Jujutsu Kaisen S01E12-13

More Jujutsu Kaisen! These are taking a bit longer relatively for me to write than expected. Oops!

Episode 12:

• We get a brief cameo of Takuma Ino helping Nanami beat up the cursed humans, and I think he's supposed to be a minor character from the Zero mini?
• Ijichi isn't a major character in the grand scheme of things, but I really do like his 'responsible adult' nature and certainly not a small amount of guilt after indirectly contributing to Yuji's death in the Demon Womb arc. All he can do is just trying to stop Yuji before he rushes in. 
• And then we follow up with the cliffhanger of the previous episode, with Yuji fighting Junpei and his jellyfish Stand shikigami, Moon Dregs. 
• The fight against the jellyfish is... the fight itself isn't the most exciting thing in this episode, with the jellyfish basically just absorbing and blocking all of Yuji's jujutsu punches. But that's not the point of this conflict, yeah? The primary point is the clash of beliefs, with Junpei ranting about how people have no heart, how morality is a delusion, and no one has the right to stop another one from killing.  
• But Yuji is just... too damn powerful, or determined, or stupid, just punching his way out of the poisonous jellyfish spirit and later on chuck the jellyfish to Junpei. I do like that we get a flashback to Yuji's training, where he is instructed to go after the shikigami user. 
• It is an interesting way to not show us the full training, since we assume Gojo and maybe even Nanami gave Yuji a lot of lessons offscreen, but it'd be boring to watch all of them proceed in real time.
• Then, we get the inevitable bringing up of Junpei's mother -- and the fact that Junpei's trauma stems more from the fact that he can't believe that 'someone with a heart' cursed his mother to death.
  
• But then Yuji allows Moon Dregs to pierce his body, surprising Junpei enough for him to call off the jellyfish. I do really like that Yuji... actually apologizes for being a bit insensitive in their initial ranting. The worst 'talk-no-jutsu' sequences in anime have always been the ones that go "shaddap, NAKAMA!" which might work in a more fantastical setting, but I really do like that one of the focuses of the Junpei storyline has been how no one understands him and just tosses platitudes at him. 
• 
  And then we get the cruel audience punch. Yuji almost gets through to Junpei, talking about how he doesn't have to be alone anymore, how he can go to jujutsu high, how he can get his revenge against whoever cursed his mother...
• ...and then Mahito shows up, pins Yuji to the wall, and Junpei is absolutely confused about what's going on. Yuji's yelling at him to run...
• And then Mahito just cruelly talks to Junpei's ear and uses Idle Transfiguration to turn him into a raggedy golem-thing that almost-mindlessly fights Yuji, only able to say 'why' and 'help me'. 
  
• And it's... it's pretty obvious in hindsight, but it is pretty surprising for a shonen manga to deny the redemption arc, but to straight-up kill off Junpei in such a cruel manner! That little shot of an imaginary future where Junpei hangs out with the rest of the main trio in a jujutsu high uniform is particularly cruel!
• And I really do think that this arc allowing Junpei to be just killed off by his manipulative benefactor for drama is probably what really got me into this series the first time. I remembered this scene being pretty jarringly sudden in the manga, too. 
• I also really like the scene of a desperate Yuji, with Mahito and Sukuna cackling evilly behind them. Again, I really love the handling of Sukuna. This isn't any of the many 'jackass-but-ultimately-helpful' berserk alter-egos or superpowers seen in shonen manga. It's not a matter of Sukuna not being able to reverse Idle Transfiguration, or that Sukuna won't benefit from it (even Mahito is surprised!) but Sukuna is such a dick and wants so much to torment Yuji that he's reneging on a deal that might give him more freedom out of nothing but sheer spite. 
• And Yuji gets super pissed off... and starts punching Mahito. Yuji's unique two-soul nature and his Divergent Fist allows him to actually hit Mahito's soul. 
• That's a very great line and an amazing delivery, by the way. "The next words I say is so filled with conviction that everything I've ever said before in my life sounds like a lie: I will kill you."
• It is an interesting situation too that Mahito notes that he's not trying to kill Yuji, but rather get him to enter into a binding contract with Sukuna that would allow the curse to gain more power... but now that Yuji can hurt him, it provides some extra complications. 
• The brawl between Yuji and Mahito is very fun to watch (even if the best action scenes are in the next episode) particularly with Mahito constantly shapeshifting his limbs to try and counter and mangle Yuji. At one point he even shoots out a drill-tentacle, showing that it doesn't have to be limited to animalistic appendages. 
• Pretty fun sequence when Yuji grabs Mahito's drill, Mahito grows spikes to impale Yuji, but it just makes Yuji have a better grip to drag Mahito out of the school building to him. 
• Mahito tries to touch Yuji's soul, but we get the glorious sequence of Mahito finding himself within Sukuna's inner domain. Sukuna really doesn't give a fuck to anyone, and Mahito realizes what a huge error he's made as Sukuna makes it clear that the only reason Mahito survives this trespass is that they enjoyed the mocking laugh together. 
• After a headbutting session, Nanami also shows up to back Yuji up, protecting Yuji and I enjoy how they basically go quickly into business, and Nanami realizes that Yuji's somehow able to hurt Mahito and that they have a chance to exorcise this high-grade curse. 

Episode 13:

• And this whole episode is just a fight scene, and... I'm not going to go through every single motion. But it is glorious, the animation is very fluid and I am particularly fond of how this anime handles impacts and the explosions caused when characters with high force slam and punch each other. 
• Mahito's shapeshifting is also pretty fun, with him growing eyeballs, turning into a giant spike-ball, vomiting out little minions to torment Yuji, turning into a child...
• 
  I also really like the sequence where Yuji fights the final batch of transfigured humans. It also happens off-screen, which is an interesting choice, but Yuji calmly walking and appearing to save Nanami when he should be dealing with 'oh no I can't kill the transformed humans' is pretty badass.
• The fact that he realizes it's more of a mercy to end these wretched beings' suffering is definitely a great maturing point for Yuji, particularly after all of his conversations with Junpei in previous episodes.
  
•  Ryoiki Tenkai: Jihei Endonka. "Self-Embodiment of Perfection". I do find it interesting that Mahito is implied to have only found inspiration for Domain Expansion in this fight, and couldn't previously do it?
• The manga actually does this a lot better thanks to the detailing on the hands, but I really do find Jihei Endonka to be one of the visually more stunning Domain Expansions this early on. I mean, yes, Gojo's void thing does have pretty psychedelic visuals, but the grisliness of so many hands appearing is pretty creepy as hell!
• Between Mahito and My Hero Academia's Shigaraki, man, so many hands appearing is just creepy, huh? 
• We then get Nanami's backstory -- which really seems to sell that Nanami is going to suffer the dead mentor syndrome. 
• Nanami's backstory is pretty neat, and I've always remembered that sequence where he sees a little minor spirit (the same kind that Ijichi and Yuji used two episodes ago) tormenting a local bakery girl. He gets so crushed by his corporate work and how he only exists to make his bosses richer and doesn't do anything for the betterment of mankind, while his simple action of killing the bakery girl's shoulder-parasite spirit actually makes the world a better place. 
• I... I always found this flashback to be pretty great at expounding on the "I was a salaryman" gag into a backstory that also explains Nanami's own heroism in spite of his clear cynicism.
• Nanami also already prepares to die, realizing that a single hit from Mahito means death for his soul, and in a Domain Expansion it's impossible to avoid a hit. 
• But in a neat nod to Gojo's lesson during the Gojo/Jogo Domain Expansion fight, Yuji breaks through Self-Embodiment of Perfection's dome and enters, something that surprises both Nanami and Mahito since no one would voluntarily enter another one's Domain Expansion 
• Almost like a Yu-Gi-Oh match, this prompts an attack from Mahito, which causes Mahito to touch Sukuna's soul... and Sukuna gets so pissed off at this that he crushes Mahito entirely. 
• A great little display of Sukuna's power relative to Mahito, his ultimate goal with Megumi... but also the fact that despite being a dick, I do like that these episodes have been showing how Sukuna's sheer self-centeredness means that while he's going to be opposing Yuji as best as he could, he's not guaranteed to side with the other sentient curses. 
• Mahito pulls an Imperfect Cell and swells up, and when Yuji strikes it with Divergent Fist, this just causes a huge explosion while the slime-like Mahito manages to escape into the sewers.
• It's an interesting way to end this arc, really solidifying a bastard villain that's simultaneously entertaining but also has such a heavy grudge with our protagonist that we will really be rooting for Yuji crushing Mahito the next time they meet. 
• The epilogue is pretty nice, with Yuji's thoughts about 'helping people reach a proper death' fits in well with his original backstory with his grandfather's death, as well as his own near-death experience when fighting the Special Grade in the Demon Womb. 
• We get a great line from Nanami, how people are complicated, death is unpredictable, but Yuji is the type of person that's going to try regardless. Nanami just requests that Yuji realize his own self-worth and that it's his responsibility to stay alive... even if it's just to save others. 
• We also get a nice little epilogue to the minor characters, with Junpei's old teacher cracking down on the bullies after the incident with Junpei, though it's a pyrrhic victory since Junpei's, y'know, dead. 

