Yokai – Pinkie's Paradise

Kuro’s Story Hour Presents: The Immortal Maiden teaser

Hello there, its Kuro the Bartender here. I have been working on this fine drink for quite some time and am gonna let you take a nice little sip before I fully finish this concoction. I do hope you enjoy this. This drink will make you feel like a shrine maiden who is stuck in a contract of a yokai.

The sound of sandals echoes through a foggy graveyard. A young woman in a Kuro Muji Tomesoda kimono is walking through the empty graveyard. Her zori slightly sinks into the damp earth. As she slowly moves through the eerily quiet graveyard, a gust of wind makes long dark brown hair flutter. On her left side of her hip is a black katana with a red ito and under that is a matching wakizashi. In her right hand is a large metal spiked club, slumped across her shoulder.

She freezes in her tracks as the earth below starts to tremble. A skeleton arm shoots out from the ground and grabs her right ankle. It yanks her violently down to the moist earth. Her club falls right beside her. Another skeleton arm shoots out from the earth and grabs her left arm. Their grip tightens as she tries to wiggle free. The ground rumbles more as hundreds of skeletons sprout out of the earth. They all straighten up and turn to the woman.

“Foolish Otome, you come here to my resting grounds with the murderous intent to slay me. Such foolishness. You didn’t think I, the Gashadokuro of war, would not feel hostility, your bloodlust, your insidious intentions. Such a foolish Otome. I am made from the bodies of the soldiers and civilians killed by war. Thousands have died, Otome. What is a human Otome even doing in this realm of Yokai?” A loud, deep voice echoes through the graveyard.

The ground violently shakes as a humongous skeleton arm bursts out from the ground. A monstrous skeleton lifts up from the ground. Bits of mud, grass, and bone fall from the Gashadokuro, who stands 25 meters tall.

The young woman stares up at the Gashadokuro. She winces as the two skeletons tighten their grip on her wrist and ankle. The Gashadokuro leans over towards the young woman.

“Such a foolish Otome, do you think that you can leave this place? Your foolishness has cost you your life. You shall become my food foolish Otome.” the Gashadokuro bellows.

The young woman grabs the wakizashi from her left side and draws it from the saya. She raises it up and chops down on her left wrist. She yells out in pain as the wakizashi only cuts halfway. Blood gushes from the deep cut from her wrist. The white bone peers through the crimson blood. She lifts up the blade again and quickly chops down, this time cleaving through her wrist. She cries out in pain as blood squirts of her severed wrist. She grits her teeth and rips her right leg from the grip of the skeleton. The skeleton’s bone fingers slice through her leg and blood runs down her leg. She struggles to get up and she sheathes the wakizashi. She bends over and picks up the metal spiked club. She swings aggressively and shatters the skeletons’ arms around her.

“Foolish Otome, you just cut off your own hand and are now bleeding profusely. You are truly a foolish Otome. Do you think that you could leave this place alive? You will most likely bleed out, but I will kill you before you. Tell me your name before I end your foolish life.” Gushadokuro said in a deep voice.

“My name is Chizuru Fukuhara. I will not try to leave nor will you kill me. I am here to kill you, Gashadokuro. You are my third prey.” she says in a calm voice.

Gashadokuro starts laughing, his bellowing voice booms throughout the graveyard. The hundreds of skeletons teeth start chattering as if they were laughing as well. Gashadokuro stops laughing and strikes his huge fist against the ground and quakes the entire graveyard. The skeletons stumble around from the quaking ground. Chizuru keeps her balance and stares up at Gashadokuro. The skeletons around her start falling apart and their bones start flowing towards the Gashadokuro. The bones float up and start combing into a set of Shogun armor.

Chizuru gulps and grips her spiked metal club. Blood continues to leak out of her severed wrist. Her pale face becomes more pale as she is bleeding out. She begins to slowly move forward towards Gashadokuro and takes in a deep breath. The Gashadokuro screams and stabs at Chizuru with it’s long pointy bone fingers. The long fingers rip through her stomach and lifts her up 10 meters and flings her down with tremendous force. Her intestines lay out of her body and blood gushes from the huge wounds in her stomach and back. She has trouble breathing, as blood is filling up her mouth. The Gashadokuro leans over her and stares at the dying maiden whose blood is pooling around her.

“Foolish Otome. You got yourself killed for nothing. You were not able to even hurt me you Foolish Otome. Why did you throw away your life like this? Who sent you to this realm of Yokai to kill me? It does not matter now. You are dying and now will become my food. Such a foolish Otome.”

The Gashadokuro reaches for her body to pick her up. All of the sudden Chizuru grabs the spiked metal club and strikes the Gashadokuro hand within a split second. It’s entire hand and even part of its arm shatters into pieces. Gashadokuro jumps back from shock and stares as Chizuru stands up slowly. Her intestines hanging out of her stomach starts to slide back inside her stomach. The wounds start to heal. Out of her severed wrist, spiders ascend down on a webs and crawl to her severed hand. They lift attach the webs to it and the webs connected to her wrist starts pulling the severed hand back to the wrist. The hand connects back to the wrist. She then takes in a deep breath and vomits out blood.

“How are you doing this Otome? How does a mortal human have the ability to heal like that and how did you have the strength to hurt me like this? What are you Otome!?”

Chizuru smiles and says, “I have killed Jorōgumo and Ōtakemaru. I have obtained the power of spiders and poison from Jorōgumo and the massive strength and weapon of Ōtakemaru. I am also immortal due to a curse from a yokai. She made a deal with me, Kill the thirteen head yokai of this realm and the ruler of Meido to claim back my soul so I can finally die and go with my beloved samurai.”

“How could you have killed Ōtakemaru? He is one of the most feared yokai in this realm. One of the Nihon san dai aku yokai. Who is this yokai that sent you to kill all of us? Answer me Otome.”

“Oh, I am no longer a foolish Otome? I can not tell you the name of the one who sent me but it does not matter anyway. I am going to kill you so you need not to worry about it.”

The Gashadokuro’s chest armor falls apart and turns to dust and repairs his arm and hand. The helmet then turns to dust and forms into a massive bone katana. It grits his teeth and takes a stance pointing the katana to Chizuru.

“You dare talk down to me Otome, such insolence. I can regenerate my body as well with all these skeletons. I will rip you limb from limb and get the name of the yokai that sent you to kill me then I will find a way to kill you.”

“You won’t be able to kill me, many yokai have tried, even I have tried. I am cursed to live forever until I kill everyone I was contracted to.”

