Tag: Tournament

Pinkie watches a Random Anime: Saki

Hello my sweet island guests! For my Saturday anime posts I have been covering ways to discover anime for the past two weeks! Ending with how excited I was to watch some random anime using the Random Anime Generator Website! Now once a month, or at least I will try to do so, I will generate one random anime and watch it’s first five episodes (about a movie length) discussing my thoughts about it and whether or not I would pick it up to finish it! My first randomised anime came up as: Saki!

I did not read any descriptions I just generated a random anime title , looked if it was available to me and watched the show. Saki should still be available for everyone using Crunchyroll but I am not sure how everything works for that. The first opening minute I saw a slightly tomboyish girl  looking at another girl thinking she is super pretty! I never heard of this anime before and I had no clue what to expect.. but already I was getting some Yuri vibes. Lucky! The tame kind too! It was also clear there would be a lot fan service.. even though it’s fairly tame.. I did find myself kind of annoyed by it, but that is mostly because I really like the character being lewded a lot. They at times make her out to be just a pair of boobs .. and they have to really go out of their way to set it up as well so yes in this case I found it unpleasant. Still I get why you do it.. gotta keep Mahjong interesting.. because yes I stumbled upon an anime about Mahjong. With a pink seemingly gay (semi) main character , some flashy weird animations and people taking part in a tournament. This SHOW random show really hit some marks for me.

I’ll be honest, I have started watching A Certain Magical Index as well, but now that I am five episodes in for both! This one has my preference to finish first. The show is about a girl named Saki .. if you would believe it… a young girl who comes from a broken family. During family game night they would always play Mahjong but if she did to well her sister would throw a tantrum and people would get mad at her and if she did to poorly she would not get any candy! So Saki learned to play perfectly average and is blessed with incredible luck playing this game. She finds out the beautiful girl is in the Mahjong club because a friend asked her to help her out for a bit.. and little by little Saki begins to enjoy the game of Mahjong again .. that she learned to hate under her broken family! Now that same game has the chance to bring the family back together as her sister represents another regions team, playing in the Tokyo nationals. Before they do that though they have to win regionals.. which according to the first five episode holds some very scary and evil girls they have to face. As well as super powers?! I am not sure yet!

I have no idea how to play competitive Mahjong , only that tower stack thing we get from internet games here.. well that is not the Mahjong this is about. This is about changing together events, like Ron and Richi and Kan or whatever they are called. I have no idea but this anime certainly makes it look impressive. Studio Gonzo produced the first 14 episodes ..which obviously includes the first five I have seen and they certainly know how to frame the game nicely.  The dramatic reveal of hands really have this larger than life vibe. Which is great because this series very much knows what it is. There is a strong cast of character that are larger than life which again compliments the series very well. Saki is the overly nice naive girl that is attracted to pink girl , with big boobs, talents in spades and a child like demeanour, Nodoka. Nodoka is a very calculative person who secretly is into Saki as well but also someone who can not comprehend her luck (yet) . They represent two aspect a skilled player needs to have , skill and luck! Nodoka has a plush penguin named Etopen which I find adorable! Could it be that she is Waifu material?!

Kyoutarou is the only boy in the Mahjong club.. he dreams of being with Nodoka he wants to play with them tiddies.. but of course he doesn’t know she looks at Saki!  His fantasies about her are often interrupted by Yuuki, a tiny energetic bubbly girl, who loves taco and tako. She likes to play house with him calling him darling or husband. She has a wild imagination and always seems to twist reality around her! She lacks the ability to do proper math which results in her being weaker in the game than she could be.   The cast is rounded off by the student council president.. though .. she calls it Student Congress President , she is a strategist and plays the group to make them better and then there is Mako.. the presidents bestie whose parents have a maid café.  She seems leaned back but also very analytical.  

