#Back when pokemon games released in Japan first

[casseabun]

Days 1 & 2 of me drawing sewaddle for my redemption shiny hunt.

Full odds, random encounter hunt in Black 2

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 4.2: A Grand Glorious Gathering (1996-2000)

Welcome back to An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Last time we left off, the Lost Decade had just begun, Gundam got a radical makeover, CLAMP came onto the scene, Takara created a replacement for Diaclone, and Evangelion would begin its run on television. What we'll see now is the rise of a lot of fan-favorite shows in this era, but we will also see the sudden appearance of a third honorary mecha series. We will also see why [adult swim] is going to play a big picture in all of this, as they will begin to get more involved with the production of anime. With all of that out of the way...

Big O!

Showtime!

Pocket Monsters/Pokemon (1996, honorary mecha show 3)

Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon for short, is a multimedia series created by Satoshi Tajiri and the folks at Game Freak, Creatures, and Nintendo that would round out the four anime that would make anime mainstream alongside Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing. The reason why Pokemon is worth mentioning in a series about mecha is due to the nature of a lot of mecha stories, primarily those involving giant robots: Pokemon would grow to eventually become the single largest franchise OF ALL TIME. And as it is a franchise that is aimed primarily at children, this would prove to be one of many things that would help in the decline of giant robot stories, as a lot of the giant robots of old relied heavily on merchandise sales (namely in the form of toys) in order to be successful. Now that Pokemon is in the picture, there is competition, especially since Pokemon's video games would be published by a little company known as Nintendo.

Fortunately, Pokemon wouldn't become the highest-selling franchise of all time just yet. It would take a couple of years for that to happen.

Martian Successor Nadesico (1996) & Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness (1999)

Produced in 1996 by Xebec, Martian Successor Nadesico would be the first series since the original Gundam to really take a swing at subverting and/or deconstructing the giant robot. Primarily a screwball comedy, Nadesico is known for its extensive use of its show-within-a-show Gekiganger 3 (a pastiche of shows like Getter Robo) to foreshadow events that would happen later on in the story.

Nadesico proved to be popular, but that chance of becoming something more would peter out with the release of the Prince of Darkness movie in 1999.

After War Gundam X (1996)

Also releasing in 1996 was After War Gundam X, a series that would suffer from the fact that it would be the fourth Gundam series in a row on television. Not helping things is the fact that Gundam X would infamously have its episode count reduced from the then-standard 50 episodes to 39, and then it would also be moved to the Japanese equivalent of the Friday Night Death Slot.

It would remain in obscurity for years until 2013 when Gundam Build Fighters would feature a protagonist whose primary gunpla kit would help to bring the series back into the spotlight.

The Vision of Escaflowne (1996)

When one thinks of older mecha isekai shows, they are usually thinking of 1996's The Vision of Escaflowne. Escaflowne, unlike its older sister series Magic Knight Rayearth, would feature its giant robots more openly in a truly even blend of mecha action, fantasy adventure, and romance.

Armored Core (1997)

1997 would see the release of legendary game development studio From Software's Armored Core. Featuring mechanical designs by Shoji Kawamori of Macross fame, Armored Core would see the player navigate through a world of high speed mecha action and hair-tearing difficulty that would become a trademark of FromSoft's future games.

Cowboy Bebop (1997)

Cowboy Bebop would be the brainchild of one Shinichiro Watanabe. Released in 1997, Cowboy Bebop would take Japan by storm due to its mix of science fiction with the aesthetics and tropes of the western. Part of Cowboy Bebop's legacy has less to do with its popularity in Japan and more to do with how well it did in the west: which was very well.

Like "Cowboy Bebop was part of what made [adult swim] successful in the early days" well. If the quartet of Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and Pokemon made anime mainstream, then Cowboy Bebop would be the one that would prove to the mainstream that anime wasn't just for children.

The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar (1997)

Speaking of anime geared for children, 1997 would also see Takara's Brave franchise peak with its final entry: The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar. Acting as an homage to the original Brave Exkaiser, GaoGaiGar would go down in legend as one of the most hot-blooded mecha shows of the 90's, second only to fellow Sunrise production Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Unfortunately, GaoGaiGar would see its viewership falter due to the success of the Pokemon anime, which would bring an official end to the Brave franchise. But it would not be the end of GaoGaiGar's story just yet, as the production staff got to work on another series that would serve as a spiritual sequel to The King of Braves.

Full Metal Panic (1998)

In 1998, the light novel Full Metal Panic! would be published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Written by Shoji Gatoh, Full Metal Panic would blend elements of giant robot sci-fi with elements of the romance, slice-of-life, and comedy genres. The series would eventually branch out into manga and anime at the turn of the millennium and prove to be one of the big hits of the early 2000's.

While the original light novel along with its manga counterparts would wrap up their stories eventually, the anime would ultimately be abandoned after the release of its fourth season, Invisible Victory, in 2018.

Dai Guard (1999)

What if you took Getter Robo, made it adhere to real-world physics as much as possible, and then have be piloted by a trio of office workers who have to also navigate a lot of corporate red tape on top of the military trying to undermine their endeavors? That's more or less 1999's Dai-Guard in a nutshell. And don't let that fool you: the giant robot is still as cool as any other giant robot, regardless of the hoops the main cast have to go through just to use the damn thing.

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Meanwhile at Sunrise, Yoshiyuki Tomino would return to the directing chair for 1999's Turn A Gundam as a way to celebrate Gundam's 20th anniversary. Turn A would feature a very unique set of mechanical designs courtesy of Syd Mead, who was known for his work on Blade Runner, Tron, and Aliens. This series would also mark the end of Gundam's use of cel animation, as the next Gundam series would be the first to use digital animation. As a result, the animators went all out on Turn A Gundam's animation as a proper send-off to cel-animation.

Unfortunately, while Turn A is often regarded as one of, if not the, best Gundam series, its lackluster performance during its initial run would not be enough to help Gundam out. It wouldn't be until 2002 when Gundam would become a major hit again.

Xenogears (1999)

Directed by Tetsuya Takahashi, Square Enix would release the JRPG Xenogears in 1999. Xenogears would differentiate itself from the competition by combining a combo-based JRPG with giant robots and Gnosticism. A lot of Gnosticism. Unfortunately for Takahashi and company, Xenogears would prove to be a tad bit more ambitious than expected, and boy is that oversimplifying what happened to Xenogears. Suffice it to say that what happened to Takahashi and company to form Monolith Soft under Namco. But, like a lot of other things covered here, that is a story for another time.

Betterman (1999) & The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar FINAL (2000)

Reuniting for a spiritual sequel to The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar, the same animation team would create Betterman. Taking a turn to being darker and edgier than its older brother GaoGaiGar, Betterman would be the basis for the OVA finale The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL adding things like a darker storyline, fanservice, and, weirdly enough, more HOT BLOOD.

Unfortunately, plans for the two series to have a crossover would fall apart as Takara shuttered the Brave franchise for good after GaoGaiGar FINAL. It wouldn't be until about 2018 that the two would finally get to meet in The King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs Betterman.

The Iron Giant (1999)

Released in 1999 by Warner Bros., The Iron Giant would be the directorial debut of one Brad Bird (the guy who did The Incredibles, among other things). Set in the 1950's, The Iron Giant would tell a story similar to that of the original Godzilla, though in the case of The Iron Giant, the titular character would be treated with much more sympathy due to his earnest attempts at trying to not destroy the town.

The Big O (1999-2003)

Created in 1999 by Sunrise, The Big O was a mecha show influenced by American media like Batman. Helmed by most of the people who worked on the Giant Robo OVA alongside the controversial Chiaki J Konaka, The Big O was supposed to be a more commercial spin on Giant Robo. Which is wild, because the series was cancelled after its first season in Japan.

Fortunately, that little American channel called [adult swim] would come to the rescue and produce the second season, as The Big O was a big success in the US.

For more on The Big O, I'd recommend Argonbolt's video On The Big O.

Throwbots (1999)

And finally, LEGO would release the Throwbots series of toys for their Technic line in 1999. Throwbots would prove to be moderately successful, but it's legacy is most known for being the predecessor to BIONICLE.

Conclusion

And that's a wrap on the 90's. As we have seen, the last two decades have been a big boon for mecha, though this would be soon to pass in the following decades. What we will begin to see in the following decades is a change to how anime in general is produced. You can even see it as early as 1999 with some shows such as Dai-Guard using digital animation as opposed to cel animation. The 2000's will see digital animation become the primary way shows get animated, though there will be growing pains. It should be interesting to note that cel animation doesn't go away in its entirety until 2015 when the last holdout, one Sazae-san, finally gave up the cel-animated ghost.

"The journey was long, but soon I found myself accompanied by a strange man in a black tuxedo. I couldn't tell if he was friend or foe, but he looked like he was about to faint from starvation. I think I remember him saying his name was Van... Van of... I don't remember what his title was anymore, he kept on changing it every time I asked him."

[leggerefiore]

Back in your inbox to discuss Cyrus bullshit again lmfao. I am normal. Totally normal.

So media literacy decline aside (no really, the reports are scary, less people can interpret nuance and hints), I blame 1) how young most of us were when we first played the games, 2) the OG Diamond and Pearl characterization (because it was a little different than Platinum's) and 3) the Pokemon Anime.

Largely skipping over the age thing because it speaks for itself. A good number of players were probably too young to catch all of the hints or grasp how irrational and emotionally driven Cyrus really was. Like, a legit Trauma Meter for our age group (20s) would be to ask if Cyrus freaked them out, or if they thought he had a point. Whatever the collective's first impression was would've colored YEARS of discussion and content. And I'm pretty sure I remember his reception being negative. Of course, the theory that he wrote the old notebook and that the old man was his Grandpa (meaning Cyrus was an abuse/neglect survivor) always existed. But before USUM and PokeMas added more implications, they were treated as "Just Theories" or after Platinum, retcons. Likewise, I think a good number of the older players WANTED Cyrus to be evil, so they kinda ignored it. Though there was an equal faction WISHING for a well written Sympathetic Villian. They missed Giovanni and had little hope GameFreak could write a worthwhile sympathetic villian because while Maxie and Archie weren't evil, their plan was just so stupid? Maybe it's because I grew up in a rural area at the start of the Going Green era, but I can remember being taught basic ecosystems in like 3rd or 4th Grade Science and learning that major changes to the environment were bad? And they were supposed to be super smart scientists?

On to game characterization, D/P Cyrus and Platinum Cyrus were portrayed slightly differently and I don't know if it was intentional or not, given how subtle the changes in the overall story were. But it boils down to a matter of A Means to an End, where D/P Cyrus seemed like he was changing the world to become a God, while Platinum Cyrus wanted to change the world and has to become a God to do so. Likewise, I don't think the implications that Cyrus was the abused/neglected grandson of that Old Man and the author of the old notebook were as strong. Also every scene with Cyrus in the Distortion World didn't exist in D/P so you didn't witness his breakdown or him admitting to his own faults. Charon/Pluto also wasn't in D/P, nor was the Rotom Room which was the first thing to give the "Cyrus wrote the Old Notebook Theory" any credibility.

My last reason was the Poke Anime and I talked a bit about it in a comment the other day. I have since looked it up and the D/P Anime aired the same day as the D/P Game Release, in Japan at least. So the 2nd most prevalent and remembered version of Cyrus is an ASS. The Anime did a great job of showing us the double life he was living, smiling and dressing/acting normal, albiet hammy, in front of Cynthia and that one old lady. But for a cold, stoic villian, he was super agressive, loud, short-tempered and dismissive in the anime. In that clip you shared, he wasn't calmly explaining why fighting was useless, he was about to snap on his admins. He yelled at someone else to (Ash I think). So it didn't even do a good job of portraying him as the kind of villian he was supposed to be, though this may have been because the series ended in 2011, so it may have been affected by the Platinum retcons.

But yeah, I'm also kinda sad about how people see Cyrus, but it isn't surprising. For everyone who "grew out of" pokemon or just never played Platinum, USUM, PokeMas or BDSP, they have to go back and relearn everything and not everyone does that. Nor will everyone want to because again, some people wanted Cyrus to be genuinely evil. And even if they do want to learn what changed and are open to it, they have to sift through years of content saying he was actually that bad.

It was a nightmare explaining to two of my homies why I was suddenly trying to write fanfic and draw fanart of him because they didn't get the memo.

Quick correction - It is not a theory that the old man is Cyrus's grandpa. It's confirmed from my understanding. Which it means Cyrus is likely an abuse victim (though, what Cyrus was going through was never entirely specified. Just that it was bad enough to concern his grandfather.)

