Reviewing Fan-Pokemon: Pokemon Infinite Fusion, Part 2

So I did a little review of random fusions I made on the fan-game Pokemon: Infinite Fusion generator a while back, and it was pretty popular with readers so I've basically been copy-pasting some interesting designs and doing short little write-ups on commute. I actually had this second article ready, but I was waiting to release it after finishing the Indigo Disk. Thanks to real-life stuff, however, I decided to release this a bit earlier since this is an article that's basically done. 

And anyway, I think this is a nice way for me to be able to do some relatively minimum-effort content in terms of monster-reviewing since I don't really have to understand a whole new game's lore or whatnot. Just some reviews. And I guess I can make this a series. I just don't know how regular (or, more likely, irregular) these reviews will be, since I might be able to talk about 10 designs in a day, or maybe 2 over several weeks.

I did a more in-depth explanation of the fusion process in the first review. Basically, the Infinite Fusion calculator has two different combinations, with one Pokemon as the body, and the other Pokemon as the head + colours, and vice-versa. But the most interesting ones are the crowdsourced custom sprites for the fusions, the bulk of which is what we'll be talking about here!
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Starting off with a couple of fun gear fusions, Klinklang + Staryu goes for the obvious route... but sometimes the obvious route is good! They just replaced the Klinklang gears with Staryus, and it does help that Staryu already has a gear-esque golden core that can 'interlock'. The fact that Staryu already has some ring vibes to it helps with the theme of the primary ring around it. 

I really do like this Ivysaur + Klink fusion, too. Replacing Ivysaur's regular leaves with gears is obvious but nice enough, but then putting Klink's wacky mismatched eyes on Ivysaur really does elevate this fusion, I think. One of the commenters on the previous post noted that I could do entire reviews based on a single Pokemon fusion, and the Klink family honestly seems to be a great one to do... eventually.

Right now, I'm just having too much fun with random fusions. Not all of them have to be epic. Like Slowpoke + Bulbasaur here. Putting Slowpoke's head on a chibi body is cute enough, but I love the nice touch of swapping out Bulbasaur's bulb with a Shellder, referencing the quasi-symbiotic relationship between Slowpoke and Shellder. 

I just really like this visual image of the Sandile + Doduo fusion over here, with two entire crocodile heads sprouting out of Doduo's body. The screaming one on the right is cute!

I generally only pick one of each combination of fusions, but Hoothoot + Bellsprout gave me a rather hilarious duo! The one on the left, with the Bellsprout body and Hoothoot's head, has the typical gloriousness of honestly just anything on Bellsprout's slender, vine-like body. But the reverse version, with Hoothoot's leg acting as the 'trunk' and Hoothoot's body being like a weird 'fruit' coloured like Bellsprout is so weird. I actually think having a mixture of Bellsprout's eyes and Hoothoot's beak really does make this fusion look especially adorable. Is it a plant that hops around like an owl, or an owl whose body is leafy and fruity? 

I still do have time for more badass fusions, of course -- Alakazam + Glaceon here looks particularly cool. You could see this as a final boss or an elite enemy in an ice-themed area in a JRPG, couldn't you? I like that they picked the Mega Alakazam design for the base, too, since the idea is that instead of manipulating spoons, Glaceakazam here is manipulating snow and creating little snow-dogs or something. Not quite tiny snow Eevees or Glaceons, but the effect is there and fits well with Alakazam's vibe. 

I really just like Forretress + Heracross. Another one that takes inspiration from the Mega form, this fusion basically takes Forretress's silver-purple chunks as armour around its head and giant chunky arms. I love that the end result looks like some kind of barnacle or crustacean kaiju, and replacing the central beetle horn with one of Forretress's giant cannon is a nice touch. 

Oh! A cute! Koffing's idea as a floating gas-dispersing mine is changed a bit with this fusion with Vileplume. Vileplume's already simplistic face is just simultaneously adorable and sinister attached to anything, but I love that they swapped out Koffing's regular crater-vents for mushrooms coloured like Vileplume's flower. Yes, Vileplume's a rafflesia flower instead of a fungus, but the concept is pretty cool regardless and presumably he's ejecting spores to create more gas-fungus-flower hideous abominations. 

Dunsparce + Magneton here is kinda cute, too, with three squishy Dunsparces having Magneton magnets poking out of the sides of their heads. Unlike Magneton, who's just held together with magnetism, the Dunsparces here actually visibly have their tails coiled together, like a particularly twisted balloon!

They don't add a lot of Pokemon beyond Generation III, but I love the selection that they picked! Pyukumuku, the disturbing gut-vomiting sea cucumber, being one of the choices they made is excellent. And while I had a couple of different Pyukumuku fusions that I almost included here, this fusion with Pinsir is particularly great. Eliminating Pinsir's arms, turning his giant stag beetle murder-claws into two rubbery extensions, and most of all turning Pinsir's fang-filled nightmare mouth into... well, a different kind of nightmare mouth, one that's yawning open for Pyukumuku's gut-hand to spiral out like a ghost appendage? Pretty great. 

