JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean S05E30 Review: Uzumaki

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean [Season 6], Episode 30: Heavy Weather, Part 1

So this episode begins the 'Heavy Weather' arc, which is... a bit of a trippy one. There are a bunch of rather interesting things about this whole arc -- Weather Report's original identity (and the eventual flashback), the Heavy Weather ability, and everyone trying to survive the snailpocalypse. Again, as I mentioned in my review for the previous episode, a lot of the later hostile Stands in later-part Stone Ocean does end up feeling less like battles and more insane situations that our heroes have to survive in. And coming after Bohemian Rhapsody and preceding C-Moon, Heavy Weather is a pretty devastating Stand. 

Weather Report's original 'Heavy Weather' personality has been returned, and we see some immediate psychopathy from him. He ends up knocking over a random crippled patient in a hospital, and when a doctor tries to confront him, Weather shoves his Stand down his throat to overload him with water. Anasui, the actual convicted murderer among the cast, is genuinely surprised at this and tries to figure what's going on. 

Jolyne, Ermes, Pucci and Versus are still looking at the rainbows of Heavy Weather that manifested, and the two villains -- who know what's about to go down -- actually do freak out at this, which I do think foreshadows a bit at just how much Weather's existence and power freaks Pucci out so much. 

Kiss's fist passes through one of the Heavy Weather rainbows, which causes her arm to swell up and explode into snail eggs and adult snails. As Jolyne and Ermes freak out, Pucci just... disappears into the shadows, giving an ominous line about how humanity itself will perish if Weather isn't killed. Versus also tries to make his escape, with our heroes in hot pursuit... and they get stopped by a bunch of policemen... who get affected by the rainbow and very gruesomely turn into giant snail-men that explode into even more snails. Snails everywhere! I actually think they amped up the body horror of the snailification of the cops, and it truly does look pretty fucked up. 

Jolyne and Ermes kind of have to deal with the gigantic masses of snails (which understandably are rendered with CGI in many shots) and how so many people get transformed into snails. There's an interesting property that Stand users have a higher resistance to the snailification, which is why the important named characters manage to still run around for a fair bit. Jolyne and Ermes realize that even touching the snails also transfer the snailification, and there's a rather clever usage of Kiss to duplicate a door and use it as a giant skateboard to tear through the sea of snails. 

We do get a fair bit of fun dialogue as Ermes gives some random fun facts about snails and their reproductive abilities, and Jolyne is momentarily distracted by how 'jealous' she is that the snails can fuck whoever they want. 

And then we get probably the most Versus scenes after his original Under World fight. And... it's interesting, and I wonder if Araki had originally planned to do a bit more with Donatello Versus? He runs around, trying to figure out who Jolyne was trying to contact with her phone. And Under World is used in a much smaller scale this time around, just trying to excavate specific memories to look for information. Versus tries to hunt down 'Emporio', knowing that there's an ally unknown to Pucci and himself...

And there's a great scene where Emporio and Versus actually pass each other without realizing they just passed the enemy. Versus manages to trick Emporio into picking up the phone, and knocks the little boy out. However, due to Emporio's Stand powers, it took a fair bit of time for him to find Jotaro's Disc. Jolyne and Ermes catch up, but a car crash knocks our heroines into some snails, starting the snailification process on the two of them.

There is a rather ridiculous (in all the best ways) sequence as Versus uses Under World to summon a football player that just charges and runs, dragging Stone Free's string and preventing Jolyne from rescuing Emporio. But Jolyne, realizing that her body is starting to turn into a snail, makes use of her brand-new snail form to, uh, squeeze inside a pipe. Versus summons the 'memory of salt water', and it dehydrates poor Jolyne. However, Jolyne has manages to touch Emporio, which in turn touches Versus, and everyone turns into a snail. 

Special reference goes to Versus's transformation, where he looks particularly grotesque with his feet sprouting giant snail heads and looking more like goops compared to Jolyne and Ermes, who just have their limbs turn into goop. Oh, yeah, and Jolyne's breasts turn into snail shells. I thought that I should mention that. It, uh, sure is a look.  

With Versus basically disabled, our partially-snail heroes enter the car to try and hunt down Pucci or Weather... only to get assaulted by a horde of snail-eating beetles that have been drawn to the massive amounts of snails. 

The episode ends with Weather realizing that Pucci is nearby, and declares that killing the priest is his sole purpose in life. 

So... yeah. I think it might simply be that we're seeing all the characters reacting to the effects of Heavy Weather (whereas Bohemian Rhapsody is really only seen from Anasui and Weather's perspectives), or maybe because the body horror for the snail is much creepier than most of the stuff we saw in the arc previously. But I do like the little bit of information warfare as the various characters try to figure out and obtain plot devices that'll benefit them. Weather's new psychotic personality is also done relatively well, particularly in the anime which streamlines his violence a fair bit to make it fit with his 'vengeance is my sole purpose' mentality later on. 

Random Notes:

• Heavy Weather is based on a studio album created by the real-world band Weather Report.
• As I mentioned in the title of this review... very heavy Uzumaki vibes, yeah? I know that snails are just a small part of Uzumaki, a cosmic horror manga about spirals by Junji Ito, but it's easily one of the most disturbing and grossest part of that manga. Stone Ocean would be serialized well after the end of Uzumaki, and I wonder if the snail body horror in that manga might've inspired Araki. 
  
• So yeah, they didn't change any of the actual major events, but a lot of the Heavy Weather arc has actually been retooled beyond just the rearranging of scenes or merging together exposition scenes. I didn't want to really go into detail too much in the body of the review, but basically the specifics of when certain characters become snails and their behaviour as snails got cut out and changed. 
• Probably some of the bigger changes is to allow Ermes a couple more moments of competence with Kiss instead of just turning into a snail and growing eyestalks immediately.
• Also, instead of them stealing a car, a random car crash knocks Jolyne and Ermes into a pile of snails, which was the catalyst for their change. 
• Weather Report also kills two random ladies in his 'Heavy Weather' guise, but this was removed because ultimately we're supposed to root for 'Heavy Weather', and him killing the doctor could be chalked up to him just being dizzy after receiving his memories back. 
• It really is kinda sad that the manga basically drops Anasui's psychopathic tendencies basically after the Dragon's Dream arc. I guess his near-death experience with F.F. had changed his morality a fair bit, but I would really like to see the increasing degrees of socio/psychopathy from Anasui to Weather to Pucci.
• I know these situations are super freaky, but man, Ermes does get reduced to yelling NANIIIII a lot, doesn't she?
• Does anyone get a bit disturbed by Versus basically trying to strip the unconscious Emporio's clothes and groping around the poor little boy? I know he's just trying to look for where Emporio stores his items with his Stand, but man, that's some unintentionally disturbing imagery. 
• The snail-eating beetles are a real thing! My fellow Pokemon fans will know this as the inspiration behind the Generation V Pokemon Karrablast!

Let's Play Pokemon Violet - The Teal Mask, Part 4: Yellow Monkey, Blue Pheasant, Red Dog

So yeah, last we left off, Kieran stole the mask! And I think the game does a pretty decent job at showing us the slippery slope that led to Kieran's frustration and extreme measures, while also showing us in no ambiguous manner that what he's doing is a big wrong and a big no-no. We meet Kieran in the Loyalty Plaza, where he snaps and talks about how we've been keeping the secret of the Ogre being a good guy... which, fair enough.

And then he goes on a rant that's pretty nicely built up from his monologues, with Carmine and I treating him like an outcast, and we're no different than the villagers that misunderstood Ogerpon in the past. And the betrayal hurt him a bit more because he really loves the ogre, and that we were all laughing behind his back all along. As he screams at us for being liars, he then challenges me into a battle. And... yeah, it's at this point that he becomes a bit of an entitled little shit, isn't he? 

Again, I do like the presentation of Kieran here. He really does feel extremely unreasonable, but because we're privy to certain scenes that only a third-person observer would be able to know, we also get to see just how much the betrayal hurt Kieran. He knew that we're hiding information from him, and the betrayal that hurt him more isn't just the secret-keeping, but the constancy of it. Mix it with his own Ogre-obsession, the projection of his own issues and his constant insistence that we're laughing at him or thinking he's weak (which were all present even before the cast met Ogerpon!) and Kieran does shape up to be a simultaneously tragic and very annoying little tit. 

The battle against Kieran is not that hard, though I did a fair bit of issues fighting him because I brought three weak 'to-evolve' Pokemon. He still has his Yanmega, Dipplin and Poliwrath, but he adds a Gligar and, of all things, a Cramorant into his party. Okay? I can't really make heads and tails of Kieran's party composition, but it does keep me guessing. 

And after the defeat, Kieran coughs up the mask and mumbles about telling us to 'say hi to the Ogre for [him]', before fucking off and running home. Again, I really do want to sympathize with him, but after an apology and a proverbial slap to the face, what more do you really want, Kieran? At least see this whole sequence to the end. Carmine apologizes on Kieran's behalf, and it's rather weird to see the abrasive Carmine as the much more level-headed sibling now. 

