Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 11: Backpack Mountaineering

I spent a lot of time just... just climbing the mountains and trying to run around and look at the new species of Pokemon I can encounter here. Lots of repeats, yes, but there's just a fun feeling any time I get to see the behaviour of a 'new' species like Gligar in the overworld.

Eventually I end up meeting Ingo in front of a rock cliff, and I absolutely love the little reference to Hidden Moves. Rock Climb would have debuted in Generation IV, which is one generation before Ingo's home Black and White. I don't actually remember if Rock Climb is used in Unova, but I do really like how Ingo mutters and mumbles about hidden moves before shaking it off. He uses Pokeballs and is one of the handful of characters who doesn't try to gang up on my Pokemon like a chump. The others that fight properly are Akari (who does so in a proper battlefield) and I believe the leader of the Missfortune Sisters who's from Kanto. That's neat! Ingo's party is... is interesting. Machoke, Tangela and Gliscor? I guess he's just using whatever he encounters near the mountains? Not a single one of them hail remotely from Unova, so I guess someone should help Ingo catch like a Klinklang or an Eelektrik or something for him to get his memory back. 

Ingo doesn't get his memory back from the 'shock' of fighting me in a Pokemon battle, but he shows me Sneasler, the local Noble Pokemon (who gives me the Toxic Plate). Sneasler just... just decides to quickly 'register' herself into my flute. No elaborate side-quest like Ursaluna or Basculegion? Okay. 

...I still really don't like Sneasler, though. He looks like someone's furry cosplay. I absolutely love the animation of how I 'ride' Sneasler, though. She has a little cylindrical backpack... and I get stuffed in the backpack. My eyeballs are the only things that's blinking in the shadowy darkness of Sneasler's backpack. I spent a solid minute just giggling at the visual image of Sneasler using those big-ass claws to hoist herself up the side of vertical walls while I just chill inside the box. Eat your heart out, Nezuko Kamado, my backpack taxi is much, much cooler!

Unlike Basculegion, though, I can't throw Pokeballs out when riding Sneasler. I get it, kind of, but man, how hilarious would it be for just my hand to poke out of that hole?

There are a bunch of plants that grow on the side of rock walls, and as I scale up Mt. Coronet, I encounter a whole lot of weirdos. There are Gibles hiding inside rocks, and I end up catching an Alpha Gabite that I kind of want to use eventually. It is the pseudo-legendary of the region!

Speaking of pseudo-legendaries, though, my Hisuian Sliggoo is able to evolve once it starts to rain, and it evolves into Goodra. Man, I don't dislike Kalosian Goodra, but Hisuian Goodra is everything I wanted a snail dragon to be. Which means it has a big-ass giant metal shell that it can retract its entire body into. God, that's so adorable. And the big-ass snail shell tail is just so much more visually distinct than the frankly rather generic silhouette of regular Goodra. 

Interestingly, as I reach the Celestica Ruins, I get to find the statues of Dialga and Palkia, gods of time and space... and a destroyed statue of presumably Giratina. Hmm, so this is a hint of the ancient civilization that used to live here, then? Probably the precursors of the Diamond and Pearl clan, and probably the ones that propagated the conflicting Almighty Sinnoh myths? Is Giratina going to be relevant? Are Dialga and Palkia?

What I end up finding, though, are a bunch of just... treasure chests? ...and from within the treasure chests spring out Hisuian Voltorb. They're... they're literal D&D Mimics this time around. Holy fuck, that's hilarious. The chests drop a whole bunch of variety of items, and I'm starting to get constantly overloaded with items, but this is adorable. 

Other Pokemon that I find in the ruins include Nosepass (who doesn't always point north, but will stay in a single direction), more Sudowoodo (they try so hard to blend in with the surroundings), and at one point, a bunch of Rotom just... zipping around. I wondered how they would incorporate Rotom without television, but I guess they just existed as ghostly sparks in the past? Okay!

Melli awaits me at the end of the journey after I spend a couple of days just running around in the mountains and harvesting items and recovering lost satchels, and he talks a lot of shit about his badassery and his coolness and his contradictions. "I didn't lose, you may have won, there is a difference!" What a douche. He fights me 3-v-1 with a Skuntank, Zubat and Skorupi, but get this... ganging up only works if the others aren't easily ignored. The level 44 Skuntank is the only thing that remotely might've posed a threat to my big Ursaluna, and that is if I let my bear just stand still and do nothing. 

Melli talks a big game about how he needed more time, just like what Adaman and the Diamond Clan credo has always said.... before, rather hilariously, still refusing to help. I guess defeating people in Pokemon battles doesn't always force them to help you in this continuity!

Adaman does show up, reveals that he's going to help us regardless, and tells us that Lord Electrode likes to eat salt. Melli is still angry at Adaman helping the 'Team Galaxy lout', thinking that the frenzied lord is a good thing. Adaman points out the same thing that Ingo did earlier, that the frenzied Pokemon is clearly being in pain. Melli, though, insists that it's some sort of joy at being selected by Almighty Sinnoh, and that we must take all 'trials' from him in stride. He does eventually do his duty as a warden and help to make the balms, but I guess there's only so much lip from him that Adaman will tolerate. 

Electrode fight time! The fight against Electrode, Lord of the Hollow is a lot more fast-paced. I think the Arcanine one might be harder thanks to the terrain, though, since there's a lot more places for me to run. A very fun opening cutscene with like five Voltorbs dropping from the tree before big-ass Hisuian Electrode drops from the big tree. 

Hisuian Electrode does a lot of things at once and I love it. Voltorbs keep dropping from the tree, he bounces around and tries to whack me, and he shoots like, Electro Balls and Energy Balls that slowly track me and I can't really get them to dissipate. There's also a telegraphed but rather wide-range-area self-destruct attack, which just opens him up to battles from me. I completely forgot that Electrode is part-Grass, which costed me poor Ursaluna who took a super-effective Energy Ball to the face. But ultimately, Lord Electrode is quelled. 

And Melli is absolutely distraught because of it. Adaman does give some words of wisdom and Melli, rather shockingly, takes it happily. Ingo also shows up and gives a speech about how he's remembered a bit about his home region... or specifically, of the sheer beauty of cooperation between Pokemons and Pokemon trainers in that region. Melli ends up being sweet-talked by Ingo and Adaman and vows to 'improve himself'. There's also a neat bit of tying it in to the Diamond Clan's time motif, noting how Sinnoh rules over time, both past and future. 

That's four out of the five stickers I'm getting for the home screen page, so I think I'm honestly getting close to the end. The plot of Legends Arceus is actually a lot longer than I expected it to -- I'm going to assume that in addition to one more lord and the obvious Arceus-related climax, we're probably going to have something to do with the other Hisuian Pokemon we haven't encountered yet? 

Also, in my attempt to catch a Hisuian Sneasel, it killed almost my entire party with Close Combat. I guess my party is just really weak to Fighting-types. That, or I have to try and get more levels since the Coronet Pokemon are kind of catching up in levels.

A bit of a shorter let's play this time around, but I did spend a lot of the time just... just walking around and exploring, and the Melli/Adaman/Ingo stuff is pretty dialogue intensive for what's ultimately a pretty simple story... but I did have a lot of fun. They do a pretty great job at making these NPC's feel a lot more fleshed out. I think I'll be going around doing some sidequests and getting more dex entries filled out!

Current Party: Hootle (Hisuian Decidueye), Qwilmonger (Overqwil), Bartholomew (Alpha Ursaluna), Cremation (Shiny Rapidash), Manterror (Kleavor), Uzumaki (Hisuian Goodra)

Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 10: Isekai Train Conductor

So it's been a while, actually, between the time that I did the Noble Arcanine segment and me continuing on with this segment of the game. A good chunk of my play-time with this game ended up just going back to the Fieldlands and Mirelands to explore the areas locked off by Basculegion-related exploration, and just... enjoying my time, collecting more and more Pokemon and trying to complete Pokedex challenges. I think I'm up to seven or eight stars at this point?

And it's so much fun to discover Pokemon I didn't expect to find. There is a small field filled with Mime Jr's and Mr. Mimes creating forcefields in the Fieldlands. Going to the small little inland in the Coastlands on the north-west side of the map (Sendoff Spring is where Giratina used to hang out, right?) there's a pretty cool beachside filled with Toxicroaks, Walreins and a mighty Alpha Empoleon. I'm not using any of them in this playthrough, but this means that I've encountered alpha versions of all three Sinnoh starters. I enjoy the idea that these starters are native to Hisui/Sinnoh, just... very rare. 

I also found a little Piplup hanging out among the Toxicroaks, meaning that I'm only a Turtwig short from getting a full set of the three Sinnoh starter babies. Since wild Chimchar hang out on that monkey island where the Alpha Infernape lurks, I assume I'll have to go back to where I found the Alpha Torterra is to find Turtwigs. 

There's also an empty cave cut into the side of one of the sea cliffs called Seaside Hollow, which years of playing Pokemon have taught me that this is going to probably contain a legendary Pokemon in the future. I really can't think of any Pokemon I associate immediately with a seaside cave, though, other than Regice in Ruby/Sapphire?

