Hello Island Guests! Now that my anniversary week is already a week in the past it is time for yet another Saturday Morning Adventure! I had to pick a new show for BNA and I wanted to either go for Re Zero Season 2 or the 2020 Digimon Reboot. In the spirit of Saturday Mornings though.. I chose Digimon 2020! Re Zero might be something I can watch witch friends soon! It is also something I might not enjoy as much as most! Which scares me!
I did not know what to expect when picking this series up? Would it tell the same tale in a modern way? Would it be something all new? Well it turns out to be the latter and it was unexpectedly awesome.
Digimon Adventures follows the adventures of the original cast but now living as kids in 2020. Taichi seems to go on summer camp.. which is the trigger for him being booted in the original. However this time when he is home alone the doorbell rings and we see Koshiro standing in front of the door. The two seem rather unfamiliar with each other showing already how different this show will be. Koshiro , to us westerners oftenly better know as Izzy , notices he is in the same summer camp group as Taichi and went over their to discuss some things when suddenly crisis strikes Tokyo. All sort of electronics go haywire.. including the train Taichi’s mother and sister are on. The two decide to look into this further now that Taichi’s family is in danger. When things go even more dire and their live is put on the line Taichi jumps the fences of the closed train station and his telephone shows the crest of courage. He becomes Digitised and travels to a strange world.. much more cyber like.. than the old digital world. Here he encounters a wounded Koromon, who upon partnering up evolves into Agumon. Not fighting Kuwagamon as the first enemy for once.. the pair decimates some virus digimon but they have to Evolve into Greymon to finish the fight!
A mysterious young man..we know as Matt.. or Yamamoto stares down at the pair as Koshiro tells them about A digimon attack in America!
This was a nice first episode! Much better than I expected it to be. The action really shined!
The orginal Digimon was much more static, here we get beam struggles, melee attacks, even Taichi helping in the attack and as a result the actual Digimon part feels much more dynamic. The Digivolution also does not happen in this static magical girl like fashion but it happens during combat. While this will also appear in my negatives section it just keeps the action flowing. This digital world also seems much more connected to ours than that of the original series. Elements in the digital world correlate with that of the real world. Such as a railway plan being a bunch of data in the sky in the digital world on top of a tower. My favourite scene is when Taichi is brought into the digital world.. Seeing that crest appear on his phone plays heavily into the nostalgia but it looks so much cooler this time. When he is floating among the digital objects he also uses these to his advantage. Again showing how much more “fluent” this show is. The approach of slowly introducing all character one by one also seems like a great idea, we have seen hints at many of them but it is great imagining how they will fit in. I can only assume that mentioning america will help with the introduction of Mimi.. but maybe cool boy Yamamoto will have a way to access it. I am looking forward to more.
My negatives are mostly nitpicks based on the first episode. I miss Butterfly as an opening theme and would have rather seen a remix of it than a completely new song… but there is still an homage made to the original opening with Taichi falling through some digital letters.
In Fairness Butterfly has really been overused lately but the new song can not hold a candle against that greatness. Having Evolutions (they are just called evolutions in the sub) without Braveheart takes some getting use to as well. Other than that I have no negatives so far!
This is what I expected it to be plus a fair deal better. I kind of expected Marvel’s Disk Wars of kid pandering but it wasn’t that bad.
Great first episode, I felt blissfully Nostalgic and I liked the new Digivice design. It left me wanting for more. Obviously this type of show is something I as a collectible creature aficionada can appreciate. Up until Xros Wars I have always found Digimon the superior anime of the two and this first episode makes me think I will keep thinking that. Pinkie is pleased with her pick for this so far!
So last episode this show took an unexpected twist by introducing monsters and it seems they stuck around! So it seems it is all real.. I still think Masayoshi fell into some drugs and is hallucinating all this.. because suddenly his career does super great as well and everything goes his way… but we will find out! Please do not spoil.
