Pink with Sunburn from All the Sunshine: The Sunshine Blogger Award

In these times, it’s good to have a little ray of sunshine! Luckily I live on a fictional tropical island and withdrawn in my delusions the world is still a happy place! It has become an even happier place now that I have been nominated again for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I just hope I do not get a sunburn! This is like my fourth or fifth run.. so that is a lot of sun!

I made the logo pinkish! Just so you can recognise it was that time I was defiant!

Like always we begin with the rules:

  • Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog so that other people can visit them
  • Answer the 11 questions put to you by the nominator
  • Nominate 11 bloggers of your choosing and provide them with a new set of 11 questions to answer
  • Notify the nominees by commenting on one of their blog posts
  • List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger Award logo within your post or on your blog site

This time I had the big brain not to thank the amazing  blogger who nominated me yet before I state the rules! See now it looks like I am following the rules more! Even though I am gonna break at least one again! Anyway the person who nominated me was no one less than the Otaku Author.. as you might have suspected from the section header title thing.. I really need a better word for those. Lyn has been such an active and amazing member of our community! I actually wanted to tag him for my latest tag The Totally Tomodachi Award.. but I knew Anime and Fan Fiction whom I nominated would tag him if she’d participate and as such I figured he’d be tagged anway!  Why?! Because he is such an amazing support of the blogosphere!

I also said this before but his seasonal review to me are along side Crow the best example of how I think such a review should be! The format they work in best.. done in the best way! So if you are even remotely into seasonal anime.. or if you want to check out what anime you need to watch this season Lyn’s is one of the best places you can be! Though I do doubt this is news to anyone here! Thanks Lyn for nominating me .. here are my answers to your questions and if anyone needs directions to his site! You can click right here!
NB Apparently I missed the post when it first came out it only gave me a tag warning like two weeks ago! Weird Huh! So sorry for doing this so late! I thought i was early!

Q: If you could see one anime again for the first time, what would it be and why?


A: School Live, Explaining why would ruin this wonderful anime experience, If you havend seen Gakkou Gurashi yet..don’t look it up..just watch the first five episodes of this super cute school show! I had.. but rewatching it as is would not have the same impact. This anime had me laughing and crying and feel me sick to my stomach. To relive that moment that Megu-Nee is asked to hold the radio is one of the most powerful moments I ever experienced in anime and to live that again  would be nothing less than amazing. Such a wonderful idea that anime was and definatly amongst my favorites. Surely  one that would be worth seeing for the first time again. I am so certain of this answer that I think this is actually the right answer and someone somewhere might come give me a cash prize!

Q: If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would you teach?


A: I am not a good teacher the workshop I gave at a dutch anime convention showed me that. I am way to wooden and frantic for that. So  I am not sure if it counts as I feel this is more something I’d coach, but I want people to stand by themselves more. You don’t need to strive for that Picket White fence, the 2.1 children (though I do approve of the .1 ) and a pet named Jim-Bob-Johnson. You need to do you! Whatever that means how much it may deviate from the standard, you need to do you. You can’t be happy if you are not yourself.. you’d only make the self imposed lie happy!  I lost it all when I realised I never had been myself.. that I always lied!  When I was broken down so hard that there was nothing left of me but my core I realised this.. and I realised how hard it is to shake of that compulsion so rather than teach I’d coach people to maxmise themselves and limit the social standard. Don’t live a lie as a decent person in the eyes of others, make sure you try to be happy! If being good to others makes you happy all the better! But you matter too!

Q: If you could be any supernatural creature, what would you be and why?


A: A Malkavian Vampire, my health is something that troubles me so I would not say no to immortality! Any form of vampirism  is welcome but my favorite kind would be that of a Malkavian. These vampires are very much known for their insanity but are they truly insane or do they see through the lies we have imposed for ourselves, do they see the world pure? Their mind trick abilities would really suit my persona and walking around as a Haruyuki  Girl while being a Malkavian seems perfectly valid! Odd cosplays and talking with plushies also seems very much in line!

In my opinion Malkavians aren’t really “mad” they just shed off the concept of what we call words. “Male, Female, Black, White, Good, Evil” it all means nothing to a these ethereal creatures of the night! They see you for who you really are. Lies are tangible to them, disguises mean nothing they always see you for who you are. If you woman born in a man’s body they will call you a woman if you literally wear a mask of a more handsome person they will mention the beauty underneath. There is no hiding from their truth it is absolute and I do feel  that would make the world so much more comprehensible. No more false signs of goodwill , no more hate as a cry for attention we all see it as it is..clear. I would not mind living forever if I could see the world like that. Plus being called duckling by sexy club owners is a great boon to that as well.

Q: If you had a time machine, would go back in time or into the future?

A: That depends on whether or not I can make a return trip, if I can alter the timeline or more like Stein’s Gate move through timelines.  If time doesn’t “change” the world I live in but places me in an alternate one I would go nowhere. I would sell it for so much cash that I could buy everything I had ever dreamed off for the rest of my days. Time traveling is always a gamble and If I can’t change anything.. the future improving is but a gamble.. who knows I might end up in a destroyed world. 

I keep using this image I made once!

If time can be altered and my existence could be erased I would not sell it. I do not trust people enough to spare me. If the time machine offers a one way trip  I would sell everything I have.. cash out.. buy something that will increase in value and go to the future.  Maybe I can be cured of my stuff there! There is a lot more anime to watch and games to play. Chances of me finding a girl to love are better in the future than in the past. Plus think about how cheap I get games for my Switch after they became super dated!

If it’s a return trip though I’d go to the past.  The recent past.. I would steal the idea of Pokémon and pitch it to Nintendo taking along my original copy of Pokémon Blue. After that they would see how awesome the game is and I would own the franchise! I’d be the pokémon company.. I would travel back to my time so I could enjoy the benefits I have reaped for myself and still enjoy the newer games in my sort of prime! I’d be able to eat for free in the Pokémon Café  and I’d definitely would be able to obtain a Mew’s Fluffy Marshmallow Drink.

This one I actually found on google when I searched for the drink!

Q: If you could add a word to the dictionary what would you add and what would it mean?

A: Transverbum
noun

  1. A person who has left behind the limits of language and words. They understand that objects , animals and fellow humans do not need to be clustered within standard definitions.  They use words to amplify rather than confine.
  2. An exemplary person of wisdom, someone who understands they can never quantify someone or something completely

verb

To Transveribe, Transveribed, Transveribing

  1. To realise something can not be completely described with words:
    Though the person before me could be described as a middle aged male in a dress, I decided to Transveribe and experience this person rather than trying to describe them.

Q: If you could pick up a new skill in an instant what would it be?

A: I am going to assume we are talking about a real skill here, not anime powers.. if it is though.. Mind Magic…

As a real skill to instantly learn i’d doubt between programming which could lead me to build a much more awesome website but honestly, voice acting.  Programming seems useful but not fun  and If I can voice act I could bring this blog onto Youtube. Due to my unfortunate situation my voice is very weak and ugly. By gaining the skills for full voice control and voice acting I could probably find my way around this! I’d instantly learn so it would probably break my limitations so .. yay! It would also seem like something very fun to do and allow me to gain many awesome experiences.

Q: If extraterrestrials landed on earth and offered to take you with them, would you go

A: Yes, while I do have plenty of friends here that I would miss , I feel like I would love an adventure like that. I would have a few conditions though. I would want to bring my consoles and have a way to run them so I at least have some memory of Earth, take a few plushies with me and I’d prefer not to be turned into an energy based creature. Though all these things would be open for debate. I would not mind to live as energy that much if I at least keep my individuality. I would like to be able to choose my colour though.

Earth has recently disappointed me hard, every day I feel like a little bit of me dies seeing the state of the world. Both sides of the spectrum do to be honest. Individuality is being quashed and we just keep labeling ourselves. While I do think we make progress I also think we are losing ourselves along the way! If I would have a way to escape I would.

Q: If you could choose your age forever, what age would you choose and why?

A: It depends of your concept of age, if we mean physical age I would love to be forever 21. Looking old enough to get at least some respect and looking young enough to have some fun.. it just gives me so much options to live my eternal live. I would also like be the ideal model and mascotte for the forever 21 stores, who do have a lot of cute and nice clothes.. which I would probably be able to endorse to get cheaply!  You see I AM forever 21. Problem is I don’t really take photo’s really well so I might look akward

If it means  giving up what I have learned though.. and have my mental age regress back too. I’d rather stay the age I was now! I feel like I am wise enough to be happy and young enough to not have to much physical limits. I dont look completely as pretty and cute as I want to.. and some Lolita fashion now would be really wasted on me …so 21 would be better.. but I would not give up my knowledge or my lessons it made me who I am and not even immortality is worth giving that up.

Q: What would the title of your autobiography be?

A:  That time I got to live on forever  in my own pink autobiography!

When in doubt give it a light novel title. It depicts who I am as a person. Geek, Pink and to long winded! It would also prompt people to buy my book I think. By reading this book you could keep me alive. People would love to save that sentiment and be the heroes that keep me alive. Passing this book along, advising it to their friends, with each new person i live on longer.. become part of people’s life as my ideas and persona get captured in this book. Etched on the souls of everyone who reads it and even takes one of my few advice thnings . It would look one of those old leather bound books with a pink cover and some white ornaments and other than that just the title. Yet really faded you might see my eyes and my smile as well!

Q : What’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

A: My best piece of advice was actually given to me by myself, I had a non visited dutch anime blog when I saw a girl writing for a game magazine founding her own anime blog and looking for members. I did not not feel good enough but I literally talked to myself. This is something you should do, stop being afraid..it’s okay to reach out to the world. I was so anxious and scared of rejection before so I was afraid she would call me an idiot who should not even try blogging. Instead I got to write for her, we became great friends and my life has became so much better. I found a group that accepted I was a geek , they introduced me to DnD , anime conventions , gaming together. Without them I would not be here today..without them..I’d honestly do not think I’d have the mental fortitude to live until now! Without them I would have never discovered my true self.

Without reaching out, I would be afloat in a sea of nothingness, of denial , hiding who I am trying to pretend to be normal. Without her I would have been unhappy probably even dead given what happend. So my best advice is to reach out to people like you, they won’t eat you and while contact can be scary.. most of the time it takes anxiety away in the long run. Never think you are not worthy do something..it’s advise I do need to take myself again, but for here never think your comment doesn’t matter or that you have nothing to add! I’d love to here your voices! Even if I act a bit wooden and nervous at times! I will do my best I welcome everyone’s thoughts and friendship just like my dear friend accept mine that day 6,5 years ago.

Q: The zombie apocalypse is coming, who are the three anime characters you want on your team?

A: Maple from Bofuri to lead my defence, that basically already is enough for us to be safe but I would pair her up with John Wick, I know he isn’t exactly an anime character but I feel like he has the qualities to be one.. I guess Spike Spiegel as his anime counterpart.. or Maybe Alucard, I’d really prefer John though.. you know he’s kinda breathtaking.  As my melee fighter I would choose the Bludgeon Angel Dokuro. Not only do I think she would do really well in a fight with Excalibogg, she could also say Pipirupirupirupipirupi (google docs corrected that spelling for me) and bring me back to life after I have been horribly eaten.
That way I’d have a tank to defend me.. a long ranged gunner and a melee fighter that is also a healer!   I could be the bard and I am sure we would be right as rain!

1. Have you ever cosplayed, if yes.. what’s your best cosplay? If no what would you cosplay if you could?
2. What is the least geeky thing about you?
3. If your life was ever turned into an anime, what type of anime would it be?
4. If your life was ever turned into a video game, what type of game it would be?
5. If you’d have to choose any other archetype but geek, what would you want to be?
6. What’s the worst thing you have ever done to a friend?
7. What is your favorite alcoholic beverage and tells us about when you had too much off it
8. How would you take over the world, in a world of endless possibilities? Be evil!
9. Which anime character you think could stop the you from question 8.
10. Which anime characters would be the henchmen to the you from question 8.
11. If you could make one true wish, but it had to be at least  somewhat selfish, what would it be?

I based these nominations on the people interaction with me lately! Be it retweeting, commenting, etc! Why?! Because that way I can easily do all the linky stuff super easy and of course these people are super awesome!

Mari from Starting Life At Zero whose brave posts really made my personal world less dark.
WinstOlf who shared a lot of my tweets at WinstOlf Portal
Celestial Sparkles from How Anime Stuff works. Who really is active around my website lately which I greatly appreciate!
Mallow or Roki Bloop from Secluded observations, whose names spelling I had to check 27 times despite him retweeting almost everything in support! Such an amazing person!
Summer Foovay from Foovay’s Cauldron whom I have come to consider as my Blogging Bestie, and who finished all tags I gave her..so she needs more!
Ospreyshire or Curtis from Iridium Eye whom while we cleary differ quite a bit has always been there and willing to talk about all sorts of things both high and low brow! I love meeting people like him!
Lina from Tiny Ugly Animal whose name I see pop up more and more on my blog and who can use a challenge to combine with the 30 day of anime challenge! Mwuhahahaha.
That K person or was it C figure? I do not know anymore! Who really came trough with some encouraging words lately which in part reminded me of a lesson I mentioned in this post!
Solarayo from Ace Asunder. They quickly became very active here! I am very happy to see them around! So they deserve a nomination!
Naja from Blerdy Otome whose zeal and passion I always appreciate and who really is a super OWL. Where I had times I doubted if I should continue OWLS Naja’s posts always make me feel that I am in the right place there!
Selina from a Blog with A Little Bit of Everything who may struggle a bit with the anime and geek questions because I am not sure if she is a geek that watches anime. So whenever it says anime she can read Cartoons/tv series and when it says Geek..she can read crafter. Unless of course she knows more about that than I know..it’s up to her!

PS: If you have not been nominated you can earn yourself a nomination by answering this difficult and personal question in the comments! Only if you are worthy you will know:
What is my favorite colour?!








Pinkie Plays a Sports-Game? Ninja Baseball Bat Man Review

When you read this title you might think about the caped crusader playing a sports game against his enemies the league of Shadows… kind of like Mega Man Soccer for example. However if you read close you see it’s Ninja Baseball Bat Man not Batman and not Batmen either. However the Bat Men in this arcade delight are in a way Batmen! You see the story of this game is something along the lines of Roger, Ryno José and Straw were relaxing one day when suddenly a golden statue of their coach got stolen.. Six separate items. Now these four heroes have to travel through America and fight powerful baseball and Japanese themed foes ..also sometimes other stuff like crying airplanes or smiling orbs of nothingness,  to get these six items back before the evil villain can use them to conjure up the almighty King Babe .. with them.. which he then controls! So yes.. the biggest enemy in this game is Babe Ruth.. legendary baseball player.  

A batman in the english dictionary is described as a soldier who works under a superior as a servant. In a way these Ninja’s work under their coach and they retrieve a statue instead of doing their regular job so I guess in a way that would make them batmen. So if this game ever gets a sequel.. and I REALLY hope it does I suggest  the title Ninja Baseball Bat Man Batmen! As you may have guessed this game is rather zaney! Combining Ninja culture with the american sports culture leads to some very interesting scenarios in this beat them up that I would describe as a relatively easy adventure across  seven stages.  I spend 23 quarters on this game.  Well I would have if this was the old arcade days! Since this is actually my first time beating an arcade game I am not sure! We will find out in the future! Anyway as far as beat em ups go this one is really amazing! I just felt like a kid again! I played this game by myself so it was actually a bat woman not a bat man.. neither was it bat MEN. I played for myself so I would not be a batman either.. I think.. Brain ouchies!

