#aleira rambles

[smilingperformer]

Once again I have to appreciate Sun & Moon changing formula.

I love how much the family theme is in center of a lot of things. Every kid has a family, and they’re all very different. They all have their own ‘problems’, nuances, dynamics. This is such a good theme to have in a show and if Pokeani had continued as a travelling adventure formula, exploring families would have been way harder! Trust me. It would be.

Ducktales reboot has a lot of family theme exploring as well, and while it is very adventurous, they’re not constantly on a journey, sometimes having adventures in Duckberg and they’re always adventuring together as family. It works really well imo, and Sun & Moon is actually doing similar, except with a group of kids with multiple different kinds of families, each explored in different way. It works so well for Pokeani. Imo that is ;V;

[keep-on-trying]

Here’s a fun question to explore. Under the cut.

Now. I kinda came to realise that we were never shown if Taichi learned about Hikari’s dark evolution or not. He may or may not have seen Tailmon fall out from Ordinemon. I wonder if he eventually found out? What would have been his reaction to it? Would Hikari have opened up about it, or would Taichi have asked? Would Taichi apologize for letting Hikari go through all that pain? Or would he avoid the subject? I also wonder how Hikari’s going to be handling this in the future. Even if she did manage to overcome it, it could be a sore subject.

This is honestly something I wish was explored, but don’t see it as an important detail for the story. Maybe in possible sequel. Maybe someone writes a small oneshot. Maybe I’ll draw something related to it. I don’t know. It’s just something I suddenly started to thinking about and well, I got curious.

[smilingperformer]

Okey yeh. I’ll be done with Johto series in 3 weeks. And I started it early this year. Quite a 8 months journey it’s been (with a 2 month gap in the middle due to personal stuff so, 5-6 months actually).

Knowing more about Ash/Satoshi’s journey throughout Kanto and Johto has been quite fun! Neither Kanto or Johto tops other series for me, but I’ve come appreciate them in a whole new level. My favourite detail about Kanto/Johto era is the charmful conversations and dynamics between Rocket Gang and OS trio. It’s such enjoyable content. Another is how you can actually see how Ash progresses with his battling skills and all! Same with Pikachu!

I’ve learned way more about Misty/Kasumi, even now knowing she actually owns the Politoad from fifth movie. I never ever knew that! I thought it belonged to Brock/Takeshi! They didn’t exactly explain which Pokemon belong to who in the movie... It’s quite a guy thou, Misty/Kasumi sure ended up with a team full of personality. With Corsola, Psyduck and Politoad. I wish there was more Corsola, she’s my fav ;V;

I also used to think all she did was bicker with Ash/Satoshi and that would have been all there is to her character. Oh boy am I glad to be proven wrong. She’s temperamentic but also caring, and her bugfobia is way too relatable to me. And the way she loves Water Pokémon is so charming! The episode that really made me like her was the one with Marill. That was such a sweet episode.

Even Brock/Takeshi has gained new level of respect from me! He knows so much about Pokemon, and even with his ‘falls in love with every woman he meets’ personality, he’s shown to be extremely caring for all Pokémon. I’d be happy to have him around on my Pokémon journey for sure! The episode that stood out to me from Brock/Takeshi’s episodes might be the Stantler episode from Johto. He showed what a good person he is there!

Favourite Pokemon from the OS era? Do I even need to say it? If you’ve been following me at all, you know what the answer is!

This bugger stole my heart the moment I saw its debut episode a whole year ago in japanese. He’s full of personality, so cheerful, excited dancing. I just love everything about Totodile/Waninoko. He makes every Pokeani episode better.

I actually ended up loving the whole Johto Starter Trio! Chikorita and Cyndaquil are so cute! And I love how much Chikorita loves Ash/Satoshi! And the way she evolved to Bayleef, still having so much personality! Ah ♥ I somehow knew I’d like her from the day I saw Bayleef in DP Sinnoh League.

And of course, Bulbasaur! ♥ I don’t need to explain Bulby. He was my fav since childhood. I mean, I wasn’t a Pokémon fan back then, but I still had picked some favourites from the Pokémon I had seen. And Bulbasaur has always been the Kanto starter I liked!