I will note that his characterisation did change between Diamond-Pearl and Platinum (and now BDSP has introduced younger people to the pre-Platinum story), so I will give them that. But specifically, I was on the USUM battle theme still seeing it. (Interestingly, not at all on the BDSP rendition, though. Maybe because it's just Sinnoh fans who already know everything.) One of the top comments was ironically a joke about him seeing the Rotom Dex and wanting to kill everyone.

I think his character is really just generally misunderstood because of how subtle everything was is what I was originally trying to say. Like you said, some of it is general literacy issues. It just makes me sad to see him so misunderstood... I think Game Freak did a really good job writing him. Though, he does clearly read as emotional in both Diamond-Pearl and Platinum. At least, seeing his little chibi march up to you in BDSP after you ruin his plans really shows how emotional he truly is. While the Rotom Room journal is clearly only a theory, I do truly think he is the only logical character who fills that role so well. (Charon 100% would use Cyrus's childhood trauma journal for its precious Rotom research without a doubt seeing how quick he was to try to take over Team Galactic.)

I am glad that they gave him depth rather than just making him a generic bad guy... Actually, considering that Platinum was just before BW (well, a few years but development wise, I mean), I think it might have been their first steps into more character driven plots. I do hope people end up looking more into Cyrus, but I know he isn't the most popular villain at all. (I believe that crown goes to either Archie or Guzma. Or. Well. Lusamine, actually, probably.)

I convinced my friend by telling her about the Rotom Room stuff, actually. She already liked Cyrus since she is super into Sinnoh, but apparently, learning that he was besties with Rotom when he was a child sold her. Now she bravely helps me write for him sometimes lmao. My other friend, however... She still doesn't believe that he's actually 27.

Granted. Youtube comment section opinions should probably always be discarded.

Except maybe... This one. This is the only good and acceptable one lmao

[atelier-slime]

DRAGON QUEST'S LOCALIZATION SUCKS, ACTUALLY. PART 1

There's a thread blowing up on Japanese twitter right now about the poor quality of localization. It's the first time I've ever actually seen a japanese perspective on the topic, and it's been extremely gratifying to see a ton people from over there talk about specific translation issues they've seen or learn for the first time that japanese media is often given the short end of the stick here in the USA.

Most of the time over here in the US, criticism of localization gets shouted down as whiny fans who think they know better than the translators. It's been heartening to see that people from japan are also annoyed by it, and its inspired me to write up a whole long-ass rant I've had simmering in the back of my mind for years, so buckle up, long post(s) incoming:

Let's start at the beginning with the first thing that ever caused me to start thinking about localization. This little guy:

If you've played Dragon Quest in the past 2 decades, you probably know this guy by the name "Spiked Hare." Not me though! I got into DQ on the game boy, in the brief window of time where DQ's localization was handled by Nob Ogasawara, the same guy responsible for translating every pokemon game up until Platinum. In the DQ games Nob worked on, he chose to translate this guy's name as "Almiraj." Why the huge difference in translation? I'll get to that in a minute.

The almiraj is an extremely minor enemy in Dragon Quest 3. It's pretty weak, and it's only real defining feature is that it can occasionally cast sleep spells on your party members. It's just one of hundreds of monsters in that game, and aside from it's cute design, it's pretty forgettable. As a weird kid overly obsessed with linguistics though, its name always seemed odd to me. You don't really see words that end with a "J" in english. It stuck out enough that one night, when I was bored, I decided to google "almiraj" to figure out what the name meant. It sent me down a rabbit hole (almiraj hole?) that taught me all sorts of cool shit, and permanently altered the way I looked at localization. The path I tumbled down that night went something like this:

The Dragon Quest almiraj is named after the almiraj, a "real" mythical creature described as a hare with a large horn on its head.

The original inspiration for accounts of the almiraj (as well as the jackalope, wolpertinger, etc.) is likely the Shope papiloma Virus, which causes rabbits to grow weird, horn-like growths on their face and head.

It was described by Zakariya al-Qazwini, an Iranian lawyer, author, and all around knowledgeable guy who lived in the 13th century.

al-Qazwini described it in the Aja'ib al-Makhluqat, a massive cosmographical treatise that attempted to describe basically everything in the known universe at the time. It was so popular in the Islamic world that it was copied and translated into dozens of languages, which meant plenty of copies have survived intact to modern times.

The almiraj was brought into the limelight in modern fantasy when it was introduced in the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, as a relatively weak and unassuming monster as part of a campaign to expand the game with monster suggestions from fans of the series.

Dungeons and Dragons-style role playing games were brought into the digital world with the release of the first Wizardry game in 1981.

Yuji Horii was a massive fan of Wizardry, which he first discovered as part of a developer exchange program when he visited America in 1983. Three years later, he decided to try and recreate the things he loved from the series for console gamers in Japan, and the the original Dragon Quest was born.

One little name was all it took to open up this entire through-line of history that I had no idea even existed before that night. It's a tapestry of human experiences over 800 years in the making, spanning continents, cultures, languages, and medium. It's probably because I'm the type of person who sits around thinking about stuff too much, but I honestly get a little emotional wondering what al-Qazwini would think if he could see the mythical creatures he described all those years ago as little dudes hopping around inside a computer.

And the thing is the tapestry doesn't end there! Dragon Quest is still pretty niche in the west, but in Japan it's fucking titanic. There's an urban legend that the Japanese government banned Square Enix from releasing Dragon Quest games on a weekday, because so many people would skip work or school that it would impact the economy. (It's not true by the way, but the fact that the rumor exists at all is a testament to how huge the series' influence is over there.) I don't think it would be an overstatement to say that what Lord of the Rings did to modern western fantasy, Dragon Quest did to modern Japanese fantasy. Almost every JRPG, manga, or anime with a fantasy setting has the fingerprints of Dragon Quest on it. Countless other works have been inspired by DQ, and those works will go on to inspire others. A million different threads weaving tapestries back and forth across time and borders, all over the globe. And the almiraj is a part of that! It might just be a single, tiny, white and purple thread, but it's still in there helping to tie things together.

So back to the question I asked earlier: Why is it "Almiraj" in Mr. Ogasawara's translation but "Spiked hare" in the current one? Simple: Nob actually translated the name.

You can see on the DQ wiki that the original japanese name of the monster is "アルミラージ" which is literally just "almiraj" written in katakana:

The current DQ team has instead decided that all monster names should be puns. I'm not against puns or anything. "Spiked hare" for a rabbit with a horn is great! I might even raise my eyebrows and exhale slightly if I read it for the first time. Dragon Quest in general tends to have a lot of goofiness in it, so it's not like puns are out of place or anything. My problem is that, by deciding to replace monster names arbitrarily like this, all the little threads start to come unraveled. You lose the ability to look back down the line and discover all these different connections to history and nature and art that you might not ever learn otherwise. The almiraj isn't the only monster to get this treatment. A huge portion of the monsters in Dragon Quest are taken from mythologies around the world, and many of their names are literally already in English, just written with katakana.

The almiraj sticks out in my mind as a particularly egregious example because of just how much I learned because of the foreign-sounding name, but there's plenty of other name changes that have resulted in straight up confusing, ambiguous, or otherwise stupid outcomes in the current localization.

CONTINUED IN PART 2

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #3: Digimon World (1999)

Today is a special day and as such it is is only fitting that today marks the first Acquired Stardust Game Spotlight brought to you by me, Larsa. What makes today special? Well that’s because it’s August 1st, better known to many fans around the world as "Odaiba Memorial" or more simply "Odaiba Day", a day which marks the 24th anniversary of the chosen children, the “Digidestined”, who first made their way into the digital world. No matter when you became a fan of Digimon this date holds a deep meaning to all of us in the Digimon fandom for being the day that the original chosen children started their journey. 

                                                  “ ! “

This is a universal day we in the fandom celebrate the world over and it is an eventful day like this that puts on full display how caring the Digimon fanbase is of the series. Whether you can visit the man made island of Odaiba in person on this day or you are browsing through your social media apps embracing the meme this is our day fellow "Digi-fans".  Digimon is the franchise that kick-started my imagination and truly meant the most to me growing up as a child back in 1999 when "Digimon Adventure" first aired on Fox in North America. It is no exaggeration to say years in my childhood that Digimon was very much my life. It was what I most often thought about when I would daydream at school, or soccer practice. I would even find the spare time as a child to desecrate an innocent sheet of paper with my personal crudely drawn original Digimon. ( We all did this am I right? )   As a way to make me happy with my childhood obsession the first home console game that my older brothers bought me was Digimon World for the original Playstation. The game blew my mind with how large it felt at the time and as a result was what largely consumed my summer vacation that year. I happily say that this game has been an absolute adventure to revisit to this day~!

                                “ This was innovative at the time! “

Digimon, shorthand for " Digital Monsters ", started as a virtual pet toy created by WiZ and Bandai in the year 1997 as the more "masculine" companion to big sister toyline " Tamagotchi ". These new Digital Monsters weren't just adorable pets wanting for you to take care of them they were born fighters and you the player would tame these creatures from birth to battle other players of the game through connecting devices. It turns out many children did become tamers because the Digimon v-pet toy was an instant hit selling many toys right away. Immediately after the launch of the original toy-line it was clear that Bandai was very confident that they could shape Digimon into a successful multimedia franchise. The Digimon toyline was quickly followed up with a more expanded toyline, magazines, manga, trading card game, and several video game projects - the first notable home console video game release being "Digital Monster Ver. S" for the Sega Saturn in Japan.  The first globally released Digimon video game would be "Digimon World" for the Playstation console and this game was developed alongside it's own sequel "Digimon World 2" in an ambitious project by Bandai to ensure in their minds global domination. 

“ Digimon World “ was originally was released on January 28th in the year 1999 in Japan to a successful launch.  The following year it would be first released in May to North America(NTSC) and shortly afterward in July to European(PAL) regions. Both of these version would both go onto be big selling hits on the console earning the Playstation's "Greatest Hits" label in North America and likewise "Platinum" status in Europe because quite frankly Digimon was that big of a deal already. By the year 2000, it was clear outside of Japan that Digimon would not just go down as another another contender to Pokemon’s reign. The Digimon series had become a champion in it's own right establishing itself as a rival even for Pokemon at the time. Digimon World was the first Digimon video game most of the world experienced. So the question is after all this time how does the game hold up 24 years later? Was it worth the hype in a crowded platform like the Playstation?

                      “ Sidenote: They were pushing the original Digimon TCG  “     

                                  “Welcome to The Digital World “

 The Digital World is a vast and mysterious place that exists both within our world and outside of it. You insert the Digimon World disc then go through the Playstation start up sequence where you are greeted by that haunting yet relaxing boot up sound of the console. After a brief load time you are shown in wonderfully aged FMV from a typical afternoon of the year 1999 in Japan complete with children battling virtually through the Digimon V-Pet toys. Before long the battle between the two players go from toy to imagination in our main character's head, daydreaming of the fight between two Ultimate level Digimon: the proud MetalMamemon and the imposing MetalGreymon. After the cut-scene you hit start to officially start your own journey to the digital world albeit an unintentional one for our avatar as they are forcefully whisked away into the Digital World itself through their own V-Pet toy.

                                      “ MetalMamemon wants to fight! “

Once the scene finishes playing then you are confronted by Jijimon, an elderly wise Digimon who asks the players some background questions which determine your starter Digimon. You see depending on the answers you gave Jijimon you will receive Agumon or Gabumon as a companion both Digimon whose potential take different shapes. After being introduced to your partner you are then given reason for why you were brought here to the Digital World: it turns out maybe you really do just love Digimon so much that it made you a chosen child yourself? At any rate you the player are tasked by Jijimon with the serious task of rebuilding " File City ", a village where Digimon used to live in peace with one another until recent times where the formerly peace loving Digimon fled the city after having forgotten their own past. As you guide each new Digimon back to the city you may uncover the truth behind the current ongoing mystery of File Island.  Those who re-join the new File City  will offer something helpful to the city whether it to run a Bank, Item Shop, Clinic, or much more.  Ideally you will help the village grow from its humble roots to a true city but it won’t be easy, tamer.

