One Piece 1112 Review: Stars Align

 One Piece, Chapter 1112: Hard Aspect

It's been a while, huh? I've been super-duper busy, and I hope you guys have been enjoying or at least tolerating the stuff I have lined up for you for my own hiatus. I'll still be up here and there with a couple of articles that I write 'live', but I do hope you guys enjoyed the Palworld reviews, the random Infinite Fusion stuff, and some remastered old articles. 

But we're back with One Piece after a three-week long hiatus, and it's a fun banger to get back to. No sign of the Iron Giant, but I actually don't... I actually don't give a shit anymore, honestly. It's going to show up in the climax and it's honestly a bit telegraphed that it's going to be what helps the Straw Hats get away in the final final part of this arc, and we're just ramping up to the 'darkest hour' in this chapter with all the Gorosei having our heroes at figurative gunpoint. 

Ethanbaron has sliced down all of the Pacifista, and is basically grumbling about how Vegapunk's made a huge, huge mistake by giving the keys to an army of WMD's to a literal child. 

And then... I don't want to downplay this, even though it's a relatively small part of the chapter. But in-between everything that's going on, we get Red King with his mutant neck and his smoking steam gauntlet charging in and about to clash against Franky mid-air, and Franky just one-shots the Vice Admiral with a mighty Strong Right. That's a pretty damn cool panel, and honestly? A pretty damn cool moment in general. So many of the secondary Straw Hats got left in the wayside in terms of having development either in combat in character, and... Franky really got the short end of the stick ever since the timeskip happened. Shit, he doesn't even get anything to do in Egghead even though he's the scientist of the team, so at the very least he gets to take down a Vice Admiral. 

Which... yeah, in the grand scheme of things, Vice Admirals haven't been the most impressive. And by 'not the most impressive', I mean they've not been impressive at all. But it is really nice to see some of our supporting protagonists finally one-shot these guys!

Not to be outdone, Pomsky, the otter Zoan, jumps up to attack our heroes but Bonney just touches him in the face and turns him into a kid, before delivering the mother of all kicks onto his face. Again, that's also very cool! I really do hope that the anime does extend this just a bit so we get a bigger combat moments for characters not part of the Monster Trio. 

Meanwhile, Mars and York made their way to the broadcast room, but it's obviously empty since it's a pre-recorded message. Mars is super angry and just unleashes a gigantic energy beam that blows up a hole through the building, because... uh... apparently that demon bird can just do that. Just launch Hyper Beams, sure, all fully-evolved Pokemon can do that, why the fuck not?

York stops Mars from doing any more damage, however, babbling some reason about how certain floors are super-volatile and will blow up Punk Records. I think the implication is that York's going to die if Punk Records blows up? Or at least, she won't have access to Vegapunk's full database or something? I don't think York's going to redeem herself or anything. There is a strange line, however, that even Mars finds confusing, which is York saying that she "doesn't want to rack up any more sins". 

Interestingly, nearby, Stussy and Kaku are just... talking and noting about how Mars has gone. Kaku is still in a bubble, mocking Stussy for apparently being left behind by the Straw Hats. However, Stussy is apparently pulling a Mr. 2, where she decides to stay behind and carry out this one final mission. Which... okay, cool, I guess? Stussy and Kaku's been so out of the focus that I almost kind of forgot they existed if not for chapter 1111 where Lucci had that brief negotiations with Mars. Again, Lucci's performance as a narrative threat isn't the most impressive, but I do find it interesting sub-plot going around in the background. 

Speaking of characters that aren't the most impressive, we get a short scene where the assembled Straw Hats are discussing how to get the Thousand Sunny out without the help of the Vega-Force 1 that Kizaru blew up. And of course, the reason this will probably work out is probably the iron giant, but... Edison jumps off and blows himself up on the Frontier Dome with a 78% damage or something, so he's about to do something cool, to help our heroes escape. Man, everyone's pulling a Mr. 2 today. 

And finally, we cut back to the Gorosei fighting. Ju Peter is apparently pissed off that everyone's mocking his love of Dune, so he starts creating a huge sucking force that is able of even dragging Dorry and Brogy into his huge, yawning worm mouth. And Luffy just.. runs to a building, slices off a chunk of the tower, and rams it right into Ju Peter's giant worm mouth, leaving an honestly hilarious cartoony impression as his worm mouth gets squished out of shape. 

This, finally, knocks Luffy out of Gear Fifth, which means that this is where he stops fighting on part with the Gorosei. Again, I'm still very ambivalent on how this timer thing works, but I do appreciate that suddenly we're not fighting on par, we're on the back foot again. The giants give Luffy some emergency rations, Hakarl, and just like a Toriko character Luffy bounces back from being weakened straight back into being able to fight. Not Gear Fifth fighting, though. St. Warcury charges in and Luffy unleashes a Gear Third attack, slamming big piggy's head with a glorious Red Roc attack... and I don't think it does anything. It's an attack that stunned Kaido back in the rooftop battle, but while Warcury doesn't seem like he didn't feel it, it's clear that he's shrugging it off while Luffy's clutching his hand in pain. 

...and the rest of the Gorosei are starting to get back on their figurative feet, too. Where Team Usopp is guarding the ship, we get to see that the spider-legs of Saturn are starting to get up. I don't actually know if anyone in their party can stand up to Saturn? I guess if Jinbe and Zoro get back there in time?

Ethanbaron slices down Team Franky's escorts, and we get one of the most metal shots as samurai skeleton centaur Gandhi looms, fully silhouetted other than his glasses, over Bonney, Franky and Atlas while the giants fall around them. Sanji's here, just conveniently offscreen, so we might get that matchup. 

Meanwhile Mars has reverted back into his human form and is slowly walking towards the triangular,     gurgling video transponder snail... and I guess the cliffhanger is whether he'll succeed in stopping the transmission. I do think that there's too much built into this transmission narratively that it won't be just over with Mars crushing it without even encountering any of our heroes, though, so that's not the most exciting cliffhanger... but the rest of the chapter was pretty damn great as the Gorosei's threat starts to ramp up a fair bit more!

Random Notes:

• The cover story has Yamato get some kind of traveling funds from Kin'emon? It's one of those transitional parts of a cover story that isn't the most interesting, though, again, if we're being really honest I don't have much of an interest in this particular cover story. 
• "Hard Aspect" is the angles formed by planets in a horoscope wheel, or a fortune-telling birth chart.
• It is so weird having 'samurai Gandhi' be called a name so boring like Ethan. 
• Oimon and Kasshi had a brief couple of lines earlier in the chapter, but I can't tell if Ethanbaron one-shots them at the end. 
• Guillotine, the guy with a blade on his hat, comments on how 'cruel' Bonney kicking a kiddified Pomsky is, even though they were very willing to execute a young child themselves. We don't see Guillotine by the time Ethanbaron shows up on that side of the battlefield, but Franky, Bonney and a bunch of giants could pack him up easily. 
• Fermented shark, or Hakarl, is a real thing. 

Reviewing Monsters: Palworld, Part 1

So earlier this year the video game Palworld took the world by storm, with a whole ton of comparisons with the Pokemon franchise. It's hardly the first Pokemon clone game out there, but I think a combinatoin of the general attitude towards the lack of polish in the Pokemon franchise's recent entries have caused a whole ton of dissatisfaction towards Nintendo and Game Freak in general. And... I can't even refute this claim. 

Now we've seen so many other game franchises like Yo-Kai Watch and many others being positioned as the "Pokemon Killer", and while I wouldn't go as far as saying that, it is undeniable that Palworld might be one of the most successful in terms of metrics like Steam sales and whatnot. It really is less of a "Pokemon with GUNS" and more of a "Horizon/Ark with Pokemon". But it is a shrewd marketing tactic regardless. There's a lot of bad blood from both supporters and detractors of this game about just how original the designs are, and how much of it is parody versus plagiarism versus some kind of AI-generated variation or something?

The game itself isn't really my cup of tea, but we're not here to review the game, or to debate the similarities or differences with Pokemon, but just talk about monster design! 