Carmine is also clearly not well-equipped to deal with this, as with any teenaged elder sibling. She's confused because she 'never had teenage angst that bad', but she's also always been cocksure and confident in herself from what we've seen, and while it's not stated outright, I can really see that despite Carmine clearly being well-intentioned and caring for her brother, her more aggressive ways of dealing with Kieran probably contributed a fair bit into Kieran's own self-loathing and self-pitying spiral of nonsense. 

But all of this is moot, because there's a big sound from the monument. Some rumbling, and then a big, fuck-off giant purple pillar of light explosion that reminds me of... Gigantamax, I think? Honestly it probably is meant to tie in to the Terastral phenomenon, but I honestly pay so little attention to the animation of terastralization other than the funky sound effects that I can't really tell you. 

And turns out that the Loyal Three have somehow been revived, exploding out of their shrine and looking absolutely perfectly fine, in flesh-and-blood. Momotaro's dog, monkey and pheasant are here. I'm not sure what's going on. I guess there's something about the fresh crystal gem from the Crystal Lake that apparently 'has the capability to communicate with the dead'? But neither Carmine nor my character offer an concrete explanations. 

It really could just be the epic battling between me and Kieran that awakened them from their slumber, or maybe they aren't really dead and are just sealed away or something. I dunno. Despite how the in-game story wants us to think, it's already patently obvious that the Loyal Three are going to come back because they are playable and captureable Pokemon... but this honestly came so out of left field that I'm not sure what to make of it, even a day after witnessing this plot development. 

Very cool cutscene, though. I approve. 

The Loyal Three do some whispering among themselves and run off. Throughout it all they pose a lot and say their catchphrases a lot, and Carmine is... just so 100% confused. Every other word out of her mouth is some variation of 'what is going on'. Carmine figures out eventually that the Loyal Three were laid to rest under that statue. We figure out that much, but there's still no real explanation as to why they got randomly resurrected.

We meet the villagers that are gathering with the purple-kimono caretaker. Carmine instinctively talks shit about the Loyal Three, and the caretaker admonishes Carmine for being so disrespectful. It's something that Grandpa did warn us about, and admittedly none of these villagers had any reason to suspect that the story and the legend they've been told all their lives is false. Carmine at least has the sense of mind to brush aside silly titles to ask them what's going on. 

The Loyal Three apparently came to Kitakami Hall, and the villagers return 'their' masks post-haste. In addition, they also give the Loyal Three some special Kitakami mochi, which are packed full of special herbs... which normally would be a detail you brush through, but we just spent a whole one-third of the base game dealing with souped-up giant Pokemon that doped themselves up on Herba Mystica. Well, not only did the Loyal Three get those masks, they also get empowered by herbs! 

Carmine is shocked, and the game does get a lot of mileage of Carmine's fists shaking in impotent rage, huh? Despite all odds, Carmine calms down, realizing that the villagers know nothing and that she can't really tell them anything about the legend. And... honestly, at this point other than 'they won't believe us', is there any real reason not to? It's not like keeping the secret is going to do anyone any good. 

The caretaker further tells us that the Loyal Three has ascended Oni Mountain to finish off the Ogre in the Dreaded Den. The bastards! Carmine is shocked because Ogerpon has no masks, and she doesn't stand a chance three-against-one. Carmine then decides to... split up. What? Why! Carmine decides that it's a priority to run back to the village and get the mask repaired, while I go up and challenge three legendary herb-empowered monsters. I mean, I know I've got a box filled with Ultra Beasts and legendaries, but still, dick more, Carmine. 

Anyway, I ascend the mountain to see the dickwad 'Loyal Three' beating up poor little Ogerpon, who's just lying on the ground crying. The poor little friend! There's some really cool angles of Okidogi and his monstrous man-dog body looming over poor little Ogerpon. As I arrive, we get some poke-speech from the Loyal Three. Man, it's so interesting to see them talk to each other seemingly to argue about who fights me first... again, it's so fun that Scarlet/Violet is really allowing the Pokemon to be antagonists!

Out of the three, Munkidori is the one that faces me off. He's not a 'Titan' Pokemon yet, but he's still got legendary stats. Mmmkay, mmmkay, he keeps repeating. And... I have absolutely no idea what typing this guy is. I've always kinda guessed that they're Ghost-type because they're resurrected, but their design doesn't really scream 'undead revenant'. Regardless, though, I toss out my Iron Valiant out to face off against him. 

And... judging from his attacks, he's got Psychic and Sludge Wave? Huh. So Psychic/Poison, if both types are representative of Munkidori's typing? I think they are. Munkidori has an ability called "Toxic Chains" or something, which poisons Iron Valiant, and while I'm not sure what it does specifically, I can hazard a guess that since the same chains are shared across the three legendaries, so is the ability. Making their shared type not Ghost, but... Poison?

And I was fully expecting there to be a boss rush afterwards with Fezandipiti and Okidogi... but then Carmine and Kieran show up, ready to battle! Are we going to get the long-awaited, unexpected return of Triple Battles? UNOVA CONFIRMED???!?!?! No, no. No such thing. It's just disappointment, really, as the Loyal Three just... literally run off. Not even a showcase of their later Herb-empowered size, or using the power of the masks or anything. They just... run off. Yep. 

Anyway, Kieran apologizes for getting mad about the mask. Carmine apparently dragged Kieran along to deal with this problem. Ogerpon doesn't seem to understand what's going on, but she's happy and she's adorable and she's just been saved by humans. Kieran is a bit excited (though not as excited as I thought he would be) at meeting the legendary Ogre at last. He tries to hand the mask to Ogerpon, but Ogerpon is confused and/or scared, just like a wild animal. Ogerpon doesn't like new people, so Kieran hands the mask over to me, and I hand it over to Ogerpon. 

And Ogerpon wears the mask! The Teal Mask is an adorable mask. With one mask restored, Carmine decides that we need to steal back the other three masks from the Loyal Three and give them back to Ogerpon. Carmine also points out that the Loyal Three might be planning a second ambush to beat down Ogerpon, so like gangsters, we're going to strike first. 

We return to town, and Ogerpon is very afraid of entering town for obvious reasons. Oh, and Ogerpon follows around behind us adorably, bouncing around and having the time of her life. She also has the power of instant-teleportation even if I jump off the mountain... though she is a legendary Pokemon, so I really shouldn't be surprised. 

There's a nice sequence where the three humans enter the town to talk to random NPC's. I actually do like this sequence, it really does highlight just how jubilant every single person in Kitakami is about the Loyal Three's return, which fits with the whole theme about reputation and whatnot. We find out that Okidogi was sighted in the barrens, Munkidori in a pond in the southwest part of the map I haven't explored yet, and Fezandipiti's roosted on the mountains. Neat. 

There's a brief, fun comedic moment where the humans gather. Kieran and I have some information we gathered, and Carmine... uh... she helps and she gives orders. That's kind of cute, and Kieran even calls Carmine out on doing nothing to help them gather information. Carmine brushes it off, but the location of the Loyal Three (or 'Lousy Three', as Carmine calls them) are placed into my phone. 

And... Kieran... isn't going? Despite us having this whole plan, despite everything stemming from a misunderstanding, despite supposedly being the biggest fanboy of the Ogre, Kieran just decides to be an emo tit and run off. And while I can sympathize with his frustrations earlier right after he finds out about the alleged betrayal, now I just feel like he's being a jackass for no real reason. Even Ogerpon is confused, looking at this one human friend running off. Oh well. 

Carmine, Ogerpon and I go off to beat up the Loyal Three, and... I haven't done all of it, but I do know I want to beat the shit out of that monkey. So I head off to the Wistful Fields, where Munkidori is just hanging out next to the lake. Now knowing that he's Poison/Psychic, I ended up preparing a bit better for the fight. 

And as expected, Munkidori has grown into a disgustingly large size, and is treated as a Titan Pokemon I fight with Carmine and her Morpeko. He's really not that much more difficult, though. I was kind of tired so I just pulled out Skeledirge from my main party, and a couple of Shadow Balls put the monkey in the ground. One down, two more to go.

And... I could've gone after the other two, but I just ended up running around Kitakami, evolving and catching more Pokemon. I explore the ominously-named 'Timeless Forest' on the northeast of the map to capture a Phantump. There are Ducklett and, interestingly enough, Hisuian Basculin in the waters. And I managed to evolve Vikavolt, Probopass, Chimecho, Magcargo and Mienshao. But Hisuian Basculin is rather interesting! I don't find it strange that Hisuian Pokemon are in this game, but while a lot of the Hisuian forms seem to have evolutions that can be coincidentally 'lost to time', I do wonder what will be the explanation for the 'rift that connects to the spirit realm' that Basculin and Quilava needed to transform to their Hisuian final forms? 

Anyway, next up we'll beat up the dog and the bird, and befriend the ogre! I think we're fast reaching the end-point of the DLC's main story, which I felt is just about the right length for one of these Pokemon DLC's, especially considering that there are also a couple of extra side-quests. 

Random Notes:

• The little statue of Munkidori has an adorable little beanie on top of his head to represent the chain! That's cute. 
• It is kind of funny that Okidogi and Munkidori come in with their arms folded like badasses, and Fezandipiti... just can't. 
  