Sometimes you really don't have to think too much and let the design combination speak for itself. Wailord + Exeggutor here makes use of the Alolan Exeggutor design, only instead of balancing a cluster of heads on top of an already ridiculous coconut tree neck, Exegglord here balances an entire fucking Wailord on the tip of the tree. Could you just see this goofy-ass thing waddling across the battlefield ready to throw down with the Forretress/Heracross fusion above? I love that it's got a little whale tail at the back of the Exeggutor lower body.  

I tried to mix some Pokemon with their evolutions, but not a lot of them really impressed me. These two did, though. Staryu + Starmie gives us the rather hilariously obvious answer of having Staryu's colours pasted on the 'front' star of Starmie's anatomy. I've always found it wacky that Starmie is basically two stars pasted together. That's cute. 

Shroomish + Breloom is also just adorable, mixing Shroomish's face, stubby feet and 'hair' with the upper toadstool cap of Breloom's "hat". Very cute! I like Shroomish, but I could've seen an alternate timeline where they decided to make Shroomish and Breloom's design closer to each other. 

The various iterations of combining Magnemites with Magnetons, or Doduos with Dodrios all end up with the hilarious but obvious gag of just changing the number of heads that are there. I think Beldum + Metang here are a bit more creative, looking like a wacky vehicle from Star Wars or something. I like that the spriter interprets this combination as a halfway-evolution between Metang and Metagross, having a half 'X' on Beltang's face.

Oooooooh that's adorable. Exeggcute + Exeggutor ends up with each Exeggcute head separately evolving into its own legged body. Each of them has Exeggutor's colours, with stubby feet and hair and everything. I really like this one! 

Speaking of Shroomish, this combination with Venonat is just adorable. Honestly, if not for its similarity with two existing Pokemon, I could see this as a ghoulish little fairy-gremlin living in the deep jungle, with its 'hair' seemingly covering most of his face, and only the adorable little hands and fangs poking out under a mass of hair. I say 'seemingly covering', because those red orbs? Those are Venonat's compound eyes. Creepy and cute, just like when you realize that real-life scallops have like a couple dozen eyes lining their 'lips'. 

I don't have much to say about this Misdreavus + Unown fusion. I just really like the monochrome and the rather unimpressed singular eye on Misdreavus's head. Her pearl necklace have also transformed into a bunch of eyeballs, too. 

Chandelure is one of my all-time favourite Pokemon, and honestly the entire line is ripe for me doing a 'entire article made up of fusions of this Pokemon' review. But right now, just have this very pleasant and honestly very sleek-looking Chandelure + Breloom fusion. I like how the dinosaurian anatomy works pretty well with Chandelure's colours, but particularly how the 'toadstool' seems to have burnt and the hellish flames are sprouting from inside. 

Litwick seems to be one that's adorable mixed with a lot of smaller Pokemon. Litwick + Oddish here is just cute, having Oddish's general body layout, but with Litwick's melting candle body and three tiny fire fuses replacing Oddish's leaves. 

I couldn't decide which of these Litwick + Solosis fusions to include, so I did both! Both of them basically has Solosis's design of being a central nucleus covered with a blob of cytoplasm. The one on the left is pretty simple, They just turned Litwick round, pasted Solosis's diamond-mouthed face on it, and stuck it into the cytoplasm blob. The little cytoplasm-green-flame is the somewhat-literal cherry on the top, though. 

And the one on the right? I love the visual image of the melting candle wick, and putting it on a nucleus is great... but replacing the cytoplasm with ghostly flame in an almost Gastly-like manner is a pretty great creative choice from the spriter. 

Mr. Mime is another one that I can do a whole article out of, and he's not an obvious one like Grimer or Gastly or Solosis or Porygon! But obviously fan artists are going to capitalize on Mr. Mime's fandom reputation of being 'creepy'. I don't actually find Mr. Mime that creepy, but I absolutely love this Mr. Mime + Dusknoir fusion that goes full-in on the psycho-clown vibes. Look at that giant Pennywise mouth! They really lean into some creepy-clown aesthetics with this thing, and swapping Dusknoir's weird-looking plastic collar with Mr. Mime's horns, arranging it like the 'hair' of the monstrous clown-head? Pretty great!

Mr. Mime + Tangela. It's just disturbing, and the fact that there's a smiling Mr. Mime head in the midst of the mass of tentacle-hands, each of which end up in a mime hand... yeah, pretty creepy but hilarious. 

The one on the left is Zekrom + Articuno. And I'm just picking it randomly because... to be honest, I really didn't have much to say about much of the legendary fusions. A lot of them just become a lot more elaborate and over-the-top, like a Final Fantasy boss or a final-form Digimon, and those are honestly not my cup of tea. Hell, I don't even find a lot of them cool... but this one is all right. I think Zekrom's colours are just cool in general. I don't doubt I'll eventually find a bunch that I like as I experiment with the many many fusion options, but I didn't find any that I particularly like at the moment. 

I do really like Suicune + Klink (or it might be Klang) here, which is probably not something that people will instantly jump to as being 'cool', but this mechanized, robotic version of Suicune is pretty neat! I like that it's a bit chunkier and more awkward-looking than what you think a 'robotic Suicune' would look like, and I particularly love the artwork on Suicune's giant forehead-crystal being interpreted as a weirdly-shaped gear. But the best part is that Suicune's two whip-like tendrils are now giant chunky gears that trail behind from the forehead crystal. 