“How unfortunate Otome, I will not give you my life so you can fulfill some kind of contract from a yokai. You shall be stopped.”

It raises its massive katana and strikes down at Chizuru with tremendous force and speed. The gust of wind blew her hair back and as it was about to make contact with her body, she quickly knocked back the blade with the club, causing it to severely chip the bone blade. She grimaces as the sheer force of the strike fractures her entire arm in multiple places. Part of her arm bone sticks out of the flesh, causing blood to spurt out of the wound. She quickly drops the club and pushes the bone back into the wound and it starts to heal. The Gashadokuro chuckles as it looks at the chipped blade.

“You may be strong Otome, but your feeble human body can not handle that power. Since you entertained me, I will allow you to leave. You would not be able to defeat me like that Otome. I also have numbers on my side.”

All around them, thousands of skeletons pop out from the ground. Many of them are holding katanas. Chizuru spins around and stares at all of them and gulps. The sea of skeletons all chatter their teeth, filling the entire graveyard with noise. She bends down and slowly picks up the club. She stands up points at the Gashadokuro with the club.

“I will not run away from this fight, I will end your life, the other head yokais lives, and then my own life. I will meet up with my beloved samurai in the afterlife. Nothing will stop me.” she says with a deathly serious tone.

“Such a foolishly brave Otome. KILL HER!”

The sea of skeletons swarm in on her. She takes in a deep breath. She bends her knees and crouches down.

“You are the foolish one Gashadokuro.” she says with a smile as the swarm closes in.

To be continued.

I hope you guys enjoyed the teaser of my upcoming novel (which is still in the research stage). And if you like what you read, you can drop a donation by clicking on the picture below and buying me a coffee.

Animini: Natsume Book of Friends – Episode 3- The Mysterious Person at the Eight Fields

Konichi-Well the second part of my anime week is a lot stronger than the first half. While Natsume gave me the least impressive episode I’ve seen so far I must say I am really starting to enjoy the message this show packs in it’s end of the episode! I took a fist full of feels to the face yet again.. albeit maybe a little girl first this time! I still felt the impact though and as I heard this show really picks up in a few episodes never to let me go again.. so if this is the weakest punch.. I am sure to be in for one heck of a ride.

The Summary

Natsume is tired and depressed, giving Yokai their name back has completely drained him of all his energy. Since the friendly ones tend to come visit him at night and beg for their name back he hasn’t been sleeping much either. Nyanko-Sensei is still upset that Natsume is making the book of friends thinner every night and throws a tantrum as it will lose it’s power to control these spirits little by little. To make Natsume’s situation even more annoying for him he can’t sleep in class either because a strange person has been asking for him. A boy going by the name of Tanuma. For some weird reason though each time Natsume gets kind of close the boy disappears. Natsume hopes this man can see Yokai too.. and remembers a woman he once met who seemed to be able to see Yokai as well.

A cow and a cyclops Yokai knock on Natsume’s door but unlike the others they do not want their name back. There is a Yokai killing humans on the prowl blessing areas with holy magic. Since Natsume has the reputation to help Yokai they ask him if they can kill this human. After a bit of investigation Natsume begins to believe this Tanuma boy is responsible for causing serious pain to the Yokai .. killing some and banishing the weak from their home. Taking pity on them he decides to confront the man responsible for this. Meanwhile he flashes back to that woman he met before .. telling the audience in a way about how she was not actually a woman but Yokai trying to connect with him.. he feels betrayed and chases her off. Yokai always made his life so difficult so he is not sure who to side with. There are some good Yokai out there.. that do not deserve to be killed but he doesn’t exactly like them either. A huge cow geisha Yokai joins him in the quest to kill this Yokai hunter.. forcing Natsume to compel it by using its name to save Tanuma.. but then he discovers it was just a weak priest. Tanuma’s father.. who tried to keep the place safe for his son. When Natsume confronts the young man in the hope to form a genuine connection the man admits he can’t see Yokai either.. but sometimes he sees shadows. Natsume tells Tanuma his secret.. including fondly remembering that woman from before.

The Positives

The episode is a bit boring, in the sense that the conflicts all kind of just meander on. There is no real sense of threat and in a way that is this shows and this episode’s great strength. We get a rather vanilla story.. that doesn’t really matter in the long run that provides a very form of subtle exposition and character development. It truly is unique. During this episode Natsume stands and a proverbial crossroads several times and takes the less interesting path of the two a few times and when it happens I feel kind of frustrated.. yet five minutes later there suddenly is a payoff to this thing that seems like a wrong choice. Ah.. so you wanted to highlight that Natsume is seeing Yokai less and less like evil spirits and more and more like humans.. and the journey he goes trough in this episode is him coming to terms with that fact. Getting a hindsight on his past actions and seeing it through the lense of new found discoveries. That is a very static approach but it also is very interesting.

I loved the Yokai designs for this episode as well. The priestly cow.. the mid tier cow was adorable and the cyclops old man would make for a fine cookie serving minion! The high level cow thing felt intimidating and I love how the studio plays with its shape to make it feel intimidating. Those steel blue eyes give it a heartless quality it does seem to possess.. yet it’s cow nature also gives it something tranquil.. which it also seems to possess as it doesn’t seem to have intentions to hurt Natsume. The classical scuff marks on the mid tier Yokai made me feel compassion with them.. normally that.. slightly singed look is played for comedy.. and while it is slightly the case here as well it also really conveyed there creatures were helpless and meant no ill will. Seeming them suffer the same stuff as Ash does in the Pokemon anime.. invoked a completely different reaction and that is creditable to the solid world building this show does. It still is funny.. but in a N’awww .. you guys way instead of a “Hahaha Oh my Arceus Ash you never learn.. kind of way”.. I also REALLY ended up caring for the Yokai pretending to be a human just to be social and help Natsume.. her look was just weird enough to suspect something is up.. and her voice acting when she begged him for forgiveness felt sublime.. I really felt that she did not want to lose her precious friend.

The Negatives

The episode is a bit boring, in the sense that the conflicts all kind of just meander on. There is no real sense of threat and in a way that is this show and this episode’s greatest weakness. While there is an impact to what Natsume does, it really all just pan’s out in the last five minutes. Especially the first 9 minutes felt a bit like a slog to me. In hindsight not as much but during those first few minutes I wasn’t all that entertained. The long Neck Yokai looked pretty amazing yet at the same time she invoked a sense off “I really wish that chased him or tried to harm him” for a bit. It’s a very cool Yokai design.. I just loved to have it do something. In a way the same goes for the big cow.. but it gets “sit boy’d” before it can do anything. Again that isn’t bad.. persé.. a golden gun is still worth a lot.. but it would be kinda cooler if you saw someone fire a golden bullet out of it.

