Pinkie in Search of a Waifu (Part I): Liz and the Blue Bird

When I wrote my latest real neat blogger award, I confessed I did not have a waifu. Being a female identifying person with interests in girls, in a sexualy postive – asexual kinda way, I just never found someone that truly gelled with me. I had anime crushes but on girls out of reach, with them either being straight or taken. So I stated I was Waifu Single. Looking for a lesbian girl, who wasn’t overly lewd and someone who would have a hint of crazy or awkwardness about them. Fred from Au Natural told me he could find me a waifu and recommended me few anime. Since I dedicated my blog to love, I thought finding myself a Waifu could make a great special! So over the next few installments I will search Fred’s anime’s and potentially your suggestions as well for my 2d dream girl. I never expected to find a contender for my favorite anime movie however.

A story about about a story about a Story.

Liz and the Blue bird is produced by Kyoto Animation and is a very peculiar little thing. It is set in the universe of the light novel and anime universe of Sound Euphonium. Yet it doesn’t follow the main cast. Instead  on one of the background characters. Mizore. A extremely shy introverted oboe player. A small sub story in the light novel universe sort of speak. We follow her journey to prepare for a big music competition while she deals with her feelings for fellow band member Nozomi, who plays the flute. For the competition the band has selected a music rendition of the story of Liz and the Blue Bird. A fairly classical folktale about a lonely woman meeting this bright and beautiful girl and the two hit it off right away. It is immediately made clear that the story of Liz and Blue Girl is almost a mirror image of that of Nozomi and Mizore.  Nozomi is bright and bubbly and super cheerful, while Mizore is very much a loner. So if we consider Sound Euphonium the main story, I guess this is about a story in that universe but that story is totally build around a fictional story inside that store. Woosh! That’s some levels already. 

So let’s make this a bit more shallow. Let’s talk design of the four main girls. First we have Mizore, who looks like your typical japanese school girl, her hair a bit disheveled and frizzy, but she has beautiful eyes. Her movement is a bit awkward and she looks a bit like an unpolished gem! She has a pinkish eye colour and a cute whisper soft voice.  (I watched it in japanese) She is definitely something I could go with appearance wise. Nozomi looks a bit like a counterpart, her hair is much more defined and in a popular style, her eyes are a grey, that still somehow shine brighter than most of the coloured iris characters. Conveying how much strength there is in there. Her design is a bit generic but cute enough! Liz is my favorite character design of the lot. She has this distinct older feeling, which makes her a bit more romanceable for my age of double digits that is not 22 but lower than double that.  She has this mundane /average look I like. Like Mizore she doesn’t feel overly pretty but conveys sweetness and care. . Blue girl is a hyper energetic girl with a somewhat tomboyish short haircut and an overly long blue dress. Somehow that clothing style kinda annoyed me. It felt very unshapely and kinda unfitting as if it washed out her personality. I wouldn’t reject her for it but so far she is ranked last.

(Mizore-Nozomi)
(Liz-Blue Girl)

A story about music about a story

While I am not going to spoil this amazing story much like always the first five minutes are free game. Nozomi and Mizore are the top contenders for a solo in the competition where the flute represents the blue bird and  the Oboe represents Liz. Much to Nozomi’s dismay however the story ends “badly” where Liz eventually has to part ways with the Blue Girl. However she knows Mizore would never let her go, because she is simply unable to. Mizore realises this as well and has difficulty to relate to Liz. This leads her to not perform as well with her music as she possibly could. Since Mizore wants to go to music school however it is very important  that she performs well. So we get an interesting form of dilemma. Mizore needs to grow, but she is terrified that she will realise that she eventually has to let Nozomi , her only true friend go. The entire story seems to reflect this imagery through very small and silent scenes. We see the two staring through each others at windows oftenly for example. Either Nozomi spots Mizore being lonely or Mizore spots Nozomi having fun with her other friends and not being able to give Mizore the attention she seeks. During these scenes we don’t get any dialogue we just get subtle hints of Oboe and flute music, Which perfectly tell us the feelings of both parties involved. Very impressive.  Every so often one of the two reads from the story book of Liz and we move to the fairy tale world where Liz and the Blue Girl live. Drawing closer and closer to their inevitable goodbye (which is stated that’s how the story ends in the first minutes so this is not a spoiler).

That fairy tale world once more is beautifully orchestrated from beginning to end.  The music the girls have to play for the concert takes center stage in these scenes. Drawing ever closer to the third act. .. the dreaded part where the two part ways. However in this fairy tale world is also my biggest gripe with this movie. The backgrounds are done in this soft hand sketched story book style, while the characters are a much brighter anime style. The issue I have with these is that the characters are very much on a different layer, almost as if they are part of one of those pop up books. It’s very noticable and something I could not get into myself. While I love the esthetics of the world and most of the characters the way humans stick out of the shots at times kinda feels like a badly blurred green screen to me. It feels intentional but I found it to be kinda ugly looking, which was the only thing that kept me from being 100% invested in this beautiful tale.

Each time we exit the story book time will jump a bit forward in the real world and those notes of the next act draw closer to Mizore’s theme and that of Nozomi as well. Which give the movie a sort of tension.  Will we get a happy ending? Or will their story be to paralel and will we see the end of a friendship? It seems Mizore wants a more romantic relationship and the flutist seems to friendzone her, but if we have to believe the music there is many more layers. Blue girl and Nozomi are first being depicted as  fairly simple happy go lucky characters without many layers. Very free in the way they go about. Childish to an extend almost and while they do get a lot more depth towards the third act of the movie…such a coincidence… I’d put them both out of the running for my waifu competition. I’d have some issues with people who solve their problems by kind of smiling them away rather than dealing with them.

A story about Freedom, Setting Free and Freeing yourself by setting free.

The story of both the fairy tale world and the “real world’  ask a lot of questions of you. Is it okay to be happy if I am holding someone back from being their truest self? Can I even be happy when I know I am in the way of their truest potential. Does that feeling change when I realise that they desire only to be with me? This movie highlights important questions we have about our relationships but also shows us some answers. As a bit of a loner, but not to much I find myself easily transported into Liz her mindset.  I can socialize with people in town fairly okay, but when push comes to shove I can still feel a tad bit lonely. The way the movie depicts it in the first act, I could relate to it so , so much. The way Liz puts her own needs below that of Blue Girl..even if she is just making assumptions is a process I am working on with my psych a lot. I did it too. We sometimes feel we are bad for someone, thus we have to set them free, but are we REALLY doing them any favors?  This movie made me think a lot, and cry as well. Throughout music and visuals , we are told two stories, what is the right thing to do there? When do we set someone free? Are we really the person who needs to set someone free? Or do we ourselves need to be set free from those ideas? This movie makes you think in a fantastic and very real manner. These issues are real and never really “enlarged”. Sure.. I never had the magical encounter that Liz or Mizore had  but I can still feel for them. The ending also doesn’t go for the cheap route. It again invites for thought! Good for them! And such a great movie with so many relatable characters. This movie is truly one of the most touching and well directed and detailed anime films I have seen in recent times. There’s plenty of gems out there but rarely does one strike this close to the heart. This one a deadshot straight in the kokoro for me!


Now that we found out the show has relatable characters let’s find out how many characters are datable. Like I said Nozomi and Blue Girl are out. I like them fine as characters but  they aren’t a great match for me. Mizore and Liz are much more my thing, but how about availability? I mean I would not take someone away from their promised lover. Is Mizore a contender? Well I am not spoiling. You will just have to see if she will make my list. Liz however is a contender. We know she sets the Blue Girl free and remains alone. So my first waifu is 2d in a 2d world. Jeez… this feels like Dark Magician girl all over again. Can’t we do better?! Yes we actually can.  A minor character in the anime series as well as this movie is called Ririka Kenzaki, an Oboe player that does seem to display some romantic interest in Mizore but that might be me, She also seems socially awkward, and has the same low energy geeky humor as me. Her favorite colour is Dahlia Purple which is a good match with pink. Her second favorite colour Mimoso could be nice with Pink in spring and both more or less fit in my blog colour scheme. Ririka seems like she is just a bit crazy and devoted in a good way. Being 16 or so she is kinda young. Liz is compasionate and caring and like i said earlier I can relate a lot to her, she seems age appropriate and I do like her style of living ( as long as we’d get wifi) the animals may scare me at first but I’d love to a bread eating racoon. Mizore might be a bit timid for me, she would not do well among my friends I think. My gay best friend would eat her alive.

So lets do it like this let’s cast a vote on who is the best Waifu and they will move to the next round! If you think you know a better waifu for me suggest an anime (but please not the waifu itself) in the comments and I will investigate for another episode of Pinkie in Search of a Waifu! Jaa Ne Mina!

My Favorite Shonen: Hunter x Hunter

When I started anime, I only know Shonen, I never knew there were different genre. I thought Sailor Moon belonged in the same genre as well. After all, transformations, fighting evil brightly coloured attacks. It all felt the same. It did not matter to me because I loved and devoured it all. Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Fate Stay Night, Sailor Moon. I loved it all to bits. Yet after  many hundreds of episodes that same, uniformity in the genre led me to fall out of love with it as well. I still love the tropes but I lost magic. It began to feel cheap and in retrospect None of these felt that great to me. Not a single shonen would make it even close to my top 10 anime ever.  Except for maybe one. No it’s not my Hero Academia, it is the delay plagued Hunter x Hunter that won my heart.

Shonen Fatigue

The weirdest thing about this show was that I watched it around the time my shonen fatigue was at its highest.  I dropped One Piece, dropped Shippuden and while I saw the end of Bleach I had little positive to say about the Fullbring Arc that ended the anime. Back than I was actually reading some shonen Manga though, mostly to read ahead and gain some closure on some of the series, except for One Piece. However Hunter X Hunter was very different to me. It felt fresher it felt more real. However this feeling did not immediately extend to the character of Gon. I didn’t really like his design nor his way fighting style was depicted. It felt so loose!

