Bleach TYBW E45 Review: orihime inoue's lAst stAnd

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 45: (Life to) Defend You

So this is the actual 'movie' of this season, huh? 

I don't think I've ever been quite so tense watching a Shonen anime before, and I didn't think that I would ever have this feeling watching something that is a show that ended a clean decade ago -- and is, as far as I understand, still going to adapt the original ending of the manga. So I already know what's going to happen. 

And it's still so intense to watch. 

After the past couple of episodes focusing on adapting the Askin and Gerard fights of the manga, and giving a proper Uryu/Haschwalth extension and a buildup to Ichigo vs. Juhabach... 

Again, I would like to preface this by saying that the original Ichigo vs. Juhabach fight essentially ended after maybe half of what we've got in this cour. Barely any of the Orihime monologue, and right after Ichigo goes through the Gran Rey Cero / Getsuga Tensho attack, he just zips in, activates his brand-new Bankai... and it literally gets snapped in half without doing anything. That was part of the horrid final volume of Bleach.  

I still assume that the anime will go through the same motions, except with an actual fight -- the way they handled Uryu's clash with Ichigo in one of the previous seasons, or the Squad Zero battle. It was something that was implied to be built up to, but we didn't get the payoff. And we've been getting a better Juhabach monologue, some actual motivation from him, some parallels between Ichigo and Uryu's fights, and Orihime gets monologues. 

This episode elevates everything, though. Not just the Orihime stuff, which is probably the unquestionable highlight for me, but it even brings us a lot of great Ichigo moments and even some power-ups and choreography that was definitely lacking in the source material. Which, as I keep emphasizing, the manga equivalent to this sequence is Ichigo charging with his barely-changed Bankai, and getting one-shot by Juhabach. 

But we do start off (after a brief recap of last episode's post-credits sequence) catching up on the statues. And normally I like to meme with Chad. Chad gets to unleash a La Muerte, but the statues regenerate with the Soul King goopy power. But Renji and Rukia arrive, and after a brief discussion,  Renji does some cool Zabimaru whip-swing things to slice off some of these statues. There's a smooth sequence where Rukia runs on Zabimaru to get to the throne room, before Renji flexes Zabimaru to use it to decapitate other statues. 

That's all we see of them, and honestly, it's kind of a bit sad for Chad and Ganju that even their irrelevant role is usurped by the more relevant Renji. But oh well. The episode also really likes to cut into Uryu and Haschwalth... and god bless the new incarnation of the fight with more dynamic powers, but I really didn't care for this fight at the moment with all the bright blues and whatnot. It doesn't help that we've seen the Uryu/Haschwalth fight in the first two or three episodes in this cour and this is mostly more of the same until the end. So for the purposes of this review, I'll talk about the Uryu/Haschwalth fight all together in one go at the beginning:

And, right, in the middle of all that intense emotions and action scenes, we do get the Uryu/Haschwalth stuff. Again, all of these fights are a lot more dynamic than anything we saw in the manga. But it is getting a bit repetitive. Uryu uses his not-Senbonzakura Vollstandig to constantly try to overwhelm Haschwalth, and there's the nice implication that he's repeating some attack patterns -- gathering his flechettes into a big arrow, launching it at Haschwalth, and having them spread apart to surround Haschwalth -- to figure out the timing. 

Haschwalth mocks Uryu a couple more times, using the moniker 'Last Quincy' a couple of times. There is a cute moment around the halfway point of the episode where Uryu tries to backstab Haschwalth with a blade, and Haschwalth makes a joke about Uryu using a 'sword'... but the blade shoots out! It's actually an arrow! It's a bit of a running joke with me back in the Vandenreich era that Sternritters using bows and arrows seem to be the exception rather than the rule, and I found this to be funny. 

And finally, at the climax of the episode, Uryu seems to be putting the Sanrei glove -- or Leiden Hant -- which is the source of his Letzt Stil power-up form. Haschwalth continues to mock Uryu underestimating his foresight powers, and seemed to be able to predict Uryu's Sternenstaub attack that's about to hit him from behind. Uryu grabs Haschwalth, and Uryu notes that Haschwalth needs a gap of three seconds any time he uses Juhabach's powers. But that three seconds is enough for Uryu to get the Sanrei Glove on Haschwalth, and activates it... leading to a cliffhanger for this fight. 

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Anyway, the Throne Room battle! We start off with something from Dragon Ball Z, with Ichigo and Juhabach zipping around the sky in streaks of colourful light, clashing and slamming onto each other. And Orihime seems to be reduced to her manga counterpart's role after her big moment two episodes ago. And hoenstly, I think most would be fine with Orihime's really cool moment a couple of episodes ago. But no, it's not over. 

Juhabach holds Ichigo up with his shadow tendrils, and does his 'what is power' spiel. A good part of why this episode is so good, I feel, is the running themes going through this episode, too. Not to diss on Askin or Gerard; but I really like a personal villain. Juhabach is great at taunting Ichigo (and eventually Orihime), and throughout the first and final sequences of this chapter he goes through a little villain monologue about the nature of power that Ichigo has. 'Power to protect' is weak, according to Juhabach, and that his definition of power is a tyrannical, oppressive one. Pretty simple shonen manga stuff, but the scripting and voice acting is good enough. 

What really makes it work, however, is the contrast with Orihime's constant repetition (almost like a madness mantra) of "my powers are weak,  if only my powers are much stronger, much stronger" all throughout the battle any time we zoom in to her POV. And that constant discussion of power even as Juhabach, Ichigo and later on Rukia are slinging around their big showy attacks is really well done. Even in this first scene, Orihime mentally replies to Juhabach's ramblings about the power to defend or protect to be the power that she wants, with a really nice shot of her hand reaching up towards the trapped Ichigo.  

