#weird how the filler type of updates are what I struggle with the most

[cokoweee]

postin cause whyyyyyy not

I’m surprised I fkn finished this butttt i needed to so If shits off then my bad. The struggle is real

💃Running running running

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[onthevirgeofdestruction]

35 Q’s for Fanfic Writers

From this post

I’m having a shitty, rude alter-y, crap night so I’m just going to answer all of these to distract myself and focus and to not bother anybody just making my own post and putting it under the cut btw, notice to anyone not aware: since I’m moving I won’t likely be updating anything until I’m done doing so.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing?  (No downplaying yourself!) 3/5? Could use more editing and description and can be weirdly paced.

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Because it’s better than focusing on pain 24/7. 

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? I don’t seem to have a specific narrative voice that people recognize but I’m pretty proud of mostly organic dialogue. 

4. Are there any writers that inspire you? as a rule i never look up to anybody for inspiration but there’s some stuff in my ao3 bookmarks I fawn over.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? Right now, none of them. It changes normally, anyway. If get too proud then I’d get my ass kicked by RSD if someone didn’t like it so it’s safer this way

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Dialogue. 

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Organic description, poetic language kind of stuff. I can paint a scene but I’m not so great with bring out out a feeling with description alone.

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write? Janus and Virgil are probably tied. They both have things I struggle with but I don’t have to go back and do much adjusting of language and tone with them. Though admittedly my Virgil is signifigantly more foul-mouthed than canon and I tend to prefer pre-AA feral asshole Virgil.

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Patton. I write him the least, so people can probably tell. I love Patton, I really do, but it’s so hard to keep away from fanon Patton. 

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for? Angst w/ H/C obviously. Or if you’re talking about regular book genres, Fantasy. I fucking love fantasy world building.

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most? Trauma. I blame Daeram. As if Ayri isn’t a giant Angst Demon.

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Slopes. I’m really into it. I’ve got three one shots running right now. Patrons can read the first part of the unnamed cat remus one, there’s also a coffeeshop au tropey nonsense one like eglantine & lycoris, but Slopes is addiction angst. Mmmmm. Virgil is addicted to coke and alcohol and will listening to his friends even be in time? Who knows, especially not me, but there’s already over 30k. 

13. First fandom you ever wrote for? InuYasha. Or was it Harry Potter? Or shit, The Blue Sword? Fuck, I’ve been writing for a long time, I really have no idea.

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for? Sanders Sides. The characters are the perfect dynamic for writing since they exist in balance of each other and the popular, easy to project on archetypes featured are incredibly fun to do basically any scenario with.

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Weird storywise? Kingdom Hearts? I can’t even follow the plot anymore. Weird Fandomwise? Sanders Sides. Its simultainiously the fluffiest and angstiest nonsense at the same time.

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Vampires. Gay ones. Gay Vampires. I also love calm tol and angy smol.

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for. Any tropes that normalize incredibly toxic behaviour or tropes that are inherantly ableist, but I can’t think of any.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? Incorrigible continues to be complete nonsense.

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between? AUs. I mean closest I even have is canon-divergence other than a single short.

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff? I like it when there is gay nonsense along with a plot that is treated as more important than the relationship the most. But I like both. There’s more shippy stuff in tss so i read more shipping action by default.

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!) Anxceit/Sleepxiety, but in general, give me darksides or give me death/j

22. Do you listen to anything while you write? Almost everything I write has a special playlist I listen to to help me write it, but otherwise I listen to my Nyan playlist, an alter is picking the tunes, or a voidfam playlist. I never have music off. When my internet is down I just listen to the songs I own or Anxiety’s theme on loop.

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I’m fine with all of them. I love working with prompts but I tend to deviate. And I’ve never done a challenge since I can’t do deadlines and bad things happen bingo never sent me a card and I applied three times.

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works? I am generally multi-chaptered stuff, but I’ve been working on a few one-shots lately that are much longer than most one shots.

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them! I was originally thinking of doing some little 13-year-old Dreaming!Roman (y’know, the one with a job) shorts but it turns out I just had an alter of that little bastard and that’s why I inexplicably know more about him then I ever even considered. I still might do them after Dreaming is done. But that’s paced so slowly who knows when that might happen. Otherwise I put stuff in my notes and just do shorts of it if I’m like “oh you know what’s cool???” but since I can’t daydream maybe this question doesn’t apply to me.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? I want to do more autism stuff, and I’ve had it demanded a few times, but I’m scared of being that explict about it for some reason. Possibly because I might be, possibly because I’m scared of doing it wrong even though I’ve accidentally coded multiple characters autistic. I’m scared of explictly tagging them as such, too. 

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? That I can remember off the top of my head? I’m going with one from @a-genz-with-trauma-and-kins. It really helped me out and was just so kind and literally the best christmas gift I got in 2020. 

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? I can handle it alright but Daeram is a little fucking pissbaby about it. Constructive criticism helps people get better, so I appreciate it. I can’t handle critism that is incomplete, though. “i just don’t get it” or “I don’t know I don’t like it” kind of things. If I can’t understand the why to fix it then things get out of control. And then I spiral and RSD for like four days minimum. If it came from an anon or a troll, too, It might not bother me for as long. Things that are just like “this is shit and you should feel bad” just make me laugh. Couldn’t even bother to read it long enough to insult me proper? I don’t care.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? I have a few times. Mostly in shorts and prompts, I think. I think they turned out okay. They’re not particularly inspired or anything.

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst? Depends on my mood. Am I triggered? give me the fluff. Am I vibin? Angst. 

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! Fuck, fam, no, I can’t, I have so many. I have multiple original stories and some of them have very large casts and like holy fuck. Or do you mean in Sanders Sides fandom? Um, Morgan and Thorn in PD. The lesbian and her himbo dynamic. I love them. They’re dorks. Morgan is strong person with sharp tongue and soft romantic heart and Thorn is just so kind and so dumb and so exciteable he’s like a puppy. They were just filler characters and I got attached to them. Felton even gets redemption for being an ass later in PD, like oof i never intended to include so much OC content, especially for names I just picked randomly. 

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less. nope I’m doing all of them because these are fun plea for my new self: 2 gay vampires, 4 humans, 1 braincell dreaming while I wake: trauma child needs therapy and so do you break: big oof, oh dragons, oh why, go virgil go rebuild: virgil is so not okay there’s more virgil to deal painful death: gay teens drink themselves into a new religion stargazing: whoops we didn’t realize people actually cared whole castle: everyone will throw down for kid!patton, even you incorrigible: found family with a shot of psychological horror and crack dangerous instincts: wholesome crime syndacite action  slopes: addict gets mugged and thinks that’s just fine with him conflagration: logan avoids everything ever like a champ cat!remus: bored fae shifts gay pining from one person to another  caffeine cyptids: caffinated gay panic goes faster than regular gay panic eglantine & lycoris: more tropes than you can toss a shoe at storytime: overpowered virgil also overreacts literally always

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? an alter and I write together and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, what I’m writing about, or even what year it is. I often don’t even remember what I wrote. There’s no outline. I have an idea and I pick things at random for it. There’s just notes and an evil gleam in a demon’s eye. The only reason I know more than readers is because I take a long time to edit and some of these stories have fucking alters up in my head who can tell me things. Daeram tells me nothing. The writing demon supposedly has all this knowledge but I have absolutely no clue because he does not talk to me, he just fronts and slams out 9k in a few hours or we cofront to write and I’m like “oh no she didn’t” while typing 

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of. i’m fond of the entire painful death series and I tried to find something I really liked without spoilers in stargazing and I couldn’t so here’s a random thing from incorrigble: “So, what do you do with your friends?” Patton continued on with a megawatt smile. “Grand larceny,” Virgil deadpanned and glared at Patton, who was taken aback. Remy and Andy just broke out laughing while Virgil tentatively sipped his still-too-hot-cocoa. 

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!  slopes my dudes slopes i have learned so much about cocaine! like wow! I thought for a minute it was going to end with MCD around 30k but it swtiched from whump to hurt/comfort and I still don’t know if it’s going to be MCD but look at that funky little coke/alcohol addict go, it’s a medical wonder he’s alive! It’s not like there’s what seems to be a little talked about interaction between alcohol and cocaine that causes a toxic chemical to build up in the liver which can result in liver failure and sudden death at basically any moment! Which is part of why it may result in MCD but this time no ghosts! maybe it’ll be h/c with whump elements or maybe it’ll be whump with h/c elements we can’t know for sure

[venus-says]

Aikatsu on Parade! Episode 18

Taking a step forward to the next entrance.

I think we can say Aikatsu on Parade! has reached its climax with this episode. This was what everything was leading towards and it was a pretty decent conclusion for this story. Sadly that's, not where everything ends so... it's a bit confusing.

