is hilariously clunky and if you read any previous top 5 you know I have a thing for that. It’s top speed is 30 kilometers per hour or 18 miles per hour! Proof that kilometers are the best because more of them fit in the same hour! More is always good!  This little train that is about as fast a sprinting cyclist  can also breathe fire of about 1000 degrees Celsius or 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.. which proves Celsius is better.. because there are less degrees to get hurt by!

Competitively this pokémon of course can’t do anything! It’s base 410 stats are evenly distributed with a best stat of 90 in defence and speed being the lowest at 50.  Since it is 4x weak to both water and ground basically every semi decent pokémon trainer will kill it dead within a single turn. Coalossal it’s evolution however does have some uses as a physical wall. Just make sure to equip it with an air balloon. It’s signature ability Tar Shot adds a weakness to fire moves on the next turn so it’s best used to take care of enemies you do not have a counter for during gameplay! I don’t see this pokémon being used a lot in competitive battles and Smogon has put it in a bit of a borderline competitive tier RarelyUsed. So instead of trying to making this pokémon work for you in battle I suggest you use it where it really matters. In your pokémon camp! Making it fetch various forms of toy-balls and such! Thats where this little coal cart really can warm your heart!
<I found no Carkol Plushie otherwise it would be depicted as an image>

Who would have thought that a pink pixie that is considered the jewel pokémon with a mostly white and pink colour scheme would ever be one of my favorite rock types?! It’s a legendary pokémon as well.  Now I know some people will nitpick and call it a mystical pokémon instead but no it has 600 stat points at least! It’s a legendary! Mystical is a term I hate to define pokémon with. It’s so exclusive for no reason at all! Anyway this pokemons design is so amazing. I loved Carbink already but when they gave it a magical evolution that formed this legendary creature it just got better. It’s Mega evolution is so amazingly pretty! It felt truly like something legendary.. but not like Celebi or Victini.. whose designs I find a back lackluster. This one walked that balance so much better. Just look at it! It’s so pretty and the gem on the normal form changes into a heart when it evolves. Have I told you it’s shiny is even pinker?! * Fan Girl purring noises* 

Only in the Gen VI games has Diancie ever had a pokédex entry! While it is linked to the regularly pokémon, the rock and fairy Type Carbink it doesn’t actually evolve from it in game. Rather according to the pokédex it more or less mutates into a Diancie. A sudden transformation rather than a build towards evolution. The reason why it does this is not known. It’s pink glimmering body is in universe said to be the prettiest site in the entire world… *Squeeeeee*  So the fact that this pink thing is the prettiest thing in existence in the pokémon world makes me feel I am right! Pink is an amazing colour! So it’s a great pokémon for me to have! Not only that but Diancie also has the ability to create Diamonds from “nothing” It can compress the carbon between it’s hand and form pink diamonds which she can hurl at her enemies.. or of course give to me .. her loving trainer. Diamonds might be a girls best friend but that is just because most girls do not know what a Diancie is!

In battle Diancie is amazing, as to be expected of a legendary with a mega evolution. Just unfortunately like almost every dual rock type she has a 4x weakness. This time to steel types. Luckily Iron Head and Bullet Punch, and Meteor Mash are usually the only steel type moves that are run so it’s not as bad as being 4x weak to fighting or to Water or Grass.  With 100 base stat in both attack and physical attack it’s about as strong of an attacker as Mew  and with 150 defence and special defence it’s as hard as Registeel! It has terrible hit-points and speed though. It can probably survive one of two hits due to it’s tankiness but still this pixie does not enjoy pain! When you Mega evolve it it swaps around it’s offensive and defensive stats and becomes fast!  Meaning it now can hit really hard really fast. Usually I run a barrier setting Diancie with Diamond Storm and Moonblast as offensive moves.  Get your barriers up, transform and bring the pain.  Once again though Diancie is a monster you do not want to sent out against anything it is weak against.. and that is still a fair few things. You probably need a trick room setter or a hazard setter to optimise your beautiful jewel.

This pokémon would be my number 1 with quite some margin if it did not have one big strike against it.  It’s four times weak to fighting type moves. Those are quite prevalent in end game and competitive scenes due to moves like Close Combat. Also since Dynamax fighting moves are really good, as in that they actually increase your most important stat if you use those type of moves…  that is a major flaw in the current generation for this pokémon. Despite that fact though this is such a cool pokémon. I am a bit upset they did not give it a Godzilla like Gigantamax. This is the pokémon is basically Godzilla anyway so now that pocket monsters can actually become Kaiju this is a missed opportunity. That being said ..this pokémon is so incredibly cool! Like from it’s design to it’s moveset, to it’s mega!  This is a COOL pokémon. I’d say rivalling charizard in charisma for me! …Not that I am THAT fond of charizard but still I can’t deny it’s charisma! This is the same.  Probably my favorite designed pokémon from Gen II. 

In the pokedex this pokémon is quite hyped up as well. It being described as so incredibly powerful that in a single of its hands it has the power to destroy mountains. It is unable to feel physical pain so it travels through mountains to find a new home destroying every opponent it finds on it’s way. It cares for nothing but for itself and it can create earthquakes powerful enough to shape the land. When A Tyranitar goes on a rampage maps have to be altered because the land simply will not look the same. Ultra Moon describes it as a mobile Disaster.. it will go where it wants to go and if something is in it’s way it will go through rather then around. No matter if this is pokémon , people, houses or mountains. All shall be  crushed by its power.  It should come to no surprise then that Tyranitar is a Pseudo-Legendary.. and in fact having high enough stats to be counted among some of the legendary pokémon. It’s mega evolution only has 12 pokémon physically stronger than it.  Mewtwo X, Kyurem Black, Primal Reversion Ground and Deoxys are amongst the list.. so  you can imagine how many pokémon can actually stand up to it… all but two are mega evolutions as well. 

What is most terrifying about this pokémon though is that it learns Dragon Dance, a support move that boosts Attack and Speed. Dragon Dance is one of the.. if not the best set up move in the entire game and it turns Tyranitar in a justified OverUsed (best rank of competitive battling that are not widely banned)  candidate despite it’s weakness. However since I don’t exactly know what does get Superpower or Close Combat or on who it ‘s viable and what not I can’t use this pokémon to the max of its potential!  You definitely want Dragon Dance on your Tyranitar usually with Crunch a dark type (thus boosted) physical move  and Stone Edge, which is the best physical rock type move an elemental punch of your choice to complete the set and you are done! You created a monster.. although one that will fall immediately if someone uses low Kick!

This pokémon looks like the most edgy pile of rocks you have ever seen. Yet this pokémon really feels like rocks! I just love this design! The blueish main rock with those orange like shards and those split rock.. yellow eyes it is completely amazing to me! During my first play trough of Black and White I caught a Roggenrolla intrigued by the little thing. It’s evolution into Boldore and trade evolving into Gigalith was one of my most liked evolution lines. This really feels like an evolution but it also feels really impressive and powerful. I managed to get it evolved by trading with someone willing to help me out after I wondered why Boldore would not evolve and looking it up. The pokémon that I got in return was so badass and while I am not a big fan of badass pokémon this one quickly won my heart.  During Black and White 2 I found no one to trade me and this pokémon was sorely missed. It’s a super sluggish pure rock type.. but unlike Tyranitar I always feel like I am control of this beast and I can make the proper plays!  Plus my Barney could really look impressive while he was doing it. 

Like Tyranitar Gigalith is a force to be reckoned with, though where Tyranitar is a Pseudo Legendary this one is not, which is reflected in its lore! It’s a much more friendly pokémon usually working with humans in construction. It works a bit like Dynamite..capable of producing energy that could blow up filled dump trucks. However to do so it must  charge it’s orange bits in sunlight first. It can not keep this charge for very long either because it is stated that on rainy or cloudy days it can not use it’s beam attacks.  While it is being described as a beam attacker though it’s actual special attack stats (which is used for beams etc)  are quite low. However there is still a way that Gigalith can unleash all this energy! It can explode with a big bang! When it compresses the energy inside itself it can gather enough energy to blow up an entire mountain along with it, so that means it would be a great pokémon for Megumin from Konosuba.  Explosion!

Explosion is a great optional move on this pokémon. However this pokémon comes with with the ability Sand Force .. and that is what you want it to have. This ability boosts Rock steel and earth types moves power by 30% if used in a Sandstorm.. so obviously you want to carry that move named the same as a Darude song with you . Then you want to run earthquake.. while it does not get STAB bonuses on Gigalith it’s 135 attack along with the 30% boost will not make that to much of a problem. You could run toxic on it because Gigalith is counted as a wall pokémon but I honestly advise you to just bring normal gem and explosion along and use the last move for Stone Edge. Toxic stalling might be smarter but exploding and taking out your opponents ace is so much more satisfying. For some reason everything I see Gigalith I just think.. man now thats a cool rock type.. when I see Tyranitar I think.. wow thats a cool pokémon! So that’s a point for this one! Another point.. A fully set-up Tyranitar will surely cause despair in your opponent but seeing their face when their Kyurem white just jumped into an explosion is so much more priceless. Now seeing a face doesn’t often happen but I got lucky on a few occasions and while I think Tyranitar really is overused and a bit of a generic pick.. I would use Gigalith again!  My favorite rock type is just that.. a rock! Both on and off the battlefield.

Winner! Gigalith!

Due to almost all the Rock dual types having a 4x weakness, this is one of my lesser favorite types! I love rock types moves but due to their stats they are usually still beter on another Pokemon. What are your favorite Rock-Types? Is it Aerodactyl? Do you use the type a lot? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading and next time we are going to look at my absolute least favorite type.. the steel type! Now it’s time for me to be taking a plunge into making some more content! Bye!

Paradise 2.0.6 : Restyling Pinkie’s Paradise!

I am so happy! With just 20 days till my blog anniversary! I launch a new style?! Why now and not the anniversary?! Well mostly because I  want to build up to Blog Birthday Week.. an event I have not planned yet at all but I bet will be amazing! Also.. honestly! The old look had some inconveniences.. which I rather patch out sooner rather than later! I just waited until now because well.. that’s how far head already worked by the time I finished this. Anyway let’s talk about the restyle! 

My pink sand background had an ugly cutting line in between. I never truly noticed this until recently. After I knew it had to change! So after searching hour after hour for a loopable pink cute tropical seeming thing I gave up. It did not exist at least not in a shape that could please me!

So I expanded my gaze and found these adorable sparkling pink and white cloud  things! Which were amazing! They should be perfectly Looped and non seizure inducing sparkly. I always favoured a pink and white colour scheme but opted for a more sunset like vibe in the blogs original design.  Due to a few changes in WordPress I can no longer adhere to said theme without constantly having to copy paste hex codes which is a hassle given the way I work. So instead we lean more into the cutesie vibes with the Island vibe coming more from in post flavorings and the menus itself etc. Sparkly ribboned clouds is on brand! So I will use them! It looks less yanky than before! The sparkles aren’t super smooth but I think I mentioned I like a slight clunk before!

I also chose to gave up the sand and sunset coloured  post background. The reason here is quite simple! It will save me SOOOOO much editing time. Plenty of items I use have a white background. While the site was yellow that meant editing out said white background and make it transparent which could take loads of time! Especially if my image also features something white.. like a Gardevoir or a PS5.  It just cost me time I felt I could best spend elsewhere!  Why not make things easier for yourself every now and again. From an editing stance it makes sense as well. Images I design are made to look good on a light background (as that is how Photoshop shows them) and not my eggnog yellowy one, so this way I think my creations pop out a bit more! And I can get away with a lot more sloppy cutting! Rejoice! I can cheat! Which sometimes is a good thing!

