Teen Titans S01E13 Review: Robin's Father

Teen Titans, Season 1, Episode 13: Apprentice, Part 2

What an explosive finale! While the Titans are all worried about where Robin has disappeared off too, Slade sends Robin in to steal something for him, with explicit instructions not to say anything to his friends and to fight them, lest Slade blows them up with the little nanoscopic probes. This goes for a bit as the Titans go from shocked to reluctantly defending themselves, and I really loved how the Titans tried their best to fight non-lethally, but Robin being forced to, well, go for the figurative kill makes it really heartbreaking when they had to fight each other like that. 

We get a truly brutal moment as Robin aims his newly-acquired thermal blaster at Starfire, who stops fighting and tells Robin that if he truly is evil, she will allow Robin to shoot him. It's a very heartwarming (and shippy!) moment, and Robin actually lowers his gun right until Slade threatens to kill everyone with the nanobots and forces Robin to reluctantly shoot Starfire. Yes, the injuries are non-fatal, but the voice acting and animation make it convincing that Starfire is really hurt -- physically and emotionally -- by this.

Slade encourages Robin to actually fight him like a Starscream, because, well, Slade isn't stupid. He doesn't expect immediate obedience, and rather he wants to break Robin down. The fact that Robin ends up getting outclassed by Slade in this confrontation is excellently done as well, delivering the great show of how creepy and manipulative of a villain Slade is. 

The other Titans aren't completely useless as Cyborg discovers the little nanobots and ends up heading down to confront Slade, wanting to take the risk to bring down Slade, probe or no probe, and this touch of friendship, injects himself with the same probes and makes a gamble. Slade hates to lose, and if Robin dies like this, then Slade's main objective and goal -- to corrupt Robin -- would have failed. Granted, Slade destroying the controller instead of simply shutting it down is a bit of an odd plot development, but it's dramatic all the same, and it's great that it ends up taking the entire team to defeat Slade, showing that, yes, Robin is strong because of his friends and not weakened because of it. 

It might not be perfect because why Slade doesn't have a backup plan for activating the probes, or why he can't just selectively activate them or whatever, but it's a great emotional showdown between Slade and Robin, highlighting how different they ultimately are where it counts, and how despite Slade's attempts at breaking and conditioning Robin (clearly still in its early stages), he's still entirely uncorruptible. Plus, Batman references!

Overall a great first season finale and it exemplifies that even with the kiddification and the more comedy-centric tone that the series has, it's not afraid to explore darker themes and is great at storytelling. Robin doesn't get a lot of chances to really shine in later seasons and takes a bit of a backseat while the spotlight focuses on other characters, but, man, these few plot episodes really work at selling Robin as a really interesting character to me, and it truly is a climatic and exciting season finale. Can't argue with that. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner

• The battle against Slade and Robin happens on the rooftop of a Wayne Enterprises building. Wayne Enterprises, of course, is the company owned by Bruce Wayne/Batman, who is Robin's adopted father and mentor.
• When Slade tells Robin that he may come to see Slade as a father, Robin replies "I already have a father", which immediately cuts to a scene of bats flying across with a little riff of the Batman: Animated Series theme playing. Again, a little sneaky reference at Batman. 
• One of the comics that Beast Boy shows the other Titans in his conspiracy theory for Evil Robin has the title 'Static Shock', a lesser-known DC superhero who had a TV show at around the same time. 

Teen Titans S01E12 Review: Darth Robin

Teen Titans, Season 1, Episode 12: Apprentice, Part 1

Ah, season finales! As far as season finales go, Teen Titans always go for a more serious tone... though this being Teen Titans, there's always some comedy to the whole thing. Having Starfire's allergies to chronotron particles being an actual plot device is hilarious, but the two-parter's focus is still on Robin and Slade. Like 'Masks', this episode shows how similar Slade is to Robin, and as previous episodes have built up, Slade doesn't really care about the generic supervillain plots that other villains in the show like Mad Mod or Trident or Mumbo has, and I don't think it's exemplified as beautifully as the insane plot device, the Chronotron Detonator, being a dud. No, we're not dealing with the generic city-destroying-bombs, blob monsters and armies of robots that are in our comfort zone.

We're dealing with Slade, and the fact that his plans really revolve around Robin. Getting Robin to be obsessed with Slade, forcing Robin to understand that Slade is better than Robin in combat, and Robin's increasingly desperate and unhinged attitude throughout this episode and the instilled paranoia as Robin gets more aggressive, threatening to beat up random construction workers and snapping under the pressure at his friends is all too human and a very great display of how much Slade is corrupting Robin. It's very subtle and very dark for a kid's show that has villains like Mumbo and Control Freak, yeah?

Cinderblock shows up for a minor role as Slade's flunky, but like everything else, it's just a mere pawn to get Robin and Slade alone, and their fighting scene with the very atmospheric shadowy clockwork tower thing is awesome as all hell. Slade's big plan is to make Robin his apprentice, but he's also not stupid enough to believe that Robin will join willingly despite their similarities, so he injected the other Titans with nanobots that will basically explode and kill the other Titans. The episode ends with the chilling show of Robin's uniform being discarded while he dons a Slade-inspired uniform.

Definitely a great episode and an excellent setup for a confrontation between Robin, Slade and the other Titans.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• I have never talked in-depth about Slade's origins, have I? Well, it's a good time to do so as any. In the comics, Slade Wilson is the alter-ego of Deathstroke the Terminator, though this cartoon uses 'Slade' as the codename instead of Deathstroke because, y'know, censorship. In the comics Deathstroke is a mercenary and less of a criminal mastermind, but his obsession towards the Teen Titans and especially Robin (well, Nightwing in most of their clashes) is still more or less the same. Deathstroke has experienced a big resurgence in popularity in recent years, showing up as enemies to both Green Arrow and Batman, though he is still the quintessential Teen Titans villain in the comics. 
• The opening sequence of Robin unmasking Slade and finding his own face is a reference to the dark cave in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Boku no Hero Academia 113 Review: We Need a Gang Orca Spin-off

My Hero Academia, Chapter 113: After the Exam

So, yeah, it appears that Inasa didn't pass this stage of the test, and neither did Todoroki. Which makes sense! A lesser manga might have the examiners go 'they fucked up, but it was all fine in the end because they learned their lesson', but not so for My Hero Academia. Yes, Gang Orca was impressed by the fire-whirlwind that trapped him and forced him to drench himself with a bottle of water, and apparently he 'could've gotten hurt' if the battle had gone on for longer (though he was wearing power suppression bracelets). Yes, Midoriya and the other examinees ended up defeating the Orca gangsters. But it doesn't preclude the fact that Todoroki and Inasa very much fucked up and nearly gotten, well, each other, other heroes (Shindou, if Midoriya hadn't shown up) and potentially the entire group of rescuees. 

It's cool to see Midoriya leading the other 1A students in fighting the Orca mooks, seeing Ojirou of all people be useful with his giant tail. That shot of Ashido and Tokoyami just bursting through a group of enemies is a very cool shot, too. Tsuyu apparently can camouflage herself now, a new power that's related to her 'frogginess'. And Mr. Hairy Bigfoot from Shiketsu High's powers are what you expect from a walking lump of hair -- hair tendrils.

Gang Orca breaks through the fire whirlwind, and his roaring face is absolutely fucking cool. Midoriya charges in and gets a kick in (which Gang Orca still tanks) but the exam is over, and, well, at least they survived. Gang Orca is all like 'well, I might be in some trouble if this dragged on' in his monologue, but you're not fooling me. You're awesome. 

The announcement is done a short while later, and we get explicit confirmation that Midoriya (and Mineta, and Momo) passed, but Inasa is not on the list, and while we don't get the confirmation, Todoroki seems to have flunked too.

One Piece 844 Review: That's Different

One Piece, Chapter 844: Luffy vs. Sanji

Well, that's different! Everyone and their mother thought that this confrontation was going to be at least more than a little similar to the Luffy/Usopp fight, except, y'know, Sanji can fight a lot better than Usopp can. But no! Sanji is trying to drive Luffty and Nami off, telling them what stupid peasants they are, and unleashing a barrage of Diable Jambe techniques, but Luffy? Luffy sees through it all, knows that Sanji's just faking, which is excellent. As entertaining as it would be to see two of the strongest members of the Straw Hats fight, seeing Luffy actually use his head is very cool.

Luffy just stands there, tanking every single one of Sanji's hits both physical and verbal. Nami gets to slap Sanji one time, but I think she knows, too at the end, though earlier in the fight Nami seems to actually be fucking scared of what's going on. Maybe there was a message exchanged between those two during the slap?

That screaming session as Sanji cries in the carriage, as the bloodied face of Luffy just shouts about how every single hit from Sanji hurt him more than it hurt Luffy, about how Luffy will stand there and wait forever, and starve to death, if Sanji doesn't come. It's a very touching moment, a very awesome moment that puts this in a different light than the Robin situation as well -- whereas Robin has just accepted her fate as not being allowed to find happiness, and it needed Luffy and friends charging in to show her that there are people who love her, Sanji knows all of it. It's the combined reasons of being afraid of what's going to happen Zeff and the other Straw Hats that's preventing him from taking a stand. In a way, it's forcing Sanji to basically be the main character and make his own stand against his family, which I can't wait to see.

There's really not much to say about this chapter, because it's just one long confrontation between the two that's pretty well-written. I like this chapter quite a lot. 

Toriko 393 Review: Conclusion?

Toriko, Chapter 393: Acacia's Feelings

Apparently that's it for Toriko and Neo, with the third demon showing up last chapter and just finger poking Neo to death. We get some closure to the fight between Toriko and Neo, though, so it's definitely a better ending than Bleach's aborted Ichigo/Juhabach fight. We get a flashback showing that Acacia is good all along. Or started off as a nice guy who's just trying to tame the appetite demon attached to him and free Pair's friend, touching Pair so much with his friendship and his tireless attempts to atone for his appetite demon's sins.