Gotta Review 'Em All - Moves [Generation VI]

Generation VI was the generation that made the jump from 2D to 3D, and just like the fact that XY had to make 3D models of every single Pokemon, they also had to make models of every single previously existing attack. Which means that we don't actually have too many brand-new moves to talk about this time! And it is nice. They find a bit of restraint, and several types only get a couple of moves, and some of them are even signature moves!

Hell, the Dragon type move, in a first for the franchise, ends up not getting a single new move this generation! They really went in hard with Generation VI nerfing the Dragon-type powercreep that set in in Generation IV-V, huh? 

Of course, this just plays in with the rise of Dragon's nemesis, the brand new Fairy type. A couple (not enough!) of old Normal-type status moves got shunted into the Fairy type, but as a brand new type with nothing much to work on, the Fairy type of course gets a whole ton of moves to really set its "flavour" alongside the initial batch of Gen VI fairies we got!

___________________________________

Fairy-type Moves:

• Fairy Wind (Yosei no Kaze/Fairy Wind) Being the first debut of a new type in a long, long time, Fairy-types obviously need a whole new batch of toys to play with, including a whole bunch of moves that fill in certain niches that the older types have. Fairy Wind is basically Gust but has a 'fairy' flavour to it, and is the weak, low-damage attack for Fairies. (A couple of older, non-damaging moves also got retconned into being Fairy-type). It kinda tracks, I guess, because fairies in myth tend to be shown to be able to manipulate the weather and the forest and stuff. 
• Disarming Voice (Chamu Boisu/Charm Voice) Another relatively weak move that always hits the enemy, Disarming Voice has the Fairy-type speak or cry in such a melodic sound that it always hits the enemy. Both "Charm Voice" and "Disarming Voice" seems to imply that the enemy gets charmed so hard that they take damage, but the description of the move in-game literally says that "the user does emotional damage to the opponent." Insert your own 'emotional damage' meme here!
• Moonblast (Mun Fosu/Moon Force) So let's move from the weak moves to the strong move, with Moonblast essentially taking the niche enjoyed by moves like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Flamethrower, and the like for being a high-power move that is almost always accurate, and has a little bit of an extra effect to it (lowering the Special Attack stat of the enemy). The animation is always pretty fun, with the flavour often being the Fairy-type literally summoning the power of the moon to rain down a pinky-purple ball or pillar of energy down onto the enemy. Most Fairy-type Pokemon get to learn this as one of their final moves. And I think it does capture the 'sweet but deadly' vibe of Fairies pretty well, yeah?

• Dazzling Gleam (Majikaru Shain/Magical Shine) Dazzling Gleam, also known as "Magical Shine" in Japanese, is basically the less-powerful version of Moonblast, being a special attack... but it hits multiple enemies, like Razor Leaf or Surf. The flavour is that the Fairy unleashes such a bright beam of light that it damages the enemy. I guess it's far brighter than Flash, but then again, these are fairies! Of course they're going to attack and murder you with their cutesy-wutesy sparkles!
• Draining Kiss (Dorein Kissu/Drain Kiss) What about physical-category moves, then? Fairies in pop culture don't tend to be physical fighters unless you count D&D elves as fairies, but I absolutely love that their weaker physical-category move is a kiss... a kiss that drains your essence, that is, functioning as essentially a Leech Life or Mega Drain. Appropriately, some 'kissing' non-Fairy Pokemon like Jynx, Luvdisc and Gorebyss also gain access to this move. 

• Play Rough (Jaretsuku/Frolic) And the strong physical-category damaging move is Play Rough, or 'Frolic' in Japanese, which... basically has the Fairy-type rush the enemy and then envelop it in a ball of cartoony dust. In the original Generation VI, hearts also pop up from it... which they removed or reduced in subsequent generations. Probably for the best, because a combination of the ball of dust and hearts, as well as the words "Play Rough", really does make it seem like... well, to borrow a term from the Sims, there were a lot of jokes being made about WooHoo's being done as a part of this move.
• Baby-Doll Eyes (Tsuburana Hitomi/Round Eyes) The 'Growl' for Fairy-types, Baby-Doll Eyes basically uses adorable eyes to decrease the enemy's Attack stat, and has increased priority. Gloriously, Nintendo itself has seemingly realized the meme-worthy status of Espurr's eyes, and every game post-Gen VI have had Espurr's eyes be the visualization of the Baby-Doll Eyes. 
• (No, Espurr can't learn this move. I think it makes it funnier.) 

• Misty Terrain (Misuto Firudo/Mist Field) Occupying a different 'slot' in the battlefield than weather or entry hazards are the 'Terrains', which I frankly thought was a bit shoehorned and gimmicky, and felt more like an excuse to have a battlefield effect for types that aren't tied to the weather. I've mellowed out a lot on these over the years, though I remembered thinking they were absolutely stupid and lacking of the flavour of weather conditions when I first played Generation VI. Maybe it's because the other games had so many random gimmicks over the years? Anyway, terrains only affect Pokemon that are on the ground (i.e. on the 'field' or the 'terrain'), and debuffs Dragon-types as well as acts as a free Safeguard for all Pokemon on the field. It also affects certain moves and items, but otherwise... that's basically all it does. 
• Flower Shield (Furawa Gado/Flower Guard) Originally learned by Florges and the non-Fairy Sunflora, Flower Shield raises the Defense stat of Grass-type Pokemon. It fits into Florges being a Fairy-type heavily associated with Grass-types without being a Grass-type itself, but it's otherwise kind of a niche move, isn't it?

• Geomancy (Jio Kontororu/Geo Control) And now we're moving into the signature moves. Geomancy (or Geo Control in Japanese) is Xerneas's signature move, which reflects Xerneas's power as the legendary Pokemon of life. It is kind of interesting that the Fairy-type also has ties to the 'Earth', something that would've previously been given to the Grass or maybe Ground type. Geomancy is a buffing move, but being a signature move to a legendary, it's an insane buffing move that buffs Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed by two stages each. 
• Light of Ruin (Hametsu no Hikari/Light of Ruin) This one is interesting because it's a signature move, but also an unreleased move. This was supposed to be the signature move of AZ's Eternal Floette, and presumably the ominous-sounding 'Light of Ruin' is a reflection of Floette's role of having absorbed energy from the Ultimate Weapon... but in practice it's just a big pink laser beam that deals recoil damage. I wasn't sure about including this or not, since it's not technically a released move, but eh. 

• Aromatic Mist (Aroma Misuto/Aroma Mist) Originally the signature move of Aromatisse, this one is... kind of boring? It's a mist that buffs the Special Defense, but only for an ally. We've had many 'buffing smell' moves in the Grass-type previously, and while I get that the Spritzee line is all about perfumes, this one is rather boring. 
• Fairy Lock (Feari Rokku/Fairy Lock) They really love Klefki, because they gave him two signature moves! Fairy Lock is something similar to Mean Look, where Klefki summons a bunch of spectral locks and chains and 'locks down' everyone on the battlefield. Interestingly, Klefki can't lock down Ghost-types, which presumably just pass through Klefki's padlocks. It seems rather innocuous, but remember that Klefki has access to Prankster, which allows all of its non-damaging moves to go first. 
• Crafty Shield (Torikku Gado/Trick Guard) This was originally Klefki's signature move before a couple of Pokemon like the Yamask line and Magearna got it. As its Japanese name notes, it's a "Trick Guard", meaning it's a guard against tricky (and crafty) moves -- damaging moves will still go through, but other status-causing moves will fail to affect the entire ally field. Surprisingly pretty fun in double battles for sure!