Choosing one out of for Bat Men you move across west coast of america and make your way up to the east coast.. kinda!  We get stages like Las Vegas, Texas and Chicago all ending with a big showdown in New York. I kinda forgot where the first two stages are set. It doesn’t really matter anyway because aside from Chicago and Vegas they aren’t very recognisable.  The first stage is some kind of giant airport.. so I would assume it is LA based on what I know of the city. Giant halls and such. Then we get a stage aboard a big ship and a battle in the harbor.. so San Francisco maybe?!  Vegas we fight our way through a casino and in texas we visit a haunted mansion. Chicago has a lot of gangsters, New York a lot of building scaffolding.. It kind of reminded me like that stage in turtles in time.  A LOT! In fact?

In this game you can take on the roles of José the leader of the bunch who fights with average stats. He has a cool personality.. stern but fair! A good leader.  Then we have Ryno.. he is the stormy one of the group.. using his two tiny bats, he attacks super rapidly but his attacks are super short range.. he is the most rash of them all!  Then we have Roger. Roger is the big guy in yellow, his club has been made into a maze by fitting a baseball on it. He is slow but he has a breakdancing like move and he loves to eat , mostly pizza. Straw is the guy who attacks with the longest weapon almost a staff. He is the most chilled out guy of the group.. not as zany as the others. He just gets the job done.. he walks slow as Fudge though. While there are some special moves that show up as ninja abilities such as Ryno summoning storms and some other stuff that is a bit hard to explain..  These guys usually stick to their sport moves for the majority of the game.  Ninjutsu is possible.. but tricky at times.

What is great is that every fighter feels unique and all of them had their moments where I found them more usable than the others. For example Ryno performs really well in bigger packs with low HP while  Straw is really good at the later stages of boss fights and slower beginning of stages.  Roger is great for the final tougher enemies prior to a boss and of course for pummeling the boss itself.  Jose finally is good against armoured enemies, and in general the tougher stage foes. Still I am pretty sure these guys aren’t humans so they must be mutants… hmmmm I heard this before. Not sure where but for some odd reason I feel really like dining on baseball soup tonight! Gross!

I was really amazed how different characters felt from one another and this kept my adventure fun! Which was needed because this is a two button arcade cabinet. You have your directional keys, your hit button and your jump button. By pressing both jump and punch you can use a special moves but there are also some hidden behind some streetfighter like combo’s I think which I could not figure out how to reproduce.  Each are character unique though.  For example Straw can attack an enemy on the floor , Ryno can leap into the air and bounce of enemies with a homing like attack and Roger hits REALLY hard.  This guaranteed that I needed quite a few continues as some characters are very poorly equipped against certain situations..but it also meant there was some depth to this. I liked it.. losing a live in arcade games is ..inevitable.. they are designed like that, the ability to switch character on a game over keeps the game fresh and fun! 

The enemy design and stage design really contributes to that as well. So much is done to keep things fresh. While like traditionally a lot of enemies make their return in later stages they either get new mechanics, like turning invisible for a brief moment when you hit them in the haunted level. Other options are that some of the items the enemy carry varies.. thus is looks like a new enemy. For example there are some crushers that in earlier stages drop a Mani Neko.. which gives a small chance for an item drop I think (Not sure because I’ll be honest I never hit with a lot of them)  and in later stages they come equipped with a Tanuki statue…which I never once hit… (I think), It ain’t much but still I never felt like … blegh it’s THAT enemy again. Other examples include that we get other methods to deal with enemies. Later in Chicago for example we get the baseball bat enemies from stage 1 again. but this time we drive around in a small car to run them over.. or get bombs that deal fire damage and if bats gets set on fire they instantly die, screaming.

A lot is happening in the stages as well, in the background baseball people hang out and play, in the foreground cheerleaders pop up shooting laser beams or throwing around food for you. In the haunted mansion level when you reach the dining room, you can eat all the food on the table..because obviously you could.  It doesn’t always make sense either. For example in the New York Stage you keep seeing a stadium in the background.. at one point you see it  sprout turbo rockets as it flies up towards you.. dropping of a fresh batch of new enemies.  It really is a spectacle to behold and that is what makes this beat em up so much better than most arcade counter parts. It doesn’t get boring because you never know what you get to expect. From a boat you could suddenly be lifted up by a giant arm that brings you to a factory where Giant Baseball shaped machines crush Mane Neko in the background and the casino is always super vibrant. You never know what is next! A big plus in the genre.

What I really loved was the bosses!  They are so creative and random! If you didn’t know yet I love randomness! The first boss fight is the windy plane ! A airplane you fight… INSIDE a PLANE! If you beat it enough it becomes a crying unicycle! So sad! I wish I did not have to put it down! I tried sparing it .. but it kept driving over it..so  WHACK! I had to put it down! It’s a fairly straight up fight! But a very solid first boss! Straw is a really good match for it.. I think! I worked really well when I re-encountered it again!  Straw is really a good shout out for the first stage in general.. I’d say over all he was my favorite bat man!

In the second stage we fight Mad Lax.. which is two Lego coloured baseball people sitting in a pink female-ish monster truck like  buggy. Said buggy can obviously summon some wind up crocodiles toys..which are bright blue.  Since this boss spawns a lot of adds I suggest taking Ryno into this fight. He can quickly deal with those pesky adds and is quick enough to catch up with this fairly fast enemy.  Oddly Roger is quite good as well.. using his special move he can quickly pick off some tightly packed crocs! Blimey! This boss fight doesn’t do all that much special things either but it’s pink so that’s already amazing.

The third boss is the Deffending Slotmachine and no that is not not a typo, that’s actually how the game spells it so that’s his name. This fight is rather random. Ideal you step in first with Roger and finish him with Straw but if you want to save on quarters I’d say that Jose is actually best equipped for this fight. He is a bit of everything so no matter what this boss throws at you you can counter it. This boss mainly fights using stage hazards so the two I pick are kind of a hassle to use. I really lucked out with Straw getting him into a stunlock like state and finishing it without to much quarters relieved from my fictional pants.  Wait.. I meant fictional quarters… darn it.. you are going to use that against me aren’t you?.

We then get to my favorite boss! The Ghost Buffalow of Texas.. he is a possessed refrigerator with a buffalo head mounted on top.. giving himself a chicken body by possessing a shield, two violins some chandeliers a carpet and some swords. Roger is your friend here because you want to get in those heavy hits. But in its second phase it has some pretty wide AoE attacks so switching to Straw will almost be mandatory. I couldn’t do a thing anymore.  Still ever since I was a kid I dreamed about fighting my refrigerator with an animal head made into a turkey! Now I finally did!

Florida the fifth stage ends off with a showdown against the mechanical alligator. A bit of a generic boss that reminds me of Leatherhead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. .. wait.. is THAT the franchise that’s like this game? I am sure it isn’t ?! He is very big and one of the most tricky bosses out there! His tail can detach and become an powerful enemy itself. However Jose and Straw really do the trick here. I clobbered him with  Roger at first but that got me nowhere fast.  Wasted 3 quarters on this man!  I could have bought some soda for that!  Luckily when he is defeated he turns into a crocodile leather purse so that makes up for things!

The second to last both is the gangster boss of Chicago! This is a menacing god father who has two Kawaii twin tails sticking out besides his fedora.  If you manage to get around his attacks and beat him up a lot you can reveal that underneath the hat is yet another tail! Triple Tail! Kawaii as Heck! He just wants to be loved and look cute! .. But unfortunately for him I really got good at playing as Straw.. so I whacked him until he was not cute anymore. This boss-fight was a bit of a deception.. kind of a push over. Using Straw’s basic special move i would whack him to one side of the screen then piledriver him and rinse and repeat until the chicago mobster was no more! I really liked his name and gimmick though!

The  final stage is a quarter devourer.. we get a lot of Umpire enemies (which are like double shielded ghosts that drop bomb enemies when their two shields are broken)  there is a small boss rush before the final fight.. and then we fight The King Babe! This boss ate 5 Quarters! Jose is definitely the one you should use here. My usual suspects were just too slow to deal with those charging attacks. Eventually I got unlocked Ultra Instinct on Straw though (Not an actual unlockable) and I piledrived this guy into oblivion! He is just the meanest baseballer you have ever seen! I did not know Babe Ruth was this evil .. but I am glad this game showed me! I wouldn’t know who the guy is though.. so unless he looks like a video game boss I have a problem still!

This game is amazing, the combat feels a bit floaty ..as if I hit air.. but weirdly in a nice way. If you play Turtles in Time.. hits feel to not do anything they just pop enemies.. Final Fight for example has really connecting hits. While I would have preferred Final Fight I liked this sensation as well. It felt as if I was making attacks.. but they did not really hit.. still I got the sensation of swinging. The weirdness and the tempo make it less serious and viceral which improves the atmosphere. The special moves DO have that nice WHACK! Sensation to it.. which makes me want to use them more and fight a bit more diversely.. which games like these need to stay varied.  The special moves also do not take away HP which is a godsend and a rarity in this genre. The game can be finished in about the same time  as watching a movie so it’s also a nice thing to just pick up and play. Perfect for people like me who want to show you what kind of weirdness there is in the world of video games. This is a wonderful time and with a friend to play with you it will even be more wonderful! If you can get it.. it’s certainly worth a try! As far as arcade games go, this sits among the best I have played! (Right now at least) So since it now is a favorite of mine……

Do you know of any (preferably short) but weird games I can play?! Have you ever played this game?! Next week i’ll stick with the same genre and look at other weird things that allegedly can be Ninja’s but after that I am still looking for ideas!

This is Bollshit: House of the Dead (2003) Review

Hey my lovely island guests! For a while now I have been doing movie reviews on monday, and for the last two weeks I have been discussing video game movies! I thought it was a fun idea for me to go to EVERY video game movie made up till this day! You know since we are all geeks and that! Yet there is one man who makes this challenge turn from hard, into a herculean feat! One man whose movies are so bad that his IMDB entire oeuvre  average grade (for game movies at least)  is almost an entire grade lower  of the total score Tommy Wiseau’s The Room has! That man is Uwe Boll.. and my friends made me start with potentially his worst movie! Today I review House of The Dead.

Very few movies are so bad that the director is accused of money laundering. While this movie ‘only’ costs about 12 million dollars, people saw this movie looked so bad, it possibly can not have cost that much. Since 12 million is almost nothing for a film nowadays… that is saying something. Now having seen this movie.. I am pretty sure there was some money embezzled here and there because the zombies in this movie..do not look better than your overzealous halloweenist or what you might encounter in a haunted maze. In this movie we follow Rudy and his friends who go to a rave..of 12 people or so.. on an island known for it’s gun smuggling business and the rumors of a deadly curse that dates back to the golden age of Spanish trade. While Rudy is already on the island his friends miss the boat and they pay a smuggler 1000 dollars to take them to the island.  Before they get there to shit goes down as all 12 rave visitor get killed by zombies.. lead by the immortal Castillo Sermano.. whose big motivations are.. that he created immortality…because he wanted to live forever.

This is the best looking zombie in the movie is by far the main Villian

Yes that is actual dialogue from the movie “You created it all so you could become Immortal, Why?” To which the villain answers “To live forever” Now that’s some pretty hokey dialogue. Mind you.. this man is Spanish..he kills everyone on this island immediately and no one dares to set foot on it.. but he speaks English. Then again he might be the mastermind of the Sega sponsored rave so he could get some new body parts to look fresher.. but I am not sure. Anyway.. people get naked.. and people die..typical Uwe Boll stuff, there isn’t that much more to the movie. Of course since it is based on a light gun game.. there is also a lot of shooting as well. A near infinite supply of hand grenades spawns from a single crate as well. At least Uwe had the video game logic down. In fact.. a lot of times it even looks like a video game, and I don’t JUST mean fake!

Actual Screen-grab from Movie

House of the Dead is one of the classic arcade shooters and if you have ever been at a convention or at an arcade you’ll most likely have at least seen it maybe even played it. If you haven’t don’t worry Uwe has got your back.  I honestly think that game’s pixelated graphics has better looking zombies than this movie. Then again.. if you have your face painted in Mcdonald’s, 9 out of 10 times it will look better than this movie. People just get some white lenses and some blood is smeared on their somewhat whitened face .. and tadaa.. you are a zombie. Well that or you are rotten to absolute heck.. and kinda look like a Jawa without the cloak. I’d imagine. Bullets can leave holes in your torso the size of a soup bowl or not have any effect at all at totally random. Sometimes people lose arms at random or aim for something they clearly are not hitting. So somehow Uwe simulated how actual aged light guns work.. and translated that to a movie! At least that’s faithful. 

Kore we Zombie Desu Ka?! No seriously I am asking here!

To give you more immersion scenes are strung together with actual game footage  flashing throughout the entire movie at random intervals, since people are very bad at acting we do not get death scenes we instead get “game over screens” where the camera spins around a character in a more heroic moment before the screen turns red and fades away. I honestly have never seen a movie whose cinematography is so painfully bad as this one. People look so awkward with their guns yet somehow every one .. from cop, to model to random girl can wield these weapons with pinpoint accuracy..even while being eaten, underwater  and of course while insanely drunk. Sets are so obviously fake that it seems like something Vampirella would present on.. or whatever those horror hosts did. Even Ed Wood might say.. you might wanna adjust those lights.

This is at night by the way

Now sometimes a movie is so bad that it’s good. Not with this movie though! While what I might have said sounds like it is a hilariously bad movie like Birdemic and The Room, this does not have that charm.  Where in those movies.. and Who Killed Captain Alex too for that matter there is passion..this is a movie of paychecks and “let’s get it over with” acting.  People read their lines and that’s it. It feels like a ‘you get your diploma but barely’  graduation project from acting school. It isn’t always the actors fault though Jonathan Cherry who plays Rudy.. really can not carry any dramatic scene. Jürgen Prochnow who is better know for Das Boot and Dune  is passable at times but the character is poorly written. All the characters are poorly written. We have the dumb model, the crazy superstitious sailor, the straight shooting cop and the over sexed bimbo.  However.. our main cast is Random doctor student , random ex girlfriend.. and other random girl who is also a friend. They have no traits whatsoever except for being mean to the model guy. It’s hard to act if your character doesn’t have a personality so I get that. 

Captain Kirk and Captain America working together!

Well the doctor guy.. Rudy Curien  likes girls. That’s his trade.. but with girls named Liberty, Karma and Alicia.. you got a pretty good idea what Uwe Boll things a woman is. A stripper.
Alicia fights the final fight in some sort of leather skimpy corset. Liberty wears one of those 60’s american flag jump suits with some serious push up and there is a lot of boob in this movie. They are meant to look sexy and basadds, so most of the times girls wield Melee weapons.. just so the camera man can get away with some close up shots that follow the line of “hey my eyes are up here’. The cop named Carter (she is never given a first name in this movie)  and captain Kirk..(yes thats what he is called)  are the only two characters I remotely enjoyed. Unfortunately Kirk gets bitten and uses dynamite to blow himself up.. because dynamite is a weapon.. like shotguns and all .. it’s really not but they have tons of it in a weapons crate in this movie.  

Carter gets her legs chopped off by a axe wielding zombie..who throws the axe away and loses it prior to chopping her legs of with it. (Also he gets killed before) So I am pretty sure Uwe Boll pays tribute to the respawning video game enemies.  Carter of course dies from this and in a very well acted Rudy moment *cough*  he says goodbye to her and we see her die.
Afterwards the house her corpse is in gets blown up. Zombies still roam the area and later a special force team clears the area of anything remotely suspicious.  So obviously she’s the star of the sequel… (That’s no joke..despite getting her legs chopped off, laying there for almost an entire night bleeding, getting blown up by a huge gunpowder explosion.. she is the star of the sequel.. that takes place AFTER these events). Oh right and I almost forgot you to tell about the acid spit zombie.. of which there is exactly one! The model whose face is slowly dissolving acts out his pain with so much zeal… who am I kidding.. his acting is on the level of an early 90’s video game voice acting person.  So again! Point for Uwe for faithfulness.

Clearly this woman can survive and entire night of bleeding out and being blown up! Look at how healthy she looks!