The only Yokai that actually get to do something is Ushi and the Old Man.. again I have no idea how to call them.. but the mid tier priesty looking fellows I… felt bad for them in the end.. but I will be honest and tell you, there were minutes I have wished for some gruesome fates to befall them because they can REALLY be annoying in the first half. They function as Natsume’ cheerleaders and are just being loud and telling him how amazing he is. In the end it feels earned but before that it just feels insincere and irksome. They are just being loud! That’s a trope I really dislike.. but well like I said I did feel bad when they got hurt so somehow they ended up growing on me. In a way negatives also a strength and we can see it that way. Still imagine me really wanting new shoes.. but the pair I have is still too good to reasonably to replace and I am maxed out since my shoe cabinet is full. So my best friend Bean decides to stick a huge meat fork in my foot. I bleed all over the shoes and finally can throw them out.. after a while I don’t feel the wound anymore and I got the new shoes and they are amazing.. but do I really say Bean.. you did a good thing? Or would I also be sour for those first few minutes of pain?!

The Score

Last episode I explained how I normally dislike “second episodes” of a show.. their exposition heavy, character establishing and world building plots often feel a bit “mandatory” ..we see the main character decide they will follow the “heroes path” we see the elements we can expect.. in other words it’s kind of like looking at the solution of a jigsaw puzzle by looking at the front of the box. It can be pretty but it doesn’t feel all that satisfying. This third episode is THAT second episode.. just in the end we open the box as well.. pour the contents out on the table and lucky us we find a corner piece straight away! What a delightful feeling that is! I still feel kinda weird for staring at the box of the puzzle for a good 10 minutes I wish I would have taken more puzzle time.

This is one of those episodes that tells me I will love the frig out of this show.. but it does lose my love a bit because it has the one that explains to me why I will love it. Like an entertaining synopsis.. or the Star Wars title crawl.. there are amazing elements but when is all done and over no one will say that their favourite part of Star Wars was the title crawl… although with The Last Jedi… I kinda liked it most.. but you know what I mean right. This episode does a great job at establishing Natsume’s mindset.. but as a Pokémon fan.. and a creature fan I kind of wanted to see the amazing creatures do more things instead.. It’s brand Vanilla flan.. it’s the best you can do with Vanilla Flan.. but it’s still just Vanilla flan. I prefer chocolate!

Animini: Natsume Book of Friends -Episode 2- The Dew God’s Small Shrine

I had a lot of reactions to my first review of Natsume, my dear Island Guests. After telling I thought it was very good but a fairly predictable first episode I was told the good stuff would start a few episodes in.. so I was fully prepared for this episode to be even a bit bland.. as usually Episode 2’s of series are my least liked episode (exposition and such)… I was not prepared for what I was about to see when I watched the second episode of Natsume!

The Summary

Natsume and Nyanko-Sensei are growing a bit closer together as Natsume continues to deal with Yokai in his daily life. We begin the episode with what I assume is a potential romantic interest for the boy asking him for a signature to do a Trial of Bravery in the old School building.. a ghost hunt of sorts! A hunt that I am sure will be one of the next few episodes! There Natusume sees a Yokai that chases him and attacks him thinking he is Reiko again. Nyanko-Sensei saves him because the spirit trying to kill the boy wants the book for himself. We see that Natsume’s daily life has changed since he became his lucky cat “pal” . There are two types of Yokai in his life. Those trying to kill him and those who come and talk and ask for their name back. One of these is the tiniest cute little Yokai guy who is described as the “Dew God” A former rain god that has shrunk in size after losing followers. We also discover Nyanko’s real name is Madara.

When Natsume tries to give the little guy his name back, he discovers his grandmother did not take to great care of the book and two pages are stuck together.. if he tries to peel the apart and give Dew’s name back.. he might cause him imense pain or even death. So the only way to solve this is to find this other Yokai that is stuck to his page as well. Natsume lacks time at the moment and will visit the shrine of the guy later. On his way there he meets and old Lady named Hana who is nice enough to give him a peach. She turns out to be Dew God’s only follower.. his lore is told and she experienced it and is thankful for the mircale a man has caught still. Praying devoutly every day.. even though she is sick and doesn’t have a lot of time left on this earth. Natsume searches for the other Yokai..which turns out to be quite hard because the Dew God only gives him a poor drawing to go by.. this causes the hunt to go on for several days but eventually the little guy tracks the Yokai down and Natsume can give them back their names.. the Dew God thanks him.. but tells he is dying. Hana died and with his last follower gone.. a god will die as well. Natsume tells he will be his follower and worship him but the Dew God refuses.. telling Natsume that they are friends.. those should not worship each other… he then fades.. finally coming eye to eye with Hana in a form of afterlife. Thankful for what she has done for him. Reliving their missed opportunity encounter.

The Positives

I did not expect this episode to impact me already! That was such a sweet but also heartbreaking episode. I mean there is still a lot to be established here but as far as second episodes go I have never been as deeply emotionally affected like this one. I went misty eyed! I managed to not cry.. .but I really came to like that little guy in the span of a single episode. The idea of a god dying without worshippers was something I was quite familiar with by playing the game Sacrifice WAAAY back in the day. I beat that game with every single god and had a blast!… So when I heard Hana had died.. I was afraid for the little guy.. and without remorse he was taken from me! I liked the message he left with a lot too.. friends do not worship each other , they are equals. Even though I am not familiar with Shinto religion and the idea of shrines and paying offers, the end scene of Natsume leaving an offering for something that someday might be in the now empty shrine was a nice little sentiment. If we do not appreciate things they might be gone before we know it.. so let’s already be thankful for whatever blessings might be bestowed upon us in advance!

I like how we are exposed to Natusme’s social life in a rather organic way. Tired from all his adventures and releasing a spirit he ponders over his relation with his legal guardians, telling how much he appreciates them and can not bother them with this little quest of his. It does feel like a fairly genuine string of thinking though.. I am so tired from the job but I can’t bother anyone with what is going on at my work right now for it would make my loved ones worry. The subtle way he wants to sign something to help the female classmate and pronounces her name are all much more subtle cues to tell a story then him going all hearty eyes telling in his mind she is his secret crush.. this also leaves more room for liberties.. maybe I read it wrong, maybe the two are just friends.. maybe something awkward happened between them.. there is so much more you can narratively do with this approach and it also feels a lot more natural than how anime crushes are conveyed normally. This is a great episode that really plays on emotions in a sensible way. Also those peaches Hana was known for and gave to Natsume looked SUPER TASTY! So some nice visuals and creature design as well!