I don't buy the 'Neo isn't evil' nonsense that Pair spouts, and apparently everything is part of a super elaborate plan by Acacia and Pair, something that probably evolved and got fucked up over time. Ichiryuu is apparently one of Acacia's plans, and Ichiryuu refused to kill Acacia-Neo when he had the chance. 

Midora gets a chance to say goodbye to the now-lucid Acacia, and they get a short moment before Acacia's destruction takes over. They talk about how Froese showed Midora love, how Acacia was the one that destroyed Joie to spare Midora the pain (but he killed Jirou, dickwads!) and honestly this just shows one of the most fundamental flaws of the finale. I love Toriko the character, but unlike Midora, Jirou and Ichiryuu, Toriko has zero attachment to Acacia/Neo. Father Acacia may be, but that was just glossed over and nothing concrete came out of it. So having Toriko be the one to overpower Acacia felt just... eh. 

Teppei forces himself to relevance because Aimaru brings him to the center of the Earth so Teppei can do knocking on Earth and stop its destruction. What about Center? What about the fact that I don't care about Teppei, who has not been interesting since, oh, the start of the Neo arc? The reappearance of Jirou's ghost is very, very welcome, though.

Some talk about how the cycle of flavour has been broken, and how Acacia is going to return all of the ingredients back to Earth. Not sure if we're going to space, because all this seems to be quite final... so yeah. It's an okay sendoff, I guess? I dunno. At least we're wrapping plot threads up. 

Pokemon Sun & Moon: Final Starter Evolutions...

Yeah, so a new trailer showed up last night. It basically confirms that the leaks -- both the datamine and the Chinese leaks -- are accurate. And the starter evolutions, in particular, are very real. Which is freaking unfortunate, because I think two of those designs are straight-up ew, and even my favourite among the three felt like a sub-par design. Mind you, the official artwork and the 3D models do make the designs a fair bit more presentable, but I still really find this a very underwhelming set.

Rowlet evolves into Decidueye, which is honestly a weird but somewhat cool name. Decidue and eye. And Decidueye isn't a Grass/Flying like literally everyone and their mother expected, but he's Grass/Ghost! That was unexpected, yet makes a lot of sense considering the whole owl theme. I like him. He's an owl Robin Hood wearing the doofiest pair of circular glasses. Oh, and is it hilarious that Rowlet has a bow-tie and Decidueye uses a bow and an arrow?

Litten evolves into Incineroar, which... isn't the most horrible name. And he's a Fire/Dark, which is cool since Fire/Fighting starters are just a bit of an overran joke nowadays. Incineroar, ironically, would actually make sense as a Fire/Fighting, because he's a wrestler. Not an epic and fun-looking one like Hawlucha or Machamp, though. Incineroar just looks like a badly designed humanoid tiger. I have to admit that he has a lot of great animations, like the lariat whirlwind or the taunting pose, but man he just looks so ugly. I probably will grow to tolerate him, though, simply because generation VII had a far worse-looking cat pokemon in it.

Primarina isn't the best design out their either, trying to pull off a Milotic or Xernas-esque majesty but just having so much nonsense tacked on to her design that she just looks weirdly overburdened with unnecessary details. She's Water/Fairy, which is a pretty cool typing, even if it's not one I expected. Primarina isn't bad, but I just can't bring myself to find her looking cool. That animation when her hair goes all kraken when she attacks is decent, but not enough to make me like her.

The three starters have a signature move. Decidueye has 'Spirit Shackle', which is basically Mean Look, possibly with damage. Incineroar has this well-animated spinning wrestling clothesline called Darkest Lariat, which ignores stat changes... that's a decent move, and a great animation, if only Incineroar wasn't such a bad design. Primarina can... do some stupid nonsense like healing your opponent of burn. Um, what? Hopefully it does damage and functions like a Wake-Up Slap, otherwise it'll be the most stupid special attack ever.

All three starters also share typings with previous Pokemon -- Decidueye with Trevenant and Gourgeist; Incineroar with Houndoom; Primarina with Azumarill. Just felt like putting it out there.

The three other Tapu deities are revealed, and they share this absolutely insane-looking Z-Move, Guardian of Alola, where they summon a gigantic energy body, the Tapu transform into their totem head form, and attach themselves into the giant body who smashes the ground and blows it the FUCK up. The three other Tapus, as everyone guessed, all guard a single island, and apparently despite sharing colour schemes with Orirocio, they do't share the typing. They're all part-Fairy, which is cool. We do need some more badass fairies. They also immediately cast one of those 'Terrain' moves from Generation VI as their abilities, which is... unique? Not sure if it's useful, though.

Tapu Lele is the pink one that looks like a little girl peeking out of a jack-in-the-box. Her artwork shows some weird multi-coloured eyes, which I really like. Tapu Lele is Psychic/Fairy, and apparently she scatters scales that stimulates people, either healing the wounded or providing way too much stimulation (ahem) for non-wounded people, and Tapu Lele is apparently a borderline psychopath. Hmm. A cool design, a way to make the 'cutesy' one of the bunch look somewhat battle-ready,

Tapu Bulu is a bull. Get it? Bulu? Bull? Kudos for the effort of trying to make a totem look like a bull, but the end result is a bit suspect. The unfolded totem head thing looks messy and half-assed, with two random horns glued onto it and a weird body that just grows down with weird tendrils and cow hooves hanging from his bottom. Oh, and a bell, because his design isn't already stupidly busy enough. Tapu Bulu is Grass/Fairy, and what he lacks in visual appeal, he makes up by being a bit of a badass, using entire trees as clubs and creating giant horns made up of wood. In theory, anyway. Easily my least favourite Tapu, though.

Tapu Fini (fin, heh heh) is a bit cooler. It's like this narwhal-inspired totem that splits open where a shark's mouth would be to reveal the mermaid-esque fairy within, with long hair, fin-themed eyelashes and webbed claws. Tapu Fini's cool. She's Water/Fairy, obviously, which just invalidates poor Primarina so much. See? This is how you make a design both elegant and complex, not whatever you're trying with Primarina. I think Fini hands-down wins the best Tapu contest, though Lele and Koko aren't half-bad either..

Oh, and a new dude! Cosmog is a little floating mini-galaxy shaped like a Mickey head that's apparently something passed down in the Alolan royal family. It's, like, something that the leaks like to place next to Lunala and call her a baby Lunala. Which may be true. I dunno. Cosmog is Pyschic, which supports this little theory, but at the same time I'll be fine if it's just its own thing that's sorta-related to Lunala but not exactly its pre-evolution. So long as they don't do a Phione-style nonsense again.

Oh, and Alolan Persian looks as stupid as ever, and his bio isn't flattering at all, describing him as the most pampered, shittiest self-indulgent cats in the world that often underestimate their enemies. Fuck Alolan Persian, fuck off and die. Incineroar, as bad as his design is, at least has some cool wrestling moves in him, and he's a fighter, not a pampered little ball-faced shit like Alolan Persian. Alolan Persian has... Fur Coat as an ability? Fuck off, I don't even care. If their mission is to make a cat uglier than Purugly, they definitely succeeded. What the fuck is this thing, even.

Also, because they want to surprise us with all the leaked Pokedex sprites, apparently we will be forming the Pokemon League as like a post-game or some shit, and it'll see the return of Cynthia, Wally... plus Alolan versions of Red and Blue! Blue basically switches his outfit, but Red looks like he's got one hell of a haircut that if not for the colour coordination he would be easily mistaken as someone else. Again, as much as the G1 fanboy in me is squeeing at Red going ... ... ... ... ... I'm a bit pissed at yet another example of the other generations being relatively pushed aside for Generation One again, though at least Wally and Cynthia showing up means that it won't just be like the Kanto gym leaders.

Overall, I'm hyped for the game, that's for sure. I just kinda wished the leaks didn't happen so things like Cosmog would still surprise me. Please, Nintendo, be a troll and actually have like 20-30 new Pokemon/Alolan Forms not leaked in the game.

Fairy Tail 507 Review: Oh Look Flashbacks

Fairy Tail, Chapter 507: Uncle

Erza cries! Flashbacks to stuff about how Natsu and Gray are angry whenever Erza cries! Natsu and Gray realizing they're complete nincompoop idiots! Random narration by Makarov's ghost or some shit! END and Devil Slayer randomly dispelling for no reason other than tears! Dramatic hug completely ruined by Natsu and Gray's completely shocked expression of being pushed into boobs!

Oh, and Juvia is alive and Gray realizes he's an idiot! Natsu has demon possession and rage, what's your excuse for not checking if Juvia's alive or not, Gray? Or for attacking your friend to a death-match? You dumb fucks.

Does anyone find this dramatic? Does anyone find this good? Does anyone find this confrontation between the main characters anything but tensionless regurgitation of the worst kind? Why am I still reading this?

Oh, the Oracion Seis are fighting... Hades-Greed-fusion! I had to look it up, I totally forgot his name. It's August, apparently. This is... actually a pretty cool fight, mostly because as little as the Oracion Seis ultimately matter, it's something new. Yes, it's just August being a badass and countering every single spell that the Oracion Seis throws at them, but it's not just the good guys winning via friendship speeches and random deus ex machinas being pulled out of the author's ass. August has been built up to be the master of magic or whatever, and seeing August  take out Cobra and Racer in quick succession, then create an even bigger spiral whirlwind thing to fuck up Midnight's silly nonsense powers is hilarious. Jellal hasn't done anything yet, of course, and he's definitely going to be the one to take down August, and hopefully we'll get something cool out of it.