___________________________________

Normal-type Moves:

• Boomburst (Bakuonpa/Explosive Sound Wave) God, what a cool-sounding move. Whether it's "Boomburst" or "Bakuonpa" it just sounds so primal, y'know? This is a gigantic, area-effect explosive sound blast that hits everyone on the field, including allies, and originally it's only given to Noivern and Exploud -- two creatures explicitly themed around speakers. This is another 'sound' move, and I remembered the fact that Noivern was highlighted a fair bit in XY's original marketing that there was speculation about a 'sound' type. I still think it would be really cool! 
• Noble Roar (Otakebi/Warcry) This is the Litleo line's signature move, which is a big Lion King roar that lowers both attack stats for the enemy. Not a whole lot to say, it sure is a lion roar, and it sure is another 'sound' move. They really are trolling the Sound-type theorists with the Normal-type moves they introduced in this generation, huh? 
• Play Nice (Nakayoku Suru/Make Friends) They really realized how many Normal-type moves they introduced in previous generations and they really cut down on it, huh? Despite its English name, 'Play Nice' wasn't intended to be a counterpart to 'Play Rough' in the original Japanese. It's a rather bland move that lowers the Attack stat after your Pokemon befriends the enemy (essentially a shittier version of Charm), and I really wonder if the flavour originally intended it to be a Fairy-type move? 
• Confide (Naishobanashi/Dirty Talk) This is a TM move, but learnset-wise it was originally exclusive to Chatot and later the Impidimp line as well. The idea is that the Pokemon whispers a dark secret, framed in a hilarious word bubble with censored-out words, and that somehow lowers the Special Attack of the enemy as they're so scandalized, scandalized I say, by the dirty secret that they just heard. Hilarious, actually! This attack is also not dodge-able, presumably because Chatot or Impidimp just literally walks up next to the enemy and whispers right in their ear, Bugs Bunny style. 

And then we've got a couple of moves that are exclusive to event-only Pokemon... and they're not really useful, being more of a gimmick to make 'event Pokemon' feel a bit special. I think they kinda abandoned the idea of a 'special move', and just returned to having certain event Pokemon with moves they can't normally learn or something afterwards. 

• Happy Hour (Happi Taimu/Happy Time) Happy Hour doesn't decrease the price of drinks, because this is still an All-Ages game, but it doubles the prize money received from trainer battles.
• Hold Back (Tekagen/Go Easy) This is basically a reskinned 'False Swipe', framed as the Pokemon 'holding back' and 'going easy' as opposed to it being a sword or slashing technique. Another one given out only in event Pokemon. Not much to say. 
• Celebrate (Oiwai/Celebration) Celebrate, meanwhile, does absolutely nothing other than the funny animation of a giant present box dropping and the user jumping out of it and celebrating it with you. Most of the Pokemon with this is tied to a birthday promotion or a championship. 
• Hold Hands (Te O Tsunagu/Holding Hands) This one also does nothing, the two Pokemon come close together and there's a 'hand-shaking' animation between them. Less cute than the giant birthday gift.

___________________________________

Fighting-type Moves:

• Power-Up Punch (Guro Panchi/Grow Punch) This one is a TM I remembered using a fair bit in Generation VI. It's a simple punch, but after every punch you get a physical Attack boost! Whether it's a 'power-up' or a 'grow', I don't quite get the flavour behind this, but I suppose I don't have to. It's admittedly a pretty common anime trope, isn't it? Punching harder and harder and getting an even stronger final blow on the enemy? 
• Mat Block (Tatami-gaeshi/Tatami Mat Flip) The other one of Greninja's original signature moves (they made their favourite starter for this generation pretty clear), just look at that glorious samurai-courtyard background that the original Generation VI animation had! I think it's the same one as Retaliate or some other move, but in subsequent generations Mat Block just has the animation of a single rectangle rising up. I normally don't commentate on animation changes, but this is lame. Mat Block is a reference to a trope from old ninja movies, where someone would stomp their foot down to flip up the tatami of the room to act as a makeshift shield to block the darts launched at them. In Pokemon, this means Greninja is able to do it on the first turn he enters the field, creating a shield to protect both himself and his ally. There's also the downside of Mat Block not being on an increased priority move, but Greninja's so fast that it mostly isn't that much of a hindrance. 
• Later on, Throh of all Pokemon gets to learn this move, but only him and Greninja. 
• Flying Press (Furaingu Puresu/Flying Press) A wrestling move! We really do need more wrestling moves, and I feel cheated that we don't quite have a suplex move yet. You'd think wrestling moves would be a goldmine for them to draw for Fighting-type move names! Flying Press is, well, a jumping press attack and is the signature move of the wrestler-themed Hawlucha. I think Pikachu Libre in the Let's Go games is able to do it too. But Flying Press holds the unique distinction of being Pokemon's first dual-typed move, dealing both Fighting and Flying type damage at the same time. It really works for the flavour, too, since a 'flying press' involves Hawlucha doing a Fighting-type technique while airdropping from above. 
• I did really think that Flying Press was going to lead to a genesis of several dual-type moves. Maybe it's kept mostly to signature moves, or to legendaries, but I had the idea that perhaps a future generation would retcon moves like Scald, Fusion Flare, Fusion Bolt, the Pledge moves and a couple of others and turn them into 'dual types', but that never happened. Hell, even some of the moves we'll talk about below that belong to legendaries, like Steam Eruption or Precipice Blades, seem perfect to turn into double-typed moves. Hawlucha remains unique for now. 

__________________________________

Electric-type Moves:

• Electric Terrain (Ereki Firudo/Elec Field) The second of our terrain moves is Electric Terrain, and... basically the flavour is that the Pokemon charges up the area around it, huh? As expected, Electric Terrain will boost Electric-type attacks used while it is active, but also has the bonus effect of preventing anyone from falling asleep, because the ionized air jolts everyone awake, I guess? Also, worth noting that all three terrains also affect Nature Power and Secret Power. Extremely notable, however, that after being kind of ignored ever since Generation VI, Electric Terrain and Electric Terrain alone ends up being the synergistic condition for Generation IX's Future-Paradox Pokemon to activate their ability 'Quark Drive'.
• Nuzzle (Hoppe Surisuri/Cheek Rub) This is a move originally exclusive to the 'Pikaclones' until Generation VIII gave it to a couple of others like Toxel and Yamper. But basically this takes the running visual theme of Pikachu and all its copycats having electrified cheek pouches. Nuzzle is basically them nuzzling against the enemy, dealing a small amount of damage and dealing paralysis. Cute.
• Eerie Impulse (Kaidenpa/Strange Wave) Kind of random. Eerie Impulse is a 'strange light' or 'strange wave' that lowers the enemy's Special Attack. I really am not sure what the flavour here is. 
• Magnetic Flux (Jibasosa/Magnetic Field Manipulation) We get a bunch of these non-damaging Electric-type moves that do weird things, huh? Magnetic Flux is learned by a handful of Electric-types and magnet-related Steel-types and allows them to wreak havoc with the magnetic field to... buff the defense stats of Pokemon specifically with the Plus and Minus abilities, which are extremely niche and frankly useless outside of double battles. Very conditional and frankly not that good! 

• Ion Deluge (Purazuma Shawa/Plasma Shower) A cool-sounding name! Whether it's "Ion Deluge" or "Plasma Shower", this really could've been the signature move of an Electric-type legendary Pokemon. Instead, it... turns any Normal-type move used by other Pokemon in the field into Electric type. Get it? Because they ionize the area around them? Rather underwhelming. Was this originally an effect of Electric Terrain that they separated into a move?
• Parabolic Charge (Parabora Chaji/Parabola Charge) I thought this was the Helioptile line's signature move, but they share it with Dedenne in their debut generation. I'm not sure why, because while Heliolisk does have a parabola from its frilled lizard neck, I'm not sure what Dedenne has. The effect is also a bit weird, because Parabola Charge unleashes a blast of electricity at everyone else at the field. That part I get, because parabolas spread signals and waves everywhere. But then the user heals? It's a HP-draining move, and I guess it's because parabolas can also receive signals? Kinda weird, I dunno. 
• Electrify (Soden/Electrify) This is the signature move of Helioptile and Heliolisk (and later Boltund learns it). Electrify causes the Pokemon's next move in that turn to become Electric-type. It's useful if the other Pokemon in a double battle has Lightning Rod as an ability, I guess, which will draw the Electric-type move to it and then neutralize it, but otherwise it's a bit of a weird move. Anyway, with Electric getting a bunch of non-damaging moves in this generation, I have the feeling like they were trying to do something weird but didn't manage to leave much of a lasting impression. Good effort, though!

