yumeka36

[yumeka36]

After hearing all the hype, I finally decided to watch Frieren. I was 99% sure I would like it based on what people were praising about it. And now that I've watched all (currently) 28 episodes...yeah, it's really good.

I knew it was gonna be a slow-paced series that's mostly driven by the characters and world-building as opposed to an ongoing, impending plot...and I'm totally okay with that. While I do enjoy series with a lot of flashy action and emotional angst, I also like when series don't pander to this typical way of being entertaining. Cool fights and suspenseful plots will always be popular, especially for anime/manga, so I greatly respect a series that dares to be different and still delivers. While the characters in Frieren do have an ongoing goal, it's not the main focus of the series: the focus is on their interactions with the world and each other. This is especially unusual for a series that takes place in a D&D fantasy world with monsters, demons, and magic. Such a world is full of potential for fast-paced fights and angst-ridden action, but Frieren does it differently. The handful of battle scenes in the series so far are handled very "matter of fact" - they're not given any more fanfare than other things that happen. Anyone who's watched a decent amount of shonen anime is probably used to all the intense violence and raw emotions that pour out during fight scenes, so seeing how relatively calmly the characters in Frieren handle similar situations may not be for everyone. It even took me a while to get used to how the more suspenseful action scenes in Frieren are handled compared to most other anime.

One of my favorite things in anime, or any medium really, is having characters with appealing but also unique relationships - relationships that can't really be defined by "typical romance," "typical friendship," etc, but something special and unique that I want to see develop as the series goes on. This is a big reason why I like Spy x Family so much, and why I like Frieren as well. The relationship between Frieren and Fern is something like this: On the surface they have a "master/student" relationship, but there are so many more layers to it, like Fern often being exasperated by Frieren's obsession with new spells or the fact that her interpretation of time is so different from that of humans', that sometimes Fern acts like the more "mature" one of the group. But at the same time, despite her elegant air, she has a childish side to her in how she pouts and sulks whenever she's upset with Frieren and Stark, plus her no-nonsense personality that often clashes with Frieren's easy going approach to things. But despite this, we still observe the intimacy between them and how comfortable they've gotten with each other over the years. Then there's Fern's relationship with Stark, that I find incredibly adorable mostly because, again, of how nuanced it is. They're not constantly emoting or yelling at each other, yet you can tell there's something going on between them based on more subtle things, like Fern giving Stark a hard time compared to how she relates to everyone else, and Stark being sensitive to her mood changes.

Another interesting thing about the series is how long the timeline is. Over 100 years have passed for the characters, Frieren in particular of course, since episode 1 to episode 28, yet nothing seems rushed. The series focuses on the bits of their lives that matter through flashbacks here and there, and that makes the series' world more engrossing when you have an idea of all the events that transpired over such a long time. Characters who aren't even alive/present during most of the story, particularly Himmel and his group, can have so much influence in the narrative. All the scenes where Frieren is reminded of things Himmel says and does make so much sense, not just because he was such an important person to her, but because someone who's lived for as long as she has is bound to have these deja vu moments where she had experienced a similar situation before.

The latter part of the series involving the mage exam made me a bit apprehensive, since I don't like when series introduce a bunch of characters at once in a competition with the protagonists. When there's so many new characters that need to play a role in the current plot, they probably won't be well written. But honestly, by the end of the series, I thought they were all interesting characters. This is mostly due to, again, the series giving ample time showing how each of them thinks and strategizes, how they work together with others, what their motivations are, etc, rather than just showing off their powers. Even a character like Serie who's shown to be an antagonist was still interesting as I could at least understand her motives and beliefs.

There's more I can say about Frieren but I'll stop there. Overall, an excellent series and one of the best I've seen in recent years. Looking forward to more anime, and I may even check out the manga!

#sousou no frieren #frieren: beyond journey's end #freiren

[yumeka36]

Been wanting to collect all the artbooks for the FromSoft games - I got the one for Bloodborne a while ago, also got two from Elden Ring (shared some photos here). I just recently got the one for Dark Souls 3, after having just completed my 4th or 5th playthrough!

Here's some of my favorite pages:

#fromsoftware #dark souls #dark souls 3 #fromsoft

[yumeka36]

I recently watched the first season Jujutsu Kaisen. Since it's become a big hit, I was interested in checking it out, plus my boyfriend and another friend like it.

Overall, I liked it. Can't say that anything about it particularly wowed me, but it was still a fun time. Since I've watched plenty of Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, and other shonen series, the many shonen tropes and character archetypes in JJK were more noticeable to me than they would be for someone else who hasn't watched as much anime. But again, I don't mind seeing familiar tropes as long as they're done well.