I find Wanda in one of the islands in the Coastlands by accident after she somehow ran onto the island after being chased by a Pokemon? Okay. Also, a neat little detail I observed is that while most of my (non-water-dwelling) party has these little rafts when fighting in the ocean, Decidueye just flies above the water surface. It's not Flying-type, not really, but it's still a goddamn owl, and it can fly! 

Anyway, returning back to Jubilife City, Kamado talks a bit about how finding out more about the space-time rift would clear any 'doubts' about my origins, as if I haven't been single-handedly doing all the work for Team Galaxy. In a neat little showcase of how the community has been growing to accept Pokemon, though, Beni the mochi guy notes that he has been using a fire Pokemon to help cook his mochi. 

And then... Ingo shows up! The Subway boss from Black and White. He has tattered version of his Generation V clothes and everything, and for a long while I thought it was just some really bizarre design choice. I mean, everyone is already resembling someone from 'present day' Pokemon, right? Maybe this guy is Ingo and Emmett's ancestor, and the character design team just got lazy. But no, as we find out later, this is Ingo.

But Kamado and Adaman bring me up to the office, and they tell me to quell Electrode, the Lord of the Hollow, who's shooting electrical blasts everywhere. But then the warden of Electrode, Melli, shows up. He pushes his way all the way into Kamado's office, and Kamado kind of gets pissed off that his guards are so weak and will 'teach them a lesson'. Melli (he's a guy!) is straight-up abrasive. I mean, we've gotten Calaba who's unhelpful and Lian who's more ignorant, but Melli is straight-up abrasive. He straight-up gets in Adaman's face, asking if he's trying to humiliate the entire Diamond Clan by asking Team Galaxy's help, and then insults me by calling me a little noodle. 

It's kind of refreshing, actually, since all the other wardens have mostly been on the nicer end of the spectrum. Melli doesn't actually go full Starscream with it and like use this to try and usurp the Diamond Clan leadership or anything (though that'd be interesting) and he ultimately folds when Adaman tells him where to shove it, but it's neat to have someone a bit more antagonistic. 

Adaman fights me with a double-team of Leafeon and Eevee. I get it, the clan leaders use the Sinnoh evolutions of Eevee! It's meant to show Melli that I have the fighting prowess or something, but Melli's not impressed. 

Far more interesting, though, is Ingo! Ingo and Irida are hanging out in front of the battle arena in Jubilife, and Irida tells me that Ingo is the warden assigned to Sneasler. Ingo will guide me to the domain, and... and he's just straight-up the same guy from Generation V, complete with wacky robotic poses, train-conductor phrases sprinkled into his dialogue, and his creepy eyes. The only real difference is that he's got a funky goatee and his clothes are tattered. Irida straight-up tells me that Ingo is also someone isekai'd into Hisui, appearing out of nowhere with amnesia.

...so is this actually connected to the 'Fallers' storyline from Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon? That game had an Anabel that showed up from another timeline, and I think Looker also got teleported somewhere in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire? Unlike alternate-universe Anabel and Looker's whole mess of a timeline, though, I genuinely have a feeling that they're actually doing something concrete to Ingo in making him a character in this game. It does kind of help that Ingo is actually a somewhat bland character in his base game... bland other than his visual design and antics, that is. 

Doing this whole batch of main story quests ended up giving me a whole ton of sidequests, some of which I can immediately complete. Some dude called Ward wants to see a Gastly's pokedex, so that he won't get afraid in front of his son. He bonds with Gastly after finding out Gastly also like to eat mushroom. Anthea, the clothier, wants to see both forms of Shellos, and then a Wormadam. Just a single Wormadam, not all three forms, which is a bit surprising. There's another Tao Hua quest, and another photograph quest, and I think that's a Turtwig in that photograph? I'm a huge Pokemon geek, but identifying a Pokemon just from their leaf is a bit beyond me. 

Anyway, off to the Coronet Highlands! There's a big fuck-off space-time rift in the sky and I really do love how it's animated like cracked glass. Laventon tells me about the magnetism emitted by the rift, and the nearby ruins have some Probopass statues. They worship Probopass here, I suppose. 

The Pokemon here just seem to be slightly more advanced versions of the ones in the Fieldlands, like Luxray and Parasect, but I'm only able to access a small portion of the entire mountain. I remember enough of the Generation IV games to know that Mt. Coronet is one hell of a massive dungeon. 

On my way to Wayward Cave (that's the Gible cave in the Sinnoh games!) Melli confronts me again, calling me a Galaxy grunt and straight-up challenging me to a battle. The game does not allow me to beat his ass. I am disappointed!

Melli does give a pretty interesting worldview. We've heard some characters like Palina, Lian and some NPC's wonder if they're doing the right thing in Almighty Sinnoh's eyes or if what they're doing is blasphemy, but Melli straight-up is going on full fundamentalist. He sees all the Pokemon going berserk is a proof of Almighty Sinnoh's power and blessing, and that it's a way for Electrode to assert his strength as a noble Pokemon. It's a mark of favour and protection and whatnot. Ah, religious blindness!

Ingo, meanwhile, mutters about how the frenzies end up causing Electrode to suffer, something that he and I agree is a bad thing. Ingo and I then proceed to go through the Wayward Cave, but turns out Melli is a dick and removed all the torches. Despite this, Ingo can navigate through it and I'm supposed to follow him. I thought this was going to be important and I actually jotted down the turns here... but it's just a way for Ingo to monologue. I appreciate this. 

Ingo mumbles about how he used to have a partner that wielded flames (he had a Chandelure in one of his B/W teams. I associate him more with Klinklang and Eelektross, but that's because I only ever played the single-player Subway) and remembered a man that looked like him, including Emmet's catchphrase. He also mentions about how the Electrode in Hisui is a bit different from the Electrode he remembers (you're telling me!) and notes how he has an affinity in training Pokemon. Considering he's one of the best trainers in modern day Unova, he definitely is!

After avoiding an Alpha Crobat, Ingo leads me out of the Wayward Cave, and onwards to the Coronet Highlands. Ultimately after some more discussion about Ingo's arrival in Hisui, Melli challenges me to an actual fight with a Skuntank, who I smack down easily with my big-ass Ursaluna. I love when Pokemon actually remembers how satisfying it is to beat up smug jackasses. So many of the side characters nowadays are so likable. Melli refuses to admit defeat and buggers off. 

Ingo leads me to a pretty cool 'Ancient Quarry', created by a civilization even more ancient than before, and it's all cube-shaped. Very cool and eerie, actually, and I do like how we're not sure if Pokemon helped to cut out the giant stones. I guess that Probopass-worshipping culture are the precursors to the Diamond and Pearl Clans? 

Volo also shows up and starts questioning me about what I saw 'beyond the rift', and... hmm. He theorizes that whatever is 'beyond the rift' is the source of the frenzied Pokemon, and... it is Arceus, and we really don't know much about what Arceus wants to do. I feign ignorance, because Volo feels kind of off in this conversation, and that's something considering I'm comparing him to the amnesiac, robotic Ingo and the douchebag supreme Melli. Volo talks about how what lays beyond the rift is Almighty Sinnoh's realm, and notes how weird it is that the space-time rifts have appeared in the past, and closed for some reason. Curiouser and curiouser. 

The distance between where I am and the first camp is actually pretty far and dicking around trying to catch a Heracross and a Bronzong ended up depleting around half of my team. It's actually refreshingly fun that for once I actually have to keep a lookout for healing items to make sure I don't white out! Eventually I find the Gingko Guild NPC that gives me the quest to set up a camp, and it involves following a Bronzor's gaze to help his buddy. Good job, Bronzor! 

Anyway, I'll explore the rest of the Coronet Highlands soon!

Current Party: Hootle (Hisuian Decidueye), Qwilmonger (Overqwil), Bartholomew (Alpha Ursaluna), Cremation (Shiny Rapidash), Manterror (Kleavor), Uzumaki (Hisuian Sliggoo)

One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 1016-1020

These episodes I actually watched weekly or bi-weekly as they are released. It's so weird to be following anime as-they-come-out like this!

Anyway...