Knowing Fairy Tail, though, Erza or Natsu will randomly show up and steal the show. Or Brandish will show up, cry a bit and August will relent. Because this manga is nothing if not repetitive.

And after doing something cool like cutting away to other more interesting characters, and to show a fight that isn't stupidly one-sided, Eileen shows up, and apparently she's not Erza's mother, but she is Erza. Oh my utter fuck, everyone prepare for some silly Mary Sue story that'll reveal that Erza is like a goddess split into two bodies or some bullshit nonsense like that.

Hey, kudos for the manga for not bringing Makarov back to life two chapters after his death. Though everything else surrounding it is so utter shit that the concept of an actually possibly permanent death (still expecting him to be returned to life) is absolutely ruined by the fact that Makarov's sacrifice isn't heroic, it's stupid, senseless and pointless.

Pokemon Sun & Moon Demo: A Review

So yeah, around a week or so ago, Nintendo released the Pokemon: Sun & Moon demo. They first did this demo with Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, unless I'm misremembering my Pokemon knowledge, and it's basically a very truncated version of the full game, allowing you access to only one city and one route, showing off the game engine, battle system, how you move around (the 3D movement actually feels 3D, not 3D-on-a-2D-grid like the sixth generation) some fancy new Pokemon and some additional features.

It's... a very, very short demo, and I get that it's supposed to appeal to people who have no idea how to play a Pokemon game, but a good chunk of it is just exposition to tell us about the new Alolan region and just walk around the small city (Hau'oli... I will never remember these cities whose names aren't based off trees) where nearly everything is disabled, some dialogue with our rival buddy Hau, professor Kukui, our mom and the Team Skull admin... Plumeria?

It's a short demo, is all I'm saying. The player character, Sun, basically shows up and is given a Greninja that can transform into Ash-Greninja by a mysterious person (the Greninja's OT is Ash, though), he goes around to the immigration office or whatever where he meets Hau, they get attacked by Team Skull gangstas, meet Professor Kukui, go through a trial which is basically a highlight of the photography system, fight Plumeria, and that's it! On the way, a trainer allows you to test out the Ash Greninja transformation, the 'boss' of the trial is a Totem Pokemon, and Plumeria's fight allows you to use your very first Z-Move. And in the post-game you can summon a Tauros and ride around to smash shit up, and there's some Pokemon capture challenge I haven't played.

It's basically a demo, and while at the same time it's cool to see the new models and see a bunch of new Pokemon (just five, really -- Pikipek, Rockruff, Yungoos, Jangmo-o and Hakamo-o) it's also a bit underwhelming that we spend the entire game with previous-generation Pokemon like Greninja and Pikachu. I dunno. I guess it's cool?

Don't really have much to say about the demo. Here's some bullet points about the good, the bad and the I-don't-care.

Things I love:

• The new battle backgrounds look absolutely gorgeous. It's one thing that I really enjoyed about XY and ORAS and really hoped they did a lot more of, and it seems like they're improving on it.
• The overworld is gorgeous. We don't see a lot, but the cities look absolutely beautiful and detailed, from the PokeStarbucks, to all the little shelves in the Pokemart, to the brochures and whatnot in the ferry station and the city hall, to the water dispenser in the police station... there's just a lot of little details that really amaze me, and as someone who grew up on the old sprite games where a tatami mat, a cupboard, a table and a TV is all that makes up a person's home, it's really amazing. The Ten Carat Cave also makes the cave look so much more attractive. People wouldn't complain about Rock Tunnels and Mt. Coronets if they looked as gorgeous as this.
• It appears that HMs are all but gone, with your ability to call on Pokemon rides (like your personal Uber) taking its place. The Tauros that you ride -- WHICH IS AWESOME BY THE WAY -- seems to be the substitute to Rock Smash, because that's what it does. Also, riding Tauros itself is easily the best part of the demo. I've never really liked Tauros, but man this is awesome.
• Rockruff is adorable and he's 100% going to be a member of my team. I'm not one of those people who plan out the six members of their party before starting a game, but I'm pretty sure Rockruff will be on it.
• I love Team Skull for all the wrong reasons. I just can't take them seriously as antagonists! They're just these dudes trying too hard with some ghetto 'yo yo yo' and their stupid rapping movements (which are a credit to the animation department, by the way) as they talk, and their big bug-eyed defeat pose. Holy shit, the Team Skull grunts may be the silliest and most ridiculous grunts of all time.

Things I dislike:

• There better be a way to disable the 'this move is super effective' nonsense on the bottom screen. It's near-impossible not to look at, because whether the move is effective or not is very in-your-face, but come on now. This is one of those things that truly 'make the game too easy', as opposed to things like Super Training or Hyper Training or whatever. One of the biggest fun in Pokemon is to figure out the typings of Pokemon you've never seen before, and just giving us the answers is very irritating.
• Hau's such a nice, laid-back guy, and, wow, is a rival that's a bit of a dick too much to ask for? Blue and Silver are easily the best parts of the first two generation games, whereas all the other 'rivals' have been nice buddies... and honestly, is it too much to ask for to have both types of 'rivals' in the same game? Even as a 'friendly' rival, Hau feels way too generic. Barry, Cheren, Bianca and Hugh at least had character arcs that make them a lot less boring than just 'your buddy who likes Pokemon'. 
• Ash Greninja. The animation for the dude is cool, but really, couldn't this have been a Mega Evolution? And must it be called ASH Greninja, not Battle Greninja or Bond Greninja or Mega Greninja or Primal Greninja or something? It just bugs me. I'm not a huge fan of Ash-Greninja's head, too, though the rest of him, from his transformed limbs to the water shuriken no his back, all look absolutely cool.

Things I'm indifferent about:

• Both Professor Kukui and Plumeria are... okay. Kukui seems to be taking the 'Sycamore and Juniper are hot professors' into a far too extreme direction by literally having him wander around baring his abs and pectorals with a labcoat, and he apparently lets himself get hit by Pokemon attacks. Plumeria is... very fanservicey but not too risque, but she just feels very flat as a villain. Her weird pink-yellow hair will take time to get used too, though.
• Z-Moves. On one hand, the animation for Gigavolt Havoc is cool. On the other hand, I dunno. Maybe it's the text that shows up when the moves are used, maybe it's additional favouritism to a particular bunch of Pokemon, but I just felt like it's unnecessary. We'll see. I had similar reservations to Mega Evolution before and now I like it, so we'll see.
• Pokemon Snap. Or, er, photography or whatever. It felt too much like a weak minigame where you just take photos and do nothing, really, unlike Snap where there's a bit of interactivity to force spawning of Pokemon.

What else is there to say about? I dunno. I just felt like they could've showcased a bit more, added like three or four more Pokemon into the game to make it less small. I mean, there's like, what, a grand total of ten Pokemon in the game, total? Greninja, Pikachu, Rockruff, Pikipek, Yungoos, Hakamo-o, Jangmo-o, Golbat, plus the NPC Tauroses, Slowpokes and Machamps? 

Nanatsu no Taizai 197 Review: Hauser's Dad

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 197: Answers

Bit of a slower chapter. The first two or three pages of this chapter is devoted to Hauser's family life, with parents that, well, just look like nice folk, they just don't particularly care that their son is some kind of fancy-ass Holy Knight, and it's basically a little breather chapter, showing how Merlin has used her powers to rebuild the buildings in the city. We have a bit of a recap moment with Merlin taking a bath and Ban, Elizabeth and Escanor talking to Meliodas -- Meliodas turning Ban into a splat on the wall, Escanor making poems and all that, trying to cheer Meliodas up. 

King Barta gives a long speech to the assembled troops, and they're about to appoint the new captain of the holy knights, and basically everyone and their mother expects Gilthunder (who's MIA... did we know that? I forgot) to be the leader, but it ends up being Hauser, the acting captain, a.k.a. Substitute Gilthunder. It's a bit obvious that Hauser's going to be it since he got all the spotlight in the early pages, and I... honestly don't care? Hauser has been absolutely uninteresting as a character after his role as a 'nice guy in a group of supposedly-corrupt knights' and playing as a foil to Diane. Now that the sins are all buddy-buddy with the kingdom again, Hauser has honestly ceased to be interesting, and is just 'one of those guys'.

It's funny how Hauser without hair gel looks nothing like Hauser, and his dad looks more like him than he actually does.

Merlin decides to get all the seven sins assembled, and apparently they're keeping "Goat's Sin of Lust" Gowther in the dungeons below, where he's, well, being Gowther. Going all "I'm the Goat's Sin" while striking poses and whatnot. They let him out, and suddenly he says "I'm the Ten Commandments' Selflessness, Gowther", before the screen turns dark and he goes all kyurinnnnn whatever that means. It's a bit of a surprising twist with Gowther, that's to be sure... but it's just... well, kinda there, I guess? Maybe we'll get a big Gowther arc with Gowther finally turning against the Sins, but I feel like it came a bit too suddenly, with Gowther himself not really having developed that much ever since the whole 'doll' revelation was done, and he's either sat in the sidelines or just hung around being weird. I dunno. 

Meanwhile King and Diane are naked. King is trying to make something grow and is unable to do so (UM!) while Diane is trying to get a dance right. I honestly don't really care about these two? The amnesia subplot was the worst thing to have happened to King and Diane, really, since it's so aborted and nothing really came out of it. Hopefully they'll get over it quickly. 

Gotham S03E05 Review: Love Dodecahedron

Gotham, Season 3, Episode 5: Anything For You

Is it February already? Because last week's episode of Gotham was almost entirely devoted to characters vying for affection. If not the romantic kind like Gordon/Valerie, Leslie/Gordon, Butch/Tabitha, Bruce/Selina, then it's Butch and Riddler vying for Penguin's "love" as his favourite henchman. There's definitely a bit of obvious shipping thrown our way, especially on the Penguin-Riddler front. And for the most part? It's actually enjoyable, hilarious, fluff.