__________________________________

#001: Lamball

• Big Floof
• Type: Neutral

We start off with the quasi-mascot of the game, Lamball. He's a lamb, who is also a ball! I think you could easily shrug and say that this is a 'Wooloo ripoff', which is... not the most fair? Pokemon doesn't exactly have a monopoly on round sheep monsters. And there will be some others that are undoubtedly more direct heavily-inspired, but you could just as well as make an argument that Lamball came from one of many other J-RPG games. 

Anyway, as with Pokemon, a lot of the early game monsters are pretty simple enemies. Lamball's whole deal is that he's a round lamb, and, quoting the game's version of a Pokedex, the Paldeck, "this pal has tumbled down to the very bottom of the food chain itself." Pretty cute, pretty simple... which is why I'm going to use Lamball here to explain a bit more about the Pals. 

Pals all have types, which are kind of aggregated from most of Pokemon's types. 'Neutral' stands in for Pokemon's 'Normal'. Pals don't evolve, which I guess is one step to far in the plagiarism thing. The humans in this setting are basically shooter-game protagonists, so they can attack the Pals with guns and spears and swords and whatnot, and Pals can be butchered and killed or harvested... which the game milks for black comedy for all it's worth. And in addition to typical Pokemon-style 'moves', each Pal has a passive ability. Some of them just allows Pals to help out in harvesting or planting or mining (because this game has that as a major mechanic)... but some Pals become equipment. Like Lamball here, who the player can sling over his or her back as a literal sheep-shield as it cries and absorbs bullets. Yep, it's that kind of game. 

#002: Cattiva

• The Cat's Pajamas
• Type: Neutral

Ehhhh. This one doesn't really appeal to me, and without the name, I don't think I could tell you that this is supposed to be a cat monster instead of just a generic mammal monster. You could've told me that Cattiva is supposed to reference some character from Digimon or Yokai Watch or something and I'd shrug. Cattiva here is another early-game Pal, ad the whole joke is that Cattiva is cocky-looking but is in fact weak and cowardly, and 'being toyed with by a Cattiva is the greatest of disgraces'. I mean, sure. 

#003: Chikipi

• Plump & Juicy
• Type: Neutral

Another very simple design, Chikipi is essentially a Cuccoo from the older Zelda games. It's a chicken! Chikipi is literally here as a very easy source for food. And, yes, you kill and eat Pals in this game, though it's not actually mandatory. The game is parody and not mockery, and I'm actually pleasantly surprised that there's still a way to play the game as a straight-up regular Pokemon game (just with guns and farming) and not engage in the more brutal aspects of the game... but, well, where's the fun in that?

Chikipi is noted that it's considered one of the weakest Pals. The Paldeck actually lampshades the fact that 'no matter how many are hunted, they just keep appearing'. Video game mob spawning! Even its 'title' (which all Pals have) in the Paldeck isn't a description about its behaviour, but rather just straight up goes 'plump & juicy'. 

#004: Lifmunk

• Coward of the Steppe
• Type: Grass

Our first non-Neutral Pal is Lifmunk, which is a leaf chipmunk. It's got a giant gemstone on its forehead and a bunch of extra red accessories. This guy feels like it'd be a generic pet in a game like Ragnarok Online or something, or like a cute mascot in a toyline-driven anime. I don't dislike it, but it's one that you could say that it's a Pachirisu ripoff and I'd slowly nod. 

Lifmunk here, by the way, is one of the Pals that you can straight-up equip firearms to, with the Lifmunk's favourite, preferred weapon being a submachine gun. The Paldeck notes that there has been 'more than a few cases where they've killed their master after learning to use weapons'. The wording doesn't imply accidental, so the Lifmunk might've just rebelled and shot their masters dead in cold blood for daring to enslave them. Lifmunks are noted to be as intelligent as a 5-7 year old child, which might sound horrifying but you can straight-up capture human NPCs in this game and enslave them, so this isn't the most fucked-up thing in this game. 

#005: Foxparks

• Revealer of Paths
• Type: Fire

It sure is a fox on fire. A Firefox! It's like Vulpix if Vulpix was given a more realistic-to-a-real-fox appearance, and... yeah, I can actually see why Pokemon went for a more stylized look with them. Foxparks (god, that name's a bit hard to say) has flames wreathing its legs and tail, and apparently are unskilled at controlling fire when it's born. 

It sure is a fire fox! 'Animal on fire' is always one of the least creative way to make a fire monster, and I think that's why Pokemon has actually scaled down on it after the first couple of generations. Foxparks here can actually be wielded by the player as a flamethrower. 

#006: Fuack

• Rowdy Wave Ripper
• Type: Water

I think there was a Fakemon that this is referencing? The one that became Platypet in Temtem, based on a widely-spread leak for Sword and Shield's starters or something? I am convinced that Fuack here is just so that the game developers could make jokes with its name. Yes, yes, it's a pun on 'quack', but tell me you see 'Fuack' and you don't mentally remove one of the vowels.

Anyway, Fuack here is our first Water-type Pal, and apparently body surfs around. I don't really like the look of this one. I think it's the ears, which feels like they belong to a proper mammal instead of the platypus-based Fuack.

#007: Sparkit

• Livewire Tabby
• Type: Electric

And this is our first Electric-type Pal, which I guess is the game's interpretation of a Pikachu clone. Other than the colours and the Raichu tail, though, I guess the designers are smart enough to try not to copy Pikachu at all, and just took 'electric mammal' and tried to make something somewhat distinct. This is more cat-like (it's a 'tabby') and angry-looking than Pikachu, and... I don't really care for this one? Again, it's the ears which looks like weird bumblebee abdomen that are stuck onto his head. 

#008: Tanzee

• Dexterous Primate
• Type: Grass

Oh, hey! It's Grookey! I mean, Pansage! I mean, Tanzee. It's just a green monkey with some leaf parts, and honestly kind of boring... until you realize that Tanzees are another type of Pal that can wield firearms, namely assault rifle. Love the Paldeck description, too. "Long ago, this Pal used long objects like tree branches as weapons. After coming into contact with humans, however, it found something much more effective: guns."

#009: Rooby

• Chief of the Herd
• Type: Fire

So soon after Foxparks? Rooby here is more of an ungulate than a canine, though that tail is rather fox-like. I don't particularly like the look of this one -- I'm not sure if it's the colours, the giant tail, the eyes, or the random bowtie it has. It's lore talks about how Rooby can't get sick, and a diet of eating a piece of charcoal every single day is the secret to its health. And... I kind of wish the design emphasized this a bit. Either the charcoal part or the 'eternal health' part. 

#010: Pengullet

• Ate Too Much
• Type: Water/Ice

Hee hee, I like him. This fat penguin is cute enough and distinct enough from the likes of Piplup, I think. I do like the little blurb about him, too. It's a bird Pal that has evolved so much that its feathers have disappeared, but it still really wants to fly. And... the way it does this? Pengullet's "-ullet" isn't referring to gullet, but BULLET. When your character equips a motherfucking rocket launcher, Pengullets will jump in and voluntarily act as living missiles. 

...that's actually quite creative, and honestly not the most expected out of Pengullet's design. It's a very weird but creative direction to take the 'this animal really wants to fly' gimmick that you'd associate with a penguin. 

#011: Penking

• Pioneer of the Frozen Sea
• Type: Water/Ice

It's a penguin with a bicorn hat and an admiral's coat. And a big puffy neck-thing. Are those part of his biology, or did Penking salvage these somewhere? Pokemon evolution does not exist in this game, and despite being next to each other in the deck, and both being dual Water/Ice types, Penking is explicitly noted to be unrelated to Pengullet. Okay, then!

#012: Jolthog

• Don't Touch | Watch Your Feet
• Type: Electric (Regular) | Ice (Cryst)

This is a more non-stylized version of Togedemaru, taking an 'electric hedgehog' prompt and making the simplest version you could think of. Jolthog is sure a hedgehog with electric spikes! There's really not much to say beyond that, other than the fact that Jolthog is one of those Pals that can be weaponized, this time acting as a lightning grenade. 