The Negatives

I struggle to find anything negative about the second episode of Natsume. Yet I can’t fault it that much. The comedy with the drawing was funny. The attempts from Madara/Nyanko to off Natsume in his sleep had chuckling and the story elements nicely clicked together. If I had to nag about something.. and I set myself up for that it’s that getting the little guy his name back and him fading away happens fairly close next to each other.. but I am not even sure that is correct. We see a day pass but for all we know it could be several days. Still it felt a bit “coincidental” that the old lady died JUST after the quest had been complete.You know.. storybook pacing and such.. still I probably would have enjoyed the episode if that did not happen.. so it’s not really a negative! Reee! Let me try again! Sound?! No I loved those Cicada’s in the middle of nowhere? The plenty of flashbacks? No those were quite lovely! Darn it! Oh wait maybe this!

So in the school Natsume encounters a Yokai that gets stopped by Dragon-mode Nyanko/Madara it then turns into a fluffy ball with an eye and floats away. That plotline is not pursued at all anymore, it’s just a random fleeing Yokai.. which I would have liked to see addressed a bit more.. but I am sure that it will return in the next episode or in a few so that way it would be more awesome! But if it just vanished from here on out.. that would be a negative. Hey I’ll take a potential negative point over having non in a section where I am supposed to list negatives! I am also sad the Dew God and Hana are gone forever.. I liked both characters .. but that is what made this episode so impressive already. Yeah.. really that is it.. this episode already was quite amazing.

The Score

You don’t need to be paranormal to see what grade I am about to give this episode . There is this thing between me and second episodes that always is a bit iffy. There are a few series of which I don’t mind the second episode.. but there are very VERY few series of which I love the second episode. Samurai Flamenco being a Noteworthy exception. However I am going to call it and say this is my new favourite second episode of a series! So that is pretty high praise! It’s my tribute to a show which one day might even become better.. and I am actually pretty sure of it.

Natsume’s Grandma seems like a horrible person though! She steals Yokai’s names and takes bad care of the book and she tricks people into fighting her by offering them food when they need to eat. I am not sure what kind of person Reiko is but she seems like quite a Bit-Choo-Choo train to me! An interesting specimen still and I want to learn more about her.. but I think I would hide a lot of tabasco in her tea if I ever got to serve her some. She’d probably beat my pink face in or send Yokai to deal with me… but yeah! These are just some random thoughts! Really REALLY good episode! .. Now I am off to find some dissapointing peaches in the SuperMarket.. but i really want one!

A BIT of Nostalgia: Pocky and Rocky

Hello again my dear island guests! As some of you know , I am not very much of a modern gamer, I really tend to stick close to gems of the past and in the past of this blog I have discussed a fair few of these. Recently I replayed one of these classics again. As a kid this game was bundled in a special rental promotion set with Mystical Ninja Goemon in some of my video-stores staff favourite bundles. That game was called Pocky and Rocky.

The Priest and The Tanuki

Pocky and Rocky is an odd game, manifesting as a scrolling shooter but for once not playing space or a warzone. Instead you move to colourful landscapes and you should down a slew of varying monsters, navigate around certain traps and use tools to defend yourself.
However other than that it does still play like a typical scrolling shooter. You collect power ups to upgrade your weapon in two different ways, you fight bosses and like all space shooters this game is tricky as heck! It is commonly seen as a bit of a niche hit for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System but upon release was popular enough to spawn three sequels. One on the SNES one on the Game Boy Advance and one on the Playstation 2 and Wii. The game was produced by Natsume and published by them as well. Upon its release it got reviewed pretty well, easily scoring an average score of about 8 out of 10. More often going higher than that then lower. This is a perfectly fine score for this game that is mostly praised for its amazing two player mode.

I reviewed the game Single Player as I don’t have any friend who wants to come play this with me in person and the person who might play this with me lacks the patience for such a title. It should be noted that both the American version and the Japanese version are much better than the European version of the game. In Europe the Japanese version never got translated and as a result while there are cutscenes the European version does not feature any text or story! To explain the story I will use a Let’s Play of the American version , thus characters will be titled like their American counterpart. To be fair I had a lot of fun imagining what the story would be in the European version but seeing how far I was off made me chuckle a bit. Some of the terminology used comes from the Pocky and Rocky Wiki and not from the game as even the American version never uses any terminology for weapons or anything except the enemies.

When you are alone you can take the role of Pocky , who is a little priest girl who fights by throwing sealing cards, called Ofuda, at enemies and she can defend by swinging her priestess staff or Gohei. Rocky is a Raccoon Dog and instead of cards he tosses out leafs and he defends by swiping his tail. There seem to be minute differences between the characters, for example I think Pocky is faster but Rocky can dive a bit further and seems to defend more effectively. .but I honestly am not sure if I made that up in my mind or if it is actual reality. The story moves independent of what character you pick as both storywise seem to stick together. Which brings us to a bit of a problem.. this game is very VERY hard if you single player it! I really would have liked it if the lonesome player would have gotten an NPC ally to aid them.. however because of how some challenges are designed I guess an AI could not cut it! While you can play the game by yourself.. the easy difficulty will already provide you with a very steep challenge.

Let’s Rocky

The story of the game is wonderfully weird and very mundane at the same time! A long time ago wicked creatures called the Nopino Goblins spread mischief across the land. Yet they were all subjected by a priest named Pocky. All seemed well until one day Pocky the Tanuki shows up telling her his fellow Nopino Goblins are out of control! The first Nopino Goblins that go out of control are these Umbrellas with a big eye and a scary mouth. As well some weird ass cyclops monks! They are aided by guys in baskets that should at you and spooky scary skeletons! The boss of the first level is a guy with a big brown head that shoots seeds at you! When you defeat him.. he tells he has been mind controlled by a guy in a Black Mantle.. so that is what the villain of the game is called Black Mantle! Pocky and Rocky then venture into the water domain to fight some creatures that look like a cross between a turtle and a duck……wait a minute!

