Gotham S02E19 Review: To Create Azrael

Gotham, Season 2, Episode 19: Azrael

Holy shit, this episode is insane, and I love it for all the wrong reasons. If Azrael was not so much fun, I might have gone on a rant for disrupting the more cohesive storylines of the Wayne Enterprises thing, or whatever, but man. Hugo Strange and Gallavan Azrael's moment at the beginning, where Strange basically takes a risk and tries to implant a 'story' into Azrael's head is pretty insane, but it works! And Azrael basically thinks he's imported from some feudal era and with such utterly insane medieval lines it's definitely a giant hoot just watching it all go down.

Not Red X.

Azrael gets handed a sword, gets fed stories which the original Theo Gallavan knew from the book of St. Dumas, and goes off to murder Gordon. It's a bit wacky and I'm confused why Hugo Strange doesn't use Mr. Freeze again... but hey, I guess he wants to try out his new toy. And Azrael is just crazy awesome. He's dressed up in this caped suit of armour that brushes off all bullets, and that scene where he just scrambles up the side of the building, and later assaults the police department in a dark parallel to Batman's tactics when ambushing criminals. Except, y'know, Azrael kills. It's a very tense scene as Azrael murders like a half-dozen policemen, then charges Barnes up on the rooftop. And such a madman like Azrael simply cannot be bargained with... though his face when his sword of ultra-awesome destiny snaps in the middle of the battle... oh, it's a riot. As Peabody mentions earlier: "Generations? That sword was forged yesterday."

Though literally everyone from Oswald to Tabitha saw that Azrael is (was) Theo Gallavan right after Gordon throws him off the roof in front of a live news report, so it's bound to be an interesting next episode. Barnes gets stabbed by the sword, and we all know it's a matter of time before he bites the bucket, and being killed by a zombie superhuman is no a shameful way to go out.

What an utterly crazy episode, though! Hugo Strange brings a man back from the dead, convinces the dead man that he's his father and that he's the incarnation of the holy angelic knight Azrael, and sends him off in a suit of armour and a sword to murder a policeman investigating his shady dealings. It's utterly insane and hilarious, but damn if it isn't entertaining.

The rest of the episode wasn't half-bad either, with Nygma finally embracing Riddlerness and starts trying to throw his weight around. He tries to sweet-talk Hugo Strange to letting him help out with his Gordon problem, and later manages to get the help of other inmates like the kleptomaniac and the cannibal to acquire certain objects to help him investigate... which ends up coming to fruition as he finds the secret elevator to the basement of horrors. It's a bit odd that he's posturing about knowing how to deal with all these crazy people in front of the actual doctor, but I think Hugo Strange just finds Nygma's little struggle amusing.

That bit with little Bruce seeing a caped figure clamber up and escaping from a superior number of men probably inspired the little future Batman. And his frustrations about how the law and the police regulations aren't getting things done... yeah, granted, if this wasn't Bruce Wayne, he might be delving into Punisher-level territory. And I think I just give the little kid a lot of leeway simply for being Batman. And Gordon finally confronting Bruce that killing people in cold blood just isn't the right play.

Oh and there's a Mad Hatter reference around halfway through the episode as Hugo Strange goes off to create more colourful personalities.

Overall, an absolutely insane episode. I must watch more! I shall have more of this insane version of Azrael. Yeah, all you people who told me to continue watching Gotham... this bit of comic-book insanity was awesome and worth it. It doesn't particularly make a lot of sense, no, but hey, if I wanted a normal cop show I wouldn't be watching Gotham. Scenes where Gordon broods and whatnot are very boring, and this? This was entertaining as all hell, and it doesn't even have to be actually bad to do it. Time for this show to embrace lunacy and I can't be happier for it.

Hearthstone: One Night in Karazhan

Yay, a new adventure is announced! Quite surprisingly, I'm still not entirely bored with the newest set yet -- by the time that Grand Tournament, League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods showed up the meta has became quite stale, but I honestly am not having that feeling with this batch. Maybe it's the result of having two different metas, or so many deck archetypes that's playable... I dunno. But the next adventure, 'One Night in Karazhan', is set for release in two weeks. For news and details check out Hearthpwn.com and other news sites that'll undoubtedly be more concise. Also I don't wanna just retype everything.

Karazhan is a cool part of the lore, first introduced as a pretty generic mage tower belonging to Medivh that's common in a lot of fantasy fiction, it became extra-prominent when it is released as a dungeon in World of Warcraft, with the ghosts and magical beings that remained within the tower running wild. This version, of course, is a Hearthstone-ified version of the insane yet dark tower, and the within the story of the game apparently we turn back the clock to when Medivh was sane and hip and smashing, and throws a party... yet he disappears for some reason, and we have to go through the Karazhan bosses who run wild (of course) plus, um, a Silverware Golem. Aesthetically Karazhan is awesome and the bits we saw with the new bosses and whatnot all look really cool, and the trailer is pretty bombing too, but while the adventure experience is undoubtedly going to be amazing and awesome, especially with wacky shit like the Chess and Opera Events... let's talk about the cards.

(Young Medivh looks pimp as fuck, by the way)

We're getting 45 new cards, and like League of Explorers two of them will be free upon unlocking the first wing. At this point we're only getting to see seven of them, which is a bit of a shame, but hey.