Jolthog does have a 'variant', basically Palworld's take on the 'Regional Variants' thing that newer Pokemon games have. Jolthog Cryst is Ice-type instead of Electric-type, and has replaced its yellow-coloured spikes with more impressive ice (or, well, crystal) ones. It's basically the same thing, only instead of a shock grenade, Jolthog Cryst is an ice bomb. I think it's kind of neat, a nice way to incorporate alternate weaponry and a quick extra Pal variant without needing to rig a whole new model. 

#013: Gumoss

• Suddenly Transformed
• Type: Grass/Ground

I kind of like this one! Gumoss could just be waved as a 'plant Ditto' or a 'mud Ditto', but I do like the themes going on here. Slime monsters are a bit common in these RPGs, but Gumoss is more specifically a tree sap creature with some wood and leaves growing up on top of its body. Like the dot eyes and the tongue in the mouth, too, which makes for an adorable look. Gumoss is also dual-type, being Grass/Ground, so it's probably not entirely sap-based, and has some mud mixed into its anatomy? 

Gumoss is noted to interestingly 'lose strength' and eventually 'rot away' if it has nothing to cover its body with, so the plant is a very crucial part of its biology. That's kinda neat. The title, 'suddenly transformed', also leads one to think what a Gumoss used to be before it was transformed. Was it the plant? The mud? Some other Pal? I think he's the first one in this entire list that I actually find creative!

#014: Vixy

• Star of the Step
• Type: Neutral

Vixy is a vixen, or a fox. Again, Pokemon doesn't have a monopoly on 'cute baby fox mascot', but... yeah, this is kind of an Eevee clone, yeah? I really don't have much to say here, it sure is a cute fox -- but there's not a whole ton to say about it other than some little joke that the Vixy are so popular that you'll make an enemy of the entire world if you bully a Vixy. 

#015: Hoocrates

• Purveyor of Wisdom
• Type: Dark

Hoocrates! I like the pun. I also like that this guy looks distinct enough to feel like it's its own thing instead of a straight-up reference to a Pokemon. Hoocrates does remind me of like a Disney character or something, but I can't put my finger as to which one. Hoocrates apparently thinks so much that sometimes he forgets to sleep. He's also our first Dark-type, which is basically an amalgamation of Pokemon's Ghost, Psychic and Dark type. 

#016: Teafant

• Adorable Watering Can
• Type: Neutral

A little teapot shaped like an elephant. Or rather, an elephant that behaves like a teapot. I do really like the design of this, where it does look like a novelty porcelain teapot and I appreciate the fun idea of having a small elephant monster. I think this is the second one I find somewhat creative? I like the little description on the Paldeck that debates on whether it shoots water or snot out of its nose. That's funny. 

#017: Depresso

• Several Sleepless Nights Later
• Type: Dark

Depresso is one of the 'meme' Pals that I became aware of pretty shortly after the game's release, after the chipmunk-with-a-gun. It's basically an anime cat-person, not too dissimilar to Pokemon's Espurr, but it's just... depressed. Or rather, grouchy. It's got a rather neat emo colour scheme, and of course despite being an emo jerk it's actually kindhearted but will only help people if no one sees it. That alone wouldn't have made Depresso here memorable, but its name is a pun on 'espresso depresso' or whatever it is, and Depresso's special skill is to do 'Caffine Inoculation', where it gorges itself on energy drinks and gains super-speed.  

#018: Cremis

• Darling Furball
• Type: Neutral

Another cutie Pokemon, Cremis here is basically an Eevee head glued onto a sheep's body. Based on its description comparing it to Lamball, Cremis is meant to be more sheep than, uh... whatever ambiguous mammal Eevee is? Eh.

#019: Daedream

• Dream Eater
• Type: Dark

Ah, now we're getting somewhere! Daedream has a sick, punny name -- 'daydream' and 'daemon'? Pretty cool! It takes the same basic monster prompt as Drowzee or Munna, being a dream-eating monster, but its design is that of a smirking little sheep-imp with a flowing hair that glitters with stars. It's a pretty fun design overall, and I do find that Daedream's description is pretty cool -- it starts off wholesome, noting that Daedream will put those it likes into sleep, and show them an endless stream of happy dreams. Cute, right? Except those that Daedream afflicts will never wake until they die. At least they die happy, but holy shit!

#020: Rushoar

• Woodland Ruffian
• Type: Ground

Rushoar is a boar that rushes. Not the best pun. It's... it's a boar all right. I don't have much to say. It's Ground-type, and it charges people without thinking. You can ride it. I mean, sure. It sure is a boar. 

#021: Nox

• Dusken Aristrocrat
• Type: Neutral

Another Eevee-adjacent creature, though Nox here at least fits the role of something more akin to Umbreon or Absol in being the cool, regal, dark-creature-of-the-night kind of fantasy? Nox's got a magician's cape, too. That thing doesn't look organic. The description is chilling, noting that people are afraid of Nox hair in one's bedding, since that's a 'one-way-ticket to a never ending night'. What does that mean? Is it a metaphor for death? Will Nox curse you like Daedream does? Is it just eternal darkness, but you can walk around and mind your business just fine? 

#022: Fuddler

• Underground Explorer
• Type: Ground

Another Ground-type monster, this one is based on a mole. A rather weird-looking mole rabbit, and... I confess the proportions of this one isn't the most interesting to me. Apparently, Fuddler here spends most of its time sharpening its claws that sometimes it spends the entire day doing that. That's nothing special, people get lost in doing a single thing and nothing else all the time. 

#023: Killamari

• Emotionless
• Type: Dark

My favourite one out of... well, basically the entire Paldeck, is Killamari. The name itself is already pretty cool, but it's also an adorable squid monster! Look at it. It's like a squid hat, with the two longer capture tentacles looking like those little bands on the side of a hat that you can use to adjust the diameter of the opening. And Killamari's even got a little 'hat' of its own, with the anatomy of a squid's regular body being squashed into that adorable little structure. Those Espurr eyes are just adorable, and the general vibe of this thing is just top-notch cute monster design. 

And, of course, the cherry on the top is its gloriously disturbing description. It flies around like a fucking D&D Mind Flayer or Vargouille, wrapping itself around an enemy's head to suck out their insides, leaving being Pal mummies in the world. 

#024: Mau

• Noble Glimmer | Serene Glimmer
• Type: Dark (Regular) | Ice (Cryst)

You can almost say that this is an Umbreon ripoff, but you're wrong. Mau here actually rips off a rejected beta Pokemon design, Berurun, as a black cat with a bell on its tail. Except that Mau has a more Egyptian-styled colouration and design to it, I think, and I actually do like the little reinvention. Mau also has with it a somewhat tragic backstory, because it's been overhunted by humans who chop off the poor Mau's tails, which are believed to be symbols of good luck. Poor cats!

Mau also has a Mau Cryst ice variation. It looks neat. 

#025: Celaray

• Soaring Skyfish
• Type: Water

Oh, I actually do really like this one. The name, Celeray, is the sort of kinda-forced pun that I really like. But I do like the look of this one, with a face that looks a bit more obviously 'cutesy anime animal' compared to the slightly-more-realistic one that Mantine has. And... yeah, both Celaray and Mantine are both technically flying manta monsters, but flying (or at least breaching) mantas are a perfectly legit monster design prompt. I also really like that Celaray has the impression of being super-fast, and behaves more like some kind of a migratory butterfly that flies around until it finds a mate. 

Palworld doesn't really have a 'Flying' or 'Wind' type, and the latter, I feel, would've been so easy to implement and make into a type that helps to distinguish this game a bit more, typing-wise. Oh, Palworld also has 'gliders' similar to Breath of the Wild, and you can use Celeray as a hang-glider... something that Pokemon actually did with its Generation II manga, a Mantine, 20 Remoraids and a billiard stick. No, I'm not joking. 

