Secret Invasion S01E03 Review: Obvious Traitor is Obvious

Secret Invasion, Season 1, Episode 3: Betrayed

If I've been slacking in reviewing Secret Invasion, that's because I am... mostly because the episodes take so long for me to honestly trudge through. And that's not a word you really want to use for a superhero show. But I don't know... I just feel like there's just such a dearth of characters for me to care or get excited about. It's not just because the majority of the side-cast are brand-new faces either, which was also something that was true for shows like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, and I liked those shows just fine. But I honestly find it hard to care for anyone other than Nick Fury and maybe Talos most of the time in this show. 

And again, Nick Fury and Samuel L. Jackson's delivery of his lines are always welcome to see, but even then it's kind of wearing thin. Just like, honestly, the plotline going on in this episode. Oh, sure, lots of stuff are happening, but it really does feel like we're retreading the 'who is G'iah loyal to' plotline from the first two episodes and it's just so... repetitive. Even the action scene as Fury and Talos charge into General (?) Fairbanks' house and threaten his kid, and eventually force G'iah to break cover to find out the password... that just feels like a very basic spy stuff that ends up being kind of underwhelming.

It doesn't help that Gravik really doesn't do much beyond being a regular sneering villain. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I really wished we got more out of him. We get him boasting and promising about 'Super-Skrulls', a meeting with Talos and a cat-and-mouse game with whether G'iah is the traitor... and really nothing much beyond that. Turns out that, oh, G'iah is in contact with Papa Talos, she finds Gravik a bit too much now, and her obvious treachery ends up being found out and she's seemingly shot dead by Gravik at the end of this episode.

It's also honestly rather frustrating that this is supposed to be a show that makes me pay attention and figure out who's duping who, who's a secret Skrull, and which Skrull has a secret motivation... but Talos, Gravik and G'iah are all such obvious character archetypes that going through 40 minutes of reaching the conclusion already telegraphed in the first 10 minutes really isn't all too engaging. And I'm not sure why. I guess maybe none of the huge 'twists' are actually 'twists', and is telegraphed to us from the get-go? Like how Gravik is obviously already on to G'iah, and how G'iah's loyalty is obviously to Talos at this point, and there's not really much in terms of excitement as they go through the motions. 

Talos is also a character that's been rather... bland. Ben Mendelsohn delivers his line fantastically, but it really does feel like he's just here as the token good Skrull, and while I can get that he becomes a bit more emotional whenever his daughter is concerned, it feels like rather overwrought character exaggeration from "no, wait, damn it Fury, you're triggerhappy" when he was interrogating the art-dealer Skrull last episode to him freaking out when they were interrogating Fake-Fairbanks and shooting him just because he said some mean words about his daughter. 

There is some superhero intrigue with Gravik mentioning Super-Skrulls, and seemingly actually having perfected it by showcasing some super-regeneration when he rips his hand through Talos's knife. Presumably that's Extremis from Iron Man 3? But when Fury and Talos mentions the possibility of Avengers fighting and I know we're not going to get any more than a couple, it really does dampen the stakes of this show by a fair bit. 

Sonya Falsworth also shows up a bit to give Nick Fury some intel, I guess, and I thought that bit with the owl statute and putting an eyepatch on him was kinda cute, but otherwise... eh?

Oh, and I actually almost forgot to talk about Priscilla Davis, Nick Fury's wife, who is also a Skrull called Varra. And... the actress is pretty good, and she has a good dynamic with Samuel L. Jackson, but the conflict here is her being angry that Fury's left her and basically everyone else to hide away on SWORD after the Blip, and it's, again, all rather repetitive. Turns out, though, that Varra's at least been in contact with Gravik, which... again, is another huge obvious-'plot-twist'-is-obvious moment because... well, we've only met Varra this episode, so just like G'iah in the pilot there really isn't any emotional stake to me when she gets outed as a possible traitor. 

Again, this is still episode 3 of... 6, I think? Allegedly, the show gets better in the next episode or the one after that, but for a show about Nick Fury -- a character I desperately wanted more of in the MCU -- this hasn't really been a show that's firing on all cylinders. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The term 'Super-Skrull' is a reference to Fantastic Four's recurring villain Super-Skrull, or Kl'rt, who has the power of all four members of the Fantastic Four -- namely stretching abilities, flame manipulation, invisibility and a rock body. 
• Varra is a in-name-only adaptation of a Skrull/Kree hybrid character that otherwise has no relation to Nick Fury in the comics. 
• Fury and Varra name-drop General Dreykov, who was the primary antagonist of Black Widow. 
• Fury is able to catch on to the fake Fairbanks impersonating Talos because he calls him 'Nick'. The line about how everyone calls Nick Fury 'Fury', even his mother, came from Captain Marvel. 

Bleach TYBW E15 Review: sternritter conference tAble

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 15: Peace From Shadows

A little bit late with this one! I'm trying to catch up with all of the things that are new releases, from Bleach to Secret Invasion to One Piece!

This one is basically the beginning of the second invasion, and we do get a fair amount of rearranged scenes, as usual, including a fun set of new scenes! Again, I personally would've liked all the scenes from the manga to also survive the translation from page to screen, but on the other hand... I can see the argument made for each and every one of these removals. We start off with a brief mini-flashback to Haschwalth briefing all the non-Schutzstaffel Sternritter. I do like the little questioning that Robert and some of the other Sternritters ask -- why bother letting the Bankai-stealing Sternritters fight and defeat the very captains they steal it from? Haschwalth gets a pretty badass pose, talking about how this is a matter of the utter destruction of their pride, to utterly crush any kind of resistance or thought of resisting even though they are now powerless. 

We get some nice nods from these Sternritters' personalities, like Robert being more pragmatic, As Nodt delighting in the sadism and Bambietta not really giving a shit and just wanting to fight. Again, this... doesn't really cover up the gigantic plot hole regarding the Bankai-stealing stuff (which I don't think they are going to change too much) but it sure does explain at least the Sternritters' behaviour. 

Cutting back to the present day, we do get a lot of the scenes from when the Sternritter's shadow realm bleeds over to the Soul Society, including how the 13th Division third-seats repower to Ukitake who's in the mysterious temple meditating. I do hope all the Ukitake/Mimihagi stuff gets expanded upon... and honestly this extends to everything revolving around the Soul King parts in general! 

We also get more monologues from Juhabach as he talks to Uryu, giving an explanation about the Quincies hiding in the shadow-realm and how they had to flee the human world to the Soul Society, forging a hidden city in the shadows of the Seireitei and calling it the Wandenreich. Again, combined with Haschwalth's earlier speech about this being revenge to crush the Shinigami, it does really sell the idea that for the most part, all the Sternritter are galvanized and driven by this desire of an ancient injustice. It gives flatter characters a generic cause beyond 'we follow Juha because he's the Quincy god I guess' and it also helps to align the other characters' motivations to be somewhat more similar to Uryu's newly-given sidequest in the first cour. 

The bulk of the episode deals with a couple of confrontations that happen simultaneously -- the primary action components are obviously Hitsugaya and Matsumoto vs. Bazz-B; as well as Soi Fon and Omaeda vs. BG9. Interspaced between these are Kyoraku and Nanao's face-down against Haschwalth; as well as Askin and Mayuri's... can you even call that a confrontation? It's decently-paced and really does sell the chaos of the Quincy invasion while focusing on a couple of conflicts. All of these are also happening concurrently, though obviously for the purposes of this review I'll focus on each fight at a time. 