Of course the biggest change is that we move away from my beloved Chibi Pinkie into my commissioned one. She has been used in a lot of posts recently  so I am sure you saw her around. This avatar comes with 10 emotions spread across 3 different poses. She was designed by the incredibly talented Bananabel_Split who works for quite a soft price!  I just send her Picrew Pinkie and Chibi maker Pinkie was well as a scrap book of emotes  and suggestions and we got to work together! Communication was crystal clear delivery was super fast and I could not be happier with the result! Well.. that is not completely true I would have been happier with the results if I had some cookies when I watched them.. ir if I found a bunch of money ..but you guys who what I mean!  I am happy to provide you with a link to her fiver page!  Check her work out right here!  And of course I present you with all the Pinkies! 

A new avatar also comes with a new favicon but more importantly a new header! Because  well .. the avatar is on the banner!  So gone is the sunset design and because it fitted more with the white and pink theme we now have a sunny beach design filled with pink characters from every field i review!  Pink shirt Vegeta represents anime, while Pinked up Scrooge Mcduck represents my love for gaming. The Pink Sentai is there for movies and tv series.. mostly because there aren’t to many pink movie characters and I just found it super cute!  The beholder is there since I love DnD and it and Luma , the Pink Eldritch child behind Vegeta represent my chaos and my own fiction!  There is a few cute things down below that represent the island vibe! The banner represents what I stand and write about just like the other banner but instead of the iconography route I chose icons people will recognise.  The palm trees by the blog name have been replaced by some cute coconut cocktails which brings me to our next subject!

Starting with this post, and hopefully retroactively my last 9 posts (the number of posts my main page displays)  will be displayed in new forms of cocktails! New featured images to be displayed on my home page and on social media and stuff! Where before I had a glass for each form of content cocktail editing those to be of passable quality was hard and I often missed a lot of tiny details!  These featured images also were a bit to big!  So I now opted for a universal coconut with a hole in it for every form of content. I just slide a image behind it and  Erase a bit of excess material and tadaa I am done! Now of course I would not leave you to guess what I am writing about so the type icons are back! For those with a keen eye they even have different colour umbrellas! We got Blue for movies because Bluevie sounded cute, we got ameranth for anime, green for games , grey for geeky lifestyle, purple for pokemon and red for writer posts! Now that last one might not look like a match but write red sounds like it alliterates! So it counts! Oh and the cute little animal companion for Geeky Lifestyle has been replaced! A panda instead of a d20! Because the panda much more reflects my lifestyle! Don’t worry though! Dicey is still around as well!

Those are not the only new coconuts around! I opened Camp Coconut, this is like a hall of fame for my Kofi supporters, or others who significantly contributed to my blog! For example for providing Artwork or a collab Buddy! The biggest supporter is crowned King Coconut! If you find yourself represented in camp coconut you can send me any link you like people can visit by clicking your coconut… no NSFW though.  Your avatar will have a cute little story next to it in which I thank you. If you support me more your coconut can evolve with me adding stuff to it based on what I know about you! Except for King Coconut ( or Queen/Crowned) they just stand above the rest and can if they show choose drop a little text of their own in the camp! This may also contain another link if you so prefer or be omitted if you do not want to! King Coconut will be praised on Twitter with an @ during full moon! (For me) I am weird huh! If camp Coconut expands more features might be unlocked. I know it’s weird but it’s at least something. To have a link you don’t persé need a content channel. If you want to Rickroll people by clicking on your coconut.. that’s fine as well.. or PFUDOR-bomb them. You know just something to have fun with as a thank you for your support. 

So my Ko-Fi Banner featured the Chibi and a now old meme so that had to go as well! It has now been replaced with the much more tranquil banner, Put a little coffee in your cocktail! Since it’s a home-made button that will be at the end of my content cocktails I thought that made sense! The alcreamie depicted in the picture with me, is my loyal Whippy, the alcreamie I use in my Pokémon Shield game, it matches well with coffee! Since I can’t afford the business plan for WP yet and have no access to plugins, this is the button that will take you! Of course that is never required! I appreciate regular followers, comments and likes as well so please do not think me mentioning this is more than me just discussing the picture and new appreciation system. It’s just something I think looks pretty cute! And less dated than Toss a Coin to your Pinkie. 

I also made a custom OWLS asset! Recently we have been given a new Owls Mascotte, I think his name was Sir Hoot, but that might be my imagination or one of my dialogues! I wanted to feature the the new OWL but of course I had to make it feel like it belongs! So I gave it a pink hair ribbon! Sir Hoot can dress the way it wants! No judgment here! This way it feels a bit like my version and my pet OWL!. I also gave it a cute pink background so sit on..because that is a colour theme for this site if you haven’t noticed! The picture will still link you to the OWLS blog and in my OWLS post I will use the actually official image of course! As a still image on my site though it will have it’s ribbon! Look how proud he looks with that Ribbon!

Now not the final piece of new assets I made is an improved review system! I felt too often I lacked something being Okiwi and something being Berry Good, so Pine-meh-pple evolved and became Fine-apple and moved in between his old neighbour Kiwi and the recent berry replacement strawberry! Strawberry felt a bit more resort-like, I once played some weird beach volleyball game where girls kept feeding each other those! Not sure why .. I would eat them myself! Anyway they where in a resort and I saw no blueberries there so we made the swap. Blueberry is now my bath-time companion! Mango also has had a makeover and now is tied in the style of the others. Sub-Pear, the Sub Par Pear portmanteau has moved into Mehple’s place and now we have a more nuanced and readable review system that is more in house style.

Before
After

Finally my contact form is fixed so it sends emails to a viable address so that page got updated as well, including some rules of conduct for sending mails! If anyone ever used the contact form to send me anything I am sorry I missed that! It’s not because I do not like you or think you are unworthy of my time, it’s because each day the old address gave me like 463 horoscope posts and 73 pokemon ones. It’s fixed now though so if you want to e-mail take advantage now!  Before I break it again! I am terrible in administrative stuff so that breaking still will happen! The About Page  will change a little while after the release of this post depending on my schedule by then! I could not upload that early because of spoilers and all!

Now for the font lovers, I doubt you are out there, I changed those as well. My titles are now Fertigo Pro Italic and the main text is now in Pt Serif. I think it feels just slightly more like a hotel flyer like this with quite readable superscript whom I have fallen in love with over the past couple of weeks. If you have any trouble reading things please let me know but I think readability should have really improved! All things considered at least. The Menu also has been fixed, now the Pokémon Cocktail Menu Item should take you to everything with the Pokémon Category instead of everything with the Pokémon Tag! It glitched before! The Temtem cocktail has been removed, it took them to long to fix chat and I fell out of love with it the lonely experience. I might be returning to it after summer.

Pinkiespokemon.com has been stopped as a domain so now there is only Paradise! For those who visit my site through URL means they might get bounced to an inactive domain. I haven’t quit I am still here! And since you are reading this, I do assume you found it. This post will be shared on twitter a few times should it turn out that my numbers are down though to address that.  That about covers the changes but not all the plans! I have big once for the future.  So if you are checking this out in reader, please visit the actual site and check how awesome it has become! Thank you for sticking by me for so long! Onto the anniversary!
I also already payed for another year so it looks like you will be stuck with me for a little while. I hope you all do not mind!

What do you think of the restyle?! Did I work hard enough? Are there more changes you’d like to see?! Let me know in the comments! I would have loved to added a Ducktals the Moon theme Steel Drum or Ukele version as video add on..but those don’t exist and I can’t play Ukelele or Steel Drum!

Sad Clown, Dead Clown: Ninja Clowns Review

Last week we started look at weird Arcade games with Ninja Baseball Batman! Since I still had some fight left in me I decided to look at what else could be Ninja’s I know turtles could but Clowns was new to me! After playing this game I am not sure if clowns make great Ninjas , but apparently they DO make good zombies……..and tornadoes .. but that’s another story.

<Disclaimer> All Experience with this game are based on a single player experience with no prior knowledge of the game, any opinion I give of it will be done from this angle and this angle alone….why am I even defending my opinion of Ninja Clowns?! <End of Disclaimer>

Ninja Clowns was a 1991 arcade game created by Strata, who at the time was better known for their arcade cabinets Time Killers and Blood storm! In this game you take on the role of a clown. Another clown.. but an evil one by the name of Twisto has decided to turn the world into evil zombie clowns! This creates a dozen of enemies for the player to fight which are sometimes tied to the circus and sometimes to the city. For example there are cops who roll exploding donuts at you but also bearded ladies who vomit at you and of course there are a lot of zombie clowns! Luckily you as a random unnamed clown got something they do not have! You are a Ninja as well. Where Ninja Baseball Bat Man gave you access to some ninja techniques though their game, Clown here keeps the fact that he is a Ninja very well hidden. There is nothing remotely ninja about this clown neither in move set nor design! He has a connection with god though or so it seems.

While it can be quite fun to fight against Elvis who tries to beat you up with an accordion or a french pantomime who drops pizza’s each time you hit him this game thoroughly lacks the fun factor that good Arcade games has.. and that is only one of it’s problems. While it definitely is weird and random.. and in that matter is right up my alley the game is very forgettable. This clown in design is the most generic standard clown you can think off.  At least give him a ninja mask?! Or make it a clown suit but with Ninja Colours?! A bandana, a sword? A Ninja walk cycle?! A very cool stern look?! I don’t know but I just spend 30 seconds coming up with ideas and even one of those would make him feel just a bit more like a Ninja. It is a cute clown..i’ll say that but put it to next to 4 other video game clowns and ask me to choose the protagonist of Ninja Clowns and I would struggle big time.

The vomiting bearded lady  the egg farting buff chicken lady with big boobs, the balloon animal spawning flask of helium  and the purple cabbage spider filled with popcorn are visually interesting enemies to fight  they are nothing more than that description about them that I just gave. Plenty of Beat ‘em Up had at least a name and health bar for their enemies.  It resulted in Poison becoming the known character she is for example or Abobo! This game lacks anything of the sorts Bob the Elvis impersonator, The Amazing Bunny the magician or anything of a name would already have made this experience so much more memorable.. but instead it just meanders on. Keep pressing the buttons until you die, Keep feeding quarters into the machine until it is beaten.  Whatever is in your way does not matter.

While there are two cut-scenes  they aren’t very funny either! Just a fake ending with more enemies beyond.. which was so clear because of the level progression screen.. and and ending screen that has the normalised version of the characters saying goodbye to the still nameless clown as he scoots off in a tiny car. As a result  this game is so un-noticeable that THAT is the most ninja about it. Other than that, there is NO tie in to eastern stealth warriors at all, not in story, not in elements, not in techniques, and certainly not in hero design! That doesn’t really have to be bad.. a beat them up named Clown Clowns could still be fun but I expected a hilarious hybrid between two clashing worlds like with my beloved Ninja Baseball Bat Men I reviewed last week! Now I got the hand buzzer of disappointment…and the game has barely begun!

For about 45 minutes out of the hour that it took me to complete this game, I found this game to be aggressively boring. Only after the first stage I realised.. I want to be done with this game and it would go on for some painfully long and uninteresting stages. While this game does have children and woman who just want to make out with you to beat up , Elvis and Orcs on Unicycles this game is a total snooze fest. Which is in it’s own quite an achievement!  How do you make a game where you fight a purple spider with a cabbage body, which holds popcorn.. boring?! The answer unfortunately is in every single way imaginable. I am honestly searching for positives here but I could not find one except for the enemy design.. and after two stages most of the enemies loop!  Not even in colour variations either.. the exact same plumbers and ring masters. Over and over and over again. None of them have very interesting mechanics. Except for the bearded lady who projectile vomits at you! The rest..just punches.