#026: Direhowl

• Hunter of the Steppe
• Type: Neutral

It sure is a black-and-white wolf. This looks like the kind of an 'obviously cool' pet that a RPG would give to you and every high school kid would totally vibe with this. It's not a bad thing! I like black wolves. It's just that 'Direhowl' here has a rather uninspired 'randomly generated D&D orc' name, and is basically a Lycanroc with balck hair dye and all the rocks sanded off. If it was a bit less obviously a Lycanroc clone, I feel like I wouldn't have minded it as much. 

It's big enough for you to ride, because mounts are totally a thing in this game, which I actually heartily approve -- it's honestly something that I really wished Pokemon did a lot more. Miraidon's cool and all, but it's rather surprising that we haven't tried to make riding Pokemon something more widely-available with so many larger species out there. 

#027: Tocotoco

• Boom or Bust
• Type: Neutral 

This 'realistically proportioned' Xatu is... is also meant to be a toucan, I think? It's whole deal is that it lays explosive eggs, which is a perfectly fine gimmick for a monster to have. You can even equip a Tocotoco and use it as what's basically a grenade launcher. Which... really makes me confused why it's patterned after Xatu. I do like the concept, but perhaps not the visuals. 

#028: Flopie

• Star of the Flower Beds
• Type: Grass

A cute 'grass fairy' of sorts, and while I'm not too taken about the design of this particular one, I think Pokemon could've done more of these that aren't just straight-up plant creatures. Flopies are floating bunny fairies that kind of float around and go and hang out near vegetation. The pink and green colours are appropriate, evem if they're not the most spectacular. But they're allergic to pollen! They suffer from hay fever! Oh no, poor bunny fairies!

#029: Mozzarina

• Grade-A Beef
• Type: Neutral

It's a fat round cow with anime fangs. I'm not sure why it's named after mozzarella cheese, it produces milk like regular cows. In a bit of a combination of black comedy and lampshade hanging, all Mozzarinas produce milk from udders, regardless of gender. "This mystery may better be left unsolved", says the Paldeck. In addition to probably being a fun little deconstruction, I guess this is so that all Mozzarinas you capture can produce milk and not have half of the species be useless, utility-wise.

#030: Bristla

• Thorny Rose
• Type: Grass
  

Bristla is the angry version of Bellossom, having exactly the same body layout as the Pokemon but replacing all the petals with thorny vines. She's an angry critter, but apparently are friends with the Cinnamoth species and will smile when Cinnamoth drinks its nectar. These sorts of anthro-plant monster designs have always been kinda m'eh to me even in Pokemon, so I don't really have too mich to say about this one.

#031: Gobfin

• Sea Thug | Volcano Thug
• Type: Water (Regular) | Fire (Ignis)

Kind of a simple but charming design, Gobfin is a tiny, short shark goblin-imp. These guys look like they would be early-game humanoid enemies in an RPG, like Warcraft's Murlocs or Elder Scrolls Oblivion's Goblins. Pretty fun model with a big chunky fanged face, and stubby hands. Apparently, it used to be a powerful aquatic Pal, but years of evolution caused it to migrate on land and the evolution severely reduced its size.

The Gobfin Ignis variant is Fire-type, but there's a cheeky gag here. It gained the Fire typing because walking burns a lot of calories, causing it to awaken fire controlling powers. Okay! Also, I would like to note that while the English localizations just add a suffix to the name, the original Japanese version actually gives separate names to all variants -- "Sharkid" and "Sharkamander" for these two guys, for example.

#032: Hangyu

• Bringer of Luck | Glacial Harbinger
• Type: Ground (Regular) | Ice (Cryst)

Creepy! Definitely not something you can do in Pokemon, but I appreciate that the design for Hangyu looks cute enough until you realize the context. I feel I like this design choice much more, since its not just a 90's edgy monster design that looks out of place. I like my Bloodborne and Resident Evil monsters, but not when they get randomly plonked into a chibi anime game.

Hangyu, as its name implies, is a hangman's noose! The 'hair' is the rope that connects it to the wooden scaffolding, and the two giant long noodle arms aee the noose. Interestingly, Hangyu's arms are super powerful and can rip iron apart, and humans use Hangyu as a more brutal torture-execution method. To quote the game itself: "As a particularly cruel form of execution, serious criminals would be strung up in a public square, and a Hangyu would rip off the skin from their bones." Okay! And it'a Ground type, not Dark type, so it's not even spooky or ghostly. It's just very conveniently shaped.

Hangyu Cryst is an ice version of it, and while I find the design less interesting, the description does talk about how sinners would be tied and have their hair torn out by these Hangyu variants. 

#033: Mossanda

• Guardian of the Forest | Inheritor of the Storm
• Type: Grass (Regular) | Electric (Lux)

Kind of Palworld's response to Bewear, no? Big, burly chibi bear with no visible mouth and a giant splotch of colour on the top half? Mossanda is a panda instead of a bear, and it's covered with moss... allegedly. It does admittedly look more like just some green jewels and a poncho. I get that they were going for a far cuter design than the Swamp-Thing-bearman I had in mind when I first saw the name. I actually find this design kinda cute! Not a whole ton to say other than me going over and over about the cuteness of its visual look, but I do like this one.

The Mossanda Lux variant is Electric type, with yellow highlights and a mohawk. I like this one much less than the regular Mossanda.

#034: Woolipop

• Giant Cotton Candy
• Type: Neutral

A candy cake... sheep? Poodle? Ram? An animal of some sort that's based on a dessert. Kinda neat. Apparently, its body is 18 thousand times sweeter than sugar. It uses this as a defense mechanism, causing carnivores that take a bite out of it to pass out from the overwhelming sugary sweetness. Kinda cute, even if we've admittedly had a whole ton of random mammals already, the food theme does kind of make this one stand out a bit.

#035: Caprity

• Walking Farm
• Type: Grass

I feel like he reminds me of Deramon from Digimon. A simple design, a fat goat with a whole-ass shrub on its back. Probably makes it hard for you to spot this one in the overworld. It produces berries naturally, but as a way to attract mates. Kinda neat that they incorporated some quasi-biological reasons for this creature to have evolved a whole shrub on its back.

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Caprity isn't the most exciting Pal to end off this review on, but it's gone on for fairly long enough. I do feel like there's enough variations going on here (as did Temtem and a bunch of other games), but I do think that for Palworld... there's a fair bit too much of actual parodying going on. I think it's all relatively good-natured and the game itself feels different enough... and I honestly do think that the creature collection and battling is hardly the largest part of this game. I do find it fun to talk about this game's bestiary from a lens of "is this parody or ripping off", though hopefully I didn't do too much of it in this review. 

Jujutsu Kaisen S01E06-08

This is the beginning of the inter-campus games, and... I know I keep saying it, but I will try to be a bit more succinct in running through these episodes. I was talking about the first five episodes so much and I wasn't the happiest when I read my own work. Anyway, this is going to cover the Jogo two-parter, then the opening of the Goodwill Event arc. 