And then Juhabach runs Ichigo through with his sword. 

This was a bit abrupt and surprisingly graphic with loads of blood, actually showing Juhabach carving a giant hole. Orihime uses Santenkesshun to reject it, restoring Ichigo's chest hole... and in a bit of black comedy, Juhabach just stabs Ichigo again. Orihime then heals Ichigo again... and this time, snaps off Juhabach's sword. 

This earns Orihime the full attention of Juhabach's ire, and he starts launching the shadow-waves at Orihime. One big one to knock her against the pillars, then another spear slamming right through her chest. And then Juhabach attacks Ichigo again...

And still Orihime stands back up, healing Ichigo after healing her own wounds in the split-second that Juhabach turns around. And we get a rather tasteful sequence of depicting Juhabach stabbing and piercing Orihime with near-kill shots, with flashes of her silhouette backlit while being pierced by Juhabach's shadow spears. And she keeps rejecting, and rejecting, and seemingly hits her limit at some point. 

But she keeps rejecting. She keeps healing. 

She keeps standing up. 

Having read Bleach from end to end,  I don't think I would ever say that Inoue Orihime is a 'badass' character at any point in the story. But seeing this? Seeing her stand up, hair strewn around with so much detail from the animation staff on her eyes and hair, dripping blood, doing the one thing she knows she can do -- to heal -- and just holy shit. What a well-done moment. There are shots of her glaring death glares at Juhabach as she keeps standing up. 

Juhabach keeps mocking her. She keeps telling herself that 'if only her powers were stronger', et cetera. 

Not realizing, again, just how impressive she has been throughout just these short five minutes or so. This was what Aizen was saying when her powers could 'trespass into the domain of gods', all the way back when she was kidnapped and reduced to a damsel in distress for the Arrancar arc. And it's such an insane growth to how much she could heal in the past. It's so cool, it's the only thing keeping Ichigo in battle... but Orihime is right that is isn't quite enough. 

And then ice! Rukia shows up!

Rukia freezes Juhabach, gets Ichigo back up,  and Ichigo very briefly checks on Orihime before the two of them stand side by side. How cool is this? How cool is this that the original protagonist duo from the very first chapter of Bleach actually get to stare down Juhabach together? Even if Rukia seemingly only gets this episode, the anime is acutely aware just how starved Ichigo has in terms of conclusions and closures with most of his close friends. Uryu got quite a bit with Ichigo in the last cour, and I've been so impressed with the Orihime stuff,  but Rukia? As Juhabach puts it, the 'Shinigami that set everything into motion'? It is really so nice to let Rukia have a great moment of relevance this close to the end. 

And we get some cute, classic bickering between the two, including a random line about Ichigo defending "the horn is cool!" 

Again, this fight is very smooth and cool. We get a brief cutaway to the Uryu/Haschwalth fight which is understandable considering the intensity of the Orihime stuff. Ichigo blitzes Juhabach with sword blows, while Rukia swings upwards with her ice. There's a bit of commentary about Rukia's powers from Juhabach (?) that makes it hard to fight together with allies? But then Juhabach unleashes what can only be described as a Giant Quincy Laser, which punches a hole through the wall, vaporizes a pillar, and causes Orihime to have a most concerned :o face. 

Ichigo and Rukia do a cool combo attack, with Ichigo slamming down the Gran Rey Cero Getsuga down from the top while Rukia swings upwards with her ice... but Juhabach just summons more pillars of shadows with eyeballs, and the eyeballs all shoot the black-pink Quincy Laser Beams. These pierce Ichigo and Rukia through their chests, 

And we cut back to Orihime. Her hands are trembling, and she continues with her mantra, blaming her own weakness for Ichigo and Rukia being wounded. Juhabach creates giant pillars, and a giant five-pointed Quincy star with shadows, which unleashes the mother of all Quincy Death Lasers in a rather over-the-top pink explosion. 

And Juhabach walks away.... only for an artistic blood moon in the sky to appear. 

And then Ichigo says: "Bankai". 

The red moon in the sky gets eclipsed... and the screen is plunged into pure darkness. And then Ichigo's brand-new Bankai form is shown, glowing and silhouetted with red, flaming light. Ichigo walks out of the darkness, which bleeds off his body and trails off his two horns, and chain-like flames wrap around his wrists, ankles and neck. His sword looks completely new. 

This, by the way, is completely different from the nothingburger 'final Bankai' that we got in the original Thousand-Year-Blood-War arc in the manga, which was just a sword on a chain that I've always felt was a visual downgrade to any of Ichigo's many, many forms. Rukia just calls this 'Zangetsu'. Which, knowing just how much 'the Blade in Me' has been emphasizing that Ichigo needs to reach the true, original form of his Zanpakuto, makes sense!

Juhabach summons more of his eyeball lasers, but Ichigo creates a web-like shield of his fiery chains to block them. It's very cool, and Ichigo does a badass boast about how he needs all of this power to protect everyone from Juhabach. 

Bankai Ichigo does have a cute little gimmick to it, which I'm not sure was the intention with the manga's original form of the Bankai, but Ichigo is able to create what are essentially afterimages or shadow clones. "Delayed strikes" whose impact Juhabach can feel, afterimages that split apart and disappear into shadows, and additional Ichigo 'clones' that appear and slam onto Juhabach with strike after strike... there are moments when Ichigo just summons additional shadowy clones (with a similar effect to Juhabach's own Soul King powers, too) and they all just blitz Juhabach like a goddamn fighting game. 