                           “ Becoming Garurumon is gonna be tough... “      

                        The game truly begins now as you are set on a journey to explore File Island, a wondrous land of mystery with many different ecosystems filled with many diverse Digimon and just as many wires emerging from the soil unlike anything you may have seen before anywhere else. And now with this journey comes responsibility - while your primary goal for being here may be to help File Island at large your more immediate task is to care for and raise your Digimon properly. It is up to you the player to decide how you raise your digital partner as each day passes by in a linear manner through morning, day, dusk, and dawn cycles. It is at this point you can immediately with courage choose to venture outside the city into the unknown or spend some time building the combat stats of your Digimon partner at The Green Gym section of File City. At the gym you can put your Digimon through a variety of training tasks which is typically focused on increasing one stat at a time primarily. These stats are known in the game as HP which effects how much damage they can take before fainting. MP which determines the amount of points how many combat techniques your partner can use in a battle. Off(ense) which is the stat the game uses to figure out how hard a Digimon hits another. Def(ense) which works as the opposite, this stat determines how much damage a Digimon takes from being hit in which the higher def means less taken away from HP. SPD which determines how often a Digimon attacks with a technique (this caps at 300 SPD), how often a Digimon guards against an opponent's technique, and how fast your Digimon's Finishing Move charges through their own actions. And last but not least is Wis(dom!) which can give your Digimon the ability to listen to more commands in battle. Each training session causes an hour to pass by in the digital world but this is time well spent because these stats are the key to success in combat.

                                     “ Yup, it really won’t be easy. “               

If you raise your Rookie-rank Digimon improperly they will eventually become a rather weak Champion-level creature known as "Numemon" hardly fitting for the moniker at first glance. However if you raise them well they can become something greater through digivolution and every Digimon has multiple evolutionary branches which are driven conditionally by how you raise the Digimon whether it be through hitting stat thresholds, battles, the amount (or lack of) care mistakes, techniques learned, or even body weight.  The game even has additional secret methods of reaching digivolutions that may surprise a player the first time playing and even longtime players who have yet to experience everything the game has to offer in their time with it. You may not always get what you want through Digivolution without proper planning so keep that in mind.

           Outside the city you may run into hostile Digimon that can quickly become challenging for your partner had they not been prepared properly for the dangers of the wild. Once in combat you have to leave the battling to your Digimon partner as you stand on the sidelines making commands or supporting them with various healing items. It is at this early point you learn that you cannot directly control what your partner does in battle you can only offer them orders to influence their behavior in a battle system akin to something known as an "auto-battler" today. Your partner when they achieve victory can learn techniques from their foes, obtain items, and Bits (currency). On the other hand your partner can fall in battle and for each time they fall in battle they will lose a heart which will result in them passing away upon losing three hearts. Between any battles that can occur your digital partner needs food, they need to use the bathroom, and your digital partner needs rest. Every time your Digimon uses the bathroom outside of a stall or porta-potty it will result in a "Care Mistake"  which the game will remember for that Digimon's lifespan through an in game counter. 

                       “ Forget it. This dino is more cuddly than any wolf. “

  I mentioned lifespan earlier, right? Well every partner Digimon generally needs to be cared for with love before unavoidably they pass away sooner or later. And when that time comes Jijimon will be there to reincarnate your partner Digimon into a Digi-Egg where they start life all over again. Due to the nature of this game you form a bond with your Digimon that you may not find yourself having with other similar monster raising video games such as Pokemon. The time you have with your Digimon in the Digital World is fleeting and it's quite sad. As a tamer it is with love inside of your heart that you must juggle that fleeting time between making your buddy stronger and spending their same limited time saving the Digimon outside the city alongside the player. There is a real somber feeling when you know your Digimon might be on your last day as you run a frozen tundra for the final time at night knowing it might be their last one with you. Everyone who has played this game enough understands that heavy feeling and it is that feeling which drives you to do better for your next partner.

                              “  This land is labeled correctly. “

This game world has its own logic and rules that are rewarding to learn to get past the harsh difficulty curves.  And now with that being said it is this same "gameplay loop" which I laid out in detail leading up to this which would often overwhelm me as a child. Many times I would aim for my Agumon to become the mighty Greymon only to get another alternate digivolution like Monochromon instead of the one which I planned for. This would happen to younger me even with the official Brady Strategy Guide by my side because a guide can only help you through so much - this was a game you had to experience and learn yourself back in the day to get the most out of it.

                                  “ Time flows differently here! “

The Digital World in this game is all about discovery. Often you may have no idea what to do next exactly if you are playing the game blind though with enough discovery you will figure it out.  You may find that next Digimon you need to bring back to File Island in a place you never thought to check. You may even find a random item on screen you have walked by hundreds of time without ever having seen before that hundredth visit. Digimon World balances elements of a pet-simulator, and maybe more impressively a world that feels like it is really one of a kind.  The environments in this game are beautiful, populated with all kinds of digital critters, and accompanied by often fitting ambient sounds which fit the atmosphere the game presents to us.  There is nothing quite like walking through File City at nighttime with your Digimon partner as that lovely song plays away in the background. Composers Koji Yamada and Yuko Ishii outdid themselves with this game’s score, most songs being geared to the environment at hand and some others geared towards pulse pounding combat as your partner is locked in a fight for survival. For example the musical themes of Factorial Town feels daunting and mechanical in nature.  We now live in an era full of "open world" video games everywhere and yet sometimes Digital World feels more alive to me than even some modern AAA offerings. It says a lot about a game’s quality when it can stick with someone positively years later.

                                      “ Make the right choice. “

Speaking of the way the game looks all together it is a pretty nice looking game for the Playstation. It is the first time that the original Digimon which famed Digimon designer Kenji Watanabe created were being presented in a 3D environment within a video game. These 3D models are a huge leap in technology over the V-Pet sprites and these over several dozen designs really shined in this iteration of The Digital World. Often the monsters in this series are known for looking "cool" such as Leomon so it is worth mentioning even the cuter designs like Monzaemon look absolutely adorable in this game. The graphics, soundtrack, and presentation of this game are pretty strong in my opinion.        

              “ This chart helps you raise every kind of Digimon available! ”

 I truly appreciate this game even more today then I did in the year 2000 when I played it for the very first time and there is so much more that I could muse over with this game. Now with all this being said there are many bugs and glitches in this game so be warned this gemstone can be rough around the edges.   Overall I will cut myself short to say proudly that this game stands up to the test of time and the influence of this game is felt to this day. Worth mentioning that "Digimon World: Next Order" serves as a true sequel to this beloved PlayStation title and yet as good as it may be the new title does not replace the original game. I'm urging anybody who has not played this game yet to seek it out and give it a chance. Better yet find the Digimon World Randomizer created by the game's devout community which adds many features and fixes nearly every game bug, all things in service of making the experience even better. There is even chatter from the current producer of Digimon video games that we can expect either a remaster or remake of this beloved title someday. Which makes sense considering Digimon is even more popular globally than ever now. No matter how you experience this game it is worth playing for any Digimon fan even just one time. 

Digimon World is an incredible adventure worthy of being called stardust.

-- Larsa

[tobiasdrake]

I’m not surprised the Sonic movies haven’t been doing well in Japan, considering the games, unlike in America, have never really been that popular - I think the only exceptions were Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Frontier.

One needs to only look at how Sonic’s anime adaptations have fared to see Sonic’s lack of Japanese popularity in action.

The first attempt was a two-part OVA pilot for a potential series released during the decade when Sonic was at his most popular worldwide, and yet was not able to make it past those two episodes.

Then the next attempt was Sonic X, a series made after the aforementioned Sonic Adventure games (which it would adapt), with direct involvement from Sonic Team - who wanted it to show off their vision for the franchise in the 21st century in terms of how the characters and world were portrayed, and even included lines and scenes that were initially cut from the Sonic Adventure games, as well as including elements that would be added back into the Sonic games that were currently in development. And it was even hoped by Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka that Sonic X would do for the Sonic games, what the Pokemon anime did for the Pokemon games.

And it got cancelled after it’s first season (2 seasons in the dub) due to low ratings, and only got an additional second second (third season for the dub) because of its popularity in overseas countries - including America, and said season went straight-to-streaming in Japan not getting a television release until 2020 to tie in with the first live-action movie.

Huh. I thought Sonic X was pretty popular, but I never really saw much of it.

[autumnwyvern]

idk why but I'm gonna soapbox for a moment. its MY blog and I get to decide when I post a rambly rant!

People need to get it absorbed into their minds that a translation error and a deliberate localization change are not the same thing. A translation error is when two similar sounding/looking words get mixed up, or (in the case of JP-ENG which is what I'm about to really get into here) really inconsistent romanizations for proper nouns, or characters getting misgendered/having the wrong pronouns. There are tons of things. Read Legends of Localization. Read anything with the title of "This Be Bad Translation" because they are extremely funny, and then read the more informative articles. Buy the books even. For even further FURTHER reading Capcom has a really good track record with their localizers just talking about their games and the decisions they made in articles/blog posts. Actually let me reference one now to make a point:

Maya Fey in the original script loves a big hearty bowl of ramen. Adores it. And girl... I understand. However if you've played the english Ace Attorney games you may recall in those she really loves a big juicy burger. Is this a mistranslation? Did the localizers somehow goof up and say burger instead of ramen? No. The global release of the first game came out in 2005 and at that point in time most Americans who knew was a real bowl of ramen was were either Japanese-American, been to Japan, or a huge stinkin anime nerd. Everyone else if you told them to imagine ramen they'd picture a cup noodle. So if you want to go for mass appeal you think to yourself. Okay. What would be the American equivalent in this situation. A hearty cultural food that one may want to get to celebrate a job well done. And they landed on burgers. It was a deliberate, thought-through choice. And while you, personally, may feel that it was a mistake. It fundamentally isnt. There is no 100% right way to localize something. Theres a lot of factors to consider! And sometimes a change in how these factors are approached leads to my next point.

A character having slightly different mannerisms or way of speech between games is also, not inherently a mistranslation. If you are my age consider for a moment the anime localizations of our youth. Digimon Adventure. Early seasons of Pokemon. Sailor Moon. They were really allowed to go "off-script" and ham it up and make a bunch of jokes that weren't in the original, but I look back on them fondly and I know others do too! Being more loose and going for the overall vibes and doing so in a way that (hopefully) appeals to your audience is a perfectly fine way to do things. But now anime (and manga) localization has changed a lot. There is a lot more emphasis on "accuracy" and having a "true" translation. Which like isn't a thing that exists. In fact, often times being too 1:1 literal makes a localization worse and clunky and weird. But the point is in more modern "accurate" translations those characters often act a little differently. Neither of those versions are wrong its just a different approach. But it is in Splatoon where I think you can really see it in stark contrast, because in the first game the North American localization were allowed to freestyle it a bit more. In general they gave characters more bombastic personalities and weird little quirks that like werent in the european english version at All. So Splatoon becomes a hit, it is like The Game that ppl are buying a Wii U for, so the sequels roll around and the leash gets tightened a bit. You will sometimes see people say things like the translations got Better or crack jokes about how nintendo must have fired the old guys or whatever. But what happened is. They are going for brand consistency. Now all the English scripts are mostly the same (sorry not sorry for infecting the european english version with briish Spyke). Which is to say they are trying to avoid different versions from having really different interpretations of characters but they are still in some ways allowed to put their own little spin on things. Which brings me to the actual. true reason for all this meandering.

No. Craig saying "I don't see species" is not a mistranslation. Its a localization choice. Here we have a situation where we are trying to convey an older man who isnt Hip with it anymore but kind off thinks he is. Just a real out of touch guy. He means well but still has some internalized prejudices. Americans are really familiar with people saying "I don't see race." Like. He is A Grandpa. That is an extremely grandpa thing to say when someone challenges them on if they are going to be chill that there is someone of a different race over for dinner. It's fine. If you had a strong reaction to him saying that thats good, even. Like idk I wasn't in the room when they made that specific choice but I imagine they wanted to licit that "oogh uh oh no you cant say that grandpa yiikes 😬" reaction. Like idk I think that was their intent and it worked. And thats why we are still talking about it years later. (also, as more of an aside. I don't think him being Nicer to marina/eight in the JP script means he isn't still kinda racist towards octolings? Like the first thing he does in splatoon 3's story mode is announce the octarians are back and Totally behind whats going on and need to be stopped. He says this even if you are an octoling. dude got divorced so hard he became racist, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this. Marie is also kind of racist too. Sorry! that doesn't make them Bad Characters and that you are Bad for enjoying them btw. It just means they have character flaws. which is good and normal and cool.)