The episodes where he met the cast felt very generic and I was just about to drop it. However I decided to wait a few episodes after they had set up. I did like Leorio and Kurapika and Killua, just Gon felt a bit meh to me. The Hunter Exam was completely my type of shonen. I like those little competitions and tournaments. However throughout the entire first arc I never felt really impressed. I just stuck with it because despite of my Shonen Fatigue I usually liked this genre still that main character is soooo boring. For some reason I always have issues with a main character when they wear green. I have never been a fan of Yuseke from Yuyu Hakusho either and I am not the biggest Midoriya fan either. The nature of the challenges kept me invested and I thought Hisoka would be the first arc villain, which kept me interested enough.  The shounen fatigue was real though and sitting trough an entire arc that is soso might be a bit much for most but after that first arc ended , oh boy….

So many shonen

The short Zoldyck family arc  intrigued me, Killua was a much better character as Gon. Gon felt more like the “player” character. A main character made like a simpleton to be able to explain the world to both Gon and the viewers/readers in a less intrusive way. I really hate those other kind of exposure dumps “As you all know…… last night we have discovered …” If everyone knows there is no need to bring it up guys! Don’t talk to the audience if you don’t plan to break the fourth wall.  In a way Gon was like us viewers. Just his fishing rod as a weapon was sooo dumb, and his outfit was not very fashionable. I really liked the darkness of the second arc.  Then we got the Heavens Arena Arc and I was blown away. Wait.. now is the first time we get introduced to the ACTUAL fighting style of the world? That’s so interesting, sure I saw it in Katekyo Hitman before but this one felt more significant to me. As it changed something for me. Everything felt so earned in this anime. Never do we get a convenient power up, the main character doesn’t learn their first signature move until very late into the series. This show felt so much tinier and so much bigger at the same time. Rarely is Gon ever incredibly powerful or the strongest during the adventure. Except for one exception he is always just trying to catch up, close the gap or fight with the resources he has been trying to close the gap as well as possible.

Both the Greed Island and Chimera Ant arc felt like something completely unique as well, each arc had their own set of rules. Each arc was something different, showing that both Killua and Gon still only have had taken baby steps in the world of Hunter x Hunter. It made the world feel alive, and never had powers gone stupidly out of control. All powers , except for maybe the power of Netero and Meruem felt.. manageable.  Let me explain this by saying throughout the first few arcs basicly up until the end of the Chimera Ant arc it feels that powerwise we are more in the Dragon Ball area of power levels, compared to Dragon Ball Z. So many shonen now push their powers to mountain shattering punches in the first few arcs that the sense of progress is trivialised. Like how scaling from crushing a pebble to crushing a mountain is impressive, but from crushing a mountain to crushing a huge mountain… meh! Most Shonen resolve around the main character being one of the strongest after they learn some secret technique or gain some form of power. A bigger dog shows up, they need to gain a new technique , rinse and repeat. As if the world resets each story arc. Hunter X Hunter does it differently, it shows there are multiple tiers of skill , there is several levels and the main characters try to scale this, each time in a very new setting with a new atmosphere as if a series on their own! Which I find a great way to convey a challenge and to show diversity. They even switch up the protagonist. 

Hunter X Legos!

This show doesn’t shy away to take the focus away from the main character. The Zoldyck family arc already put a big emphasis on our favorite white haired assassin boy, the Hunter Chairman Election Arc, despite how flawed it is, took that a step further. We don’t do that “the hero is downed, lets insta heal him and see him return more powerful thing!”.. No! Down is down.. if a character is in the hospital or needs to recover it will take them actual time to recover. No sensu beans or chakra transfer in this one. As a result the stakes of this anime feel so much more real. .. except for when Badass hunters return as little chimera girls.  A cut, a broken arm, a bad night’s sleep. It all affects the characters so much more. Somehow Hunter X Hunter never pushes what seems to be completely impossible for humans. Sure they later develop the mystical powers of Nen, they still feel human. Compare this to Luffy, Ichigo or even Yamcha who still run while impaled a million times, can blow up the planet or gain new powers and transformations willy nilly. In Hunter X Hunter they use mini nukes to kill of their enemies because that is still more powerful. Thank you! That way all the powers feel earned and it is nice to see Gon’s compagnions gain the spotlight. This world feels about the closest to real life as Shonen go for me. 

Killua’s arc is a bit of a stinker though! However the same can’t be said about the Yorknew City arc which uses Kurapika as the main character. By Arceus, this is a great arc. Probably my favorite Shonen story arc along with the Chuunin Tournament and Katekyo Hitman Reborn’s final anime arc. In this arc we follow Kurapika as he seeks vengeance on those who wronged him. Given so much depth to his character, but also fleshing out the posibilies of Nen so well. Let’s compare this anime with Lego’s for a moment.  The Hunter Exam Arc is basically your standard lego build. You know those classic red and white bricks from the age of lego before everything was an overpriced movie scene or something with it’s own animated series. It’s some solid groundwork but nothing special. The Zoldyck family arc then had you build something with a lot less blocks. An anxious but quite fun build. During the Heavens Arena Arc we get shown.. “Hey did you know there is something called Lego Technic?  With a little engine you can make things move! Here’s how it works!
After you learned about the existence of those special lego’s the next arc takes you away from your journey for a moment just to highlight what is possible with Lego Technics. A showcase  of Nen Powers, a parade of colourful and powerful foes, with mental games, staying true to oneself and a charismatic big bad! All the while you expect Gon to show up having developed his own powers of screen like Kurapika did. .. but no! This is not his story. We see the potential of Nen , which allows us to wonder… what Nen Powers will Gon get? Well guess what! It’s extremely limited! Even Killa’s Nen is still very basic. Just like when you are playing with Legos. That guy that is really good at it can show you how it’s done to open your mind ..but you still gotta build a lot of basic thingies in order for you to understand the concept well enough to do something special. That’s exactly what Hunter X Hunter does for me. 

Slow Burn

Hunter X Hunter is one of the best paced Shonen I have ever seen.  Where Naruto Bleach and One Piece have deeply flawed pacing this to me is a shining example how a narrative is paced. (Not talking about the manga production or health issues of the mangaka). The only other Shonen that comes close in terms of great pacing is Hero Academia. Yet that series I still find very tropelike. Midoriya and All Might are the good guys and they fight the evil guys. Hunter offers a bit more debt. Meruem ain’t that EVIL of a guy he just is bad for the world. In his own way he kinda makes sense. There was some kindness in his heart. Chrollo very much cares for his Troupe Members and even prefers to be arrested or killed if it safeguards the continuation of his organisation. Hisoka is a loose cannon. Rarely do we get an *evil laugh* type of villain. Maybe the Zoldycks.. but that’s about it. Never are the heroes THAT good as well. Most of the time they do badass stuff they are inspired by vengeance rather than saving the world. Which makes it all just so much more real. Again so much more human and on a smaller scale than we usually deal with in these Shonen. We follow people in a big world  but they don’t become a runner up world martial artist in season one! Most of them all small fish in a very big pond.

This results in a briljant Shonen anime that can tell a new story each time while it still feels fresh and plausible. While I do doubt we will see the series continue far enough to ever reach its full potentials, as long as you drop off after the Chimera Ant arc, this show will definitely give you some tingly and happy to be a fan. However you really have to wait until the Heavens Arena Arc to fully see that potential come to life. Which is kind of funny, the characters grow at a very mallow pace, the manga crawls forward in a snails pace and it will also take a long time to really get to the good stuff. So if you have that three episode rule this show will easily lose you. Give it a try anyway, don’t binge it just take your time and watch an episode whenever you know nothing to watch! I will tell you will find there is a lot of music in this one! And first comes rock.

A Theme Park Fit for Geeks: Pinkie visits The Efteling

Once upon a time there was this little pink blog that had a story to tell about a park that  is very close to her heart .Hello my sweet Island Guests, when writing this I have been away for the weekend.  After receiving some bad news in my family, I felt a bit down. My gay best friend took this to heart and treat me to a nice little weekend. One of the things he did for me was take me out to theme park The Efteling. A fairytale and local folklore theme park near Kaatsheuvel in the Netherlands. Why would I talk about this park? Well because I think it is one of the best theme parks you could visit as a geek.

Robot girls and talking Trash Cans

So what exactly is the Efteling? Well it all began in 1952 , when the town of Loon op Zand tried to attract tourists to the region to make them less dependant on their shoe industry income. What a horrible age 1952 must have been if shoes weren’t that popular that you needed to attract tourists! No pink pumps?! Anyway I will spare you the rest of the details.
The park started out a stroll around the forest where you can encounter certain fairytales, nowadays it’s one of the Netherlands biggest , popular and most technically impressive theme parks. What’s even more impressive  is that a lot of these still impressive animatronics stem from the 80’s and 90’s. Their animatronics are some of the best you have ever seen. Many put “It’s a small world to shame’. Not only can you still stroll through the forest to take a peek at your favorite fairy tales, like Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel, nowadays you can also visit one of the 5 (with the sixth reopening in spring this year) coasters, with many amazing dark rides, animatronic shows and classic rides stemming straight back from the 50’s. Like a steam powered carousel.  Most iconic though is the fairytale forest and the talking trash cans named Holle Bolle Gijs (roughly translating as Hungry Tubby Guy). These round rosy cheeked fellows are scattered throughout the park. If you feed them your trash they will suck it up like you just fed them something delicious and will thank you.

You are the Hero

‘Pinkie, that all sounds like stuff for little kids, why is it that fun for geeks?’ Well of course in general I have found that geeks oftenly enjoy the old fairy tales a lot longer than our “normal”  peers. So there is already the experience of seeing your favorite stories come to life right before your eyes, sure it might be catered to kids but there is just something magical about this theme park that resonates with my geek soul. The attention to detail, the way things are visually told to you. Regardless of language. You could visit the village of some people called the ‘laaf’ Laaf are a halfling like race, they are comparable to the hobbit. They live in somewhat hovel like homes and have their own customs and are little pranksters.  Already we can take a step within a little fantasy world. Even though the village of the Laaf isn’t as lively as it used to be, I would recommend paying it a visit if you are somewhat geeky. With just a bit of imagination , this is the Shire of the Netherlands. There’s also stuff to visit like the great Knights show. These aren’t just your standard knights. In brightly coloured armors and with an entire fantasy novel themed around them they can feel between a mix between Power Rangers, Fantasy and Knightly roleplay. Such a delight to see. 

