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#hitomi is very special to me and i adore her so much
synapsid-guy-girl · 2 years
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The Holy Quintet (+some others) as incorrect quotes from my old side account thats on hiatus right now because fandom switching but I base all of this purely on vibes
Nagisa: I would just like to remind you of how much you and everyone else adores me, and how boring your life would be without me.
Madokami:
Sayaka, in the distance: *loud cursing*
Nagisa:
Madokami: Momoe Nagisa, what did you do this time?
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Yuma: What's it like working with the "Holy Quintet"?
Kyoko: Imagine working with completely civilized, responsible and mature people.
Yuma: Okay.
Kyoko: Now throw that idea out of the window.
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*the Quintet playing twister*
Homura: Right hand red.
Kyoko: *ends up on top of Sayaka*
Madoka, whispering: You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?
Homura: I stopped spinning like 15 minutes ago. Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't notice it yet.
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Madoka: And what do we say when life disappoints us?
Kyoko: Called it.
Mami: As the prophecy foretold...
Homura: Miki did it.
Sayaka: Time to fist fight a demon.
Madoka: NO-
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*Mami teaching Nagisa math*
Mami, pointing to a triangle: See? It's 90 degrees.
Nagisa: How can it be 90 degrees? It’s November!
Mami: No, no, Nagisa, the angle is-
Homura: Because of global warming.
Madoka, stepping in: Homura, no-
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Kyoko: You may be in Sayaka's DMs.
Kyoko: But I'm on her nerves. We're not the same.
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Sayaka, making mashed potatoes: It feels like you don't trust my cooking.
Kyoko, also making mashed potatoes: Oh don't be silly!
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Nagisa: Hmm I poisoned someone’s drink, but I can’t remember whose…
Madoka: *spits out drink*
Kyoko: You WHAT?!
Homura: With the way this dinner is going, I hope it was mine.
Sayaka: *chugs drink*
Mami: *wordlessly gets up and leaves*
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Homura: Come on, I wasn’t that drunk last night.
Sayaka: You were flirting with Madoka.
Homura: So what? She's my wife.
Kyoko: You asked her if she was single.
Homura:
Mami: And cried when she said she wasn't.
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Kyoko: *does something*
Mami: Minus five points.
Kyoko: What?
Sayaka: We started to score your behavior. When you reach 100 points, I will give you something special.
Kyoko: What's my score now?
Sayaka, sighing: -15432.
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Sayaka: We could get killed.
Kyoko: Or even worse, give Mami another reason to give us a lecture on responsibility and personal safety again.
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Homura, at McDonalds: You serve happy meals here, right?
Cashier: Yes.
Homura: Can I get that without the meal?
Cashier:
Homura: Please?
Mami: *shoves her away from the counter*
Mami: I'm sorry about her.
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Sayaka: Why are you looking at me through a fork?
Homura: I'm pretending you're in jail, Miki.
Sayaka: Why...?
Homura: It's spiritually healing.
Sayaka:
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Kyoko: I have found a foolproof way to tell if someone's evil!
Sayaka: Which is?
Kyoko: If they dislike Yuma, they're evil!
Sayaka: *turns to watch Yuma eat apple slices while humming twinkle twinkle little star*
Sayaka: That sounds pretty logical actually–
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Kyousuke: You know I would like for us to get along, for Sayaka's sake, but you don't seem to like me and Hitomi very much.
Kyousuke: I wonder why that is...
Kyoko, glaring at him: Well wouldn't you like to know, violin boy.
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flooffybits · 3 years
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This stuff came from knowing bros which for me is a place I go to when I stan a new group because it generally has a segment to get to know members more. Knowing bros, Weekly Idol, or idol room for me is the best at getting to know them
Izone
Eunbi- she actually wanted to meet Soo Geun because he was so much fun in the program but she realized that he is too cold so she changed her mind😂. Earlier she worked as a part-timer in a Paris Baguette franchise.
Sakura- she’s best friends with Kang Hodong since they’ve been on multiple shows together and she said it herself, “Hodong is my first friend I made in Korea aside from the members” and she’s also associated with Kwang Hee since they are part of Everyone’s Kitchen Together.
Hyewon- Got the nickname fairy of delivery since she can remember most of the members’ choices for food and orders because once their manager often can’t remember their specific prefences so she stepped up when their manager can’t. Even though the line changes she’s also part of the monday fairies although I think all of them are part of it since their posts on ig often include some that aren’t included in the intro of monday fairies.
Yena- She is also seen with one of the brothers. Soo Geun is Yena’s cellmate in another variety show. She also attended in Joy Dance Academy and mahored in girls hip-hop dance.
Chaeyeon- tho I don’t see it often or its just me but she’s also part of the Monday Fairies. And our Feather Chaeyeon has a talent of making choreos. And crowned on both Idol room and weekly idol as dancing queen.
Chaewon- she is also known to be associated with one of the brothers since she and Kyung Hoon have the same hairdresser. She’s also part of Izone’s monday fairies, where on their ig account every monday she will post something to motivate their fans about the start of their week being hopefully great
Minju- She was also in in 7th or 8th grade, a commercial but for childrens wear instead. She’s a potter harry fan. And she had a dream of being a stewardess in middle school. And although she’s shy she likes rollercoasters and amusements park rides.
Nako-known as the girl who ranked F to A because she’s talented like that. She believes she was a cat in her prev. life (I mean who doesn’t?) and she’s afraid of heights
Hitomi- Monday Fairy squaddd. She loves watching cooking shows in her spare time. And she is good at composing songs and very competitive. And she wants to go to Nasu (idk what is this) when she learns how to drive.
Yuri- I think I’ve mentioned it before but if I haven’t she appeared on Idol School where she was Heechul’s student. She hates bugs (same) and she used to play piano but ended up givi ng up due to financial issues.
Yujin- (this one I know I mentioned but doesn’t hurt to say it again) she was a commercial star before being a part of Izone. And she specializes in girl hip-hop and the piano. Hitomi’s dad is also a fan of her which to me is hilarious😂
Wonyoung- She was also with Hodong on Dining together. And she’s a smart bean too she got perfect marks on Korean, English, and Math. She likes spicy food and she was deemed rank 1 and center exactly on her birthday, hence the nickname, born to be center.
Some random facts i found in the internet and variety shows
-✏️
oh yeah i know knowing bros and weekly idol are the places to know but i just don’t like weekly idol due to certain people lmao at first i had no idea what monday fairy was until i saw more of what you said and that’s an interesting and sweet thing to do. people are usually demotivated during mondays so i can understand. these are all really interesting and honestly adorable information about the girls so thank you nonnie
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⭐ Berry Berry Benny!! ⭐
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Here is my late review and opinion of Kurenai Yuzuru's last dinner show in August. I had a hard time to assimilate everything that happened these last months, beware of it's length and I hope you love Hoshigumi. Good reading! 💖 I'm sorry if it comes up to you completely, I don't know how the tumblr editing works. 😰 (I'm not sure the songs listing is entirely accurate.)
It was an emotional evening I must say, I deeply love Kurenai Yuzuru and it was overwhelming. I must admit that I'm not entirely sure of the rightness of my timeline, since quite some time passed. I attended the event in Osaka on shonichi, and everyone was very nervous including myself. The dinner show was held at the International Hankyu Hotel with approximately 500 attendees. The ladies at my table were very lovely, we chatted a bit and of course the easiest subject to talk about was Kurenai Yuzuru! Beni's parents were also in the audience closer to the stage.
🥂 DINNER 🥂
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The dinner itself was very nice, and was a four course meal inspired by French cuisine. The Menu was written in French and Japanese, a very cute touch. Most of the sentences made sens, but there's still some work to be done, my proposition is that Hankyu should stop using Google translate and hire me instead. As hilarious as it is, we wouldn't want another "Nouvelle / Chinois " to happen.
Dinner was served in that order; Hors d'oeuvres was raw Bream with veggies and carpaccio. L'Entrée was a piece of lightly fried tilefish with a celery and chestnuts buttery sauce. Oddly the taste remembered me of my mother's cuisine, so it's good. The main course was red meat topped with mushrooms and a light sauce, it was accompanied by asparagus, cabbage and potatoes. My only concern was the bread they served with it, if you ate Japanese bread before you might know what I'm talking about. I highly despise the baguettes there because it tastes like cheap Subway bread, that was my very Taurus rant. Finally, the dessert was a red Opéra cake decorated with a Kurenai 5 colored coulis, fruits and a star chocolate. It was ADORABLE.
For the drinks, there was a wide variety offered, one of my favorite was the Asahi 紅 beer. The servers kept generously filling my wine glass, which I can't complain about. I preferred being a little bit tipsy because I didn't know how it was going to go.
🌌 SET 🌌
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The stage was a very shiny deep blue tone and was adorned with some glossy columns. A very galaxy note! (Or metaphor because Beni's the God of Stars) The room was giant and pretty cozy at the same time, maybe I'm highly biased because I love Hoshigumi fans aura. The last time I was in a room that luxurious was for a wedding, which Takarazuka events always remember me of, weddings. One could say that, I'm easily impressed by gigantic crystals chandeliers and very elegant tables settings.
There were two rows of chairs at the back of the room, and just before the show started a few Hoshigumi seito sneaked there before it went dark. After a quick glance I remember seeing Arisa Hitomi, Asamizu Ryou and Amaki Homare. There were many more of them that I didn't manage to get a good glance at.
✨ SHOW ✨
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As the room went dark and the lights started to flashes toward the stage, the audience deeply anticipated Kurenai's arrival. I started to envy the others closer to the stage, that would have a better view and I regretted to not have brought my opera glasses with me. However she didn't appear right away, and took quite some time to make the audience more excited. Guess what? She bursted of the door right behind me in a beautiful red suit, startling everyone while running and singing. I almost had an heart attack and didn't regret petty things anymore. Thus began Berry Berry BENNY!!
The "supporting" cast was composed of Tenju Mitsuki, Kisaragi Ren, Kizaki Reo and Shirotae Natsu. Everyone jumped out of the stage as Sayumi made her arrival and the first song was Berry Berry Benny. Which by that point my table mates and I were quite shaken by everything that happened. Truly only Beni can pull something like that over and over again and still surprise me. ( Throwback to Stella Rossa) After the song, the cast proceeded to introduce themselves and chit chat a bit. Kurenai asked if they were in Tokyo, Mikki corrected her and she kept laughing. (She NEEDS vacations.)
The second song was Ai no rengoku from Anna Karenina, performed by Beni alone. A very dramatic start I must say, Mr.Karenin left a deep impression on her. Her interpretation was very venurable, and truly delightful if you love her non comical side.
Special talk segment 1: Two chairs were set up for Sayumi and a guest plus a life sized shiny cardboard of Beni. However it was not the regular Kurenai Yuzuru who came on stage, but Beniko in one of the most horrible costumes I've seen on her. Renta was the first guest of the Beniko show, they spoke teasingly of other Hoshigumi seito about how everyone was crying so hard on raku. Both of them were diabolically laughing. As the time went out, the Kurenai cardboard would illuminate and menacing threats would come on. Naachan interview was sweeter and shorter than Renta, she admitted that she cried on raku unlike someone else. Beniko, Renta and Naachan proceeded to sing Raimei. I wasn't ready for the absurdity of the situation, and I must admit I haven't laugh that hard in so many years.
To leave time for Beni to quick change costume, Ren and Natsu sang Yume Butai [ À bientôt ]. Their voice sounded really great as a duet! ♡ I was especially excited for this because it meant Renta had an extra special moment before her retirement. Nacchan and her are really positive people and you can feel this vibe as they perform. Furthermore, an upperclassmen musumeyaku is a delight to see highlighted.
Beni-chan no usomitaina honto no hanashi: A magical story of Beni's life. She narrates/sing the whole thing with highlights of her life and her love for Takarazuka. From what I remember; Mikki was child Beni, Renta as the creepy Butler from Meichan, Natsu as what I suppose was Beniko and Reo was André. (I might be mistaken, I'll correct it if that's the case. I have a goldfish memory.) Cute anecdote: Her dream was to be André in the RoV shinko, but she was appointed as the Grand Chamberlain and was very sad about it. They also made passive-aggressive jokes about Koike sensei, it made me crack.
LUCKY STAR ! Or a cute reminder of where she started, I was very happy she included that song and I felt like a mother hen. It was a nice transition with her earlier storytime, it's joyful, energetic and very her. ♡ She gave us a very explosive and all over the place performance.
Surprise drum rolls, what you wanted to know for so long and the answer is YES. The glorious Kurenai 5 made the comeback we were all waiting for, or more so the Kurenai 3. Beni, Renta and Mikki were in their old matching T-shirt and nostalgia hit me hard. I almost missed the mullet Beni used to have. Then entered the missing members life sized cardboard, both Reo and Naachan made their respective member dance through the song. No one was expecting this, the whole room was filled with laughter. They then talked about the origins of Kurenai 5 and what fun experiences they had in the past. They pointed out that the band would officially not work anymore, as it would be just 1. Beni proceeded to tease Mikki quite a lot. Both Ichijou Azusa and Miya Rurika had recorded a message for their dear leader, in which Beni was delighted to hear. Renta and Mikki then proceeded to slam their microphone to the cardboards during the intervention. It was hilarious! Both Miyaruri and Shiiran were at the raku in Tokyo, so if the DVD is that recording we'll have the delight to physically see them. Sayumi thought Shiiran sounded very ladylike and that Miya sounded very sleepy, like she should go to sleep.
Your favorite song by Benny was a segment where she proposed us three different songs that she could sing for us. After the vote she discarded the audience opinion and did the one she wanted, Smile from Meichan's Butler. (Very her to do that) Unlike the other times she walked through the audience as she sang, and I started to get nervous again when she headed toward the back of the room. She was taking the time to look at everyone very carefully and lovingly. Then she was in front of me and the world fell down. It was THE BEST two seconds of my entire life. I was very much horrendously blushing , but hey Kurenai Yuzuru and I shared a glance while she sang the creepy Butler song? Very shoujo like situation, a part of me fell in love with her all over again. Otokoyaku are very convincing at their job, they don't need to do much to amaze me.
Special talk segment 2 with Mikki and Reo.
Beniko came back with an even more horrendous outfit than the first one; another awful red gown orned with lines of gold and silver sequins. Oversized trumpet sleeves with feathers on the end, a wig worthy of a Ghibli old witch and topped with numerous fans of herself.
Mikki's interview was the longest, and the one to which Beni's cardboard was the most aggressive. Both her and Reo talked about the whole taidan situation, the troupe loves so much BeniAiri. They're as emotional if not more than fans about this. Mikki and Reo came back on stage and joined Beniko to sing Killer Rouge. Another absurd situation, where Beni's gaze was her cool otokoyaku look but she was dressed similar to the old ladies she always mocks about.
Hoshi wo tsugumono was MikkiReo's duet. What a very dangerous duo they make, both their voices are pretty warm and l had a few butterflies in my stomach. I'm sorry for betraying you Sayumi!
Random selection ;
I believe it's a free for all section and that must choose a song according to their mood. That night the ensemble sang Om Shanti Om as Sayumi went off stage to get a quick change. Boi do Hoshigumi loves that production, their enthusiasm really shows while singing this particular song. They went through the public and did a few handtouch. Renta stole the fan of an audience member right in front of me and decided to refresh herself with it. Reo was having her usual bright sunshine energy, Mikki was being an Ikkemen far away from me competing with Natsu. The bright wave of Hoshigumi energy was filling the room, and you could feel the love.
Kurenai came back on stage, dressed entirely in white and we all knew what that meant. The final song was A piece of courage, from Scarlet Pimpernel. God does she LOVES that show most ardently. It was her only lead shinko role and her first Grand theater show as a Top Star, she always seemed to live her best life as Percy. She always look so hopeful when she sings this song, it is VERY touching. Special metion to Aachan who sang it as well at her music salon, if it's not being soulmate I don't know what is.
She got a curtain callback and sang Goodbye from Catch me if you can. Yes, she did that again. As if it wasn't enough from the sayonara show and every other opportunity given to her to sing this. I can honestly say a cried a river again and that I'm in a love hate relationship with that song.
This woman doesn't know what to say to her audience, even thought we made her come back twice. She just told us to go home and that it was over in her lovely kansaiben, I love it. ♡
The show was really fun and I'm really happy I got to go, I hope I didn't forget anything. They rehearsed after having to do one if not two performance a day , and only came out late at the night. They've all worked very hard in such a short amount of time, and the result was GREAT. Kurenai Yuzuru is a real entertainer, a star and she adores it. She puts so much love and energy in her work, it's truly admirable. I'm delighted to have been able to follow her career until now and I'm very glad I focused my attention to the wobbly Mercutio many years ago. She made me cry, laugh and dream. I love her SO much.
My final words are going to be her motto:
Never give up!! ☆
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medea10 · 4 years
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My Review of Pokemon Sun & Moon
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Hi all. Sorry for the delay on this one. I usually go all-out on my Pokemon reviews that I wanted to let out everything I wanted to. Plus I had real-life work and other stuff. With that said, here’s my final review of 2019 as well as the final review of the decade. See you in 2020!
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As Ash mentioned at the end of XY, Ash said he was going back home to Pallet Town and “start at zero”. This means when he decides to go on his journey, he leaves all of his other pokemon at Oak’s lab and goes on a new journey with Pikachu. But unlike the start of other journeys, this one started with Ash’s mom, Delia and her pokemon Mimie winning a contest which resulted in a trip to the Alola region. And since they were heading that way, Professor Oak asks them to bring a pokemon egg to his cousin in Alola. So let’s begin with Ash’s adventure in the Alola region.
The Alola region is split into four different islands. Each of these islands contains trial captains, island challenges, pokemon of different forms, and pokemon guardians! But unlike the game, Ash ends up in the Alola region to go to school. That’s right, after being the envy of every child for the last 20 years, Ash must go to school. In this school, Ash will learn all he needs to when it comes to living in the Alola region. Along with new friends, a helpful professor, a Rotom Pokedex, an enthusiastic Oak that does impressions, and a special bracelet capable of unleashing powerful Z-moves, Ash’s journey is getting very interesting.
MEET THE CHARACTERS: This seriously has got to be the biggest ensemble for Ash’s posse. Each character has their own unique charm and their own speciality when it comes to their pokemon type preference (and their hairstyle will say so too). At the beginning, I was just okay on some of these characters, but I have definitely enjoyed watching them evolve. Here are all of Ash’s new classmates, professor, Pokedex and a brand-new Oak.
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Mallow is a very cheerful girl with the love of grass-types and cooking specialty dishes for friends and pokemon. While some of her dishes can be a little surprising, even shocking, she has a knack for using only the freshest ingredients, mostly coming from wild pokemon.
Lana has a passion for the water and yes, even water-type pokemon. She’s quite soft spoken and spends a lot of her days fishing. She may even look into becoming a fisher like her father. But she does have an edge that makes her and her Popplio tough to beat. Not to mention, quite the sense of humor! She also takes care of her two younger sisters Sarah and Harper.
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Kiawe is very handy in a battle with his fire-type pals. Unlike the other students in the class, he’s been given a Z-ring first as he has attempted the Island Challenge. Because of this, he’s rather high-strong about those who own a Z-ring. His days start early in the morning with delivering MooMoo Milk, then he goes to class, then comes home to take care of the farm pokemon, and let’s not forget all that training with Charizard and Turtenator!
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Sophocles is what you’d call a computer nerd (yeah, we have another one). He’s able to handle any electrical error that comes his way with the help of either Togedamaru or Charjabug. The only thing he’s unable to challenge is sleeping in the dark!