• Ivory Knight: It's a Paladin minion, a six-mana 4/4, based on the Chess Event, but it allows you to discover a spell (like Ethereal Conjurer) and, most importantly, heal for its cost. Paladin has became the premier healer class with the addition of Forbidden Healing and Ragnaros the Lightlord in Whispers of the Old Gods, and there's still neutral healing options like Cult Apothecary and Earthen Ring Farseer around. With Paladins being quite decent in the value and control games, getting to do two things at once -- heal and discover a potentially devastating spell -- it's definitely far better than I initially thought it is. And a 4/4 body is pretty balanced, yet nothing to sneeze at either. It's a cool and unique design, if nothing else.
• Kindly Grandmother: 2-mana 1/1 with a Deathrattle that summons a 3/2. And it's a beast! Far more mana-efficient than the Infested Wolf, and kind of a weaker but cheaper version of that Twilight Summoner dude. It's super-flavourful with the wolf grandmama becoming a monster upon 'dying' and shedding its disguise, and, wow. Deathrattle Hunter didn't exactly take off because Midrange Hunter was so insanely good, but this will benefit both Deathrattle and Midrange Hunters for sure. Also both the Grandmother and the summoned Big Bad Wolf are both beasts, so that's additional synergy with tings like Houndmaster. I just hope they didn't go too overboard with Deathrattles again, but with N'Zoth around I'm sure the ones they make from here on out will be a lot more balanced. It's like, well, they know what cards are good, but they know releasing them as Neutrals will make them auto-includes in the way that Haunted Creeper and Piloted Shredder were, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see a resurgence of more older Naxx or GvG cards in new forms.
• Ethereal Peddler: 5-mana 5/6 with a battlecry that gives a 2-mana discount for cards from other classes in your hand. So this comboes well with Undercity Huckster, Nefarian and Burgle... and you might think that it's a bit too specific because the cards you get from those cards might not even be good... but a 5-mana 5/6 isn't a bad card, really, and discounts are very useful for a Rogue. Ultimately he might just be too slow and unwieldy, though his stats isn't really bad maybe the other Rogue card from this Adventure might give another steal effect? I definitely will try to make a deck out of the 'steal' mechanic. Oh, by the way, if a Priest Thoughtsteals this card, man... otherwise, though, it's a very gimmicky card. Hell if it doesn't look fun, though.
• Enchanted Raven: 1-mana 2/2 Beast. Yeah, Druids don't want to be outdone by Shaman's 4-mana 7/7. It's a lot less insane than Flamewreathed Faceless, for sure, and possibly less impactful, since Druids like to just skip a lot of the early turns and go straight to turn 4 and 5... and Living Roots already does the same thing, except it splits the 2/2 stats across two bodies (rendering it susceptible to Arcane Explosion or Fan of Knives) with the added flexibility of being able to deal direct damage if needed, doing both effects with Fandral and triggering Yogg-Saron. The Raven looks good initially but I think I still prefer Living Roots? It'll be graet in Beast Druid, which we might reach... eventually. Don't think this is the card that'll do it, though.
• Firelands Portal: 7-mana spell. Deal 5 damage, summon a random 5-mana minion. Holy shit this card is awesome. It's nothing to sneeze at -- you're basically getting a 5-mana minion, and a 2-mana 5-damage which, when you consider how much Fireball and Frostbolt are priced, is insane value. And yes, the 5-mana minion is random... but there are a lot of great 5-mana minions, as my Forbidden Shaping plays have shown me. A quick look through the Standard list shows that the only real losers are the untransformed Druid of the Claw, Faceless Manipulator, Validated Doomsayer, BGH and Ram Wrangler. And yeah, a lot of the other dudes don't have their battlecries activate, but you get generally a 5/5, 5/4 or 6/3 body and that's half-decent considering the additional damage you deal with the spell. And sometimes you get an Earth Elemental or Doomguard and just win the game. It's a spell, too, so it'll be great in Yogg decks, and in arena, man, as if Mages need more OP common cards. At a glance it appears to be great in arena and semi-decent in constructed. It's apparently a series of portal cards a la Forbidden spells? That's cool. I've always loved 'set' cards. 
• Barnes: 4-mana 3/4 that summons a 1/1 copy of a random minion in your deck. It's basically a random, cheaper Shadowcaster, except you can't target the minion. You do get it for free, though, so maybe it'll be useful? I dunno. Pulling out things like Y'Shaarj or Ragnaros or Sylvanas or Tirion or Antonidas would be awesome, but Shadowcaster's great because you can combo it and choose what you want to copy... and if Barnes pulls out a Battlecry minion then it just kinda sucks because you ultimately just get a Yeti's worth of stats with four mana. You don't see a lot of Herald Volazj being played, after all, and I don't think Barnes will be played too much either. I really liked the lore reason, though, where Barnes the opera master summons an 'actor' to play the card in your deck. A Deathrattle N'Zoth deck would be awesome. Unlike Y'Shaarj, he won't waste the battlecry of the N'Zoth he pulls out and he doesn't 'waste' the minion, but if he does pull out a good Deathrattle minion like Sylvanas or Cairne or Xaril or Anub'arak, well, you're in for a treat. I don't know, a lot of people point out how awesome if he pulls out Malygos or Y'Shaarj or Ragnaros on turn 4, but eh. It's something that's kind of a coin toss, I think? He might be really, really good, or be really, really bad. It's one that I kind of dismissed as a weaker, more random Shadowcaster, but after mulling on it a bit, man, it's kind of awesome! It's kind of a build-around deck, isn't it?
• The Curator: Well, this dude's insane. 7-mana, 4/6 Taunt... basically a single Twin Emperor that happens to be a Mech (which is pointless in Standard)... but it draws you a Dragon, a Beast and a Murloc. What insane breed of deck uses all three? I don't know, but the deck-building possibilities is kind of insane. There are a lot of great Dragon and Beast decks out there, and Murloc decks are... doable... but one that uses all three? It'll be hilarious and awesome when a proper triple tribe deck eventually gets made, but until then this is just a cool and initially seemingly-gimmicky card. What it is, though, is a Tutor card with an immediate effect -- anyone who's played a different TCG would know the sheer power of Tutor cards, which are cards that draw specific cards from your deck. Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon have a crapton of these as the backbone of their meta decks, and the closest that Hearthstone has to a Tutor card is Ancient Harbinger and she kind of is shit. Yes, the Curator doesn't draw your game-ending C'Thun... but the fact that she draws a dragon? You know Malygos decks? Yeah, they have a way to pull the big blue crazy old dragon out of their deck reliably. Alexstrasza in Freeze Mages? They get a Taunt and a guaranteed Alexstrasza in their hands. And even then, any Reno or Control deck will be happy to draw a Ysera, an Azure Drake, a Twilight Guardian, et cetera. The Beast portion might be more specific to Druid and Hunter decks, and I can't think of any super-combo-y Beast that I would want, but on the other hand an extra card in your hand can't really hurt. Murlocs... eh. Murloc Knight's the only real great Murloc I would want late-game, or maybe Corrupted Seer, and that's kinda iffy, but I suppose other Reno decks can fit in Bluegill Warrior? He's the only one I can see throwing into non-Murloc decks.

Overall I liked the feel of the set. It doesn't feel too good from a meta standpoint, not the way that Whispers of the Old Gods had with the dual factor of rotating out two card blocks and introducing a lot of great build-around cards... but I dunno. This just feels fun. Also give Priest a bit of a bone, yeah, and give them some good minions and/or spells? Priest really should be about healing and unkillable minions as opposed to 'remove everything from the enemy's board by stealing or one-shotting them with a spell'.

Boku no Hero Academia 101 Review:

My Hero Academia, Chapter 101: The Girl Named Hatsume Mei

Another slower chapter, we see Power Loader and Hatsume talking to Midoriya, Iida and Uraraka over costume upgrades, and there's your expected 'Midoriya is super-awkward after seeing part of Hatsume's boobs' scenes. Hatsume's... kind of crazy, as expected as a mad inventor, showing up with two inventions that physically injure Midoriya and Iida (thank god cartoon physics is in full effect here). We get some talk about how super-serious and super-hardworking Hatsume is and all that, and after some talk Midoriya gets an idea -- to stop the strain on his arms, he has to use his legs. Iida's leg powers and the Einstein quote kind of got through to him. 

After a montage, we get to see Midoriya's additional costume upgrade in the shape of some support on his arms, and Tokoyami has this utterly cool looking Tenebrous Abyss Body wrapping around his body, which gets past the whole 'main caster body is weak' problem that All Might noted him as having. Bakugou can concentrate his explosions into a single pinpoint blast. 

And then Midoriya shows off his 'Shoot Style' (apparently he's a Sanji fan), quite awesomely saving the underpowered All Might (who doesn't even look surprised) from a falling rock thanks to Bakugou's little power rampage. It's cool, and, yeah, since All Might and Midoriya keeps using their hands in combat we never really thought of alternatives like kicking. Good job, Midoriya. Let's just hope the new leg additions to your costume prevents your legs from being fucked up too much.

Toriko 381 Review: Animal Cruelty

Toriko, Chapter 381: Neo and Acacia

We have a bit of Neo rampaging around, and apparently, well, that's it for Heracles, whose head just drops down. And we were expecting some regenerative power thing going on. Bambina is also unresponsive for most of the thing. The Emperor Crow tries to do his shadow of death thing, but Neo jumps up and eats half of the poor bird. Man, talk about the worf effect. Poor Emperor Crow. The Mother Snake does this weird yet somewhat impressive thing where she swallows Neo and summons the rest of her body to coil around itself like a giant ball of yarn, but honestly who's really buying that Neo dies like this? Yeah, next chapter we'll have an exploding snake.

The Blue Nitro (who I still can't tell apart) do a little bit of a drama where Pair-the-Nitro kills Center-the-Nitro (in the name of having him revive in the future, apparently) while bringing Center-the-food to Acacia, so Acacia can eat Neo and revive Neo into its perfect form or something like that.

We then cut to Joie and Starjun, where they talk a bit about Food Luck... and Starjun mocks Joie for underestimating Midora, who bursts out of his prison, apparently having copied Joie's Food Luck powers. Because apparently that's a thing you can do?

It's all decent development and some really great artwork especially with the Crow and the Snake, but I'm just bummed at seeing the Eight Kings batted around like this.