 

Episode 6:

• The first part of this episode is Yuji and Sukuna within Sukuna's Innate Domain. Again, I absolutely love that this is portrayed as a very selfish deal with the demon. It's something that's pretty refreshing considering a lot of the other shonen manga often have the 'inner demon' be either secretly protective (Bleach) or be won over by nakama power (Naruto, Black Clover)... and it was already apparent in the manga, but I absolutely love just how slimy Sukuna sounds like with voice acting. 
• I also like how Yuji thinks he has equal mental strength in that realm or something and tries to punch Sukuna before he absolutely bullies the shit out of him. 
• Sukuna eventually smooth-talks Yuji into agreeing into several conditions -- he can use Yuji's body for a minute after a key phrase; he won't hurt or kill anyone while doing this; and that Yuji will forget this conversation. 
• And I love that this is very unambiguously shown to the audience as something that is 10000% unfair. The very moment Yuji says something that remotely counts for the geas, Sukuna whacks his head off. 
• And then we cut back to Gojo and the other adults, who get absolutely shocked to see Yuji come back to life, buck-ass-nude, in the morgue. It's... it's something that I honestly rather like -- the fact that the resurrection of the main character was basically done without any bullshit dragging out. 
• I also like that the death of Yuji is used to progress another plot point, instead of just being for drama -- Gojo, Ijichi and Shoko decide to keep this a secret, after Gojo's impassioned speech about how the higher-ups had planned to dispose of Yuji, and how they can only reform the Jujutsu society with great members of the second generation. 
• I also absolutely love the ease and the calmness of how Gojo states that he could just very casually 'murder every single member of the higher-ups'. 
• Okkotsu Yuta from the pilot miniseries (or JJK Zero) and -wikis- Hakari Kinji are mentioned as two high-potential students that could reach Gojo's power level. 
• 
  We then cut to the second part of the episode, where the cursed spirits are hanging out. It's easily one of my favourite scenes from this series when I was first reading it, with the spirits just casually hanging out there discussing about how to deal with the super-powerful Gojo. I also love that the POV is seen from the viewpoint of a particularly sensitive waiter, who decides to quit on the spot -- around a minute before Jogo starts to murder the shit out of everyone for a lark. 
• Good god who the fuck thinks it was a good idea to have a 'Gojo' and a 'Jogo' fight each other?
• Geto gives Jogo the special-grade cursed object Prison Realm, and I absolutely love the hamminess of Jogo as he gets excited about the powerful device, and then he just casually heats up the diner and causes every single person there to spontaneously combust. 
• There is a nice short scene of Megumi visiting the mother of the drunk driver that he had refused to save, giving her -- literally the only person that will mourn her son -- some closure. A nice little bit of showing that even with the short mission (admittedly Yuji died in that mission) Megumi's grown a little. 
• We also have some comedy of Panda training with Nobara in the background and literally flinging her around, while Megumi talks a bit more seriously with Maki. Tying into the Gojo/Yuji conversation later, I do like that this is a nice exposition nosedive into cursed tools. 
• We also have a bit of a explanation about 'cursed energy' and 'cursed technique', with the always-welcome shonen trope of displaying these powers on items like soda cans. It's going to be an explanation that I'll have to rewatch, but basically unless you're born with a surplus of talent, you do need technique to properly make efficient usage of skills, something that Yuji tapped into during his fight with the Cursed Womb. 
• I also love the very blatant and uncensored namedrops of Bankai, Rasengan, Kamehameha, Reigun and the Dodonpa. (While all the others are the marquee skills of their respective shows, the Dodonpa is a bit of an obscure skill from Dragon Ball, the skill used by Mercenary Tao!)
• I like the little training segment that Yuji's left with, where he has to watch movies and have to learn how to control a steady output of cursed energy even as his emotions flare up and down. 
• Gojo is the kind of jackass who, when talking about a movie, goes straight to spoiling the ending, huh? Be a nice guy! Don't do that!
• The episode ends with Gojo sending the long-suffering Ijichi off to drive away without explaining anything, before Jogo, the tiny little volcano dwarf man, slams in and gets ready to rumble!

Episode 7:

• 
  Almost all of this is a battle episode, but man, what an episode! I don't really have much to say in terms of plot progression, and I want to limit my anime animation wank-gushing to a limit, but this episode basically has "Gojo fights Jogo, we see Domain Expansions used against each other, Gojo absolutely overpowers Jogo, then Jogo gets rescued and escapes". But boy, I did remember reading this fight in the manga and loving it a lot. It's not often we get to see the sheer and absolutely overpowering strength of one of our strongest heroes in such an impressive fashion, right after the villain shows himself off to be impressive. The usual formula is 'protagonist gets bullied by villain, then villain gets bullied by mentor', and I do find it very interesting that this fight focuses more on Gojo and Jogo, while Yuji doesn't even show up until Gojo literally teleports and brings him in as to study about Domain Expansion. 
• Pretty cool usage of ash and lava effects, and I do really like that we get to see Jogo do a lot of wacky stuff like summoning volcanoes from the side of the sidewalk, or the exploding screaming fire bugs... they all don't amount to much in the end, but it's neat that Jogo doesn't feel basic in terms of an anime protagonist. 
• Always love the action trope of an attack coming in, a character blocking it, but the shockwaves being so explosive that it destroys the ground behind the blocker. 
• 
  I also do like that Jogo is established to really not be a pushover, being noted to be such a rarity since he's an intelligent curse, and Gojo compares him to be as powerful as Sukuna as he is currently. 
• Jutsushiki Hanten: Akan (Cursed Technique Reversal: Red) is such a nicely animated sequence, with great usage of colour and random ink splotches before the gigantic explosion that dwarves the lava bombs that Jogo did earlier.
• I also love the sheer hilarity of Jogo getting tossed through a forest for quite some time, enough for Gojo to teleport back to his base and talk to Yuji, commenting on his improvement in emotion control, before teleporting him back to the lake. 
• And then we get the pinnacle of jujutsu battles -- Domain Expansion. RYOIKI TENKAI! It's the new Bankai. Such a fun thing to yell out, as all these voice actors have fun with. 
• And Gojo just casually handwave Jogo as a weak curse, and I absolutely love the split-second "WTF did you just say" as all three of Jogo's head-volcano-caps erupt as he gets absolutely pissed. 
• Great voice-acting, too. I haven't been saying too much about it, but Jogo's voice actor does a great balance of being someone who is normally in control of a situation, goes in expecting a fight, and then gets shocked at the sheer degree of a fight that he gets. 
• I also love that in the initial parts of the fight, Jogo uses those ports like little dials to adjust his volcanic explosions.
• And then we get Jogo's Domain Expansion. Gaikan Tecchisen! Or Coffin of the Iron Mountain. 
• It's a neat little explanation to what a Domain Expansion looks like and the properties thereof. Gojo also makes it clear that attacks in a Domain Expansion always hits, since the opponents are stuck inside the Domain. 
• "Zettai?" "Zeeeeeee-ttai!"
• 
  Gojo then flexes and unleashes his sheer power, showing that you can overpower a Domain Expansion with escaping (which is difficult), or by using an even stronger Domain Expansion, unleashing his own Domain Expansion. And then he unleashes his own Domain Expansion and removes his blindfold.
• Ryoiki Tenkai: Muryokusho!
• I was actually surprised but I shouldn't be, because I remembered being surprised that human jujutsu sorcerers were able to use Domain Expansions, but I guess it's my old Bleach instincts kicking in. 
• The visuals of Muryokusho is pretty cool! I still feel like the powerful ink splotches in the manga is a lot more striking, but the colours in the anime, the confused voice acting and the movement of the stars are very cool. But my favourite part has to be the rapid, jarring change from the psychedelic but calming Unlimited Void to Gojo very brutally ripping off Jogo's head like a ink painting in black and white. 
• I do like that Gojo doesn't look stupid by sparing Jogo, even though the narrative needs him to be spared -- but it's a combination of Gojo wanting to interrogate Jogo, as well as Hanami jumping in and using that brief 'oh flowers are nice' bit, and then Yuji being attacked by a plant monster. 
• Love the initially cocksure "I can handle this master! Go after him OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD HELP". 
• Geto is also keeping himself hidden from the humans, while Hanami, in his reverse-speech, is very pissed off that Geto isn't considering curses as living things. 
• Also absolutely love Dagon's little adorable happy fun beach domain. I love Dagon. 
• We also get the seeming leader of the group, Mahito, who is a patchworked-up human. There's a neat little undercrurrent between Mahito and Hanami's dialogue about how these sentient Curses hate being considered as sub-human lesser beings.