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Lillie is the mysterious girl with no pokemon (at first) and seems to get scared by them real easily. However, she knows quite a bit about pokemon without having physical contact with them. Luckily, Lillie lets her guard down later in the series when she gets the opportunity to take care of an egg. And when it hatched, she kept it. Other pokemon, it still takes her a while to open up to them, but when she does open up, it’s adorable!
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Professor Six-Pack is too hot (hot damn)! Call the police and the fireman!
FINE, I’LL DO THE RIGHT THING!
Professor Kukui is the teacher to these fine pupils and has even allowed Ash to stay with him while Ash attends school. He seems a little laid back at first glance, but he does take special care into each and every lesson he gives his students.
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Rotomdex is the talking Pokedex for Ash. Unlike all the other Pokedexes up to this point, this one can actually carry on a conversation with Ash. Not just that, but come up with strategies, watch detective shows on TV, and even write screenplays. It’s amazing how so much can come from a fushion between a Rotom and a regular pokedex!
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Principal Oak…Okay, no, I can’t do that! Over 10 years ago, I wrote a fan fic called Romance 101. And I spent a good five years writing the words “Principal Oak” because that’s what I called Samuel Oak. This Principal Oak is just giving me vivid flashbacks.
…fine Principal SAMSON Oak is of course the principal to the Pokemon School. This Oak is a much tanner, buffer, and at times sillier man when you compare him to the original Professor Oak. He really loves doing pokemon impressions. And much like Professor Oak’s poems, Samson Oak’s jokes goes over a lot of people’s heads.
BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: With the exception of Kiawe, Rotomdex, and Samson Oak’s voice actors, this is literally a brand new experience for most of these new characters. And I gotta say, I hope these voice actors get more attention. I know Reina Ueda (Mallow) has been getting a lot more roles in the last three years and I love that. The Pokemon anime has had quite a history of either getting very prominent voice actors or voice actors who aren’t known for much else. But I do hope for more exposure for Lana, Sophocles, and Professor Kukui’s seiyuus. Extra points for having Nobuhiko Okamoto play Gladion!
I’ll mention more later in the review but due to the death of a very, very, VERY prominent voice actor, there was a major change. With the passing of Unshou Ishizuka, there were three important characters that had to be changed; Professor Oak, Samson Oak, and the Narrator. I started noticing the lack of these three (yes, even the narrator) in episodes prior to Ishizuka’s death. If we go several episodes without one of the Oak’s, it’s not a big deal. But the fact that the narrator wasn’t heard before the start of the show or at the end for several episodes at a time, it felt very weird. But after hearing about how Unshou Ishizuka died of Esophageal cancer, I can’t help but think he was doing treatments during the Aether Foundation arc. His replacement, Kenyu Horiuchi is not bad. But after listening to Ishizuka since…well at least two decades, it’s very noticeable.
The dub once again is putting hope in brand new voice actors and even a few veterans from the XY series. And so far, this is very promising since they casted Alsyon Leigh Rosenfield. However, one prominent voice actor who has been around for a LONG time has retired. Kayzie Rodgers, the replacement voice of Max and Wobbuffet (and long-time voice to Mr. Mime and Professor Ivy) has retired at the beginning of SM (2016). I can honestly say, I will miss hearing her voice. Out of all the dub changes, you were one of a few I accepted. That and I will always remember you as Professor Ivy and Mimie! With that said, here’s what you might recognize these folks from.
JAPANESE CAST: *Lana is played by Hitomi Kikuchi
*Mallow is played by Reina Ueda (known for Kisa on Fruits Basket 2019, Shiori on Sakura Quest, Jiro on Tokyo Ghoul, and Katra Paige on Inazuma Eleven GO: Galaxy)
*Kiawe is played by Kaito Ishikawa (known for Genos on One Punch Man, Naofumi in Shield Hero, Sakakibara on Assassination Classroom, Kaito on Tsurune, Mitsuo on Golden Time, and Urie on Tokyo Ghoul :re)
*Sophocles is played by Fumiko Takekuma
*Lillie is played by Kei Shindou (known for Carissa on Index III and Shijimi on Rosario to Vampire)
*Professor Kukui is played by Keiichi Nakagawa (known for Salamander on Beelzebub)
*Rotomdex is played by Daisuke Namikawa (known for Rock on Black Lagoon, Jellal on Fairy Tail, Italy on Hetalia, Kazehaya on Kimi ni Todoke, Fai on Tsubasa Chronicle, Yuu on Persona 4, and Arima on Tokyo Ghoul)
*Narrator & Samson/Samuel Oak (ep1-93) is played by Unshou Ishizuka (known for Mr. Satan on DBZ Kai, Jet on Cowboy Bebop, Hohenheim on FMA: Brotherhood, Dr. Gel on Space Dandy, and Grandpa Joestar on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Pt 3) [R.I.P.]
* Narrator & Samson/Samuel Oak (ep93-present) is played by Kenyuu Horiuchi (known for Pain on Naruto, Mako’s father on Kill la Kill, Sasaki on Bakuman, Hachiken’s father on Silver Spoon, and Takafumi on Sekaiichi Hatsukoi)
ENGLISH CAST: *Lana is played by Rosie Reyes
*Mallow is played by Rebecca Soler (known for Hart on YGO Zexal)
*Kiawe is played by Marc Swint
*Sophocles is played by Alyson Leigh Rosenfield (known for Rio on YGO Zexal, Aina on Promare, and Ally on YGO Arc-V)
*Lillie is played by Laurie Hymes (known for Prana on YGO: Dark Side of Dimensions)
*Professor Kukui is played by Abe Goldfarb
*Rotomdex is played by Roger Callagy
*Samson Oak is played by Marc Thompson (known for Chaz on YGO GX, Astral on YGO Zexal, and Kevin/Mr. O’Neill/Mr. Demartino on Daria)
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Pokemon…why do you keep doing this to me? Do you want me to lose what little faith I hold onto?
With that said, this season has given me a “best girl”. Yes, the term “best girl” is given to the…well, you know, the best girl of the series. And ever since the creators decided to shake things up by giving Ash a new female companion every couple of years, fans have fought to the death on who is best girl of Pokemon. For me, my best girls of Pokemon were Prima, Zoey, Blue/Leaf Green, and Bonnie. But there are just a few problems there. None of them are Ash’s piece of arm candy! And there’s some unwritten law that it has to be the possible love interest like Misty, Dawn, or Blushy McIdiot. And my best girls have either been in only one episode of the anime, was just a rival to someone who isn’t Ash, a girl who was never in the anime, and too young. BUT…Sun and Moon did it! It friggin’ did it! It gave me a best girl! And that girl is…
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LANAAAAAAAA!
I never tire of that Archer joke! But yes, Lana is best girl.
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I knew I was going to like her when she first debuted, but I had no idea how awesome she was going to truly be. Is it her prankish nature? Maybe! Is it this creepy yandere vibe I get off from her every now and then? Possibly! Is it the way I’ve seen her grow as a trainer throughout this series. You fucking bet! Lana at one point seemed like the one character who wasn’t getting much growth when it came to catching and evolving pokemon. Then again, everyone (including Ash) gave me that impression compared to other arcs. But then she caught the shaggy Eevee! Serious wild card! No one expected Lana to catch Eevee. And then there’s Popplio. She and Popplio trained like crazy later in the series and it shows when it evolved into Brionne and eventually into Primarina. ESPECIALLY WHEN PRIMARINA EVOLVED! Did you see Lana and Brionne going toe-to-toe with that Kyogre? That was epically awesome!
Plus, she was like the only female in God-knows how long to reach the top 8 in the Pokemon League.
DISLIKED CHARACTER: My tolerance has taken a slight dip because there are three people I feel should be up here!
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First, I would like to put up Cross from the 20th movie, I Choose You. I know that he isn’t in the actual SM series, but I’m putting him up here because I just downright hate him. He is on Damien levels of shit. That’s how much I hate the son of a bitch. He could cure cancer, kick Donald Trump in the crotch, and bring peace in the Middle East and I would still hate him. Cross was like a very bad combination of Damien and Paul. Abandons a pokemon the same way as Damien and shows this power assholeness that Paul has. But add to that, a bit of a cruel edge to him and sprinkle a bit of whiny little bitch on that. He has to hold a grudge against Ash in this movie because he was blessed with Ho-oh’s feather, but when he saw Ho-oh, he got nothing. Oh boo-freakin-hoo! Cry me a river!
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Next…Faba! You fucking testicle! Heads up, I like calling Faba a testicle! When I first saw him, I thought that Lusamine was gonna be the one to hate because of the game setup. But this anime just proves how much Lusamine loves both of her children. The same can’t be said about Faba! At first, I thought Faba would be like Colress in a way…creepy how they almost look and act the same. But then his true side started to show. Oh, this guy wants them Ultra Beasts. And will not let anyone get in his way. Not little children, not birds suffering from Insomnia, not Team Rocket, not even his boss’s child! This greedy sonuvabitch is literally the reason why Lillie was afraid of pokemon and re-triggered it AGAIN thanks to UB Nihilgo. Yeah, fuck you Testicle!
Now after that incident, Testicle was demoted and serves under Wicke and Clefable (which is literally the best thing I could ever ask for). And in most scenarios where he’s shown, Faba was silly with his fanboy obsession with the Masked Royal or his stupid experiment shrinks the kids. So other than him being a dumbass nothing too damning! That was until the Pokemon League where he decided to play dirty by having his Hypno bring out Ash’s Meltan instead of going up against Pikachu. I’m glad he got beat within less than 2 minutes because this testicle needs to shrivel up now.
Who else?
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Viren! I can’t help but think he’s this anime’s answer to Donald Trump. But I hate both of them so that’s a start! I could let things slide with him just being there for one episode where he’s trying to buy out Kiawe’s family’s farm and be done with it. BUT NO! This sonuvabitch has gotta wear out his welcome by showing up another three or four times doing that same shit! And even his very first episode where he uses illegal tactics to get Rango and Sima’s farm was warrant enough to hate this fucker. I just thought he would just be a one-and-done character much like the Mayor of Trovitopolis (OI episode). Aggrivating to say, this dickhead came back numerous times to do more shady-ass shit. And I hope to Arceus I never see him again!
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Kiawe and Lana’s mothers are total milfs.
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DON’T ACT LIKE I’M THE ONLY ONE HERE! Kiawe’s mama, hell yeah total milf! Lana’s mother, I ended up having a lesbian dream about her and she became a milf.
Hey, usually I’m straighter than a honeymoon dick. But sometimes I peak over and can easily say that Sima and Lana’s mother are Mothers I Like to Fantasize about. Again, in the words of Forky, “I’m Trash”!
SHIPPING: Okay…let’s have some fun with this one. This is less vomit inducing than XY. Just keep that bitch in Hoenn for as long as it takes. I don’t want to see her for a long time.
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Ash x Lillie: I honestly think this is rather cute. Ash is one of the very few who’s been able to help Lillie with her poke-phobia. Though this ship isn’t heavily pushed on us like a certain OTHER ship that just won’t DIE. I swear Amour is like the herpes. I really can’t say there’s much romance here. Although her goodbye to Ash was just honest-to-God cute! Now if there was one Ash ship that caused some sort of blushing, it would have to go to…
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Ash x Lana: Whenever she could, Lana would drag Ash along with her. Whether it’s looking for a missing pokemon or on the hunt for a legendary pokemon in the water, she would take Ash by the arm and take him by force. However, none of this was romantically motivated. The only thing worth mentioning was her tsundere way of blushing and brushing off romance when her sisters pester if Ash is her boyfriend.
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Mallow x Lillie: This was my OTP to be perfectly honest. While Ash was the actual first person to nudge Lillie to help her with pokemon, Mallow was like the best friend of Lillie’s. She would always show concern for her. I know this is more big sister syndrome, but I’ll still ship it. I never thought anything would happen until the episode where the class puts on a play and I see Mallow and Lillie dressed like Utena and Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena. To which I said, “HOLY SHIT, THIS IS AWESOME-BALLS”! Pokemon, are you trying to tell us something with this? You trying to tell us something with this clear and direct reference to one of anime’s famous Yuri couples?
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Kukui x Burnet: THIS SHIP HAS SAILED! I’m actually surprised how fast this ship was. I know they’re married in all four games, but in the anime it seemed like they didn’t know each other that well prior to Burnet’s first appearance. And anime wise, they only spent 11 episodes with each other. And on the 11th episode not only did Kukui propose to Burnet with a ring, but they freakin’ got married! I guess there are such things as love at first sight. Kukui wanted it and put a ring on it. There’s a real man, yo! Now, he does lose some points here as he does lead that double life as the Masked Royal where he keeps it a secret from everyone, including his fangirl of a wife. But once she knew, she let him off the hook. And you know how much this ship is cemented? Watch the last 30 seconds of the final episode! It’ll blow your socks off!
On a side note, the way Kukui proposed to Burnet…BEST FUCKING PROPOSAL!
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Nurse Joy x Officer Jenny: Amazing, it has taken over 20 years for anyone to think this is even humanly possible. But in Alola, there’s a Nurse Joy and an Officer Jenny that are constantly together. Maybe it’s because I hang out on Tumblr a little too much that it gets implied a lot, but I can’t help but have a guilty pleasure for this.
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Pokeshipping: AAAAAAH! Yeah, Medea has to bring this old war back. Okay, okay, I won’t be long here. Just to let you know that I’m a fan of this ship, especially back in the day. As for Sun & Moon, at least we don’t see that classic tsundere syndrome Misty is known for. But she still cutefully teases Ash about several things from the past including the broken bike and their past gym battle. To add to this, Misty (and to lesser extent Brock) were the only ones from Ash’s past companions to see him this region...much to my dismay!
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Brock x Olivia: Holy crap! Did Brock seriously get lucky? Is this it? Is this the woman to finally fulfill this pervy breeder/doctor? To me, it just feels like just another day in the life of Brock’s love life. However he has done his research of Olivia that makes me think he’s dead serious about her…I just think it’s a creative way to say he’s in the early stages of stalking. But nothing else came from it after Brock (literally) proposed marriage to her and joined in doing a Z-move with her. Then again, Brock does get a lucky break with at least one lady in each region. Sadly, that’ll probably be the end of that much like Professor Ivy, Pike Queen Lucy, Holly, and Autumn.
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Ash x Gladion: Guilty pleasure…is it wrong that I want these two to dress up like Yuri and Yurio from Yuri on Ice. No, didn’t think so! Not sorry for that image!
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ANIMATION: I’m sorry, I can’t stay quiet about this like most of the other fans of the show. What the hell were they thinking? This is not supposed to be One Piece. This is not supposed to that Rock Lee spin-off. This is Pokemon. Poke-fucking-mon! Ash went backwards on the evolutionary chart. And people have nerve to go off on the BW series for giving him wider pupils and a mediocre outfit. You people owe the animators for BW a fucking apology for one! Ash’s design now looks like he’s cosplaying to be Monkey D. Luffy’s retarded cousin. Even my own mother, who watches one episode once every couple of months commented to say Ash looks stupid. Thank you!
SADDEST MOMENT: It’s been a good while since I’ve had a Pokemon episode touch me to a point of almost crying. Close, but the Misty/Togetic goodbye still has it beat (which was then beaten by an episode of Violet Evergarden…Dammit 2019!). And even then, the touching moments in Pokemon would be because someone of the main cast released their pokemon like Ash releasing Charizard, Jessie releasing Dustox, and OH MY GOD, NO! ENOUGH WITH THE SAD TOGETIC SCENE! But that was just it, at least no one died!
…Until now! That’s right, deaths were usually only a movie thing as we saw in the fifth movie with Latios. But in the last three years, Pokemon got a little dark in both the anime and the movie trilogies. The 20th movie we saw a Luxray freeze to death, the 21st movie we saw a Snubbull burn to death, and because the 22nd movie is a rehash of the very first movie, we’re going to relive Ash dying.
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The SM anime did a few things we haven’t seen in the Pokemon anime before. In the early episodes of SM, we were introduced to Litten and watched a very sad episode dealing with death. Before Litten joined Ash, it lived on the streets with a very old Stoutland. Now think of every sad animal movie you’ve ever seen and you’ll have your answer of what happens to Stoutland by the end of the episode. They don’t show Stoutland’s death on screen, but we know. This episode was very clever at tackling the death topic on a kid’s anime. And up to this point I thought this episode was going to take the cake in the sad department. Boy was I wrong!
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The 108th episode of SM gave us one hell of a tear-jerker and it almost got me. It almost got me! We learn in this episode that Mallow had a mother. And this is a first because no one in any of the main cast talked about a dead parent before this episode! We learn about Mallow’s mother being sick a lot and it caused a rift between the two. Especially when Mallow snaps at her mother because all she does is apologize for not being there. Unfortunately that exchange was the last time she ever spoke to her. Where does the sad part get heavy? Here!
While everyone was on Poni Island, we hear about how Tapu Fini is able to communicate with the dead. And among some of the dead we saw Hapu’s grandfather, Kiawe’s grandfather, and Stoutland. But in the mist, Mallow came across her mother. And that one moment where she finally can see her mother after so many years! She breaks down and cries. She apologizes for the horrible things she said as a kid to her. But those sorrys turn into thank yous. She thanks her mother for what she’s done, thanked her for being her mother! God damn it, this is now #2 in saddest Pokemon moments. The second I saw this I thought it was going to make me ugly cry and trounce all over the Misty/Togetic moment. To my surprise, it didn’t. But came super close!
In short, Mallow seeing her mother again…this moment! Feels! Fucking feels!
COMEBACK: I have pretty much given up on people from the previous series to pay Ash a visit in the newest region. After XY where we didn’t get a single sighting of Iris and Cilan getting shafted to an episode that they didn’t even bother giving an English dub, I just gave up. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get characters who “came back”.
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In SM, there were two times where we got a blast from the past. In two episodes we had Ash, Kukui, and the class make a trip to Kanto where (that’s right) we get to see Professor Oak, Delia, Misty, and Brock again. Not only that but we get two more episodes where Misty and Brock come to Alola!
As much as I love Misty…and toler…ate Brock, many other characters are overdue for a get-together with Ash. If you want me to be blunt, May, Iris, and Tracey are the only ones who should get attention and everyone else needs to FUCK OFF. That’s right, we don’t need to see Brock hit on more whores of the day. No more fishing competitions for Dento-fruit (much as I love him). Blushy McIdiot, Dingus, and Bonnie can go fuck off! And that goes double for Dawn!
Shit Medea, that was cruel.
Yeah it was cruel and I’ll continue to do so. It’s been 11 years since May was last seen/heard. Iris got royally butt-fucked by everything in the anime. And as for Tracey, I don’t owe you pissants a fucking explanation. Tracey deserves better! Speaking of…
AN UNFORTUNATE THEORY: With the comebacks of Misty and Brock, Tracey has just been NOT THERE! They go to Oak’s lab and he isn’t there. Not even mentioned. Not a word about him. When Ash calls Professor Oak randomly, Oak is there and even Muk, but no Tracey. When Ash asks Misty and Brock about back home, they don’t mention Tracey…which is to be expected since they have to talk about their siblings, but still.
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Pokemon doing anything island adventure wise kinda comes with a mixed bag. The Orange Islands came with immediate hate because loyal Brock fans are ass-hurt about Tracey’s existence. The Sevii Islands were a bust during the FR/LG games. And the less mentioned about Decalore Island in the BW anime, the better. But when they decided to do Alola, fans caught on quite quickly with some comparisons to the Orange Island anime portion.
Unlike all the other gyms in other regions, Alola had four grand trials/leaders. Orange Islands had the Orange Crew, which was essentially four gym leaders. Both the trials and the crew had Ash do different tasks before an actual battle. Next, pokemon with different colors/forms! In the early episodes of the Orange Islands, we saw pokemon just a smide different from their normal looks. We saw Vileplume with a different flower pattern, other pokemon with a different shade of color to them, and interesting designs on Butterfree. In Alola, they expaneded on that by giving “Alolan forms” to pokemon like Meowth, Diglett, Exeggutor, Marowak, and even Raichu! I do love Alolan Raichu! However, the pokemon that had small changes in the Orange Islands were not brought to the Alolan table. So maybe Orange Islands and Alola are in far different parts of the world.