Never really get annoyed by a movies soundtrack but in case of this movie.. it literally does everything wrong! We get very odd music choices that do not match their situation at all. A despair fight they are losing gets high octane metal music as if we are playing doom, while someone dying on the table gets a slightly whimsical melody.. a creepy crypt is more generic rock/metal and the rave itself doesn’t really have rave music at all. Then again no one going to this rave is your usual raver either. I found some music choices so painful.. and out of place I just wonder where they got the track.. are they in the video game? If so that game has a really bad soundtrack.. but still I bet it utilizes it more wisely.. this feels like the sound editor just wanted to be cool! And just picked some edgelord music pieces and strung them together. The best comparison I can make is that this movie sounds like one of those strip clubs that serves free chicken wings.. just to get some guests in their place.. you know the place where strippers look more like actual zombies than the zombies in this movie. 

I like that red guy in the back right in front of those zombies without make up near the flame!

To be honest I’d rather go to the stripclub though.. I mean .. free Chicken Wings. Nothing against strippers by the way, I have sex worker friends and as long as you have fun what your doing it’s all good.. I just mean.. some can look a bit .. washed up. Scarier than the zombies in this movie. Anyway I was talking about the sound. Of course this movie constantly has weird camera moments where like a video game the camera spins around a character to show a critical hit or something.. this is accompanied by weird swooshing noises, epic close ups that have bullets whistling and super stock sounding explosions and gun effects.. as if the files have been ripped straight out of a video game. …

The unlockable secret outfits come already unlocked as well 10/10

As far as video game movies go.. it’s about the equivalent of someone taping their let’s play of House of the Dead and selling it as a movie.. except it has more annoying characters, more poorly timed music, worst hit detection and zero gameplay. Less satisfying gore a worse story, worse camera angles and less interesting set pieces. It’s not enjoyable to watch yet has this magnetism to it.. you can’t help but to keep watching.  While I haven’t been positive nor is there much to be positive at all, I do gotta say.. weirdly..I do feel this is a video game movie.. more so than say Assassins Creed. It is as if Uwe Boll does really care about this game and has put so many elements of the game in.. to make it feel like he was playing the game again while shooting this movie. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t treat women right, it doesn’t care about being a good movie.. but there somewhere is some understanding of the source material. I think.. or he somehow managed to make a movie that is so awful that it feels like the game .. in the wrong places by sheer coincidence. 

I saw something.. like a little spark of a connection.. like our inner gamers clicked just for a tiny moment. It’s buried too  much under trying to turn this movie into his persona edgy strip club! Where the chicken wings are free but so oily and greasy..that they look more like zombies.. than the zombies in this actual movie.

While some movies are so bad they are good, this one is just plane bad! A point can be made for it having heart.. but a point can also be made that this movie was made for the reason to embezzle some of the 12 million this movie costs and to turn a movie into your private stripclub! Sorry this definitely deserves my lowest score:

Review System Update coming soon!

PS:

Dear Mister Boll, if you ever read this review…somehow.. or one of my other dips into your Video Game movies, which at least according to IMDB aren’t much better, please do not invite me to a boxing match to beat me up, like you did to other critics. I might die from that! So IF you have to take your revenge on me..please make a movie about my absolute favorite games in the world, making a movie so bad it kills the games?! I would be so sad and you would have the intellectual victory! My favorite games are Fortnite and Call of Duty..possibly Fifa too! I accept that you might want revenge..so these are my tributes to you!….But please do not make these movies within the next year! I have to review all video game movies.. if you manage to make one within 40 weeks.. i’d have to review that too and a Fortnite movie by Uwe Boll sounds like absolute dogshit! Thank you for understanding!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 8

Hello my sweet lovely island guests!  Today I am back for you with more anime episode reviews.. mostly of stuff that isn’t relevant any longer but I have fun doing this so I will keep going on! Where last week we had a rather disappointing experience this week blew my socks off! In the good sense. The weird thing wasn’t I wasn’t even wearing any socks!

Would you look at that, BNA did an amazing episode again. While the last episode was definitely a stinker for me this episode brought what I had so longed for  in this series. Another format to bring about a change of events. A connection to the actual plot and some background into characters that are not Michiru or Nazuna. This week is focussed all around Shirou and his amazing secret. I will be discussing this secret in the next paragraph so spoiler warning for that.  It was the change of pace I needed what made it more believable.. rather than having path cross on accident , both Shirou and Michiru have reasons to be involved in the incident that is centralised in this episode.  It leads in a natural progression for Michiru, a logical development between her and Nazuna and a whole lot of character development for Shirou. The stuff unfolding has been set up for quite a while now and finally we begin to say some pay off.  No deus ex machina needed but story I could get deeply invested into! The fight scene was pretty amazing as well! It’s nice to see my main girl step up as well!

Now.. this fight leads to a BIG reveal.. one that is about as surprising as water coming out of my faucet after turning it open.  Last chance to avoid spoilers! You know this already though!
Anyway so it turns out Shirou is Ginrou the beast god!?! OMG I never would have suspected it! .. We get some back story about a miracle that made him into the wolf god thing he is .. and that looked amazing. I loved those visuals!  Shirou’s story was my favorite part of this episode. It even was a pretty generic and not even that rivettingly told story ..so that says how good it was for me!  I loved it despite the generic plot!  I am a sucker for odd visuals though!  The whole story book like visuals were great!  It also explains Shirou’s character quite well.  Throughout this story we also see a few parts beginning to move! I got reaffirmation that Boris is connected to the human Alan! I am not sure how yet.. but he seems to be working for them ..testing a new drug thing! There really were a lot of great moments here! I could pick quite a few. 

The moment I liked least was when Barbara began to tell she was trapped in a concentration camp in Germany during the second world war. It makes sense in the narrative of that world but it kind of felt like a drag by the hair analogy! We already know beast man are being oppressed and discriminated against.. you do not have to tell us it happened in the past because you just did!  Also the crow was also in that concentration camp, it has been genetically altered to live longer, which I feel was a bit of a throwaway reveal.  While I do love the episode.. the plot moved too slowly in the sense for the  series. We are introduced to yet another plot thing.. being a drug that turns you into a wild growing Kaiju and while gears begin to connect there is to much left to be resolved in four episodes.. unless they are going to completely throw the series feeling for pacing overboard. We moved forward but the emphasis was on backstory so not a whole lot happened. While I loved that about the episode I now am certain it will hurt the series in the end for me. Still as an episode it was excellent.

Episode Score:

While I disliked  episode 2 for being uneventful , this episode is completely different. Perhaps even less happened… but I loved it! I loved this episode so much! It and Slime are about tied for the best watch of the week! In the second episode of the show we saw Samurai Flamenco being picked up by social media and this week Masayoshi has to deal with the fallout of that. People suspect he might be  Samurai Flamenco based on a poll.. and as a result he is invited to some sort of talk show. When the REAL Samurai Flamenco reveals himself there.. and it’s Masayoshi’s  favorite Sentai actor, he is faced with a deep dilemma!  Not only does he have to keep his identity secret, now he might just have to take his alter ego’s identity away from the man who inspired him to be like this in the first place! It’s such a tiny plot but it is filled full of character building moments.

My favorite moment is during the talk show Masayoshi is one. When the fake Samurai is revealed. We first get a misdirect that they have found out it’s actually our protagonist that is the real life sentai, but if you payed attention to the episode title you already know a faker shows up! The fake ranger is actually a common trope in the actual sentai genre so it is funny to see it done this early with such a fledgling hero! It also makes perfect sense. The way the scene itself unfolds is perfect as well. So much becomes clear in this one scene. We can see the character of Jouji Kaname being established in this very cool seen, we see Maya watching from afar, noticing it’s another character, we see Masayoshi’s agent make a connection between her client this man and the axe toy she found in papers she picked up at his place.. and more than likely making the connection to his hidden identity! Within a few seconds so many plotlines open  up and that will even lead into more interesting plotlines such as Gotou realing digging dressing up as the Samurai character.  I am looking forward to it all. 

The actual showdown between Samurai Flamenco and the Fake feels a bit off to me though.  While I do get what trope the series is going for.. with the heartfelt speech awakening the  “evil ranger” to the path of good again the way Joiji acts kind of  ruined the punchline of that trope for me. He “acts” as if he was just giving the boy a trial.. while he should actually be emotionally touched this is never really shown .. we do not know what parts are an act and what not. As a result I found the reveal to be more annoying than epical!  The seen thereafter made things up.. with Red Axe saying Samurai Flamenco is his apprentice.. if this becomes an actual plot line that could be very interesting.. if this is a throwaway line I might like it less.

Time will tell, I have high hopes but the showdown was less than stellar. Our model boy is just a tad to helpless and when someone acts over the heartfelt message it kinda ruins the message. Still fun to see and the final shot where Gotou is dressed up as the Samurai is amazing as well. To confuse the agent Masayoshi lets him play a body double so he can walk into her office, throwing off her suspicion for now. Yet that isn’t the biggest HECK YES! When Gotou stands there on the rooftops as a superhero he feels awesome! HECK YES! Again a single line that opens so much options for this show in the future! I like it!

Episode Score:

I loved this! The episode was weird, cute, had trippy visuals, unlikely events and proper setup for the future! While normally I think second episodes tend to be the weakest of the early five , this episode completely trumped the first episode for me, and I already really liked that one! The slime gets a name of Rimuru by the storm dragon Veldora, who in return gets a family name it shares with the slime! Oh my Arceus that is so cute! With his new name the slime devours the prison that keeps Veldora in.. and Veldora as well as they begin an adventure to set the dragon free. A search that leads the slime to obtaining very powerful water based skills and encountering a cute goblin village.. as well as some adventurers.
The goblins are in trouble because since their god, assumingly Veldora , disappeared from the world dire wolves have been running amuck and killing their villagers including their local hero.  Since Rimuru has such a powerful aura they offer him their loyalty in return for his aid against the wolves. A two tier episode that really shined for me!  I got what I wanted and just a bit more!

My favorite scene is definitely the bromance seen between a slime and  the dragon resulting in the dragon being absorbed, prison and all by the slime!  I really like their interaction together and  can’t help myself but to be thoroughly amused by the odd pairing.  The pairing feels so right! Like Tom and Jerry being a cat and a mouse.. for some weird reason a slime eating a dragon feels just as right. I’d almost ship them if I would not just want them to be wholesome buddies! Such a cute moment! I squeeed with joy! The scene in the goblin village was pretty good as well. I love how suddenly the show shifted from comical and light to actual hardship and suffering for them with a legit emotional moment! FOR GOBLINS!.. If you are a DnD player you know that is an extreme rarity! That brief moment when the Goblins told about their strife it reminded me of the writing style of Eiichiro Oda , the creator of One Piece and I do not think I need to give it a bigger compliment than that. The new spells Rimuru learns seem great and thematical enough and it has that same .. experiment vibe I loved so much with Maple in Bofuri as well. Earning something by playing around is just something that makes me really excited!

I don’t really have a big negative moment in this episode, but since I try to use a format of, episode summary, positives, negatives now,  I guess I will use this bit to pick for two tiny nitpicks.  The first is the weird cutaway we had when our jolly slime ate the dragon. We cut to two humans talking.  I assume these will be the bad guys based on the intro ..which is lovely by the way but shows a lot of enemies and allies,  but I could not read a vibe from them at all. I am also not sure what to think about their design. A bit generic humans whose voice was a bit lost to me. I could have done without the scene and just found out it was a thing later. This mostly just raised questions to me.  The second nitpick I have is that the monsters are maybe depicted just a tinsey tiny bit to cutesie! Based on the intro Rimuru will hang out with monsters for the most part, like oni and goblins, as a result though the goblins look a bit to “sweet” to still be called goblins, I do like the visual style but if this is going in the direction I suspect I could have liked it if allies are ugly for once.   Still that is such a minor thing I can happily live without it.. I just would have liked it even more if the goblins were fugly beyond anything. Amazing Episode!

Episode Score:

My least favorite view of the lot! That doesn’t mean it’s bad , in fact this epsiode was still quite good! It just was the least impressive.. but impressive still. In this episode Bam still has to survive until 200 regulars are murdered but he gets help from a blue haired kid with a bag filled with power ars and a knife named Khun. He is being hunted by a giant crocodile named Rak for having such a powerful weapon. Due to a turn of events they suddenly find themselves being forced to team up  and they have to trick him into doing that!  After which they are transported to a break room! A game host like fellow shows up and thinks to many succeeded the test and summons a barrier they have to break through! If a team member  doesn’t make it through the entire team is eliminated. Bam is not affected by the barrier and gets a chance to ask some questions about this strange game. Once more this really reminded me of Hunter x Hunter even more so this episode Bam is due to his amnesia quite a lot like Gon, he has abilities he is very much aware of. Khun is a lot like Killua.. a white haired boy with assassin skills and who allegedly is a bit evil! That game guy who showed up even reminded me a bit of Hisoka! Not sure who Rak would be in that analogy though!

My favorite moment would definitely be the way Bam enforces Rak to team up with him. Using his code of honor against him not to attack an unarmed opponent he creates a stalemate that pushes the three towards a time limit and making Rak an ally. Khun convincing him to fight Bam when he is stronger helped with that and I am happy we see a show where brain does seem to  outclass brawn for now.  Which seems to be a theme in the episode. During the barrier trial everyone who tried to force their way in had trouble.. only the strongest could press trough  while those becoming calm and collect  did it with relative ease! Yet it also doesn’t completely work like that as we see a character confidently walking into the barrier and starting to bleed. We get introduced to a mysterious green skinned girl with a tail and a two katana samurai who faced her before.. as some of the most promising candidates to climb the tower. They don’t say a lot and fight each other for a bit using tricks and wits. Not just skill!  If this direction is kept I am happy.

While the barrier trial was done fairly well, the fact that Bam was unaffected by it kinda irked me off as well. He already has a legendary blade, an ability to see things others can’t he is from another world and everyone seems to sense talent in him.  Is it really needed to give him this as well?! I guess it is is because the matter that made up the barrier seems an important element in the tower but still  it was a bit of a Gary Stue moment enforced by how serious the other characters all seem to take it. No jaw drops, no NANI!!  The game guy knows more and only whispers.. “so a monster has appeared” while I really do like that line I could not help but feel like any sense of tension was taken away from me as the other two cleary state they can walk through it without problems.

I do not care that much about the rest yet that it adds stuff for me. I am also still unsure about the visuals! I do like the green girl and Rak but Bam’s design I find kind of bland, Khum has something visually that makes me go meh as well. I notice it’s different and I do not love it but I am not sure yet I hate it either. It keeps me from losing myself in the episode enough to be a negative though. Still  A very decent episode that just had to compete with four better ones. I forgot to mention! I found the opening very boring and unappealing!

Episode Score:

Last week’s episode was rather terrible I had little good to say about that and this week’s episode really made that up for me again. It seems the even episodes are quite good while the odd episodes impress me way less. We take a break from Hikaru which is something I needed to be honest after how he treated Akiri! It is even brought up he acted like a piece of posterior droppings.  In the few moments we see Hikaru we still seem him not care about Akiri and saying Go is not for girls and not for her.. but Sai schools him! Thankfully someone steps up! That’s all I wanted! The rest of the episode is focused on Akira Touya and how he is integrating in the Go Club! His amazing brain and skill make him a treat to the tournament third Seed and made hm rather unpopular amongst the club. This leads to the third seat challenging Touya for a match but him being beaten as he realises he might have to give up on his dream!  It’s a sad scene but it also depicts Akira as a strong character, he knows what he does is a bit shitty but in order to grow as  player to achieve what he wants he must join that club and defeat Hikaru. As he makes his way in.. resent against him grows.