• I'm not a big fan of the 'Grrrrriffic' and 'Mmmmmkay' sounds that Okidogi and Munkidori makes. I get that every single in-game Pokemon voice tends to be a pun on something, but Fezandipiti's "yip-ip-ippy" at least feasibly sounds like a voice that an animal would make. Munkidori's mmmkay looks like 'm'kay', like how someone would mumble 'okay', and it's a bit ehhhh for me. 
• I didn't realize until now that Oni Mountain is actually shaped like a giant monster skull! That was pretty cool. 
  
• Carmine calls our team the 'Mask Retrieval Squad', which is hilariously dorky. 
• When we enter the town to talk to people, Ogerpon just adorably waits patiently behind a tree just in the border of town! God, her face is adorable. 
• Oh, right, so they're porting over the evolution method for Nosepass and Charjabug to using Thunder Stone, which is a change they made in Legends: Arceus. I am not a fan of this. The weird evolutionary methods might be a bit annoying sometimes, but I've always felt like evolving due to standing in a specifically charged terrain to be one of the cooler methods that just makes a lot of sense. 
• God damn Vikavolt is cool. 
• At some point, I find an 'Unremarkable Teacup' to evolve my Poltchageist into Sinsitcha. He's... he's an all right Grass/Ghost Pokemon. His signature move, Matcha Gotcha, is a rather impressive combination of Giga Drain and Scald. 
• I tend to not care all that much about the visual lagging and whatnot in this game, but by god the Munkidori model just kind of spazzed out when I was approaching him on the lake. 

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 25

So yeah, I finsihed Shido's palace quite early in the time allotted, and... I'm just trying my best to complete all of my confidants before the deadline of the original Persona 5 story. To anyone that's playing this game, make sure to raise Chihaya and max out Kawakami as soon as possible! Man, Kawakami giving basically extra night-time slots to do stuff, as well as Chihaya's 'almost guarantee the next meeting will be a confidant rank up' are such life-savers. 

Our eyecatcher this time is Sojiro, one of the few Confidants that have basically made it to the 'main cast' in my head alongside Sae and maybe, arguably, possibly, Mishima. Sojiro's story is pretty great, as a good adoptive dad that's just trying his best to provide for a child that he loves dearly but doesn't really know how to best manage. I know there's something similar with the main paternal figure in Persona 4, from what I know, except it's workaholism more than anything? Sojiro's Confidant story also involves Futaba very much, and I generally do like the Confidant stories that really feel like they tie in -- even if not completely -- with the bigger world as established by the 'main' quests. Sojiro's a generally likable person, and I do like that his Confidant basically acts as a bit of a Coda for the whole Futaba arc. 

Currently, I'm left to do Ohya, Chihaya, Iwai, Shinya, Futaba, Yusuke and Haru; as well as the plot-mandated Morgana and Igor. Ohya and Chihaya are basically close to 10, but the rest... I do think I'll have to 'sacrifice' some of them, although I'll try to do most of the non-party members before the final dungeon. 

Also, since I'm mostly focusing on social stuff for the next couple of playthroughs, I don't really have too many new personas to talk about... most of these new faces that I encounter in the Twin Wardens' little challenge thing! I won't go through every single one of the 'Alice' boss fight, just so as not to overload this article, but we'll go through most of them!

__________________________

Mara

• Monster Name: Throbbing King of Desire
• Arcana: Tower

Okay, okay. Let's get this one out of the way. People like to meme about the Shin Megami Tensei franchise as either 'the one where you fight God himself, who is evil' or 'the one with the ding-dong enemies'. Mara in the original Buddhist myths isn't exactly associated with penises. He's known as 'the Evil One', a tempter, who uses the mundane and negative aspects of life to tempt people. Mara (meaning 'death') personifies unwholesome impulses, unskillfulness and the death of the spiritual life. Mara sits over the Desire Realm, which includes the mortal world, and ensnares souls in Samsara by deceiving them with promises of happiness, and is the ultimate obstacle of any who desire to achieve enlightenment into nirvana. 

Mara is threatened by the enlightenment that Buddha was trying to bestow upon humanity, and attacked Gautama Buddha while he was meditating under the bodhi tree. Some accounts say that Mara sent his three lustful daughters to tempt Buddha, namely Tanha (thirst), Arati (discontentment) and Raga (desire, passion). However, Buddha did a simple gesture of touching his fingertips to the earth, summoning all the gods who come to pay homage to him, driving away Mara. Now while obviously this 'temptation' stuff would include lust, the term 'Mara' is also apparently used as a euphemism for 'penis' in certain groups of Japanese monks, and there's some worldplay involved, which is why Mara has always been depicted as a big green dick in all Shin Megami Tensei games. 

And... Mara's original design in the very first Shin Megami Tensei game is listerally a cock and balls with some tentacles and a yawning mouth, but he has since been revised to look a lot more menacing, putting the phallus on a golden chariot and giving him a lot more tentacles. Those tentacles are very nastily ridged, and he's also got a bunch of bug-like hands sprouting out to presumably roll his little chariot around. That mouth right underneath the glans also looks disturbingly disgusting. And, of course, there's the fact that that bright golden chariot contrasts not only Mara's green body, but there's just a certain bit of discomfort for me seeing a phallus-shaped object right above a bunch of very spiky blades. I guess Mara uses those spiky chariot things to 'penetrate' enemies in different ways?

A Mara also appeared much earlier in Kamoshida's palace in an 'imperfect form', using the animations of a Slime but also looking like a dick. He's the Tower arcana, because get it, giant dick. One of the Mementos targets that's explicitly a sexual criminal also manifests as a Mara. Oh, and most of the moves it learns are all charged with erection or penetration innuendo. The designers, evidently, were having fun.

Vasuki

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Star

Created by the special fusion of several snake-themed Persona, Vasuki is another serpent king in Hindu mythology, similar to Ananta-Shesha. Vasuki is the second king of the nagas, and is described as having a gem called the Nagamani (snake's ornament) on his head. Shesha is his older brother, and Manasa is his sister. Vasuki is normally depicted as coiling around the neck of Shiva, who had blessed and worn him as an ornament. In Chinese and Japanese mythology, he is known as one of the Eight Great Dragon Kings. Vasuki played a significant role in the legend of Samudra Manthana. He allowed the devas and the asuras to bind him to Mt. Mandara, using him as a churning rope to extract the amrita from the primordial Ocean of Milk. The strain caused some of Vasuki's serpent poison to spill out, but Shiva would swallow the poison to prevent it from destroying the world. 

Persona's depiction of Vasuki is not just a giant snake, which is just as well since we've gotten a couple of giant snakes and giant multi-headed snakes. Instead, Vasuki is depicted as a more epic version of the lesser Nagas, a pretty cool-looking one at that. I really like his headdress and the smug look they give him, and that headress really looks like his humanoid head is being swallowed by another larger head, yeah? They made him look a bit more different than the regular Nagas, which I appreciate. 

Lakshmi

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Wheel of Fortune

Another one I got from fusion (all my other 'fusions', like Black Frost and or Thor, already got covered as bosses before), Lakshmi (लक्ष्मी, Lakṣmī) is the Hindu goddess of beauty, luck and love. She is the wife of Vishnu, and one of the Tridevi (alongside Parvati and Sarasvati), often depicted as standing atop a lotus. Lakshmi embodies the ideal woman, and charmed many gods with her dance. Normally, she is depicted with four hands, symbolizing the four goals of humanity.

In Japan, she is known as Kichijouten, one of the Seven Lucky Gods, and is said to rise from the oceans after the Churning of the Sea of Milk, part of the creation myth. And... I really don't have much interesting things to say beyond that. Her design is sure respectful enough to the source material, other than the number of hands. I really don't have much else in lieu of commentary here, so I'll acknowledge that Lakshmi is the 'ultimate persona' of the Wheel of Fortune arcana, meaning that you only have access to fuse her after reaching Rank 10 of the bond with the Confidant, which in this case is the fortune teller Chihaya. 

Belial

• Monster Name: Missionary of Depravity
• Arcana: Devil

We're going a bit into some of the Personas I met in one of the Velvet Room Twins' special battle, though I'm going to split a bunch of the new Personas I met over a couple of articles so as not to overwhelm me. Belial here is another name that's pretty common in demonology, most likely due to the typical confusion with the whole Baal thing that we mentioned before when talking about him. Belial itself is a word that means 'wicked and worthless' in Hebrew, but would later be used as a representation of the devil. The term 'sons of Belial' was translated literally in some older translations, where modern translations usually use a more generic term like 'the wicked men'. Of course, like Beelzebub, 'Belial' became a name associated with a demon. In demonology, Belial is one of the 72 demons of the Ars Goetia, and has a lot of alternate spellings of his name. Belial is noted as one of the 'four crowned princes of hell' that was created after Lucifer, and normally appears in the form of a beautiful angel riding a chariot of fire. 

However, Belial has shown up a lot in random media, and his depiction in Persona is a pretty generic giant demon-dragon-man with draconic wings, red skins, a reptilian tail, horns, and the like. I do like that the posture looks so hunched, like he's a snake that grew limbs or something? I guess they just picked one of the more well-known demon names for the archetypal 'cartoon devil' look, and decided to attribute it to Belial. Pretty neat, but even in this game alone there has been a lot of more interesting-looking demons. 