One Piece 834 Review: Calling Out Caesar's Bullshit

One Piece, Chapter 834: My Dream

We cut away from the Sanji family drama to the overreaching Big Mom stuff. We did get a bit with Sanji kind of regretting letting his guard down and getting those bomb wristlets latched onto his hands... yeah, poor dude. 

We get a bit of Brook and Pedro going through the streets, listening to the propaganda about Jinbe, who apparently chickened out of his deal and begged Big Mom to spare him? Brook (and we, the readers) doubt Jinbe would do something like that, so either he was forced to do something like that or this is just some One Piece-styled ham-fisted propaganda and character assassination. But they come across Pudding, still trapped with Big Mom's people and told to choose clothes and whatever, being supervised by Baron Tamago.

Who, for someone who looks like Dr. Eggman's cousin, has a very creepy face. Brook and Pedro discover that, yeah, the good Baron konws everything about what the Straw Hats have been doing, and that Team Luffy is trapped in the seductive forest. There's a bit of a moment where the Baron ponders what to do with his old partner Pekoms...

Who is being held at gunpoint by Capone Bege. Bege is married to Charlotte Chiffon, and they have... a rather ugly son that's basically Bege's face pasted onto a baby. No idea why they corner Pekoms and shoot him and drop him into shark-infested waters... Pekoms told Bege not to underestimate Big Mom, so they're presumably doing something behind Big Mom's back, but what, exactly? Kind of curious. 

We get a short scene at the end at the seductive woods or whatever with Luffy finding multiple copies of Nami, Chopper, Sanji and Carrot, none of which I'm sure is the real thing. Don't care, really, about this bit.

The bulk of the chapter focuses on Caesar Clown meeting Big Mom, and being scared shitless. Big Mom reveals her big desire... for a drug to gigantify her family so they can eat at the same table. Honestly, if Big Mom wasn't so murderously psychotic it would be heartwarming. It also explains the giant kids in Punk Hazard, which doesn't make sense considering Caesar Clown's main plan back then was to create artificial devil fruits and gas weapons. Good planning there, and holy shit, Punk Hazard was like two, three years ago!

Caesar attempts to blame Luffy and go 'my research is all gone, I can't do anything please forgive me', which is total horseshit because he couldn't do the gigantification on anything but children, and not without side effects... but Big Mom, in a bit of a gesture of fair kindness on her part (as far as Big Mom can be kind) gives Caesar a fully functional lab and instructions to try and replicate the drug. Oh Caesar, you slimy shit, of course Big Mom has resources to creating a lab. 

Also we get references to Caesar basically hiring hookers from a Girl's Ship. They snuck that in pretty hilariously, I think.

So Caesar Clown is now at the mercies of Charlotte Perospero, the Minister of Candy and eater of the Lick-Lick Fruit... who is a creepy dude. Sanji left Caesar's heart at the hands of the Big Mom Pirates, and this ends up in Perospero's hands, so, um, yeah, Caesar's in trouble. Not sure where we're going with Caesar Clown, to be honest, and I'm surprised that he's lasted this long in the series... so much that some people were actually considering the gigantic douchebag for Next Straw Hat(tm). But nah. I don't think so. Curious where we're going anyway with Caesar, though.

Gotham S02E18 Review: The Batcomputer's Secrets

Gotham, Season 2, Episode 18: Pinewood

Oh, this episode is pretty neat! It's very focused into its plot, just like last episode was focused with the Nygma plot. I honestly never cared all that much for the Wayne killer plot, and thought it would be over for the moment after Matches Malone's death. But, nah, Bruce wants to go all the way up and find out who ordered the hit, and the investigation into this mysterious Pinewood facility with the help of Alfred and the now-civilian Gordon is pretty well-done, tying in all the myriad plot points the show has quite nicely.

Their little crusade has them encounter a lady with a hawk's talon as an arm, one Karen Jennings (who isn't based on any of Batman's many colourful characters, surprisingly), who tells them all about Pinewood. She doesn't give us much, but Team Bruce are at least on the same page as the viewers here, knowing that Wayne Enterprises is dealing with some insane human experimentation. While Karen doesn't survive the outing thanks to Mr. Freeze coming in and literally shattering her, at the end of the episode Lucius Fox manages to piece together that the Philosopher is actually Hugo Strange. So now, the problem, is how to take down Hugo Strange.

Bruce also finally puts to rest a point of conflict that's been bothering his insufferable ass throughout the series. Does Thomas Wayne know about all the atrocities that Wayne Enterprises did? Turns out, he did not, and he tried to stop people like Strange from abusing his company. I did like that bit at the end where Karen reveals that Thomas Wayne cared for her and only saw a scared little girl instead of how everyone else viewed her as a monster.

Bruce's moment of horror and reflection in the manor after Karen's death is also pretty sobering. Throughout this all Bruce has been quite insufferable and focused on himself, only caring about finding out information about who killed his parents. It's like that scene where he just blurts out his identity to Cupcake and got Alfred beaten up all to shit. Here he has to reflect on the fact that, hey, him self-smugly demanding answers from Karen Jennings, as important as those answers might be, has indirectly led to her death. And, well, probably actually be more sensible in his little crusade from now on instead of just being an insufferable kid. He only gets away with it, because, y'know, he's the future Batman.

Oh, there's a bit with Barbara in the beginning, where Gordon is looking for the Lady (an interesting villain broker who showed up earlier this season), and ends up apparently betraying Gordon to the Lady and is all psychotic and whatnot... but turns out it's just a ruse to fool the Lady and get the Philosopher's name. I bet Barbara will continue to be crazy, and at least Gordon knows that too, staying the hell away from the lady as much as he can. Barbara's insanity is a bit more subdued,  but her hamminess is still fun. Though honestly I'm a bit annoyed that her motivation is, once more, to get Gordon to love her again. I guess that's insanity for you. At least they didn't go through the same thing that they did with Oswald, though. Barbara is always crazy throughout this episode, working through what's going on in her own twisted mind, but she's simply moved on her focus from killing Gordon to making Gordon love her again.

Oh, meanwhile, in Arkham, Hugo Strange and Ms Peabody (who I really like having around as Hugo's voice of sanity, even if I never commented on her before) finally reanimates a test subject... who proceeds to massacre a chunk of the Arkham staff. It's Theo Galavan, all insane... and he apparently thinks himself to be Azrael. Ah, finally. You can't have the Order of St. Dumas and not introduce the most iconic part of that bit of DC lore. If Galavan turns out to be Azrael, it's nothing like what the character should be, but hey, it's something. So long as he doesn't do what he did before... Gallavan is very effective as a villain you hate, but he's not the type of charismatic villain like Oswald, Nygma, Strange or Falcone who you wouldn't mind returning again.

Not sure what Strange's big plan is other than to do things for the science, but I don't honestly care. Hugo Strange is awesomely hilarious enough on his own, and while his little penchant on releasing inmates like Oswald and Barbara just to see what the fuck will happen is questionable, the fact that Ms Peabody questions it in-show means that it's probably a strange (heh) character quirk of his which may be relevant to his eventual downfall.

Overall, a nicely done episode. It's not particularly great, but it was fun enough and decent enough to watch. 

Anime Review: One Piece - Heart of Gold

One Piece - Heart of Gold

One Piece's newest movie, Film: Gold,  has been advertised like crazy for the past... oh... twelve or so chapters. I'm not yet able to watch the movie proper yet, but someone gave me the link for the anime prequel tie-in thing, which was apparently made with movie-level animation? I dunno. I've only watched two other One Piece movies, the insertable-into-canon Strong World and the ambiguously-insertable-into-canon Film Z. Both were fun flicks, with Film Z offering some really great insights at the post-timeskip world that we haven't exactly seen in the manga. But let's talk about Heart of Gold.