Episode 8:

• This episode is a bit lighter in action compared to the previous two, mostly because it's a bit of an introduction. 
• Basically, the focus of the episode is the meeting between Megumi and the (very clueless) Nobara with two students from Kyoto, namely Zen'in Mai and Todo Aoi. It's always nice procedure in these tournament arcs to have some of our protagonist meet against some of their opponents.
• Zen'in Mai being the twin sister of Maki, who we're already familiar with, is a great way to introduce an enmity between a member of 'our guys' and the antagonists (see also: the Hyugas from Naruto). 
• Todo Aoi is very... uh... he does strike a great impression, yeah? Immediately asking Megumi about his fetish and preference in women. The 'huh?' given by Megumi and Nobara is hilarious, the ranting about how fetishes show how boring or interesting a man is, and Todo treats it as something as honourable as giving out your name. Mai, meanwhile, is just... she is trying so hard to be an intimidating alpha-bitch bully, but she's stuck with this moron as a partner.
• Mai also instantly stands out as being completely unlikable by speaking ill of the dead. 
• I also do really like that while Megumi's trying his best to answer Todo's question politely, Nobara just snipes in that it's a difficult thing for an antisocial twerp like Megumi.
• Todo and Megumi's fights are... it's pretty cool. We have a typical punching around and tossing people through buildings. I don't think it's quite as epic as Megumi vs. Sukuna a couple episodes back, but it's still very prettily animated. That lariat is particularly fun. 
• Megumi also gives us a brief little name-drop about the events of Jujutsu Kaisen Zero, which is released as a 'canon' movie in-between season 1 and season 2 of the anime. In terms of the manga, Zero is a pilot miniseries that ended up being retooled where the author kept the setting but switched the protagonists around. It's a great way to salvage something that perhaps isn't the most marketable, and also keeping your previous work as basically backstory. 
• I don't actually remember if Todo shows up in Zero, but apparently he single-handedly wiped out all the cursed spirits during the Hyakki Yakou. 
• We get to see that Megumi can combine Toad with Nue, creating a bunch of winged frogs to grapple around Todo. 
• 
  Not the biggest fan of Nobara and Mai's confrontation. It's the second 'arc' in a row that Nobara's fight ends up basically being off-screened. Mai threatens Nobara with a gun, and kind of beats her up off-screen, but ultimately it's Maki's arrival and Maki's interactions with her twin sister that's the primary focus. 
• Ultimately, Toge and Panda show up to stop the fight. 
• "Me panda, me no understand human language."
• It's also a neat little info-dump that both twins have rather poor talent with Jujutsu and had to compensate with other means. It does immediately give us the origin of Mai's bitchiness, at least. 
• And then Todo calls the fight off because he has to go off and shake hands with an idol, which... it's fun that Mai, despite all of her cattiness towards the Tokyo kids, actually does go and humour her friend.
  
• And then we get the final scene of this sequence, where Gojo Satoru meets up with the principal of Kyoto, old man Gakuganji, who Gojo all but directly accuses is the one that pulled the strings to cause Yuji's death. It's a very fun sequence where Gojo absolutely and entirely overpowers Gakuganji, but they're both technically supposed to be on the same side, and Gakuganji is just a bit too extreme in his desire to eliminate curses. 
• Also love that Gojo notes that this all stemmed from the Jujutsu Highs' desire to suppress everything with information control, which we saw during the Sukuna-vs-Special-Grade fight that... the 'Special-Grades' are extremely different in power level. 
• We also get the debut of my favourite secondary character, the blue-haired Miwa Kasumi, whose whole point is that she tries to act professional but is a gigantic fangirl of Gojo. This was funny in the manga, and even moreso in the anime. A lot of fun hilarity from Kasumi's inclusion as compared to the rather somber tone of the meeting between Gakuganji and Gojo. 
  
• And after the comedy with Kasumi asking for Gojo's authograph, as well as Mai being forced to accompany Todo to the autograph/handshake event... we get another case, as three heavily mutilated corpses are found in a movie theater, Mahito's handiwork. Mahito is approached by a young man, who approaches him. 

Movie Review: Shazam! Fury of the Gods

SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods [2023]

Well, yeah, this movie just kinda... came and went with very little fanfare, huh? Both Shazam: Fury of the Gods and The Flash kind of... well, it really is kind of hard to get excited for the DCEU material when we get the confirmation that everything is going to be rebooted soon. While I don't think this one suffered as badly as The Flash did, I did also feel that the studio favouring The Rock's Black Adam to the exclusion of not allowing Shazam and Black Adam to really reference each other to basically be another nail in the coffin in this entire 'shared universe' venture. It really is kind of a shame. 

Ultimately, Shazam: Fury of the Gods is... it's honestly a pretty simple movie, one that was a pretty nice (if more childish) watch for an airplane ride. It doesn't really follow up on the Sivana/Mr. Mind stuff hinted at the end of the first movie, or tie in any meaningful way to the rest of the DCEU, but tells basically its own story with three new villains (taken from Greek mythology, but basically not originating from the comics), the Daughters of Atlas -- Hespera, Kalypso and Anthea. They steal the Wizard's staff from a museum and regain their magical power, unleashing a blast of petrification that kills everyone there. There is some nice nods to the origins of Shazam that the first movie glossed over -- like the fact that Shazam draws his power from several Greco-Roman gods (and a Judeo-Christian king, Solomon). The children of one said god, Atlas, wants their birthright back, and also to restore their realm that has been left barren.

On the good guys' side, after the initial action scene of the 'Shazamily' (god, that name) saving people from a collapsing bridge, the majority of the focus is still on Billy and Freddy, with Freddy taking a bit more central stage this movie. Billy has his own smaller arc of dealing with impostor syndrome, realizing that his family is growing up and drifting apart with his other foster siblings having their own lives, him about to outgrow the foster system and generally worried that he's going to lose another family. Meanwhile Freddy feels suffocated by the 'all or nothing' aspect of Billy's leadership, and ends up wanting to branch out on his own, eventually befriending a cute girl at school, Anne... who turns out to be the third daughter of Atlas, Anthea. Oops!

The Wizard Shazam turns out to have survived the events of the first Shazam movie and is merely banished out of the Rock of Eternity, which is honestly a bit of an ass-pull that the movie itself somewhat acknowledges. Billy is trying to figure out the intricacies of the weird dream he had (Djimon Honsou's head photoshopped into Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman body is hilarious!). We get some absolutely top-tier rotating environments CGI effects when Anthea uses her power of 'the axis' to rotate around buildings and whatnot, which honestly does provide the visual highlights for this movie. If nothing else, the movie is visually stunning for Anthea's abilities alone. 

The Daughters of Atlas kidnap Freddy, create a magical dome around the city, and fly off into their own realm. We get some more hijinks as the Shazam Family (that's what I'll call them instead) return to the Rock of Eternity which they made up to be a more homey lair and discuss with the aid of the sentient magic pen Steve on how to outsmart the Daughters of Atlas. 

We get a rather fun fight between Hespera and the Shazam Family, with some good points about how Hespera's actually rather pissed off that the 'lifeblood of [her] father' is being treated as if it's something that the mortals are owed to. There's the fun bit of seeing an old woman in a Greek warrior suit fight against a bunch of superpowered people. In the fight, Pedro gets zapped by Calypso and loses his ability to transform. Hespera does the 'Loki' trick from Avengers, being falsely imprisoned only to break out of jail while the kids are patting themselves in the back, and then steals the Golden Apple... which, uh... isn't a plot point or objective that was mentioned at all prior to this. 

Also, while all of this is going on, Freddy and the Wizard kind of befriend each other. When Calypso has the two of them tossed into the pit where the giant dragon Ladon (he looks like the World of Warcraft Dracolich but made out of wood) is supposed to eat them, but they're rescued by Anthea, who allows them to escape. In an attempt to steal back the Golden Apple, however, Freddy and the Wizard accidentally alert them. There is a nice attempt at giving the villains some personality -- Anthea clearly loves the humans (or at least Freddy), Hespera doesn't care about the humans and cares more about the restoration of their realm, while Calypso just wants to murder everyone. 

Simultaneously, the Shazam Family arrive after chasing Hespera through the hall of magical teleporting dolls, take Freddy and the Wizard, and escape. And... they show up in front of their foster parents, and rapid-fire tell their secret identities to them before being forced to escape because Calypso arrives with Ladon and blows up the house. Okay, Ladon's pretty visually cool, too!