Five episodes in and I really like this cast a whole lot more than I like the main cast of Magical Index. These feel like people I’d enjoy being around. . if I would be their age. I honestly did not expect that I would like this anime this much. Yuuki can be a tad annoying with how her voice sounds but I rather found that endearing. I even smiled empathically at how Kyoutarou is such a loner just for being a guy! If you can make me care for the kinda bro-ish boy .. you are doing something right!

I really like how these first episodes where paced out. Without getting into spoilers to much, episode one sets up the main character Saki and episode 2 sets up Nodoka. Episode 3 sets up the main plot.. that is participating in the tournament while episode 4 lets reality set  in and turns down Nodoka’s amazing talent and Saki’s luck by putting in into perspective by having them learn they are not ready for the tournament yet. Which perfectly sets up for episode 5, training camp! Every episode flows very nicely into the next and each episode and as a result each episode can stand on its own. It’s all well defined tiles that when put together form a nice combo. I notice how this is in contrast with Hikaru no Go for example which has stronger episodes in their lineup..but a weaker flow between them. While Hikaru tells the better tale.. it has slack water.. dead tides in between. This show (At least so far)  flows nicely. In fact there are very few anime I’ve recently been watching that match it’s amazing pacing.

Toss in a lot of cuteness and this show becomes something that does warm my heart. The Blossoming friendship between our main characters works well. Saki feeling awkward around Nodoka in  the beginning makes sense because of how toxic her family games were. When the titular character finally begins to enjoy winning this goes at the cost of Nodoka which makes her passion feel invalidated as Saki claimed not to like the game. It sucks to be beaten by someone who doesn’t take your passion seriously.  These emotions feel legit and make sense with the characters that are established.

This does come at the cost of the personality of the other team members though. While Hisa the team leader still shows some proper character.. but mostly in her understanding how others work, Yuuki,  Kyoutarou and Maki remain rather 2 dimensional. I am not sure if this is a bad thing though. I found Yuuki’s flat and shallow character quite hilarious and it breaks up awkwardness of two closet lesbians playing with some tiles. Maki is the exposition character. “Boss did you set that up to teach them a lesson” .. “Do you think she realises she has that ability” .. that’s her type of dialogue. It could be painful but since they made her a bit of an analytical slightly colder person.. it works. Kyou makes the awkward romantic stuff more comedical by putting it into perspective. So everyone adds their bit to the pot.

The only thing detrimental to this is the fan service. Our pink haired girl has a fully developed chest while the others don more humble models. Nosoka thusly often gets the butt of some jokes that kinda feel out of place. For example how hugging her plushy means hiding the thing under her boobs. I might be flat so I could not compare.. but I hold my plushies near my heart or chest at , Etopen is quite large though so it makes sense from a perspective that she also has to play Mahjong.. But still that feels like hugging a friend in my belly button area! That just feels awkward!  There are a few cheap shots like that like having her run through the rain and giving her a dramatic talk while zooming in on her chest emphasises her white shirt got wet and all. If that floats your boat good for you but I did not like it. I am not against the use of fan service as long as it is used in moments where it’s not detrimental to the main emotions and that’s where the show misses a few swings for me personally. It just feels like Nosoka’s character on occasion has to make room so she can give some fan service at times.. which is a wrong way to go about this.

The opening song and the ending song are AMAZING! Well they aren’t that memorable but the fact that they could make this work for them  as a Mahjong series was pretty good! It has action in it but also some beauty..it is almost shot as a shounen opening which I really could appreciate.  The ending is so cute that this one one of the few ED’s I ended up watching three out of five times. Well two and a half but normally I don’t watch it at all so thats HUGE!
Like I said Yuuki’s voice can be a bit annoying at times when she talks to long or has to shout for shouting sake. but this also endeared her a bit to me at the same time.. that is who she is. The final knitpick is that this does not make it very clear on how to play Majong.. which is also i’s strength.. it’s not a game you easily pick up I think there is a lot involved so since everyone in universe would more less know how to play.. there is little exposition to explain. There are a few schedules and diagrams but there might as well have been a unicorn poster there! I did not get info at all. The characters do though so that is good.. but I guess I just have to believe the words and the flow here.