The main plot centers around an attempted assassination plot on Penguin by the Red Hood Gang -- a nice callback to the little piece of Batman's lore from Gotham's earlier seasons -- and Penguin going on a huge warpath on the bastards that shot up the statue of his saintly mother. Butch is revealed to hire the Red Hood Gang to shoot things up so Butch can play the hero and slay the Red Hoods, while Riddler finds something suspicious and uses his own riddling and detective skills to figure out that Butch did it. Then it's a fun game of blackmailing each other and threatening each other for them to look heroic in front of Penguin, and it's honestly just an insane series of scenes that I can't help but really, really enjoy myself in a way that Gotham has never done for me before. The fact that you're never sure if Riddler was being super-faithful to Penguin or just being your typical villain and planning to take over Penguin's place is also a very fun point that makes this plotline really fun. 

I really expected Butch to die in this one (the show hasn't made him interesting at all since the Gallavan arc, asides from the one bazooka scene) thanks to Riddler's machinations, but Tabitha became relevant as well and apparently heads off to rescue his man. I've never liked Tabitha at all since season two, and I don't care about her at all, but Butch was fun in this episode. Really fun.

Yeah, some of the other extant plotlines happen. Barnes is struggling with the Alice blood and apparently goes all Mr. Hyde near the end of the episode. Mad Hatter is being fucking creepy, dressing a random girl as Alice and killing her. Ivy shows up to remind us that she exists. Leslie's engaged to Mario Falcone, and blabs about this to Riddler. But the main part of the episode? 

Romance.

From Butch forcing himself to pretend to try and kill Penguin so Tabitha won't be hurt, to Tabitha going off to rescue Butch, to Bruce finally confessing his feelings in typical awkward manner to Selina ("I'm confused." "Good."), to Gordon barging in on Valerie seemingly using her womanly wiles to get information for the Jervis Tetch story, to Leslie seemingly baiting Gordon for a reaction regarding the whole engagement thing (huh?)... yeah, how can you not see Penguin and Riddler's not-kiss embrace as anything but meant to be romantic? The only real reason is that Penguin has been mostly asexual throughout the series, being far more obsessed with either getting power or being a good mommy's boy, but his talks about finding someone to share his victories in and the shocked and overwhelmed face he has when he hugs Riddler... I'm not sure what I think of this sudden change, but damn if it isn't entertaining.

I dunno. It's a pretty solid episode, and while probably not one of the best to have come out of this show, it's one of the most fun. 

Teen Titans S01E11 Review: Fast & Furious

Teen Titans, Season 1, Episode 11: Car Trouble

I didn't really like this episode that much as a kid, though my opinion of it has improved on rewatching it now. The main plot is a simple 'boy loves his car' moment, with Cyborg going absolutely goo-goo-ga-ga with the newly-created T-Car, bordering on the obsession that honestly a lot of people have with their shiny new cars. On the way, the T-Car gets carjacked, of course, and it ends up finally at the hands of Gizmo, a recurring villain from the first episode, and Cyborg ends up finally destroying the T-Car to defeat the other villain of the episode, Overload. I've used to think that it's a filler episode that overran its 'Cyborg freaks out over his car' gimmick to the ground... but it's a lot better than I thought.

Sure, Gizmo is slightly annoying, Overload is a one-note character (though a cool design as a chip able to manifest a giant electrical body) and the Cyborg-swoons-over-his-car gets boring after a while, but the relationship between Cyborg and Raven, and the moments they have, are really well done. Raven acknowledging the importance that the T-Car has to Cyborg, yet also nothing that it's ultimately, well, just a car that can be rebuilt, and Cyborg himself ending up growing up enough to blow up his own car so that he doesn't let the villain run amuck is great stuff. And the ending showing Raven being more open and actually helping Cyborg to rebuild the second T-Car is pretty cool.

I don't really have much to say, really. The plot's straightforward, the villains are one-note (Gizmo is at the height of his annoyingness here) but it holds up better than I thought it did. So yeah, it's a pleasant surprise.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• While there is a minor Flash villain called Overload, he has absolutely nothing to do with the show's Overload and it seems like the dude's original to the show. Man, the DC Easter Eggs Corner is very thin in these Teen Titans episodes, yeah?
• Metropolis, Superman's city, gets mentioned by Cyborg early in the episode, one of the few moments where the other non-Teen-Titans DC characters get mentioned. 

Pokemon Top Tens: Best and Worst of Generation VI

Cutting it close to the release of Sun and Moon, here is the final installment of my top ten favourites (and top five least favourite) Pokemon in Generation VI. The sixth generation is a bit of a different beast due to the... very little Pokemon that we got. Technically we got a crapton of Mega Evolutions, but I already did a Mega Evolution list a while back, and this is more about the species that are truly native to Kalos... of which there really aren't a lot. Add that to the fact that a lot of earlier-generation Pokemon are so common in Kalos... my team throughout Y certainly was made up partially of older faces like Venusaur, Aerodactyl, Blaziken and Zoroark... hey, I can't help it! I want to use those fancy-ass Mega Evolutions, and handing me a Generation I starter just isn't the way to really promote the new dudes.

I don't really have much to say, so let's just go with it.

#10 Fennekin

Come on, foxes are adorable.

My starter for Generation VI is Fennekin... and honestly, as much as I tried to like Fennekin, he's just a bit overshadowed by... well, the far-more-awesome Greninja from the same generation, for one, but also by other Fire-starters. See, in XY you get a Speed Boost Torchic for free thanks to an event, and you're also handed a Generation I starter about a quarter through the game, so the Kalos starters honestly feel a bit pushed aside. And while Fennekin is possibly one of my favourite basic-level starters, his evolution kind of leaves something to be desired. A fox wizard is cool in some way, but Delphox's huge, gigantic ear-hairs just puts me off, and his in-game model really could've looked better. Also the fact that he's a bit of a one-trick pony in terms of being a huge glass cannon, and while I normally enjoy these kinds of fragile-but-powerful Pokemon like Chandelure, Zoroark or Espeon... Delphox just isn't as impressive as any of those dudes. Out of the starters I've ever used, I am quite sad to rank Delphox as the lowest among them, and I definitely used Venusaur a lot more than him.

Fennekin, though? Fennekin is adorable. The nice contrast between orange and red, the cute little flame ear-hairs that aren't quite as randomly huge as Delphox's, and generally being adorable as all hell. And while I like nine more Kalos Pokemon more than Fennekin, I still really like him and he's still the Generation VI starter that impressed me the most. (Mine is called Kurama because I have no creativity in giving nicknames)

#9 Noivern

He's got the sonic and the boom.

Noivern is just a badass monster, isn't he? He's a Dragon/Flying, which isn't something new, but he's this gigantic dragon bat that looks like a wyvern, like a gargoyle, and the black main colour is accentuated very well with teal and purple, and the little sound gimmick, with two giant speaker-ears on Noivern's head, makes Noivern just a very cool monster. I honestly genuinely thought that Noivern was going to be the pseudo legendary of the region, either the middle or final evolution. Noivern's still pretty fucking awesome, though, and it's a shame that he gets relatively little spotlight in the game, only really being used by one of the Elite Four members. And beyond looking pretty awesome, I really like how Noivern is a nice variation of the bat design, focusing on a sleeker hunter than the stylized, more cartoony Zubat line, or the furry and cute Woobat line. Noivern just exudes power, with a more realistic, predatory look, and incorporating the supersonic echolocation as a part of Noviern's abilities to use sound-based attacks. Certainly a lot cooler than Exploud's gigantic and gross mouth.

#8 Goomy

<3

Goodra is a bit underwhelming, though I don't exactly hate him... I just feel that it's a bit weird that a huge slug dinosaur is pure-Dragon instead of, oh, Dragon-Water or something. Goomy, though? Goomy is just a cute little purple slug blob! Goomy is just adorable, just this cute little goop that's adorable in the cartoon, in the fan arts, in the games... He's just this little blob that is also a fucking dragon by the way, eat your hearts out, Charizard, Gyarados, Lugia, and all of you. Goomy is this little adorable blob that you can just imagine just plops on your head and just hang out and just be happy about everything that's happening. Goomy's cute. Also he's a slug-dragon. How can you not love him?

HE IS FUCKING ADORABLE, OKAY

God of Venison

#7 Xerneas
I got Pokemon Y, but Xerneas is very awesome. I wasn't sure about his design at first, but I've grown to be really impressed by him. He's a powerful and majestic looking deer, with the metallic blue and the golden sword-legs, as well as a very impressive antler that when activated looks absolutely regal with those pretty-ass rainbow glowy stuff. As far as legendaries go Xerneas isn't the most creative, just turning a deer slightly more metallic and giving him a pretty awesome rainbow antlers. And while I really wished they had made the antlers not quite so insanely large -- Xerneas must get a crapton of neck pain -- he's still a pretty majestic Pokemon that higlights the more regal and powerful side of this brand-new Fairy type, and Xerneas is just a beast, arguably the most powerful among the Kalos Life/Death trio. Geomancy isn't a joke! It's a Pokemon that I genuinely just love because of his design.

#6 Klefki

Jingle Jangle Motherfuckers

A lot of people hate on Klefki. Either because of his uninspired design ("oh, a keychain Pokemon?") or because of his absolutely irritating Prankster ability that allows it to paralyze all of your team before they can do jack shit. But I love Klefki's design! He's not a keychain, he's a little fairy that looks like a keychain, going around stealing keys. Klefki's just the silver portions. And the combination of 'kleptomaniac' and 'key'? Brilliant! Klefki taps into the more mischievous side of fairy lore, and adds a nice reminder that not all fairies are just cutesy Flabebes and Clefairies that just want to hang out and dance and play. Some of them are outright glorious dicks, and Klefki is one of those.