To me, the biggest problems of this episode was a few inconsistencies with the rest of the series, and also the fact that this was a story that was solved on itself in a single episode. To begin, there was no lead up to this episode, and this is pretty much a problem that can be said about most of the on Parade episodes, it feels completely isolated from all of the previous episodes. And it really had no reason for being like that, we have at least more 5 episodes to go, you could make 18 and 19 be "fillers" and have this concludes on episode 20 or 21, like come up with a random story for 18, maybe something focused on the new units and make the invite for the Brand Collab Collection happen here, then have the valentine episode happen, for episode 20 we see Raki struggling to find inspiration to conclude her dress, and then you have episode 21 be pretty much exactly like this one and it would be a very compelling way to wrap up this story.

And I say this because this should've been a huge moment for Raki after all this is where her dream finally came true, but we've spent so little time with her, heck we saw more of her design process with her copied PRs than with her original one, the one that she had been working for through this entire show, and we barely saw anything of it.

Also, here became evident that on Parade has very bad logistics, everyone here it's saying how important it is that Raki is making her FIRST Premium coord, and this is the episode where her Brand is introduced, but the show forgot that she has been wearing Maple Ribbon since episode 1 so everyone already knows that she has a brand and also she already designed THREE Premium Rare coords before so this isn't her first. I think if in the game Raki's brand didn't exist up until the latest update and all coords that she made through-out the show were either brandless or corresponding of each brand she was copying from this moment would've made sense, but that's not what it happened so it's this weird situation where everything feels contradictory.

But oh well, this post isn't supposed to be a rant on Aikatsu flawed planning, it's about episode 18 so I'll try to retain myself to talk only about the anime.

I like the concept of this episode, and having Sora, Koharu, and Hime, as main mentors for this episode was a really good decision. I mean, Sora is our first Idol that's also the designer for her own brand, Koharu's whole story was kinda to lead her to the moment where she creates Rainbow Berry Parfait with Yume, and Hime is the only idol from the original S4 that actually created a brand from scratch so it works to have these three as main figures for this episode. Though I wish they had included Mio here as well so we could have someone to represent Aikatsu Friends here as well.

And you know, as much as I wish we didn't have the performances in the middle of it just so we could have either more of Raki or more of the fashion show itself, I enjoyed the combinations we had for this episode. Ran and Sora work very well together, seeing Hime and Akari together is fun because they share singing VAs, and Koharu and Sakuya was a very welcomed surprise, I never expected to see them together but they had great chemistry, it was very good. I also always love to see them bringing R coords from the game since ironically enough the occasions where we get to see them using in performances is becoming rarer as each day passes (also Sakuya looked surprisingly good in RBP, I loved seeing it).

The main event of the episode was Raki debuting her PR and if you disregard the problems I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it was very great how it happened. I know it was cheesy but I really liked that bit where Raki realizes ribbons were a part of her designing journey since the beginning and having a ribbon as a way to represent everyone getting together it's also a great symbolism for this whole thing. At the moment I first saw this coord leaked on an arcade image I didn't have the most positive reaction to it, but after seeing it now in the anime I really like it, it's a very cute assemble. Also, in regards to the performance I like how Raki's aura now changes the ribbon to the colors that represent the four idol type, it was a nice touch.

In conclusion, this was a pretty decent episode, the thing that hurts it more is its surroundings rather than the episode itself. What did you think of it? let me know in the comments. Next time it's the Valentine's episode and I'm not looking forward to it because they're bringing M4 and I already expect all the bullshit that will happen on it, also I know they won't perform Growing for a Dream, Star Jet, and Overflowing with Love because it will probably be the campaign girls performing instead and I'll be disappointed because of the missed opportunity. But this is a thing for me to worry about in the next post, for now, I'll just sit down and try to relax. See ya, folks~

[1358456]

Dex Holder Preference List, New-VI

It’s been over 7 months since the last one. There haven’t been too significant of a change, but some changes have been made in the mid-to-low ranks.

Top Favorites

Platinum (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1) 晝夜長川, 初志一貫. This one is probably never going to change. She’s cute, smart, very kind and sweet (post development), very strong especially with a team overhaul, and is the staple of most of the important character bonds in all of my stories. And best of all, she had character development to reach this point in her personality, so her sweetness is not boring! And with a relatively new “discovery” that she had canonically blushed in DPPt... expect more of that sweetness in future chapters!

Y (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2) The XY arc really kind of... f*cked her in terms of... well, pretty much everything. Got no Flying types except for the one she started with, didn’t even fully evolve said bird, caught the NPC Mega which is horsesh*t, Xerneas which is amazing but a temporary capture, uses a Rhyhorn which isn’t hers and is not for combat, and worse of all, the arc did not allow her to have a character development. But suddenly, overhaul her team and then put her in as a junior Dex Holder who does not have to shoulder all the burden by herself and now there are a lot of more interesting character progression possibilities! Y has a bit of a temper, which can lead to a bit of an aggression. Her overhauled team is very aggressive, which certainly adds to it. She’s also probably the most physically agile while making sense, which makes her very fun to use. Working with Platinum, Y can serve as her fist, pretty much, becoming the vanguard of the group, being the sword to Platinum’s shield. ... Again, with Generation VIII coming, I need to use a different comparison...

Red (3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3) With the other guy banished into the void for eternity, the Dex Holder leader role naturally falls upon him and Blue, but with Blue more reluctant to be in the lead, it’s up to Red. But he’ll be working with her at all times anyways, for a joint-leadership, basically. And this is quite better than having just one guy being in charge. Red takes the part of commanding respect and admiration, basically, as he’s quite a nice guy overall, and... well, he’s freaking Red. He works well with pretty much every junior, and given the sheer amount of junior Dex Holder focus I give, he’s naturally involved quite a lot being nice and helpful to them.

Blue (4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4) The one of two Dex Holders whose personality and background is pretty similar to mine, so a lot of my own traits have gone into her. The other Dex Holder being Platinum, but it’s like 80% Blue and 20% Platinum, so... mostly Blue. In that joint-leadership thingy with Red, Blue takes the role of... the brains, pretty much. She’ll do most of the thinking, and guide Red in the right direction, and she’ll do her best to support him. With an overhauled team, she’d fare much better in said support, and even when doing something solo. Now, she’s ranked below Red because of the junior focus. While Blue is very kind in her own way, she does have a bit of... darkness to her complexion/personality, which does not work too well with a deeper senior-junior relationship. In short, some juniors might be a bit scared to try to get too close.

Light Preferences

Moon (5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5) ... I should look for a USM portrait soon. ... Anyways. Moon lost her place in the Top Favorites, but not her ranking number. It’s because... well, SM/USM... is not really that... good? In short, I sense an impending disaster for that arc. Disaster as in “why the f*ck did the creators do this meaningless bullsh*t?” Now, while that may not have anything to do with Moon, it serves as a factor in what may lead to her decline in preference. She currently doesn’t have a lot holding her in place here. Her personality is... well... not really that fun to use. Her bond with Platinum is currently just a headcanon that may be shot to hell shortly which is very bad for her preference ranking, her team is weird at best, hasn’t caught a single new thing, or evolved anything on screen, etc. The biggest factors for her ranking is the fact that she may have a canon bond with Platinum, and that she’s the only healer that makes sense, and is the youngest junior, therefore the weakest, and thus the furthest from being “invulnerable”. It’s much more interesting to write with characters who are struggling with what they have to deal with, instead of “no problem, I can do everything”.

Emerald (6, 7, 6, 7, 6, 6) Even though MANY people don’t like him, Emerald is... quite good and fun to use. He’s cunning and a damn good battler, made even better with a team overhaul that sacked his bullsh*t repeat Pokemon. Now he should be much more useful in combat, which is great, since the other two Hoenn Dex Holders... I’ll get to that in a bit.

Diamond (8, 9, 8, 6, 7, 7) Admittedly, Diamond’s personality is quite... boring. The only thing holding him up here is the fact that he’s just such a sweet guy, especially to Platinum. And now, with his team updated, he should fare much better in protecting her, and will actually accomplish something in said protection. He’s not worth much if Platinum can protect herself better with her overhauled team. He will serve as her shield... er... ... portable wall? ... Why did Generation VIII have to be called Sword and Shield anyways? Blech. Anyways, he’ll protect her at all costs, and will even be useful as someone Platinum can lean on for emotional support.