ROOF PIECE

Episode 1016:

• I somehow missed, entirely, that the whole point of the Ryuo explanation in 1015 is to showcase that Red Roc utilizes Ryuo to damage Kaido. 
• Okay, yeah, after the gloriousness that is episode 1015, it is admittedly just a bit disappointing to go back to an episode that utilizes 'copy a whole scene from an earlier episode' to flashback to show Luffy's initial defeat in Kuri and Zoro-vs-Kamazo. At least those are some of the prettiest scenes in early Wano. 
• Ah yes, that shot of Luffy backlit by Kaido's personal 'Top Five' is pretty damn badass.
• Oh yes, that Conqueror's Haki clash is beautiful. Probably not quite as pretty as the one between Bullet and Luffy in Stampede, but it's still pretty badass. 
• ...was that Future Sight? Was that how Future Sight is depicted in the anime before? That sure isn't how it is in the manga! Holy shit, that looks so cool, with Luffy's face overlaid in red over Kaido bashing him and causing him to split apart into sakura petals with his Raimei Hakke; then cutting over to the real thing with a glowing purple line with a perfectly black backdrop while Luffy flips over it... damn. 
• "Kitsunebi-ryu: HOMURA SAKI!" Holy shit, Prometheus just got sliced in half. It looks even more badass now that he's actually glowing like a fireball! 
• Oh man, the jump from the intensity of "Luffy, there are two YONKO we are fighting!" to Sanji quite literally dicking around in Black Maria's chambers is... even more jarringly hilarious. 
• The animation team had a bit too much fun animating Black Maria's boobs, huh.
• I'm pretty sure that whole sequence with Sanji going "that's naughty!" with Black Maria's threads and her subordinates is original to the anime. Okay, sure. I don't really care for this part of the filler. 
• Black Maria seemingly dropping hints of a (maybe) backstory about men who abandon their women to chase their dreams, or men who use violence to dominate women... that's not in the manga, right?
• I absolutely love Law in this scene. How he was absolutely so furious at Luffy... for giving him orders as if he was a subordinate. "I was going to move them downstairs anyway!" I love that after all the arguments in the fandom about Law possibly betraying Luffy (after the Dressrosa arc, there is a zero percent chance of that) and this is the thing that actually gets ol' Trafalgar worked up. 
• Law going all grr-grr-face with Luffy and Kid will never stop being amusing. Zoro and Killer looking at their two captains acting like children and acting as if they are parents watching their children fight will also never not be amusing.
• Luffy, Law and Kid tanking Big Mom's Heavenly Bon-Bon attack is delivered to us perfectly with the screen being cut between the three of them and they're pushing the 'panel walls' to squeeze each other... then we get the 3x3 shot as we get them making the Robin HA face... Perfectly adapted. 
• "Zanshu Claw!" "Santoryu: Rengoku Oni Giri!" Zoro and Killer as two straight glowing lines cutting Kaido horizontally before we get... before we get whatever the hell that is, I can't describe it, that is also pretty fucking clean for what's ultimately just one attack amidst so many in Roof Piece! There's that red screen thing and then the counterclockwise white screen then the cut and zoom-in to Kaido's neck and the slice-cutting effect and also not to mention the black-and-white transition from Killer's helmet to Zoro's eye... my god that's beautiful. 
• "Gear Fourth!" "Punk Rotten!" "Room!" Damn, that simultaneous... well, it's not quite a simultaneous transformation, but whatever it is, it's cool. Kid's giant metal golem thing is very cool. 

Episode 1017:

• Okay, despite the triple transformation last episode, we get a more extended version of everyone activating their powers? The only reason is because it's MOTHERFUCKING COOL, and holy shit, it is. We've seen Luffy going Boundman a couple of times in this arc, but I must admit Kid gathering that magnetic metal storm is fucking cool. The animation team saw a chance of them doing a whole sequence with Kid's Punk Rotten robot and they tookn it. 
• This episode is just pretty in general, all right?
• Holy shit, that -WORORORORORO INTENSIFIES- face on Kaido! 
• HOLY FUCK THAT GIANT KILLING INTENT AURA THING
• Okay, not to say that hearing Luffy yell KOOOOONG GUNNNN isn't cool, but why didn't he go with another Red Roc? Or another move that infuses Ryu'o?
• Holy shit, they made Kid so god damn cool in the anime. 
• "I followed your half-assed attack with a stronger one of my own." the absolute sass from Law!
• Casual Rocks, Whitebeard, Roger, Garp and Oden cameos!
• Holy shit, that KAIFU and the gigantic tornado he makes and the speed of the green wind slices...
• Jeez, that casual backhand-slash by Zoro to knock one of Kaido's Kaifu's away...
• Okay, that Kong Rifle followed by that Slam Gibson on dragon Kaido... man, I didn't wake up today thinking that I was going to see someone suplex a goddamn dragon.
• Law's line about a dragon's anatomy is always so cool. 
• Wait, so Kaifu, Kong Rifle, Slam Gibson and Scythe Sonic all got their kanji shown on screen, but Law's Gamma Knife didn't?
• Holy shit, though, that shot when Killer's whirring Punisher blades became super gigantic was so damn cool. 
• Big Mom's Indra lightning is purple! Just casually zapping Killer out of the sky! 
• ITTORYU: HIRYU KAEN! It just literally bit off the horn of Onigashima! 
• There's a very cool shot of Prometheus appearing right in front of Kid before zapping straight through his face. Another very cool shot of Luffy Boundman-bouncing as lightning and storms rage all behind him. 
• Holy fuck, that Tenjin!
• Holy fuck, that Boro Breath! 
• Holy FUCK, that Kong Gatling!

Episode 1018:

• Watching these episodes semi-weekly, I think this is the first recap that I didn't skip since we get some of the highlights from the very excellent 1017. 
• A bit more noticeable in this episode than the others that Kaido is CGI... but it's smooth and honestly pretty well-done CGI that resembles some of the cell-shaded anime games. It's noticeable but not distracting, I guess? I feel like showing the sheer scale of Kaido's big-ass dragon form really does help to drive home just how titanic and a walking (well, floating) force of nature he really is. And the sheer impact caused by Luffy bashing his face to the ground, causing his body to coil around. 
• Okay, that is a long ass Kong Gatling. It continues to this episode and while it's ultimately just one in the many, many barrages of attack that Kaido tanks, it's still pretty damn impressive of the animation team to animate that so well.
• Man, they really do make Luffy decompressing from Gear Four look painful, huh? I wonder how much more painful-looking disengaging Gear Fifth would be like. 
• Counter shock!
• Yeah, Kid running around with that giant, colourful crazy half-robot-body is a lot cooler both animated, coloured, and given more than a couple of panels to be focused on. 
• TATSU MAKI! Okay, shit, seeing CGI Kaido coil into the air and just dwarf Kid's giant robot is pretty damn cool. I'm not sure about the physics of tornadoes springing out of the gaps between Kaido's coils, but shit, it looks cool! 
• Holy fuck Zoro just went Super Saiyan. And then the spirit of Enma just coils up into a giant dragon aura that's like, a Zanpakuto Spirit and Stand crossed together. The animation studios really does love Roronoa Zoro, huh? That is a lot of beautiful effort that went into last episode's Hiryu Kaen and this episode's Kokujo Ou Tatsumaki. 
• Holy shit that slash from Zoro looked like it fucking hurt. They coloured Kaido's exposed sinews very well. 
• That badass 'hmph-teleport' pose that Law does as he just dodges the wind-scythes with absolute swagger.
• We finally get to see the CP-0 in their apparently-indestructible observation room. Taking the place of the narrator, though, one of the biwa players actually narrates the numbers in song, which is a clever twist to do! 

Episode 1019:

• ...and just like that, we move away from Roof Piece for a while. I don't think my heart can take it if we get any more hype. 
  
• And... it's the Tama and kibi dango operation. It's cool. I like Tama. It's more interesting than the damned ice oni. But... we just came from the high-octane Roof Piece and I'm sorry, little girl, but your episode just isn't anywhere close to being as interesting. 
• We basically have Speed coming and talking to the other minor characters like Mouseman and Briscola and trying to sell that these dango are actually a Queen invention. Again, the script and the animation and voice acting are all very cool and all, but it's just not that interesting, I'm afraid. 
• I think every single named Gifter shows up in this episode as Speed, Daifugo and Gazelleman shove the dango in their mouth?
• There's, uh... yeah, that 'glistening skin' bit as we pan down Speed's cleavage... the animators aren't quite as thirsty as they were during the Dressrosa arc, but it did got me to roll my eyes just a bit. 
• Okay, but those Gifters that Gazelleman shoved the dango into... are kinda lazy designs, yeah? They're just random guys with animal-themed hoodies?
• I still can't get used to Hamlet's surprisingly deep voice.
• Something that I feel is going to lead to some anime padding fights (which I appreciate!) is actually showing Daikoku (of the Oniwabanshu) and Hotei (the leader of the Mimawarigumi) offering to back Apoo up. 
• Okay, that centaur-crocodile Gifter that Drake beat is kinda cool. But the guy with a fox... who's just a glove on his hand...
• Okay, holy shit, the animation suddenly went up a notch when Franky is fighting Sasaki. Franky-vs-Sasaki is honestly kind of the weakest Tobiroppo fight in the manga, but this? Seeing a pompadour robot throwing around a triceratops wearing a hat? Hell yea. 
• Also, Usopp and Nami's absolutely hilarious shit-eating expression as they reveal that, yeah, the Gifter army chasing them are actually under Tama's control... 
• One of the Gifters in that group literally has an entire rooster growing out of his head. To reiterate -- his human face is on the rooster's crotch area. 
• I do really like the Gifters that are part of Sasaki's armoured division. That crab lady, the four-armed beetle guy, Sasaki's palanquin rhino guy... Kinda wished they had names.
• Yeah, Franky's V-for-Victory Slash is given some hilarious over-the-top Power Rangers glowing animation. And that blue light ends up being a backlight for Tama. I just love the sheer ridiculousness of Tama being so important in this part of the arc. 