I never raised a Klefki, but my friend raised a very, very irritating and competitive one, who had been the bane of my existence. Steel and Fairy, as it turns out, makes a pretty deadly combination that cancels out a lot of each other's weaknesses, with nothing short of Earthquakes (eliminated with an Air Balloon) and Flamethrowers able to cleanly take a Klefki out. Being fairy type means that this keychain is a dragonslayer, and being steel type means that it's as toxic to other anti-dragon fairies. Jingle jingle, motherfuckers, this adorable little keychain can fuck up Pokemon gods. What do you have to say to that? I absolutely love Klefki. What an insane fucker. I just imagine real-life Klefkis being supreme shit-eating trolls.

#5 Greninja

Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!

Greninja's just awesome, okay? Yeah, the anime focuses on him too much and made that stupid Ash Greninja thing, but man, Greninja is hands-down the coolest of the three Kalos starters. A sleek frog ninja with long arms? Its dark blue colours is supremely cool, as is its head horns. The tongue scarf is honestly a bit gross, but whatever. I also absolutely like how Greninja's eyes can swap out between being half-asleep if he's in amie, and serious mode in battle. He's not just a master ninja, he's also a very chill frog dude in his downtime. And he's actually fucking terrifying in battle, too. Greninja's hidden ability is Protean, which literally changes his type depending on the attack he's using. Uzumaki Naruto, get out of the way, Greninja is a true master of ninja arts!

Water Shuriken is an absolutely cool attack, too, and it's extra awesome in the anime when he goes full, well, Naruto-style Rasen-shuriken with water. And his other signature move, Mat Block, just has him hitting down the floor and summoning two ninja mats to block attacks for both him and his buddy. Greninja is Water/Dark, which is a very appropriate typing for a frog ninja, but like a true ninja he's utterly unpredictable, able to launch a barrage of surprisingly diverse attacks. His fragility is almost of no consequence because Greninja will swoop in, strike hard, strike fast, swap between his multiple attacks to always hit for STAB damage, and absolutely wreck an unprepared team. My competitive Protean Greninja... actually came from a Trade and he has a Japanese name. In my head I call it Koga after the Generation I gym leader (Jiraiya is too obvious of a nickname).

Let's ignore the existence of Ash Greninja, shall we.

#4 Talonflame

The Bane of Smogon

Talonflame is another one that's rendered annoying by competitive play, because it's a bit silly, to be honest. He gets priority for all Flying-type moves, which he already deals huge damage due to his respectable Attack stat, STAB and the ability to hang on to a Life Orb. But in addition to Brave Birding every single living thing on earth, Talonflame is also able to Roost, meaning he can heal upwards to half his health before the enemy can react. Talonflame is just a beast, and he's a very, very cool-looking starter bird, possibly the coolest among them now that I think of it. He's also the first that actually breaks the Normal/Flying mould by being Fire/Flying. He's got a very cool name despite it just slapping two words together, he's got a very cool design, and, I dunno. I just really like Talonflame's design, okay? I don't even care that he's irritating as all get-out in competitive games, basically far worse than Big Game Hunters and Dr. Booms in Hearthstone. I don't give a fuck, mostly because I don't really play competitive games, and in all the competitive games I play seeing a Talonflame run smack dab into a Ferrothorn and killing itself, or crippling itself by attacking an Aegislash is hilarious. I just kinda love Talonflame. Mine is called Mockingjay because of Hunger Games. It's a bit obvious, really. Girl on fire, bird insignia and all that. Nothing much to say about Talonflame. I really like Fletchling, too! What an adorable little robin he is.

#3 Hawlucha

LUCHA LIBRE

Oh man, I don't really watch a lot of actual wrestling, but I absolutely love super-hammy, exaggerated parodies of wrestling shows and the sheer hammy energy that goes into crafting these colourful luchadors. Bleach's Mask de Masculine is easily one of the best and most hilarious part of its meandering and ultimately truncated final arc, and Hawlucha is just... this absolutely ridiculous, brightly-coloured wrestling bird that goes around punching and kicking people and doing insane suplexes, and I really am sad that this isn't better represented in the games. Hawlucha is 100% the only reason I bothered to look up anime episodes after missing out on everything between Hoenn and Kalos, just to see the ridiculousness of this fucking bird pulling off a wrestling takedown on things like Ursarings and Machamps, and in every single goddamned scene he is in the background of, Ash's Hawlucha is just posing and posing and doing all sorts of hammy flexing moves. Hawlucha is just awesome! His wings form a cape, his facial marks resemble a luchador mask and he's even got a FLYING PRESS special move that allows it to jump into the air and press the motherloving hell out of anything unfortunate enough to face it. Oh, and Hawlucha has access to the very first dual-typed moves ever, which is awesome as all hell. Yeah, I really like Hawlucha. I named mine El Masculino.

#2 Yveltal

All will BURN beneath the
shadow of my wings.

Yveltal truly blew me away when I saw the XY trailer. Xerneas is a fancy-ass deer, and it's a regal legendary Pokemon, and then this thing just flies through the skies, this majestic death bird that's all black and red, with claws at the ends of its wings and huge tail, a very badass looking beak and those two cool curved horns. Yveltal is just very cool looking, and his lore? He is literally the embodiment of death. If he's alive, he's going to lay destruction to everything on the world, killing everything and all. If he dies? He sucks all the life in a huge radius to itself, leaving people around it dead anyway. There's no fighting this thing unless you're Xerneas. And honestly it's what makes Pokemon Y's story flow so much better -- weaponizing Yveltal makes so much more sense than weaponizing Xerneas.

Yveltal can do a kame-hame-ha style laser beam that tears apart the ground like a space laser, appropriately named Oblivion Wing in one of the best animations in the entirety of the Generation VI engine. (Tangentially, Palkia's Spacial Rend is also very awesome in the Gen VI engine) And, yes, he does look a bit like a bacon bird, but he's still awesome. And have you ever played with a Yveltal in Pokemon Amie? Despite being a monstrous demonic bird that is the flying embodiment of death, he just has the cutest bwaaaa expression when you're patting his head or feeding him macaroons. I just really like Yveltal. Mine is called Deathwing after the Warcraft dragon of death, and Deathwing is coincidentally Oblivion Wing's Japanese name.


Honourable mentions!

• Trevenant: It's not what I would make if I was told to design a demonic ghost tree -- for one, I would use slightly less bottom-heavy proportions -- but man, Trevenant is an awesome thing nonetheless. From the root-legs, to the single glowing eye, to the ghostly black... stuff... in-between the wooden pieces, and the pretty inspired Grass/Ghost typing makes Trevenant a cool Pokemon in my books. 
• Tyrunt, Flabebe and Inkay: They're all so adorable that they fall into a category of Pokemon that I never want to evolve. Tyrunt is an adorable, adorable baby tee-rex that transforms into an overdesigned dinosaur that really could've used a lot less weird random details glued onto it. Flabebe is an adorable little buddy hanging on to the petal of the flower, and while Florges is cool, I like Flabebe a lot more. Inkay is an adorable floating baby squid that's Psychic/Dark for some reason, that evolves into a pretty disturbing-looking calamari witch. 
• Sylveon: Big fan of the Eeveelutions, and Sylveon is actually a very well-designed Pokemon in my opinion, being the right amount of cute and cool. Even if those ribbons are, like, flesh-ribbons or some shit. Her eyes are particularly adorable.

#1 Aegislash

BANKAI!

And my favourite Pokemon... is Aegislash! What an awesome dude. Honedge and Doublade were honestly cool on their own, these poltergeist Ghost/Steel swords that suck out the life force from their owners if you try and wield them like an actual swords. But Aegislash? Aegislash is this gigantic broadsword with two sash-arms and a huge, ornate golden shield. And he alternates between crossing his arms and holding the shield in front of him, or revealing the sword, ready to attack. This manifests in the very awesome Stance Change ability, which allows Aegislash to swap around his (tremendous) defense and attack stats around depending on whether the move he's using is an offensive move or King's Shield -- a variation of Protect that debuffs the enemy if they come into contact with Aegislash. Aegislash is both a tank and a monster in attacking, with his very awesome Ghost/Steel typing allowing an insane range in the Pokemon it can hit. My Aegislash, Kenpachi (named after my faovurite character in Bleach, a manga all about powerful swords), is a monstrous tank that debuffs enemies with King's Shield, buffs itself with Swords Dance while hiding under huge defenses, then one-shots people with STAB Iron Heads and priority Shadow Sneaks. You can even teach it a variety of other elemental powerful physical moves like the Fighting-type Sacred Sword and the rock-type Head Smash, the Dark-type Night Slash. It's a shame you can only get four moves and King's Shield is basically mandatory.

But Aegislash really earned by love when I dabbled in competitive. While I had to bred most of my team -- Talonflame, Rotom, Greninja, Azumarill, Mega Kangaskhan, Ferrothorn and a whole bunch of others I probably talked about before -- Aegislash is the only member of my competitive team that made the smooth transition from being part of my in-game party straight into the competitive scene, partially because of his already appropriate nature and somewhat-decent IVs, but it's definitely brings a huge smile to my face when I use a partner I've traveled and relied on during the story mode to challenge these hyper-competitively-bred Pokemon.

Plus Aegislash is just super-cool! He's a Pokemon that attends kings and secretly manipulates them. What an evil fucker! And I really like how the entire Honedge line has different animations in Pokemon Amie when you touch their sashes. A freshly-caught Honedge won't give a shit and is actually happy when you touch his soul-sucking sash, but be buddies with your sentient ghost sword and it will actively admonish you for touching the soul-sucking sash. Aw, it doesn't want to eat your soul anymore!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Here are my top five least favourite Kalos Pokemon. It's a bit of a difficult choice because I just can't work up the energy to talk shit about any of these five the way that I talked about Bouffalant or Throh or the elemental monkeys or Jynx or Unown, and honestly these are the worst simply by process of elimination.