Dialga + Diglett here is just hilarious, particularly since Dialga's head shape is already phallic. Associating it with Diglett's face, and removing a lot of the plastic toy details on Dialga, makes the whole thing look even more ridiculous. Love that Dialga's feet (which already look pretty artificial) are planted to the ground is also fun! 

Ooooh. Ooooh, look at this fucking thing. Cradily's another one that's ripe for an article of its own, but look at this thing. It gets more disturbing the more you look at it! They basically swapped Zapdos's black feathers with Cradily's dicks tentacles, and even Zapdos's talons have been replaced with dicks tentacles. The colours just add to how prominent the dicks tentacles are, even moreso than the original Cradily design. I actually do find putting Cradily's head combined with some Zapdos spikes on a long, elongated neck to be legitimately, unironically badass looking, making this actually feel like someone who can kick your ass instead of 'ha lol look at the dickbird'. I think eliminating the fake eyespots and making the real Cradily eyes look more prominent ends up making that head instantly look more threatening than goofy. 

Here are a bunch that I slapped 'random' on, and I'll always try to break up these articles with a bunch of randoms before going to themes like 'legendaries' or 'fusions of an evolutionary line' or 'fusions with itself'. Omanyte + Bayleef just already looks pleasant with Omanayte's blue, but the combination of spiral-shaped shellfish replacing Bayleef's necklace, and the glorious artwork of Omanyte's squid head on a dinosaur's body is just adorable. 

Vileplume + Ditto is just... a regular rafflesia, but with the eyes sprouting out of the center of the flower instead of a impish little body below it. I love the adorable Ditto smile on it, but having the eyes be glowing red like Vileplume's adds that additional layer of sinisterness that I love Vileplume for. 

We'll end this relatively shorter review with ten 'fused with itself' fusions, which always feels like a way for people to either interpret like a 'prime' or 'pure' version of a Pokemon species... or see a weird, alternate evolution. 

Like Wobbuffet here! Double-Wobbuffet... swaps the anatomy of the 'main body' and the 'tail', with Wobbuffet's traditional blue body with the >_< face reduced into a tail, and the main body now being coloured with the black colours and the eyes of the tail. It looks a bit more disturbing, more alien, and it's been a long-running implication that the tail might be the 'core' of the organism, and I assume this is a version where the tail's grown and developed enough strength to fight on its own. 

Double Ferrothorn here just looks supremely cool. All the extra spikes just makes it look like something from a 90's comic, and I love that the fusion has caused it to sprout like a massive set of chompers not dissimilar to Mega Glalie or something. I like the sprite artwork on making the spiky vine-arms much more threatening... but I think this design still has a lot of charm built into it like the mistletoe leaves and the 'emo eyeliner' leaves. 

Double Trapinch just turns into an utterly horrifying design. Is that an Ekans it's eating? This thing reminds me of something, but I'm not quite sure what. But it's such a weirdly unnatural design to see Trapinch's eyes be on either side of his mouths. It just fucks with our mind, who tries to look for 'normal' heads, even though I'm sure there's probably a bunch of worms or something out there whose eyes are arranged like this. In any case, the spritework here really wins in selling this design. 

A lot of the fused-with-itself legendaries fall into the same artistic choice of just being more elaborate versions of themselves, and a lot of them (particularly the Sinnoh/Unova ones) just give me a headache. And honestly, it's not like I like this double-fused Deoxys, but I appreciate the concept of having it have traits of every Deoxys form. The arms of both attack and defense form, the long, elongated shoulderpads and cranium of the speed form, and even the head is a mixture of normal, attack and speed. 

Now, I'm not saying being generally 'cool' doesn't have its place, but I just didn't find it with the fused-with-itself Legendaries. Now, non-legendaries, on the other hand... just look at double-Armaldo (with a correct number of limbs for an insect, even though he's a radiodont instead of an insect) and double-Nidoking here! I particularly like the insane kaiju-looking Nidoking. 

Double-Chimchar turns the monkey's body black for some reason, but also sets his head on fire. I think there might be an in-joke here because there's a lot of references to other properties on this game, but I really do like the visual image of Chimchar's head being permanently on fire. It probably doesn't hurt it, but it's a fucking monkey, so you can imagine just how much more destructive this screeching, mischievous shit is going to be. 

Double-Bulbasaur! It looks happy, though it also looks like it needs some eyedrops. I like that the Bulbasaur's bulb seems to have matured prematurely, having turned red like Ivysaur/Venusaur's, and even has little versions of the leaves around it. 

I don't really have anything smart to say about Larvesta + Larvesta. It just looks really cool, being a caterpillar that's on fire. This design uses a bit more blacks compared to the original Larvesta, or at least makes them more prominent next to the fiery-red abdomen... and it's a very common colour palette, but it's still a very cool one, isn't it? 

You know they're going to do something creepy with Shuppet-Shuppet, and I love that they took the concept explored with Mega Bannette, but just doing it with Shuppet's body. The stitches and the pink 'inner body' leaking out is pretty well-done, and I love that one of it is designed to look like Mega Shuppet's tongue here. The best part of this design, of course, is having one of the Shuppet fusion's eyes stitched shut. Creepy!