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2808: Feraligatr (Neo Genesis #5)

While the Neo Genesis set had 2 Feraligatr cards, one clearly stood out. With the limited quick drawing options that weren’t shuffling cards back into the deck after the first three sets rotated out of play, set-up could be rather slow. Most decks also didn’t want to make use of something like Misty’s Wrath since card recovery options weren’t the best. Feraligatr was the rare exception, being fueled by having tons of Energy in the discard pile, and having to shuffle Energy back into the deck when attacking tended to work as a way to recycle resources due to another card that had been mostly overlooked. Everything seemed to be in Feraligatr’s favor in the new format, and as people tried out new decks it seemed to be one of the most popular choices.

120 HP was the highest available at the time, and was certainly bulky enough to take hits. Blaine’s Arcanine was the notable exception here, and Feraligatr was the main reason that card saw play. Grass as a type saw more use than it otherwise would have simply to help deal with Feraligatr, with Crobat ending up as the popular choice to pick on that. Pokemon like Erika’s Victreebel and Meganium got some use for that as well, and Dark Weezing was something to keep an eye on even if not very common. The Retreat Cost was 3, so Warp Point was probably a good option if you could fit it.

Downpour was a nice Pokemon Power that went well with Feraligatr’s attack. You could discard a Water Energy from your hand as often as you wanted during your turn, as long as Feraligatr wasn’t Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. This was here to help Riptide hit really hard, and it did a pretty good job.

Riptide required 3 Water Energy on Feraligatr and, realistically, a lot in the discard pile. The attack did 10 damage plus 10 more for each Water Energy card in the discard pile, then said Energy was shuffled back into the deck. You’d think this would be hard to use consistently, but you could use Misty’s Wrath and Secret Mission to get through a lot of the deck, followed by Trash Exchange on the turn after a Riptide to likely get a lot of the Energy back into the discard pile. It was quite effective to say the least.

The shift to the Neo-On format needs to specifically be noted here. Feraligatr lost all of the Trainers just mentioned in that rotation, and back then people used Parasect to force the Energy to stay in the discard pile for repeated attacks. The way Feraligatr was translated made that work. In modern times, people tend to play them as the original cards were worded on first release in Japan, and the correct translation would have required the Energy to be moved to the deck to increase damage. The strategy would result in 10 damage from Riptide, making Feraligatr useless in modern Neo-On games.

Feraligatr was the star of the best deck in the old Rocket-On format, with Slowking being the only thing to challenge the role at the time. It’s still a top deck in that format even with erratas getting rid of Slowking, but other decks, such as those using Dark Crobat or Dark Gengar, have been able to reach a similar level. It was common to see the majority of top results in tournaments be Feraligatr decks at the card’s peak, and was one of the more dominant cards for its time. Being able to set up relatively quickly was very powerful and made for a deck that everyone had to prepare for... and often even that wasn’t enough to stop it.

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Eh, One Piece is on break but I have time to write so I kinda wanted to do this. It'll be interspersed with more traditional fare for the blog. Since I'm finally playing Dragon Quest 11, which is a love letter to its predecessors, I want to take the first nine and do the same. (X was a Japan-only MMO.) So what do you say about where it all began? The original Dragon Quest is a weird one, released for the NES in 1986. It was innovative and would provide the template for so many console RPGs to follow. 10yo me had never played a game like this before other than Pokemon, and it felt like a grand adventure.

But sadly being first makes it the most basic as well. You don't even have an adventuring party yet. Just you hacking and slashing through a wave of monsters until you finally reach the Dragonlord. Chasing the former hero Erdrick/Loto's* legend and finding their relics. This will be a defining hallmark of the series though. It may be simple, but it is tight. 10 Dragon Quest RPGs I've played and I can't name many blemishes in terms of bad system design. But we'll expand on that more with III because for now the experience is kinda too simple to have much to criticize. I love the design for this first foray, built around an always fun concept to explore. Early-installment weirdness.

You only have one safe place to save, Tantagel Castle where you begin. Every adventure is a foray out and there's an item to return home quickly. It's also one of the few RPGs I've come across that really nails the idea of like, managing consumable adventuring gear. Keys and light sources. Rudimentary yes but it could have been cool to see this expanded on rather than written off as a fun killer. I don't go back to this one much, but when I have it was a fun time. And I'm glad I got to play it organically as a series. I get why this kicked off such a phenomenon. So many hallmarks like great final bosses and really needing to talk to people but not falling into being too cryptic are set up and executed well from the start.

(*Especially on these early ones, there's some translation differences. I'm just using what I'm familiar with from here.)

[medea10]

My Review of Bibliophile Princess

How did I get into this anime? I think I was in the need for some romance during the fall 2022 season. No offense to that season of anime, but not everything has to involve testosterone, blood, and chainsaws.

Elianna Bernstein comes from a family that loves books. The family would forego food for just one more book to read. Elianna is pretty much that. She has no interest in anything else. What do you think would happen if a prince asks for her to be his fiancé? First of all, huh?!

As it turns out, Elianna comes from a family with some nobility. Crown Prince Christopher Selkirk Asherald wants Elianna to be his fiancé…in name only. Chris has no intention of getting married so early like what his parents want for him. He thinks if he gets a phony fiancé and every so often pushes the wedding date away, he’ll get them off his back. Prince Chris entices Elianna with giving her all the free time in the world to read the rarest books only meant for those of highest nobility. For the next four years, Elianna spent her time mostly reading but getting to know the people around her ‘fiancé's’ inner circle.

Good things do have to come to an end. It seems as though the prince might have intentions with another woman. Is this the end of Elianna’s weird fairy tale? And why should she care? She only cares about reading and nothing else. Unless she’s grown to like, even love Prince Chris. But does this possible love go both ways?

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Sentai Filmworks nabbed this one. Whether they decide to do something more with this or not is up to them. It’s not like they had a lot going on back in October. Nowadays, Sentai’s got its own cash-cow to milk. So, chances are it’ll be a while before we see this anime get anything other than a proper home release. I gotta say in the first episode, I thought that was Mamiko Noto voicing Elianna. But then I saw that it was Reina Ueda and I’m like, never mind, that was an honest mistake. Still good work! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Elianna is played by Reina Ueda (known for Mallow on Pokemon SM, Kisa on Fruits Basket 2019, Kanao on Demon Slayer, CereCere on Sailor Moon Crystal: Eternal, Jasminka on Little Witch Academia, and Young Hideyoshi on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Chris is played by Ryouhei Himura (known for Hinata on Angel Beats, Takizawa on Eden of the East, Kohaku on Yashahime, Grey on Black Butler, Shouma on Penguindrum, Tsubasa on Rinne, and Hiyori on Free!)

SHIPPING: Boy, anime really loves to give us fake-ass relationships these days. Either coincidence or Japan hopping on this trope’s bandwagon, 2022 had a lot of animes with that concept.

We get confirmation early in the series that both Prince Chris and Elianna have some (though awkward) feelings for one another. After living with the prince for 4 years, we see Elianna’s fear of this engagement ending. But was it because she will no longer have access to the rare books she’s yearned to read or is it that she really has feelings for the charming prince? As for the prince, Chris seems to have history with Elianna when they were younger. Elianna scolded the young prince for the mistreatment of a book. After that, they spent time with each other in the library.

Chris remembers. Elianna does not!

After Chris cemented this relationship by declaring there were no more objectors to the marriage, he started showing more affection to Elianna. And I gotta say, it started playing off like one of those rom-com sim games. You get that cute shoujo male and the cute, blushing girlfriend. It constantly felt like that. And when it wasn’t feeling like that, it was feeling like a setup for an old Popeye cartoon. Elianna gets in more trouble than Olive Oyl, no lie!

Now, there were other women in the picture that Elianna felt threatened by. It’s really nothing more than Elianna’s imagination getting the best of her. The prince really loves her and no other girl will do.

ENDING: You would think that after all that has gone down in the past 10 episodes, Elianna would see that Christopher is genuine when he only wants to be with her. Okay, maybe not. Hell, I would have been hella sus if I were in Eli’s shoes. Elianna has had to endure a lot of hearsay behind her back. Add to that, Elianna’s overall worry if she’s worthy of being the wife of a crowned prince. Girl, you have won over nearly everyone in that palace by episode 3, including the queen. Accept this as a win.

But a few daggers are out in plain-sight trying to set the soon-to-be-princess up. There are some women who hate Elianna so they do things out of pure vanity. You know them, catty bitches! But then you keep seeing this one chick named Sharon who keeps insisting to Chris to marry her sister Mirielle. We keep hearing about this woman but we don’t even see her. So naturally Elianna is concerned about everything. But then this thing about concubines comes up. It’s quite the norm for the royal family to have mistresses, concubines, etc. This family is no exception to that dirty little secret. Let’s just say that the concubine talk was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Elianna told Chris that to once again postpone the wedding and runs off. No matter what, Chris always comes to Elianna’s aid whenever she gets in an altercation. At the end of the episode 11, Elianna expressed her worry to Chris and asked him to make a promise to be loyal to her only. Chris makes it clear that Elianna is the only one for him.

Okay, final episode time. Is this the episode where Elianna and Chris finally get married? Nah, we’re getting this Holy Night Banquet. We still get some certain instigator wanting to push Elianna away. And it’s that Sharon chick that I mentioned prior. She even dangled a rare book in front of Elianna to entice her of giving up her fiancé. Episode 1 Elianna wouldn’t hesitate pushing some prince out of the way for a rare book. Episode 12 Elianna on the other hand has gone through some things. So yeah, there is no tearing up this couple. No need for affairs, mistresses, or rebound concubines.

They end with this annual banquet with some good notes for the prince and his soon-to-be-bride. No more objectors. No more sus women after the prince. The monarchy is happy for these soon-to-be newlyweds. The queen however wishes for Elianna to be more wary of suspicious folks and not be taken advantage of or get in too much trouble that would cause a ripple for the family. But she still gets a little choked up being called mother from Elianna. We don’t get a wedding. Just Elianna asking for some vacation time so she can read books. And we end with looking at trees lit up with pretty patterns. It was good timing when I saw it because the finale aired three days before Christmas.

Eh, this was an okay anime. Nothing to write home about. I honestly thought this was going to be one of those animes where the two characters were eventually going to fall in love for real instead of being fake fiancés near the end. As it turns out, Chris unveiled his feelings for Elianna in episode 2 or 3. The rest of the time was Elianna slowly falling in love with the prince with bumps in the road causing her depression and self-doubt. A LOT of self-doubt! There were a lot of characters featured in this anime and most of them do cause hiccups that make Elianna question her relationship with Chris. I honestly don’t remember most of these people. That’s how little of an impact they had.

Eh, it’s a toss up! There are many other romance animes out there I would watch before this one. But it is a short series if you want something small to watch. Hidive has the entire series available for streaming.

[doubleddenden]

Honestly I really hate when people say there's something reasonably wrong with a Pokémon game and then bring up sales numbers, and then specifically bashes gen 5 for not selling "well"

An essay I guess

First off the gen 5 games sold pretty well for games in general, just not that well for a Pokémon game and certainly not by today's standards with a wider and accessible audience.

Second, there's a multitude of reasons gen 5 didn't sell as well but still are praised by millions. One of which is why we now have near simultaneous world launches.

ROMs.

It's actually pretty easy to run ROMs, so easy in fact that western side fans were playing new Pokémon games the week of release in Japan. This goes back as far as Platinum, but was getting better as of HGSS. People were (and still are) happy just spamming A, so the language difference didn't matter- even so, fans were translating the games faster than TPC was localizing them. Popular mods was something like a basic battle translation- just translating the names, types, and descriptions of moves and abilities. Given time, and especially by the time BW would release, fans also made translation mods for the games' plots, usually a couple of months before it hit stores.

So with all of this in mind, do you think it's just a coincidence that sales shot up when XY released world wide at the same time?

Of course I realize that's not the only issue. Nah, see BW released at a pretty low point for fans.

I don't think it's unreasonable to say most people who play the games have been fans since they were kids- at the time for gen 5, this was definitely still the case, as most fans of the franchise were in high school at the time, assuming they got into the games when they were 5 or so around gen 1 or 2. There was definitely a handful of fans picking up the games for the first time with gen 3 and 4, usually around the ages of 5 to 7 as well, but the main audience at the time was a little older- hence why the games started getting more complex plots and themes, and the characters for BW reflecting that by being older than usual as well.

Maybe it was just me, but by middle school everyone was beating me up and making fun of me for the SLIGHTEST thing, let alone high school. It wasn't cool to like pokemon at the time- shocker when you compare it to 2016 when people were breaking into yards and government properties and shit for a Cubone in PoGo. High school was the era everyone was trying so hard to fit in and seem more grown up than they actually were, still is from what I'm hearing.