Tanuki..Kasa Obake, Oi No Bakemono, Hitotsume-kozō and Kappa! Nopino Goblin is the English translation for the word Yokai! That is hilarious! The second stage makes you fight the cutest monkeys before eventually turning into a water stage quickly restricting your movement. Since a game over doesn’t abide by any checkpoints or subareas getting a game over means you go back to the beginning of a stage! You have unlimited continues but..Nopino Goblins can be tough sons of Yokai! The game is hilariously translated and the dialogue feels SUPER cheesy! Especially after you finish the third stage and things seem more dire! That stage took me SO Many attempts though! It has two pretty hard minbi bosses, and grueling gauntlets of flying enemies. After you deal with that you dodge some traps and shifting walls that can push you off the stage so you have to master the dodge technique here to avoid the deadly twomps like skeletons and shifting stage. It is a very good stage that has some amazing designs though and some funny Nopino Goblins!

It gets even better though , as you advance past the third stage you find out that the evil organisation is the Gorgonzola Goblins, living in the Gorgonzola Fortress and to get there you have to use a cursed airship! This is probably the hardest stage in the game, Narrow spaces, few options to dodge and lots of Yokai Pirates and turres with crazy attack patterns. It is guarded by a bird Yokai which requires you to be pretty good at your shield and dodge techniques. Of course that pales in comparison to the skill you have to show against the second to last boss fight! Black Mantle of course works together with Dracula! This fight. quickly turns into a bullet hell! With a twist. Entire sections of the map at time become electrified so standing still and defending will not get you anywhere.. so you will have to zoom across the arena.. while using your defensive tail swipe AND attacking the boss! All tools have to be used at the same time. The final stage is a simple climb facing some tough enemies that fire attacks that cover half the screen. Getting hit by them drains a massive amount of health as well and health power ups are very rare! With a miniboss and the big boss himself.. this one might take a few attempts. The ending is wholesome and cute and after a bit of ending dialogue Pocky and Rocky share some Dango together in the moonlight!

Sweet as a Pocky

Pocky is a sweet japanese candy..well it’s bread with chocolate on it but the Pocky in this game is just as sweet. The presentation of this game is phenomonal! The cutscenes are super cute, the sprites are fantastic and the game has some pretty nice tunes. It really has a cute anime esthetic that also reminds me of Saturday morning cartoons for very young kids. The way the story is presented also seems very much like one of the cutests tales for kids you have ever seen. The story is very much non-violent but there are some creepy like bosses and creepy imagery as well it is very balanced out!

You never get bored! Every stage feels significantly different from the others even if lots of set pieces are reused across all stages. It really works, you can see what areas lie close to one another but you also feel like you have made progress. Pocky and Rocky both look great themselves. If you play with two players you even get some team moves where one character uses the other to launch themselves forward as if they were a skateboard of sorts.. It looks buttery smooth. The frame-rate can stutter a tiny bit if there are too many enemies on screen but that is almost never an issue.

The gameplay is rather pleasant and while it is difficult as heck, it never feels really unfair.. that said it is one of those , remember the patterns , kinda game.. but to be fair that rings true for most of the genre and the genre itself is known for being pretty difficult. Basically how this game works is, you make progress until you die, you find out why you die or how these enemies work and how to best get around it , you lose less health and the next time you progress further. You die again facing this new enemy or a bit in the level and you come up with a strategy for that section again. You start the stage over again and combine your knowledge of before to get even further.. and so you get a little bit better every time you die. You really have to remember how these things work because health is fairly rare and there is no regaining life during a stage. Playing alongside a friend will make things a bit more manageable as you can remind each other how to get around an obstacle and the team moves really make you able to dash through things you can’t do alone..but that is actually a nice reward for playing with two. You really can use each other!

The controls all work pretty nicely as well, pretty much every button is used and if you don’t like a lay out the game allows you to remap them yourself to fit your preference. For example I remapped the dodge to something that worked a bit better for me. I gradually ended up remapping a few things, just to fit my playstyle and it worked. I really felt myself improving.. but there is a lot to improve for just one sitting.

Nope-Ino

There are a few minor gripes I have with this game and for one is there is no save feature! That is rather common and if you are familiar with the game you can beat this entire game in just under an hour. To learn all these patterns of thought takes a lot longer. I needed several hours to gradually improve myself enough to beat this. It’s possible.. but as I grew more tired focus began to fade. At stage 4 I had to call it quits the first day. Replaying Stage 1 through 3 was a lot easier the next day but there is no real reward for playing through them well. You can’t take extra lives, at least not above your maximum and continue being unlimited even if you could.. it doesn’t really matter if you don’t start out with max lives you just learn and progress later. Stage 4 and Stage 5 are WAAAY harder than the previous once so after progressing through stage 4 and most of 5 .. I had to call it quits on the second day! The third day playing through stage 1 till 4 felt a bit .. tedious.. It’s part of the genre but a password after stage 3 might have been nice. Even if it was just the one.

The fact that there are only two upgrades .. plus a shield is also a bit .. thin. Blue orbs improve your cards or leafs so you can throw multiple while orange orbs turn your projectiles into fireballs. While both characters have a unique main weapon the fireball is the same, which is sad as it does more damage, but it looks way less unique! You are usually better off with the bigger range of your main weapon anyway. I just wish there were more upgrades. Upgrades decrease if you take hits so for example I can see a slower but homing attack being a nice upgrade or perhaps a less damaging projectile but one that also blocks enemy attacks much like your swipes. It would give us a bit more variation to play! It doesn’t really affect how fun this game is.. and it is really fun.. I just think.. it could even be more fun if you and your friend could go different weapon upgrade routes and get a bit more creative rather than just skilful!

Of course for the european version the lack of text is a BIG issue. While the dialogue is nothing to write home about, it adds a really innocent charm to the game that isn’t really there in our PAL version. While the cutscenes without dialogue are still pretty cute, the bosses in the American version usually say some fun lines as well .. a threat right before you start, which feels like some extra motivation.. since the european version apparently had to translate from the japanese version and they said nope we are not going to translate it. Which is a shame.. it isn’t a good text.. but it is really cute!

The final gripe I have with this game is the box art! It really is quite ugly and doesn’t represent the style of the game at all. The Japanese box art looks so much cuter! The art of the game is much more reflective of that Japanese style so why make it in this weird semi-cool box art. I get it in some games where a sprite is open for interpretation but given the high quality presentation in the cutscenes, and of the sprite itself , I don’t think this is something you can pull off successfully!