White (7, 6, 7, 10, 8, 8) ... She’s cute and sweet, sure. But that’s pretty standard for the Dex Holders, and White doesn’t have much character development in that regard. She’s more accepting, I suppose, after “slipping” off of the Ferris wheel in an “accident”. But she’s still absolute sh*t at battling, using the crappiest Dex Holder team outside of Yellow’s. So she’s like a detriment in combat situations, which... is quite nice story wise, as it creates more tension! ... The biggest thing holding White in this spot is the fact that she’s a staple in the Black & White pairing that I like so much. ... More specifically, the pairing that I like hammering so damn much. Besides that pairing moment, she’s kind of... well, a filler. She doesn’t do much in the Junior Trio/Quartet. I suppose she serves a bit as a... mediator of sorts? White is the one most suited for handling other people, given her job. So she’d know the best way to talk to other people with vastly differing personalities, which is something the other Dex Holders (especially Platinum) may not. So... there’s that, I guess.

X (17, 17, 10, 9, 10, 9) He climbed a rank! Yay! ... Right now, I feel that X is a bit hard to use. If Y was with him, then it’s not as bad. But by himself... I think it’s because he was such a... douche for so much of his only arc, and his character development pretty much happened in the last two pages. I just don’t have enough information on what he’d be like post character development, so it just feels awkward using him in various chapters. Maybe as time passes, he can develop his own solid role in my stories, like Y did. ... For now, he’d start by just being super nice and friendly with Y, and be the ONE junior male Dex Holder who’s respectful to Platinum (since BW2 cast still won’t exist in my stories).

Pearl (RB, RB, RB, RB, 13, 10) What a climb. He how has his team overhauled to better suit his personality/ability, getting rid of some of the random ass additions that he never really used. And even though Heart as a story may be like a dud, its effect in making me like this guy a lot more is quite profound! Among the Morning Sound trio, he’ll serve as Platinum’s swo... ... er... ... lead pipe. He’ll protect and support Platinum in his own way, which is to take action and clearing a path, so to speak. In the end, even if Platinum does not notice his crush on her, he’d have been just as important as Diamond.

Low Preferences The name of this “tier” has been changed to make a bit more sense. I mean... what in hell is a “dead zone”, and why is it not the worst thing?

Sapphire (16, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11) She’s certainly quite... charming in her own way, and is fun to use, but... it’s not that easy anymore. Her most defined tendency is her “wildness” and physical strength, which both defy reason. And sh*t that defies reason... me just no like. I mean, what are the limits to her physical prowess?? Outside of comedic scenes? Her prowess is now going to be not that much better than Y’s. She’d still hit a lot harder, but won’t be as agile. And in terms of her as a character... well, it seems that her entire being just revolves around Ruby. Her whole objective in RS was just to keep the promise made to young Ruby. And now that objective was completed... ... ???

Ruby (15, 13, 12, 12, 12, 12) See, even in here, they’re together. Heh. So Ruby and Sapphire as characters are like... Sapphire doing what Ruby is doing or had asked her to do. It’s like the “unit” Sapphire has been issued the follow command on the “unit” Ruby, and then the command console broke so she’s just following him forever. And while Ruby does independent things from time to time, he’s kind of... forced to include Sapphire now, which kind of turns it into a pairing thing, and I don’t really like this pairing all that much. I don’t dislike it, but I just don’t really care much about it. Hence both of them are in the low preferences. They’re useful together, as both of them at once are like an independent unit that can accomplish so much. ... But they HAVE to be together, which... meh.

Black (10, 10, 13, 13, 15, 13) Man. ... STILL stuck in this chickensh*t outfi... er... that rock. Freedom might be close, but so far, it seems like White was the one who got sucked into the Light Stone? ... So the reason why this guy is down here is because I haven’t seen anything new from this guy in 5 years despite him being in an active arc. Yeah, yeah, rock. But even without that, I just don’t think he’s that... good. Yeah, he’s quite smart and noticed intricate details, but only after his mind’s been cleared, which is a bothersome. As a trainer, I don’t consider him to be all that strong, as his accomplishments were forced upon by the game plot. So the only thing pulling him up is his bond with White and... that’s just filled with pain, man. Heh. ... So... once again... until he comes out of that freaking rock...

Gold (15, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14) So Gold’s team was overhauled, giving him a Houndour, Larvitar, and a candle (Litwick) on his head like a damn Kobold. “You no take candle!” ... But well... his team was overhauled so that he’d find his own style, which is more of an explosive firepower. He’d now serve much better in combat as fitting as someone who’s one of the absolute oldest. But to be honest, the overhaul was more like... chump charity? His post-Cycle personality is kind of... well, very un-Gold-like. And his Gold-like personality is... well, he’s an ass. He’s a good guy, sure. But he doesn’t act like one because he doesn’t want to be seen as one. So he’d only help out in a situation if he had an excuse in the form of a “selfish” reason, which just doesn’t work for me.

Crystal (14, 16, 15, 15, 16, 15) Crystal’s team was updated so that she’s not using horrible sh*t all the time. But... well, the proverb in Korean goes as “giving a pearl to a pig”. Like... what would a pig do with a pearl? Does it even know the value? ... No. So like... giving Crystal a much better combat team, when she herself is just crap at fighting, it’s just... a waste. And personality wise, Crystal is kind of bland. She’s just really nice and kind and smart, which... is very standard. Her role is basically just like a support to the juniors, which can be done by any other girl, and her bond with Gold kind of results in the post-Cycle Gold, which is a bit of an issue? Hmm...

Faitsu (11, 12, 16, 16, 17, 16) The girl with absolutely no development or a team, or a reason to exist. Sure, she’s super cute and fun to see, but... that’s it. There is no other purpose. And with hopes of BW2 being non-existent... she’s not going to climb any higher unless someone else falls from above. It’s all downhill from here, but others may just fall faster.

Sun (9, 8, 9, 8, 9, 17) Welcome to the double digits. You will never see the single digits ever again. Honestly, I just don’t remember why I ranked him so high before. I don’t like his personality, or appearance. He’s very objective-driven, almost like two other male Dex Holders who are just... boring. Unless SM/USM shows me something very intriguing that’s good enough, this guy is just going to fall further. He hogs the spotlight so damn much, he doesn’t really give a f*ck about anything other than his own goals, he has the story-mode invulnerability bullsh*t going on, which defies reason, and I think he’s one of the biggest reasons why I just don’t like the Generation VII arc anymore. The only reason why he’s not in the bottom “tier” is because SM/USM still has some hope, and I’m holding onto the hope that he’ll have some incredibly sweet moment with Moon. If that doesn’t happen, then f*ck him.

Rock Bottom

Yellow (RB, RB, RB, RB, 18, RB) And back here again. But do note that she’s still not on the very bottom! In fact, her ranking remains the same as last time, in the 18th spot out of 20! It’s just that “low preferences” doesn’t apply to her. I have absolutely no interest in using Yellow beyond ONE situation, and that is not a good one for her. It’s either just heartbreak and being forgotten, or SoS shenanigans. And even for those two, White just serves as a better and more entertaining target. So... meh. Also, Yellow as a whole just defies reason. Just like how Core Enforcer f*cked her bullsh*t abilities in Destiny, so shall something else do the same to her in Legacy.

Rakutsu (12, 14, 17, RB, RB, RB) The same as Faitsu, except this guy ain’t sweet and adorable. Randomly spewed out backstory that somehow made me lose even more interest in the guy, which no hope left for BW2... How much longer until I banish the BW2 cast into the void as well? Heh...

Silver (RB, RB, RB, RB, RB, RB) The only one with no numbers in the ranking history. Always been down here, and always will. Silver is just like that guy, in that his personality is just incompatible with anyone. He’s the lone, quite, brooding type guy which makes character interactions with anyone other than Blue to be... boring as sh*t. So I’ll just save myself the headache and just have him basically not exist so I don’t have to worry about character interactions.

[annsparksthegmr]

Pokemon Black Nuzlocke - Part 5.5

Hello everyone, a little weird title for this part since it is kind of shorter than the others - at least in things I managed to accomplish. But there is a good reason which you’ll have to read up. But fair warning: next update might not be for awhile considering what transpires. Read more below if interested.

I thought I feared nothing, until I got into Drayden’s Gym. With a heavy heart, I switched up half of my original team in order to take down his Gym. I relied on two primary Pokemon for this Gym: Snowball the Beartic and BananSplit the Vanillish. Geartown hung in the back with the EXP Share in case I needed to switch him in. Expecting for her to be a sacrifice in case either of my main two needed to be switched out/healed. The only three remaining members of my team had a purpose. Pebbles had Stealth Rocks, which I would set up upon facing Drayden. Zigzagzop would be strictly for Thunder Wave uses and Captain was the tankiest Pokemon I had which I wouldn't mind losing. So I took a deep breath and entered the Dragon’s Den.

It was as challenging as I thought. Because even with having two Ice-Types, I was already struggling with their strength. Snowball and BananSplit were already in some pretty close calls already. I healed up everyone before finally reaching Drayden. And… our battle began. 