My favorite moment episode is Akira’s duel against the third Seed.. the match was so silent and just some music as stones click on the board. These two both have reasons why they can not lose and why they have to win and that is seen on their faces.. when Touya inevitable wins we also see his opponent break something that surely also would have happened the other way around. These people really care much about Go!.Sai stepping up for Akiri was great as well, telling about how everyone  played Go in his age.  We also see Hikaru set up some growth behind the screens by buying some Go study materials.  I think it  the perspective change is a really clever way to keep the focus where the most interesting things are unfolding rather than just showing us nothing .. like what happened in the episode before. The episode also does a great job to depict that Ivory Tower feeling Touya must be experiencing. He can’t be beaten by these people he never could the only challenge he had was Hikaru. Well at least in his mind. This episode really made me warm up to him a bit instead of depicting him as a crybaby.

The finale of this episode however was a fairly big weak point! I had a major gripe with it that pushed the episode from amazing to just very good for me.  The school team Touya works for wants to embarrass him! Teach him humility! Previously it was established how important winning was and that now is withdrawn in favor of old teammates.. that feels a bit off to me but sure I can buy it.. what I can’t buy however is that some of them seem to be willing to break his arms and let his assistant play for him and then beating him in his weakened and pained state just so they can claim they won. That in their eyes would embarrass him so much he would have to leave them alone. If he loses with a 40 degrees fever because they trick him .. it would make him less of a player?!

  I honestly do not get why breaking his arm and challenging him to a match would discredit him.. also why would you hate the guy so much you want to to that?! While I get it sucks for one guy to lose a spot on the team it would mean your team  has much bigger chances of losing..  and you also care about winning.. so  yeah the way his antagonists are set up is not something I completely buy yet! Just a tad to evil! Still a great episode with just the last two minutes putting a shark in the water. They did not jump it yet.. but they sure as well are building a ramp to do so! I still try to imagine this here.. the checker club breaking a exchange students arms to beat him in checkers seems a bit excessive.

Episode Score:

And with that we close the book on yet another Saturday Morning! I skipped breakfast this time I haven’t been feeling that hungry lately, this afternoon about when this post goes up I will be making Pita Bread Hamburgers though! I am working hard on a blog restyle which should drop 20 days before my blogs anniversary! That way I can prepare something special! Working on that too!
My muscles are giving me some trouble lately sometimes I walk like Gregory House with that my update is done! From now on I will put some of my events here! I hope your next week will be awesome!

A Million Anime to pick next: How to Choose What to Watch (Part 2)

Welcome Island Guests to the second part of my how to pick your Anime post! Today we will be discussing a few more ways you can pick an anime the advantages and disadvantages of each method!  Perhaps somehow someway we can distill the ultimate technique from this! So we can find “the PERFECT anime”…but it’s me writing this so I seriously doubt it!

<Disclaimer> This is strictly my opinion and does not contain facts , I think by now now I finished about 40ish anime series and dropped/tried  about as much as well. So that isn’t a whole lot. I am not inexperienced but I am also not nearly as dedicated as many here. Any form facts only refer to my opinion.. It is a fact I feel this way.. no one has to share any of these opinions or feel compelled to do so <End of Disclaimer>

Thanks to this method Irina made me watch Kyousougiga , Fred made me watch Bloom Into You and Naja made me watch Samurai Flamenco. A recommendation from a person you trust and believe can be an absolutely empowering way to select an anime you are going to watch next. It has the potential of bringing people together and depending on your range of friends .. or bloggers you follow you could end up with some items very unaware to you!  So how does this method hold up?

Positives

Like with the other two this one  is among the more social ones methods. You can respond to another’s recommendation after all. It offers room for discussion that is actually a fair bit different than the other two.  You can either respond to someone’s blog or they can ask you very insightful questions. These things are often catered towards you so the conversation feels a lot more personal which to me is the way I prefer to talk to people. Generally you know the person whose advice you took to an extend as well so you can extrapolate and really judge pretty well if this anime is something for you. It can give a sense of purpose to watch on.. to talk about it with a friend or familiar.

Discussing something in a group of random people is always more tricky! I really dislike Sword Art Online for example, but I would not make a twitter post saying how much it disappointed me! Reactions can be to extreme even if I do have my motivations and can explain them clearly to people! They won’t listen.. with friends that is a bit less of an issue at least there is a chance they will! At least as long it’s not something they are completely enamored with. Letting a Friend, Senpai or Peer advise you can give you access to series you have never even heard of before. In turn  allowing you to experience stuff you would by your own accord. This is a method I really seem to prefer if things are going well. It is really fun to discover anime like this.. However this one comes with a pretty steep disadvantage as well.

Negatives

While this method can allow for pleasant conversations and deep discussions This one can also polarize you and your friends!  One of my best friends recommended me Code Geass and I watched it.. when I told him I hated it, but I did see why he would like it as I can see it’s a good anime, just not for me,  he got incredibly salty. I disliked anime he liked before and that wasn’t to much of an issue but this one hurt his soul. I will always be honest with my friend and honestly I really disliked a few things in Geass as it just wasn’t for me and I saw a few flaws such as some events feeling very forced. I don’t think it’s a a bad show which I told either but the atmosphere was soured for a bit. When a stranger tells me I should die because I do not like code Geass it stings, when a friend says ‘I thought you had better taste than that’ it actually really hurts. While the hate ratio is a lot smaller.. if things go bad.. they go a lot worse than among strangers.

A show I genuinely could not stand was Goblin Slayer, a friend of mine adored it. During a anime with friends night we hosted .. In this format we do a draw a lucky person who picks an anime. We watch 3 episodes and move to the next person. Who picks another anime, or can continue to watch on. My friend made us watch trough Goblin Slayer as he got selected first so I played nice and watched it with a polite smile. Then I was picked for the next selection but he interrupted me. ‘Let’s just watch all of Goblin Slayer, if you guys watch anything else now I think i’ll just go home and watch it myself’. At least two other people did not like the show (which meant 50% of us and one felt neutral) but no one dared to speak up so everyone agreed. To scared that disagreeing would anger him. I said I’d prefer to watch something else and just got “well it’s not like we would watch anything better than this is better!’ I agreed as long as next time we would let someone else pick. He said that’s fine and he will just stay home that time.

I stayed for one more episode, but I already was boiling inside! I hated the show and I hated how he acted. To vent I decided to play on my phone a bit (to calm a bit) and he sneered at me for it! Basically calling me an idiot for looking away. I told him I hated the show and that I already said that before and that I don’t mind being her for the company but the show is just not for me and that I would like to stay to see if we might watch another show later and for the company. He then declared we had to watch in absolute silence and I left.. he did not speak to me for days for disliking a show he loved. Whenever a reviewer I trust loves a show I don’t like at all I do notice some distance increasing. It’s not that much of an issue in the long run but disagreeing with people you have close to your heart never is all that fun. It can at times even discourage me from watching something they absolutely love that doesn’t sound like it’s completely me!

Advise

I can honestly say that this is a great method to approach anime but be a bit weary. People tend to see things very black and white in this day and age and if your friend is like that sometimes it’s just best to keep smiling. It’s not like it’s as toxic as the internet.. but a bad reaction can last longer than a few negative comments. Know your friends and know yourself. If your friend something you know you really know you’ll dislike.. stay away from it. There is nothing you can gain by destroying his favorite when you talk about it. There is nothing you gain by lying how much you love it either! They wil notice because they want to talk about it more! Forcing yourself to sit trough something you hate just to please a friend will not result in a fun time for anyone.

Always keep yourself in mind, friends and close ones react better to you genuinely liking something than you faking, Kirito’s duel wielding skill being kind of interesting! Conversations will always expand and you will be caught in the act of faking! Being overly blunt will also get you no where though! So while this method has the biggest gain.. it could come at risk being an obstacle between you and your friends. Know what type of anime your friend watches, know why they recommended it to you ( ‘Pinkie I think you will really like this anime’ usually is safer than “you guys everyone check it out I just watched and binged the Frick out of it”)

A lot of you seem to really be into Manga and while I am not that much into the reading habit, myself that is mostly to blame on availability and me not being very comfortable with the digital form of the media. My phone screen is to tiny and I like to read in a relaxed position and I can’t do that with my laptop all that much! So this is the form of anime picking I am least familiar with. Still it is worth taking a look at. Let’s investigate!

Positives

The most obvious positive from doing an anime pick this way is that you are familiar with the source material. Most of the time anime adaptations are fairly faithful though abridged renditions so if you like the story beats in a manga, you’ll probably like them in animated form as well. This form of anime watching also offers you a unique viewing experience compared to the others. You see your already beloved work come to life. Take Bofuri for instance for me. I would not have imagined Maple’s demon voice to be so funny! I did not read source material as I do not dabble in Manga myself but I sure as heck would not have imagined this so funny! Jojo’s  Bizarre Adventures is something I have read and when I saw it come to live it blew away my mind. The music, the style, the whole shabang.. this is one anime I think really is better than it’s Manga counterpart. 

Still such a viewing experience is totally different from what you get when watching something in season whose source material you do not know!  It can be very empowering and nostalgic, or it can be quaint a funny! The comedy and horror genre work a lot better in animated form in my opinion because they now have actual timing.  When you read the manga first you often get some interesting insights in characters as well. A experience that the non-manga anime watcher misses. These characters you already know! It’s like a reunion with friends rather than meeting some for the first time. So your experience can be amplified when it spans across media! Like seeing the Seven Page Muda come to live or see the Super Saiyan transformation animated for the first time after just reading it.

Negatives

Kicking in open doors again! The book is always better. When something is written down it usually always gets the motivations of characters more fleshed out, it’s usually more consistent  and also easier to make a call back. A Manga also moves at your own pace rather than the shows pace so you are the one in the driver seat. All in all  I do think it’s fair to say that “the book is better” is a way more popular opinion than “the anime was better than the book”.  So there is an increased risk of being let down if it’s already something you absolutely love. Air Gear would be a good example that comes to mind and a friend never shuts up about how D-Grey-Man the  anime was so lackluster compared to the Manga. I personally disagree I did not find the anime lackluster at all but that might have to do the next negative.

The Pricetag! If you want a book in your hand like me , reading manga first can be an extremely pricey hobby!  Meanwhile Crunchyroll, Netflix and other services on the internet are relatively a lot cheaper. At least here! I do not know how prices are in the rest of the world but paying 13 euros for a single book of manga for a show that is in its entirety on Netflix for the same price a month…plus access to all the other shows is off. I know it supports the creator more.. but I’ll be honest I can barely afford my own food and clothes..When money is an issue..Manga is not always an option. I know there are ways to get it digitally, but I just don’t have a pleasant experience with that without an E-Reader. My phone is too tiny..and I feel uneasy not having that available to make notes for my blog or not able to tell my manga loving friend about the amazing thing I am reading. I don’t like reading on comics on my laptop all that much either.

The final negative is the simple fact that you’ve already seen it. It isn’t very surprising. Don’t get me wrong this can be a good thing for some people but something that never surprises me .. essentially it’s a remake and I tend to like those but I am never overwhelmed by love for them as I miss that raw emotional experience new products can give me.  While your standard Shounen can be rewatched without to much drama, stuff like Danganronpa (Okay thats a game and an anime but same fault applies) where you find out “who did it” can really have a lessend impact on you.

Advise

If you have money to burn, this method is super healthy for the community!  It keeps mangakas strong and series ongoing!(If you read/buy ongoing releases) It also will give you a very consistent pay off, if you get that stick out of your ass and don’t look at what an anime skips/misses from the manga but rather how it brings that same story to the table in a new way.

You need to be the type that thinks like ‘Cool they made an anime about Attack on Titan.. that means more Attack on Titan’ rather than be the type that goes ‘Okay let’s see if this anime does my beloved manga justice’  If you can look without having a list of checkboxes I’d say this is a unique anime experience that no other method can offer, but honestly.. I’d rather buy manga of an anime I love than the other way around.

Anime series in its own can be rather random, so randomly selecting the randomness seems like quite a fitting way to go about things. Of course it’s chaos of the utmost level. It’s the equivalent of that Harry Potter Jelly Bean stuff.  Every flavour beans! Anime is so fast and wide that you can experience Foie Gras while you never heard of it (it’s delicious even it’s a no-no) but you also can go “Alas.. Ear Wax”  It sounds incredibly fun!  Let’s investigate!

Positives

People tend to really stick inside a comfort zone, this applies to both the ones viewing the anime as the ones recommending it. People usually are very careful about what they pick! It’s always .. “something similar too” or something with a high MAL score (which can be a whole selection method of its own but I am including it here if you can read between the lines)   In my experience.. everything that gets a super high MAL score is great.. yet at the same time is also catered to everybody. Which in my opinion means it will not resonate as strongly with me as an anime that cater to a sentiment I love. Take Dragon Quest : Your Story for example. So many people hate the ending but I love it so much!  Not per se designwise.. but the sentiment. That feeling that something is made for you!

In general you do not get that from  the high scoring anime. You do not get that from what a friend recommends (unless they really really know you!) That can only happen by you searching the internet yourself and even that is biassed towards your self proclaimed like pattern.  You might overlook something great. While Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is quite well known I discovered it by accident. A friend asked for fun for a Kamina hugging pillow, she did not recommend the show to me as she felt it might be to weird for me as a rookie! I only saw a picture of the guy and by searching I stumbled on the show not knowing what it was. I watched it to make sure I had the right person in mind for who Kamina was ! Within two days I saw the entire show! That to me is the magic of anime and that to me is an experience I almost uniquely get from watching something randomly.  I knew Magical Index was fairly good, so even though I recognize it I never get that blowing back expectations sensation. It’s fine about what I expected

Selecting Random Anime is also a great way to pick anime to watch with your friends.. because I tried about seven times before by vote and the discussions that arrive with all putting in picks we hardly make progress. They either hard refuse to watch anything but their own pick.. or are just in a different mood from you and might not feel like Isekai..while you don’t want a standard Shounen etc. This way it’s always a completely neutral unbiased pick and that can give you some sense of rest, no conflict , just blisfull chaos The best thing! There is a website to do this with the click of a button and you can even specify if you want a dub , a sub or pick a genre if you still want some inkling of control!  You can select a random anime right here.

Negatives

Where all other forms I posted have some form of control this one does not. It can recommend a very good show.. but it can also make you watch one of the worst anime ever rated on MAL. There is no way to tell.. well it actually tells you the MAL score.. but if you play it in honesty and abide by the rules of randomness this one has by far the biggest chance to waste your time. Now I am a loon that really commits herself to these things in order to discover. When I am on vacation in a foreign country and I do not know a certain dish in a restaurant that is the one I am getting. This left me with a few painful experiences and random anime will not be any different.. I am very lucky in this usually though.. most bad stuff came from random cooking at home. Regardless if anything is going to waste your time.. this method is it!

It is also  is probably the least social anime pick ever. Where your own pick can at least allow for some discussion by picking a vaguely familiar sounding name, no one will really discuss Record of Lodoss or Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl with you. It might make interesting blog topics.. but I am not sure how well random anime reviews would work. You could try and risk wasting even more time but who knows it might be the next hot new trend.  Obviously I am going to try reviewing completely random anime I even already rolled for what I have to watch before next week’s post! I have no idea what it will be about! I just wrote down the name! What it is I will keep secret! To avoid spoilers.. even though by the time this post has gone life I probably already have seen it. So I do need to get back how heavy this negative will turn out to be! Just a suspicion for now!

Advise

So guess what, I hyped myself up for completely random anime selection! This seems something really fun I want to try now.. but that’s because of the person who I am. I wonder why I haven’t done this before! Well for one I did not know about the website but still! Basically if you rolled your eyes when reading this section title, this isn’t for you. If you went oooooh  and did an eyebrow lift in intrigue this one’s for you. If your face did not move I challenge you  use the website and pick a random anime!  Write us about your random experience! I know I will! A post I will try to knock out for next week! I will watch the first five episodes of a random anime and will tell you if I will pick it up and watch more! Yay! I am so happy I am doing this.. so while I I can think of a few more methods to pick your anime, I will get to those somewhere along the road! Until then I am going to be random!

