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American companies do fail a lot in other countries. And it's usually because they have shady business practices/ cheap but badly made products that aren't going to work in the place they're trying to get settled into. I think every country has far right weirdos to a degree. They definitely aren't as common but you always have to be on guard since that particular type of political movement thrives on finding groups of people to other, scapegoat and foster an irrational fear of. And if you aren't quick to combat their propaganda it can get out of control. The solution to homelessness is cheap, affordable housing, job placement services and publicly available mental health services. Your coworker sounds like a complete psychopath. I do think a big part of the Christian movement against LGBT+ people existing is just them lashing out with the bigotries they grew up with and lack the thinking ability to move away from. It doesn't take a comprehensive understanding of history to know that Christians used the Bible to justify both slavery and anti-Semitism for a long time. It's my belief that the way Christians use the Bible reflects who they are as a person. If you're a bigot, the Bible validates your bigotry. If you're a decent human being, the passages about love and acceptance get your focus. Yeah, Ayn Rand was a colossal dumbass and piece of shit. And her philosophy is utter nonsense that falls apart the moment Nepotism exists. A bad take from Ben Shapiro? It must be a day ending in a y. In all seriousness, the argument I always see Americans use against proper health care is "people won't want to be doctors if we implement it because they won't make as much money." Which is also a dumb argument since it's literally not an issue for any of the myriad countries with universal healthcare. And a lot of countries with universal healthcare do have private practices for those doctors who want to work in them and those patients who want to bypass the waiting.

It's amazing how many amazing games we've missed over the years because some executives decided apropos of nothing that the title wouldn't do well. The original TCG sold almost 4 million copies. The sequel, being only released in Japan, sold just above 65k. Seems to me that if they'd released it worldwide it probably would have done pretty well. Maybe even well enough that they'd still be making titles for the spin off. Yeah, you'd have to make it so that Pokémon could only be used in Stadium with Gen 1 move sets but it wouldn't be that hard for players to put together Stadium teams using Home. I've always said that Nintendo should just release every title they can on the VC. Both because game archival is important and because it just makes the service more valuable but Nintendo is, unfortunately, pretty shit at handling their old titles. That's a handy resource to have. The issue with the old cartridges is legitimately that the internal batteries die and you can't play them anymore. Not if you want to actually save your progress, at any rate. Which is definitely one of the advantages modern tech gives us.

Yeah, the friendly rival thing is old hat at this point. I do think the early gens have their memorable moments but I don't think they have them to the extent of gen 7. They definitely have more than gen 8. I stand by my review where I said nothing about the story or characters of gen 8 is memorable. Gen 6 is pretty solid. It definitely has an issue where a lot of its ideas are, in terms of story and characters, sound more interesting than they are the way they're executed. Like, having an entire group of rivals who are also your protagonists' childhood friends sounds amazing but then they only really develop your relationship with one of them being the young lady and only one of them, being the protag you don't choose, is a threat. Flying battles also seem like a cool idea as does the battle chateau but they're both kind of meh. Gen 6 did introduce Wonder Trades and the Pokémon Refresh mechanic which are both fantastic ideas. Honestly, the hardest part was the Fire Team's base. After I cleared that it wasn't too difficult. I definitely had a harder time clearing gen 7 with Ice types. If I hadn't gotten that Lapras egg randomly in that playthrough it would have been so much more of a chore.

That's fair. They definitely give you the big parts of the Team Star story. What happened to them, why they decided to fight back and how they put together the organization but they definitely could have done more with it. They could have done more with the Professor as well. I think the issue with that would have been an increase in cut scenes/ longer cut scenes and I don't know if that would have really benefitted the game. Maybe the best course of action would have been to release a couple short lore OVAs or manga for people who want more of those back stories. I can respect the idea too. And I would have been fine with it if they'd done it with gens 2, 3, 4, 7 or 9. But it doesn't work so well in a gen like 5 where the designs are trash. Quite literally in the case of Trubbish and Gabordor. I have either Black 2 or White 2 but I never actually played the standard game. I bought it used to transfer my old Pokémon from gen 4 up to gen 6. But I was able to do that using the save file it already had since it was at the point in the game it needed to be.

Star Trek also had a lot of anti prejudice content right from the original series as well as women and people of colour in positions of power and authority. Which are all things that the anti-woke mob love to rally against. If they aired the episode with the people who are half black and half white today the anti-woke would lose their tiny minds. They're definitely overly sensitive little babies. You get a phenomenal game like Baldur's Gate 3 and they throw a fit because you can make the PC trans if you want and engage in same sex relationships, if you want. And not every character is white. Which they'll insist somehow makes no sense in a fantasy setting. They just want everything to be like those old 1950s sitcoms where everyone was white, straight and cis and the biggest problem they had to face was that the Beaver told a lie. For a group that's supposedly against censorship, that's a perplexingly puritanical perspective. The D&D thing basically goes back to when D&D was created. Hell, it was still a thing when I was a kid. Imagination= evil, apparently. I would go so far as to say parents like that don't actually love their children. They had kids wanting miniature versions of themselves and now they're throwing a tantrum because their children aren't actually like them. Sasha and Marcy both. Anne had some big moments throughout as well. The interesting thing, when you look at Gravity Falls, Amphibia & The Owl House, is that they all have similar senses of humour and they all feature grand narratives that would have been impossible in a children's cartoon not that long ago. They all have interesting foreshadowing. And they all pushed the envelope for what Disney would allow for LGBT representation. Gravity Falls with their cop duo, because Disney literally wouldn't let them do more than imply the pair of them are a couple. Amphibia with Yunan & Olivia plus Sasha's bisexual pride sticker and then The Owl House went all out. I would go so far as to say that if you like one of the three, you'll most likely enjoy all three because of the writing similarities. Unless you're one of those smooth brained anti-woke drones in which case you might like Gravity Falls since its main characters are all white and the only LGBT+ content is implied but you definitely won't like the other two.