My main major complaint about the series, at least for season 1, is that I couldn't stand how Todo's character was handled, especially how he was introduced. Maybe I'm missing something, but my interpretation is that he shows up, beats the shit out of Megumi for literally no good reason other than he doesn't like his taste in women?! I was like "aren't you guys on the same side? Why are you trying to kill a fellow student that you don't even know?" And then he's suddenly played up as a comical character who's infatuated with this cute female idol...that's fine and all, but it's a little hard for me to find a character funny/charming when they just attempted to kill one of the main protagonists for a petty reason. And then he does the same thing again to Yuji later - beats the shit out of him for no good reason (I know the principal ordered the Kyoto students to kill Yuji, but the way Todo reacted didn't seem like he wanted to follow those orders?) Then he has some weird delusion of him and Yuji being friends in school...and now he's suddenly best friends with Yuji?! And again, the show was making it seem like this was supposed to be funny, but I was just like "you were literally bashing his head against a tree a minute ago and now I'm supposed to like you because you've decided you're his best friend because he happened to give an answer about women you approve of? How is this a likable relationship?" And then in the very last episode, it was Todo who recommended Megumi to the principal and I was like "didn't you want to kill him when you first met him? Now you like him? Because you were fighting the same cursed being together for ten minutes?" I dunno, everything about Todo just rubbed me the wrong way and I just could not relate to him at all, which was frustrating. But at least he wasn't in that many episodes. I got excited when one of the episodes started with a bit of Todo's backstory and I was like "oh, maybe I can finally learn more about this guy and why he beats people up for not liking their taste in women." But no, the flashback hardly showed anything. A later season, hopefully.

But besides having issues with Todo, I liked most of the other characters. Megumi is my favorite of the main characters. I warmed up to Yuji and Nobara in time, but I liked Megumi right away, as soon as I saw he was willing to help Yuji during their first encounter. I liked him even more in the last few episodes of the season where we get to see some of his backstory. Yuji and Nobara are good foils to Megumi, since he's often the straight man to their immature antics.

Of the side characters, I like Panda and Miwa. I was curious about Panda as soon as I saw him, so I'm glad I got to learn his origins so soon. And Miwa is one of the few characters that made me laugh a couple times. She just seems more wholesome than many of the other characters. Nanamin is pretty cool too.

The animation in JJK was enjoyable to watch, as well as the interesting designs of all the curse creatures. Though I have to say the world-building seemed a bit weak to me, but I know that's something that could develop later. Like, Jujutsu High School doesn't seem much like a high school...I don't see any kind of organized training or classes, and there's only, like, ten students between Tokyo and Kyoto. We also didn't see much of the politics behind the jujutsu sorcerers other than from the perspective of the schools. There must be some larger network of authority figures who govern everything? But again, I'm hoping in time we'll learn more about that. The humor in the series was hit or miss for me too, but I also have high standards for humor in general, probably more than most people, lol. I'm not typically a fan of humor that involves the characters breaking out into hyperbolic shouting along with the animation style changing dramatically to indicate we're in "joke mode" now, especially in a series that's otherwise dramatic like this one. But I did get a few chuckles here and there.

The action scenes were really cool, especially the domain expansions. But I did find the power level of the characters a bit inconsistent. Like, in the first episode Megumi had to rest and get healing after that battle, but then he gets punched through buildings by Todo and gets practically killed fighting the bridge curse...but seems totally fine soon after. And then there's Yuji displaying extraordinary feats of physical endurance and shrugging off life-threatening injuries...I know he said at the beginning that he's more physically able than most people, but still. But I'll just say it comes from their curse powers giving them extra damage reduction, lol. It's the case in most shonen series that injuries that would kill a person in real life only cause minor injures to shonen protagonists 😅

My favorite bunch of episodes were the ones with Junpei. I liked his backstory and how he developed a relationship with Mahito. The series kinda hinted that he's not actually dead but I'm not sure. I also enjoyed the last few episodes of the season where it was just Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara going on a mission. If all or most of the series was just them going on missions to get rid of curses and developing their friendship, I'd be cool with that, lol.

To summarize, while I didn't love JJK and had some issues with it, I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to keep watching. I plan to start season 2 soon!

#jujutsu kaisen

[yumeka36]

I finally finished the Marvel movie marathon I started back in May (only one I skipped was Eternals but I read a summary of it). The only other Marvel movies I had seen prior were the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I never had much interest in the other movies, but then I heard that the guardians were in Infinity War and End Game, and it's pretty necessary to watch the prior movies before jumping into those. Then once Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 was released, and again required knowledge of prior movies to follow, I decided to finally sit down and watch all the other movies in timeline order.

After starting with Captain America back in May, I just finished watching the most recent Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3…and honestly, I think it's become one of my favorites, if not my no.1 favorite! Even after I caught up on all the other movies, the two GotG movies still remained my favorites (can't help it, I'm a sucker for the "found family" trope where a bunch of misfits with checkered pasts learn to love each other like a family). But I probably like Vol.3 so much because I'm a big Rocket fan and it was all about his backstory…which was one of the saddest I've seen in any media.

Not many movies make me cry, but this one certainly did 😭I'm glad none of the guardians died in the end though, I got worried a few times! Though I don't agree with them not killing the villain - that man needed to die 😤 They already killed most of his minions, so why not him? While the ending was a tad bittersweet, I'm glad it was mostly happy. I'm sad we'll likely never get more Guardians of the Galaxy movies, at least not with the same cast as before. So I'm glad the final movie was so good!

Even though the Guardians movies are still my favorites even after watching the 30-ish other movies, I enjoyed many of the others, especially Infinity War/End Game, Ant-Man, Black Panther, and the Spider-Man movies. Can't say I'm as sucked into them as I am with anime and my other interests, but they're fun. Not sure I'll keep watching every single new one that comes out from now on though...I'm not a fan of how the recent movies are incorporating aspects of the various TV series, so movie-only viewers like me miss out on details due to not having watched a particular Disney+ show. But we'll see how it goes, I'm sure I'll watch at least a few more of them in the future! I know if Rocket gets any new content, I'll definitely check that out!