I started with Pebbles setting up Stealth Rock as Frazure began to set up Dragon Dances. Which started to worry me as Snowball was obviously slower. But one Icicle Crash took it out without issue. Druddigon was next, but barely survived only to hit me back with a powerful Revenge. One which almost knocked Snowball out completely. She barely managed to hang on and thankfully on the turn I healed, Drayden did as well. So the very least, I wouldn’t have to worry about him healing his true ace. 

But when Haxorus came out, my already weakened Snowball faced a tough choice. One which had him setting up the Dragon Dances and using Dragon Tail to switch out team members. And in his Gym, both Snowball and BananSplit were taken out… both dead as Geartown was the next to be sent out. And somehow, against all odds after I lost both my Ice-Type Pokemon, Geartown clutched the victory and prevented any more deaths by using Gear Grind. His Haxorus falling as I managed to preserve my original party members.

I dutifully put both Snowball and BananSplit to rest. After what they did in the Gym, I couldn’t be more proud of them. Even if seeing them made me teary-eyed for the sacrifices they made. But it only became worse when a Fraxure from an Ace Trainer on Route 10 took out Ramona without any issues. He nearly took down half of my team which was a huge problem. But I managed to skirt by with only losing one additional Pokemon. Making the death count three for this single part. Two I had planned and the third I thought since it was weakened I could manage but did not.

And then I accidentally clicked Sludge Bomb instead of switching and lost him to a Maractus. That actually hurt a little bit more than Ramona’s death. But down two Pokemon down in the beginning of Route 10 without finding an encounter was terrifying. Vowing to not let my death count go even higher, I decided to add Geartown back to the team and headed off once more.

Having Bianca and Cheren decide to ambush me on the bridge did not help my confidence at all. While I was aware that karma may come to bite me, I was already knocked down and missing two Pokemon who had stuck around since the early game. Though I struggled a little bit, I took down Cheren by paying more attention to the type match ups even though his Liepard gave me a scare. Nearly taking out Pebbles with a critical hit Night Slash out of Sturdy range.

But after defending myself from Cheren, his dialogue along Bianca reminded me to not just give up after losing them both. I needed to prepare as best I could for the upcoming battles. Even my encounter being a Sawk was giving me a hard time and nearly taking out both Odette and Zigzagzop. I really didn’t have much use for him on the team, but it would be nice to have in the PC. I named him Paul because it was generic. Though with the losses I have, some time had to be put aside for grinding. As I needed to find potential replacements. Because even though I do plan for Gracey to stick around, Geartown is just filler.

Though I did decide to head to at least grind up levels throughout Victory Road. And what was luck itself was finding a Dieno as my first encounter. A female as well - continuing my weird streak or getting mostly female Pokemon but I knew immediately I wanted to have a potential Hydreigon on my team. Because it would not only be good for type coverage but I really liked the pseudo-legendary line. So I struggled to keep my Pokemon alive while tossing a bunch of Ultra Balls at it. She was a troublesome Dieno to wraggle but I managed to snag her; even with being in red health and parazled it took some time. Then I decided to name her the most appropriate name: Grima.

I’ll cut the massive grinding session I decided to have to level up practically everyone in. And some extra routes I did not go to until now for reasons. Which may or may not involve a certain gifted Pokemon Egg found on Route 18. But while this is going on, I’m going back to revisit previous routes, get some new encounters and whatnot if and when possible. And locating any hidden items I can. Driftveil City encounter was a female Frillish I named Aqua. Mistralton Cave encounter… I decided to risk it and use most of my Super Repels to take a catch to catch Cobalion for my team. As for the other Swords of Justice, I do plan to catch them eventually. Though Cobalion is the only one I can actually use in my playthrough instead of an Axew. (And I don’t know if I can shiny hunt the Swords of Justice in this game but I rather not bother. I do like only certain Shiny Pokemon.) Though one small note I had with Cobalion: GET IN THE BALL! I WANT YOU!!

I secured Cobalion and nicknamed him the only appropriate name for the trouble he put me through: Nebby. And I’ll only catch the other swords of Justice either postgame or if I’m in dire need. But I do want to keep Nuzlocke Rules until the end of the main story at the very least. Though after that minor clean-up session I returned to level grinding. I even got some nifty TMs for my troubles. Next major update will be once I have a final team and I arrive at the Elite 4. Though right before I challenge them.

I still don’t have an exact final team - or at least for a final member. I’ll reveal what my ideal final team is going to be. Queen - my Serperior and starter who I don’t want to lose yet I feel like she deserves to stay on the team. Odette - the Swanna who has already showcased how useful she is now without Captain and one of the few Flying-Types I have. Grima - the newly caught Dieno who will most likely evolve into a Zweilous because I need a Pokemon who can use Dark-Type moves and is overall a pretty neat Pokemon. Plus, the other possible candidates for Dark-Type users aren’t ideal. Nebby - Cobalion who can easily help out with its Fighting/Steel Typing. Or at least I hope it can but I don’t have many other options. Lastly is the Egg found in Relic Castle but given on Route 18. I do plan to use Larvesta and I might just try to overlevel it a bit to evolve into a Volcarona. No name for it quite yet but might name it Hope. 

That leaves one spot open and while I love Zigzagzop and Pebbles, I don’t think they can assist me well in terms of the Elite 4. Especially Pebbles as I can’t trade to evolve her and she’s not as useful late game. Zigzagzop is most likely going to be the last member because using Thunder Wave is useful enough. But at the same time, I don't know if bringing a Zebstrika is useful for the last game. So I’m going to try and strategize a plan for tackling the Elite 4 and everything that comes after.

Don’t expect an update anytime soon because I’ll be on a massive training session to get Pokemon up to Level 50. And I do think i’ll try to do the same with some of my Boxed Pokemon for replacements if things get tough. All I hope is to not lose anymore Pokemon and maintain a decent Type Coverage overall. I hope that by next update, the team is ready to go and at the very least have defeated the Elite 4. Because for those of you unfamiliar with Pokemon Black/White, the game doesn’t quite end with a traditional battle. At least one many might expect.

I’ll smell you all later!

Team Recap:

Queen - Female Serperior (Lvl 50)

Pebbles - Female Boldore (Lvl 42)

Zigzagzop - Male Zebstrika (Lvl 50)

Odette - Female Swanna (Lvl 49)

Nebby - Cobalion (Lvl 42)

Egg

In Box/Reserve:

Ghost Girl - Female Liepard (Lvl 20)

Cassandra - Female Sandile (Lvl 21)

Trashie - Female Trubbish (Lvl 22)

Lowen - Male Cottonee (Lvl 20)

Lady - Female Minccino (Lvl 23)

Voltorb - Male Foongus  (Lvl 23)

Rouge - Female Woobat (Lvl 29)

BFG - Golett (Lvl 30)

Tim Burton - Male Gothorita (Lvl 31)

Aqua - Female Frillish (Lvl 10)

Gracey - Male Litwick (Lvl 37)

Geartown - Klang (Lvl 39)

Deaths: 6

Fountain - Male Sampour (Lvl 15)

Puppy - Female Herdier (Lvl 25)

Snowball - Female Beartic (Lv 41)

BananSplit - Female Vanillish (Lvl 40)

Ramona - Female Darmanitan (Lvl 43)

Captain - Male Seismitoad (Lvl 45)

[recentanimenews]

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL REWATCH Goes On An Escort Mission with Episodes 204 - 210

  Welcome back to THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH. I'm Daniel Dockery, your host for this week's batch of episodes, and I gotta say, I'm gonna miss reading these writers' responses to whatever Naruto and His Amazing Friends happen to doing that week. It's got me feeling all sentimental, especially now that we only have two more weeks left. And it's because I was feeling so sentimental that I decided to approach my questions a little more...personally.

  Sure, I wanted their opinions on the latest round of filler, which included an overload of escort-style missions and some fun genjutsu use, but I mostly wanted to dive into their lives and see what makes them tick. What drives a person to watch Naruto and then answer questions about it each week? What lurks in the heart of a Sasuke fan? What are the hidden depths in a being that has committed a chunk of their lives to counting how many bowls of ramen a Shonen Jump character eats? And since I doubt we'll ever get a hard-hitting documentary about the hidden feelings of a Naruto fan, that means it's up to me to do the digging. Consider me your Anime Werner Herzog. 

  So let's dive in!

  Naruto sure does love its escort missions. There's two back-to-back in this set of episodes. What's your take on them? I know that, whenever a video game is like "Ya gotta get the professor to the control room and if he gets blasted, it's lights out!", I want to throw a PS4 out a window. And in anime, it's usually "Ya gotta protect this guy (that has a valuable secret that you won't learn about until it's waaaay too late." But I want to know your feelings.

Joseph: They're not as downright immediately awful in anime as they are in games, but they have to be handled interestingly. Naruto filler does not do that. This week's episodes were, through and through, interminable.