It takes place in-between the Dressrosa and Zou arcs, which... honestly is a tight fit, considering the leap from Dressrosa to Zou is only like a week or two in-universe. But hey, whatever.

Heart of Gold honestly plays out like a very generic filler chapter or episode of manga, the type that Naruto or One Piece likes to churn out while the manga catches up to the anime. It's got a bunch of villains, a wacky supporting character of the week, a vague storyline that tries to be unique, and a sappy moral lesson at the end. In this case, we've got these 200-year-old immortals (well, stalled-aging) father and daughter, Olga and Acier, who's part of a missing civilization, Alchemi, and have access to a super-duper-awesome treasure, Pure Gold. Which is a gold that can grant immortality.

And it starts of semi-promising, with a member of the CP0 transporting the mysterious bratty little girl Olga, before the villains of the week, led by Mad Treasure and his (actually pretty damn cool) Chain Chain Fruit. But it kinda goes downhill after that, because everything that happens ends up being more or less generic. Olga befriends the Straw Hats, the villains catch up, they end up going into the wacky locale of the stomach of a gigantic anglerfish.

Mad Treasure captures the weaker Straw Hats (and apparently forces Nami and Robin into fetish belly dancer outfits) and enslaves them with slave collar chains, and the paranoid, self-serving Olga ends up going with Mad Treasure, but Luffy's gesture touches her so she ends up helping the Straw Hats in the end. Luffy, Zoro and Sanji engage the main commanders of the bad guys, there's a very generic "NAKAMAAAAA" speech that sounds like it came out of Fairy Tail... and... yeah. I'm not overly impressed with this one as a story. 

As a tie-in it doesn't even really do it well, because as I got it all the movie ends up doing is to introduce the giant cat dude that's a subordinate of the main villain of the movie, and to give the Straw Hats the vivre card to go to the casino island. 

I dunno. The fights were pretty as all hell, though, and two of the villains, Mad Treasure and Psycho P, are hamming it up like there's no tomorrow, so they're entertaining to watch. Their powers are pretty cool -- fighting with chains is always cool, and Psycho P's camouflage fruit actually is the kind of bizarre shit you'd expect from One Piece. Plus he raps in Japa-English which is awesome. Bomb Arrow Lady is... I dunno, did she even get a line? And the action scenes with the monster trio fighting the three main villains are gorgeous as all get-out, though Zoro and Sanji basically utterly one-shots their enemies. Zoro just doing his little speech about Buddhism values is awesome, and Sanji's utterly angry rant at having another pervert Devil Fruit taken away from him is hilarious. Chopper gets a short sequence of fighting in his Arm Point (is this an error? I dunno. I like the Arm Point) against some random dinosaur.

But other than that? Honestly I have no idea how this thing lasted one hour and forty minutes, because it certainly didn't have that much content to justify being stretched out that long. The story between Olga and Acier is stretched out for the sake of the mystery, Mad Treasure's connection with Nami ends up being one-note, and the World Government doesn't get to come to play. It is pretty, though, and I just rewatched Luffy fighting Mad Treasure one more time because it's nice to watch.

Hopefully the movie has a less blatantly-filler plot.

Nanatsu no Taizai 185 Review: Prideful Ownage

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 185: Pride vs Charity

Did anyone expect Escanor to be so insanely powerful? I mean, yeah, we know Escanor is on the top of the pecking order of power levels, alongside monsters like Meliodas and Estarossa, but holy shit, talk about a broken-ass character. And he's still entertaining as all hell, too! I highly doubt the battle is over just yet, though -- while this chapter implies overwhelming victory on Escanor's side, I'm highly doubtful that the most powerful of the Ten Commandments is going to just die off after two chapters.

The battle this chapter starts off with Escanor summoning a mini-sun that's so hot that the other Holy Knights' armour began to actually melt by sheer proximity, and after quickly confirming to Ban that there's a lake several miles off here, Escanor just... palms Estarossa in the face and the shocked expression -- not even pained or angry, just shocked -- on Estarossa's face is unreal. Estarossa is blown several miles away towards the lake, while Escanor does what can only be termed "Sun Surfing", catching up to the thrown Estarossa, before kicking the sun down towards Estarossa, slamming the dude so hard onto the lake that the entire lake evaporates. Truly an awesome action scene.

Zeldoris and Fraudrin-Dreyfus are there to witness, flying on ink-splotch wings, and we get to see Estarossa, wounded, acknowledging Escanor's power and noting that if he had been a moment later in activating his 'Darkness', he would've taken a mortal wound. Yeah, Escanor's sun surfing trick nearly did Estarossa a mortal wound.

Estarossa heals himself with his darkness, and goes all 'it's time to finish this'. Now this is the point that I honestly assumed that Estarossa is going to unleash his full power and take Escanor down a peg or two -- Estarossa's resemblance to Meliodas' angry mindless rage demon form at this point is possibly a factor -- and Estarossa, well, swallows Escanor's mini-sun with a 'Blackout', and Full Counters Escanor's physical axe swing.

And we do see Escanor bleed pretty heavily from his shoulders and whatever, while Estarossa gives this 'I have won' style speech of how Escanor's magic power is sealed by his Blackout, while his physical strength is countered by, well, Full Counter.

And then we cut to a bunch of literal random peasants, talking about how they're stuck doing chores at half an hour before noon, the most innocuous way of saying that, hey, Escanor's not at full strength yet.

And, well, a cut forms across Estarossa's chest -- a strike so fast that Estarossa didn't have time to Full Counter -- and, well, Estarossa starts getting more and more confused, and dare I say scared, as Escanor starts to revel in his sin of pride. "My mighty attacks can not reach thee? And who decided that? My blazing sun was swallowed up by a speck of darkness? And who decided that?"

Escanor's muscles and sun flexes so hard that they easily burn through Estarossa's darkness, before Escanor delivers this horrifying yet awesome line "The only one who gets to decide such things... is me."

Estarossa totally freaks out, Zeldoris moves in to help out, and Escanor just swings the full power of a mega sun that apparently incinerates Estarossa. It's utterly awesome, some really on-point scripting, some really great moments for both combatants involved and holy shit I am so glad we're still continuing on the Escanor-Estarossa fight instead of jumping away to some metaphysical bullshit with Meliodas and the Demon King. At this point, who cares about those two anymore? Certainly not me. Again, I highly doubt that Escanor's going to win this one still -- the other Commandments might intervene at that point, because if Escanor can defeat the strongest Commandment without being at his full strength, well, then, it's not even a challenge and Meliodas can just sleep tight and stay dead. Either Estarossa or Zeldoris needs to have a trick up their sleeve. Or maybe Gray Lord can just show up and go 'thou shalt not kill'... but honestly, do you think a blob with a bunch of masks can stand up against fucking Escanor?

Hail the Sun.

One Piece 833 Review: Sanji's Shitty Family

One Piece, Chapter 833: Vinsmoke Judge

This thing didn't upload yesterday (grumble grumble).

Anyway, we learn more about Sanji's family, and they're all jackasses. Yonji did get hit so hard by Sanji off-screen that he needed a hydraulic press to get his face back to normal.

Sanji and Judge fight it out outside the mansion, and Sanji keeps insisting that Judge isn't his father, 

and that he refuses to acknowledge the Vinsmoke family in any way. We get a brief flashback of Sanji being bullied by Yonji and... well, "Ichiji" and "Niiji", I assume. For the lowly crime of cooking food for peasants. I'd call this a bit of a continuity error -- didn't Sanji's love for cooking only stem after meeting Zeff? But whatever. Sanji's family is horrible, and Judge literally just calls him a worthless piece of shit for being unable to defend himself, and seeing no worth in raising him. Reiju just laughs.

Man, what a bunch of twats. No wonder Sanji so adamantly refuses to acknowledge them. Y'know, in addition to the whole 'family of assassins' thing.