#guardians of the galaxy #marvel cinematic universe #marvel #rocket raccoon

[yumeka36]

I finally finished the final season of Attack on Titan.

I've been an anime-only enjoyer of the series ever since it started airing 10 years ago. It immediately blew me away with how much action, drama, and suspense every single episode had. Unfortunately, watching the episodes staggered across the years was not the best way to experience the series, especially as the story got more complicated and more characters and subplots were introduced. It wasn't long before I'd have to refresh my memory every time a new season or cour would air by consulting wikipedia episode summaries, lol. But even with that, it's the kind of series where something in one episode will be relevant many episodes later, and I know I missed out on a lot of those details due to watching the series with so many gaps over the years.

But regardless, I was able to follow it well enough and appreciate everything about it. AoT has some of the best drama, action, and world-building I've seen in any anime - every episode left me in suspense! Obviously the story evolved over the years, with the post-time skip episodes being very different from the season 1 episodes, but it still delivered in terms of entertainment quality.

As for the ending itself, I thought it was good. The idea of someone wanting to wipe out humanity to save the world isn't anything new, but it's a plot I like, especially when it's done in a unique way like AoT. I loved that the series didn't paint any of the characters' choices as being the "right" one - not Ymir's, the Jaergerists', Zeke's, the Scouts', and certainly not Eren's - but in the end we understand why they each felt their choice was right, and that's what makes them relatable and interesting. I also love how the series portrays the sheer desperation of people in a world ravaged by war. Even though I had trouble following it, the political world-building in AoT is stellar.

I'm also glad I got to fully understand why Eren did what he did. Admittedly, it was hard for me to sympathize with him after the cruel things he said to Mikasa. But now that it all makes sense, I'm glad he got to reconcile with everyone before he died. Compared to how he's portrayed in the beginning of the series as a typical hot-headed shonen hero wanting to get revenge for his mom, to everything we learn about him by the end of the series, is mind-blowing. What an awesome protagonist turned antagonist.

Though I do think Eren turned out to be an interesting character, Mikasa and Armin were my favorites. Even though Mikasa started out with her only notable quality being her attachment to Eren, her character development throughout the series really came through, especially after the time-skip where she had to make very difficult choices. But even before then, I could feel her love for Armin and her fellow comrades, so Eren wasn't the only thing she cared about. And in the end, she chose to not only kill the person she had dedicated her life to, but also sacrifice the happiness she could have had with him, in order to save everyone else. And Armin always seemed like the most "human" of the group, always showing care and concern for everyone and wanting to help out, regardless of how dire the circumstances around him were (but not a pushover either).

I wasn't expecting a total happy ending for a series with such raw emotions and intense violence, but was hoping it wouldn't be too terribly tragic either. So I felt the ending we got was a good, bittersweet, middle ground: Eren was able to fulfill his wish for his friends to live out their lives in relatively peaceful conditions, but war would always be inevitable. But gosh, the epilogue during the credits blew my mind the most! Seeing the characters visit Eren's grave up until they too passed on, then hundreds or even thousands of years later we see giant cities being built up, then torn down by wars, only for the world to seemingly be destroyed again...it just kept going! I also liked the open-ended final scene which hints that the titan cycle could repeat itself again someday.

Overall, despite the long gaps between seasons, I'm glad I stuck with AoT all these years. I'll bid it a somber farewell for now, but I hope to rewatch it again in the future without the long gaps between episodes. Like I said, I missed out on a lot of the build-up to what happens in the end simply due to not remembering things that happened in episodes I watched years ago. This is definitely a series deserving of a second viewing!

#attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyojin

[yumeka36]

I recently finished Lies of P and it was amazing! So much love put into making this game like a FromSoft title, but also its own unique experience. If someone told me this was a genuine FromSoft title, I definitely would have believed it! The developers did such a fantastic job on everything - the art style, the music, the combat mechanics, the level design, the lore/setting, the characters...everything was stellar! The game is such a creative take on the story of Pinocchio...and the end credits teased a sequel or DLC based on the Wizard of Oz?! I'm excited! 😃

I'm only a few trophies away from getting them all on PSN. I save scummed a bit on my first playthrough to get the trophies for the "good" and "bad" endings (omg, the bad ending is so messed up...I literally wanted to cry 😭) So the only trophies I need are the ones for the "tell the truth" ending, get all the special weapons, get all the records, and get all the cryptic vessel rewards. Should be able to do that on my next playthrough in the not so far future!

#lies of p #liesofp #lies of p pinocchio #fromsoft #but also not fromsoft!

[yumeka36]

I just got caught up with Pokemon Horizons, and yeah, this OP is awesome! I praised the series when I saw the first few episodes and it still delivers! After 25+ years, it's so nice to finally have a Pokemon anime with a continuing, suspenseful plot, as well as a plot that doesn't revolve around pokemon competitions. It's also refreshing to have villains who are actually threatening (not that I didn't love Team Rocket, but it really was time for a change!) Plus the main cast is comprised not just of kid characters, but adults as well, who are actually interesting characters that I want to learn more about.