The rest of this climax is just... an extended action scene. Basically everyone other than Billy loses their powers in the fight, while Calypso gets pissed off at her sisters and fatally stabs Hespera. She plants the Golden Apple in the human realm, causing roots to grow everywhere and birth a bunch of Greco-Roman monsters like manticores and harpies, and we get a frankly rather eye-rolling subplot of Darla using skittles to befriend a unicorn herd to murder these random monsters. 

Freddy and a depowered Anthea get a nice little moment that ties up their little gods-vs-mortals storyline, and Billy finally gets some resolution as his foster parents turn out to want him after all, while the Wizard tells him that he's the right champion after all. Billy manages to talk to the dying Hespera, managing to convince her to help him trap Calypso and the dragon Ladon inside a shrinking dome. We then get a big fight as Billy uses the staff to blast Ladon, using the dome as a way to amplify the energy like a battery/bomb and blowing up the tree, Ladon, Calypso, and causing a magical chain reaction that kills off all the monsters. 

Oh, and Billy dies, a moment that is actually well-acted by Freddy's actor as he and the rest of the Shazam Family grieve for him... and then we get around 20 minutes of screentime as Wonder Woman very randomly shows up out of nowhere, reactivates the staff, resurrects Billy and the god realm. It's a literal deus ex machina, and while I get that every mystical thing that we saw originates more from Wonder Woman's Greco-Roman myths in the comics as opposed to Captain Marvel's, it really does feel like an unearned plot-twist.

We later get to see Anthea hanging out with the Shazam Family, the Wizard (who ditches that ridiculous mustache) wandering the Earth, a mid-credits scene where the two normal guys from Suicide Squad and Peacemaker try to recruit Billy (I did like the JSA/JLA confusion) and a post-credits gag with Sivana and Mr. Mind. 

And... I dunno. I do feel like this movie does have some visuals, but ultimately the plot is rather paper-thin. It doesn't make it un-enjoyable, if you want my honest opinion. It feels like a Transformers or a James Bond movie or something where it's just... it's just action with very simple characters. I do think that the ending of Billy getting randomly resurrected does come out of nowhere, and for this being their second outing, I really can't even name any of the movie-original (New-52-original? Same thing) Shazam Family members. I don't think it flows quite as well as the first Shazam movie, and... well, it's honestly rather clear that with so much other problems plaguing the rest of the DCEU at this point in time that this movie wouldn't really have much put into it. It's a fun self-contained adventure, and that's basically it. I did enjoy myself watching this one, for what it's worth. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• We still have a lot of jokes being made at the fact that Billy Batson doesn't have a superhero name. The Wizard names him 'Shazam' at the end of the movie, which is the characters' lawyer-safe name.
• Freddy continually goes around as 'Captain Everypower' and calls Billy 'Captain Everypower Junior'. In the comics. Freddy is actually 'Captain Marvel Jr.'. 
• A random citizen (played by Michael Gray, who is the actor for Billy Batson in the 70's TV show!) actually does name-drop 'Captain Marvel' as a name for Billy, which I'm surprised Marvel allowed!
• Yet another civilian calls Billy 'Colonel Cheese-Steak'. Captain Marvel's in-universe nickname is 'the Big Red Cheese'.
• Michael Gray's civilian character also wears an outfit that resembles Billy's outfit from the 70's TV show. 
• The public school that they attend is Fawcett Central. In the comics, Captain Marvel operates out of Fawcett City, a fictional town. 
• The cat that Darla borrows from the bridge is given the name Tawny. Captain Marvel in the comics has a talking tiger-man sidekick called Talky Tawny. 
• The burning violin is actually from the comics, wielded by minor villain Nero.
• After being confused with 'Justice Society' and 'Justice League', Billy gets impressed with 'The Avengers Society', yet another cross-company reference to Marvel comics. 

Reviewing Fan-Pokemon: Pokemon Infinite Fusion, Part 3

Even more random Infinite Fusions! Most of these are just me spamming the 'random' button and copy-pasting whatever looks cool or cute or goofy; I'm not necessarily looking for anything specific this time around. 

Let me just copy-paste the intro I did for part two: 

I did a more in-depth explanation of the fusion process in the first review. Basically, the Infinite Fusion calculator has two different combinations, with one Pokemon as the body, and the other Pokemon as the head + colours, and vice-versa. But the most interesting ones are the crowdsourced custom sprites for the fusions, the bulk of which is what we'll be talking about here!

Note that I understand Infinite Fusion had a whole lot of new sprites and updates introduced recently. I'm doing with what's available during the time that I was looking for interesting designs, and some of them may be slightly outdated... but I do hope the commentary would be interesting enough!

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Torchic + Leafeon. Pretty cute fusion in general, almost gyphon-like, just minus the wings. Any bird + four-legged-mammal fusion probably would, I think, but Torchic's more adorable features mesh in pretty well with Leafeon's ears, and the general colours from Torchic just works well on this design. 

Mr. Mime + Yanma! Look at this cheerful, happy motherfucker. This looks like something that would show up like, in Alice in Wonderland or James and the Giant Peach or something. Not all Mr. Mime fusions are creepy clowns. I like the six adorable elf-booties legs, and the fact that they still managed to find a logical place to put Mr. Mime's hand, which is the end of the tail. 

Hoppip + Unown. Hoppip's face looks cute with anything, and... I'm a bit disappointed they didn't fuse Hoppip with one of the Unown letters that makes up Hoppip, but this 'A' Unown with Hoppip's face and leaves replacing the antennae is pretty cute. 

What I love about me just spamming 'random' is that sometimes pairs of Pokemon that I wouldn't even think about might pop up. Like Krookodile and Fearow here. It's not the most interesting or innovative fusion out there, but who knew Fearow looked that great in Krookodile's colours? I like the 'sunglasses' and giant fat crocodile tail jutting out of his back as well. 

The other Dodrio/Exeggcute fusion is just six decapitated Dodrio heads chittering and clustering together, but I really like this one a lot more with the Exeggcute heads all branching out of Dodrio's mass of necks. This even fits with their canonical status as seeds that dropped off from an Exeggutor tree!

A lot of Aegislash fusions are pretty boring, with the base Pokemon 'equipping' Aegislash as a sword and shield. Which... okay, Tyranitars holding swords and shields are cool on principle, but it's not exactly a 'fusion' as I envision it. And then there's this glorious Qwilfish + Aegislash fusion, where they took Aegislash's concept as a 'weapon Pokemon' and went to do the obvious thing with Qwilfish and made the whole creature into a sentient flail! I love the Aegislash eye poking out of the slit in the giant mace, too. 

Oh, Gliscor + Kingler here looks wretched. Gliscor's eyes and ears on Kingler's body layout looks devilish, and Kingler's giant lower jaw being coloured black with Gliscor's teeth poking out just exudes a very cool visual. I love the very nasty, knobbly fusion of Gliscor and Kingler's claws, and having Gliscor's scorpion tail poke out from behind a body that's primarily Kingler's is just badass. Honestly, this might be one of my all-time favourites from this page. 

Gible + Swinub! I like this one. You can see where the Swinub and Gible parts are from, but a combination of all the featuers really does make this look like something designed completely independently. You could see this as a robotic 'mite' monster in a futuristic setting, or like a less-mechanical version of those 'Mouse Droids' from Star Wars! 

Oh yeah. This is badass! Onix's body lends to a lot of fun fusions, but the combination with Probopass uses a lot of features from Probopass without just doing the lazy thing of pasting Probopass's funny face in place of Onix's. Instead, Probopass's giant nose becomes like an eyeless upper jaw, Probopass's iron filling mustache becomes a beard, and the eyeball pokes out from inside the mouth, always a welcome, weirdly-illogical-but-cool design choice on any monster. 

Kecleon + Gallade is here just because I find it looking really cool. Do I find it cooler than regular Gallade? I actually think so, but I've never been the biggest fan of regular Gallade's colour scheme. Green and purple with a yellow crown works really well to accentuate Gallade's sharp, sleek design, though I suppose it helps that Gallecleon does admittedly have minimal physical features other than those ridges on his 'hat'. 