What Bad Luck! I got reborn into another life, and Now I am a Side Character! (Part 2)

It is time to step out of the spotlight and into the role of the comical relief side character again! In this series I Isekai myself and reincarnated not as the powerful main character.. but the one that provides lines of fun! I asked the god person thing not to change and just be a amplified version of myself. Figuring it would boost my wit and creativity and intelligence.. little did I know my bad traits would be amplified as well! How unlucky am I! If you missed the previous part, you can click here!

Dear Diary.. I would like to say that I woke up feeling refreshed but I did not! In fact I did not wake up at all! I didn’t even sleep! First of all I spilled ink all over my bed and it got like all inkey and soggy! And when trying to clean it up by washing it off I got it soaking wet! So I tried sleeping on the ground but my new tail really did not like that. So I spend the night reading.

Elle

I think I might have learned a spell from one of them! These books are like super easy to remember! Elle apparently was studying to be a mage so I guess that will be my class. I think my Intelligence stat is rather high after reincarnation so that is good! I might make a good Wizard. That morning I went to the guild that Maine is part of. They called it the Owls-Nest. Apparently it is one of the lower ranking guilds in Windmere Port. That is the town I seem to live in. Upon Inquiry why it is not Port Windmere a villager said that there are a few Windmeres across the world of Tenretni. I think she wanted to ask where I was from because she looked at me really strangely before she vomited all over my shoes! She apologised and hurried away! I slipped on something icky and could not catch up anymore! She seemed cute.. perhaps she was my romantic encounter. I would see if I Would meet her again. On my way to the guild building I saw two other people vomit! I guessed cooking in medieval like towns isn’t great for your stomach! My shoes look kinda crusty now though.

The Town Of Windmere-Port just imagine a few more rainbow puddles!

I arrived at the Owl’s nest, where a friendly dark skinned Cleric woman helped me apply to the guild! She told me I was now an Owl… I told her that was incorrect and that I still possessed the goat-like, humanoid en demonic features that come with being a race called Tiefling. I would also not obtain the skill to polymorph myself until I gotten to a decent level 7 which is when I get my first 4th level spell. She asked me what a level was. I explained to her that this world seems to be connected via the multiverse trough another world where this all unfolds as a board game and trough inter dimensional quantum entanglement I should be able to use this knowledge to learn spells.. but that a level had no defining qualities in this world…like another plain. 

Ynaja the Cleric

 But I could tell her that level 7 is reached after obtaining around 23.000 experience points. I also explained to her that easy skill challenge like for example killing some boars would most likely award me with 25xp but said challenge could exist out of 1 to 3 boars so I would likely have to kill between 920 to 2760 boars before i could actually be an owl. Given how my luck was treating me I’d say I’d have a 50% chance to run into a 3 boar encounter about a 35% chance to run into a 2 boar encounter and a 15% chance to get just a single boar. Which led me to expect with, while of course considering a mild deviation,  I would have to kill 2162 boars to obtain the required skill. She just nodded and said “Okay…… But the title for our members is Owls, I am not talking about literal Owls, All our members regardless of their species are called that.

When I finally was signed up, which happens after a few more miscommunications I was ready to take on the quest. Yet of course I took a good look around to the place first. Trying to see if I could locate Maine or Rho. Aside from the dark skinned  human Cleric woman there were three other people there. A human female monk.. white skin..whiter hair..though some peach snaps was spilling into it tinting it lightly as she lay on the bar passed out drunk with a crow on her shoulders.

Daria the Dwarf

A  Paladin in white  armor..whose race I could not identify due to the weird helmet with a tacky golden ornament to it. Then there was another girl at least I think they are! It’s a dwarf.. Gimli was hard it’s really hard to tell! Anyway! They were throwing a tantrum and wielding axes and skins! I assume she is a Barbarian! Daria seems to be her name For some weird reason they do carry some sort of spellbook. The monk clearly is of the drunken fist Archetype! She kept shouting things like “Daria is raging again.. take a sip” ..so I assume she wasn’t fully passed out. Daria told her to “ Fuck Off Mirina”.. So I assume she is called Mirina the monk that is … but why would she need to have intercourse with a person named Off.. that’s a stupid name, could it be the knight? 

Oscott the Paladin

Maine walked in and greeted everyone calling the knight Oscott.. so is Off the crow then? Would that not be forbidden? As she walked across the guild hall she seemed to be floating. I never seen such grace from armoured people, but then again..up until yesterday I haven’t seen many armoured people anyway.. also I died and this was my new life..from which I woken yesterday.. so even if I did before I guess it resets the score! The white knight had not moved a lot yet so little to compare it with.  I made my way up to the quest board when I slipped on a bottle that Mirina probably dropped. Maine walked to the board and helped me up with a smile! ‘I see you joined us Elle’ she said. ‘Oh I’ll take this quest.. a mysterious disease is plaguing the city”  Oscott, Mirina, Daria? Do you wish to join me? It is a four man quest I think. I would love to get to know you all better ?’

Mirina the Monk

The three seemed to agree and before I realised what had happened they went off! ‘But I encountered the girl that vomited all over my shoes! That quest was set up for me!.. Frugpoodles!’ I said while I puffed up my cheeks and stomped on the floor.. but the bottle was still there and I wounded my hoof-foot, I am still not  sure which it is. Maine looked at me sympathetically and said.. first have your foot checked out by Ynaja over their..pointing at the cleric. ‘I’ll take you next time.. ..or at least sometime soon, you know when we have a nice and easy quest so we can relax a bit’.  She then walked off with her newly formed party. I saw there was only one other quest remaining.. an old lady lost her frying pan I needed to get it back for her.. I sighed as I hobbled over to the cleric to have my leg healed.

I had a nice lunch with the woman named Ynaja she treated me to some soup as she healed my foot. She talked about how I was an odd new member to their ranks but that she liked that. Maine had only joined recently as well and Rho immediately took on his first quest, to track some bandits in a forest.  Now it was time for my first quest.. it did not pay well but at least I could do it alone. As I made my way to the old ladies house that posted the request I began thinking about Maine some more. She really was pretty..but probably super straight as well. Now she’d even get the new characters introduced to her and I could not even see them! Well at least I had a quest now and a mystery one to boot! This would work great with my intelligence. The old lady had a bit of a dirty cottage, she really should clean her windows, as is way her vitamin D intake would be minimal. The creeping veins would also impair the structural integrity of this piece of real estate and devalue it’s price when put on the market!
It’s grime had a aesthetically pleasing effect though.

“Oh good the guild finally send me someone, I lost my favorite frying pan dear” So I asked where she last left it.. as she pointed to her kitchen, which made sense in hindsight of course. Yet what I saw there was not what I expected. There was a enormous pile of dirty dish network on there. Like there must have been 23 frying pans and big kettles on top of them. “ One of them had a little message inscribed in the bottom..left by late husband.. but I am afraid they are so dirty I can not read it anymore.. Could you help me deary” she said. “I am too old to lift and clean all those heavy things” Nani! my first quest was doing dishes?! I hate doing the dishes sooo much! “I guess all heroes have to start somewhere” I said to her and she just nodded while she sat in her rocking chair.

Daisy

I cleaned every single plan.. even the big ones.. because otherwise she would lose it again!  It took me well over three hours to get everything clean.. but not a single pan had a inscription on the rim. I told her this and she looked at me with strangely  gleefull eyes “Oh dear.. then it must have been the one that I loaned out to my grandson, how silly of me” I reassured her it was quite okay she seemed to feel so bad!  “He is a cook somewhere.. I can’t remember his name.. but I know he wears a very odd hat chef, you could ask around in town people are sure to know who he is” “My grandfather kept forgetting the names of his grandchildren as well especially my brother.. gods have mercy on his soul’. I bid the lady farewell as she said I could call her Daisy, which weirdly is the exact name I would have come up with for her?! Townsfolks meanwhile where up and about.. apparently Maine and her party had discovered a evil necromancer had settled in town hiding in our ranks..cursing the people of the town. Now they were investigating who it might be. 

Maine the Fighter

I tried to find them.. thinking they might suspect me! I was new in town and I knew spells.. so it would make sense. I found them and Maine chuckled when I reported in! Oh no Elle dear! I do not suspect you, I honestly doubt that a high level necromancer would knock herself out using a garbage can, you also don’t seem to know people all that well and you told me you feared fire did you not?” I nodded.. I had discussed that with her during one of our talks the day earlier. “Well then it can’t be you, Mirina found out that this curse requires ashened flesh as well as some very intrinsic hand motions and seals, since you are afraid of fire and have the dexterity off a ochre Jelly I don’t think you can be our suspect. That’s so weird.. how does she know that?! I would classify my own dex stat as 6.. I fall more than zombies! What a peculiar guess! Maybe it’s really iconic. I decided to ask them  if they saw a guy with a weird hat. “Bah, you talking about Ematt, he’s the chef for our guild .. but we ‘ve got a necromancer to find! Good luck with the pan hunt’ they took off. I rushed back to the guild.. the pan was there all along.. the classic!  I might matter after all! Yet dear diary.. you never know where I found it.. it was in ANOTHER huge pile of dishes!

My arms hurt so much when I finished all the dishes! I broke quite a few plates by accident so that would have to come out of my quest reward Ynaja said, but she said it was okay I would keep about half still! I had finally found the pan! I had a horrible day .. but I completed my first real life quest ever! Washing dishes was not a skill test I guess but completing a quest surely would award me with some XP, that way I could earn better spells and become a great help to Maine.. part of the main heroes!  Destiny awaited me! With the last of my strength I rushed back to Daisy’s house so I could get my money! Than I could buy some food as well! Later I could then move into the forest  and find out Maine’s secrets! It would all work out. When I drew closer I suddenly saw sparks or  at least lighting coloured lights from the other side of the dirty windows. I could not tell if it was an arc, or a spark because of how dirty those windows where.  I hoped Daisy was alright. I bravely dashed in.. and then the door flew out of its hinges and into my face.. Mirina was riding on top of it being propelled by something. Then the familiar blackness came over me. 

When I woke up I saw Daria bend over the corpse of Daisy! “Oh no, they were evil! I found out and I would have to stop them.. Maine was a villainess with an evil crew.. like Aizen from Bleach. Maine stood next to me and reached her hand out to me “Are you alright “ she asked. I got really scared and might have peed a little. “Please don’t kill me?!” I said.  “Why would I do that” she asked. “Because you are evil and murder innocent people in town pretending it’s the work of some disease or something” I said! I was onto the plot I was sure about it.

Unfortunately I was wrong! My Intelligence might be high but apparently I failed my wisdom saves. It turns out Daisy was the Necromancer all along.  She compelled people into believing she had lived there for ages. Altering memories so that they believe she was part of the community. Each night she would throw a dinner party and then curse people! Once they died she would dig them up.. cut off their flash and Ashen it in her kitchen… when people would just think she would be preparing the feast for the next day. No one suspected a thing.  If she could murder the entire town she would have a vast skeletal army with whom she could rule the world. I nodded.. “I did not see that coming”..

Well at least everything was done now all that I needed to do was ……wait a minute… my quest giver died! I just failed my first quest! I just spend six hours washing dishes for nothing..well three hours for nothing.. the other three improved the quality of life for people in the guild. Ematt probably would be happy to.. now that his not grandma …grandma was beaten to a pulp by a barbarian two fighters and a monk I bet his mental disposition would not be with the dishes! I began to sniffle.. that I failed my quest. Now I had to pay Ynaja with money I didn’t have either and I was hungry and  tired! Maine smiled at me and gave me a gold coin saying “I will settle your debt with the guild .. use this to buy some food, get a long rest and try again tomorrow, you can do this Elle” I swooned a bit and did exactly as she asked .. she is so pretty!

I managed to get a bunch of food from a store that was still opened way past convenient times. Stores in fantasy worlds are so weird! Do they ever close?! Well in Skyrim they did.. but in a lot of games.. they do not! I guess I got lucky for once. I got some bread.. and eggs and potatoes and even some meats.. with a gold coin I could last a few days! Of course I saved some silver because meats spoil. Still Maine said I should get a long rest! That’s the DnD term for an 8 hour rest or so that restores your spells. Yet again.. she almost talks like a DnD player! Maybe it was a coincidence.. maybe I looked tired.. covered in ink, sick booze and dishgrease! I would find out more that night!  First I washed up! Then just just a tiny egg sandwich and a short rest! I’d be good to go! I woke up..at first light.. Crusts of my egg sandwich still in hand! I missed Maine’s secret meeting! I missed the main quest! I missed everything again! Besides that my house was smelling kinda funky! Like.. ..Oh no!  I rushed back to my stove and my worst fears have came true! There was the pot I cooked my eggs in.. all blacked. another pan I wanted to fry an egg in but never did was blackened too.. Argh! I don’t wanna do the dishes again! I wanna go home!  I HATE DOING DISHES!!!!!!!

Will Elle discover more about the mysterious Maine the next day? Will she be able to bond with her new guildmates and will she able to kill  2162 boars? Would she even try? Will she ever be a true owl? How about Maine..what is up with her?  That we will find out in the next episode of : What Bad Luck! I got reborn into another life, and Now I am a Side Character!

Pokémon Top 5: Favourite Ground Type Pokémon

Island Guests! It has happened! I have a top five of typed Pokémon for you where Iridium Eye probably knows like 80% of these Pokémon! That’s like super special! That also reveals to you there is probably not a lot of Pokémon of later generations on this list! They really started the series strong with this type!  So prepare for my eight out of 18 typing lists. With the only typing that is super effective against the electric type ! The ground type!

Like Always we will follow the rules of only one pokémon per evolution line and no duplicates of previous lists to reduce redundancy. This leaves Krookodile out who already made it to my dark type list. If a pokémon’s evolution is something I strongly dislike it’s previous evolution can be given a demerit for evolving into something I dislike. Drilbur is one of these cases. It’s evolution just looks so incohesive and meshed together to me that I actually really dislike  using it. Since Drilbur on it’s owe will not be that useful in playthroughs nor does it have any other way to use it.. it gets no further than a mention here.

Pokémon also have to feel like a Ground type to me to qualify for this list. Oddly enough the Ground type is rather weak in this department. Nincada, Gligar, Gliscor, Gastrodon and of course fan favorite Flygon are all pokémon that I quite like but would not associate with the ground type just by looking at it.  Gastrodon is a sea slug, Gligar and Gliscor are flying scorpions and Nincada is just a bug… from the faintest distance I still see why they belong to that type but then there’s Flygon. A flying green dragon that gets the ground type bestowed up to him because he evolves from a Sand Trap Pokémon. I get why the first evolution gets it but there should not be ANY flying Ground types  besides for Landorus. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I guess It’s nice to have a Dragon that is not a Dragon Flying type, unlike so many before it.. but they have the same weakness. Nothing shouts to me that this is an earthquake user other than that it gets STAB boosts.. so it will not make the list.

By that same sort of standard there is yet another honourable mention i wish to mention and that is Quagsire. Which is a great Pokémon that I deeply love for how derpy and joyful it looks but teaching it ground moves is SUCH a hassle. It learns 2 in it’s natural moveset and one of them is totally worthless as it has low base power and uses it’s rather bad special-attack stats to deal damage. The second it learns at level 52, which in Gold and Silver basically is end game. It’s so hard to run this with a decent ground  type move unless you breed that you basically will be using this as a pure water type that switches out it’s electric weakness with a double weakness to grass (and Freeze Dry) that it is just a very defensive Water Typing that can feel like a ground type… but on average not so much.