#5 Furfrou
I really expected Furfrou to evolve, or to have something going on for him beyond just having customization of his hairdo in a very irritating concept that forces you to go to the salon multiple times. Yes, it's a take on poodle dogs and all, but Furfrou's alternate forms don't even look good, other than the pharaoh one which made me laugh. I dunno. Being pure-normal and a very boring moveset and sub-par stats make raising one honestly a bit pointless, especially when you can customize your trainers in the same game. Who's going to bother with this messy-haired dog?

#4 Quilladin
Chesnaught is my least favourite of the three final evolutions of the Kalos starters, but I don't hate him. Quilladin, though, is just weird. I dunno, maybe it's because he looks a bit too much like a balloon? Chesnaught is supposed to be the 'warrior' to Delphox's 'mage' and Greninja's 'rogue', and their middle forms -- Braixen and Frogadier -- both reflect this change from cute baby animals into warriors. Quilladin turns from a cute squirrel into... a balloon.

#3 Avalugg
I just don't really like Avalugg. He's just... this big chunk of ice... that's shaped like a tortoise? With a very, very flat back? A table, perhaps? Avalugg's head looks like he's either smouldering in anger or in pain all the time, and he's just this weird chunk of ice. I dunno. Bergmite's very cute, but Avalugg's just kind of ugly.

#2 Diggersby
Kudos for making Diggersby not a pure normal-type, but holy shit, did they have to make Diggersby so ugly? I don't hate Diggersby as much as I do Patrat and Watchog, but I still dislike him. The ear-shovels are taken to a ridiculous extreme, and he's got a huge donut wrapped around his fat fat belly. But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Diggersby is his in-game cry, that sounds like a bulldozer's death throes. It's just painful

#1 Aromatisse
I really liked Spritzee. She's this cute little pink bird with a plague doctor mask, and her in-game model makes her look even cooler than her artwork. I expected her to evolve into a larger bird, or maybe a cloaked plague doctor -- a Fairy/Ghost type? But no. Instead, we get... Aromatisse. Who's this big plump thing with a boa and a provocative leg shown and it's supposed to be, what, a cabaret dancer? I dunno. Swirlix turning into Slurpuff makes sense, but Aromatisse just looks like a bit of an abomination.

Teen Titans S01E10 Review: Silly Symphony

Teen Titans, Season 1, Episode 10: Mad Mod

A fully filler episode and the first of Teen Titans' tradition to have an utterly batshit crazy episode every season, "Mad Mod" introduces us to this insane British fellow, the titular Mad Mod, who has trapped the Titans in a psychedelic Wonderland themed on schools and British visual jokes. It's an episode that people absolutely love or absolutely hate. It's an exercise at how ridiculous they can be, with some segments basically being "Teen Titans in an anime rendition of Looney Tunes". It really felt like it was made on drugs, but it's rather hilarious.

That said, though, spending the entirety of the episode on just a single comedy character isn't the basis for a good episode. It's memorable all right, as 'that weird episode where the Titans are stuck in a British Escher painting", but Mad Mod's just a crazy British fellow and the Titans just stick to their relative stereotypes throughout the episode. It's a bit of a surreal experience, and the eventual reveal that it's all part hypnotism and part mechanical props is honestly just weird because throughout the episode it really felt like Mad Mod's trickeries are so much more powerful than what props would have, and Mad Mod's pretty one note and ends up being repetitive around halfway through. 

Oh well, as far as insane, throwaway episodes go, Mad Mod isn't the worst we'll get, and is a pretty harmless fun episode, and it did entertain me as a kid... but while it isn't as bad as some of the episodes we'll get later in the series, and certainly isn't as bad as X-Men's attempt at a ridiculous fun episode (Mojo *shudder*) it certainly isn't the best the series has to offer, even from a comedy standpoint.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mad Mod is an actual Teen Titans villain from the comics, and is actually one of its first villains. Neil Richards was a fashion designer who used his fashion store as a smuggling front. And he dresses in the Mod fashion style popular in Britain at that time. That's about it, really. 
• There's a lot of random pop culture references (that I don't really care about) but one that stands out is Robin activating a secret switch by lifting a bust of Mad Mod's head, a reference to the Adam West Batman TV show. 

Teen Titans S01E09 Review: Red X

Teen Titans, Season 1, Episode 9: Masks

Each season generally focuses on a Titan for its 'plot' episodes, and this is the first plot episode for the first season. We get the focus on Robin in this season, where his investigations about Slade starts to reach nowhere, and he starts treading the line between good and evil by posing as the supercriminal thief Red X to steal several items and try to get into Slade's good graces and infiltrate his organization.

Of course, the big point of Robin's plan is that he doesn't tell his friends so he can make the fights look authentic, with the excuse that Robin has been defeated by Red X earlier (with a prepared hologram at one point) or having him be elsewhere when Red X battles the other four Titans. It's a pretty well-executed little gimmick, and while older audiences would see it coming around the second Red X scene, it's a pretty awesome twist for younger ones, and the scripting for Starfire and Robin is top-notch in this episode.

Slade makes it clear that he knows all along that Robin is Red X and he's just stringing the kid along, to play on Robin's obsession at bringing Slade down... which ends up causing a rift between Robin and his friends. This episode has Slade saving Robin from certain death, which really is the first hint at why Slade is such a conventional and surprisingly dark villain. He isn't really interested in stealing the chips or domination or whatever. His endgame goal is to corrupt the Titans for the sake of corrupting them, and we'll see more of this in the season finale. It's pretty creepy and pretty dark, especially since for a younger me, the villains I've seen fighting good guys are people like Joker and Lex Luthor who want to kill people just for laughs or for power, whereas Slade? Slade just wants to corrupt heroes, turning Robin into a miniature version of him, and to break the Teen Titans apart from the inside.

Red X is a pretty cool costume, isn't it? A cool skull-head, the ability to shoot bloody X beams and just generally being awesome... it also shows how despite being the only member of the team with no real superpowers, Robin was able to disable and take down the rest of the team, a testament to his skill. Yeah, granted, he knows where all their weak points are, but still, it's a cool Batman-esque moment right there. 

I thought the final scene of this episode is one of the most poignant moments of the series, with Starfire confronting Robin in his darkened room, saying sadly that Robin and Slade have one thing in common: they don't trust anyone. And that's a surprisingly sad and somber ending to a Teen Titans episode. A really excellent episode that really focuses on Robin's character, with both Slade and Starfire being excellent foils to him. 

Agents of SHIELD S04E04: Lola vs the Ghost Rider

Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 4: Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire

After the more filler-y episode last week, the fourth episode brings the entire team together as Aida, Quake and Ghost Rider are all brought into SHIELD in differing ways. The main plot of the episode had Quake fool Simmons into showing up and enlist her help in tracking down the leak within SHIELD that allowed the Inhuman list to leak out to the Watchdogs. Simmons and Quake do this little buddy cop routine as they head off to try and protect an old rehabilitated enemy, James (a.k.a. Hellfire). What happened to James was one of the unanswered questions of the third season's finale, and it's hilarious that he's just working in that fireworks shop.

It's a bit of an obvious plot twist that Hellfire's actually evil, but credit to the actor's acting, I actually bought it when he gives his speech about how he's just trying to live a normal life, how the fireworks are a reminder of what happens when he breaks loose, just like his coworker's cigarette butt. And when he reveals his complicity with the Watchdogs, painting himself as a self-styled hunter of his own kind and later being the last one to die, is actually far, far more depth than James had gotten all throughout the third season. 

Meanwhile, Coulson and Mack catches up with Ghost Rider in a very, very awesome car chase scene involving Lola and Ghost Rider's awesome muscle car, and Coulson ends up getting Ghost Rider to trust him enough as an ally, getting Ghost Rider to get a story out of his imprisoned uncle. We don't exactly get to learn much other than the fact that the ghosts are trying to create some kind of impossible matter-creating machine, and it blew up in their faces and turned them into ghosts, but it's nice now that the in-show character knows. And Lucy the ghost wakes up her husband, and they're going to get this Necronomicon Darkhold book.

And, well, holy shit, that final battle between Ghost Rider and Hellfire, with Robbie catching the flaming chain and then transforming? That was awesome as all hell. Coulson's line about how it's inevitable how two fire guys falling into a fireworks shop is also hilarious.

Quake's single-minded pigheadedness to just try and rescue Inhumans all the time, pushing away all her allies and demanding or guilt-tripping that they help her when she needs them is finally confronted by both Coulson and Simmons, and Coulson tells her to shut up. The Watchdogs may be hunting the Inhumans, but they have bigger problems. More eldritch, ghostly problems. 

Meanwhile, Aida finally meets people outside of the Radcliffe/Fitz team, talking to May who really, really likes her for being all business. We also get May cursing in Chinese (eat dog fart) which is hilarious. Simmons immediately sees Aida and knows she's an android (which causes Fitz to try and cover up the possible misconception that Fitz is hanging out with Radcliffe to see a pretty lady) and doesn't really care, before realizing that she has to care to Director Mace... not just about Aida, but possibly about a whole bunch of other things she went through in this episode.

Speaking about lying, Radcliffe has this long conversation with Aida how sometimes it's okay to lie if it's to save someone's life, though in this case, it is Aida's own life. Will this turn out badly, or will it lead to a heartwarming moment later on down the line? Who can say. I'm really interested in the Aida story, to be honest.

It's overall a pretty cool episode, very solid. I'm not sure if the Darkhold and ghost stories have enough substance to make me actually care all that much, because right now it's knowing the stories of Ghost Rider, Aida and Quake that're the main appeal of the show. So far, it's definitely working. 