Not to mention, pokemon fans at the time did not defend every little thing Game Freak did like they do today. These days they could sell a Switch game that's just a JPEG image of Pikachu, charge it for $70, and a good chunk of fans will defend it and call it art, and it would sell for millions. Not everyone, obviously, but people who speak out against it would get screamed at by defenders. Hell you still can't point out the very obvious, GLARING issues with the Switch games from a technical and consumer standpoint, let alone point out the bad corporate politics, without some twitter user screaming at you until they're red in the face.

That's actually a pretty common fandom thing these days- even Sonic the Hedgehog has people defending it now, and that fandom was putrid toxic before the movie. You gotta understand, people would get doxxed on forums for saying they liked SA2 and not Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It was bad. Really bad. Compare this to your average pokemon fan, and pokemon is actually pretty lovely.

Back in 2010, this defensive fandom behavior was not the case at all. Teens and early 20 somethings were much more cynical and edgy- this includes pokemon fans. 1 garbage and ice cream pokemon was all it took to make it a laughing stock- completely ignoring worse pokemon like Mr Mime and Jinx from when they were kids. Adults too hopped in on this, and genwunners ESPECIALLY hounded it to hell and back. Not to mention normal people thinking you're weird or outright being hostile and antagonistic towards you if you hinted at liking it.

In short, being a pokemon fan just wasn't IN at the time. This, despite there being a ton of effort to write a more complex plot and include an entire region of some pretty amazing new designs like Samurott, Haxorus, Gigalith, Krookodile, Whimsicott, Braviary, Carracosta, etc.

So of course when X and Y dropped, they began what is now a DECADE of nostalgic Kanto pandering to bring back old fans. Charizard got TWO new megas, and one was black and cool and had blue flames, and Mewtwo got 2 new Megas and one looked like goddamn Frieza. You got Kalos starters, sure, but you'd get Kanto starters after your first badge. Your first encounter was a Pidgey, Santalune Forest was just a shorter 3d Viridian forest- it was very clear who they were pandering to. Whether it was vindication for the petty genwunner that refused to play a game without Pikachu, or it was that jock that saw Blastoise getting a Mega and remembered loving his pokemon cards as a kid, the strategy worked and the momentum would carry further with GO in 2016. Not to mention the games were extremely easy, even without EXP share, so the person that couldn't understand why fire isn't killing this water type could just win via bigger numbers.

The prime chunk of audience at the time would be in college or older at the time, too. Unlike high school and middle school, suddenly it was cool to have interests outside of your stereotypical high school party movie. I mean, it was still prime time for alcohol and trying/failing to get laid, but now your friends had 3ds's and a shiny Machamp they want to show you. Yeah you could go to parties, but you could also freely participate in dorm wide pokemon tournaments and people would excitedly gather to watch, fan or not. Hell, they'd combine the two sometimes by having pokemon battles and beer related stakes. Hell, your college professor might even have a Pokémon day for fun.

Plus, there was the whole novelty that Pokémon on a handheld was ***THREE DEE OOOOOOO~~~~***

College in general was just a time for people to realize that life is way too shitty to try to constantly keep up a fake adult aura. Shit, it was not out of the ordinary to have dorm watch parties from anything including Naruto, The Walking Dead, and Pokémon movies. It was cool to actually like things again!

Now. All of this in mind- plus keeping in mind that they would have a SIMULTANEOUS world wide release on the exact same day- keeping further in mind that it's harder to emulate a 3ds or Switch game that it is a DS game.

THAT'S why gen 5 sold "poorly" in comparison to other gens. Tldr: roms and the target audience thinking pokemon wasn't cool at the time.

In comparison today, it's way more popular due to the novelty of the Switch anyway which not only has the casual Smash Bros, but a god damn dragon's hoard of amazing originals like BoTW or Mario Odyssey, and amazing ports like The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption- basically people would usually buy a ds or 3ds for Pokemon- MAYBE Kingdom Hearts or Mario, but now people are buying it for Donkey Kong, CoD, FIFA, etc, so you have a wider audience that might consider buying it as well.

This, and the outright milking of nostalgia. The average fan is a working adult now, not having to beg their parents to buy a system or game for them- not to mention we're now in an era where pokemon fans RAISE pokemon fans. Whether it's the guy that had cards as a kid thinking it's a good idea to have his 5 year old play Blue for their first game (in this day and age? Not really, but go off), or a mega fan getting the current game for their kid, that's the fandom right now, which guarantees more sales. Add in more influencers from Twitch and YouTube and throw in sponsorships to Vtubers or a standard streamer or animator- it is everywhere right now. Hell, I'd argue it's even more popular with adults than kids these days. It really isn't unreasonable to invite friends over for a movie night in your apartment and whip out pokemon to 1v1 one of them.

The games practically sell themselves now. You never really see a TV ad for pokemon, the majority of marketing is now by fans for fans online or in person.

Compare this to 2010, social media is still pretty young, smart phones are barely a thing, looking things up online wasn't as easy as reaching in your pocket, and again, cynical teens and adults think pokemon is uncool, and being seen with a DS could ruin your reputation.

And I'm already prepared for the eventual Unova revisits not selling as well as whatever new gen came out at the time- enhanced versions and remakes hardly ever sell as well as new gen pokemon games. But I think people will be very surprised by how well it actually does in this day and age sales wise.

Unova as a whole was just a wrong place and wrong time scenario. If it released today instead, it would have been praised for it's storyntelling, characters, pokedex, locations, hell even the mc designs.

Sales numbers do not denote whether something is good or not. Most Marvel fans agree Endgame sucked ass, but it sold pretty well. Most people will agree the Gamecube was cool, but it sold poorly. Boycotting doesn't work for Pokemon either because it's too big to fail, and people will literally buy multiples of each game for some reason or another. SwSh sold the best out of the franchise, but that doesn't excuse its piss poor story, empty wild area, annoying characters, and poor route design. Scarlet and Violet have a great story and are pretty fun, and are selling very, VERY well, but that doesn't mean it's not the poorest performing pokemon game on any system when there's hundreds of glitches and poor visuals that hamper enjoyment for a lot of people.

Anyway that's my piece

[z2z-gaming-and-random-art-ai]

Pokémon Series - 2013 - X & Y 

The Pokémon series first debuted back in 1996 when Japanese developer Game Freak released Pocket Monsters Akai, Pocket Monsters Midori and Pocket Monsters Ao also known as Pocket Monsters Red, Green and Blue for the Game Boy.

Initial releases of these three games was exclusive to Japan but translation of them would release two years later with Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue releasing alongside a special edition Pokémon Yellow Version Special Pikachu Edition, this unlike Red and Blue is based on the Anime series that released in 1997.

2002 saw the main-line Pokémon series move from the Game Boy and Game Boy Color to the recently released Game Boy Advance with the releases of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire in 2002.

The series would continue on the Game Boy Advance in 2004 with the releases of FireRed and LeafGreen, these games being remakes of the original Pokémon Green and Red.

Although releasing in Japan in 2004, Pokémon Emerald would see the bulk of its releases occurring in 2005 with US and European releases of the game and is the fifth main-line title to grace the Game Boy Advance handheld system.

Late 2006s Japanese release of Pokémon Diamond would be followed by worldwide releases in 2007, with the main-line rpg series of Pokémon games making the jump to the relatively new handheld system the Nintendo DS

Like previous release Pokémon titles 2007's Pokémon Pearl would debut in Japan in 2006 but would see the majority of it's releases the following year in 2007, releasing i across Europe, North America and Oceania. this begins the 4th generation and moves the player to the Sinnoh region with over 100 new Pokémon to catch.

Following the release of Pearl, Pokémon Diamond would reach shelves in Japan in 2008 with a wider release the following year in 2009. Diamond marks the 3rd game of the 4th generation and as with the previously two was exclusive to Nintendo's handheld system the DS.

2009 would also see the releases of two more remakes with the releases of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, these two games being remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver, and released to mark the 10 year anniversary of the 1999 Game Boy Color releases.

2010 would see the release of Pokémon Black and Pokémon White and the start of the 5th generation. The Black version of the game features the legendary Pokémon Reshiram, while the White version features the legendary Pokémon Zekrom, this is also the first entry in the main-line rpg games to feature fully animated Pokémon during battle.

Two years later the direct sequels to Pokémon Black and Pokémon White would be released, again on the Nintendo DS and again with players returning to the region of Unova in Pokémon Black & White 2. With this latest entry in the main-line rpg series set two years after the events of Black and White with new locations and 277 Pokémon to catch.

The following year would see the Pokémon series move to the Kalos region for Pokémon X and Y for the Nintendo 3DS. These two entries in the series mark the first to be fully rendered in 3D as well as having a customisable player character.

This first generation of Pokémon games would be the first of 9 generations that would be released over the next 26 years with the most recent being in 2022 with Scarlet & Violet. Over the course of the Pokémon franchise life a multitude of spin of games have also released encompassing a multitude of genres as well. #gaming #handheldgaming #videogames #shorts #youtubeshorts #nintendo3ds #n3ds #nintendo #pokémon #pokémonx #pokemony #pokemonxy #pokemon

For other Gaming Shorts check out this playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJOZYl1h1CF5oVPNNxPlLJPambfM5BIj

[kaileeandag]

Meet Saya Kageyama!

A more recent (but still historical) immigrant. Time to meet Saya!

Full Name Saya Kageyama

Born August 6, 1992

Series Location Springvale Maine

Series Timeline August 2003 to March 2005

Father Yoshimitsu Kageyama

Mother Hiroko Kageyama

Sister Ayaka Kageyama

Brother Hinata Kageyama (younger twin)

Best Friend Aino Eskola

Other Friends and Peers Victoria Markos

More Info: -was born in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward. Immigrated to the United States with her family in late June of 1998. All of their electronics (save for games) had to be replaced due to how different outlets in America look compared to Japan. -was born at 8:15 AM, the time that Little Boy was dropped onto Hiroshima. Saya and her twin brother Hinata were also born on the 47th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  -managed to lose her accent quicker than her older sister, losing it around the start of 3rd grade. -Saya’s favorite J-Pop artist is Ayumi Hamasaki, known as the ‘Empress of J-Pop’, while her favorite idol group is Morning Musume. Her favorite Japanese boy band is SMAP, with her favorite member being Goro Inagaki. Thanks to a friend back in Japan, Saya gets each bands’ and Ayumi Hamasaki’s CDs whenever they are released. -still has her copy of the Japan only Pokemon Green. Her older sister Ayaka sent a copy of the game to her penpal and friend Erika Bourassa in the spring of 1997. Saya’s first American Pokemon game was Pokemon Blue, which is based on Japan’s Pokemon Blue which was released as Red and Blue in the US. -her favorite American cartoon is Cow & Chicken. -is the opposite of a Yamato nadeshiko, the personification of an idealized Japanese woman. Her older sister fits this description to a T, while Saya has more of an American attitude, even when living in Shinjuku.

[popculturebuffet]

Sonic Month!: Patreon Triple Feature!: Unfair Ball/Hooked On Sonics/Battle of the Boy Bands (Sonic X, SATAM, Sonic Boom), Patreon Review for Emma Fici

Hello all you happy hedgehog! I’m Jake, I review stuff and today is a day i’ve been waiting for as we start SONIC MONTH. Once a week for all of march i’m doing a review starring everyone’s faviorite blue blur in celebration of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2! Yes with hype for my faviorite blue dude with attitude, sorry dewey, at an all time high and with something like this only coming every other year, I thought it’d be fun to do this and got the help of my good friend Emma Fici, who previous via a comissoin an da patreon review had me cover the sonic undreground 3 part pilot and sonic christmas blast. We both have a deep lifelong love of sonic, it’s super fast highs, it’s too slow lows, and it’s utterly weird variety of ways to interpret the fastest thing alive from the freedom fighters of SATAM, Archie and Fleetway, to the post adventure worlds of the modern games, idw comics and Sonic X, to post modern world of sonic boom , there’s just so much to do an dti’s all fucking great

So naturally to kick us off i’m closing the gap and reviewing the OTHER threre sonic cartoons. See my patreons get one review a month so emma’s using both hers from last month (as you can opt out ot save it for later or to save up three tv reviews to cash in for a movie), and this month.. and being a good friend and not wanting to cover underground TWICE before i’d covered the show it’s basically riping off once, I asked her to pick a satam free of charge. 

So grab a chilli dog, a sonic themed energy drink and some heavily expired spagettos  as I cover two very weird hedgehog tales with diffrent approaches to being batshit insane and one of SATAM’s best as we celebrate the fastest thing alive!

