Tag: episode 5

Pinkie Plays: Moemon Emerald Extreme Randomiser Nuzlocke Episode 5 – Hisoka

Hello again little lights we are already at the fifth installment of our Moemon Emerald Extreme Randomiser Nuzlocke, and while the series isn’t going well in terms of views I am having a blast playing through the game like this! A blast AND a lot of pain I have made a weird twist with my neck and I am in a lot of pain right now. So this week you might see a lot of Moemon content as I focus on getting my YouTube started and getting rid of my pain and focussing on my health a bit as well.

The Team

Like with the past few episodes let’s begin with a recap of the current team! That team is unfortunately is one member short!  Right now our five precious moe’s are:

Ace: Miku the Jigglypuff (Lvl 22)  Crush Claw, Camouflage, Flail, Super Sonic
Ability: Wonder Guard (Can Only be hit by Super Effective Moves)
2nd: Usagi the (C)Raichu (Lvl 21) Thunderpunch, Spark, Stockpile  Shockwave
Ability: Effect Spore (Can leave a Status Effect on Contact)
3th Murmur the Porygon 2 (Lvl 20)  Earthquake, Hyper Fang, Cut and Morning Sun
Ability: Poison Point (Can Poison when physically hit)
4th Souji the Corphish (Lvl 20) Rock Tomb, Pain Split, Pay Day, Octazooka
Ability: Rock Head (Does not take Recoil Damage)
5th Asuka the Fearow (Lvl 20) Sky Aerial Ace, Headbutt, Foresight, Milk Drink
Ability: Stench (Has a 10% Flinch Chance and encounters less wild Pokemon)

Punching Oneself To Death

After the funeral, last episode, our journey begins with a trip to Slateport.. I forgot I could fish in that ocean and right now we can really use a good encounter! I am hoping for something like an Aron or maybe a Scyther. Oh boy.. I can’t wait to see what I will get…..it’s a WEEDLE! Reee!  That’s no Bueno!  I named it Chi-Chi and decided to grind it up until it becomes a Beedrill so I can see her ability. It has Hustle.. which isn’t bad for a Beedrill to have as it does boost Physical attack.. but in trade for a chance to miss… which isn’t great in a Nuzlocke! I might level it more if my other encounters will be worse though! Chi-Chi is carrying a Move though .. it’s Petal Dance.. which is a pretty powerful grass type move.. but since it locks you into attacking for multiple turns it is terrible for a Nuzlocke! Well.. Muk!  Time to move to Mauville then.

On our way to Mauville I got into a simple trainer encounter with a guy having a Dugtrio!  I switch Souji in and he gets confused by Swagger.  I fully believe I would live one hit and Dugtrio goes for Dig.. so I fully believe I can switch out.. then Souji oneshots itself. What the heck!?!  How did that happen.. he had a little bit of damage on him but he did way over half his own health in damage! That should not be possible! Well.. to the Death Box..I guess we will pick up Ika-Chan the Tentacruel. I begin grinding him up..this should at least give me some bulk. But grinding is going to take a while! I make a special rule  that catch up grinding  has no Permadeath.. I can level a Moe back up to the level of the party with Speed Up on, so I don’t lose hours and hours. It will also help with me not forming a bond with the new thing yet, so you don’t miss out on that. Souji had a sober funeral..  mostly because I already left a corpse on this route.. second because his insurance doesn’t cover self imposed demises. Luckily it hit itself so hard it was partially in  the ground already!

At the final level of the grind Ika-Chan learns Raindance which helps boost their water moves ..and now we are good to go again! Let’s defeat the final trainers up this route and head to Mauville city and get an encounter!  The bulkiness of Tentacruel allows for a much more progress then I had anticipated. Asuka and Ika both level up to level 22 catching up to the party fairly easily. So far I am succeeding at keeping everyone’s level close together but if other Nuzlockes are an indication that might change soon enough.