Where my theory goes from here is that I think Pokemon really wants to pretend the Orange Islands never happened. That means the gym battles, the special pokemon, and yes, even Tracey. That’s the only way to explain why no one has mentioned him even when we’re standing in Professor Oak’s fucking lab! I hate to be blunt and say something so horrible, but every time I watch SM, it really does feel like that. Yes, I admit it, the Orange Islands were just filler until Ash and crew could go to Johto. First of all, it exists. No matter how much you try to white-wash us with Alolan features, the Orange Islands was a thing. And it was a great thing! Ash was in his first six-on-six match (and won), Ash’s first double battle happened here, and stellar episodes like Pikachu Re-volts and Tracey Gets Bugged should not be cast aside. Those were all great! Pokemon, you cannot run from your past! You can improve upon it, yes. But never forget! These were a thing! These were great things!
Thankfully, my death theory was put to rest in the first episode of Pokemon 2019 when the Orange Island trophy was shown. That’s great, now where’s Tracey?
Another theory! They couldn’t get Tomokazu Seki. That could also be it!
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RUNNING GAG: We got two running gags throughout the SM series! First, there’s the return of that singing ball of pink, Jigglypuff! This little singer has not been seen or heard from since AG. That’s well over a decade, people. Well…when Ash and crew visited Kanto, they ran into Jigglypuff and by sheer coincidence, wound up riding the airplane back to Alola. So now we see it every now and then in Alola, singing in a Karaoke bar.
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And the other…Bewear! It hasn’t been officially caught by Team Rocket. They don’t use it in a battle. But Bewear has literally made it impossible for Team Rocket to BLAST OFF ever again. Their life-long running gag died the minute they fell into Bewear’s meaty arms.
Also it doesn’t help that I constantly scream “KUMA SHOCK” every time it comes to collect Team Rocket. Anyone who gets that reference deserves a high five!
BANNED IN THE USA: Welcome back, banishment! I knew you couldn’t stay away for long as we do live in a SJW/PC time. So what episode never got to see the light of day in the U.S.?
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This one…yeah, I can totally agree with. So in the U.S. there is indeed ONE episode we were not given. In this episode, Ash decides to help a group of Passimian. And throughout the majority of the episode, Ash is dressed up like a Passimian from the pajamas to the…OH MY! I actually let it slide when I saw the Japanese viewing (because I’m half-awake at 2am), but I can definitely see why this one would ruffle a few feathers. Let’s just say Ash’s costume was a little too borderline blackface and that’s why it’ll never air in the states.
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Anything else!? Not in terms of full episodes. Certain scenes, absolutely! Little baby things were edited due to being not kid-friendly. What’s in those drinks Kukui and Burnet are drinking out of at their own wedding? Champagne? Blasphemy! That’s Orange Juice now! What’s in Delia’s drink in the first episode? Oh we can’t have her pull a Miriam Pataki here! Turn that shit into Pinap Juice! Okay, besides the censorship of drinks, was there anything else? Why, yes, yes there was!
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We all know how creepy Team Rocket’s Mimikyu can be. That’s why it’s placed in my top 10 list of characters that scare the shit outta me! Well one scene had Mimikyu’s shadow scare Meowth so horribly, the next scene had Meowth DEAD! Face down in the water! Don’t worry kids, Meowth comes back to life. The U.S. said “OH HELL NO WE CAN’T SHOW THIS! FUCK IS WRONG WITH JAPAN!” And so the face down scene was completely chopped from the dub. Add to that, there were several instances where Meowth almost dies and parts of those scenes are cut from American broadcast.
REFERENCES: If there was one thing this new animation has given us, it has open the doors to using references from other animes and even a few western media projects. And we haven’t really seen much of this since the original series and AG. And even back then, it was mostly just Rose of Versailles references with Team Rocket. I know I give the animation flack for it being a pile of shit compared to better animation shown in XY and DP. But I think the animators do have a little more fun when doing Sun and Moon. And I think it’s loosened them to using other animation styles seen in different and popular animes.
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And boy did SM use a butt-load of anime references! Here’s a list of what I was able to remember!
*Facial expressions matching those scene in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in several episodes *A Mr. Osomatsu reference tossed somewhere *Ping Pong the Animation being used when Illma entered in the Ping Pong competition *Kiawe doing the famous Gendo Ikari pose from Neon Genesis Evangelion in the same episode mentioned above. *Ash and Kiawe making the scary, demonic face Popuko makes when she’s mad on Pop Team Epic, when the two missed out on catching a UB Pokemon. *Transformation scenes with Ash and crew that match those of Power Rangers or every magical girl show. *The girl with many Pikachus has one Pikachu with hair like Boruto (Naruto Uzamaki’s son) *Ash and Pikachu looking like they’re doing the Kamehameha attack during their league match (DBZ, duh) *Rotomdex mentioning it wants to do a sci-fi feature and the image strikes a chord with Star Wars fans everywhere. *Lillie dressed like Utena. Mallow dressed like the rose princess, Anthy. HOLY SHIT, MY OTP IS DOING A REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA REFERENCE! Take my revolution!
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And the mother of all references goes to Jessie! Or should I say, her seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara! Pokemon animated many of her iconic roles in one epic scene. Just to name a few of Hayashibara’s roles shown there was Ranma Saotome (Ranma ½) Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), White Kitty (Hello Kitty), Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), and everyone’s favorite Lina Inverse (Slayers). At least in the English dub, Lisa Ortiz popped in for the Lina Inverse moment! Epic on epic on epicly God levels of YES!
MUSIC: Okay in recent years, the English openings have gotten tolerable and the same can be said about the opening themes used this time around. So I won’t bitch about that. So how about I bitch about the BGM?!
Background music, I know a lot of complaints are expressed by loyal Japanese version fans that the English version has completely changed the BGM throughout most of the episodes and even the motion pictures! Yeah, in the I Choose You movie only ONE original BGM was used. The BGM topic never really got to me. But if I remember correctly when 4Kids lost rights to Pokemon and went to the new company, they said that they were going to keep a lot of things true and the BGM was one of them. Yeah, that went to the waist-side real fast! I do believe that they listened to that complaint because in the following movie, the entire score was kept (with the exception of the ED theme by Porno Graffitti).
The Japanese openings…I used to like Alola by Rica Matsumoto. Yeah…used to. Okay, that’s too mean. I don’t hate it on the lengths of V(Volt) from the previous series. It’s just that they used this song in certain scenes that took me out of liking it fully. Now anytime I hear Alola, all I can think about is Ash, Litten, Pikachu, and Rockruff wiggling their asses. Some of the other openings were just okay, I wasn’t too thrilled about them. But there was another thing I feel I should bring up.
Just like the English dub to XY, they wanted to capture a nostalgic feel to the general audience watching, Sun and Moon gave us some of that here. Because of the release of the 20th movie, Rica Matsumoto ended up singing her signature Mezase Pokemon Master again. And as a result, it was the show’s opening for quite some time. Not only that but the last ending theme to Sun and Moon was a cover of Rica’s other hit song Type Wild (now sung by Shoko Nakagawa).
MOVIES: The movies have taken a different turn from what we’ve seen previously. Let’s face it folks, the 10 movies that came out prior to these last three were average AT BEST. And with many other series doing reboots to their old classics, I guess Pokemon decided to do it on a large scale when it came to the story of Ash and Pikachu. With all new animation and a new story, we follow Ash and Pikachu in a much different take on their journey. A much faster-paced story where Ash doesn’t have much of the filler stuff and doesn’t travel with Misty, Brock, or the rest! To which I say, good! I know it means the Sun & Moon gang will never be in a movie, but it also means that animation won’t be there either.
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I Choose You was the first movie and from the get-go, fans were upset over seeing a reboot of Ash’s beginning journey with Pikachu and not seeing Misty or Brock. Instead we get a kind of condensed version of certain moments of Ash’s original journey, mixed with new material and get introduced to new characters (who come from Sinnoh of all places). The pokemon featured was Ho-oh, who after all this time was going to be featured in a film and Marshadow because it’s not a pokemon movie without featuring a brand-new pokemon from this era.
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The Power of Us, Ash ends up on an island where he meets several new characters who each have their own story to tell including a high school girl, a shy scientist, a pathological liar, an old woman who hates pokemon, and the daughter of the mayor. And we are introduced to another new pokemon, Zeroroa. All five characters (plus Ash) are put through their own trials and tribulations in order to save their town during a festival.
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Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION: It’s the first movie…in CGI/3D/Robot-Chicken-ized, whatever! There’s no need for a synopsis since everybody and their mother knows this story. It’s literally the same story as Mewtwo Strikes Back. Ash and company get invited to an island, Mewtwo causes storms and clones to mess with the people, Mew appears, Pokemon fight, Ash dies, Ash doesn’t die, Mewtwo says profound speech that even Jon Stewart praises, everyone’s minds are erased, and that’s all! They even got the original cast to come back and reused Unshou Ishizuka’s old footage as the narrator for this movie!
The thing about this last movie is that, The Pokemon Company dropped the ball on this. SEVERELY dropped the ball on this! They had the perfect setup, the perfect opportunity to get this in the theaters just in time for the 20th anniversary of the first movie’s release in the U.S. and they do jackshit with it! Not even on Disney XD. For shame!
I will say that these three are a SEVERE improvement on the Pokemon movies. Can anyone with full honesty say that any pokemon movie that came out after the Lucario movie that any of the others were even good? Be honest, almost every movie since AG was just essentially a long side-story with an annoying mythical/legendary that can talk. It got annoying! Plus it just felt like Ash and whoever he was with would just be dragged in the middle of some bullshit and have to save the day. It was fine in the first couple of movies, but the pattern got worn out.
Plus with this alternate timeline to the Pokemon story, it gave the Sun and Moon anime more to work with legendaries and mythical pokemon. Hell, all the main cast was able to catch (and later release) an Ultra Beast pokemon. Not only that, but Mallow got to take care of the mythical pokemon Shaymin for over 40 episodes. Don’t you wish we got that with May and Manaphy? Plus, Ash got to take care of Cosmog and Poipole for an extended amount of time. Okay, my favorite movie of the three.
I Choose You is my favorite out of the bunch. I loved the retelling of Ash and Pikachu starting out on their very first journey. I love the new path they took with this story. I love the new characters introduced, Verity and Sorrel. I love the pokemon that were shown as it gave us a bit of everything from every region up to this point. Yes it was a cluster-fuck in some portions as I had to see past characters shown way different. Cynthia’s Verity’s mother! I can’t unsee this shit! And I will never unsee the messed-up dream Ash had where he was in actual real-world with no pokemon and in a real school where I’m given vivid flashbacks of my fanfic. Regardless, I enjoyed this movie so much. And I got to see many things here that I would always imagine would happen in a final episode of Pokemon (where Ash dies, Pikachu speaks, and an epic fight with Ho-oh). It is now my 2nd favorite Pokemon movie.
+1000000000 points for showing Tracey in the ED credits! Medea screeched in the theaters. I apologize for nothing! Best five seconds I’ve had in years.
TEAM ROCKET UPDATE: As this region does not have Pokemon Contests or that tact on Princess crap from Kalos, we’ll find our favorite trio (+Wobbuffett) going after the twerps and wandering around the area. And while I do enjoy Jessie dipping her foot in the contest arena, this pace can be boring and a blessing at the same time. Unlike previous seasons, we will go episodes at a time where we don’t see Team Rocket. But the episodes where they do show up aren’t the most thrilling. Usually they’ll just be in the background serving treats to background characters.
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However, one major improvement with Team Rocket this season is with their pokemon. In the past, Team Rocket has had some unique pokemon that they’ve captured (or stolen…still not letting the Yamnega thing go). In Kanto, James had Victreebel that would eat him. In Hoenn, James had Cacnea that would pinch him every time it came out. In Sinnoh, James had Carnevine that would eat him…Okay, a lot of it is James torture-porn! Regardless, they were entertaining to watch. And I felt a complete slump with their pokemon during BW and XY. This season, pretty much ALL of Team Rocket’s pokemon are entertaining.
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Marenie loves James so much that she would blow off being with her own kind to be with James. Even hearing the sounds of wedding bells every time James asks a favor of her! It’s actually adorable to watch Marenie. Jessie’s Mimikyu…I’m almost convinced Mimikyu is the reincarnation of a serial killer. And the biggest pokemon to cause Team Rocket so much grief is one they didn’t even catch, but it sticks around to take care of them like they were children, Bewear! And trust me, they’ve tried catching Bewear. And Bewear smushed the pokeball into poke-dust! Bewear would just come right the fuck out of nowhere, defying logic, gravity, and absurdity to bring Team Rocket back to its cave! This, making it the longest period of time where Team Rocket went without blasting off!
Every time they had the twerps cornered, in comes Bewear to take them back! Whenever they were about to do their traditional blast off, Bewear would come in and take them back to the cave! Even when they’re in fucking Kanto, it managed to swoop in and take them back to the cave. Team Rocket even DEFEATED Ash in a battle and had the perfect opportunity to take the twerp’s Pikachu. But no, Bewear came in and swooped them up! These pokemon were fun to watch this entire series! This was definitely an improvement from the last few seasons. Seriously, I can’t even remember what pokemon Jessie and James had during BW!
BIG TEAM BATTLE: Just like in Unova, Team Rocket ended up getting more attention than the antagonists of Alola. Except here, it’s a little more accepting. It’s just that in Alola, was there really a big team to cause major havoc with world-shaking consequences? Technically, the Aether Foundation wasn’t the big bad team and Team Skull was just a bunch of angsty punks. Regardless, there were two arcs with something epic happening.
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The first of course was opening the wormhole and discovering the Ultra Beasts. And in almost the same fashion as the game, Lillie and the rest have to go and rescue her mother from the Ultra Beasts (because Lusamine got taken over by one). Only difference is that game Lusamine wanted to use this power. Anime Lusamine pushed her children out of the way so they wouldn’t get taken away. We did get some great moments with Ash doing a new Z-move with Pikachu, Nebby evolving, and Lillie’s relationship with her mother become stronger.
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The second big battle was with Necrozma. Now this one heavily involved Team Rocket as Giovanni disbatched several other members including his assistant Matori and some eye-patch gorilla to try and get this pokemon. However after this incident, we never see Giovanni try to get his hands on this pokemon again or talk about it again. Even when he makes a big foreshadowy deal when he dialed Nanu about it! But in this arc, a mysterious power throughout Alola was making all of the adults listless and lazy. And it was up to Ash and the other kids to get to the bottom of this strange phenomenom.
ENDING – POKEMON LEAGUE: Yeah, this league was going to be different. In the Alolan League, just about anyone can join this certain Pokemon League, as long as you have a Z-crystal, it’s all good. Well, Alola has never had a Pokemon League, which is sort of like what was in the game. So Professor Kukui decided to put this dream into an action and now Alola will hold its first ever Pokemon League! So expect to see the entire cast compete! I’m not kidding!
From the get-go I was worried since Ash’s team here in Alola is pitifully underdeveloped compared to past arcs. And if he were to fight, he’d probably lose to Gladion or Guzma! But since the first task was to knock 151 competitors down to 16, we all know Ash was going to survive this trial. Now in past league competitions and even Pokemon Contests, thinning a big number down would take some time like an episode or two. Here, IT’S A FUCKING FREE-FOR-ALL BATTLE! Trainers coming at you from all angles and you can only use one pokemon! It’s like a mini-game from Mario Party it was that crazy!
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The 16 trainers that made the cut are all trainers we know! They all had at least 1 debut episode prior to this moment. So no surprise bastards like Tobias to muck things up! The sixteen competitors are Ash, Mallow, Lillie, Lana, Kiawe, Sophocles, Jessie, James, Faba, Aceorla, Mina, Ilima, Guzma, Hau, Gladion, and Samson Oak! Unbelievable! The entire main cast, Team Rocket, trial people in the games, the head of Team Skull, the island heartthrob, Ash’s two main rivals, and a freakin’ Oak! We could not make this up!
From the Top 8, we wind up with Ash, Guzma, Hau, Gladion, James, Sophocles, Kiawe, and Lana advancing. These next battles had some pretty decent moments including James trying to hold his own against Gladion, Lana and Primarina trying to survive a poisonous dick move from Guzma, and action-packed moments with Kiawe and Sophocles.
I don’t want to talk about it. NO, I DON’T! NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT ASH’S BATTLE WITH HAU! First of all, their rivalry only expands to like two episodes. One episode prior to the league and the rest during the league! You’re just butt-fucking us on this sweet little cinnamon roll. I know the anime really wants to stand out on its own by not giving us awesome rivals that we get in the games like Cheren or Brendan, but God-forbid if you give them some awesome moments before you have them get beaten by Ash and sent back to wherever the fuck they came from! And this battle is just an insult of every level!
I know Ash has been known to pull off some stupid moments in his day when it comes to pokemon battles. He’d put a clear type-disadvantage against a powerhouse pokemon. He’d put all his faith in one pokemon and if it failed, absolutely fuck all. And most common of all, have one of his non-evolved pokemon go up against a fully evolved pokemon. We get the latter when Ash’s insomniac-stricken bird, Rowlet, go up against Hau’s fully-evolved Decidueye. But before the battle, we get some last minute training in done by Toucannon and its bird-kin. You’ve got to be the stupidest mother fu…Forget it, you’re just wasting your breath! Well, it’s because Rowlet is DETERMINED so that gives the green flag to fight in Ash Ketchum’s book.
You stupid fucking idi…
During the fight, Ash and Hau did use their Z-moves early on and both did little to no damage to either one. But it’s freakin’ clear that Hau’s Decidueye is clearly more trained. That’s why the two birds duked it out to a point of both of them being close to knocked out. But in the end, Nanu calls the battle for Decidueye because it got up first. AND ASH LOST!
…Or did he?
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No, upon further inspection, ROWLET WAS FUCKING ASLEEP! God, no! No! Good fucking God, what were you writers thinking? You’re trolling us again, aren’t you? Ever since the Sinnoh League, you thought it was a good idea to troll the fucking audience. Like Tobias having another legendary or Davey winning with a fucking Eevee or Ash losing to Alain. You people are fucking with us!
Long story short, Ash and Rowlet get a second chance. They win the battle. Hau cries. Moving on!
NO, WE’RE NOT MOVING ON FROM THIS SHIT! WHO THE FUCK DECIDED THIS TO HAPPEN?! A lot of us fans are still sore over that retarded call back in the Kanto League where Squirtle falling asleep was a K.O. I can’t accept this, not after all the league battles Ash has had before this. Especially the last league against Tierno, Sawyer, and Alain! They are probably watching you and facepalming. Bonnie is laughing at you! Lysandre is calling you a dickhead from beyond the grave! Serena tore up a picture of Ash and went lesbian! Okay, that didn’t really happen. But this episode got me so fucking twisted I find myself eating thunder and shitting out lightening.
And now with Lana’s defeat by Guzma, we’re now in the final four. So…huh…um, new category! I know this is where I’m supposed to talk about the ending with the league, but I feel like I should talk about this.
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GENDER AND LEAGUE PLACEMENT: Is it just me or are most competitors and even winners of these things majority male? It’s unknown who won the Kanto League. Johto went to some douchebag no one remembers. Hoenn was won by Tyson. Sinnoh went to Trollbias. Unova went to Davey. And Kalos went to NOT ASH…Alain! And even in the top 4 and 8 sometimes, it’s all men. I really don’t want to put the pussy hat on and claim unfairness to a show I’ve been watching for over 20 years, but…putting Lana up against someone we all know is going to go to the semi-finals…come on man! I probably should have questioned some gender stuff especially with that princess crap in Kalos where it was most, if not all female. But Pokemon Leagues are usually coed! It’s just that prior to Lana, the only other girls I remember competiting in past leagues were Katie from AG and Astrid from XY. Maybe I’m making too much out of it.