Episode 1020:

• Yeah, they do extend the Sanji with Black Maria's clique much longer than the manga. The music's really nice, though I'm not sure if seeing Sanji get roller'd around adds too much to the scene. 
• Caimanlady has got a reverse centaur combination with her caiman -- the face of the caiman faces backwards like a tail! 
• MARCO VS KING! It's a bit more roughly animated compared to something like last episode's Franky vs Sasaki, but I really do appreciate us seeing more of this. Really makes Marco feel like he's contributing in a huge role to the fight! There's a very cool bit where Marco creates a spiral of blue and yellow flame to block King's... fire machineguns? What is that?
• Perospero vs Carrot and Wanda got super extended! 
• That bit where Perospero uses the candy to choke Wanda and Carrot and have it wiggle down their throats... that's probably someone's fetish.
• There's a part of the fight where Carrot realizes that she can use Electro's heat to cause Perospero's candy to destabilize.
• CANDY MAIDEN is ridiculous but I love it. 
• We also get a bit more foreshadowing to when the moon gets 'turned off', so to speak. 
• The anime really doesn't make it a secret that it's Hiyori with the Scabbards, huh?
  
• Hyogoro's transformation to Prime Hyogoro gets a bit more focus here. I guess he might be using something similar to Kumadori's Life Return technique? Him going all Hulk is never really explained particularly well in-story. 
• The anime having Black Maria's clique comment about how noble Sanji is and thinking that he's just going to spite Black Maria before he dies -- while Sanji is having flashbacks to Robin throughout the story -- before we get Sanji yelling "HELP ME ROBIN-CHAN!" is actually pretty well-done. Again, my opinion on this scene has improved vastly after seeing Sanji and Robin's character arc here as a whole. This is moreso Sanji realizing that he's part of a crew (after trying his best to remove himself from it in Whole Cake Island), that he belongs there... and thus works as part of a team. In a way, the Sanji of the past, I think, would have been completely frozen when faced with this conundrum, since he wouldn't have put Robin in a dangerous situation -- the same way he was very reluctant to let Nami fight Kalifa. Twisting that last sentence a bit, Sanji wouldn't have trusted Robin to fight in his stead. And this, as embarrassing as it would've been for someone else (and maybe even most of us, the audience), Sanji doesn't really care what other people think. All he cares is what his friends like Robin thinks, and Robin sees it as Sanji relying on her -- a similar problem that Robin herself has been through as a character. Could've it been told and executed better? Some extra monologues? Sure. But I do really like this moment a lot more than I did before. 
• That gigantic Gigantesco Mano bitch-slap is very satisfying. 

Ms. Marvel S01E02 Review: Superhero 101

Ms. Marvel, Season 1, Episode 2: Crushed

Yeah, this show really should've released the first two episodes together, the way they did for Hawkeye. "Crushed", the second episode, is still relatively slow-paced. And by no means is it bad at all! It's still very enjoyable to watch, and does a lot of great things to set up Kamala's character and the world around her, but at the same time I really do feel that this is definitely a show that would work a lot better in binge-watching format instead of the weekly one. Or, well, at least to show episode 1 and 2 back-to-back as a two-parter. 

This episode goes through a lot of the motions, and... and it's good stuff, y'know? Iman Vellani is perfect in showcasing Kamala's dorkiness, and the episode juggles between developing the mystery behind Kamala's powers and building up her supporting cast while also being unashamedly happy to delve into the cultural parts of the Muslim-Pakistani community is extremely well-done. It's just that it's all mostly stuff we've seen before with a superhero that Kamala is often compared too -- good ol' Spider-Man. We get scenes of Kamala testing out her powers on a rooftop, we get her running around in a 'beta' outfit (basically her cosplay outfit), we get her showing off her confidence in school now that she has something cool under her belt, we even get a love triangle between friendzone-Bruno and hot-new-guy Kamran. The episode ends with Kamala's first public and heroic act, rescuing a kid who climbed up on top of a tower to take a selfie... but she kind of fucks up when visions happen at an inopportune moment, causing her to drop the kid. And then she stumbles quite literally onto the Damage Control guys, before the rather clever twist that Kamran and his mother's actually out there looking for Kamala (or maybe her powers) for a long time. 

And it's neat, y'know? Just like what I stated when I reviewed shows like Stargirl, Runaways and Cloak and Dagger; or even the Spider-Man movies the teenage drama stuff... I don't really care much for them, but as long as it's acted well, I don't mind them. There's something very nice, though, that brand-new hot boy that Kamala meets in a party that sends her life into a whirl turns out to be involved in some sort of conspiracy or something. 

And those parts, I feel, are pretty well done and very enjoyable. Set against a backdrop of Kamala juggling side-plots like her brother Aamir's wedding, Nakia running for a leadership role as part of the mosque board, Kamala's massive crush on Kamran, we also get Kamala realizing that there's something about her great-grandmother Aisha. When Kamala's parents tell her soon-to-be sister-in-law about what happened to their family during the period of Partition, turns out that Kamala's grandmother was saved by following a 'trail of stars'. However, Muneeba and other members of their community (hilariously called the 'Illumi-Aunties') deride Kamala's great-grandmother as some kind of pariah, who seems to have done something horrible. Kamala can't really dig out that much information since she's also keeping her superpowers a secret, but it is pretty appealing, and a nice way to twist the whole 'Inhuman powers are my lineage' as something intrinsically tied to a real-world culture. Muneeba clearly knows something, but is also very traumatized by whatever happened to her grandmother. 

(Still 50/50 on whether the crystal fists look better than comic-Kamala's stretchy powers, though)

On the other end of things, Damage Control has been investigating Zoe Zimmer's instagram posts, and we get to see Agent Cleary and his partner (google tells me she's called Agent Deever) interrogate Zoe. Deever is very clearly who we're supposed to hate, being very explicitly prejudiced against ethnic groups and even making Cleary feel uncomfortable. Their side of the story is just spinning its wheels while we focus more on Kamala's story. Them having Mysterio drones can't be a good thing!

And a lot of it is admittedly kind of fluff around Kamala, but I really do like so much of the world-building around her. Her being dorky as hell when she sees the shirtless Kamran (that Masha'Allah is hilarious) and I'm just happy that Kamran is immediately established to be someone relevant and potentially sinister instead of just a pointless love interest. Also, as someone who's "not quite white enough, not quite ethnic enough", I absolutely relate so much to Nakia's struggles when she discusses the hijab with Kamala in the bathroom.

The most hilarious scene, however, are the girls taking selfies in the mosque, before being interrupted by one of the adults who tell them that they shouldn't "snapchat" in the mosque... and then one of the kids indignantly say that "it's insta!" That's hilarious. Another rather hilarious moment is Aamir totally buying into Kamala's excuse that Kamran is their distant cousin, and is totally bamboozled by Kamala, while Tyesha just shoots her a knowing grin. 

A rather delightful second episode. It's just such a shame that the show is a bit of a niche thanks to its subject matter and pretty slow pacing, but I definitely have been enjoying this show a whole lot. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Kamala and Kamran discuss Bollywood movies, and talk about Kingo from Eternals, who is a Bollywood star in the MCU. They also make allusions to "Kingo Senior", which is a nod to how Kingo poses as a whole generation of identical-looking descendants. 
• The drone that Damage Control uses are the EDITH drones used by Spider-Man and later Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. 
• Speaking of Far From Home, the public calling Kamala as "Night Light" seems to be similar to how Spider-Man was given the nickname "Night Monkey" by the media when he operated in Europe with his stealth costume. 
• Kamala lies to Aamir that Kamran is their distant cousin. In the comics, they actually are distant cousins. 
• The hijab that Kamala Khan gives to Nakia is patterned identically to the scarf she wears on the first issue of her comic book. 
• Speaking of that first issue, Kamala arriving at a party and being given a drink containing alcohol and her going 'am I drunk?' is a reference to a near-identical scene from that book. 
• At one point, Kamala notes that Ant-Man 'looks younger than [he is]', a nod to a common running gag within the MCU fandom that Ant-Man's actor Paul Rudd doesn't seem to age. 

My Hero Academia, Season 3, Episodes 12-18

After the epicness of last episode's UNITED STATES OF SMASH, we continue on with my coverage of season 3 of My Hero Academia!

Again, my regular disclaimer: This is more of a 'reaction'  and my commentary as I watch this season in animated format for the first time instead of a review. Also keep in mind that at the time of writing this review I have been caught up to the manga, although I'll try not to spoil too much of it in case someone's reading this as they watch the show itself. 