Two can play THIS Game

This title is a super strong and quite overlooked one in the SNES library! Due to it’s arcade like feeling it aged very well and is very fun to play to this day. Buying a cartridge can be a costly affair with prices ranging going well above that of a full priced game, and including a case you can easily buy two full priced console games. So it does hold some collector value. I am sure however people can find a way to enjoy this game none the less. Pocky Rocky and Becky the second sequel for the Game Boy Advance has been released on several virtual consoles. If you manage to get your hands on this game however it will provide a few hours of good fun! While relatively short it takes quite a while to master and the colourful graphics and varying stages make everything a delight to replay. Even by yourself.

The real fun however starts if you play this with a buddy! More strategies unlock, extra moves are handed out and there is just that much more fun to be had with the game. Single player the game is great but you can feel it never completely reaches it’s full potential. Some enemies are extra rough to dodge because you really miss that team up move set. A choice I think is very brave and makes sense A single player has much more reason to master this while a two player game can be more casual fun. It might not be able to escape some of the classic genre tropes and the lack of a password system or a save feature prevents it from getting my highest rating but it got darn close! Pocky and Rocky is one of the better Co-op multiplayer games on the system and Nopino Goblins is an amazing english word for Yokai!

Froslass : The Yuki Onna

Dear Nintendo, I know you you did it first and better, but basing pokémon on yokai makes me think about that imitation with the time telling and the orange cat. What should I feel? I really like this pokemon but I do not want people to think I am into that other series! I WATCHed it once.. but I really like you so much more! I am devout to Nintendo, Game Freak and the Pokémon Company so please forgive me when I say. These creatures based on yokai are awesome! I only mean it for you! Also hey their are sort of monsters or spirits at least so it ties in nicely with Halloween.

A friend’s favorite

Welcome back my little aides to another installment of Professor Pinkie’s Pokédex. Today we shall discuss the Ice-Ghost type Pokemon Froslass. Froslass is the pokémon of my dear friend Angel. As a result I have come to identify her with such a pokémon. Both are very girly, and she is a northern european. Which means I’ll always imagine her living in a snowy area, quite frail as well I oftenly keep one my team to name it after her… and then I teach it destiny bond so I can sacrifice it to take down hard to kill pokemon. Of course I would not ever do this to Angel *shifty eyes*. Anyway.. Froslass is the evolution of Snorunt, who looks kind of like a shivering Dorito, it is actually a little black oval creature wearing a warm parka like triangle. These creatures are oftenly Jolly and happy folk who are very social and love to interact with other Snorunt and sometimes come to visit human homes to have fun as well.

By using a Dawn Stone on a female Snorunt you can evolve it to Froslass. A ‘slightly less’ sociable creature. That’s right since when it evolves Snorunt changes from a pure Ice-Type to an Ice-Ghost type.. and everything with the ghost typing has to be twisted in some way! Yet more on that later. Froslass is a cute looking pokemon that is very reflective of its only possible gender. It looks elegant and feminine, yet portrays a coldness quite well. When you look at her you just know she isn’t just a sweetheart. There is a hint of danger around her. She wears a stunning white garb reminiscent of a kimono, tied together with a bright red obi (a belt for a kimono oftenly with an ornamental bow or pillow like at the back) The kimono moves over her head like a cowl only revealing some holes for the eyes, mouth forehead and horns, which are two stumpy ice crystals. Behind the holes in the cowl we see a deep purple body and a cold yellow eye with frosty blue iris starting at us. Her hair is in the same colour bending behind her hat into the shape of the cowl. This is by far my favorite ice type design pokémon and I can see why Angel likes it.. but is it any good?

Dead ghost

The short answer is no, she isn’t very good. Basically every fully evolved ghost type has a higher base stat total than this one. With a base total of 480 she isnt that much behind the pack, but having no bad stats means she also doesn’t have really excellent ones. There are better ghost when it comes to defense and there are better ghosts for offence as well. With only her speed being in the ‘good tier’ her special offence and physical offence are tied do mean she can swap roles to suit your needs though. Decent enough in everything to function there is however little room for her in the metagame. There is one main boon to having a froslass on your team though. She has a great speed stat , outspeeding even most legendaries as well as many many other pokémon. This means unlike most ghost , who can be on the sluggish side she is a great swap in to quickly finish something already damaged off. After which you try to safely swap her out or you use Destiny Bond. Destiny Bond is a move from the second generation of pokemon games. A pokémon that has cast the move upon another pokémon, will make that pokémon faint .. if that pokémon knocks out the caster, a revenge kill of sorts.

In an official match, should the last two pokémon go down together due to destiny bond, the trainer using the revenge move wins. This mechanic makes Froslass worth carrying because she can easily be sacrificed for a Pokémon you otherwise would be unable to take down.Unfortunately usually it means sending this pokémon to it’s death (or fainting at least). Othermoves you can run would be high attack power attacks of it’s typings, like Shadow Ball and Ice Beam. Perhaps a boosting move like Calm Mind if they dont have something super effective out against you, but Destiny Bond is kind of a must have! A gimmicky pokémon whose theme seems her inspiration. This one likes revenge.

It’s not Ikea!

While it evolves out of female Snorunt and a Dawn Stone, pokedex entries for this pokémon state that it once was a woman. A woman who was left alone all in the cold, usually on a snowy mountain top or so. When she passed away she became a froslass. Her pokedex entry is kind of messed up. It’s first ever pokedex entry in Pokémon diamond stated that it’s breath has a temperature of -60 degrees Fahrenheit.. which would be around -51 in Celsius. It uses this breath to freeze it’s opponents. What we see as its body is actually just a hollow shell. So this ghost chose to animate a frozen shell , this shell is shaped into a cute little feminine entity to fulfill its greater desires.

What those desires are being made clear her pokedex entry from Pokemon Platinum. This time the word opponent of foe has been replaced by prey! Slightly reducing her coldness to -58 degrees Fahrenheit. The term prey is used because it doesn’t just use it in battle anymore. She freezes her victims shit and relocates them.. collecting them in it’s den. Later Pokédex entries specify this a bit more clearly. It looks for both Pokémon AND humans to display, picking everyone they think would make a nice decoration. It preys on people hiking the mountain trails and collects the pokémon and people to make their home as stylish as possible. Now since we are dealing with anime and game logic there is several ways to freeze someone. Pokémon can recover from being frozen and people are perfectly fine after defrosting. In case of Froslass not so much. Someone really thought the pokedex entry of Froslass wasn’t dark enough and in Pokémon Moon it was stated her favorite food is the souls of men. In pokémon Ultra Sun, they somewhat retconned what she collected and says she only chooses handsome man to be her victims, while the Ultra Moon pokédex entry has her going out in blizzards to collect people from their villages. I’d rather have furniture but that is just me. One thing is for sure, if she devours souls I doubt this is a freeze status you’ll just shrug off.