The easiest one to talk about is probably Askin's confrontation with the 12th Division, where he gives a short monologue to Hiyosu and the other R&D Shinigami, giving a bit more explanation simultaneously with Juhabach and Haschwalth in other scenes about how they have been hiding in the shadows. I absolutely love that this leads to Kurotsuchi Mayuri walking out in his snazzy golden sunflower outfit, all glim-glam and stuff. And, of course, while this seems to lead up to a fight between the two, Askin does a bit of thinking, realizes Mayuri's a 'weird one' and would take too much effort to fight, and buggers off. I love that there's a brief moment of hesitation as he asks Mayuri if he's not going to hunt him down. 

It's... it's such a refreshing little subversion, and I've always found this scene pretty hilarious. Mayuri himself also shrugs off, saying that he also needs more time to gather data about Askin, and brags about how he's the only captain that can fight without Bankai... right before Urahara calls in with the solution to the Bankai-stealing stuff. 

Shunsui and Nanao confronting Haschwalth is also pretty cool, and the anime giving Haschwalth more prominence in the bonus prologue of this episode does a great job at making this scene feel more weighty than it originally already was. Haschwalth and Kyoraku do a polite back-and-forth in regards to their respective ranks, before Haschwalth gives a speech about how Juhabach loves peace and thus ordered the Sternritter to annihilate the enemy instantly... which I don't think any single Sternritter is in any hurry to do. 

Nanao manages to trap Haschwalth in a barrier with her kido spell Hakudan Keppeki, and we get a nice little discussion about Nanao's insane ability in Kido and how it probably earned her rank as vice-captain. Nanao boasts about how countermeasures are something that they'll do since the Quincies have played their hand. This is nicely contrasted with Soi Fon revealing her Mukyo Shunko and Mayuri's light suit... and then Haschwalth observes that Nanao should have spent time teaching this to the other members of the Gotei 13 instead of overly-perfecting it... which is very much showcased next to Soi Fon apparently being blown up by BG9's missiles (visible to them) and Bazz-B using Burner Finger 2 to beat Hitsugaya. Pretty simple but very fun little parallelism with other fights going on in the battlefield!

Bazz-B fights against Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, with some really fun animation. It's obviously not quite to the scale of effects that the Yamamoto/Fake Juha fight had, but they did do a good job at showcasing Bazz-B's insane fiery powers. Also, Bazz-B (voiced by Ono Yuuki, otherwise known as the voice of Higashikata Josuke!) is a lark to listen to. What a big braggart, and the way he pronounces 'The Heat' and 'Burning Finger' is absolutely fun to listen to. I've never been really the biggest fan of Hitsugaya, but I do like just how... calm and collected he is in the earlier parts of this fight, talking about how the 'winning side wouldn't beg for mercy' as he and Bazz-B exchange powers. Hitsugaya's seemingly thinner ice ends up being part of the vacuum ice thing, or, as Matsumoto calls it, "Operation Mille-feuille" -- abusing Haineko's ability to instantly turn from dust to sword to create layers of vacuum in-between Hitsugaya's ice. Absolutely love the dynamic between Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, with the cheerier, bubblier Matsumoto being absolutely ecstatic about how she's being actually crucial in Hitsugaya's strategy in this fight. 

Of course, as Askin and Haschwalth both are commentating on the circumstances of the Sternritter still having the upper hand, Bazz-B ends up bragging about how he can beat Hitsugaya with a single finger -- something that ends up being literal as he uses 'Burner Finger One' to blast a hole straight through Hitsugaya. We get a couple more named attacks like ice traps and ice fogs from Hitsugaya, which is all pretty fast-paced and cool, but Bazz-B just burns through everything and eventually uses Burner Finger Two, raking two slashes down Hitsugaya's chest and causing him to collapse to the ground. Right as Bazz-B is about to finish Hitsugaya off, Cang Du shows up to take over the fight thanks to their agreement. 

One of the casualties of the scenes being cut is Marechiyo Omaeda, but I do argue that this is a bit for the better. We cut down a lot of Omaeda's indecisiveness and the torture of his little sister Mareyo, and instead we just get to hear Omaeda telling his little sister that he has to go fight because he's a goddamn lieutenant in the Gotei 13, and later on being defiant in regards to Soi Fon's location even as BG9 impales him with creepy robot spikes. BG9 absolutely bullies Omaeda, stabs him when he takes a blow meant for his sister, and is about to open fire with his fucking gatling gun, when Soi Fon arrives. 

And... hoo boy, what a badass entry that was, just ripping that minigun in half and then dropping the bullets while showing off her speed, before proceeding to blast out the Shunko wind-butterfly-wings behind her. It would also be remiss of me not to mention that they have finally de-censored the Shunko outfits, removing the undershirt that Yoruichi and Soi Fon had in the original manga. Cool!

And I have to confess that I've never actually cared about Shunko in the series. I know it exists, and I guess it's cool to add an extra layer of secret skill or whatever for the assassination force, but I don't think I've actually found it cool until now, when Soi Fon unleashes her gigantic butterfly-shaped set of wind-wings. It's very cool, particularly the pillar-shaped wind shockwaves when Soi Fon starts punching BG9! I don't know, I think it's just the sheer fluidity of the action that really makes the initial activation of Mukyo Shunko feel so much more badass compared to the Histugaya/Bazz-B elemental smackdown. 

And the Mukyo Shunko is pretty cool, but just like Bazz-B, turns out that BG9 can withstand this assault. BG9 sheds his cloak to reveal his robotic bodysuit inside, laments that he doesn't even have to use the stolen Bankai and then a bunch of missiles pop up from all over his body, and begins to bombard Soi Fon. Soi Fon seems to burst out of the flames, only for BG9 to stab her and then catch up to her, creating a gigantic explosion. That bombardment scene is another short-but-cool one, and I really do like that it coincides with Haschwalth's speech about how 'the other soldiers might have survived'. 

And we have a short post-credits sequence of Ichigo walking through the mysterious dream-like path as Ichibei recites some ominous poems and mantras. Remember that everything about Ichigo in this cour is basically anime addition... and I really am looking forward to seeing what this will lead. I assume it's going to lead to a lot of Soul King related exposition, but the context of what Ichibei is talking about is probably going to be some huge revelation. Ichibei notably talks a bit about empty vessels, and who those that are trying to walk through it and unable to bear the weight will turn to gravel and dust. I think he's referring to either the process of becoming the Soul King, or one of the Royal Guard? It's a bit more vague than I would've liked. 

Anyway, there's a lot of content here, surprisingly, even though the episode felt like it flew like a breeze! A lot more additional content than I expected, too, and I'm a huge fan at how much the additional scenes like the Sternritter's early meeting or the rearrangement of the scenes and especially Ichigo's sequence does help to pad out how... problematically paced the second half of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc is. Pretty cool!