There are pick ups in the game which consist of come iconic clown weapons, such as the spray bottle, a tomato and a gun that shoots a fists. There’s also some water balloons but they are the same as the tomato and the boxing glove pistol really isn’t good as it’s a melee weapon and you don’t really need something to punch harder with. I could say that they at least tried but these are literally the first things you name when thinking about clowns they did not try that hard.  You can punch kick or block.. i think .. but the last technique is useless.. it will just toss your item is you have anything but those items get used up so fast it hardly even matters.  Just like how you attack something.  Where it could have been fun to use the kick to attack lower enemies such as wind up teeth and the punch for higher enemies  both strike center torso so if an enemy is smaller than you, you’ll have to finagle about to get yourself into an opportunity to kick it.  As a result the moves don’t really feel diverse.. just  like an alternative visual to the same thing. Since you can’t combo either it’s just very bland experience.

The most boring part though is the backgrounds. These loop so fast  everything feels extremely small. In the fun house.. the loop might actually be shorter than your actual screen in one area.  The colours of the game also feel super desaturated , it’s like looking at a picture of a sad clown we can tell something is off and it  doesn’t feel good. I literally can’t remember the backgrounds 20 minutes after playing the game. Except for that weird loopy one and the average city!  Clowns shouldn’t be this boring. There is so much you can do with the clown zombie concept as well. Like electric zappy things in the background turning people into zombies, bright circus colours. Animals breaking out?! There is just so much possible and while this arcade game was indeed early.. it still feels like it could have done way better. Just put something interesting there at the very least not just buildings or exit doors. It is unfortunate but you can see the lack of passion that went into this game.

That is a shame because the guys who build this really can make games. Time Killers was pretty nice. However this game  feels like a paycheck throughout. This is also shown in the music and the sound effects which are the worst thing off all. The circus music that plays is annoying and worst.. doesn’t play during the actual levels in circus themes but in the cities.  Their renditions are bad as well. Turtles in Time for example gets you excited when playing through the stages because it has some excellent music in this I felt shame.. hoping my neighbours did not hear me! And I am not ashamed very often. It has that  “my first Midi” with some annoying sound effects vibe. Blegh! I considered muting the sound but that would have caused me to fall asleep! At least this way I got a bit frustrated and it allowed me to slip into an “get it over with” mentality! I would not have beaten it otherwise!

The worst part was the enemy sounds. Some enemies like Elvis and the Hippies talk. It’s  hard on the ears to hear elvis go  ‘Uh Uh..oh.. Thank you Very Much.. I am out.’The order never changes. The hippies keep going ‘Woah Man’ or ‘Wood stack Man’ and they nearly made me quit, and in truth I should have because it never got any better. After the popcorn spider thing, enemies become much more bland and we lose the only thing this game had going for it. The interesting bosses and enemies are no more.

The end fight with Twisto is weird but for the wrong reasons.. he is just a dragon like now suddenly. I don’t get it it.. I never will. It doesn’t look like this guy was in the cutsceness! When he is defeated he looks different as well. If the zombie clown machine made things mutate why did nothing else I mutate?! Why am I thinking about a game named Ninja Clowns! I really wanted to give this game a fair chance and say something nice about it because every game does deserve a fan. Maybe if you really like clowns though this can be your jam! I hope that there is a clown aficionado out there who is like “this game is my jam”. I do doubt that is any of you guys though. But do let me know in the comments and will find a clown game for you I like!

For the first time in a long time I will have fairly short blog because I could nog on about specific cases of the points I made, but with graphics , sound,  story, and gameplay being devoid of any joy I don’t think there is any reason to. There is nothing redeeming about this game. If I really forced it I could say the difficulty is okay.. it was a fairly sizable game and I only used 20 quarters. Mostly because you can cheaps-hot your enemy.. still those 20 quarters better spend elsewhere. With that said I have to give this game my lowest score possible! I do not want to play this again, nor do I think any of you would enjoy it. At least the screenshots are memorable so we always have those! Keep in mind that my score doesn’t mean it is a 1 out of 10 game.  It just means I got no joy out of it. I can see this being fun for people if… they never played a beat ’em up before or…..if you want to beat up girl scouts and bearderd ladies? Maybe if you are into bland midi music and clowns as well..but that one would be a 50/50!

Do you know of a weird game I should play?! Let me know in the comments and who knows I might review your game soon! Weirdest and most random suggestions take precedence! So let’s get funky!
Also please let me know if you enjoyed this game or if you are a clown expert I would love your take on this game!



Test your Might: MORTAL KOMBAT! The Movie Review

For the fourth week in a row I took it upon myself to review video game movies! How long can I keep this up?! How much can my brain take before it turns into mush! Has it turned to mush already and is that why I am willingly watching video game movies? I do not know! What I do know is that this movie is one of the higher ranking of the 40ish video game movies.  Ranking it at I believe number 5 on Rotten Tomatoes with an approval rating of 49%. Oof! I do actually agree that this is one of the better video game movies out there! Yet the grade doesn’t seem to far off either!

Mortal Kombat is a 1995 movie directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and is almost exclusively known for its killer soundtrack. I think everyone who reads this will read MORTAL KOMBAT,  in that shouty voice of that totally retro track that since has become a part of the series.

Fairly recently Shang Tsung  has been added to the roster of DLC fighters for Mortal Kombat 11.. and with Aftermath being released he finally got his part in the story there.  What you might not know is that THIS Shang Tsung has been based on Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s portrayal of said character.. in this movie. Including his iconic catchphrase! Your Soul IS MINE! Which I think is really nice! I did love that character in this movie and to be fair.. it isn’t even that bad of a movie! It deserves some recognition, however this movie is completely overshadowed by its sequel for all the wrong reasons! So let’s judge this movie for what it is! Not for what it produced. For those who like to see me suffer… I shall review the sequel soon too!

The movie is centered around the three iconic good guys from the first Mortal Kombat game and also seems to loosely follow the plot of that game. As far as Mortal Kombat had a plot back then of course. Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade , unknowingly get selected to participate in a tournament called Mortal Kombat. When a realm loses 10 Kombat’s in in a row the Emperor Shao Kahn can take over that realm. Earthrealm has lost 9 matches already so now these three are our only hope! Well them and of course the legendary MK fighter Art Lean! You know! That guy! Whose been in none of the games, who might be a reference to the great Kung Lao.. but only shares a fate. Art Lean will be the chosen one I am sure. Anyhow!  Lui, Johnny  and Sonya have to fight in the tournament to defeat the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung to prevent Shao Kahn from taking over Earth Realm! The term tournament can be used very lightly here though! They mostly just fight! There is a comic though that shows how the tournament actually worked!

Let’s start with the positives here! What this movie does do right is setting up a few fairly interesting characters that do feel like their video game counter parts, all with a journey ahead of them.

Liu has a vision/dream of Shang killing his brother and wants revenge..but with this pain in his heart he can never win. Johnny is to arrogant he is concerned to look good and stylish, he fights for selfish and mostly petty reasons. Sonya wants to kill Kano and she wants to do it herself! She has hardened herself so much after losing her partner that she never wants a partner again. Closing herself off towards others refusing help. While their journeys are incredibly simple and somewhat cliché  it does work quite well.  It makes Sonya less annoying when she becomes the Damsel in distress, it makes Liu start out as a much more interesting and flawed person than his video game counterpart and Johnny Cage.. well he is just amazing because he is Johnny cage! I really think Linden Ashby portays the man quite well. His comedic timing is a bit off at times but overall he’s the character I enjoyed the most. 

Kano’s portayel would really bleed over in how the character appears to be in the “cinematic MK games” (9 and up) so clearly he and Shang Tsung did a great job as well. Sonya as an actress I found rather one dimensional and not very engaging, in part due to the writing but also because she can sound needlessly bitey in her delivery, which could be intended to make her even colder..but it just makes her unappealing. Liu does a fine job over all, I do believe his acting and I actually like this Liu better than the preachy one in the video games.  This one feels more like a Kung Lao and Liu Kang Hybrid and I like that. For 1995 standards I don’t think the effects are to bad either. Reptile looks bad, and Goro can be kinda derpy but it’s never that distracting. It usually knows how to frame these shots.  The plot and progress over all is enjoyable with a bit of a slip up pacing wise at the end.. but over all I do get Mortal Kombat vibes. 

I liked the sets as well, the creepy ship, Tsung’s palace, Goro’s Lair there are a lot of winks and nods to Mortal Kombat Stages. I just wish they’d fight in them more instead of running through.Given how so many MK stages are very narrow though I can see  why they went this route though! Its shot fairly smart!  You get those MK vibes without actually seeing fights in the tricky areas. The best thing of this movie though is .. as mentioned earlier.. the sound track! This movie can really get you hyped up for the action through a slew of hype tracks!  They are all cheesy..but most of the actors lean into this cheese as well! Johnny, Tsung, Liu and Lord Raiden in particular. While I have some less nice things to say about Christopher Lambert’s  portrayal of the thundergod tonally they are fairly in sync! Goro as well! Only Sonya seems a bit over dramatic and more down to earth I guess. The B-movie vibe is real throughout and that means it can get away with a lot of things! Like that amazing soundtrack!

All of the above makes this movie pretty fun to watch! At the very least watchable!

However this movie is also plagued with numerous mistakes that ever prevent it from being more than.. a fun watch. Christopher Lambert’s portrayal of Raiden was one of my biggest gripes that took me out of the movie every time he shows up. He is just SUCH an incredible piece of doo-doo! His laughs are almost as fake as Tommy Wiseau’s! This Raiden is not a fighter but a mentor, who guides the three through their tournament. Yet to save the world he is in charge of he is incredibly cryptic and misleading. He treats Liu like he is an ass.. and true he Kang can be an dillhole has well but jeesz! Why would you not be straight with people trying to save the world.  He just shows up.. scolds people or makes fun of them and teleport away. He feels more like a evil power ranger than anything else.  While he isn’t poorly acted all the time there is no gravitas to him, he feels like a guy having fun and will see if Earth goes up the down the drain or not! Which in it’s own makes the character a bit of a throw-away.

He isn’t the worst person though! That honour goes to the fight coordinator. These fights are done HORRIBLY! From a stunt work/flow perspective at least.  Watching Corridor Crew on YouTube has taught me some things about how to frame stunt work and this is not how you do it! There is so much cheating. Nearly every connecting punch is shot in a close up, all kicks once again close up on the foot making an impact that often isn’t even the actual foot I think!  Just a prop being applied!  We get ugly cuts in fights so a character that makes a low sweep is suddenly up right again and stuff like that. This happens through EVERY fight! Actions chosen make no sense from a dynamic fighting stance. Like in the heat of battle fighters can stop fighting each other and back down for some slow posing.

Characters wait while someone invokes a painfully slow technique.  People refuse to use their legs when their arms are grappled even if it could break them free and other stuff.  These fights did not flow at all. It’s a static combination of brief shots that do mimic the sense if impact.. but because we lack the actual impact.. we aren’t fooled.  Most fights resolve in stupid ways as well. Most enemies are dealt with through trickery or special moves. Like when Johnny cage picks up a shield and slightly slices scorpions head with it .. who as a result explodes. Or how Goro is dealt with.. Sub-Zero doesn’t have the most gracious ending either.. why did his technique suddenly change from a small frosty ball to a huge frosty field. That seems rather stupid.  How did Raiden know he would use that technique instead of the tiny frost ball they saw him use earlier?!