With skin as white as snow

The inspiration for this amazing pokémon dates back too as early as the Muromachi period of ancient japan. This period dated from the mid 1300’s up to the the mid 1500’s. (Around from 1336 to 1573) where the poet Sōgi made a reference of one. It is likely stories have even been told longer than that. The Yuki-Onna has an abundant number of variations and forms. From and old lady in a white kimono, to a fully naked young lady. Young ladies with white Kimonos however their most described form. With their skin so unnaturally white it blends in with the snow and the white Kimono. Ravenlike hair.. which lets be honest is nothing special in Japan and blue lips. We immediately see some design similarities between the general image of the Yuki-Onna and Froslass. Also the snow-lady’s origin story appears to be mostly considered the same. It is fairly common belief that the Yuki-Onna was once a woman who fell in the snow of the mountains. There the snow can be deep and trap you inside making sure you meet a frosty demise. Imagine quicksand but with snow. In the Aomori prefecture , which lies at the utmost northern part of Japan’s ‘main’ island , we find the most commonly known story, know as the Shigama-Onna. This tells us about a Yuki Onna who is hugging a child on a snowy mountain, she would ask passerby’s to hug the child as well. In doing so the child would increase in weight.. each hug bringing it closer to sinking into the snow and death by freezing, dragging the unfortunatly soul who hugged it last with it into the afterlife. To refuse the ghostly lady would result in her throwing you off the mountainside.

There are many others stories , most of them quite gruesome and yet somehow Game Freak has seem to have chosen a mix of the most gruesome stories. In the Iwate area it is believed that the Yuki-Onna uses her looks to steal the vitality of her victims, while in the Niigata prefecture specifically mentions her freezing people to death with her breath. This same variation would feast on children’s livers and rip them out of their still living bodies. In other myths they tell how on nights of blizzards Yuki Onna would rattle the door and if you opened it would certainly spell doom for you or like in most myths your children. Yuki-Onna have also been described gathering many children and ‘putting them’ into a field. Which seems to be the inspiration for the collection part of the myth. However for some reason all mentions of children have not made it to the pokédex. Now don’t get me wrong I do get why you can’t describe Froslass ripping the liver out of young trainers, that might be too scary and describing them as child killers might make players fear it, but Drifloon was said to drag children to the afterlife in the pokédex so it doesn’t feel completely consistent.

Now we hope that in future generations Froslass gets an evolution to make her a bit more viable than a speedy sweeper and sacrificial pawn. In one myth a man took a Yuki-Onna in during the night of a blizzard and he treated her well. He most likely given her hot tea (which is a recurring theme in her myth that seems to end stories favorably) took care of her and shown her kindness. When the man woke up the next day he found out the woman had turned into gold. It could be interesting to see Froslass shed her ice typing and become a steel-ghost type trough leveling up with friendship and it would grant a ghost type line a somewhat happier pokédex entry. I certainly would like to see it. I wish I could say the same for a Yuki-Onna in my life, even though I would treat her with kindness it would never work out between us… she likes children to much.

Question to my Readers:

What is your favorite Yokai?

Now that we had our fun in the snow it is time for some warmer thoughts! So I suggest you make yourself a hot coco, subscribe to my blog if you already haven’t , which you can easily do on my home page and even on any page of the official site, have a good day and don’t forget the marshmallows in your chocolate milk!

The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting of again!
XO
Pinkie

Mawile the Futakuchi-onna

Greetings little monsters, welcome back to the ‘wonderful’ world of Pokémon. Today I will take a look at another pokémon and look at it’s abilities , skills and mostly it’s mythological inspiration. Today we discuss one of my least favorite pokémon of my favorite type. Mawile! The deceiver Pokémon.

Mixed emotions

The fact that this pokémon is one of my lesser loved ones among the fairy types doesnt mean it is not a good pokémon. In fact Mega-Mawile, introduced in the sixth generation, can be quite good. However here lays my problem with this little monster, it really does need it’s mega stone to be good. This means you kind of have to run it as a mega set, in order to make it live up to any potential or for it to have solid stats. While Mega-Venusaur and Mega-Garchomp for example feel much more .. optional, with a lot of potential ways to play the pokemon. Mawile in its regular form just has its physical traits going for it the rest of it’s stats really are quite bad. It is an interesting typing though. It’s fairy typing covers it’s steel typings weakness to fighting moves and the steel part gives the fairy part of it an immunity to it’s poison weakness. In fact Mawile resists ten out of eighteen typings and is immune to two besides that. That means two thirds of all typings can not hit it effectively. On paper this would make the little lady like pokémon a good defensive pokémon, unfortunately it’s weaknesses are ground types and fire types which are very common moves and a lot of pokémon can learn elemental punches, bites or even earthquake. You can not equip it with an air balloon to negate this because it does really need to hold its mega stone.

It is a nice pokémon to nuzlocke with but for a regular playthrough or competitive play it is quite lacking. It’s design is good, it has some creepy elements to it as well as some cute, which is meant to be part of it’s design , yet I can not help to feel like it should evolve somehow. It is just a bit too basic for a non evolving pokémon. The mega evolution fixed that but at the cost of giving it an item. While it does learn some decent moves, it only starts learning those past level 33 and up to level 49 and even then it’s just really has one viable way to build. So all in all , while a useful pokémon, I would not particularly call it charming. There is little room for playing around.

Design

While I already went over how it’s design looks just looks a bit to basic let’s talk about it some more , but this time we also take into account what the makers want it to be. It’s backstory and all those qualities which can explain why a pokémon looks the way it does. It’s design is based on depictions of the japanese entity called a Futakuchi-onna, whom we will talk about more in the next ‘chapter’ but basically it is woman with a mouth in the back of her head. When we look at Mawile we can clearly see the mouth is not in the back of her head but actually is in the back of her hair. However Mawile can be both genders, which is a bit odd given it’s inspiration can exclusively be feminine, it is explained that what we see as hair is actually a steel horn, to explain it’s steel typing. The fairy typing was only added after generation VI (Kalos) so before that it was just a pure steel type. Perhaps this is partially why I do not like Mawile as much, it just doesn’t feel like a steel type , with what it was based on a dark type would have made so much more sense. But I guess Hoenn , the region it originated must have needed some additional steel types or something.. because I can not see a relation to most of its lore.. the only thing is the steel horn thing which feels forced.