Cubone has the “honour” being being the very first ground type on this list whom I have never really (actively) used during a playthrough of the main games , yet I still love the  heck out of. It doesn’t have great stats and Marowak is a bit lackluster in its ground shape. Yet Cubone made it on my list for another reasons. Cubone for example is one of the most significant lore driven pokémon of the earlier games. The whole story of Lavender Town?! Where it’s mother gets killed by team Rocket and it wears the skull of its mother as her final protection. It is so sad and it left an early impact on me! We always saw it depicted crying and in a way it is one of the very few things that have ever appeared to something I thought I would never have. Motherly instincts.  I just wanted to take care of it , hug it and tell it everything was going to be alright! It’s the exact emotion you have to feel about the pokémon as well so it really landed.  To this day it’s design is one of the most unique looking pokémon out there and I adore it.  It feels cute and cold at the same time.. cold as in..distant. Which.. again is rather as intended. 

I really enjoy Alolan Marowak as an evolution as well! It was the Alolan form I was the most excited about and felt the most clever of them all. It stayed with me! A fire dancing ghost.. worked so well. Yet Cubone and Pikachu have never changed their basic forms (Yes Pikachu is still a basic form not Pichu.. as to gain that little tyke you need some incense) which shows how great it’s design is. It made me laugh and cry .. but mostly cry.  I am not a big fan of the Let’s Go Games but their rendition of the Cubone story was so beautifully animated. How Trace accompanies it.. how Cubone sees it’s mother one more time and tries to embrace her right as she ascends to heaven.. it showed very clearly..pokémon can truly die. Pokémon have families to.. and some pokémon deserve to be taken care of , even if they aren’t always the strongest. Had Trace not taken the little Tyke I would have done so myself but it was a nice reminder that Pokémon .. isn’t always about using the strongest like Agatha says.. it’s about using the pokémon you love.  Unfortunately I have always been really unlikely when it comes to finding one and I usually only add it to my team in the actual gameplay phase.

The real reason why I have this added to my list though is because it was the pokémon I reincarnate as in the first Mystery Dungeon game. I knew the story a tiny bit and playing through the game as a Cubone made so much sense given the story and the main character that gets turned into a pokémon by a mysterious force, then finally finds some friends in their brave little adventure club! While the game surely is not easy to run as a Cubone.. I had a blast being this little monster and seeing it’s epic journey .. growing into one of the coolest club around .. taking on other squads and solving mysterious was just so great and unique. If I ever get around to playing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX I am sure I want to be a Cubone again. It will ALWAYS be the mon for these type of games. In a way I really felt I could relate to Cubone. To odd for the real world but bound to friends by this mysterious thing called pokémon.. a sentiment that could have easily made it my number 1..but this week I decided to follow a bit of a different route. Because there is sentiment throughout!

This is the only pokémon on this list that does not belong to gen I. It is my favorite Pokémon typing combination being Ground and Water.. but it beats out Swampert as my favorite because I really like the way it evolves. Swampert I prefer to leave as a Mudkip.. so cute! Mudkip of course doesn’t have the ground typing yet or that would actually be on this list. Seismitoad also has such a cool name. It’s an earthquake making frog, that uses it croaks to establish it! How cool is that?! It looks pretty darn cool as well. I love it’s design and evolution line so much. This walks the perfect line between clunky and cool to me. It feels sluggish and derpy yet also something that can hit you hard and without mercy. I like frog Pokémon in general and we have a surprisingly nice variety on them as well. Most are water types of course, but we have fighting, poison , dark and ground types to boost the roster.. one frog can even change types! Woop! This Ground one is a very good addition as a warted toad. 

Seismitoad is popular with the elderly (in universe) .. while I am not that old… it’s  appeal its not lost on me. It’s warts constantly vibrate constantly which the old folks love to use for massages. I would love a massage from a big frog pet! Even if it’s vibrating Warts. It can also harness these vibrations to throw powerful punches that can turn rocks to dust or even create earthquakes. Not that’s some multi functional warts.  I wonder how I can get vibrating warts! Think about  how relaxed I would be!  ..  Maybe they can swell up really bad and they would be pink too! Seems like a win! Just kidding , of course I would not want any warts as big as this pokémon but it’s design is among the most  toad like of the whole series.. It has this uniqueness that I really love. Most other frogs are a bit streamlined. This feels like the pokémon of a Witch.. not sure why but I also really love the colouring.. it’s just a blue with a lighter blue.. but the red eyes.. the dark rings and the deep blue base tone really makes it something I love to see.

With the abilities Poison Touch and Water Absorb this Pokémon already is  though to deal with.. but it’s main Bread and Butter is the Swift Swim Ability. Due to the way that Dynamax Works setting up rain is now easier than before and if you run it on a rain team it can deal massive damage. Ground Types usually are slow but this one with a base speed of 74 is already fairly okay speed wise but can easily become blisteringly fast.  That 74 is it’s lowest stat as well. Which means that this pokémon is quite okay in everything. It’s not great at anything but you can customise it in anyway you like. It keeps your opponent  guessing. Assuming it is Swift Swim while it is actually Water Absorb.. can hurt.  Since you can run it with both special and physical set it is capable of catching your opponent of  off guard. Earthquake and Surf are great multi-target moves  Best on a rain team, this combines great with Drizzle Pokémon like Pelipper for maximum damage.  A boosting combination that  that is a landslide of earth and water that will wash your enemies away.

This is it guys and girls, the first pokémon that ever existed. Rhydon was the first pokémon to ever be programmed into the game. A fact that many people did not even know. Of course that already makes this Pokémon special to me! It’s one of my favorite pokémon designs ever to boot. Sure it got its evolution later  on that also is pretty great..but this look was something so special. I am normally not a fan of grey pokémon and the ground type is far from my favorite, yet this Pokémon .. was so stunning ever since I saw it come to live in 3d in Pokémon Stadium. The version in that game.. at least one of them.. that knew Surf. It was truly amazing. It was the first time I knew looks could be deceiving. The way it was depicted in the anime! Pikachu using the horn to conduct electricity to it, the whole proud face and the tough skin.. I would love a little statue of this pokémon! It’s so magnificent! Words fail me to describe why..but whenever I see it.. I just go.. that’s a good looking pokémon. It might even be my absolute favorite design wise….and it’s grey! Sylveon of course is amazing as well but that’s pink I was bound to like that.

With an armor that can withstand temperatures up to 3600 degrees fahrenheit it can swim in Lava.. or hide in it as well!  As soon as it left it’s quadruped phase of Rhyhorn it became intelligent and also the ability to punch holes into rocks by  simply jabbing it with it’s horn. When he uses the horn as a drill he can turn even uncut diamonds into dust. Suck on that Shiva! He’s a rock type ..which is super effective against ice types.. so it kinda makes sense.. though ground types lose to ice .. so it would be a 50/50 on Shiva vs Rhydon. That’s a Final Fantasy reference by the way.  The fact that it can swim in lava is a bit of an underestimation. Lava is around 1250 degrees Centigrade at its hottest.. that weird Fahrenheit thing .. means it it can withstand 1900 ish degrees centigrade.  The less confusing temperature standard. Basically this means that this Rhino could even swim into melted platinum! The only metal on Earth that would kill it in its molten form would be Osmium ..which melts at 2700 degrees centigrade. Makes sense Rhydon is quad resistant to the fire type then!

Rhydon is still quite usable in battle! It hits with a whopping 130! Base stat in attack and it’s Defence is 120. This kinda makes it a more favorable option in combat than it’s fully evolved counterpart! Who buffs the attack up to 140 and defence also goes up a notch but no longer can use Eviolite! Since Rhydon usually functions as a hazard Setter and you combine it with moves like Sword Dance, Stone Edge, Earthquake and aforementioned Stealth Rocks.. the non evolved version is actually the bulkier option of the two. This means in pvp battles it is nice as a pokémon to swap in with and take a hit as well. It’s lighting Rod ability even makes it quite nice for double battles.  With a 130 base stat in attack you also do not have to worry this pokémon is lackluster in terms of gameplay playthroughs. I can even learn surf and strength which are the two HM’s that are quite usable in battle for older generations. It gets elemental punches as well including Ice Punch. That and it’s Stab Rock moves basically make it super good against Dragon Type elite four members, because of so many dragons being quad weak to ice.. and plenty of them being flying types so also being weak to rock! In general this pokémon is really good against the elite 4. At least against the majority of them.

I was thinking of classifying this among my favorite rock types..when I realised it would not make the top of that list! So it’s actually safe to put on here! Because it is among my favorite ground types… I do not know why I favor the weaker typings in general. Fairy being a major exception. Golem is another one of those pokémon whose design I really really love. It’s that thing Indiana Jones always runs away from.. but this time it has a face! Yet another pokémon I cam to adore trough Pokémon Stadium.. and spoiler, number 1 will have that as well.  My first time meeting this pokémon however was quite an experience. I was always bullied in school  because due to my motor issues and muscle trouble I walked weird. I never had many friends.. yet Golem is a thing that got me a friend.. or sort of at least.. I was just going to middle school. Thirteen years of age and I had zero friends. To pass the time I brought my gameboy to school! It wasn’t really allowed.. but I’d find a quiet corner to crawl away and since going to the cafeteria usually meant people started throwing food to me .. and the school had to clean it up.. it was sorta allowed. One day one of the bullies snuck up to me and looked nervous.

He asked me if I played Pokémon and if I would trade his graveler with him so it could evolve it was the last pokémon needed but his little brother kept his first one and would not trade it back.I did not know about trade evolutions yet so in trade I got all 4 as he explained to me. When that Golem was send over I thought it looked so cool and I bonded with my bully! The fact that he also snuck a gameboy to school did not even occur to me .. but he saw me do it .. so should be fine.  We talked about pokémon for an entire recess.. he could let a part of him out he could not show in front of the other kids.  Every now and again .. he would return if something happened in the tv series that was cool. Because of that kid I also had the courage to go to a pokémon competition hosted on tv to meet other fans.. my first geeky community thing. He of course became an ass again as soon as he lost interest in the game after but he never really bullied again.. like he laughed as others threw tacks at me.. he  was there when people stole my lunch..but he never  was active against me anymore.. all because of a Golem!

In combat the pokemon is about the opposite of Rhydon.. Physical defences and physical offence are swapped. The rest is  about the same.  Yet since this boulder does not benefit from an Eviolite.. it is the lesser choice to use in battle. I tend to run it with Rollout , explosion and earthquake .. more as a flavor team member as too seriously use it in combat. Also dig on it is quite fun because how it looked in Pokémon Stadium! Also since Gen I did not have abilities and held items yet.. Golem was a bit better in those games.  Golem’s main ability is Sturdy.. which is a good ability for it two have since it has two quad weaknesses so usually I run it with a normal gem and explosion  as a revenge killer. That’s fun and though I would of course never use it like that in a Nuzlocke because I would not  want it do die..  it is always fun to know if an opponent can do nothing to stop a normal gem boosted explosion.. as long as they don’t have a ghost type or Protect on a certain set. Using this creature is much more of a gamble but that is what makes it fun. Essentially if you do not misplay it can get rid.. or close to get rid of anything you do not want to deal with by sacrificing itself.. such a good friend! 

Hail to the king baby! While I could easily see this as a Poison Type it is because of it’s counterpart Nidoqueen that I actually both identify them more with the Ground type. She doesn’t get that much good poison moves.. in fact.. I originally planned her to take this spot and give the King the top spot in the poison list.. but Nidoqueen kinda sucks! Well not really she is okay at everything but it feels like the wrong stats have been averaged. She lacks a great offensive stat and makes it up with a bit more bulk.. but her defence isn’t that good anyway. Her special attacks a borderline bad. I love both these designs though .. but I do favor Nidoking’s more Kaiju-esque.. vibrant purple design over Nidoqueens sleaker one.  Nidoqueen if defencive where Nidoking is offensive.. yet Nidoqueen’s bulk can get her less far than King can do with his offence. I still really love them both though! They shaped pokémon! Big time!

In the lore department Nidoqueen is kinda bland She’s just hard.. that’s like rephrased seven different times or so and bam that’s all we know about Nidoqueen. she protects the nest, she has hard scales with phrasing differing just a mild bit every time.  Nidoking has at least some cool stuff like destroying radio towers, horns hard enough to break diamonds… I guess in the Pokémon Universe Jojo’s part four would be REALLY short.  Anyway it also destroys telephone poles. Now there is an entry that did not hold up all that well.. well that or there are A LOT more Nidokings than we think there are in real life. I bet some conspiracy guys would love to get their hands on a Nidoking right about now!  5 Great balls required to capture it. All in all though there isn’t all that much special about this pokémon.

Then why do I love it so much?! I do not know which seems a theme about these ground types. I love using earth power on Nidoking even if Earthquake is more effective. I love random trivia about the pokémon! For example did you know that Nidoqueen is the undefined Egg Group.. that means she can’t breed! The first gendered Pokémon.. the two species that started a trend for gold and silver and all the games onward to become the breeding game we all know and love. .and one part is sterile! This also again.. makes Nidoking factually better.. as it that can be IV bred. Also their secret ability “Sheer Force” is  their best ability.. you can get that by breeding.. so …..there is problem for one of them.. still these two pokémon are icons in the pokémon world.. they reshaped the pokémon world for generations to come.. yet they can not “play”with each other. It’s so wonderfully odd. Nidoking looks better though, learns better moves, is easier to use in combat and bascily does everything a little bit better. The fact that what they do isn’t anything special makes just all the more credible that I actually love this Pokémon! Sometimes there is no reason.. but I just have some heavy Nido in the kokoro.

What is your favourite Ground Type? Did you know Rhydon was the first pokémon?! Did you play Pokémon Stadium as a kid?! Let me know! Let’s hope next week it will be nice and hot outside, because I got another top 10 list waiting for you to cool you off as we discuss the Ice Type.
Now I have to Dig into some more writing for my DnD games so I will be off! See you next time.

Pinkie’s Personal Rules For Blogging

Hello again sweet Island Guests, it’s Wednesday again so it’s time for another post on Pinkie’s grey-matter. Stuff that is in my mind. Last week we did something a bit whimsical so this week we are a bit more serious. My blogging anniversary is drawing near. So I started to think on what I have learned. There is a lot more to blogging than one may think and if you have a mind as weird as mine you might have to place some rules that work for you! Today I share some of mine, some sensical some .. less so.

I have this weird issue with favouring one of my own posts. Blog Tags where I have to pick my favourite. I feel it’s unfair to my other posts.. they might cry that I favor one over them. I know they probably do not have any sentience.. but who knows! I put some love into all of them so maybe on some level they are like my babies. This is also why I haven’t participated in the JCS in ages. I felt so conflicted on what to contribute! Something smart, something funny, something cute.Also by labeling it the best the other posts might feel less. I also feel that favouring a post for this is like leading a lamb to the slaughter. Some of you have seen so much more anime and have so much more insight in cultural stuff that anything I throw against it would be deemed.. worst in the showcase.. and I don’t want my posts to suffer through that! I hate putting my post in any form of list. If it would be the least liked on the line up ..it could feel like me in gym class.

It also saves me from a lot of stress. I could pick a post with the most votes and nominate that.. but let’s be honest here.. we are all in the same community here. If a post gets 30 likes you’ve probably all already seen it so than there would not be much reason for me to make my other posts feel like they are worth less to me. Of course it’s not only my post sentience that concerns me about this matter. It’s the community as well. Favoring of any kind only leads to polarization. If I pick Blog A as my favorite and show you.. while you favor B I only succeed in proving how different we are. I do not need to prove how similar we are.. because mostly care about the same things. If you are reading this.. there is a big chance you at least like either gaming or anime or movies even.  There already is common ground. Let’s focus on that. What post I favor is also based on my mindset and not constant. 

How I see my blogs If I break my rule!

Topics become more relevant or can become stupid in a heartbeat. It’s too much pressure. I never want to enforce my preference upon others as it stifles one’s uniqueness and can also put us needlessly apart. So no JCS for me, No final part of the Mystery Blogger award where you select 2 of your best post and no Top 5 of my favorite posts.  If someone thinks one of my posts is very special that is great.. but I do not want to ever enforce it upon them. Should it ever turn out to be that in some reality/plane beyond our own our posts get sentience trough our love and effort than I am sure all my posts are happy they aren’t the favored as well and everyone can smile and be happy.