The episode opens up with Samurai Flamenco ,aided by the Flamenco girls and even Goto, taking out a Bird Monster named after a kite. It shouts Viva Torture and explodes. We then look back a few days in time and see the aftermath of Guillotine Gorilla. The Funeral of the cops that got guillotined to death..Goto is worried about what is going on but when a new monster named Boiling Rhino..which is a Rhino in a soup cauldron attacks a bus that holds Masayoshi agents. Samurai and the Flamenco girls get to the bus and fight the monster and the ..gimp suit minions. In rollercoaster like speeds we see the group take down four monsters, all revealing something about the groups new abilities and their limitations. They are held alive by their tech but they clearly do not possess the ability to have superhuman abilities. Masayoshi seems to be very happy how is life is now ..even with these risks which Worries Goto.. Masayoshi has changed ..when will he push to far. The show ends with him being on the cover of every magazine and the guest of some show… I still think this might all be a dream or something..because of how well things are going.. but I also really worry about Sapphire! I do not want to see her get hurt this episode she almost did.
The fight against the horse monster was my favourite scene. Not only did it make me feel worried about the Flamenco girls, it also made me laugh. Samurai Flamenco tells he has a new gadget and it turns out it is just very sticky double sided tape. I love how silly these office supplies gadgets of him are. So great. This scene seamlessly combined a threat.. towards Moe with lighthearted comedy and sentai tropes. I loved it! The opening scene was great as well..everyone working as a team really felt amazing. I even liked Mari’s pettiness again. She wants to deal the finishing blow! Now that is pettiness I can believe from her. I can see her going rogue for a bit or someone getting hurt because she wants the spotlight and it being a big point of development. I loved this episode! The BIC shield instead of the Big shield really hit home for me! It’s funny how this show manages to mix high tension with comedy so well. Normally comedical shows like One Punch Man, or heck even Slime have very low stakes because the main character is very overpowered. These are normal people and the show makes a point of out it to show it.. yet still is funny! Great!
The ending of the episode was a bit of a whimper for me.. coming of last week’s episode with such an epic bombshell Goto texting with his girlfriend that Masayoshi changed attitude scares them felt a bit forced. It was already established that this was a thing.. why do it twice and with a lackluster medium like texting.. I still don’t get it. I bet if I could read Kanji I might ..but meh. I think next episode someone will get hurt! Let’s hope it is not Moe. As much as I like the gadgets their inventor Jun I can find a tad annoying at times. Not all that much but in this episode he had a few lines of dialogue that not really stick with me. Like at one point Samurai Flamenco tells Yun he is worried his gadgets might get knock offs and he says “we can’t have that’ and that is the end of it.. it doesn’t go anywhere. Huh?! Nitpicks though!
Amazing! AMAZING Episode! I have so many theories! For example I think that Akira guy Might be King Torture! Not sure why I think that but it’s just me telling! That guy is totally king Torture! He wanted to see Masayoshi unmasked.. met the agent just before she got in trouble ..or just after she escaped….not sure.. and he keeps showing up.. he might just be a cute romance for her though. I would ship them if he is not King Torture. That text only thing has to come back as well. This episode made me think, laugh, worry and wish I knew of this series earlier! Highest score one again!
My Oh my this episode sure was different. There were some very dark moments in there! Not a lot of comedy either, still it felt like an episode of slime and like almost every episode so far I enjoyed this watch.