What makes the efteling truly something special is in how many rides you a part of the story.  In the ride of Villa Volta for example we are a group of people (everyone riding is a participant) visiting a former bandit who swore his loyalty to satan. These bandits have existed in Dutch History and Folklore  and where known as the Bokkenrijders (Those who ride Goats) . Highwayman that were said to have demonic powers and who instead of horses rode Satan’s creature through the skies. In actuality they were all just regular highwaymen raiding churches but the goats sound cooler. History aside, in this ride you visit Hugo van den Loonsche Duynen.  A former bandit who desecrated a church and now is cursed with immortality .. but not just of any kind. Hugo can not find any kind of rest ever. Only if one with a pure heart enters his homestead and preys the curse away can Hugo finally find rest and redemption. As you sit in one of the pews, the room around you starts to spin, ever faster, up becomes down  forward becomes backward. But you are the one who has to help Hugo. In another ride you have to survive the legend of the flying Dutchman. In Joris and the Draak, a wooden coaster ride you and your band of fellow riders are a group of knights fighting a dragon, but there is also another group riding this coaster. Racing whoever finishes the coaster first is victorious. Still for a moment you are a group of knights! Racing in coasters is also incredibly fun and gives you the feeling of participating in some way shape or form. Symbolica , their newest darkride have you choose one of three routes through a fantasy castle. Through a context sensitive panel,   you can influence this ride, make this happen … or not happen, yet again you feel like a hero. A lot of the animatronics throughout the park as well as those trash can guys interact with you directly so somehow, more than in most theme parks you can feel like a hero! A sentiment I’d think many geeks would like.

Pixies and Sugar

The entire park has a very distinct old timey feeling throughout. There are hardly are modern buildings through the park. Most of it feels like you are travel through very medieval worlds. The origins of the park are also kept intact, giving you an insight in classic dutch culture. A little island holds a bit of a classic middle eastern village which is home of one of my favorite dark rides. The Fata Morgana. In this ride you travel on a little boat trough an arabian town, following the path of a powerful sorcerer.  Tigers, Camels and Crocodiles are alternate with seedy town filled with even shadier figures and even some mythical figures. My favorite dark ride however is a ride called the Droomvlucht (Dreamflight) we visit pixies and trolls as they dance around. We visit castles build on stars and other planets. We see a perfect world without strive. Pixies, trolls and whatever the green things are interacting together. Loving the animals of the forest. It’s a perfect little utopia there no one forgets to have fun. A really important lesson for us all to keep in mind. The Efteling also really caters to being super dutch, old/classic dutch to be exact. From the name and design of nearly all the stores and restaurants trough what you can find there, that old timey dutch feeling is woven throughout with just enough magic to surprise you every time. From classic stroopwafels to other famous dutch candies you can get it all here. There is something sweet for everyone. Maybe it’s a elf on a unicorn that does it for you, like me! Perhaps it’s one of the many dutch treats you want to try.

Princes and Princesses 

This theme park commits to everything it does, it does everything well. Being one  of the only theme parks in the entire Netherlands where you can get some solid food and have a meal that has character. You can spend an entire day here, and be completely content with the food on offer, as long as you are willing to pay theme park prices of course.  If you like shows there is quite a few for you two visit. From life action jousting to an animatronic ghost show, that despite being 32 years old still looks impressive. If you do not like rides this still a nice place to visit, despite the fairly high admission cost. The coasters are all their own unique thing and all feel like their own distinct thrill ride. A wooden coaster, a dark coaster, a classic coaster, a coaster with holograms water effects and more,  a hanging coaster with a a complete vertical drop 0/90 degrees.. I don’t know how to explain it so here is a capital /I …Like that! That’s a steep drop. The dark rides all vary a lot as well and add a great assortiment of mellow and swing rides to the mix and the Efteling is a theme park that is very suited for any kind of amusement park goer. That this park had to ban cosplaying already says something how popular it is among the geek community. (Mostly because of the large amount of disney characters showing up causing cues in inconvenient places and general saftey stuff) In this park you can walk trough a magical fantasy world, reminiscent of D&D, lord of the rings and those classic fairytales it is based on. It’s a park where you can be the hero or just stuff your face with sweets while sitting in little swan boats and old classic cars.
If you are a tourist in the Netherlands and geeky, this theme park is sure to please you. No matter if you want to be a hero or a lazy stroller, either way this park will offer you so much that you will feel like a prince or a princess. And as we know those always live happily ever after.

Top 5: SNES Tunes

I love  me some retro video games and even though I don’t really like  music I do like my video game music. When I originally did did the Top 5 NES Tunes post I had a clear idea on which ones to pick. With this Top 5 I had a hard time though. There are so many good songs. So I kinda resolved to cheating.While I have made a top 5 of pieces of music which I will tell you about, I will also give you an alternative rom the same game or series.  Basically this is both a top 5 of SNES tunes as well as it is a Top 5 soundtracks. I made sure not to pick just the most iconic songs as well otherwise would just keep ending up with main themes. Which oftenly carries over consoles. I made this top 5 based on how much they impacted me and will consist out of a bit of everything.

SNES Tune Number 5 :Mega Man X – Central Highway

While this game is mostly hailed for the theme to Spark Mandrill’s stage, which is my honourable mention  for this pick, I would have to rule in favor of the Intro Stage. While Mega Man 2’s Wiley castle had the best boss music, I feel that Mega Man X had one of the most epic , badass introduction stages ever. It sold everything that Mega Man X was about , and how X differed from the original Mega. When X charges his blasters,  it seems to harmonise with this stage. The way explosions and the sound effects blend in this stage music. Mega Man X has a lot more story to tell, it’s the first time the blue bomber had a real story throughout. It felt darker and more mature, themes of betrayal and an added dash of cyber punk. Central Highway makes this very clear from the get go. There’s high stakes in this one.  There is no light hearted stages, this is Megaman X, it’s a hard game, but the pace is also a lot faster than your used to, so you better get good! Better so you can rival your pal Zero and defeat Sigma. It’s all there. In a way it’s fitting that one of the best opening stage themes of all times opens this list. It’s a weird thing how this song is on the bottom of my list because it’s almost too fitting, it’s such a good match that I never felt surprised it just felt right! Yet these other tracks went even above.

Honorable Mention : Spark Mandrill Stage

SNES tune Number 4: Final Fantasy III/VI : Aria di Mezzo Carattere


Final Fantasy IV is  with some distance my favorite final fantasy game. The story, the locations, the journey, it was all so amazing. To no-one’s surprise the music of the game is amazing. While Terra’s theme, which is my honorable mention might be my favorite track of the game, arguable Aria di Mezzo Carattere is even better. In Final Fantasy VI you visit and participate in the opera and never had I seen anything like that. The complexity of this song is unsurpassed. The way the music gets bigger as the song progresses, shifts tone several times it feels so well thought out. The way it reflects not only the story of Draco and Mario, the main characters of the musical, but also the journey of Celes, the character whom you play as during the musical scene. This song is deep , it came unexpected and it’s unlike other SNES tunes.  When I attended the dissonant worlds concert and heard it performed by real opera voices for the very first time I was blown away. Somehow hearing it live did not make me thing… so that’s how it would sound when sung in real life. The 16 bit version somehow sold that to me already. In the theater I could just close my eyes, smile and nod! Yes that’s right! This takes me back, as if I was listening to the original rendition.
Also the foundations of Aerith’s theme may come from those opening notes.

Honorable mention: Terra’s theme

SNES Tune Number 3 : Tutrles in Time -Sewer Surfin

This one might be a bit of a cheat song. It featured in the arcade first after all. Yet as a Turtle fan, I simply could not ignore the best song from the best turtle game. And Since I am already cheating, no honorable mention for this one! Instead a super special remix awaits you that I absolutely adore. When I was little I would never be able to go to the arcade, mostly because we didn’t have any close by but also because I would be bullied off. Since I was a wimpy kid even for girl I could really dig the games where I felt bad-ass for a while and nothing was as badass as the Ninja turtles. Not only where you a ninja badass, you were also super cool. The Sewer Surfin Stage was the coolest video game stage a six or seven year old could wish for. Not only were we doing ninja stuff we were also surfing , dodging traps and hurting our feet! We looked so cool! Taking down robots and aliens like it was nothing only to face of with the dreadful rat king at the end.  The music of this stage was breezy , energetic and just good old fun. It sets the pace for the level and it totally feels Ninja turtles. Some of the notes of the turtles main theme are even snuck in there for good measure. This piece of music understood very well it’s a turtles song. While the evil looking aliens and deadly hazards in this stage might require something with more gravitas in this game it fits because it’s just ninja turtles and it leaves you hungry for more. Now I am hungry as well I guess tonight I will dine on turtle soup… and for some reason I also really feel like tacos!

Snes Tune Number 2: Donkey Kong Country – Gang Plank Galleon

While to me there was no doubt that Donkey Kong Country would make this list , I had such a hard time to pick out the song I liked best. Aquatic Ambiance just  got bumped of the list and my honorable mention is going to have to be Stickerbrush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2. It’s just so serene and ..kinda like Aquatic Ambience.. but less overplayed I guess so yes I stick by my choice. My favorite track is Gang-Plank Galleon though. the final boss fight theme. It starts out with a simple sea shanty that feels kinda underwhelming. But when King K Rool the pirate king comes running at you. After I took down the king the subtitles appeared and I was cheering and trampling in my little plastic chair with joy. I found it a funny joke that they made the credits to be all Kremlins so I giggled as I trampled a bit as the music began to swell. The End appeared… with a question mark….huh! The soundtrack then got rudely  interrupted by me losing a life.

‘NAAAAANIII!!!’ Little me did not comprehend what had happened my childlike brain to small to get it. The second time around I was ready and i realised the real boss battle had just begun. This was amazing! I buckled down.. and game-overed. This song tricked me, it taught me to be suspicious, that music could give clues on games. It made me a better gamer and that’s why it should be on this list.

