Tag: Magical Girls

It’s Transformation Time: The brand new “You Are Magical, Girl!” Blog-Tag-Award-Thingy!

Salutations, guests and loyal subjects! The time has come, I have regained a lot of my former strength so I want to interact with you a lot more!   Since I haven’t fully been able to regain my strength , I decided to reach out through a new blog tag! One I created in my head a few times. One that is easy enough and one that reflects what is happening on my blog very well now! It is time for the You Are Magical, Girl! Blog-Tag-Award-Thingy! I even made a logo!

The Rules

1.  A Magical Girl is always polite!  So be polite! Display the Magical Girl Tag Logo, thank the one who tagged you and if you want tag creator to thank you for participating, tag Pinkie’s original post as well!  That last one is optional though!
2. A good magical girl gets the job done! Answer all the prompts! But do it like yourself! Come up with your own ideas, or compare it with other anime or video games! Anything goes! Just get the job done!
3. A good Magical girl always makes friends! Tag at least 2 people!  More is optional!
There is no 4! That would be bad luck!
5. A Magical girl is not defined by gender! Feel free to tag anyone!

The Questions

A Magical Creature descended from the skies! It is telling you , you are a magical girl!  Describe this magical messenger! What is it.. where is it from?!

My magical girl story begins at my home, my real home here in the Netherlands!  It is late at night when I hear a tapping on my window.. out there is a little coconut! Much like the ones I have as my Kofi supports.. but this one has a monocle and a little bowtie as well as a tuft of hair groomed neatly in  a two parted wave. He also carries a little cane.. he looks very posh!  He says his name is Butternut and calls me Hime.. he has an important mission for me! As well as a very comfy job!

Your creature tells you about an evil force from afar! What is this evil force?! What is their goal?!
hicham-habchi-1.jpg
Art by Hicham Habchi


Butternut tells me that he is stewart of the island of Paradise an island that is on the border of fiction and reality!  I am it’s intended ruler, but two evil fations seek to use the island to destroy the balance between reality and between imagination!  Yes that’s right! I will go above and beyond and make two evil forces!  One from the land of reality and one from the world of imagination. From the world of reality it is some military force.. probably an american sub division called “Deep Dive” .. they want to use Paradise to gain enough resources to police the world keep the island out of the hand of people who would use it for worse..yet at the same time.. they will use it to keep America dominant on the world stage. Enemies of Deep Dive would take “class” archetypes.. such as a Sniper, A Commando and a John Wick like Assassin among other things. 

Krampus: Jack in the Box by thewebsurfer97 on DeviantArt
Art by thewebsurfer97

On the side of imagination there would be an organisation called “The Fallen” This organisation is made from villains of imagination that have already been defeated. Enemies of old tv shows, manga or other things.. that have since lost their face and became monsters they called “Ideas” creatures that have lost their essence but still remain as concepts and blue prints for future generations. “Ideas” will mimic classic villains in some ways or another but have more monstrous shapes. Think of a Jack in the Box monster  that represents “The Joker” or  a “Crocodile” made out of sand and Golden teeth, that has the power to dehydrate. The Jack in the Box along with a Changeling in the colours white and purple would probably be two of the elites! With lesser known villains working as monsters. Their goal is to spread fear in reality so they are remembered to take shape once again.. if they do.. they can breach into existence.

The creature then tells you , you hold a great virtue, it is the reason you have been selected! What is this reason!
My first and easiest foe!

As a VTuber/VBlogger I already  walk the line between fantasy and because of my content , where I blend reality and fantasy quite often I become  heir to the throne of Paradise. Yet there is  more.. “Ideas” have a corrupting effect on everything that is sort of like them,, while Deep Dive manipulates people to be normal citizens. The chosen ones that Butternut selects are truly unique! They do not strive to belong! I do not strive to belong or to adhere to a simple concept. This is my strength and the source of my power! This item Butternut presents to me next is said to reflect that power, and push it through new heights. Yet suddenly a huge storm blows open my windows and the item flies to the room as a Tornado with spiky white hair.. red eyes and huge eyebrows show up!  Some dolls float around in the storm as well.

After the exposition , a monster shows up at your doorstep! It is time to transform! What is your transformation item?!

Well this one is not that hard to guess! As I crawl through my room and under my bed, I find a royal scepter.  One that feels classical, yet also immediately shouts magical girl!  At first I have trouble actually lifting the item because one of these royal scepters is quite heavy!  It is also quite garish!.. With gold and red and some heavy jewels. As I get flailed around through the room by wind Butternut tells me that this is not a real item.. I need to cross from reality into imagination and grab the imaginary one. I reach again and pick up a rod  that has some rainbow fur and can talk through a duck beak! As I pick it up suddenly some snow begins to fall!

Transformation scene time! How do you look as a magical girl?! What is your power and signature attack?!

I pick up the staff and since it’s the first time this transformation scene happens I do not utter my code phrase yet..  the transformation scene has me set against a sky of pink clouds while a bunch of moths made of pink light eat my old clothing.. yet I do not look naked.. the moths made of light form the new shape of a much more regal outfit , lengthy.. then  a snowflake falls on the light and the dress takes shape!  It’s a princess gown filled with hearts!  The moths form a crown.. and a snowflake falls on that.. as the crown becomes a real object as well.. they form my twintails and they become tufts of rainbow fur twintails.   A horn is formed next in the same way.. and as I yell Quack.. duck feathers sprout out some places as an adorable duck purse appears on my hip! Of course also in pink!

My own transformation scene! Yay!

From this purse I can pull out several attacks, as well as items that are too large to fit in there. Elementally my powers reflect that of ice and light.  Usually depicted as sparkly powders that trap my foes as I bonk them on the head with the heavy princess rod!   My way of fighting is less direct than that of most magical girls. I blind with powder snow, I freeze to the ground and then I bonk!  I am not that physically strong.  My finishing attack is summoning a giant snowflake from the sky that I charge with rainbow energy, then I throw it like an energy disk at the enemy! It’s called the Special Snowflake Special! 

My Finisher attack, the Special Snowflake!
Catchphrase time! Name some of those lines you repeat in every episode.. and tell us when you use them!  This can be a transformation phrase.. or just something cool you keep repeating!


My transformation catchphrase is a portmanteau  of Transformation and Imagination!   It is just me shouting “Transgimagination with later phases of transformation keep using the latter word but adding a deeper phase of imagination in it .. like Imagilucination or maybe even Hallucinarium. Who knows how long I can keep my series going!  It might just get really trippy!  Other catchphrases I keep using “Friendship is Magic” and I will have this  anime girl speech thing where I use the word Royal a lot. “This  monster is gonna be a Royal pain in the but”. “If this attack goes through we are Royally Fudged”  stuff like that.  I sometimes try to do this with princesses or queens as well but it rarely works out.

Sometimes Royalty based puns do not work out for this magical girl

My hero catchphrase is Villains repent!  We can do this the easy way or the nice way.. I prefer the nice way”.  .. which isn’t very catchy but it does sum up what I am about! I will try to redeem enemies. Transformed I will be a bit of an Ojou-Sama and display arrogance so this is my way of saying.. I can beat  you easily..let’s talk it out  instead! Neat huh!

Get the 'I Am Amazing' song - Judi Cranston
Ojou Sama Arrogance will be a part of the character
Are you a solo magical girl?! Do you work in a team?! Are you the first recruit or a supportive one?!
Chibi Pinkie will join the fight later!

I will be alone for a fair amount of episodes!  There is the coconut and me facing some enemies and the lore of enemies and my transformation will be explained thoroughly before I get allies! But they would come!   Their transformations would take the form of other royal court members that wield staff, such as the Royal Advisor.. who also wears a staff, the Jester  and perhaps a knight whose rod is an actual club!  Later on in a second season we could even get a support magical girl.. kind of similar to how Rise works in persona!  She would be a chef and her scepter would be a ladle! She would function as a healer who can cook up buffs with monster parts!

Every magical girl  has a goal in her normal life as well! What would your goal be?!

I would want to be a VTuber and of course manage paradise.  I’d open up Paradise as a resort where people can come face to face with their imagination!  A vacation of reality of sorts!   But that is kind of to be expected.. I do have my trustworthy staff there..but lots of monsters would be tied into the problem of paradise.  Say we run out of food on Paradise , we get a Gluttonous monster, if some guests would get into petty fights on the beach..maybe I fight with a Jellyfish.. whose Jelly stands for jealousy! So in that way we have a goal as the manager on Paradise. However I will also be trying to make it as a VTuber.. keeping my show relevant and all! This leads to some spider man like shenanigans where I sometimes try to stream while fighting monsters or soldiers!  Which can lead to some fun situations and make fights more interesting!  Offer extra challenges and really help with power scaling.  We can add an extra tension in fights that should be easy because I need to stream.. or make a fight go faster because I try extra hard to be home in time for a stream!  Sometimes I am a genius!

My Steam Dream will bloom up again! Both in reality as well as in this story!
What is the dark twist to your being a magical girl?!
My dark secret.. I can’t wear shoes!

A lot of magical girl series have a plot twist that is revealed near the end of the show! My element of despair however is revealed immediately You see every time transform and cross into imagination , I do not come back fully!  After the first episode a lock of pink hair is shown.. after the first general is defeated I will have duck feet forever!  I am becoming less human and my imagination is becoming more vivid.. I see things in the real world that are not there.. just that other people imagine being there. Thus reality and fiction begin to blend more.. I begin to fit in the real world less and less and have to spend more  and more time  on Paradise Island.. there everything is in balance and I can keep my sanity.   So as I become stronger in my magic.. I lose my humanity! So will the other magical girls! So rather than seeing us all transform all the time.. we try to balance it out.. look out for each other!  Yet we all know.. that saving the world means that eventually we become stranded on Paradise and can not see our loved ones anymore! We are really becoming our magical girl identity.

The Tags

I will be a good princess/magical girl  and help you out by reposting the questions that way you can copy and paste them more easily!

1.A Magical Creature descended from the skies! It is telling you , you are a magical girl!  Describe this magical messenger! What is it.. where is it from?!
2.Your creature tells you about an evil force from afar! What is this evil force?! What is their goal?!
3. The creature then tells you , you hold a great virtue, it is the reason you have been selected! What is this reason!
4. After the exposition , a monster shows up at your doorstep! It is time to transform! What is your transformation item?!
5.Transformation scene time! How do you look as a magical girl?! What is your power and signature attack?!
6.Catchphrase time! Name some of those lines you repeat in every episode.. and tell us when you use them!  This can be a transformation phrase.. or just something cool you keep repeating! 
7.Are you a solo magical girl?! Do you work in a team?! Are you the first recruit or a supportive one?!
8.Every magical girl  has a goal in her normal life as well! What would your goal be?!
9. What is the Dark Twist to your being a magical girl!

Now for my Magical Girls!