Alice

• Monster Name: Mysterious Little Girl
• Arcana: Death

Another one of the more iconic Shin Megami Tensei 'monsters' is Alice, who is literally just Alice from Alice in Wonderland. It's... it's kind of interesting, isn't it? You've got a bunch of figures from Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, some Japanese creation myth gods, Ars Goetia demons, Greek gods, Egyptian gods, figures from Irish mythology... and then we've got Alice! Alice in Wonderland! I kind of balked at this, but when you really consider it, at this point a bunch of older fictional stories have basically became myth, wouldn't it?

I really wouldn't have pegged Alice as the one they picked, though, since in the source material she literally is just some girl that wandered into either Wonderland or a mirror-world. You'd think they would pick a fictional character that has got a bit more 'powers' in the source material like Peter Pan or Jack Frost (which does show up) or something, but okay! I guess there's a creepy-ghost-demon-child vibe to Alice. They play up the 'creepy ghost child from The Shining' in some of Alice's older artwork, but she's subsequently just a little blonde girl with creepy eyes. I do find that in a bestiary with so many over-the-top demon designs, this does make Alice stand out a fair bit more than if they had still kept the original stringy-haired-demon-girl design from the original SMT.

The lore for Alice gives a whole new writeup, noting that she's a 'mysterious blond girl' with great power, and offers a possible origin story -- 'some say she is the ghost of a girl who died a sad death. Others say she is a spirit born from someone's imagination'. It's an interestingly ambiguous origin story that does make this completely fictional Alice myth sound 'believable' alongside all the other real-world myths!

Alice has a couple more extra things going on for her. She doesn't even show up in any of the 'special' fusion listing, although the game did tell me that I unlocked her maxing out Takemi. Turns out that the special battle is a clue, because Alice spawns with two Goetia demons -- Belial and Nebiros. There was absolutely no other way for me to figure out, but Alice can only be created specifically by fusing these two demons, because in the other Shin Megami Tensei games, it's a bit of a running gag that the two of them are Alice's family or something. Cute!

She has a specially animated 'Die For Me' attack which summons a bunch of giant teddy bears (not Bugs, a unique model!) that have dynamite strapped onto them. Alice is the 'ultimate Persona' for the Death persona, which is very interesting that thanks to the history of this character in the franchise, it's ranked much higher than many of the demons in the game. 

Bleach TYBW E24 Review: The Unseen Meeting

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 24: Too Early to Win, Too Late to Know

Hooo boy! What an episode, huh? What an episode. It really does get me unreasonably hyped for the rest of the anime, and... it's not because of what you think. The Squad Zero facing off against Juhabach's Schutzstaffel is cute and all, and I'm happy that they're doing a lot of remixing and restructuring of the fight. It's this restructuring that made a lot of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc in the anime feel so much better and more fleshed-out... and it was always from this sequence in the manga onward that the restructuring of events are going to make it or break it. Yes, it's nice that it seems like we're probably going to get a proper showing of the Squad Zero being defeated instead of all the hype literally crashing onto a wall and dying because the fight happened off-screen after a series of 'Squad Zero is overpowering! No, wait, the Schutzstaffel is overpowering! No, wait, Squad Zero just got beaten off-screen!'

 

No, what I am the most excited about is the presentation of aspects about the Thousand-Year Blood War that gives context, motivation and world-building that is never told to us in the source manga. It's all clearly stuff that the author Tite Kubo had in his notes but didn't get the chance to put in his manga, and while the specifics are a bit different, I do like that we get a fair amount of the revelation done in the Can't Fear Your Own World novels and other post-Bleach material released afterwards. 

Which is to say... it's stuff like seeing Juhabach's fight with Yamamoto a thousand year ago, or Ichigo's mysterious flashbacks in Irazusando that really make me super-excited that this much-maligned final arc of Bleach will finally make some sense. 

And the first five minutes of this episode is pretty short, but it adds so much to the lore about Juhabach, as well as his motivations and those of Ichibei Hyosube. Juhabach's motivations was randomly given to us by... Askin or Haschwalth, I don't really even remember, near the last ten chapters of Bleach or something. And that's bullshit, and it took the Can't Fear Your Own World novels to, again, explain everything. Now we get to see Juhabach meeting with Ichibei prior to the Licht Reich invasion a thousand years ago. Ichibei arrives in Silbern to propose a non-aggression pact, but the voice-actor for Ichibei does a great job at showing just how much of a condescending 'you know nothing of the world, Juha' prick Ichibei is being right now. He basically tells Juhabach to go off and enjoy the prosperity of his empire without worrying about anything else in the other realms. "It's a win-win pact, I see no reason to refuse." Yeah, never trust that from someone on the other side of the table!

Juhabach, of course, is immediately pissed off, saying that he's being deceived and being treated like an ignorant child. Ichibei then reveals a bunch of stuff to us that we wouldn't know about the Bleach universe, again, until basically near the end of the story and randomly info-dumped to us. Ichibei asks Juhabach who created the border between life and death in the first place after the prehistoric world was a primordial soup? Who caused the fear of death? The answer to both is the Soul King. 

Juhabach counters with the fact that he has heard so many anguished cries of the souls that return to him as the Father of Quincies, and those who fear death, and those who cling to their lives... and Juhabach gets pissed off that Ichibei is talking about peace when so many people, according to Juhabach, suffer from the existence of death itself. 

Juhabach shows off some of his Reishi-absorbing powers, while Ichibei warns Juhabach offhandedly not to say his name so casually -- something that will be relevant and a nice foreshadowing of Ichibei's real role in the Squad Zero. 

Juhabach then activates his multiple-pupils, the power of The Almighty, and all hell breaks loose. Ichibei's left hand starts to morph and transform, sprouting an eyeball with two pupils that manga readers would recognize as Pernida Parnkgjas, the Left Hand of the Soul King. Meanwhile, Juhabach is being escorted by a group of Sternritters like Argola, Hubert and Zeidritz (characters who appear as zombies, and later on in Bazz-B's flashback) but of note is this one random anime-exclusive Sternritter girl that machineguns the shit out of Ichibei. Ichibei pulls out his brush and creates a forcefield that blocks out the bullets and holds them in one place like he's fucking Magneto or something. Ichibei launches back the bullets back, and the big guy among the ancient Sternritters, Argola, jumps in the way and blocks the bullets. 

"Pernida" manifests in Ichibei's hand, which itself is a huge ball of questions on just how this works. Pernida unleashes a blast of energy that seems to cause Juhabach to see the same brief bits of flashes that Ichigo and the audience have been seeing. I am waiting to see all of these told to us in full context! One particularly cool shot is an ominous shot of Ichibei's silhouette, and presumably he was presiding over the Soul King's dismemberment in the past. 

Ichibei admonishes Juhabach for knowing nothing, and reveals that Squad Zero and the Soul King maintain the balance of this fragile world. Juhabach gets some bright blue lines running down his face, and jumps towards Ichibei, grabbing his hand and sending the same blue circuitry running down Ichibei's left hand. I think this is the same super-version of Blut Vene that Juhabach would use in his full fight against Ichibei (and his real left hand) in the manga! Juhabach says something strange, about how "my father's hand is nothing more than a sacrifice to his child. It can give life, but cannot take it away."

Ichibei says that Juhabach can't see through the Soul King, and the left hand starts to glorp and transform into the man-sized hand creature that is Pernida Parnkgjas. The strange hand just... slams down upon Juhabach and disappears? Juhabach's Almighty eyes returns to normal pupils, and it's implied that... Ichibei 'sacrifices' Pernida to seal off Juhabach's troublesome Almighty eyes, but this is also how Juhabach gains possession of Pernida? It's really great, again, to see just how some of the more bizarre aspects of the Thousand-Year Blood War's final stories happened, including everything about the body parts of the Soul King. That's great!

Ichibei ominously says about how Juhabach's eyes will be closed forever until the day he dies, and I assume he doesn't know about the whole Quincy prophecy of Juhabach being able to resurrect after a thousand years? But it frames Juhabach's first invasion in a new light, where he's actually severely nerfed by Ichibei prior to the fight and he's fighting Yamamoto and the original incarnation of the Gotei 13 basically without access to the Almighty. 

We get a short scene of Juhabach saying that he's glad that he doesn't have the Almighty eyes anymore, since he doesn't have to keep seeing his father, the Soul King, and his humiliation over and over again, which I think is something from the source material? It sounds like a familiar speech. He tells the Soul King to vanish along with the world, and be a grave to the (split) three worlds. Again... it's context to Juhabach's actual motivation, done first-hand with him in a relatively much more vulnerable position, and I am loving this being shown to us right as Juhabach is at the precipice of breaching and blaspheming the Royal Palace. 

More hints about Juhabach and the Soul King's relationship are dropped to us as Haschwalth talks about how he feels Juhabach's pain... but Juhabach growls about how he feels not a shred of emotion looking at what's a decaying grave. He wants to end this world of deceit and recreate the world with his own two hands. 

And... this is where the aforementioned change is made. In the manga, it was Kirinji Tenjiro of the hot springs that shows up to face off against Juhabach. He activates his Shikai, Kinpika, which does absolutely nothing because we cut off to see the Giselle and Pepe fights, and we come back we just see Kirinji being utterly ineffective in even landing a hit because of Sternritter "W", Nianzol Weizol's ability. And then Senjumaru Shutara arrives, deals with Nianzol, and... and Kirinji presumably just stands in the corner like a complete idiot. 

Apparently, the anime is far more willing to eliminate this one moment of incompetence from a member of the Squad Zero compared to Hirako Shinji, so we cut out Kirinji's entire contribution here, and this episode basically just focuses on Senjumaru, Nimaiya as well as the trap. 

But first, some random goons fight each other. Haschwalth sends out some Soldat to charge in, while Senjumaru summons some weird, robotic troops that jump down from behind her. I am actually surprised this scene is kept in since I remembered reading these sequence of chapters weekly and remembering how utterly boring it was since it's soldiers and not even soldiers with names facing off against each other. 

The opening credits roll, and we get the story from Team Ichigo's perspective as they're about to be launched into the Royal Palace. Shiba Ganju and his pig shows up, and... sure, he does exist. I always felt like Ganju was such an irrelevant character to bring back, and he has so much less of an excuse to hang around compared to Chad or Orihime, but... he sure does show up, I guess? Ganju tells them that he has a map of the Royal Palace that he got from his sister, Kukaku, and that's the reason he wants to come with them. 

We cut out a conversation from the manga between Ichigo and Urahara where Urahara tells Ichigo that anything Ganju can provide is already taken care of, so Ichigo's just throwing Ganju a bone, but here... I guess they need that map? Whatever the case, Ganju joins Ichigo, Chad, Orihime and Yoruichi as they are launched in a pillar into the heavens. We get a shot of other characters like Byakuya, Renji, Rukia, Bazz-B, Kyoraku and Robert watching the pillar swaying through its flightpath, and I absolutely love the snide remark from Mayuri going "if I designed that thing, it'd fly straight". Never change, Mayuri. 

We cut to the Royal Palace where the black-suited royal soldiers murder the Soldat and charge at Juhabach... and then with an almost comical sound effect that felt like it should've been in the background of a One Piece Gear Fifth episode, their swords are unable to touch Juhabach.

And this is the arrival of Sternritter "W", the Wind, Nianzol Weizol. Not the wind, but the wind. As in, it's not the wind as in the force of air that blows around, but the wind as in you winding a rope or winding a ribbon.

Nianzol is a weird freak with two tongues, a lisp and no shoes and he's basically here to show off how powerful the Squad Zero is. Nianzol waxes lyrical about the power of The Wind, and he can basically repulse anything because they all get 'winded' away from his body. He shows this off by ripping apart the space between a bunch of generic soldiers, and apologizes for not explaining things properly since it's a 'bad habit' of his.

Senjumaru then counters that she also has a 'bad habit' of her own... and then reveals that with her golden mechanical arm, she's already sown a brand-new robe on Nianzol's body. I don't think it's ever explained how Senjumaru is able to get around the Wind other than the fact that she's just that good? Her Reishi and her ability to stealth around is just that good? Anyway, Senjumaru has a bad habit of leaving her needles in the clothing she sews, and Nianzol just explodes with a dozen gigantic needles. Goodbye, Nianzol Weizol, you at least lasted a bit longer than "the Roar" and "the Question". 

We briefly cut to Team Ichigo, and... it's all fluff, really. It's a bit more discussion about Uryu, some reminiscence about their last rescue mission, and some more context about the Royal Palace and the Soul King. It's something that long-time Bleach fans would know a bit more (even those that watched the anime only) but it really is nice for people who watch this anime a bit more casually. And even then, giving us more information about the Soul King's context makes sense for these characters specifically... because Ichigo just got a whole lot of new context about the Soul King thanks to Irazu Sando.

We then cut to Uryu as he's being discussed, and there's a brief ominous shot of his eyeballs with some Blut lines on them. This is anime-original, and I'm actually not sure what's going on here. Is he using The Antithesis? Somehow? I've had Antithesis explained to me a couple of times and I'm really still not sure how that ability works outside of the fight with Haschwalth, and I would totally love to see Sternritter Uryu get a couple extra fight scenes, actually!

What happens next is the start of the great buildup of the Squad Zero/Schutzstaffel fight, which is to say that it's the only part of the Squad Zero/Schutzstaffel fight we ever get to see. I do really fervently hope that even if everything happens exactly the same way that they did in the manga, we do fill in the gaps and see just how our Squad Zero guys get taken out!

We get the arrival and badass introduction of the Schutzstaffel. Sternritter "X", the X-Axis, Lille Baro. Sternritter "C", the Compulsory, Pernida Parnkgjas. Sternritter "D", the Deathdealing, Askin Nakk le Varr. Sternritter "M", the Miracle, Gerald Valkyrie. Askin drops a brief line about how he's the only Sternritter from the lower ranks to be brought up, before he slashes and breaks Senjumaru's puppet arm and needle. Senjumaru summons a giant samurai soldier guy. Pernida then breathes very loudly, with some great effect of his cloak rippling, his eyes glowing and some eerie sound effects as Senjumaru's minion gets literally crushed into a ball, frame by frame. It's gruesome! Lille Barro then boasts that the losing side always finds out that they're losing too late (which is a variant of the episode title), before shooting a gigantic hole through Senjumaru's head. 

That shot is pretty damn cool, actually, and I'm surprised it's not censored! Senjumaru's hole-y corpse falls down and a ridiculous amount of blood pours out... just as Pernida uses his powers to snap Senjumaru's corpse, and ball it up into a meatball and rolls it away. Gruesome! 

Gerard asks if that's the best that Squad Zero can do, while Lille Barro boasts about the strength of his majesty's Schutzstaffel. Lille then starts sniping, tearing a hole on all five of the floating palaces and snaps them all in half, sending them falling out of the sky. This was always one of the cooler shots from this segment of the fight, I feel. 

However, as Lille kneels before Juhabach, the background behind him -- the destroyed palaces, the pillars and everything... starts to be unraveled and retracted into the sky, because they've all been under what's effectively a particularly elaborate illusion. The real Senjumaru, completely unharmed, is standing on the other side, and the real Royal Palace is completely unharmed, hidden on the other side of the sky, by "Osho" Ichibei Hyosube. With a gigantic kanji stamp saying 'hidden'. It's a cute little hint about Ichibei's true powers. 

Lille tries to shoot Ichibei, but turns out that the 'cage' made it in time. And this cage is created by "Grain King" Kirio Hikifune, who calls it a 'womb'. It's a pretty cool shot of seeing a gigantic wooden cage of interlocking branches while the pieces of Senjumaru's false sky get retracted up into the sky. The cage instantly grows and is able to instantly heal, despite Lille Barro's attempts to shoot in-between the spaces of the cage, or shooting multiple times into the same spot. Kirio explains that her cage feeds on reishi, which means Lille's reishi bullets can't pierce it since it gets absorbed by the trees. 

And then we get the badass arrival of all the Squad Zero members, who arrive one by one. "Hot Spring Demon" Kirinji Tenjiro leaps down from the skies and lands in some splashing hot water. Hopefully to meet a more dignified defeat than his manga counterpart. As even more pages of cloth are moved away, "Great Weaver" Senjumaru Shutara walks up and introduces herself. Swinging in like goddamn Spider-Man is "Grain King" Kirio Hikifune.

And the best Squad Zero member has his own spotlight shine down. In English, he declares himself as "I am the number one Zanpakuto Creator!!!" and does his awesome countdown of ten nine eight seven six five four three Ni-Mai-ya Oh-etsu. 

God damn, Nimaiya, you're a big, hammy bastard. As epic music plays in the background, Nimaiya draws Sayafushi from its jelly cage, and I absolutely love how the anime team handles Sayafushi, animating it as constantly vibrating and giving us some lightsaber sound effects when Nimaiya does swing it. Nimaiya boasts and tells all the Quincies to come at him at once, and this is where Nimaiya beats the shit out of the Schutzstaffel single-handedly. 

Gerald Valkyrie charges in first, slashing with his sword while Nimaiya is commenting on how his blade feels wobbly... and just dodges by bending backwards really far. Really love the effect of Gerald's slash being so powerful that it cuts gouges into the tree trunks and the pillars around them, and Nimaiya's line about "a hug from a man is always going to be dodged!" or something along those lines is always funny. 

Gerald is about to unleash a next attack, but then Nimaiya just jumps in front of him and Gerald falls to the ground and blood splurts out from his wound. Nimaiya does his ten-nine-eight countdown badass boast again, and boasts that his sword kills with a single attack, yo. Lille thinks that it's a trick, and fires at Nimaiya... but the space behind them explode. Nimaiya says that he didn't even parry or anything, all he did was to hold the sword in front of him and it's so sharp that the bullet that Lille shot was split in twain upon contact. Lille opens fire a bit more rapidly, and this time Nimaiya does charge forwards and parry the shot, he charges in and slices Lille's fur-covered rifle in half, and then slashes Lille across the chest as he crumples to the ground. 

Pernida begins to wibble-wobble, and knowing what we do know about Pernida, the shape of his protrusions make a bit more sense. But we get a very cool shot of Sayafushi piercing Pernida's center of mass, and a shot of Askin not even able to react in the foreground as Pernida falls backwards. And then Nimaiya blitzes in and rams the sword deeper, dropping Pernida and slashing Askina cross the chest in a single motion. 

Askin isn't dead, but simply jumps backwards in time with the blade and is only grazed with a shallow wound. Nimaiya praises Askin's skill... before rushing in and slashing him again across the torso. And thus, Nimaiya Oetsu beat all four of Juhabach's Elite Guard.

He then explains a bit about Sayafushi, how it's a failure of a sword because it's so sharp that no scabbard can hold it, and he has to carry it around in a tank of thick jelly. Nimaiya says that it's a sword he can't send down to the Seireitei... but he's glad that the Quincies decided to invade since it means that he has the chance to put this into use. 

In the manga, at this point Askin shows off a bit of his Deathdealing power for a whole chapter... but I'm going to assume that this sequence is going to count as the fight between Askin and Nimaiya next chapter after Juhabach revives the Schutzstaffel... and the reason why I'm confident that there's even going to be a proper fight between these sets of four characters next episode. 

Because the next scene is all completely original. In the manga, Nimaiya (and Kirinji a bit) fight and take out Askin, before they all storm Juhabach, which leads to Aushwalen, the resurrection of the Elite Guard, and the infamous offscreen defeat of Squad Zero. Here, instead Juhabach lobs a Quincy medallion which somehow passes through Kirio's wooden cage... and swaps places with it, in a way similar to One Piece's Trafalgar Law's abilities. Juhabach stands outside of the cage and face-to-face with Ichibei, shocking all of the other Squad Zero members. This isn't exactly explained, but... but it's Juhabach, so I don't really find it hard to believe that he's got yet another bullshit power on top of his many bullshit powers. Or it could be Uryu's Antithesis. I just really want Antithesis to do something in this manga beyond that disappointing slap-fight with Balance. 

Nimaiya praises the 'king' for his 'rising'. Haschwalth asks Squad Zero why they are unconcerned with his majesty, and Kirinji does a reverse boast, saying that with the Osho up above, it's the Quincies that should be worried. There's a badass line where Ichibei is described as being so bloodstained that not even Kirinji's hot springs can wash away the stench of blood. Ichibei and Juhabach face off against each other, and Juhabach continues to use Ichibei's full name, leading to a creepy smile from Ichibei as he warns Juhabach not to use his name so lightly. And as Ichibei is the last combatant here to get a name-screen, we cut to credits. 

And, again... I am excited about a lot of things this episode. As much as I did brush off the 'canon' material, it was cool to see the characters flex against each other. Senjumaru, Nimaiya and Lille get a lot of great sequences, and I really am anticipating the fact that the 'hour-long finale' of this cour would not just be Ichibei versus Juhabach, but include either or both of the full Soul King flashback (which this episode sets up) and Squad Zero fighting against the Schutzstaffel, showing us how they actually lose. Both of these are really two of the weakest points of the original story, and if these could be fleshed out in the anime by any degree then I'm a happy, happy Bleach fan. 

Random Notes:

• Despite emphasizing Blut as much as it did in the manga, the anime has been absolutely not been showing off Blut at all, even though other Quincy abilities like Vollstandig and Sklaverei have been a bit more emphasized for other Sternritters. I think Juhabach and Uryu's eyeballs are the first time we've seen Blut being used since the first invasion? 
  
• I've never really realized it until now, but the fact that Bleach is originally a manga about shinigami, or the gods of death... it's so appropriate that the crux of the motivation of imprisoning the Soul King is about life and death itself being split apart.
• I am disappointed that Ganju arrives on his pig, but the pig doesn't ride with him to the Royal Palace. That pig is like 40% of Ganju's personality.
• A lot more of Ganju's comedic lines are cut, but I can safely say that absolutely nothing of value was lost. I'm not a big Ganju fan, if you can't tell. 
• I don't have a chance to mention it, but Senjumaru's line "become rust on the Soul King's blade" is a cool line.
• It really is a weird decision that the anime doesn't actually tell us what the letters mean. Nianzol introduces himself as "the Wind", and Gerald name-drops Lille's "X-Axis". And some characters do introduce their Schrifts, like Quilge, Pepe and Mask... but it really does take out half of the fun because back in the day it took months for us to really know what "X-Axis", "Deathdealing", "Miracle" and "Compulsory" meant. 
  
• They cut out Gerald's line, admonishing Lille Barro for leaving a body in his majesty's path... which is the reason Pernida rolls Senjumaru's body up in the first place. I actually am slightly sad this interaction was removed, mostly because I like Gerald's hamming it up. 
• I can never spell Parnkgjas right. 
• Oh yeah, there is an extra scene showing Nianzol's bloodied corpse falling down from the skies as Senjumaru tosses him over the edge of the bridge. That's unnecessarily but hilariously cold. 
• No, seriously, I went from not giving a shit about any of the Squad Zero members to unironically counting Nimaiya Oetsu as one of my favourite characters to be introduced in this arc. The voice-acting really does a great job at selling his presence, while I count his manga counterpart to just be annoying. 
• Who else thought that Juhabach was going to finally use the Bankai he stole from Yamamoto when he pulled out that medallion? Me, that's who. 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean S05E29 Review: Namek Timing

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean [Season 6], Episode 29: Under World

And yeah, this fight has the rest of the Under World fight. Again, I do realize that many of the fights in Stone Ocean have had a lot of criticism, particularly without the benefit of an anime. I reread all the more 'problematic' Stand fights in the manga, and... Dragon's Dream and Yo-Yo Ma really did drag on forever. (My criticism about the end of Yo-Yo Ma is even more amplified in the manga where it really did just feel like the 'merge a frog's brain' thing literally came out of nowhere) A lot of the conflicts  in Stone Ocean, I think, really ended up catching people a bit unawares because they didn't feel like 'traditional' Shonen Stand battles the way that Part III and Part V's fights did. It's a bit more of a 50/50 thing with Part IV, I feel. Now, to reiterate I really don't mind the fights feeling a bit more like our heroes trying to get out of an utterly bizarre situation... it's just that Stone Ocean has the unenviable quality of having a surplus of these fights, as well as having a rather... poor character screentime distribution, I would say. 

Jolyne is a fine protagonist, sure, but having to share time with Jotaro in the two climaxes in Stone Ocean does take away from her screentime a bit. Take into question that the 'standalone' fights for a lot of the secondary character takes up a lot of time in proportion to how Jotaro, Josuke or Giorno were handled... yeah. It doesn't really help that our supposed main sidekick, Ermes... she really doesn't contribute much other than yell "NANIIIIII" a lot, huh? I've complained about her being sidelined from the maximum security prison, but she doesn't even job in the fights. Honestly, I've always said that F.F. feels more prominent in the prison parts of the manga, and Anasui takes over as the one with more screentime in the latter half. And... I don't hate Anasui like the way many of the fandom seems to, but he's just not that interesting of a character either. 

Anyway, Under World! Again, I do feel like the concept of Under World is interesting. Just like Jail House Lock or Yo-Yo Ma, I could honestly totally see the concept of these powers be the crux and driver of a horror story all on its own. Unfortunately (and this is a problem with a lot of powerful Stone Ocean Stands too) the definition of Under World's power really does make you question why Versus doesn't use it in any more creative ways. 

I do feel like the coolest part of the Under World fight is when Jolyne yolo's her way out of the plane to try and attack Versus, and Versus just summons the memory of fighter jet that's about to crash, trapping Jolyne inside the plane. Jolyne uses Stone Free to steal the phone of one of the confused policemen outside the sinkhole, and tries to call Emporio... and I absolutely love the completely bamboozled face Emporio makes when Jolyne talks about how they're "on a plane underground and it's about to crash!" And it's interesting, sure, but I really did feel like with how Under World is able to summon memories of disasters and whatnot, it really does feel a bit odd that the passenger plane and the fighter jet are the only things Versus really summons offensively. 

I do like Versus's character, though. Pucci keeps basically trying to coach or second-guess Versus and he keeps getting more and more frustrated. We also get Versus's backstory, where he has no idea who his biological father is, and his parents really hated him and preferred his half-sisters. At one point, Versus was running away from home when a super-duper valuable set of sports shoes autographed by some famous sports big-shot literally fell onto his lap from on top of a building... and Versus was arrested by the police. The judge was really angry and yells at him for not even having the balls to own up to his crime, and his parents didn't care enough to fight for an acquittal. The real culprit was caught a couple of months later, but Versus was still traumatized in prison due to his... interesting luck. 

Versus ended up tripping and cutting himself on a knife in the prison yard, causing injury from the knife and from the prisoners that got pissed that Versus accidentally exposed his hidden weapon. Again, just like his half-brother Rikiel a while back, it's very much implied that this is his Stand, Under World, manifesting 'secrets of the earth' in different ways. 

And, well, Versus has had enough of the world and wants to reach whatever 'heaven' is. He digs to look for Pucci's memory while Pucci is staring at the falling plane, finding a memory of Pucci with the Weather Report memory disc. 

Back to the fight -- Jolyne crashes the fighter plane into the passenger plane, and there's apparently a clause in Under World's power where everything still has to happen in real-time, so the explosion and destruction of those planes won't happen even if there's actual impact since they have to follow the 'timing' of the underworld. Some rather creepy imagery as the 'NPC's' of the Under World plane began to calmly catch fire and have their flesh burn off, too. Emporio manages to get back to them with the research, and... yeah, I'm pretty sure Emporio explaining the news report already took up the 'two minutes left' of the plane crashing, but okay.