Honorable Mention: Stickerbush Symphony

SNES Tune Number 1: Chrono Trigger – Frog’s Theme

Ducktales is one of the contenders of my best video games ever, but Chrono Trigger is a serious contender. I finished this game so many times on so many different platforms. I am pretty sure I got all the endings at least once,  Most of the time I eat the cake…it’s a good looking cake.. and it doesn’t matter inthe end anyway so I ‘d be a fool not to eat it. While Chrono’s theme is obviously the most epic song that really fits the theme of time travel, I really prefer the theme of my man Frog. I love how epic this song begins and how heroic it sounds, as a symbol for your journey. Then it becomes something so tiny and cute, yet still so brave. Just like you are a bunch of kids, a silly robot and a frog on an adventure. Yet it is also the perfect music for you as a gamer. When we first played this we were but a tiny kid. Never did we take on such an epic adventure, sure we have saved princesses before , gathered 4 crystals of the elements.  Never have we saved multiple times or timelines before! Never had we played a game with so many possible endings. Not only did this song emote the journey of frog it connected us as the player to the characters. We were all in this together. Just a bunch of kids on an adventure together in way over their heads. We grew together we fought together and we even cried together. When they played Frog’s theme at that Distant Worlds concert I went misty eyed. Thinking about those wonderful friends I made on that journey and each time I hear it I want to play the game again and that makes it a perfect game tune.

Honorable Mention: Chrono’s Theme

700 Hours on Youtube: Pinkie Watches Critical Role

Originally I planned to make a post about the new Star Wars movie in this spot first. Yet I really I went with the direction of love, and I didn’t love the New Star Wars movie . This Sci-Fi fantasy epic has dumbed down, to nothing more Ethan a entertainment thrill ride. Still entertaining as long as you turn of your brain and just enjoy the pew pew and the swoosh swoosh! Luckily the Star Wars show are still pretty good. However since Lord of the Rings is already finished, I needed something to get my fantasy adventure shot. As a D&D DM I have 3 hours fantasy adventures every thursday! But each week I also get provided by a 3 to 4 hour epic fantasy adventure to follow.  The youtube channel or Twitch Channel .. of Critical Role. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Nerdy voice actors, playing dungeons and dragons

Critical Role in it’s concept is nothing more than a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors playing dungeons and dragons. The games are led by Matthew Mercer, who is probably best known for his voice work in the fire emblem games and that cowboy guy that clearly doesn’t have a correct watch in Overwatch. Kinda weird when you think about it right.. a cowboy always thinking it’s high noon.. in a group called overWATCh..you’d figure he’d know the correct time. Even if Matthew might not be a great time teller, he is a great DM that helms not one but two fantasy epic in the form of the Vox Machina Campaign and the Mighty Nein campaign. Both to be found on youtube and the second one being ongoing. The first one has become so popular that it has inspired a origin comic and soon even an animated series. I myself have only really started following the second campaign, which is produced in a lot higher quality and starts it’s campaign right at the beginning of their adventure. Vox Machina they played as a game of friends before they started streaming so we pick up this tale a fair bit into the adventure.

So who are the players in these wonderful campaigns? Travis Willingham , who is known as the voice of Turalyon in World of Warcraft and Knuckles in  most of the current sonic games. He is accompanied by his partner Laura Bailey is the voice of Jaina Proudmoore from World of Warcraft, Blaze the Cat in Sonic and kid Trunks in Dragon Ball Z. Matthew Mercer’s partner Marisha Ray is also part of the team, she has done work on the Persona franchise but is mostly working on the twitch channel of Geek and Sundry. Taliesin Jaffe plays along as well this man you might know from the english hellsing dub and like most of them has a role in World of Warcraft in the form of Darion Mograine and Admiral Ripsnarl. Liam O’Brien plays Caleb Widogast in the second campaign, my favorite mage character ever. When he speaks you might know him as Illidan Stormrage! .. yes that is from Warcraft as well. Ashley Johnson is the final girl on the table. Her hollywood career prevents her from being ever present at the game table, she currently stars in the tv series blindspot but I think the most people here would best know her as Ellie, from the last of us.  Academy Award Winner Sam Riegel finishes up the table. While he had his fair share of career moments, amongst us I think we best know him as Tristan Taylor and Rex Raptor from Yu-Gi-Oh. He also played Clovis la Britannia in the Code Geass dub. Together this casts puts on a very enjoyable show that is somewhat reminiscent of those old radio plays… but a lot geekier. 

That’s a lot of rolling!

Critical role currently has somewhere near and over 200 episodes I think With them being three to four hours long that is a lot of campaign to cover. So where do you begin to watch an 700 hour series? (which is excluding all the bonus one shot and special episodes)  Start at the first episode of the second campaign! High production value, good sound quality, plenty of recap episodes to be found and the story is separated from the first. Vox Machina will soon have a animated series, it has a comic and so much more that it will be easy to familiarise yourself with it anyway. The second campaign is a bit more chaotic but also a bit more lighthearted. Which is a great place to start if you don’t know much about D&D and want to see if it might be something for you. Still this series already has about 90 episodes so there’s still a lot of ground to cover. Keep in mind though that the quality of this game doesn’t really reflect an actual D&D game, a fair part of this is somewhat scripted and Matthew has an entire writing team behind him to aid in his endeavours to prepare for each game. Your average DM would not have that, but as a result this kind of feels like D&D the movie.  Yes there is a Dungeons and Dragons movie but…if you see blue lipstick on a guy.. back off! Don’t watch it. There are a few other D&D movies but those I shall cover another time.

Critical Role Campaign two focuses on the (mis)adventures of the mighty nein, a group of ragtag adventurous who get drawn together after there an incident when the circus is in town. What begins as a series of mercenary like mission soon begins to evolve into a greater adventure involving Eldritch like creatures and a mysterious artifact of tremendous power.
Each episode is an actual session of D&D , which can include social encounters, traveling, random combat or complete dungeons. The series is very nicely paced where even dungeon like encounters are mostly done entirely in our heads. Only when doodoo gets real Matthew takes out a model of the area and we get the classical grid based movement that comes with D&D. These are all stunningly made and increase the atmosphere so much. On occasion we see the group practice their sessions at big conventions in front of a live audience, which is also a treat to see. So many people are so engaged with the hobby and that is so mesmerising and really oozes that atmosphere of we are geeks for geeks this show succeeds atso greatly. There is so much content from both campaigns too the one shots. The even promoted the My Little Pony role playing game by playing it! It was friggin adorable to see them fight hellhound …by playing with them and pacifying them. Famous geeks oftenly make guest appearances, like Wil Wheaton , Wesley Crusher from Star Trek the next generation, the big bang theory and his own youtube endeavours for example. But also Deborah Ann Woll , best known for her role as Jessica Hamby in true blood.  Apparently she is a huuuuge geek, and when she played her character Twiggy on the show .. I had a little celebrity crush moment. She also hosts her own show on the Twitch as a DM but unfortunately due to bad time zones that isn’t really watchable to me….I wish she would get a regular seat in the game… than again.. I would celebrity crush all over again.

Fun fun fantasy

With three hours plus each episode, there is very little going on at the sessions visually. Which makes Critical Role the perfect webshow to put on when cleaning. Compare it too an audio book, but instead of that narrative flow where you know the main character will never really die anyway and you can sort off predict if other characters will die or not everything here is decided by a roll of the dice. Just about everything can happen. There may be a script but all you need is one bad dice roll to completely toss that off track. Part of the fun  greatness that is Critical Role is seeing the players have fun, try something out of the box and stump the DM. This is exactly the fun that D&D should be about and even though this version is streamlined for entertainment purposes, it still captures that sense of chaos of an actual game. A lot of the other online campaigns lack that sensation a bit. Here we see the despair on the face of the dm, the fear of death in the players eyes and that irresistible urge to metagame when someone clearly isn’t thinking straight or overlooks their best options.  This still truly is D&D. Trough the voice acting of mostly Mercer but also great acting from Laura Bailey for example in her role as the mischievous tiefling jester Lavorre, this fantasy world comes to live like no other. With no visuals to speak of except for some fan art and location models it all plays off in your head , but unlike most audio books i, in so many different voices that it’s something truly unique. We can hear the characters AND the players, and we can feel both of them having fun! Which turns these adventures into true delights.

Some of the highlights to me are when the game opens and Sam Riegel talks about their sponsors. Each week he prepares a little sketch to promote their sponsor and they are all so weird , funny and out there. We do not see a professional Academy Award Winner doing this.. even if he is.. we see a guy having some fun with it,  like as if we made these skits up right before our dungeons and dragon games. I wrote Jingles on my bard character like he did, I promoted in game stuff when my character was magicly compelled just like he did. I just didn’t happen to get mine produced into an 80’s cartoon commercial..like he did !It all feels just soooooo … geeky and like one of us… that you almost feel as if you are sitting with them at that gaming table. Their animated introduction is something that is truly amazing making me yearn for the day that their animated show finally gets out. It can get a bit commercial here and there.. but that kind of comes with the territory of twitch and youtube.  These guys have found a great community, where geeks unite, this is what I aspire to find.. well not as big and not on my blog persé but I want to be a part of that crowd, a part of people who love each other for loving that one thing they all love.  This show is carried by that community and in a way made for that community. Rather than trying to aim this on a bigger crowd or playing this safe in terms of story Critical Role is not afraid to take risks. Yet they never forget their core audience. While each day new people become Critters (fans of Critical Role are referred as such)  they will never stop doing what made them so amazing in the first place. 

So while we may see an end of epic storytelling in the cinemas where complex stories of moral dilemmas get replaced by battles of absolute good versus absolute evil, we will always have that place where we can turn too for the stories we loved before. While the silver screen rather caters do a few extra dollars than their core audience, somewhere we can still find those epic tales of old being told to us …by people like us. While subtlety and secrecy have less and less of a place in blockbusters in favor of in your face comedy, spectacular boom boom, pow pow that doesn’t need a proper build and where your hand is held in terms of plot.. there is still a place where we can wonder about why that line was spoken so callously, where we can wonder of a guy can be trusted without it being shown to us in the next shot or we jokes can be subtle and require you to see something else to get. To mer personally both The Hobbit and the new Star Wars trilogy have shown that the age of epic storytelling in cinema is over.  We have entered the age of epic visual story telling. While that is entertaining in it’s own way it’s like comparing the joy of a rollercoaster to that of a good book. Luckily youtube has the perfect replacement for geeks like me… we just gotta use a little bit more of our own imagination…but with a community as amazing as the Critters even in that we can be helped. Not by the movie makers, but by one another and to be honest that is an even more epic way to experience these things. Because everything is JUST like we imagine it.