I know Ron is a good thing for the one who declares it. So I will use that term for my final evaluation! Five episodes in and I am very pleasantly surprised by this series. So much so in fact that I am probably going to finish this series and bench Magical Index for a while. This series spoke a lot more to me. It’s just cute , slightly yuri , fun with characters I really enjoy and stylistic and visual choices I enjoy even more!  I very much hope it keeps this nice buttery smooth pacing throughout the show because that to me was it’s absolute strength.
I could not tell you what I think about the animation because I haven’t really paid much attention it it. I noticed it was from 2009 and I would have guessed it was slightly earlier.. but the visuals worked for me. 

The colours are nice and vibrant  but never obnoxious, there is plenty set-up going on that makes me feel this might quite the interesting show.  So yes I do want to finish this show. With only 25 episodes I should be able to do so before the next randomisation is up but this is also a great series to cheer me up so I might save some of it until I need some Etopen and Yuri Mahjong goodness in my life! We will see but I really think the first five episodes of this Mahjong show where very good! The only thing that prevents it getting my highest score is my inability to comprehend Mahjong.. and my inability to care for boobs!

Random Anime : Saki
Episodes Watched: 5
Watching On?: Yes
Favorite Character: Etopen
Score:

Top 5: Most Expensive Pokémon Cards (On sale in 2019)

Good day loyal subjects!
Yugi Muto might be the king of games but I am the princess of Pokemon TCG..somehow that is better believe me. Noble as I am I do not participate in tournaments to give others a chance at the title as champion is a step down from princess anyway. Pokémon TCG is big business, in the Netherlands Yu-gi-oh packs are becoming increasingly rare while Pokémon is standing strong with new expansions just behind the horizon. When a trading card game is healthy, it does mean people actually like to trade cards giving value to these little sheets of paper. The five cards we will talk about today.. fetch quite a high price.

The Rules

Now there are many ways to do this top 5. I could rank based on rarity here and put up a list of cards that are most likely valuable and that are among the most desirable. Yet anyone who has ever seen a pawn show knows that with exceedingly rare items.. prices are all very relative. For example Yu-Gi-Oh has a card named TYLER THE GREAT WARRIOR a one of a kind item that was given to a young cancer patient way back in the day. There have been offers made that allegedly have 7 digits yet the card is not for sale. Maybe Tyler drew on the card when he was a kid, maybe he even lost it? Perhaps it’s still gem mint in a sealed case. Stuff like this would put the value of the card between 0 and 10 million or so and that’s a bit too wide of a range for me to operate on. After all I am a princess I am right! That’s my whole thing! So for this list we will only deal in hard cash. Cards that are out there WITH a price tag. Of course I could just put a common pikachu card out there for 12 million and take the top spot myself but I doubt they’d sell, maybe if I get more followers and become a pokémon icon, so if you haven’t yet.. please subscribe! For this post we will use cards that have been put on sale and either sold or are likely enough to be sold for a ‘fair’ price. Yet due to the nature of how this list is made.. someone might offer them a bit cheaper. 

(A Million Dollar Card..looks oddly familiar)

Number 5: Tamamushi University Magikarp Trophy Prize  (PSA 9)

Cards can be graded on their quality, the most common standard is the PSA. It stands for Professional Sports Authenticator and like the name suggest they are best known for authenticating and valuing sports cards. Yet they also grade nearly any trading card game, even those who can not be played in a sports like setting like amiibo cards and the likes. They grade a card from 1 to 10, 10 being gem mint fetching the highest prices.  In 2017 a PSA 10 version of this card sold at auction for about $2150, yet this PSA 9 is on sale for quite a bit more. The lesser quality PSA 9 is on sale for $48.978. That seems rather unrealistic right? Well the price of this magikarp has recently skyrocketed beyond belief. In 2018 the same PSA 10 card sold again but this time for $10.000 dollars. This year PSA 7’s of the card are selling already for $8000 and are selling out. There is a big gap in what people are willing to pay for a PSA 9 and a PSA 7. In general a PSA 7 in terms of more affordable cards sells for about as much maybe even a tad less than an ungraded one.  A PSA 10 can turn a 200 dollar card into a 1000 dollar one and the right PSA 9 can do the same. This particular card was handed out to a small group of Japanese school children who were selected to participate in a contest in Osaka. Only the winners of this contest (divided on several age groups themed around gym leaders) where awarded with this magikarp that knows the move dragon breath. The asking price for this card is bordering a bit on the iffy side of the spectrum..but hey magikarp has always been overpriced.