Random Notes:

• 
  Always loved that Nemu's 'no-shadow' outfit comes with an adorable little top hat. Mayuri's a sadist, but he does know how to accessorize his daughter. 
• Good god Nianzol is just so fucking creepy, just sitting in all these Sternritter scenes with his tongue lolling out, never saying anything. 
• I've always thought that Histugaya's boast about how his 'shikai and bankai has the least difference in power' to be a sly admission that Hitsugaya's Bankai is kind of... not that big of an upgrade?
• A lot of Omaeda's more panicky scenes about Soi Fon not being there has been removed, making Omaeda's professionalism and protectiveness a lot more consistent in these scenes. Likewise, Omaeda's line about how he would've let Soi Fon's location slip even if he had been ordered to keep it a secret was removed, making his defiance a lot more prominent here. (He doesn't actually get to unleash Gegetsuburi in the anime, though.)
• I actually really do like this. Between the Nirgge and Barragan fights, and a bunch of Omaeda's anime-exclusive scenes, I do really like the idea that such a minor slob like Omaeda has eventually gotten a fair bit of character development into someone more serious and professional.
• I absolutely love the line about Soi Fon being incredulous at the gigantic Quincy gatling gun, because "aren't you guys supposed to just use bows and arrows?" 
• Knowing Askin's "Deathdealing" ability from future chapters, it actually is probably going to be a bullshit-gambit-on-top-of-bullshit-gambit if he and Mayuri fought, so he's right on that end!
• A lot of Soi Fon's explanation about her Shunko, and how it's the element of 'wind' and how she's been training to improve it ever since her battle with Yoruichi all the way back in the Soul Society arc has been removed and presumably placed on that post-ad-break screen. 
• Interestingly, Bazz-B's line about how he had been able to offset Yamamoto's flames with his The Heat powers was removed. 
• Another one of my favourite lines from this fight, Bazz-B mocking that Hitsugaya has a lot of named techniques, is also removed. Hitsugaya does have the most uniquely-named attacks in the manga, whereas everyone else tend to just have their own Shikai, Bankai and maybe a handful of others that revolve around their Shikai/Bankai's name. 
• There's a pretty cool line from Askin noting that "hey, everything is still proceeding as his majesty has predicted", which ends up throwing some rain over the fire of Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, Nanao and Soi Fon being seemingly able to hold their own against their respective opponents. It's a pretty cool line. 
• Another change made was who explains the Shinku-Taso-Hyoheki technique to Bazz-B. In the manga, it was Hitsugaya doing a typical 'Bleach character monologuing about their powers' scene. Here, it's Matsumoto explicitly noting how she feels 'generous' and bragging about her captain's technique.
• I'm not sure if Bazz-B had this in the manga, but the little arrows on his gloves' fingertips light up when he uses his Burner Fingers. That's cute. 
• Hopefully we learn what BG9's "K" means! I mean, it 99% means The Knowledge, but still!

One Piece 1088 Review: Ethical Dilemma

One Piece, Chapter 1088: Final Lesson

Well, that was a fun conclusion to the Hachinosu mini-arc, huh? And one that, I feel, satisfies everyone. I don't think this whole sequence of Koby being kidnapped by Blackbeard (which kinda came out of nowhere) would really give the readers anything beyond 'hey, Garp saved Koby, everything is successful' without some kind of huge plot development. And that plot development is either a failure of some kind, or Kuzan betraying the Blackbeard Pirates, revealing his SWORD allegiance or something... and I don't think that's a reveal they would do now because Kuzan's barely done anything as part of the Blackbeard Pirates either. 

So yeah, I'm actually pretty happy with the events of this chapter -- Koby shows that after his minor fuck-up in 1087, he's actually fitting for the 'future of the Marines' title. Meanwhile, Garp manages to eke out a victory and do a great showing for himself despite technically being defeated... which, incidentally, might lead to a Garp rescue arc sometime in the future!

But yeah, when we see the little flashback of Garp teaching Koby, we get a very interesting parable that Garp gets called out on by one of the other instructors. Garp gives a dilemma to the students -- a Marine, a baby and an old man is on an island full of fierce beasts, and the escape boat can only fit two. Koby gives the altruistic answer, telling the two civilians to go on the boat while he fends off the animals, something that he definitely shows he's willing and capable of doing when confronted with Blackbeard. 

Garp, meanwhile, yells at them to leave the old man, since Marines should protect the future and both the younger Marine in the parable and the baby have a much longer future ahead of them as opposed to the old man. Obviously this gets Garp a yelling from one of the other instructors (do we know that character?) because Marines are supposed to value all lives equally... but clearly Garp has some unique beliefs. 

And then we cut to slightly earlier before all of these flashbacks, showing Koby surrendering to Blackbeard in exchange for a large number of Marines that were held hostage in the attack on Amazon Lily. The Vice Admiral there (Yamakaji?) allows Koby to act on his own because he's SWORD, while the rest of the Marines are literally unable to do anything thanks to the whole 'Marines can't engage Yonko' law. And just like his answer to Garp's lesson, Koby is willing to sacrifice himself for everyone there. 

And we flash to the 'present' day (technically all this Hachinosu stuff takes place before the Egghead stuff, right?) and we've got the big cliffhanger from the previous episode of Avalo Pizarro's gigantic kaiju island hand about to crush the Marine ship. Garp gives out orders, telling Koby, Helmeppo and Prince Grus to move and act the moment he creates them an opening, and Garp yells at them to not second-guess themselves in the heat of the moment. We get to see them to dash and Koby just has to think up of a plan on the spot. Even Helmeppo gets a good showing of himself, as much as he's just a supporting role in this case, stabbing a cannonball and preventing it from reaching Koby and Grus. 

Garp meanwhile rampages, slamming onto Kuzan and knocking him down again, before leaping up to the gigantic skull-mountain head of Avalo Pizarro... and unleashing the mother of all punches, Galaxy Divide, which splits the skull in half. That's one hell of a 'distraction'!

And then we get a beautiful follow-up to the 'battleship bags' from the previous episode. We get to see pre-Alabasta Helmeppo talking to Garp, who notes how Koby has wrapped-up bandages around his hands all the time. Koby has been putting even more effort because he knows he's coming from a much weaker 'baseline' than most people, and he has to put it not double the effort, but a hundredfold or two hundredfold. And as thus he's been quietly doing the battleship bags training at night on top of everything he's already doing. 

And as everyone mocks him, Koby gathers Haki in his fist and unleashes one hell of an attack, 'Honesty Impact'. Much less catchy than Galaxy Impact for sure, but it does split Avalo's giant island hand in half! It's a pretty badass two-page spread! Or, well, semi-spread. You get what I mean. 

Avalo seems to fall, Prince Grus uses the net to hold onto the debris and Helmeppo zips in with Soru/Geppo to rescue Koby. Pretty badass! And, of course, they're forced to escape while Garp stands surrounded by all the Titanic Commanders being frozen by Garp. Now I'm sure Garp isn't dead (yet), and this is more like the 'Ice Time Capsule' attack Garp used towards Saul or whatever, but it's still an interesting situation and a definite loss for the Marines while not making them look bad.

Overall, these two chapters have been pretty fun! It's a nice showcase to see what certain characters that has been in the background for decades can do, and it's a nice little development for the plot as a whole. Some really great character moments for Koby, Garp and Kuzan, too!

Random Notes:

• Garp's parable is absolute nonsense, because boats aren't like inventory slots in a video game. A baby is much lighter than the old man or the adult Marine; so they can probably either fit all three or just one adult and the baby. 
• Nope, no Smoker! What is Smoker doing? 
• So I guess that while damage done by Koby and Garp to Pirate Island still gets felt by Avalo Pizarro, he's not receiving the full brunt of the impact like a JoJo Stand. 
• With Garp unleashing his Galaxy Divide attack, it really does mean that he could've dealt with the giant fist himself, but he just wants Koby to gain some confidence, while also making himself the target that the Blackbeard captains will gun for. 
• How the hell did they dredge up San Juan from the floor of the ocean so quickly

Reviewing Monsters: Persona 5, Part 16

Another period of downtime in-between arcs, and I also got distracted by Pikmin reviews. Well, there's a lot of fusions I did in the interim between finishing the Okumura storyline and starting the next one, and I thought I'd go through some of them first!

I actually did spend a fair bit of time just kind of grinding out Mementos while listening to podcasts and just... not using SP, since I'm kind of already able to take out most enemies without even using skills. All this just to wrangle up Personas to bring back to the Velvet Room to fusion, mostly because I was really trying to rank up the Velvet Room twins' Strength confidant, but also to pad out the inmate registry. I can see the 'gaps' in the levels, and I'm trying to fill some of them out -- like with Daisoujou here, which I think I really should've been able to get during the Futaba Palace. 

Also slowly working through the Confidant stories. I do kind of want to clear a lot of the characters I met earlier like Sojiro and Kawakami just to get them over with, before I really go through the newer characters that are introduced to me a bit later. (Doesn't help that Ohya and Shinya are both rather uninteresting so far, though that might be the byproduct of me not really developing their Confidants beyond the first couple of ranks). Also need to get to finishing Maruki's Confidant at some point before the deadline, huh? 

___________________________

Hecate

• Arcana: Lovers

The second of the playable Confidants I got to maximum rank was Takamaki Ann of the Lovers. and... Carmen evolves into Hecate, the goddess of magic and witchcraft in ancient Greek mythology. Her design here is pretty interesting, where we've got a pretty cool devil-sorceress woman that looks right at home in Devilman or something. I like that her cape's inner surface is kind of meant to evoke a bat or a dragon's wing. I do find that the pokey boobs are a bit too much, though they do admittedly blend to the shoulder spikes. I really like the two giant eyeballs sprouting out from the demonic horns. She's got two pairs of smaller versions of those bright blue eyes on her 'face', and that's just such a weird look in the best way. In lieu of Carmen's disturbing BDSM gnome-slaves, Hecate now holds two dog-heads on a leash. Really love the energy and psychotic look on these dogs! 

Hecate's part of being in Greek lore is a subject of interesting debate, because there are many theories about where the goddess 'Hecate' came from and how she was 'adopted' into the Olympian myths. Most scholars agree that she originated from the people known as the Carians... and I think the designers are somewhat conscious because Ann is an 'outsider' due to her heritage to Japanese culture that was ultimately accepted and integrated into their friend group. 

Interestingly, many depictions of Hecate depicted her as having three heads, which previous Shin Megami Tensei games have taken literally, but I do like that the three-headedness plays into Carmen's original design of having three 'heads'. Persona's Hecate holding dogs is also because the mythological Hecate is associated with dogs! As the legends about Hecate are numerous, she had taken the roles of the goddess of the underworld, of childbirth, of boundaries, of the moon, and others.

I didn't catch it when I awakened Ryuji's Seiten Taisei, but the description of the rank 10 Confidants for both Ann and Ryuji note that they have evolved their Personas into 'mythological tricksters', so they graduated from using Personas that borrow names from either real life or 'newer' fiction into full-blown mythological figures, which I thought was a pretty cool way of acclimatizing the likes of Carmen and Captain Kid into a game where normally you fight with real gods and demons. 

Ose

• Monster Name: Cruel Leopard
• Arcana: Fool

Ose is another one of the Ars Goetia demons. We haven't had one of those in a while, huh? Ose is the 57th demonic spirit of the Ars Goetia, and will first manifest to summoners as a leopard before later transforming into a human. Ose is noted to give skill in 'all liberal sciences' and 'answers concerning the divine and secret things'. Ose is able to transform people into animals, or to cause some sort of delusion in those he targets, making them believe that they are a king or a pope. However, Ose's spells only lasts for an hour.

Ose's design is, uh... interesting. They went for 'leopard that shapeshifts into a man' and went for a leopard-man, with insanely toned abs, but... yeah, that gigantic metal codpiece certainly is the aspect of his design that draws attention, yeah? Pretty neat cape and twin swords, too. A relatively simple design, but a neat enough adaptation to look unique.

This guy is one of the enemies that you fight in the prologue (and I didn't review any of those), but is a bit more memorable as part of a sidequest that ends up causing you to seek out and find one of the Confidants that you unlock the latest in the game, Shinya Oda of the 'Tower' arcana. It's rather bizarre that Ose is meant to represent a man that feels invincible because of his belief in his skills in a gunslinging video game, but... Ose uses swords? Okay. 

Legion

• Monster Name: Fused Ghost
• Arcana: Fool

Taken from the oft-quoted demon -- or mass of demons, more like -- from Christian mythology, the term 'legion' isn't actually the name of the demon but just something to refer to them, borrowing from a Roman military term for an army unit of 3000-6000 men. The Bible tells of a tale where Jesus Christ exorcises a man possessed by the legion of demons, who identified themselves as "Legion, for we are many". Jesus cast the demons out of the man and the demons moved into a herd of pigs, who immediately drowned themselves in the Sea of Galilee.

And, well, since then, 'Legion' has shown up in a lot of fiction that has some basis in Christian mythology and demonology. In Persona, Legion is a colour-swap of Choronzon -- or perhaps the other way around, and I do like that the 'amorphous blob of evil' that Choronzon represents also fits with 'a mass of 3000 demons occupying single entity' that Legion is. Not too much to say here, though I am admittedly a bit confused why Legion was assigned the Fool persona instead of Devil or Death. 

Red Rider

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Tower

The second of our Four Horsemen of Apocalypse is the Red Rider, who visually... isn't that interesting. Admittedly his buddy the White Rider did set the bar pretty high with his eyeball horse, though! The Red Rider in the Book of Revelations is supposed to 'take peace from earth, and that men would slay one another', representing War. Because people sometimes get confused between 'war' and 'conquest' (they're really rather different if you think about it), the White Rider sometimes gets slapped with 'pestilence' as a result. As described in the Bible, the Red Rider carries a sword. 

...and I really don't have much that I haven't said for the White Rider. He sure is a skeleton guy on a horse, and he looks pretty neat. 

Daisoujou

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Hierophant

Okay, this is an interesting one. The Daisoujou, a Soujou -- which are high ranking Buddhist monks appointed by the government in power, who has the authority to manage all the Buddhist temples within the domain. Now someone who has achieved the title of Daisoujou is one of these Soujou who had attained Buddhahood during his time, with the title being bestowed to several people over the years.

The design of Persona's Daisoujou, however, is someone in these monk clothing, but he's a skeleton in the middle of prayer. This might look similar to anyone who played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where the monks at the end of each shrine are basically the same thing. The design is based on the Sokushinbutsu, literally meaning 'Buddhist monk preserved as is', which are Buddhist mummies. These monks performed self-mummification by starving themselves (or limiting their diet significantly to eliminate fats in their bodies, which would aid in the mummification), upon which they were entombed alive with just enough room to sit crosslegged. The monk would carry a bell into his tomb (which only had an air hole), and every day the monk would ring the bell, an indication that he was still alive. If the bell no longer rung, the airtube was sealed, since the monk was deceased. 1000 days later, the body would be exhumed, and if the mummification succeeded, the Sokushinbutsu would be revered as a god. Emperor Meiji banned all kinds of suicide, including religious suicide, in 1879. 

Yurlungur

• Monster Name: N/A
• Arcana: Sun

I first knew of this deity from One Piece! Julungul was the name of one of Enel's attacks, which are all named after real-life thunder/lightning gods. Yurlungur is an equally-valid spelling of the name. Yurlungur comes from aboriginal Australian mythology, also known as the 'Rainbow Serpent' -- and the Rainbow Serpent has had many names over the various tribes in Australia. Yurlungur is a great copper snake that brings the rain, and incites the renewal of life. The water where it lives shines like a rainbow, and if coloured light (which science would tell you is caused by light reflection, which would be easier on cleaner -- and purer -- water) then Yurlungur was within. 

There are many myths about the Rainbow Serpent, and some of them don't even view this deity as a serpent -- though Yurlungur is always an animal, and never portrayed as a human. But there's always an association with water and rainbows. Depending on the cultures, Yurlungur is either the ultimate creator of everything in the universe, or be responsible of the ridges, mountains and gorges as it undulates upwards. Yurlungur is responsible for replenishing the stores of water, and without the Serpent, the water will all eventually dry up. Thunder and lightning are sometimes associated with the anger of Yurlungur, and some tribes associate the Yurlungur with fertility or the coming of age, with one of the most prominent myths being the story of the Wawalag Sisters. 

I spent quite a while just reading about Yurlungur, and it's a pretty interesting design they have there. Yurlungur in Persona is a double-headed snake, with beady eyes on both ends of its serpentine body, and its body is coloured like the rainbow and has some Aboriginal markings all over his body. The markings glow and pulsate, which I thought is cute. Pretty neat design!

Valkyrie

• Monster Name: Funerary Warrior
• Arcana: Strength

Okay, I think everyone kind of knows what a Valkyrie is, yeah? Valkyries come from Norse mythology, which is a host of female figures that guide the souls of the dead to Valhalla, the hall of the Nordic chief god Odin. After arriving in Valhalla, the deceased warriors become part of the Einherjar, who await the ultimate battle in Ragnarok. Their name comes from Valkyrja, or "Chooser of the Slain". Many, many different Valkyries are described over the different Nordic myths, and depending on the artwork, Valkyries have been depicted as being anywhere from being winged angel-women to merely just female warriors in armour.

Persona's Valkyrie... sure has a fun bit of hair, huh? I think that's the most striking thing about her, that anime hair that curls backwards. The rest of her design is pretty simple. This Valkyrie has a horse, twin swords, a pretty standard chainmail armour and a Thor-esque 'mask' with wings. I'm not sure if it's just the angle or the sheer size of the horse, or that the leg armour blends into the horse's red mane, but the first time I saw her I thought the Valkyrie was a child. Eh. Not too much to say here. 

One Piece 1087 Review: Old Man Syndrome

One Piece, Chapter 1087: Battleship Bags

So it's ben a month! This actually worked out pretty well for me because I was pretty busy throughout this month (all the JoJo reviews you've been seeing pop up have basically been written at around late June) but we're back, and... everyone was expecting us to leave Reverie, but go back to Egghead or something. Nope! We're going back to Hachinosu, the Pirate Island, and... the whole chapter's just a battle between Garp and the Blackbeard Pirates. I mean, a couple of Garp's goons are there, too, but let's be honest, it's mostly just Garp. 

We do get the titular 'battleship bags' on the first page, where we see a bunch of minor pirates -- Brannew (the bounty guy), plus the welcome return of Jango and Fullbody. Always had a soft spot for Jango! But they discuss that Garp -- and later Kuzan -- trained by using battleships in a scrapyard as sandbags -- hence, battleship bags. I do really love that Brannew emphasizes that their strength wasn't something they were 'born with', or as early fan-translations used, 'innate'. The power that Garp honed is by sweat, blood and a lot of training, and that's such a cooler message than being some boring child of destiny. 

The fight itself really isn't anything super special other than seeing the novelty of these characters fighting mostly for the first time. But I'm not complaining, because we do get to see a lot! The chapter even opens with San Juan Wolf, this giant among giants, get literally punched all the way off the coast of Pirate Island into the ocean. A deep enough part of the ocean that he's in danger of drowning. Vasco Shot unleashes a ball of flame called 'Drunken Spitfire' and Garp just casually picks up a bunch of helpless goons, uses them as shields, and co-opts them into his next attack as 'Pirate Fireballs'. That's Garp! He's a badass!

While all of this is going on, everyone else have evacuated to Garp's ship, with Hibari being thawed out. Garp is fighting on the island with Koby, Prince Grus and his giant clay mace... and fucking snotty-nosed Helmeppo, who's still waving around his kukri knives in Yonko territory. Say what you want about the little shit, but he is impressive just by staying there! 

It's at this point that Kuzan walks up of the Blue Hole that Garp tossed him into, and Garp just wants to set a retreat for him and the three boys. Poor Koby, however, poor naive old Koby, sees a lady being menaced by pirates and immediately assumes she's a civilian. It's some Oden-gets-distracted-by-Momonosuke dirty tricks, except this random stranger lady is just a pirate. Koby gets distracted enough for an invisible man with a sword to charge in, forcing Garp to jump in the way and take a giant black katana through his gut. 

And... it's honestly the type of dirty, underhanded tactic that someone in the Blackbeard Pirates would use, and it does track with their record. Garp grabs the invisible Shiryu and then body-slams him to the ground, hitting him so hard he coughs up blood. This actually seems to take out Shiryu for the time being, and... Garp is all cool and unbothered by it, claiming that Shiryu was aiming for him the entire time. This is a great morale boost for the random goons, who start to charge in, but I completely believe Kuzan that a bound-up Garp could still take out all of these random fodder. 

We get a flashback to young Kuzan, who continues to bug Garp to become his teacher, and we get the full context of the 'battleship bags', where the two of them use it as training without Devil Fruits and Haki. And we get to see Garp from being pissed off and not giving a shit about Kuzan to telling him all about his son and grandson; to the sound of Kuzan's punches catching up to Garp, and it's a nice full circle where Garp is now the laid-back one who wants Kuzan to hang out with him. 

It's very heartwarming within the scope of slightly more than a page, and I absolutely love that we cut immediately to the two of them punching each other in the face, sending shockwaves rippling out. 

The final double-page spread is Avalo Pizarro talking a lot of smack as he rants about how Blackbeard's been so famous in the news and the Titanic Captains have been overshadowed, and Avalo rattles off a super-long news title as he transforms the island to sprout many, many spider-like hands (the ones in the background are particularly creepy) as he's about to smash a literal island-sized hand down on top of Garp's warship. Garp's response to Koby is... 'don't panic, justice will prevail'. 

And... well, I really don't think this is how Garp dies. There's no part of me that believes it. Now I'm still 50/50 on whether Garp survives Pirate Island alive, but I really didn't feel the full weight of this chapter mostly because... well, of the narrative tropes, I guess. If Garp has to go out, he's going to need to be taken out by someone major. Literally either Blackbeard or Kuzan. The backstory between Garp and Kuzan really seems to hint at something huge that's going to happen in the next chapter, which is either Kuzan killing Garp or betraying the Blackbeard pirates into letting Garp get away. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty exciting action chapter, but literally all of these Blackbeard Pirate goons are such ciphers that it'd feel cheap if a long-running supporting character like Garp dies to them instead of Blackbeard, y'know?

Anyway, good to be back. 

Random Notes:

• The Battleship Bags are located near G-1, which would be the old-school Marineford in pre-timeskip era. Which makes sense, since the Chapter 0 Shiki special showed Garp and Sengoku stationed there.
• Vasco kind of just... disappears after he does his Drunken Spitfire attack. Actually, I'm still not exactly clear how his Glug-Glug fruit really works. Does it allow him to manipulate alcohol and flame? Change the alcohol and manipulate it as he wants? Change the water he's drinking into alcohol? Eh. 
• I do really like the background detail of Avalo Pizarro, literally being the background with his buggy eyes on the giant Pirate Island skull looking at what's going on. 
• Prince Grus is still a cipher but he gets a nice little short line being all insecure and asking Garp if the 'future of the Marines' also included him. 
• Shiryu has a lot of fans on the sole basis that 'he's going to be Zoro's final opponent'! And I do believe that, it's just that Shiryu himself doesn't really have much of a personality beyond 'sadistic' and much of a backstory beyond 'he had a confrontation with Magellan that one time'. I'm not saying I dislike Shiryu, I'm saying I need to see more from him before I care for him. 
• Garp and the Admirals' Cross Guild bounty is Yonko-level of 3 billion. Okay! 
• Aokiji gets to use a brand-new move called 'Ice Glove', but it just him encasing his fist in ice to punch-to-punch with Garp. 

Reviewing Monsters - Pikmin 3, Part 2

My second coverage of the monsters in Pikmin 3! Again, not a whole ton to say. These reviews are a bit slower for me to write because I have no context about a lot of these monsters in the game and how they relate to our heroes and his tiny plant-gremlin sidekicks. This time around, we'll be talking about the rest of the non-boss monsters, as well as the minibosses, and we'll talk about the bosses in a final Pikmin 3 episode.

I'm still undecided if I'll be doing Hey, Pikmin because I still have a lot of other games that I do want to review still (I do want to wrap up the other older Zelda games, and at least do a Metroid game), but whenever Pikmin 4 comes out, I'll definitely be reviewing that!

I guess I'll talk a bit about the two new Pikmin species introduced in Pikmin 3, though I honestly don't have much to say about them without going too deep into mechanics. There is the 'Rock Pikmin', who's made up of rock (or are made up of plant material as hard as rock) and can be thrown towards enemies; as well as the tiny 'Winged Pikmin', who look like little bubblegum fairies. 

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Medusal Slurker (Stauromedusae manifoldii)

We'll start off with one hell of a weirdo! Called the 'Medusal Slurker', it's the first of a bunch of enemies that are based on sea life. We've had a couple of jellyfishes in the previous game, the Jellyfloat family, but the Medusal Slurker is a bit weirder! It's got a weird, blobby jellyfish body and a little 'horn' that resembles a white dandelion flower, which it uses to fly around like the Pokemon Jumpluff. It's got two beady eyes outside its dome head. From the almost-transparent outer body, you could see a bunch of internal organs, and a 'tongue' that droops down into a cavity that looks like a mouth. Based on the name, I think it's meant to evoke the Medusozoa clade of jellyfishes? It's identified as part of the 'Umbloda Family', and float around and trap Pikmin with their tongue or uvula-like organ. Weird!

The in-game notes says that the Medusal Slurker floats around on the wind using the 'puffstalk' on its head, and captures the Pikmin below with its adhesive 'manubrium' (handle in latin). While Olimar and Alph's note that there are no saliva, gastric fluid, or even nematocysts, on these organs, the Pikmin captured by these Slurkers will still be considered lost/dead if you don't rescue them fast enough. 

Skeeterskate (Gerridus clavomacula)

Another weirdo, and a creature more explicitly based on the pond-skater than the one that's also a pond-skater and a leaf-insect. Skeeterskate looks like something out of a Dr. Who book or something, though. What a weird, whimsical-looking motherfucker! It's got three legs arranged in the iconic pond-skater look, but its main body has a cartoony vacuum-shaped proboscis attached to a head that's mostly an eyeball and a funnel upwards towards a glass bulb. Which I guess is this thing's abdomen? This glass bulb contains water, and the Skeeterskate uses this as a source of water for them to launch jets of water at the Pikmin. 

As with real pond skaters, the Skeeterskate use the tiny hairs on the tips of its feet to skate on water, and just like real pond skaters, these hairs are coated in a hydrophobic substance. Olimar notes that the Skeeterskate sucks in water with that siphon to have a storage of ammunition to attack its enemies, but also feeds from the plankton in the drained water. It's nice to see that they put some thought into how this weirdly-shaped creature eats!

While the Skeeterskate is a water-surface dwelling creature, I guess we've got underwater zones here, considering the next batch of enemies:

Sputtlefish (Pseudocephalopoda florascens)

Oh! OHHHH! What an adorable creature! It's like someone took a squid (or well, cuttlefish) and one of those large-eyed goldfish and smooshed the two together to create an adorable little buds! The Sputtlefish (what a name!) has a cutely-shaped flowery tail that brings to mind a flattened version of the cuttlefish's shorter legs, as well as the rippling fins they have. The two larger tentacles, meanwhile, wrap around the eyeballs to give the impression of a 'mustache' (like stylized catfishes or arowana) and the cartoon cuttlefish siphon acts as the creature's mouth. Which, of course, naturally spews out ink as it's trying to escape. It's such a weird creature, and the central body is this weird giant orb surrounded by translucent tissue. It really is one of the most interesting things to come out of the Pikmin franchise in general. 

Olimar notes that the Sputtlefish manages to achieve that translucent look without iridophores, which are specific reflective cells in real-life cephalopods. It's really interesting since Olimar also compares the Medusal Slurker above to real jellyfishes, really highlighting that these are supposed to be mutated descendants of the creatures we know in our Earth right now. The Sputtlefish can also regenerate from minor wounds due to 'photosynthesis, through its symbiosis with zooxanthella'. Real-life cephalopods actually can regenerate their lost tentacles, but this instantaneous, same-day quality of regeneration gets a much more fancy sci-fi explanation. I appreciate that!

Puckering Blinnow (Narrolingus piscatum)

The general shape of the Puckering Blinnow actually reminds me of a cuttlefish as well, with that fin and the size of those eyes, but it's not related to the Sputtlefish and is, in fact, a real fish. It's a rather interesting-looking fish enemy, and I do find that it looks pretty interesting even if the lack of dorsal and pectoral fins do kind of make this creature look highly mutated. All the Blinnow has is a long, fused ventral fin that tapers off into a tail. Olimar actually notes that despite the disproportionally large eyes, this is the mature form of the Blinnow. Olimar's notes also talk about how its dorsal and ventral fins are atrophied, though he doesn't give a reason why and for what purpose they atrophied. 

The Blinnow are observed to be pack hunters, and they can even jump out of the water -- either to chomp down on your flying Pikmin units, or to escape the attack of your underwater Pikmins. It's a pretty cool, and it's a tactic done by certain fish -- most infamously the arowana, who can be observed in the natural habitat to leap up to catch insects perching on branches of trees. There's also a nice final detail about how the round blue scales will turn pink in breeding season, which isn't a detail that's relevant for gameplay but a nice little thing to toss in that makes this creature a bit more believable as a living species. 

Waddlepus (Opisteuthidae iaciobulla)

ANOTHER CUTIE. The Waddlepus is a big fat octopus with a gigantic siphon-mouth, and several stumpy legs that might as well be the extremities of a starfish or something. In fact, Olimar actually identifies this creature as a starfish, noting that it resembles the anatomy of a starfish more than an octopus. A starfish octopus! Adorable! It's got the octopus's delightfully weirdly-slitted eyes, which I definitely appreciate! The purple colouration with white borders are really nice, and the design is completed with a bunch of yellow pores on its back. 

When threatened, the Waddlepus will waddle threateningly towards your Pikmin, and then shoot out bubbles from its yellow pores, which trap your Pikmin. The act of doing this inflates its cranium, giving it a more traditionally octopus-shaped bulbous head. That's a cool way of still preserving the original animal inspiration's body shape despite otherwise diverging really wildly from it. Unlike the Sputtlefish, the Waddlepus only shoots out bubbles to trap Pikmin as self-defense, and isn't actually interested in eating the Pikmin. 

It's also notable that the Waddlepus is nocturnal and sleeps during the day, meaning that most of the time you encounter this guy sleeping and it leads more credence into the fact that this guy is just panicking and trying to protect its territory. Olimar also notes that he's done closer research on these Waddlepus, and the bubbles it makes are normally used to protect eggs during spawning season. 

Peckish Aristocrab (Brachyurices esurio)

What a weird looking motherfucker! Its Japanese name calls it an 'onion crab', and I'm hard-pressed to disagree. It's got a gigantic, glistening purple-and-silver giant fiddler crab claw, and a bunch of regular crab legs, but the rest of its body looks so weird! A creepy, yawning mouth and what originally looks like two gigantic beady eyes on its 'cheeks', turns out that the Aristrocrab's true eyes are two tiny eyestalks popping up from the top of the head! So those two giant organs are, what, fake eyes for intimidation? 

It grabs Pikmin with its massive claw and gobbles them up with that disturbing-looking maw... and inside there's an even more disturbing blue tongue! What the hell! As if it's not enough, the Aristrocrab can also blow bubbles, though real-life crabs do blow bubbles as a way to deter predators. The Aristrocrab, of course, only moves sideways, and interestingly enough, its gigantic crystal-encrusted claw makes it vulnerable to Rock Pikmin specifically. 

As Olimar points out, the large claw isn't just used for catching prey and self-defense, but also as a mating call. This is true for real-life fiddler crabs. The Aristrocrab also has great regenerative capabilities, able to regenerate its claw in a single night. Real crabs also have remarkable limb regenerative capabilities, but it usually takes a year, and they get those limbs during moulting. 

Nectarous Dandelfly (Anisopterid ambrosius)

This one is an interesting one! Called the Nectarous Dandelfly (dandelion fly, get it?), its Japanese name is interestingly the much cooler 'antlion nectar-holder', meaning that this creature might be meant to represent an adult antlion? Admittedly, though, the shape of that spiral proboscis and its nectar-eating behaviour does mark it as a member of the lepidopteran family, but then again this is also an Earth where little mandrakes run around and throw each other at mutant bugs. Olimar identifies this creature as having a larval stage underwater, which means that the 'dandelfly' English moniker would fit better with this being an analogue of a damselfly or dragonfly. Those animals don't actually change diets to feed on nectar, though, because anisopterans are all carnivorous as adults. 

The design is pretty cute. A little puffball body with a butterfly head attached to it, and what I see are at least three pairs of wings? I'm only looking at static images but I imagine this thing's wings vibrate around like a damn hummingbird. The big-puffball-body also makes me think this is related to the Spectralids. But obviously the most important detail here are the chains of giant nectar droplets that trail behind him like the segments of a cartoon caterpillar or something. Hitting one of this segments will cause every single segment trailing behind it to fall off to the ground, allowing you to loot them, which means that the most valuable target is the head. Olimar also notes that these Dandelflies require 5 segments before they are properly ready for procreation, and that the proboscis curls upwards to prevent 'nectar reflux'!

The Nectarous Dandelfly is even more harmless than the other 'hazard' enemies, and is apparently our replacement for the Honeywisp. On one hand, while I can appreciate the more biology-inspired design of the Dandelfly, it's also always a sad thing whenever a good design essentially gets 'retired'. 

Arachnode (Clavo fictusphera)

Okay, this one is a weirdo! The Arachnode is our straight-up 'spider' compared to the Beady Long Legs being a psychedelic, bizarre giant spider-walker-monster thing. The Arachnode seen here is its 'full' stage. When it's dormant, the Arachnode's spider legs curl up around it like some kind of seed, which isn't too far off from several types of spiders that actually camouflage themselves nearby their webs to avoid predators while waiting for prey to land on their web.

The actual design of the spread-out member of the (hee hee) Awrapnid (hoo hoo!) family is a delightful design, too, with the eight legs spreading out radially from the spherical main body that has a bunch of golden markings on it. The design is a pretty charming one for a spider monster, I feel. Intersetingly, Olimar notes that the Arachnode is a hermaphrodite, although like most hermaphrodites (like earthworms!) the Arachnodes don't reproduce on their own. There's an interesting theory that Olimar poses that this is actually two creatures fused together, like one of those anglerfishes.

The game mechanics of the Arachnode revolves around its large web, which, of course, traps your Pikmins who quickly become lunch for the monstrous spider. But on the other hand, Brittany notes that you could send other Pikmin to twang a side of the web to lure the Arachnode away, which I thought is a very cool mechanic to do on a spiderweb! I also like that Alph specifies the relative tensile strength of a spiderweb, which are extremely strong for its size. Alph even considers making a suit of armour out of it, which is actually a real-world military application for spiderwebs!

Scornet (Spourgitis advenus)

We get to see a bigger 'Scornet Maestro' later on, although you can encounter a massive swarm of these guys in other areas. These are basically angry hornets, filling in that 'swarm of bees or wasps protecting a nest/queen' trope. Pretty fun designs, too, a simple shuttlecock-looking shape that just brings to mind little guided missiles or something. They've got a very simple face design that's just delightful, with buggy eyes and a little stinger-mouth. 

The main body of the Scornet also looks rather interesting, with what seems like bird feathers (which probably what led me to think of its resemblance to a shuttlecock!). They will pick your Pikmins up and fly away with them. Olimar's notes are relatively similar to real life members of hymenopterans, where these Scornets are adult worker females, each with a unique role in the colony. Like most ants, bees and wasps, the adult worker females that go around foraging for food or protecting the colony are actually sterile females that spend their lives working for the good of the colony. Real-world 'queen' insects don't actually issue commands to the rest of her colony (though they will protect her, since she's a very valuable and often irreplaceable asset to the colony) but the Scornets here are portrayde as being literally subservient to the 'commands made by their queen.

Calcified Crushblat (Durotesta longuscrus)

And our last non-boss enemy is the hilariously named 'Calcified Crushblat', which... what is this thing? This looks like something out of a whimsical children's book, and I love it. It's just a giant head with an adorable mouth (it's not actually a mouth), and two stick-like slender feet that look like they're wearing funny socks. These legs can extend in and out of their bodies like accordions, which means that in its full 'retracted' stage, the Crushblat just looks like a snot-covered rock.

Their eyes are also gloriously pickled-looking, with massive eyelashes. It also normally has a layer of... of mucus? No, of silica, as the descriptions point out. The function is rather obvious as a video-game enemy -- it's an extra shield that you need specific Rock Pikmin to break. 

We've heard of the Crushblat mentioned before in the description of the Skutterchuck, who use the crystals shed by this thing as they grow as weapons. And... no, other than the fact that this bizarre Crushblat creature does create silica crystal rocks organically, I'm not really sure what this thing is. It's goofy-looking! Olimar actually tells us that these creatures used to be water-based mollusks, before some severe adaptation allowed them to grow bizarre bird-legs and... and that weird mouth. Apparently, their hard shell allows them to live on land, safe from predators, but it feeds by absorbing nutrients from its skin... something that's extremely inefficient for anything larger than a bug. I love that this is something that they point out, and as a result the Crushblat is actually mostly sedentary until, of course, your marauding Pikmin explorers encounter it.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean S05E18 Review: The Plankton's Green Mile

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean [Season 6], Episode 18: Enter the Foo Fighters

The second part of the Dragon's Dream arc, and... I'm not the biggest fan of how this fight ends, although it's mostly due to how I feel about F.F. and Anasui. Anasui gets a bit more likable later on, but considering the arc that immediately follows this, I'm kinda sad that F.F. doesn't get the "full" win. 

The cliffhanger from the previous episode ends up being kinda deconstructed thanks to F.F.'s unique biology. Jolyne notes that F.F., being a colony of plankton puppeteering a zombie body, is very much able to survive having the top half of her skull sliced like a fruit... but the fact that she's barely bleeding means that she's dehydrated and needs water to power up. As she recovers, F.F. also goes through the same thought process, although she specifically wants to use water to create a mirror and distract Kenzo by reflecting Dragon's Dream onto a different direction. 

Kenzo himself rants about how he's about to use his powers and his mastery over assassination feng shui will allow him to rebuild his cult and be a true saviour... and the fight continues. The fight basically ends up being a cat-and-mouse game where F.F. tries to get towards a fire-extinguishing hose. Dragon's Dream appears within the hose, noting that it's not a good direction for F.F.... but she instead just uses Dragon's Dream to tear off both her hands, then wiggling into the hose like a worm and causing water to drip everywhere. Dragon's Dream warping away F.F.'s hands causes them to rematerialize and strike F.F., though, knocking her down a staircase into an execution room. Again, not the biggest fan of the whole limb-warping secondary ability of Dragon's Dream, and I really wished that it was just the feng shui luck and fortune manipulation. 

Anasui gives some exposition about the execution room, and F.F. keeps trying to get out of the execution room while the effects of Dragon's Dream constantly causes her to fall back, get trapped, get snagged and keep falling back onto a sitting position on the execution chair while the countdown goes to zero. 

And... I don't know if it's the constant zoom-ins to F.F. screaming and yelling in panic, but I just can't take this scene quite as seriously as the ones before. I guess falling into a chair isn't anywhere as bizarrely grotesque like the "it's not the ventilator, it's the boomerang!" scene from the previous episode? 

Whatever the case, the electric chair activates, frying F.F. and she screams. Dragon's Dream then talks to Kenzo, noting that F.F. has managed to collect some water from Kenzo's own sweat when the two of them came onto contact earlier. Exactly a 1/3rds of a cup! And F.F. manages to create a mirror of water to misdirect Kenzo into walking onto an unsafe spot. Thus F.F. is able to grab onto Kenzo and the electrocution goes through both of them. 

And it seems like a mutual kill, but Jolyne, heavily concerned for her friend, literally drops down the stairwell. It would've been comical if it didn't look like it hurt so much. Anasui gets a bit of his character development when he wonders why Jolyne would give up so much and sacrifice so much for an ally that's so obviously done for. It'll take a while, but he's slowly growing out of his sociopathic, single-minded mentality. 

Jolyne has a bit of a practical-mindedness in her falling down, though. She points out that Dragon's Dream is still active, which means that Kenzo is still alive. While wounded, Jolyne still unleashes Stone Free upon Kenzo. The wounded Kenzo rushes at Jolyne, but Jolyne's plan wasn't exactly to kill Kenzo but rather to look for a spot of water where the direction would note is safe -- which is where a small colony of Foo Fighters still remains. Jolyne manages to recover Foo Fighters, but a bit of Stone Free's string gets 'warped' by Dragon's Dream...

At which point, Anasui's Diver Down activates. Having hidden his Stand within Jolyne's body, Diver Down attacks Kenzo and we get a rather protracted and honestly rather long scene of Kenzo jumping up and down, while he and Dragon's Dream gets confused at why he's not moving in a safe direction. We get to see a rather mortifying X-ray of Kenzo's bones snapped and arranged into a spring, while Kenzo just bounces around comically. 

And... I don't know. We've had some brutal beatdowns for some villains over the years, but I did feel like this is one moment where Kenzo really felt like he should be suffering a bit more while Anasui explicitly notes that he doesn't feel pain after Diver Down modified his legs. Kenzo falls into a trash can and presumably dies, while F.F. recovers and Jolyne is baffled at Anasui's casual brutality. 

Yeah. I dunno. I like that we get to see a bit more from Anasui after we never really saw Diver Down in combat before, but it did really feel like a bit of 'kill-stealing' on his part. Since this is F.F.'s biggest solo fight in the Part, I've always felt like this fight could've ended with F.F. having the last blow instead of Jolyne and Anasui sneaking in. We're done with the Kenzo/Dragon's Dream fight and... while it's interesting, it's hardly the most exciting thing to watch. The first episode was a bit more clear with the whole 'directions' thing, but I felt like the anime should've really improved this fight a bit better since we can see Dragon's Dream and the lucky directions move, but it does admittedly feel a fair bit muddled. 

Random Notes:

• Kenzo is pissed off that "even the pedophiles" in the prison doesn't respect him.
• Rereading through the manga really does highlight just how grotesque Kenzo looks in the manga, yeah? The anime version isn't a looker, but at least he's drawn relatively consistently like a Yoda gremlin. 
• In a hilarious bit of acknowledgement of how people talking is treated differently between the anime and manga, in the manga the countdown on the execution chair is 15 seconds. The anime, for the sake of believability (and to not have Namek jokes), made it a minute and a half. 
• Yeah, there's a reason I always think of F.F. or even Anasui as the main 'Jo-bro' of this part. Ermes skips out on such a huge chunk of Stone Ocean that I can't really think of him in the same amount of prominence as Koichi, Bruno, Caesar or Gyro. 
• Yeah, the lack of Crazy Diamond or Gold Experience's instant wound-rewinding abilities does make Jolyne's injuries look so much harder to watch. I know Part 6 does have Foo Fighters and her ability to plug up wounds with plankton, but it's still a lot more painful to see Jolyne and F.F. get hurt.