A Pink Clown

I reached Mauville which means I have to roflstomp Wally.. he uses the Super cool name Bug Catcher Landon to try and intimidate me.. but the boy only has a level 16 Kadabra. I would love to make it an event in the city..but yeah . .I literally only use one move to defeat my second rival! Now that the path to the gym is open to me.. I guess.. I will go hunt for Pokémon to fill the team or something.. bye Wally! Next I have an encounter at route 117, a fishing encounter at route 118. I could try to get a coin case and check what the Slot Machine Pokémon are.. and I can walk up north where I fight a family and maybe get an item. I go route 118 first for the fishing encounter because it is least likely to be good, due to being underleveled and of course I stumble in a double battle accidentally.  It forces me to swap in the Immortal Jigglypuff as Usagi is in danger but I win the fight fairly easily and Miku wants to learn Moonlight! No you don’t get a healing move! You can’t be hit!  Next fight!

Usagi washes the trainers that are on the route and my fishing encounter is a Togetic.. however since Togekiss doesn’t exist yet.. that Pokémon isn’t very good! I name it Lisanna and put it in the pc. It doesn’t have great stats and I am facing legendaries pretty much constantly, it’s ability Swarm powers up bug type moves which makes it even less usable. I can’t walk around with you..though I might carry it as Death Fodder if need be.  Let’s see if route 117 is better for me!  A Mister Mime Shows up there.. after I accidentally hit the speed up button instead of the sprint button and dash into the grass. Not bad! I swap in Miku and let her use Flail which now holds no power to reliably weaken my opponent. It breaks a lot of Pokéballs but in the end a great ball manages to capture it. It is a Mr. Mime indeed as the gender is male as well. I decide to name it Hisoka.. I mean a male pink hair clown with a feminine body.. pretty much spot on! 

One tedious training montage later, we travel north to fight the Winstrates! Hisoka’s moveset isn’t great , with Trash and Heat Wave as it’s offensive moves! It does possess both the barriers so that is a good thing at least but I would like if it would at least get one stab attacking move, so I can protect my dearest Miku! Let’s see how we fare against the Winstrate Family! After that we can challenge the gym! The Winstrates offer the perfect opportunity for Hisoka to catch up with the rest of the group! He even learns Psycho Boost… a move Gardevoir had as well!  While I do outlevel the Winstrates by a significant amount.. they are no slouches. Arcanine, Metagross, Aggron.  This family has some high quality Moe!  Since the battle is a gauntlet of four trainers, Hisoka almost ends up dying but I swap in Miku to heal him up a bit! Swapping him back in to Heatwave the Metagross as Miku can’t touch it. We win but we spend a lot of those Soda Pops we won on the beach to not have any losses here! On the way back I pick up a second Amulet coin, which I give to Hisoka.
With his barriers he is a good lead after all!

The Third Gym

This gym is made for double battle… but this time I wised up. I sneaked around trainers to talk to them and challenge them to solo battles. After all in Solo battles you have a lot more sense of control! The first gym trainer easily gets beaten. She uses a Weedle that gets finished by Ika-Chan and Hisoka uses Heatwave on a Pineco! The poor thing.. it looked so cute hiding in it’s armor and now it’s dead! The second trainer has a Milotic and an Anorith. Usagi and Murmur take care of those.. but not before I make a swapping error and Usagi takes some unneeded damage!  This forces me to retreat from the gym and heal up for the next part! With my team being as it is I am beginning to notice I can make a lot more  tactical swaps and no longer do I have to settle for the next best thing. T he second to last gym trainer uses an adorable Chinchou but I forgot to screenshot it.. and an Entei is the Moe of choice for the last trainer. For the first time in all my Gym battles I am sweeping these… do note that route 110 was littered with Jirachi and Articuno and since Articuno might learn Freeze Dry and Jirachi can use one shot moves as well.. I killed them all.. so I am a tad overleveled now .. I think