GeekGirlJoy: She did this amazing thing! She made a game based on my island so I repay her her with allowing her to go completely crazy and quirky with this post!

Summer Foovay: Whom is my bestie and she is already a witch so let’s see how she is as a magical girl!

Geeky Gal Meg: I tag her for all new tags so this one will not be an exception.

Senpai: Who already speculated she might be a magical girl once so I give her the chance to become one!

Lynn: I have almost always tagged him in new tags as well and he might be a sweet magical girl!

Fred: Now that is a magical girl story I really want to hear

Roki: Because than my tag will be reactivated in a few months time … just kidding Roki, I love you as a community member so I just really wanted to tag you.

Cele: Because you are kind of my Kohai in a away and I really love your visual style!

Allysa: I would love to see this tag with a more manga minded angle! Al has read so many stories, something good would have to come out of this should they take up the tag!

K: Because I think the world wants to know how K would be as a magical girl!

Annie: I think Annie might actually be a magical girl.. transforming with a teacup! And I REALLY REALLY want to find out how right I am!

If you want to do the tag but I have not nominated you please type “I invoke the powers of Kyubey” in the comments and magically .. in a few days or so your tag will appear on the list! It’s not like I did not nominated you… we just need a bit of extra power for all the nominations to appear! Now I hope you will pick up the tag and I can read some awesome magical girl stories.. but first I have to face a few strange creatures that live behind my eyelids! Because remember folks! Friendship is magic but dreams are even more wonderful! Oyasumi!

Animini: Flip Flappers -Episode 13- Pure Audio

Konichi-WAAAAAAAAH , my favourite magical girl show is over and I am sad now! My sweet island guests! I had such a great ride with this show and it quickly worked it’s way into my heart!  I loved this show so much and while I had a few episodes I did not like as much.. due to the chosen themes and the constant infighting.. what I had in the end was beautiful.  Could this final episode deliver a proper ending?! The answer is YES! In True Flip Flappers fashion it did it in a rather unconventional way..but I really loved this show.. and I really loved the ending as well.

The Summary

There is a lot to unpack here and words may not tell what happend properly.. but what we see is the final battle between the evil side of Mimi.. the broken part that clinged to Cocona as the only light in her life. That wanted to protect her from everything bad… however it doesn’t take long in this episode for her to abandon that goal and want to give Cocona a proper spanking.  Mimi Conjures, Snake Like Golems  that are immortal to beat the powered up Cocona and Papika. When they manage to hold her own Mimi starts to attack Yayaka as well who has been stripped of her powers. Luckily.. this super magical girl transformation Cocona and Papika have undergone cause their Impedance to go super unstable..  which caused breaches into Pure Illusion everywhere.. why is this lucky? Because Uexkull , Cocona’s Rabbit manages to enter Pure Illusion and in his warrior rabbit mode he saves Yayaka. Dr Salt uses the Elpsis to enter Pure Illusion and create another layer of it to hopefully keep Mimi at bay…This doesn’t work to well but it draws the good Mimi out! .. Sensing she is now losing ground Evil Mimi says “Flip Flapping”  and transforms into a Dark Magical Girl.. who is also a black hole.. planning to undo everything and recreate.

Flip Flapping Mimi overpowers the group and first but Cocona flys over to Papika.. they confess how font they are of each other one more time.. and reaffirm that whatever selfish desires they seem to have had.. to go on an adventure.. to let life just take them away.. all got redfined by meeting each other.. now whatever they do.. it only matters because they do it with each other. This realisation gives the girls the power of light ..and that destroys the black hole.. Evil Mimi realises she was wrong and is fished out of a pond by good Mimi.. fusing into a more complete being afterwards. .It seems Cocona wants to stay in pure Illusion to save her mother but Papika uses a bubble to send her trough a portal.. and we see Cocona return to a world.. but without Papika! A world that seems a lot more sterile than before.. she refuses to accept this reality.. and rightfully so.. it turns out that this grim reality is yet another figment of Pure Illusion.. almost as if a final test for Cocona.. she won’t leave without Papika… together the pair Flip Flaps one final time and flies among giant Butterflies back into reality again… where there friends… old and new are waiting for them to arrive… together.

The Positives

Sometimes you encounter one of those show that over time becomes.. “whatever they do you’ll think it’s cool”. I will admit that Flip Flappers has become one of those types of shows for me. While the final battle isn’t particularly epic and the final attack is kind of selfish.. justifying the villians belief.. it is pretty in it’s own way. A simple attack so filled with friendship and love .. and a desire to go beyond this obstacle that even a black hole could not assume it.. A love so fast.. it can not be consumed by that what consumes everything.  That doesn’t need to be a pink colourful spiral flying with sparks that if you look closer is a galaxy… No it’s litterally just two girls in cosplay being sucked into a black hole together.. with a light bloom effect on them..This not only stopping that final attack but also completely vanquishing the foe was  great.. because that is what this show is about. Friendship and love overcoming any limit.  That is what we got! The Epilogue is weird.. but fits so hard in the style of this show.. when we suddenly see Uexkull depicted as a regular bunny. Was he so weird from the start because of Cocona’s power?!  I did not see the twist coming and I was choking up.. fearing I would not get the end I wanted to see… yet when Papika popped up in that old concrete pipe .. my heart jumped with joy! Seeing Yayaka just start at the sky and grin when her two friends breach back into reality it all feels like carefully placed buttons that the end of the show pushes for you to leave you as content as possible and assure you  that there is no longer any doubt in these girls hearts on what they mean to one another.

Everything seemed even more crips in this episode.. they chose for some extremely close close-ups and it works so well. We can see every twinkle in Papika’s eyes, we can see how broken dark Mimi really is.. and we even get a lovely moment between Mimi and Salt.. where their sizes do not match up anymore.. even though they were both mature..Salt is painted very much bigger… he has grown older.. he has grown…while Mimi stayed her in pure Illusion, it helps convey the tragic truth that these once lovers are from different worlds that can no longer co-exists.. Salts form of Pure Illusion being more dead.. while Mimi’s is more alive and colourful. Their final embrace and Mimi’s request to Salt to always be his number one are a very touching sentiment and deep care for one another. The makers pulled out one heck of a ribbon box for this episode because everything gets so nicely wrapped up.. and pulls out all the stops in the visual department to make clear this is a finale too.

The Negatives

I do not believe in a flawless final episode, no matter how much you try , if we love a show there is always something we want to know as well. Will Yayaka ever go exploring Pure Illusion with Cocona and Papika again.. will Salt ever tell Cocona she is his daughter? (Probably not)  Where will Papika stay now that her evil robotic auntie/grandmother has been slain and her house has been blown up? It’s all kind of left unanswered.. perhaps what we saw in Pure Illusion can be an indication of what happens next but that is never confirmed. I would like to think so though. Would I have loved to see Salt hug Cocona and tell her the truth.. I think I do.. I am not sure?! So while the ending offers no closure on all things except for what Papika and Cocona mean to each other, I am not sure if I mind. On the one hand I really would have loved to see a bit of a fleshed out epilogue to see she is alright.. afteralll in reality she still is in pretty deep doodoo! I would love to see some resolve.. on the other hand.. now I can imagine what happend at the end.. and choose what happens. If in my headcanon Salt becomes a loving father.. he can.. if I want Papika and Cocona to live in a concrete pipe for the rest of their lives together.. eventually moving into a couple .. I can.  Flip Flappers is a show about making choices and it gives you the ultimate choice in the end. 

Like I mentioned earlier the episode might be a bit too oddball  to officially be called a good final episode. There is some odd pacing.. such as the final fight being resolved in the first half of the episode with half an episode epilogue.. could the show have been stronger if both things have gotten an episode? Yes quite possibly! There was so much that needed to be told… did they succeed in telling it all?! Yes! I am content.. could it have been told better.. Yes.. one more episode might have left it even more Ironclad. However could an additional episode have made it resonate with me more? If I had given all the answers I wanted would the show be as much on my head as it is now?! Possibly not. In the end it comes down to this show making a stylistic choice of ending that ..like the rest of the show isn’t made for everyone. I do think they could have done a better job with the final episode.. in some ways.. but no matter how I change it , I might like it less.  The flaws on display give this a character of sorts.. I am being made a participant.. instead of just being spoonfed things.. It might not be as satisying to pick my own grapes.. compared to being fed them by skimpily clad ladies and a Enuch with a palm leaf fanning me… but because I touched it.. I do feel more of a connection with what I experienced.

The Score

So do we end it on a perfect score?!  No.. the episode is just a bit to oddly paced, the fake out in the middle, while fitting denies us closure and instead of slowly ramping down the insanity that is this show we keep on revelling in it  in the end. That might not seem bad.. but compare it to a rollercoaster, that goes up a hill slowly then it picks up speed down hill… some crazy loops, crokscrews and what not..  usually right before the end you break and are hauled into the little station.. a moment to catch your breath… this ride stops full speed at the station and as a result .. you are not full ready to disembark yet, you haven’t wrapped your head around the fact that a guy now shoos you out of the cart. 

It’s a ride that I have found truely unique and delightful and it surprised me to the very end. Reality and imagination became interwoven and I get to decide if they live a happy ever after. I do like that idea.  The final episode has been structured to give people who loved this show one final trip. One more JOB! Everything that made this show great is crammed in this single episode and we even get a dark magical girl transformation to complete the entire trope thing as well! I did not know I needed that but when it happend I went .. .OH MY ARCEUS!  I NEEDED THAT! So in a way this show knows me better than me.. with this show I felt like it was made FOR me.. and this final episode could have almost have my nametag written all over it.. wrapped up in a pretty pink box and delivered by a jolly fat man or maybe by a Delibird. It isn’t flawless.. it isn’t a perfect final episode and it will not get the perfect final score.. but that makes this show better. A show that gets the perfect ending is a show you want to stop watching something that leaves you truely content… With Flip Flappers I might have not gotten everything I want.. but now I ‘ll forever want more.. and I love love LOVE that!

And that concludes the series! What magical girl show should take it’s place on the Animini slot?! Should I do an article where I gush on the entire series?! Let me know in the comments! Also this must be said! Yayaka rules!

Animini: Flip Flappers – Episode 12 – Pure Howling

Hello my Island Guests!  Sometimes you want to address a show as if it was a person, and if I could I would say “Flip Flappers  Dai-Dai-Daisuki”  My Arceus this episode yet again is so amazing… if the last episode can stick the landing at least a bit this will become one of my favourite shows ever, alongside Tengen Toppa Gurren more recently Kyousougiga. Sometimes a show resonates super strong with you and the message of Flip Flappers is basically the way i want to live my life. Dai-Dai-Daisuki!