Favourite episodes in OS series? Well, St Anne arc is what comes up to my head right of the pat when thinking about Kanto, so I’d say those episodes are my favourites from Kanto journey. From Johto, I really really adore Larvitar’s arc. I also really enjoyed the Red Gyarados episodes, because it showed how much Satoshi wants to help the enraged Gyarados. It also finally made me connect the Dent/Takeshi special from BW to Johto era. That’s what Takeshi was reminded of when seeing Dent talk to that enraged Gyarados!

There are other episodes I really liked as well (Orville Pidgey episode for example. That was a beautiful episode), but my memory can’t think of the names well at this moment. I’ve still got to see the Johto League and the actual end of this series, but that’s in 3 weeks time.

What’s next? Well, I’ve already started exploring the early DP, and will most likely start watching AG next as well, so I’ll probably do both series simultaniously on Pokemon TV. I don’t have the patience to wait another 6 months til I’m done with AG to watch DP, so I’ll just explore them both. I think it should be a fun journey!

Anyway, sorry about this ramble, I’m just really glad I decided to explore rest of Kanto, all of Orange Islands and all of Johto in english dub, despite my initial problems. Now I’ve grown used to it, and don’t have too many problems with the dub anymore. If anything, it’s better than Digimon Dub. In my opinion that is! Feel free to like it if you do. I’m not here to judge :)

Anyway, thanks for reading, I’ll look forward to seeing how OS Trio’s journey ends!

[smilingperformer]

Ok @rohanite kind made me start thinking about Rowlet’s Razor Leaf... it really looks nothing like the old Razor Leaf, now does it? I mean... I don’t really remember an instance in XY where it was used normally (only the gym leader Gogoat that used it in an intriquing way comes to mind), but up til BW, it looks like this:

While Mokuroh’s looks completely different:

I’ve seen people pointing out a shape of an arrow and yes, I can see it! You can also see it’s a shape done with leaves! This could be just an animation upgrade for the move but, the shape is something that fits Rowlet’s line! Would this really hint on an evolution, like some are now speculating?

Hell, Razor Leaf looks nothing like that in the games lol. Possibly because of not wanting to make a pokemon-specific animation for a move that is learnable by other pokemon but, it’s possible it was intented to look more like an arrow shape for Rowlet? And Animators were given a guide line on how they’d have wanted it? Idk I’m rambling weird stuff now but, it just kinda occured to me.

Edit: Also also, it makes sense Satoshi doesn’t recognize the move because he’s never seen the move looking like this! :D

Anyway, considering how Rowlet only knew 3 moves before this ep, I guess it now knows Leafage, Peck, Tackle and now Razor Leaf. Next obvious step would be evolution and Ghost-type move! \o/

Anyway I’m proud of the lil birb ♥ I’m glad he indeed got something out of this lil Ula’Ula arc!

[smilingperformer]

Y’know, I still remember how people’s reactions to Pokeani!Lusamine’s reveal was “Stay away from Lilie!!!“, and now, at least for me, it’s complete turnaround. I was worried about Lusamine’s role in the story when Aether Arc started 9 months ago...?, she was so different from the games. But I ended up loving how they handled her, and that different take on her problem, and I’m glad Lilie’s got the mother she needed now ♥

It’d be interesting if they’d at some point introduce Mohn to Pokeani as well, with the same amnesia plotline. With the same PokePelago thing. Come to think of it, why hasn’t Pokeani shown PokePelago yet. Only the beans have been introduced back in SM020, don’t think we’ve seen them since....? D:

[smilingperformer]

I feel like a fool to even consider this, but if this small subtile continuity reference here ends up being a tease for Contests Introduction episode in the series later this year then.... idk. I feel like such a fool at even considering it, it’s such a small subtile reference for Satoshi’s knowledge in how to make Combo moves appealing... Help lol It’s be so cool thou? It could bring Haruka, Hikari and/or Serena back for 2 episodes.

I’m still expecting Kasumi and Takeshi to keep the promise and come to Alola for a visit

[smilingperformer]

Reading more info on Pokemon Let’s Go... Link here to anyone interested

Any big Pokemon is ridable. I love that. I hope this is sort of an experiment of how it’s received in this game and then expand it on 2019 RPG. How many big pokemon exist in Kanto? Does that mean I can ride my Venusaur? :O Or Blastoise? Nassy/Exeggutor??? Ninetails? I wonder what exactly qualifies as big enough.