The final fights, against reptile and Shang Tsung are a bit better but the reptile fight ends incredibly silly. Most of the fighters get down from a blow to the chest anway.. many of them do not feel like a finishing blow!  The first half of the Shang Tsung fight was kind of nice! We see some actual hits being taken in a more flowing combat but that then is taken away completely by the second bout of the fight. Shang transforms in Liu Kang’s brother in front of his very eyes! For some reason that prompts him to believe he is seeing is brother?! How! You JUST SAW the villian transform! You know you have to overcome your greatest fear and  you know the chinese magic man has your brothers soul?! How on Earth Realm did you get fooled! Worst of all! Shang Tsung doesn’t take advantage of this.. there is a pit of spikes down below and instead of tossing in the distracted Liu Kang  down killing him.. he tries to convince him to jump in himself.. so they can be together! The heck! I know this movie did not make a lot of sense before but this is pushing it!  After he finally sees through the illusion Tsung takes the time to transform back before the fight resumes! Why?! You can still exploit the smaller body stature to your advantage! Reeeeee! Pinkie Tantrum!

After beating the transformed back Shang Tsung and tossing him into the pit… Liu Kang had the audacity to claim Flawless victory!

That my boy, was not flawless!  You got punched a lot .. plus you got fooled. We  skip forward to people being back at Liu’s temple! Everyone is happy they won Mortal Kombat when suddenly Shao Kahn attacks! People take a fighting stance and the movie ends.  This movie has always been a guilty pleasure but learning more about stunt work and framing the camera has taken away a lot of it’s charm. It isn’t exactly bad but the fighting in this movie really isn’t all that!  Given that it’s a movie that’s about fighting that is a negative. I had more fun with the character moments, the meal, the boat ride and most Johnny Cage stuff.  Which doesn’t make it less fun.. but if you go and watch football would you say the match was nice because of the halftime act?! Not sure myself because I do not watch football.  Still if I order a steak in a restaurant I care more about how that tastes than the side dishes! This steak has tasty sides but the meat is overcooked.

This film however has become more than just a movie! It has become a legacy!  It’s soundtrack, it’s rendition of Shang Tsung , the way it’s character portayles have seeped into the main series.  It’s as much a part of Mortal Kombat as the first arcade cabinet itself. It wouldn’t be able to do that if this movie had nothing going for it either. It has a charm to it and a certain likeability. It’s like your Dojiko friend! It stumbles a lot and when they ruin a nice moment for you.. you could really scold at them but then if you look it into those innocent well meaning eyes you can not help but to crack a smile and say “there there” while giving a head pat. The movie is there for you.. it respects it’s source material (for the most part) and of course it has Art Lean! The guy who got to act out that Mortal Kombat “Finish him!!” pose.. and kinda gets away with it as well!  You know where they just spin on their legs! It’s cheesy but it works!

It’s a harmless watch  that can be kinda fun  that offers you one hour and forty minutes of low brow entertainment.  Sometimes you go to McDonalds to buy a happy meal. You know the toy will be of less than stellar quality and besides the Yoghurt the food will not taste very good.. but it’s fun. This is the same situation. I would not recommend it  yet at the same time I think many people would have a pleasant enough watch. If you want to see something more legendary though.. the sequel is definitely the better pick. Chances are though that will be a much less pleasant experience. Edit: By the Time I post this I have watched the sequal ..and boy …past Pinkie wasn’t wrong when she told me I would have a more memorable but less pleasant experience! You will know about it.. in two weeks!

What did you think of this movie?! What video game movie should I review next? Who is your favorite Mortal Kombatant? Let me know in the Komments!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 9

It’s the end of the week again so I am telling you about my Saturday-Morning Anime Instead of Cartoons adventure! The one where I schedule in commercial breaks and hard timelines..just like it used to be back in the days of the living room with cereal. I had a stuff stomach ache while watching my shows today so let’s see if that left me a bit more crabby and harsh to shows or that it made me appreciate it all more.

Oh BNA… if only you were longer, with only 3 more episodes to go it becomes harder and harder to ignore that this will not end well for the show as todays episode offered us basically just a exposition dump.

It’s the big “this is how the pieces all seem to fit together” one but it is also one that clearly is not the full truth , more should be going on or the last three episodes will fizzle out hard, with Michiru being asked by Alan Sylvasta to leave Nazuna alone while they do research on her. You see it is revealed that Sylvasta pharmaceuticals was responsible for Michuru and Nazuna’s transformation. A mix up happened that caused them to be administered contaminated blood after their accident. Michiru also finds out the cult has more or less been working with the human chemist/bioengineer to make the people less “resistant” to the idea of a cure..like making them belief god is here so they can pass the cure as a godsend.. or at least have her promote it as such. It does feel like an important episode and judged completely on is own .. this episode has a lot of stuff happening.. but with what I have seen I find this episode extremely pointless.

Let’s start with the positive things though, if you haven’t been paying attention to the series or if you have been left completely oblivious to the inner machinations this episode does an okay job on tying all those clues it left behind in the previous episodes together. What is being truth in this episode is obviously a half-truth still feels like a kinda welcome pad on the back for people figuring it out! So I WAS right that they got infected due to their accident! So the cult WAS involved with the pharmaceutical company. It all fits the narrative the story has been building up to and it can feel kinda rewarding to see these little hints pay off now. It also does manage to shift the tone. My favorite moment came from Michiru trying to save Nazuna from some weird scanning device that has her encapsulated as well as her  tracking her to said machine. The whole rescue sequence does show how Michiru has grown and how she has become familiar with her powers and can even make use of them in combat. It shows that she is ready for the final part of the show. Michiru meeting her friend with the water purifier was cute too!

What I did not like about the episode doesn’t really have to do with the episode itself.. well it does.. but it’s bigger. My problem is..from my perspective.. we already knew ALL of this that was in the exposition dump, those big reveals have been set up by the show so well before that nothing comes as a surprise here. They really make a big thing of the whole working together with the cult thing, the hospital infection thing and take clips from earlier episodes to show how well everything ties together… yet everything ties so well together… that I remember! They did a great job on pointing out what was important before that this reminder is rather pointless. I mean sure narrativly Michiru needs to find out..but why waste half an episode on telling us what we already know?

You could just have shown him talking to her briefly telling the basic connections and then cut away to actually further the story ..but no we are treading walked ground for the third time in a 12 episode series. It kinda feels like this episode was made for people who watched this show while playing with their phones.  While I’d say the episode is fairly solidly written I do feel a bit insulted as how dumb this episode thinks we are that we need this callback. The show is running out of time and now wasted an episode. While again.. not persé a weak episode..it does feel pointless.. since I do like this show in general.. that to me is a bigger sin right now.

Episode Score:

This was with distance the best thing I have seen today, I was having anime girl eye sparkles while watching this episode because it was that amazing. The best episode of Flamenco so far, best episode of today and probably one of my favorite episodes (top 3)  in all the 45 anime episodes I have watched for this series so far.

I loved what they did with Maya!  In this Episode we see that Masayoshi has been training with Red Axe and has become more combat capable! As a result he is now actually able to stop criminals and this results into a new influx of popularity. This hinders Masayoshi from doing his job so he flees, into a crime in progress. However when these criminals knock him out and threaten to reveal his identity for the million yen bounty a pink Hummer crashes into their hideout..revealing a new heroine! Flamenco Girl! Maya’s alter-ego  who wants to partner up with Masayoshi! However her ways are much more brutal and quickly become a problem for our wanna be hero! When Goto gets hurts because of their antics he is going to have to re-evaluate his values.

This episode is truly amazing throughout! So many great choices are made here. First the fact that Samurai Flamenco is powering up from having a mentor is great. It feels very sentai like.. but also polarises Gotou because now it’s easier to go to far! Sugoi! Introducing Maya as a new Sentai element is amazing as well, it helps push Masayoshi delusions and enforce them , being a nice counterpart to the break on the series that is Gotou (in a good way though). Her being obsessed with magical girls instead of sentai makes it interesting.. like as if their Sentai Powers come from their fanbases.

Could Gotou become the blue Kamen Rider Sentai in the show? Of course he has to be blue because he is a cop!  Maya being quite violent and using actual weapons also a great way for Samurai Flamenco to find his way. When she hurts Gotou to flee you can see him feel conflicted.. this new way does not work for him. We see him make her apologise to the cop the next day showing he has taken back control. I think not showing their conversation yet is great, as it would hurt their characters, now they just worked it out somehow character intact.

I loved almost everything in this episodes, we see so many important things..like how being a hero is more important to Samurai Flamenco then his friendship to Gotou, it pains him but he acknowledges it and tries to find his balance.  Maya being a girly counterpart to  Masayoshi makes her such an interesting addition now! I love her! What I did not like AS much was Gotou himself though.. there was this really weird thing with him and text messages with his girlfriend where he went home and had the next day calling off a date in texts..but he he cancels a date with his invisible girlfriend but everything happens through text chat. Why could he not call?! Half of the time he was just outside..it feels like we are supposed to care about their relationship but it doesn’t feel real enough to be engaged with that. Still that is a nitpick that did not make me enjoy the episode less.. I just would have fangirled even harder if they made it more impactful! Still my highest grade can be awarded to this episode without a doubt in my mind.

Episode Score:

I can’t help but love this show! Everything it does has this wholesome touch to it , even if they don’t shy away from the roughness that would be a fantasy world either. As a result it’s not sickeningly sweet…but still adorable! A perfect breakfast!

We see Rimuru prepare to stop the direwolves attacking the goblins, he does this by organising the green little guys behind a fence and having them fire arrows while using his own spider skills to set up webs and metal traps. Once the Direwolf leader has met quite a visceral and bloody  depicted ending Rimuru eats it to acquire a new form and some abilities, allowing the Dire-Wolf’s son to swear loyalty to him. Having united the wolves and the Goblins , Rimuru decides to name everyone not knowing that if a monster gets a name it can evolve but also that it costs magic to do so! As a result he overuses it and slips into a coma only to find out everyone has evolved..except for the one he named Gobuto. To help the now Hobgoblins Tempest Wolves and Goblina.. Rimuru has to travel to the land of the dwarfs to make new allies. 

While this episode is my least favorite so far, I still enjoyed the heck out of it! It was funny , cute and it has really original ideas.  Rimuru becoming some sort of slime god to these people and him caring for these creatures is amazing. The way he is trying to build up their village reminded me of those old Black and White games by Lionhead, just with monsters instead of humans. My favorite moment definitely being, when our slime is passing out from exhaustion and we see this village put the slime on a pedestal and cuddling it showing their gratitude. Usually in anime we see a hero save a village and under some fanfare music they are played off while everyone tosses flowers their way or just yells “Good Luck, We Will Miss you” kind of lines. These people even if they are not “people” and are just monsters show they also have love in their hearts! They are good mannered and just are guided by their ways an mannerisms.. no matter how someone might look they can still be sweet!  The wolves treat him in the same manner, grateful for the sacrifice Rimuru made.

What made me think this episode was a bit less than the other episodes is that this one had quite a bit of throw-away/slapstick comedy. While the other episodes have humor as well and it makes this show a delight a few jokes in this episode really felt like.. a joke for jokes sake.  I like how a storm wolf can whip up a storm by wagging its tail.. since he gave them a storm based name they evolve that way.. that is funny, however Rimuru being blown away by that force is funny once.. but the second time it felt a bit meh. The slime then keeping to roll of a hill,chased by the dog trying to fetch it, but isn’t fast enough felt a bit to Looney Tunes to me. Maybe it’s because I’d imagine since he can change shape the situation feels perfectly preventable but that scene felt like it dragged on a bit. It has a few of these illogical moments that don’t quite flow narratively. For example why would the village elder not explain naming a monster costs magic, Rimuru clearly does not know. Why would Rimuru not ask more specific questions to Elder making some odd requests. It sets up for a great evolution joke but the way we get there could feel a bit sloppy here and there!