The fight with Watson is next.. or as he would like to be called Bug Catcher Scarlett!
The First Pokémon he sends out is a level 20 Victreebel! I lead with Miku! I already lost one Pokémon this episode, I am not going to make it two… especially since I am out of good encounters!  Umara can be useful late but for now she and Chi-Chi the beedrill are usable to me.. let alone Lisanna the Togetic. They can have their Cheetos party in Box 1. Miku defeats Victreebel who has Aeroblast.. Lugia’s Signature move and we go into the second round. Jolteon versus Murmur. My Porygon2 has an Earthquake so Jolteon should not be  too much of a problem… Jolteon outspeeds and deals 25% damage still and Porygon2 is fairly bulky! That would have killed Ika and Asuka. His next Pokémon is a Lugia.. cowardly I swap in Miku! Which is a good thing I did because that too carries Psycho-Boost! My guess is that it got randomised into the “confusion” move slot and that is why so many low level Psychic Pokémon know that move. The Final Pokémon is a level 24 Whismur.. I guess I wasn’t that over leveled after all!  I just got lucky in a gym for once! I decided to let my precious Usagi finish the pink thing!

The fight is done and I get a badge and a brand new move.. this time it’s ……..NIGHTSHADE?!  That would have been useful for the past few levels but I am JUST at the point where the move isn’t all that reliable anymore! It is a move that does set damage so it would be good when my type coverage was worse.  I am not having much luck with these types of moves.  I am content we got an easy gym win though! Right now we are about on par with the gym leader’s Ace which means a team of six should mean we are about the perfect level when we face Flannery. If we don’t encounter too many legendaries OR low level bugs! Maybe next week we can go about with having no funerals. With three deaths we are nearing the halfway point of our journey.. the fight against my father will most likely be easier.. his Slaking will be randomised.. but at the same time.. all it takes is one Huge Power Slaking with a fighting move and all my Moe can die! I feel alive! I am enjoying this journey…and I like how random it all feels!… I just need to control myself a bit more..for greater success! Now if you excuse me I have some lamps to stare at!

The Entire Moemon Nuzlocke Series

Animini: Cowboy Bebop – Episode 5 – Ballad of Fallen Angels

Steamed Hams and steamed hello’ my sweet Island Guests! Closing of the week has never been as exciting as before I watched cowboy Bebop! Of course I have already watched this episode before sunday.. so it’s more of a metaphor but still! This show is really really good! This episode is easily the best one so far. With a dark broody tone .. and what I assume will be the series villain being introduced. I vaguely remember being spoiled by the “Bang” scene  and I think I saw that guy! Not sure and please don’t confirm or deny.. Yet.. boy.. did I have some fun this week! 

The Summary

The episode begins with a shady deal between two mob-like boss figures making a treaty of sorts. One looking a bit friendlier and human than the other.  They are in his house when the deal is closed when he sees his guest leave.. he also sees the man is blown up!  Then strangers walk into his house and hold his neck against a Katana. A man named Vicious shows up.. though the name is only revealed later. With a little motion he has the man known as Mao Yenrai executed.  Unbeknownst to Jet that this bounty has become inaccessible he finds himself at odds with Spike.. who doesn’t want to take this bounty for unknown reasons. The lack of transparency  vexes Jet.. while Faye walks in after a successful shopping trip, showing she has now fully joined the crew. I like how that happened. It makes it feel a bit more natural. Spike walks off angrily and goes planetside to walk it off.  There he meets a shopkeeper named Annie, shocked to see Spike alive. Apparently he had connections with her and Mao in the past.. and this Vicious  guy seems to be part of the same organisation as Mao.. as the guy spoke of betrayal.. I am not sure.. but I think that was what happend.