Episode 12:

• This one is an in-between chapter where we get a lot of recapping about what has happened in the aftermath of the previous large arc, the aftermath of what happened to the students, and some revelations about the Shimura family... before we get the whole U.A. Student Dorm plot development. 
• I do like that even this early on, we do get some bits of redeeming qualities about Endeavour -- at least in regards of how he views the 'honour' of his career.
• That is the most hilarious 'Texas Smash' I've seen! 
• In all the excitement of All For One and Villain Alliances and pro hero team-ups and United States of Smash... I actually didn't realize that this is the first time Midoriya got out of a predicament without breaking an arm! In fact, All Might is the one that broke his arm! 
• The eyecatcher normally shows off random facts about heroes, but the one for this episode is neatly a bit more somber as it informs to the audience that Best Jeanist and Ragdoll are going to be out of hero activities due to their severe injuries.
• It took me until he opens his mouth and speaks that I recognize Aizawa. Man, dude looks so different with his hair tied up like that. 
• Haha, Kyoka's Deep Dope shirt.
• "It's seriously like Brian the Sun!" bless you, Kyoka's dad.
• Bakugo and his mother have an... interesting dynamic. Now which one came first? Is Mama Katsuki's rather physical way of parenting the reason for Bakugo's behavioural problems, or is that the only way that Mama Katsuki can even rein in her problematic son?
• Mama Katsuki appreciates what Aizawa said about Bakugo not actually being corruptible by the villains, which is a nice moment. 
• I also like that Bakugo was actually smart enough to pick up on Midoriya and All Might's special connection, and that he confronts All Might about it. It does work off Midoriya almost blurting out his secret to Bakugo in the first season well, and leads to Bakugo being a secret keeper for a bit later on. 
• Of course it gets resolved in this episode, but I really do like that we do get a scene of Midoriya's mother being super-against him getting constantly injured over and over again. We then circle back to Midoriya pulling out Kota's letter which is a neat little fuzzy moment. I also love that Midoriya instantly tries to respect his mother's attempted compromise of sending him to a hero course not at U.A. -- I think a less-'realistic' manga would've tried to hammer in the setting's main campus or whatever as the best and most perfect place ever. 
• Also, damn, All Might, that is a mighty fine speech you did. 
• Also, damn, All For One, that is a mighty fine twisted version of the 'now it's your turn' speech you did. 

Episode 13:

• This episode is mostly just our 1-A students moving into the dorms, and it's... it's all in good fun. Some discussion about the traitor on Nezu's part.
• Again, nothing really comes of it, but I do like Aizawa emphasizing that, yes, according to the law, and if things weren't in a crisis, what Team Midoriya did is technically wrong. Oh, add the powerful Tsuyu moment that closes this episode to that, too. 
• It really looks like Bakugo just shook down Kaminari and stole his money, yeah? And that was how I read this scene for the longest time. It's still not super-clear since Bakugo was being kind of coy about it, but I think the author had confirmed in one of the Q&A segments that the whole Kaminari thing was meant to be Bakugo using him to distract the rest of the class, while Bakugo actually did use his own money to pay Kirishima.
• Speaking of which, awww, Bakugo does have a heart.
• All the dorm breakdowns... it's something that honestly never really matters in the grand scheme of the story beyond anyone looking for background consistency in the artwork, but it does make for a nice little breather after the intensity of the All For One battle. 
• During the dorm showcase... man they really play up Mineta's perverted tendencies, huh? Though him doing that... uh... thing he did in Hagakure's room is kind of over the line. Clearly the other 1-A kids do so too, because in the background we don't ever see Mineta again, while Sero drags around a mummified lump the size of Mineta. 
• It is basic, but I do enjoy Yaoyorozu going "my house is much bigger" while Uraraka constantly freaks out at how fancy everything is. 
• Room showcases! Without me going into a breakdown of every single room, this episode is one of the comedic highlights of the series. My favourite is probably Tokoyami's super-chuunibyou room, and Ojiro's entirely unremarkable room... 
• Okay, Iida's glasses rack is funny too.
• Todoroki's deadpan "I worked hard" was funny too. 
• Ashido and Hagakure also get super-excited, which is nice since the two of them don't otherwise really get a whole ton of spotlight... actually, it's a lot of nice moments for characters like Sero or Sato who have been really out of focus. 

Episode 14:

• Present-day MHA is epic and cool and all, but man, between Midoriya reacting to life in the dorms and the class getting excited for a 'ultimate move' class, I really do miss the more slice-of-life parts of the earlier parts of this manga. 
• Okay, they do give some in-universe reasons as to why heroes need 'ultimate moves', but we all know the real reason is just that it's fucking cool, yo. 
• Though honestly, other than Midoriya's Smashes, Bakugou's grenades and Iida's Reciproburst, I really can't think of too many 1-A students that use any named ultimate moves. Although, I would also readily admit that calling out attacks are a bit less memorable in the manga compared to the anime. 
• Between USJ and TDL, I do like the running gag of all of UA's facilities sharing acronyms with Japanese theme parks. 
• In this case, Midoriya and the others actually question the "Training Dining Land" and note that a "certain mouse" might get mad at them. 
• Poor, poor Ojiro. Honestly, while I do get that all the other students get some improvements to their quirk usage, all Ojiro got is that "stop moving like someone who has a tail, it's too obvious"... he is Tail-Man! The whole point of him is that he has a tail!
• "I am... here even though I wasn't asked to be here because I didn't have anything else to do today!" God bless you, All Might. 
• Speaking of All Might being adorable... that 'even dummies can be teachers' book. It's like, played for laughs and Aizawa's eyes bug out at the sight of that, but you can tell that All Might's throwing all his effort into trying to do something productive even though he can't be doing any superheroing. 
• I really didn't like Mei when I first met her in the manga, but man, she's a lot more likable in this arc, and honestly, in the anime in general. I think it's the voice-acting making it a lot more obvious that she's just a complete scatterbrain instead of her being a jackass. And oh boy, this episode is a laugh riot with her trying to bring out all her BABY to give to our 1A guys. 
• I also love that Mei's wacky 'why don't you run with your arms' gag towards Iida ends up causing Midoriya to develop Shoot Style. 
• Power Loader has... a very interesting character design, let me just put it that way. 
• Mineta, that string of grape balls... no. Just no. 
• Also, Mineta telling Midoriya that his costume is on the boring side... dude, have you not seen your own giant porcelain diaper?
• Did Tokoyami ever use Abyssal Black Body in combat? I genuinely don't remember! That's actually a cool look! 
• All Might's massive grin when he sees Midoriya do his Shoot Style is adorable! 

Episode 15:

• Bless you, Monoma. You're good for a laugh. 
• Ashido's blunt delivery of "is it Midoriya or Iida?" is hilarious. 
• I also find it hilarious that it's because Uraraka touched her face in embarrassment that she activated her own gravity quirk on herself. 
• We have some absolutely great musical cues when Uraraka accidentally spies Midoriya practicing outside. 
• Shiketsu Academy! I found Inasa actually kind of forgettable in the manga (it genuinely boggles my mind how popular he actually is in the manga's popularity polls), but you know what? That dumbass over-the-top energy coupled with energetic voice-acting is a lot more endearing in anime format. 
• "Ah, blood." The joke is funny in and of itself, but the fact that it's spoken by Camie...
• I 100% forgot about Ms. Joke's existence, though, and her... interesting dynamic with Aizawa. I also completely forgot that Ketsubutsu Academy is a thing. 
• I do like that the 'super earnest' Ketsubutsu Academy student foreshadows the U.A. Crushing strategy of the other schools. 
• Good god there are a lot of hero course students, huh. 1540 in a single location!
• Man, this Mera guy just looks so fucking tired with life in general. Are you okay, Mera? Did the HPSC force you to take too much overtime? Do we have to call HR?
• I do find it interesting that the U.A. Sports Festival is such a double-edged sword. Sure, these guys are just hero students from other schools ganging up on our heroes, but wouldn't any villain that watches these Olympics-tier event basically get a rundown on every power of the U.A. graduates?
• Aizawa's badass boast about how "it wouldn't change how my students fight" is pretty damn cool, as is "if they become pros, everyone will know their quirks. Sorry, we look a little further ahead than everyone else."
• Okay, Mineta, your giant ball-whip thing is actually kinda cool. 

Episode 16:

• I don't think he ever appears after this, but Makabe Shikkui with his stiffening quirk is a pretty cool blue rock-person. He's buddies with Toteki Itejiro, or Boomerang, someone who looks like he's cosplaying Android 17 from Dragon Ball Z. I genuinely don't know if these guys are actually not in the manga, or if they are background characters that the anime expands upon -- I do know this arc does have a bunch of anime-original bonus fights.
• I know Nakagame Tatami shows up later on. I don't know that her quirk is 'Telescopic', though, which allows her to... uh... basically retract her entire body? Like, Mic the narrator says she 'folds her body into itself like a turtle, but pretty sure a turtle just... retracts into its shell. Tatami can retract her entire body between the neck and her hip into her hip. That's like some One Piece nonsense! 
• Shindo Yo, meanwhile, can use vibrations to create earthquakes. He's kinda cool, for someone with a relatively generic-looking design!
• Okay, Jiro's arm-mounted sonic-amplifier gauntlets are cool!
• Ashido actually has a named attack -- Acid Veil! Meanwhile, Tokoyami renamed his Abyssal Black Body into Black Ankh: Piercing Twilight Claws.. 
• I absolutely love that the huge, epic entrance of Inasa and his typhoon quirk is accompanied by some manly HOO! HAAAH! epic music. 
• Among the group of heroes that arrive with Boomerang Android 17 guy to ambush Midoriya and Camie is, for some reason, a random little kid riding a toy truck. ...okay? My favourite part about mangas like One-Punch Man and My Hero Academia is these wacky one-off random character designs. 
• Speaking of random designs, Midoriya has to dodge rocks, spiderwebs, water blasts... and a giant... stapler with cartoony chomper-arms thing? 
• It's mostly accompanied with flashback scenes and I'm never a fan of that, but I do appreciate Midoriya realizing that going too far in breaking his body is, well, conducive to absolutely no one after winning a single fight. 
• Okay, "Camie" gets notoriously 'censored' by having her 'wear' a bodysuit that's coloured chalk-white instead of being skin-coloured, but... honestly, Midoriya still treats her as being naked and I do kind of agree that if this is actually meant for the viewing of a younger audience, they really can't have a girl run around basically buck-ass nude. 
• Sero does something! Good job, Sero! 
• "WAS SHE NAKED, MIDORIYAAAA?" 
• The whole damn Ninninger Ninja Force just shows up to fight Todoroki. Red Ninja Dude has an Ant-Man style ability of tossing random things and causing them to expand into giant size. 