BACK TO THE LEAGUE: Thankfully the semi-finals fights were great (compared to that bullshit Hau/Ash match I wish would die). Gladion and Kiawe bro-downed with their match! Guzma learned the hard way of being defeated in the semi-finals by a twerp. Guzma, you may be older than Ash, but Ashy-boy has been defeated so many times in this position it’s not even funny. So the finals were a three-on-three match between Ash and Gladion.
Ash got some good traction with his newly evolved pokemon Melmetal. Gladion was able to put his father’s pokemon, Zoroark into good use. And there was even a double knockout near the end. But somehow, we knew it would go back to a finale of Lycanroc vs. Lycanroc. And this was a nail-bitter. Who the heck knows who was going to end up victorious?
…Actually, a certain publication leaked the result three days before the episode aired…
I fucking hate the internet sometimes.
So Ash won…
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*CRAZY-ASS APPLAUSE TIME*
You’d think Jesus “Tap Dancing” Christ rose from the dead with how crazy this was. The internet lost it because after the Kalos League’s close-call and Sinnoh’s B.S. match against the legendaries, they saw this as Ash’s staple in becoming a Pokemon Master. Whatever…
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WHAT NEXT?!: Actually, much like what happened after Alain won the Pokemon League, the ceremony was quickly interrupted by the appearance of the gluttenous Ultra Beast, Guzzlord. And it took the power of everyone’s Z-Crystal to get rid of this beast. However, at the end of this powerful battle, Ash and everyone else learned a shocking secret of Professor Kukui.
Kukui is really Alola’s most famous battler, Masked Royal!
Well now that the Delcatty’s out of the bag, might as well have Kukui actually go up against Ash in a six-on-six match. NOW THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! This was one hell of a match, spanning over three episodes (it was that bad-ass). Kukui’s got one hell of a line-up featuring pokemon from nearly every region. Now because of a certain battle, seeing Rowlet take out one of Kukui’s finest kinda pisses me off. But the biggest fights came from Incenaroar and Torracat. Because they fought, not one, not two, but THREE times! And their bout ended with Ash’s Torracat evolving and a double knockout! OH MY GOD, HOW COULD THIS GET ANY BETTER?!
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In comes Tapu-Koko! He said, “Fuck your sixth pokemon, Kukui. I wanna battle this boy I’ve been stalking since 2016!” Yeah, we get one major fight between one of the Tapus and Ash’s Naganadel and Pikachu (and whatever pokemon that isn’t dead) and believe it or not, Ash won! He defeated all of Kukui’s pokemon AND Tapu-Koko. He’s seriously out-doing everything he’s ever done from XYZ! Even going above and beyond with Pikachu by doing a solid reference to Dragon Ball Z…You all know what they referenced.
So Ash, you just won the Pokemon League, you defeated your mentor, you took out one of the island deities, what are you gonna do next?
I’M GOING TO DISNEYLA…PALLET TOWN!
Yeah, I would choose that too Ash. Only for different and hornier reasons! Actually, Ash gave a lot of thought to what was next. Not only him, but everybody in his class! The biggest one of course was Lillie as she has been reading up on her father’s old journals and trying to figure out that gift he left her as a baby before he disappeared. I still can’t believe he got her quite a rare pokemon like Magerna. But Magerna has been a husk until Lillie took care of it and now it’s freakin’ mobil. Back to Ash, it wasn’t really until he fought Kiawe in a post-match fight that he buckled down on what he wants to do next. And I think Olivia mentioning traveling kinda sparked Ash for his next journey.
And wouldn’t you know it, Team Rocket at the same time gets word from Giovanni to pack their shit up and return to Kanto. Mimikyu in its satanic fashion tries to take out Pikachu one last time. But it failed, almost drowned in the water, and was then SAVED by the very Pokemon it’s tried to kill the last 145 episodes. Okay, vendetta over, later bitches. Team Rocket ended up leaving Maernie and Mimikyu in the dead of night. And Bewear promised to watch after them in their absence and gave us something we haven’t seen since this show began…a proper blast off! Team Rocket blasted off once more. I’m feeling quite nostalgic because it’s been a while.
Hey, I just realized. What happened to Jigglypu-
WHO CARES!
Okay then, I’ll probably see it in another 10 years.
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Lillie decided to go off with her mother and brother to travel. Lusamine handed over her responsibilities to Rotomdex. And on the day of Lillie’s departure, she ends up almost in the same fashion as Serena’s goodbye (but thankfully we’re on a boat and she can’t do any last-minute smooches). Lillie remembered all that Ash has done for her and how much she’s grown, so she gives him a very earnest “Thank You”. Now for Ash’s goodbye to his host family! Now I’ve pretty much heard and seen the internet cherish this cute bond between Kukui, Burnet, and Ash. And yeah, it’s pretty genuine! Whenever we get an opening scene of them in Kukui’s home, they’re usually doing something family-ish. And they’re definitely going to miss that! Poor Burnet was even crying!
On Ash’s flight back to Pallet Town, he looks out the window and sees his friends giving him one final farewell as they fly through the skies with their partner pokemon.
In the aftermath we see, Sophocles leaving to go with his cousin, Mallow’s older brother returning home, Shaymin transforming into its flying form (yes, flying away leaving Mallow), Kiawe is doing some training with Olivia, Lana traveling with her father to fish for a mythical pokemon, Hau taking on Nanu in a grand trial, Team Skull just hanging there, Bewear looking after Maernie and Mimikyu, Lusamine traveling with the kids, and something that shocked the shit out of me! Even though I called it in the back of my mind!
We close out the episode with Kukui and Burnet sitting together and...
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WHAT THE WHAT?!
NANI?
NANI THE FUCK?
IS THAT A BABY BUMP?! It is. It freakin’ is! God I hope Ash didn’t walk in on them having sex. Don’t be silly Medea, they probably conceived this child when Ash was either training or having a sleepover. Truthfully, I say they did the nasty when Ash, Kiawe, and Sophocles spent the night in the woods training.
OOH, BETTER IMAGE! They did roleplaying during sex and Kukui wore the Masked Royal mask! Just let me have this moment guys. I really enjoy frolicking in my gutter mind!
Oh and closing message, “and your dreams!”
I seriously hope the English dub keeps the end credits to this. They have a lousy reputation of skimping on things like that. They even skipped the photo scene at the end of BW. Please for crap’s sake, keep the ending scenes!
Yes, in the back of my mind I thought Sun and Moon would be radical and give us a pregnant Burnet. I knew this would happen sometime after that wedding episode a year and a half ago. But then a few weeks before the Sun and Moon finale, I wound up dreaming about Kiawe’s mother pregnant and she was wearing the exact same dress Burnet is wearing in the final scene. Sometimes my dreams can be fucking spooky and spot-on at the same time.
WOW-EE-WOWEE-WOW-WOW! Okay, um. Some thoughts! This anime gave me such a huge slump during a lot of it. I cannot lie. There was a long period of time where I was just disinterested in Sun and Moon. And seeing how other people were (especially those who were staunch XYZ fans) yeah I can see that. One big, annoying factor was once again, the animation. Yeah, you whiny bitches complaining BW Ash was the worst? You owe that one an apology! Because this Ash looks nothing like the past 5 Ash’s! And they tried this comedic style that won on some parts and failed in other departments. Though, spot-on whenever we get a Jojo’s reference! There were episodes that were just absolute MEH. And this is coming from the same person who sat through all the fillers in Johto, MORE THAN ONCE! And I had some severe reservations about seeing a main cast this huge trying to get some character growth. I had absolutely no expectations for anyone and thought they were gonna serve as dead weight (except for Kiawe and Lana).
Once again, I’m glad to see my expectations are blown away. There has been massive character development and they managed to hit all the main characters and even some of the minor ones. Lillie especially has blossomed throughout the series. As a girl who was afraid of Pokemon, I am impressed at how far she’s come. She was able to overcome her fear of pokemon eventually, hatch a pokemon from an egg, excel the power of Z-moves, bring back to life a rare/mythical pokemon, and even make it to the top 16 of the Alolan League. While Lana is still my best girl of this season, Lillie is definitely a wonder to behold. Sophocles, I had the littlest of hope or care for him. I still am not a fan of him really, but when you see this boy overcome certain anxieties, hurdles, and one sad moment involving the meteorite pokemon, you see he’s a pretty solid character.
And then there’s Mallow…Dammit! So I just realized as I’m wrapping up Sun and Moon.
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One of the biggest things I saw was “Family”. And seeing as Alola is a take on Hawaii and one of the biggest things people pride theirselves upon is family, this totally makes sense. In Sun and Moon, we saw a lot of different kinds of families. Small ones like Sophocles. Bigger ones like Kiawe and Lana. Families that have had their own share of heartache like Mallow and Lillie. Ones that end up starting like Kukui and Burnet! Hala and Hau’s little relationship. And even families that are reunited like Bewear and Stuffel! These particular moments and episodes were ones that touched me in a way only Miyazaki can reach. Particularly Mallow’s story! I already mentioned this in the saddest moment category, but Mallow with her deceased mother is one of the best character growth episodes in Pokemon history. Up until that point, we’ve seen Mallow pretty perky, a good cook, and a supportive friend, especially to Ash, Lana, and Lillie. But then we get hit with this one story that no one expected. And now, let’s discuss Ash in this part! We got to see Ash settle in with a second family life with Kukui and Burnet. I mean let’s face it, all the other places Ash traveled he would roam from town to town. Here in Alola, it’s like Kukui was the father he never had and Burnet was like a second mother. And I suppose they felt like Ash was a son to them. So quite fitting they wound up having a baby after his departure.
And it wasn’t just the humans that have grown, but their pokemon too! Many of Ash and his friends’s pokemon were able to grow and shatter all expectations. Two of Ash’s pokemon especially deserve that praise and that’s Lycanroc and Incenaroar. Back when Lycanroc was a Rockruff, he always strived to get stronger. And in later episodes, it looked up to other Lycanroc like Olivia’s and Gladion’s. Then it evolved and it’s been quite the journey to try and train this doggo to it’s full potential. And because this is one of Ash’s pokemon, this has gotta be a one-of-a-kind pokemon (dusk form). Well Lycanroc has overcome some tough obstacles (yes, including bearing through getting dirty) and went on to be one of Ash’s top pokemon.
Litten, THANKFULLY didn’t have a dickhead trainer abusing him like many of Ash’s other fire-type pokemon. But Litten’s story was far from perfect as it was a stray cat pokemon living on the streets with an old Stoutland. And Ash took in Litten after Stoutland passed away. Litten was a pretty decent member of Ash’s team, but definitely got the fire in his eyes when he saw Masked Royal and Incenaroar. That encouraged Litten throughout the series to get stronger. Even leading to one of the best fights during Kukui and Ash’s match! Good doggo, good kitty!
Oh yeah, probably should talk about the battles! Unlike the other gyms up to this point, Ash went through Grand Trials (just like you would in the game). Except Ash really didn’t do that many of those mini trials since Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, and Sophocles were his classmates and not giving out tests! But Ash still wound up battling the big kahunas like Hala, Olivia, Nanu, and Hapu. And in the old Ash fashion, there were battles he won like a champ, ones where he’d have to try again, and ones where he got supremely lucky. Yeah, that Ash vs. Hapu match was such bullshit. But I’d still take that match over Ash vs. Hau in the Alolan League!
I will NEVER get over that match. Yeah aside from that travesty, a lot of the Pokemon League matches were pretty stellar, even the ones not involving Ash. I really enjoyed Sophocles vs. Kiawe and the Lana vs. Mallow match.
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LET’S LOOK BACK AT MY HIGH HOPES: At the end of Pokemon XY, I made a nice list of things I would like to see. Did any of my high hopes come to fruition? Let’s see…
First of all, NO, I DID NOT SEE MY ANIME HUSBAND! For fuck’s sake Pokemon! If Snorlax exists at the Oak lab, Tracey Sketchit should too. They both came from the same arc. But NO! He’s not at the lab and doesn’t even get a mention. That is messed up! I don’t know if this is because they couldn’t get Tomokazu Seki to stop playing Gilgamesh for a second to come back or they’re trying to distance themselves from the Orange Islands as much as possible, or if they just FORGOT his existence, but I’m not digging this. No, Medea hates this with a holy fucking passion.
Old characters returning under this new style! Yeah, it happened. I think I was only a fan of how the women looked, so Misty and Delia looked okay to me. I just wasn’t a fan of Professor Oak and Brock. Although, kudos to the anime for having Brock take his shirt off and show off his six-pack. DAMN BOY! The animation ended up staying the same throughout the series, but I managed to tolerate/muscle through it.
I know I forgot to write this part, but I really wanted Kukui to remain single for the series. Yeah, that fell at the waist-side! Kukui was single…but then he got married. Okay, I can accept it. That was the cutest proposal, I have to admit that. And I was howling when I saw pregnant Burnet at the end. So alls well that ends well!
Let’s see, Lusamine wasn’t voiced by Miki Itou like I wanted. Then again, this Lusamine wasn’t a psycho bitch. Although kudos for getting Nobuhiko Okamato voicing Gladion. I am forever happy with that outcome.
Did I get more Clefables? FUCK YEAH, I DID! Holy shit, I forgot Lusamine had a Clefable in the games and didn’t even think the anime was going to keep that, but HOLY SHIT THEY DID AND I’M SO HAPPY! Not only that but we were able to see Clefable every so often. It’s so adorable. I just wanna hug her!
Lillie’s egg of course wasn’t Cosmog, it was Alolan Vulpix. Cosmog can’t be hatched. It just magically appears. Hey, cute choice though!
Did Ash catch a psychic pokemon? Uhhhhhhh…no! Still no psychic type.
Did I see Wicke and Olivia, fuck yeah I did! Wicke is adorable especially when she bosses Faba around. My only thing with Olivia is that, I wish the anime didn’t make her into a clumsy oaf the whole time. My God, she tripped more times than Bianca did during Best Wishes. That’s sad! Now her being the object of Brock’s eye, that I wasn’t expecting. I’m wondering if Brock will keep in contact with Olivia or if he’s moved onto another booty-call of the day.
Overall, it was a bumpy start for me to get into Sun and Moon. But it wasn’t until we got to important things like the Aether Foundation, Mallow’s mother, and Guzma’s debut that got me back fully invested. I know it’s damn near impossible to convince staunch XYZ fans to watch this, but give it a shot for the stories. The animation is just so undoable after what XY has given us, but still.
Currently, most (if not all) episodes of Sun and Moon dubbed will be available on Hulu, Netflix, Pokemon TV, and Disney XD. Yeah, no one has gotten around to giving us legal subtitled episodes sad to say. Here’s hoping Disney XD will continue holding onto the Pokemon license as they happen to be the ONLY one that literally has all episodes available. On the channel, they still kinda restrict themselves to only playing the current season, but sometimes we get lucky with the movies.
MORE HIGH HOPES: Okay, new high hopes for the new Pokemon series, Pokemon…um, 2019? Seriously guys, what’s up with this cryptic-ass series?
*Signs that Tracey Sketchit exists. Just show him at Oak’s lab or somewhere in this series. That’s all I ask. I will even swallow my pride and allow him to be at the Waterflower Slut Brigade in Cerulean. Just please, for the love of Arceus, show him to me. That flash in the 20th movie does not settle me. Give him to me, now! Don’t care how, I WANT IT NOW! I am the Veruca Salt of seeing Tracey again.
*Aside from Tracey, and seriously show him to me already…If at possible, update on May and Iris. Everyone else can go fuck off! These two deserve an update if Ash is doing this around the world adventure with his new boy-toy Gou. I know it may be difficult to get their voice actors back as I’m sure Aoi Yuuki’s schedule is insane and Kaori has an illness preventing her from voicing. Still! Something from those two…AND ONLY THOSE TWO FEMALES! I’m sick of Misty popping in without giving us what we want. Dawn and Serena need to go to the Pokemon version of Antartica until 2030. And unless Mallow, Lana, and Lillie make a shocking discovery, I don’t want to see them for a few years.
*CLEFABLES! Okay, yeah, that goes without saying!
*YAMPER or as I call him, Winston Corgles Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf must be seen at least once every two episodes.The opening theme doesn’t count. I want to see Winston Corgles Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf.
*Eventually spend some time in Galar and fight gym battles there. I know the Pokemon anime wants to take a sharp left turn into WTF territory, but sometimes don’t mess with the status quo and have Ash take on some gyms. Mmkay?!
*If Team Rocket and Giovanni really have to show up again, could we PLEASE finally get Ariana, Archer, Petrel, and Proton to be in the anime? Or as my friend calls them, the Stupid Sexy Rocket Execs!
*And while we’re at it, could we get an arc in this series where Ash goes to the Battle Tower in Sinnoh?
*Give James a Galarian Weezing.
*Rica Matsumoto must eventually sing an OP theme for this series. Goes without saying!
*Give Ash a Psychic type.
*I know nobody ages in this show, but please don’t keep Burnet pregnant forever. Also, if Ash decides to visit Kukui and Burnet again, I wanna see their baby.
Final category (I promise)!
IN MEMORIUM: I would like to close my review to Pokemon: Sun & Moon to talk about a certain voice that has been at the center of the Pokemon anime from day one. That was Unshou Ishizuka. If you watched the Japanese version of Pokemon, chances are you have heard this man’s voice in any episode you watch. Whether as Professor Oak or the narrator! Not only those two, but voiced Alder in the Black/White series, Samson Oak in the Sun/Moon series, several versions of the Pokedex, Magikarp Salesman, and many notable pokemon including Misty’s Gyarados, Cilan’s Stunfisk, Dawn’s Mamoswine, Ash’s Muk, Brock’s Onix/Steelix, and even Tracey’s Scyther. In August 2018, he passed away from Esophagus Cancer. So losing someone of this caliber is a huge hit to Pokemon.
I didn’t start watching the Japanese version religiously until 2006 (right around the time the dub murdered eardrums). But I was able to hear him as Onix and Gyarados early on because they had the same voice throughout the entire series run in English. But I had a lot of fun listening to him as Professor Oak when I switched to the Japanese version.  Not to mention his other roles outside the Pokemon series including Mr. Satan in the later Dragon Ball series and Grandpa Joestar on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I seriously miss him. May he rest in peace.
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butterflyskz · 5 years
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kcon ny
summary of last night’s concert
• i loved the opening special stages ateez killed sicko mode and the boyz had great formation for bad guy
• txt was first and did crown, our summer blue orangeade and cat& dog. my mom loved their dancing and i was honestly impressed since they only have one comeback out. the whole entire place did “I JUST WANNA BE A DOG WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF” it was so lit.
• younghoon and kevin came out of nowhere doing mcing. younghoon was nervous bc he keep looking at the cards and messed up a couple times but he was adorable.
• iz*one did rumor and i loved their outfits and overall my girls just adorable
• ateez came out and did aurora first I FUCKING CRIED. i said beforehand if they preform aurora I’m gonna cry and sure enough i did. Then they did wave which was so much fun, the presence they give off during their performance is really what sets them apart from other groups. I felt like the entire crowd enjoyed them very much. They moved to front stage and finished wave. Then did a little crowd interaction aka san, seonghwa and jongho songing one call away which ENDED ME. Mingi’s rap in illusion still the top and he kills it every time. Say my Name was INSANE i couldn’t believe they performed it and everyone was so energetic i screamed ATEEZ PRESENT. Hala Hala ended me bc it’s been a fav so long i know the choreo by heart so seeing it live was unreal for me.