The Summary

Jeesz.. this one is a bit trickier to describe without sounding like a raving lunatic!  I will do my best though! In this episode Yayaka and Papika chase Cocona and Mimi into Pure Illusion while the real world is still invaded by the snow monsters. While they are chasing their dear friend , Mimi is brainwashing Cocona to only listen to her mother.. she is one Disney song removed from Rapunzel’s mother.  Salt meanwhile has his mind set on finding the Elpis.. held by the evil organisation which seems to me like it is the original Flip Flappers now. He takes Nyunyu, Buu-Chan .. and the tracksuit Flip Flap girl whose name I forgot along on a perilous journey!  His leads him eventually into descending into the enemy base where Buu-Chan finally transforms into a muscle mode mecha.. and that gets defeated right away.. but Salt manages to get into Elpis. The Amorphous twins meanwhile can peer into deep Illusion as they try to recover their injuries and they actually see Yayaka made the right calls.

Inside pure Illusion we essentially get a boss-rush!  Evil Mimi makes Yayaka and Papika fight through the original stages of Papika and Cocona’s adventure.. but when facing that desert lady that brainwashed Cocona in episode 3.. Yayaka and Papika really struggle.. that is until an Amorphous shard lands into Yayaka’s possession. Papika tells her to think of her treasure and draw power from that. Yayaka realises her treasure is not the Amorphous but here dear friend Cocona.  Determined to take her back, Yayaka manages to Flip-flap into a magical girl much like her two friends. The Boshrush now gets pretty easily cleared until they end up in the cyberpunk world of episode 7.  Here Mimi alters Papika’s memory to break her resistance and make her believe she is right. This prompts the good Mimi to show in front of Cocona and tell her she should fight to make her own choices in life.. she might lack the courage but mother will give her that.  Mimi steals the magical girl powers of the girls.. but when Papika and Cocona confess what they mean for each other .. they transform into a new form of magical girls!  Together they easily punch the boss of the cyberpunk world away.. paving the path to the final episode and the fight against evil Mimi. Who wanted to use her power of Pure Illusion to create the perfect safe space for Cocona.

The Positives

I loved practically everything about the episode! Basically everything I had wished for in previous reviews of this show have been handed to me. It is confirmed that Cocona has a father, the Amorphous Twins got their head out of their ass, we got to see more magical girl stuff and best of all Yayaka got her magical girl powers.  Her power relaying around speed is a perfect accompaniment to the girls who respectively form the sword and shield together.  Now we have Strength, Bulk and Speed… amazing!  I really really liked her design as well. Her switching to a green hair colour was a bit odd..  but since Cocona swaps colours with Papika.. it kinda is fun to see how Yayaka combines colours with Cocona and giving her a green hair colour. Seeing Buu-chan transform but easily be defeated I like because this kind of reminds me of the powerscaling in Dragon Ball Z.. or Super.. how people suddenly become relevant again.. Flip Flappers basically just says… NAH! Just kidding this character still kinda sucks in terms of battle prowess.   

I still really like the choice of having Mimi who was captured and experimented on all her life as someone that is quite broken and it does work wonders in this episode. Clearly deep down she never was able to make her own choices so it makes sense that a part of her really wants to see Cocona do that. Yet she was als tremendously hurt, betrayed several times and she had a pretty horrible life. It makes sense that she would not want that life for Cocona either. Those choices are preventing each other.. those who make their choices freely will eventually end up getting hurt. And those who try to avoid being hurt at all cost never have a real choice in life. So it does make sense that these sides conflict with one another. I also like that these conflicts have been in Cocona from the start. She wants to have fun with Papika.. but she is also afraid to do the wrong thing. The new magical girl form looking more like their regular selves is also pretty empowering.. just be yourself and trust in who you are!   I haven’t even begun to talk about the awesome battles in this episode!   There is just too much goodness here!

The Negatives

I would love to say there are non.. but unfortunately one thing kinda missed the mark. Nyunyu tags along with Salt on her adventure and the way she does it is cute.. but also kind of annoying. It results in a few visual gags that while I did not mind in particular I did not really care for either. It’s there and I realise I rather would see something else than her sitting on a drone or using Buu chan as a helicopter swing thing…. which is weird because Nyunyu is my type of character. So the only conclusion I can make here is.. that I don’t really dislike her.. I just like the rest so much more that those scenes seemed annoying by comparison.  We are talking about her being like an 8.2  of entertainment while the rest of the show constantly is around 9.5 or higher. It’s not bad at all but it kinda feels like a big dip?!

That really is it though so since I have another paragraph I am gonna just rave about how awesome this episode was. The callback to old locations can be called cheap but I am the type of person that likes Boss Rushes.. because it can show how much you have grown and that is exactly what chain of events meant for me.  The ease with which Papika transforms, the way how they strategise now. That is delightful and I kinda disliked how Cocona constantly flipped between hating and loving Papika I get it now.. that is once more Cocona lacking the courage to make a choice.. following what society would say about their relation or having a friend that is so odd.. or doing something  not normal. It fixed my biggest issue with this show!  The ending might be a bit sudden.. but  it is quirky enough to work and it leaves expectations wide open.

The Score

I would like to give this a score beyond Star Fruit.. this episode while not my favourite in the long run did so much for the show for me.  It is more than just an episode.This episode for me is my favourite moment off all those Ocean Eleven movies.. you know when the jazzy funk music begins playing and they explain how they did it and we see some awesome shots of them sitting in a vault when we thought they failed the heist.. That is this episode for me.. I love that kind of thing and this is it’s own unique spin on that kind of thing so I love it even more!

I mean I could just rave about Yayaka finally being a magical girl and yelling Flip Flapping for the second time and I would be right to do so but….. aww .. who cares I am going to do it! SQUEEEEEE  YAYAKA FINALLY BECAME A MAGICAL GIRL! THATS MA GIRL! WEEE! This to me is one of those episodes where you scream and your screen  hoping to “send some energy” to transform along with them… I did not transform yet.. but I know one thing.. if the last episode is even half as good as this one I might very well choose Flip Flappers as my treasure to transform with!

Animini: Flip Flappers – Episode 11- Pure Storage

Finally after a long time I could pick up Flip Flappers again. Of the shows I am watching Flip Flappers has been one I have constantly liked the most. It’s themes while often obscure resonate with me , in one way or another and whether or not that if it’s intended way doesn’t really matter. It is a show that made me laugh out loud, squee with glee or cry. This episode managed to chill me… I felt so much empathy I felt horrified to find the truth of Cocona’s story. And then came in the other emotions.

The Summary

Episode 11 is a surprisingly down to earth episode …. for Flip Flappers. Cocona has now become possessed by her mother Mimi, who finds herself trapped in Yayaka’s organisation.  She wants nothing but to keep her daughter safe.. so she transforms the enemies into clovers and daisies which seemingly kills them; it even disables their killer robots. From there on out she makes her way to the Headquarters of FlipFlap which now is destroyed by the attack of the Amorphous children. The third one Nyunyu has a lot of fun hunting it’s last remaining members down.. but she is stopped from killing anyone by Yayaka. Mimi is offered to rule the world with the “evil organisation”  but she refuses.. she cares for nothing but Cocona and ends up meeting with Salt.. who holds her at gunpoint. By this time I am completely gonna assume he is Cocona’s father as we flash back to the night of Mimi flee FlipFlap. We see a grown up Papika …I think.. or everyone is just really small.. talk with Mimi about the pregnancy…well we don’t see but it is implied and to Salt they do not mention anything either but tell they want to escape. 

He allows them to escape.. after blamining them for a failed experiment beyond that red portal thing.. ruining his father’s mind.  Seemingly bitter he does allow the organisation to search for them and bring them back. Papika  and Mimi are returned and Salt finds out the woman he is in love with has a daughter named Cocona. We briefly flash back to modern times and Salt tells Mimi she isn’t protecting Cocona like this.. she disagrees and she uses her reality warping powers to easily defeat both him and Papika.  In more flashbacks we see her embracing an evil side of her to keep Cocona safe, killing many people within FlipFlap.. the dark side of Mimi is the one in control now as well and her only goal is to keep Cocona safe. As an incredibly over protective mother she keeps Cocona safe in Pure Illusion.. however both worlds now begin to fuse and reality is at stake. Given an Amorphous shard by Salt, Yayaka convinces Papika to join her to save Cocona from her mother.. who meanwhile tries to build the perfect world for her daughter..even if it is at the cost of reality.

The Positives

While I am not completely sure if Cocona is an actual human or a manifestation of Mimi’s mind, I am fairly sure Salt is her actual father.. though he does seem to care for Cocona very little, we still need pieces of this puzzle..but little by little we get more and more answers and I like it.  The whole idea of what Mimi has been put through and it leaving scars or her sense of reality.. by spending so much time outside of it really works for me. We get a “reap what you sow”  kind of situation.  Even if they made the best of a bad situation.. the damage was still done. Showing friendship and smiles don’t always fix everything.. which I think is a need element to add in a magical girl show of all things.   I also very much like the implications it has on Cocona. We have seen the main girl of the show always struggle with making choices in this series and in this episode we see why. She has a hard time making choices.. because everytime she is making such a choice she wishes she could ask her mother. She never had such a bond that can shape a person and is left without it…. and now she gets offered the exact opposite. The chance to never make a choice again.

The scene where her mother and Cocona are in the boat and her mother starts enforcing hairstyles and dress-styles on Cocona and making choices for her , remind me slightly of my own overprotective mother.. While obviously nowhere near as toxic as Mimi I do see similar elements here. Even at a later age.  “Wear your hair like this.. people will like you better”  .. while actually meaning .. she likes it better but also genuinely being afraid that by making a choice that is not hers I make the wrong one.  I sometimes see a mother that wants me and my sister happy and nothing else in the world would matter.. not to the extent of the anime .. but enough for me to feel like I know Mimi. This one just has a dark side she can refer to for all those things she would otherwise feel conflicted about. Because this episode is mostly set in their reality.. it also feels very concrete , the Pure Illusion elements that feature in this episode still back to that moment in the past, where things were alright. Showing something of perhaps.. regret.. and it keeps everything very real. I really do like this episode.

The Negatives

Apparently this is the episode that a lot of people begin to hate this show, saying it is where it jumps the shark. I honestly do not see that, I feel this has all been pretty well set up from the first episode. From little things such as the fact that Cocona can’t make choices all the way to that first Pure Illusion adventure she had such an impact to reflect her love and fondness for Papika. The latter could be shoehorned in.. but all other worlds would have made less of a visual impact to occur in the real world.. it would have felt more out of place. I do however feel that the evil organisation wasn’t really needed all that much. It could have been another cell in Flip Flappers..  it still might be but since most of the organisation is wiped out I am unsure if we will see any answers on that front. The killer robots in reality might be a tad much… then again.. hover surfboards are a thing. It does push the boundaries of forcing an event.. and I can hear it creak..but for me it never really broke.