In the present, Judge is pissed when Sanji talks all about the whole 'my hands exist for cooking' thing, and Judge uses some weird air rockets on his boots to fly to the sky, and apparently his epithet is 'the Garuda'. Sanji gives some resistance with his Diable Jambe, but Judge ends up getting a bit of the upper hand -- nothing too devastating as far as 'worf' effects go, but he did rough Sanji up a bit. He uses lightning kicks powered by technology, apparently. Sanji isn't too badly hurt, but Judge uses a bunch of human walls to block Sanji's path, before impaling one and launching an electrical blast.

Judge then drops all pretense at even becoming a semi-decent human being and starts calling Sanji worthless again, saying that he refuses to have his sons marry Big Mom's family... except for this dud. And, well, Reiju puts on two of the exploding bomb-bracelets that we saw the Tenryubito use on slaves so long ago on Sanji's hands, with the threat of blowing up his hands should he rebel.

Man, Sanji's family is a bunch of assholes.

My Hero Academia 100 Review: More Lessons

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 100: Special Moves

It's mostly a bit of an introdump chapter where we learn a bit of the importance of special moves -- both as a confidence tool to the public. Cementoss creates cement arenas and Ectoplasm creates his ecto-clones for the students to battle in one of their stadiums. It's just a lot of setup, really, and we get to see short scenes of several students trying out their tricks. Bakugou is ferocious, Ashido is hilarious, Mineta is surprisingly eager to perfect his grape rush, Kaminari wants to create a Chidori...

And Midoriya is just confused, and All Might shows up in his weakened form to give the students a quick series of encouragement -- though, y'know, mostly Midoriya. Telling Midoriya not to copy him all the time and find something to call his own, before making good on his promise to Bakugou and going off to teach the other students as well. Cool stuff, nothing too heavy. We get to see that All Might also has this notebook full of notes similar to Midoriya.

We get a bit where Midoriya heads off to seek costume upgrades, and, well, because it's basically a mad scientist's lab, it explodes in his face. Hastume flies out of the workshop and lands on Midoriya in a, well, as sexually suggestive as twelve-year-olds can get. Of course, Uraraka (and Iida, but who cares) just happens to come by. Midoriya absolutely freaks out because, well, Hatsume is wearing a tank top that shows off her... ample... assets.

Yeah, this arc's going to be more comedic than anything, is it? I really just hope the fanservice is limited to wacky moments and doesn't take up 90% of the manga like a certain other shonen I can name. 

Toriko 368 Review: BAMBINA NOOOOO

Toriko, Chapter 368: The Competition for God

The good guys get pushed back, with half of the chapter having Acacia-Neo quite literally pushing his hand into Toriko's neck and just wiggling it around while trash-talking him and monologuing about god. Joie gets a couple of hits on Starjun. Teppei gets utterly fucked up by the Blue Nitro, though I honestly doubt that he'll die from this.

The Eight Kings unleash their hyper beams upon Acacia-Neo, who stops time with his improved Back Channel and just monologues some more, all the while Toriko refusing to die before transforming into... this... third oni, I assume, which freaks the fuck out of Acacia who throws him away. Yeah, plot device and all. Acacia-Neo manages to eat a chunk of the prepared god, so good job, Komatsu and Ootake or whoever -- you guys done fucked up by cooking the frog. 

Bambina charges in while the other eight kings attack -- the Mother Snake launches this weird tongue thing that ends in a pair of balls which is just weird as all hell. Also, despite being shown earlier in the chapter, Guinness is nowhere to be seen in that big splash page, unless that jumping this is meant to be Guinness and not Bambina, who's already next to Neo? I dunno. 

And after the explosion, apparently eating god caused Acacia and Neo to separate? Acacia is a naked man apparently restored to health, while Neo is just this ugly-creepy motherfucker who holds Bambina's body, which is reduced to just his upper torso, head and an arm. Good fuck, that's brutal! Also, poor Bambina! Jeez, that's brutal.

Bambina's not dead and he launches some point-blank monkey beam things even when less than 50% of his body remains, but that did jack shit to the new, creepier Neo -- jeez he looks creepy -- and Neo then proceeds to blow up Heracles. Man, I know the Eight Kings really probably will die to Neo, but it's still sad to see it happen. 

Maybe we'll see less animal cruelty next chapter and see Toriko's third demon be relevant?

Pokemon Top Tens: Best and Worst of Generation I

Yeah, I told you guys I'd be doing this, and with Pokemon Go and the hype surrounding it features only the original 151, there's no better time. It's not going to be a series that happens often, but I love doing top tens, and I love Pokemon -- I've been with the franchise ever since I picked up Pokemon Blue in 1997, and while I had some off periods where I didn't play Pokemon at all (Generation II, and Generations IV-V) I went back and played all the games in all the generations. I love it. It's like an old friend that's always waiting for you to come back. And one of the primary reasons? The Pokemon themselves.

I'm going back to the original 151. Nostalgia blinds us all, but you can't deny that there are some really good designs that capitalize on the simplicity that the Game Boy engine affords, and how much personality that even the crappy sprites from Pokemon Red/Green/Blue showed so much personality even before the anime and manga came along and made them awesome.

Of course, there are some that aren't... all that... awesome. I covered some of them in my Top Ten least favourite Pokemon article, but, hey, here we go, I guess. Keep in mind, Top Ten Favourite lists are subjective, and some of these include ones that I have personal attachment to for personal reasons. So yeah.

Here's the top ten favourites!

With the old-school Red/Blue sprites, just to get the nostalgia factor ramped up. Y'all know how the original 151 look and if you don't just google them. But hey, old-school sprites!

#10: Victreebel
I'm a geek, if my blog hasn't told you enough about me already. But Victreebel (who I always misspell as Victreebell as a kid, which makes sense) has always appealed to me. See, the idea of plants that eat animals is just so weird and mind-boggling as a kid. What kind of abomination of nature does that? Victreebel is based on the pitcher plant, and what Nintendo loves to do is to take obscure yet cool creatures from real life and adapt them into Pokemon. Vileplume is based on the Rafflesia, Paras is based on a parasitic mind-control fungus, stuff like that. Victreebel is based on the carnivorous pitcher plant, and when I first saw Victreebel in the Pokemon Adventures comic -- which I read a ton of as a kid -- having this super creepy colony in the Safari Zone, and just the sheer weirdness and quirkiness of its design, I kind of fell in love. Victreebel also got a lot of showing in the Anime, being one of James' signature Pokemon throughout the length of the Kanto and Johto seasons, always showing up to chomp down on its trainer and letting out the most hilarious EEEEEEE screech ever whenever he shows up.

I love Victreebel, though! I like weird real-life animals and plants, and Victreebel is elegant in its simplicity. All they did was give a pitcher plants eyes, fangs, and a couple of leaves. I dunno. I just loved Victreebel. Any Victreebel I own inevitably never really sees that much fight because in Kanto games I always use Bulbasaur as my starter, but I often have one.

#9: Poliwhirl/Poliwrath
Red from Pokemon Adventures started off with a Poliwhirl, who is honestly a pretty cute design. I can never see how this weird circular thing with eyes, limbs and gloves is based on a frog, but he's cool! I admit my love for Poliwhirl is 100% based on Red's Poliwhirl from the manga, but I have raised a fair amount of Poliwraths throughout my playthroughs of the Kanto and Johto games. It's a bit annoying that the two Pokemon look practically identical, especially in earlier games -- really, the only way to tell is by Poliwrath's angry eyes and his big muscles -- but what're you going to do. Poliwrath's an awesome dude once you get to that stage, with an insane amount of coverage. Water and Fighting is a very cool type combination and I'm a bit miffled that Poliwrath's Gen-VI moveset doesn't have much more Fighting type moves, but my Poliwraths (nearly all of them are called some variation of 'Fuhrer King Bradley') have always been awesome bros that tank hits and take down their opponents. Shame the dude fall short compared to practically almost everything else, but favourites doesn't have to be on the uber tier.