Faye however does not know about all this backstory and just sees a high bounty number so she decides to try and capture Mao.. and she finds herself being overwhelmed by a surprisingly well prepared Vicious and his mobsters. He must have one heck of a source.  She gets captured and Spike goes back to the Bebop .. but is armed by Annie.. now goes to stop Vicious.. there seems to be a lot of past between these two.  The meet is in an old church.. that I think will also be the scene for the final episode.. but I am not sure!   A shootout happens and Faye manages to escape while Spike pursues Vicious.. not letting a few gunshot wounds stop him. Faye calls Jet for help not wanting to see Spike get killed and the man reluctantly goes to rescue his friend. Who fights Vicious in front of a stained glass window. The two have a mexican standoff but instead of rolling away like gentlemen and resetting the fight.. both take the killshot.. missing because both get harmed. Spike gets stabbed and Vicious gets shot… but Vicious manages to throw Spike out the window towards his death.. but the quick fingers of Spike allow him to leave a grenade behind.. As Spike falls to his death.. his life flashes in front of his eyes..showing shards of the story of him and vicious and a blonde girl that I think got killed by Vicious.  The church explodes.. and Spike’s vision goes dark.. he Remembers the blond woman singing to him.. but it is actually Faye watching over him on the Bebop.. he calls her tonedeaf and she punches him with a pillow and tosses cards on him an ace of space is used as a recurring symbol.

The Positives

Almost everything was spectacular in this episode. Every single set piece carried so much weight. The opera house, the house of the Mafia guy , the tiny little store, the church. It brings so many layers of society to the table. It shows people linked in the past are at very different places now. It also fills in some of the classic Film Noir tropes quite well. Which really gives this episode so much atmosphere and weight. It feels important just because of how things unfold.  We see heavier use of visual metaphors with the ace of spade, the flashbacks, the dramatic slow motions. the bigger close up on the eyes.  It all has been seemingly designed to carry weight.. to feel big. I do not realise yet what the full scope of this is.. but it all feels some more relevant than Twinkle Maria last week! The stakes are higher here.. this matters more and it oozes out of every pore of this episode.  From the way Vicious is designed but brought into frame that clearly to the sepia filter of Spike’s memories.  The implications that Spike now knows?! Was he a criminal before as well? What caused him to fake his death.. is this blond woman really dead? I assume so.. but  the film follows classic Noir Archetypes.. so you never know. 

I really enjoyed how the action felt once again.  The guns seem to really have a kick to them.  Characters hold still to fire, even when running towards their opponent there is this moment where they let the gun do the talking.. and it seems much more subjected to real life forces. Not always.. but the way bullets shoot church pews away, how different weapons are used at the same time and how they interact with the environment differently makes this fight have such an impact. In 90% of the anime mobs all use the same gun and half of the time it makes just a few sparks people jump over.. here Spike has to run dip and dodge depending on that type of arm his enemies have. It just ands so much oomph to the action.  The explosion from the church also was pretty amazing…. granted I do not think the explosion should be that big given how the first grenade exploded.. but the falling out of the window scene.. with the shards of glass chasing Spike as his eyes dim.. was one heck of a well done “action” scene.  So much motion and it really felt as if everything had different weight when falling.  I really love that sense of materialism.. that this show has..  it’s not so much.. how do we make this look cool.. but more Hollywood.. where I can see this in live action much more than most anime.. that sounds like a determinant..but not for this show..  not for me.

The Negatives

The downsides of this episode are ones I really had to look for with a fine toothed comb. The first is that I kind of dislike that Vicious knows about Faye Valentine.  Unless Jet is a traitor of sorts which I highly doubt right now.. It doesn’t feel like it’s knowledge he should have.  Then again she has been shopping on the planet..but assuming her association with Spike seems just that tiny bridge too far. Just like how big that final explosion was.  It works in the confines of this world but it felt like just a tad much. I would have preferred she gave up her association with Spike herself.. then when he rushed in to save her.. she regretted it prompting her to call Jet.. now Vicious feels a bit high and mighty.. considering what we have seen other people in his position do with their power. Minor  thing though.