Yayaka getting a new hover surfboard and her learning to fly it without fault is a bit of a bigger issue and seeing no resolve with Nyunyu felt strange so the episode does make a few missteps but I am honestly not that bothered by it. Nyunyu is not very consistent in behaviour by character so I can see her just losing interest and pursuing other things. I think we will see what made Papika younger in the next episode.. as that episodes should be centered around her but I would have loved to see a bit of an answer in this episode. Some things were left just a little bit too much in the middle for me.. but that makes me very eager to watch the next episode to see if I can get answers there.. so I am not sure if it is a negative yet.. if I do not get these answers in hindsight it will be but for now I trust them.

The Score

This is one of those exposition episodes that is done well, I think they have done plenty of foreshadowing towards this and it feels earned and sincere.. I felt compassion by what Mimi had to endure and I could see how her mind would snap from something like this. I can see how someone who really has nothing can get obsessed with that one little thing that it becomes her entire life and consumes her.  I can also see why it makes her the bad guy.. and I think it offers an interesting struggle for Papika in the next episodes to deal with this. So despite what I saw people complain about in their reviews I think it was done well. Other people called out the over designed elements of this episode and it’s characters.. and I would like to ask those if they have seen the rest of the show…. that is very much how this show is… and that works for me because this show .. teaches us we are shaped by our choices for better or for worse.. we become more unique through the choices that we make so I think the “overdesign” is to an extent intended.

I do get how suddenly all the domino’s coming down to spell out this message may seem out of place as before we only had single lines of bricks falling and now we move to something so much more intense.. yet I really can not say I mind this… I might have preferred to see some elements be built up just a bit more.. or other elements giving some equal attention but this is great as well. Like if you want a chocolat desert of your favourite brand but it’s out of stock and then picking a brand that hits the exact same notes! It might not have been what you wanted but there is no reason to complain either.. and since there is nothing for me to really complain about that means.. we get a very high score.

Pinkie Watches a Random Anime 3: Märchen Mädchen

Hello my dear Island Guests! It is time again for me to watch a randomly generated anime! This month Märchen Mädchen came up. A show that scores a lackluster 5.4 out of 10 on MAL. In the comments it seems to be very disliked, both on CrunchyRoll where I watched the first 6 episodes as on MAL. I can see why people would grade it so low.. but for some reason I really really like this show.

Quite often upon a Time

Märchen Mädchen is a show about a young girl named Hazuki! A book nerd with anxiety attacks. Even though she sits at that very same desk in anime as all the other characters sit.. she is very different. She has no friends! None at all! When she gets too socially awkward she has to calm herself by reading novels. She lives with her stepmother who barely has time for her.. and her popular step sister who can be quite harsh to her in Japan. One day she has another of these panic attacks and goes reading in a hamburger restaurant. Already assuming her step mother does not have time for her. When suddenly she finds a mysterious new book she can not open in her purse.  At that time a mysterious girl shows up who nobody but her can see. She follows her into a library that is a gateway to another world.  There she discovers the girl is actually a “Mädchen”  a magical girl that draws her power from a classical story.. and surprise surprise. Hazuki is a magical girl too! Just in time even because a big tournament is about to start and the winning school of magic gets a wish granting magic! As the tournament draws closer we learn some of the darker secrets of these magical powers and how they can easily cause despair.

Hazuki the clumsy bookworm protagonist! Like me she lost her shoes in school!

On Paper this sounds like one of the most generic magical girl anime that has ever been published and it probably is. This anime made my Hoods Entertainment aired in the Winter Season of 2018. It seems to get a lot of hate from the community for it’s visuals and its weird writing and generic plot. I experienced something different myself.  Now I shall be the first to admit that I do not really have an eye for solid visuals.. if I am engaged with an anime my brain fills in missing frames, and if I see a face in less detail I auto completed that. I had no trouble with the visuals..except for episode 9, it  is one of those episodes like that one episode in Dragon BAll Super people still nag about!  I must admit I noticed Episode 9 being super off.. but it happens with deadlines being a thing! It’s horrible yes.. but the show is more than that episode. Overall I enjoyed the visuals.

Henshin Kinda looks like Pokémon Mega Evolution.. so I am game!

Characters do look a bit samey and sometimes I had a hard time to tell who is who.. and sure.. we don’t always get perfectly shaped things.. but I kinda found that neat! The show gets flack for using a lot of archetypes and basing everyone on a fairy tale character could be counted as.. “well there are no original characters here” yet in a way it is designed to feel that way. I can see why people dislike it.. but I can also see why this show chose to go that way. Probably if you measure with grades per category like animation, story, music etc. you end up with an anime with a low grade..but to me this anime shines in all those things we usually do not grade.

I told you a lot of the characters looked samesie!

Hazuki’s story of power is Cinderella, which is an obvious metaphor but in a way this metaphor also applies to the anime itself.It might look like a commoner that is standing in front of us.. and in a way it is! Yet with a bit of magic that commoner can still conquer our heart.There are a lot of analogies I really liked in this series. Sure the countries participating in the tournament are quite stereo typical and the Americans are not depicted favourably but it really makes sense. This series is about fairy tale or fable culture and America does not really have that. So in this show it is depicted that America usually borrows stuff and does their own thing with it. Every girl uses a fable or a story to draw power from and the Americans have the Match-Stick Girl.. but also Star Wars (though slightly renamed) and Santa Clause.. which is one of my favourites.. her magic is to “gift” her enemies.. the ammo of her weapons.. Santa Clause gets out a Tommy Gun or a Bazooka.. because.. she’s American! I laughed! So yes.. because this series is very much about established work we can see very many tropes happening.. but again.. that is part of it’s narrative. How this story SHOULD go according to all the classics is an intrinsic part of what is being told here! It might not be told all that well..but I found it told super charmingly. As if I am reading an actual Fairy Tale.

Why is it when people see a magical Portal they always try it! Bear Grylls would dissaprove! I would go through as well though

Princess Charming

What appealed to me most in this show is the main character. Hazuki Kagimura is a character I relate to a lot! I might not flee in books when I am in stress but the way her mind works throughout this show I found highly relatable.While I do have friends, in that phase of life where she was in I did not really have them either. The questions in her head about how to address a social situation are extremely relatable to me and the whole way she flaps her arms nervously and constantly apologises for being who she is reminds me a lot of myself before I found my magic! I also love the journey she is on! In this anime she discovers that girls who wield the power of the book are destined to live lives like the characters they embody. So it means she will settle down with her prince charming, have a family that doesn’t love her and that she is quite quaint looking but a little bit of magic will draw out her charm. She is Cinderella after all! However she falls in love with a girl and doesn’t want a charming prince. She doesn’t want to be that frail little girl walking around on glass slippers. She wants to be with the person she wants to be with..she wants to write her own story and in doing that.. she encapsules almost everything I stand for! I love that aspect of this show. 

How do you even walk in that outfit Shizuka?!

To complicate this, her semi-romantic partner or “special friend” as this show prefers to call it..though heavily implying the romance is Shizuka Tsuchimikado.. the wielder of the Moon Princess, or Princess Kaguya fairy tale. A story about a woman who is destined to be alone. 
A girl that unlike Hazuki is much more traditional and more inclined to accept her destiny. While it is not very original to tackle a story like this it works for a reason. In my opinion it also works here! Not every story has to be surprising! In fact I dare say that NONE of the classic Fairy Tales are surprising… well at least not the publicly accessible translations and variations. From the moment they met to the very last scene I felt invested in this relationship. Not because it is cleverly done, unique or well written.. no because it  felt like a Yuri variation of a Fairy Tale. All those classic stories are not made for the modern world and nowadays can have toxic messages, and that is what this show aims to explore and highlight. This show tells us.. let’s find a modern ending to our classic fairy tales and I support that story and a very soft core lesbian interest while not unique is a perfect method to explore this.

Why am I weirded out..but a girl still liking an hours old hamburger! I guess she warms it up with magic?!

I ADORE the voice acting in this movie. Hazuki and Shizuka both have very timid whisper-like voices, they feel frail and exaggerated. Yet without hearing the actual words you can follow the context of their emotion as everything is amplified..almost overacted. The same goes for all the other voice actors. The Brazen character does the shouting voice, the butch woman sounds like an actual man, the somewhat deranged american girl sounds like she is completely insane and the chinese girl has this melody in her voice like she is spouting wisdoms everywhere she goes, sounding like a mentor of a kung-fu movie. The principal is clearly brazen, bold and self confident and while they never really feel like “Real” characters because of it they once again feel very much like Fairy Tale characters. Think of how your mother threw her voice to make someone sound princessy when reading to you from a fairy tale book. The first time I heard Hazuki I was like.. oof this is laid on a bit obvious.. yet if I had to voice Cinderella in a japanese audio version of the classic tale.. this is probably the direction I would take. I really adore everything they do with Hazuki in this show!

Well..except for making her naked all the time?! Not sure why the principal would steal your clothes!

A Modern Fairy Tale

Like I said earlier this show goes to great lengths to establish it wants to be a modern retelling. Hazuki makes this very clear in her behaviour as well. When she gets invited to join the magic school and has to stand there in a bit of a skimpy-ish gymsuit she openly tells everyone she did not expect school to be like this and that she kind of expected it to be more like Harry Potter. It’s funny to see a Japanese girl in bliss when she references Harry Potter and seeing this world is NOT like that! It sounds so funny! She makes a lot of relevant comparisons. Oftenly a bit aimed at the weird dogmatic ways some of these old tales work kind of showing us “hey these stories have been more modernly retold.. why do we follow this old trope” I found that a great source of comedy. There is no flippy phones but actually touch screen ones , which the more classical characters have huge trouble using.. making references that they would prefer something like a flippy phone but acting as if they do not know what those are . Since the show is basically one big tournament arc with teams across the world we can see classical roles being fulfilled in several teams. So when the shy Hazuki brings snacks aboard a train.. the shy girl on the russian team would have had a similar mindset and does the same. This show uses tropes a lot. It is fun and kinda interesting to see the tropes clash with “itself” by placing characters that should not be together… well uhm.. together!

In her defence Hogwarts is a terrible place to live in! Cold damp castles, trolls, Basiliks, muderers ghosts and more!

It has issues though! I will admit that but weirdly these issues only really come out once you start comparing it to anime. One example of what this show could vastly do better is explain how the world works. There is a magical world and a non magical world, where Hazuki comes from. Apparently only Hazuki lives on the other side but Shizuka comes there because there are hamburgers and they aren’t on the other side? It never is fully made clear and at times can even feel like a plothole like.  They bounce between locations and worlds at times and it is hard to tell what is going on. Never ever does this show explain it properly. That is a problem…..when you compare it to an anime because there is plenty of anime who do it better. When you compare it to a fairy tale though, not explaining the world is kind of a thing there. Where did the fairy godmother come from? How does the Magic Mirror on the Wall work? How can Maleficent cast a death curse and how can the fairies cancel it?!  It is not that relevant to the story so it’s not explained.. and the same can be said here.

I half expected this spell to take three days!