(I can’t help but feel that the price for this one is a bit fishy)

Number 4: Albino Zapdos

When there is a printing error on our card, the border is not neatly aligned or if it’s been cut sloppily cards loses value as quick as a Honey Boo Boo can make people lose faith in humanity. However if there is a misprint .. people totally go ham over these cards. One of the most famous mistakes are the so called Albino Pokémon. A type of misprint where one colour would not be printed. Quite oftenly just a detail this Zapdos had the ‘misfortune’ of being on a card where yellow ink did not find its way to the 6.4 by 8.9 cm piece of paper. When it became sealed in a pack the card that was only worth a few dollars otherwise suddenly became a $49.999,99 dollar card. It’s been marketed for that price for a long while and it’s commonly accepted that the card is worth that amount. Unfortunately recently the lucky german who pulled this card was forced to settle for a lot less. Ending up costing the new owner only $14.999,99 this would knock Albino Zapdos down a few spots.  Yet the $50.0000 zapdos was quite commonly accepted as the actual price and worth of the card.You can be the judge on that one.. but to keep it fair for the cards that have not received offers yet we shall list it under it’s commonly known asking price. It’s actually worth? That’s a bit of a grey area.

(I bet having to sell it for a third of the price was a bit shocking to the german)

Number 3: Shadowless 1st Edition Base Set Charizard Holo 1999 (PSA 10)

This is the most famous expensive pokémon card and most likely the least unique on on this list. This is basically something you could have owned as a kid.  Nostalgia for the card that was super popular back then has pumped up the value as a kid. Also as we were all kids who took that card everywhere the good quality ones have dropped of  the earth faster than basic human decency in Jersey Shore. This combination made this one of the most coveted cards out there. Every collector wants this one while most of the other cards are much more unique this one has a power over people. ‘Hey guy I got a albino zapdos card’ can still be met with a frown and a look like ‘dude what are you talking about’.. whilst if anyone says ‘Dude I got a holographic 1st Edition Charizard’  they will KNOW that is something impressive. I’ve seen lesser versions sell at auction in the $30.000 range. This australian man might be pushing his luck asking $68.725 dollars for it but recently the Charizard cards have all been picking up in price again. With about 15 views per hour..for a pokémon card that costs as much as more than decent car about 150 months of my rent this one still is likely to sell. The value of this card is quite stable as well so it might be a good investment if you have some cash to burn.

(While the other cards come and go 1st Edition Charizard will always be hot)

Number 2: Trophy Kangaskhan Parent & Child Tournament 1998 Pokemon Promo Card Japan (PSA 10)

Can you imagine sending little Buta to school in japan, he picks up a magazine and comes back all excited saying if you enter a pokémon tournament together you can win some neat prices. So you decide to enter, letting little brother Bosu participate alongside his mother as well. Bosu and mom are out of the competition quite fast. You never had high hopes for that kid anyway. You and Buta make your way down the ladder but end up eliminated after a few wins. Hey you still did well enough to receive a price. A Kangaskhan card… neat.  It has a symbol that it’s special but hey.. it’s just a piece of card so Buta can keep it. Now 21 years later you are reminiscing those memories sipping your green tea while checking ebay to see if you can buy that card again. Buta .. being a kid lost it.. but now that they have moved out you want it as a memory. You see the only copy currently on sale is in the hand of the British and it’s being sold for $98,126.85. You curse as you realise now Bosu has to become your favorite kid. I am sure this must have happened to at least one japanese father. Who could have expected that the little card you won by playing card game with your son would grow out to be one of the most sought out pokémon cards ever. Not even part of one of the most prestigious tournaments and more just a fun promotion. The design and story around this card has made it amongst the most valuable of them all.