Netflix's One Piece S01E08 Review: Surprise Bonus Boss

Netflix's One Piece, Episode 8: Worst in the East

So this is an interesting ending to Netflix's One Piece live action adaptation. As usual, this episode clocks in at around the 50-minute mark... but not all of it is devoted to ending the Arlong Park arc. Instead, the season actually finally gives us some payoff for the Garp/Koby/Helmeppo storyline that's been so prominent throughout this adaptation, something that in and of itself is already arguably worth the proverbial price of admission to that storyline... but we actually get a bonus boss fight and a confrontation between Garp and Luffy. And... I'm... okay about it? A lot of people are divided about this little confrontation. I did feel like it was handled relatively okay. It's not nearly as impactful enough for me to go "this should've been canon in the manga", but neither is it filler-y enough for me to say that the episode is worse for spending 15-20 minutes on Garp and Luffy's confrontation. 

I did think that the conclusion of the Arlong arc did suffer a bit thanks to the show condensing almost everything that's not related to Luffy, Nami or Arlong. The lack of Hatchan means that Zoro doesn't really get a chance to shine. Sanji gets to still fight Kuroobi, which proceeds more or less faithfully to the source material but with a bit less underwater combat. But easily the most neutered moment in the finale is Usopp's fight against Chew. Most of the events that happen are still essentially what happened in the source material, with Usopp playing dead and using trickery to overcome Chew and set him on fire, but them significantly reducing Usopp's cowardice -- and most importantly, Usopp's moment as he was about to set up a whole "I was injured, sorry guys" excuse before manning up? Eliminating all that reduces this to a generic action scene and takes away one of Usopp's best moments of growth in the story. 

But anyway... we spend some time setting up the climax as we see the burnt-down Cocoyasi Village, and a quick handwave that Nojiko brought Genzo and the rest of the villagers up to speed. At around 5 minutes into the episode, we begin the assault on Arlong Park with the five Straw Hats attacking the base, and... again, it's mostly action scenes. The bulk of the emotional and suspense focus is carried by Luffy and Nami, who dart immediately to the main building and Nami's map-room to confront Arlong. Usopp attacks Chew and the two quickly bugger out of the main battlefield to do their 1v1. Meanwhile, Sanji and Zoro stay in the giant park to fight against the army of Fishmen extras. It's pretty nice to see, and while I don't have anything super insightful to say about the action scenes, it's nice to see all the prosthetic fishmen fight against Zoro's multiple swords and Sanji's (presumably much easier to choreograph) kicks. 

There's a lot of fun bickering between Zoro and Sanji, as they argue about who 'got' which enemy, and the Sanji/Kuroobi fight ends with Sanji going through his anatomy-in-cooking countdown as he beats up on Kuroobi, leading to the punchline of the running gag about great warriors calling out their attack names.

We covered Chew and Usopp's fight up above, but BUggy's storyline is also quickly resolved before the Kuroobi fight. Zoro and Sanji kinda reunite Buggy's head with the rest of his body, and... in a moment that's completely in character for Buggy, he just exits stage left and runs the fuck away, leading to the most glorious delivery of the show's allotted F-bomb as Zoro says "fucking clown". 

Arlong confront Luffy and Nami, giving his spiel about governments and fishmen and the racial difference... but I do like, again, just like how he's consistently portrayed when he meets all the other villains down the line... Luffy doesn't give a shit. All he sees is his friend being used as a tool, with chains and forced to draw maps for her tormentors, and fishman or not, Monkey D. Luffy will beat the shit out of Arlong. We do get a nice little comeback from Luffy, noting that 'no one should be forced to do anything', which is a nice counterargument to Arlong spouting all these lines about being anti-slavery when he's keeping Nami as a slave-with-some-extra-steps. 

Again, it's a moment that's essentially a remix of the manga's version of events, but Luffy getting pissed off at Arlong asking Luffy if he could've "used" Nami efficiently gets him so riled up that he smashes Arlong's giant sawshark sword with his bare hands. Though... I really wished Arlong at least got to swing the damn thing a couple of times in the fight. That's a bit of an obvious cop-out not to use the wacky impractical anime weapon in live-action. But I can live with that, because the delivery of that scene is pretty fucking cool. We also get the rather memorable visual of Arlong regrowing a set of teeth after Luffy shatters his original batch, which is appropriately pretty grisly in live-action. 

I do feel like the destruction of the map room, again, is something that suffers a bit becasue it loses one of the most iconic panels from that scene -- Nami realizing that Luffy's kicking all of the cartographer's tools and maps that she was forced to use for Arlong's sake all flying out of the tower. But having Nami actually present when Luffy and Arlong face off against each other is definitely a much stronger climax. The lines being delivered between Arlong and Luffy are pretty well-delivered, too. "I can destroy everything you've built."

As Arlong Park is falling down all around him (which I guess is the 'weakness' Luffy kinda implies in the beginning of the episode? Otherwise that line is just a non-sequitur.) we get a fun adaptation of Gum-Gum Gatling (which looks really good) and Gum-Gum Battle Axe. And... it's an okay action scene. I think I kinda wanted it to last a bit longer? It's a minor complaint, but I did feel like Luffy and Arlong's clash in Baratie felt a bit more epic. I think if we had a bit more of an emphasis of Luffy crushing the map room, or more emphasis of Luffy finding a 'weakness' -- even if it's simply keeping Arlong out of the water -- the climax would've felt a lot better. As it is, after the buildup with Luffy and Arlong's actors saying all their lines, it feels a bit abrupt, is all. 