The side characters are all paper things, they get one exaggerated personality trade and are usually very much stereotyped based on a country. For example the leader of the German team is an amazing tactician, and very military minded. She has a stuffed animal called Messerschmidt , after the world war II plane. Her power is shooting guns! She isn’t as evil as she seems though. The british main girl is called Arthur Pendragon she is very regal and classic minded. She has a very commanding presence and wields a huge sword of light. The american girl Lyn Daves doesn’t respect classic stories.. as they do not have their own so they use their own media to copy and change cross media stuff to create their own more powerful stories not caring for tradition. She is a daddy’s girl and a cheater and doesn’t care for others. That is as far as these characters go! In anime characters this shallow are kind of passé.. but can anyone tell me the personality of Flounder, or the prince from the little Mermaid?!  Side characters are treated like Fairy Tale side characters.

Wonderwoman with a light saber Mrs Clause, Cinderella and Snow White together.. kinda sounds like my D&D!

That is exactly what the problem of this anime is!  It tells us that Fairy Tales did not always age well yet they build their story on these pillars to highlight this. Thus we get flat side characters like in fairy tales, we get very stereotypical characters like in those classics and this show does everything wrong what fairy tales arguably do wrong. By being flawed by design it does end up being flawed in the eyes of its beholder as well. I would love to see a few side characters more fleshed out but some even spontaneously pop up in the story when the need for them arises, their existence comes out of nowhere.Here it doesn’t feel modern it really feels like story telling of back in the days.  So I can see why it isn’t well received, yet it’s flaws are not always by poor writing but by mimicking a flawed writing style?! So if you like this or not might really depend on your mindset. If you strictly can see this as an anime I can see how you would not be pleased. Also if you can not handle the Americans being very flawed because Murcia is perfect.. this is not the anime for you either!

Since America has no original fantastical stories.. she just mashed them all together in a mixed media book! MURICA!

And they all lived ….

How good this show is very much depends on your mindset. If you are the type that does believe you have to fit in society, get your job at any cost and conform to society and do what everyone does this show will not really do it for you. The message of this show hits hard for me.. but had it resonated less with me I would probably think less of this show. In the end I am the type that will refuse to give up my friends to take a job elsewhere I will just push to make my future possible here! I will not settle with a boy and have a kid and lose track of my friends and I will not take any job just to be productive. My life is about me, I determine my story and that is exactly the message of this show! I know some of my friends would disagree and I do not think they would like this show that much. If that message is lost.. a lot of things get lost in translation, it becomes a sub-par anime instead of a beautiful fairy tale.  Yet if you are like me and dig this message and can judge it more as a fairy tale than a anime this bowl of porridge is JUST right!

That medal is not pinned in a comfy place!

People nag about the ending how a reveal is made in the end that for them came out of nowhere, but I can safely say, no that is not true! I have seen that twist coming from about half way in the series. The plot threats are there and while that story hasn’t really been a part of anything I think it got the perfect amount of attention for a 12 episode format. To me it shows that this story is much more cleverly written than most people give it credit for.  It isn’t anything special by today’s standards but it is not aiming for today’s standards. If you watch this more as you’d watch a three hour disney movie or as story time before you go to sleep, this is just a very cute, wholesome story that has a girl in an iron maiden for some reason.

I never knew my neignouring country puts girls in Iron Maidens! Would explain my crazy german ex though!

If you watch it, watch it in batches of either 2 or 4 episodes at the same time. Not only are the even number episodes stronger.. but by using that format you will not end a day on episode 9.. because that one is so badly animated it will give you nightmares! In the end it might be a generic , unoriginal story but so are all disney movies and I love this exactly the same way as those classics… and that I think can only be a huge compliment. I choose to believe in Fairy Tales! Do you?!

Speaking of Fairy Tales?! Have you heard the Fairy Tale about the Blog Follower that got turned into a Coconut?! They supported the princess Kofi and were invited to live on a magical island with a unique coconut avatar and ALWAYS got nominated for any Blog Tags!
The princess used the Kofi money to build a better palace and to write her blog in more comfort so they could even show more positivity than she already tried! And they all lived happily ever after! At least.. if the coconuts could really miss the money! The princess would not want them to sacrifice what they could not miss! So if people would not the princess would just smile gleefully when people left something sweet in the comment section!

Creating My Ultimate Anime

Hello again my dear Island Guests and welcome to another post where I talk about the wonderful world of anime. Someone recently asked me what Manga I would like to see get adapted into an anime.. but I do not know, I don’t read manga nor do I think I should compare the two. It’s different forms of media and storytelling I do not know enough about adapting to know if my favourite Manga would be any good. So instead I will use this post to create my ideal anime!

Now first let’s determine who this show should be made for. Obviously the  most logical pick for me would be to make it a Josei show. For those who do not know Josei here basically would mean PG-13 catered to females. It’s male counterpart being Seinen. They oppose Shounen and Shoujo genres who are made for younger boys and girls respectively. My ideal show definitely would be PG-13 but since as a geek I predominantly hang out with groups consisting out of guys, because that is a thing I would like it if they would like my favourite show as well.  While I love sharing a show with my online lady friends there is just something about sitting on the couch and being mesmerised together. I have that when I watch Tengen Toppa or Madoka with my friends … the energy in the room is like magic. With friends in a room you do not need sleep , good anime can almost be like a druglike high..  without like ruining your body chemistry and not being able to poop and all. So with a good anime you can be high AND poop! The best two worlds!  Which is a perfect bridge! I am getting so good at this!

When you watch anime with friends and something cool happens! Also a cheer for my epic bridge to the next paragraph

My show would be the best of Seinen and Josei, showing some deeper relationship between characters and genuine emotional responses but also some nice action with a bit of darkness to it. Where cuteness and edginess clash but also intermix. We will throw in some Yuri and maybe some Yaoi elements as well for good measure obviously mostly implied with a single scene here and there that is a bit more explicit. I wanna watch this with friends, so pausing is not a thing so I would build some fan service moments where I can get myself, and maybe my friends, a drink and then they can go fetch drinks during some more heartfelt moments! Like a cute hand holding watching the sunset scene or something. Or during the guys flirting with each other. You know because plenty of my friends still think that’s not something they want to see. A girl’s gotta stay hydrated or inebriated… your pick! I would try to make it as unappealing as possible to young boys as possible because I do not like kids and I would not like to watch this show with one. Plus having to deal with someone like that during the fan meets is something I am not keen for either so .. there! Young girls I do not mind as much so I might throw in a unicorn somewhere or something! I am afraid that young boys will still like it as well..because it’s just going to be so awesome!

Not sure why I spend this long edditing this but hey! Details can be cool just like my anime!

Now to create a story for my show! That means also coming up with a genre.. but I usually like mixed genres. So i’d probably combine the Isekai, Magical Girl, Horror, Comedy and Romance genre together with a healthy dose of surrealism in the mix as well.  Maybe something a bit tournaments as well because I really like those. Of course I’d like a twist on each genre as well.. it will not be a flat up Isekai instead there will be a twist.  The horror elements can’t really be twisted as it just involves some scary stuff and the comedy is to balance out the grimness I’d like to insert to make it a bit cute as well. As a twist on the Magical Girl stuff I’d like to take it completely over the top.. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann style mixed with Dragon Ball Z/Super. New transformations happen constantly and grow more and more ridiculous. In a show that just makes you yell out loud! Who the Hell do you think we are! Except no that one because it is taken.Something like “Our Bonds are Unbreakable.. and these bonds shall be your chains’  or  ‘Love has brought us together and made us an unstoppable force we are NAKAMA, WE ARE TOMODACHI’ . You know I’d figure it out somehow. I’d like some of those kind of elements though.

So for the story I imagine something along the lines of the 1983 Dungeons And Dragons Cartoon but with a twist. Instead of getting completely Isekaid a group of 6 players or so, would be forced to play a deadly game of D&D in a house with a creepy Dungeon Master.
While playing the cast gets transported to the magical world. If you die in that world you’ll die in real life as well.The characters have to keep their real selves alive as well as their avatars. It would have some Danganronpa elements where the DM  is but a creep animatronic..hosting a session for several hours a day. Once it is over the characters return to their human lives and find themselves trapped in a mysterious mansion. By completing quests more of the house is unlocked and parts of the mysteries are revealed but as the game lingers on the dungeon master becomes increasingly unfair and stuff from the fantasy world seems to bleed over in the real world. As the house is revealed to have staff members that seem like their allies and foes in the game world their trust on what is and what is not on both levels would get twisted. Of course they do fall in love with each other as the show goes on.. and learn new transformations based on their class archetypes in D&D as they figure out how to cheat the Dungeon Master.. can they escape?

While I said there should be 6 characters or so the game might start with a few more.. you know a few disposables to tell us exactly how deadly this game is. Friends they make in the house later on.. as staff becomes unlocked and people in game are not death proof either and most likely only the Yuri couple would walk out alive. Why them? Because  I do not want a super grim end , there has to be some happy end but they are most likely to adhere to the classic horror elements of final girls. It would feel right. Besides it would combine super well the with the second element. There would be a psychological horror aspect, the Butler who is so sweet in the mansion who takes care of all of your needs turns out to be an evil guy in the campaign a traitor who got you into trouble.. does this mean the Butler can’t be trusted?
What happens when a character suddenly becomes a vampire and seems feverish in real life?  Are they transforming here to ? Can they even?  The DM tells there is a betrayer in the campaign is it one of the players, is he referring to an npc. As the show goes on the players at one time even begin to doubt if their Isekaid versions might not be the real versions and  if the game is a delusion. Of course there will be plenty of grim quests and creepy monsters too. Reality unravels more and more as mistrust grows as the DM sows more and more doubt in their minds. What can you trust?

The Magical Girl aspect comes from a power that the people get in the D&D world.. they can stack classes.  Initially maybe from a dead player, whose mini’s they discover as they go on but later they can stack more on top.  For example the sorcerer girl takes the powers of a ranger girl as well and transforms into a magical girl like looking hybrid of the classes that can shoot elemental arrows with pinpoint accuracy. The gay barbarian boy can take the spells of a wizard and becomes a sort of thor hybrid adding lighting to his strikes. The fighter can take some druid animals , changing their  strength by shifting to Gorilla arms, use wings for a huge downwards sword trust or even add a scorpion tail to poison their opponent.
The warlock could combine with a rogue.. wielding shadow magic.. being unseen cursing people from the shadow with shadows and so on.  However as they develop bonds they can take on the primary class of their romantic partner in the mix..becoming an even stranger hybrid, finding additional classes along the way in a way like the crests in digimon and so on. Each time they become stranger more powerful hybrids that can lend themselves to truly unique designs. Breaking limits against a DM that doesn’t seem intent on giving them a fair chance.  Eventually we end up with a pair that basically can stack all the classes to be found and transcend into near godhood.

Told you guys I’d put a Unicorn in here!?