Hopes and Dreams: Pinkie’s Paradise in 2020

That’s right my island guests. Pinkie is doing on of THESE posts. I’m such a rebel for doing this in the second week of the new year right?! I’m doing my own thing with the trend! You thought you had the last New Year Update post?! But it was I PINKIE! *Evil Pink Laughs* Anyway mina, this is a little update on what I hope to achieve in 2020 and how I plan to get there.

Pinkie hope  to develop her voice further.

The year 2019 was the birth year of my blog so of course I still needed to find my stylish direction a bit. In fact I completely revised the vision of my blog! I started out to blog just about Pokémon but that was taking away some of the magic. I had to look at every single bit of news, I had to look super deep into some mechanics, it took away that sense of wonder that comes with the pokémon world for me. That “have you heard that you can only get Appletun by giving Applin a Sweet Apple?’   gossip among friends. As a blogger I had to look into it all! I would never be able to be surprised anymore and that wasn’t worth it for me. I wanted there to be some pokémon magic still. So I rebranded to paradise which is much more about myself and my love for geek media. It’s a place about taking care of yourself and finding your own happiness. This week I found another part of my voice and it is love. I want this blog to be about love for our fandoms, to actually love the things that we love.

(Let’s fangirl again)

My eyes were opened,  how nowadays we look for things to hate in games and anime and movies rather than to love them. We look for reasons not to buy them and go out of our way to demonise companies and people making the things that we love. We meddle in their private life and romantic life and boycott them for a bad break-up or infidelity. We look at the tweets some guy’s ancestor made a billion years ago and blame a movie they made for it. I want this blog to be a place that DOESN’T do that. I want this place to be about love. Why do I love Star Wars?  What makes me want to live in that galaxy far far away? I am a fan after all. Sure they made a few misfires for me recently but that doesn’t have to be the focus of my fandom!
Let me tell you what I LOVE about anime, instead of focussing on how female unfriendly it is. It makes me happy despite that it may do that and I wish my blog to reflect this sentiment. On Paradise I do not want to believe in factual good or factual bad! Those are always opinions and even if a single person loves something that thing has a right to exist. So my blog will focus on happy things, positive emotions and try to brighten up your day! It’s about why I love! Maybe people can draw inspiration from it and love their fandoms again as well. Maybe people will unite in hating me for choosing what I like, without having others influence that love. Regardless, somewhere people will be happy! So I will succeed! Lovu Lovu power!

Pinkie dreams about strengthening the community and collaborations.

I hope that in 2020 I can be more sociable. I want to develop my own Blog-Tag,  blogger award thingy that will be fun for everyone to do. I want to get to know more people in the blogging community. I have a few ideas on how to to this. A very personal blog tag could be one of them. I am also thinking about interviewing other bloggers as a sort of feature on my website, but this is something that will not be happening for a while at least.  I would really love to do a collaboration with bloggers, that seems like fun. So if anyone reading is interested in that sort of thing check the about page on how to contact me! There is a contact page, but that e-mail just gets flooded with all the blog posts I am not sure how I can fix that because I am not very good with those sort of things. I would love to create a discord or something to just have fun with people. I would love for people to band together and be positive again!I  am all for accepting people and being open to everyone and including everyone regardless of skin-colour sexual preference or identity and despite someone’s disabilities or whatever. I am a proud member of OWLS and I will contribute to that cause. Yet I also feel we should be positive again. Let’s not focus as much on why Jojo’s is unfriendly to women or why you are scum if like Fallout 76. We spend so much time on these things that I would like to create a force of positivity. I am not sure how I will do it yet! But hey at least there is an ambition. I have a weird Idea on how I would style it though. Let’s fighting Love!

Pinkie hopes to create new cocktails

On to a bit lighter matter for a bit. I plan to bring you all some “new” types of content in 2020.  Back when I started I loved to bring my fictional stories. “What if’s “ set in the Pokémon Universe,Retelling of Fairy Tales but with Pokémon, I even took a crack at Star Wars. While the content never really performed well on my site I just love writing stories. So stories are coming back.  The Write Tai (A pun on the Mai tai cocktail) will feature my own little blobs of fiction. While What If’s still will be a part of these, I will mostly try to focus on original stories. These will be mostly set in a D&D esque fantasy setting, using creatures and species from those realms. While those my not be fully original, we see them in plenty of other media in nearly the same shape way or form. It will give me a blueprint to work of and give people something they can relate too. Plus I can promote the wonderful hobby of D&D that way. Best of all using existing fantasy races gives me art to use as visual tools to my story since I am still not an artist nor can I afford one. Other than that I am considering something like the little interviews or something else that is community related but that one I haven’t figured out yet.  The first story post should come out soon and features one of my favorite OC”s I have ever created. So look forward to that.

Pinkie dreams about growing her blog

Of course we also got to set a growth goal. The next one obviously will be 200 followers.  I do expect to stagnate in growth for a bit as I basically only get WordPress Subscribers and virtually no email subscribers so I am not very ambitious in those terms. I hope to reach about 200’ish subscribers around my blog’s first anniversary.  When writing that out it kind of seems overly ambitious but number wise so far it could pan out. I have No idea what normal growth is for a blog but of course I still do hope to grow. I may look into monetising my blog for a minimal amount . Like a paypal donation or that Kofi thing to cover some basic costs like the website itself. I have no idea on how to handle this yet so please stick by me when I dabble a bit with that. I will not be begging for anything, I think it just might be fun to see if it does anything.  So if weird buttons show up in weird places, don’t click them to fast. I am a layman in these things and aren’t even sure that I should be doing this, but I guess the only way to find out is to experiment. I also plan to expand my skill sets a bit so maybe I will make some minor videos to support the blog or make a post a bit more fun, in case I have the time available to me. Yet in all these expansion thingies I will need your help my dear little island guests. If you like a video I make for example please like the video on youtube as well as the post. If you have any tips for me to grow or how to do a bit of the monetising thing without it being obnoxious let me know and if you have a great idea  of content, do make suggestions! I simply seek to develop myself and have more fun and I am looking for the means to do so.

Pinkie hopes to have fun

The most important lesson however I learned in 2019 is, that I mostly blog for myself. It’s is me who wants that community . to chat and swap thoughts with similarly minded people. It is me who loves to write stories and act a little crazy and it’s me who wants to restore the positivity in my life. While I love you all for following me and interacting with me there is just one person I absolutely require to like everything on my blog! That person is Pinkie. Plus potential co-hosts but those are not on my wish list until 2022. I wouldn’t mind them earlier, so hey if you do not want to make your own blog but you do want to write, if you want a chibi avatar named after a colour like Violetta, Rose or Grey you are welcome. I got of topic again.. such a surprise. My blog is made for my amusement and it will be a central theme in 2020 as well. So don’t expect me to do strict schedules or clean objective reviews, I am gonna have fun with it. When I make a sandwich I am gonna make one I like and when I like it as well I don’t make it look fancy just because my instagram followers would like it more. Then again I do not have instagram so perhaps that IS the way to make a sandwich.

(I rather eat food than photograph it)

This is basically my anti ambitious goal. Should I not be able to promote love, should the entire hate on me because I say I still love pokémon after they found out that one of the sound designers  sisters had a dog which she let out in other people’s yard and he knew about that and never reported it, than I can still do other things under the motto of me wanting to have fun! Yay! I have no crystal ball I can not see the future. Mine ball was plastic it can only see the present..but it won’t break if i drop it. While I have plans and ambitions, never will I let it get away of what truly matters. The joy of the blogging itself. The fun of the community of hearing your amazing stories as well as making mine. I want this blog to be about love! But for that to happen I have to love my blog! Since the heart is fickle anything can happen! But who knows maybe we can all be love ninja’s together.

(Let’s Fight for Love again)
(I will also try to fix my website address)

From Trainer to Tamer: The Road to Temtem

Do you know that feeling? The feeling that something is to good to be true. Yet  maybe , it might be true. Like that feeling when they told you that you won a big price and have to come get it at the tv studio. Did you win a nice check? They certainly make it sound like you did but maybe you just won one of those posh looking toasters that looks like if that new xbox had a child with a car from the 50’s. Temtem is a new upcoming MMO that gives me these feelings. Am I a millionaire, getting everything I ever wanted? Or will it sit on my steam shelve without ever being used. It’s to soon to find out..but it’s the perfect time to dream.

What is Temtem?

So let’s begin with what Temtem actually is.The game is being described as A massively multiplayer creature collection adventure. In this adventure you take on the role of a customisable youth who catches magical creatures named Temtem. Then as their tamer it’s your duty to make them stronger as you travel across the six island of the airborne archipelago. On these islands you find many other tamers who are eager to battle you but your true challenge is to defeat eight champions of so called Dojo’s .As you can carry up to six Temtem at a time you battle your way up the ladder to fame and glory. Things aren’t as easy as they seem though! An Evil organisation named Clan Belsoto  looms in the shadows, no one knows who their leader is but they are most certainly up to no good. Lucikly there are around 141 (currently) Temtem to collect and you need them because temtem can have various typings like Neutral, Fire, Water, Electric and Digital and you have to use them to your advantage if you wish to be the very best…… wait a minute…. this is a pokémon MMO.

(Mind is Blown)

Ditto

When you look at Temtem it’s not that hard to see the comparisons with the pokémon franchise. In fact it looks A LOT like pokémon. It looks like pokémon so much that there was a point where I felt Nintendo pull it off the internet. Now they have a Switch release planned.  That’s a good sign right? I have tried so much clones but they all felt so cheap, they all felt like they tried to be to different or to “korean” .. yes sorry that is a thing for me. This feels like pokémon, in fact it oozes so much pokémon atmosphere that I think it was a Ditto that started the kickstarter campaign for this and I absolutely mean this in a positive way. Whats better than one pokémon? Two Pokémon! What’s better than two pokémon? Pokémon and a game that is just different enough that it feels you are in a different world but your still doing that exact same thing you love. I love Hat in Time and that is very much a love letter to Mario Sunshine, I love Shovel Knight which is the child of megaman and ducktales. So  how could I possibly dislike a game that follows the style of my most beloved franchise? That’s right I can’t. Even if it’s a clone it’s DNA is still different enough to turn this into something different enough! I mean for one it’s an MMO experience. This is what soooooooo many people asked for. Well minus the 896 pokemon but with the 141 or so Temtem. Talk about one hell of a dexit.