Episode 17:

• I am almost positive this Ninja Force fight isn't in the manga. Blue Ninja shoots out mud! Black Ninja shoots out water! The yellow ninjas are strong! ...they actually didn't last that long, even if I didn't expect them to take up like an entire half-episode. 
• Tsuyu, Yaoyorozu, Shoji and Jiro fight against someone who's definitely anime-original, Intelli Saiko, who's like this huge weird super-posh lady with a monocle and her abilities involve her summoning a fuckton of Physics and mathematics formulae like Kamen Rider Build. Actually, considering that at one point she talks about how "the formula for [her] success" as a catchphrase, and Present Mic emphasizes the word "GEEEEEENIUS!" she might be a more blatant homage than I thought. 
• Saiko's quirk is "IQ", which improves her intelligence... when she drinks tea. It sounds stupid on paper, but remember that Iida's quirk is canonically fueled by orange juice consumption.
• One of Saiko's minions is a lady with an entire chunky Nerf-style slingshot for an arm; a gas-mask girl that can shoot cold air out of giant finger-cannons; another one with finger-cannons can weld doors. Her little 'strike force' includes a girl with noodle hair, tentacle arms, metal staves that come out of palms, spiky hair girl, and a girl that creates a giant Rube-Goldberg hammer. 
• Considering how poor Yaoyorozu kind of gets lesser and lesser roles as the story goes on, I do like that we do get this episode putting her as the leader and planner of the quartet, and getting a whole monologue about how she wants to save everyone in her team. 
• Although, honestly, considering we've seen her make catapults and stuff, she really could've countered sniper-slingshot girl a lot sooner before she got to break Jiro's amplifiers. All I'm saying, Yaoyorozu should really look into making more weapons with her quirk.
• The anime staff at least thought about the fact that making grenades or bombs would cause a 'phreatic explosion', something that I actually was about to question.   
• Okay, that giant speaker is... honestly kind of simple, all things considered, and I kind of expected something that would make use of both Shoji and Jiro, but I'm not going to be too nitpicky. 
• Shoji also has a nice little moment -- everyone reaffirms how they're coming back to save Momo, but Shoji has a cute little flashback of remembering how Midoriya would 'save both of them'. 
• Oh, Shishikura and his ability to turn people into Cronenberg-ed meatballs... him, I remember, due to how absolutely fucked up his quirk is. He also can mould his flesh into floating globs that attack the enemy. Holy shit, though, he really seems like someone that would be super useful in a fight against the villains! 
• "My eyes are handsome and long in length!" I love that Shishikura actually gets offended by Bakugo's mockery.
• There's this guy whose head looks like a plastic bird skull with a black blob in the middle with Marvin-the-Martian style eyes around 18 minutes or so into the episode, hanging out with the Ketsubutsu students. That's a very cool design. 

Episode 18:

• Okay, with all the filler against anime-only students, was that recap from Shindo really necessary? I guess it's to show his 'true' manipulative, opportunistic face? 
• I do actually like the little emphasis on Bakugou making his "A.P. Shot" move weaker so that he can use the attack against people without killing them. He might be bloodthirsty, but he's not out to actually murder people!
• I do actually like the brief focus on Kaminari here! It's a neat little subversion where the fight looks like it's going to be a Bakugou spotlight, but a nice little showcase on how Kaminari's been improving his quirk and working on his own debilitating weakness is definitely appreciated. 
• I also really like the little character moment between Aoyama and Iida, where Aoyama is baffled and actually moved by the fact that Iida's running around helping other 1-A students even if it's something that would harm Iida himself. It's something that seems perfect for Iida after the Stain arc, and I feel like this is an overlooked moment for Aoyama later in the series.
• "Papa, mama, why am I different from everyone else?" 
• That giant pillar of light that Aoyama did to signal everyone where he is... that's honestly pretty damn badass. 
• That yatta dance that Sero, Uraraka, Kaminari and Kirishima do is adorable. 
• It is pretty obvious that Aoyama's giant light pillar is going to attract the other 1A students to help him, but it's still pretty badass. (How did Tokoyami, who's able to create shadow tendril-claws, not pass earlier?) Also, Mineta and Koda are probably the MVP's of that huge ambush attack. 

Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 9: Dog Rescue

So yeah, thanks to the Miss Fortune Sisters kidnapping the big Growlithe belonging to Palina, we have to go ride a Basculegion to travel all the way to Firespit Island. 

...and, of course, even after getting distracted by a space-time rift last episode and I think completing a bunch of minor side-quests, the path to Firespit Island is filled with a lot of aquatic Pokemon. And I do mean a lot, because I got so distracted in trying to hunt down the Mantines and Remoraids and Qwilfishes. And... you know what? Qwilfish has been such an ignored Generation II Pokemon for so long, and I do want to use as many new evolutions as possible, so I ended up putting one in my party. I called her Qwilmonger.

Firespit Island has a giant volcano in the middle! Iscan also shows up, although like any good NPC, he stops to catch his breath while I go and explore the island. Despite the RPG elements in this game, we don't quite go full-on Zelda with this because the lava doesn't actually kill or injure my character. There's just an invisible wall around every single lava pool. It does give some pretty neat mood lighting, though!

In a nice bit of lore consistency, we actually see a wooden boat tied to the coast of Firespit Island, explaining how the Miss Fortune Sisters got to the island when it's such a huge deal that we befriend Lord Basculegion. 

There's a narrow path leading to the center of the volcano, populated pretty intensely by a bunch of Magmars and Gravelers. I really do find it rather interesting that while it's not a hard and fast rule, they are trying their best to give some representation to most of the Pokemon that appeared in the original Diamond/Pearl Sinnoh dex. 

The Miss Fortune Sisters are basically trying to force the Growlithe to evolve in the center of the caldera (is that the proper term), because there's a legend that any Pokemon in the center of that volcano would be able to evolve. I don't know how to break it to you ladies, but, well, all that Growlithe needs is just a Fire Stone. Probably. Presuming Hisuian Growlithes evolve the same way like Kantonian Growlithes. For all I know they might need to use a certain move 20 times in agile style or whatever. 

The three sisters, unlike their first confrontation with me, actually fight me all at once. One by one, but it does give me a bit more of a challenge since they don't allow me to heal up between battles or to change my lead. The first one to fight me is the Candice-looking one, Clover, who's super-duper emotive. She sends out an Abomasnow, again, just like Candice! My Decidueye and its Triple Arrows make short work of the Abomasnow, and there's a rather hilarious bit where Clover gives like a dozen excuses how Abomasnow can't perform well in the heat of the volcano... and then her own sister, Coin, very calmly points out that it's Clove that lobbed Abomasnow out in this environment. 

Coin fights me again with her Toxicroak, which I've seen before, although I had to swap out to my Stantler and its Psyshield Bash to try and rack up that quota to get it to evolve. It's rather aggravating that the Pokemon that need these special-move-in-a-certain-style consumes 2 PP with every usage of the agile or strong style, since I end up running out of PP so fast. Coin calls herself a 'blithering mooncalf' or something for losing and... what the fuck is that expression, haha.

Charm, the boss, fights me with two Pokemon! Two at once! She also mentions that she cmoes from Kanto, so she doesn't really 'cheat' the way Irida does by 2-v-1-ing me. She has a Rhydon and a Gengar, both Pokemon that come from Kanto. A helpful commenter in one of the earlier parts of the playthrough also pointed out that Charm shares hairstyle with Agatha and Bertha, two old women from the Kanto and Sinnoh Elite Fours respectively, and I do find it interesting that Charm has a Pokemon that's associated with both of her... descendants, I suppose. 

We still don't really learn why the Miss Fortune Sisters hate the Galaxy Team so much, but there's another pretty fun moment when apparently Coin and Clover have been abusing potions and healing up both of their Pokemon off-screen while I was busy dealing with Charm's Pokemon. While we don't actually get to fight them, it's a hilarious bit of acknowledgement of game mechanics that normally only the player is seemingly able to do. 