The next couple of minutes is really hard to describe without going in-depth, and it's just a great showcase of loads and loads of laser beams from Juhabach, and a lot of speedy maneuvering from Ichigo. We get nice shots of Rukia joining in, and at one point Ichigo blocking Orihime from another round of Quincy eye lasers. It's just a delight to watch. Juhabach taunts Ichigo at some point, noting that while it's a new power-up different from Shinigami powers, it's still weak. 

Interestingly, while looking at Ichigo making his shadow clones, Juhabach observes that this runs contrary to Ichigo's own principle, since his powers "scream that you don't need your friends". This feels like a bit of a loaded thing to say, but the episode doesn't really follow up on it. Another speed-blitz attack of Juhabach using his laser spam against Ichigo's shadow clone army ensues. 

This leads to the mother of all Getsuga Tensho's, creating a gigantic, inky black crescent moon in the sky. 

And by gigantic, I mean gigantic. This giant burst of power and black and white energies carves a moon in the sky, and we see shots of everyone else in the battlefield looking up at it. A very cool moon, and in the little space where the two tips meet floats Ichigo. 

It really looks cool. 

And as the moon fades away, Juhabach is seen scattered into little pieces of shadow... but he doesn't seem worried. He mocks Ichigo, noting that Ichigo is trying to get a shot in while Juhabach is underestimating him... but that 'instant' has ended. And Juhabach spreads out with his shadowy eyeballs, and does his own gigantic radial laser-beam spam, shooting eyeball beams everywhere. Ichigo falls out of the sky.

And we're back to focusing on Orihime, who runs towards Ichigo but gets trapped by Juhabach in a shadow pillar. Juhabach is taking this a bit more personally, and taunts them, noting that Orihime will be the last one to see Ichigo -- powerless Ichigo -- vanish from the world. Orihime continues her mantra about needing more power. Juhabach then continues to taunt Orihime, commending her for her resolve... but then trying to deconstruct the fact that it's because Orihime is here, this weak little crutch, that Ichigo couldn't achieve the full strength of his power. Essentially, Juhabach is trying to tear apart the whole 'power to protect' stuff.

This pisses Ichigo the fuck off, who gets a second wind and charges at Juhabach. There's a cool bit where Juhabach shoots a dozen lasers that curve around to strike Ichigo from behind. 

But Rukia yells Ichigo's name and freezers the shadow-pillar holding Rukia in place, calming Ichigo down for the two of them to do a Bankai combo move. Ichigo creates/splits into a dozen black shadow clones that begin zipping all of the place, before charging in to tank Juhabach's own beam-spam. And Rukia goes Bankai! Rukia activates her Bankai a second time in the anime! That is so cool. Ichigo uses his fire chains to hold Juhabach in place; while Rukia unleashes the gigantic icy nuke of Hakka no Togame. And just to seal it in, Ichigo does another of the giant ink-moon Getsuga Tensho. Just big attack after big attack. 

And Orihime wakes up, seemingly seeing Rukia in her snowy Bankai form similar to how the anime (and manga) presented her after the As Nodt fight... only for the fog to clear and instead of showing off Rukia all cool, we see her impaled by a sword, bent backwards and unconscious. Ichigo, meanwhile, is being stabbed on the ground by Juhabach, who monologues about how "this is power", and how his analysis about the 'strong power' is justified. 

And Orihime has a bit of a breakdown. The animation, again, is particularly great here especially in the closeups to Orihime's eyes. She repeats her lines about if only her own powers are stronger. Blood drips on the ground, her hairpins shatter, and the little Rikka birds start moving around and trailing lines of blood in the air. This moment is animated gorgeously as Orihima calls out the names of her six Shun Shun Rikka. 

Juhabach shoots his laser spam, which the Rikka line up in front of her and block, creating a badass 'explosion behind an action scene character' shot for Orihime. Juhabach then does the shadow-pillar-eye-beam attack he used earlier against Ichigo, and Orihime blocks that too. Her Rikka start tracing the air around here like a circle, while Orihime goes back to her little mantra. Blood starts rising up from the ground. She thinks to herself that she wants to make it so that pain and suffering doesn't happen, if only she had stronger powers. Orihime throws herself through what appears to be a strange circular portal of blood (????) before she shoots herself like a cannonball at Juhabach. In another bit of black comedy, Juhabach punts Ichigo at Orihime, who zips past him.

Orihime charges at Juhabach, and her powers form a golden halo around her head, before she pushes a mighty "I reject" at Juhabach. Orihime Inoue is actually 1v1-ing Juhabach at this moment, and I am genuinely so impressed at how well-done this is. How amazing the buildup is. The animation, the voice-acting, the sound effects. It doesn't even take away from main character Ichigo, who had a great showing earlier. 

And Orihime unleashes a gigantic bright light that appears to be reversing time. Her own fallen blood appears to get retracted into her own body, and Juhabach's gloopy eyeball-shadows appear to be reversing as well. Ichigo and Rukia yell at Orihime to stop. Orihime says something that Ichigo can't hear because of the loud noise, and we get a gigantic explosion of black-and-white that envelops Juhabach and Orihime...

And petals fall, leaving only Ichigo and Rukia in the empty throne room. 

The anime cuts away to two tiger lilies from episode 2 of the cour, and one of the tiger lilies fall off, revealing the full title of the episode: "LIFE TO DEFEND YOU". Smash to credits. 

Woah.

People use it as a meme. But honestly? To quote the kids, this was 'absolute cinema'. 

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Intellectually, I know --  I know that they're not going to change the ending that much. Even if they rewrote the final battles against Juhabach and Haschwalth, that they're not going to change that much of the ending. Orihime isn't dead, or at least, won't be by the final episode. Neither is this how Juhabach is dispatched of. But honestly? Honestly, this was done so well that if they adapted out Aizen's participation or the Isshin/Ryuken silver arrow nonsense, would people be really mad? 