#8: Pikachu/Raichu
Pikachu gets a lot of unfair hatred for being the overexposed mascot all throughout the franchise's 20 years, and spawning a crapton of clones (of which I would say that only Togedemaru, Pichu, Plusle and Minun are actually crap) but I loved the dude! He's mellowed out a lot over the years in the anime and comics, but back in the earliest episodes and mangas Pikachu has always been portrayed as a total dick who refuses to cooperate, and I loved him for that. He's not the most powerful Electric-type in the game, but you get him in the first big area, Viridian Forest, as a supremely rare encounter if you're playing Pokemon Red or Blue, and as the starter in Pokemon Yellow. My Pikachu in Yellow single-handedly took down Brock's Onix with a Double Team/Quick Attack death by a thousand cuts strategy. Yeah, you can get Butterfrees and Mankeys to take down Brock, but I ain't going to do that. No, little me took down Brock with nothing but a Pikachu. I guess a lot of the hate that goes to him is how insanely powerful he seems to be in the anime, taking down Ground-types and legendaries, but really that's the fault of the anime's inconsistent writing with game logic more than any fault of Pikachu's, and I love the little electric bugger for what he is -- a cool rare encounter of a type you don't get options to catch until later in the game. And, yeah, he's a mascot, and the perfect one too. Cool enough for boys, but cute enough for girls. Very few Pokemon can claim to have both, except maybe the starters.


But man, I will always evolve all my Pikachus into Raichus as soon as I can. Raichu's awesome! He's an orange fat jerboa, he's got the most metal-looking whip-tail ending in a lightning bolt, he just looks so much more powerful and durable than PIkachu, and I'm really sad that Raichus don't get the time of the day in the anime thanks to the spotlight on Pikachu. I've got a couple of Raichus that put in the biggest work and I've always imagined my Raichus to move really quickly on the battlefield, lashing out with lightning-empowered whip-tails.

#7: Gyarados
Gyarados is awesome! I'm just sad he's Water/Flying instead of Water/Dragon, but I guess that would be overpowered. See, Gyarados evolves from Magikarp, which is this stupid-looking weakling of a fish you can fish up literally in every body of water who can't do jack shit but Splash -- an attack that literally does nothing. And Magikarp looks derpy as all hell, with modern sprites even highlighting its uselessness by having it flop around like a dead fish -- an indignity that only Magikarp has among every aquatic Pokemon in the game.

But level him up enough -- a surprisingly low threshold of 20 -- and you get this monstrous sea serpent. Gyarados' design is surprisingly intricate for a Generation I Pokemon, with a horrifyingly angry face that encapsulates the rage and ferocity that a Gyarados is wont to have. He's the Atrocious Pokemon, for crying out loud! He's a giant, angry sea serpent, and he truly looks like he can fuck your day up. Gyarados looks impressive, and when you finally get your Magikarp to really go through all this hardwork and finally turn into this leviathan of a beast, man, he's awesome. Granted Gyarados looks a lot more awesome than it actually is -- after evolution Gyarados needs more training to get actually good moves beyond Bite and Dragon Rage, and the slightest electrical shock will turn Gyarados into sea serpent sushi, but damn if he isn't an awesome monster. Properly trained, he can absolutely wreck anything without an Electric move in its path.

Gyarados is generally my go-to water Pokemon in nearly every game I play where I don't pick the water starter, simply because of how awesome he is, and how early you can get him in the game. What a majestic sea serpent.

#6: Articuno
Articuno's generation one sprite looks like an angry chicken, but his appearances in later games and in the anime portray him as this absolutely majestic bird with an icy crown and a great, flowing tail. He's easily my favourite among the three Legendary Birds of Kanto, looking the best (though Zapdos and Moltres are cool designs too, no hating on them) and just looking majestic and regal, exuding the power that a Legendary Pokemon really should exude. And Articuno is the absolute hardest among the three Legendary birds to get. Moltres is literally sitting randomly in Victory Road, while Zapdos' location in the Power Plant is straightforward. Articuno requiers some skill and solving of the Strength/Surf puzzles of Seafoam Islands, easily the most intricate areas of the original Red/Blue game. And is it worth it, to capture this harbinger of winters? Absolutely. These days the Legendary Birds of Kanto don't get a lot of respect for their lackluster movepool and the fact that the game is overloaded with overpowered legnedaries, but these three birds will always have a special place in my heart, and among those three, chief among them will always be Articuno.

And besides, phoenixes and thunderbirds are in practically every RPG ever. Snow birds of majesty? Less common and thus Articuno looks a lot more awesome because of that. There's just a sense of simplicity in Articuno's simple majesty.

Also included is Pokemon Yellow's sprite for Articuno, which has 100% less chicken and 100% more majesty.

#5: Aerodactyl
I've already loved Aerodactyl in 1996 when I first played Pokemon. I loved dinosaurs as a kid -- who doesn't? My favourite dinosaur (pterosaur, dinosaur, shut up) is the pteranodon. And Aerodactyl is a bona fide pteranodon dinosaur, except instead of a beak he's got a gigantic T-Rex head, and a devil tail, and you have to revive him from a fossil! Aerodactyl is an awesome design, I loved him from both the anime and the manga, and, jeez, he's a freaking horrifying-looking dinosaur! It's a shame you don't get Aerodactyl in the original Red/Blue game until Cinnabar Island, and you get a level 15 one... when you probably already have Pidgeots and Fearows as your resident flier. But I love Aerodactyl anyway... a love that was amplified a thousandfold in Generation VI, where Aerodactyl is obtainable as early as the second gym, and he obtained a mega evolution in that game to boot. Now Mega Aerodactyl isn't the most competitive thing, really, and not the best designed one out there, but I absolutely fell in love with Aerodactyl all over again, with my Aerodactyl in Pokemon Y, Amber, possibly seeing more battles than my starter.

And, y'know, Aerodactyl is a freaking murder-dinosaur. Even twenty years down the line Aerodactyl still remains one of my favourite Pokemon, and it's telling that even after several more dinosaur pokemon down the line I still think Aerodactyl is still the coolest among them How can you not love him?

#4: Haunter
Yeah, Haunter isn't a final evolutionary stage like a majority of the Pokemon here, but I spent half of Pokemon Blue with a Haunter instead of a Gengar. I don't have a link cable as a kid. Shut up. But man, Haunter's so much cooler than Gengar! Not that Gengar is a bad design in any means, but Haunter's just so much cooler! From that simple ghostly design, to those disembodied claws, to those horrifying eyes, to that jagged maw full of teeth, Haunter is just so utterly awesome. And despite all that horrifyngness of being a ghost made up of poisonous gas, Haunters are playful enough to pal around, lick your buddies and generally have a good time. Again, I like Gengar as much as the next Pokemon fan, but Haunter's just such a cool, creepy design. There's honestly not much to it, really, but man, I loved Haunter. He was a bomb in several other later-series games I had a Haunter in, too, just wrecking house by shooting Sludge Bombs and Shadow Balls everywhere, and fucking the enemy with Hypnoses and Licks. Nintendo has always been consistently awesome with designing creepy but not over-the-top-horrifying designs for Ghost-type Pokemon, and honestly, considering their first three: Gastly, Haunter and Gengar, you can see that they have been absolutely consistent with it.