• THE BOYZ. They performed no air and right here and i got flashbacks. It was so lit me and the girls next to me both stan them so we were dancing along and having lots of fun but man i love these boys so much. Bloom Bloom is my favorite and it was fun seeing the choreo live and i was dancing along with them.
• Iz*one did airplane, pick me, la vie en rose and Violeta. I enjoyed them bc they’re all adorable and cute and ugh i died seeing my girls especially hitomi and chaeyeon my girl crushes 🥺. They did a little segment called yes or no. First was does iz*one have telepathic ability? Three of the members had to make the same pose after a keyword. It was funny bc most of the time they didn’t get it but they lied so they would complete the mission to give gifts to the fans. Next they have to do a dance cover. If you know chaeyeon this is her thing. Her boys with luv dance was flawless and damn I’m so gay for her.
• The boyz came out and did BTS’ fire cover and KILLED I WAS SHOOK
• towards the end i was getting tired and my ears hurt bc this girl behind me was screaming WAY TOO LOUD like ear PIERCING SCREAMS. So i don’t have a lot to say for NU’EST but they’re really good dancers and i liked a lot of their songs including their unit lost stars who did a beautiful slow song. I definitely think they deserve more recognition as a group.
• in conclusion i was surprised by how it was more like a tv show with a host and mcs instead of just a concert. I had no issues getting into the venue or my seats and if i have money next year and i like the lineup I’d probably go again 💛
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wheremytwinwatches · 4 years
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[Where My Twin Watches]: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 8
*comment shared a comic shipping Sayaka and Kyoko*
What. What is this. Is shipping the Blue-haired Paladin and the Red-Haired Warrior a thing? Because I'm suddenly seeing it as a thing. Seriously that is adorable. Damn it. I'm still holding the "Letting Familiars Go" thing against her, but between her Tragic Backstory and that comic I'm now shipping the two. ...given how short my last ship was I'm suddenly worried.
And we’re back! Watching bloodstained Silhouette-Sayaka hack wildly at the the downed witch while Silhouette-Madoka and Silhouette-Kyoko watch.
Jeebus.
The labyrinth breaks down as Sayaka laughs, staring ahead wide-eyed and muttering about how “It’s easy once you know how to do it. I’m sure I’ll never lose this way.”
Sayaka. Just because you can shut off pain and use magic to heal damage to your body, does not mean that you should!
Back in the real world construction site, Sayaka picks up her first Grief Seed. Well, while I’m not happy with her new fighting style, at least she got
What’s with that creepy head tilt and glance back? Have you been taking lessons from Homura?
Why did you just throw the Grief Seed
Why did you just throw the Grief Seed to Kyoko
Argh. No no no. Sayaka, you know that you only have so much magic, right? That you are not some special Magical Girl that doesn’t need Grief Seeds to recharge? I get that you think that you’re making a point, but you just fought a Witch and used up who knows how much magic, you need to recharge more than the bystander.
So what, you gave Kyoko the Grief Seed so that you wouldn’t be in her debt? Ok fine, that’s a slightly better reason. But still, you’d better find another Grief Seed soon, so you don’t run out of mana when you really need it.
Ok, see?! You just dismissed your outfit and then had to get caught by Madoka! That fight took a lot out of you, you cannot afford to give away Grief Seeds right now! Stop being Lawful Stupid!
“That idiot…” See, Kyoko agrees with me! This is not just someone with a “me first” philosophy scoffing at charity, this is a matter of keeping up your defensive ability!
Intro of Lies
Ep 8: I was Stupid… So Stupid
Later, as it’s raining…
As a mournful cello tells us that “This is a sad moment, u guys!”, Sayaka and Madoka are sitting at a bus stop, Sayaka leaning tiredly against Madoka. Madoka’s trying to tell Sayaka that going all Blood Knight is not a good way of fighting…
“Just because you don’t feel it, it doesn’t mean it’s ok to get hurt.” Yes, exactly!
But Sayaka’s just focused on winning. If she doesn’t fight like that, she can’t win, because she “doesn’t have any natural talent.” Um, you did just start as a MG a little while ago, right? It’s really not that much of a stretch to think you’d be less able than who-knows-how-old-they-are Magical Girls.
Madoka’s still trying to get it through Sayaka’s skull that even if it works, it doesn’t mean that it’s good.
“What’s ‘good for me’?”
Uh oh.
Yup, back to “I’m this shiny gem being held right in front of your face, not the meat puppet you were just talking at.”
Sayaka’s really getting fatalistic, isn’t she? Saying that the only worth she has left in the world is killing Witches. That’s she’s a walking, talking corpse, pretending it’s still alive.
Ok, personal note. Isn’t that what all people are, if we go with the idea that souls exist? Not that I want to make Kyubey sound like he was right, but the body is not the consciousness. Yes, you should take care of your soul-container, but the body itself is not ‘alive’ in that sense. You are not dead, Sayaka, you’re just… offset? Look I’m trying to talk Sayaka out of being Lawful Stupid, give me a break.
There is so much “good that others could do for you now, Sayaka! You can still have friends, you can still enjoy things like good food and music. Heck, there’s my newest ship thanks to that comic you lot posted!
I mean, that solves all your problems right there! Kyoko can teach you to stop being so self-sacrificing and enjoy your life again, you can teach her to care about other people besides herself, and together you act as a more moderate Magical Girl duo like redwulf said. And it even answers your concern about you being so different than Kamijo now, Kyoko’s just like you, an immortal magic user!
It’s not stupid, Sayaka, stop saying that it’s-
Wait.
Ep 8: I Was Stupid… So Stupid
Um, yes! Yes it is very stupid to think about how you could be happy again, Sayaka. Keep thinking that it’s stupid until you’re proven wrong. *fingers crossed*
See, Madoka just wants to make you happy again, Sayaka. So stop making her feel like she’s a bad friend.
“Then you fight them.”
What.
Why are you telling Madoka that Bunny-Cat said that she has Protagonist Powers? Why are you telling her that she could beat Witches easily?
“If you really want to do something for me, you should experience what I’ve experienced first.”
Sayaka, stahp.
“You can’t give up being human just out of a little pity, can you?!”
Ok, that’s just unfair, Sayaka.
“In place of you, who could accomplish anything but won’t-
So don’t talk like you care, when you’ve conveniently overlooked that!”
NO. BAD SAYAKA. TIME OUT FOR YOU, YOU MADE MADOKA CRY.
AND STOP DOING THE CREEPY STARES.
Jerk-Sayaka tells Madoka not to follow her, then runs off into the rain.
Wow. Ok. That was uncalled for, Sayaka. Yes, this situation sucks, but that does not give you grounds to blame Madoka for not getting her own soul torn out!
Madoka’s left standing dumbfounded in the rain, no doubt blaming herself. Argh.
And Jerk-Sayaka runs along- crying?
“I’m so stupid…! Why did I say all that to her?”
Ah, ok. Still a jerk thing to do, but Sayaka realizes that she let her emotions get out of hand. I’m still waiting for her to apologize to Madoka, but I can understand.
Aw, no. Sayaka, you are not beyond saving. Just go back and say you’re sorry for the outburst, I’m sure she’ll forgive you.
Homura? Or a sign that says Homura? Oh, do we get to see Homura’s place now?
Whut.
Well ok. This is appropriately arcane enough for the Mysterious Transfer Student, I suppose. Glaring white walls and floor, candles everywhere, floating scrolls and some huge pendulum…
Seems that Homura’s invited Kyoko over, to go over plans for Walpurgisnact. Oh yeah, the Giant Flying Thing that should drop a Super Grief Seed, I’d almost forgotten about that. Really speaks for the intensity of the “MGs are Lichs” thing that I stopped thingking about it. How much longer until she summons the Super Witch, again?
Kyoko asks how Homura knows where it will appear, the MST says ‘Statistics’.
...what Statistics?
Homura refuses to elaborate. I’m guessing she thinks that Kyoko wouldn’t approve of a plan to actually summon a Super Witch on purpose. Still, Kyoko wants more info. And so does
Kyubey
Ok, good on you for summoning your spear that quick, Kyoko. Go ahead and kick the uninvited guest out. But Bunny-Cat says it came with some important information…
“Sayaka Miki’s deterioration is happening far quicker than I expected.”
Uh oh. So her Soul Gem’s running out of juice faster than usual?
“It isn’t just all the magic she’s using. She, herself, has begun to curse the world.”
Oh crap. I’m remembering Mami’s lesson on Witches, how they are born from Curses.
Are we going to see the Anti-Kyubey soon? I’m actually not sure how much worse they could be than Jerk Bunny-Cat, but whatever actually creates Witches… could it see Sayaka as an opportunity for recruitment?
Going back to my theory that Homura got her powers from Anti-Kyubey (since Kyubey doesn’t know where she got them from), I’m thinking that she made a Ghost-Rider deal and then proceeded to renege on it, just focus on increasing her own power and protecting Muggles who don’t actively get in her way. But if some antagonist could convince Sayaka to be more active against the “selfish Magical Girls”... Oh dear.
(“I was stupid… so stupid… to think that Magical Girls could ever be good. They are only selfish, so I will destroy them all!”)
Kyoko snaps at Bunny-Cat, saying that it’s their fault in the first place. Kyubey ignores that, and says that at this rate Sayaka will be causing them some trouble before Walpurgisnacht arrives.
Kyubey: “So watch out! I don’t want to lose any more Magical Lunch Ladies than I have to.”
Kyoko’s still a bit confused, but Kyubey suggests that she talk to Sayaka about it. And Homura already knows what he’s talking about… although it’s curious where she learned “such interesting things”.
Homura has finally had enough of Kyubey and orders it out. Kyubey just turns around and walks through some shadow out of the room.
Wait, where did it walk out again? That room’s pretty bright, the only darkness is the sides of the seats- oh, wow. Ok, so Kyubey can apparently phase through solid objects or something. No wonder it keeps showing up indoors.
Kyoko asks why Homura’s letting it go, she says that there’s no point in killing it. I’d disagree, but whatever. As for Sayaka…
“Her Soul Gem has become too tainted. If it is not purified soon, there will be no coming back for her.”
So, it’s like a corroded battery? Her Gem’s not got enough full magic-packets in it, so it’s not going to last much longer? And if she want’s to keep fighting after that, she’ll need some new power.
And transition to the classroom. Jeez, in all this drama I almost forgot they’re still middle-schoolers.
Sayaka’s absent again… And Madoka’s blaming herself for not going after her.
Now it’s later in the day and… aw crap.
Hitomi’s deadline has passed. She’s going to confess to Kamijo.
The two are walking by a huge waterfall/dam at sunset, and Kamijo is cluelessly talking about he never realized that Hitomi’s house was that direction. To which she cheerfully admits that she lives in the exact opposite direction. But she went that way today because she has something to tell him.
Madoka is talking to someone, learning that Sayaka’s not home and she hasn’t been there since yesterday… wait, Sayaka has parents?! Or at least a guardian? We haven’t seen anyone, so I was honestly assuming that she was yet another orphan.
Well, Madoka’s not going to give up yet. Off she goes to find her!
Now we’re back at the dam, watching Hitomi and Kamijo talking about something but not hearing their words. As Sayaka watches from the shadows…
Damn it. Damn it damn it damn it. She’s falling, isn’t she. She’s going from Paladin to Blackguard.
Now Sayaka’s stumbling through a dark bubbly background as her theme music is playing
Nope, now she’s screaming as she slashes through a labyrinth. She’s still trying to keep her word, kill Witches…
Sayaka, your Soul Gem is looking kinda dark. Please tell me you’ve got some Grief Seeds to recharge it by now…
Footstep? Sayaka turns around to see Homura walking through the car park towards her. Sayaka is not pleased to see her blank head tilt stare.
“Why can’t you understand? You don’t have the luxury of killing familiars.”
So that wasn’t a Witch? She still doesn’t have any Grief Seeds? Good grief, Sayaka. This is a matter of having the power to fight Witches or running out and being helpless, you need to recharge!
Sayaka rejects Homura’s advice, who only comments about how Sayaka’s Soul Gem must be at its limit and tosses a- Grief Seed! Thank you Homura, that’s just what is ne
Oh for fucks sake, Sayaka! Stop being so goddamn self-sacrificing and take it, don’t just kick it down the ramp! You will run out of magic, be unable to heal yourself from your reckless fighting, and die. Get it through your skull!
Yeah, Homura didn’t like that. Even scrunched up her mouth.
“Don’t be a fool. You’re in no position to be questioning anyone’s help right now. Or do you simply hate being rescued that much?”
Damn, Urobuchi really doesn’t like the self-sacrificing hero type, does he? Sayaka’s had nothing but bad stuff happen since she started, and now the character who’s going to basically summon a demon for more power is sounding pretty reasonable.
Now Sayaka’s saying her Heroic Creed from the after the last episode’s credits, about how she’ll be a different kind of Magical Girl. Good words, but you’ve got to take care of yourself to back them up.
To which Homura can only say “You are going to die.”
“So what if I die.” Aw. Aw Sayaka, no. “It just means I won’t be able to kill witches anymore.”
Ok, fine. If appealing to your own self-preservation isn’t working, how about these two points:
-You are completely neglecting all of the Witches you could kill in the future, all the lives that you would save, in order to go all out against the Witches and Familiars right now. If you really want to save as many Muggles as possible, to go to the extreme of “The Needs of the Many outweigh the Needs of the Few”, then you have to recognize that the lives you save now fighting recklessly cannot possibly measure up to all the lives you will save in the future if you just exercise a modicum of restraint
-If you die, Madoka will cry. Madoka will cry because of your foolishness. Don’t make Madoka cry.
If you define yourself as being “of use” or “not of use”, then recognize that you are loosing effectiveness as a Witch Hunter with this self-destructive behavior. Snap out of it!
So what if you “can’t” defeat Witches right now? You did pretty damn well against the one in the factory that almost killed Madoka and Hitomi, and you’re just starting out! Get some training under your belt and you’ll be a great successor to Mami. But not like this.
Homura can only ask “Why? All I want is to save you.” Aw, so she’s seeing Sayaka as someone to help again, after the whole “Competition for Grief Seeds” thing.
“Why can’t you trust me?” Um. Well, you kinda threatened Madoka’s family and knocked Sayaka out that one time, so…
Sayaka’s so out of it she can’t even come up with a reason that she can’t trust Homura. Other that that somehow, she knows she’s a liar?
“By looking at your eyes, I can tell you’ve given up on everything.” That she’s speaking hollow words, that even now she says she wants to help but it’s not what she’s really thinking. But she won’t fool Sayaka!... yup, Sayaka’s slipping. She needs Madoka-encouragement, stat.
Homura flips her hair and-
“You do realize that you’re just making Madoka suffer more and more?”
Hey, she’s using my second point! Lets see if it works at all.
Nope, Sayaka just says that it has nothing to do with her. Right, after your outburst at her, and the fact that she’s your best friend? Suuure it doesn’t.
“You’re wrong. Everything has to do with her.”
Bwuh? Where did this come from? Are you worried that Sayaka’s brooding will get Madoka to make a Contract, and pose a risk of getting the Super Grief Seed?
Um. Homura just transformed into Magical Girl Mode. Why did she do that?
Um. Homura just admitted that she has no desire at all to save Sayaka. She just doesn’t want Madoka to have to watch Sayaka destroy herself?
Is this Homura’s twisted “Non-Magical Girls are to be protected as best able, other Magical Girls are competition” logic?
“If you refuse my help here, there is no recourse for you but to
Oh no. no no no.
die.”
No no no NO. Sayaka. Transform. Fight back. Run away. DO SOMETHING.
“If you will make Madoka grieve more than she has…”
Running? Is Madoka showing up. Oh crap, Madoka’s going to see Homura kill Sayaka, isn’t she?
“...then I…”
Raised hand.
“...will kill you…”
Bright purple light.
“...here and now. Sayaka Miki.”
Run. Run run RUN!
Homura pulled back? What?
KYOKO!
I am so happy to see you! Character development, yes!
Kyoko the Hero yells at Sayaka to run, who… slowly gets up and shuffles off. Ok, at least she’s moving?
As for you, Homura, what the hell? Get out of that armchair, you can trade seats with Kyoko after that stunt you almost pulled.
Kyoko’s yelling at Homura now, who only says to let go of her. Oh? Oh! If Kyoko’s holding onto the MST, then she can’t use her teleportation!
But she can still do something with her shield?
Oh shit! Grenade! Kyoko quite reasonably leaps back. And that’s all Homura needs to vanish before sudden explosion.
Aw damn, it was just a flash-bang. I mean, still, ouch, but I could have sworn it looked like a classic frag grenade. I must be out of practice with shooters.
And she’s gone. Hopefully Sayaka got far enough away.
Ok good, looks like she got on a train. Although she’s having to listen to two dumbasses who are probably wearing fedoras. Strange art style, everything just black and white…
“You just can’t treat women like rational human beings.” Oh shut up.
Wait, when did Sayaka stand up?
“Hey, tell me more about her.”
Um, Sayaka?
Ok, um. Sayaka, they’re just idiots, there’s no need to go too far…
Listen, these two jerks are scum, they are not part of the world you’ve been protecting. Don’t let them spoil your view of the world.
Sayaka? Sayaka, what is happening? Why are you getting all squiggly?
Aw crap. Her magic’s finally going, isn’t it?
Madoka’s still looking for Sayaka, walking by the river.
Kyubey
. Who just appeared from the shadow of a lamppost. Was it there earlier, or is this confirmation Bunny-Cat can shadow travel?
It asks if Madoka is mad with him too. And instead of saying no, our All-Loving Heroine asks that if she was, if it would turn Sayaka back human. Damn, now you’re on even Madoka’s List, Kyubey.
Kyubey claims that it’s beyond its power to do that. Sure it is, I’m pretty sure it just doesn’t want to give up a Magical Lunch Lady any sooner than it has to.
But
Oh no
Madoka, NO.
Madoka is talking about how Kyubey once told her she could be an incredibly powerful Magical Girl.
No. No no no. Don’t do it, Madoka. We’ll talk her down, hook her up with Kyoko, anything other than that.
Kyubey is going on about how “incomprehensibly powerful” Madoka would be if she unlocked her Protagonist Powers, probably the strongest being in the show. I mean, world.
“If I had made the contract with you…”
Madoka, NO! Sayaka would have made the contract for her own Wish and to help others regardless, do not blame yourself for that!
What’s this? Kyubey doesn’t understand how Madoka’s potential could be so great? It’s on a scale that theoretically shouldn’t even be possible?
(Shades of Tephi’s “That’s not how charts work”)
Will we ever get an answer for this?
“I want someone to come explain it as much as you do.” Ergh. And now I’m torn between finding out and keeping the information away from Bunny-Cat.
So the power that Madoka could unleash could twist reality, or whatever? So her Wish could, I dunno, bring someone back from the dead? (Bring Mami back)
What, you’re saying that Madoka could “even become the god of this world”?
Wait. I’m seeing possibilities here.
If Madoka could really be that powerful, more so than any MG…
I’m picturing a world where Magical Girls are known to exist, where they don’t have to hide their powers. Maybe they could find a way to get Muggles to see Witches and stay away, recognize the threat. The Magical Girl Contract could be understood, and people who can actually give informed consent could make the choice to create Soul Gems and protect the people. (sudden mental image of cops in Magical Girl outfits, ha. Or can only women make the Contract?)
And over it all, Magical Girl Madoka Kaname, leading the growing Magical Girl movement as a team of modern-day superheroines.
Please tell me that’s where this story is going. And not that Urobuchi is going to stop all over my hopes and dreams.
Enough power to do things that Kyubey can’t or won’t do? Like grant Wishes and bring people back? (Bring Mami Back) Even turn Sayaka human again? Kyubey says that it would be child’s play for her (reinforcing my belief that he could turn her back, he just doesn’t want to).
Ergh. This is… if Madoka could really have that power…
Would it be worth trading her soul for? Or at the very least moving it outside her body?
Madoka says that it would. For Sayaka.
Well. Eight episodes into a twelve-episode show. I guess that it’s about time the main character came into her own power.
Madoka will do it. Make her into a mag
WHAT
WHAT
BUNNY-CAT IS SWISS CHEESE
WHAT
Kyubey is dead. Kyubey is dead and Madoka will never be a magical girl and Mami will stay dead and Sayaka will turn evil and
What
Homura?! What the hell?!
You just fucking killed Bunny-Cat! He was a jerk, but Madoka was about to get her powers! You just screwed Sayaka over, for what? Because you don’t want the competition?!
Oh for- this wasn’t about self-sacrifice, you psycho. Madoka was about to unlock enough power to make things better in this show. You of all people should understand that!
Ok, what the hell? I get that you consider Muggles like Madoka innocent, but you’re getting rather illogical about this. For the potential good that she could do, I think that knowingly putting her soul in a rock isn’t that bad.
What. Homura is crying. What. Why is the Vulcan showing emotion.
She’s babbling about how so many people would grieve if Madoka died.
Homura… are you…?
You’ve been trying to protect Madoka from the life of a Magical Girl. At first I saw it as wanting to prevent competition, then trying to guard the innocent little Muggle from the danger. But you were trying to protect Madoka specifically? Why would you do that, when it conflicts with your behavior?
“Have the two of us… met somewhere before…?”
Are we FINALLY going to get a damn explanation for the Vision? Like, Homura saved Madoka from a Labyrinth before and wiped her mind, or whatever?
Homura’s not saying. So Madoka’s leaving to find Sayaka.
...damn it. I almost got some damn answers here, but nope! Urobuchi is trolling me.
Instead of answers, we’re left with a bullet-riddled Kyubey, a crying Homura, and a running Madoka. And I wish I understood how we got here.
Whoa, what?!
“You knew there was no point in doing that.”
Kyubey?! You’re alive?
What the hell is that image, that silhouette balancing on the fence with red eyes.
“I have countless spares, of course, but making me use them up for no reason like this… It’s a waste.”
...what.
So Kyubey’s alive, and
OH GOD is it eating the corpse? Itself? What?
KANAYA: I Suddenly Dont Understand Anything And Am Currently Casting Sincere Doubt On The Laughable Insinuation That I Or Anyone Else Ever Actually Did For Even A Single Moment
Kyubey is a clone or whatever or what?
Homura’s gotten back to her feet and resumed her Mysterious Transfer Student attitude.
“That’s the second time you’ve killed me.”
Really? Was the first offscreen, or did I miss it?
“That was Time Magic, wasn’t it?”
Time Magic?
TIME MAGIC?!
“You’re not from this timeline, are you?”
YOU GUYS
HOMURA IS A TIME TRAVELER
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
-She knows Madoka from an alternate timeline that Madoka somehow got a glimpse of
-She’s seen all this happen before, knows where to show up and how to act to prevent things
-She could have gotten her powers from Kyubey, just not this Kyubey
-She’s fighting with the experience of two runs as as Magical Girl
-She’s acting so cold and detached because these are just counterparts of people she knew in her own timeline
-Her special ability isn’t teleporting, it’s pausing time and moving somewhere else before it resumes
That makes sense now! There’s still so much about this show that doesn’t make sense, but at least that does!
But it boils down to the fact that Homura knows what Kyubey was doing the whole time, coercing these girls into transferring their souls and becoming Magical Lunch Ladies.
...yeah, I guess that does sound pretty out there. No wonder she didn’t just outright say what it was up to.
Kyubey is being remarkable chill for recently learning his opponent has time-travel knowledge. I guess it’s pretty confident that it’s already succeeded, and even though Homura stopped him before Madoka could Contract, if it can replace bodies then it’s only a matter of time before it can catch up with Madoka and finish the deal.
But Homura is adamant that she won’t let things to according to Kyubey’s plan.
“Or should I say, ‘Incubator’?”
Incubator? What does…
Oh.
Oh shit.
Kyubey’s been storing the Grief Seeds.
Kybey’s always been around when a Witch shows up.
Son of a bitch. I kept on going on about some sort of Anti-Kyubey, who was creating Witches the same way that Kyubey was creating Magical Girls.
But if Kyubey was ‘incubating’ the Grief Seeds, planting the Grief Seeds…
Kyubey is Anti-Kyubey!
And if it’s been the one planting the Seeds…
Homura didn’t plant the hospital Seed, you did!!!
You son of a bitch! You killed Mami!
What, we’re just leaving it at that?! No way, we are going to get that thing to confess and
Oh wait, it’s Sayaka at a train station. Ok good, we found you. Let’s just get you home and talk this out. We need to discuss Operation ‘Kick Kyubey’s Butt’.
Oh hey, Kyoko found her! Guess Madoka’s still on the way. Kyoko takes a seat next to Sayaka and jokingly asks about how long she’s going to keep acting like Batman. Sayaka apologizes for making Kyoko look for her. Which confuses Kyoko. Where’s the brash Ally of Justice that she’s been fighting?
Sayaka says that she just can’t care about anything anymore, that she can’t remember what she thought was worth protecting… yup, this is classic Falling Paladin. Quick, somebody try to kick a puppy in front of her so she gets all “Justice Will Be Upheld” again.
Kyoko’s just chowing down on some potato chips during all this.
Sayaka’s pulled out her Soul Gem, and geez that is looking pretty freaking dark. How much longer before it’s completely empty and she can’t use magic anymore? Now she’s talking about how hope and despair balance back out to zero, throwing Kyoko’s words back at her. Ouch.
Yes, you saved people, Sayaka! Never forget that! But… then you started feeling resentment and hatred. Um. And hurt your best friend.
“For as much happiness as we wish on one person, we can’t help but curse someone else.” Oh come on, that’s not true! There’s… ok, give me a minute, I’m sure I can think of an example where someone doing good didn’t backfire on them in this show…
Ah! Mami saving the person who fell off the building! That was a good act that didn’t hurt her!
Aw no. Don’t cry Sayaka. Look, I know that things seem bad, but we can get past this. You can…
“I was stupid… so stupid.”
Whoa what the hell?
WHAT THE HELL THERE ARE FLASHING LIGHTS AND KYOKO JUST WENT FLYING
Sayaka. Sayaka your Soul Gem is cracking. I am fairly certain that your Soul Gem should not be cracking something that contains a soul should never break
Your Soul Gem just broke
That
That is a Grief Seed
Your Soul Gem just turned into a Grief Seed
What
What
“Sayaka!”
I… what…
Construction site.
“In this country, half-grown women are called “girls”, right?”
No. No no no no NO NO NO
“In that case, it’s appropriate that you, who will one day grow into Witches, should be called ‘Magical Girls’.”
what.
...after credits chibi-ish picture of Mami, Homura, Madoka, Sayaka , and that red-eyed ALWAYS SMIRKING MANIPULATIVE LITTLE-
Homura: “Maybe I’m being a fool, but until I know for sure whether she can or can’t be saved, I don’t want to give up.”
Episode 9: I’d Never Allow That To Happen
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zukadiary · 6 years
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Arch of Triumph / Gato Bonito!! ~ Snow Troupe 2018
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I feel a bit weird writing this up after only day 2 of the run, because I’m sure the troupe is still very much warming up... but this is when I happened to be here. Yukigumi fan life has not been ideal for me since Chigi’s retirement and this was BALM FOR THE WOUNDS in unexpected ways. Beware of spoilers.
Arch of Triumph
I happen to really like the original version of this show (from back when Tom was Yukigumi’s actual top star), but despite that the primary emotion I felt re: this show choice, as a Daimon fan who has to travel 7000 miles to see her, was saltiness at the stolen lead. I anticipated suffering through this and prayed that Fujii-sensei would carry the experience for me entirely, so I was truly taken aback by how much I loved Gaisenmon. 
There is a pretty long summary on the Takawiki page, and the original is also available from TIP with subtitles.
Just objectively as a show, it’s so beautiful, and it’s beautiful in ways that I didn’t know about at all because you can’t see them on the recording. It’s a dark story and the set is kept fairly dark as well, so all the meticulously colored lights and gobos and gorgeous rain effects dissolve into unintelligible black fuzz on an 18-year-old Sky Stage video. From the second floor you can also appreciate the incredible fluidity of the set rotations and scene changes along with the amazing choreography, of which there is A LOT. It’s a really impressive feat of direction; I am (despite my Takarazuka-related fervor) not a well-versed technical theater person at all and the artistry of it still struck me as something really special. The music is also gorgeous; it’s a very moving show, but I don’t like the main characters as people enough to cry from the culmination of the story... however, the reprise of main song, delivered in beautiful powerful troupe harmony as the curtain fell, murdered me, and I burst into tears on shonichi.
My main worry, especially considering that we have a guest lead and I adore Yukigumi as a whole with all my heart, was that it’s a very top-heavy show. Yesterday I was SO pleasantly surprised at how well-balanced it felt compared to my expectations; today, unfortunately, I felt the same from my vantage point but also realized it will probably feel just as top-heavy as the original on DVD. A sizable portion of the other main players’ stage time comes from beautiful but wordless dance scenes. But despite the light usage of most of the troupe I actually felt better than I did watching Robespierre. Everyone may be on stage less, but I felt like their characters were more lovingly crafted and very distinct from each other even with the simplest backstories. 
My two biggest gripes about Tom swooping in are 1) they often like to pretend she is still 25 which she is distinctly not and 2) in what I’ve seen recently I felt like she and the troupe she’s borrowed were acting separately from each other. I think a big reason why Gaisenmon worked for me is neither of those things applied. While there were a few insertions to balance the stage time a little better, the show is largely the same as the original, yet there is nothing in it that suggests Ravic—a surgeon who escaped Germany as the Nazis came into power—is any specific age, and he works at any age... specifically, even a large age difference between Ravic and Joan is totally reasonable and believable. Against the chaotic backdrop of refugee-laden pre-war Paris, an older doctor and a younger aspiring actress could absolutely meet and fall in love. Tom also meshed with the troupe a lot better than I expected. There’s no way to sugarcoat how shot her singing voice is, but damn the woman can act, and her otokoyaku mannerisms (stage kisses in particular) definitely show her long years of practice. 
Kiichan slayed, I thought she was even better than Tsukikage Hitomi. Joan is a REALLY HARD role; she’s practical out of necessity but a bit frivolous at heart, and she’s in love but also struggles to differentiate between actual love and the fear of being alone in an increasingly dangerous world. It doesn’t sound like it in writing but in execution it’s really easy for her to come off as weak, clingy, and annoying, when she’s actually a very nuanced character. Kiichan hit all the right notes, she didn’t appear intimidated at all by Tom, and even their romance seemed totally natural for the aforementioned reasons. Her sudden lovesickness could have been so one-note but I felt the tinge of anxiety behind it throughout the whole show, and I was so impressed by that. There is a scene of misunderstanding between Joan and Ravic at a cafe that in a way triggers the unfortunate events that occur thereafter, and it’s gut-wrenching, especially on a second viewing when you can watch it unfold with the knowledge of what’s coming. Her death scene is also extremely intense.
Salty as I am, I LOVE the role of Boris for Daimon. I’ve been feeling like I’ll explode if I have to see her do another sad French play, but after watching this somehow it wound up exempt. The story is heavy and all of the characters are struggling, but amidst the turmoil Boris is a calming presence, refreshingly level-headed and quite positive in a lot of ways (EDIT: in chatting in the comments the words I wanted but couldn’t find at 3am came out: he’s definitely got a cynical edge to him as well, but it was kind of like his cynical view of the world freed him up emotionally to be quietly supportive of the other characters’ problems... I think that’s what I mean by positive). And I can’t even express HOW LOVELY it was to see Daimon play THAT CHARACTER for a change, how fulfilling not to just watch her suffer for an hour and a half. Boris is in the story himself but also the narrator. In the story bits, he’s cool and reliable and there’s a really heartwarming sense of purity in the way he freely shows his emotions. Daimon seems to enjoy over the top acting just fine, but it’s her roles that rely on subtle facial expressions and body language that absolutely kill me—this was the latter. In the narration bits, she weaves an intricate tapestry with her voice. As I said every detail of the direction is intentional and beautiful, but so much of the mood also comes from the emotion in Daimon’s singing, not only in the actual songs (one of which she sang in probably incorrectly but nonetheless tantalizingly pronounced French, ugh ♥), but also particularly when she hums background tunes as other bits of action are taking place. She barely moves and her voice is so soft and yet STILL it reverberates throughout the entire theater somehow, like it flutters into every corner. And she was so beautiful, she worked the hell out of some costumes that definitely wouldn’t be flattering on everyone. I’m TEARING UP right now, my heart is so full. 
Here’s where things get bit eh for some people and downright unfortunate for others. Saki and Shou barely had anything to do, although I understand why they were relegated to those roles versus the Aasa, Hitoko, Kari group which although comprised of very distinct characters still felt like a single unit in a way. After a bit of prologue choreography Saki doesn’t show up until past the halfway point. She’s Henri, the handsome but creepy and possessive movie producer who lands Joan some acting jobs and then also shoots her in a fit of jealousy. She really only has two notable short scenes toward the end, when Henri first tries to coerce Joan into staying with him and then comes to Ravic pleading for her life after shooting her. Shou is a sexy doctor who talks on the phone sometimes. 
The Aasa/Hitoko/Kari group, however—and, tangentially, Asu, Manaharu, Michiru, Kiwa, and Agata Sen—shone more than I expected remembering the original group (our legendary Yukigumi 3兄弟 Touko/Komu/Naruse Kouki). While they also only had a few scenes to themselves, those scenes were some of my favorites, and they’re the ones who got to decorate the outskirts of the other scenes’ action with beautiful dancing. Aasa is the only one whose role I’d call a step back from Robespierre, but only because she was my Robespierre MVP, and she was still wonderful as the more subdued Jaime. I felt distinct forward momentum from everyone else. Hitoko was absolutely adorable and injected way more into Rosenfeld than Komu did (which I can say even with the ultimate bias on my side), and Kari was truly outstanding, I could melt just looking at her and I’m so glad she landed a role with that kind of prominence. The whole Hotel International group just had so much humanity. 
Final shout outs go to Niwa who I love unconditionally in every role she plays but particularly here for a) A+ slimy awful Gestapo officer and b) the novelty of Kouju Tatsuki squeeing OMG YOU WERE KEN-2 IN THE ORIGINAL AND NOW YOU’RE SCHNEIDER?! in the talk show; and Miho Keiko who I was SURE they stuffed into Gaisenmon because Fujii-sensei demanded her presence in his show as usual, leaving me quite dumbfounded when she wasn’t in Gato Bonito at all. It wasn’t a role that one of our many boss beautiful perfect upperclassmen musumeyaku couldn’t have done, but nonetheless her presence leant some more gravitas to the show in addition to balancing out Tom a bit.
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Gato Bonito!! had the opposite effect on me initially. I expected to dislike Gaisenmon and it wowed me, and then it wowed me twice over because that feeling of your expectations being so far exceeded is wonderful. Meanwhile I’ve been laying in bed at night screaming DAISUKEEEEEEEE into the darkness for months, praying he’d deliver me a perfect trilogy of HOT EYES!!, Santé!!, and now THIS!! (boy he loves double exclamation points doesn’t he). 
Well, it sure wasn’t HOT EYES. But in retrospect, that’s a damn high bar. After watching Gato Bonito today with my expectations in a reasonable place, I liked it more... especially when I think about how SUPER VOYAGER was everything I never want to see in a revue ever again tied up in one neat package, and this, in contrast, was a lot of things I want to see very much.
From the start I liked or loved all of the scenes individually, but something about the show as a whole didn’t come together for me, and after two viewings I think I have some idea of why. The sets and backdrops were off for me, in a way that I did not think could have such a large effect on the show’s overall vibe. Most revues will have a big eye-popping scene, then they’ll close the curtain and have people dance in front of it for a short transition, then open it again to another eye-popping scene. There’s a nice rise-climax-break-repeat flow. But there were so many scenes in Gato Bonito where they’d drop a curtain down, have a dance in front of it, then drop A DIFFERENT THING down and have a dance in front of that, and I just felt like I was being constantly led toward a climax that never came. When they did open up the whole stage I found the sets really spread out and airy, such that it felt as if no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t fill the stage with enough people. They were also FLAT, like literally flat on the floor, not enough gradated pieces with people standing atop them to fill the back as well as the ground. I might feel differently when I watch it from the first floor, but for now I think some pretty small adjustments could have given it overall more impact.
Also, WAAAAAYYYY too many LITERAL CATS for my taste.
THAT SAID, boy this was SO MUCH of what I love to see out of Daimon. It was hot and extra and the music was amazing and she got to stand there making these burning faces and do TRULY UNFATHOMABLY STUPID THINGS WITH HER VOICE and flamenco and tango and all that jazz. Everyone was melting pile of orange goo no thanks to the weather and the insufficient air conditioning, but other than that there were even enough good costumes to balance out those ruffle abominations (you know the ones) that of course showed up a bit. Saki was ON FIRE, I know I said I was tired of riding the Saki coaster but oops here we go up another hill. They made up for shafting her in Gaisenmon with a loooooot of juicy revue time. She’s gotten so good at emoting through her dance, she was just dynamic and sexy and 150% energy from start to finish. Kiichan has a little ways to go to catch up with everyone in her Latin dancing but there was already a really noticeable improvement between shonichi and today. 
Highlights:
Argentine tango to Yo Soy Maria ft. Daimon singing in Spanish, guessing by the lack of bedazzling on the suits that that was the ANJU-sensei scene. When the curtain opened on all the otokoyaku just mingling in the dark smoky background it PHYSICALLY HURT (it also began with all our boss beautiful perfect upperclassmen musumeyaku in slinky dresses)
There’s a scene with Saki, Shou, Aasa, and Hitoko taking turns grinding on Daimon in the world’s tackiest bodysuits, but there was something so inexplicably hot about the drag + otokoyaku hair despite the melting orange goo and poor Saki and Aasa absolutely drowning in their own sweat
The chuuzume starts with a conga line across the ginkyou, and EVERY PERSON IN THE TROUPE comes out in single file in rank order, it was A LOT for my Yukigumi-loving heart
Kiichan gets to do stuff, Daisuke is aware we have a top musumeyaku which is apparently a challenge for some people
Daimon enters from the back of the first floor singing Kuroneko no Tango at one point and when she reaches the stage there’s a daily “ad lib” (in quotes because I’m sure she’s already written them all down and rehearsed them ad nauseam), but her ad libs are so dumb I love her
ASU GOT A WHOLE SONG
I forgot to pay close enough attention through the applause today to grab the exact words, but I’m like 90% sure the final lyrics as Daimon is descending the stairs in the parade are something she also referenced in her +act interview right when she became top (I don’t have the magazine on me but I translated it as “we can live through today for the sake of tomorrow and for the sake of living tomorrow we can stand firmly right here today”). She was talking about the “soul of flamenco” and that being something that turned her whole outlook around during Don Juan, so I thought it was REALLY SWEET they threw that in as a nod to her continuing to grow. Haha nope, after 4 viewings I'm sure I was wrong, but I like my idea better Hankyu pls hire me
Did I mention her dumb stupid voice? I know Robespierre was literally written for her by a Broadway composer but for me there was no comparison; in both acts it danced and changed and filled the theater in ways that don’t seem like they should be physically possible. Like this is the ????th time I’ve seen Daimon live and I was still just absolutely slain by all the heretofore unheard things her voice can apparently do. 