Sonic X: Unfair Ball/Fierce Fight! Sonic Baseball Team!

Starting us off we have Sonic X. Like all the sonic shows it’s unique, and in this case for a variety of reasons: it was the first produced post adventure, the only one made in japan and thus not only had to be dubbed but said dub’s cast went on to be the offical cast for a while with Mike Pollock being retained to this day. More on him later obviously.  It’s also at the time of this writing the only one to outright adapt any of the games with adventure, adventure 2 and battle all getting adaptations, with Sonic Heroes likely only not getting one because it came out around the same time the season was airing and season 3 went in a massively diffrent direction. 

So naturally this is a unique creature. It’s also the only one I saw first ruN: I was like.. four when satam and adventures came out (I saw them in reruns instead), Underground wans’t on any channel I was aware of as a kid, and I didn’t have cable by the time boom came out. X on the other hand aired thanks to good old 4kids on their fox box lineup. 

I fucking loved the fox box and rightfully so. While 4kids is remembered more nowadays for weirdly trying to ignore the fact the shows it dubbed were made in japan or censoring adult content with invisible guns and lolly pops, it’s worth remembering that a lot of the time.. they were actually good at their job. Sure part of it’s nostalgia since they were a staple of my childhood via pokemon, yugioh, ultimate muscle and TONS of other dubs as well as their only western work with TMNT 2003, and are a large reason why I’m still a fan of pokemon, yugioh and tmnt to this day by getting me hooked on them back then.. but they had a talented stable of actors, got the feel of their works more often than not and while they went to hilarious lengths with the censorship, a lot of that stems from the standards for children’s cartoons at the time: censors probablyw eren’t cool with having a cardgame to decide whose legs get sawed off or dies falling thorugh a buliding, so they had to do the best they could even if it was usually just “the shadow realm with you”. I’m not saying they were all okay: their refusal to release uncut versions like Funimation or even include the originals on dvds was very not okay, while I prefer dubs myself I get people preferring subs and want them to have that option legally, and their half assed dubbing of one piece because they didn’t care about getting it (Toei, who has their OWN long record of bad desciions forced it on them apparently) is appaling, especially since the equally family unfriendly yuyu haksho had been succesfully cut for toonami... and I love dit a sa kid despite still being pretty fucking dark, just less bloody, so they have no excuse for how it went. 4kids was far from a perfect company, but it got a lot of kids like me into anime, made it more accesible, and helped , alongside the us version of shonen jump, get more kids into it. So I have some fondness for them if tempered with incredibly stupid descioins.. kind of like how I treat disney in present day. Love some of the things they made, question the hell out of a lot of the things they do. 

Anyways getting back on track, while I did see the show while it was airing I didn’t see much of it. My best guess is I liked something that was on at the same time on kids wb more or that it was simply on too early, as emma remembers it being on at like 6 in the morning. Though what I saw of it was mostly monster of the week stuff that didn’t work as well as what Kirby was doing on the same network, as well as some annoying little kid and as an adult I really havne’t rechecked it out like satam or adventures because I just heard bad things.  I am seriously considering giving the series a full review at some point, season by season, along with giving every sonic series the same treatment (Though for ones like adventures or underground that are one long blob I’m going to chonk it up. ) If you’d be intrested in that let me know in the comments or simply like this post. Point is I dont’ have a through knowledge of this show going in or a huge attachment to it, but I gave it a fair shake, especailly since the episode I was being handed was one of it’s dumber outings.

As a quick primer for those not at all familliar with the show: Sonic X has Sonic and Friends, after a battle with robotnik “Stranded in a new location without any explinaton”: Earth

Sonic ends up drowning in a pool, oddly for the time not set to drowning pool but 4kids is working on a budget of 4 paperclips and some string as it is so I can’t blame them, and is saved by Chris Throndyke..

Yeah Chris is a precocious 10 year old boy who the entire fandom wants to punt into the sun. I remember not really liking him and honestly he feels redundant. He’s also likely one of the reasons, among many people were trepedatious about the first sonic movie: Sonic being pals with a human didn’t work out the last time. Thankfully Tom is actually useful, enjoyable to be around, and i’m glad he’s in the sequel, while Chris is mostly forgotten because he was a kid sidekick to a guy who already had the position filled. 

So he invites sonic to live with him, his grandpa chuck (the irony is not lost on me), and his butler whose name I forgot but is voiced by darren dustan aka maximillion pegasus aka Geovanni in a pokemon stage show that one time...

It’s weird. Amy, Cream and Tails are also living there apparently while Knuckles fucked off to the woods so he can be mysterious and solo and stuff.. you know like he was before the series slowly drained the relevance and dignity from his body. Hopefully being given the second sexiest voice in human history will fix that.. 

Anyways onto this VERY silly episode. And i’m not judging the series by it: a lot of series have weaker or downright insane episodes. It’d be like judging miraculous ladybug by that time a bunch of grown men had a no girls allowed party in a teenagers bedroom till a disco stalker showed up and had to be subdued by a monkey man. It’s just not fair. I am however not going to hold back on this episode. if your looking for so bad it’s good sonic content, this one is is pure crush 40 carrot gold. 

So the plot kicks off thanks to tails just sorta flying around in his plane:

Sadly instead of his dope plan from sonic adventure 2, or his also dope plane from sonic adventure 2.. we get.. this thing

Like... this is apparently an UPGRADE but looks like any old jet and just has a sad white and yellow paint job. Which is a colorscheme that could work but just does not here. It’s just so boring and it shoudln’t be. Making your own plane for tails is fine but when both of his in the games at this point are dope as hell and iconic in their own right, why would you half ass it?

Anyways the chaos emeralds natural pull for one another, something I and the games forgot about but X faithfully adapts, causes Tails to have to land in a stadium where he befriends the groundskeeper after he mistook him for the gremlin who steals his shoe at night. The guy is bummed because the stadium is being shut down for one with artifical turf after spending years as a baseball groundskeeper man. He soon turns out to have the light blue chaos emerald, with the stadium being named diamond stadium after it because eh why not. 

This attracts the Eggman, and he’s got the masterplan.. to.. challenge sonic and friends to a game of baseball. 

We’ll unpack that after the theme song, which no matter the language fucking slaps. The one I heard, the 4kids theme rocks. Which isn’t a huge suprise: one of 4kids best weapons was making catchy as hell themes. And while I wished they and more anime back then used dubs of the original themes, because anime themes fucking slap, they still managed to equal the original with goofy gusto and 4kids was the king of that. Sonic X is fun, incredibly fast, and introduced the whole gotta go fast catchphrase which perfectly fits sonic and is on par with others like “gotta juice” or “That’s no good”. I’m waiiiiting can burn in hell where it belongs. I love jaleel but god damn that’s annoying. 

Anyway, the original japanese theme is also a banger, Sonic Drive, a fucking fuck energetic number sung by the same guy who sung the japanese dragon ball z theme chala head chala. So overall no matter if your watching dubs or subs, your in for a good time and no matter the country, sonic gives you a great theme song guaranteed. 

Anyways yeah.. that’s literally eggman’s plan this time. He made robot baseball players and sends his messenger gremlin bokun to go formally challenge sonic and them. As for why he didn’t just.. you know.. take it take it go robotnik, ultimate power just isn’t as satisfying if you aren’t stealing it from a bunch of furries and some ten year old who they live with. 

But yes he challenges them and Chris made shoos him out of there

So sonic speeds over there, with amy following since she’s almost as fast and.. oh nope they just.. pile inot chris’ van I guess because they also take him, his butler, and his grandpa chuck. The last one will be their downfall.

Thankfully knuckles decided to live in the woods instead of a sweet ass rich kid mansion because doing so would mean having to live with chris and the other comic relief human characters, which already makes him the one carrying the braincell for this series even before we get to him being the only one in this plot not to have been hit on the head 75 million times. So while Eggman gets there and has to fight tails... who is suddenly scared depsite having fought this guy ten times before coming here, in several episodes since arriving, and having also fought a witch and an empire of birds. more on them soon. 

This is a problem with some versions of the character: they make tails helpless, forgetting he’s not only a genius since adventure, but also a scrappy fighter. He’s more in the mid range sure, not as fast as sonic or strong as knuckles, but he can fly, and he can still move almost as fast as sonic, which combined gives him great agility. And most modern games and apparently this cartoon just reduce him to sonic’s easily breakable genius friend which annoys me. Tails is more than this, and deserves more. It’s why i’m greatful for Ian Flynn as he never forgot how good tails could be in archie or in idw currently, to the point that in one arc of archie the two, after some emotoinal stuff drove a wedge in them, had it out. and while sonic was holding back because you know, he didn’t actually want to fight his best friend while tails had a lot of resintment towards his best bud to unpack, once he stopped tails still kept up and the fight was only resolved by sonic apologizing for making out iwth the girl tails had a crush on. And yes that’s really what happened. It’s actually geninely heartfelt shockingly enough. 

And it was also cleaning up some crap from the previous run to boot... which I don’t have time to get into. Someday. My point is Ian actually cares what tails feels and remembers he can fight, and thankfully he wrote the next game so hopefully even if Tails isn’t playable (Seriously stop making only sonic playable. This isn’t mario. Cut that shit out), he still won’t be entirely useless.

Thankfully the next person who knock knocks at the stadium door is knuckles, the blow blower, the magical emerald holder who gives the robot the coldest shoulder. Everyone else shows up soon after with Eggman revealing he was 100% sincere about that baseball thing.. and before Sonic can go with the more resonable plan of...

Chuck chimes in and... i’m going to need to get text loud for this pardon me... 

GENINELY ACCEPTS HIS OFFER OF PLAYING A GAME OF BASEBALL FOR THE TWO CHAOS EMERALDS, ONE OF WHICH IS THERES AND THEY HAVE NO REASON TO WAGER. 

I.. I don’t even need to point out why this is stupid. And it’s not a strategy thing.. Chuck literally says “Playing baseball sounds like fun”. He is gambling the fate of the world on a baseball game for shits and giggles! I’ve seen people bet their legs on a card game, seen people be their mother’s soul on also a card game when bluffing, and this.. this is still more insane because both of those were out of necsity. Yugi kinda had no chocie and Jotaro was fully planning to scare his opponent into folding. Chuck just wants to play some baseball and is willing to wager his friends chance of getting home, the world’s safety and his grandsons future.. TO PLAY BASEBALL. Against a team of robots! I mean I get he has a bunch of super furries on his team, I do, but the team also includes himself, an elderly man if one in good health, his butler and his 10 year old grandson. This may be one of the dumbest thigns in sonic history and that’s a hall of fame that includes thinking a four player co op game was something fans wanted, nerbs, chaos knuckles, sonic 20 years later, knuckles convoluted history, 80 dozen lost family members,  knuckles as a resitance leader, cyborg tails, sonic blast, and robonik’s weird breakdown in front of the world as he pissed on the moon. And this is a strongest contender for dumbest one there is! 

See EVERYONE GOES ALONG WITH THIS. Sonic questions it for about a second before agreeing, amy and cream are all “This will be fun! Tee hee! We’re horribly underwritten in this series! and Tails is ONLY mad for a second because those dang kids are going to ruin his friends lawn! And that’s only until the guys like “chill man that’s what it’s for”  after that he’s all for “Operation: We’re Really Doing This huh”

Knuckles is the one carrying the braincell this ep, outright saying this is idotic to start and then rightfully pointing out how horribly half assed this plan is. Everyone else’s response?

Yes really. They all pray on his ego to get him to go along with the dumbest game ever played. 

I’m not against an episode being goofy. You can have utterly werid comedy episodes in a show if the tone fits it and sonic x’s seems to be perfectly fine for that. There’s another episode I saw listed on netflix that has eggman make an evil robot teacher to infiltrate chris’ school. This is , at least at this point in it’s history, not the most serious show. 

The problem is this the show isn’t so zany that the plot works on a serious level: they are betting the two chaos emeralds they know about.. because they think it’d be fun. Other shows in more recent times like OK Ko and rise of the tmnt got that. Rise didn’t tie in the demon shredder plot to that episode where they ended up trapped in an 80s montage while ok ko ballanced humor and comedy well, cutting down the comedy whe needed but sometimes managing to have utterly rediculous stuff in plot important eps, like the big reveal behind Professor Venemous’ backstory.... having his partner in both sense Lord Boxman tell him he thought they were going to wait a season. But the episode just.. fully buys into this stupid premise with way too high stakes. It’s hilaroius sure.. but not for the right reasons. 