#3: Butterfree
What is this? A weak-ass starter bug beating Articuno, Gyarados and Aerodactyl in my top ten list? Well, yeah. As a kid I have had a morbid love-hate relationships with bugs. I really, really am fascinated by them and their utterly bizarre biology, yet put me within two meters of a spider or a wasp and I will scream bloody murder. But I love bugs, still, and bug-type Pokemon are some of my favourites in the game, which is strange considering that they're the weakest. Pokemon's whole original concept was based on bug catching, and it's telling by the amount of Bug-types in the first games. And they're all cool bugs, too! Beedrill, Venomoth, Scyther, Pinsir, Parasect... but my favourite has always been the humble Butterfree. Yes, Scyther and Pinsir are the coolest motherfuckers around, and Beedrill's giant stingers of doom has given me an unhealthy phobias of bees of any kind, but Butterfree is a bro. I'm not sure why I liked Butterfree so much, because Ash's Butterfree in the Anime didn't last very long before being released. But I loved mine. Even in Pokemon Blue where I go with the true-and-tried six year old strategy of 'level up my starter and body everyone in my way', my Butterfree stayed with me throughout most of my journey. Yeah, other people bring Pidgeots with them to the Elite Four from the starter routes (which I admittedly have done a couple of times), but I do it with a Butterfree.

See, evolution is a truly awesome moment in Pokemon, and while your starters are liable to evolve after the first gym, Nintendo has always consistently placed low-level Bug-types in the early routes that evolve twice in quick succession, sort of as a little trial run for far more awesome evolutions down the line. And it makes sense! The caterpillar transforms into a sedentary cocoon and then into its mature butterfly/bee form. But while Beedrill is cool and all, and I've had Beedrills in playthroughs, I have utterly wrecked house with my Butterfree in Blue, Yellow, Crystal, Fire Red, Heart Gold and Y. Basically, any game where I can catch a Caterpie at an early route, I generally will turn it into a Butterfree and have it kick ass. Anyone can sweep the Elite Four with a team filled with Garchomps and Lucarios, but I have gone through several Elite Fours with a humble Butterfree kicking ass with the best of them. Buttefree needs TMs to truly earn his keep -- but man, he can Psychic, he can Giga Drain, he can Sleep Powder... and yeah, he's not competitive by any means, but fuck competitive. The most memorable memories while playing a Pokemon is the utter awesomeness that your team members pull through, and there is a special delight in having this badass monster of a butterfly just wreck house even though it's universally agreed to be one of the weaker Pokemon.

And it's a cool-looking design, too! It's got a creepy bug feel to him without looking too cute the way that other butterfly Pokemon (Beautifly, Vivillon) do, but without looking too monstrous (Volcarona, Venomoth). Butterfree's just a total bro, really.

#2: Mewtwo
There is absolutely no way Mewtwo is not making this list. Who is Mewtwo, you say? How the hell did you get through that wall of text talking about Pokemon and not know about Mewtwo? Jeez.

But honestly. Mewtwo! Advertised as the most powerful Pokemon in existence when his first movie came out, and twenty years after the fact, Mewtwo is still kicking ass with the strongest of them. Mewtwo is the final Pokemon in the original 150 Pokedex (Mew was a 'secret') and boy, he does look cool. I know nothing of Frieza or whatever, but even then he just looks awesome, this weird humanoid-cat monster that looks organic and unnatural at the same time, but not without being overdesigned like a lot of later-generation Pokemon. He's got a weird tube on his neck, a very awesome-looking face, weird ball-tipped-fingers that just scream 'weapon', and, well, Mewtwo's story is part of Red and Blue's overreaching plot. It's never spelled out in the games itself, because the 'main' plot is just your journey to bring down Team Rocket and become the champion, but context clues from Team Rocket facilities describe of them attempting to create the most powerful creature by cloning the mythical Mew, only to have it mutate and become, well, this insanely powerful psychic powerhouse.

Mewtwo has gotten awesome appearances in both the anime in the form of two great movies, and a very important main character in Pokemon Adventures, growing from a plot device and a monstrous juggernaut to a very awesome redemption-seeking character. And the first Pokemon movie really sold the unbeatable-ness of Mewtwo. Birthed from a lab that he promptly destroys upon birth, Mewtwo just looks unnatural, and began wiping the floor with literally every single one of the original 150's best -- Onix? Nidoking and Arcanine? Magneton? A herd of Tauros? Alakazam? Mewtwo literally one-shots them all to submission, and easily takes out anything out heroes send at him, including Ash's mighty Charizard. He goes through a crisis of questioning his moralities (which is beautifully different depending on whether it's the English or Japanese dub, both having great parts to them) all the while being untouchable.

His backstory is awesome, his movie is awesome, his comic appearances are awesome, and his design is awesome. He's easily the most powerful of them all, able to learn all the powerhouse moves from TM's, and being nigh-indestructible in battle. Even with the advent of so many overpowered legendaries powercreeping on the original generation, Mewtwo manages to stay on the upper echelons by sheer virtue of stats and movepool alone, before surpassing even Arceus, the god of Pokemon, with his two Mega Evolutions in Generation VI. Yeah, Mewtwo is the most powerful Pokemon, and he's got the best and most intricate story among all the legendaries. There ain't denying it.

Do we need honourable mentions? I guess so.

Beedrill! Pidgeotto! Sandslash! Koffing! Nidoking! Kadabra! Magneton! Muk! Cloyster! Kingler! Eevee and her evolutions! Scyther! Pinsir! Starmie! Zapdos! Dragonair!

#1: The Starters
A bit of a cop-out? A bit of a cop-out. But I realized that fitting all the starters into the Top Ten would have three out of ten be filled with starters, so I might as well as lump them all together and talk about them at once. If you're going to rank them properly, well, we'll have Blastoise probably below Mewtwo, and number two be Charizard and number one be Venusaur. But, hey, the starters are iconic. The first three Pokemon you get to choose from, you get to choose from three simple and sweet looking buddies that all look cool in their own way, easily embodying their type. You've got the grass-type Bulbasaur, a non-slimy frog with an onion. You've got Charmander, the kinda-dinosaurian lizard with a flame on its tail. You've got Squirtle, a cute tortoise with a squirrel tail. Tortoises are aquatic, right?

And honestly, I love all three lines that I can't make a Top Ten without them. My favourite is undoubtedly Bulbasaur's line -- Venusaur's a fat bastard, but he's my buddy for twenty years, my one and only Kanto starter. I'm not sure why I love him. I think I liked the gradual progression of Bulbasaur growing bigger and his flower slowly sprouting, whereas I was a bit confused why Charmander changes colour to red when turning into a Charmeleon, then back to orange as a Charizard, or why Squirtle sprouts fluffy ears and tail as a Wartortle, before having them disappear. But I love Bulbasaur. He's cute and tough at the same time, and I don't care that Venusaur doesn't look as imposing as Charizard or Blastoise. Venusaur's my bro since 1994, and any time I get to choose between the three Bulbasaur's going to be the pick.

That's not to say the other two are bad by any means, because they're awesome. I played through Blue with Squirtle until the second or third gym before accidentally restarting and going with Bulbasaur all the way, and Blastoise's awesome. He's a turtle with cannons! He looks like he's ready to fuck shit up, and Wartortle's a very cool-looking middle stage. I just don't have as much to say about the Squirtle line like the other two, but I like them.

Charizard gets a lot of flak for being superpopular like Pikachu, but fuck that, Charizard is awesome. Yeah, he's not a dragon until he mega-evolves, and he needs to go on a diet, but back then Charizard is the most awesome thing you could own. He's a freaking fire-breathing dragon with giant wings! He's a dinosaur dragon! And the anime had a field day showing just how utterly badass Charizard is, that really the only limit to Charizard's power is that the dude doesn't obey Ash. Charmeleon is cool as all hell, and I really liked the design of the three.