Little Lord Growlithe shows up at this point barking to try and save his buddy, and so does Palina. Palina tells me that the Growlithe swam all the way there... and this is despite its 4x-weakness to water! Little buddy's got guts! And guts it does, because just like an episode of the anime, we get the Growlithe actually evolving in this moment of heated emotion, evolving into a massive gigantic Hisuian Arcanine -- which, as I suspected when doing the reviews, is a much better-looking creature in motion. And then a space-time rift appears in the sky and a yellow lightning bolt zaps the Arcanine and drives it into a frenzy almost immediately. 

The frenzied giant dog-tiger actually freaks out the Miss Fortune Sisters that they bail out, actually dropping another one-liner about how they can't profit without their lives, which, again, is another acknowledgement of death that we don't really commonly see in this franchise.

As Iscan, Palina and me run away from the rampaging Arcanine, Irida (who also swam here, I guess? Or is Basculegion playing taxi for her too?) shows up with the knowledge of using balms to defeat frenzied Pokemon Lords. By sheer happenstance and because he hasn't done jack-diddly throughout all of this part of the story, Iscan had prepared Growlithe's favourite food. The balms are prepared, and it's Dark Souls boss time!

And... it's a genuinely menacing sequence as Arcanine walks on lava while the camera pans up on it and shows its title. Lord Arcanine genuinely feels threatening thanks to all this build-up, unlike Liligant before! And the fight is a bit more troublesome now thanks to the arena. It's not a free arena for me to run around like the previous Kleavor or Liligant fights, but rather a vaguely cross-shaped arena of rocky platforms... while Arcanine can just run or charge through the tops of lava. Its attack patterns are a bit more troublesome, too, with him leaving spinning wheels of flame that remain after it walks away... is this Fire Spin? Is this Fire Spin's revenge for mocking the uselessness of it?

I actually blacked out thanks to the 'Fire Spin' attack appearing right in the center of the 'cross' and it causes me to be unable to actually reach Arcanine on the other end of the arena with my noodle arms throwing the balms, and Arcanine ended up blitzing the hell out of me with its telegraphed explosions. 

Interestingly, unlike Kleavor and Liligant, which were pretty powerful relative to their areas, Arcanine here is a piddly level 30 that my newly-caught Qwilfish could defeat. I suppose it makes sense, since it just newly evolved!

Anyway, Arcanine is ultimately quelled, and we get a nice scene shot rather well as Palina looks up at the peak of the volcano where we see another Arcanine... and then as the camera pans behind Palina's head, the ghost of Papa Arcanine disappears. This is later acknowledged by Palina and Iscan, noting that there were two Arcanine cries (although not before a bit of a teasing on the scaredy-cat Iscan) and that the ghost of Papa Arcanine has been watching over our Arcanine. I suppose this also solves the mystery of the ghost of Firespit Island, then -- I was expecting it to be one of our new ghost Pokemon! That's overall pretty nice as a story. 

Also, Palina and Lord Arcanine have to 'live apart' now as noble and warden, and... I'm actually not quite sure why? I mean, wouldn't they still be working closely, in that case? Not to mention that I'm not sure really what 'responsibilities' a Pokemon Noble really have. But okay, sure. I'm questioning this game a bit too much. 

As Iscan and Palina leave, there's a nice bit where Irida is worried and slightly self-doubtful because she really didn't contribute too much other than bringing the information about the balms -- which, yeah, I was there and I could also tell the two wardens that. She's kind of impressed and intimidated at the same time by her 'rival' Palina being so assertive even at her age. Interesting how we're kind of getting a fair bit of characterization out of her. I suppose the next area will focus more on Adaman since we've had a fair bit of Irida?

And with that, we've completed the main story of the Coastlands! ...and as usual, I absolutely ignore the prompt to return back to Professor Kamado. 

Instead, I go around exploring and completing side-quests... and doing a lot of evolutions! 

One of the side-quests that I was way overdue in completing is hunting for one of the Construction Corps guys, who is tormented by a Chatot. "Gyaaah, a talking Pokemon!” That's actually kind of hilarious, especially since Chatot was repeating everything he said back at him. Remember in Generation IV when Chatot's move actually recorded a soundbyte with the DS's microphone and people just used it as an excuse to hurl abuse at each other? Yeah, I remember it. Good times. Also, finally I get an additional base camp in the Coastlands that'll make fast travel a lot easier. 

In my journey to fill up my quota for Qwilfish and Stantler to both use their signature move 20 times, I wander around the Coastlands a bit more and I start to find a fair bit of interesting encounters. The trees drop Wormadam now in addition to Burmy, which is nice. Also, near where we first met Palina is actually a cute little Hisuian Growlithe wandering around. I am kind of attached to my shiny Rapidash now, but it's nice. 

Going back to the city, I show Anthe the two different Shellos colours, which unlocks even more fashion choices. None of the new ones really speak out to me, although some of the kimonos do have pretty patterns.

And then I go out back to the Mirelands to hunt down the Black Peat to evolve my Ursaring. It... it took me way longer than I care to admit, although I was also busying myself with trying to fill in research quests for more elusive time-gated Pokemon. Eventually I did dig up the Black Peat, and had to reset the time way too many times for the full moon to appear. And then I give the Black Peat to my Alpha Ursaring, who evolves into a mighty Ursaluna! I have a big mud bear now. I'm not the biggest fan of Ursaluna's design, but he's pretty neat, and being so gosh-darned big (even compared to the ride Pokemon!) does make me like him a bit. Ursaluna's signature move that he learns upon evolution is Headlong Rush, which is a physical Ground-type move that lowers defense. 

Also, after abusing the lower-leveled Pokemon of the Mirelands and Fieldlands, my Stantler also evolves into Wyrdeer. I don't really like Wyrdeer all that much compared to Ursaluna, though he's probably still going to hang out in my 'VIP' box with my Drifblim and Kricketune. 

Exploring the Fieldlands even more, I find Mime Jr's and Mr. Mimes and... and it's kind of interesting that the Mr. Mimes actually bring up their shields to block my Pokeballs. 

And finally, my Qwilfish evolves into a giant OVERQWIL, and man, Overqwil looks as ridiculous as I'd hoped, especially when hovering in place next to me. Look at those giant, fuck-off horns! I didn't even realize that Overqwil even has two tiny horns as angry eyebrows. I like this guy. 

Anyway, yeah, looking for that Black Peat and racking up the 'use a move 20 times' quotas drained a fair bit out of me, so this one is a bit shorter. It was a fun story to play through, though!

Current Party: Hootle (Hisuian Decidueye), Manterror (Kleavor), Bartholomew (Ursaluna), Qwilmonger (Overqwil), Cremation (Shiny Rapidash), Uzumaki (Hisuian Sliggoo)

One Piece 1053 Review: Shin Yonko

One Piece, Chapter 1053: The New Emperors

Yeah, okay, a little bit late to the bandwagon on this one, mostly because I kept adding more and more and more and this chapter just does not end. One thing that I am actually very happy about -- and a good reason why I wasn't doomsaying too much in my 1051-1052 reviews -- is that I really don't actually pay too much heed to all the real-world announcements and stuff, so I wasn't exactly expecting the Straw Hats to fully leave Wano at the end of 1053 like a good chunk of the fandom believes. Sure, I expected some kind of resolution in 1052 and 1053 before the one-month break, but it's definitely a very nice surprise to know that Wano isn't quite over just yet, and we're seemingly heading into a little "post-Wano" mini-arc and we're not rushing things to get the Straw Hat crew out of Wano ASAP, since there was none of the seeming urgency that our heroes had at the end of Dressrosa or Whole Cake Island.

The first scene in this mammoth of a chapter takes place in Marie Geoise, with the huge-mustachioed Gorosei member yelling at the Marines about Luffy's bounty picture, as well as an unmet demand for the "D" to be struck off of Luffy's bounty poster. Man the Gorosei are kind of... incompetent, aren't they? There's a neat little nod to how the World Government changed Gol D. Roger's name to Gold Roger... but man, you'd think they would just suppress the "D" out of... well, anyone who gets a bounty poster. Silly World Government. 

Interestingly, the Marines never got that order, and we're not sure who intercepted it. We do get an acknowledgement that "Guernica" of CP-0, presumably the lone surviving CP-0 person, giving them the full orders... but we don't really know who intercepted Guernica last chapter. It is implied to be Ryokugyu, but it could be something else? A running theory among some of the fandom that I've seen is that Guernica might be pissed off that the World Government essentially sent his/her two partners to die? 

Interestingly, later on we learn that the last message that Cipher Pol sent out before the line went dead is that it's "Big Mom's Ship"... and I could go on a whole tangent on what the fuck might have happened there. We still don't have a proper confirmation on what happened to Big Mom and Kaido! 

Anyway, Big News Morgans is just on the moon, happy to be printing all of this news. I really do like Big News Morgans... he's not reporting the truth out of a sense of duty, or hatred towards the World Government... he's just doing it 'cause it's going to make him the most money, and it's BIG NEWS! He's not a nice or good-aligned character at all, but it's so interesting that he's basically being such a wild card. 