So the rest of the episode is just goofy baseball shenanigans with impossibly high stakes. Also just to prove our heroes CAN sink lower, they don’t use their powers at first to play fair. 

I apologize that a LOT of this review is just me ranting at how batshit this is but I mean.. how do I even top this. Our heroes are playing fair in a fight for the one thing that can get them home that they entered because an old man wanted to play baseball. I’m a pretty good comedian, been at this three years now, but.. I can’t top that. I just can’t. I’m person enough to admit my limits. 

Now I will give credit where it’s do: the actual antics.. are pretty entertaining. Sonic catches a ball with super speed but it’s out of bounds, knuckles just.. htis straight homers with his super strength, and amy just shoves the head of her hammer onto a baseball bat. These are great gags. I had to pause to laugh multiple times both because of legit good gags.. and insane ones, like Chuck randomly subbing butler man as a fielder.. for cheese. This episode is entertaning as it is stupid.

The one gag that dosen’t work.. is Cream who tells the robot to go easy on her it’s her first time playnig baseball which creepily sounds like flirting and is animated as such.. because in the original japanese SHE WAS. she said she loved the robot. Helpful reminder: CREAM IS 6

Also if your wondering how groundskeeper man factors into it, the local 80′s april o neil reports about the game live so tons of people come to see.. which is fair it’s a bunch of super powered furries fighting a bunch of robots> It’s the reason people love this franchise, his boss later comes in and none of this really matters because it’s in an episode about sonic and friends playing baseball for a world conqueringly powerful gem they didn’t have to ante up but did anyway. 

So our heroes do win... the game. But in one final hilarously insane move.. Eggman just.. takes off with them. Yes they let HIM hold the emeralds

But chuck says we’ll get them next time blah blah blah trying to blatantly paper over the fact this is all his fault before knuckles realizes this and commits some elder abuse with his bat

Final Thoughts on Baseball Episode:

This episode was dumb and I loved it. I sit frustrating... well yes obviously, but it’s just so gloriously stupid you can’t help but enjoy it. Granted I love a good baseball ep from the various x-men baseball games, to jujustu kaizen, to steven universe, to peanuts to bloom county... observe

So I may be a touch biased despite never playing nor watching the sport, as it’s the funnest to watch other people play in media, but even without that this is just a batshit piece of media even by sonic standards and I commend you to check it out. The series is currently on netflix and hulu at the time of this article so S-O-N-I-C GO!.. watch it. 

SATAM: Hooked on Sonics

Okay so onto SATAM. If your curious why ti’s called that its because the shows actual title is sonic the hedgehog... and given that was confusing even before we got another game called that and a feature film named that, it was the right call. 

SATAM is often held up as the gold standard of sonic cartoons and it’s easy to see why: SATAM swung for the fences, putting sonic in a darker world that he’d seen conquered by robotnik, with only a small band of freedom fighters, all fellow teens, to help him. The Freedom Fighters themselves are awesome characters, only made better by the comics, ian flynn’s runs in paticular, fleshing them out into throughly intresting three dimensional characters who could keep up with sonic. You had Sally, Sonic’s love intrest and tactical genius as well as the resitance’s actual leader (Sonic was the muscle and deputy leader), rotor a tech genius walrus since that wasn’t part of tails character yet, and Bunnie a cyborg southren belle and basically rogue from the x-men as a rabbit complete with tons of angst. There were also Tails, who was religated to kid sidekick in this continuity and early archie and Anotine, a cowardly asshole who was sonic’s rival for sally.. on paper. in practice he had zero chance. Thankfully archie , unlike satam, gave him character devleopment so not only did he move past sally and onto bunnie, aka one of my faviorite ships and something we’ll be getting more into very soon, but became an expert and incredibly brave swordsman. So yeah you might’ve guessed I like these guys, paticuarlly both archie versions, but the satam ones laid the ground work.

As for the cartoon itself it just works. Season 2 from what little i’ve seen of it drops slightly in quality but the atmosphere, voice acting and storytelling are top notch for the time. While it is still very much a 90′s cartoon, there isn’t anything resembling an arc till next season and there’s no real character progression, it’s still one that holds up well and again served as the foundation for my faviorite version of sonic. 

It also, as is custom, has a kickass theme song. And if you’ve never heard it.. welll... 

This is the best of the intros. And none of them are outright bad. But in both visuals  commuinmcating the shows story PERFECTLY, and the utterly great song that perfectly fits our hero, boastful as hell but he can back. it. UP, it’s the best of the sonic themes and again, the others aren’t slouches with X and Sonic Drive in paticular being damn close. But ultimately you just can’t beat this one. 

This ep sticks out from our other two in that it’s not utterly insane, and instead is just a really well written ep with a decent conflict. Robotnik is draining the life from the trees in the forest using a new machine because he’s a captain planet villian in this series.... wait I take that back he actually has a reason to do this as the great forest, where our heroes live, hides their village of knothole. So destroying it as he often tries to do means they’d have nowhere to hide. It’s things like this WHY the show still holds up: in most cartoons of the time the villian wouldn’t all out assault the rebels because the show would end. Here they have something protecting them that’s logical to the setting and fits it’s environmental themes. 

So sonic wins, of course, and brags to his public. Sally even cheek kisses him and I love their dynamic. Look smartass and more repsonsible person isn’t new, i get that but no matter the medium the two just play off each other well, with jalell and kath sourcie really having good chemistry especailly. The way he says it’s not half bad and then shows her what great is, and she slyly plays it off. it’s what I like to see in a couple.  

Antoine is also used well here: Satam could ping pong between loveable egotist and resentful ass whose mad Sally dosen’t like him, something the comics wisely instead dencostufcted showing that his futile efforts only made him more insecure and he truly got happier and more confident when he gave up chasing someone who simply didn’t see him that way and never would. You know a HEALTHY message about that sort of thing. What a concept. 

Here it works because it decounstructs his resintment as he does his usual trying to brush off sonic’s heroics thing.. before being incredibly sad down by the lake of rings, the magical lake they get the rings from which in this adaptation give the user power. Granted only sonic can use them and that geninely bugs me as they never explain WHY that is in this or the comics (which at least use them to power stuff as well as sonic), but it’s still a neat way to recontextualize them. It’s also not over powered: they only get one a day so sonic gets one shot with them and that’s it. If he looses it while on the mission or uses it too quickly, that’s on him. 

Back to antoine, his resentintment is really just envy.  The girl he likes likes someone whose cooler, more useful and more loved by everyone while he’s just some guy they keep around for reasons even he’s not sure of. It’ ssomething I can relate to: not knowing how to be as up front with your feelings and watching someone else better than you and sometims a dick to you get the girl because you can’t do nothing but pine. It’s not healthy, and he needs to grow out of it and again, he did in the comics to great effect, but it’s relatable. 

So Rotor makes the mistake of instead of trying to be emapthetic, telling him sally might like him if he captured robotnik.. forgetting anotine dosne’t get jokes often and takes the idea seriously, stealing the power ring to use as bait

It also shows that as much as he tends to  be the useless one of the group... antoine CAN think when eh can. Sure bringing the ring as bait is an entirely stupid plan and he shoudlv’e talked to someone else.. but the episode dosen’t treat it like anything else. He made a bad call for bad reasons and it ends badly.  But he does try: he lures robotnik out, makes sure he not one of his bots comes to get it (which he does) and even has a pit trap ready. And honestly ti’s not bad: in most incarnatoins robotnik isn’t that much of a threat out of his mechs or what not, so it’s resonable to assume once captured he’d be easy to get or at least easy to keep long enough for the others to get to him. 

But he both picked an easy trap.. and the wrong robotnik as Satam robotnik gets one of his most iconic moments to show just how pants crappingly terrifying he is, using jet boots to easily fly out of the trap. I will also say Jim Cummings is tied with Mike Pollock for my faviorite robotnik. POllock fits him as he is now being able to be goofy as hell btu also menaccing and was kept over form the 4kids day for good reason while Jim fits THIS robotnik perfectly, being utterly meancing and nightmarish , a cruel dictator with no remorse, no hope of swaing him or tricking him. Just pure evil. 

So the rest of the gang soon finds out what Antoine done did, with Rotor kicking himself for helping set this off and Sally convinces sonic to save him.. both because it’s the right thign and because if anyone can use the ring it’ srobotnik. And sure enough he was not only working on a new model of the life draining thing but adapts it for the ring. giving it ulmited power. Thanks antoine! He also plans to roboticze him. 

And Robotnik being awesome dosen’t stop there: his weapon for the ep, his other weapon anyay is ingenous, a lighting that hones in on sonic’s speed and is almost as fast as he is. So while he CAN dodge it it’s only just barely and it does hit him once or twice while he’s fighting. It forces sonic to move at normal speed lest he get hit and is a great way to turn his greatest advantage and most iconic feature against him. 

Sonic saves ant, who is sympathetic in part because he apologizes for what an idiot he was and Sonic shows that while he may not like the guy.. he’s not a dick, assuring him they’ll fix this together. Awww. How sonic beats both machines is also great, simply using the machine’s tracking him against it to take out the earth machine thing and get the ring back .. and since robotnik attaached th elaser to that sonic wins, antoine gets a momen tint he son and this episode is really good. it’s simple, sure, but it’s good great pacing, uses it’s three principals incredibly well and shows off why these incrnations of sonic and robotnik are so loved: sonic is a cocky but geninely clever hero who while he will needle a guy won’t kick him while he’ sdown, while robotnik is utterly evil but is clever enough to back that evil up and explain why the heroes can’t just knock his ass out in five minutes. This show is remembered for good reason and i’ll certainly be coming back to it. 

Sonic Boom; Battle of the Boy bands

So we end this long boy with Sonic Boom, the latest sonic animated show at the time of this writing and the first in over a decade when it dropped. And this one.... was not welcomed on arrival. Boom was, as I mentioned earlier, part of a failed attempt at a new branch of the sonic franchise.. which amounted to “sonic is on an island now, everyone has new outfits, there’s a badger, and Knuckles skipped leg day”. Shockingly this didn’t go well: the game side of it failed on arrival with the infamous shattered crystal and the cartoon didn’t have the best receptoin at first. This can be chocked up to a lot of things: Shattered Crystal being 06 levels of bad, people not digging the redesigns, personally I think all of them but knuckles which objectively looks weird are fine and my only complaint deisgns wide is the weird amount of grip tape because Sagat was Boom’s character designer I guess, instead of gloves, and the series turning out to be a meta character based humor show ala animanics instead of the serious epic many were hoping for.. me included. I didn’t bash the show without watching but after waiting a decade for a new sonic series, and the main games at the time and present day not being great, it was a bit of  alet down to find instead of lore or anythign we were getting shenanigans.

That said i’ve come around to it: You can’t blame a show for not being what YOU personally wanted and on their budget, even if the show looks great, it was probably easier to do a wacky comedy. And frankly given just how bad shattered crystal turned out, it ended up being a strength, allowing this version to distance itself and be it’s own thing. It also isn’t somethnig sonic had done , just go fully comedy, since Adventures, so it was a nice throwback while still being it’s own thing, relying more on clever dialouge than slapstick. The result is a pretty good show: not the best, but still entertaning and unique. 

And this episode is a PERFECT one to show that off. Like X it has a really bonkers premise.. but unlike X it’s not only not taking the premise remotely seriously, but uses it for a purpose: to take pot shots at pop muisc. Granted it can be uneven, a lot of the critisim comes across as paatronizing to pop music even if a lot of it is more packaging than content, but some jokes do really hit hard and the shows fast pacing means we’re onto the next joke before a bad one can really stink up. 

As for the plot music sensation Justin Beaver is in town. And if I have one complaint it’s not using beiber, while he’s been a punching bag for decades he’s not only been relevant for that long, but has THROUGHLY brought it on himself after puberty with his hilariously broey apperance, some choicley terrible songs and somehow not having gone away. It’s that they base him on pre-bro beiber...several years AFTRE he radically changed his appearnce and demeanor, making that part of it come off outdated> I get they needed a pop star but they coudl’ve used one direction (still dated but not as dated) instead of parodying an act that not only had been parodied to death, but had changed entirely. 

The other issue before I get to the good stuff is sexism: it assumes ONLY girls like boybands forgettnig boys of all sexualiteis can enjoy them too. I loved back stret boys as a kid and liked nsync kinda. I gladly watcched the high school musicals in high school... i’m not proud of that but it did give me the greatest musical number ever commited to film so it worked out

I swear if I could get away with it i’d refrence this thing EVERY review. It’s just sexist to assume it dosen’t work on men and it should honestly work on knuckles. It’s equally condsending to pop fans, saying rock is better. ANd rock is better but there is some great pop.. and some really terrible pop but still. 