There are a few more things like this such as Faye being able to have her spaceship equipped with gun turrets land in front of a high prestige opera house seems like something these worlds should have a counter for. The shoplifting  boys seem a bit to dumb.. why would you steal the same nudy magazine as your buddy.. in that case one of you goes to pay for a paper plane and let someone else steal the bigger item… while you distract to she shop keep (yeah I stole something as kid once or twice…)   much better strategy!  The kids did not fully feel like kids!  Yet that is me really nitpicking.. it’s all just super fun and exciting to go through and some minor weird things in no way decrease that joy.

The Score

This was by far the best thing I watched this week! And I actually had a pretty good week!   With two other Star Fruits and lots of Berry Goods.  Yet since this one is my favourite I bet you can guess what grade it is going to be!  It was so good!  Not only did it show us the past and wet our appetites for a bigger puzzle, I think it might also have foreshadowed things as well.  Let’s not forget that indian prediction in episode 1. He would meet a woman that would lead to death.. it can be referred to the cowboy woman of episode 1 but now I think.. this blonde chick will show up again and it will lead to Spike’s death! I am not sure.. that’s just what I think. This episode got me super excited!

I have to shout out the music as well , it felt really different from what we saw before.. again establishing those higher stakes through everything. Story, visuals and sound design all come and tell us what to feel and I love that kind of thing!  Where visuals and sounds are not just used to establish grandeur..even though here it does.. but also convey an emotion. This episode doesn’t only feel big.. it feels important.. it feels deeper. I want to see more!

Animini: Natsume Book of Friends – Episode 5 – Heart Colored Ticket

The Heck is a Heart Coloured Ticket…?!  I thought I would know after this episode but no! I still don’t know! There is a ticket.. and there is love.. but I do not agree with this title. I would have called it Bootleg Totoro and the Fish..  but then again that might be disrespectful! I don’t mean it like that though.. but it really is about a Totoro thing that is not Totoro … and a fish! I kind of loved it!

The Summary

The episode begins with Natsume roaming in a box of his grandmothers stuff, each time he runs a name he gets part of her memories and he is curious about her life.. or so he claims.. from a Library book she forgot to return drops a train ticket.. leading to a now out of use station. Natsume decides to investigate the ticket the next day. That day Natsume’s classmates fight on how to eat something which I think is chicken.. I have no idea but they call it Kitsune.. I don’t think they are eating fox but well.. they don’t see eye to eye on how to eat this meal thing and decide to separate and never be friends again. Sasada then comes poking her nose into Natsume’s business! What is that ticket? What are you going to do with it? Can I come?!  I wanna see one?!  Stuff like that. Natsume doesn’t want to get the girl that wants to spend time with him around.. so he is super glad the priest’s son distracts her long enough so he can sneak away from her on the bus. (Kind of a dickish bus driver). I kind of want Natsume to like this girl! I like having her positive energy around!

Sasada gets left behind though and Natsume travels to an abandoned station where he finds Santo.. a big furry hippo like Yokai that walks on two legs and dances around and reminds me a lot of Totoro.  Just.. more vocal and less eloquent.  Santo is a friendly Yokai who waits on this station because he got in an argument with a friend once who told them to leave and never return. Reiko met Santo and he gave him her name.. which we find out caused the conflict between the two. Santo gets his name returned and Natsume finds out through her memories that she promised Santo to take him to go see his friend Mikuri the next day. She never delivered on the promises though so Natsume takes Santo to do so. However since years have passed now.. Mikuri became bitter and possessed by Earth Spirits, enlarging his negativity. As a result the forest tries to stop their approach. Mikuri corrupted a huge catfish and Madara fights him  while Natsume and Santo yell at Mikuri to stop! Then the fish possessed by rage tries to steal the book.. but Santo protects it!  A combination of both seemed to work and the still quite angry Mikuri is reunited with his friend.  While Natsume tries to settle their fight he realizes they already settled their fight and are just arguing because they are friends. The next day in school his two classmates are all buddy buddy again and Sasada asks him what happened.  The priest’s son whose name I completely am blacking out on.. gets thanked for the help the day before leaving Sasda clueless still.