Paul: I don't mind escort missions in general, although as noted above, they all do tend to fall into the same "vital secret withheld" pattern. The living national treasure episode didn't work for me, because the secret artist, Shinemon, was so thoroughly detestable that -- despite attempts to humanize him that came far too late -- I would have been perfectly happy to see him dashed to bits on the rocks.

Kevin: I think I dislike the escort missions more on paper than I do in practice. At least by introducing someone to escort, the show goes to a new location and has a new character or two for Naruto and whoever else he's with to interact with. It's not handled particularly well most of the time, but at least it's an easy way to get something new-ish out of the filler.

Carolyn: Fetch quests < escort missions except in Resident Evil 4. As far as Naruto goes, I don't think it's the escort missions themselves that are the issue, so much as it's the repetitiveness of just about every storyline. But that's a whole other issue.

David: On one hand, escort missions make a lot of sense as something ninjas-for-hire would do frequently, especially the younger ones like our main characters who need the experience. On the other, we've talked enough here about all the more interesting ways "being a ninja" could be portrayed as a concept, so it does feel pretty lazy that they keep returning to this well.

Jared: We've certainly seen our fair share of these types of missions, so they're not terrible when watching compared to when you have to do them in a game, but the execution in the ones we saw this week is the problem. They really didn't bring anything new to the table that we hadn't already seen done better.

Danni: I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who made it through that one mission at the end of Metal Gear Solid 3 without failing on the first try, so as far as Naruto's escort missions go, I guess I didn't hate them. Gantetsu seems cool at least.

  Noelle: Escort missions in general are alright (in anime, not in games), but this one didn't really do it for for me. Lazy execution will bring anything down, really.

  Kara: I played City of Heroes and World of Warcraft so I tired of escort missions pretty quickly from a game standpoint. From a show standpoint, they can be interesting if they're done creatively. To their credit, neither of these even approached the annoyingness that was the rich kid ninja-for-a-day, but I would absolutely have murdered the sculptor and used the rest of the trip home to figure out a noble-sounding death for him.

  Gosh, we're in the home stretch, huh? So I want to know: How does it feel to have made Naruto a part of your weekly routine for so long? Is it something you look forward to? Did you ever have a problem fitting it into your week? Did you ever have to tell someone "No, I can't hang out. I've gotta see what these ninjas are up to"?

  Joseph: I looked forward to it for about 70% of the rewatch, so not bad! I never had to go too out of my way to keep it as part of my routine, but there was a time I had to make sure to download episodes on N*****x so I could watch while in England. Crunchy-hime, gomennasai.

Paul: Just this evening, I had to pass up walking the dog with my sister in order to catch the weekly ninja shenanigans. When we first started, I'd set aside a block of two specific dates and times each week to watch Naruto, but now I just shotgun all seven episodes as soon as the questions are available. It'll take adjustment to fill that Naruto-shaped hole in my schedule. Maybe I'll catch up on the 300+ episodes of One Piece I need to watch...

Kevin: A surprising amount of my life has started revolving around this Rewatch, to the point that I actively plan things like D&D sessions around knowing that questions normally come in on Wednesdays or Thursdays, so I need to either watch the week's episodes early or keep those days clear. At the same time, I'm legitimately looking forward to continuing the Rewatch into other shows and then to Shippuden, since watching these long form shounen series so quickly gives a different viewing experience than watching week to week.

Carolyn: There were definitely a few times I had to pass on things for Naruto but for the most part I was able to watch it while doing other work so it wasn't too inconvenient. I can't say it was the highlight, though the first few arcs definitely reminded me of why I was such a fan so many years ago and I was pleasantly surprised to find Naruto -- a former least favorite character -- is now one of my top favorite characters.

David: Back before this filler started, I would have said Naruto was one of the most highly anticipated parts of my week anime-wise. Now, uh, not so much. I'm looking forward to getting to Shippuden though.

Jared: It certainly feels weird that we're going to be done with OG Naruto in two weeks. As someone who hadn't watched a lick of Naruto before this, it's been fun. Although the filler at times has tested my patience with that. I've definitely had to maneuver some stuff around or make sure I don't record a podcast too late in order to watch episodes which has made for some interesting ways to make sure everything works out.

Danni: It's weird to think how I've ostensibly watched one episode of Naruto a day for nearly the entirety of 2019. To be fair though, I averaged nearly two episodes a day in the 10 months it took me to watch the entirety of the Dragon Ball series, so this just feels like a light continuation of that. I haven't given up on any social obligations to watch Naruto, but it has cut down on my available tea time with my students in Fire Emblem.

  Noelle: I never thought I'd be watching Naruto in 2019, but it's August and I sure did just that! It's been more a trip down memory lane for me, and I think I have a more updated perspective on some of the things I recall that were shaky. It's been pretty interesting comparing what I thought as a teenager to my impressions now, and it's been pretty amusing to see how some things haven't changed. The Rewatch is definitely something I have to specifically make time for in my schedule though.

  Kara: My friends now joke that I'm "watching Naruto for a living." I honestly thought this was going to be like pulling teeth. Really, only the filler has been like that. I was pleasantly surprised to find it's enjoyable at its best. Also couldn't help but do a bit of a double take this week when the words "It's Naruto, he'll be fine" were spoken unironically. How times have changed.

  Are there any points in your life that you regard as filler arcs? I remember taking golf lessons for a week when I was 23, which seemed super out of character for me, since I find golf amazingly dull. So I look back on that as "non-canon Daniel." Is there anything like that from your own life that anime fans would argue isn't part of the official timeline of You?

  Joseph: Off the top of my head, I've been pretty damn canon for my entire run. There were a couple months where I lived in LA to help my friend direct his graduation short, but that was more of a NaruJoe Gaiden. Surely some of the six (6!) years I spent farting around in college were filler, though.

Paul: My filler moments would be when I've struggled with bouts of serious depression. Those portions of my life feel hazy and unreal, and if it turned out that I were merely a character in someone else's comic book, I suspect those would be the awkward bits where they fired the previous writers and artists, and the editors had to fake it until a new batch came along.

Kevin: I lived with my parents for about 18 months after graduating college, just looking for some kind of employment. Day in and day out, basically just lounging around home, occasionally having bursts of productivity by applying to a bunch of jobs all at once. This is also the time when I was seriously studying Japanese and picking up mobile gaming. Near the end, I got a seasonal job working for Target and then started writing features for Crunchyroll. I think that's about as filler as it gets, even down to changing up the formula to stave off boredom.

Carolyn: I had to think about this for quite a long time. I'm not certain I can say there was much that I could call filler except possibly my education, which is kind of depressing. I first started going to college for an elementary education degree before realizing I don't actually have the patience to be a teacher. Later I got a certificate in medical transcription/billing and coding ... and did nothing with it. It's all worked out, but those would have to be the filler arcs, I guess.

David: I spent my first semester of college working on a music degree only for my interest in that to peter out halfway through and basically wasting my time for the rest of the year until I found an interest in computer science, so that's probably the closest.

Jared: For me, I'd probably go with all the choices I went through before settling on what I eventually graduated college with. So, there was the long filler arc where I thought I was going to be an automotive mechanic. That transitioned into the very brief web designer arc. After that was the dark time where I had to work at Walmart for two years after dropping out. Finally, there would've been the journalism arc that would eventually transition me onto the English path that would take me out of college.

Danni: My life is a filler arc.

  Noelle: This is a tough question... I do think a lot of things in my life have lead up to where I am now, even if I did feel they were useless at the time. Maybe all the summers I spent at summer camp; I don't think I retained anything particularly useful from those experiences, except for maybe a Pokemon card or two.

  Kara: I think my almost ten years working for a mainstream news website would constitute that. It started out okay, but then it was just a lot of time-killing with very little new scenery. Turning in my notice and becoming a freelancer was scary, but it really did feel like moving on to a new chapter. Which isn't to say every day is super-exciting plot progression, but at least I'm not seeing the same things over and over with slightly different character designs.

  Okay, in our Naruto slack chat channel, there's a debate going on about genjutsu and how useful it is. So, to give us a little more #content, I wanna know your feelings about it here:

  Joseph: It seems pretty useful, but only at an absurdly high level. I'm a huge sucker for illusions so I don't mind the fact that it's just that most of the time. In these particular filler eps, there's an instance where if you fall in imaginary Genjutsu lava, your body actually thinks it's burning and you could die as a result. I'm not going to put much stock in Filler Power Logic, though, so I dunno. I guess it's just a cool concept rather than one I think is super useful all the time. Freddy Krueger uses Genjutsu, so there's that.