But it’s flaws are patched up by some things: While some of it’s critcisim is pretty surfacy, it’s in a show that’s not taking itself seroiusly, so it’s clearly just taking it to the broadest point and it DOES make actual points: how manufactured some of these acts are, the stupid names, the sparkly jackets.. seriously EVERY boy band has a sparkly jacket. It does enough right to counter what it gets wrong. It’s also just really funny so again, the bad takes are drowned out by our heroes being hilarious. The first few minutes alone had me wanting to go back and get tons of reactoin images because their just stuffed with great jokes, from the local reporter ranting about his daughter prefering justin beiber to him (”We’ll just see who pays for your private school instead of those golf clubs he really wanted”), to knuckles declaring his music the soundtrack to his nightmares, to knuckles dooting on a horn he literally pulled out of his ass to try and convince the backstage guy their in the music industry.

We also get plenty of fun with the guys boy band, dreamboat express who again have the sparkly jackets, moves and montages. We also get a great bit of sonci leading them somewhere else to finish his thought in cutaway, with tails wondering why that was necessary.. only to do it himself later and admit it’s fun.  The episodes far from perfect but it’s so spot on in places and so damn funny for most of it, the villians also just happen to explain their plans which is lampshaded to hell and back, and with a perfect punchline for justin, this ep didn’t give me a lot to say but it is good. I recommend checking it out fi your curious about the series and it’s pairing ep tails crush, as tails trie sto woo a lady and robotnik tries to pick up a package. Good stuff. 

So that was the review. Three fun episodes: one insane, one raelly good and one unabashidly silly. All fun.

Next: Knock knock i’ts knuckles.. and he has kind of a weenie voice.But he also has a werid ass dinosaur so it ballances out it’s sonic undergrounnnnnnddd and knuckles only animated apperance in the classic era with a one off intro and a three part epic. 

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[justaddgame]

Cooldown: Not Just a Bunch of Numskulls!

Note: This post covers some of the major details of Pokemon Sun and Moon’s plot.

Image: serebii.net

Personally, if there’s one thing about Pokémon that has captivated me throughout the years, it’s those shadier elements that have snuck their way into each generation that twist the otherwise saccharine image of GAME FREAK’S beloved JRPG.

One recurring shape we often see this take form is of a nefarious organization working behind the scenes while a fresh-faced Pokémon Trainer, leaving home for the first time, aspires to climb the top of the Pokémon league with the aid of their very first Pokémon and loyal friend. The classic example would have to be Team Rocket, first appearing in Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue all the way back in 1998 (’96 for Japan where it was Red and Green). Team Rocket was a tonal whiplash to a world of catching and battling Pokémon; they operated like a gang of thieves stealing Pokémon from Trainers or even plucking them out of the wild.

It was a total disruption to everything we learn early on about the balance between Pokémon and humans.

While we’re told both coexist peacefully and have formed life-long friendships in some cases, that innocence is challenged by a group that has gone as far as gruesomely removing the tails of Slowpoke to sell for profit.

Pokémon recently celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, and in that time, we’ve seen numerous shady characters and organized forces, spanning multiple generations of games, each with their own methods of opposing the otherwise colorful and charming world inhabited by our favorite pocket monsters. Team Rocket, specifically, has appeared multiple times, and if you count the animation, they hold the longest-running grudge making them the most successful—depending on what you’d call success, that is.

Now, I’ve said in a previous post that I’m in no way the biggest Pokémon fan; I first ran out of steam after Pokémon Diamond back in 2006. However, in 2016, I took a chance on the 3DS release of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon—I scored a copy of Sun while a good friend of mine grabbed Moon. After a long break, this generation took me by surprise, and I ended up enjoying it as a whole quite a bit. I liked many of the new Pokémon and thought the shift from traditional gyms to island challenges was a neat change of pace, and so far, narratively speaking, it’s my favorite in the series.

And buried right in the middle of that narrative is the thing that I recall first anytime I think about Pokémon Sun and Moon—the introduction of Pokémon’s greatest team of villains to date: Team Skull.

If you’ve played either Sun or Moon, you might be nodding your head in agreement or demanding an explanation right now. I wouldn’t disagree that Team Skull are probably the least effective villains in Pokémon—if you can even call them that—to the point of being nuisances more than a devious operation like Team Rocket.

So, why in the world would I award them a bold title like that?

Because I would argue that Team Skull, underneath their tough exterior and corny dialog, brought something memorable to the table as a vulnerable group led by flawed, yet human, leaders whose actions cause them to be exploited by the true evil hiding in plain sight within the Alola region.

DEEP TO THE BONE

Image: serebii.net

We’ve seen real threats to both people and Pokémon since the lime-green pixel days of Red and Blue. But in a world that’s survived global domination and was almost wiped away by catastrophic flooding, nothing has been as compelling as two low-ranking grunts attempting to steal a bus stop sign. While Pokémon Sun and Moon does indeed hide a greater evil for a later twist, we’re initially confronted by something with less bite and more bark.

Nearly halfway through the expedition of Melemele Island in Sun and Moon’s early hours, the player meets Trial Captain Llima, while visiting the Alola Trainer’s School, when two troublemakers approach the group to stir up trouble. Revealing themselves as Team Skull, they loudly barge in with wild hand signs and one-too-many bone puns in an attempt to shake our group up with fear, while the accompanying theme playing in the background shouts “we mean business.”

But, in what becomes a running gag for these lowly grunts, their momentum is immediately shut down as Llima turns to ignore them and continues their conversation with the player.

This encounter, and others like it, paint Team Skull as the comical relief and are nothing like the opposition of the past because of it. Their threat level is remarkably smaller compared to the likes of Team Rocket or Team Galactic, coming across as bullies rather than anything close to organized. But their effectiveness is questionable when even most Alolans appear annoyed more than anything you could call intimidation. And it’s not hard to feel that way—while Sun and Moon’s quirky ne’er-do-wells hold nothing back, their persistent goofy puns and aggressive posturing are constantly brushed off.

However, Team Skull gradually sets itself apart from the past opposition by evolving like any other Pokémon found throughout Sun and Moon. Those initial tangles with various grunts depict them as simple street toughs, but somewhere along the journey across Alola’s four islands, that façade is dropped, and it becomes clear that underneath there’s a vulnerable side trying to hide itself. It starts with bits of dialog that sneak in alluding to things like self-esteem issues—they are just kids after all—before finally reaching the tipping point on Ula’ula Island.

And standing atop that climax, we get to know the real Team Skull, the one that survives within a run-down, abandoned Po Town that lacks even basic needs like electricity, among other things.

While Po Town’s fate is owed to Team Skull, who originally ran everyone else out, the player discovers it’s been essentially cut off from the rest of Alola. Windows are broken, graffiti is scrawled on just about every surface, and shelter is rationed off and shared by many. As foreboding as the gate blockading the town is, the inside reveals a harsher reality of kids huddling together for survival.

Most effective is during a moment upon entering the local Pokémon Center and discovering it only offers its services at a fee—not because it’s an underhanded way to steal money from the player, but because, as the grunt behind the counter somberly rhymes out the truth, it’ll keep the lights on.

FLAWED LEADERS WITH A BACKBONE

Image: serebii.net

And where are Team Skull’s leaders during this?

Both Plumeria, Team Skull’s Admin, and Guzma, the hot-headed head honcho, are what you could call the cherry on top.

After several encounters with some persistent grunts, Plumeria suddenly reveals herself to the player, confronting them like a protective, older sister. She acknowledges their shortcomings, but she establishes that there’s a sense of family within Team Skull, and is an attitude we see consistently from her throughout Sun and Moon. While Guzma arrives fashionably late to the party, his first move is to challenge Professor Kukui, where we learn of a past that’s only built up to frustration that leads back to the Alola region’s island challenges that the player is currently endeavored on.

Both Plumeria and Guzma ultimately make the same fatal mistake in trusting the wrong people.

Image: serebii.net

During the final act of Sun and Moon, it’s revealed that President Lusamine of the Aether Foundation is the true villain lurking in Alola while also pulling Team Skull’s strings. While they agreed to the dirty work, it becomes clear when the real Aether Foundation surfaces that they’ve become a victim just as much as everyone else in Alola. Guzma’s troubled past and need to be recognized as an accomplished Pokémon Trainer allowed Lusamine to fuel his ego. and it nearly destroys his own team in the process.

Following the conclusion of Sun and Moon, several of Team Skull’s members adapt to a new life—some even form a rescue team to help Pokémon in need. Meanwhile, Guzma is taken in by Kahuna Hala as a protégé to help him take the chip off his shoulder so he can become the Trainer he really wants to be

In the end, Team Skull is kind of a mess. Their presence arguably doesn’t hold the same weight as Giovanni’s Team Rocket if we’re talking about ambitions. While Guzma was standing by Lusamine’s side nearly to the end, it was never at an eye-to-eye level. Team Skull was played from the beginning and almost walked away with nothing.

But this is a team that stands out for its weaknesses rather than its strengths. Instead of cold and calculating like their hidden benefactor, the Aether Foundation, Team Skull is comprised of real people with real issues that the true evil sought out to exploit.

Image: serebii.net

[themattress]

Pokemon Adventures - 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26

3. No, I have not. That's generally not something I do, with only rare exceptions.

4. I’m not sure how popular it is, but one of my big all-time NoTPs is Silver/Green. They’re siblings, people. Yes, not by blood, but siblings all the same. Also, Blue/Green is fairly popular and I get the appeal, but I just can’t get into it. I don’t feel as though the chemistry is there, especially when compared to Red/Blue (also, Green just....doesn’t strike me as straight.)

5. Nope. Canon kind of ruined Ruby/Sapphire for me, though!

6. Can’t say that it has; shipping isn’t that big a deal to me with this series.

7. Faba. I liked him when he first showed up and it looked like being the one who cheated Sun’s grandfather out of his island was the farthest he was going to go in terms of plot relevancy. But then Kusaka dumbfoundingly made him single-handedly responsible for the Aether family tragedy and had him usurp Lusamine’s rightful position as the arc’s main human villain. As far as I’m concerned, he can stay in Ultra Deep Sea; I don’t want him back!

9. On a moral level, Ghetsis and Lysandre. But on a character level: Emerald, Norman, Courtney (the original one), OG!Archie and Maxie, the aforementioned Faba, and Carr. Professors Juniper and Sycamore were also pretty bad until the last stretch of their arcs.

10. I’m perpetually torn between the Ruby/Sapphire arc or the Emerald arc. The former because it was going fairly well despite the inherently flawed set-up but then all went to absolute shit, and the latter because it, like its title character, just wasn’t very interesting.

11. Blake doesn’t seem all that well-liked from what I’ve seen, but I really appreciated his character. To have a straight-up sociopath as one of the lead characters and not in a villainous capacity is a unique creative choice that I can’t help but admire Kusaka for.

12. I’ve seen a lot of division in the fandom over the Sword/Shield arc, primarily due to Schilly seldom getting to battle on-panel due to her handicap of missing Pokemon and Soudo being considered not that interesting (at least, until that happened), but I really like it. To me, this is what the games’ story and depiction of the characters and setting should have been like.

15. The Ruby/Sapphire arc wasn’t good (a particularly unpopular opinion in Japan!)

16. I could change many things, but if I had to choose one, I’d change the whole Faba thing. Although if Kusaka doesn’t damn well rectify the lack of Moon/Lillie interactions in the volume releases, then I’d begrudgingly let Faba slide and choose more Moon/Lillie as my answer.

17. Instead of the infamous Celebi Ex Machina happening, I’d have Norman, Courtney and Steven remain dead, with only Steven later being resurrected via Infinity Energy in OR/AS.

19. I guess how much many of them take this manga for granted. It’s not perfect by any means, but for it to run for as long as it has and usually be of high quality is no easy feat.

22. I don’t hate Ruby, but I’ve never fully warmed up to him either.

23. Isn’t this just 11 all over again? But I’ll answer differently this time and say that Soudo is a good character and shouldn’t be shit on just because Schilly is understandably more popular.

25. Instead of Sird’s Darkrai clashing with Mewtwo causing five Dex Holders to become petrified, I’d....not do that. Then we could move on to a self-contained Emerald arc focusing on the Battle Frontier with Wally as the main character and no Guile Hideout shenanigans.

26. Green and Crystal, they both lend themselves well to a lot of different ships.