A Very GLORIO 2023: Jel's Best Anime Moments
It is time once again for our annual look back at the past year, and I’ve rounded up some of my favorite anime moments from 2023. For my tastes, it’s been a bit of an up and down year for anime, with little to watch in the Winter and Summer seasons and almost too much in Spring and Fall. Also, I feel like a lot of shows started strong and dropped off hard by the end, which was disappointing.…
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I never understood why Gen5 was underrated back in the day, or fans who still say it's the worst. Like, you're telling me:
A completely new Pokedex with more Pokémon introduced than even Gen1? Sure, there's definitely some lackluster species, but with such a large quantity introduced, not everyone is gonna be a winner. (Gen1 also has the same issue with a lot of lackluster species, but gets a pass since they're the originals.) It forced the player to experiment rather than rely on old staples, which was a pretty cool risk.
Hidden Grottoes, which were a fun way to acquire Pokémon with Hidden Abilities. I remember getting a Sheer Force Bagon > Moxie Salamence from one. So much fun to use, iirc it had a beneficial nature for it too.
The best story and character writing from the mainline series at that point. (By Pokémon standards.) They even actually had the Gym Leaders and Champion actively help you, and that climax when they show up at N's Castle to help the player against Plasma was glorious.
A bunch of pretty decently well-written rivals. Hugh probably the least of them, but he's willing to throw hands with Plasma, so that's fun. But there's Cheren, who has his motives for becoming stronger questioned over the story. Bianca, who wants to prove herself to her overprotective father. And N, commonly is seen as one of Pokémon's best characters, having grown up and fed propaganda his whole life, having his whole viewpoint challenged once he meets the player, and growing and throwing off the control of his abusive father over the course of the games.
The literal most unhinged and vilest villain of the series, up to that point. (Up until they gave us some stiff competition with Volo.) Plus the implications that Ghetsis would have murdered his son (he saw N as nothing but a warped freak, and his Hydreigon was built to solo N's team).
Half of the region to explore as a postgame, or even in B2W2, the White Tree Hollow/Black Tower unlocking, a challenge that's capped off by the game giving you a free Shiny Gible or Dratini, and the PWT. It was WILD at the time to fight every Gym Leader almost and Champion, plus Giovanni.
Actually giving more of a reward for players who complete their Unova dex with a Shiny Haxorus (in B2W2.) That's so much cooler than just a diploma.
Difficulty modes. The implementation was bad and weird, yea, but fans have still been begging for difficulty modes for years.
This troll motherfucker:
The PokeStar Studios. A lot of the battles are fun little challenges. (There's even a Lv99, Ghost/Dark-type with Wonder Guard as an opponent.)
S-tier player designs, especially Hilda and Rosa. The latter is popular enough among fans to have received merch in a line focused on the series' most popular characters.
Memory Link, rewarding the player for playing the past game, allowing them to connect and catch N's Pokémon.
All that, and it's the worst? 🤨 Meanwhile, poor Gen6, particularly XY/Kalos, is sitting there and was completely shafted by GameFreak and left incomplete despite having a ton of untapped potential. 😣
(No offense meant to those who dislike the games. We're all free to our own opinions. For me tho, there's so many cool features that they outweigh my complaints.)
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I've been watching the Lv99 Villainess anime, and I really have a soft spot for Eleanora.
Yeah, she's dumb and obsessed with a boy, but the latter is downplayed and the former just makes her kind. She's Spoiled Sweet leaning very much towards the sweet.
She's self-centred but not particularly selfish. She's more than happy to spend time with Yumiella not just for her own benefit, but because she genuinely enjoys her company, and for the most part is the only character in the series who simply does not want to obtain any sort of particular gain from Yumiella herself.
Eleanora is also perceptive enough to pick up on the vibes between Patrick and Yumiella but, crucially, doesn't suddenly make getting them together her crusade where she tries to force it. She drops hints from time to time, and dolls Yumiella up for special occasions with the intention of catching Patrick's eye, but then doesn't force anything after that. At the dance, she gets the two of them together then simply bows out to let them have their own time instead of shoving them together.
She hasn't really interacted with children yet (though I can't particularly imagine her being mean to kids), but she's good with Ryuu from the first moment, and never once shows any prejudice towards Yumiella's black hair or pseudo-metropolitan family.
The writers have taken the 'annoying best friend of the overpowered protagonist' character that exists in so many isekais and dialed down every one of the obnoxious traits just enough that they become endearing instead.
Eleanora Hillrose is a good kid and a good friend, and she does really well as a supporting cast member in the series.
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Starwind Shrine
My friends and I spent the past week making a game for the Lv99 Game Jam! @paradoxrevolver, @cryptidshy, Keestak and RotaryCobra were on the team!
I was the character and main level designer!
Check it out here: https://rubic.itch.io/starwind-shrine
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I was so distracted by the Outrage today that I forgot to show off the Level99 Strive board game demo deck that came in today. It's pretty cool! I don't have anyone IRL that'd wanna play something like this so I don't know how it plays, but the art and cards and stuff are pretty neat. It uses screenshots from the game for the card art, the main character art for important stuff, and then graphics Level99 made for everything else. It all has a decent construction/material quality to it, except for the playmat which I think'll get tattered pretty fast for anyone that plays it often. I'm sure the official full release will have a much better mat though.
No new illustrations anywhere, which is both a good and ehhh thing. I don't think it really needed new art even if new official GG illustrations are always exciting, but I'm grateful that the GG archivists don't have to scramble getting their hands on all the cards to scan haha
The decks fill up about half of the cardboard carrying cases included. I think Lv99 mentioned somewhere that they were planning on releasing deck expansions? So it's cool all the new cards'll fit in these things as well. The cases, playmat, and coins all fit in the box it shipped in too. Nice n easy to store. Always excellent for a tabletop game.
I mostly got this for the coins, to be honest. They're real metal and very sharply made. Super stoked about it. They have a lot of weight and they're satisfying to throw around. The "distressed" look of the print on the coins will look really cool once they wear down from frequent use, too. I'm assuming these are just plated steel and will be silver underneath when they wear.
PUSSY ATTACK
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