The episode begins with a flashback on Shizu’s or Shizue’s past. She is summoned by a demon lord and possessed by the Ifirit , we saw that last episode but this week we saw how it took her over and she evaporated a friend and her pet against her will… the screams of that girl were quite haunting and the pet monster was really cute! It just growled at the man who clearly has a demon in himself or is a demon! That was enough for the Ifrit to trigger and turn the very cute pet and the cute girl into a very dead pet! We then go back to the village where Shizu is leaving trying to fight the control of the Ifrit but just as she is about to head out she fails. The Ifrit comes out and destroys the goblin Village. The human adventuring Party wants to help Rimuru defeat this beast because Shizu is one of them and they want to help her in her time of need. Even if they now know that Shizu is the legendary hero of old. Rimuru finds himself overpowered. His water blade evaporating and having no effect. Yet when Elen the group’s mage girl manages to hit some summoned dragons or wyrms with ice Rimuru asks her to shoot him.. as he eats the ice he develops a new technique called Ice shotgun that is used to defeat the Dragons. Elen’s party however gets taken down and is majorly hurt by a self destructing enemy and Rimuru has to face the Ifrit by himself.. luckily he finds out he is immune to fire and after a short scuffle the Ifrit is devoured and faces Veldora.. the look on his face shows us he knows he is fricked!
This episode brought us great payoff to everything that has been set up by the last episode. Last week I really disliked Elen and her group and this week I was worried sick about them. Please be okay! They are such good guys I thought! That moment that the dragon self destructed in front of them might have been my favourite moment of the episode. Genuine concern and an actually fun fight despite the fact that Rimuru is so powerful.Pacing wise I needed an episode with stakes as well and this episode sure provided. This was exactly what I needed from this show at the right time..and that seems to be one of it’s biggest strengths. It doesn’t go above and beyond, to blow you away.. it gives you what you want .. it gives you what you need. I was thoroughly entertained and I even cussed at my screen when the Ifrit faced Veldora.. I was like.. oooh boy you ..(bad word) now! If I talk to the screen.. you made a good episode! I think I did talk to my screen twice this episode at least. And mumbled a few other times! I liked the flashback of Shizu as well though I wished the cute monster did not have to die for it! It was powerful enough for me though.
That being said.. the Puppy and the girl evaporating was my least favourite moment of the episode I watched this Saturday.. not that it’s bad and I don’t even think it is poorly paced because If I knew her any better I might have been actually upset over such a minor character, it just wasn’t fun. Not always has to be fun though. The reason though why I put a disliked scene and not a bad scene in here is because there is very little negative about this episode. People not included were excluded for a reason and characters I disliked before totally redeemed themselves today for me. If I HAVE to give this episode a negative it would have to be that no one wondered what a Shotgun was when Rimuru first used his spell. I know I better drop it for that right?!
No this is another highest rank episode for me this week! It is in a very different light than good episodes of Hikaru no Go are for example…but within the confines for what this show is it’s a near perfect episode and just a tremendous amount of fun.Nothing we haven’t seen before…but that is not what this show aims for …so a perfect score for you!
I am so confused. What the heck just happened! Gone is the cute world and the bitey bitey bunny stuff! No this week it’s Mad Max meets magical girls! I do not know what is going on and I love it that I don’t.
At first this episode barely seems to connect to episode 2. After finishing it I am still not sure that does. Papika can be seen walking through a desert and collapsing from thirst and fatigue looking for Cocona. She is rescued by some Jawa like folks that treat her as an enemy. A pink one however gives her water and lets her recover. Papika being her usual somewhat selfish self wants more and travels to the well to see these villagers are struggling to exist.. so she sucks a slightly poisonous cactus instead when suddenly raiders attack. These raiders smash up the village and pour the water all over their genitals and waste it. When Papika speaks up a giant raider tries to beat her up which she beats with the flick of a finger. A metal faced school girl shows up called lady Cocona.. not believing it is Cocona Papika fights here while a hooded stranger looks from afar. This fight is totally Dragon Ball Z esque including the sound effects. Finally Papika realises this is Cocona but the helmet controls her. So she knocks herself out with a headbutt breaking the helmet. Cocona is immediately regretful but can not be for long. Papika tells she loves loves loves loves LOVES Cocona.. but there is also evil afoot.