The Positives

I really liked Santo and Mikuri , once again the design and flavouring of these Yokai is done very nicely and satisfyingly. The whole  super dumb anime character might be a trope I do not always enjoy, Santo brings so much innocence to it.. but also a form of challenge. He knows what he wants to say .. but he is just too dim witted to express himself leaving Natsume without some valuable much needed information. So he must find a way to work around that. Thus the humor of this episode is actually in service of the story and I am very fond of that type of design. Do not build in jokes because you need a funny moment, make moments you need to tell funny. It offers a lot more charm. Santo being one of the most innocent things you have ever seen is also a nice contrast with the Yokai we have seen normally here. No harm from others befalls upon him.. there is no evil spirit or priest causing him pain. Santo’s worst enemy is Santo himself.. and the promises he made. He never went to look for Mikuri because he promised Reiko  to wait for her and because Mikuri said he could not come anymore. That’s just the type of guy he is and he is in his own way.

I also really like the whole premise of Natsume wanting to dig deeper into his relatives’ past and using a box of memories along with the book that apparently is also filled with memories  is an interesting way to do this. It gives a few puzzle elements and I have been wondering how Reiko was a person. I for now think she was a pretty bad person but Natsume seems to refuse to believe this. She completely forgot about poor Santo though!  I am curious to see where this will go and in fairness the show so far has not done much in terms of establishing an overarching narrative. This could be the first step towards that and if so I am quite on board with this.

The Negatives

I did not like how Natsume ignored Sasada in the last episode, and I do not like here either.  It’s a nice girl that is interested in you and believes in you.. she wants that connection my guy and you have shown to want that sort of connection as well.  I always have trouble with characters that go through self imposed misery and feel depressed for being alone.. but then when  a person wants to be their friend they ignore them.. While Natsume isn’t nearly hypocritical enough for me to actually dislike it.. I see enough of this self imposed negativity to enjoy it less then when Sasada would have played a bigger part. I think her positive behaviour is a welcome addition to Natsume’s more down behaviour.  At the same time though Natsume doing this alone lets the Yokai shine a lot as he doesn’t have a strong personality.. so the spirits always take the spotlight! That has value as well.

The second gripe I had with this episode is in its resolution. The Catfish versus Cat fight  felt a bit sloppy. Tentacles were bitten and pulled..  Elongated cat demon gets snared but transforms.. then bites the fish again.. but then it looks like the fish also bites him.. but maybe its not because suddenly the fish goes poof! ?I had no real idea what was going on there. Natsume was quite badly animated while  wrapped by a tentacle as well. It all just felt a bit muddy and thrown in for some action. I honestly preferred the fight with the earth spirit and the mysterious fog on the tracks. One bad fight scene however does not ruin an episode. Especially when it’s so short.  I would have liked to see more Santo protecting the book though. That might have been the trigger what caused Mikuri to be healed but it at least wasn’t fully clear to me.

The Score

While not a perfect score episode I really had a lot of fun with this episode.  Santo is an adorable character and even Mikuri in his original form is quite adorable. The evil forest chase was very entertaining and.. just Santo being Santo , eating poisoned berries and all it just made me smile. It had little impact all in all but I was still very entertained. It just had a few scenes for me personally that did not resolve in a way I would have preferred. It’s a silver or bronze type situation instead of gold. Still a winner though.

My biggest peeve here is how Sasada was offsided here, and I am afraid I will see a fair bit more of that in the future. I just do not like the lonely character wallowing in their loneliness by shutting off good people.  It really irks me and I have little sympathy for them. As long as this show doesn’t try to invoke sympathy for him being so alone.. I will not have much of a problem , other than just being a bit bitter here and there.. but if they do and try to invoke sympathy while he shuts people out.. that will be a sure fire for me to grow and dislike him as a character. Nothing wrong yet just reporting some symptoms for now. Great episode with just a few concerns. Like.. how was that ticket heart-coloured?