The best addition running in the background is the investigation of Nezumi by Garp's unit -- Nezumi did get beaten up by the Straw Hats in the manga, but basically went away scot-free despite being a super-corrupt Marine. Here we get a nice extension of Garp policing the Marines from internal corruption, just like what he did to Morgan earlier in the season. I do like the little interaction between Garp and Nezumi, where Garp really doesn't give a shit about Nezumi's nonsense and I think he can see that all of the rat-man's grandstanding is just hot air. 

Arlong's defeated at around the 20-minute mark, leaving us shy of 30 minutes to go through. Even with the typical end-of-arc party (which I did love that they adapt) it really did feel like the big epic confrontation in Arlong Park felt... rushed? Which is nice since this episode does give us a second climax. As Usopp regales the villagers with the tale of the Great Captain Usopp (which, again, loses its oomph due to Usopp just being a straight-up trickster warrior instead of someone who actually conquers his cowardice), Garp and company show up. And... Koby gets his scene of standing up to Garp, saying that Garp is working off of bad information, and that it's Arlong that's responsible for destroying and tormenting Cocoyasi Village, not Luffy. Again, this bit feels a bit... a bit rushed. While they handled Koby well during the Kuro arc, his involvement in the Arlong arc felt a bit tacked-on... especially since this scene is more about Garp than Koby. 

As the Marines hold the Straw Hats at gunpoint, Garp talks to Luffy and we get a confrontation as Luffy declares to Garp that he's "always been a pirate". We get a clash between the two, showing that Garp's strong enough to beat up even Luffy's rubber body (we don't talk about this 'Haki' stuff pre-timeskip). Luffy unleashes a Gum-Gum Rocket only for Garp to calmly just clothesline Luffy with his outstretched arm, which I thought was pretty damn funny. But they did a great job at showing Garp as this implacable, utterly indestructible man. And as Garp throttles Luffy and they have a heart-to-heart about the dangers of the Grand Line and of dreams, Luffy once more reiterates his dream to be the King of the Pirates, reminding Garp of Roger... and Garp lets Luffy go and laughs loud. Garp tells Luffy that they share the same stubbornness, and all he wanted to do was to deliver some tough love to make sure that Luffy is on the same page as Garp as to who Luffy is -- and it's a test all along. 

Do I like this interpretation of Garp's character? Yes. Yes, I totally would see him as someone who lets people like Luffy and Ace run around as long as they're free and following their own dreams -- even if Garp doesn't agree with it. It's just that Garp is following his own dreams, and if those dreams clash, then Garp will bring the fist down. Remember that Garp's meeting with Luffy in Alabasta was very cordial and jovial, up until he gets the orders from HQ to bring Luffy in. 

Garp decides to let the Straw Hats go, tells the Marines to hunt down the remnants of Arlong's Pirates. Nezumi's the only one who complains, but gets his head whacked by Nami as comeuppance. Garp tells Luffy that "you're on your own now", to which Luffy replies that no, of course not. He's got his friends. 

And the episode -- and season -- ends with a couple of nice, short scenes. Nami on Bellemere's grave, talking about family. Luffy and Koby have a brief talk... and it's actually narratively very awesome that it's Koby that hands Luffy his very first bounty poster, as a dual congratulations and warning, before the two of them part on good ways.

The Straw Hats discuss the bounty poster, before we get a 'decks around the world' sequence as the News Coo travel to the world. This is very One Piece, and part of the DNA that the world keeps following the journey of this dumbass with a straw hat. We get Makino back in Foosha Village. Kaya in her mansion looking at the tiny picture of Usopp in the background. Zeff putting Luffy's poster on a board. Buggy and Alvida in a tavern finding common hatred about Luffy. Of course, the fan-favourite scene of Mihawk and Shanks meeting each other, and the Red-Haired Pirates all getting super excited about little Luffy becoming a pirate. 

Oh, and also Garp telling Koby and Helmeppo that their 'punishment' is going to be undergoing some intense training from him. By the way, I realize how much of my live-action reviews have been talking about Helmeppo, but I really do like that his motivation to train is to show up Roronoa Zoro -- and that's the reason he would later on specialize in swords later in life.

And then we cut to the Going Merry. Nami gets to see the tangerines they transplanted on board the ship. And finally, the rest of the Straw Hats unfurl the gigantic jolly roger of the Straw Hat Pirates on the sail of their boat -- a truly glorious moment that not even the live-action devil-goat figurehead of the Merry can't ruin. I love Godoy's acting of Luffy in this scene, and his sheer surprise, joy and excitement at seeing that, yes, he's a pirate captain for real now is just so infectious. 

And as Luffy and Nami briefly discuss the strange map describing Reverse Mountain, Sanji pulls out a barrel -- the same barrel from episode 1 -- and all the Straw Hats slam their feet on the barrel as they all state their dreams. In a nice touch, we cut to their younger selves as the adult actors say the dreams out loud. To find the All Blue. To draw a map of the world. To be a great warrior of the sea. To be the greatest swordsman in the world. To be the King of the Pirates. 