Lucario + Dewgong! I'm normally not a particularly huge Lucario fan, but this one is just glorious! I really do enjoy Lucario's design with one less colour, and keeping him black-and-white like this does make him pop out much better than his canonical colours (another reason why I like Mega LUcario a lot more). But the goofy Dewgong face and the big tail looks so hilarious here. I like him.

I just really like Fletchling + Chikorita here. It's basically just Fletchling with Chikorita's head-leaf, neck-buds and more leafy feathers in general, but the general vibe of this thing just looks so pleasant. You could just see this as an early-game bird, couldn't you? I think the only grass bid we've ever gotten is Rowlet. 

WOOPER + ZAPDOS! Okay, okay, this is actually so damn cute. Now Wooper is always cute, but putting Zapdos's iconic yellow-and-black spiky feathers as Wooper's tail and hair works amazingly well. I like the cute design of using the orange from Zapdos's talons for Wooper's gills, as well. 

I don't have much to say about Latias + Beedrill here other than it's pretty fucking cool. The sprite artist uses Mega Beedrill as a base, and I think that's one of the fun with Pokemon that have multiple designs -- whether it's Mega Evolutions, Regional Variants or Gigantamax forms - it allows the artists to really pick and choose what they want for their design. I like the Latias 'wings' here, which fits with the gigantic monster spear-limbs of Mega Beedrill. And, of course, the head design is a great mixture of both donors that manages to exude both 'dragon' and 'bee' well. 

Nincada + Axew! This thing actually threw me on a loop because I thought this was a skeletal Celebi or something. But I really like the Nincada colours giving the vibe of something bony. The tiny fairy-like wings and the chunky foerarms are adorable, too. 

Vulpix + Mareep here just looks adorable, and I appreciate that unlike the reverse fusion (which is still cute!) they tried to be a bit more creative with the anatomy, giving Mareep's fluff into Vulpix's hairdo that has blossomed into a giant afro that looks much better than Bouffalant. I like the alternating yellow/black tail on Vulpix -- the only thing here that feels 'off' is using Mareep's blue for Vulpix's underside and feet, which I don't think work quite as well. 

Duskull is definitely on top of the list of a Pokemon I could make an entire article just on its own. Here are two greatones just from the random shuffling. A skull or reaper-themed monster bug isn't the most novel idea (even though bugs don'thave skeletons!) but the spriter does a great job at making Duskull's head look so wretched, Beedrill's abdomen bloated and drooping, and I love that the clear bug wings are just trailing behind like wisps. You can just see this thing just hanging out in graveyards with D&D monsters like zombies and ghosts, couldn't you?

Duskneton here looks great, too, interpreting Magneton's three orb-eyes as little ghostly POe-souls with red dot eyes, and the magnets naturally become cartoon bones. Very cool!

Hahahahaha, Gyarados + Bulbasaur! I just love the screaming hyper-beaming Gyarados face on such a squat frog body. Look at it yell. "I SHOULD BE A GIANT SEA SERPENT NOT A BABBY FROG"

Ferrothorn + Eevee looks pretty interesting, too. I like that Eevee's neck-fur looks like a bunch of hanging vines, and his head and tail has become a bit more robotic looking. Particularly like the way Ferrothorn's eyes are transplanted to Eevee's face. And, of course, the three tendrils hovering menacingly around Eevothorn's body like he's Dr. Octopus or something. Which is canonical for Sylveon, since Sylveon's ribbons are also technically tentacles! 

You know, I said on my second Infinite Fusion review that I can't really find a lot of cool legendaries. Turns out the key is to mix them with Pokemon that aren't legendaries or pseudos. Latios + Pichu looks really great, but Latios's fighter jet design just really lends to fusion with Electric or Steel types. I love that they highlighted Pichu's secondary black colours a lot more, and I love the angular ears blending relatively seamlessly with the design. 

But check out Pinsir + Regigigas here, which just look gloriously monstrous. Didn't even realize they had similar body plans! Putting lips on Pinsir's monstrous vertical slit-mouth is just a nasty, inspired choice, and we get his regular claw-mandibles... only now they're pretty small comparatively to Regigigas. I both love and hate the fact that the spriter has replaced all the eyeball-orbs on Regigigas's body with Pinsir's eyeballs. Look at this thing. It's a glorious flesh-bug titan of sorts that wouldn't look out of place in a World of Warcraft dungeon or something. 

Koffing + Muk! This is a pretty simple and obvious design, and it's helped by both Koffing and Muk having the same colours and concept of filth/pollution-inspired monsters. So just sticking Koffing's tubes and part of his skull tattoo on Muk's head is obvious enough, leading to a gas-ejecting sludge monster. I really love, though, the little Koffing fangs they put on Muk's mouth here. 

Noctowl + Poliwrath. This is... I don't even know how to begin to describe how hilarious I find this thing. The fact that they kept Poliwrath's spiral mouth (or I guess it's just some weird stomach tattoo in the context of this monster) but they also put in Noctowl's beak in the middle of Poliwrath's eyes. And then Noctowl's horns end up becoming like, weird anime mustache-horn things!

Lapras + Torterra here just has a pretty great design all around, shrinking Lapras's neck and treating the design as an underwater sea turtle with Lapras's features. Love that Torterra's cheek-spikes are interpreted as conical sea shells (parasitic/symbiotic ones?). Lapras and Torterra both have a shelled back already, and interpreting Torterra's shell garden as being underwater corals sprouting out of Lapras's back is pretty great. 

Riolu + Heracross is just adorable. I like the many, many bug features they managed to cram into this design, since it's not just sticking Heracross's horns and wings on Riolu and calling it a day, but also turning Riolu's paws to end in Heracross's bug claws. 

Alakazam + Natu is here because I giggled for almost a minute at this image. It's like... the contrast between the sharp angles and the menacing eyes and mustache of Alakazam on Natu's very round body is just so jarring. And Alakatu here is holding the two spoons close to his body. It's just cute. 

I also don't have a whole ton to say about Mantine + Drifloon here. A very simple fusion, but a very pleasant one. I like that Mantine's tail is replaced with Drifloon's strings, and I like that the weird 'X' duct-tape-mouth replaces Mantine's mouth. Heck, Mantine's whole deal of being a flying manta ray does even fit with Drifloon being a balloon. 

Hahahahaha, that's awesome. Mawile + Typhlosion is kind of a simple design. Mawile's monstrous horn-mouth gets transplanted in place of Typhlosion's head, with the very simple logic that Mawile's black skin (fur?) is the same colour with Typhlosion's primary fur. The flames being extremely wild is just a nice little bonus. 

I am not 100% sure what the logic behind this Omastar + Bellossom fusion is, but apparently it's like a bunch of plant vines taking over the Omastar shell? It's definitely a very interesting image, and the tendrils sprouting out of where Omastar's regular shell-spikes would be and ending in Bellossom flowers is pretty neat. I'm not sure why combining a flower-fairy and a prehistoric squid would result in a mass of vines, though. I feel like this would've made a bit more sense with Tangela or Shuckle or something, but then you wouldn't have the image of the actual flowers. 

Persian + Kabutops isn't a fusion that comes naturally to my head. And they arguably didn't even change that much -- they added Persian's tail and whiskers to Kabutops, and maybe changed the eyes? But Persian's colour palette on Kabutops' design, particularly the artistic license to put Persian's red gem colours on the belly and the blades, is pretty damn boss. 

Beedrill + Golem here, I think, is helped by the colours they choose. On the surface, the design isn't super innovative. They pasted Beedrill's most memorable designs -- the drill hands, the bug eyes and the antennae -- on Golem. But just like Kabursian on the left, Goldrill here is helped a lot by the pretty badass colours and how drastically the bright yellow 'inner body' contrasts with the light gray rocks and drills. 

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That's all the time we have today for infinite fusions. I'll probably do a couple more of these before we start going into more targeted articles where we focus on a single family line!