Paul: I actively enjoyed the Yakumo arc, although I feel like having so many Kurama clan members with String-Bean Genjutsu was wasted potential. One of my favorite science fiction films is Forbidden Planet, which also features a super-powered id beast running amok. I know some others were arguing that genjutsu is weak as heck, but applied properly, I think it can be one of the deadliest and most inventive tricks in the ninja arsenal, especially when it fools the brain into damaging the body.

  Kevin: I'm the one who started the discussion, so my thoughts are already well known in the channel. For the audience though: I feel like Genjutsu is almost objectively the worst possible thing to specialize in for a Naruto character. Taijutsu basically lets you bench press mountains and ninjutsu seems to let you do pretty much anything magical, and they both allow you to outright kill your opponent. Meanwhile, outside of the insanely powerful genjutsu shown in this week's episodes and the one that Itachi likes using, genjutsu only ever seems to immobilize the opponent.

On its own, that might be fine, since you could stop them and then kill them easily, but even schoolchildren know how to dispel low level genjutsu, and Kuranai showed that when that doesn't work, you can just stab yourself once to get out of a genjutsu. Not ideal obviously, but much easier to defeat than a man moving faster than the eye can see, or a kid trying to stab you with a ball of lightning.

For some of the others:

Ninja tools (Tenten): Not seen often and also a contender for worst option because of how rarely Tenten gets to win at anything. But being able to summon pretty much any number of any weapon has a lot of versatility.

Ninja animals (Kiba, Shino, etc.): They always seem to end up being more useful than I would expect them to be, while genjutsu always ends up being more boring than I would expect.

Kekkei Genkai: Because they don't need to follow the same rules as standard jutsu, the creators have more freedom to be imaginative with what the abilities can do.

Medical ninjutsu: Always useful in keeping people alive (brought back everyone's favorite bowlcut, after all), and Kabuto showed how it can be used offensively. Tsunade also hasn't showed how powerful medical jutsus can get, yet.

Sealing: We haven't seen much of it yet, but what we know is that if you can't kill something, you can seal it away. Maybe not the most practical specialization on a day-to-day basic, but exceptionally useful when needed.

A different group chat I'm in actually came up with a great way to make genjutsu more engaging, and it's basically what Shikamaru does with his Shadow Possession jutsu. Instead of the ninja casting a genjutsu and then basically nothing happening until either the person under the jutsu breaks out or someone comes along to help them get out, the genjutsu creates an opening for someone else to attack, creating combos and interesting combat scenarios.

  Carolyn: Yeah, I have to agree with Joseph. Even if the logic doesn't exactly make sense, anything that deals with mind-bending and reality manipulation is a plus in my book.

    David: It makes sense to me that genjutsu could be seen as the least useful ninja art to practice if you're a normal person in this world, but in the context of the show where the focus tends to be on the most powerful characters, everything except genjutsu feels completely underpowered. So it depends on your lot in life I suppose.

  Jared: We've certainly seen instances of lower level Genjutsu where it seems easy to get out of and know you're under the influence of it. In that instance, it would probably be less beneficial than other forms of jutsu, but if you have a knack for being a high level practitioner of it, then I'd say it's pretty beneficial. Especially as seen here where you can basically trick the brain into believing everything is real and have it cause legitimate damage. The amount of people who are going to be able to operate on that high of a level is going to be slim though, which makes it seem weaker than what it can actually be.

  Danni: Evo was this past weekend, so I've been thinking of genjutsu like a high-skill ceiling fighting game character. For low level shinobi, genjutsu is so easily countered that it's never a viable option. You're better off polishing your skills taijutsu + ninjutsu combos. However, when a real master sits down and devotes themselves to genjutsu, their ability is almost godlike.

  Noelle: I think I agree most with the sentiment that low-level genjutsu is pretty harmless, but high-level genjutsu is deadly. After all, it does rely on tricking the senses, and if you've lost control of your primary senses, then what is there to trust? They may seem like fun and games, but hallucinations in the real world are bewildering enough as is. Sensory adjustment being weaponized can be downright deadly in the right circumstances.

  Kara: Like Paul, I really enjoyed the Yakumo arc. This was a very "made for me" story, between the genjutsu and the taming of the Id monster - that's all stuff I love. Personally I enjoyed how much time was spent developing the idea of genjutsu: that a lot of it is our mind working against us, and in many cases the more intelligent you are, the harder it gets you. Plus our brains are our own worst enemy, so of course it would be terrifying to have them turn against us. I'd honestly rather be kicked in the face a hundred times than live out some sort of eldritch nightmare I couldn't escape, "real" or not.

  Do y'all like ramen? What's your favorite kind? I know that this isn't very relevant to the episodes, but we've been keeping a ramen count for about eight months and I haven't seen much discussion about how y'all actually feel about ramen. I personally really dig it.

  Joseph: Going back to LA, there's a spot my friend and I were hooked on in Little Tokyo called Orochon Ramen. We were training ourselves to stand up to the spiciest number, but never quite made it there. I would sweat INTO my ramen bowl, It was deliciously excruciating, or excruciatingly delicious; whichever sounds better. I think it did level up my spiciness in general!

  Paul: I've had proper ramen from a proper Japanese ramen restaurant in New York City, but, hypocrite that I am, I actually prefer the store-bought stuff from Nissin and Maruchan. I enjoy the pork flavor, which they label as "Oriental flavor" for some unknown reason.

  Kevin: I'll be perfectly honest, Naruto is the reason I started eating ramen more than a decade ago, and I still probably have a bowl or two per week. It's just so simple to make! Boil some chicken broth, add the noodles, add anything frozen (like peas), wait a few minutes until you can break up the block of noodles, add any other vegetables/eggs/whatever, simmer for a few minutes to cook things through, top with green onion if you feel fancy, serve. I also add soy sauce and ginger for a bit more flavorful broth. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes or so to get a bowl full of tastiness. Great for any time that you don't have a better idea for what to eat.

  Carolyn: I've never had real ramen and I really, really want to. The pork flavor labeled "Pork flavor" is the actual best of the store-bought stuff. Sorry, Paul. Oh, and also the mushroom flavor that doesn't even exist anymore. We can cancel shrimp and chili.

  David: Some friends of mine live next to a good ramen place so I like going there when I get the chance, but otherwise I can't say I eat it often. My diet is pretty terrible actually, being mostly frozen meals and the occasional actual food on days where I feel like I have more free time.

  Jared: I've also never had legitimate ramen, so all I have to go off of is the store bought kind and even then I can't remember the last time I had that.

  Danni: When I was in Japan I went to a grocery store and bought some random cups of instant ramen, which turned out to be curry-flavored, and I love me some curry. I ended up bringing a bunch home with me when I left. I currently have one left in my reserves, but I just can't bring myself to eat it and say goodbye to my curry-flavored ramen yet.

  Noelle: Ramen is my go-to food when I don't feel like putting a lot of effort into cooking. I love it! I usually end up eating tonkotsu or shoyu. In restaurants, I like mine with a good helping of char-siu.

  Kara: I started eating ramen when I was very little because my uncle, who was between college and grad school and living with my grandparents and me at the time, had it for lunch every day. (I thought he was cool, which he is, and I wanted to be like him.) He had beef with a slice of Swiss cheese melted on it. I had vegetable with white American cheese on it and eventually "graduated" to beef (though still with cheese). I've had proper ramen and I really enjoy it when it's possible to get it, but sometimes I just crave college food.

  And highs and lows, I guess:

  Joseph: These'll be quick. My high for the week was the concept of Dropout Ninja. I love the idea of unaffiliated bad dudes who decided to quit school and, presumably, set up a Foot Clan-esque underground network. The low is the Yakumo arc. So much drawn-out explanation for what should have otherwise been a pretty neat bit of intrigue and backstory.

Paul: My high point is the id beast from the Yakumo Arc, because the idea of being betrayed by one's own subconscious is a conflict that I groove on. Honorable mention goes to Kurenai being a quintessential shinobi by being willing to endure misplaced vengeance rather than allowing her student to come to harm. My low point is the sheer number of waterfalls that Naruto got tossed over. Two waterfalls in as many episodes is a Wile E. Coyote thing.

  Kevin: High - Cat-in-the-Craddle ninja. I honestly thought about putting him as my low point, or at least as a head scratching choice for how strange an ability it is, but he's one of the few things that really sticks out to me in this batch of episodes, and I actually do like seeing versatile skillsets, even if they've stopped even pretending to be ninja-inspired.

Low - The guy who made the national treasure. I'm so annoyed by basically everything he ever did that I'm not even bothering to look up his name. He started as a jerk and ended as a jerk. Congratulations, now get out and never come back.

  Carolyn: High point, like I mentioned earlier, would have to be the illusions. That stuff is just always fun for me. Low point, yeah, smugness is a no go.

  David: My high point is the concept behind the Yakumo Rescue arc, especially Yakumo herself, practically jumping into the show as a viewer with being inspired by Rock Lee and all. Low point is just how long that arc is - five episodes is about two too many, so it lost a lot of luster along the way.