Really, their big loss is that they're just not Bulbasaur. I really love the Kanto starters. Yeah, part of it is nostalgia, but man, I don't love a set of three starters as much as I do the Kanto ones. They're my first love, the originals, the ones that started it all, the first friends you make in the Pokemon world.
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And here are my top five least favourites of the first generation. It's really hard to come up with this list. Some Pokemon like Goldeen or Farfetch'd or Chansey I simply don't like, but that's simply because they're boring, not because I hate them. And, no, I don't hate Zubat and Geodude simply because there's a lot of them in the wild, nor do I hate Voltorb for self-destructing. But there are a couple that I rather despise.

#5: Lickitung
Taking number five for our top five least favourites is Lickitung, the tongue Pokemon. What and why is this a thing? I've grown numb to Lickitung's existence over the twenty years that he exists, but he's a weird pink... thing... whose only gimmick is that he's got a tongue as long as his body. Is he supposed to be based on a lizard? A fat pink lizard? It looks derpy, and not in a way that the (very similar visually) Slowpoke line does. He just looks confused to be around, with his gross tongue just lolling about. Again, I'm honestly annoyed that a lot of cool Pokemon like Heracross got cut out of the original 151 and had to wait a generation to show up, but badly-designed things like Lickitung snuck in. He's just weird, boring and borderline disturbing with his super long tongue.

#4: Mr. Mime
Yeah, Mr. Mime is in this list. Is it a surprise? Now I never got the pedophile vibes from Mr. Mime, and I have nothing against mimes. But man, what a weird design! Human-shape Pokemons are always a bit weird, because you're capturing them and training them like animals, but I guess it's cool when you have cool-looking things like Machamp, Alakazam or Gardevoir, who look like they stepped out of a fantasy RPG anyway. And then there's Mr. Mime. He's... a fat mime-clown with horns. He's got a cool gimmick of making actual barriers, but that's it... I'm baffled why he exists. Generation IV gave him Mime Jr, a very adorable pre-evolution, and Generation VI made him a Fairy which still does not make sense to me, but Mr. Mime (who isn't always a 'Mr', even) is just weird and has never been relevant. He does get a couple of chapters as Sabrina's Pokemon in Pokemon Adventures, but that doesn't make him cool. You get him in the original games by trading a very rare and hard-to-catch Abra... who can grow up to be the badass powerhouse Alakazam. And you get this idiot, nicknamed 'Marcel', with sub-par stats and an inability to evolve... yeah.

#3: Hypno
Hey, let's make the dream-tapir Pokemon evolve into this weird, disgusting troll with a fur boa and a hypnotism gimmick! Hypno is a lot uglier than Drowzee, but ugliness isn't a sin, not really. I mean, yeah, you need a 'lesser' Psychic type to really sell Alakazam's awesomeness, and there's nothing wrong with being inferior either. But did they have to make Hypno into a child kidnapper with a very wrong feeling with that stupid hypnotism gimmick? Hypno's big contribution to the game lore is to be the creepy-fuck Pokemon that attacked a poor little lost girl in FireRed and LeafGreen, one of the very few instances in the games that a Pokemon is outright violent towards humans instead of being ordered by villains. Yeah, fuck off, sexual predator.

#2: Clefairy
I like Jigglypuff! Jigglypuff is cute. Clefairy? I dunno, not so much. The original sprite is cute enough, I suppose, but I've always disliked the official cartoon or control artworks. I've nothing against the pink cutesy Pokemon -- I prefer cool dragons and insects and shit, but I do admit that thre are a lot of cute pinkums. But Clefairy? She's a pain in the ass to capture, and she doesn't look that cute. I dunno. I just really can't articulate why I dislike Clefairy so much, but I don't like her. I've never trained a Clefairy at all, really, though at least unlike the other five Pokemon on this list Clefairy is somewhat integrated to the plot of the original games, being central to the lore behind Mt. Moon.

#1: Jynx
Yeah. Jynx is my least favourite Generation I Pokemon. Is that even a surprise? I've talked about Jynx at length in a previous article and why I hate her in my least favourite Pokemon article, but man, just check out that Generation I sprite. She even looks confused why she's in the game. What a disgusting thing.

Nanatsu no Taizai 184 Review: The Unbeatable vs The Invincible

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 184: Clash of the Titans

Man, the hype. We get a short scene with Zeldoris (a.k.a. Mini Vegeta) hanging out with Fraudrin before showing off his own power, 'Piety', which gains the absolute loyalty of anyone who turns their back to Zeldoris. We don't spend too much time with them, though, because we cut back to the real thing everyone's waiting for. Escanor versus Estarossa.

They exchange some punches that blow the terrain around them apart while exchanging some 'yeah, you sound strong' trash talk, before showing off a little of their power. Escanor is strong enough to bring Estarossa to his knees, something that shocks the other Commandments, while Estarossa is forced to actually use his power -- Full Counter -- which reflects every bit of Escanor's brute physical strength on to himself. A moment where I'm pissed that Escanor's going to be worfed is sort of mitigated because Escanor just shrugs it off and goes 'oh, no wonder that's painful, that's my own attack!'

And, yeah, there's a bit of theory that Zeldoris and Estarossa might be aspects of Meliodas's original personality/power or something along those lines. I dunno. He did originally have Charity and Piety, after all...

Either case, though, it isn't even Escanor's final form and he summons a miniature sun.

Pokemon GO, Part 2: Stuff this game could do better

Pokemon Go hit the world like a gigantic storm, far eclipsing any popularity the franchise has ever achieved other than perhapsa the initial 90's Pokemania. And whether this simple app has been a good idea or not, or if it's healthy to eclipse the main games so much with this distraction... I don't know. But after having several weeks of Pokemon Go, here are some additional thoughts to my initial review. I still like the game and I still play it a lot, but damn if the game couldn't have done with some improvement.

• A better tutorial: Yeah, the very basics of catching Pokemon and Pokestops are told to you, and I hate games that hold your hand like you're some retarded kid, but I am absolutely baffled by so much of the things that go on in the game. Willow is a shitty professor, really. Absolutely nothing about the battle system is told to us, or how the little radar on the bottom right work, or how the gyms and teams work, nearly nothing about evolution is told to us, and generally the tutorial could've been smoother. Hell, even a little 'Help' FAQ would really help even things over so that I can actually play the damn game without consulting google.
• A better battle system: Not to say that I would want a copy-paste of the main series' turn-based fights, but if they had to do 'spam tapping and kill the enemy faster than they can kill you' Infinity Blade style combat, then implement a proper fighting system with tapping instead of this half-assed thing we got.
• Friends List: I have friends that play Pokemon Go. Trading might be out of the question for the moment, but a friends list, so I can know who's in Team Blue in the local area? Come on. 
• Pokespot distribution: In a sense, yeah, Pokespots distributed in malls and public places is one thing, but it really puts people in more rural areas to be in a disadvantage. I have no Pokespot in the block in my house and while I'm lucky enough to have a couple near where I work, a lot of people really have to travel a fair distance just to get Pokeballs. Speaking of which...
• More ways to get Pokeballs: After you first run out of Pokeballs, you really need to stay around a Pokespot for several hours, waiting for the thing to turn purple and then blue, before you can replenish your stock. And believe me, you run out of Pokeballs really quickly. Really wished some Pokemon dropped a pokeball or two as loot or something.
• More ways to encounter Pokemon: Yeah, part of the game's charm is in its simplicity, but the April Fools' Google trailer had them use the app as a fishing rod to fish in watery areas, and I feel that it would be a far better option to really integrate water areas instead of just having Magikarps and Goldeens pop up wherever.
• More ways to battle: I would love to battle and maybe get some XP with... I dunno. NPC trainers? Lesser NPC gyms? The gang war aspect is awesome, but my 500/600-CP Nidoqueens and Golbats can't even touch the level 1000's that's populating every local gym unless I get a couple of friends to raid them WoW-style. 
• Battery Consumption: Obvious, really. Some notification systems might kind of work. Maybe it works only near pokespots or something?
• Better Servers: Sorry, but the Pokemon Go servers are down. Yeah, fuck that shit.