That ties in to the increasing insanity element again.. players begin to resend their weak powerless bodies as their power in game increases their strength and will in real live wanes. In order to keep everyone level headed , very early in the series people would be partnered up to function as each others anchor. Sharing thoughts with each other these of course quickly lead to a bit of a romance element. For that reason it is best that none of the players know each other at the start, they would just get an invite to play in an amazing game all know how to play D&D  and it would be a great opportunity.. much like how an invitation to Hope’s Peak Academy seemed prestigious at first. Regardless , after each major quest we would see the characters explore the house for an episode or so and some pillow talk in the rooms could provide background on characters and would be our primary method to get to know their real selves. We can find out that the Wizard for example has an over-demanding father which pushed the Wizard to focus on their academic accomplishments so their Int stat is high and we find out why they are a wizard in game. While the girl dreaming to be an idol might start out as a bard. Sharing with each other and being in danger so often of course allows the characters to open their hearts for another and eventually fall in love.

The comedy element would come from some more whimsical quests suddenly tossed into the mix and some group bonding in the house. The group knows they need to keep morale up so not everything is grim and dark, they sometimes just have some fun as they dress the Butler up to like Mister Villain.. or once they found out the butler has to clean everything they have a bake off in the now unlocked ot them kitchen and just make a chaotic mess. Most of the comedy will be contained to the fantasy world though as players can not help but act like players in a fantasy game and mess up situations like D&D players would .. in the funny way.
It would not be overly dominant but it would offer a bit of a relief from the despair.  An element that might be needed or at the least could lead to some cute figurines being sold!

To wrap this up let’s look at the series length. I think it would need to be something of a 25 episode anime at least. Maybe even 50, there is a lot to tell.  I am using Digimon as a blueprint to go on here. It also had that world duality mechanic throughout most of its shows and usually had to use between 50 and 100 episodes. Since it will be less monster of the week, but still a bit I’d say 50 is a safe but ideally I would like to wrap the story in about 36 episodes. The show needs to be long enough for people to doubt the established status quo. what world is real?! What is fake?!.. this works better as a slower format as questions need to linger for a bit to add to the mystery. There is yet another reason for the large number of episodes!  Obviously the pacing is important and while 36 seems ideal the chosen studio I would love to use is a studio that has trouble with pacing. 

Pacing is important in anime!

Studio Trigger would be my choice as a production studio. I would also love Gainax as a studio but those haven’t been very active lately. Trigger can be both light and dark and has that surreal style in things I really love.  I loved Kill la Kill myself despite people thinking it’s not okay and all, but those transformation scenes.. that feeling is something I’d really want when someone transforms in my show!  Both the villians and the Ryoko’s transformation felt really powerful! I loved the music as well so I am sure they could hook me up in that department. I’d like that same bombastic feel Kill la Kill had during the battle scenes but I also like the tense uneasy synthwave in BNA ..something like that.. could still work in the house.. because of how D&D is surrounded by that 80’s vibe. Like adding a bit of Stranger Things charm on top of it. As A director I would love to get Shinji Takamatsu. The guy of Gundam Wing but also Cute Earth Defence club Love. Both have traits I ‘d like to see back in their directing.His experience with Gintama would also help when the Isekaid characters break the fourth wall in there. 

My show would have less skin on characters though! Like.. I mean more clothes.. the skin thing is like mid season!

My voice talent I haven’t fully figured out yet but there is one choice that is very obvious!
Not starting with that though I think the female lead should be played by Tomosa Murata who voices Gasai Yuno in Mirai Nikki. I think she has a wide vocal range and can sound cutesy but also cry  in despair quite well Since the characters in this show deal with faltering sanity I think Tomosa has the acting  chops to make this work. For her dub-voice I’d cast Kate Micucci. I love her role as Webby Vanderquack. Kate’s inflection and tone  reads naturally a bit geeky and awkward and those are traits I want in my main character. She doesn’t need to be hyper cute like Ako Tamaki, this character is a bit of a mix of Usagi from Sailor Moon, mixed with Tomoko  from Watamote topped of with a bit of Honoka from Futari Wa Precure

The DM should be voiced by Takehito Koyasu better known as the voice of Dio! He also played  Boris in BNA recently and he played Gin in Food Wars. This guy has such a commanding  presence which is perfect for the role of our creepy mysterious Dungeon Master. The guy is in like EVERYTHING so he should not be hard to get! For the English dub there isn’t a shadow of doubt in my mind who should play the role of the DM… Mark Hamill!……….. Kidding! There is obviously only one right choice and if this thing ever get made this choice is an requirement for the dub to even happen.. the Dungeon Master HAS to be voiced… by Matthew Mercer.

Now that I layed out my perfect anime, I might actually write a story for it I am not fully sure yet but I got myself really excited about this idea!  How would your ideal anime look like?!
Would you watch mine?! Let me know and i’ll pink up your life again in the next post you read! See you then! Oh and if you really like this idea! Maybe support my Kofi! If I get enough money I promise I will make the anime! You become a coconut to which more awesome than it sounds!

Precure Pinkie (Part 2) Futari Wa Precure Midway Review

Hello Island Guests, last week I finally managed to reach the halfway point of Futari Wa Precure, the first series of the Precure Franchise. It took me waaaay longer than I expected to get through 26 episodes. Does that mean I think the series is bad? Not Really… However it’s one of those shows I have to watch leisurely or else it does come crashing down hard.

A Cure Best taken in Moderation

While the first episode and the subsequent four, thoroughly entertained me I began to struggle enjoying this show at around the sixth episode. Mind you that Episode 2 through 6 I watched in one long haul. The show starts with VERY low stakes and that Edgy Guy I described in my first review was called Pisard. He is not the main villain of the series instead he is one of five henchman of the Dark King. He summons this demon called the Zakenna which possesses an object each episode for about 8 episodes I think creating your standard monster of the week. At the end Pretty Cure holds hands to do their ultimate technique the “Pretty Cure Marble Screw” and Pisard is either blown away.. like team rocket.. or flees the seen as his new monster is destroyed.

In itself this is perfectly fine and to an extend I do enjoy this trope. I loved Power Rangers when  was young and this basically is the same. Like Sailor Moon even.. yet feeling somewhat more “mundane”. The biggest issue I had with the show stemmed from binging the first 12 to 15 episodes or so. PreCure is very self away and uses the tropes of the genre to a maximum. However when consuming 10 episodes a day… seeing that same transformation sequence 10 times.. and seeing that exact same opening, that exact same special attack animation for that many times in a span of a few hours something breaks.

The transformation sequence is fun.. but it’s not special enough to be fun 10 times in a row. The Pretty Cure Marble Screw.. which follows the exact same animation and dialogue doesn’t have enough oomph to it to justify it seeing it on repeat so many times within a few hours.However when I started watching 2 episodes at lunch , 2 at dinner.. my troubles vanished and I got to enjoy the show a whole lot more.

Once or Twice every episode.. even if they do it twice.. the animation and dramatic posing repeats!

A cure with the sweetest after taste

Medicine usually has a bitter after taste, however with this season, the bitterness comes around the time the first henchman is defeated. The second and third antagonist suffer from a lot of weird speed ups. A few episodes feel like they just happen because they happen.
While the episodes with Pisard function as a sort of tutorial for Precure with enough exposition, the dumb ogre that is next.. and poisonny.. the vampiric looking woman just function as “episode instigators” It results in a hit or miss kind of scenario when it comes to episodes. The Dumb Ogre guys episodes , I can’t even remember his name .. all are sorta meh. With 2 nice episodes to his name, and a few stinkers I cared for him the least.

Poisony has a few amazing monster of the week scenarios but that happens because of the fourth antagonist actually forming bond with precure. It’s a slow build up to something very nice.All in all Poisony had a few nice episodes and challenges to her name.. but her coolest one.. where she traps Pretty cure in a dark dimension and eventually a mirror .. when she is about to  shatter them gets completely Deus Ex Machinad.Pretty Cure faces certain death and suddenly.. they are not.. it’s never explained.. we just see a the good guy bad guy shown from behind making a smiling hmph! ish noise and we are supposed to be… “oh he saved them”.  Even Poisony doesn’t bring it up anymore the episode just ends on a whimper.

Is it weird that I really like her?!

This stuff happens a lot in the middle part of the show. For some reason PreCure decides not to hold hands and beam their enemies to death until they noticed kicking doesn’t work…which it never did…the middle part has a LOT of stuff happening because it needs to happen and I almost gave up hope… and than I reached episode 18.

Boy does the quality of this show skyrocket after that episode. We get so much great stuff. We get to see the build up of the fourth antagonist story. I was wrong about Honoka possibly being a lesbian character because she shows  chemistry with fourth Dark Zone member, Kiriya. It was done quite well, with him becoming more human and trough their final fight being able to grasp what the side of light was all about and choosing to believe in them. I wonder if he will be back, we never saw him die. So anything can happen there and I am actually curious to find out.

The fifth warrior the face Illkubo is truly menacing and he actually has a plan. There is shift in the status quo multiple times and it feels great. The way he is defeated makes a lot more sense than how they did it with.. Gekidrago.. that’s the ogre guys name I remember now!  Where they just “hold hands harder” We get introduced to the Garden of Light… which is kinda like any other magical girl series world of goodness thing.. which is fun and charming and it just fits the tone of the show so well with all the cute creatures yelling something-po. I even started to binge a bit again.

Clearly that black orb thing.. sucking in this light did not know Skittles are a thing! Way easier!

A Cure that works fast

Episode 25 , the official midway point is…. a bit mediocre due to the same speed up, deus ex machina mechanics the middle of the show uses.. albeit at least a bit more cleverly. It felt kinda rushed. In one episode the Pretty Cure wipe out the Dark King… using the same normal attack they always do…although boosted by an ally this time. It took takes them 5 episodes per villain (on average)  to defeat the others.. but the Dark King is one shot?
I kinda like it… it felt anticlimactic but it was that type of villain they could not do a lot with.So in PreCure style it is dispatched and replaced.

Pisard and the Dark King…. I spoiled myself looking for this image!

I cried when Nagisa and Honoka had to say goodbye to Mepple and Mipple their adorable companion creatures.. even though I knew there were going to be like 50 more episodes with them or so…(counting other seasons to follow as well) so I did form some bonds. I had this same experience in caring for Honoka’s grandmother.. or feeling bad for her when here parents had to work on her birthday and even though she got kept a hostage.. did not get to see her parents that much and was in life peril .. it was her best birthday ever. Even simple stories as a classmate loving a painting or a science club friend of Honoka discovering their invention was named after her managed to touch me! So it does play on the heart strings.