I am not saying this is actually true but I feel we have much more control over reality than we realise. A chair isn’t a  chair because it has for legs and a sitting surface for a single person with some back support. It’s because we choose to acknowledge it as a chair. The word that happens to be chosen. If I see it as a stool with back support..  I aint that much more wrong.  Happy thoughts create positives energies. That’s why we have concepts like Karma.. but thats also why the people who are depressed keep getting negative stuff happen to them. So if I truly vividly imagine my posts asking me not to take favorites because the top 5 knows they would never make that!  Maybe I am picking up some actual energy and making it a thought!

I will my utmost to provide a safe haven for everyone. Everyone is welcome as long as they themselves also accept that everyone is truly welcome on my blog. I mean do make a normie joke every now and again.. but let’s be honest sometimes we can make a joke about our friends as well. While I do believe in causes and can support them, I will never do so in the capacity of this blog. I mean I am very much about equality for everyone and in that sense OWLS can be scene as political but that’s not how I view it. Will I blog to inspire you to be yourself.. yes.., will I ban you if you are racist or a bigot in my comments yes.

Yet I will never make my blogs about politics.  There is a lot going on in the world and I do have opinions.. yet that is something for the person behind the keyboard.. not for the person you see. No matter who you are, where you live or what you believe.. you are here because we have something in common. Let that be the thing that unites us, not whether you vote red or blue, left or right. I have 0 people from my own country that follow me now that Raist has been  gone. My real life friends don’t read my blog so my issues with such matters aren’t very relatable.This in a way goes the other way around as well. While I sympathise with your emotions wherever you come from.. as your blogging friend, I can never truly get the insight you have in your nations issues, I do not feel I get enough information to form an objective view. Simply because the world.. now basically consist out of nothing but extremes.

I do not believe in a Binary world, with only absolutes, 1’s or 0’s  believe in a multi coloured world and I rather take the role of someone who listens to you when you had a rough day and gives a shoulder pad, or offer you a lighthearted blog post to keep your mind of it than me picking up a torch with you.  While I care about you all very deeply, I might also care about Otto Otherside, or Elisabeth Elsewhere. You are always free to ask me for my views and opinions on a issue trough a twitter DM or by the contact page.. and I’ll answer genuinely.. because I also believe in being truthful, yet I do not think turning my blog into something that can polarise.. while I am clearly not an expert.  This also goes for lesser debates like Jamie vs Vic, Pewdiepie Yay or Nay, or is what I feel about Queerbaiting in anime.

My content is meant is to meet fellow geeks and no matter if you are on team Jamie or team Vic .. both sides can still have amazing people still. If we focus on what makes us different and profile ourselves to specifically we lack the chance to have awesome friends. From friends that I disagree with I might learn some new insights while from friends I agree with I can get a sense of validation. Both are important. The episode of Family Guy where Brian befriends Rush Limbaugh is a great example.. both gain insights from each other and at least had a fun experience out the whole thing. Why should we deny ourselves that. Personally I would not have even known who he was before that episode and even after I hardly know his agenda well enough to judge.

One may ask me the question if I do not believe in absolute wrong? Like some of the absolute madness that is going on in the world right now, one side has to be wrong right?! Yes.. but does that make everyone on said side wrong and should we push them all out ? No! I obviously have my opinions .. and if you know me a bit you can get a sense of where I stand. For the most of you reading this, I stand with you. I will simply just never blog or tweet about it. Maybe my blog is being read by one who doesn’t stand where I am right now.. but by not focusing on what makes us different maybe they can one day see what makes us the same. 

So many of you make so many great articles, some of you come up with the greatest blogging topics and it sometimes is very inviting to write my opinions about those opinions or chip in. Yet I made it a rule to not do that . At least not directly. I recently referenced an Irina post as something that shaped my vision as a blogger but that was months apart. Honestly I do not feel a strong enough blogger to add to another bloggers work. I have difficulty seeing myself as your peer. My writing is a lot sloppier.

I have a lot of trouble reading back my own texts to correct them . I have a very strong memory and when I read back my own posts.. I just see the post in my memory again as I intended to write it.  So my blogs have plenty of errors. I know this and  it makes me feel unworthy to even stand in your shadows. By stepping on your turf , I amplify that feeling for myself. I would feel like the shitty sequel.. the  Son of the Mask to your Mask. The Book of Shadows to your Blair Witch Project. Now does this that mean it actually rings true and I can never add anything to others blogs? No not at all. but the stress and the pressure makes it not fun to me .. so I never will use another’s blog article as my stepping stone.


The exception being of course a positive review of a series I would watch but then I just say you inspired me to watch it.. and write it as my own article still. This is also why I gave up on Collabs for a bit.. I did not feel like I am good enough for that yet and it feels as if I would use a bigger blogger or a better blogger as a springboard. Now I am not saying that is a bad thing I am just saying, I do not want to add pressure to live up to self imposed standards and meet other peoples standards. I decided to write for myself and find my own batch of followers. I am open up again for collabs but I am still rather afraid to reach out. So for now I am not putting myself under that pressure.

I do not want people to follow me because they like Megan, Scott or Irina, Foovay or whoever I want them to follow because they like me! Though now I still hope to collab in the future, I’d probably prefer to start with a one-off Colab to see how things will go for me. I feel I have to earn my chops on my own so I can’t just borrow a popular topic! Now in the recent past I had a few topics similar to what other people did but that is a coincidence. I am at the moment of writing about a week and a half ahead with about another week of blogging planned.  I just have a similar mindset as some of you.. I never want to imitate you!

I’ll just do me! Teehee!

One of the most important rules I enforce on myself is to keep writing something. Sometimes it’s not as funny as I want, sometimes it’s not very inspirational and some advice can be very boring. However at some point somehow my brain felt like any topic was a good idea to write about. If you start doubting that instinct you open a floodgate and you can easily get yourself writers blocks. This isn’t good enough?! Let’s scrap it! Yesterday’s post was funnier.. I should axe this one then. If I censor my thoughts based on what I think is good enough or not , I keep imposing myself with standards that creep up a little bit each time. I did this in the past and it leads into a spiral of putting up walls. The higher your standards grow the less fun writing becomes, the harder it becomes.

To me writing is something that should come natural. Sometimes I will write a dead post, sometimes I will write a good one.  Since writing is my hobby that need for everything to be good or amazing isn’t exactly there. It is nothing but a self imposed threshold that limits practicing that hobby.  Blogging should not be about how much likes you can get with a post. It’s about how much fun you had writing and editing. So nowadays I just write! I write something for a day and if it’s good , that is great.. if it’s a bit less.. I keep it and in case I write something better I just keep pushing the worse thing backward.. coming back to it to make it better later.

If I can’t do anything with the subject I will post it anyway. Something that I dislike might still really resonate with someone else, leading up to chances to meet new friends. Maybe someone will point out the flaws of such a post in a comment and I get feedback that helps me get better. At the very least it will help my consistency and SEO , whatever that stuff means. We are amateurs, not everything has to be good or sleek. Concept art  can sometime be worth something to and it’s worth to publish in it’s own right. A bad post in factuality does not really exist. Bad writing is mostly an opinion. For example I really do not like how Lord of the Rings is written at all. I vastly prefer James Clemens Wit’ch series. Most would disagree but how I feel is still a fact.

Perhaps you learn people don’t like that type of content.. perhaps people go crazy for it and you find you have been too hard on yourself.  To me killing of an essay a project is often a gateway to  cancel more, you add more pressure to yourself while gaining nothing. Sure killing something off is the way to a “save” face.. but do we need that as amateur bloggers? Isn’t the writing experience and the feedback way more important?  Isn’t keeping writing accessible more in your benefit? While writing like Tolkien might give you 10.000 followers, writing like James Clemens may give you 300 others. You do not know! You can’t know.

To me it is, I write because it clears my head, I get to relax, chuckle at my own jokes, give me back pads for my infinite wisdom and check on my own growth as an alien princess from planet k400.  I mean ..  growth as a human… my backspace button broke , so I can’t delete that.. but I meant to write human! I am definitely a human not the princess of K400’s Pynk-Eno kingdom. Forget you ever read that! Whoever I am.. I am someone who will not censor myself. I keep writing until someone makes me cry so hard I can’t take it anymore.. or until the day I die. Whichever comes first! Some like excellent grammar, others do not care about it that much and even find a deeper meaning in the Tales of Scrotie Mcboogerballs (google knew that name and corrected it for me..which makes a perfect case for standards)
Thank Arceus that I can write on my laptop and the blogosphere .. because otherwise my house would be filled with paper and mediocrity!  Now it’s just filled with pink pillows and plushies.

And I am definatly not an Alien!

So there you have it! A few of my blogging quirks and personal codes written out for you! So now you know where I come from! Now you know why my posts suck so much OR why you find them awesome! Now you also know why I don’t participate in showcases .. I am weird huh! So do you have some personal rules? What does work for you?! Let me know in the comments!

Gotta Steal them All: Pokémon Fire Red Rocket Edition

Prepare for Trouble! Horsea use Bubble!
 To protect Kanto from Devastation! To steal peoples pokémon across the nation!
To denounce the evils of Oak and Lance!  I now play a Rom-hack on Gameboy Advance!
Pinkie
Plays!
Team Rockets  New Rom-hack of Fire Red!
So boot up the Rom.. and start with a rat!

Pinkie! Reviews that!

For the first time since pokémon Gold, I am a male Pokémon Trainer! And not just any pokémon trainer.. A Team Rocket Grunt… with pink hair! His name is Pinkie… how fitting! Pinkie is not me because he is one mean S.O.B… well he had the chance to be either a good spirited Rocket who doesn’t steal much Pokémon or be one who steals everything.. given how this game is actually about being evil it did not seem to make sense to go with the goody two-shoes route as it would invalidate one of the special mechanics of the game.

That would be kind of like installing a mod in Skyrim that improves human custom characters.. and then you play an Argonian. Or installing an extra hard difficulty level.. and then play on Normal. So this Pinkie had to be one S.O.B.  But let me stress that this guy is not me! He gets a Rattata out of a box of Rattata as we start our adventure in the Cerulean Game Corner Rocket Hideout.  That is such a clever idea! We also meet Ronnie.. an enthusiastic looking fellow that is a new recruit as well. He teaches that since we are lowly grunts we can only steal from young children and old people! As we can intimidate those into handing us their pokémon!

He takes me out to Celadon City Square and we find a girl playing with her two new pokémon she got for her birthday! Rattata  beats up  her Pidgey and her Spearow and I get to steal one of her beloved new friends!…Oof This is going to be harder than I thought. I just have to remember I am not this Pinkie! I reluctantly steal her Pidgey. Troughout the remainder of the adventure I would never steal from someone who only has one pokémon. Because Ronnie stole her Spearow.. leaving the girl with 0 friends.. the poor thing.  I wasn’t even going to use the Pidgey but I had no choice!  I decided to nickname my Pokémon very random names. Like Xibu and Ipsor.. just a random collection of consonants and vowels so I don’t see them as other peoples pets! Still getting Pokémon this way is kind of interesting! It reminded me a bit of the Coliseum games! Yet more evil! A few towns in and I was stealing left and right.. with the only rule never to leave someone without a single pokémon! Because everyone deserves a friend!

Otherwise I tried to be as evil as possible.. in a game where you have to be mean , you better be mean so I beat up people’s boyfriend, I snatched someone’s gold tooth , I robbed a Pokémart and more! Evil. it pained my heart at times but sometimes it felt good! like when I stole a hooker from a Pimp and gave her a better life in a pokécenter whose Nurse Joy was fed up with it all. It felt wrong.. but also right! I was so happy I was a male trainer.. because this guy was not me! He was someone else.. that became my most important rule in this game and I would need it for the story that was to come.

Pokémon Fire Red: Rocket Edition follows the story of Red and how he stops Team Rocket and Giovanni’s scheme to take control of Kanto and the Pokémon Mewtwo. Yet we do not follow it through the eyes of Red.. we follow it through the eyes of Pinkie who is not me! Fresh off the boat we get send to Mount Moon to obtain some fossils when the group gets stopped in their tracks by a Spikey Haired kid with a Wartortle and an even stronger kid with a cap and Charmeleon. We then get to meet Giovanni for the first time who wonders why these two kids have War-Pokémon. We then realise something.. the world Red sees is not the actual world. It’s the world through the eyes of a kid the actual world is much more dystopian. Bill, Oak, Blaine, Surge, Koga heck even that old guy with back troubles in Viridian city.. everyone has secrets but they would never tell that to a kid. The kid would not be able to comprehend… He also never really speaks to asks questions he is just a good boy to Oak.

It doesn’t take long for us to meet Bill. Apparently Blaine had been making Porygon for Team Rocket.. as a way to provide them with income..having an infinite supply of porygon for their game corner ..so people waste their cash for such a rare but secretly not so rare pokémon.
Since Blaine is to scared to help the crime organization we have to ask Bill.. bribing him with some goodies which include two tickets aboard the S.S. Anne Cruise. He doesn’t like that gift ..but he likes the other stuff we give him so it’s all good. We also sell trade steroids to LT Surge so we can use the SS Anne to smuggle Pokémon.. stuff like that. Yet we discover there is more about Team Rocket than we originally thought. They are not just criminals.. they want an Independent Kanto. We find out that Kanto lost the great war to Johto and it’s general Lance has taken over from the Elite Four of Kanto. Oak, Fuji, Giovanni.. and Shingeki.. or something.. a name I keep forgetting and that doesn’t come into play until much much later.  During the war these were involved to create the ultimate weapon. A Pokémon that could destroy Lance.. based on the DNA of Mew.. codename Mewtwo.

I will not spoil the story any further but for those interested in finding out I am more than willing  to spoil on demand, let me just say that the story of this game is quite amazing. It utilizes so many fan theories along side with later made revelations. We see how Silver became the douche he is in Pokémon Gold and Silver, seeing the toxic relationship with his father Giovanni and his mother Arianna. We see the man Giovanni and his convictions to bring back the Kanto he once loved through extreme measures. We even see the dark side of Professor Oak. No one in the Pokémon World is a saint. The team Oak had in Blue and Red that got scrapped but still was in the code..comes into play here. We see Oak use these pokémon. We see why  characters walked away from the Mewtwo project and we even see what link that old man in Viridian city has with the creature on the east coast of Cinnabar island. There is so much lore here, it is very impressive.

The game offers some interesting new mechanics. Due to how easy it is to steal Pokémon, managing your team is quite a bit harder. We get less XP , Less Money and more Pokémon.. as a Rocket it doesn’t take long to feel like we are behind the curve in levels.. to reflect your status as a Rocket.. we may be able to beat trainers but it’s a lot harder for us than it was for Red.  There is a promotion system that actively changes our sprite as we move from Grunt to Executive to Admin and even beyond. 

Ranking up allows us to steal pokémon from a wider pool of trainers. Like Teens and girls when we become an executive, males when we become an Admin.. and eventually we can even steal from Gym Leaders and Elite Four members. Yet there is always an upside and a downside to things. Steal a Pokémon from a Gym Leader and you do not get a Technical Machine. Get a high enough bounty and team rocket will reward you with powerful battle items like a life orb, or a kings rock. Keep your record clean long enough and the police might reward you with an Exp Share, A lucky egg or powerful moves.

So there are several ways of power, the Rocket way allows you to battle more viciously while the good way makes the game a bit easier.. as if you where playing an actual normal main character.  It is also interesting how the world acts around a character that in the original game would be considered an “npc”. You can not get the coin case you normally get because that is meant for Red.. people do not want to give it to a Rocket Criminal. People rip on Surge gym puzzle because when you are not a kid you realise how stupid that particular puzzle is.  We see how people interact with you while you do not have a trainer passport.