Legends of Tomorrow S02E02 Review: Legends of Yesterday

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 2: Justice Society of America

Bit of a mini-announcement. I'm putting weekly TV episode reviews on a bit of a hiatus. Real life's going to be very, very busy for me for the next month or so, meaning I don't have a lot of leisure time to watch a crapton of TV every week. I'll periodically post reviews whenever I catch up to an episode or two, but don't expect them to be too regular. Sorry about that. Cartoon and manga reviews should be progressing normally. 

Anyway, this episode! It's still a solid episode, even if not a lot of the Justice Society actually got much screentime after the initial very awesome fighting scene against the Legends of Tomorrow. How awesome is that scene? Obsidian putting out the lights by raising his hands to the sky and just expelling a crapton of shadow is just awesome, as are Stargirl shooting her starbolts, Dr. Mid-Nite doing his daredevil vision and Vixen summoning the strength of a gorilla, and they absolutely dominated the Legends. And, to be fair, only Canary and Firestorm are really fighting at full strength, but still. It's an awesome scene that made me all squee-y inside.

Stargirl, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hourman, Obsidian, Vixen and Commander Steel

So it's a shame that practically everyone else became window dressing after the end of the fight. Oh, sure, they show up and fight a bunch of Nazi troopers throughout the episode, or bounce dialogue off of Commander Steel, but Stargirl, Dr. Mid-Nite and Hourman basically get relegated to background decoration while I don't think poor Obsidian even got a line. Vixen and Commander Steel got the most focus, with Vixen being shoehorned into a respect-slash-romance nonsense with Ray Palmer that had almost as much chemistry as the Ray/Kendra romance last season (which is: none), whereas Commander Steel had some actually decent moments with his grandson Nate Haywood.

I think the two Haywoods are the highlight of the episode, personifying the concept of carrying a legacy of a team of superheroes far better than the bickering and the Ray/Vixen anger-fest ever did. Commander Steel doesn't want to be a hero, nor does he want other people to emulate him. And as Sara repeatedly tells Nate, he isn't a combatant, and neither is he suitable to be in a battlefield because he's apparently a haemophiliac -- his blood can't coagulate properly, and a small injury can mean death. But partially because he's inspired by the heroism of his grandfather, Nate's insistence to join in the battle and live up to his legacy -- especially when the Legends are put down several times by the JSA for being a dysfunctional team -- is very interesting to follow. As the newcomer of the team, this episode cements Haywood's characterization as well as making him a fair bit more interesting. Also, the injection of the super-serum might've saved his life, but I'm betting this is going to be what turns him into Citizen Steel. 

Equally interesting to follow is Martin Stein's short stint as leader of the Legends. With Rip dead (a fact that I actually forgot until it was pointed out in this episode), the Legends have been operating without a proper leader, and the JSA quickly zeroed in on the old, white man, Martin Stein, as the authoritative figure, a position that went to Stein's head in a hilarious way. In-between his absolutely beautiful rendition of Edelweiss, to his hammy Max Lorenz acting to infiltrate the Nazi bar, and him finally admitting to Jefferson that he's not cut out for this, it's a lot of great characterization moments for Stein, as oddly forced as this part seemed to be. Eventually Stein passes on the torch to Sara, a field commander who everyone in the team respects.

Ray and the 40's Vixen have this angry spat about how Ray isn't special without a suit (Vixen, without her totem, is a kickass martial artist) and it's a bit of a drag compared to the Stein and Haywood plotlines. Poor Ray has been the least interesting character in the cast, which is a huge shame considering how good the actor can be, and how much I love the Atom as a character. But here we get another series of generic plotline as Ray tries to prove that he is a superhero even out of the suit. (Ray refusing to play along and just salute Hitler is a bit dumb, though. Patriotism and all, yeah, but you're in a deep cover mission. Uncle Sam knows you didn't mean it.)

Vixen herself also felt like the weakest member of the Justice Society despite having arguably the second-most screentime in this episode. She's one of two women in the Society, and one of two coloured people... in a secret superhero team based during World War II, and while no one ever mentions gender or race as being inferior -- Steel eschewing Sara for Stein as the leader aside, plus that one Nazi douche in the bar -- Vixen is so weirdly subservient to Commander Steel and Hourman, going all "if it please you" and "if I may" all the time. Weird.

How fun was it for the Justice Society to have that stupid Powerpuff-Girls style red telephone in their base? That was hilarious. The fact that they're secret and not public knowledge (Nate only knows because of his grandfather's participation in it) explains why no one is aware that superheroes existed in the CW verse. 

The main enemy in this episode is one Baron Krieger (a.k.a. Captain Nazi to the DC fanbase), who's given a super-strength serum by Herr Thawne (hee hee). Reverse-Flash himself doesn't do much this episode other than showing up at the beginning to talk to Krieger, and later show up in the end for some old-fashioned Flash-style "Reverse-Flash does something unexpected and deadly at the end of an episode". In exchange for the super-serum, Reverse-Flash wants Krieger to get a certain mystical artifact for him, which he later takes himself anyway after showing up and killing Hourman, thus explaining Hourman's disappearance after the warning. I really wished we had actually spent more time with Hourman in this episode, because he shows up going "I... never met you crazy guys" and then alternating into just being a boring mission control that I forgot existed 90% of the time, before being killed off. Maybe swap out Vixen for Hourman as the character that received focus this episode? Minor quibble, though.

Krieger's steroid-muscle form didn't quite look as spectacular as Obsidian's shadows or Mid-Nite's blind vision, though, actually looking quite ridiculous in some shots. The fact that he randomly takes out half of the JSA/Legends team, before proceeding to be taken out rather unceremoniously by an air strike adds to the slight disappointment of him as a villain, though he was quite effective when he's just an evil Nazi military officer threatening Ray to reverse-engineer the serum for him. 

It's a lot of set-up, and maybe the JSA didn't do as much as I would've liked, but honestly, looking back on it? It's very, very enjoyable and I squee'd. So many times. The first fight between the Justice Society of America and the Legends of Tomorrow really was the biggest fangasm moment in the entirety of the CW universe, matched perhaps only by the penultimate episode of Flash's first season when Green Arrow, Flash and Firestorm stood together to face off against Reverse-Flash. Maybe it could've been better served if the team-up wasn't focused on Ray and Vixen -- the latter being honestly a boring character compared to CW's previous attempt at Vixen -- but the Commander Steel and Martin Stein bits really make up for it. And honestly, I did seem a bit too harsh after rereading this review, but man, I loved this episode. I'm a big JSA fanboy, and seeing a live-action version of them? Spectacular.

One last thing before I close off this review. That heroic riff that seems to be the JSA's theme, playing as we get the panning shot of the JSA standing over the defeated Legends? That was an awesome piece of music. Almost as awesome as hearing Victor Garber sing Edelweiss to a room filled with superheroes and Nazi soldiers. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• We talked about the origins of the JSA members last episode, so there's not a lot I can talk here. Baron Krieger, in the comics, is Albrecht Krieger, better known by his un-subtle moniker Captain Nazi. He is a Nazi super-soldier, albeit in more Captain America than Hulk, and was created by a Nazi super-soldier program to create someone who can combat Captain Marvel. He's more or less just an angry Nazi villain, really. An alternative would be a different Nazi villain, Baron Blitzkrieg, who shares the 'Baron' title... but Blitzkrieg has already made an appearance in Arrow as a modern-day, non-Nazi and non-German villain, showing up with his real name, Baron Reiter, as the villain in Arrow's exhaustive season four flashback plotline. Captain Nazi seems to fit this Baron Krieger better than Blitzkrieg, so we'll go for that.

Teen Titans S01E08 Review: Talking to Fishes

Teen Titans, Season 1, Episode 8: Deep Six

"Deep Six" gets the rap as the worst episode of season one, and while rewatching this season I don't think it's the worst (I dislike "Forces of Nature" and "Car Trouble" a lot more, I think) it has the simple crime of being... boring. We are introduced to another supporting Titan, Aqualad, who is Aquaman's sidekick from the comics. Aqualad has ditched his stupid comic costume for a cool blue-black wetsuit and a has grown his hair long to attract the ladies, but other than his cool design, he isn't really that impressive. The entire episode's premise has Beast Boy being absolutely hostile to Aqualad for no reason despite Aqualad just being a nice dude who ends up getting justifiably pissed of at Beast Boy's 'sabotage' of their mission.

And Trident (who borrows his name from a classic Teen Titans villain, but has nothing in common) is a very bland villain. He's a mutated fishy Atlantean, but the big plot twist of just how Trident is able to be able to be everywhere at once has been spoiled by, well, two Tridents showing up to attack that random ship. 

In the end, the plot suffers from being predictable and boring, and while I liked Aqualad's design, he doesn't really do much in this episode to really impress beyond talking to fish, and the constant bickering between Beast Boy and Aqualad honestly is just aggravating after the first few clashes. The fact that Aqualad has a generic 'hero' personality doesn't help matters either. I don't think this episode is outright bad... it's just one-note and repetitive, and there's only so much variations of 'Beast Boy is an unreasonable dick to Aqualad' you can do, and there really is no reason for Beast Boy to be so overtly suspicious and angry of Aqualad. He's shown to be a bit of a prankster, but never the gloryhound or the paranoid type -- and the whole Terra arc hasn't happened to him yet, so it really felt like an odd scripting decision. Plus the fact that despite the constant bickering and eventual friendship, Aqualad and Beast Boy doesn't actually defeat Trident by teamwork. They just escaped by dumb luck, with Beast Boy distracting the Tridents and causing them to fight each other, before buggering off and sealing them in an underwater cave. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Aqualad, real name Garth, is the sidekick to Aquaman, and was one of the five members of the very first incarnation of the Teen Titans, which back then was actually made up of sidekicks: Robin, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, Speedy and Kid Flash. While he wasn't a member of the incarnation of the team that the show is based on, Garth would be a constant ally as Tempest (who has a far cooler costume than Aqualad) and would be a member of several other incarnations of the team. His costume is based on one of Aquaman's older costumes, 
• Trident in this episode is portrayed to be an angry fish-man and a native of Atlantis. In the comics, Trident is a group of three people who share a stupid purple-yellow costume and a powerful fire/ice shooting trident. They have nothing to do with Atlantis, and were operatives of HIVE. Like the Trident here, the group's ability to attack several places in the city at the same time while the public and the Titans believes them to be the same person is a central gimmick of the villain. It's... not one of DC's best villains, to put it mildly.
• Aqualad's sidekick Tramm is original to the show, but his design would be used in the creators' next project Ben 10 as Grey Matter. 