Still my second favorite view of today and a very good episode. The flaws I did find with it are very common anime and series errors that I am just becoming increasingly aware of as I search the net for new skills myself! I’d say it’s about as bad a a kid drawing a sun with a smiley face. It’s still super charming, cute and fun and to be honest a perfect morning cartoon! This episode proved that to me so it still gets an amazing grade! It more or less fixed my nitpick with the last episode with some interesting lore and I have no doubt this series will continue to do so for me in the future! I had a blast, just one I acknowledge was a bit lazier than it needed to be in terms of comedy and conflict.

Episode Score:

I am not sure what I think about this episode, I am not even fully sure yet what I think about this series. Once again I could not escape feeling how similar this to me is to Hunter x Hunter. Which obviously is not a bad thing, yet it’s a high bar to hold it up against.

Khun the weird layed backed assassin like kid with a knife,  apparently was exiled by his family. This left him to believe that he can trust no one and he just so happens to be reflective of that lesson as they gain a test to check their trust. A weird pink headed almost balloon like humanoid tells them something happens five minutes into this trial, this is indeed reflect by by a clock outside the test area showing a 5:00 mark after previous contestants went in. However due to not being able to trust anyone Khun completely zones out into his own world, leading him to fail the trial were it not for Rak and Bam solving the trial by themselves. Sort off… After that we see a mysterious tower traveling group kick ass in another test area which worries the organisation..so a bonus trial is held a king of the hill game and they who wear the crown during the fifth round will earn the right to challenge the tower of the god. This new team however seems to hold a face Bam is very familiar with.

That twist in the end was my favorite moment of the episode Bam thinking he saw Rachel as the opposite team renewed my intrigue for the next episode, which I would not had without it. It’s also implied that Rachel is very strong and very bloodthirsty, so she will most likely develop into an antagonist. You can’t kill that many people in half an hour with doubt in your heart! This episode did some interesting world building things. It builds mystery around Rachel and also to the Lizard girl with the whip.. Anak I think.  It also shows the test commissioners and the organisation something quite interesting. I noticed how all thest directors have yellow eyes like Bam and Rachel. and The group dynamic between Bam Khun and Rak is becoming more interesting as  episode pass. I do love Rak.. he feels so one dimensional to be a main character and that is what makes me warm up to him so much

The pacing is very much off in this episode, my least favorite moment is how they explain the rules of the king of the hill game 2 minutes before the episode ends.It’s a substantial explanation and we see the first round take place but knowing anime that means the trial has to be explained again next episode. It would be like me writing a post about Pokémon Snap and then beginning to explain how Pokémon Stadium works for my next post.. yet because I can’t assume everyone saw or remembered that I’d have to explain those rules again. It felt super sloppy to me. I am already annoyed that I am going to see the explanation again next week, so hence my least favorite moment.  Khun’s build up also felt sloppy to me.  We just see him worry about his issues out of no where! If we had gotten events in a different order it would have felt much stronger.

We begin the episode with a semi flashback and him talking to his mother about trusting no one.. this is followed by a guy tapping their shoulder and go like “psssst I have info about this next test…trust me”… jeesz… I wonder what will the theme of this episode be?! Had they swapped the Balloon talk and his worries, said worries would have felt a lot more natural, the trial would have still felt forced but the first part would have flowed a lot better. What also annoyed me is how inconsistent they are with their characters so far. Groups are being called in one by one while everyone analyses what is going on and no one noticed the pink yellow balloon cloth person talking to all themes going Pssst?! Khun even attacked him with a knife.. and no other group noticed? This basically goes against everything already shown! Super sloppy! The “What is off screen doesn’t matter mentality” This episode put this series “at Risk” for me.. If I still feel this way after episode six, this show will be dropped by me.  But the ending still left me wanting for more.. so let’s hope episode 4 can change my opinion. Not horrible, just poorly written and generic this week for me! The intro theme I do find horrible though!

Episode Score:

A good episode that I could have done without would be the perfect summary of this one for me. I really love the Akira angle we still see in this episode. As long as we see this as an episode for Touya alone it’s one of the best so far. But…

The three guys who wanted to break his arms and challenge him to a match so they can brag if they beat him at an advantage have finally formed a plan…they will make him lose a match by forcing him not to look at a Go Board. He manages to win his first match still so now they force him to blind play TWO go Boards. In Other words they ask him to require to visualise a 20×20 tile field and remember separate on 2 boards if a square is blank, white or black and use this knowledge to play Go actively. Basically it’s just three guys bullying Touya trough playing Go and him going along with it to earn respect and improve as a player so he can face Hikaru! It is the most exciting and tense game(s)  I have seen so far and Touya is growing into a better character each episode.. but I couldn’t help it feels a bit weird as well.

I’d say we get two versions of this episode here, one is amazing one is kinda bad. From the perspective of Akira Touya this episode is sweet! We see him develop , we see his determination, motivation and his skill, we also see the path that is still left open for him.  We see this episode reveal his flaws to him.. the thinks to much in the standard patterns, his mind is very much engaged with the Meta and he can not let that go easily. He realises this is why he has trouble with Hikaru whose ancient ways of playing are not in line with the current guide books! It is also the reason why he begins losing to the rookie player in these blind matches. Him being acceptant of this bullying also illustrates the mindset he is in very well. Had this episode opened from the perspective of Akira I would have probably given this my highest rating possible!  The brief dip into  Hikaru and friends back at school was sweet as well and once again shows that they know where the interesting events in the story lie and focus on that. Kudos!

At the same time I found this episode incredibly stupid from the perspective of Touya’s challengers. I still do not get why him losing to the third best player in a school (counting him)  known for being good at Go Tournaments, would shame him all that much. That would like  saying I should be ashamed for losing a Pokémon match against a person who  at least knows how stats and typings work.. while I could only use 6 Pikachu and they can build a team. Not that I am that good at Pokémon but still, I doubt anyone would take you seriously for winning against a chess grandmaster while they are having a heart attack (non lethal)  and you force them to play. I just do not get it.  Luckily a girl shows up whom does show Akira how stupid this is and he should get his head out of his bum and play them like a real Go player would. Again showing how human Touya can be despire his talent! He does feel a bit dumb for such a genius though!

The third best player however resigns after losing to Touya..which again is so dumb.. challenger is a prodigee, to your knowledge the best youthful go player around? How does losing him put you to so much shame that you have to quit?  I mean sure he beat you blind but that says something about Touya not you! You’re still the third best in school nothing changed about that. The biggest mistake the episode makes is starting with the bullies, you follow their perspective, that angle doesn’t work, your not supposed look from that angle either. You need to feel they are bullying Akira but is unfair Go reallying bullying? Great episode but you really need to look from the perspective of Akira because the bullies are just dumb! It gets a good score with an asterix.

Episode Score: *

*If you are unable to see this as Touya’s story and take everything face value as it is presented to you this episode scores 1 to 2 grades lower depending on your ability to read between the lines

Another week done! This week I have had some stomach ailment which kept bothering me luckily doing a fair bit better now! A few restless nights made my energy a bit lower than it could be but meeting a friend I had not seen in a long time turned out to be a lot more pleasant than I had anticipated. She can be a bit of an energy drain due to being prone to melancholy over the silliest things. There was a stabbing in my flat today though so I am even more prompted than before to find another place! I am also really excited for the blog restyling happening on Wednesday! This week I finished my project called Camp Coconut and the final assets that I needed. That is my personal update complete as well! Thanks for reading and let’s have an amazing next week!

Last time this asset will be used! Thank you for serving me well!

Pinkie watches a Random Anime: Saki

Hello my sweet island guests! For my Saturday anime posts I have been covering ways to discover anime for the past two weeks! Ending with how excited I was to watch some random anime using the Random Anime Generator Website! Now once a month, or at least I will try to do so, I will generate one random anime and watch it’s first five episodes (about a movie length) discussing my thoughts about it and whether or not I would pick it up to finish it! My first randomised anime came up as: Saki!

I did not read any descriptions I just generated a random anime title , looked if it was available to me and watched the show. Saki should still be available for everyone using Crunchyroll but I am not sure how everything works for that. The first opening minute I saw a slightly tomboyish girl  looking at another girl thinking she is super pretty! I never heard of this anime before and I had no clue what to expect.. but already I was getting some Yuri vibes. Lucky! The tame kind too! It was also clear there would be a lot fan service.. even though it’s fairly tame.. I did find myself kind of annoyed by it, but that is mostly because I really like the character being lewded a lot. They at times make her out to be just a pair of boobs .. and they have to really go out of their way to set it up as well so yes in this case I found it unpleasant. Still I get why you do it.. gotta keep Mahjong interesting.. because yes I stumbled upon an anime about Mahjong. With a pink seemingly gay (semi) main character , some flashy weird animations and people taking part in a tournament. This SHOW random show really hit some marks for me.

I’ll be honest, I have started watching A Certain Magical Index as well, but now that I am five episodes in for both! This one has my preference to finish first. The show is about a girl named Saki .. if you would believe it… a young girl who comes from a broken family. During family game night they would always play Mahjong but if she did to well her sister would throw a tantrum and people would get mad at her and if she did to poorly she would not get any candy! So Saki learned to play perfectly average and is blessed with incredible luck playing this game. She finds out the beautiful girl is in the Mahjong club because a friend asked her to help her out for a bit.. and little by little Saki begins to enjoy the game of Mahjong again .. that she learned to hate under her broken family! Now that same game has the chance to bring the family back together as her sister represents another regions team, playing in the Tokyo nationals. Before they do that though they have to win regionals.. which according to the first five episode holds some very scary and evil girls they have to face. As well as super powers?! I am not sure yet!

I have no idea how to play competitive Mahjong , only that tower stack thing we get from internet games here.. well that is not the Mahjong this is about. This is about changing together events, like Ron and Richi and Kan or whatever they are called. I have no idea but this anime certainly makes it look impressive. Studio Gonzo produced the first 14 episodes ..which obviously includes the first five I have seen and they certainly know how to frame the game nicely.  The dramatic reveal of hands really have this larger than life vibe. Which is great because this series very much knows what it is. There is a strong cast of character that are larger than life which again compliments the series very well. Saki is the overly nice naive girl that is attracted to pink girl , with big boobs, talents in spades and a child like demeanour, Nodoka. Nodoka is a very calculative person who secretly is into Saki as well but also someone who can not comprehend her luck (yet) . They represent two aspect a skilled player needs to have , skill and luck! Nodoka has a plush penguin named Etopen which I find adorable! Could it be that she is Waifu material?!

Kyoutarou is the only boy in the Mahjong club.. he dreams of being with Nodoka he wants to play with them tiddies.. but of course he doesn’t know she looks at Saki!  His fantasies about her are often interrupted by Yuuki, a tiny energetic bubbly girl, who loves taco and tako. She likes to play house with him calling him darling or husband. She has a wild imagination and always seems to twist reality around her! She lacks the ability to do proper math which results in her being weaker in the game than she could be.   The cast is rounded off by the student council president.. though .. she calls it Student Congress President , she is a strategist and plays the group to make them better and then there is Mako.. the presidents bestie whose parents have a maid café.  She seems leaned back but also very analytical.  

Five episodes in and I really like this cast a whole lot more than I like the main cast of Magical Index. These feel like people I’d enjoy being around. . if I would be their age. I honestly did not expect that I would like this anime this much. Yuuki can be a tad annoying with how her voice sounds but I rather found that endearing. I even smiled empathically at how Kyoutarou is such a loner just for being a guy! If you can make me care for the kinda bro-ish boy .. you are doing something right!