We do not have a pokédex either so our inventory feels so weird. As a result this game feels so unique yet so familiar and right. A lot of thought went into this and while the plot really delves deep into fanfiction and fan theory .. every piece of dialogue and every option you have fits into that.. they even go as far as to explain why mechanics in the original games worked like they did.. stupid little things you never wondered about suddenly fall into place. To a certain extend even going as far as to explain why Samuel doesn’t know his grandson’s name.

This game is such an easy recommendation to anyone who loves the franchise but thinks it’s just a bit to kiddy and to lighthearted. It’s great for anyone who thinks Pokémon is just a bit to easy. It’s amazing to everyone who at least knows the story of the first generation a bit basically. It’s infinitely better if you read some theories though, Missing No for example is a story element, if you at least know how to get it things will resonate more strongly.  If you noticed that Blue suddenly stopped Raticate in his team and afterwards he can be found in Lavender city.. things will immediately click.. it’s faith has always been a popular theory but here you finally get the talk from the other side. We see why Blue is so bitter and why he eventually becomes the Viridian Gym Leader. There is so much to experience..and for an amateur it’s just .. a simple more mature version of pokémon with a crime mechanic.. for those who know Kanto trough and trough.. this is the ultimate fan fiction experience.

The strongest point is the story, but also the gameplay has been updated. Even though it’s fire Red.. all the 18 typings, including fairy types and new movesets exist. So they even dealt with my biggest gripe, having to remember old systems. Special Attack and defence is split,  moves can hit physical and specially regardless of their type and all those things have been brought into pokémon as we know it. Add a backstory in the veins of.. Pokémon as we  suspect it was.. and a twist story that reveals the existence of a counterpart of Mewtwo and these are a few hours well spend to anyone who either watched the first pokémon movie or played the first game. The more you know about Pokémon the more there is to love!  I had a blast! Even if my character ended up in jail for 46 years!  That’s a good thing.. he was a bad man.. and definitely not me! He got what he deserved.. and with this game. .as a fan I got what I deserved too!

This game is such an easy recommendation to anyone who loves the franchise but thinks it’s just a bit to kiddy and to lighthearted. It’s great for anyone who thinks Pokémon is just a bit to easy. It’s amazing to everyone who at least knows the story of the first generation a bit basically. It’s infinitely better if you read some theories though, Missing No for example is a story element, if you at least know how to get it things will resonate more strongly.  If you noticed that Blue suddenly stopped Raticate in his team and afterwards he can be found in Lavender city.. things will immediately click.. it’s faith has always been a popular theory but here you finally get the talk from the other side. We see why Blue is so bitter and why he eventually becomes the Viridian Gym Leader.

There is so much to experience..and for an amateur it’s just .. a simple more mature version of pokémon with a crime mechanic.. for those who know Kanto trough and trough.. this is the ultimate fan fiction experience. While strongest point is the story, but also the gameplay has been updated. Even though it’s Fire Red.. all the 18 typings, including fairy types and new movesets exist. So they even dealt with my biggest gripe, having to remember old systems. Special Attack and defence is split,  moves can hit physical and specially regardless of their type and all those things have been brought into pokémon as we know it.

This game is us!.. Pokémon as we  suspect it was.. and a twist story that reveals the existence of a counterpart of Mewtwo and much more! These are a few hours well spend to anyone who either watched the first pokémon movie or played the first game. The more you know about Pokémon the more there is to love!  I had a blast! Even if my character ended up in jail for 46 years!  That’s a good thing.. he was a bad man.. and definitely not me! He got what he deserved.. and with this game. .as a fan I got what I deserved too!

I got everything I expected and so much more! There are some glitches..but for what this is I could not expect more!

I would like to thank you all for reading! Feel free to ask questions about the game if you are interested! Or tell me your experience with in the comments. Did you feel as badly as I did when you stole pokémon?! Do you not like to steal? Do you prefer to reverse steal?! Well have I got good news for you! I have a Ko-Fi thingamajig! Just saying! Not robbing you here!

This is now a button!

MONKEY!! The Super Mario Bros Movie Review

A long long time ago the earth was ruled by dinosaurs. They were big so not a lot of people went around hassling them. Actually no people went around hassling them because there weren’t any people yet just the first tiny mammals. Basically life was good. Then something happened. A giant meteorite struck the earth. Goodbye Dinosaurs! But what if the Dinosaurs weren’t all destroyed? What if the impact of that meteorite created a parallel dimension where the dinosaurs continued and evolved into intelligent vicious aggressive beings….just like us? And hey what if they found a way back?!

If you haven’t checked my blog title you might wonder. If you haven’t seen this movie or been oblivious to it you might still surprise you that these are the first words uttered in the movie that is called Super Mario Bros. This movie is something I owned on VHS back when I was just a tiny Pinkie.  For those who do not know what VHS is.. back in the pre-internet age movies did not stream on network but were pressed onto disk or even earlier trapped into a cassette with small versions of movie reels contained inside them! It was magical!  Even back then I was surprised. I personally would have never imagined to set a Mario movie in a sci-fi  cyberpunk dystopian alternate dimension ruled by Fungi and Dinosaurs. Director Rocky Morton, his former wife Annabel Jankel and their writing staff  clearly had a bigger imagination than me.. and you know me I am a weirdo!

This is how Mario Starts!

Now I called Dragonball Evolution  one of the most unfaithful movies ever but this one takes the crown. Yet where I really suffered through DBE this one has long since became a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I would have placed it in my Pinkie’s Guilty Movie pleasures list, but I decided to review video game movies for the next few Mondays to come and let’s while plenty of them go under that category , I doubt I can say I had pleasure when I get to the Uwe Boll movies. In fact I should spread those around a bit because otherwise I will suffer too much in a row. Anyway after that note to myself, i’ll have to admit I kind of had fun watching the Super Mario Bros movie again. Somewhere in the same vein as I would find it fun to see aliens land on earth or look at Honey Boo Boo or some weird Dutch Bed and Breakfast owner talking about wines. I don’t want to watch it all the times but sometimes it can be fun!

1/10 Moustache Curves the wrong way

So for those who do not know the plot of the super Mario film, here you go. A dinosaur queen traveling dimensions places a capsules in front of a monastery. In this capsule are an egg and a meteorite shard. From this egg hatches Daisy, who twenty years later has become an archaeologist. A mean construction mogul named Scapelli tries to sabotage her dig-site and unknowingly opens the breach between the dinosaur dimensions and ours again. King Koopa has usurped the other dimension by turning their former king into Fungus and their world has falling into disarray, lacking enough resources to continue on. If he can insert the Meteorite piece into his worlds side of the meteor.. both the worlds can merge together and dinosaur can feast and rule over mankind. Daisy being of the true royal line is the only one who can actually insert the meteor without being killed so he needs her as well. So he sends cousin Iggy and Spike ..to capture her as she holds the meteor as well. Daisy and Luigi started to date in the real world.. and when the plumbers use their skill to save daisies dig-site.. she gets captured and Mario and Luigi have to venture into the world of the dinosaurs to save Luigi’s date.

Whose that Archaeologist?

Now you might notice there already are a few differences between this and the source material. First of all it’s Daisy who is front and center in this adventure and not Peach.. who in fact is never mentioned in the movie at all.  Princess Daisy is actually the ruler of Sarasaland not the Mushroom Kingdom.. while the name is not officially coined for the Dinosaur World.. King Koopa (back before he was Bowser)  teasingly refers to it as such. Mario is Luigi’s guardian, while he is clearly of a fatherly age he decided to call Luigi his brother. Luigi is actually the main hero in this one and he actually gets  more than a cake at the end.. though not by much.  Koopa normally isn’t really a dinosaur nor is the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom… but hey!  It’s kind of a fun story, it’s just weird Mario and Luigi are in it.

Is it wrong of me to wonder how Dennis Hopper Bowsette would look like?!

The whole rescue the princess stick is in the movie and that is the main thing a Mario game is about and at least it wasn’t all just a dream, just a stage play nor had little mushroom men been transformed into blocks that Mario then murders to get some coins. It doesn’t make a LOT more sense than the NES Mario games but at least it somewhat follows a classical three act structure. We get two people growing closer, one of those being kidnapped and them two brothers trying to save one guys gal… and discovering the other guys gal is also here. Did you know Mario is into WWF?! Well now you do! It’s like a Mario fever dream. You keep wanting to watch to see what else they turned into what. How this world is so not like Mario and puts mario names on thinks that are clearly NOT that same thing.  Did you know what if you paint your SNES Super Scope Grey it can evolve people! Heh! Monkey! Did you know that Goombas are actually 2,5 meter tall muscled dinosaurs with a super tiny head. I always imagined they were like big heads on just feet! Did you know Toad actually was a Goomba?! Who would have imagined.. they look so differently in 8 bit. 

Goomba.. the Jojo’s Version

It’s kind of like looking at a five year old (or younger) make a drawing for Santa than having you explain what they drew. See this is Mario.. and this is a goomba.. and this is King Koopa and if I give this to santa he knows I’ll want the Mario game. They are about equally recognisable and it totally mesmerised me. It’s like making a Final Fantasy VII movie and recast Red as a Kitsune girl.. and giving Cloud a dagger instead of a sword.. but it can grow to any size he wants. Materia would be food that the evil demon Sephiroth would need to eat to summon an ancient demon to earth trapped in a meteor. It would not be right but it would be fascinating in it’s own right! Still that would be only fun once, at least it should yet this movie I’ve seen a handful of times now and I still find it fun. While they do deviate so massively from the source material, unlike Dragonball Evolution , everything so packed full of character that it kinda works. Yamcha in the western movie for example is just a chad with a drill, while Toad here.. is a once rebellious man that sang songs putting Koopa in a bad daylight, that got devolved into a music loving good guy who just likes to smile and make people happy. Who even plays his harmonica when he is set on fire.

I’m sorry Mario! The faithful costume designer is in another castle!

Koopa has now become a weird sort of germaphobe that loves Pizza and is fascinated yet disgusted by the fact that humans evolved from Monkies. He in fact is so obsessed with evolution that he weaponised it and used it as a key to his rule. He stems from the king of dinosaurs so he feels like he is destined to rule as well.  Nothing of it is like the Koopa/Bowser we know but yet again .. there is still a lot of character there. Even Big Bertha .. who is just a fish that eats a lot , in the games here has been given a character. I’m pretty sure that Miyamoto never imagined her as some Sassy Big Boned Sugar Mamma with a though exterior but big heart.. but thats in this movie.  All characters do at least get loads and loads of flavor. It’s a bunch of cliches mashed up yet at the same time it’s something we do not get nowadays anymore.  Characters Alla 2020 veer away from stereo types, they all get some depth and some realism, yet at the same time that also means they become much more interchangeable. Here every character is so extreme and tacky that said personality on another character in the movie would barely work. It doesn’t become a better movie for it but it certainly becomes more watchable for it and re-watchable even. There are so many visual gags , tiny nods and extreme oddities in the world building that even on my fifth romp I notice new things. Like how Bullet Bill’s are now Pneumatic cartridges for power boots?!

Apparently dinosaurs evolved from fish as well..or fish evolved in dinosaur city I mean.. uhnm… this thing is a mess!

Not just from a writing perspective the movie has its flaws, the acting is also odd. The direction is odd. For example at one point King Koopa goes to the real world with his army of Goombas.. an army of 2,5 meter monsters with guns and flamethrowers.. that actually throw fireballs. Yet he also has devolution guns on his person which he  tries to use on Mario to turn him into a monkey. He then hits the construction Mogul instead. You’d think people would be terrified that a guy with a monster army just killed a man and changed him into a monkey .. but no everyone laughs. Not only the humans whose world is being invaded by their very own eyes but the bad guys as well. They stop their actions to laugh at the monkey and the camera painfully lingers on this.. like it’s some sort of briljant gag. Why ? How?

Holy Macaroni! I wore the wrong colour!

Somewhere in the middle of the movie we suddenly see Dennis Hopper/ Koopa order a Pizza.. out of the blue.. there is a chase scene going on.. big set up.. and we get a 30 second scene where he calls for pizza. It was never established he is hungry or that he thinks so lowly of his opponents that he can coast it.. no at their most dangerous.. he just orders a pizza. The way it is acted is almost as if a stand up comedian is making a joke.. with the punchline being weird pizza toppings people would add in a dinosaur world. It isn’t funny yet there is room in the delivery as if they are waiting for people to clap and laugh at the joke.. it’s so weird.

The comedic duo Iggy and Spike! I loved them together in the games!
Oh! Somehow their expressions matched up quite nice!

Then there is a scene where Luigi played by John Leguizamo , while desperately trying to save the princess, decides to prank Mario, saying he can make some sort of impossible jump but actually he is connected to some sort of hook and crane, which at first seem impossible. Egging Mario on to jump as well.. which leads to Mario jumping to his death.  Only when Mario begins jumping he yells.. no no  it’s a joke but of course by then it’s to late. Why would anyone do that?! I mean of course it’s a joke about the brothers amazing jumping ability but they use power boots for that already. so even from a homage stand this made zero sense. He tricks his brother to jump to his death with a smile on his face and Immediately is snapped out of his trauma of seeing his brother fall to his death when Princess Daisy’s father becomes a membrane trampoline that saves Mario… grabbing him in split seconds.  These characters are so incohesive and the acting also reflects that.. this is a sloppily written and acted out garbled mass of events to enter some comedy or drama at random times.

Is it weird that I really wanted to see Bob Hoskins ride Yoshi?!

Yet in a way that is also the saving grace of this movie. You never know exactly what’s going to happen because it’s all so stupid and random. A bomb-omb suddenly obtains the power to break physics, characters suddenly fade out of existence, rules of the world do not always work the same. Throughout the entire movie.. even four or five views in I still have that “what the f is going on” vibe going..Which would be a good tagline for this movie?! Super Mario Bros. The movie  “What the F is going on?” Like a caleidoscope it feels random but it keeps me fascinated even if there isn’t that much to it. Empty and broken yet at the same time colourful and trippy.

10/10 Best Actor in the Movie!

Dennis Hopper doesn’t portray a great Koopa, but he certainly plays a memorable one! Monkey! Is still one of the things he will be remembered for. Bob Hoskins is an odd Mario ..who lacks that Santa Claus vibe, the original Mario has.. and replaces it with Brooklyn brash. Yet when we hear the name we do remember him as Mario still. John Leguizamo , mostly in his early years like this, main trait in acting is… “well I guess they chose him for this part.. how odd” and i’ll probably forget he was Luigi again..but that means I can watch this movie in the future and be right “that’s right.. that guy was Luigi! Such an odd choice” From costume design to actors, to story to screen structure and even in music.. this flick makes almost zero logical choices considering the material.. For example let me put the music choice that is present through most of the movie! The music theme they choose to represent the Mario Bros and use trough most chase scenes! Which is most of the movie… you expect some iconic movie.. you get :

We get one of the weirdest , most 90’s action comedies based on a great IP that is to this day still a mystery to me. Not a single element is great.. most of them aren’t even good.  Yet when combined they do give me a great time when watching it. It might not be for the right reasons it might not last long but a movie length of giggling face palms and me ooh’s and huh’s are definitely not the worst way I spend my time. In that way I do think this movie is kind of underrated. Yes if you break it down this movie offers next to nothing.. only a good time if you can turn of your brain for a bit .. or just let it race….. and isn’t that the most important thing a movie should offer us?! A fun runtime?! Would I watch it again?! Give me a few months  and I would say Let’sa Go!

Score:

Next week we will probably end up with a more faithful movie adaptation! A simple Zombie Shooting Game, should be easy enough to adapt to the big screen right?! Join me next week as I watch Uwe Boll’s House of the Dead! That seems like an easy job to make cool right?!