(Paying 100k for a card is far from normal)

Number 1: POKEMON 2001 TROPICAL WIND TROPHY CARD
(PSA 9)

Psyduck in a hammock, along with a igglybuff and smoochum. In the background a Executor is riding a boat. This card was only handed to winners of a tournament and no visitor version was ever handed out. Since there were two age classes back then.. this card by all means should exist twice only. The seller on Ebay prides himself on having the highest rated of those two copies. There will never be a PSA 10..he holds the highest rarity of one of the most rare cards in existence in Pokémon. So what is that worth? NO ONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD OWNS THIS PSA 9 CARD!!! Says the add. While about as subtle as a 90’s comedy or action movie it does hold true.  So if you ever want to spend half a million dollars, that’s right this card costs $500.000, on a Psyduck in a hammock.. this is your only option. At least unlike the Kangaskhan and the Magikarp you can get bragging rights with this one! This one at least belongs to the champion of a semi-prestigious tournament rather than just a fun event. So hey that’s worth 400k right? I mean not for me, I am already prestigious enough so I will not let my staff bring out a bid on this one. If you want to donate it to me though.. I would be fairly appreciative. I’ll even get you your own hammock.. and a real duck to go with it.

(This is the only card on the list that has free shipping)

Now that we wrapped up this post please do not take the attempt to donate the card to Princess Pinkie seriously of course unless you are a billionaire who’s all like ‘Oh that sounds like fun’ in which case you can go right ahead. What is your most expensive Pokémon Card.. or even other collectable! Let us know in the comments and if you are new don’t forget to follow this blog for more Pokémon content ..most days!

The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again!
XO
Pinkie

Pinkie’s first Pokémon Tournament

I felt like watching TV today, then I realised my tv-box broke. Since my youtubers haven’t uploaded my favorite content yet , yes like 90%  most of it is pokémon related, so I decided to do a little personal story. Inspired by the 30 day geek out challenge, post by A Geeky Gal I decided to talk about one of my first fandom moments. My first Pokemon tournament.

A foul boy
There I was, fourteen  years old, I did not really know where there was, dad drove me much to his dismay. I was somewhere quite a long drive from home judging by dad’s chagrin. I was to excited and nervous to notice any of it though! I would be on tv and win my first Pokemon tournament! i did not know I was not signed up and was there just battling in a no rules anything goes, friendly compo. No real winner, but you get points for winning, or something. I was too stupid to notice, so let’s be honest I was not going to win ever. Dressed in blue, with some pink boots (as I had a copy of Pokémon Blue to play on). Pokémon Stadium was about to come out and today viewers of Fox Kids, could already come and play the game and compete.  Tightly clutching to my purple gameboy colour. It had a sticker of Parasect stuck to its battery tray and upper spine, It had a bit of a fold around the eyes, but I loved Parasect..it was on my team as well.  The sticker also kept me from losing my battery hatch thing. I looked around, seeing the podium where I would soon be crowned the best *cough*. A boy about my age asked if he could see my team, I thought he looked mean and I refused. He shrugged bumped into me and he moved on. I sniffled, see I knew that he was mean!  He then approached a young very blond boy, about half my age, he asked to see his team, the boy proudly showed him. The meany started a new game on the boy’s cartridge and saved the game. The young blond boy was just eliminated from the competition, while smiling the older boy would walk off. The blonde boy cried…but unlike me he would make the tv. The other boy was not just mean anymore he was foul! I was scared! I did not want my dear friends to die. 

Wasn’t actually THAT guy… but my douche was in the dishwasher… so had to use a picture of another one!