Overall, while I don't think Pokemon Horizons will take too many risks, like develop a romance between the main characters or have any intense violence/drama, it's definitely on the right track to bringing out more potential from the franchise than the old series ever did. So far this long-time Pokemon fan is very pleased with how the post-Ash anime has been!

yall pokemon just dropped the best animated pokemon opening out there

#pokemon #pokemon horizons #anipoke #liko pokemon #roy pokemon #friede #pokeani #pokemon anime

[yumeka36]

Long overdue photo post of my room~

I've been working from home for about a year now. Somehow I managed to find room for a desk!

Closer look inside the shelves and display cases:

Laid out all my Pokemon plushies on the bed for a better photo!

#collections #pokemon plushies #spy x family #anime merch

[yumeka36]

Since I always do all the NPC questlines in Elden Ring, I decided to do the opposite for my recent journey 6 playthrough - I wanted to kill as many NPCs as possible, as soon as possible. I also wanted to avoid accepting Melina's accord for as long as possible.

Here are some of the notable things I discovered while doing this (probably someone has discovered these already but they were new to me!)

The first thing I did was go to Mistwood Ruins and kill Blaidd (I didn't know that he won't actually die, but will continue to be hostile towards you). Much to my disappointment, Kale's dialogue after this remained the same and he talked about Blaidd as normal

I continued along killing Godrick, Rennala, and Radahn all before accepting Melina's accord. I made frequent checks on Church of Elleh but Ranni never appeared. Blaidd was also absent from the Radahn festival, something I hadn't seen before

As expected, even after I got to Ranni's Rise, she wasn't there. Iji also wasn't at his spot

I killed Irina immediately and Hyetta never appeared in my game or at any of her spots. Edgar's dialogue was the same

Killing Miriel made me feel the worst! He has a ton of health and he makes an awful sound when he dies

Roderika and Rya have barriers around them which prevent you from killing them. Millicent as well but only when you initially meet her at the Church of the Plague

When I finally made it right outside Leyndell, it was sealed with the message that I don't have enough Great Runes even though I definitely had enough. I later found out that the seal will only break from this point after I talk to Enia in Roundtable Hold. And the only way to get there is to accept Melina's accord. So I finally did that

When I finally got to Roundtable Hold, Fia was surprisingly absent. This was probably because I killed D very early on. Diallos also never appeared at Roundtable Hold and I'm not sure why. However I did find and kill him at his next spot in Liurnia. Fia was also at her next spot in Deeproot Depths (her dialogue is the same)

Since I killed so many NPCs early on, Volcano Manor was totally empty - no Bernahl, no Diallos, no Patches

After the Radahn festival, Jerren never came back to Redmane. I'm guessing this is because I had killed Sellen at Witchbane Ruins early on

I didn't visit Latenna until way late in the game, after I got to Consecrated Snowfields. When I finally did go to her spot, she wasn't there

Even after accepting Melina's accord, Ranni never appeared at any point in the playthrough. I kept checking Church of Elleh and her rise but it remained the same no matter how much progress I continued to make (Iji also never showed up and Blaidd never moved from Mistwood Ruins). Because of this, I was unable to open the chest with Fingerslayer Blade or access the area beyond Astel

That's about it for all the interesting things I discovered from the "no friends" playthrough! However there are a couple of other things I want to confirm that I didn't get a chance to...

- I killed Coryhn as soon as I found him in Altus but I should have waited until he joined Gold Mask as I'm curious if anything different happens if you attack Gold Mask in front of him

-I'm curious if I had accepted Melina's accord right away, if attacking Blaidd in Mistwood would have made any difference in Ranni's quest. Would Blaidd have different dialogue when I talk to his phantom at Ranni's Rise?

#elden ring #fromsoftware #fromsoft games #fromsoft

[yumeka36]

As I mentioned in a previous post, I completed my living-dex up to Gen8, and now that Scarlet/Violet have connectivity with Pokemon Home, I was able to update it - so I now have one of each of the 1,010 species of pokemon in my Home boxes!

I already got the gift Magearna when I completed the living-dex a few years ago, so I didn't get any gift for completing it this time...maybe there'll be a new gift when the DLC comes out!

#pokemon #nintendo #nintendo switch #pokemon home #pokemon scarlet violet #pokemon scarlet #pokemon violet #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon sv

[yumeka36]

I finally got around to taking photos of the Elden Ring art book I bought a while back. I wanted to make HD scans with my scanner, but unfortunately the book has very tight binding, which makes it impossible to scan properly without damaging it. So I figured subpar photos with my phone are better than nothing!

There are hundreds of pages in the book, so I had to pick just a few to take photos of (which wasn't easy!) I just love the creature designs in FromSoft games~

(FYI, this is the second of two Elden Ring art books currently out in Japan. Volume 1 has art for the areas and player/NPCs, while this one covers the bosses and enemies. The books are scheduled to release in the US later this year).

#elden ring #fromsoftware #elden beast #rennala #malenia blade of miquella #maliketh #astel naturalborn of the void #dragonlord placidusax #fromsoft games

[yumeka36]

After completing my living-dex in Pokemon Home a few years back, I decided to update it in anticipation of Scarlet & Violet getting Pokemon Home connection. Thankfully most of my previous living-dex was still intact. I just had to replace a few mons that I traded away, and add the new ones from the Gen8 DLC and Legends Arceus. And with that, I now have at least one of each of the 905 species of pokemon in my Home boxes!

These are all the games I used to make it possible, along with Poke Transporter, Pokemon Bank, and two 3DS systems (note that I don't play Pokemon GO and only used it to get Meltan and Melmetal back when the Let's Go games came out). The GTS on Pokemon Home helped out as well.