Going Airborne

So why should we trade in Galar for the Airborne Archipelago? Does this game have anything to offer, that pokémon doesn’t? Well Crema , the company making Temtem hasn’t discovered my blog yet and hasn’t offered me a chance to play it yet.  I missed the kickstarter so I haven’t gotten access to early versions so I can’t really tell. Good girl that I am I have done some research though. It seems that Temtem tackles the biggest problem of the pokémon franchise of it being to easy and just be about slapping a stronger  move on your pokémon. Temtem battles are always two on two, and for any who played the two Pokémon Coliseum series games knows that two on two battles are very different. It’s harder already. Temtem will also have a nuzlocke mode, meaning you have the option to activate permadeath on your Temtem. That’s an extra challenge right there!

My research shows there are some modifier that can stack how effective moves are, in other ways then pokémon but the most and by me beloved idea is that moves do not have PP. A temtem has a stamina bar, each skill it learns  consumes that stamina bar. When the stamina is empty you can still use those moves but it will eat at your HP due to fatigue. This means a VERY big change. Now you have to balance out your strong and weak attacks. Defence is a good option now, choosing to wear a stronger opponent out with weak attacks can actually do something in your favor now. Add the constant double battles too it you are already tasked with a lot more resource management. The speed of your temtem also seems to play a more important part in the games. As I haven’t played the game myself I can’t really explain this but there seems a lot of tweaks and extra layers in the combat that seem to make it just a bit more challenging. That alone is a reason to pay this new game a visit.

Little Monsters, Little Things

Based on first looks this game has so much charm and potential. It’s a bit more cartoony and MMO’ish than Pokémon is. With extremely colourful locations with a bit more of a fantasy vbibe than pokémon I seriously think these two games can co-exist quite easily. Temtem distinguish themselves from pokémon because  they seem more like fantastical creatures. 

Where pokémon seem to resemble real life creatures, Temtem are more out there. Instead of a random bird we get a horned smiling thingy that hovers by flapping its lower leafs . Instead of a electric mouse, we ge a blue hopping helicopter head like thing with skinny legs. Oh we also have smiling maniacal blue guy. Their mascot is a Temtem called Pigpic he’s a flying pig that looks like he is covered in jam. He is adorable and had I known they gave away a pigpic plushie with a 60 dollar crowdfund of this game I would have happily spend that money. Unfortunately that time has passed so I will just have to capture it in the game and take it back to my house at Atoll Row! Yes that is right this game will feature player housing.  Decorate and make your own little home , like a secret base but better. This means our young tamer’s will probably be older than a 10 year old as well! So yay for that! Player housing as well as player customisation looks fairly expansive for an anime style MMO so far. and I saw a lot of pink options in there! Mean I will be a happy tamer. Unique little creatures, lots of customizables, already things to collect for my endgame and a whole lot of new friends in the making to play collectable creature games with. Temtem isn’t your run of the mill pokéclone. Crema clearly has love for the source material and it can be seen in everything. Veering away from the formula in what seems to be just the right places and adding some classics staples. Indeed they copy most of their example but it’s in the little things that makes this game so attractive.  I have no doubt this game will be good.
The only thing that worries me is that I check Crema’s kickstarter page they say the company consists out of five little monkeys! If monkeys can make this good of a game it will not be long before our world will turn into a madhouse! A MADHOUSE!!!!

Pinkie’s Evil Pokémon Team

With Galar’s Team Yell and with Alola’s Team Skull we twice in a row had .. not so evil evil teams. Team Magma and Team Aqua weren’t all THAT evil either. Team Rocket , Team Plasma, Team Flare and most of all Team Galactic were pretty evil though.  Still those bowl haircuts of team Galactic just made them kinda weird and not scary. A team that wants to end reality should be a bit scarier! Yet their goal also a bit too edgy, like why would you even want that .. how do you get so many people to follow you in that goal? Team Flare looked to dandy, those poses, those silly haircuts and sunglasses. Yet their message to destroy the world to make it more beautiful was something I really dug, it felt crazy enough but again it got held back with their design. Team Plasma started out great, but turned out to be simple disney evil. No evil team is perfect. So how about we come up with our own? Today I will discuss my take on an evil team.

Team Darwin

My team would entirely based on the way the pokémon world works.  It would focus on themes we can find in each game so they could basically be placed in any region. Team Rocket just being a  group that uses pokémon for crime. However, Team Rocket’s biggest flaw is that they never really had a common goal. Why would Grunt A  rob a house and then give the loot to the team so it could be distributed? Probably because they took some maffia inspiration. Yet their missions do not  make to much sense. There is too little gain to be had for all these people to band together. No one is getting rich out of it, and there is no real other goal to joining it other than committing crime with your pokémon… a quick way to get easy cash. Something doesn’t fully work out here. Even if we consider their goal is global domination it doesn’t always add up. You can’t enforce that with a single pokémon like Mewtwo. Even if you could Giovanni seems much too reasonable. He and his team for that matter give up after losing a pokémon battle to a ten year old. Why would any team do that? I get it from a game perspective but  in none of the teams that have been created so far.. except for Team Yell it makes sense for them to give up. Could we perhaps create a concept where we can let this make sense? Destroying reality, aspiring true beauty, desiring more land .. or water. It all kinda works but Pokémon are never really the source of these beliefs. Could we perhaps tie their very existence into an evil team’s beliefs? Yes we can! Enter MY team .. Team Darwin!

Team Darwin (name could be changed to fit the pokeworld better)  in essence follows the teachings of the famous evolutionist Charles Darwin.  They see how Pokémon are constantly evolving and getting stronger and feel that mankind is lagging. We do not adapt fast enough, we do not evolve fast enough. If we keep going on like this , they believe Pokémon will eventually rise up against humans and wipe them out because we will be unable to beat them. Pokémon who are able to evolve  also should evolve at all times. The world of pokémon is very viable to follow survival of the fittest after all. They do believe that pokémon battling is indeed the way for us and our pokémon to evolve but they believe our human hearts hold us back from reaching our full potential. We do not push out pokémon hard enough, we do not push ourselves hard enough and sometimes we are so complacent that we even dare to use pokémon as pets and stay at home.  The team is known to push their own pokémon extremely hard, to a breaking point even after all only the strongest deserve to survive. Their ultimate goal to be to awaken some evil legendary pokémon that fights humanity, or to start a new pokémon war like the ones in Kanto and Kalos. Only trough true life or death situations humans and their pokémon can reach their full potential..survival of the fittest. This belief would also make it very credible that a team trainer would simply give up after losing a pokémon battle. After all they have failed to be that fittest one. Their spirit is broken and you have proven that you indeed are strong enough to survive. Their doctrine while scary enough lends itself perfectly to how the game adventures are shaped. I think a team like this could be the perfect fit for the pokémon world.

Designing Evolution

So first of all how should this team look? Team Rocket looked kinda bland and I certainly do not want any of those bowl haircuts. I want to create a team that looks intimidating. Because it’s a team that is all about survival of the strongest, I’d opt for a combat armor like design. Not like the ones that early team plasma used, no these are not knights. No I think design wise we should think a bit militia like. Survival of the fittest fits warrior cultures as well so depending on what region you’d place them in you could also go for a viking or spartan like design. In fact I really like the concept of that last one. Conceptually the military like look would also make sense. These people would be obsessed with training and getting stronger so armors that convey abs would help sell that design.  Think.. stormtroopers of sorts.
These people will be drilled and would take influences from famous warrior cultures like the spartans, vikings but also for example the Mandalorians from Star Wars. Instead of axes and guns they would use pokémon as their weapons.  Because if pokémon can evolve through their humans , perhaps humans can evolve through their pokémon or at least that is what this team would believe. Colourwise I would go for a grey, blue and mostly white colour design. These are the colours associated with the light of evolution after all so it makes sense they would choose something like this.

(Not an artist I had to use chibi maker for a tough impression)

Adaptation would also play a key role in their design. THis team would most likely feature several looks depending whether you fight them in the desert , frozen wasteland or in a factory. These lands would also determine what type of pokémon these teams bring. In the desert they would bring pokémon that would be strong against the element or get a buff from the terrain. In general they prefer pokémon that fit the warrior theme. Pokémon like honedge and pawniard for example convey that aspect. Remoraid and Octillery are other examples. Marowak,  Galarian Meowth and Perrseker and basically any fighting pokémon would work. Of course there is one thing that all these pokémon would have in common. They would have to be able to evolve. Pokémon that only have one form.. they will not use and they will actively hate. Pokémon who have a baby form that you need to breed still will not count as pokémon that have an evolution. So Dunsparce and Jynx will be very disliked by this team.
While grunts usually wield pokémon that evolve once, the executives would use pokémon that evolve twice. So a grunt would use pokémon like Koffing, Remoraid and Pawniard, the executives would use Honedge , Machop and Seedot. Executives could wear those fancy military suits like generals wear. Perhaps have three of them to represent the stages a pokémon can go trough. A young kid that is a tactical genius , a teenager desperately trying to get stronger and stronger. And a mature female who is remorseless. The team leader would be an older man,not too old but someone who is just about to enter their waning years. Before he does so he would desperately be trying to evolve! Before it is too late. This gives the man and the team some desperation making them feel a bit more dangerous. Throughout your entire game you will learn that this man is not completely sound of mind.. adding to the treat. 