___________________________________

Bug-type Moves:

• Infestation (Matowaritsuku/Follow About) A move with a name that just sounds nasty, doesn't it? "Infestation" is already such a cool-sounding move name, and the animation causes a literal swarm of black insectoid gnats or something to manifest and deal damage to the enemy. I'm not sure if these are meant to be like, larval Bug Pokemon summoned by the caster? Regardless, it's like when you walk through a jungle and all of these tiny blood-sucking insects follow you around. The actual effect of the move is basically Bug-type Fire Spin, and it's not that impressive, but the flavour is certainly neat! In Generation VI, this was a TM-exclusive move before they added it to the movepools of a bunch of Pokemon. 
• Sticky Web (Nebaneba Netto/Sticky-Sticky Net) Wait, this is a Generation VI move? Huh, I guess I was thinking of Spider Web. Anyway, this is an entry hazard that lowers the Speed of Pokemon that are switched in. Okay, that kinda makes sense. It's given to a lot of silk-creating Bugs, not just spiders.
• Fell Stinger (Todomebari/Finishing Stinger) What a badass English name! FELL STINGER. God, that sounds so much more badass than what the move actually does, which is a mere 50-power move... and that was a much lower 30 in its debut generation. Fell Stinger gives the Bug-type an Attack boost if they kill the enemy with Fell Stinger. Not the most impressive attack. 
• Powder (Funjin/Dust) An extremely niche move, and one that is the signature move of Vivillon. Another one that's based on butterfly scales, Powder's effect is really not something you'd think would happen from such a simple move name. Pokemon affected by 'Powder'... basically blow up if they try to use a Fire-type move, dealing damage to themselves. I think the idea is that instead of the regular butterfly scale-powder, Vivillon douses them in something like gunpowder or something? Weird to give to Vivillon of all things!

___________________________________

Grass-type Moves:

• Grassy Terrain (Gurasu Firudo/Grass Field) Our third and final Terrain is Grassy Terrain, and... it's a bunch of effects -- it boosts Grass-type moves, it restores the HP of every Pokemon by a little bit, and the grass 'dampens' the effect of Earthquake, Magnitude and Bulldoze. Not much to say here, out of the three Terrains introduced here, 'Grassy Terrain' sounds the most mundane. 
• Petal Blizzard (Hanafubuki/Flower Blizzard) Not our first 'petal' move, and most certainly not our only 'lots of tiny leaves/petals flying around' move, Petal Blizzard deals damage to everyone on the battlefield, basically like Surf, only flavoured like a storm of sakura petals. Kinda cute, I guess, and it does admittedly fill in a bit of a niche as a physical Grass-type AoE.
• Spiky Shield (Nidoru Gado/Needle Guard) This one is originally Chesnaught's signature move, until ORAS gave it to the two cactus Pokemon Cacturne and Maractus. Every starter Pokemon in Kalos gets a signature move, and Chesnaught's is the most... interesting? This one comes with a specific animation, too, where the green armour around Chesnaught's arms literally morphs into a shield and grows spikes. It's basically Protect, again, but if the enemy tries to hit Chesnaught they instead damage themselves on the spikes. Cool!
• Forest's Curse (Mori no Noroi/Curse of the Forest) OH SHIT, this is another cool signature move. Trevenant is already one of the coolest Pokemon to come out of Generation VI, but what a signature move he has! Trevenant is already themed after a dead tree in a haunted forest. Myths of forests that are cursed and cause people who enter to be unable to leave have appeared all over different cultures all over the world, and Nintendo is a particular fan of this in Legend of Zelda and its recurring Skull Woods. Hell, a Trevenant Forest in Kalos basically has the same gimmick as the Lost Woods! When Trevenant casts Forest's Curse, a very cool animation of the creepy trees in one such cursed forests appear all around the Pokemon it's cursing... and perhaps one of the coolest (and most underused) new gimmicks in Generation VI is that Forest's Curse turns the target into Grass-type. Or perhaps more accurately, Forest's Curse 'adds' the Grass-type to the Pokemon, since they don't lose whatever type they originally have (which is what happens with a move like Soak). Now this is more wacky than game-breaking, since the Pokemon's other resistances still come to play, but flavour-wise, what a cool one! Trevenant just cursed that other Pokemon to become part of that cursed forest forever and ever and ever... that's so cool!

___________________________________

Water-type Moves:

• Water Shuriken (Mizu Shuriken/Water Shuriken) One of Greninja's signature moves, Water Shuriken is... well, a multi-hit move as Greninja forms shurikens out of water and launches it at the enemy! Eventually, Accelgor also gains access to it, as one of the few other 'ninja' Pokemon. Water Shuriken was originally classified as a physical move in Generation VI, but to fit Greninja's special-leaning stat, it became a special category move in Generation VII. Very flavourful, and simple to understand. 
• Steam Eruption (Suchimu Basuto/Steam Burst) This is Volcanion's signature move, and it's... well, an explosion of steam that deals water damage, but also leaves the target with a Burn. It's basically stronger Scald, and given to a Pokemon themed around steam, I guess it's appropriate! Not much to say, other than how interesting it is that it took them this long to weaponize 'steam' as a Water-type attack. 
• Origin Pulse (Kongen no Hado/Pulse of Origin) In the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games, the Hoenn legendaries get a couple of new signature moves, since they never had them in their original games. Kyogre, or rather Primal Kyogre, gets Origin Pulse, which is an area-of-affect move. The animation of this is always pretty damn cool, with a bunch of water droplets appearing and expanding all around Kyogre before he turns them all into gigantic anime Gundam laser blasts that barrage the enemy. The naming kinda fits with how life starts at the sea, and Kyogre does represent Alpha Sapphire to Groudon's Omega Ruby, and Groudon's signature move is about 'the end'. 

___________________________________

Ground-type Moves:

• Rototiller (Tagayasu/Plow) What a weird move! The word 'Rototiller' brings to mind something a bit more destructive, but it's just... it's just plowing the field, increasing the stats of all Grass-types. Like the trope of earthworms and moles churning up the ground to make crops healthier to grow? It's learned by tunnel-digging Pokemon like Onix, Dugtrio, Watchog and Excadrill, and it would've been perfect for the actual earthworm Pokemon Orthworm if the move survived the Big Purge of Generation VIII. 
• Precipice Blades (Dangai no Tsurugi/Blade of the End) Man, they went really hard with Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon's signature moves, huh? "Blade of the End' sounds so cool! The animation involves Groudon slamming the ground and creating a series of jagged magma rocks that slam towards the enemy before exploding, showcased amazingly well in the animated Mega Evolution Special as the Precipice Blades just slams onto a flying Charizard and causes a gigantic explosion. 

• Land's Wrath (Gurando Fosu/Ground Force) The following three moves are all assigned to Zygarde as his signature moves, but while these were programmed into Generation VI games,  a lot of Zygarde's eventual alternate forms and 'story' were kind of shoehorned into a sidequest in Generation VII. Presumably, there would've been a 'Pokemon Z' that simply never materialized? In his debut generation, Zygarde only has access to Land's Wrath, or 'Ground Force' in Japanese, it's basically a glowing version of Earth Power that targets the enemies' side of the field only. I guess it makes sense that a 'Pokemon of the land' like Zygarde is able to control where the wrath of the land hits.
• Thousand Arrows (Sauzan Aro/Thousand Arrow) and Thousand Waves (Sauzan Webu/Thousand Wave) Programmed into the games but not accessible until Generation VII, the two 'Thousand' moves, I think, are meant to symbolize Zygarde's true nature as a colony-being created out of thousands of Zygarde cells. Thousand Waves creeps across the ground and hits all enemies, forcing them to be unable to switch out; while Thousand Arrows will hit anything in the air and knock them down. Neat, I guess? 

___________________________________

Ghost-type Moves:

• Phantom Force (Gosuto Daibu/Ghost Dive) Okay, this one is basically a weaker version of Giratina's signature "Shadow Force" move, with more or less the same effect. Phantom Force (or its much more appropriate Japanese name, 'Ghost Dive') has the Pokemon dive into the shadows or phase through walls or literally go into the ethereal realm or something before appearing and hitting the enemy. Another neat arsenal to put for physical Ghost-type moves. 
• Trick-or-Treat (Harouin/Halloween) Literally just 'Halloween' in the original Japanese, Trick-or-Treat is appropriately enough the signature move of the Pumpkaboo line, which itself is based on Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The animation for this is always fun in the games or the anime, with the background being replaced with an orange-hued sky with spooky trees, as jack-o-lanterns and cartoon ghosts appear everywhere. This is the alternate-type counterpart of Forest's Curse, because Trick-or-Treat adds the Ghost-type to the enemy. Depending on how you flavour it, Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist has straight-up dragged the enemy into the ghost realm and 'killed' them temporarily (perhaps like that one early anime episode where Gengar puled Ash's soul out of his body?) or it's just something far more harmless with the Pumpkaboo line getting the enemy to dress up and be festive and get into the Halloween spirit. 