I really like how these first episodes where paced out. Without getting into spoilers to much, episode one sets up the main character Saki and episode 2 sets up Nodoka. Episode 3 sets up the main plot.. that is participating in the tournament while episode 4 lets reality set  in and turns down Nodoka’s amazing talent and Saki’s luck by putting in into perspective by having them learn they are not ready for the tournament yet. Which perfectly sets up for episode 5, training camp! Every episode flows very nicely into the next and each episode and as a result each episode can stand on its own. It’s all well defined tiles that when put together form a nice combo. I notice how this is in contrast with Hikaru no Go for example which has stronger episodes in their lineup..but a weaker flow between them. While Hikaru tells the better tale.. it has slack water.. dead tides in between. This show (At least so far)  flows nicely. In fact there are very few anime I’ve recently been watching that match it’s amazing pacing.

Toss in a lot of cuteness and this show becomes something that does warm my heart. The Blossoming friendship between our main characters works well. Saki feeling awkward around Nodoka in  the beginning makes sense because of how toxic her family games were. When the titular character finally begins to enjoy winning this goes at the cost of Nodoka which makes her passion feel invalidated as Saki claimed not to like the game. It sucks to be beaten by someone who doesn’t take your passion seriously.  These emotions feel legit and make sense with the characters that are established.

This does come at the cost of the personality of the other team members though. While Hisa the team leader still shows some proper character.. but mostly in her understanding how others work, Yuuki,  Kyoutarou and Maki remain rather 2 dimensional. I am not sure if this is a bad thing though. I found Yuuki’s flat and shallow character quite hilarious and it breaks up awkwardness of two closet lesbians playing with some tiles. Maki is the exposition character. “Boss did you set that up to teach them a lesson” .. “Do you think she realises she has that ability” .. that’s her type of dialogue. It could be painful but since they made her a bit of an analytical slightly colder person.. it works. Kyou makes the awkward romantic stuff more comedical by putting it into perspective. So everyone adds their bit to the pot.

The only thing detrimental to this is the fan service. Our pink haired girl has a fully developed chest while the others don more humble models. Nosoka thusly often gets the butt of some jokes that kinda feel out of place. For example how hugging her plushy means hiding the thing under her boobs. I might be flat so I could not compare.. but I hold my plushies near my heart or chest at , Etopen is quite large though so it makes sense from a perspective that she also has to play Mahjong.. But still that feels like hugging a friend in my belly button area! That just feels awkward!  There are a few cheap shots like that like having her run through the rain and giving her a dramatic talk while zooming in on her chest emphasises her white shirt got wet and all. If that floats your boat good for you but I did not like it. I am not against the use of fan service as long as it is used in moments where it’s not detrimental to the main emotions and that’s where the show misses a few swings for me personally. It just feels like Nosoka’s character on occasion has to make room so she can give some fan service at times.. which is a wrong way to go about this.

The opening song and the ending song are AMAZING! Well they aren’t that memorable but the fact that they could make this work for them  as a Mahjong series was pretty good! It has action in it but also some beauty..it is almost shot as a shounen opening which I really could appreciate.  The ending is so cute that this one one of the few ED’s I ended up watching three out of five times. Well two and a half but normally I don’t watch it at all so thats HUGE!
Like I said Yuuki’s voice can be a bit annoying at times when she talks to long or has to shout for shouting sake. but this also endeared her a bit to me at the same time.. that is who she is. The final knitpick is that this does not make it very clear on how to play Majong.. which is also i’s strength.. it’s not a game you easily pick up I think there is a lot involved so since everyone in universe would more less know how to play.. there is little exposition to explain. There are a few schedules and diagrams but there might as well have been a unicorn poster there! I did not get info at all. The characters do though so that is good.. but I guess I just have to believe the words and the flow here.

I know Ron is a good thing for the one who declares it. So I will use that term for my final evaluation! Five episodes in and I am very pleasantly surprised by this series. So much so in fact that I am probably going to finish this series and bench Magical Index for a while. This series spoke a lot more to me. It’s just cute , slightly yuri , fun with characters I really enjoy and stylistic and visual choices I enjoy even more!  I very much hope it keeps this nice buttery smooth pacing throughout the show because that to me was it’s absolute strength.
I could not tell you what I think about the animation because I haven’t really paid much attention it it. I noticed it was from 2009 and I would have guessed it was slightly earlier.. but the visuals worked for me. 

The colours are nice and vibrant  but never obnoxious, there is plenty set-up going on that makes me feel this might quite the interesting show.  So yes I do want to finish this show. With only 25 episodes I should be able to do so before the next randomisation is up but this is also a great series to cheer me up so I might save some of it until I need some Etopen and Yuri Mahjong goodness in my life! We will see but I really think the first five episodes of this Mahjong show where very good! The only thing that prevents it getting my highest score is my inability to comprehend Mahjong.. and my inability to care for boobs!

Random Anime : Saki
Episodes Watched: 5
Watching On?: Yes
Favorite Character: Etopen
Score:

Pinkie Gets Anime Powers: Devil Fruit and Nakama

Everyone imagines having anime powers sometimes! I just happen to actively turn those thoughts into blogs! So far we have seen some powers from some pretty iconic shows. Bleach, Digimon, Jojo’s and most recently Soul Eater. Yet, We Are forgetting a very important series. We Are missing one masterpiece of unique powers. We Are, We are on Cruise! We are!

Character Name:
Denny P Paradaisu
Rank:
Captain
Age:
33 yet she dresses and acts like a 16 year old
Role:
Spin off Show Lead
Relationships:
Cousin  of Perona
Devil Fruit:
Uma Uma no Mi : Model Unicorn
Quirks:
Gets extremely sea sick unless influenced by de Zandaka Zandaka No Mi,Always Happy as a result of her own Devil Fruit, immune to her cousins Horo Horo No Mi. Not actively searching for One Piece! “Pirate Hunter“

Denny P Paradaisu is the captain of the Hearibon pirates and protagonist of  the Spin Off series One Piece: Hearts! It is set about 10  years after the Battle of  Marine Fort (8 years after the timeskip). At the age of 22 Denny already was the manager of her family’s tropical resort for people all across South Blue. That all changed then the resort was attack by pirates of the Hage-Akuyaku crew, years later. Her resort was burned down , her parents killed as well as everyone she had befriended on the island. She herself was left alive as a symbol for the neighbouring islands to pay protection money and fall in line with the rules of Hage-Hige. Transported to the marines to a neighbouring island Denny cried for days on end. Drinking away her misery at the bar. Doing as she was told and showing her misery to the world unknowingly. One day she shares some drinks with a strange one armed redheaded man who offers her a pink fruit saying it will take away her pain. Doing everything to stop feeling this hurt she eats the fruit and after that she would never be sad again.

Having eaten a Legendary Beast Zoan Fruit, A Fruit in the Horse Horse family the Unicorn model, she now always smiles. Her Unicorn powers allow her to bestow bestow happiness in others as well. With her left over money and encouragement of the red headed stranger she buys her own ship and decides to sail out to stop the pirates from warring against each other and prevent people from ever feeling as miserable as she did. Forming a Pirate crew that sets out for the Grand Line to force non violent ways on other pirates. Putting an end to war , hunger and negativity as she goes. Know as the Ribbon Pirates or Hearibon the emblem  is a happy skull with a big pink hair ribbon.  Unfortunately Denny gets very Sea sick.. so she can’t sail a ship by herself!  So first she searches the nearby islands for special individuals of her crew. While throwing up lots of rainbows and being amazed by how pretty it looks!

One Piece: Hearts would be a comedical show that is a bit a spoof on Shonen. Every single character would be a non violent warrior. Fights are won by winning a crews heart. Not a single member of the pirate crew would even be allowed to throw a single punch.  While they are allowed to trap opponents or incapacitate them all forms of physical harm are banned. Thusly this  show would portray  Shounen action without the main characters ever laying a single punch or sword slash. The crew would consist out of some old One Piece characters as well as a few new ones. Most of the crew would be devil fruit users but there would be some exceptions. Set 8 years after the timeskip, the technology in the world has probably advanced a little bit so the ship of the Ribbon Pirates would be close to that of the thousand Sunny.  Their ship the Happy Go Round would be a homage to the Going Merry.

Shipwright: Nyl A Perkel
Human Devil Fruit User (Age 22)

The first crew member Denny would find is that of the ships carpenter.  Depicted as a gothic viking with a teddy bear heart, Nyl was a mail delivery from North Blue. His job and his little ship taking him all across the world.  He maintained his own little ship as he had worked in his fathers construction yard when he was young! Having a thirst for adventure in his blood though one day he decided to steal a ship and sail out towards great adventure. No longer wanting to be bound by the same life day in and day out. The extra hours the low wage! The claustrophobia of the dry docks! He wanted more!  

Now he had it.  While delivering Denny a letter, which contained an inheritance of her grandma..he saw the attack on Paradise taking place. Overcome by fear of fighting against this superior force Nyl moved to neighbouring island to sign for help!  When he saw Denny days later having lost everything he kept feeling bad! Why did I not try to save some people there I could have gotten people out!  He actually finds Denny rather than she does him..telling her he wants to do the right thing now! No longer be afraid. Denny tells him of her ideal world where no one has to run away anymore and he is touched by the purity of the goal. Promising that the next time he sees that pirate he feared so much he will not be scared.

Prior to the adventure Nyl Consumed the Dynamo Dynamo No Mi, changing him into a Dynamo man. He can store the energy of things and re-apply it to power a device he build. For example the fridge on the Happy Go Round. In combat  Nyl can for example steal the kinetic energy from swords and bullets (though one at a time only with a few second interval) to render their attacks rather inert. While a knife can still poke him.. the slashing force behind it can later be to make a light shine, propel an “engine”  or other sorts of things.  While he is charged Nyl becomes increasingly statically charged and by hugging or poking his opponent when he absorbed enough energy can result in a brief paralysis or disarmament.  His main “combat” method would be close closer towards the way Usopp fought during his fight against Luffy though, using a sorts of gadgets he can power on to hinder his foe. Like a Bright Flashing light to blind an opponent or a net trap.  He often pretends to be cooler and more intimidating then he actually is.. but he can never resist a hug!

Ship Doctor: Thomas T Bird
“Human” Devil Fruit User (Age 73)

While searching for a way to deal with Denny’s sea Sickness , Nyl and Denny stumble upon an island where a strange scientist is said to live. A doctor who’s specialisation is curing sea sickness but who is also a very strange fellow. Obsessed with training vermin like rats, bats and even chickens to do his bidding and help humanity he creates an incident on the island where suddenly everything critter goes out of control. Aided by Denny and Nyl he manages to stop the infestation which leads to him joining their crew! As no animals were harmed. To control animals he thinks he needs some legendary flute of a old pirates tale .. a mysterious man now only known as P.P. Which leads to a lot of PeePee Jokes from Thomas himself.  His dream is to one day make lower life forms earn a place in society as well, turning vermin into a benefit and friend for mankind. 

He would also have a Devil Fruit power of the Zandaka Zandaka no Mi. In other words the Balance Balance Fruit. With this power he can shift the equilibrium of a person their sense of balance. He can make people feel like they are sinking through the floor, or falling up simply by adjusting their sense of balance. This means in combat he prefers to fight agile characters, People like Sanji , Jimbei but also people like Borsalino.  Not only can he disrupt verticle balance he can also conjure effects of powerful spinning or negating effects like that.. For example he demonstrates this by telling Denny to sit in a barrel then kicking it of a hill.. while it rolls she gets super dizzy but once he helps her out she feels perfectly fine! This technique is also used to cure her sea sickness. Thomas himself is a ratty older man, really no looker who ‘s age causes him a lot of back problems. He dyes his mohawk to feel young!