I’m whole and healed and so surprised and delighted I didn’t have to wait till 2019 for that to happen. 
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usaghinanami99 · 6 years
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@pichipichiparadise  Didn't I say you should be prepared for this? Well, here it comes! I hope I spelt all the titles right 'xD And sorry in advance for any grammar mistakes, I always do my best when I write in foreign languages but I'm just your average teenage fangirl who loses all of her reason before what she loves the most. Before starting, I should say that I love both slow romantic ballads and fast-paced pop songs on an even level, so I don't think I am too biased towards any of the two genres; truth to be said, MM offers some great pieces for both types of music, and I like all of them. Now, here's what you were all waiting for, i. e. my complete ranking of all the songs from the anime Mermaid Melody!
48) Ai no ondo Sorry, but it's just a big "no" for me. The tune is so irritating that it somehow annoys me to listen to it. 47) Koi wa nandarō? Urgh. Same as before. Irritating tune and even more irritating singer – it's higher on the list just thanks to some passages in the lyrics which make me think of some sort of sexual innuendo, and since I am both a hopeless romantic and a huge pervert, I vastly appreciate it XD 46) Oh, yeah! Alala Does this remind you of exaggeratedly cute idol songs? Because it's the impression it gives me, and it's not a good one. (OK, I'm overdoing, there are definitely some idols I like, but Jpop rarely clicks with me if it's not related to anime in some way) 45) Splash dream! Er... this is getting boring, but I just cannot stand Asumi Nakata's voice 'xD However, this is where the tunes stop being outright irritating for me, and it's just a matter of them failing to catch my heart. 44) Aurora no kaze ni notte I'm on shortage of comments already, I guess I'll just say that Ema Kogure sounds like a 2 year-older and that I keep on forgetting how the tune goes. 43) Star! Meromero heart Irritating singer, forgettable tune, stupid lyrics (I know it's done on purpose, but still). On with the next one. 42) Mother symphony OMG, I feel guilty for puttin your favourite song so low! Actually, I must admit that I've never thought about the lyrics the way you put it, and maybe reading your comment will help me appreciate this song a bit more ^^ However, this spot is where the songs start being just boring and uninteresting to me instead of plain unsufferable, so it's still something... I guess? 41) Nanatsu no umi no monogatari – Pearls of mermaid As I said, boring and forgettable and little else. I think I've already lost half of my readers by now. 40) Birth of love Really? Did they waste Eri Kitamura's talents to make her sing this so-so piece? That's a crime on my book! 39) Piece of love I said I love love songs, but that's simply an understatement: I am a literal sucker for slow, deep, emotional songs about feelings and such. But this... what I can see is that it tried to be a romantic piece but failed miserably and ended up being a mere yawn-inducing song. I'm not exaggerating, I really find it sleep-inducing! In this sense, it low-key reminds me of A dream is a wish your heart makes, lol. But I feel the need to repeat that I absolutely adore romantic ballads if done right, in fact the main theme from Beauty and the Beast is my single best favourite song in the whole freaking world, OK? But there's a clear limit between "romantically slow" and "sleepily slow", and this songs trespass it. 38) Mizuiro no senritsu I have a sensation that composing more upbeat songs is easier, because there can't be the risk to have your listeners fall asleep, or is it just me? In fact, this makes nice for a Jpop song... it's just that I'm not that big a Jpop fan to start, and the idols I do follow, such as Momoiro Clover Z, I do so just because they have sung songs from animes I love. I guess this song is somehow OK, it's just a matter of me not connecting with it. 37) Portami con te OK, finally here's what I think is the worst Italian song – in case you started thinking I was biased and would put all the Italian songs on top... well, you wouldn't exactly be wrong about the bias part, but still. For me, this song is just on the limit between "nice romantic slow songs" and "boring as heck slow songs": one day I find it sweet, the other day I think it is simply too slow. But what really made me decide to put it low in the list is the fact that it's a mere rearrangement of Yume no sono saki e instead of a completely new piece of music, thus making it the sole and only non-original song from the Italian dub... which is not cool. Definitely not cool. 36) Yume no sono saki e I really have the same opinion about this song and the last one, due to them being so terribly similar, but I decided to give this the higher spot because I'll be eternally pissed that they decided to use an already-existing base to arrange Portami con te, and that's not something I could ever forgive 'xD 35) Daijina takarabako (slow version) I think this could make for a nice lullaby. What else could I say? It's cute and it manages to be slow without being boring; now, I don't consider it to be necessarily unforgettable, but here we're starting heading for the better. 34) Hana to chō no serenade This is the perfect LanHua song, full stop: it's just as haunting, hypnotizing and mysterious as it should be, with that exotical feel to the tune that spices it up. And it is even better in French! It may seem to be too low in the list to be a song I like, but these are just the songs that I find to be good but not great. 33) Kibō no Kaneoto – Love goes on Now that's a pretty battle song! True, it may not be at Sera Myu level (but then, very few can compare to the eternal goddess Akiko Kosaka), but I admire the fact that it manages to be both sweet and relatively upbeat at the same time. 32) Concerto d'amore "Good but not great" is again all I can say about this one, so I'll add that I'm very disappointed by the fact that the second half of the song has never made it to the series proper and is therefore only present in the CD version – which is a shame, because I think that is where the song gets better. The tune is nice enough, but maybe it's overused, in the sense that it always plays whenever a radio is on during the show, which sometimes feeds me up; but it isn't a boring song, definitely not. 31) Voce del buio OK, I'll admit that the concept is good: this villain song wanted to be suffocating and practically impossible to forget, and it succeeded perfectly – that's the type of melody that just can't get out of your mind after one single listening. But there's too much rap for my taste and, though the contrast between the tune of the stanzas and that of the refrains is amazing, it somehow comes off as "I recognize is good, but it's not exactly my genre". 30) Ever blue Man, this song used to be so much lower in my list! The thing is, I just couldn't make myself listen to it without suffering terribly xD But then I heard the French version and I finally understood that it was just a case of me hating Hitomi Terakado with a passion that prevented me from appreciating the song! In fact, thanks to other foreign dubs (such as the Portuguese ones, but really, each one of them is better than the Japanese), I discovered thatt with a decent singer, it actually turned out to be a pretty song, and I'm more persuaded than ever now that the Cosplay Singers have just released their cover! I'll never understand why they tend to cast chipmunks instead of voice actors in Japan, but whatever. 29) Super love songs! Nice, clean, pleasing song of the more upbeat scale, with a catchy refrain: that's how I like my Jpop. 28) Daijina takarabako Even I cannot understand how can I like a solo by Asumi Nakata, whom I honestly detest, but I guess that when the melody enchants you, miracles can happen. Good job! 27) Legend of mermaid I think I can't say anything about this song that hasn't already been said xD Well, I like it but don't love it; I can only add that the instrumental intercourses in between the singing parts come off as really annoying to me, I think I don't enjoy the way they are arranged that much. 26) Ashita ga mienakute OMG this song. This song. This song. OK, sorry, let me rephrase that: as a 9 year-older watching Pure on TV, I was at best indifferent about Mikaru's feelings, and even partially blaimed her for the pain Lucia was suffering. Growing up, I melted out towards the character and, while I'll always be on Lucia's side when it comes to the love triangle stuff, as a middle-schooler I undertood that nothing of the love drama was Mikaru's fault. Some years ago, when I started using the Internet, I discovered that the Japanese dub of the anime had different songs from the Italian one, and was literally blown away upon first listening this one. A song sung by a handicapped girl my age who mourned about her solituted and sufference was, like, so much akeen to me as a person that it seems a strange coincidence. Add to that that I loved seeing depressed characters, because it helped me find my own depression a little less terrible. I've grown out of that phase now, mostly thanks to me having changed school, but this song holds a special place in my heart, and if I were to make a ranking of the most relatable songs I've ever listened to, this would come third after Belle and Let it go. 25) Tsubasa wo daite As lost in my thoughts as I were, I haven't mentioned the fact that both songs have got enchanting melodies (and I thought this even before knowing of the songs, because I absolutely loved the instrumentals that played when Mikaru and Mikeru spelt out their poems in the Italian dub). This version gains a higher place because, while Mikeru is less relatable than Mikaru, Junko Minagawa is a much better singer. Ah, and it's a song sung by a character who laments his condition and talks long about his feelings, which is exactly my cup of tea. 24) Kodō – Perfect harmony We're getting better and better with the battle songs! Here's another catchy one, but I'm afraid I haven't got much else to say about this. 23) Ankoku no tsubasa This is another case of the French version making me appreciate the song more than before – seriously, though, just listen to it! I really dig the style taken here, it screams "sexy villain" from every note and it's done so damn right. 22) Kizuna And here comes my favourite Japanese battle song! The thing is, I really dig the refrain but cannot say the same about the stanzas, so I decided to even it out putting it around the middle. What is more interesting to me, though, is that this song was clearly the basis used to compose Eternal eternity for the 3rd season of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, which makes it again more important. I know what I said before about me disapproving of rearrangements, but what can I do when one is just so unbelievably good? (Because yes, I indeed prefer Eternal eternity. Kill me now.) 21) Sekai de ichiban hayaku Asa ga kuru bashō Have I said how much I like sweet lullabies yet? Because I love them. I've got no more to say. 20) La nostra forza (rearrange) My first reaction upon hearing this on the CD was like "OMG how dare they ruin one of my favourite songs", but with time I learnt to understand that this style actually fits LanHua more than the regular version would have. Though I don't think I have to point out that the one sung by the BBS and Alala is far better. 19) Mermaid Melody – Principesse Sirene There's a complex love-hate relationship between me and this song, and it depends on how much weigth I put on each aspect of it: if I concentrate on the tune, I find it to be a great song worth of the glorious tradition of Italian OPs; if I concentrate on the rest, though... I really can't understand how they could come up with the idea of casting a 14 year-older to sing it, and this is without mentioning the absurdly stupid lyrics it features. Maybe this is what leads me to enjoy the karaoke version so much. 18) Legend of mermaid (slow version) What can I say, if not that it's cute and pretty and sad and everything else? I don't like Asumi Nakata and Hitomi Terakado's versions one bit, but Kana Ueda saves the song for me. And the instrumentals are far better than those of the original version. 17) Ai no kiseki Another awesomely sad and emotional song sung by Kana Ueda – see the pattern here? It's the type of song that really makes you cry, and I live for that. 16) Return to the sea Closing Kana Ueda's section, and at the same time opening the sequence of the songs that I outright love, comes Sara's awesome image song, which is tremendously catchy and terribly depressing at the same time. That's the magic of music (and cartoons) for you. 15) Taiyō no rakuen – Promised land That's exactly the type of Japanese OP that clicks with me for its catchyness, and well... What can one say about Miyuki Kanbe, apart from being sorry over her tragedy? She's incredible. She's an excellent musical actress and a perfect Usaghi (though to be fair, my best favourite is and will always be Anza Ōyama, no matter what, with Miyuki being a close second). Her singing is gorgeous and, as a sidenote, she's the person that made me realize that not all nasal voices are terrible – quite the contrary, on her case. 14) Beautiful wish This. Song. Is. Just. Perfect. Especially in French (but I guess you're tired of me saying that, uh?), but Eri Kitamura rules, too. This melody is just too perfect and it would deserve to be no. 1, if only there weren't some songs which are even more perfect imo. 13) Rainbow notes It's like the first OP, but even better: the catchyness has been brought up to eleven and Miyuki is as freaking skilled as always, and she'll be dearly missed forever. 12) Before the moment Sorry everyone, but the prize is going to the Pure OP for me (please don't kill me!). Not that I prefer Eri over Miyuki (though I love them both so much), but it just... well, listen to it. That music. 11) Star jewel Rina rocks and this song shows it excellently! And Mayumi Asano is the only one from the main trio who sounds like a real human being, so that's a plus. There's some pure awesomeness here. 10) Dolce melodia To think that, when I was a kid, I reckoned this song was just too much. I mean, not even for an instant did I dislike it (the contrary, in fact), but I found it to be so overused that it started tiring me, to the point of getting on my nerves. Now that I'm older, I've understood that beautiful things are always beautiful and can just get better every time you enjoy it again. Now I can listen to this song on repeat more than a dozen times in a round and always recognize it for the true masterpiece it is. (Except for Caren's version, that is – Rossella Liberti's voice is just something I can't stand.) 9) Kuro no Kyōsōkyoku – Concerto That is, the perfect villain song. Villain songs are really the best songs in the Japanese dub. I don't know what to add. Oh, wait... 8) Yami no baroque ...What do you mean, there's an even more perfect villain song? This show is just too much and it's so beautiful it's killing me, but I'll gladly die with Mermaid Melody if I must. 7) La nostra forza OK, the Japanese version definitely wins in the lyrics department, but the music here is just too prefect for it to be any lower. 6) Ritorno all'oceano Pure awesomeness and nothing more. Denise Misseri's version is gold and Francesca Daprati's is diamond, but there's really nothing else to say. 5) Battito d'amore Please don't judge this basing on the CD version, because the duet between Valentina Ponzone and Claudia D'Ulisse can't even remotely compare to the many stunning versions heard in the TV series. Battle song at its finest. 4) Fantastica poesia Battle song at its ultimate finest, i. e. The very best battle song ever! With the addition of some sexual innuendos to spice up the lyrics, how much better can it get? 3) Stella preziosa This. This better. It's a telltale sign the fact that I just can't bring myself to choose which I prefer between Francesca Daprati's version and Elisabetta Cavalli. 2) Assoluto amore I can't say anything else, I'm afraid. Perfect music, great lyrics and Valeria Caponnetto to do the goddesses' job. I'm in heaven. 1) Dolce melodia (orgel version) A sadly emotional arrangement of a great song? Yes, please. This song is too perfect and it's too much for my heart to bear, to the point that I'm not even listening to it as of now and I'm already crying just at the thought. Sung by Denise Misseri it's a masterpiece, but sung by Valeria Caponnetto it's the greatest tragic song ever.
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mollymerula · 6 years
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can i get a freakin uhhhhhh list of everything you love about each aqours girl
i’m sure to forget some things but here is what i can think of
chika: mikan??? she’s a literal mikan full of energy and orange power. i love how she never gives up it’s very inspiring and i love her ahoge
dia: she is such a good big sister i love her. also she has like a militaristic enthusiasm when it comes to planning and training and i admire that. she is so beautiful i love her mole and her eyes that can be powerful OR kind. i rly like her hair clips??? and her theme color is so gorgeous!! that shade of red is one of my Power Colors. also the way she smiles that makes it look like she knows everyone’s secrets but won’t tell anyone. also her voice is so strong and i love the thing she does where sometimes when she’s singing she just TOTALLY goes for it and her voice gets a lil wild i love it so much
hanamaru: she is so soft and strong??? i love how she supports ruby and how she is always eating bread or other food bc she looks like she’s having such a good time. i like how her voice is rly soft but also can be very rich and beautiful when she has solos!!! fun fact this is the exact moment hanamaru shot up from Fav Tier 3 to Fav Tier 2 from 1 single shot. zura!!!
kanan: i love her!!! i love her!! in season 1 she had like No Time but in season 2 she is getting rly good development and i loved happy party train so much. i love how she has kind eyes and is really supportive of her friends!! her voice is so special and u can always hear her smiling when she sings. it sounds like she has something she knows will make u happy that she can’t wait to tell u
mari: i lov her so much !! i love her delivery of some lines like when she just does a flat “what.” her singing voice is so bubbly and fun like she absolutely embodies the Smile attribute especially in her higher range? and then her subunit songs are like so hardcore and metal i love them so much. also her eye shape is so pretty!!! mari is the most recent figure i added to my desk collection (she got here on like wednesday and i love her so much)!! also i love how sometimes she softens her Rs it gives her such a cute accent
riko: her hair is so pretty!! i love how u look at riko and u kind of think maybe like “here is a prim and posh girl” but she has like a fun adventurous side too. i love her yellow eyes!! and i loved the recent ep where she’s starting to get over her fear of dogs i’m so proud of her!!! ok i know this was technically not like Canon Character Riko but u probably know my most very favorite thing about riko…it was during the first aqours live where she broke down during the omoide performance on day 2 but everyone cheered her on and she tried again and did perfect. it was so amazing!!!!!!!!! i literally tear up every single time i think about that and i’ve just like accepted it as part of riko’s storyline. she is so brave i love her!!!!!!
ruby: ruby is Very Special bc she reminds me of u mary and i love her A LOT. she’s like so shy and relatably socially anxious at first but she’s getting like so brave and radiant??? her voice is so cute and squeaky!! i love her fashion sense when she wears casual clothes and also i cry from cuteness every time she goes PIKI!!!!!!!!!!!!! she’s so adorable i love her hair color and also she has really long beautiful eyelashes if you look closely!! also i love how her eyes are the same color as dia’s!!! she’s so cute i love her
yoshiko: i love her voice so much??? also her hair bun is adorable. honestly the 2 biggest reasons that yoshiko has gone from Fav Tier 4 to Fav Tier 2 this year are this solo in Kimi no Hitomi o Meguru Bouken (which is an absolute Jam in its entirety and easily in my top 10 aqours songs) and the Corn Yoshiko UR which i have been BLESSED WITH AND NOW OWN. anyway in season 1 i kind of viewed her as a one-dimensional char based on like 1 trait and now i appreciate her so much more?? please keep singing yoshiko
you: i love her??????????? she’s in Fav Tier 1 with dia but u know that already of course. i relate so much to her fixation with uniforms and nautical themes (actually she has influenced my fashion sense and thanks to her and josuke’s combined efforts i now own a lot of things with anchors on them). i love her hair color like it’s not a normal Anime Color but it’s so pretty?? and i love when she wears her glasses bc they match mine and she looks so cute!!! her eyes are so pretty and i love the energy she has and the focused stare she gets when she looks at texts from her friends kksdkfsdlfj it’s very relatable…also her voice is so??? beautiful??? it sounds SO strong and confident i am tearing up just thinking about it. her voice is the one i can always hear IMMEDIATELY no matter how many other people are singing (jingle bells ga tomaranai comes to mind) and her solos are such a blessing. she has a few like…background lines ? in some cyaron songs and they make me so happy. also i love how she salutes everyone!! she has a very comforting aura and i love her. i feel cheated bc she missed being a taurus by three (3) days and we almost match
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phamimi-blog · 6 years
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Produce 48 Concept Evaluation Review/Opinion
**SPOILER WARNING**
If you haven’t watched episode 10 or the concept performance clips on MnetOfficial Youtube channel, you’ve been warned! -------------------------------------------------------------------- The anticipation leading up to this episode was WOAH. I mean, no joke, I played the little samples of each concept song over and over and over again. And when that wasn’t enough, I watched their practice clips over and over and over again. Even that wasn’t enough though cause I needed to hear the songs in the trainee’s voices. Let’s be honest, the demo voices used in “1000%” and “Let’s Meet Again” were excruciatingly squeaky and mousy and just plain unpleasant to hear. 