  Jared: High point this week was some of the different and spookier styles the show tried to implement in the Yakumo arc, albeit briefly. Outside of that though, the low points would probably be everything else with that arc going too long and the other episodes just being basic concepts we've seen executed better elsewhere.

  Danni: My high point is the Yakumo arc, just because of the parallels her situation had with Naruto's. The weakest part of Naruto in my opinion is how little it bothers delving into the fact that Naruto has a giant, murderous demon sealed inside of him that almost definitely killed his parents. Seeing him recognize the similarities between them and make a silent vow to master his own terrifying power was great, and hopefully will become more significant in Shippuden.

  My low point is...also the Yakumo arc. It's just so unfortunately incongruous with the actual mainline plot. If Kurenai had been tasked with this mission for some time, why did she only just now decide that she's unfit to command her team? Also, I imagine that despite Yakumo's incredible power one day being very much needed in the Hidden Leaf Village, no one will ever say a word about or mention her ever again. Yakumo deserves to be canon, dang it!

Noelle: High point, illusions definitely! I like the idea of using horror when it works, and I think they did a decent enough job in doing so. Low point, the general sense of repetition and overall, I think some points stretched far too long. This could've used some trimming and compression.

Kara: High point is the Yakumo arc in general, with special focus on the horror imagery and Id monster. There were some genuine "NOPE" visuals in there (Yakumo's portrait grabbing her and talking to her), not to mention Sakura opening a door and looking out into the void of space and just screaming.

Low point was the freakin' "national treasure" sculptor who spent the whole episode mocking our lads for not dying on the job. I hope Akamaru got an extra spray on him before they kicked him out of the village.

  And for the weekly numbers:

Counters Week- Ramen: 0 bowls + 3 cups Hokage: 0 Clones: 94 + 2 uncountable scenes Total- Ramen: 201 bowls, 17 cups Hokage: 62 Clones: 912

  And that’s it for this week! Remember that you’re always welcome to watch along with the Rewatch, especially if you’ve never seen the original Naruto! Watch Naruto today!

  Here’s our upcoming schedule:

-On August 16th, NICOLE MEJIAS finishes up a mission!

-And finally, on August 23rd, CAYLA COATES wraps up the Rewatch in its entirety!

CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH!

Episodes 197-203: Solving a Mystery

Episodes 190-196: Matchmaking Gone Wrong

Episodes 183-189: No Laughter Allowed!

Episodes 176-182: Reach for the Stars!

Episodes 169-175: Anko’s Backstory At Sea

Episodes 162-168: The Tale of the Phantom Samurai

Episodes 155-161: Quickfire Curry

Episodes 148-154: The Forest is Abuzz With Ninjas

Episodes 141-147: Mizuki Strikes Back!

Episodes 134-140: The Climactic Clash

Episodes 127-133: Naruto vs Sasuke

Episodes 120-126: The Sand Siblings Return

Episodes 113-119: Operation Rescue Sasuke

Episodes 106-112: Sasuke Goes Rogue

Episodes 99-105: Trouble in the Land of Tea

Episodes 92-98: Clash of the Sannin

Episodes 85-91: A Life-Changing Decision

Episodes 78-84: The Fall of a Legend

Episodes 71-77: Sands of Sorrow

Episodes 64-70: Crashing the Chunin Exam

Episodes 57-63: Family Feud

Episodes 50-56: Rock Lee Rally

Episodes 43-49: The Gate

Episodes 36-42: Through the Woods

Episodes 29-35: Sakura Unleashed

Episodes 22-28: Chunin Exams Kickoff

Episodes 15-21: Leaving the Land of Waves

Episodes 8-14: Beginners' Battle

Episodes 1-7: I'm Gonna Be the Hokage!

  Thank you for joining us for the GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! See you next time!

  Have anything to say about this batch of episodes? Let us know in the comments! We're accepting questions and comments for next week, so ask away!

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Anime Werner Herzog is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[meowsaidmayaanime]

What I'm Watching June 2016

Here I will post the anime's that I am currently watching or re-watching, of course this does not include simulcasts as they are in a separate category all together. No, this is a list of the (some partially completed) anime that I binge watch. This post is constantly updated, as I tend to go through a single anime in its entirety within a couple of days, so keep your eye out!

6/25 Blood Blockade Battlefront

Let me get this down now. This anime is visually beautiful, sooooooo much time went into the art and details. Its movie quality beautiful, which is very unusual in a series. So onto the series itself it's about a boy who began living in a post apocalyptic New York after the gates between the human world and the 'monster' world opened. The characters are great, the premise was great, the episodes were great, everything was going wonderfully. Until the anime took an arrow to the knee... Metaphorically of course. So much was left unresolved, and in the last few episodes an obstacle was haphazardly thrown at us. I didn't check the episode count before watching the anime so I was shocked when I found out that there were only 13 (well 12 really) episodes. I get the impression that the studio was initially expecting to do a full 24 ep season considering the pacing of the anime up until episode 10. Evidently this is where the anime diverges quite a bit from the manga itself (my guess is that its unfinished. SOOOOO many anime are left in disappointment because the anime company decides to start a series before the manga has a chance to complete itself leaving the anime with a weird and out of place ending. sigh)

It really is a huge shame that Blood Blockade Battlefront ended the way it did. And its a shame that this recent trend of only creating 'half seasons' has once again resulted in a poor ending. I really liked this anime too, like I said earlier it was amazing. Seriously here's a quote from Toshi Nakamura who wrote a review of the anime itself.

"All in all, Blood Blockade Battlefront was a beautiful jewelry box filled with glittering stones that are individually beautiful, but when you put them on a string to make a necklace, on a whole, they lose a lot of their shine. Plus it feels like some of the most precious gems were left in the box."

My thoughts exactly. Those loose gems left in the box being the other 12 episodes this anime deserved in order to make one complete 24 ep season. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Its so hard trying to recommend an anime when the end is a let down. I want people to see it because the first 9 episodes are fabulous, but I don't want to subject an unsatisfactory anime to anyone. Its not like the ending was bad, for how last minute it was, it was pretty well done, and it did make sense. It just wasn't the ending this anime deserved. If your willing to take this on I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the paranormal genre. Maybe it would just be best to read the manga. Its definitely on my list to read.

6/21 Sankarea Undying Love re-watch

Last time I watched this anime it was in high school after a friend recommended it to me. So I figured why not watch it again? Its a short 12 episode zombie love story. Haha, yup a zombie slice of life love story. In the world of American media, its a really unusual combination of genres, but in anime its no real surprise. I suppose the only real surprise about the anime is the fact that its relatively good, and not at all a harem like High School of the Dead. Its very cute and I think well done. The main female characters father is a total creep and wack-job but that is one of the reasons why he is the main antagonist. For being a zombie anime, its very laid back and you'll find out why as you watch it. Sankarea is an anime that I would recommend to people if I was aware of what kind of anime they liked. If you like the zombie scene but want to watch something not totally gruesome and hyped up, or if you like unusual/ supernatural/ paranormal/ ect. romances I think this is worth a shot.

6/17 Barakamon

WOW, this was really good. I initially started watching this because Funimation's YouTube channel posts trailers and promo videos for its anime. I watched the promo trailer for the English dub, recognized a lot of the voice actors in it and decided to give it a try. I'm gonna say this now, it's probably the best slice of life anime I have seen. and I mean full on slice of life, no paranormal or fantasy or anything else, it's pure slice of life. Its well written, the episodes flow, and its got a great story and great characters. The premise is that a young 20-something artist calligrapher Seishu punches a man who criticized his work as being unimaginative. As a result Seishu's father sends him to live on a rural island to 'cool his head'. The anime then follows the life of Seishu as he makes unexpected friendships and discovers who he is as an artist.

I just loved this anime, If you like slice of life, yes DEFINITELY watch this. Same if you like watching characters grow and their struggle to discover themselves, or if you like comedy, or if you like realism, or if you want a well made anime to calm down with after watching an emotionally draining one. Even if your not into the genre I recommend you give the first episode a try at least. I was immensely impressed with it.

Oh, and the full series won't be released in English until August 9, 2016, but Funimation is releasing the first two episodes in English on June 28th. I know I will definitely be re-watching this when the full English dub release comes out!!

6/16 Charlotte (re-watch)

I LOVED this anime when it came out last year. I remember getting to the last few episodes and going to the public library to finish watching it because the power went out in my house. I just finished re-watching it with one of my friends who had never seen it before. Haha, she was mad at me cause she got so invested in it. It is a doozy. But anyway, it follows high school boy Yuu Otosaka who recently became aware of a supernatural ability of his to be able to control a persons body for 5 seconds at a time. After abusing this power to cheat his way into a good high school, a girl named Tomoe catches him and makes him transfer to a school for people with other abilities. It goes on from there showing their lives, introducing characters and fortifying relationships until the REAL plot reveals itself~

If you like supernatural anime this is a really one, full story in only 13 episodes. It also touches up on quite a few 'heavy' topics, which it actually handles really well. I do recommend this to anyone actually, it was my third favourite 2015 anime of the one I watched that year.