Navigator: Perona
Human Devil Fruit User (Age 32)

Perona makes her return as she encounters her cousin sailing around Aimlessly. Perona having done some wandering herself is a bit more familiar with it then her cousin who is about the same age as her. Perona would be down on her luck and use her Horo Horo no Mi to rob some small groups of weak looking people! Not realising Denny is her cousin at the time.. due to not having seen each other for a long time she tries to rob their group. Super depressed by Perona’s ghost Nyl and Thomas easily give in to her demands for money.. as they aren’t worth it anyway.  Yet Denny smiles at her without even having seen her and gives her some money as well. A fair chunk of what she had left.. willingly. This shocks Perona and when she realises it’s her cousin she questions Denny about why! Denny says it’s awesome to see people smile. She felt like Perona would be feeling like John and Thomas right now.. but even though their cry is artificial Perona’s is real. She then invites Perona to join them and search for her own happiness.

Perona’s powers obviously would not change her devil fruit remains the same.. though under the flag of Denny she mostly uses it to teach bad guys a lesson. She takes a more Tsundere stance as she scolds them for being bad and makes them feel bad about their actions..Denny is fine with this as long as Perona never punishes a good action. Perona also seems to be immune to Dennies power, but Thomas sometimes doubts this.. maybe Denny doesn’t make her smile because she needs to find her real smile first.

Ship’s Cook: Bean Boom
Human Devil Fruit User (Age 24)

Bean is one of Denny’s friends, not living on Paradise island , Denny visits her in the  hopes of recruiting her with bread most of it stale, or smushed . People cry in panic that their life savings have been “turned to bread”. It turns out that Bean ate the Pan Pan no Mi (Bread Bread Fruit).. a Paramecia type fruit that allows the user to change an object they touch into bread .. of the same size (IOW a sword becomes a Baguette a Pistol becomes A Pistolette etc)  She did not know it was a devil fruit when she ate it  and now she can not control herself. She is stressing out so much and little by little the island is more and more turned into bread. Denny remembers the island she visited before had  some serious troubles with their food intake. So she forms a plan.

Together with her pirates she robs an arms storage on the previous island and turns all the weapons into bread. Solving their food crisis, she then asks if the citizens can miss some items for the people who had lost stuff on the next island. Seeing the willingness of the people Bean gets inspired and calmed by Denny’s s presence noticing when she is calm she has more control over her Pan Pan no Mi. She takes apprenticeship under the pink captain in the hope to one day control this herself. She reveals her calm true calm was stolen by a cursed item. Who took something away from everyone on the island..something that made them their true self. Bean now wants to find and bread this item in order to destroy the curse.

Ropers: Johnny and Yosaku
Humans with a Dugong pet (Age 36) (pet’s age unknown)


These former Bounty Hunters have since the time skip settled down to become fisherman! They however begin to notice that they have thought so many people around the village to be great fisherman that they find themselves no longer needed. Thinking back on how useless they were as Bounty Hunters they begin to slip into a depression.  The island is the setting for a fishing tournament, where people can bring their biggest catch each year and the winner is the island’s champion. For 7 straight years Johnny and Yosaku have won this trophy but the last two tournaments they did not even rank. They did however fish up a Kung-Fu Dugong named Jasper that now is their pet and supporter.

Now retirement is drawing in closer they want to win the tournament one last time. When the Ribbon Pirates visit the town they notice how the townsfolk have turn on their former heroes.. now all consumed by arrogance trying to win the trophy. Seeing the brothers said she has Bean change the trophy into bread and eating it up. She says people should not blindly follow the lessons of the others and forgot whom made them this person! She told them them people have to find their own way and she will prove this! She invites the two to join her crew and assures them that next year they will be back with the biggest fish ever.

Johnny and Yosaku have given up their swords and now use their fishing rods as weapons , in a way similar to how Gon fights during the Hunter Exam.  They also know advance techniques to Lasso and flat floor enemies.  They also excel at setting lures and traps for their enemies.  All non violent ones of course. Jasper is often used as “bait” for these traps or simply as a tripping Hazard.

Quartermaster/Lifeguard: Angelica Aquaz
Fishfolk (Age 7)

When Thomas experiments on Pinkie by giving her a placebo dose of his Balance fruit she gets super sea sick and falls overboard Johnny and Yosaku are drunk at the time and they can not rescue her. Given that everyone else on her crew is a hammer things seem dire until she is rescued by a a fishfolk woman with the features of a  Shark named Angelica Aquaz. A mischievous little girl who pulled a prank on her father and mother by hiding from them.. accidentally getting swept up by a current ending up in regions unknown. For three years now she has been trying to find her way home. Tricking people into giving her food, pulling pranks on people at nearby beaches. Since she is a fishman she can walk on shores but people usually feel her shark like facial features so she hides behind a veil.  The girl is very young, around the age of 6 to maybe 8 but very bright.

Denny invites the girl to come aboard to her ship but the girl refuses telling she has to find her parents. The group decides to help the shark girl before they move on, but once they find the area the girl was from they notice that the reef that had served as her home was destroyed to make room for a Naval blockade to block smugglers from entering or leaving the Grand Line. The group goes to the nearby island to find the smugglers and end the blockade and trade the bad people for more information. However they find out the smugglers are actually smuggling medicine people on the island can not afford. Dr Thomas studies this cure and tries to find a way to fabricate it with stuff on the island while Denny and Angelica as well Nil try to open the Navy’s heart to the cause of the people!  When not successful Denny uses her powers to fill their hearts with love and end the blockade.. in her first forceful act.

Angelica tells Denny and her crew about a fairy tale about a huge Coral Reef at the end of the Grand Line a promissed city for fishfolk and merfolk.. she thinks her parents would go to that city, which is enforced when she finds a book in the ruins of her old city. Denny agrees to take her if she joins their crew to save those who fall in the water and to work hard to keep everyone happy and things on the ship fair. In ‘combat’ Angelica uses tricks to fight.. telling enemies their shoe laces are untied before making them fall over with her tail and all. After recruiting angelica the crew moves onto the grand line!

Uma Uma No Mi Model Unicorn


Denny’s  own powers are similar of that of other Zoan type users, but since she is a mystical beast  each form comes with some special powers.  Much like with the original One Piece though, there is no exact details on how the fruit works.. most powers come to her instinctively as a Zoan user this effect is even amplified.

Human Form:
While fully human  she can project little rainbow beams that upon impact make infuse a target with love and happiness.. a warm fuzzy feeling. IF this happens their eyes get sparkles and rainbow colours inside them and they also become extremely playful and if hit enough even child like.  Denny considers this invasive though and only uses this method if she has no other choice. She can use weakened variants which have less colours of the rainbow if she shoots out a beam, just to make people feel comfy or slightly more open minded to what she has to say. She still is prefers to not use her power and rather speak from her heart to one’s heart though as she will often claim.

Hybrid Form:
In her Hybrid Form she takes on More equine features having a horse face that has rainbow filled eyes. Her horn sparkles deeply. In this form she can make objects more happy as well as retain her ability to bestow happiness in a person. In this version it’s more extreme though.  The object happyfication happens if she pokes an object with her horn. An object only stays happy while she stays in this form and the more objects she creates the harder the form is to maintain. For example she can change a beanbag into a Happy faced Marshmallow, which she can then use to  trap an enemy in the sticky sugary mess. Or use it’s increased bouncyness to shield an ally from her fall.  She can never create a harmful object and once destroyed the happified item immediately reverts back to its former state.

Full Unicorn Form:
In her full Unicorn form she can take up to two people on her back and function as a mount. She can create rainbow pathways as long as she can sing happily.  She and only she can walk on these pathways. This even allows her to walk over water much like Aokiji did with his water cycle.. if she steps into the water though she is in deep trouble.  If her singing is interrupted the rainbow does not expand anymore and after a few seconds will begin to withdraw  deleting her path way. She has to sing audibly and can not hum or whisper sing so the technique can not be used for stealth approaches.. as if a rainbow ever would. In this form she can happily objects but loses the ability to alter human emotions. Objects she happified in Hybrid form still revert back to their original shape if she goes into Full Unicorn form.. or the other way around.

Always Happy:
Denny can no longer feel unhappiness, she would be terrified that if a friend died she will still smile were it not that she could not be terrified.  This does result in her never being able to be demotivated or otherwise negatively affected in terms of mindset. This also means she never gets the guidance of fear. She is aware of this and relies on her weakest ally (most often Angelica)  as her standard for what she should actually feel. Denny aims to cure herself of her fruit after she made the world smile! Because even though this is awesome.. it might even be more awesome if she could experience real feelings again!


And so we have come to the end of a very long dive into the One Piece Universe. In the spirit of Oda however I felt compelled to treat my Nakama like this and give them some room and backstory as well. This would be a very important theme in the show as well. Because this show would teach you that , not matter what powers you get, no matter how strong or worthless that fruit you ate was.. on these seas there is one power all of the Ribbon Pirates have and a strength that is greater than anything. Their hearts.. because friendship is magic!
Friendship is an unstoppable force and should be ever lasting. Like One Piece itself, Friendship is always…..


Pokémon Top 5: Favourite Ice Types

Hello my sweet island guests, get a fruity little drink! Today I’ve got the ice!
The Ice type  is commonly seen as one of the worst two typings in the entire game. While good against the Grass, Flying Dragon And last weeks ground type, it’s weaknesses to fire, steel rock and fighting make it quite a struggle to use these things. Their defences are usually very flimsy while many are built like tanks.. Today we look for a little ray of sunshine amongst the ice types. Let’s hope they don’t melt!

If you have been keeping tracks of these list by now you do know the rules. No pokémon from earlier lists and only one entry per evolution line which in this case is much less of a problem because there is only one good unevolved ice type pokémon and even then I do not mean it in the viable sense. The only good, non fully evolved ice type is of course Snom! He’s so adorable!He also feels like an ice type because of well his name.. and his colour! He’s precious we should all protect snom! A single pebble can kill him so he’s no list material but still!

The second rule I always wield is.. the pokémon has to feel to me like it’s typing and ooh boy.. does the ice type miss that mark a lot. Of the 53 ice types out there 9 do not feel like ice types at all to me. That would arguably be more if I count the cold water pokémon. Lapras however I do count among the list that do not feel like ice types to me. Perhaps because the anime branded it as native to tropical islands but yeah that doesn’t feel icey to be.. it’s gigantamax does. Then again I think it would be better as a water-sound type. I do not like Lapras though.. so it would not make the list regardless. Sneasel and Weavile also don’t really feel like Ice types to me! I love using them and I run them with ice moves but why is it an ice type?! I don’t really see it. Same goes for Jynx . 

A final shout out goes to Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan. I really don’t like the design of it’s normal mode.. but when it goes into Zen Mode using its ability I love the design. The fire and ice typing is fun as well.. but SO much ice types have quad weaknesses and this on does as well.  Given that Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan needs to be  below a certain amount of health to transform into his ice and fire state, it is a temporary form pokémon and thus not eligible for this list. Still a great design though. 

I am gonna get strung up for this by the Pokémon community but I LOVE Vanilluxe! The ice cream pokémon it looks so Happy! The idea of a snow cone pokémon  I find perfectly okay! People complain that it’s ice cream and say Gen I pokémon were better no stupid objects. We had a Pokéball  that evolved into an inverse Pokéball.  We had a stick in the ground that became three sticks in the ground and we had two magnets on an eyeball! The whole idea of Pokémon is seeing creatures you have never seen before. If you just want cats in varying colours go play that cat mobile game.  Vanilluxe is great!  It deserves love! It is probably THE pokémon that everyone would look at at say “Now THAT’s an ice type”  along with very few others.  Along with about half the full ice types.  My test for this would be.. imagine a black and white picture of the pokémon.  No colour.. could you still say it’s an ice type? Heck yeah I could!