We then get the two-page spread revelation of the three bounties of Luffy, Law and Kid... and they're all an equal 3 billion each. It's a bit vexing, admittedly, because while I do expect everyone to get an increase in bounty it really does feel off to have Law and Kid be ranked equally to Luffy. Although I suppose it's a nice reversal of the end of the events of Whole Cake Island where Luffy was over-estimated thanks to how Big News Morgans framed the events? Now Luffy is under-estimated and they think it's an equal alliance between Luffy, Kid and Law? It's still really odd, though at least as we learn at the end of the chapter, Luffy does get an extra Yonko status at the end of it.

And... and I suppose the way the World Government is trying to spin it so that Luffy isn't counted as the next Pirate King does make sense, in a way, by trying to downplay his contributions, but it's the Gear Fifth portrait that Guernica or Apoo or whoever provided to Morgans that's out of their control.

The next couple of scenes aren't quite as hype thanks to its content, but I do like the little bit of characterization stuff we get here especially with the new knowledge that we're not quite done with Wano just yet. Some high-end chef has prepared a full meal for all of the saviours of Wano, but he took so long that everyone except for Jinbe has absconded and ran off to the city. Jinbe's a nice dude, though. He appreciates the work that this nameless chef NPC has provided for us. 

Luffy, Yamato and Chopper are running around and enjoying typical Japanese festival stuff. Brook and Hiyori do a cover of 'Moon Princess', and while it goes by quickly, I suppose this is the first time that Hiyori has played that song after Oden's death and she's smiling. That's nice. 

Then we cut to Robin, who is not kidnapped in the short time-skip. So that literally is just Oda trolling the fandom for a week. Robin is in that one kokeshi room with the non-red Poneglyph that Brook stumbled into for like one panel waaaaay back before the raid. I only realized this when I watched the anime! Tenguyama shows up and talks about how that is his private collection, before revealing himself to be Kozuki Sukiyaki.

...and what a non-plusser of a revelation that is. I'm sorry, but I'm wholly underwhelmed. Tenguyama is barely a character and he drifted off into being kind of irrelevant, and Sukiyaki is even moreso. I am already aware that there's a lot of speculation in the fandom because Sukiyaki and Tenguyama share a voice actor, and there was apparently an errata made to a databook's ages that put the two's ages as exactly the same. The time that this is revealed in the arc, as well as me really not giving a shit about either character really made me shrug. We do get some handwaved reason of shame or whatever, and I start wondering why we're covering this instead of the many other unanswered questions we have for this arc... 

But then Robin cuts through all this bullshit, and immediately asks Sukiyaki about Pluton. Pluton is in Wano, and Robin knows it all the way since Alabasta, and Sukiyaki confirms it. 

That. That is much more like it. That's the bombshell we need. We already have a lot of hints and my personal pet theory is that Onigashima might be connected to it somehow -- Izo or someone mentioned that the island had an older name before. Big Mom and Kaido both hinted that Kaido chose Wano for a reason. And both Enma and Pluto are 'kings of the underworld'. It really could be anything, but man, that is such a great bombshell of a revelation that made me far more excited than I thought I would be. 

...and then we cut away to Udon, which is now lush and green and filled with plants and mushrooms, and we get to see roots and tendrils reaching up to the sky, having skewered prisoners. Poor Babanuki is straight-up dessicated! And then we see King and Queen -- both presumably imprisoned there -- get absolutely bullied by Ryokugyu's vines. There's a cute gag where Queen, who's now reduced to a wrinkly thin man, jokes about how he shold stay round. 

That answers what happens to... well, to at least King and Queen. There's a lot of debate in the fandom on how to powerscale this fight. It's been a week, but King and Queen might be still weakened from their defeats? Regardless, though, Ryokugyu totally beat the fuck out of the two of them, all the while drinking wine with his vines. We learn that Ryokugyu's real name is Aramaki, and unlike the chill persona we saw him had in Marie Geoise, turns out that he's actually a huge Akainu fanboy, and he's here without Akainu's knowledge with the specific intention of taking Luffy's head. 

So yeah, what a first impression he makes! He's like a more devil-may-care and far more hot-headed version of Akainu, and... and if the Marine Admirals are going to be relevant in the future, I do really enjoy the fact that there's at least someone other than Akainu that's a bit more antagonistic. Fujitora's an ally in all but allegiance, and Kizaru treats it more like a day job. It's nice to see that there are members of the Marines that are going to actually feel like proper opponents. 

And then just before Ryokugyu actually gets to the Flower Capital, though, we do get the obligatory end-of-arc huge party. We had the hot springs last chapter, and now we get the whole huge party, ending with a gigantic two-page spread of a huge firework in the sky. Very fun, very cathartic, and we check in with practically every important Luffy-aligned character in Wano at the moment. Oh, there's also Kid trying to attack Luffy and kill him because he's pissed off at sharing the bounty with him, but Luffy doesn't even care. He doesn't really even see Kid as being serious and just hugs him and drags him into the celebration. Silly Kid. 

And then the final two-page spread shows us the new Yonko... Blackbeard and Shanks retain their position. Luffy is a new Yonko, who no one is afraid of. The fourth member of the Yonko, however... is BUGGY THE FUCKING CLOWN.

BUGGY.

BUGGY IS A YONKO. BUGGY. BUGGY THE FUCKING BOMBASTIC CLOWN. 

I am absolutely 100% happy with this. I was slightly worried with the Yonko stuff and wondered if something would have happened -- maybe Law and Kid would both be considered Yonko as well which I really wouldn't like. But then Buggy? Man, clearly some shit happened during the time we spent in Wano. Something happened when the Shichibukai attempted to arrest Buggy, and somehow, just like how he went from being a no-name prisoner in Impel Down into a Shichibukai by sheer luck, our lovable clown somehow lucked his way into becoming a Yonko spoken in the same breath as Shanks. It's ridiculous!

There are so many wacky theories out there. Buggy lucked into an Ancient Weapon. Buggy brokered an alliance between Mihawk, Hancock and Weevil and somehow the world thinks he's the leader. A freak storm sunk the Marine ships sent to arrest Buggy. Somehow Buggy's the only Shichibukai not defeated by whatever the hell the SSG is. Buggy is the pirate that Shanks warned the Gorosei about. Sabo is working with Buggy. Something. Anything. 

Man, this makes me really want to know what happened. Moreso than I want to know what happened to Sabo or whatever. 

Though I suppose next month's chapter is going to focus more on Ryokugyu's assault. And... and he sure is impressive, bullying King and Queen, but... but is he really going to be able to fight against everyone there? Even if Jinbe is in the castle, we have, on top of my head, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Kid, Law and Yamato all in the party. All the heavy-hitters, not counting the rest of the Straw Hats, the Scabbards, the Heart Pirates and Kid Pirates. I don't really know if Ryokugyu can hold all of them off on his own, but maybe he really is that much more powerful than Fujitora and Kizaru? Maybe something about SSG will finally be revealed here? We'll see. 

What a chapter to go to a break on!

Random Notes:

• With the reveal of Guernica's name, based on Picasso's famous painting depicting anti-war sentiments, people have clued together that Maha's name is a reference to La Maja Vestida and La Maja Desnuda, a pair of classical paintings. Now if only Oda would reveal the name of the bowler hat CP0 guy who Kaido bashed to death!
• Like the rest of the Marine Admirals, Ryokugyu is based on a prominent classic Japanese actor, in this case Harada Yoshio. His real name Aramaki is based on one of Yoshio's roles, the main character of the 1990 film Ronin-gai. The film involved bulls at some point, as well as a character (not played by Yoshio) called 'Bull'.
• The name 'Aramaki' can also be a pun on the term of 'seeding', which is a nod to his powers. 
• Ryokugyu's tattoo roughly translates to a 'double suicide by a river', though as with anything involving the admirals, it's actually related to a specific piece of Japanese literature. TCB-scans explains it in great detail here.
• Sabo is on a random picture on the side of the building in that one panel where random people are reading the newspaper. It's so random and off to the side and you can go hog wild in speculating whether it's an execution announcement or if this particular country is filled with huge Sabo fans or something.
• Robin doesn't find the Kokeshi Doll collection cute at all. We know Robin's styles go for a more, er, gothic persuasion.
• Sukiyaki can read Poneglyphs, can't he? And he can carve into them. I guess he can teach Momonosuke. Or maybe if someone like Blackbeard or the marines are trying to re-kidnap Robin, this means that there's a "spare" that could be kidnapped instead. 
• I missed it until someone pointed it out, but Kin'emon's wife survives and there is a small panel showing the two of them in the party montage.
• Yes, Killer is still eating noodles with his serial killer mask. 
• Luffy's eyes pop out like Gear Fifth when Kid shows him the Yonko posters. Interesting. 
• Also, yes, look at tankobon volume 27 or something, which had all the current Yonko posed in exactly the same orientation that they are in the final panel of this chapter. Also Sengoku's goat is there. 
• Pluton being on Wano actually gives us a reason, if Oda wants to, to bring Shanks and Blackbeard to Wano instead of our characters going out to look for them. 
• My schedule's kinda swamped in July, but I'll try to catch up to the One Piece anime during the break!