I don't know what else I can say here, since I think it's made abundantly clear just how much I was impressed with this episode when I was watching it. Juhabach's new powers, Ichigo's new Bankai, Rukia being involved in the final fight at all, the 'power' monologues, the depiction of the new Getsuga Tensho, and of course, everything about Orihime? This was just phenomenal. The final couple of episodes of the Thousand-Year Blood War was always the ones that needed the most work, and I am so happy that we're getting rather extensive rewrites. 

Random Notes:

• 
  The credits are completely silent, set against a black screen, instead of playing Rasen. Very atmospheric. 
• There's also a great, subtle insert song happening as Orihime does her last charge against Juhabach!
• There is a brief, subtle adorable moment when Renji poses with Zabimaru at the close of his 'rescue' scene, and the big Zabimaru blade just covers Ganju entirely, and he has to peek to the side to get inside the shot. 
• I do wonder if the anime is just doing away entirely with the Allmighty's decidedly uncinematic "lol I can see your next move" powers, as well as the Antithesis-vs-Balance battles... which were always so boring to read about? I wouldn't mind if these fights replaced those, if we're being honest.
• There is also argument that Uryu managed to swap the Sanrei Glove onto Haschwalth's hand with the Antithesis, which would be cool if/when they explain the Antithesis powers later on in the future, but... but honestly, I have so little memory of the original Antithesis power that I wouldn't mind if they just decided that Uryu's new Sternritter powers is just 'action hero'. 
• I like that Haschwalth only calls it 'Leiden Hant', which was just casually dropped as an alternate older name during the Letzt Stil's original debut. 
• I do appreciate the anime not making this an excuse to graphically show Orihime being mutilated on-screen multiple times. They still couldn't resist a 'ass-up' shot, Yoruichi-style, at around 8 minutes in, though.
• I actually kind of forgot the plot and why Juhabach wants Ichigo dead now, since he went through all the trouble of creating him in the first place. Did he really just need Ichigo to crack open the Soul King? I genuinely forget.  
• Interestingly, the mid-episode data cutaway for Ichigo's new Bankai is 'burnt off' and impossible to read. 
• "The horn is cool!"
• But no, seriously, incorporating two horns into his new Bankai really does make it a lot cooler and gives us a nice continuity between the 'Horn of Salvation' form and the Bankai instead of it feeling like them just tossing random form designs for Ichigo. 

Let's Play Mystery Dungeon DX, Part 9: Magma Core

And so, it begins! After a strange side detour involving the renovation of my new rescue base, the plot-relevant earthquakes begin to happen again. Lombre pops up and begins gathering everyone to the town square, at which point we see all of these other random off-screen rescue teams! They actually exist!

Again, I really would have appreciated one or two of them showing up as a random encounter in town or something, which would've been absolutely doable with the modern technology. Or even in a cutscene when we were being fugitives. But okay. 

We've got a Golbat, Mr. Mime, Rhydon, Meganium, Raichu, Aipom, Scyther, Pinsir, Octillery, Blastoise, Golem and an adorable little Phanpy. They've all been gathered by Shiftry, who calls in the meeting because Team Alakazam hasn't been back yet. Everyone goes into a bit of a panicked discussion, and Shiftry notes that he's going to organize a rescue team and is asking for volunteers. 

Blastoise from 'Team Hydro' steps up to volunteer to lead, which makes sense since he's a Water-type going into a magma-filled location, and he boasts that he can take out Groudon with a single Hydro Pump. Team Constrictor's Octillery also slides up, and they note that she's extremely good in battles of endurance. Not what I associate Octillery with, but okay. The last member is Golem from Team Rumblerock, who's known to be the most brutal of them. He wants to keep Groudon buried underground. Everyone is appreciative of this impressive lineup, and they head off to solve the problem. 

There is, of course, the question why everyone just doesn't march as an army and go deep into the underground to stop Groudon, but that's a question for the J-RPG format in general. 

A day later, however, this hodgepodge team returns back to Pokemon Square, apparently being defeated before they could even see Groudon. Blastoise, Octillery and Golem are traumatized. No idea who pulled their fat out of the fire, though. I guess the just crawled back, injured? Gengar shows up with his 'kekekekekeh' and starts yelling demoralizing stuff, noting that everyone should accept what is impossible. 

And indeed, a lot of the Pokemon in the square are starting to be terrified -- and I do like that the camera focuses on Scyther, Pinsir and Bellsprout discussing about their weakness to Fire. Even Shiftry, who called this mission together in the first place, has to admit that being a Grass-type himself, he wouldn't survive particularly long in the magma dungeon. 

Gengar does a talk about how sometimes it's much better to know when to give up. Which, by the way, is not a bad advice sometimes... but not in a situation like this! Bulbasaur and Mudkip yell that they're going to do the rescuing, which surprises everyone around them. Some of the rescue team members recognize us as the ones that succeeded in the recent fugitive saga and reached the peak where Ninetales lives. 

Bulbasaur gives a speech about how rescue teams are created with the idea of rescuing other Pokemon, and this is exactly a situation like that... just on a bigger scale. Everyone starts holding on to their 'pride' -- their pride as rescuers, and even Blastoise's team gets back up with a 'we've only failed once!' The tone of the conversation begins to change. Gengar and his ugegegeh is extremely angry about this, not accepting that these people would go marching to their certain defeat... but of course, he gets shot down with the crowd now being convinced of the pride of the rescue team. It's pretty neat.

All the rescue teams are apparently planning to head into the magma cavern... which is neat, but none of them are joining my team. Come on, at least lend me the Blastoise! But oh well. It's final dungeon time, and I am heading in with Mudkip, Bulbasaur and Absol -- I don't think I have a particularly good third option for those that would survive in a Ground or Fire-type dungeon. 