Mnet just uploaded the clips to their official Youtube channel and I pounced on those clips like ... like a hungry person on a plate of food? I don’t know; I’m bad with analogies but I’m sure you get the point. Let’s just get straight to the review: TO REACH YOU: Absolutely stunning and beautiful and everything I never knew I needed in my life! Unpopular opinion but I loved the dresses. I’ve heard people compare them to children’s dresses and such but I thought they really captured the innocence that the concept is all about. And all the girls had long hair that they wore down which was so good. This performance was just soooo goooood. Chowon did a great job as center (I also really love the tone of her voice) and Yuri, as always, has such a strong vocal. In the last episode, when they were recording the song, the composer of the song mentioned that Goeun has a problem with rhythm which wasn’t something I noticed until this performance. She definitely seemed half a second faster than she should be. Her high note reminded me a lot of Yuri’s high note in Energetic but a bit less stable. I wish Nako were given more lines cause I feel like her tone matched the song the best out of everyone. And then Gyuri ... I had no idea she was even in this group until I saw the performance and even then, was she really even there? Of all the times previously where Mnet gave her the favorite child treatment (or tough love on a favorite child treatment), she had maybe 2 solo shots??? What even? Did they give up on her? I’m not sure if it was a result of her not having much presence in the performance that she didn’t get as many solo shots or if her not having many solo shots made her have less of a presence.  Either way, I honestly think she may as well have joined a different group altogether cause she was basically invisible. Perhaps she would’ve done better in the Rollin’ Rollin’ concept? ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’ Either I don’t get the tempo of this song or everyone was kind of rushing through it. Nayoung honestly killed this concept! She’s so cute and sweet and I’m glad she got to showcase her vocal prowess with this song! Hitomi, of course, fit this cute concept really well too. I don’t really know how to feel about Wonyoung? Lately I’ve been feeling like she’s way too overhyped for no reason. Yeah, she’s good at being center but that’s such old news now and somehow, I don’t think it felt quite right with her in center for this performance. It felt a bit forced to me. Some knetz were saying (before the episode came out) that Doa had such a change in concept from her last performance that her performance in this song was a bit jarring. I can understand that a bit. I think she excels at girl crush type songs and this just wasn’t the right concept for her. However, concept voting started before the position evaluation episodes were released so no one really knew where she belonged prior to that. Before I forget, let’s talk about the outfits. Knetz were saying their outfits were the worst of the night but I think it kind of matches the concept. It is a bit hodge podge and some outfits don’t necessarily match (Like Miru’s outfit but I’ll get to her in a second). They should’ve done more of a tropical theme than a modern pop theme for the outfits cause Nayoung’s outfit fits the concept best I think, with Doa’s outfit coming in second and everyone else is labeled with a big fat “?” cause I’m not too sure how I feel about them; not the best but not overwhelmingly bad. Miru’s outfit made her seem much more mature than the group and she kind of stuck out from the rest rather than being cohesive. Don’t get me wrong; she’s gorgeous but I don’t think this was the right concept for her. Both Miru and Doa should have been in the I Am concept cause they would’ve matched that better. 
I AM Worst. Performance. Honestly, this performance was such a let down cause I love this song so much. It’s my favorite song of all the concepts so my expectations were way up there. The outfit choice was kind of a miss. Like, it’s a cute outfit and it fits with the vibe of the concept pretty well in my opinion but since this is one of the few concepts that is more dance focused than vocal focused, the loose top was more of a distraction than anything. May J Lee said that when she choreographed this, it was supposed to be a mixture of cute and sexy. I feel though that this song is more of a confident flirty sexy vibe. Like sexy but not sooo much, just a playful amount of sexy. I think Yena did the best in this performance but honestly, I don’t think she matches this concept very well. She should’ve switched with Miru to be in the Rollin’ Rollin’ concept cause she does have such a bright personality that would work well in that concept. I get why she wanted this song though cause she does seem like someone that prefers less girly songs and more powerful type songs, especially with her dance style. But my opinion still stands; she would’ve done better in Rollin’ Rollin’. Seems they changed center from Gaeun to Yujin. UNPOPULAR OPINION THAT WILL GET ME INTO FIGHTS: I don’t like Gaeun, Yujin or Yunjin. They’re all overhyped and they have such big egos from the voting results now. Even though they’ve fallen a bit due to recent episodes, they still have such over confident attitudes that aren’t backed up much by talent. If anyone, Gaeun actually has some talent and the other two are debatable. I think Gaeun would’ve been fine as center cause like I said, this concept should be more of a playful sexy vibe rather than cute/sexy. Yunjin did sing well so I guess it’s okay that she got main vocal position and she did look really pretty in this performance.That’s really all I can say about her, especially after the temper tantrum she pulled in the position evaluation episode. Yujin ... I don’t find there to be anything special about her. She did the dance, she sang the song. To me, she doesn’t have star quality but she must have some cause everyone else is all up on her all the time. I feel so bad for Juri. Knetz had said that she because kind of invisible in comparison to everyone else in her group, which makes sense cause everyone else was trying so hard to stand out in this group. I think Juri did the raps really well and she did the dance to the best of her ability. We all know she’s not a dancer so maybe she shouldn’t have been in a concept group that had such a big focus on dancing. She probably would’ve done well in Rollin’ Rollin’. Maybe if she’d switched with Doa? I’d like to just sneak in here real quick to say that Chaeyeon deserved so much better than to be kicked out of this group, especially as the leader of the group.   1000% Funny enough, I think this group matched the concept really well. Somehow the leftover groups always do pretty well compared to the groups that had first pick. Minju as center, great. Chaeyeon as main vocal, super great. (Like super super great cause wow, them vocal cords though.) Miho as sub vocal, so great. Moe as sub vocal, also great. Miu as sub vocal/rapper, ... I wish there were a bigger rap part for her but what little she had was great. The background set was cute although I do question if it would have been better suited for Rollin’ Rollin’? (I have many opinions on how Rollin’ Rollin’ could have been better.) I love the outfits as they seemed the most cohesive honestly. Not too much to say here though from me. They did great; it’s a good concept and I hope they get really high scores.  LET’S MEET AGAIN Mnet is doing the most for this performance with the intricate floral background, the slowmo close up on Yiren, the stabilized follow shot of Sakura dancing, pink background lighting, moving footage of petals falling in the backdrop, glowing edit. It’s the most cohesive performance of the night from outfits, makeup, stage setting, everything. Wasn’t the choreographer’s idea for the dance to resemble a sakura flower blooming too? I would say Yiren does a great job as center here, as she always does. I think the trainers criticized her too harshly in the last episode. Somehow, she still manages to be humble even though she’s been voted in the top for a while now. Knetz were saying Sakura stood out the most for this performance but I definitely didn’t see it that way. Could be due to Msnake editing to give her as little screen time as possible compared to the beginning of the season. I do think she needs to rap more often though cause she did pretty well. Haeyoon is definitely main vocal material. I think she’s done well to secure that position for herself, especially after this performance. Also, did anyone notice she got whipped in the face by someone’s hair during her high note? Hyewon’s rap tone was much better suited for this song than the previous ones that she’s done. I do wish she would smile a bit more though cause honestly, when she would have her solo shots, it kind of brought the mood down. I love the girl and how she’s grown in the show from just innocence to multi-faceted but girl needs to match her expressions to the song; especially since Minami is in the crowd watching her! Best for last, Miyu did AMAZINGLY. She’s so adorably cute in this performance with her bright-ass smile and her top-tier vocals being front and center FINALLY. And Mnet finally gave her a lot of screentime too during the performance!  RUMOR The performance we’ve all been waiting for after that 20 second preview in the last episode. This is the most interesting concept out of them all. There’s no doubt that this is the most popular out of all the concepts as well. (Especially after the injustice that was done to Go Yujin.) I have way too many feelings about this stage so I’ll just jump right into it. I’ll be the first to say that I honestly never realized Shihyun was so goddamn gorgeous! This is definitely her style and the look that she gives in the beginning gives me chills. I love that slow down part in the middle of the song too where they just strut across the stage. Chowon was my fave after last episode but I feel like she’s doing too much in the performance. At one point, she’s actually yelling instead of rapping too. She also needs to work on her hairography cause her hair was all over her face all of the time. No doubt she’s gorgeous though; her eyes could kill. Eunbi did fantastic as main vocal and I really hope she makes it to the final. She’s such a hard worker and she deserves so much. Sae is another one of those trainees that’s super hyped for reasons I don’t understand. The only way I can explain it is that her looks and seductiveness must not translate well through the camera footage cause everyone in person always falls under her spell. She did well though in dancing and singing so she definitely did her part to contribute to this performance. Sian, my meme girl. Ever since position evaluation practices, I’ve been rooting for her. She’s so pretty and I absolutely love her personality. The faces she makes too off stage are hilarious. She shows off how well she can sing in this performance and how well she can dance too. If I had to predict, without watching the full episode yet cause I wait for the subs, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this performance was the one that won the night. 
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recentanimenews · 6 years
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Bookshelf Briefs 7/30/18
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, Vol. 2 | By Inio Asano | Viz Media – If the sight of Oran’s drooling face on the cover of this volume doesn’t inform you that this is one of those weird manga titles, nothing will. That said, for a manga about aliens infiltrating the Earth, and the Earth’s rather violent response to this, there’s a lot that’s grounded in reality here. The gang’s friend Kiho is dating a guy, which puts her on the outs with the rest of her (single) friends, and also causes friction when her boyfriend turns out to be a bit fond of conspiracy theories. Possibly my favorite scene in the volume is when the girls all go to their friend Ai’s house and met her four identical siblings… and one goth guy who calls himself the Black Knight, which meets Oran’s immediate approval. A lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney
Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 3 | By Afro | Yen Press – We’re still working on the characterization of anyone not named Nadeshiko or Rin, but for the most part the third volume will please readers who enjoyed the first two, as it combines chatter about camping with the camping itself—though honestly, Rin’s driving to get to the camp ends up occupying most of the time. Sadly, a trip with Nadeshiko is turned into a solo trip because she gets a cold, but on the bright side we may finally be luring Rin’s eccentric friend Ena to go along on the next trip. The long-term plotline seems to be to get Rin to be interested in camping with other people… but it’s certainly a long term project, as we’re three volumes in and we haven’t seen a group effort yet. Next time? – Sean Gaffney
My Boy, Vol. 2 | By Hitomi Takano | Vertical Comics – As with the previous volume, I recommend skipping the afterword. If you do, then My Boy continues to be a touching story of a young woman who’s got a newfound family in a young neglected boy. The problem here is that Mashuu already HAS a father and brother, and her hanging around with him all the time is inevitably going to be seen as creepy at best. One scene, where Mashuu can’t contact his brother, has Satoko going into his home and the entire scene has you holding your breath waiting for something horrible to happen. It still, may, in fact, especially now that her coworker is noticing the attention she’s giving Mashuu. I don’t like him. The manga is very good, though, and so far is avoiding obvious pitfalls. – Sean Gaffney
Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 2 | By Yu Tomofuji | Yen Press – We return to the adventures of the most earnest sacrificial princess ever. Last time I mentioned that I felt the author might have grown up reading Fruits Basket, and that feeling hasn’t gone away—Sariphi isn’t quite as shiny as Tohru, but she still tends to try to overdo it in order to avoid disappointing anyone. In this case, though, it almost leads to her death. Fortunately, she’s gaining more allies in this book, as we meet her friend Amit, an alligator woman with a big heart, and the phoenix she summons, which is both adorable and hilarious—he needs to be animated so that I can hear his accent. Shoujo fans will enjoy this cute fantasy romance. – Sean Gaffney
School of Horns, Vol. 1 | By Mito Aoi | Yen Press – We’ve seen an endless amount of magical academies in the last few years, but there’s always room for more. This one has students divided up based on the horns they have on their heads—each type determines the magic. Our hero is half-human, so his horns are smaller than the other students (does this remind you of anything?), but in addition his powers seem to mess with others, meaning he’s a strange fifth type of magic user. Yes, it’s the old “bullied kid ends up being the really special one” story, but the main reason to read this is the slowly developing relationship between Eru and Rihito, who are sort of Deku and Todoroki-esque. This didn’t reach out and grab me, but it’s certainly pleasant enough. – Sean Gaffney
Shojo FIGHT!, Vol. 4 | By Yoko Nihonbashi | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – The fallout from the Kokuyodani team’s participation in volleybetting is going to be long-lasting, it seems. Part of their punishment involves living at the school for a month and undergoing intense training (including fasting, which supposedly “cures any illness”) and practice games against teams that believe the worst rumors. After one of these, Neri has a major attack of the angst and runs off, but after a good talk (and more!) with Shigeru, she seems finally on the verge of overcoming her past trauma, and actually tells Inugami and Odagiri what happened with her old teammates and lets herself enjoy volleyball again. And now that she seems to be on the road to better mental health, there’s enough time to give several other characters a bit more fleshing out in this volume, which is very welcome. I really enjoy this series. – Michelle Smith
Takane & Hana, Vol. 4 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – There’s a lot less snarking in this book, but maybe I’m getting used to the fact that this is never going to match the hilarity of its start. What it does do is develop both the plot and characters—Hana is not quite ready to admit she has romantic feelings for Takane, but she’s getting there. Meanwhile there’s a new secretary at Takane’s business whose job it is to try to break them up—unfortunately, he’s a nice guy at heart, and his heart isn’t really into this, especially when Hana does not back down immediately. And lest you forget that Hana is in high school (and believe me, that is the premise), there’s a culture festival! Maids! Butlers! Cross-dressing! And Takane, being a giant ass. Which is what I’m here for. – Sean Gaffney
Toriko, Vol. 43 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – Toriko has finished, and it goes out the same way it’s always been—the food love is so much more interesting than the fighting. The first half of the book wraps up the fighting, including even giving the hapless Zongeh a part to play, but honestly I was ready to skip to the back half, where Toriko and his friends indulge in his Full-Course Meal, all prepared by Komatsu and HIS friends. There is also Toriko and Rin’s wedding, but again, I wonder if that was suggested by editorial fiat to avoid having the series seem too gay—the manga is all about the relationship between Toriko and Komatsu, and everything else is secondary. In the final pages, they even go off on a sort of honeymoon together. In space. – Sean Gaffney
Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, Vol. 5 | By Megumi Morino | Kodansha Comics – Having whisked Shizu away from the hospital, Tetsu heads for his grandfather’s place by the beach, whereupon many revelations ensue. There’s a lot here that I didn’t expect to learn until the next (and final) volume, including the truth of what happened to Tetsu’s mom and why he’s been so desperate to earn money. What’s even better is that not only do readers learn these things, but so do Tetsu’s father and sisters, and everyone resolves to work harder as a family so that no one member feels the need to sacrifice everything for the sake of the others. There is one thing they don’t know, though, and it was such a great surprise that it makes me want to reread earlier volumes for hints. I’ll miss this series once it’s gone, but I bet the conclusion will be great. – Michelle Smith
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Vol. 3 | By Tadahiro Miura | Seven Seas – This continues to be a title that you should only read if you are a teenage boy in search of something to get you horny. That said, I’m not that market at all, and I’m still reading it. I think it’s simply that compared to other series in this genre, I find it more tolerable—especially its lead, who continues to not be the standard Keitaro clone who plagues this sort of title. In fact, most of the girls spend more time fondling each other than they do the lead—and no, that doesn’t mean there’s any hints of yuri. These girls all want Kogarashi. But as with my last review, I will admit that Yuuna is a good series for those who want harmless comedic fun and like huge breasts. – Sean Gaffney
By: Michelle Smith
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zukadiary · 7 years
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Private Detective Caleb Hunt / Greatest Hits! ~ Snow Troupe 2016
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With a pre-determined exception for NY zuka fan karaoke day, I resolved not to drink for all of January in the name of detox. I succeeded, somehow, despite the world making not drinking as hard as humanly possible. Sometimes self care is canceling your appointment with your trainer on a Friday night in favor of filling a glass to the top with cabernet sauvignon and ripping the plastic off a blu-ray two months late. 
Writing novels about Don Juan and my very fortunate long string of 2016 live viewings has made me feel inadequate for not having a novel prepared now... but some shows just don’t warrant them I guess. Caleb Hunt met my expectations exactly, and they weren’t all that high. It wasn’t bad, I wasn’t bored, but in surveying the shelf for something to rewatch, it’s unlikely my hand would land there. 
Strong points:
As detective zuka goes, this was not too convoluted or hard to follow. Not Melancholic Gigolo or Canary or Boxman in terms of Masatsuka-sensei’s occasional genius, but not in his ????? pile either.
Had a bit of an old Hollywood vibe, I was into that.
Hands down best aspect: the handling of the romances. No one fell in love, or had a super dramatic love-hate situation, or tragically died. Caleb (Chigi) and Jim (Daimon) had pre-established girlfriends, and we got to see their day to day relationship struggles and tender moments in a slice-of-life kind of way. It was really refreshing. 
Good for:
ChigiMiyu. Caleb/Yvonne was a relationship worthy of their chemistry. It’s perhaps stupid to say a top combi stole the show... but looking at their Grand Theater productions, with heartrending Hoshiai sandwiched between two anime-based musicals in which their love story, while present, isn’t exactly the entire point, I think I can say their adorable and comparatively down-to-earth romance did steal the show, finally. Separately also, Chigi was insanely well styled, and Caleb was a fairly simple character, who I feel like turned into kind of a blank canvas for her nuanced acting; more of his depth came from Chigi than from the writing. Miyu was an equal, not just a support. 
Arisa Hitomi, thereafter shipped off to Hoshigumi, who had the standout of the background roles as a club performer. No real character development, but a couple of knock ‘em dead solo numbers with the ensemble dancing in front of her. I’m gonna miss you, kid. Do great things over there.
Tsukishiro Kanato, strictly from an “if you’re her fan you should probably see her first main villain” standpoint; Maximilian wasn’t an exceptionally remarkable villain, though. I will MISS HER GORGEOUS DIMPLED FACE in my troupe terribly, but objectively this transfer is so necessary... girl needs a kick in the butt. 
Agata Sen, for her cute, looming, sort of badass yet questionably competent character, and sheer visibility; if you’re curious about her, she may not be doing a heck of a lot but she’s definitely there. Probably a small step below Hitoko in stage time, for comparison.
I hesitate to say Daimon, because the only reason Jim even felt like a nibante role was that the rest of the roles were even smaller, if that makes sense... but the novelty of seeing her play a nice boy counts for something. 
Only personal bias would keep Saki off this list, where she rightly belongs... although she’s been sanbante in parade order for a bit now, this was her first distinct sanbante role with everyone present. Her eccentric, slightly disheveled, bandana-clad look, and her priceless facial expressions made her a good foil for neatly buttoned-up Daimon. My reservations come from looking unfairly at the future, where I still can’t see her and Daimon as an inspiring pair. Their one on one interactions here didn’t do much to persuade me. 
This was one hell of a JUST KIDDING for Michiru; I don’t think I even saw her until the revue. I was grumbling at my TV when at the halfway point I’d only seen Hime in the background, but then she had a crazy landlady moment—and more importantly, 2 revue solos—that somewhat made up for it (I needed approximately 10x more crazy landlady). Sadly, aside from Caleb and Yvonne, the characters felt pretty lackluster to me in general. 
Greatest Hits! should be watched in December, that’s for sure; I probably would have sobbed. But I was specifically depriving myself of this show as punishment for not attending to important responsibilities. It still took me two months to do the things. I guess I got what I deserved. 
Whatever the 2016 awards say, this SURE ISN’T HOT EYES!! But overall, seasonal ties aside, it feels like Chigi’s grandest and most normal revue. Fancy Guy, initially a “meh” that has grown on me exponentially, still feels small to me somehow, and I maintain La Esmeralda is a hot mess. Greatest Hits is a Christmas chuuzume away from winning hands down... but since it does have a very Christmas chuuzume (albeit a beautiful one), I don’t know. 
Things to love:
Aforementioned double Hime
Huge glittering sets that make the already enormous stage seem to go on forever
Miyu’s admirable English put to excellent use on Material Girl, a special treat for the DVD
Any time Daimon opens her mouth
Putting aside my personal gripes about a Christmas chuuzume, the song selection was actually very nice
Shinjou Makara (sniffle) killing the kage solo to ChigiMiyu’s beautiful duet dance
A very yukigumi kuroenbi, in which attaining perfect synchronicity is not as important as leaking swagger out every pore
Very enjoyable, but still holding out for Dramatic S to be the revue Chigigumi deserves. Don’t let me down, Nakamura-sensei.
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