End scene, as the camera flies to the sky, the giant One Piece logo swoops in, and we briefly get an almost Marvel-inspired moment of Smoker burning out Luffy's eye with a cigar. 

And scene. 

And... yeah. I didn't love this climax, but they definitely did stick the landing, unlike some other shows I've seen out there. But you can feel the passion they put into this. You could feel the care they have for the characters, for the location, for the story. This isn't some Netflix-Death-Note terrible cashgrab that adapts maybe just the names, a couple of cool-looking characters and 10% of the story. This isn't a 'modernized' or 'Americanized' adaptation that's ashamed of the goofy straw hats and rubber powers and three swords and attack names... and honestly, that makes all of the changes and omissions a bit more understandable. You get that this design team, if they had infinite budget, would've included Jango and Hatchan and Johnny and Yosaku if they had enough time for another full episode's worth of budget. 

And in general? This is just such a wild ride indeed. Now if they had to fit all of Alabasta into 8 episodes, I really don't know if they could do it, not without overblowing the budget... but that's a discussion for another time. This has been a wild ride, an amazing ride, and... I definitely enjoyed it!

One Piece Easter Eggs Corner:

• The hot sauce that Usopp uses to defeat Chew has 'Boshi' written on it. While the Netflix adaptation obviously uses the English translation of Usopp's attacks, in the original Japanese Usopp uses 'Boshi' (star) at the end of all of his attacks. 
  
• While the Straw Hats attack Arlong Park from the land side of base, the manga-accurate sea-facing entrance could still be seen from the sky shots of the base. 
• The newspaper Kaya is holding has a side-article mentioning the Revolutionary Army taking control of the country of Vira. In this part of the manga, Nami also offhandedly reads the same news title... and Vira has recentl became a bit notable when one of the Shonen Jump special cheekily name-drops Vira as a (joking, probably) possible location of Laugh Tale. 
• On Zeff's fridge are recipes of the following:
• Tomahawk Spiny Lobster and Oregano Aged Wild Boar (both from Shokugeki no Sanji).
• Nojiko's Tangerines (which is a bit weird since Cocoyasi Village has been under Arlong's reign, but not impossible that Nojiko has a business... they had to make all that money from somewhere, after all).
• Sandora Lizards Arabasta. Obviously, from the Arabasta/Alabasta arc. 
• Beef Mizu Mizu. The 'Mizu Mizu' food is line from Water Seven, which Luffy spends a lot of money on during the Straw Hats' first visit there. 
• Don Krieg's wanted poster is seen in the bar Buggy and Alvida meet up in, in the same pose that Krieg is seen in the first anime opening. 
• The characters in the post-credits montage, Alvida, Buggy and Smoker, would all face off against Luffy in Loguetown, the location that the Straw Hats would visit next.

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5 Royal, Part 33

And before we finish off Persona 5 Royal with a bang and the final fight against Dr. Maruki, here's a bunch of ersatz 'secret' Personas and locked-by-tier-10-confidant Personas. I really don't have much to say here for the opening. though I really do say that there absolutely being no indication about how to fuse Alice, Shiva and Ardha is both extremely frustrating but honestly also pretty much in-line with these JRPGs. 

I am pleased to note that I've actually reached rank 10 on all confidants! Which I didn't think I was going to be able to do. I can't actually get all the third-tier evolution for all of the playable characters, but that's okay. I did look at what the third-tier Personas look like by save-scumming, but I basically forewent Yusuke and Futaba's third-tiers. Won't cover every single one in this article, though! 

Our eyecatcher this time is one of the Confidants I am the most indifferent to, Oda Shinya. And I think he's most people's least favourite Confidant? He's one of the characters that appeared relatively late in the story, and you have to go through a whole sidequest to even unlock his rank one. And his story... isn't the most interesting. A lot of these non-party Confidants do have standalone stories that are mostly divorced from the main storyline, but Shinya's is probably the one that feels the most... off? There's some theme about not being a jackass rebel, about how winning isn't everything and whatnot. It's not a bad story, it just feels a bit weirdly different. I think looking back, I don't mind it as much as I was rolling my eyes when I played through Shinya's story, but I feel like he's also missing a lot of the 'foreshadowing' of him appearing outside of his Confidant the way that other characters like Ohya, Chihaya and Iwai have. 

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Vanadis

• Arcana: Faith

Sumire/Kasumi's second-tier Persona, the 'mythological trickster' one, is Vanadis -- which is the alternate name of Freyja (the spelling of the name can vary from Freya, Freja, etc), one of the chief deities in Norse mythology. It really is always nice to see people refer to more of the Nordic pantheon beyond just Odin, Thor and Loki! Freya is the twin sister of her similarly-named brother Freyr. Freya is described as the most beautiful goddess, being in charge of love, beauty, sex and fertility... but interestingly enough, also over war, gold and seidr, a type of magic involving seeing the future. As mentioned in the profile, Vanadis is 'Dis of the Vanir', with 'dis' being a goddess, and the Vanir being a race of gods that are separate from the Aesir (where Odin and Thor hail from). After the Aesir/Vanir war, the Vanir were incorporated into the Aesir, including Freyja and Freyr.