It turns out the Pink jawa like thing is actually a sort of succubus like creature with an army of female gimp like creatures that put the helmet on Cocona to make them fight..and fight them just because she is bored. By eating a giant purple potato Cocona and Papika get the power to transform into magical girls that can summon a giant gun.. that helps them defeat the witch/succubus with the last of their strength…but it turns out that the creature is still alive. Facing defeat the two girls get saved by three other girls belonging to a different organisations.. one of them is Cocona’s classmate Yayaka who seems to work for some kind of weird cult. They take a pink orb from the creature and return to their base where they feed it to a black spiral thing as the cultist leader person says they are close to their goal.
Our two heroines return to the real world where Dr Salt is being very mysterious.
So yeah that was a WEIRD plot summary lots of stuff happening.. and without a doubt in my heart my favourite moment is their magical girl transformation. My oh my I liked that transformation sequence.. the Pure Barrier and Pure Blade alter egos seem very Pretty Cure like.. where characters are called Cure (Whatever their handle is) . I also loved the weird loading mechanic of their ultimate weapon.. a cannon that is loaded by energy that is just stuffed trough some weird holes in the back of the gun. It was so insane and out there that I was constantly amazed. It seems that the desert reflects Cocona’s persona this time.. her issue is that she is bland..she lacks a will of her own as told by the monster of the week. So it makes sense this world looks barren. The fact that there is another organisation except from Flip Flap really came as a surprise. When I orginally saw the hooded girl I thought.. oh that is the real Cocona..she will show up to help her friend in a bit.. then stuff happend and I forgot and it turns out it was Yayaka.. did not expect but I love it.. this show has me so excited and gleeful when I watch it … It feels like this is my candy and i am the baby.
I will be honest this episode was so weird and that magical girl transformation came out of nowhere.. while I loved that it came out of nowhere on three separate occasions I checked if I was watching the correct episode. First if I was on the right episode number secondly if they might not have uploaded a wrong episode as episode 3 and thirdly if there wasn’t another episode in this form of Pure Illusion.. I loved that feeling of disorientation and awe but I can easily imagine it will not be for everyone.. this is so much my jam though that only gripe this week is that I don’t think I like dr salt. He feels to obviously traitor vibes to me… but hey.. I did not get what I expected last time at all! So I might very well be wrong! No spoilers!
Best thing I watched today! And I watched an incredible amount of good stuff today! In fact this week has 4 perfect scores for me! So this for me is my baby Jesus of anime. Before I thought this might end up in my top 10 favourite anime of all time.. the way things are going it might end up in my top 3. This is so much my thing I can’t even bring it to words!
The fourth and final perfect score of the day does so on completely different terms as the other episodes. This didn’t keep me as entertained as the others did but I am amazed with how strong of a set up this episode was. Where it fumbled in the earlier set up episodes the last ones have been really strong and this is probably the best written one so far.
In terms of a summary I can be a lot more brief than I was with Flip Flappers. The Go Tournament is about to start and after some provocation and Disdain from Touya’s team Haze Jr High’s team is more motivated than ever to win! Meanwhile Touya just stares at Hikaru intensively! After a player disrespects Hikaru he suddenly gets very serious and manages to secure his first official win in a tournament making Haze Jr High the flawless victors of round 1. Touya asks his teacher how Hikaru played but he doesn’t tell him he played bad .. wanting to teach him a lesson or something?! So instead Touya stares at Hikaru with great intensity. During lunch Hikaru doesn’t feel hungry and he refuses Akiri’s lunch and instead walks out a Touya that stares at him intensely.. for a breath of fresh air. Hikaru really wants to play himself and he plans to so .. knowing he will be defeated and disappoint Touya.. but this match is important for him too. He overhears Touya’s first board team member talk with that girl who helped him out when he was bullied once and realises how much Akira gave up to face Sai in a match. So with heavy heart Hikaru wants to help the boy and grant him the match he so desires that he has endured so much for it. Akiri shows up and talks to Hikaru for a bit and later can be seen supporting TsuTsui and Mitani as well.. the girl is such a champ in her own right! The episode ends with Touya taking place across Hikaru and staring at him intensely.