___________________________________

Dark-type Moves:

• Parting Shot (Sute Zerifu/Parting Shot) A bunch of signature moves, here! Parting Shot was originally the signature move of the Pancham line until a couple of other Dark-types get access to it. Despite its name making me think of a 'shot' as in a bullet shot, but it's actually a 'shot' as in an insult. Parting Shot is a 'quick-switch' move, and Pancham/Pangoro switches out with a Pokemon in your party... but not before delivering one last evil insult that debuffs the enemy's Attack stats. "You haven't beaten me yet! This is just a tactical retreat!"
• Topsy-Turvy (Hikkurikaesu/Flip) The signature move of Inkay and Malamar (before they gave it to Grapploct of all things), Topsy-Turvy really fits with the whole 'upside down body plan' that the Inkay-to-Malamar evolution has. Everything about this weird Psychic/Dark squid is all about being upside down, from their design to their evolution method, and their signature move follows suit. Topsy-Turvy basically causes every buff and debuff to become upside-down. Very fun, and it really fits the idea of a Dark/Psychic creature!
• Hyperspace Fury (Ijigen Rasshu/Dimensional Rush) This one is Hoopa Unbound's signature move, basically flavoured as Hoopa launching all his rings and punching through these rings, causing the enemy to be unable to dodge them. Hyperspace Fury (or 'Dimensional Rush') removes the effect of all shielding and protective moves, and adds a Defense debuff for good measure. Really gets a fair amount of use in Hoopa's movie as well as in the 3D games' animation, and I honestly do think this sells Hoopa as something far more unique than just 'oh, Hoopa can teleport'. 

___________________________________

Poison-type Moves:

• Belch (Geppu/Belch) A rather high-damage move for Poison-types... but it has the very situational condition of the Pokemon having had to consume a Berry first before being able to 'belch' and 'vomit' it out. It does, admittedly, have one of the best flavours for all of the 'vomiting' moves that Poison-types have over the years, but man, what a terrible move to actually have! 
• Venom Drench (Benomu Torappu/Venom Trap) Another rather situational move, Venom Drench only affects Pokemon that are already poisoned, reducing their stats heavily. From the name, I thought this was a move like Soak or something. But you realistically just want Venoshock's extra damage or something! A unique effect for sure, but one that's also a bit too situational. 

___________________________________

Flying-type Moves:

• Oblivion Wing (Desu Uingu/Death Wing) This one is Yveltal's signature move. Oblivion Wing sounds cool as hell, but its Japanese move has some simplicity in 'Death Wing'. Yveltal gathers energy and unleashes a cool-looking black-and-red beam of death, which tears through the field like a satellite laser slicing through the soil, and... it drains energy. Unlike Parabolic Charge, this one is explained by Yveltal's whole deal as not just a 'death-dealing' creature, but one that actively sucks life energy out from the land under it. 
• Dragon Ascent (Garyo Tensei/Dragon Painting Eye Dotting) The signature move of Rayquaza, the animation of Dragon Ascent has him fly up into the sky, nay, to space, and then crash down with the power of a sky dragon god slamming down from the skies down towards you. The attack is immensely powerful, but actually has the drawback of reducing both defense stats... which makes sense, since Rayquaza just did what's basically atmospheric re-entry. I do like that Dragon Ascent, despite its name, is actually a Flying-type move, highlighting Rayquaza's own role as the legendary Pokemon of the skies -- of which the Flying-type would feel more 'in charge', so to speak. 
• The name of this move is a term that literally means 'ascension of a dragon', but has a double meaning that means to 'paint a dragon, and dot its eyes'. The idiom comes from a Chinese legend, where Zhang Sengyou, who is a highly talented painter, drew the picture of a dragon on a mural. The last detail he put in are the dots that form the eyes. However, such a masterpiece was the artwork that the act of giving it that one final 'spark of life' causes the dragon painting to come to life, jump off the mural, and fly off and ascend into the heavens. 

___________________________________

Psychic-type Moves:

• Hyperspace Hole (Ijigen Horu/Dimensional Hole) Yeah, we're rapid-firing a couple of types that only have single moves introduced in this generation, and they're almost all signature moves! Hyperspace Hole is the signature move of Hoopa Confined, and basically has the same 'bypasses protective moves' as Hyperspace Fury. It doesn't remove the shields, though, or add a debuff, since this is the 'confined' or 'sealed' version of Hoopa's powers. 

___________________________________

Fire-type Moves:

• Mystical Fire (Majikaru Fureimu/Magical Flame) Fire, one of the traditional 'main' types, only get a single move, and it is only exclusive to the fire starter Delphox originally, until ORAS made it available to Mismagius. I did complain about the sheer amount of 'oh god it's just a fire blast' moves in Generation V, and there's at least something fun about Mystical Fire in that it's fire summoned by the Harry Potter wand of Delphox. The effect lowers the Special Attack stat of the opponent.

___________________________________

Ice-type Moves:

• Freeze-Dry (Furizu Dorai/Freeze Dry) Eh. A bunch of Pokemon get to learn this, and it's honestly a very typical Ice-type move. The only interesting fact is that Freeze-Dry deals double damage to Water-type Pokemon, which I guess is a reference to the freeze-drying process that's used to make processed food. Actually, that is a pretty good point -- why doesn't Ice-types deal super-effective damage to Water-types by default?

___________________________________

Rock-type Moves:

• Diamond Storm (Daiya Sutomu/Dia Storm) I am surprised that they didn't give Diancie a Fairy-type signature move. But she gets Diamond Storm, which in retrospect does feel a lot more tied to Diancie's 'diamond princess' vibe. She launches a bunch of diamonds that, upon contact, will increase Diancie's Defense stat. I felt like they had a bit of a missed opportunity in not giving this move the same 'get money after the fight' like Pay Day, though. 

___________________________________

Steel-type Moves:

• King's Shield (Kingu Shirudo/King Shield) This is Aegislash's signature move, and basically how the whole 'Stance Change' ability works. Aegislash swaps its stats whenever it jumps back and forth from being a sword or a shield, and the best way to trigger its defensive stance is to activate King's Shield -- which is basically a Protect but with the additional nasty effect of severely debuffing the enemy's Attack stat (it's even worse in Generations VI-VII!). I immensely enjoyed the mind games that come with playing with Aegislash in Generation VI, probably one of the few times I fully appreciated a Pokemon's battle gimmick. One complaint I do have is that King's Shield is always shown as being this interlocking series of hexagons that look more like a sci-fi forcefield than anything, and doesn't really 'fit' the medieval ghost sword vibe of Aegislash. 

___________________________________

Dragon-type Moves:

NONE NO DRAGON! NO DRAGON MOVES IN THIS GENERATION!

___________________________________

...And that's it for my coverage of the sixth generation's moves. This one was pretty short, mostly because there aren't too many new 'generic' moves. A lot of them are signature or quasi-signature ones, and I really do enjoy that a lot of the signature moves given to Generation VI Pokemon -- like King's Shield, Topsy-Turvy, Forest's Curse, Trick or Treat, Water Shuriken, Spiky Shield, and even the legendaries' signature moves -- all really do a great job at making these Generation VI Pokemon feel unique. 

One Piece 1113 Review: Ocean Rise, Empires Fall

One Piece, Chapter 1113: Stalemate

I waited for a bit before doing this review due to some real-life stuff, but also because I was waiting for the official Viz translations to pop up. 

And... we finally have the message of Dr. Vegapunk, and the whole chapter kind of builds up to it. We first get to see St. Marcus Mars walk up to Punk Records, seeing the giant brain of Vegapunk... which isn't just a cartoonishly large brain like an old-school cartoon but also includes the skull, skin and hair of Vegapunk itself. It's literally like he lobbed off the big, expanded head we saw in some of the flashbacks and shoved it into a sci-fi Bacta Tank or something. Mars makes some comment about the giant brain in Punk Records before crushing what seems to be the streaming Den Den Mushi, but turns out that it's a fake decoy. Which... you could kind of guess that it was in the cliffhanger of the previous chapter. 

We get to see the rest of the world, and some reactions from people, and... many of these are guys we haven't seen reacted to Vegapunk's announcement before. And I assume this first scene is Oda's little nod towards the Netflix live-action, because it's Kaya, Merry and the three Usopp Pirates hanging out and listening to the announcement in Kaya's mansion. We get to see Laboon and Crocus in Twin Capes, and we get to see Vegapunk's old hometown of Baltimore where Franky was sent in the timeskip. We also get to see the Tori-no Kingdom where Chopper was sent in the timeskip, and a brief shot of Hachinosu.

It's at this point that Mars realizes he's been duped, turns back into his demon bird form and bursts out of the Punk Records all cawing and being angry and stuff. While Saturn might've fucked up a bit badly in the previous couple of chapters, I think Mars now holds the idiot ball and the other Gorosei seem rather angry with him particularly since they know Vegapunk means to finish what Clover of Ohara started... and it's great to see the more human faces of Saturn and Ethan actually sweatdrop a bit. Again, they were so pissed when Clover is just about to say the name of the Ancient Kingdom to a bunch of Cipher Pol agents and ordered his execution. Vegapunk's going to say a whole lot more to the entire world.