(Bonus: I don't know who wrote this or how far into the anime hey were in, but I agree.)

6/14 50% Off (re-watch)

Oh man, I love this show. I just watched their two A-kon panels from a few weeks ago, and it's great. Just watch this show, make sure you watch it. Here's a link to my post on my favourite parody/abridge series where I talk about this show more. You don't have to know the original anime to enjoy it (I didn't watch Free until recently), so get on YouTube type it in and get going!

6/13 Princess Jellyfish (re-watch)

Alright, So now you guys are up to speed on the anime I watched during my vacation, I just started re-watching Princess Jellyfish. Oh man, I completely forgot about this little gem. I first watched it my freshman year of college (two years ago), and LOVED it. It's basically about a household of otaku young women, and one in particular who is in love with jellyfish, who make friends with their arch enemy, a stylish person! Haha, it is hilarious and a great commentary on stereotypes/social norms in Japanese culture (and really many other first world cultures for that matter.) I am having so much fun re-watching this series, it is slice of life so there is not much of an overarching plot so much as it is just following the exploits of the group after becoming friends with said stylish person I mentioned earlier. Each episode flows naturally into the next creating a constant story with each episode having to do with the next. So despite it being a slice of life, there are no filler episodes that forgotten or have nothing to do with anything. it also consistently references pop-culture and media not just from Japan, but from America too. Really, I can't express how great it is. Watch it, you won't regret it.

6/9 & 6/12

HEY! Sorry for the inactivity, I was on vacation out of state. While I was not able to do anything on this site for the past week, I was able to watch a few anime! AND hey are new ones!

So during my summer vay-cay (haha, thats such a terrible word) I watched:

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

and Amnesia

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia was good. It's about a high school boy who makes a friend out of a ghost, Yuuko, who doesn't remember anything from when she was alive. In terms of content, while they do try to figure out how she died and who she is, a good portion is about tellig the story of the two main characters. Doing high school activities, developing relationships, ect. While the anime does frequently talk about the mystery and paranormal throughout these episodes, its not until the end of the series that the mystery of Yuuko ACTUALLY begins being solved, and they find out REAL information of her past. In hindsight, her past and the climax of the series is thrust upon you towards the end. It would have been better in my opinion if the events and info were more evenly dispersed throughout each episode from the beginning. I still really liked this anime, though I'm not sure as to how good it is. If your into the sort of subdued paranormal scene, then you may want to give this a shot. Its short, its sweet, I really liked learning about Yuuko's past when it finally got around to it, and I personally really liked it. But again, if you like the paranormal, you may like this. If your not into paranormal stuff, then I wouldn't recommend it.

Now Amnesia was a whole different box of pillows. By that I mean body pillows, and by that I mean I am sure that there area tons available. Why? Because this short anime was adapted from a dating sim called Amnesia: Memories. I wish I had known that before I started watching it, but no matter. In terms of dating sim adaptations, it's pretty good. In terms of an anime, not so much. The premise for both the anime and the game is that you are a girl who just woke up and knows absolutely nothing about herself, where she is, or who anyone else is. She has, you guessed it, amnesia. Amnesia caused by a fairy 'bumping' into her? which doesn't make too much sense. (but hey at least it wasn't because she performed horrific acts of manslaughter, created a patchwork monster, and played a huge part in nearly destroying humanity all so Alexander could become godlike, am I right?) Anyway, she wakes up and begins jumping alternate worlds in which she is dating different guys, thus the dating sim part comes in. In therms of the anime itself, the plot is a little wobbly waiting until the last 2 or 3 episodes to actually explain her true past and give a substantial story line. Because in the game, the female character and her name/personality is you, the anime version of her is left 'blank' for self insertion. Making a poor main character being pushed to and fro. But I will tell you this the music was REALLY good, the opening, closing and background music were absolutely fantastic. SO, if you have played this game and enjoyed it then I would definitely recommend it. If you have not, and have absolutely no interest in self-insertion romance, then its not worth the watch for the plot. Although I did like it myself. It's a good addition to my, quote-unquote, "trash anime" (watch out for a post in the maybe near future). Basically a list of guilty pleasure anime which are terrible when it comes to plot and characters, but I just can't resist. Its like reading trashy romance novels, but better and worse at the same time.

6/5 Red Data Girl (re-watch)

Another re-watch, maybe June will be a month of oldies~ (at least for me). RDG is an adorable anime, its a short 12 ep, one season series based off the Japanese novels of the same title. 6 novels (no official translation, but this person on tumblr has been translating them in their spare time), 4 manga novel adaptations, and one anime as mentioned. I'm not familiar with the novels or manga, but I do know that the anime covers most but not all of the novels. One person said it covers the first 5 novels but that's it. Anyway, the anime is super cute, and I really like the premise. My only issue is that the end felt like the completion of a smaller story arch within a larger one. Leaving no REAL ending, you can't even argue that the end is open to interpretation because they didn't leave you wondering what happened, they leave you without ever continuing the main story arch. Without explaining the endless questions that rose with the intention of it being resolved later. Hopefully the manga will give me some solace but with 4 books, i'm not sure if it will... I really like it, and I really wish it would continue.

oh btw, as of right now it's available on netflix, the English voice acting is ok, its not bad, but its also not great. The voice actors are able to but the right voice out, but not give the voice the emotion that the words give. I greatly prefer the Japanese voice acting, but I'm able to live with the English if I'm multi-tasking. (random note: the ending theme is super pretty. Actually, a lot about this anime is pretty)

6/2 Blue Exorcist Movie TOP PICK FOR THIS MONTH (new)

The movie has nothing to do with the plot of the anime at all, and takes place after the events in the series. Atleast I'm fairly certain it does? There's an important (and spoiler-y) thing that happens at the end of the series, that is never addressed or acknowledged in the movie which I think is really weird..... Either way, the movie itself is simply a completely stand alone story from the series. And it was absolutely stunning! Sooooo much detail went into all of the backgrounds and items. On top of that its very well scripted, and the plot flowed incredibly well together without being convoluted, which is surprising since a number of movie sequels to tv series's tend to go overboard by stuffing too much information into an hour and a half.

It was amazing. Its possible that someone could watch the movie without watching the single season anime, just because of how it was written. However you would not know the relationships or the back story of the main character, which helps to explain a lot of the terminology and setting. Especially the part about demons ect ect.

Either way, I LOVED this movie. I didn't even know that there was a movie at all until just now. I'm going to re-watch it with a friend when she gets back into town and I am soooooo excited because I KNOW she will love it too. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. I RECOMMEND THIS SO HARD.

6/1 Blue Exorcist (re-watch)

Well I can't sleep, so what better opportunity than this to re-watch Ao no Exorcist in the English dub~ Ah, I love this anime. Its funny, has great main characters, a good story and writing, and I seem to have a week spot for exorcist anime's, haha. Man, I remember watching this when it first came out in high school, I have a distinct memory of watching one of the later episodes before going to one of my friends concerts. There was a movie made about a year later, AAAAAND a series of specials. Oh, man the movie was so amazing. It has nothing to do with the plot of the anime at all, in fact the anime wrapped up everything rather nicely. The Movie itself is simply another story in cinematic format. It was absolutely beautiful, well made, well scripted, and the plot flowed incredibly well together without being convoluted. Would 100% recommend.

Oh, right! The dub isn't that bad, I mean I wish they had a different voice actor for Rin, I just don't feel like this one really lives up to the character. The other voice actors are great though, really fit the characters. The dub is well done, but I think I preferred the Japanese voice actors (they have a better pick than we do.) I just think that someone with a slightly lower, more thug-ish voice would have been better. The English actors voice is a little too high for me, it's even higher than Yukio's voice ._.

6/1 Black Butler (re-watch)

I decided to re-watch the show (minus the second season) after writing up my post from yesterday about anime whose second season could just go and disappear from existence. I love Sebastian, he is a saint, well a saint among devils. Not only is he one hell of a butler, but one hell of a contractor too, he REALLY get into his jobs, and it is amazing. Even I would enter into a contract if I could have him as a butler~ It's a goon anime, not sure if its recommendation worthy though. I mean yes it's good but it's not something that you HAVE to see, or something you would be missing out on. It's surprisingly fun and while it can and does get intense in certain areas, its not so intense that its going to mess you up.  As long as you never touch the second season, NEVER.

Bonus image, cause why not: