One Piece 1076 Review: Giant Business

One Piece, Chapter 1076: Old Friends

Yeah, so I wasn't particularly holding my breath or being super-duper excited about the idea of the Straw Hats teaming up with CP-0, and the scene with them kinda dicking around being kind of... what we expected. I do like that Zoro's suspicious of them, Kaku's trying to do the smart thing and fool the Straw Hats... and both Luffy and Lucci are just super-duper straightforward with what they want to do. Luffy being stupidly naive, and Lucci being stupidly honest about his desire to exact vengeance, basically making no effort to hide his desire to fight Luffy again. Basically Luffy and Lucci kind of reach a quasi agreement that Lucci won't go after the Straw Hats or the Vegapunks, and also kind of makes it clear that Luffy can basically stomp on Lucci any time... a fact that Lucci obviously is pissed off about and completely denies, and I think he decides to 'set an order' in response to Luffy's taunt. 

Oh, we also get the revelation that S-Hawk, the Mihawk clone, has Mr. 1's Supa-Supa no Mi, allowing him to turn his limbs into swords. That's kind of the obvious answer to what fruit they'd give Mihawk, I guess. 

Luffy frees the two CP-0 agents just as S-Bear unleashes an Ursus Shock, and we get a great quasi two-page spread of Luffy going Gear Fourth: Kong Gun and Lucci going Rokuougan on S-Bear; while Zoro does a Purgatory Onigiri and Kaku does a Rankyaku: White Thunder on S-Hawk. I don't think they're out just yet, but yeah, those two Seraphims are kind of being pretty beaten down.

Then we get to see where the Stella Vegapunk is, though not really the identity of his kidnapper. It kind of almost confirms that it isn't Caribou, Kizaru or Saint Saturn, though, since the same guy that kidnapped Stella Vegapunk is also the one responsible for shoving the CP5, CP7 and CP8 agents... who was mentioned when Lucci talked to Shaka and Lilith earlier this arc. With the generic agents claiming that they were attacked by Sea Beasts, it really does put into mind that one of the Satellite Vegapunks is the one responsible for all of this going on. Vegapunk also drops another bombshell -- about how he was researching Poneglyphs and word of that has leaked to the government. 

Oh, and then we cut to 100 ships heading from the G-9 base to Egghead, so that's like ten Buster Calls all at once. Man, they really are basically sending everything the Marines have towards Egghead, huh? 

And then we surprisingly spend the rest of the chapter in... Elbaf! And we get like a recreation of chapter 1, with a Giant Lady Bartender (a.k.a. Not-Makino) telling a Giant Bratty Kid (a.k.a. Not-Luffy) who wants to follow Shanks to sea. Does this happen in all islands that Shanks makes into his base? Anyway, Rockstar arrives to tell the rest of the Red-Haired Pirates, who are gorging on like, giant meat and stuff, that Kid is attacking their 'youngsters'. Shanks is drinking from a sake cup as big as he is tall, and mentions that he's catching up with old friends that he thought were dead. 

We get one-liners from the other prominent pirates -- Beckman, Lucky Roo, Yasopp -- and Shanks just casually talks to two shadows, his 'old friends', that he doesn't want to cause any major collateral damage and asks them to help in dealing with Kid. And then we get a gigantic (heh) two-page spread showing Dorry, Brogy, Oimon and Kasshi hanging out with all of Shanks' crew, as they do a badass march towards the harbour. Now while we last saw Dorry and Brogy still fighting in Little Garden, we also last saw Oimon and Kasshi returning to Elbaf... so presumably at some point they met up with each other and... and I guess either Dorry and Brogy went to a draw or the king of Elbaf summoned those two back? I am genuinely surprised! I don't like Dorry and Brogy as much as most of the fandom, but I do like the Little Garden arc, and I do appreciate seeing them back. These two guys' plot... well, I thought they'd just be fighting even until the epilogue and the inevitable terrible sequel series, but hey, they're back with Shanks!

Shanks tells Rockstar to deliver a message to Kid, and, which is either hand over their Lode Poneglyphs and fuck off... or fight Shanks. 

We then cut to the sea, on the Kid Pirates' ship, where they are fighting against Shanks' allied ships. We never really see whether Shanks had allied ships the way the other Yonko have, but he does, apparently. Killer kind of builds Shanks up even more, talking about how the allies are all big-shots, how Shanks won't settle with just an arm and will take Kid's life... and Kid is like "ha ha, only if I lose!"

And I really do appreciate this scene. It's like seeing Law fighting against Blackbeard, or Garp getting ready to assault Hachinosu... but where there's like a 50/50 or 40/60 chance of those fight going either way (I'm obviously leaning more towards Blackbeard winning both conflicts thanks to narrative demands)... there's really no shot here for Kid, huh? He's facing up not just against a Yonko, but a whole Yonko crew and they have giant allies. And allied ships, if you want to count them. I get that Kid has a power-up and a lot of the fandom kind of underestimate him a lot thanks to his performance relative to Luffy and even Law, but... but this is SHANKS we are talking about. I don't see Shanks straight-up killing Kid, no, but I really don't see a world where Kid somehow manages to prevail against Shanks and all of his buddies. Sorry, Kid, you really just keep drawing the short straw, huh? 

Random Notes:

• A fun little background detail is that Zoro grabs Kaku by the nose to save him from the Supa Supa no Mi strike from S-Hawk. 
• For a moment, it really does look like S-Hawk did a Rankyaku, huh? 
• The two Seraphim kind of... they kind of let Luffy, Zoro and the others kind of just talk for two whole pages, huh? S-Bear was at least charging his Ursus Shock. S-Hawk doesn't really have an excuse. 
• We don't see Shanks's (presumably) allied crews, but we do get to see their ships, which have a polar bear (it looks like Bepo!) and some sort of black demon-thing as their figureheads. To preserve the surprise for like three more panels, the Red Force's figuerhead is covered by the text box.
• Killer confirms that the Kid Pirates didn't even meet Shanks when Kid lost his arm, and Lucky Roo's dialogue implies that it's Benn Beckman that took Kid's arm. 
• Did Oimon and Kasshi go to Little Garden, tell Dorry and Brogy about the true reason they fought, and they finally resolve it with a gegyagyagya gabababa laugh? 
• There's a cute line when Shanks is walking through town and being mobbed by women where the Red-Haired Pirates shoot down some background person who wants to pay them protection money out of gratitude. 

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 5

It's been a bit longer between my Persona 5 entries. A couple of reasons, really -- other than Goemon and the final boss, I really didn't encounter too many new monsters to fit a full page. Another reason is... the Yusuke story is pretty nice, but there's just... a bit too much dialogue, and unlike the first arc, there's only really two people involved in the conflict (Yusuke and Madarame) making it a bit less exciting than the first arc? Not to mention this is about the time when I'm starting to have to juggle when to do what confidant and increase what stat. Having a lot of fun, enjoying the game a lot, just... not progressing through the combat segments particularly quickly. 

I'm also preparing the Generation IX Pokemon reviews, which is sapping a lot of my time as well -- I do plan to release the Pokemon reviews sometime in March, which is why it's been a bit slow on the Persona end. 

Anyway, enjoy! I think I'm starting to unlock a bit more of the available Personas and there's a lot that I can do if I want to go a bit wild with guillotining everything, but... well, I'm taking my time. 

_____________________________________________________

Goemon

"Have you finally come to your senses? How foolishly you averted your eyes from the truth... A deplorable imitation indeed... Best you part from that aspect of yourself!"

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Emperor

So as with our first reviewing segment, let's start off with the new party member's Persona, this time based on Ishikawa Goemon. Like our previous four party members' Personas, Goemon is based on a Japanese outlaw that is based on the highly-dramatized telling of the life of Gorokichi. Most of the stories of Goemon highly exaggerated and it has elevated him into the status of a folk hero, with a lot of them being attributed with anti-authoritarian stories. Similar to the other 'heroic thieves' theme of the main character Personas, Goemon is described to have stolen from the rich and given it to the poor, eventually being boiled alive alongside with his son, with his heroic act involving him holding his son above the pot of boiling water as an act of defiance. (And, yes, in addition to probably seeing Goemon referenced in many Japanese pop culture, readers of this blog would recognize that the legend of Goemon partly inspired that of Kouzuki Oden from One Piece). 

Now Persona 5's Goemon is a very, very interesting redesign! The kabuki-inspired clothing with the giant platform shoes and very cool-looking nio-daisuki cords. There's a lot of kabuki inspirations with Goemon, but the most interesting thing is the gigantic pompadour they decide to give him, becuase I guess this Goemon is a bit more modernized and a delinquent. I also like the gigantic pipe that he's holding, which the animation shows him either clubbing enemies with, or to use them as a way to unleash his ice skills. 

I don't quite think Goemon and his user, child-prodigy painter Kitagawa Yusuke, is particularly connected all that well beyond the 'rule of cool' of how Goemon is tied to a lot of traditional art. Actually, I guess that's what the aesthetics might be, with Goemon's design mostly looking like one of those traditional Japanese ink paintings, but with a few additional bits of modernization like the pompadour. Yusuke's Metaverse outfit himself (pictured on top) seems to draw on a lot of the 'ninja thief' vibes that is associated with Goemon in more modern retellings of his legend. He's honestly not my favourite of the main cast's Personas that I've met so far, but he's an interesting design regardless. 

Nue

• Monster Name: Night Chimera
• Arcana: Death

Serving as one of the minibosses of Madarame's Palace is the Nue, one of my favourite Japanese mythological monsters. The Nue is often described as a 'Japanese chimera', and is often described as a monkey-tiger fusion with a viper for its tail. Other legends have also attributed the body of a tanuki to it, as well as giving it the hyoo-hyoo cry of a bird and association with dark clouds. The legend that is also referred to in the description note that a Nue 'haunted' Emperor Konoe, appearing as a cloud and disturbing him with the cries of a bird until one of the samurai used an arrow to shoot down the evil Nue. 

The Persona Nue is a pretty faithful transcription of how the being is described in legends, although I feel like they do a great job at making it look much more monstrous. It still has the snake-tail (not visible thanks to the dark background of this screen), and the very humanoid 'sitting down with long arms' pose like a gorilla or a human really does make the Nue look much more intelligent and intimidating than if it had been on all fours. The tiger markings are there, too, but the head and face -- a dark face with red glowing eyes, a grinning set of teeth and a white mane -- really does make this easily one of the cooler monster designs. 

Actually, looking through all the various depictions of Nue in the SMT Wiki, I really do think that I like this version that appears a lot in the newer games, and the huge, heavy-set body and the creepy lemur-esque demon face is so, so much more threatening and inhuman-looking than the more feline Nue models that previous games in the mega-franchise used. 

Kurama Tengu

• Monster Name: Monk of the Valley
• Arcana: Hermit

Kurama Tengu is the name of a play that describes one of the most powerful Tengu in Japanese legend -- Sōjōbō, the Tengu that lives in Mt. Kurama. While we've met the lesser Koppa-Tengu, the Kurama-Tengu represents all of the more powerful Tengu spirits in Japanese myths, and he's a more humanoid-looking tengu-man compared to the goblin-nosed Koppa-Tengu. It's perhaps a bit hard to see since the background and the skin of the Kurama Tengu are the same shade of dark blue, but he's a stern-looking man holding a giant conch-trumpet thing. 

The Kurama Tengu is most associated with teaching the samurai warrior Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune the art of swordsmanship when he was met the tengu in the mountains. I don't know if Persona has other Tengus in its repertoire, but I do like that we do get two different renditions of the Tengu. One to represent the more simple 'crow demon trickster' trope that is more associated with lesser tengu and have been ubiquitous with the word tengu outside of Japan, and this 'greater' tengu that fits more with the hermit-ascetic vibe. I do like that they still kept the giant bird wings, though!

Makami

• Monster Name: Hunting Wolf Spirit
• Arcana: Temperance

Oh, the Makami! Or the Oguchi-no-Magami, which a lot of One Piece fans will recognize as "that one holy Japanese beast that Yamato turns into, and we have not heard of before". The Makami, or Okuchi-no-Makami (sometimes Oguchi-no-Magami). The Makami is an old and deified alias for the Japanese Wolf, and depending on the legend, it's either meant to represent a particularly powerful wolf god, or the name given to a region where many people were killed by an old wolf. Most myths of the Makami basically had people deify the Makami for its ferocity, worshipping it as a guardian deity who would protect crops against wild boar and deer. The Makami's legends would evolve, turning the Makami into a just deity that will protect the good and punish the wicked. Basically the perception of the Makami depends as their perceptions of wolves also changed. 

...that said, I'm not actually sure why the Makami is depicted as this long, flat wolf. I'm not sure if I'm missing the context of a particular legend, but it is still a very interesting design anyway. I like the glowing neon-green lines that goes down its body, Is it meant to be a connection with the Inugami, or the other Shikigami-like beasts? The lore does note how the Makami are drawn on 'prayer boards', but those tend to be wooden and not long like a scarf or a paper. 

Overall I do really find the design to be super-interesting, albeit a bit similar to the Kodama and Inugami I've met a bit earlier, but I'm mostly just a bit confused because there's really not much information out there in English about the Makami specifically. 

Arahabaki

• Monster Name: Awakened God
• Arcana: Hermit

Oh! Shakkoumon! Or, well, rather, the Shakoki-Dogu figurines from Japan! For a moment I was confused, because the whole deal with the Dogu, a common type of figurine from ancient Japanese cultures that often crop up in archaeology, with their specific purpose still unknown. In Persona, the Dogu is used to represent Arahabaki, a Japanese god from ancient Japan of whom a lot of the specifics has been lost through time and censorship. The Megami Tensei Wiki actually rather helpfully provides some context, because the portrayal of Arahabaki is tied to Tsugaru Soto-Sangunshi, a completely false document which caused a fair bit of confusion and got spread amongst occult magazines and eventually made it to pop culture. 

Most real legends about Arahabaki that survived to this day don't actually have a proper description of what he's all about, with the most that we can find out talking about some vague connection to healing or ironworks. But that aforementioned false document has a whole legend surrounding it, where he was worshipped by Nagasunehiko, who was defeated by Emperor Jimmu of Japan -- leading to the association with rebellion, heresy and treachery as worship of Arahabaki is banned and forbidden. So I guess the designers for this franchise decided to use the Dogu, another iconic part of Japanese culture that's of a forgotten past religion and of indeterminate purpose, and basically had it be Arahabaki?

The Dogu look is always pretty cool as a video game opponent anyway, with those creepy slit-eyes and the little mouth, but it's always the large shoulders/hips and tiny arms/legs combo that kind of creeps me out a bit. I did talk about the Dogu-based monsters when I reviewed Pokemon's Baltoy and Digimon's Shakkoumon. In this game, the Arahabaki is a particularly nasty miniboss that spams a lot of status moves, who kind of caught me unawares and led to my first defeat in the game. 

Suzaku

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Sun

Okay, so technically we've finished with all the enemies we meet in Madarame's Palace, but there are a handful of others that I see thanks to fusing Personas or meet as bosses in Mementos, and I'll cover them before we close off this article with Madarame himself. 

The Suzaku (Zhu Que in Mandarin) is the second of our Four Symbols of Chinese constellations, with the Genbu (Xuan Wu) appearing before. The Vermillion Bird represents the fire element, the direction of south and the season of summer. The Suzaku is described as an elegant pheasant-like bird, and has feathers in five hues. I particularly like how Persona's Suzaku depicts this detail, with the Suzaku's main body being the expected shades of red, but its tail-feathers, resembling a bird-of-paradise, being in blue, gray, black, red and yellow. 

I don't really have too much to say about this. It's a pretty neat depiction of the Zhu Que/Suzaku, but it doesn't really do anything super-interesting with it like Genbu. It's very cool and I think the Suzaku became a bit of my main persona through this leg of the game. 

Nekomata

• Monster Name: Ascended Feline
• Arcana: Magician

Nekomata (often confused or conflated with the Bakeneko), are a type of yokai in Japanese folklore that's always associated with cats. Most legends depict it as a long-lived cat that has gained supernatural yokai abilities, such as shapeshifting or necromancy. A different version of the Nekomata legend talks about how they are monstrous, mountain-dwelling cat demons that eat people. Thanks to the 'mata' part, the Nekomata would often be also depicted with a long tail that splits into two. The Nekomata tends to be violent, particularly against humans who wronged it as a cat. This has led into many superstitions like keeping a cat's tail short. 

Persona's Nekomata, meanwhile... is a cat-lady? She's not as fetishized as I thought she would be (and definitely less compared to the previous versions of the Nekomata), but still fits a lot of the slender tropes of a cat-woman. Her tail is super-long but doesn't fork into two, which is interesting? Also, that's not a face-mask as I thought it was when I played through the game the first time, but rather a mask-shaped marking with whiskers and a cat mouth. She's a neat cat-lady that punches you in the face with magic. 

Also, are all cat Personas all just in the Magician Arcana because our cat party member Morgana represents the Magician arcana? Huh!

Black Frost

• Monster Name: Fallen Snowman
• Arcana: Fool

Serving as a side-quest boss before he appears 'naturally' as an enemy or a summonable Persona is Black Frost, who is Jack Frost... but black and purple, and with meaner angry eyes. And he's a bit bigger! Not much to say -- I don't think the Persona franchise relies too much on model repaints but I'm not surprised that there are a couple. There is a pun in Japan, where 'Jack', jakku, is written as the homophone ja'aku, literally meaning wicked.

Yaksini

• Monster Name: Human-eating Lady
• Arcana: Empress

Yaksini (or Yakshini) are the female counterparts of the Yakshas, a type of nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain mythologies. As the Yakshinis are an entire race of spirits, they range from being guardians of sacred groves, attendees of greater gods, or mischievous ones that haunt and curse humans.Depending on the region and the religion, the legends associated with the Yaksini can be very different, and the brief blurb in the Persona description does talk about how the perception has changed across different cultures, turning her from a fertility goddess (associated with asoka trees) to guardians of treasures, and in specifically the region of Kerala, there are a lot of myths about Yaksini being more malevolent. It's from these more violent legends that Persona's Yaksini seems to draw from. 

In Kerala folktales, there are stories that describe murdered women reborn as Yakshinis, and some live in their own world and have to venture to the mortal realm to feed on blood. Persona's Yaksini is continually described as a 'human-eating lady', a 'demon' and 'nude, voluptuous'. And... well, she sure is almost nude, being purple-skinned and only covering her breasts with the strategic placement of hair. Not too much to say here, she has some minimal bits of armour like the golden horned crown on her head, the striped loincloth and some rings and two fancy swords, but I really don't have much to say about her. 

Shadow Madarame

• Monster Name: Ichiryusai "Azazel" Madarame
• Arcana: N/A

And we finally reach the boss of the second palace, and its creator, the mild-mannered country-renowned artist Ichiryusai Madarame... who actually abuses and plagiarizes from his young charges, and then using his status and prestige to force them out of the art community if they try to rebel. And unlike Kamoshida before him, Azazel's form is... a lot less monstrous and a lot easier to describe visually. Being a painter, Madarame's first form is that of four paintings, each treated as a separate monster with a separate health bar. I kinda like it, even if it doesn't quite have the same oomph as Kamoshida's gigantic demon-baby form. The twitching eyes and noses and mustache are pretty creepy regardless. 

I don't like to get too much into gimmicks with describing these bosses, but the idea is that each and every Madarame part has completely different weaknesses and resistances, and if you rely on just spamming area effects you'll instead heal the other enemy parts -- and obviously, not killing them in quick succession will cause the fallen parts to regenerate. There are some gimmicks with Madarame spitting out ink that decreases your party member resistances, but it's honestly not that interesting. 

Unlike Kamoshida, Madarame has two phases to his fight, with the second phase having a central golden Madarame figure who keeps summoning four types of clones -- Ersatz Anger, Ersatz Sorrow, Ersatz Joy, Ersatz Mirth -- each representing one of the four elements (fire, ice, lightning and wind). Again, you have to try and match the weaknesses. In a rather neat nod to Madarame's real-world counterpart, as the fight drags on Madarame's copies become weaker and weaker as his plagiarism fails, and these clones will arrive in weakened states. 

A very fun boss mechanically, which isn't something I normally say about these video game bosses, but not too much for me to say about visually. Madarame's "demon" name and his "sin" aren't exactly traditional of the seven sins! His sin is a bit easier to note, with vanity -- or vainglory -- being one of the two sins of the original nine deadly sins, that gets folded into an aspect of Pride. But since these two 'historical' sins don't have an associated demon, Madarame gets to be called Azazel ("arrogant to God"), a Grigori or fallen angel from Hebrew Lore. Azazel was supposed to be cast out of Heaven after teaching men how to mine metals and create blades and armour, leading them to think they are invincible. In Christianity, the name Azazel is associated with the scapegoat rite. 

_____________________________________________________

I did talk a bit about the monsters in Kamoshida's palace being themed around him being either a pervert or a king, and there's also a similar theming in Madarame's palace though not every monster falls into the theme. Madarame is an artist, so we get some monsters that are tie to painting, sculpture or art (Shiki-Ouji, Arahabaki; the Shiisaa is a statue too) and he's also extremely traditionally Japanese, leading to a lot of traditional yokai or other Japanese-myth related monsters (Nue, Koropokguru, the two Tengus, Inugami, Makami, Ippon-Datara, Ame-no-Uzume) but there are also some outliers like the Mokoi, Apsaras and Hua Po, and... well, not every monster is tied to the palaces and some might just be there for level purposes and the like. 

Anyway, I don't think I like the Madarame 'arc' as much as the previous one, but admittedly the Kamoshida arc had a lot going on for it, introducing not just the concept in general but also the stories of all four original party members. In contrast, the Madarame arc really only revolves around Yusuke and Madarame and the story is honestly pretty straightforward... though I do appreciate the buildup it's doing to a lot of the members of the cast that I assume will become important later on in the story. It's our first 'real' palace operation after the first arc, though, so I understand!

One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 1036-1040

It has been a while, but I wanted to watch an entire batch of episodes at once. Anyway, here's more Wano! Things are slightly winding down since the bulk of Roof Piece is kind of over (and probably why it was a bit slower for me to get these out), but we still have a whole lot of Onigashima to go through!

Episode 1036:

• Chopper's young, yes, but he really should know better than to cry like a little bitch, huh?
• Izo uses his Haki-infused guns to shoot at a giant member of the Beasts Pirates, then Kawamatsu River of Retribution's him. Pretty cool since these two are the Scabbards who arguably did the least (after Ashura Doji) so even little moments like this does build up the fact that they're doing something in the raid. 
• Queen has extendable mini-teeth inside of his teeth. That just sounds like overkill!
• That is a pretty cool Diable Jambe! The Wano arc has always been great with fire! ...and then we get the slapstick ridiculousness of helicopter-neck Queen literally helicoptering around. 
• "He'll have the strength of 10 men." -wakes up- "2000!"
• And we cut back to the attic, and... at least we make it immediately clear that Kin'emon avoided having his upper body being smooshed, and that he collapses with his head and torso intact. It's a scene from the manga, yes, and so is the flashback to when the time-travelers returned to the present-day. It kinda helps to establish that Kin'emon might have something more to give... but I still do think that Kin really should've died here. Such a great note for him to go out on.
• ...it is a bit of a terrible plot point to foreshadow, yes, but having Kin'emon fart in the flashback while talking to Momonosuke does, in a way, help to build up the farting thing that comes later on. Sigh.
  
• No, Kaido still stabs Kin'emon instead of slashing him. We do get some more establishing shots of Kin'emon lying there with the sword sticking out of him, but... eh, I don't know. This whole episode is very dramatic and well done, yes, but knowing what comes next does kind of ruin my enjoyment of it. 
• There are so many dramatic moments in this episode! Kin'emon trying to practice not saying Momonosuke-sama, Kaido being a dick about samurai dying, Momonosuke remembering Kin'emon's words about crying and conquering his fear to tell everyone of Luffy being alive, the visualization of Momo's Voice of All Things... bah. 

Episode 1037:

• Yeah, everyone's giving Shinobu shit for really not doing anything super awesome, but the balls on this woman for holding her ground in front of Kaido and tossing those useless kunai onto his eyeballs. Good job, Shinobu! Then that Jiki Jiki no Jutsu just in time to escape from Kaido? Good fucking job, Shinobu.
• Ah, yes, Climatact Zeus. Always kind of obvious for me, mostly because Oda wouldn't give Nami a power-up just to literally take it away next arc. 
• Did we really need a full flashback to Nami rescuing Zeus from Hera, though?
• Ah, the setup for Kid and Law teaming up to fight Big Mom. Not the biggest Kid fan, but it is kinda neat to see him talk about the 'new age' he wants to create. We never really got a follow-up to what, exactly, that is. 
• And we get the CP-0 talking about stats in Onigashima on their Go Board... mm.
• ULTI! I like Ulti.
• As awesome as the MASER Cannon animation was, I really didn't need to see another recap of the entire scene wholesale.
• Usopp shot Ulti right in the boob! I don't really remember if the Usopp/Nami and Ulti scene is extended from the manga version.

Episode 1038:

• Yeah, a good chunk of this episode is just getting Tama to speak and get the Gifters that ate the kibi-dango on the good guys' side. A scene that's kinda obvious, and at least not as frustrating as the ice oni virus. I guess a lot of the Gifters already get a fair amount of additional scenes in the anime, so... I guess it's something rather interesting to add?
• We literally replay the 'Zeus can extend into a spiky club' and Usopp shooting the Sargasso at Ulti. It's pretty noticeable, really. I don't know... I guess I just expected Nami defeating Ulti to get a little bit more, considering how Ulti's been a pretty recurring character and the fight between them was kind of an afterthought? Eh. 
• I did really like the execution of Nami's very smug face at the name "Fluffy". 
• Yeah, that instrumental 'We Are' as we cut to all the Straw Hats fighting before Tama speaks is actually quite well-done!
• We also get a scene of the Heart Pirates all fussing over Luffy and trying to get him out of the ocean. Basically it's an excuse to have Jean Bart use his super-large body to pump out water from Luffy's lungs. 
• HOLY SHIT THOUGH Yamato and Kaido at the end, what a beautifully animated scene. It lasted 2 minutes or so, but still. Particularly after that purple explosion of Haki when the animation studio suddenly changed. Damn! How smooth are those lightning bolts running up Yamato's kanabo, or Kaido slamming his feet, or that demonic look on Kaido's face as he screams YAMATOOOH or that spinning camera around the two's clash? The colours of the yellows and purples around them... Beautiful!

Episode 1039:

• Which is kind of a shame since we go from Kaido and Yamato's confrontation to... just... a bunch of Gifters changing sides. I get it. We need a whole scene. And the Gifter minions like Daifuku and Speed and Gazelleman did get a bit more screentime in the anime. Everything is competently animated, it's just kind of a letdown after 1038 got my blood pumping so heavily. So I guess this episode is just going to be me pointing out cool, unnamed Gifters.
• There's a cool guy with like, stag beetle pincers for lower arms, and beetle wings, and a helmet and muffler that kinda screams Kamen Rider to me. Only except for the Kamen.
• There is a six-human-armed lady dressed up with a miniskirt version of Wasp from Marvel Comics, and she sextuple-wields whips. 
• A giant guy with a boar head that just kinda screams 'Inosuke' to me.
• There's a pair of guys who literally have their upper bodies grow out of the spines of a crocodile and a kangaroo respectively. 
• Okay, always admittedly nice to see Sanji and Queen both doing pretty flashy shit with their Diable Jambe and Black Coffee attacks respectively. 
• Of course they animate Queen's transformation with a sequence that just screams 'giant mecha anime stock footage'. 
• The main part of this episode that's kinda relevant is just the Baby-Gramps Chopper, and Who's Who little revelation that he's tied to the Gomu Gomu no Mi.
• I still like the conversation between Chopper and Caesar about pirates having to take risks. I still think the random Zou Magic Pill of Recovery is still a gigantic asspull that they really could've foreshadowed beforehand. 
• Who's Who's little sword stuck on a long-ass sheath still looks ridiculous, and even more so since it stays on the screen longer than a single panel. 
• We get to see Who's Who's transformation, and part of it is his hands explicitly ripping his gloves apart as he goes into hybrid mode. But... didn't he start this encounter with Jinbe in full sabertooth tiger mode? What, did he find a fresh pair of gloves when he returned back to human form?

Episode 1040:

• Oh yeah, this episode had a lot of flashback scenes. I kind of get the flashbacks showing Jinbe's history with Luffy. I really do! This episode is all about Jinbe showing his devotion to Luffy and the Straw Hats. But everything else? I can definitely do without. 
• Cat Zeus is cute!
• Okay, Who's Who's Fang Pistol being drawn as these absolutely savage-looking flying fangs are cool. Even cooler, however, is Jinbe casually using Armament Haki to deflect them to the side. He even bleeds, which, again, I think is okay in One Piece anime now, but I really did wonder if the censorship laws changed since the beginning parts of Wano. Later on, we get a mass of Fang Pistols and Jinbe just so casually sidesteps all of them. What the hell!
• "My goodness, it's out of style nowadays to discriminate against Fish-men." is such a great passive-aggressive way to say 'wow, you're racist, you punk'. 
• Okay, Who's Who's Fang Flash has him go all Super Saiyan Rose or whatever the hell the pink version of Super Saiyan is called, and it's animated amazingly well. After sitting through almost eight minutes of basically nothing, that's a nice breath of fresh air. 
• The ora-ora barrage that Jinbe and Who's Who does later on in the fight is also pretty slick, particularly when Who's Who speed-blitzes Jinbe. 
• That's a great split-second zoom-in on Jinbe's angry face as he does the jujutsu shoulder throw, with darker lines and stuff. 
• "Sun God" Nika! Yeah, I really did wish that other than the brief vague bits of references in the Skypiea arc that we actually did get some Nika foreshadowing over the course of the series. It's not bad as Naruto's Kaguya (and the context of a final villain and the nature of a plot device is different), but I really did feel like they really did put this Nika reveal a bit too close to the actual reveal of it in the story. 
• Oh, the animation studios did a great job at showing Jinbe's tranquil fury (soon to not be so tranquil in a couple of shots) when Who's Who insensitively goes 'oh, your Sun Pirates used to have slaves, right'?
• One absolutely wonderful shot that the anime added in this episode, however, is a brief blue aura of Fisher Tiger's face as Jinbe weathers the barrage of 'Spots', and turns full-body Armament Haki. And then we get the wonderful cracks as Who's Who's fingers snap and break 
• And then Jinbe totally breaks the rest of the bones in Who's Who's wrist, tanks a kick to the face without even flinching, tanks another Fang Pistol (previously established to be able to break through Armament Haki), steps on his tail like a goddamn boss, and does the ONIGAWARA SEIKEN.
• There's just something so badass about Jinbe's fist stopping mere inches from Who's Who's face... and then the explosion of force happens. Holy fucking shit, bro. 
• It's also something that I didn't notice in the manga, but the shockwaves from Demon Brick Fist totally blow up Who's Who's stupid cat towers. 

One Piece 1075 Review: Order 66 Reversed

One Piece, Chapter 1075: Labostratum Death Game

A rather short chapter, mostly a follow-up to 1074. There's a still-unknown figure eliminating the security snails, as Shaka is looking at the security feeds. Luffy also realizes that someone's sabotaging the intercoms.

We get to check up with a bunch of other characters, with Nami, Brook and Edison finding a bunch of man-made diamonds and Nami getting super excited about that. Chopper, Robin and Atlas get to see a bunch of grown organ farms that Chopper thinks will revolutionize medicine, while Robin makes a morbid joke. Sanji is simping over Stussy and they're accompanied with Jinbe. The final group, consisting of Usopp, Franky, Lilith and giant York meet the blown-up Pythagoras, and... in a rather cleverly-foreshadowed 'hey this character is alive', Pytaghoras survives as the little head-with-limbs form that we saw him in as a gag when he was surprised earlier this arc. 

York ends up finding S-Snake, the Boa Hancock Seraphim... who immediately turns York into stone. Lilith commands S-Snake to stop, but she just keeps shooting them with lasers. The fact that the Seraphim are not following the satellite Vegapunks' orders means that either the Stella has gone rogue for some reason, or that Jay Garcia Saturn has actually arrived on the island. The silhouette we saw in the Shaka scene could very easily been either Saturn or S-Bear?

So yeah, we do finally get some stakes, since with the Seraphims and the Mark III's, things seem to be pretty much smooth sailing for our heroes. S-Bear and S-Hawk show up in the main control room, fighting Luffy and Zoro... and they're kinda trying to not let the unconscious Lucci and Kaku get killed by stray Pacifista blasts. Obviously the CP-0 agents are just playing dead, and they want to be released so they can aid Luffy and Zoro against this threat, and the chapter closes with the punchline of the Straw Hats making the Wano HAAAA disgusted faces.

Overall, we are stretching out the traitor revelation a bit longer, and with Kizaru and St. Jay Garcia Saturn's locations still being unknown, they seem to be the most likely suspects. It's definitely not as exciting of a chapter compared to previous ones, but it's pretty interesting that the Seraphims and Pacifista changing sides is how the power dynamics of the factions in Egghead is changing. 

Random Notes:

• Been a while since my last post, huh? Real-life stuff got in the way, and I just simply didn't have too much time to write. All my writing efforts also kind of went to monster reviews, which will see a bit more of a staggered release.
• Cover story shows Dr. Vegapunk meeting the Gorosei, which was alluded to by Saturn a couple of chapters ago. Interestingly, all the Gorosei members are shown in silhouette, which I think is to cover up whether they have aged or not. 
• Nami actually agrees to leave behind the bag filled with jewelry behind? Sounds like a pretty OOC thing to do. 

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 4

Part four of my Persona 5 monster reviews! It took me a while to get through the post-Kamoshida stuff, but that's mostly because I was trying a bit too hard to try and save-scum and get the maximum music notes from all the confidant interactions. I have been really enjoying the 'daily life' segments of the game and both trying to figure out what best to do and to look at Yongen-Jaya and Shibuya at different times of the day and different days of the week. 

But I finally unlocked Mementos, which is the 'infinite dungeon' of this game. There's some kind of plot tied to Mementos, and this is where our heroes go to do battle against the Shadows of minor targets... something that I do believe that I'll be doing quite a lot and will slow my actual playthrough of the game even more because I do love me some sidequests. So far most of Mementos just has the same monsters we've met in Kamoshida's Palace, but there are several new ones -- including several I met via the Velvet Room like Obariyon and Jack Frost being available "in the wild", so to speak. 

And... and after reaching Madarame's Palace, a vast majority of the early monsters I met are ones I already covered in part 3 thanks to the Velvet Room battle -- Mokoi, Apsaras, Koropokguru and so on. 
_____________________________________________

Kodama

• Monster Name: Wavering Tree Spirit
• Arcana: Star

We have our first Star arcana Persona, and it's not what I expected! It's a Kodama, which is basically a wood spirit or a tree spirit from Japanese folklore. Trees that have lived for 100 years will birth a Kodama, and these trees are marked with shimenawa ropes -- which anyone who watches anime would find familiar -- and cutting down one of these trees would bring terrible misfortune; a practice still done now. It's a very common recurring thing in various different cultures all over the world, that older trees often have some sort of spirit that inhabits or guards it. Trees that are inhabited with Kodama will sometimes make noises, though in modern times these noises have been dismissed as delayed echoes caused by mountainous terrain. 

The legends are not particularly specific on what kind of form the Kodama would take, with descriptions of them appearing as ghostly lights, beasts or even human beings, which means that the Persona team had some fun designing the Kodama and depicting it as something more similar to the pop culture/anime depiction of shikigami, which tend to be depicted as paper gods. The Kodama's head and body has nothing but swirling patterns, and they just flutter around like little paper men flying in the wind. They're able to summon Bicorns for some reason. Pretty interesting little bugger, I actually like this as an enemy design a fair bit. 

Hua Po

• Monster Name: Girl of the Hanging Tree
• Arcana: Hanged Man

Visually, Hua Po is just another 'Pixie' type monster that has red skin and a more butterfly-looking set of wings. She also has Chinese clothing. Not the most interesting design out there, and I can't really find anything beyond Megami Tensei wikis on the proper legends about this spirit. Just basic ones -- the Hua Po is a tree spirit formed from a tree where people are hung, with some records stating that you need at least three or more people hanging from the tree for it to 'spawn' a Hua Po. Hua Pos make sounds similar to birds, and they can dry up if not given enough water. 

I really don't have much to say here, other than the fact that I find it hilarious that whoever assigned Arcanas for this game's monster picked the 'fairy born from a hangman's tree' and gave it the Hanged Man Arcana. Good job!

Shiisa

• Monster Name: Rooftop Lion
• Arcana: Chariot

Oh, this one I can talk a bit about! The Shiisa (sometimes parsed as Shiisaa, Shisa, etc) are a lion-dog Okinawan version of the Chinese Guardian Lions (Shishi), and the beliefs about the Shiisa is similar between the Chinese Shishi -- they are placed on either side of a house's gate or rooftops. Traditionally the two Shiisa have slightly different looks. The right male Shiisa has an open mouth to ward off evil spirits, while the left female Shiisa has a closed mouth to keep good spirits in. These statues have appeared in so many Chinese and Japanese based material, so obviously they're a shoo-in to appear in this franchise.

I could really go on and on on the 'evolution' of the Chinese Shishi as they get imported to other cultures, but let's just talk about Persona's Shiisa for now. Pretty neat interpretation of the lion-dog, with the curly mane and hair looking like how the being tends to be portrayed in media. I do like the absolutely manic smiles that the Shiisa have. Presumably, in the source Shin Megami Tensei games most if not all of these deities are hostile to some degree, which is why there is a sense of aggression coming from this design. 

Shiki-Ouji

• Monster Name: Bringer of Misfortune
• Arcana: Chariot

Oh yeah, this guy was pretty terrifying the first time I found him. The form of the elite, red enemies within Madarame's Palace, the Shiki-Ouji was much more of a threat than the Eligors and Archangels in the first palace. The Shiki-Ouji (literally Ceremonial Prince) is a type of a Shikigami -- a 'paper god' -- and could only be summoned by particularly skilled onmyodo practitioners, and are associated with the izanagi-ryu folk religion. The Shikigami are essentially what the English-speaking word might describe as 'familiars', but that's kind of an oversimplification, I think. 

Shikigami in legends are made out of a complex conjuring ceremony, which binds the paper spirit to its master... and if the ritualist is careless, the Shikigami could get out of control, gaining its own consciousness and might even attack their own master. While originally the Shikigami could take the form of animals or paper, in most Japanese pop culture they've been associated with paper mannequins (where the spirit are 'sealed' into), which give them a distinct feel compared to other spirits. 

And the Shiki-Ouji does look very, very menacing. It's a giant, tall man made out of paper, and the segments of its body will sometimes rotate independently when it attacks. The long arms ending in claws, the lumpy legs, the suit and skirt, the giant moon-horn on its head... it all really combines to form a design that looked genuinely terrifying, but I think the coolest (and creepiest) part of this design is its face. I actually like the Shiki-Ouji a lot, and it really does feel pretty threatening compared to the rest of the common monsters in this dungeon. 

Regent

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Emperor

So our heroes get a diamond and this rainbow-textured ghost-thing pour out of it. And it's apparently a type of a 'Treasure Demon', which are basically rare encounters to be used in fusion because they have some rather desirable skills. The designs of the Regent is pretty neat, as far as these specters go, with two giant almost alien-looking eyes that have multiple circles (a 'Rinnegan' for you Naruto fans) and I do appreciate the little 'ponytail' and the crystal-looking texture. Not a whole ton to say about the design here. 

The name, unlike other Personas and Shadows, do not refer to a specific literary or religious figure, but rather to a specific jewel -- the Le Regent Diamond, a 141-carat diamond considered to be the most beautiful and purest diamond in the world, and later found its hands to multiple European royalty and is currently in the French Royal Treasury at the Louvre. There is a superstition that those who held possession of the stone are often afflicted with misfortune. 

Koppa Tengu

• Monster Name: Foolish Monk
• Arcana: Temperance

So we're closing this off with, again, a bunch of Personas that I made through fusion, though I've been told that the next two here also will show up later on in Madarame's Palace. We first up start with Koppa Tengu, or "leaflet tengu". Is that why the Pokemon Nuzleaf and Shifry are based on Tengu, then?  Presumably, we'll get to meet more superior tengu as stronger enemies. Anyway, the legends around these yokai usually tend to depict them as a cross between human and bird, with some depictions also throwing monkey traits in there as well. A long nose has been associated with tengu as well. Some legends say that those that lead a life consumed with pride will be reborn as tengu, which would definitely fit with the theme of this Palace! Not all tengu are equal, and among the kotengu (small tengu) are the Koppa-Tengu, translating into 'leaflet' or 'foliage' tengu. 

Anyway, the design for the Koppa Tengu is basically what you'd expect, being a humanoid with crow horns. Do really like how their masks look, though, being basically just a giant, long nose pointing forwards with only markings that vaguely resemble eyes, with no eye-holes or a mouth-hole. It's an interesting adaptation of both the 'bird-headed' and 'long-nosed monk'. There's a scroll it wears as a necklace, which I assume contains the source of the arts it uses. Pretty neat tengu monster!

Ippon-Datara

• Monster Name: Embittered Blacksmith
• Arcana: Hermit

Oh, this one is a cool remake. Whereas the Shiisa or the Tengu on this page are relatively faithful adaptations of the source material, this is what the Ippon-Datara normally looks. A fleshy being whose entire body is long leg, with a one-eyed face on the thigh and arms jutting out of it... yeah, creepy and kind of disturbing, but it would get lost in the midst of so many other monsters. So the SMT/Persona team has redesigned it to really adapt its backstory. The Ippon-Datara myth is noted to be involved with blacksmiths who lost an eye and a leg to their smithing. There are other versions of the legends (including a woodcutter criminal, or animals) but the blacksmith one is what the team worked with.

Oh, there's also a legend that while the Ippon-Datara is normally a shy and reclusive yokai, every December 20th, the Ippon-Datara will be violent, and crush underfoot any humans it meets at the day -- and in the areas in Japan where the Ippon-Datara legend hail from, it's bad luck to go into the mountains at that date. 

And what a redesign! I usually am content in just showing the picture from the in-game screenshot, but let me emphasize the creepiness with Ippon-Datara.  They went for something that wouldn't look out of place in a Resident Evil game, taking the 'one-legged, one-eyed blacksmith' and going ham with making him look like a serial killer. That blacksmith's apron could also look like a psychotic backstreet alley doctor trying to dispose of evidence. And of course the number '4' emblazoned on his body is a homonym to 'death' in Japanese. He's holding tools -- a hammer and tongs, and on his right shoulder he's got some tool implements. Like the traditional depiction of the yokai, his hips just terminate into a single leg. But my favourite part of this guy is definitely the head, where it's a robotic head with the number 4 painted over where the right eye should be. Very creepy, and I wouldn't expect the jumping feet ghost to be reimagined as basically a psychotic cyborg mutant blacksmith. 

Kushi Mitama

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Councilor

Another Mitama, and this one is a green one with a more mischievous face. The Kushi Mitama is known as the 'wondrous soul', and is normally a duo with the Saki Mitama. It can cause transformations and cure illnesses. And as the Persona-dex notes, "it uses its power to bring good omens. It is said to aid in one's wisdom, observation, and skill, and can mend fractured paths."

...I really don't have much to say about the Mitamas that I haven't said with Saki Mitama, sorry. This one is also only available through fusion, and with a lot of new monsters from Mementos and the Madarame Palace, I've basically been kind of going overdrive trying to fuse everything I can. 

Ame-no-Uzume

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Lovers

Another one I create through fusion is Ame-no-Uzume, or technically 'Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto'. In Shinto myths, she is is the goddess of dawn, mirth, meditation, revelry and the arts. She's primarily featured in one of the myths of the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu Omikami. During an argument between Amaterasu and her brother Susano'o, Amaterasu sealed herself inside the Heavenly Rock Cave Amano-Iwato. Amatersau's absence caused the sun to go dark. Among the gods, Ame-no-Uzume danced and as she tore off her clothes, the other deities laughed and the commotion drew the attention of Amaterasu, eventually luring her out so that the other deities could seal the cave behind her and persuade her to resume her duties. Apparently, this dance is noted to be the basis of the Kagura dance.

While the legends of Ame-no-Uzume and Amaterasu used a mirror as props, this design for Ame-no-Uzume is clearly based a lot on fans, presumably based on the traditional fan dances of Japan. I can't really find enough information in English sites to explain this to me, but I do really like the upturned fan that covers part of her face, the twin fans on her hands, and the huge fan on the front of the dress. Again, I don't really have too much to say about the rest of her since she's just a lady, but it's neat to learn about new legends.  

___________________________________________

Anyway, that's all we have for today. I have seen Goemon, but I think I'll keep Goemon for the next segment where we'll cover the rest of Madarame's castle. 

One Piece 1074 Review: In Which Nami Kicks Rob Lucci

One Piece, Chapter 1074: Mark III

So of course we don't pick up from the Gorosei reveal. Of course. That'll probably take like the entire rest of the arc before that's followed up upon. 

The first part of the chapter is a bit interesting, showing the titular "PX-III" attacking a bunch of generic Cipher Pol soldiers with some... bubble powers? I'm not actually sure if this bubble power shield thing is part of the Paw Paw Fruit ability, or if it's another devil fruit entirely. I don't think anyone's used bubbles before, but I am a bit tired as I'm writing this. The Cipher Pols are quaking in their feet at the sight of PX Mk. III and they're basically surrendering. Really love that panel with the PX-III demanding them to surrender, too. This is basicalyl Sentomaru, who's wounded but not dead (of course) and he's just basically throwing his lot in with being a rebel, activating all fifty of the PX-III robots and unleashing them on the Cipher Pol with the express purpose of getting Vegapunk off the island. 

Meanwhile, our heroes on Labostratum now realize that Vegapunk is not with them, and Luffy ran himself ragged running around the laboratory looking for Vegapunk. Yeah, I guess the stamina drawback from Gear Fifth is really hitting home. Shaka says that he can still see where Bonney is from the monitor... but I do wonder if this means that Shaka is lying, or if Vegapunk disappeared so quickly (Caribou? Blueno? Shiryu?) that no one realized. 

Zoro, Brook and Stussy regroup with the others with their brand-new Egghead suits, and we get a full panel of the entire cast. Nami is kicking and about to stomp on Rob Lucci's little leopards while Robin is trying to calm her down. Atlas apparently got fixed off-screeen with some spare parts, and I was confused about the giant woman that Sanji is ogling until I realize it's actually York. York's a giant, I guess. Also, the weird enigma of the Frontier Dome being activated is something that's finally plot-relevant, because they've lost control of it and can't escape. So yeah, it's not Stussy that activated it. 

Shaka also admits that the Seraphim rampaging did cause some of the security camera snails to be destroyed, so there are a couple of blind spots, so it really might just be Shaka not seeing when Bonney and Vegapunk separated? We don't know at what point Shaka allegedly saw Bonney alone on the camera, after all. 

All the Straw Hats and Vegapunks split up, and I absolutely love that the entire Straw Hat crew basically grabs Zoro and stops him from going off to 'lend a hand'. Sanji gets some amazing facial expressions, Chopper yells at Zoro too, and even Robin gets in on the action, saying 'just wait, okay?' with the most innocent smile on her face. Zoro and Luffy standing there over the knocked-out Kaku and Lucci is pretty sensible, though, and I do foresee this leading to a proper rematch when these two guys wake up. I guess Luffy being tired from Gear Fifth is a potential 'nerf' to bring him down to Lucci's level?

We also get a bit of a flashback to Bonney touching the huge Kuma Memory Bubble, and she enters the memory and basically walks around in the memory world, seeing a young big bald kid. That's young Kuma, which we saw in an SBS forever ago. We get to see him being beaten the shit up by some shadowy people, who beat him up because if Kuma gets away, the rest of them will be killed. Kuma cries to be killed instead of being dragged back, and then we see shadows of Marie Geoise and the Tenryubito... yeah. Kuma was enslaved before, and it's a pretty horrifying scene. Bonney gest ejected out of the memory when she gets emotional and cries, although can you really blame her? This scene is interposed with the real Bartholomew Kuma body climbing up the Red Line to reach Marie Geoise, and... I don't really know what's going on here! Is Kuma about to exact vengeance with his zombie cyborg body and go exterminate-exterminate? And Bonney is about to steel her resolve and try again. 

Again, the rather ambiguous timeline really does make it hard to know just how long before Shaka sees the security videos the Bonney scene is!

Meanwhile Pythagoras is walking around looking for the Stella, there's a figure walking behind him and as he turns around BOOM there's a huge explosion that tears the building apart! So yeah, take your pick. Blackbeard Pirates (Shiryu of the Rain, maybe), a renegade Vegapunk clone, Stealth-Mode Kizaru, Caribou, Jay-Garcia Saturn, Blueno and the other former CP-9 agents, Hattori activating his true pigeon god powers? You decide! You speculate!

We then cut to the floating base of the World Economic Journal, with Big News Morgans getting the news (from somewhere? I didn't even realize that Morgans must have gotten the information from someone in Egghead) that the World Government is trying to assassinate Vegapunk. Morgans spins the news as 'Emperor Straw Hat Luffy Takes Vegapunk Hostage', and... yeah, Morgans really isn't an ally, unlike what was speculated before by some people when he gave Luffy some gas or when he refused to censor things for the World Government. No, he just leans towards the Government one day and the Pirates the next just for SENSATIONALISM! BIG NEWS!

Bug speaking of Big News, we've got two completely unexpected addition to this arc. Neferari Vivi, who's hanging out with... WAPOL? I'm not sure why Wapol is there. I guess for comedic relief? Vivi is pissed off at Morgans for badmouthing Luffy, Wapol is panicking about the potential presence of a wiretap snail, and Morgans is just doing his whole 'my words can shake the world, news is entertainment' spiel. Very surprising twist. I really do want Vivi to come back into the story and rejoin the Straw Hats, and I really do wonder after the whole Marco/Weevil stuff last chapter, how all this is going to tie together!

Random Notes:

• The cover story has Queen, Judge and Caesar fighting each other for the position of number two. I see Queen has bulked up a bit after the previous segments. It is interesting that Caesar is basically treated as an equal with Queen and Judge now, huh? Previously I've always felt like Caesar is a notch below the other members of MADS, like a psychotic intern or something. 
• Yeah, if you can't tell, I think I'm the most suspicious about Shaka right now .I think it's because he doesn't show his face. 
• Luffy also broke his hoverboots. "Don't snitch, I can't pay them back!"
• There is a glorious background event when Shaka is doing some exposition when Sanji spots Stussy and goes 'heart-heart'.
• There are a couple of random female Morgans employees that are fawning over Vivi borrowing their clothes to wear. That's funny. 

Let's Play Pokemon Violet/Scarlet, Part 29: Mushrooms & Green Frills

We're back with Pokemon Scarlet! Yeah, it's been like... a week or two for you guys, but it's been a bit longer for me. The editing process for these articles takes a while, after all! Anyway, Scarlet is something I kind of play on and off when I have the time, and I'm just waiting to get through all the unique content before just blazing through everything so that I get to the endgame and I can transfer Pokemon over to my main Violet copy and I can get a full, complete Pokedex for the first time since Pokemon Y. 

Anyway, I project it'll take some time before that happens, so I'm probably going to go on ahead and start doing the Generation IX Pokemon reviews in the meantime, since all the official Nintendo artwork has finally came out. It took a while! I think it took until mid-January until we got clean artwork of all the new Pokemon. I was thinking of doing all the reviews with the slanted Pokedex images, but I decided to hold off for consistency's sake. 

So out of my party, I evolved Toedscool and Greavard into Toedscruel and Houndstone and... I really do love the pre-evolved states, but man, are they fragile! Particularly Greavard, who doesn't have any really good moves to use, unlike Toedscool who can at least help to Sleep Powder or Stun Spore enemies. The accuracy is shit because of Toedscool/Toedscruel's ability, but still!

Anyway, since then I went to beat up both Kofu and Great Tusk. Not much to say about Kofu beyond the long dialogue strings, with two Grass-types in my party, there really isn't much to say about the fight. My Frigibax evolved into Arctibax in the aftermath. 

The Great Tusk fight is... a bit more... interesting to talk about, since this is the first Paradox Pokemon that deviates from Violet. At this point I've unfortunately seen all the designs, though there is always something very primal and cool-looking at seeing this dinosaurian, almost draconic-looking Donphan with giant tusks and scales running down its spine. Very cool, and actually much more impressive looking than Iron Treads, as much as I do appreciate what they were going for there. 

Great Tusk is Ground/Fighting and I'm not sure how. This is a Pokemon that I wouldn't mind them slapping the Dragon typing on! He's also a bit stronger than Iron Treads, though it might just be the order of gyms that I do compared to Violet. There is a bit of a strange thing where I'm not sure if it's just my memory being faulty, but I did remember in Violet that Iron Treads rolled up into its ball form to zip off to the Herba Mystica boss fight zone, whereas Great Tusk just... disappears in a sandstorm. It's very lazy, and with how the A.I. clone stuff would fit Professor Turo better than Sada. 

The fight against Great Tusk also caused my Floragato to evolve into Meowscarada, which... I think I liked the Sprigatito line the least compared to the other two, but I think both Sprigatito and Meowscarada (not Floragato) have supplanted the ducks very squarely. Meowscarada has 'Flower Trick' as its signature move, which is like an always accurate move comparable to Seed Bomb. Very cool, and, again, I think I appreciate Meowscarada's design and masked-gentleman-magician aesthetic a lot more once I realized what's going on. 

I then just kinda went around unlocking fly spots and then fighting Attius and Larry. Not too much to mention here, though my lack of exploration did cause me to struggle a bit against both Great Tusk and Atticus. Not too much, but it's a nice change of air to have a bit of a challenge. I do like that grinding against the level 40-ish Water-type Pokemon around the lake is a quick way to basically level grind. 

I then went up against Dodonzo and Tatsugiri, and... they are a lot easier now that I have a Grass-type starter, yeah? Not just that, but I also brought a second Grass-type, and a Fairy type for Tatsugiri. I really don't have much to say here, it's all basically the same cutscenes I experienced before. 

Oh yeah, my Tinkatuff evolved into a Tinkaton! Gigaton Hammer looks super-duper awesome, and I think the stat boost really does make Tinkaton viable a lot more. 

ALSO I FOUND A SHINY FLITTLE WHEN I WAS CHASING GREAT TUSK. 

Flittle is a Pokemon that I haven't really cared about and Espathra is a Pokemon I really didn't care all that much about, but the change of colours of one of Flittle's frills from pink to green really does make her look very distinctive. I would've changed the yellow to like, pink or orange or something, but I don't care. It's the fact that I found a shiny at all while just running around the desert, and... well, I didn't think it completely registered until the Shiny sparkles appeared in battle. 

So yeah. I was using a Mareanie as a sixth member -- the rest of my team are Meowscarada, Toedscruel, Houndstone, Frigibax and Tinkatuff -- but I think getting a shiny this early on kind of... it kind of forces me to use the Shiny Flittle as a party member, right? Shiny Espathra is weird and chocolate and a bit less exciting than Shiny Flittle, but it at least looks distinctive enough! Espathra also has a special signature move called Lumina Crash. Haven't really experimented too much with Espathra in combat, though. 

Random Notes:

• Meowscarada has been renamed 'Morgana', to fit with the cat phantom thief from Persona 5. Much more creative than 'Masquerade', which was the name I had on him. 
• Yeah, obviously my Scarlet playthrough got super-interrupted by me playing Persona 5...
• Toedscruel has this most delightful animation of hopping around like a goddamn pogo stick when it follows me around. Bless this martian octopus fungus. 
• There are some rematches for Team Star that I should get to in Pokemon Violet. I do plan to exhaust everything these games have!
• Despite knowing the answers for Larry's gym's quiz, the choice to cheat the answer is there, and I can just bypass the whole quest by just remembering the answer before. 
• I play Scarlet on a Switch Lite, and the frame-rate drops for the Dodonzo lake is extremely much worse than when I went through the area in my regular Switch. Odd, I thought the older Switch would be the one having lagging issues. 
• Man, the lack of level scaling really makes the challenges really.... boring. I'm sorry, I know there's a reason for it, but what's the point of giving us 'you can challenge the gyms at any time' but the levels are fixed? I still don't like it, but it doesn't bother me since I never really cared about the whole 'choose your adventure' aspect of open-world games.