I actually hadn't turned on my 3DS in many months and I got nervous at first that my Pokemon Bank got botched - it kept saying that it couldn't be used without updating the system, and every time I tried to update the system, it would fail with an error. Finally I tried updating the system through the 3DS eShop, and that worked! But then I had to pay to renew my Pokemon Bank subscription, and I didn't realize that you can no longer add funds to your Nintendo 3DS directly with your credit card or a gift card. I thought all was lost until I found this helpful article that explained a way around this. So after I added the funds, I was finally able to use Pokemon Bank again.

I finally sent over all the legendary/event pokemon that had been sitting on my old games for years. Gosh, I didn't realize how many I had!

Of course, I have some pokemon that are over 10 years old, like this Accelgor.

It seems like Pokemon Home won't track pokemon before 2011, because I know for a fact that some of my pokemon are older than that, but it always says 2011.

I'm also slowly starting on collecting all the alternate forms of pokemon, particularly the regional variants.

But for now, most of my focus is going on a living-dex of the Gen9 pokemon that I'll transfer into Home once there's connectivity.

And once I'm done with that, I'll have a truly complete living-dex of all 1,010 pokemon! (which will again have to be updated when the Gen9 DLC comes out!)

#pokemon #pokemon home #pokemon bank #nintendo #nintendo switch

[yumeka36]

My thoughts on the new Pokemon anime coming in 2023

Earlier today it was announced that after 25+ years, the Pokemon anime will be retiring Ash, Pikachu, and the rest of its cast in favor of a new series with new protagonists beginning in April of next year.

Despite having seen pretty much every one of the 1,000+ episodes of the Pokemon anime (and 20+ movies), I never got all that attached to Ash. I just found him kind of boring and stagnant as a protagonist. Actually, I find the human characters overall to be the weakest part of the Pokemon franchise, at least for the anime (except for Team Rocket, I'll miss them!) Which is why the main reason I've watched the anime all these years is to see the pokemon themselves animated, since the games don't do justice in bringing out their personalities. But there's a reason for why the writing of the Pokemon anime in terms of character arcs and development is lacking when compared to most other anime.

It's a known fact that when the anime first started way back in the late 90s, no one knew what a phenomena Pokemon would become. I don't even think the anime was intended to go beyond one season. But once the franchise burst into worldwide popularity, the anime had to continue of course. But because the video games were what hoisted Pokemon into the phenomena it is today, the anime more or less became a glorified advertisement for the games. This is why the episodes are always so perfectly timed to the release schedules of the games, with Ash and friends beginning their journey in a new region at the same time the new games featuring said region are launched. This is why the episodes are mostly episodic and feature "character of the day" stories so that all the new pokemon, gym leaders, etc, from the current generation have a chance to get an anime debut. And this is why the human characters just can't age and blossom into well-developed and fleshed out individuals - they're restricted by the game-advertising structure of the anime. Ash can't change too much because he has to be reused in each subsequent generation, and the side characters he meets can't be given too many episodes because that time is needed to show off more of the gym leaders, new pokemon, etc, of that region. Some of Ash's companions, like Serena and Iris, do manage to get a decent story arc, but it's still few and far between compared to how many people Ash has met on his journey. While all this has worked fine for the franchise, it does a disservice to the quality of the show in my opinion and makes the Pokemon anime alienating to anyone who's not already a fan. Unlike many other popular franchises, Pokemon has never been about following the story arcs of particular characters, but about a world overall - a world inhabited by hundreds of fascinating creatures and countless kinds of relationships they can have with people and each other. So to forever ignore such great story possibilities in favor of sticking to following a never aging 10-year old who only serves to show off all the different regions and pokemon of the new games, is such lost potential for a big part of the franchise.

But even understanding all this, I've always wondered why they kept Ash around for so long. If the anime is just a means to advertise the games, it would actually make more sense to start each new generation with new characters instead of "rebooting" Ash every time. But since he and Pikachu were the face of the anime when Pokemon was in its heyday, I can see why The Pokemon Company would be reluctant to just toss aside the iconic duo. Since Ash is such a "blank slate" of a character without any complicated backstory and only a vague goal of becoming a "Pokemon Master" (whatever that is) it's easy enough to just insert him into whatever new region is needed rather than having to come up with new protagonists that may or may not be as accepted by fans.

When the latest series, Pokemon Journeys, was released, it was the first real outlier in the sense that it did not take place in the region dictated by the new games, but instead had Ash and friends travel to all the regions in the Pokemon universe. It still made sure to feature the Galar region, including its new pokemon, characters, and gimmicks like dynamaxing, but those weren't emphasized as much as usual. Even the movies of the past few years, while still featuring Ash, rebooted his backstory slightly and let other characters take the spotlight, which was a welcome change in my book and led to two of the best Pokemon anime productions in my opinion: The Power of Us and Secrets of the Jungle movies (both of which prominently feature new characters, with Ash playing a supporting role, which further emphasize how he's been holding back creative possibilities for the anime). All these things pointed towards the fact that even The Pokemon Company was realizing that there really isn't much more to do with Ash as the star of the Pokemon anime. Pokemon has already proven itself to be a well-known part of pop culture. It's even become the highest grossing media franchise of all time, and the games and marketing overall have been branching out more and more over the years thanks to social media and advanced technology, while the anime has remained virtually the same...maybe it finally is time for a change.