We do get a very brief confrontation between Stone Free and Under World, but then Under World pulls in a bunch of children from the hospital and drops them into the 'safe' seats where the survivors are safe in. It is a pretty 'Dio' things to do, with Versus gloating that Jolyne and Ermes would be wracked by guilt even if they sacrifice the children. 

And as Pucci questions Versus about whether he feels guilt for sacrificing children, we get the... honestly, another rather bullshit conclusion? Again, the way Kiss has been established in the past shows that it duplicates and re-merges items -- and I can believe that this can result in having a 'spare' head that can take fatal damage, as in the Sports Maxx fight. But somehow, this time around Ermes is able to... create copies of the surviving passengers and hide within? This feels like something that Crazy Diamond or Gold Experience would be able to do instead of Kiss, really. The loophole of 'oh, the passengers survived, just like the seats' is neat, but... I dunno. It just feels rather shoehorned to me. 

(Jolyne unraveling herself into string, however, has been foreshadowed and established before, so that I won't really complain about)

Jolyne then ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA's Under World and Versus. Jolyne leaves Versus hanging on a string while she and Ermes began to confront Pucci. Pucci does one of his speeches about 'fate', and how it's Versus's fate to lose... but then Versus kind of surprises everybody, Pucci involved, by sending Under World to the surface with Weather Report's Disc. Versus rants about how he 'knows' about it, about how Weather Report has a dangerous power that Pucci sealed and that there are dangerous things about him that they don't know. I do like that even Pucci freaks out at this... and then rainbows appear! What a cliffhanger!

And... yeah. Not the biggest fan of this, and like Bohemian Rhapsody, I really did feel like this is a power that could've been a bit more drastic, a bit more epic. The idea of Versus, a minion that betrays the Big Bad Main Villain with his own agenda, should've been interesting, too! Unfortunately I just don't think he quite has the charisma, and despite surviving for at least a couple of episodes down the line, Versus ends up being pretty much kind of irrelevant after this. Well, either way we're done with the Children of Dio sub-plot, and we basically only have the Heavy Weather arc to go before the grand finale.

Random Notes:

• So, uh... even if you do have to suspend your disbelief that Pucci didn't realize Versus is literally using his Stand next to him to dig up memories, how did Versus know how Whitesnake Discs work? We've seen people who aren't Whitesnake or Pucci be able to insert Discs, at least, but it's honestly a bit odd since wouldn't you take time to process the information on the Disc, or is it just instantaneous? 
• Notable, I think, that Donatello Versus, with his first name, fits in the D__o naming scheme that Dio and Dario Brando have.
• I really rush through this episode's review, but I must say I did enjoy Ermes needlessly trash-talking the Under World copies of the old couple that stayed in the safe seats.
• Speaking of which... yeah, the best and creepiest part of Under World is how... NPC-like the people in the memories are, like the flight attendant and passengers that calmly explain in gruesome detail what happens to their bodies in the crash. It's just such a shame that it's limited to just a couple of scenes, and Under World itself never really shows what it can do outside of that one passenger jet. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet - The Teal Mask, Part 3: The Tale of Momotaro

So this segment of the game has a bit more cutscenes and exposition. We start off with the titular festival, and little Ogerpon is just hanging out in the background, watching from the outskirts of town. And... again, the plotline of the Teal Mask theme is pretty simple and obvious, but I do think it's done rather well. There's a nice little distinction between Kieran really liking the Ogre of the myths, while Carmine notes how everyone clearly likes the heroic Loyal Three more, and Kieran liking the Ogre is more of him being an angsty emo teen rather than anything particularly serious. 

...Though, to Kieran's credit, who the heck cosplays as Luke Skywalker when they can cosplay as Darth Vader? 

The festival itself is a lot of great, neat decorations though sadly there really isn't much to do in the festival grounds other than one minigame. All the stalls only have random buffing foodstuff. To their credit, the food are all drawn pretty well. Shaved ice, candied apples, ice cream...  anyway, Kieran gives me some candy apple, and talks about there being a Pokemon that looks similar to a candy apple... which is a new Pokemon that I'll meet later in this game!

The aforementioned minigame is "Ogre Oustin", which is a rather basic 'run and gather some items and get them back to the baskets' thing. It's not challenging like the races in Legends Arceus, it's just... really annoying? Some Skwovets and Greedents come to steal the thingies from the baskets if you take too long, and you can only carry a set number of berries or whatever plot devices you have with you at a given time. The main story makes me go through it, and it's okay for a single run, but I don't see myself repeating this game at all. 

Carmine is pretty competitive and is very, very happy that I can't beat her high score in Ogre Oustin'. Good for you, girl, I hope you're happy. Kieran talks to his big sister to get her to chill off, and I just wander around the festival grounds, walking up to the edge of Kitakami Hill where there's a long set of stairs leading up to the mountain. 

And, of course, that's where Ogerpon is. For whatever reason, despite the clearly deformed wood-legs, I think Ogerpon is a 'mysterious child' with a mask instead of a Pokemon. I can get the 'arms' being handwaved as some sort of particularly baggy hoodie, but in a world where humanoid Pokemon like Machop and Sawk exist, it really is no excuse for me to instantly assume the silent figure is a 'child'.

Carmine also shows up and there's a fair bit of yelling as she warns the little child to not wander into the mountains at night since it's dangerous... and, of course, Ogerpon's mask falls off, revealing her face. It's adorable. Ogerpon's face is an orange :o face with star-shaped pupils! That's actually pretty adorable. I return her fallen mask to her, and she runs off into the mountains. 

Weirdly, when Kieran shows up, I was ready to tell hi everything and get him into the loop, but Carmine very vehemently shuts me down. She does give me a couple of reasons -- to protect Kieran from the disappointment that we met the ogre before him, and to stop the little twerp from running and hunting down the ogre in the dead of night. She didn't have to yell at him rudely, though, and it doesn't really explain why Carmine didn't catch Kieran up to speed the next morning. The dysfunctional secret-keeping is the whole point of the story, though, and rather realistic for a bunch of characters that are technically teenagers. 

The next morning, I meet up with Carmine in front of her house, to talk to Nameless Grandpa. Carmine still keeps it a secret and goes 'you haven't told him about the, you know, the thing we you know the thing yesterday'... phrasing, Carmine, phrasing. Kieran, knowing absolutely jack-all about what's going on, is excited to wake up to a brand new day and continue with the signboard exploration. Carmine yells at him and causes him to run off and cry. Grandpa is rightfully pissed off, which causes Carmine to explain everything to Grandpa. 

And, plot twist... the Ogre is good all along! Dun dunnn DUNNNNN!

Apparently, the Ogre is super-nice, and the legend that was handed down in Kitakami is twisted. It's actually the other way around, and Carmine's clan has a secret story passed down by word of mouth through generations which can't be told to the rest of the village.

A long time ago, a big buff man and his Ogre companion came to Kitakami from a foreign land. But because he's a foreigner that looked different from them, racism happened and the villagers rejected them. This traveler and his ogre stayed outside of the village, living in the mountains. One mask-maker (Carmine and Kieran's ancestor) pitied them, and made masks for the Traveler and the Ogre. Four masks, which he adorned with gemstones from far away (which are 100% Area Zero gemstones). This way, the Traveler and Ogre could hide their identity, particularly during festivals. Their unique masks also made them super popular.

Until the Loyal Three arrived. Or, well, they weren't named yet, but they were a trio of greedy Pokemon that arrived in Kitakami, following the rumours of exquisite, shining masks. The fact that these three are just straight-up evil is actually surprising, and I do enjoy that they went all-in with characterizing the antagonistic legendaries as straight-up planning daylight robbery. Pokemon has always been rather careful about using most of its actual Pokemon characters as being 'uncontrollable' or 'only doing things by their natural instinct'. Even Giratina wasn't portrayed as actively malicious until Legends: Arceus! But yeah, the Loyal Three are actual bandits.

And they attacked the Ogre's cave, trying to steal the masks. The Traveler managed to hold on to one of the masks, and... we never really get his fate. But the fact that Ogerpon returned to the cave to see it ransacked, and found the mask but no mention was made of the Traveler... man, those Loyal Three probably killed him, huh? Or wounded him really badly?

In anger, Ogerpon pulled out his cudgel and charged into the village, beating the shit out of the three greedy Pokemon. The villagers, who do not have any of the context of what's going on, only saw an Ogre rampaging in their village, and thought that the Loyal Three (who are a bit more implicitly mentioned as 'giving up their lives') were protecting the village from the big scary Ogre, and ended up venerating them. The story ends with only the Ogre left, who returned to his cave alone. 

And after the story is finished, Carmine is pissed off and literally shaking with anger. Her first instinct is to go off and tell the entire story to the villagers, but Grandpa stops her with a depressingly realistic reply. Everyone's been raised up with the predisposition and bias that the Ogre is evil, so no one's going to change their minds so easily if it's already rooted in their collective mind. Grandpa also reveals that their ancestor had tried to do the same thing, but he's persecuted as a heretic and no one took him seriously. So that story is passed down their family as a family secret and nothing more.