Beating my peers
I traded the blond boy my Hitmonlee, a backup Pokémon I had that wasn’t really on my planned line-up. In fact he was even detrimental to my strategy. Someone else traded him a vileplume and another gave him a vaporeon. Eventually the boy had enough Pokémon to play a few matches.He didn’t win a lot..but he didn’t seem to care.
I DID win a lot. My team was made to beat my sister, she had a team of 6 mewtwo, she would catch it, transfer it to me start a new game and repeat the process until she had 6. We would then battle… after a thousand or so losses,I got pretty good at countering mewtwo. I figured a lot of people would enter with teams like this….and I was right. Of course this wasn’t allowed in the actual competition but little did I know I was not a part of that, I never went to things like these before. My team involved me using Parasect to spore a mewtwo to sleep, then use dream eater  on gengar or pin missile on jolteon to finish it off quickly. I also had a dig+surf rhydon and a fly moltres, to avoid attacks. Protect wasn’t a thing back then so those were nice to stall out Fire Blasts. Besides Mewtwo Charizard was used a lot. My bird Hades and rhino Sjaak dealt with that. My last Pokémon was a psybeam, because confusion was neat, Kadabra, my sister refused to give me the trade evolution, which was evolved after the tournament. All in all I managed to create a team what was good against the younger inexperienced kids meta. My sister had little imagination, mine got me a lot of wins that day. I apparently even attracted the attention of some fans who liked seeing a non competitive battler take down teams of mewtwo’s.  Even the blonde boy came to cheer me in, and give me my pokemon back, because he was going home. He thanked me , though I think that was his mother speaking, when I think about it now! Tv folk weren’t interested though!

Sheev and me are pals! Right Palps?

The real deal
At 14 year old I really fell into a bit of a gap. With the internet not being what it is today, I did not know all the details about Pokémon yet, like EV’s and things like STAB bonuses.  I just was really good at reading my sister who picked up what the playground said was the best to use. When the real compo was over and the pro-battlers ended the scene my luck soon dried up. I was trashed by people who actually leveled their mons to 100 rather than using Missingno. Yet those same people were very entertained that I managed to do so well against teams I should not win against. As a result I got this weird form of non-spoken respect and understanding that I would not see again until my first convention many many years later. I wasn’t a real battler, nor will  I ever be , because I HATE breeding and EV training. I wasn’t really part of the “Mewtwo is so cool’ group either. The latter didn’t dislike me for completely trashing them, I won..but it usually was close matches , and the first saw some potential in me. I was this oddball thing walking there that spoke about her Parasect I named Ed like it was my actual pet. Ed was such a swell pal and I genuinely cared for him.
In fact I might even still have Ed on my old cartridge.Baron the Alakazam and Mo the Jolteon would transfer to Johto, only to get deleted after realising Chikorita wasn’t all that amazing. Rest in peace guys!. All in all I had a swell day, I think I even surprised dad at how good at passionate I was in this game, because after that day, he never nagged about me playing Pokémon ever again. On the ride back he even wasn’t grumpy at all. I’d like to think in a weird way without understanding it to much, he was kinda proud of me that day. I had a great day, meeting peers, not being bullied for a a day and being well liked for a while.  It would take me awhile to find that feeling again. I got sick a few years later, just after I moved past the bullying, which prevented me from exploring it early. But that day I will remember, how nice it felt to trade Vuistje the Hitmonchan, the shoulderpats from total strangers and my dad remembering Ed for a good while after.  It was nice to play with fans and be a fan!

Ed, Dad and me driving home after a good day! Seatbelts drawn for saftey!

This short little tale was inspired by the Geek-Out Challenge of “A Geeky Gal’ click on her name to check it out! It was sponsored by the poor services of my telecom provider who donated a significant amount of free time.Special thanks to Ed, Baron, Vuistje, Mo, Sjaak Hades and KISS. Hope to see you in the next blog little monsters! Stay pink!

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