Now we don't know much of anything about the new anime yet, but as much as I want a series with the same feel as the many great Pokemon web series that have come out over the past few years, like Pokemon Generations, Twilight Wings, and Evolutions, I have a feeling that won't be the case. We can already see that the protagonists are once again kids around Ash's age starting a Pokemon journey (as opposed to many other ways people and pokemon can relate to each other), and again, the story takes place in the same region as the new games. So most likely this new anime will still follow the same trend of prioritizing promotion of the new games before story freedom. Of course I can't say for sure that this is true yet, but even if it is, there's still a good chance the new anime will have a different tone and overall feel than the old one. It's unlikely its tone will be as serious and mature as Pokemon Origins, Hisuian Snow, or the other spin-off series, but I'm hoping it's willing to take at least a few more risks than the old anime did.

Anyway, I know many nostalgic fans will miss Ash, but I felt he wore out his welcome years ago and I embrace this change with open arms. I'm not expecting this new anime to break any boundaries, but it'll still be an exciting event for this long-time Pokemon fan!

#pokémon #pokemon anime #ash ketchum #pokemon anime 2023 #pokeani #pokemon

[yumeka36]

Thoughts on Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Now that I've completed the main storyline of Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, I wanted to give my detailed thoughts on the games.

Much of the buzz about these games is unfortunately negative - that they're fraught with bugs, suffer from frame rate and performance issues, and have clear signs that they were rushed. While I can't say that this isn't true, the question I can definitely answer is whether these things hindered my personal enjoyment of the games...and the answer is no. I recall that there was even more initial negativity for Sword/Shield due to them being the first games cutting out pokemon from the national-dex, plus similar complaints about graphics and performance issues. People even went so far as to say they won't even buy the games. But of course, those games ended up being massively successful. And, as I expected, Scarlet/Violet have also sold incredibly well. As much as fans trash the new Pokemon games, they seem to always be a hit. I guess, when it comes down to it, we just love Pokemon too much to stay mad at it for very long, lol. Does it suck that these games continue to exclude pokemon and are riddled with bugs/glitches? Of course. But does it also mean that the bad things about the games outweigh the joy that they bring? Definitely not, at least for me. A game with glitches can still be a very fun game (just look at Pokemon Red/Blue) and I'm having a blast with Scarlet/Violet, just as I did with Sword/Shield, and really, every main series Pokemon game since the beginning...there was never a generation of Pokemon I disliked. Like I always say, even if there are some things about a beloved franchise that you don't like, if you find that you can't fully divorce yourself from it, you might as well make the best of it and have fun.

So with that out of the way, let's look at the new games themselves. One of the main selling points for Scarlet/Violet is being the first "open world" Pokemon games. While that term is used a bit loosely, it does mean you're able to do any of the 18 story events in any order you like. Now I have to say that I played through the game in a way that most people probably did not - I looked up all the 18 events on Serebii, noted the levels of the pokemon for each, then did them in order starting with the lowest levels to highest levels. For example, I did the bug gym first (LV14), then the first titan pokemon (LV16), then the grass gym (LV17), then the first Team Star base (LV21), and so on. Of course I stopped in between to explore, battle trainers, and catch pokemon, but for the most part I just stuck to the story. I don't like being too under or over leveled, so with this method the game was fairly challenging, especially towards the end where the level gaps for the story events seem to get bigger. But from what I've heard, people who play the game normally have tended to get very over leveled for much of the main story. Assuming future pokemon games will also be open world, hopefully they'll implement some kind of level scaling. It might be tricky with a game like pokemon, for example, if you put level scaling, you can't make a legendary pokemon LV10 or something, but that would then mean restricting the location of that pokemon until later, hence making it less open world. I'm sure there's some way to make it more balanced.

But as far as the open world aspect of Scarlet/Violet overall? I thought this was the closest a Pokemon game has ever gotten to making me feel like I'm really on an adventure with pokemon. Being able to traverse through vast fields, mountains, rivers, etc, seeing tons of pokemon out in the overworld wandering around, sleeping, running, swimming, flying, and hanging out in groups of similar species, being able to seamlessly go from town to town without any loading screens, and have battles with trainers you meet along the way while the wild pokemon in the area continue to go about their business all around you (instead of the standard battle background templates we've gotten in every other game). Setting up a picnic at any spot and being able to freely roam around with your team of pokemon (without the locked camera in Sword/Shield) and being able to play ball with them, bathe them, watch the cute ways that they sleep, etc...all of this added up to probably the most immersive Pokemon adventure I've ever had, so I definitely have to give Scarlet/Violet kudos for that. Another improvement is in the textures of the pokemon sprites themselves. You can now see things like fur, feathers, metallic shines, etc., instead of the "flat" textures that all pokemon shared in past games. I guess one nitpick I have is that the towns themselves are pretty dull. They all have very similar food, clothing, and supply stores and no unique buildings/houses to enter and NPCs to talk to like in past games. I can kind of see why they went this route for games like this, but having each town have at least one unique thing besides the gym leader would have been nice.

Terastallizing is the new gimmick in these games, and although I haven't yet gotten around to fully exploring how to use it in competitive battling, I think it has great potential! I'm glad they kept raids in these games as it was a great multiplayer addition in Sword/Shield, though I'm still a bit confused with how turn order works in tera raids. I'll figure it out eventually.