...none of you ever thought about visiting the Ogre and keep her company? These stories usually have the secret clan turning into a secret-keeping friend, y'know. Grandpa, you suck. Carmine's hot-blooded but at least she's trying to do something. 

Carmine highlights just how much Kieran really really likes the ogre, to the point of obsession... and Grandpa goes straight and forbids me and Carmine from telling anyone else about the truth of the matter. And, again, I do like that there's a reason that they don't tell Kieran, which is a well-meaning but misguided attempt to 'protect' him. It's not a good reason, but at least it's there if they're going to do a 'secret keeping is bad' storyline. 

We leave the Teal Mask for Grandpa to fix, because one of the gems is broken, but only the audience gets to see that Kieran is eavesdropping to the whole conversation from behind the estate gates. He walks off, his expression sour. 

I meet up with Kieran in front of the shop, and he kind of brushes it off... though he does ask me about what I'm talking about to Carmine. The game doesn't actually let me be truthful to the boy and avoid what's likely to be a whole load of drama, and I can only keep a secret what I'm talking to Carmine. Again, Kieran brushes it off as we go explore the next signpost, but mutters under his breath about "why'd you lie to me..."

The third signpost is in Paradise Barrens, which is such a weird oxymoron of a name. It's on the northern side of Oni Mountain, and there's a fair amount of new Pokemon! Clefairy, Nosepass, Vullaby, Sandshrew, and Jangmo-o as the rare encounter. Kieran explains that according to the legends, the Ogre used to be seen in Paradise Barrens a lot, which is why there's a signboard there. 

And Kieran challenges me to a battle again. He's got a slightly expanded party -- Yanma, Furret, Poliwrath... and Dipplin! 

And I thought this was a simple convergent evolution of Applin (because, after all, the names are different), but thanks to a rather quick google search, turns out that Dipplin is... Applin's... new branched evolution? Um? I get the joke that G-Max Flapple and Appletun all just look like a big fat Applin with the worm head out, and this Dipplin is... basically an Applin with a visible worm head, and a bunch of minor details that mark it as a candy apple. But... it really just isn't impressive to me at all, sorry. Considering how fun Flapple and Appletun took the 'final stages of an apple themed worm-dragon' concept, Dipplin really did feel like they're phoning it in. 

Anyway, Kieran is pissed off that he's lost, blaming himself for being weak and we get a zoom-in on him clenching his fist. He clearly has a lot of issues he has to work through, and he's just clenching his fist in anger. He talks about wanting to get the sign over with.

I really do like this third sign -- the sign talks about how if you see a shadowy figure approaching you at twilight, wear your mask. If you wear your mask, you'll pass each other as two travelers on the road, regardless of whether you are a man or a monster. If you don't have a mask... then you are doomed, because if it's a monster then your soul is forfeit. It really does feel like the kind of a folktale that would be passed down in a region, and there's a nice 'warning against danger' vibe to it that makes it feel authentic. 

Of course, Kieran lambasts the parable as probably being bogus, particularly the 'soul-stealing' thing. He doesn't like this sign for vilifying the Ogre, making him sound like a bloodthirsty monster. And knowing what we do know about Ogerpon from Grandpa... the original intention of their mask-maker ancestor was probably to make it so that mask-wearing is normalized and that Ogerpon and her trainer could walk around the dark streets without being challenged, right? That is probably the original intention? At least, until they played up the villainy of the Ogre? 

Perhaps more importantly to Kieran, he notes how the Ogre was probably lonely all on its own, left alone, treated like some kind of an outcast. Man, projecting your issues much? Again, I can't really blame Kieran. He's clearly only had his (not-the-nicest) big sister as his only friend before me, and right after he starts opening up, both of the people closest to him end up keeping a major secret about the topic most important to him. Someone who already has self-esteem issues being faced with so much 'betrayal' would go into a spiral of self-loathing and self-pity. 

Anyway, with the third photograph and assignment done, Kieran fucks off, saying that he's got things to do. Yep, he's gone emo!

And at this point, I just... explore around. That was a lot of cutscenes, and I just spent around an hour running around and catching Pokemon. Volbeat, Grubbin, Charjabug, Mienfoo... eventually, I make my way to some of the areas, and find a random apple shack on the bottom right corner of the map. As one of the nearby trainers helpfully tells me, there's just a stand there selling Syrupy Apples without a seller, relying entirely on an honour system. O... okay?

This is where I can buy Syrupy Apple, and evolve Applin into Dipplin. And... and I'm sorry, I just can't really get super excited for this evolution. While it is neat that Applin got a new branching evolution so soon after his debut, the candied apple and the 'haha, it looks very much like regular Applin' joke just didn't feel particularly funny. Dipplin at least got a signature ability and attack, and... wait, its Pokedex entry says that it's two Pokemon in one? Two worms? One head-worm and one butt-worm? It disappoints me more, then, because I can't see any animations or any visual indication that Dipplin is supposed to be a multiple-organism-considered-as-a-single-entity thing. Other Pokemon species like Maushold recently but also Magneton, Binacle, Slowbro, Wishiwashi's schooling form and a bunch of others I'm probably not thinking of on top of my head do a decent job showcasing that they're technically multiple species Pokemon in a single creature... and Dipplin isn't that, I'm sorry. 

Anyway, Grandpa sends me on a fetch quest to get minerals to fix the mask. Carmine and I are to head to Crystal Pool to get a Crystal Cluster. Kieran walks out of the house, and just as Carmine is about to shoo him away, Kieran just emo-teenagers his way through the conversation. "Yeah, whatever, sis. I got stuff to do." Pretty much what you'd expect someone like him would say, I guess... and I do really like Carmine's follow-up line. "Must be teen angst."

I apparently missed the whole Crystal Lake area on top of Oni Mountain. Carmine tells me that those 'gazing upon the water can see the spirits of those that have passed on'. It sounds like some necromantic stuff, some spirit world stuff... is this how the Loyal Three will make their comeback? Are the captureable versions actually ghosts or something? Or will we talk to the maskmaker or Ogerpon's trainer? 

More importantly, the crystals in the water look like those hexagon pillars from Area Zero, and riffs from the theme of Area Zero start playing in the background of the soundtrack. This ominousness gets interrupted by Carmine's antics, who nonchalantly tells me to jump in... because she didn't want her clothes to get wet. 

We don't get a diving mechanic in this DLC, though, because a boss fight happens! It's not quite a Titan Pokemon, but the fight is treated like one with an expanded HP bar and Carmine fighting alongside me in a 2-v-1 with... a Milotic of all things. After the Milotic goes down, we claim the plot device Crystal Cluster or whatever. 

And then... Briar shows up. This is basically seeding for the upcoming Area Zero themed DLC. I do like that Carmine's almost immediately hostile, being pissed that this outsider showed up uninvited to what's basically a sacred site uninvited. Unlike me, because I'm Carmine's buddy. Briar did get permission from the caretaker to look at the properties of the water there, which give out the same wavelength as terastral energy. Briar wants to stabilize terastral phenomenon in other areas outside of Paldea, and this is the first evidence that she finds that it's possible.

Carmine doesn't give a shit about all this exposition that has nothing to do with her Ogre hunt, and she walks off. Talking to Briar afterwards reveals that this is just the first part of her plan to get to Terapagos... and the jury's still out on whether her goals are malicious or not. She feels like an obviously foreshadowed villain like Chairman Rose, but I do wonder if they'll do the 'calm figure of authority is secretly a sociopath' twist twice in a row. 

Anyway, I return to Mossui Town to find out that... Kieran ran off with the mask! Shock and horror! There's a brief game of pass-the-blame on who spilled the news to Kieran, but clearly none of us did. It's just that he overheard everything on his own. Kieran heads off to Loyalty Plaza with the teal mask, and I'm not sure what he's about to do there except that it probably is something not good and probably involves a boss battle. 

That's going to be explored next time. The character writing for Kieran and Carmine are... okay? Not the best? But I do like the themes explored here, with the legends making certain people more or less heroic over time, the reputation that someone has in a community, and all the stuff about Kieran's self-pitying and self-confidence issues. Now I do wonder how the Loyal Three are going to appear, since I do know that they're going to be captureable. 

Random Notes:

• I love the joke with the ice cream stall and selling two "different" items -- ice cream in a cup, and ice cream in a cone. The description even reads "It's the same ice cream, but somehow it tastes different in a cone instead of a cup."
• I really hope there isn't a Pokemon or an evolution form locked behind that minigame... I'm just 100% done with it. I don't know, I don't even hate it or find it frustrating, but I just have absolutely no desire to play minigames at the moment. 
• At this point of writing, I've been made aware that Ogerpon is an always-female legendary, so I'll be using the appropriate pronouns.
• Did a bunch of evolutions while I was running around. Shiftry, Yanmega, Mandibuzz, Poliwrath... a bunch of them. Probably have to find where the magnetic field area in Kitakami is, though. None of these places really scream 'electric terrain' to me. 
  
• Somehow, I entirely missed that Crystal Lake exists despite already running around the mountain a couple of times!
• Did Mienfoo always hold its two hands out like a jiangshi before? I know they appeared in 3D games and in Sword and Shield specifically, but I always thought they moved like, well, like kung-fu weasels instead of like Chinese zombies.