Still I can not escape the fact that a lot of stuff is glossed over. We never get explanation what that Zakenna actually is.. what those cute apologetic star guys are..it’s just a cute exit animation? It’s a show where stuff happens because it needs to happen for the majority of what I watched so far. The Garden of Light and the hero side gets highlighted pretty well and feels pretty fleshed out but the counter part.. kinda is just there to have some semblance of a plot. It’s something I hope to see improved in the future. Having watched episode 26 .. the first one into a new story arc.. it seems hopeful, it was much better paced even though it was still fast. This enemy also seemed a bit more menacing. Still the show skips a lot of time and in doing so it often misses a lot of details.

Mepple and Mipple with the True Love Doctor..a device they made a big thing out of.. but then..it’s gone!

A Pretty Cure

Overall I definitely had a pleasant experience.. but it’s one that will not necessarily stick with me. I like the cute elements, which in later series seem to have been boosted and I like the visuals even if there is a lot of repetition. While the transformation scenes are static.. any condition is transferred over to them… like if they are held by tentacles..(hue hue) that carries over in that samesie transformation scene any damage and such will show.

I like how transformation scenes come over as cute and don’t emphasis the “naked” body growing clothes as much as some of their peers. There is a fluidity in this show I really like and a certain type of retroness..that makes it more sailor moon like to me. Except for Geki-Drago I really enjoy the character design. Everyone feels unique and the monsters have that “power ranger campiness” to them that makes me really enjoy them. The evil vaccuum cleaner, the possessed legendary armors, the museum coming to live. As forced as the plot progress goes, so natural feel the situations. (with the exception of both accidentally going to the same summer camp). The choice of monsters and situations.. even if very trope like is done well. The way characters fit into these tropes really worked for me and their transformation gimmick is unique and caters to those tropes.

Honoka and Nagisa can only transform ..and do ultimate attacks by holding hands and with a tricky set up like that, you are going to have to make some weird leaps.. to actually separate them… as well as get them back to being together. Setting wise… episodic wise they do this fine. However it also means this show feels more like Power Rangers.. as Sailor Moon.. as in “half of the fight” can feel pointless because we all know the monsters is going to grow and they need the megazord to finish things. Pretty Cure..always goes in kicking and tossing their way ..getting hit a few times before firing a beam. Would it have been explained that they have to “weaken” a monster first before finishing it off with the signature attack.. I would have been perfectly fine with it…but as you may expect by now this has been glossed over.

*BLUSH* It’s so lewd!

It’s a pretty show that I might be just a bit to old for,  but just because it is made for younger people doesn’t mean your writing doesn’t have to make sense. There is a deep love for the genre in this show though that keeps it quite infectious. I’d say the first 17 kinda feel like as if the show is being told to me by an adoring fan.

“Have you Seen Pretty Cure it’s amazing.. in the second Episode Honoka and Nagisa have to fight Pisard again.. oh yes he is revealed to be Pisard by an evil guy named the Dark King..and he uses a Zakenna to possess a vacuum cleaner that sucks up all the electricity in the town! It’s amazing!.. so they kick it and punch it but it has a really long neck and goes woosh..and swwwwwwwsh and then he tries to suck Nagisa up.. but Bam Honoka saves her with some weird throwing technique .. but than she is in trouble and Babaf.. Nagisa Kicks th vacuum right in the mouth”

It feels like the show is that kind of story telling turned into a show, which means it is full of energy and flavor, but it takes a nosedive in cohesion. Great for a leisurely watch, but if you are not drunk, fourteen or younger or for some reason have only access to half of your brain, I would not recommend binging it. I was thinking of dropping this one and moving three series ahead to see if it picks up… but the last 7 episodes or so got me back supporting this squad. I will back with you in 24 episodes! Go Go Pretty Cure!

I want Porun as my pet Popo!

Remember that I love you all, keep smiling and stay positive! I will see you all for more PreCure when I get to it! Despite it’s flaws I am still excited!

XO
Pinkie!

Pinkie hates WordPress newest Block Editor!

Previously on Precure Pinkie

Futari Wa Precure: First Impressions!

Next time:
Futari Wa Precure: Full Season Review!

Pinkie the Trope-Doctor: The “Break Up”

We all are familiar with tropes. Every serie uses them, if they say they don’t they lie. No series is without these golden geese that resonate with so many people and that can be told so many times over. Yet sometimes we are discovering tropes that we really are beginning to dislike. “Again?” we ask when we see them. We do not enjoy them  and display some respiratory phenomena called sighs! Yet clearly there are people who still love these tropes! Otherwise people would not use them anymore! So how do we address these issues? We could blatantly hate on them sure.. but how about we try to fix them. How can we adapt a trope that  no longer works for us into something that does without taking away from other people? I shall strap my little had with a cross on top on.. and view one of my least like tropes. The Break up

I can already imagine my 100% MINE .. theme song!

The Patient

So what exactly do I mean with the break up? It is a trope that features highly in many shows and movies. I am not talking about official romantic break-up , I am talking about when a main cast has a falling out, squabbles and decides not to hang out any more for whatever reason. This trope is highly present in basically any “monster of the week”  type shoes, like Magical Girls, Sentai even in plenty of mecha and fantasy show. The trope usually has one character overhear or catch wind of something another character said..oftenly without context. It could also be a rivalry that is beginning to form.. for example both characters realising they are into the same guy. This trope seems to occur faster and more often across female characters but male characters and non binaries will be affected too. This can even affect animals or robots at time showing the problem might be bigger than a pure psycho emotional reaction. The breakup usually is displayed in one of three forms.

-The Misunderstanding: “I wish A  would be a bit braver” says character B to C when A just was about to come in carrying cupcakes. A thinks they think of him/her as weak .. drops the cupcakes and runs away.  The conversation continues and B tells C “She should just tell her mother he wants to come with the lake to us, we would have so much fun together’ When they find the cupcakes and something is Awry B and C try to talk to A..the latter annoys them by attacking them personally and now tensions are high and the group is split apart.

-The Squabble: On Valentines Day Character A B and C all hand chocolate to douchebag D.. who doesn’t acknowledge any of their love and just thanks them all for the chocolate. Completely unaware that they will never get the D they argue who has the most right to be with D as the split up. Usually this will result in just about every petty wrongdoing they ever did to each other being brought up. “You give me the coldest tea always” “that one time you did not say thank you when I rearranged your plushies for you” usually followed by a “I knew you always hated me!” which is often met with a sarcastic acknowledgment..because why talk things trough right away?

– The Manipulation: Evildoers finally figure out they can not beat the good guys because they work so well as a team, so they transform into classmates and walk up to person B and go like “hey have you heard that A said this about you” , before person B can march to person A to find answers a disguised bad guy is telling some bad rumors the other way around as well, somehow despite knowing each other very well the two do not believe they did not trash talk each other.. and fight.

These are of course generalised situations that however depict vividly how a situation would be. While some of the factors involved may very in the core these are the three main manifestations of the trope. More presently in “episodic” storytelling but also present in any other long running story that focus heavily on companionship.

The Problem

Now what exactly is the trouble with this trope you may ask? Strife and sorrow can indeed stimulate empathie between two individuals involved. It can create stronger bonds and reactions as well function as a mirror into a character’s psyche to highlight any flaws or desires. These form problems that can not be achieved through the conventional problem solving techniques of the hero dus create a more dimensional story. Hence the break-up should by all means be a beneficiary story telling device. However many, MANY anime have not been able to produce these effects. In fact it may result in a uninvested audience, a forced narrative and a blemish on previously written material. This trope is usually not used in episodes that are very relevant to the main plot, which results in ample problems as described below.

But first let me take a VIcodin! Nom!

No Tension: Most instances of a Break-Up usually do not exceed the length of a single episode. This means the deterioration of bonds, the breaking incident, the solo flight as well as the inevitable reunion make little to no impact on any of the major narrative.  These break-ups are near always finite in time and the audience can tell if this is the case. At least if the audience is neither a child nor stupid. Usually episodes are titled something like “broken bonds.. our group is now trough” already telegraphing what kind of episode it will be .. thusly after the open credits the audience already knows how the full 20 minutes will go.

Willow Pillow because .. Pillow Willow was to lewd for my blog!

Throwaway Events:  Another symptom of a bad break up is usually.. the level of relevance to the rest of the show.  The Status Quo usually isn’t any different at the beginning of such an episode compared to how it us after the episode. As such it might as well not have happened at all. Characters usually go back from great friends to hating each other to great friends again. Very rarely do they use this trope to improve.. or even less often deteriorate that bond.

Don’t be like Indy! Matter to your story!

Inconsistent Characters:  The Break-Up tends to be a force of nature that is very negative in nature. No matter how good trust is between characters this trope will activate anyway. Reasonable characters suddenly get extremely fickle and  childish and the sweet girl suddenly can’t find an ounce of kindness in her heart. Even when the world is at stake.. boys somehow weigh heavier upon girls hearts and more of this nonsense. Characters oftenly change and change back to fit the limited narrative of a single episode just to bounce back after seeing a plushie, a flower or a phone strap triggering memories. 

You trust a stranger who tries to steal your ring three times, you trust a serial killer who tried to kill you.. but when your friend eats the bread… he can go to hell!

All things considered this trope does not only waste an otherwise enjoyable 20 minutes it also is to the detriment of long running characters. It is hard to understand why a guy suddenly distrusts his best friends after seeing him with a few crumbs on his shirt. We can justify it and say.. his mind was poisoned by that item and that druggy looking fellow yet it still is a stab through the heart. We see their friendship build up as an unbreakable thing and than the most unlikely character destroys it in the most unlikely way and because we all know this chase in behavior won’t stick we just dislike the characters for being so stupid to buy into this.

Oh no same colour scheme.. guess the world can save itself now?!

The Solution

So how do we fix this? The simplest solution would be simply to add weight. But how can we do this in the oftenly breezy shows where this trope is featured in? We could simply let one get “killed” in their powerless state with others having to find a replacement but this would not be very satisfying.  It would also be to grim of a decision and invalidate the break up right away .. because there is nothing to fix or grow over anymore. Yet in some cases it can still work. In scenarios where there is an unequal level of relevance of the characters the less relevant character can be killed of in such a way.. in order for the main character to focus on that pettiness that ended up getting their compatriot killed. Still this would be a too extreme reaction to fix the trope. However the shake the trope up a bit .. the final break up would be a good solution.

A less obvious way is to let the break up stick for a while. Do not tell this story in a single episode. Make sure the heroes still have a way to progress without the character. Give them a replacement.. a character that knows about their secret identity that can take up the mantle of the character that quit. That magical girl.. gets replaced by another one. This other character can be made to be a temporary one.. perhaps the powers do not agree well with her, perhaps the new character is actually a betrayer, it can even be as simple as the new character only being in town for a few days or simply not being good enough. 

By not showing a character for a few episodes we can start to miss them, we can appreciate the character that was there and see how we don’t want it replaced. You can show a lack of synergy in the new format, to highlight what has come before. You can see the outcast element coming to terms with what happend, missing being a hero or realizing where they were wrong in an arc rather than an episode. Despite that we would know how it would end , the new element can still allow us to tell a multitude of stories that impact everyone involved and make for a memorable story line. 