Forcing growth

Throughout your pokémon adventure you would encounter these evil doers at numerous occasions. A team like this is a lot more usually for incidental encounters as well. A single grunt stole a kid’s rare candy to force his own pokémon to level up, a girl is cornered as a team member is trying to use a grass stone on her gloom, while she loves it the way it is. Other options could be them replacing a gym leader using a way to powerful team, thinking it is wrong that a gym leader holds back as much as they do.  This team is designed to be able to be everywhere. Not just two dungeons, final encounter and done! This is a truly evil team that is harmful to both human and pokémon and it is made to be shown anywhere. General Charles’s (the leader name) teachings ring through to some but the treat looms that if people start taking him to serious it could be the end of legal pokemon fighting. The team still has some dungeons related to them of course because it would not be an evil team otherwise. Maybe they have invented a radio signal using the old evolution experiment of team rocket, which would be a nice call back to Johto. This signal might make pokémon more aggressive, allowing them to fight harder and longer.. more ferocious Level them up as well, as a result they do not go with trainers as willingly forcing them both to try harder. Maybe they used this in our new region’s safari zone causing chaos as they go along. Of course this is only a field test to use it on the legendary pokémon later. They could raid a department store to gain all the evolutionary items. They could easily take over a small town and force the villagers to do battle with each other and them, even if they would normally not battle or do something similar in a daycare centre. There are so many options here! 

(Because somehow this was pushing pokémon to far in terms of battle)


Now a said earlier a team like this could be seen giving up after they lost their respective battles. Even if they have evil goals, by winning you simply prove yourself in their eyes so you can pass and move on.  Yet I think there would also be a difference in the way they battle. As much as I would love to say that they battle more competitively I do not think that is enforceable in a main game so let’s think outside the box a bit. Since the AI in most games sucks let’s highlight their aggressiveness by making sure all their pokémon just carry four offensive moves. No defending, no buffing.. just damage , unescapable damage. We often see teams buff themselves when they are a lot low hp making getting a win really easy, but these guys are plentiful and do not carry moves that give you a break. Executives will use battle items like X Attack on their pokémon though to give them a buff and make you bleed harder. Fighting them feels like an endurance match, fitting their entire team of survival.  I am not expecting them to be that much more difficult than your regular teams but these will consume more of your items. During nuzlocke challenges these guys will be a lot trickier to deal with as they just will not relent. If they have a pokémon that evolves through a stone, they evolve it right away (at least post the raid on the department store). They push you and themselves beyond their limits to force evolution upon the world, no matter the cost. When facing my team Darwin, you’ll have to be the very best, like no one ever was..because if you are not the strongest, you will not survive!

I am a Joustus Princess: Shovel Knight- King of Cards

As a retro-gaming enthusiast it should be no surprise Shovel Knight, alongside the Messenger, was one of my favorite games of the last decade. It’s downloadable content , which came free with the treasure trove version was one of THE best bundles I have EVER played. We got not one but FOUR brand new games. (This includes the free showdown game). Both Plague Knight and Spectre Knight’s games repurposed the game into their own unique game. King Knight is the final DLC that released recently and not only does it feel even more different than before, it adds a very strong sub game in as well. So this one is not just a new game.. it’s 1.5 new game. Is that as good as it sounds or is the game being to ambitious.

Shallow Knight

Shovel Knight Plague Knight and Spectre Knight . while having vastly different mechanics ,all had more or less the same concept. We were playing a Mega Man like game where we selected bosses to fight and had to play through their respective stages. Eight stages and a multileveled boss castle. That format is gone. Instead we have several sub stages themed after the classic bosses, or even shovel knight allies. Spread over 4 worlds. At the end of each world we get a castle with a boss at the end. Plenty of stages have several Goal posts, allowing you to access “secret” areas, granting you access to relics or treasure. So the game changed conceptually from Mega Man to Mario and while that seems like a drastic departure it fits King Knight like a dueling glove. ..technically you do not wear those but carry those.. but bare with me.  Do we have to deal with the Knights of No Quarter at all then in this game? Well . yes and no, most of the knights you can still encounter, but most of them are optional and/or locked on secret routes.
You befriend them and backstab them, or just fall out over petty reasons.

NANI! How does this game work then Pinkie? Well you see King Knight is way to much of a narcissist to care about the grander adventures of the other knights. He’s an arrogant kid that just wants to be the king.  When a big tournament of a card game of called Joustus is being held, and it’s three judges are three important king, King Knight wants to be recognised as the true king and decides to learn the card game and beat them at their own game. Aided by his mother, a chicken and a bard he will travel across the lands searching far and wide, for Joustus Cards , and to understand the power that is inside. We don’t play through stages to really get stronger, to vanquish evil or for love. We want money so we can buy cheats and cards in a card game and to make our way and face the other three kings to show you are a better king.I love the plot and the motivation in this game. Plague Knight was kinda petty, but this one a boy..talk about a little guy. King Knight usually is the easiest boss  in the other games and they do him justice. The most superficial of them all.

Platform Knight

The King Knight DLC can be split into two parts. The platforming stages and the taverns where you can actually play the card game of Joustus.I think the card game part is optional, but I am not sure, because I had way to much fun playing it I always cleared a tavern as soon as I reached it. Yet let’s start with the part that is absolutely required. The platforming. Stages are divided in a Super Mario 3 like map and as mentioned earlier they are themed around the classic areas, but not always the boss stages. For example we do get a few stages shaped after Troupple Pond… and of course since we fight three kings.. the Troupple King and his dance is a boss in this game. Finally I can beat up the apple whale! That’s a bonus point already. Instead of huge stages with five or six checkpoints, each area usually has about 3 stages with just one or two checkpoints. Up and around the first checkpoint you usually find the more challenging branche of route leading to the red , instead of the golden exit. Unless you fight a boss of course. The Red Routes give you access to relics which you can pay for medals. You can earn medals by winning Joustus games or by finding the three  ones that are “hidden” in each stage. Compare these medals with the green stars/star coins/challenge stars from the recent mario games. You usually have to think innovatively or take a big risk to get them.

So from the offset throughout there already seems a heavier emphasis on platforming challenge, it’s not so much a survival platformer like megaman. We really are in mario turf here, and while his Mother can cook for King Knight to upgrade his health your worst enemy in this one is definitely the pits. Well that and those birders, which are a straight reminder of the medusa heads in castlevania..and guess what! King Knight has a knockback! That can’t be a coincidence. I died twice or so in the starter stage and then a few times in a lot of the stages. Not because I suck .. but  because of positive reasons. First of all, the gloves are off, the game realises you probably done this a lot by now so it doesn’t shy away from throwing you a challenge or two. This only increases if you actively hunt for the medals… do yourself a favor and hunt for the medals.. it makes the game so much better. Other than that the stages are soo vastly different from another. Each stage is build around one or two certain types of mechanics that you could find in the classical knight stages.. so just take the theme up and beyond. The highlight for me was a plague knight stage where the stage consisted out of several coloured corked test tubes.. Shoulder charing (King  Knight Signature move) into a random part that you can hit builds up pressure causing the corks to shoot away, creating and relocating platforms. Such a clever and delightful stage. We see the return of some fan favorites, like the fire bug and the angler fish. There was hardly a stage I did not like, so  this is already a platformer where I like nearly every stage.

Troupple Knight

The fact that I am using the word nearly does imply there are a few stages that I do dislike.The earlier mentioned fire bug is one, and the fight against the troupple king is another. The biggest issue is that King Knight is a combo character. from his shoulder jump he goes into a spin jump, that can drill through blocks, treasure spots or enemies. Each successful spin jump will lead into another and gives you a new chance to shoulder charge. This means  that if you are a true boss you can guide our good old pal king across the platform stages in one big combo, even more options open to you by the use of your relics, which this time arent nearly as overpowered as for example the phase locket was in the original shovel knights, the really powerful relics you can only use once or twice before running out of vigor.
However stages like the Apple Whale Fish King, the bouncy fire and the spikey ice stage require you NOT to combo. These are the type of stages I do not like. While I do get the idea these stages felt slippery to me, like you are not fighting against the stage but against the controls. While this is retro I never found these challenges AS fair.

The absolute worst was the boss fight against the Trouble King. You are stuck on a tiny boat/platform and landing in the water equals death. While I had some relics to aid me in this case, I am one of those purist type players that really wants to finish her game without overly relying on added mechanics. The apple fish however I found utterly impossible, without my rat-bomb relic. I got a lot of vigor so it may have been intended to be cleared that way but it feels odd that ONE stage is the only one that requires  these relics. I got an achievement for using them though this method though so clearly I did something right. Having this little sense of control through made me feel very anxious and the guy I wanted to fight most in the entire game turned out to be the part that I liked least. *Sad Panda Noises*

Joustus Knight

So while the platforming has three low points, out of like thirty or something, which relates to a score of 9/10 or something, there still is a second part of this game. The Joustus card game. Sweet pink lollipop covered in cotton candy fluff….. I LOVE Joustus. The card game is so incredibly fun. I had as much fun with this game as with the good yu-gi-oh gba and ds games. This game is more fun than Triple Triad in Final Fantasy VIII and FFXIV. Those who ever played Triple Triad know how good of a game that is. Joustus plays a lot like it as well. In a limited grid (which varies per duel)  there are a few tiles that have gems on it. players can place playing cards on any square that does not have a jewel. Each card has arrows on them showing what force they can exert on other cards.  This way you should push your own cards to conquer the gems, push the enemies cards into holes (which then become inaccessible) and move across the board in a tactical manner. When the board is fully occupied and or no moves are left the one with the most gems win.  The winner gets to claim a card of their opponent as long as they have used it in the duel. Should the winner get all three gems (as long as there are three) they can even take 3 cards from their opponent. Its such an easy to understand game as soon as you just see the first tutorial but there is a whole other level of depth that I haven’t even seen in dedicated card games.

(such a fun cardgame)

As you start all cards are very simple but later you unlock ones with special abilities, more powerful movement options or even double movement. We get special fields like hole that swallow up cards and require a sacrifice, walls that require you to shove a bomb character into and  then there are of course the crystal squares you can not place characters on. Special abilities allows you to flip cards your card pushes over, destroy cards, change movement arrows and more. While Triple Triad has its share of special rules, like plus or minus those rules always felt very forced to me, like some yu-gi-oh or magic cards , where you have no idea what they actually do. The card game in King of Cards however conveys all their special techniques trough simple symbols and a “play to find out” method, encouraging you to experiment. A few duel puzzles will help you understand these methods more in depth. Frizzlesticks this game is good! Each tavern has a boss which has special abilities that King Knight can counter by buying cheats.. of course he can always cheat in the other duels as well but save your money because King of Cards has some sweet but overpriced unlockables. For example the king can pimp his hud, card layout or menu with golden details. It costs you waaay to much coin and it’s barely noticeable but it’s totally King Knight. This final expansion is the best on yet! As a wise man once said….hail to the king baby!