Ethanbaron is about to attack Bonney and Franky, and Franky's ready to fight back against this demon skeleton centaur samurai Gandhi... but then SANJI zips in and kicks Ethanbaron right in the jaw and god damn, that panel... it looked like it hurt. Ethan's jaw actually looked like Sanji dealt some serious damage to it, and while it doesn't quite get as big of a panel as Franky beating Red King or Kuma beating Saturn, it's still a pretty badass shot! And Sanji actually seemed to make Ethanbaron bleed, Armament Haki notwithstanding, which is, again, pretty impressive. 

Ethanbaron's body transforms and I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems that while his head is covered in flames (Sanji's or his own?) the horse head of his Bakotsu beast mode emerges out of Ethan's shoulder and chomps down onto Sanji's body. But even as the Vegapunk announcement is going on in the background, Oimo and Kasshi zip in and dogpile Ethanbaron, and Bonney uses her powers to get a "giant-ish" future, goes giant, and is about to stop her cylindrical boot down on Ethan's ass.

As Vegapunk continues  to talk, he also notes that this particular message is designed to be transmitted the moment his heart stops beating... which, again, to remind everyone to a character that hasn't shown up in a while, Kizaru was the one that shot Vegapunk straight in the heart. There are a couple of interesting stuff about just how Vegapunk's arranged for this. People are confused, and we get some cameos from Duval in Sabaody; Caesar Clown and Judge who reformed Neo-MADS in the cover stories; and Morgans bawling about how all this streaming stuff is going to totally kill print media. 

In a nice callback to themes explored earlier in the arc, Vegapunk notes that he doesn't want to assign morality to anyone, since science and progress aren't moral, they aren't good nor evil. Vegapunk does say to not judge 'him' who struck him down, which... honestly is ambiguous enough to be able to mean Luffy (who the public would think is the killer), Kizaru (the guy that fired the proverbial bullet), or even either Saturn or Imu. Both Luffy and Saturn seem to be what Oda wants us to consider, since Duval was reacting to how Vegapunk was supposedly being held hostage by Luffy; and the shot cuts away right to Saturn afterwards, but it is interesting to think about who Vegapunk is talking about right here. 

Speaking of Saturn, he scuttles up towards the Straw Hats on the clouds and finally Robin realizes what's going on. I think this was the reason why Robin was kept offscreen throughout the whole post-York sequence, because Robin actually knows what the Gorosei sound like due to overhearing their call with Clover so many years ago. She basically goes into a bit of a PTSD when she sees Saturn. 

And Saturn realizes who Robin is and is about to attack with his noodle spider-legs. But with a yell of "PROTECT ROBIN!" the rest of the Straw Hats move in to fight Saturn. 

Again, this is just like Enies' Lobby and I love it. Luffy isn't here, but the rest of the Straw Hats are holding their ground against someone far, far scarier than the judges of Enies' Lobby or CP-9. This is Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, Godhead of Science and member of the Gorosei, in his full ushi-oni spider form, with enough capability to go toe-to-toe with Luffy. He's here fighting against some of the weakest Straw Hat members... and they're just there willing to jump straight into helping and protecting Nico Robin, gods be damned. 

Pretty gerat showing of what they did, too. Chopper's Guard Point is able to block one of the claws. Nami knocks Robin out of the way and sics Zeus in club form to knock back against two of Saturn's claws. Usopp is shooting some explosions, and BROOK CUTS OFF ONE OF SATURN'S LEG. Again, not the most impressive thing to do to a creature that we saw could regenerate, but it's fucking badass. It's even more fucking badass because these are the weaklings of the Straw Hat pirates, and when they said they would fight the world to protect Robin, they damn well mean it.

And as Mars panics about where the message is, as York tries to figure out where Vegapunk hid the snail... we also get a brief discussion from Saturn and Topman that they can't destroy the island without losing the Mother Flame, and that's their priority. 

And Vgeapunk drops the first of hopefully many lore bombshells... "the world is going to sink into the ocean". 

A huge WTF moment, but not one that hasn't been foreshadowed before. Lulucia's destruction caused water levels to rise everywhere... Aqua Laguna's been terrorizing Water Seven. Long Ring Long Land has themes of it being flooded periodically. Marie Geoise and the Lunarian Kingdom are located on the very top of the Red Line, a big-ass mountain that is presumably a bit more immune to sinking. And if the world is going to sink in a time that can be quantified, it even fits suddenly explains why Gol D. Roger is "too early" for a certain thing to happen. 

And... I really don't have much to say. Love to see Sanji and the weaklings separately engage the Gorosei, love the huge revelation, love seeing people all around the world. And I await what comes next!

Random Notes:

• I do really like the double-page cover page for this chapter, with Robin playing chess and the rest of the Straw Hats as the chess pieces, with the theme of Luffy being a king piece that can run around the battlefield with gleeful abandon because he's the motherfucking sun god. It even fits with the 'Stalemate' chapter title! 
• One of the theories that I think makes sense for Vegapunk is that the 'Stella' we've been seeing all this while is now counted as a satellite as well, and the true 'core' Vegapunk is the brain. After all, the Nomi Nomi no Mi didn't deactivate and reincarnate elsewhere, and Mars even makes comments whether Vegapunk is really alive or not. 
• Yep, in the Netflix show Merry's dead and the three Usopp juniors don't exist!
• Some of the background characters in Baltimore are actually cosplaying as Franky or the Thousand Sunny, and... somehow, despite blowing up the island, it appears Franky's at least somewhat more popular than we expect there. 
• It is weird and somewhat odd that Mars doesn't actually kill the Den Den Mushi once he sees that it's a regular one and not a streaming one. You'd think he wouldn't respect or care about a Den Den Mushi's death, but I guess Oda doesn't care to kill animals the way Araki does. 
• We also do get shots of other random countries that we've not visited before, like what I assume is the hometown of the Long-Arm tribe, some random placce where people live in tents, and a place where it's raining. 

Gotta Review 'Em All - Shinies, Generation III Families

We're doing generation 3 now! As always, whenever possible, the artwork are all taken from Pokemon Home.

A wonderful set of neon green for the Treecko line. Love both the neon green on Treecko and Grovyle, and the more bluish shade for the Sceptiles. I like that the "leaf" parts of Grovyle and Treecko are given a shade of reddish brown, which actually calls out attention to those parts better than the original colours. Pretty great!

 

Yellow Torchic is the only nice Shiny here, I would say.

Shiny Combusken looks washed-out, shiny Mega Blaziken looks like someone pissed on the white parts, and shiny Blaziken doesn't even look that different.

 

They all bexome this shade of pink-purple and it is a surprisingly fun colour on them! It obviously looks best on Mudkip, and I think Marshtomp and Swampert would look much better if the accents contrasted better. Maybe that's why I like sjiny Mega Swampert with its orange highlights?

 

Not the biggest fan of the shades of yellow they used here, again looking a bit more piss-like. Not terrible, though. Really like the colours of shiny Poochyena's eyes.

Shiny Hoenn-variant Zigzagoon and Linoone become orangey-brown, which is an okay shiny. It works better on Zigzagoon and he ends up looking like a regular raccoon.

The shiny Galarian line, on the other hand, go WILD with colours, going for eye-searing 90's neon pink and baby blue. Fits well with the design, particularly on shiny Obstagoon. Love that the tongues also change colour! They look stupidly over the top. I approve!  

Purple Wurmple is great! It's just great, a simple but striking palette swap. I feel like shiny Silcoon and Beautifly feel minimally-changed. Particularly Beautifly.

Leaf-green shiny Cascoon is surprisingly appropriate regardless of the camouflage or toxic connotations. Shiny Dustox... I don't dislike it. I'd prefer for the main body to change as well, but the leaves becoming a bit more dull and autumn-like works for me.

I reasonably like these guys! The lilypads all turning into a darker shade of green is pretty, and this is what a 'off-colour' shiny should look. Ludicolo probably changes the least but it's still evident what's different. But shiny Lombre's lime-green body and Lotad's dark-purple body both work well placed next to the altered green of the lilypads. 

I don't like these ones as much. Shiny Shiftry is a huge disappointment. The white-silvery cap on shiny Seedot is cute enough, but I still think they should've changed more with the main nut body. Shiny Nuzleaf looks the most different, but it's still not a particularly flattering colour. 

Ash has a shiny Swellow in the anime, right? I feel both Taillow and Swellow just look washed-out, though. The pale green doesn't really do them any favours, though at least they look vividly different. 