Vanilluxe comes into existence when two Vanillish (it’s pre-evolution) partially melt in the sun! When they go out to play at night together they freeze up together and now are one entity! This gives them the ability to cause powerful blizzards that can freeze just about everyone. However this ice-cream is also a bit of a hot head! It gets angry a lot and when both heads get angry it will cover the land in a huge snowstorm regardless if friends or foe are in there! It just throws a tantrum! An Ice type that is a hot head! I love it! Of course Pokémon Sun and Moon had to add some darkness to it’s pokémon entries by stating that both it’s head have separate brains that can agree and disagree with each other.. making it’s power alternate! It also was stated there that it can occur that one of the heads is lost! If that is so the other still can live in relative comfort! How said! You just got a forever friend and then it’s head is blown off and you live with just the body of your friend. Basically.. it’s just Dio then I guess

In combat Vanilluxe is not bad either! It has an okay base speed of 79 but it can learn the ability weak armor which easily allows you to crank that up! It also has some speed boosting moves. Ice body and Snow Warning as an ability can come in clutch as well. It’s attack being at 95 which is also fairly high makes it that it’s Explosion move can also hurt like heck! It’s defences are quite okay as well! Not great but not trash either so it could possible take a hit and if it’s too damaged you just blow it up and take your opponent with you.  It gets powerful ice moves such as blizzard and ice beam but it also learn Flash Cannon a nice steel type special move to give it some weakness-covery against rock! It gets the move Sheer Cold as well which can knock your opponent out in a single hit. .if luck is on your side!  It was a great addition to my  princess tea party team in Galar (An Apple Pie, With some Whipped Cream, A scoop of Ice and Some hot tea, all with a fairy princess and her magical unicorn)! 

A pokémon that is both an ice type and a fairy type. That looks super pretty and is inspired on the nine tailed fox? Of course that would make the list! This pokémon is probably the most pretty Alolan form across the line!  I wish I could have made this my favorite but unfortunately it has two major flaws. It’s stats aren’t all that great with everything but speed hovering at around 75, only being specially defensive. It is quad weak to steel type moves though.  It’s great for killing dragons though! Also have I told you it looks pretty?! This definitely is the prettiest pokémon on the list.. heck I think it might be one of the prettiest pokémon ever! What it lacks up for in battle aptitude it  makes up for in style.  Many times over! During my fairy only type run in Alola,  Shirona  was my Alolan Ninetales and while I noticed she lacked the ability to hit hard.. she made my team look pretty and helped me deal with a bunch of peky types! Sometimes style does go over substance.

This design is reflected in the  pokédex lore it has been given. Due to it’s looks it has been revered as a deity before it was identified as a regional version of Ninetales. This has to do with the fact that in the mountains these majestic pokémon dwells there lives a deity. When seeing a snowy beautiful pokémon like this of course it was given divine qualities. This also is in part because Alolan Ninetales will guide lost hikers back to the foot of the mountain. However it does not do this out of kindness it does this because it wants the hikers gone from it’s mountain to protect the deity! Other deities seem to visit the areas they live in as well making it even more important that they are left alone. Those who damage the nature in the areas they live in.. do not get the kind treatment to safety. It will never forgive anyone who scars it’s mountain.  So there you go! This is a pokémon that is above humans it rather plays with deities! That’s top 5 worthy!

In battle Alolan Ninetales does not have a lot of oomph! It’s attack stats are just to poor. It usually is made to be into a supportive wall setter. Equipped with the ability Snow warning and the Light Clay Item, this pokémon can set a unique barrier that shields against both physical and special moves (it needs to be hailing for it to do so though.. hence the ability which sets up the snow/hail) This means you give it the move encore as well to prevent your opponent from setting up or force a switch if they set up weather to counter you.  Very important to carry that move then! Offensively there are two main types of pokémon that can set up the weather in your disfavor in general,  Grass types set up the sun while Water types set up the rain! (Rock and Fire types can set weather but you switch out against them anywya) By taking the move Freeze-Dry you have super effective special moves against both grass and water so that is a good shoutout to take as well. For a fourth move you should let it know Sheer Cold. Random One Hit Knock Outs can be good since when the shields are up, Ninetales becomes a tad throwaway.

A penguin that has a block of ice on it’s head that is also a head already sounds like a perfect pokémon for me! So adorable and derpy!  This is the type of design I love! I am fairly alone in that because some people seem to hate this pokémon despite of how cute it looks!  When it is hit by a physical move the ice cube shatters and it becomes penguin with a super tiny head that has turned all blue from the cold! I love it so much! In the Crown Thundra DLC trailer we have seen recently we see an Eiscue in the water.. it’s floating there because it’s head is just a big ice block! It looks so fun! Squeee! I just imagine the little feet trampling at all their might underneath the water to get anywhere but it just doesn’t work! So it has to let the current take it where it wants to go! If you read any of my lists before you know I really appreciate clunk in Pokémon.

Since this is a Gen VIII pokémon we do not have a lot of pokédex entries yet ..but what we have is super cute! It does indeed mention that it likes to drift in the ocean to keep its head super cold! It likes the big head it seems! When it breaks it reveals a slightly worried expression that has enamoured many people in the pokémon world and I totally get that! I love that face I just want to squeeze it in it’s tiny cheeks and tell it’s a good boy and I will help it get it’s favorite head back! Yes I will! Mamma will put a block of ice on your head! When it is drifting about the ocean it uses it’s little hair that grows out of the ice block as a fishing rod.  When it’s in it’s small faced form the single hair reacts to it’s thoughts. The hair is in straight connection to the brain so  when something is on it’s mind the hair emits a cold aura. I just want to put a little ribbon in there! 

In battle Eiscue can be amazing! It learns Belly Drum.. and combining that with a hp recovery berry, and it’s ice face ability this pokémon is rather amazing. Belly Drum boosts it’s physical attack stat from a base 80 attack to a base 320 attack. If it moves into its tiny face form by being hit physically it’s speed stat becomes 130 too. Which means it hits fast  and REALLY REALLY hard. If you combine it with a Dynamax it can even set up the hail and get it’s square head back to be bulky in defence over speedy! The only problem.. it doesn’t really matter it has bulky defence as the head shatters if it’s hit with a physical move and the head shattering negates any damage! So … in the ice head form it has a lot of wasted stat points, which is a shame and prevents it from being higher up this list. Liquidation avalanche and facade are good physical moves to run on this good boy!  The ability Ice face is kinda tricky to understand and I do not have the room to go into detail.. so google if you need.. but if used properly this penguin can kick some ass.

A very close to number one second this time around in the form of the Gen 3 pokémon Walrein. While I have used one on my team in my first playthrough of Pokémon Sapphire, I really warmed up to the pokémon trough my playthrough of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. There is something about seeing a Walrus in 3d with animations that makes it more charming. I also really needed it on my team as it destroys Salamence which I saw often in that game.  Designwise it’s about as much as you can do with a Walrus I guess. While I do not like that all water pokémon are blue, or most of them at least,  the blue on this one along with the white really does well to sell the cold qualities it possesses. It looks kind of dopey which I do like.. it doesn’t feel as ugly and mean as some other stage 2 pokémon. It keeps that beloved pet vibe more than say Tyranitar or Exploud for example. 

It’s pokedex entries do not state to much interesting facts about this pokemon, other than that it is very fat! There have been 12 pokedex entries of Walrein  to date and 11 mention it’s thick layer of blubber. The only one that doesn’t mentions that when a Walrein is the leader of a herd it will battle anything that invades it’s territory and it will continue to fight to keep it’s herd safe regardless if that means it’s own death. It can even lose it tusks in these battles.  All the other pokédex entries state that it is protected by it’s large amounts of blubber. The blubber shields it from both the cold and enemy attacks. The real impressive feat however is that it can break 10 tons of iceberg with a single attack with its tusk! Now that is an effective ice cube maker!  I bet it would be neat to use at parties! Crushed ice for everyone!

In battle it’s quite okay! It’s hindered by the poor stat average most ice types have.. with only a very high hp count and the other stats being okay! However.. due to its ability Thick Fat it is so bulky it makes up for that weakness. It can just tank! It will not die easily!  As for movesets.. that is a bit tricky! I ran my most beloved Walrein, Hoomphrey on a coliseum game, which means 2 v 2 battles. Moves like Surf and Blizzard are great shout outs for that.  It’s special attack is capped at 95 which is really quite alright certainly given it’s high hp, so special moves are your bread and butter. I personally run it with rest for a full recovery and sleep talk. But Snore is also a okay move to put on this pokémon. There are plenty ways to play but I do really prefer to break this one out in 2v2 battles. In 1v1 I kinda see how it does not deal as much damage as it could. Still it’s  also nice PvE playthroughs as it learns a nice amount of HM’s and is able to use them in combat rather effectively. A great allrounder that I wish would have gotten just a little more punch.

Even now I feel like .. should this be here? Does it feel enough like an ice type?! Heck there was  time I didn’t even know it was an ice type! It was only when I started playing competitive battles with my friends that i discovered skill link, kings rock Cloyster using ice type attacks with stab.. murdered EVERYTHING. I always liked Cloyster quite a bit as it had one of the most interesting designs in Gen 1 for me. I loved that black pearly little head in that spikey shell. Of course in Gen 1 this was a rather terrible pokemon. A good looking but terrible pocket monster. It lacked some good moves, it lacked anime support. Shellder being involved in Slowpokes evolution and having such an iconic but annoying cry in the anime made me aware of this pokémon .. rather than the pokemon itself . However since the invention of the ability skill link and the move Shell Smash.. killer oyster is exactly my battle style! The kings rock item makes it so much better even!  I really love it!  I have since used that spec in a playthrough with my main guy Hurl-Pearl. 

For some reason this pokemon seems rather hated in the pokémon-world.. well or at least they think there is a pearl inside and they want to reach it.  As it is stated that once a Cloyster closes its shell no one can open it.. not even someone with superior strength. It is also stated that not even bombs can open it! Mentioning no one managed to get inside to take a look at it’s interior .. It can “swim” by swallowing up water and shooting it out the back…. that sounds kind of dubious and kinda clunky but well it’s a shell  so I am sure it doesn’t poop out water or anything… “it uses this same system to to shoot its spikes a it’s opponent”.. Uhm wait.. it shoots spikes out of it’s ass?! That’s kinda cool! Do shells even have asses though?! It has a hole in the back that expel excess material at least. Sounds like an ass! The spikes on its body are its main method of attacking. They are so hard that old tribes used the spikes that Cloyster lost.. by shooting them away as their weapons.  The spikes are even so hard that even missiles can’t break them! Why are humans shooting missiles at cloyster and why do they try to blow them up! You meanies!

In combat this by far is one of my favorite pokemon to use ever! Skill Link, as an ability makes your pokémon always hit the maximum amount of times a move can hit.  Icicle Spear and Rock blast are both offensive moves that hit up to five times and the coverage amongst them is quite solid. Shell Smash will boost your speed Attack and Special Attack in trade for your Special Defence and Defence.. but with a White Herb that first skill down step is negated.  Or like me you could give it a Kings Rock! Which grants an attack a 10% chance ability to flinch. However due to skill link you now have five 10% chances.  That makes the chance of flinching pretty high! A flinch means a pokémon can not move that turn. So this pokémon can deal massive damage with a huge chance to stun your pokémon! I know there are better builds like the herb..but Kings Rock is just so funny!! Hurl-Pearl and me.. we are Nakama! I think this pokemon is very nICE!

What is your favorite ice type? I am predicting a lot of Articuno answers here, but proof me wrong?! Do you use the ice type a lot?! Let me know! Next week we will discuss the other “weakest” type, the rock type! Which Pokémon do you think will be on there?! Since Rock Types are super effective against the ice type..some ice pokémon are already coming up with a counter! See you next time!