All the shopkeepers have something to say about Bulbasaur's speech at the center of the square, being inspired and resolving to continue supporting us. How about some discounts, though, Kecleon bros? No? Bully for you. 

Magma Cavern is a massive, sprawling 26-floor dungeon, which is a significant increase from the previous couple of dungeons. Mt. Freeze was a mere 20-floor dungeon, and all other dungeons before were shorter length. So yeah, I did a couple of quick runs through lower-level dungeons to stock up on Oran Berries, Max Ethers, Max Revival Seeds and Apples -- both for storage and in the inventory, and then off we go! 

Oh, right before this happens, I get another Gardevoir dream, who tells me that soon, the reason why I was transported into this world will be made clear. She'll tell me all about it once I finish this dungeon or something. Okay, then, keep your mystical secrets. 

And the length of the dungeon is quite debilitating. Thankfully, recruiting still happens as usual, so at least I do have some other Pokemon joining my party. I do try to keep my resources in tow, though, so I went through a record amount of losing teammates and re-recruiting new teammates. There are also fainted Pokemon, including some atypical ones for a volcano dungeon, like Cloyster, Staryu and Jumpluff... which I'm going to assume are perhaps other rescue teams that didn't make it to the depths of the world. 

Magma Cavern is filled with a lot of Ground-types and Fire-types, but, again, there's also a mixture of other Pokemon that would logically be in a cave. We've got expected ones like Magcargo, Rhydon, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Sandslash, Golem, Magmar, Onix and Steelix... but also ones that make their home in caves like Crobat, Grimer, Koffing, Mawile and Arbok. I do like that the population changes from floor to floor, with Sandshrews and Raticates only existing in the top floors, and the bottom floors has the visually impressive Onix and Steelix crawling around. 

Again, I recruit a rather sizable amount of Pokemon, but with a larger party there's a higher chance of individual members getting into 1v1's at the back of a tunnel and dying. I lost quite a few teammates that way. 

I also had the misfortunate of running into one of those ambushes, with a horde of Sandslashes, Grimers and Golems ambushing me. Magnitude, by the way, is insane in this game, hitting the whole room -- which does ruin a lot of my party members' HP, but also the enemies. Those poor, poor Grimers!

Magma Cavern also has a lot of traps, including my bane -- hunger traps. Even accounting for the length of the dungeon, I was struggling a lot with hunger and ended up leaving any fainted Pokemon on the way just to conserve my apples. For the first time, I also start using the Geo Pebbles or whatever the thrown items are called just to conserve PP. I have way more Max Ethers than Apples, but it's neat that the game is making me engage with this mechanic. 

Ultimately, I get to the final dungeons with a little army of a Cloyster, a Sandslash, two Golems and a Grimer. Said Grimer ended up dying rather randomly to a Steelix before I enter the final fight against Groudon, but... what can you do? As we enter the final level, we find Charizard and Tyranitar knocked out. Can we give them apples? I've got at least one... no? Charizard and Tyranitar are struggling to get up, saying that they've been defeated. They tell us that Alakazam is still fighting against Groudon, so we rush deeper into the magma cave.

And Alakazam is just standing there, telling us that Groudon is super-strong... at which point rocks that I assume is Stone Edge or Precipice Edge starts rippling through the ground, and one slams and consumes Alakazam. We don't actually see where he goes, whether he's trapped in the rock or just tossed onto the ceiling of the cavern... but with the NPCs out of the way, Groudon bursts out of the ground with glowing eyes, and lets out a massive roar. 

Groudon is a massive boy, and the fight against him has some arena hazards! Immediately as the fight begins, a quake splits my party all around the battlefield, putting me, Mudkip, rather hilariously behind Groudon. My Mudkip is the party member with super-effective moves against Groudon, so I just launch Water Guns from the edge of the map while the rest of my new recruits swarm Groudon and just continue to pile on. Cloyster isn't very useful because the AI keeps defaulting to non-Water type moves, but the Sandslash and the two Golems at least do their best to pile damage after damage onto Groudon. 

There is also a constant transformation of the battlefield, with magma pools that slowly encroach upon different tiles, forcing me to waste moves actually moving around. Groudon's Precipice Blades and Hammer Arm attacks can hit multiple Pokemon at once, and at one point it starts to spam Roar to knock some of my party members away. This is a bit of a problem for my mercenaries, whose attacks are pretty close-range, but it's good for my Mudkip and especially Bulbasaur, who I want to attack from afar. 

I also spam the shit out of my Oran Berries and Tiny Revival Seeds, thinking that this is the final dungeon. I just wanted a wall of tanks to absorb Groudon's attacks, and while I eventually run out of seeds and lose a Golem, Groudon falls after all the amassed attacks. 

As Groudon collapses onto the ground, three lightning prisons of Alakazam, Tyranitar and Charizard appear... which feels a bit weird. It made sense before when it's Zapdos kidnapping Shiftry, but I felt like effects-wise this would've worked better with Team Alakazam running in from the other chamber or something. Alakazam explains that Groudon is only rampaging because he was rudely awoken, and things should be fine now that he's, er, had a concussion or something? But also apparently Groudon's awakening isn't the main cause of the cataclysms. 

We return to the city where all the assembled villagers and rescue team members are super-happy about our return. But then a telepathic voice starts speaking to everyone, and it's... it's Xatu! Xatu says that the true cataclysm is about to come, and it's... it's a giant meteor! Does this one contain a mysterious alien lifeform? I don't know, but it sure is impressively rendered compared to the more cartoony theme of the game's art style. Xatu says that the meteor's arrival is what's been causing all of the changes in nature all throughout the world, and that the only chance is to awaken the enigmatic legendary Pokemon called Rayquaza. 