  

I own a shiny Wingull in Pokemon Go! It's a simple change from blue highlights to neon green, and it's a pretty highlight! I think they probably should've changed Pelipper's prominent beak, but I can also understand why they just swapped out the 'feather' colours.

 
The Ralts family are all winners in my opinion. Changing the green helmet and limbs into a nice shade of baby blue works for all six forms, though shiny Ralts' body being pink looks a bit off. Shiny Kirlia, Gardevoir and Gallade all look great!

And Shiny Mega Gardevoir and Gallade takes it a bit further by tossing in some black into the outfit. It's particularly neat for Mega Gardevoir since all the 'black' portions are also white in Mega Gardevoir's regular colouration, but they clearly went and just painted her 'skirt' and her 'gloves' black to give the impression of a ballgown. Cool! Shiny Mega Gallade isn't quite as impressive, with just the underside of his cape being silvery-gray. Kinda wished they added some colour to his blade or chest. 

 

Shiny Surskit just looks dirty. I don't like it. 

Shiny Masquerain is fun! The eyespots going into a green-yellow-red colour scheme works pretty well as an alternative to what regular Masquerain has. 

Oh, I love them. It's a muted colour scheme that really fits an 'autumn' theme. Grass-types always have an easy out with an 'autumn' palette. Shiny Shroomish in particular looks great. Shiny Breloom probably would've worked a bit better with a different shade of yellow, but I definitely appreciate the two-tone colouration which contrasts against regular Breloom's more colourful look well.

Purple Slakoth is a'ight. Shiny Vigoroth and Slaking are different enough for me not to go "wah wah I can't tell the difference", but still disappointing.

 

 

Shiny Nincada is all right. Yellow body, silver claws? Not the best thing on this page, but it's all right.  

Shiny Ninjask and shiny Shedinja are disappointments. Shedinja in particular, where I'm not even sure what they changed.

Again, another line where the pre-evolved form looks great! Shiny Whismur with the neon-green highlights and the very pale off-white replacing the pink looks very strikingly different from regular Whismur. 

Meanwhile, shiny Loudred and Exploud... they look different, sure. They have the same shade of lavender that a lot of shinies from generation 1-3 have, but regular Loudred and Exploud are basically already a slightly darker shade. I really want them to retain Whismur's colouration, or at least the neon-green highlights replacing the two's yellow highlights. Disappointing. 

 

  

I own two of these in Pokemon Go. Shiny Makuhita is an extreme disappointment that just looks a bit paler, but shiny Hariyama is amazing. The sumo skirt going from yellow to orange, and the brown parts of his anatomy going into purple somehow works well for a nice negative-colours shiny. A fan of this one!

Also a fan of these two! Shiny Probopass in particular. Yellow or gold can make for some really great shinies, particularly for rock or metal based Pokemon. I like that they kept the red noses around, but the golden body for both shiny Nosepass and Probopass are really cool!

 

Terrible. Shiny Skitty is just pale, and while shiny Delcatty is technically different, it really just feels like a monitor saturation glitch.

I love the idea that shiny Sableye's gemstones change colour, going from ruby-red to emerald-green. Extra-noticeable in the Mega Evolution, with the big-ass emerald it's holding. Not the biggest fan of the main body being this weird shade of yellowish-green. White, black or red might work better?

Regular shiny Mawile isn't quite pink enough, but they clearly picked up on how fabulous the design looks when the did shiny Mega Mawile. Love the two giant pink monster jaws, and I do really like that the colour of Mega Mawile's "pants" are reversed with the pink pants turning black. It's a nice little internal reversal of Mega Mawile's accents, and this results in a really fun shiny. 

I have a couple of shiny Aggrons in Pokemon Go. And... the red eyes are really cool, particularly on Lairon and Aggron, but the weird green-chrome body is honestly not that good looking. Bizarrely, for being a much newer shiny, Mega Aggron's silvery parts gets painted a rather nasty yellow-gray. Kind of a miss. 

  

Oh, interesting. Meditite and Medicham kind of swap colours! And shiny Meditite with only a pinkish-red colour to contrast against the white parts of his body is pretty neat. The pale blue works very well on the two shiny Medichams, but unfortunately for whatever reason they decided to paint Medicham's main body piss-yellow, which is never a good look.

 

 
Oh yeah. Shine Electricke goes from mainly green into a very nice shade of bluish-green that screams 'electrical beast' a lot better, but it doesn't hold a candle to how cool the jet-black shiny Manectric and Mega Manectric look. Black is an easy colour to put on any 'cool' Pokemon, and the Manectrics definitely deserve it!

 

Surprised they didn't swap the colours. Shiny Minun's accents become a very pleasant shade of minty green, but shiny Plusle is just slightly darker-tinted and it's kinda m'eh.

 

(I'll be combining some of the 'paired' Pokemon in a single line. Generation III have a couple of them. I'll separate Zangoose and Seviper as 'rivals', though.)

Oh, wonderful! Absolutely sublime! It could've been easy (and honestly rather boring) to just swap Volbeat and Illumise's colours. But look at them! Look at their over-the-top neon-coloured negative-photo look! Volbeat has lavender skin with bright yellow and blue as highlights, while Illulmise has baby blue for her skin, with orange and yellow highlights. For otherwise being pretty irrelevant Pokemon, these two have some of the prettiest shinies. 

I can see what they were going for here, and I can't say I dislike it? Basically, shiny Roselia and Roserade swap their traditional red and blue rose for purple and black. I like that it's not an obvious black-and-white, for sure! Shiny Budew is very pretty, too, changing just a single colour but it being quite enough to make him memorable. 

Interesting! The shiny palettes actually have the side effect of making shiny Gulpin and shiny Swalot's colour schemes match each other a bit better. I really do like blue Swalot, come to think of it. Pretty nice shinies. 

 

I'm not sure about shiny Carvanha? The colour scheme definitely screams 'shiny', it's evidently different than regular Carvanha, and the combination of green, blue and yellow are gloriously eye-searing. I'm just not sure if the colours work well for Carvanha, is all. Very pretty overall, I do appreciate what they did here. 

Shiny Sharpedo and Mega Sharpedo being purple is all right, though not eh best colouration they could've gone. Not complaining that much.  

 

Insert your own Thanos joke for shiny Wailmer. Got that out of your system? Okay? Good. A perfectly serviceable purple shiny. Not the best, but an okay one.  

Shiny Numel is just pale and disappointing, but shiny Camerupt and Mega Camerupt going black not only is cool on principle, but is also rather appropriate with the whole volcano vibe. I actually think the random rings on base Camerupt's form being yellow-on-black is much better on blue-on-orange. 

I caught one very randomly -- and I didn't even notice it until the battle screen begun -- in Pokemon Violet. I really like mine!

 

Oh! Pretty! Turning just Torkoal's body yellow-gold is nice enough, but the shell goes from gray to a nice shade of reddish-brown, as if the coal furnace is kind of overheating. A surprisingly nice shiny!

  

 

Another one that's pretty great. I love that the pearls for both shiny Spoink and Grumpig both become black, because 'black pearl', yeah? Shiny Grumpig is an okay, distinct shade of yellow (I like that the pink parts are kept) but shiny Spoink is the clear winner. Love that pinkish-orange pastel shade they used on him.  

Green-spots Spinda is... okay. I'm not a big fan, but it's not terrible. 

Pretty interesting set. Shiny Trapinch being metallic green is okay, and looks a bit better rendered in this art style compared to the original sprites. Shiny Vibrava shies away from the neon-y colours and trades all the green for a nice shade of brown-red, which I thought is kind of appropriate for the desert. 

I kind of wish shiny Flygon went for a similar 'desert camouflage' colour scheme, but the pale lime-green with neon blue and orange highlights are all just so nice to look at that I can't help but like him. 

Nowhere as nice as the other yellow shinies on this page, but on the other hand I do admit that having the cactus Pokemon be coloured like they're dehydrated is appropriate?

 

 

 
Oh, pretty! The soft, almost-golden yellow works well contrasted against the clouds, and it's such a nice, majestic and even celestial feeling for shiny Swablu and shiny Altaria. Shiny Mega Altaria loses a bit of points because the pink cloud-wings don't quite look as nice next to the gold, but all of these are nice. 

 

A wonderful shiny! Shiny Zangoose swaps the red parts of his fur into a great shade of baby blue, which is nice enough. But what makes this shiny work is swapping the claws into blood-red, making this alternate-coloured Zangoose look a bit fiercer. 

A fun colouration! They keep Seviper's main body black, swapped the fangs and tails into a glorious psatel blue, and the rest of him has a nice combination of neon green and neon pink. Remove just one of the three highlight colours and shiny Seviper wouldn't work quite as well, but combined exactly like this makes another wonderfully fabulous shiny. 