Freya owns the necklace called Brisingamen, her chariot is pulled by two cats, has a cloak of falcon feathers and has a boar companion Hildisvini. She rules over the heavenly field of Folkvangr, where she receives the honourable dead that do not go to Valhalla. It's kind of interesting because Freya/Vanadis has never really been portrayed as being a thief or rebel... but I guess Sumire herself never quite joined in the battle against society the way the other Phantom Thieves were? The closest thing I could think of is the feud regarding the scandalous way she obtained her necklace, where she slept with four dwarves and committed adultery against her husband, and Loki was tasked by Odin to bring back the necklace to punish her?

Anyway, Vanadis's design in this game is... it's basically a cross between Sumire's original Cendrillon with the colours and feathery wings of Joker's Arsene. Sumire's Phantom Thief outfit is already aping Joker's, though whether by design or coincidence, Vanadis also has the 'cloak of falcon feathers' from the legends interpreted as a massive skirt. 

Ishtar

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Lovers

Ishtar here is the ultimate Persona unlocked with the 'Lovers' Persona, and her design is... I don't really have much to say about her.. She's a blonde lady with asymmetrical demon horns, and a sexy skirt-and-top combo. Not too much to say here.

From a mythological standpoint, Ishtar is the Babylonian/Assyrian equivalent of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, and is a goddess of love, war and fertility. Alongside Astarte (which some note is based on Inanna as well), she's another one that's often thought to be the identity of the pagan 'Queen of Heaven' mentioned in several parts of the Bible. Ishtar also represents the morning star (which we now call Venus), and she forms a trinity of celestial objects with her brother Shamash (the sun god) and her father Sin (the moon god). Though it's been debated by modern researchers, older material associated Ishtar's cult with temple prostitution. Her symbols include an eight-pointed star (representing the morning star), the lion, the dove, and the horned helmets that most Mesopotamian gods are depicted with. 

In the epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar is stated to have many lovers, but all of her lovers were fated to be killed or meet a terrible fate. For example, depending on the legend, her husband Tammuz was either trapped in the underworld or be turned into a bird with a broken wing. The hero Gilgamesh rejected Ishtar's advances, enraging Ishtar and causing her to send the Bull of Heaven to combat him. However, Gilgamesh and his ally Enkidu managed to kill the bull. 

Shiva

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Judgement

In Hinduism, Shiva is one of the three principal deities of the Trimurti, representing Destruction to contrast Brahma the Creator and Vishnu the Preserver. Again, just like Vishnu before, trying to list every single part of Shiva's legends and how it differs between different branches of Hinduism would be too much and be beyond the scope of this article. Despite being known as the Destroyer, Shiva is not a malicious deity. He's benevolent and beneficial, and represents the cycle of destruction and recreation, for without first having destruction, creation could not take place. As the Persona model shows, Shiva is normally depicted with four arms, a third eye, carries a trident and a drum, and is accompanied by a serpent. Shiva is noted to be against premature destruction, however, and only does so when it is time. 

He's basically what you'd expect from a depiction of Shiva. In Persona 5, Shiva is one of the few Personas who isn't listed in the Persona compendium, leaving you to figure him out via a secret fusion -- in Shiva's case, he's formed by fusing Rangda and Barong, the two eternal rivals. I also do like that he's got a bit more snakes than you'd expect from a first glance coiled all around his body. 

Ardha

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Temperance

Ardha, or rather Ardhanarishvara, is the form taken from the fusion of Shiva and his wife Parvati. The term 'Ardhanarisvhara' literally means 'Lord Who is Half Woman', since the right half of Ardhanarishvara is the male Shiva and the left half is the female Parvati. It is one of the more common forms of the divine in Indian art, and depending on the myths, Ardhanarishvara is either an androgynous incarnation of just Shiva, or the form of Shiva and Parvati who loved each other so deeply that they joined together as a single being instead of being apart. Again, I don't really think it's super-responsible for me to explain too much about a mythology and belief system that's very complex and variable with just a cursory Wikipedia and Google search, so I'll leave it to you readers to learn more if you want to. 

Persona/SMT's design is basically a design that's... basically half-Shiva (though he uses the blue-skin colouring that later SMT/Persona games turned to purple) and half-Parvati. Like Shiva, Ardha isn't listed and is considered a special fusion. 

Satan

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Judgement

And the ultimate Persona for Judgement is Satan. Like, ol' Scratch! Satan, or Ha-Satan (Hebrew Bible) or Shaitan (Islamic Quran), means 'the accuser' in Hebrew and is a prominent figure in Abrahamic religions. In Christianity, Satan is equated as the Devil (and sometimes conflated or considered the same being with Lucifer), as the ultimate agent of evil that seduces human into falsehood and sin. In both Christianity and Islam, Satan is typically seen as either a fallen angel or a jinn that has rebelled against God, who nonetheless allows Satan to have temporary power over the fallen world. In Christianity, Satan would have a much larger role as a tempter and the ultimate evil in the New Testament. In Judaism, Satan is seen as an entity subservient to God, representing the 'evil inclination', a role that is also seen in the Biblical Book of Job where Satan is an agent of temptation that tests Job's faith. Is that why he's assigned to the 'Judgement' arcana?