Which is cool and all, but then the villagers start asking where Rayquaza is. Rayquaza lives in the sky, in the clouds above all the tallest mountains, making it impossible for an average Pokemon to get up to where he lives. Xatu says that he and Alakazam will combine their psychic powers to teleport myself and Bulbasaur up to the sky to get to the clouds above the world where Rayquaza is. 

Which... which sounds wildly and hilariously irresponsible, but also we've got characters in this town square with the ability to fly. Charizard and Golbat are there! Couldn't they scout the clouds first to see if there's at least a place for us to land? 

But yeah. It seems like there's at least one more level to go through before the story is over, which is absolutely a surprise to me! My main knowledge about the Mystery Dungeon story is taken from the manga adaptation, Ginji's Rescue Team... which positions Groudon as the final battle! So I am genuinely surprised that there was an additional level after this, and that this is part of the main story as opposed to the post-game! Well, next time we're going to the sky, then! 

Random Notes:

• I do like that I manage to recruit a Golem for my party, it makes me feel like the NPC Golem from Blastoise's team actually joins up to redeem himself for his past failures or something. 
• At some point, I've unlocked the Mime Jr. statue as well.
• There has been a bit of a background gag of Dugtrio trying to impress his/their son Diglett, culminating with Dugtrio seemingly disappearing underground, much to the puzzlement of Diglett. I assume this will have a payoff after the sky dungeon.  
• One of the unrecruitable stronger Pokemon I see as a 'boss' in the dungeons is a Lickilicky, a fourth-generation Pokemon. So I'm going to assume that some evolutions and pre-evolutions of Gen I-III Pokemon might show up here. 
• I do love that among the rescue team leaders are a mixture of fully-evolved, fearsome-looking Pokemon and some more mundane-looking ones like Aipom and Phanpy! 
• It really would be cool if Shiftry actually came with us as a party member, huh? He's shown up often enough -- certainly more often than Absol -- and it would make a bit of a thematic sense for him to finally shake off his cowardice.
• I do like that as Blastoise, Octillery and Golem are called up, the surrounding crowd yells out a line or two that sounds like they're from a Pokedex entry. "The jets of water it spouts from the rocket cannons on its shell can punch through thick steel"!
• Within the 23rd floor or so of Magma Cavern is a random mansion, which is a 'Mystery House' that requires an invitation to go in. I've seen these invitations in Kecleon stores, and I am actually completely not sure what would be in here. Being that going through Magma Cavern is a bit of an ordeal, I wouldn't probably go in even if I brought an invitation with me, though. 
• Poor Kyogre! We're just skipping him over in the Hoenn weather trio.
• The major rescue team members (Team Alakazam and Team Blastoise) are hanging out with the rest of the town square citizens now. The dialogue is a bit altered with them all experssing hope that we can save the day, but I don't think there's anything particularly notable. 

Digimon Reviews, Episode 64: Hanimon and Friends

We're saving the Hanimon line for a separate one, since this one leads nicely to the Pendulum Color virtual pets that were tied to the New Century designs. The Pendulum Color 7: Toho Braves covers the Hanimon line, the Shellmon to Ryugumon line, and a bunch of brand-new designs based on Chinese and Japanese mythology, some of which also debuted in New Century. 

I really like this batch! 

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Tomorimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Ghost
• Attribute: None

We've got a little hitodama, Japan's equivalent of the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon. It's an adorable little baby blob ghost on fire! Little Tomorimon is a little ghostly friend, with a single eye and a cute mouth with a little snaggle-tooth. The description notes that it's covered in a gas-light substance, and is associated with Shambala, the Eastern Digital World. 

No notes from me, these are nice, and I really like that the babies are allowed to have their own identity beyond being disembodied heads of marketable Child-levels! This one is just simple and sweet. I actually think it might be my favourite baby form in a long while. 

 9/10.

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Onibimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Ghost
• Attribute: None

The Baby II form is a bit more formed, losing the fiery aura but gaining little stubby hands, a fiery tail, and a really cute mischievous grin. Onibimon is, of course, a ghost! In the Eastern Digital World, Onibimon are believed to be reincarnated forms of Digimon that have died of natural causes. I mean, all Digimon that die turn into eggs based on Digimon lore, and Tomorimon/Onibimon hatch from eggs, so technically they are true. Baby ghosts! These are adorable.

Onibimon and Tomorimon are the baby forms of the various Child Digimon from the 'Toho Braves' virtual pet, one of which is Hanimon below... but also works quite as well for the baby forms of Ghostmon, who is one of the main Liberator partner Digimon!

 8/10.

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Hanimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Data

Hanimon is based on the haniwa funerary statues, or specifically a specific type of haniwa that has became quite popular in Japanese media with that dot eyes-and-mouth face, and alternately-facing arms. Hanimon is a bit more elaborate, with a sealing rope around its upturned-cup-like body and some grass as a topknot hair. Hanimon is noted to be made up of clay, and often gets broken and chipped, and needs to meticulously repair itself. Oh no! Poor Hanimon!

Hanimon's expression apparently can't change, but it normally is friendly and gentle... unless you touch the hair on its head. Fair enough! A single Hanimon is weak, but a group of them dancing together can channel latent holy energies to ward off Dark-species Digimon, which is a reference to multiple haniwa figures being found in different tombs. Pretty cute, I really do like them as a neat twist on the 'puppet' family. 

I haven't read the Liberator manga fully but have skimmed through to appreciate the cool artwork. Shoemon and Hanimon's tamers are sisters, so it's really cool that two siblings have wildly different takes on "puppet" Digimon! The manga being based on the card game, this also meant that the different Puppet Digimon also freely evolve to-and-from each other. 