Another thing I love about the games is how it's even easier to make competitive pokemon. As someone whose main interest in Pokemon games is battling people online, this is very welcome. They already made it easy in Sword/Shield with the addition of mints and exp candy, but Scarlet/Violet goes a step further by making all the supplies you'll need for a competitive pokemon - vitamins, mints, held items, and bottle caps - available to buy at stores! (Also you can now hyper train pokemon at LV50, which is great). No more having to farm battle points or search desperately for that Munchlax with Leftovers. Though the one downside here is that all these things cost lots of money. In Sword/Shield, I was able to easily farm money by rematching the champion cup using my LV100 gigantamax Meowth with G-Max Goldrush. But apparently in Scarlet/Violet the only battles you can redo are in the Academy Ace Tournament, which I haven't explored yet and I'm not even sure if you get money for that. Seems like your main source of post-game income in Scarlet/Violet will be from selling the respawning items in the overworld and drops from tera raids. Still researching this but hopefully people will discover better methods as time goes on.

Another thing I really liked about Scarlet/Violet is the main storyline and characters. Now I'm someone who pretty much never replays Pokemon games - after I complete the game once, I spend the rest of my time in the post-game world. As such, most of the stories and characters in past games haven't really stuck in my head very well. Overall, I just don't find the human characters in Pokemon games all that interesting or memorable (with a few exceptions, like Cyrus and Lusamine). However, having finished Scarlet/Violet, I have to say that the overarching plot between the three main storylines, and how the characters you befriend there come together in a surprisingly suspenseful and emotional climax, was fantastic. I actually found myself liking a lot of the characters - I liked the relationship between the Team Star members and Penny, I liked Nemona as a slightly eccentric but overall well-meaning rival, and I even found some of the gym leaders interesting as well. The games also have a few pre-rendered cutscenes (a rarity in Pokemon games) which were great at giving us a better variety of expressions and gestures from the characters, which helped further the emotional impact of the story. And speaking of expressions, I absolutely adored the animations for Koraidon/Miraidon in the cutscenes - very reminiscent of Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. Kudos to whoever decided to give the mascot pokemon such endearing expressions.

To conclude, I think Pokemon Scarlet/Violet are fantastic additions to the Pokemon series despite some benign glitches. Improvements such as the open world immersion, a more fleshed out storyline and characters, and easier ways of getting items are all welcome in my book. While it would have been nice if they delayed the game longer to smooth out all the graphical bugs, I still think the final product we got is very enjoyable for any Pokemon fan. I can't wait to keep delving into the post-game, and look forward to future DLC!

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet #pokemon violet #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon scarlet violet #pokemon sv #nintendo switch

[yumeka36]

Annals of Frozen_2nd edition

Greetings to the Frozen fandom! Today is Thanksgiving Day of 2022, also a special day for Frozen. I think most Frozen fans may have made their own way to celebrate the ninth (third) anniversary of Frozen (Frozen II)’s premiere. As for me, I prepared a special gift for Frozen: the second edition of Annals of Frozen, also the second formal work made by Arendelle Archives. Now, I am honored to present this book to Frozen fans all over the world!

Annals of Frozen is a chronicle for Disney’s Frozenverse that summaries the complete history of both Arendelle and Northuldra, based on nearly all the official works related, including shorts, videos, novels, comics, etc. Its first edition was released in August last year, and since then, we’ve received many valuable feedbacks on it, which contributed a lot to the update. Even if you have read its first edition, I still recommend you to read this new edition, not only because it includs lots of post-Frozen II events from novels and comics like Polar Nights: Cast into Darkness (Note: this book contains SPOILERS for NEARLY ALL Frozen-related works released 2013-2022!), but also for that we corrected some mistakes and made many great changes on it, like the new beautiful cover designed by Winter Loves Summer. I’m sure it will provide you with very different reading experiences!

Much thanks to my friends who are willing to review my work, Winter Loves Summer, FrozenHeart and Yumeka, especially Winter Loves Summer and FrozenHeart who spent a lot of time reviewing this book very carefully for several times. And I also want to say thanks to all the Frozen fans who have contributed to this book by pointing out mistakes or providing valuable suggestions. I cannot accomplish such high-quality work without all these helps.

Last, it has been my dream to make a video version of this book so that more people, not only core Frozen fans, can learn more about the events in Frozen world and how they are related, but making a video is not as simple as writing a chronicle. If you are interested in this idea and know how to make editing for videos, please feel free to contact us. The dream for making such video will finally come true if more and more people join us!

*Enjoy the journey into the history of Frozen world through Annals of Frozen!

#frozen #frozen 2 #disney frozen #frozen2 #frozen analysis

[yumeka36]

Got my bread, bone, and boss doggies.

After spending practically the whole weekend playing my copy of Scarlet, I made good progress. Just six out of the eighteen story events left to do! Somehow my team ended up consisting of three dogs, two birds, and a cat (also went with an Elden Ring theme for nicknames).

I'm enjoying the game immensely despite some technical issues. Will probably write a detailed review once I finish the main story.

As usual when a new Pokemon game comes out, my Switch friend list ends up looking like this, which is good :)

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon scarlet #pokemon violet #nintendo switch #pokemon sv

[yumeka36]

Important announcement

As some of you may have noticed, there has not been much activity on my blog lately. Part of it is due to there simply being a lack of new Frozen content to post about, and often times when there’s lack of new content, waning interest is inevitable. And unfortunately that’s what’s happened with me.