Satan's appearance is never described in the Bible other than the draconic form he takes in the Book of Revelations, but in the Middle Ages, he is normally shown in the typical red humanoid with cloven hooves, horns, a tail and holding a pitchfork. Over the years, Satan has also been linked with various 'evil' entities from completely different mythologies. Satan has also been depicted in various works of literature, most famously Dante's Inferno and Paradise Lost. Certain denominations of Christianity associate Satan with the sin of wrath among the Seven Deadly Sins. 

And Satan's appearance in this franchise has changed over the years, but the specific one in Persona 5 is a recurring design. It's... it's a very monstrous design! I'm trying to describe it as best as I can, but Satan here is a giant... insect-snake thing. It's got a central body that's serpentine, but two bone-coloured 'tails' growing out of where the humanoid 'torso' connects to the main tail. Its head is a giant, elaborate xenomorph-looking thing, with a hideous face and an elongated skull. It's a bit hard to tell on the model, but the art shows that it's got wacky sharp fin-like protrusions coming out of either side of that skull. It's got three pairs of beetle wings -- which translates to three translucent wings and three thicker shell-like carapaces. It's got three pairs of hands, though two of them also double as 'feet' that prop up the humanoid torso. And, lastly and bizarrely, Satan's got six breasts running down his chest.

This is a rather over-the-top design, but I actually like it for its originality. From all the myths of Satan, you'd think that the obvious design would be a serpent (from Genesis) or a multi-headed dragon (from Revelations) or even the three-headed frozen entity described by Dante in Inferno. The fact that Satan in this game learns primarily ice skills might be a reference to how in Dante's Inferno, Satan is encased in ice in the deepest darkest part of hell. Making him a giant bug-dragon monster is unexpected but definitely rather welcome, and there's just enough detail to make Satan look elaborate while still somehow retaining a somewhat thematic design -- it's the 6 repeated 3 times, since Satan has six of each arms, wings and breasts.

Lucifer

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Star

And if you prefer your demons to be of the 'fallen angel' kind instead of the 'monstrous abomination' kind, SMT/Persona has you covered with Lucifer, who's a six-winged demon-angel man. His body is all ridged and he's got two giant horns and devil bat-wings, but otherwise Lucifer here does fulfill most of the tropes associated with a fallen angel. Lucifer here is the ultimate Persona of the 'Star' Arcana, probably a joke on how Lucifer's name literally means 'Morning Star'. I do appreciate Lucifer's existence and design, but this game also has Satanael, so you're not really hurting for six-winged, black-and-red fallen angel designs. 

I don't usually talk about the other Shin Megami Tensei games, but worth noting that Lucifer's design here is from Shin Megami Tensei 2... which depicts Lucifer in both an 'angelic' form and a 'demonic' form. The white robes that coil itself around Lucifer's body is the remnants of that angel form. Persona 3 and Persona 4 adapts Lucifer's angelic form as 'Helel' (the original Hebrew term later translated into Lucifer), but he was left out of Persona 5. 

Lucifer (originally 'Helel' in Hebrew) is noted as a fallen angel, often noted to be one of (if not the) strongest archangel or seraph before the sin of pride caused him to rebel against God alongside an army of angels. For this sin, Lucifer is cast out of Heaven and fell from grace, eventually becoming a demon. Most Christianity sects conflate the myth of this fallen angel called Lucifer with Satan, the great tempter and evil. This is likely to be conflated with other religions that personify the Morning Star (which is the planet Venus). In the earliest Christian writings, there is debate on whether 'Helel' is a metaphorical entity or a fallen angel.

 However, when the book of Isaiah was translated into Latin, a specific passage refers to 'Helel' that has fallen from heaven, a reference to a Canaanite myth about the morning star, which was translated with Lucifer (light-bringer) and was interpreted as an allegory about Lucifer's fall from Heaven; though some note that 'Helel/Lucifer' in this book refers to a Babylonian king. Subsequent Christian writings would pick up on this, and various writings would either consider Lucifer and Satan as the same or different entity, though most popular media have often taken this 'fallen angel' origin story as the definitive origin story for Christianity's greatest villain. 

Mother Harlot

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Empress

Mother Harlot, more commonly known as 'the Whore of Babylon' or by her full title, 'Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth', is an allegorical figure of evil from the Book of Revelations in the Bible, one of many incarnations of evil that will plague the world during the end of days as described in the Book of Revelations. She is said to be dressed in purple and scarlet, holding a golden cup full of the blood of martyrs, and riding on a seven-headed scarlet beast with ten horns. There have been many discussions about what the Whore of Babylon is meant to represent, with many agreeing that the Whore of Babylon was meant to be associated with the Roman Empire -- or powerful empires in general. The heads of the beast she rides are explicitly noted to be great kings. Ultimately, the Whore would be destroyed by the Beast of the Sea, which is often interpreted to be either the Antichrist or Satan. 

Regardless of what the Whore is supposed to represent, Persona's Mother Harlot is an interesting design where it takes all of the descriptors of her in the Bible and translates it to a skull-headed woman riding a seven-headed draconic creature... and I particularly like the blank eyes of the dragon's heads coupled with the goofiness of the crowns on their heads. It's a bit easier to tell in the artwork, but I do like the mythology-accurate fact that the dragon heads have a total of ten horns, with some heads having two horns instead of one.