 7/10.

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Kokeshimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Data

And puppet it is, because the Adult-level of this line is the rather adorable and slightly creepy kokeshi doll, Kokeshimon! Kokeshis are tall dolls without arms and legs, another style of traditional Japanese dolls. I was first introduced to creepy Kokeshi dolls from the manga As the Gods Will, but most Kokeshi are just cute little dolls! They also served as the inspiration for the design of Nintendo's Miis. 

Kokeshimon itself is quite cute, with a really nice set of purples and reds and an adorable face. It doesn't have arms, but it has two smaller, simpler kokeshi dolls that hover around it and act like arms. Kokeshimon is noted to like to stand still and pretend to just be an ornament, but often goes around and causes some mischief with its psychic powers. Kokeshimon is often mistaken for ghosts due to its ability to levitate itself, and would have been an excellent addition to Ghost Game if it was released at the time of the show's production. 

Ultimately, however, it's well-meaning and is particularly protective of Baby and Child Digimon -- an extension of the real Kokeshi dolls being associated with wishes for a child to grow up healthy.

 8/10.

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Karakurumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Data

Karakuri Puppets have had a huge resurgence in Japanese media, with these mechanized puppets showing up everywhere from Naruto to Yu-Gi-Oh to Jujutsu Kaisen. And to be fair, these mechanized dolls were pretty amazing particularly considering the time period that they were built in. Karakurumon goes back to the basics of what a karakuri is -- a puppet or automaton with long flowing robes that hides the mechanisms inside. And indeed, Karakurumon's guise is a lady with a pleasant pink and purple kimono serving you tea... but under that skirt are two giant rocket boosters, and coming out of its sides are metallic arms that end in lightsaber weapons. 

I also really like the giant upside-down sakazuki cup it has on its head, which gives it a nice twist instead of 'merely' being a puppet of a girl. Karakurumon often hang around groups of Kokeshimon in old, abandoned houses, which is such a nice, creepily moody vibe. While Karakurumon can be an elegant host, when in combat it behaves as a 'tenacious assassin', deploying all those blades, wielding its bowl and filling it with acid... and attacking the 'fangs from its gaping mouth? Unfortunately, while trading cards have been quite great at illustrating alternate attacks and poses of these new Digimon, all of Karakurumon's artwork has been of it smiling demurely...

With this small sprite from the V-pet being the only at-the-time-of-writing depiction of Karakurumon's monster mouth. Creepy! 

 8/10.

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Kaguyamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Tentei Hachibushu

And finally, the Ultimate form of this evolutionary line is Kaguyamon, based on Princess Kaguya, who is a princess found inside a bamboo stump. With the Pokemon Celesteela, this isn't the first Princess Kaguya adaptation that combines the princess, the bamboo, and mechanical spaceships. While Celesteela was more of a strange plant technology, Kaguyamon is a straight-up puppet mecha. The main body is still the princess's body, but it's got a massive jetpack made of a single giant bamboo, with a bunch of robotic arms and detached robotic feathers forming a set of 'wings'.

Kaguyamon's tears are often noted to create doorways up to the moon, creating gateways to other Digital Worlds or dimensions, transporting its targets via bamboo to their destinations. Kaguyamon is a peacekeeper, and where it has sent its subordinates, bamboo groves appear and manifest. It's a pretty impressive-looking final form, and while I still like its three pre-evolutions more, it's a pretty cool-looking robot lady. That is enough of a twist for me to like it, I suppose! 

I haven't been the most consistent with reviewing them, but Kaguyamon is also our final member of the Tentei Hachibushu, forming the three ' Sanmyojin' alongside Amaterasumon and fellow Liberator-debutante Ryugumon! 

 7/10.

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Wankomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

In addition to cute little Hanimon, the other Child-levels in Toho Braves included this guy! WHO'S A GOOD DOG??? Wankomon is a good boy! I realize that it's 'just a dog' with some extra accessories, but it's just such a dopey looking dog. I can't hate him. As I mentioned in the Loogamon review, we don't quite have enough Child-level dogs and wolves for me to feel that they are oversaturated anyway. 

With its horn on its head and the ball wrapped around its tail, Wankomon is an adaptation of the Komainu, and its ability is to harden its body into stone similar to the komainu statues. This also means that Wankomon has essentially became the most appropriate Child-level for Siesamon, which is also featured as one of its evolutions in the virtual pet. Wankomon has the personality of a cute guardian dog, being super-loyal to its Tamer or the other Digimon in its pack. It's often checking for danger with its sense of smell, even though it looks like it's lazing around. That's what all my dogs think they're doing, I'm sure.

Wankomon carries a ball, and it likes playing with itself, but Wankomon would be extra delighted if someone would play ball with it!!! Yes??? YES BALL??? WHERE BALL!!! FETCH BALL!!! GOOD DOG!!!

 8/10.

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Shishimamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Holy Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

Another Perfect level is Shishimamon, based on the lion dance. It's a really fun interpretation instead of just drawing a regular lion dance outfit, though! Shishimamon's head is just a lion mask with a fiery mane, but the rest of its body is a mass of black clouds that flows out of the green cloak. I think there are a bit too many things going on and they maybe should've focused more on the 'light vs dark' trope, but it doesn't bother me as much. 

Shishimamon is noted to be able to absorb darkness and transform it into light, devouring the darkness which presumably becomes its smoky body. It then lights up the Digital World from its lion head. The virtual pet assigns it as the evolution of Siesamon (which we mentioned ties to Wankomon) -- and the similarities in the names does indicate an evolution from a 'lion-dog' to a more proper 'lion'. With the profile also mentioning that Shishimamon is rumoured to evolve into an Ultimate-level with the holy powers of the sun, which is... 