 

 

Shiny Lunatone swaps the eyeball colour and becomes a slightly different shade of moon. He's evidently different, but I'm not the biggest fan.

But he's at least a bit different, though. Shiny Sorlock just isn't clear without comparing him side-by-side to the original.

 

Shiny Barboach swaps his blues for a very pleasant shade of yellow, which looks pretty wonderfully different. 

Unfortunately, shiny Whiscash barely looks different. The blues and yellows are dark enough for me to instantly know that he's shiny (unlike someone like Dusknoir or Skitty), but not enough to make him look significantly different. 

Shiny Corphish is okay enough, looking just different (and tasy) enough of a shade of red, but shiny Crawdaunt just looks washed-out.

I'm pretty sure I got one of these in Pokemon Sword! And Shiny Claydol is... well, his eyeballs go a bit paler and become orange. That's a bit disappointing, honestly, and this is the type of shiny that I really don't like all that much. The colours are different, yes, but withot comparing side-by-side to the original Claydol it just doesn't look evident. 

Look at shiny Baltoy, though, where it's obvious that the red markings are traded in for a bright glow-in-the-dark green. Pretty nice compared to his evolevd form.  

 

 

Love this. It's just a byproduct of the palette swap, but shiny Lileep and Cradily swap colours. I love it since Cradily already vaguely has a 'mimickry' vibe going on. That said, shiny Cradily becomes a bit more pink than purple and doesn't look the best, but green shiny Lileep is excellent.

 

Shiny Anorith is a bit more golden, which I think is a nice change! It's a great example of a somewhat more subtle shiny. But pale-pink Armaldo just looks like a washed-out sepia photograph. 

Purple Feebas wouldn't be as good withot the silver fins. I like the end result! It's pretty cool. 

But I am absolutely pleased that Milotic, which is all about beauty and elegance, retain it with this alternate palette. The main cream eel body is still retained, but swapping the ears/hands with a glorious pastel blue, and then using a combination of yellow and orange for the rest of shiny Milotic's colour scheme ends up for a very gorgeous colour scheme. Wonderful! 

 

Pink Castform is okay. Not my favourite, though. All the weather forms are slightly different, but I had to look up the original colours. The rainy and snowy forms' "masks" being slightly different colours does make Castform look somewhat different. I think the snowy form reminds me of Grapploct. 

The red band on shiny Kecleon's stomach go from red to blue. It's admittedly a very interesting place to change since that band is the only part of Kecleon that doesn't get camouflaged, but it's not the most noticeable change... and the anime and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon both feature very prominently a purple Kecleon with neon-green highlights and that's such a superior colour scheme. 

Shiny Shuppet looks good! I love how the teal-blue contrasts with Shuppet's own mesmerizing eyes. 

Shiny Banette is one of those you can't really tell without putting it next to the regular Banette colours. Shiny Bannette brings back the teal, but it's not quite as striking as shiny Shuppet and I kinda wished they did something with the pink inner body. 

  

You know, they had a great thing going on here. Shiny Duskull and shiny Dusclops aren't quite blood-red, but they went for a muted metallic red that matches their own red eyes. It's not ideal since it takes attention away from the eyes, but I'll not say no to a creepy red skull-ghost.

...and then shiny Dusknoir becomes one of those terrible shinies that makes me double-check if I copied the wrong image. Sigh. 

Yeah, sorry, shiny Tropius. You just look like someone forgot to water you. 

Also very disappointing. Shiny Chingling doesn't even look different. I actually have one in Legends Arceus and I wouldn't be able to tell it's shiny if not for seeing the little shiny star-sprinkles. Shiny Chimecho is... green? He's obviously shiny but he looks like the result of a mouldy photograph. 

All of this is kind of extra-disappointing because you'd think that the decorative red markings on their ribbons would've been an obvious part to change. 

 

 

I don't like Shiny Absol as much as a lot of people out there, but the pink-orange shade that they replaced his black parts with is pretty striking. Love that Absol's red eyes become blue, I feel like it's the change that completes the look. 

 

Shiny Snorunt (I have this in Go!) is amazing. The baby-blue cone and the yellow borders alone already make for a great colour palette, but it contrasts so well with the two red dot-eyes on Snorunt's face. 

Shiny Glalie (and Mega Glalie) changes a single detail. The eyes go from icy-blue to demonic red, and it... it works? It works better on regular Glalie since the eyes are the most eye-catching part of the design. Meanwhlie, shiny Froslass tries to do the same, swapping her obi from red to pink... and it's hardly noticeable. Sorry, Froslass. 

Another purple-lavender set of shinies. Not the best on this page, honestly, but it works particularly well on Wailmer. It's okay on Sealeo and Walrein. At least they look different? I've got a shiny Walrein in Pokemon Go and I completely forgot I have one. Though I kinda forget this line more times than I care to admit.

 

They may be some of the most forgotten Pokemon from Generation III, but good god they make for wonderfully beautiful shinies. Shiny Clamperl's purple + baby blue + gold combo is a winner by all stretch, and I am definitely a huge fan of this one. The pearl being golden works well, too!

Shiny Huntail is probably my favourite out of the line, a great usage of eye-searing bright green for this design. Shiny Gorebyss isn't far behind on looking pretty as well, swapping the original pink to a much nicer bright yellow. I like that the purple seashell ornaments and accents are kept, and the yellow/purple contrast does look pretty nice. 

I like the teal colouration on Relicanth. It's a nice teal colour. I like that he still looks somewhat raggedy and crusty even with a new shiny colouration.  

 

Another pretty one! Yellow shinies almost always look good if they're not piss-coloured! Not much to say, this one is a pretty fishy.  

 

 

Shiny Shelgon just looks mouldy, but the eye-searing neon green surprisingly works well on Bagon and the two Salamences. Make your own Yoshi jokes as you want for Bagon, but green is just a colour that does work well for dinosaurs and dragons in general. I don't actually mind neon-green Salamence as an alternate palette, but it's just not as good as the regular blue one. 

 
One of the best shinies full stop! Beldum's original dark blue and gray colour scheme already gets across the idea of a robot Pokemon pretty well, but do you know what does? Silver with gold highlights! Every single member of the Beldum line just looks so badass with the shiny colouration, and the neon blue X on Mega Metagross's face works pretty well! Pretty much perfect. So perfect that they gave basically everyone one of these shiny Beldums for free during Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire's original release. 

 

The only one of the three Hoenn Regis to get a good shiny! I like that the white stones are turned into dark chocolate rocks. I love the possible explanation that this particular shiny Regirock might just have absorbed rocks from a different locale, like from a canyon instead of a desert. Very nice, and looking like a chocolate box is a nice bonus.   

Terrible. You really need to put this side-by-side with the non-shiny Regice to tell it's shiny. 

Slightly less terrible than shiny Regice, but the icky metallic green just doesn't do him any favours. Eh. 

Shiny Latias is a wonderful shade of golden yellow, replacing her red. It's wonderful, and as good of a palette as regular Latias. 

The shiny version of Mega Latias is a terrible puke green, and is as terrible as everything about the mega. 

Shiny Latios follows shiny Latias in having a very pleasant shiny, being a glorious neon blue-green shade. Again, shiny Mega Latios is a disappointingly ugly shade of puke-green. 

 

I'm... okay with pink Kyogre? It's not the best. But shiny Primal Kyogre is jet-black with all the glowing blue and yellow tron lines going all around, and... okay, the pink 'fingertips' kind of ruin the vibe. But I absolutely find it pretty damn cool. It's a bit of cheating that the Generation VI remakes basically slap all the three box legendaries with black shinies, but... don't break what's not broken. 

 

Shiny Groudon is a shide of bright yellow. Again, not the most terrible, but the shiny Primal Groudon goes for jet-black and this Godzilla colouration with the magma Tron lines is just amazing. Regular colour Primal Groudon already adds a lot of black to the colour scheme, and turning it all black is pretty great!

 

And, of course, the original black-and-gold shiny is Rayquaza. Whether it's regular Rayquaza or Mega Rayquaza, they both look just straight-up badass. Yes, it's a very obvious colour scheme, but it's also one that just works. Easily one of the coolest shinies ever, and while the cool factor is a bit basic in this case, for black Rayquaza basic works. 

An interesting change? Shiny Jirachi swaps his regular blue wish-tags for red ones. It's not the best shiny and I kinda wished that his yellow parts got altered as well, but it's a very obvious change. 

 

 

Shiny Deoxys being bright yellow and bright green is... okay? I much prefer the traditional orange-and-blue, but this is a perfectly fine and sensible colour scheme. I think it works a bit better in the Attack and Speed Formes of Deoxys, with the black torso breaking up the colour scheme a bit.