Jokes aside.. this episode was quite heavy! There is so much things that come into play! My favourite moment was Mitania watching Kaio‘s (Touya’s School) ‘First Board match. The disrespect he gets makes him want to beat this guy fair and square. He tells this to TsuTsui as the two’s bond gradually but fastly increases in this episode. It didn’t feel out of the blue either, it felt so real. Where I can’t help but think these people take Go way to seriously the motivations of.. “I am not going to be looked down upon like that” is something I can totally understand. This isn’t about the poetics and the beauty of Go.. this week’s episode makes crystal clear that everyone is playing for themselves.. not for sport..not for beauty.. everyone has their own realistic goal. It also makes it very clear that not all of these goals can align.. something’s got to give. Sai being completely neutral in his talk against Hikaru I found amazingly strong. The guy knows he shares a body with Hikaru and knows Hikaru has to grow.. he also wants to play Akira himself very much but he perfectly understands Hikaru as well as a player.. thus he leaves the choice to Hikaru making Hikaru’s choice all the more impactful.
This act is also my main negative from the other perspective . Hikaru is shown as a very sympathetic person and his reasons to face Touya are sound.. his reasons to let Sai play Touya are noble.. but he doesn’t consider Sai’s feelings all that much it could help him get out of his depression knowing that he can let his partner play.. I get why he doesn’t don’t get me wrong but Hikari gets sooo much support from everyone and he is depicted as a kindhearted person so I find it a tad weird he does not consider Sai at all in this. Perhaps if I ever become possessed by my checkerboard I can more clearly tell where his mind is at.. but for someone who is depicted as so selfless he is often really selfish which does make me feel like.. “wait but that isn’t what you are showing me right now”
This though is no major strike against the episode, I really get where he is coming from and why he is sad.. I am happy he is flawed like that even but I would like it if the show doesn’t depict Hikaru as two different persons. I could easily scale this down to a Berry good.. but I’ll be honest this is one of the more powerful set up episodes in terms of development I have seen..I can really read what people are thinking here.. When I say this is one of the best set up episodes I seen I do not mean that exclusively to this series and that I think justifies my highest grade.
And with that it is time for my weekly personal update! In which I promised to reveal the winner of my giveaways!
– DuckTales has been won by Winst0lf Portal who invented me a great new Cocktail for my Birthday! The Pinkie-Co-Lada .. I think it comes served in a cheap russian car!
– The Elders Scroll Online With all the deluxe expansions has been won by The Holy Mailman who thought my new tagline should be A Daily Dose of Happiness! Which is a great tagline! I am not going to use it as it requires me to write daily even if I would not feel like it! But a great tagline nonetheless! Both of you have fun with your prizes!
There was no doubt in my mind that these two should be the winners of their respective competitions!
Besides that, I had to step down as a DM for my group, at least while we have to do this campaign online. I noticed the shy roleplayers not getting a turn anymore because we now lack the visual aid to see when someone is about to speak, people walk off for snacks or play a game when I cant check up and as a result nobody really is following the same stories..everyone works with half hooks. Voice chat lag only made this worse and I can’t do voices or motions and I can’t read my audience and adjust to it.. as a result the players constantly were doing each others work in order to shine themselves not realising another player had an actual hook. It became an energy drain rather than an energy boost so I had to let it go for now. One player kinda hurt me in this and as a result I have had a lot of somatic stress which caused me to be physically sick again. So I have been falling behind with my writing now! Only two days ahead now! But it is not all bad! We had a nice family birthday with a sushi dinner which was fun so there was a good day as well. I am also getting closer to a few of my blog goals so I am excited for that! Let’s make next week amazing!
Pinkie's Paradise 