 6/10.

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Amaterasumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: God Man
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Tentei Hachibushu

Yep, the goddess of the sun. Amaterasumon is the final member of the Tentei Hachibushu in my reviews. Which, to recap, has Shakamon (Buddha), Enmamon (King of the Underworld), the three Saneiketsu: Erlangmon, Nezhamon and Takutoumon (based on Chinese myths) and the three Sanmyojin: Kaguyamon, Ryugumon and Amaterasumon (based on Japanese myths). That's neat. 

Amaterasumon is noted to have similar ornamentation with Susanoomon of Digimon Frontier fame, and there are a bunch of hints of Susanoomon being involved with the Tentei in some way. If you're reading an episode 64 of a Digimon review column, you probably know enough anime to also know that mythological Amaterasu and Susanoo are siblings. This means that we're missing a 'Tsukuyomimon' at some point in the future. 

We have the remainder of Shishimamon acting as its little helmet, but I really don't have much to comment about its humanoid part. Far more interesting are the two gigantic gauntlets that Amaterasumon sticks its hands into. That's cool. Amaterasumon normally lives in seclusion, taking care of the sun (or the Digital World's 'sun') and when it goes into battle, it causes disruptions to the sun when it does so. The bio for Amaterasumon doesn't really give me much to say about this one, but I do like the effort that they did in giving Amaterasumon a full evolutionary line and those funky, big gauntlets!

 4/10.

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Gasamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Mollusk
• Attribute: Virus

Oh! Our last Child-level for this virtual pet is an unexpected one. Gasamon is a little octopus hiding under an amigasa hat, wearing it like a hermit crab shell. The amigasa shades the main body of Gasamon and makes it look super-mysterious, even as it conceals its badass ronin samurai weapon inside... or at least, the baby octopus tries his best to. I love this. The profile plays it straight and makes it appear as if Gasamon could fit that long katana inside its hat, but there is no way, right? I imagine that its opponents humour it. 

I do like the idea of this creature hiding under its hat, before doing an iai quick-draw on anyone that comes near it. I love it! It's an ambushing little octopus samurai. Gasamon often ambush Bushi Agumon, but are often driven to flee since its sword skills isn't that good. Honestly, while the profile doesn't outright say it, I feel like the Gasamons have the personality of a samurai wannabe. Look at this octopus samurai, it wants to bad to be mysterious and badass and whatnot. 

I like this thing. Shellmon is assigned as its Adult-level evolution since Sangomon skips out on this virtual pet. But Musyamon is also one of its possible Adult-level evolutions, and I could see other 'warrior' Adults like Igamon evolving from this guy, too. But most importantly, being an octopus, and with those distinct horns and an unseen head, Octmon seems to be the Adult-level that this little buddy seems to be explicitly designed for! That's cool!

 9/10.

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Manekimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Vaccine

A perfectly acceptable alternate Adult-level for Hanimon in this virtual pet is Manekimon, which is based on the maneki-neko figurines -- the 'lucky cats' you see in stores. That, too, is a form of puppets. 

The best joke, however, is that while Manekimon's main design is a typical cat-like Digimon (it's not just a Tailmon ripoff, which is nice), its right arm is engorged to a ridiculous size. It's a joke that a maneki-neko keeps waving with one arm, but I really like that Manekimon actually has some old-school 'veiny muscle' and cyborg modification going on where its arm connects to that red gauntlet, which I do like. 

That arm draws things to it... but instead of happiness or fortune, it actually has what's essentially a gravity generator to draw enemies so it can punch them with its giant arm. I love this guy. It's a simple concept, but a fun one .

 7/10, could be 8. 

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Darumamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Vaccine

Oh! What! Darumamon is based on the daruma dolls, of course. And being based on another toy, it fits as the Perfect-level evolution for either Manekimon or Kokeshimon. But it's the design! That's Digitamamon, only with some differences! Instead of an egg, the orb is a daruma doll, with the eyes of Darumamon being placed in the 'mouth' of the daruma doll. Instead of two dinosaur legs, Darumamon has two dragon legs and a dragon tail bursting out of the bottom -- because this is Shambala, the Eastern Digimon World, so of course Darumamon has an Eastern Dragon inside it.

Darumamon is noted to have a streamlined suit that deflects all attacks, and can't tumble over due to how specialized it is. It often spends most of its time meditating, but gets super-powerful if it turns hostile. Its attack is a play on the daruma-otoshi game, which involves a daruma doll that splits. This game is featured in some anime like Bleach or Kami-sama no iuutori... and Darumamon extends this to its enemies, splitting them apart into pieces. Another one of Darumamon's attack sets itself on fire, referencing the ritual of daruma burning. 

Honestly, I just like it for being a Shambala version of Digitamamon and adding in a couple of fun little twists!

 7/10.

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Tengumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Bird Man
• Attribute: Virus

I mean, a tengu Digimon isn't really something new. We already have Karatenmon... but I suppose we don't have an Ultimate version and Ravmon is honestly kind of a bland ninja action figure. So while Tengumon is what you'd expect from a tengu monster design, I do appreciate its new debut. Peckmon, Yatagaramon and Ravmon are in this virtual pet, and I like that we get a more mythology-inspired final evolution for Yatagaramon.

I like its mask, and it's got a massive gunbai that it waves around to herald disaster. I also like that while it's got the geta (with retractable blades!) its actual legs are bird talons. Tengumon is noted to live in the mountains with Karatenmon serving as its students and followers. The ultimate trial for a Tengumon's Karatenmon followers is to defeat and surpass it, and the Karatenmon that manage to finish this ritual will evolve into the next Tengumon. 

 6/10. It's a'ight.  

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