Even if there ain’t wild battles, you get XP for catching them. Interesting. Though it’s not determined how it is distributed in comparison to trainer battles.

And it’s confirmed that Let’s Go has no connections to Sun & Moon outside of Alolan forms. Well, that locks out the possibility of Lillie cameo :)

So, Let’s Go is designed as a Home Console game, while 2019 RPG is more handheld experience designed. Ok, I’m cool with that.

When it comes to Online features, it seems like there’s a lot of conflicting information on it. Does it exist? Does it not? What is the final verdict?

A lot of stuff introduced in this article, and quite honestly I am actually quite optimistic. Possibly because I’m happy to be able to visit Kanto finally. I’m sorry, but after USUM it’s hard to go to older games that lack QoLs like being able to choose where caught Pokemon goes, being able to save quick, Ride Pokemon, No HMs.... XD If summer goes well, I should have enough money to buy Switch for the release! I wonder if they’ll have a Pokemon-themed special Switch on sale for it :3 I’d buy it!

[smilingperformer]

SM071 - Thoughts

Ok so, since SM072 subs come later instead, let me collect some more thoughts on this episode on one post. About stuff that doesn’t work in screencap posts or something.

The first thing I have to note, as I already explained yesterday, that I love episodes like this one where the focus is on a Pokemon. The first half of the episode was solely Shizukumo. No humans involved. Just Shizukumo and its journey across Melemele Island to find itself a new pond. Like, I truly enjoyed this approach and I hope to see similar episodes in the future as well! I was literarily screaming yesterday during the stream whenever Shizukumo’s bubble was popped, because as you guys may know, it gets its oxygen from this head bubble and it’s vital for its survival! It can’t breathe without it! Luckily, the lil guy is able to make bubbles itself but it needs to be done on stand-by.

Shizukumo meets Suiren & Satoshi before the second part of the episode kicks in, and it falls in love with Suiren that has a perfected Air-bubble on her head. The poor thing pops its headbubble due to love steams. Luckily, Suiren knows about Shizukumo, and knew immediately that Shizukumo without its bubble needs to get to water asap! Great job Suiren!

Suiren then decides to bring a clinging Shizukumo with her to School, where Shizukumo clearly shows its affection towards Suiren, and seems to be quite aggressive towards others? Quite an interesting approach.

Mao, you god damn tease you. This episode was indeed all about Shizukumo getting Suiren and not other way around. I got fooled. And I blame myself. : D I’m gonna leave these kinds of episode predicitions to the experts in the future. But like, even if this episode did sort of end up being a filler (for now), I loved it, and felt it was nicely written. Even Satoshi acknowledging Ametama was great, after the reactions from fandom to how Satoshi always reacts to Joys and Junsas this season. Or how I felt about him not talking about Kalos with Ilima, or suddenly not understanding Poke Ping Pong. But enough of the past.

Back on topic, Shizukumo gets shocked when Suiren decides to pop her airbubble, and then goes back to its journey on finding a good pond for itself. Then comes the fight with Ametama, which I personally liked (I somehow just adore Ametama?), and even thou Shizukumo didn’t win the fight, it helped Ametama evolve to Amemoth, and it was so happy of this that it left its territory to fly on a new journey. So. It’s a win-win situation. Shizukumo won it’s pond. It’s got its own territory now. The ending dialogue from narrator seemed to tease future capture but, it also seemed to subtly imply that he was just kidding? I’m basing this on this scene alone:

Gif by @the-pokemonjesus

Considering that is Suiren’s “Uso Desu“ pose, I wouldn’t be suprised of a lil play.

Also, poke-problem was absolutely cute and I adore Hou and Sui. Somehow I feel like Shizukumo is some sort of family-favourite in Suiren’s family.

We got to see the real preview in this episode for SM072 (I’m so happy Some-Stuffs pulls these from some streaming site instead of from TV, we get to see Poke-Problems each time this way), and they talk about their favourite breads. To which Satoshi answers with puns of Pokemon. Which ones?

Figures. Stay classy Satoshi ♥ Also, Lilie loves Croissants and I couldn’t agree more. Cya guys later when SM072 gets subbed!