(I’d be Pink Knight of course)

It’s over 9000! The true power of Dragon Ball!

A lot of people see Dragon Ball (Z mostly) as that show that is about shouting people, with changing hair colors and three minutes that go on forever and ever.  Where the main character sounds like a kid (I am a sub girl) fighting evermore increasingly stupid powerful enemies. Yet this show really isn’t all about power levels and transformations. These are but means to convey the true message that is inside this truely amazing series.  Here’s a Kamehameha of love to the face!

(Pink Kamehameha Equals Love Kamehameha)

A Journey to the West

When Toriyama started the Dragon Ball series , we faced a completely different beast than we did today. In fact the original series that was very loosely based on Journey to the West and mostly Son Wukong in most places only came to the west after it’s sequel became such a success. The original series felt much more contained, never larger than life. It was just about a kid wanting to be the strongest martial artist or find his grandfather’s relic just to find out it was connected to something bigger.  It was more lighthearted and the pacing was so much slower. A lot more credible as well. Yet while everyone seems to agree that Dragon Ball Z was a completely different type of beast there is so much they have in common as well. As do all subsequent shows… even GT. In their core all the adventures of Goku and his friends are about a journey and their biggest enemy they face is never the villain of the arc, the worst villain in Dragon Ball is always the heroes themselves.

No no I don’t mean Goku Black or other evil counterparts, even though there are a lot. Dragon Ball in it’s very concept is a show about facing and breaking your limits. From the first world tournament , well .. (or the 21st world tournament if you prefer) up until and even beyond the Tournament of Power, virtually none of the enemies are defeated by simply a straight up fight the real obstacle to overcome is themselves. It’s about a journey of transcendence, to rise above oneself and break your limits. According to Toriyama that journey to surpass yourself  just happens to involve a lot of shouting and occasionally changing hairstyles. I wish I could change hairstyles by breaking my limits. I am just not sure about turning british for it though, but maybe that just happens to Sean Schemmel.

(The name is Goku Black Mate I’m like a Narky Goku, You Cheeky Bastard)

Snake Way

Toriyama goes through great length to teach us what it means to break your own limits, it’s a long and arduous journey which is reflected throughout the entire series, but  which is most apparent in Dragon Ball Z. When we look at series like Naruto or Bleach for example, training can be somewhat fun and Ichigo managed Bankai in an extremely short time, Naruto can use shadow clones to learn moves faster, and later even spontaneously learns them. While Goku is a savant that can do a Kamehameha in one attempt it never is truly enough. Where Ichigo can learn the final Getsuga while travelling, Goku has to travel Snake Way just to get a chance of training. It’s a long and boring journey that is very uneventful and does not result in direct pay off.  We also see this happen during the cell games when Goku and Gohan focus on staying inside their super saiyan forms. First of all, the series establishes that they can not get a result over night, they have to train for at least a year to rise above themselves, and even then it wasn’t enough. Both Goku and Gohan had to let go of their kind heartedness to do what must be done. Resulting in Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 respectively. Sometimes what holds you back.. is you and the only way to break free of it is experiencing pain and loss…well that or a tingly feeling in your back.

This theme that power doesn’t come easy is continued throughout the series. When Gohan is meditating on the planet of the Kai’s or when Goku in GT is forced to accept the being he truly is by reclaiming his tail, a part of him he put away/ learned to ignore a long time ago. Power never comes easy in this universe and almost always feels earned.  Sure the Zenkai boosts are convenient, (a saiyan gets stronger when he suffers massive injuries but recovers) through the use of senzu beans and health pods but it’s still a heavy price to pay. Characters suffer defeat oftenly many times before they come out victorious. Even Goku had his fair chair of losses or times that he got downed. Yet the best message that dragon ball sends is that his power should never be gotten through cheating.  Plenty of villains have wished, and sometimes even obtained immortality (mostly in the movies though) yet even with the earth in constant danger never has a z-fighter wished for more power. It would be so easy to simply wish for the strength needed to defeat earth and it would most likely not beyond Shenron’s limits yet it barely even got considered throughout the series. That is because this show teaches you to deal with your own problems. Dealing with them may be tedious, it may be a drag and it will not come easy but everyone can do it. No matter where you come from (Namekian, Saiyan, Android and in GT  and OG even humans) all can break their limits and achieve new heights. 

Keep Fighting

We dutch have a saying that is called Huisje Boompje Beestje, (Little House, Little Tree, Little Creature) which signifies what we all strive for. Some call it the american dream others talk about that white picket fence. It’s the common happiness, that everyone thinks is the ultimate goal. Get a job and a house, get married, reproduce and possibly get a pet. For many that shared happiness is enough! Toriyama says NO! It is not enough. Everyone has to chase their own dream, not just that shared one. From early in the series we see Goku as an amazingly talented kid that gets offered the option at the common dream. We see it when he meets Chi-chi we see it at how he performs in tournaments and gets a fair bit of price money. In Dragon Ball Z and later it becomes really apparent. Yes it is a meme to call Goku a bad father and maybe he is, but that is because he doesn’t just settle for being a father. He can’t stop dreaming about being stronger just because he had Gohan and now has to give everything up for that. No! Dragon Ball shows it is okay to have wishes of your own, after all had Goku followed the common dream, earth would have been destroyed many times over.  Sure it also would have been in danger a lot less but it wouldn’t have stopped the Saiyans from coming and destroying us. Cell would have still awoken in time because Gero was already wronged by kid Goku. Toriyama tells us to fight for our dreams and to get strong enough to seize that. We should not let common sense or setteling get in the way between us and our dreams!
We should push ourselves to our full hearts content.

Yet the mangaka also tells us that even if we get our dream, we gotta keep dreaming even bigger. By chasing our desire, we keep moving, we stay on our journey. If I manage to get healthy enough to get an income again, I should strive for a job I would like better still. If I find the job I would like to do for the rest of my life or get filthy rich through sheer luck , I can make sure I spend that money in ways to make me happy. If I bought everything I want I should desire more. Because it’s that ambition to get something that I can not have at this time that I am pushed to strive for that I become a better version of myself. In a much more invisible way , I transform. I am not sure if Goku turning arian  was the best way to convey this message but in a way Toriyama chased his own happiness when he made Super Saiyan. The design stems from his wish not to spend as much time colouring in Goku’s hair. He wanted to be quicker and he made that happen by pushing his story to the next level. Goku is more than a saiyan, more than a hero he is unlimited potential embodied. He is a perfect symbol of what we should strive for. We should always be chasing our own dreams, we should not be bound by the white picket fence because it’s better for our children or pet.
If it is your dream to make others happy than chase that dream, if it’s your dream to have children than go find your significant other, but never stop dreaming. When you have children, you can still learn to play the piano,you could finally build the model planes you wanted or even pick up crochet or whatever. Whatever you do, make sure you have something to face, something to fight for. This is why Goku keeps wanting to fight stronger opponents, but also why he keeps most of his enemies alive and befriends them. When there is no strife in your life, no conflict, you can be perfectly content, but you have way less possibility to grow. You can choose to stay away from that friend who doesn’t like your new boyfriend or girlfriend because they do not matter for your picket white fence goal. You wouldn’t really miss the negativity. Yet you would rob yourself of a chance to lead a fuller live. Balancing that friend and your love may be hard but it will make stronger socially, it might make you better in terms of time management it might make you a better friend, who fights for those dear to them.  This series tells us to keep fighting no matter what!

Erase the Universe

There is a saying that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all which is true. Yet suddenly when we have that love, all forward motion seems to stop. It seems that is better to give up dreaming and growing than to have lost a love. You have to turn down that promotion so your daughter can stay with her friends,  you have to stay close to your family even if you would be happier elsewhere. There is something very twisted about that logic to me. For love should be about happiness. If it is your desire is to be the best blogger in the world and I mean if i’s truly your desire than your loved one should never ask you to give this up. We should encourage each other to grow but that grow will come with risks.  Again this risk is always depicted in Dragon Ball. When reaching Super Saiyan for the first time Goku almost lost himself. His marriage is under constant pressure from all the time he spends training. Many people call the relation with Goku and his family unhealthy yet at the same time Chi-Chi allows her man so much she does in fact accept that he is like that. She might not be happy about it but life isn’t a fairy tale. There’s always things about the other you do not like. Like how Goku doesn’t like how Chi-Chi can get obsessed with careers and money but still allows her to have these desires and dreams and at least somewhat tries to support her in that. Goku is always in motion as should we be. Yet when you are walking or running towards your new dream, there is always the risking of being tripped over.  The further we get along in our development, the bigger steps we have to take.. which increases the chance of tripping.  

(Sometimes we bite of more than we can chew..but at least we get icecubes for our drinks)

When Goku fought Frieza he nearly lost himself, when facing Cell he risked the bond with his son, and the entire earth on a chance, and when he had no strong opponents left to fight he hired Hit to kill him (in which hit succeeded) only to risk the entire universe just for a chance to fight someone even stronger.  When chasing our dreams first we might just upset our parents with our next dream we may upset our love and in the next phase Arceus forbid we may even upset our offspring. Who knows if we push ourselves far enough we might even disappoint everyone. Yet if I learned anything about your dreams and own happiness is that it is always worth the risk. If you are a transgender, wanting to transition, keep fighting! Don’t settle for the next best thing .. by just dressing up on sundays. If you are gay, don’t keep that side hidden. Take the risk losing over it, fight your fights. Goku never stopped and neither should we. Only by fighting for what we truly want and keep that up we can become bigger than ourselves. There is a Super Saiyan inside all of us even if  the world outside may not always recognise it. If you fight for what you want and keep growing, even if it takes you longer than you’d hope or isn’t as pleasant as you want, one day you will see that golden warrior in the mirror.