Arrow S05E03 Review: MISTER TERRIFIC FUCK YEA (Also, Deadshot)

Arrow, Season 5, Episode 3: A Matter of Trust

It is a cruel, cruel bait and switch for them to open the recap with teases to the Flash episode that established that Flashpoint might have changed a few things and caused some other changes beyond the gender of John Diggle's child... and then to show that Diggle's new cellmate is a suddenly-alive Deadshot, who brushes off his survival with "eh, never found the body." And apparently it's not a Flashpoint-assisted revival of a character who's death is all but caused by WB muscling in on DC properties... but just a guilt-induced hallucination.

Mind you, Deadshot playing cards is, in retrospect, a sign that it's all in Diggle's head how he associates the guilt he's having with both Deadshot and the fact that he killed Andy. But still, it's a very cruel moment to be for all the wrong reasons when I realized that Deadshot isn't actually in the cell. Unless he showed up, played some cards to dick around with Diggle, and when Diggle wasn't looking he snuck away while giggling.

That said, Diggle's sub-plot is a lot better here than the previous one, where he confronts the fact that he's still feeling guilt over killing his brother, HIVE or not. The random decision to serve time for a crime he didn't commit was a dumb move, though, that's for sure.

Oh well. The rest of the episode is pretty standard. We get more development on the Neo Team Arrow, as the main lesson of this episode is trust and accountability (which kinda ties with the Diggle thing up above). The Thea B-plot has her deal with one Susan Williams, who's making all sorts of headlines painting Oliver as this fool who doesn't even know what's going on in his administration. Thea's attempts to fix things makes it worse, and she is prepared to resign. But at the end of the episode Oliver walks up and vindicates both Thea and Quentin, noting that Oliver trusts his administration but the blame stops at him. Oh, and apparently the D.A. or something in Oliver's administration is one Adrian Chase, a.k.a. Vigilante. We don't see any vigilantism from the Vigilante here, but he's just portrayed as a good honest man wanting to do what's right and whatnot.

One of the biggest weakness is dropping Wild Dog, Starling and Ragman all at once on our lap without developing them enough. Ragman got an origin story and an emotional moment last week, and Starling was a one-off villain, but we're still kind of eeeh about their personalities. Wild Dog gets the biggest brunt of screentime in both this and the previous episode as the brash, young foil to Oliver's stern leadership, dragging the impressionable Starling off with him to bust some crimes. Yes, Oliver trusting Wild Dog's call might've avoided this whole mess, but so would Wild Dog actually listening to orders. Both sides apologize to each other after a period of conflict, which I hope won't be happening every episode. Let one of the other dudes have the conflict with Ollie.

Derek Sampson, the villain of the week, is just a brand-new character created for the show, apparently to give a wrestler that fought Stephen Amell a role as an antagonist. He's going around selling Stardust, a super-awesome drug that's Vertigo tenfold, and Wild Dog's short-sighted pursuit turned him into a metahuman taht can't feel pain, as well as causing him to be able to dodge Adrian Chase's legal clutches. He's not that much of a threat, to be honest, other than the initial surprise on Oliver, and Oliver gets a pretty cool moment of rappelling him up and punching him to the ground, as well as noting how not being able to feel pain doesn't mean he doesn't need those tendons and muscles.

And as cool as it is to have Neo Team Arrow in action (including Ragman ragging people with magic rag tendrils) the absolute coolest thing is Curtis Holt, dressed in his Mister Terrific getup. We get a brief name-drop to the first Mister Terrific, a wrestler in this continuity, but the talk about the Fair Play motto gets brought up. And he actually wears that stupid, goofy-ass T-shaped mask that's pasted onto his face! Oh my god, it's the one thing that I thought the show wouldn't be able to adapt properly, but they did! And it looks so fucking good, as much as a black T pasted onto someone's face can look good.

Speaking about all the trust that Wild Dog and Oliver have with each other, Felicity and Curtis talk about how Ragman hails from Havenrock (with some glorious awkwardness from Curtis), and at the end of this episode Felicity reveals her complicity in Havenrock's destruction to Ragman. It's nice that it's not going to be dragged out for the whole season like the past four Arrow seasons where secrets are stretched for what they're worth, and I hope this gets to become something interesting.

The Bratva flashback plot shows how Oliver needs to trust the Bratva brotherhood, allowing the Bratva members to get close to Oliver's unprotected back and trust them to carve just enough to make a tattoo, and apparently Anatoli shows that the people that the Bratva killed in the initiation are actually murderers that are saved by association to their mutual enemy, Constantine Kovar. Though the hilariously wide smile on that old lady's face when Anatoli shows her a bullet-ridden boy while going "I'm here to talk about your boy" is such a wack scene until it's revealed that the dead Bratva initiate was the murderer of her boy.

So yeah. The lack of Prometheus and Tobias Church means that this episode felt more filler-y. Stardust is throwaway, and the surprise appearance of Deadshot is a bait-and-switch. It's more to build up the connection between our heroes, which, considering it's starring a brand new cast, is breathing room that the show definitely needed. Maybe it could do more work with, say, cutting out some of the pointless plot arcs like the Thea/Mayor Oliver one. It's a decent episode, that's for sure.



DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Adrian Chase is the secret identity of the Vigilante, the second superhero to use that name. The first is a cowboy, whereas Adrian Chase is more of a street-level vigilante. More on him when we actually meet him in a suit. 
• Terris Sloane is the first, Golden Age era Mr. Terrific, whereas Michael Holt took over the mantle from him in the modern day. Curtis's costume here nails the comic-book version of Michael Holt quite awesomely, with the Fair Play jacket and the silly-but-still-awesome T pasted to his face.
• There's a fair amount of meta humour here, where Oliver seems to genuinely like Wild Dog's hockey mask, a reference to Oliver's actor Stephen Amell playing the hockey mask wearing Casey Jones in TMNT 2 earlier this year. Derek Sampson's actor is played by a wrestler whose stage name was 'Stardust', which is referenced in the name of the drug he's selling.

Pokemon Sun & Moon: Hairy Dicks and Datamined Leaks

So, the demo version of Pokemon Sun & Moon came out last week, and until now I haven't had time to play it yet... from this month onwards I'll be helluva busy at least till the end of year, so there might be a slight decrease in the amount of content I create regularly. But let me talk a bit about Pokemon!

So a couple of new Pokemon have been released both in the demo and through other promotional material, and with the actual games' release dates being basically a couple of weeks away, a whole lot is being revealed.... and, well, the aforementioned demo got data-mined. And apparently Nintendo left a whole lot of sprites in the demo, but we don't actually get the names, types or any information about these new Pokemon other than what they look like. And that's in addition to a couple of Pokemon that are actually revealed over the week. I'm not posting every picture of the leaks here, just google it and you'll find it. For the interests of those who don't want to be spoiled by the entire leakage, only official Nintendo information will be in this post. My short discussion about the leaks that I glanced through can be viewed after the break -- just click on the 'read more' button.

• So the first new Pokemon we got to see is leaked... from a piece of artwork on the side of a TCG box! That's hilarious. It appears to be some kind of little purple thing hiding behind a huge spiky shell, and it's underwater. It's some kind of cute little sea urchin or anemone Pokemon, and I am all for new water-types. Picture's a bit blurry (and obviously the leaks show her in brighter form) so not really much to say.
• The demo features Alolan Dugtrio as a brief cameo. No idea if he gets new typing, but he gets... hair. Blonde hair on all three of his dick-heads. Yyyyyyeaaah. There are hilarious, insane-looking Alolan forms like Exeggutor and Muk. Hairy Dugtrio is just kind of dumb. It's funny, of course, but at the same time the resources (and 'slot') spent to making Alolan Dugtrio could've been done to make better Alolan forms. Like, for example...
• Alolan Persian, who beats Dugtrio as officially the ugliest, yuckiest Alolan form we've seen. Alolan Meowth is this sassy-looking gloriously-douchebag-looking cat that is a great variation on Meowth's original look. Alolan Persian? He's not as bad as something like Purugly, but that face. That face looks like a disgusting balloon that's all inflamed and puffy and shit. He looks freaking ugly, and while I'm very staunchly not a cat person, I know what cool cats are supposed to look like. Purrloin, Torracat, normal Persian... Alolan Persian just looks deformed and one of those designs that legitimately looks like it's drawn by a five-year-old. 

I don't know if I've talked about Ash Greninja being in the game already or not. On one hand, the shuriken on his back is cool. On the other hand... it's, y'know, Greninja with Ash features. Really would've loved it more if it was just a more regular Mega Evolution with the Ash features snuck in, or simply, y'know, not having it blatantly be called 'ASH Greninja, especially when the whole concept of Ash-Greninja's Battle Bond ability is how it's close to the trainer... who is Ash, who gave Greninja away to the player character? Huh wha? Also why isn't it a mega evolution? Why call it such a fancy-ass name? I don't get it. I don't hate it, but I definitely don't like it.

Okay, that's about it. Let's talk about the leaks, after the break.