I joined Tumblr as a way to connect with Frozen fans back in 2014 when the franchise had just exploded into popularity. I didn’t make much original content until 2017 when I wanted to focus my blog not just on Frozen but on my interests in general. But as time went on, especially when Frozen 2 hype started in early 2019, my blog became the extremely Frozen-focused blog that it is today, with a non-Frozen post occurring only once in a while.

In less than two weeks, three years will have gone by without any significant canon content for Frozen, the longest gap in the franchise’s 9-year history. And with that fact, it seems that even a veteran enthusiast like me is feeling the passion dying out. But I know there’s nothing abnormal about this - for other fandoms I’ve been in throughout my life, loss of interest inevitably comes from lack of hype and content. Before Frozen, there were two franchises I had the same level of long-lasting, deep obsession with: one was Inuyasha (an anime/manga series) and the other was Haruhi Suzumiya (an anime/novel series). Like with Frozen, during the years I was deep into those, it was hard to imagine a time when I wasn’t super passionate about them. But of course, those times did eventually come - the Inuyasha manga finished in 2008, and my passion for it faded soon after. And sadly the author of the Haruhi Suzumiya series never got motivated to write new novels, leaving the series incomplete since 2011. But then there’s a franchise like Pokemon that I’ve never once wavered in my love for. And the reason? Because that franchise has never stopped producing new and significant content in its 25+ year history (guess that’s to be expected from the highest grossing media franchise of all time).

During times when franchises I once loved were running dry, it was a perfect opportunity for a new seed of passion to start growing. And that’s what’s happened with me and Frozen. Just as I’ve been pulling at straws to keep my passion alive, something much more enticing came along. Some of you may recall from my last post that I started watching an anime called Spy x Family and really liked it. Well, since then, I’ve been hardcore hyperfocused on that fandom for the past month...and it's been extremely enjoyable! (also thanks to fellow Frozen fan @tare-chan for helping me get initiated!) It’s such a fantastic change of pace to be part of a fandom that has consistent new canon content, a thriving community of fans, and merchandise tailored to adult collectors like me. With Frozen having no significant content for the past few years, I forgot what a wonderful experience that could be.

With all this said, you probably have questions, which I’ve hopefully answered below:

Does this mean you’re leaving the Frozen fandom?

Absolutely not. I still love Frozen, it’s just not my top fandom like it was before. As such, I don’t plan on buying any new Frozen merch or making any new posts about it, at least not until we get new major content, like another movie. But I plan to stay in the Frozen Discord servers I’m already in, continue following my favorite Frozen bloggers, and maybe occasionally partake in discussions online. But I won’t be the avid content creator and enthusiast that I was before. However, if there’s any new major content for the franchise, for example, if/when Frozen 3 comes out, I’ll definitely see it and probably write my thoughts on it.  But whether even a third movie could bring the same level of fervor that I had before, only time will tell.

Are you going to close or repurpose this blog and your other social media?

This blog will definitely remain open and I do plan to post on it occasionally. However it won’t be as Frozen-focused as it was before. I’m going to use this blog to post about my interests in general, whether it’s Frozen or other Disney movies, Pokemon and video games, anime, or whatever. So again, I may still post about Frozen once in a while, especially if we get new canon content, but probably not as much as before. All this applies to my Twitter as well if you follow me there (though my Twitter has always been more multi-fandom focused than my blog). So if you're still interested in seeing potential Frozen content from me, and don't mind seeing a non-Frozen post once in a while, I hope you'll continue to follow this blog 🙂

Are you going to make a new blog or other new social media accounts?

I decided to make a new blog specifically for Spy x Family, which you can find here if you’re interested (as of now I’m mostly posting photos of my newly growing merch collection and maybe my thoughts on the new manga chapters, but I plan to to do other kinds of posts later on as I get more involved in the fandom). But besides that, I’ll still be active on the same Twitter account and the same Frozen Discord servers (though probably not as much for the latter since I’ll be spending more time in Spy x Family servers). And as I said, I’ll still post on this blog when I feel like it.

I’m sure those of you who have been around fandoms for as long as I have understand that they don’t last forever, especially when there’s nothing to get hyped for. The fact that I stayed so loyal to Frozen for almost a decade when all we had were a couple movies and shorts, proves what a special franchise it was to me and I won’t ever forget it. But that’s the wonderful thing about fictional stories and characters...we can fall in and out of love with them with absolute ease - no need for mutual consent to love them, and no breaking hearts if we suddenly decide we’re not into them anymore. They’re immortal and so will be there for us for as long as we need them, and even if we go away from them for a while, we can just as easily go back to them. Maybe some years from now when Spy x Family concludes, I’ll move onto something else. Or maybe I’ll come back to Frozen when we get another movie...or I’ll get into some other hobby entirely. Who knows. But what I do know is that you should put the most time and effort into the things that make you the most happy, even if that’s different from what it was a year, a month, or even a week ago.

And with all this said, I have a little parting gift to my Frozen followers who have read to the end of this post - a few HD scans of the latest French book “Olaf’s Amazing Friend.” I had preordered it a while back and it will probably be my last Frozen 2 purchase.

Thank you for supporting my Frozen content over the years. See you all again in the near or distant future~!