Nani?! That is ONE weird steel horn Gamefreak!

Mawile is being described as the deceiver, it lulls pokémon or people into a false sense of security with it’s cute face before turning around and beginning to chomp on them with it’s bigger mouth. The bigger mouth can not taste anything so it will eat anything just to get enough sustenance, the mouth can even chew through iron beams. Weirdly enough Mawile doesn’t get the Strong Jaw ability. It can learn intimidate.. which makes sense cause it is scary as hell to see such a mouth, or Hyper Cutter (an ability that prevents abilities from being lowered) which also makes sense.. because it deceives making people think the cute part is the actual monster while it kinda actually is the mouth that is in control. It’s hidden ability (you can get by transferring) make it a lot more impressive fighting wise and symbolise it’s sheer determination to eat and nothing else. This pokemon just wants to consume. Many dex-entries warn for how extremely dangerous a Mawile can be. The egg coloured body looks cute while the mouth does look quite ferocious so they do a good job at that at least but you get the sense there is more. We see that more when it Mega-Evolves.

Mawile says! ‘Eat your vegies kids!’

Mega-Mawile looks a bit more feminine than i it’s base form, her dress has now been given multiple colours and the hair mouth has now become two even more evil looking twin tales. It’s ability now becomes Huge Power, which doubles its physical attack stats that now has ridden to an already quite impressive 105. Compared to regular Mawiles 85, that is quite an increase. This makes Mega Mawile quite good in fact, at least in the ‘useful’ sense of the word. Alignment wise this pokémon seems to be quite evil. The pokédex says the mouths have become extremely vicious after transforming and now use one mouth to catch their prey in while the other mouth tries to rip them apart. The mouth seem to be able to fight over the food. Imagine that two T-Rex scene from Jurassic Park the lost world but on a cute girly pokémon with a pokemon in between two of her three mouths instead. Yikes! A single gash from them is said to be able to turn a boulder into dust. Not so cute after all, but hey if you ever want your Porygon2 to be two Porygon2 we know whom to mega-evolve.

Yokai

Now let’s see how much Mawile looks at its inspiration the Futakuchi-Onna. I was looking for a way to abbreviate this but somehow Futa seemed like a bad choice. There are to many other onna’s so I will refer to them as ‘ladies’ from now on. This lady is a yokai , not that weird anime with the orange cat that is sort of like pokémon but ancient japanese folk-tales. Like I said earlier they are women who have transformed , while sources differ on their origin all seem to have a theme of neglect of something. Depriving something of someone.

As far as we know the transformation to this demonlike state can happen for three particular reasons. First of all a woman can become a Futakuchi-Onna if she neglects taking care (step)children. In one of the oldest tales there is woman of moderate wealth who is very stingy despite being off well enough. She has a child of her own she keeps well fed. However she refuses to spend money on her stepchild allowing to to die of starvation. The kid’s spirit becomes a spirit of vengeance attaching to to the head of the lady’s actual daughter. You can probably guess where the story goes from there. As the stingy woman transforms from sinner to dinner. The trickster part of the mythologie seems to come from this part of the myth and possibly part of their design too. Mawile looks quite cute and young, hairstyles are either twintails or a single ponytail which I usually associate with something young and cute. Since mawile uses it’s cuteness it could very well be the spirit of a child that their mother let starve to death or something in a similar vein.

The second possibility to become a ‘lady’ is to neglect your own need for food. Woman starving themselves to look good can turn into the yokai over time. It is said that at one point during their hunger they can feel their skull splitting while new lips and a mouth begin to form. A mouth that needs twice as much food as the ‘main’ chomper. This new mouth is perfectly capable of feeding itself having control of the vessels hair. It oftenly whispers hateful or spiteful things to the vessel to make it more meek to its own wishes or simply manipulate it, usually not in a charming way though. The second mouth in nearly every source talks you down, never up. A lot of elements from this version can also be seen in Mawile, the way that the hair is being depicted as the dominant side, the pokédex entry that the second mouth doesn’t taste so Mawile uses that one to get enough food even if it doesnt like it. It hits the tones of the lady being forced to eat twice as much. The malicious character of the second mouth has also been shown in the Pokémon adventures Manga where a Mawile body got in conflict with her hair. The ability Hyper Cutter and intimidate seem to fit this form quite good as well.

The demon’s food must be Condoleezza Rice

The third and clearly less documented way to get your skull to split and form a mouth is by not speaking your mind. Women who hide their true feelings can form a mouth that will spout any idea you have going inside that big brain of yours. I do not think Mawile has any connection with this type of the lady. At best we could argue that as a deceiver she never shows her real mind but that feels a bit flimsy, especially when food and eating plays such a big part in her story. Then again.. maybe Mawile was once a girl that once starved because she wasn’t taken care off, starting out as a ghost pokémon trying to tell people what happened to her she failed and thusly grew her ‘metal horn’ now she is hungry for more.

This is why we women never shut up! We grow demons otherwise!

Whatever it is I am pretty safe from becoming a ‘lady’ myself. I love food and cooking way to much to go too malnourished, even when lacking money I try to be creative to produce at least some kind of meal. I always speak my mind, even when it might not be that appropriate my opinion is who I am and should I prematurely die I do not want you to know the woman I pretended to me but the Pinkie I truly am. I would however starve children cause I am really not into them. Luckily I will never want or get children myself so there is no one to starve. (Don’t worry I won’t let a random kid starve I would buy him a krentenbol, that’s a raisin bun. I guess from the Pokémon Mawile and the lady we learn to take care of yourself, those around you and to speak your mind when something is troubling you. Troubling like seeing a pokémon bisected by mega-mawiles gaping maws, or even myself. I’ll go catch a mawile now, nickname it Lisa, mega evolve it and let it eat me. Just so I can yell ‘You are tearing me apart Lisa’…. for the memes.

Question to my readers:

Have you seen: Tommy Wisseau’s the room?

Let me know your answer in the comments. Now it is time for this professor to take a nap. Though I might grab a little snack first. Takling about devouring has made me kind of peckish. Not really in my stomach.. just a feeling you know, a little gnaw in the back of my head.

The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again
XO
Pinkie