Be like Pokémon.. Use a Substitute!

Another way this trope can be improved is by simply moving it earlier in the lifetime of a show. A group fighting only eight episodes in after barely getting to know each other is fairly realistic.  A group having a falling out over something as simple as boys after losing loved ones together, a group squabbling over something petty 23 episodes into a series near it’s finale makes no sense. Early in a series this trope can be used to define a bond between characters. Perhaps this event can trigger a deeper trust as they were forced to overcome their differences together to deal with a new threat.. but t could also be used to keep a dissonance between two or more people that perhaps has to be solved across numerous episodes. Perhaps one girl was really hurt by the mistrust that was shown at her and she doesn’t feel as much a part of the group due to that discussion in episode 8, not feeling like she is good enough for the group, limiting her powers in episodes 15 where she fails and episode 19 where she overcomes it. 

PreCure uses this trope very early! Episode 8 in the first series and later even episode 2!

Treatment

What is very important for the health of this trope is that we do not employ it to filler style episodes. This trope has to show some character development and needs some time to breath to reach its full potential. Rome is was not build in a day, and you can not make a character’s departure from the group relevant in ten minutes of screentime.  It simply does not work like this. While the trope has the side effect of a bad taste in your mouth, applying it earlier in the lifespan of a show will make sure the taste is properly washed away without any salty feelings from the viewership, we can not condemn a character we do not know yet after all.

Episode 2 Break Ups .. best break ups!

It is recommended that the show does not use this trope past the midway point for single season series.  It would negate to much of what the show has tried to build in that single season. For longer running series the recommended dosage is never more than once per season and not more than once per two seasons. We do not like on and off again partnerships  as it makes our heroes oftenly feel shallow and fickle. When this trope is applied more than once it has to be in increasing gravitas as incidents of a similar level will once again invalidate character growth. A clever writer can use decreasing seriousness if he wants to emphasis a constantly souring bond between characters however in this latter scenario this break up would most likely lead to a permanent goodbye as applying miracle fixes is just as character invalidating as miracle fighting. Give characters at least two to three weeks to recover for optimale presentation.

Not a great example of the trope! But I blanked out! We know they still love each other!

And there we go! A fix for one of my least like tropes in Anime and other media! Do you think my changes would make it better? What trope do you dislike yourself? Do you like the break up trope yourself? Let me know in the comments what you think! I can only mindread if I see you in person! Remember I love you all! Let’s keep the Internet a Happy Place and Keep Smiling!

XO

Pinkie

Oh Valley of WordPress Oh Valley of WordPress oooohooohoo!

Starting Up: SMILE-Force

The Internet can be a dark place! With battles about what is wrong with our fandoms constantly being fought. Constantly we end up looking what is currently wrong with the world, other people or even the stuff we love. This made me find my voice and try to make the internet a more positive place! Some of my recent posts have done very well in terms of response proving that people like me are out there who would love to see the Internet as a more positive place! And since I had magical girls on the brain.. I came up with…..SMILE-Force.

WIP Logo will get better still!

What is SMILE-Force

About six months ago I joined up with the Otaku Warriors of Liberty and Self-respect. The OWLS as they call themselves. An internet based gathering of people who promote equality across the fandom. A message I still very much can get behind. However I noticed I still was unfulfilled. There was a thing I craved for on the internet even more so than equality. That need was positivity. So I decided to start my own little group thingy all by lonesome! A brand people can pick up and drop as they please.  The SMILE-Force. A name based on magical girl tropes. Now you might wonder.. since SMILE is written in all caps? Does it mean anything? Well yes and no! No as in.. I settled on the name Smile-Force BEFORE making it an acronym. It is meant to force or a group that brings happiness to people but the name is also based on forcing a smile. Not giving in to all the negativity and trying to keep the mood in a room light and nice. Lately I have been telling you all to keep smiling so it felt like a great fit.

A loving heart always smiles!

SMILE stands for Super Merry Incredible Loving Entertainers. Which symbolises the people I want to join me in my fight for positivity. I am searching for people who LOVE games, anime, movies even beyond like lifestyle in general. No matter what you do or how you do it, as long as you do it with a positive angle and desire to make the internet a brighter place. It is an acronym for those incredible people who dare to stand up and say, despite negative reviews or negative community reception I like these people, this game, this anime or even this fandom. It’s for the the people who can look at a failed product and smile.. not thinking how they are going to bring the company that made it down.. but instead think of all the great things said company had given before. No matter if people are youtubers, bloggers, podcasters or even twitter and instagram accounts. It is a force that is inclusive without bias as long as we keep smiling! Current member count 1.. so I know for sure I at least try to keep smiling.

Unlock your own Henshin trough the power of smiles!

What does SMILE-Force do?

This little ,none official, thing of mine is currently seeking members to take up the moniker of a positivity emissaries.   I of course take up the Badge of Positive Pink! What do I do? I try to keep promoting positivity across the web and create an actual happy place. Now WordPress is already pretty positive but if we band together we would be able to achieve so much more.
So what will we ask of members… nothing really! It’s all optional.. because positivity should always come from the heart and not from duty! A blog tour of one.. is kind of lame.. and since I will pick up this fight no matter if people join me or not I have chosen a different approach from the OWLS themed months. At any time, any member wants they can make a SMILE post. Celebrating Positivity about something. It can always be anything as long as it’s  bright, happy and positive. Something you want other people to be positive about or even where you are defending that is bad in the popular opinion. As far as we, can we try to promote each others SMILE posts and just help each other out..without going through huge amounts of work. Each month I will check who made a SMILE post and put all SMILE posts together as I check out who are our “Sunshine Stars”.. the chosen warriors who fought for positivity that month. Later on some other members might do the round up post if they so desire. So .. all in all it’s much more of a way to get your regular content fitting our message shouted out.. as something you need to do work for.

Our Sunshine Stars are not commited at all! But they Smile when they sleep! So that is good enough!

 As soon as I get members there will be a twitter chat or discord chat because.. that is what you do these days!  Participation in these is usually pretty low but the channel will mostly be focussed on helping each other be inspired.  Together we look at stuff that gets a negative reception.. for example that whole lawsuit and unrest in the voice acting scene surrounding dragon ball z, the release of that warcraft fail or that baby collecting game not being very awesome. We discuss of someone is willing to counter that negativity by for example writing a post on how good the Dragon Ball Dub is or by highlighting Kojima’s great masterpieces.. or glancing back on our beloved first experiences with the warcraft games. Again.. nothing mandatory.. we  just seek to help each other find some content and create lovely positive pieces that still have some relevance. Good for the internet, good for you.. good for SMILE Force. If I get people to join a discord I shall also add some fun games.

Being A Sunshine Star is FUN! Just look at the smile on this guy!

How is SMILE-Force themed?

If you had not noticed yet by my terminology and the logo.. or me simply stating it earlier. SMILE-Force is magical girl themed. In a post talking about my hopes and dreams for 2020 I figured I would give it a Ninja theme.. based on south park’s Good Time with Weapons Episode. Yet I realised that this did not fit for a number of reasons. South Park is a show that mostly ridicules obsessions and holds shows us a mirror of what we have become. It is reflective in nature. SMILE-Force is not about that. It is simply about joy, regardless if it is politically correct, hated by the media or if you have an (un)healthy obsession with a particular anime or game. SMILE-Force is a reactive initiative if anything. Ninja’s furthermore tend not to be seen and that again is kind of against brand. SMILE-Force is about having your own opinion, (focussing on the positive ones of course) and showing your positive feelings towards the world despite the toxicity out there. So all in all, we got an idea that is very open and present. Very positive focussing on elements such as friendship, love and nostalgia yet it is also about fighting of negativity.. as such the Magical Girl/Boy  style came to mind.

What I see whenever I close my eyes!


The fictional backstory about SMILE-Force goes as follows.(Yes I made this up for fun) Almost each year on earth around the 12th of August a celestial event called the Perseids takes place. About each minute.. somewhere  a shooting star can be seen. Some of these meteors crash on earth only leaving behind a stone made of pure positivity. Keeping a warm tinted shine these stones are called the Sunshine Stones and they allow certain online entertainers with a big and warm heart to transform into Magical Warriors now as the Sunshine Stars. These Merry folks are drawn together to form a band of positivity unlike the world has ever seen. SMILE-Force. This group will soon be needed because from the depths of the wonderful internet the forces of negativity have risen again. Creating a world where one can no longer be happy and has to search fault in everything. Forming monsters on the internet.. influencers who make us want to destroy that which we love by changing the public in monsters that feast on negativity. These monsters and their spawn are called Nancies. It is up to smile force to fight the Nancy army and make the internet Smile once again. Because without smiles the magic of that place ..and thus the entire world.. will soon be lost.

Don’t become a Nancy! They are evil!

How can you join SMILE-Force? 

Do you want to dare yourself to be more positive at times, are you looking for a fun place to hang out and socialise with awesome people.. who are practically forced to think positively about you as well.. because of who we are?  Do you want to be unapologetically be positive about things..and blame it on me for putting you in my cult? Do you write lots of positive stuff and think.. sure I will display that logo thingy somewhere? Free shout out. Do you want people to smile more?! Well those are all good reasons to join! I do not have cookies, I do not pay..but I also do not ask a lot of you, just be positive once in a while and get a cool little shoutout. Will that change in the future? Probably not.. .  if anything I will add a “choose your commitment level” on top. Like how most Magical Girls can only transform once but some can use a fanny pack to grow wings and become even more powerful. No required amount of posts needed a year.. just be positive somewhere..sometime. Oh and display the logo somewhere that would be neat.

Again.. it is a work in progress! But for now it is this!

Signing up for Smile Force is as simple as sending me a Private Message throughout whatever way is most convenient for you. Because I want you to do it smiling!

So a private message on twitter can be send by visiting my wonderfully pink twitter

https://twitter.com/PokemonPinkie 

Or send me an email at pinkiesparadiseblog@gmail.com

Please note : Do Not use my contact form! Due to all the blogs I follow, some which post 12 posts per day … I simply can’t maintain that one I do not know how to reroute the contact form to another email address.  I am trying to fix this but I do not know how. So for now the message will be lost if you use the form.. so please use the methods I provided in this post! Or ask me in again in the comments.

This is how my WordPress registration email looks like!


Do I have any demands for you? Not really! I strongly prefer you are over 18 (not a requirement but I want to be able to have a normal mature talk with members). You should really have a positive voice on the internet, (Websites like Gloomy Drawings of me and my goth single mother… might not fit the brand)  and you just need to have an open mind.
Just becaue we love something doesn’t mean others have to. SMILE-Force knows and respects that. There will be true positivity no toxic positivity.  (So no “Shield Hero” is the greatest and everyone who disagrees should die” “positivity”) If you can do that there is nothing stopping you so sign up today and make the internet smile again!