If we're talking games released this year, I've only really played Princess Peach Showtime & Endless Ocean Luminous. All the other games I've played this year are older. I do want to play Unicorn Overlord, Earth Defense Force 6 and Dragon's Dogma II at some point.

Countries in the EU have Capitalism tempered with Socialist programs like welfare, health care, subsidized education and various others. We also are more strict about what corporations can get away with. It seems like in the USA corporations can basically do whatever they want as long as they're willing to pay a minor fine. There's a reason Wal-Mart failed here when they tried to lower their prices to a point where they could destroy the competition while anti-monopoly laws here forced their prices back up. The Bible definitely isn't consistent. But Christians in particular are obsessed with Jesus and what he said. Except, seemingly, when it comes to things like tolerance and greed. Then they'll focus on whatever Torah verses hate the same people that they do and just ignore the stuff about helping the poor. The American health care system is definitely worse. Solely on the basis that health care, and other government systems, is supposed to work for the average citizen. It's not supposed to be inaccessible for anyone who isn't rich.

It would definitely be nice to see TCG2 get a re-release that's actually global, unlike the original. But Nintendo is very bizarre when it comes to their old titles. It's one of the very valid criticisms everyone has about Nintendo as a company. Stadium is a great example since, you'd think, they could use Pokémon Home in the same way they used to use the GB cartridge features.

I've played through gen 7 5 times. I did a mono grass team, mono fire team, mono water team, mono ice team and full Eeveelution team. I don't understand the hate some people have for it. My best guess is that the Island trials just didn't resonate with some fans who wanted the normal gym crawl experience. For me, the only gen I've only played through once is 8. I've actually finished a second gen 9 playthrough recently with a full bug team.

The story is definitely dialogue heavy. Though I do disagree with you about them being largely explained after the fact. I think in both cases the game gives you enough hints both from dialogue going into them and from environmental aspects that you can figure out what's coming. Like, Penny being Cassiopeia was really obvious. And all those labs you encounter going down into the Area Zero lab give you a lot of hints that the true Professor Sarada isn't around anymore. For me, gen 6's ORAS remakes are better than the OG gen 3 versions. They have more story and added post game content which is something the originals definitively lacked. But yeah, you actually are the bigger Poke Boomer. As much as I've been given shit over the years for being a "Genwunner." Gen 5 did have some good game design decisions for sure. I just can't go back to those titles unless I'm using a randomizer that adds all the gen 1-4 Pokémon into the game. You know how I am with wanting to use Pokémon that I like and only Pokémon that I like.

It's not just X-men. I've seen people talk about Star Trek going woke. And these are quite literally two franchises that were always about inclusion and battling bigotry. It's funny to me that the people who are obsessed with cancel culture and how it's "ruining everything" are also the first ones to try and cancel things for being "too diverse." And if you talk to one of these low IQ people about it, they don't even seem to understand that their position is hypocritical. Or that they are, in fact, the ones trying to maintain an outdated status quo. You really don't have to go back that far into history to see people being very careful about being inclusive. Literally the Gargoyles cartoon had to imply that Lexington was gay rather than outright saying it (unless you read the brief comic). Chris Claremont wasn't allowed to put a lot of the LGBTQ content he wanted in the X-men comic so you end up with a lot of implied relationships. I feel like a lot of these people are terrified by the prospect that their children will see that it's okay to be LGBT and then live happy and fulfilled lives that are authentic to who they are but that the parents are uncomfortable with. Which is so selfish and smooth-brained. Honestly, get over it. People with different sexualities and gender identities exist. And, honestly, it shouldn't affect anyone besides them and their romantic partners. Amphibia is an excellent series too. I would say The Owl House is a bit better. Not just in terms of representation but in terms of world building and story telling. Like I said, there are so many minor details in the show that come into play later as being important. It's so well planned and thought out. The character writing is also incredible. I can't think of another children's cartoon that fleshes its characters out that well.

I have definitely noticed that American capitalism is... not healthy, to put it mildly. I've read several articles about workers lack of rights that paint a pretty abhorrent picture. I've also seen the insane "Mega Churches" and I've always questioned how anyone looks at those structures and views them as representative of Christianity. You know I was raised in a very conservative, Christian household and I've read the Bible. And I know that there's so many verses in there that condemn the accumulation of wealth and insist on charity towards the poor. So, I really have trouble wrapping my head around how anyone can believe this is the holy word of God and also endorse a Church that's very blatantly built on avarice.

Oh yeah, that's definitely a factor. In the Gen 2 remakes you have access to all the Gen 3 and Gen 4 Pokémon in addition to those from the first two Gens. The Gen 3 remakes of Gen 1 gave you the first 3 gens of Pokémon. The Gen 3 remakes had access to all six Gens that were out at the time. Plus, those remakes added additional features and game mechanic updates. By comparison, BDSP doesn't offer a whole lot. That's always been one of Nintendo's problems, at least in the semi-modern era. They'll try to drip feed access to their older games but so many of them get forgotten about or just ignored. I'd honestly like to see Nintendo just provide access to all the previous Pokémon games on their E-shop. Including the spin-offs like the Stadiums, Colosseum, both TCGs (I'd personally love the second one properly translated), Conquest and such. It's not like they're still selling hard copies of them at this point so they might as well. But, like we've said, they're bad with preserving their own games.

The big thing that stood out to me about gen 7 in terms of the narrative is the whole aspect of Lusamine's children both escaping from her and the Aether foundation to try and protect Pokémon they bonded with and coming into their own both due to the circumstances of the story and your influence. It's quite the compelling, inter-connected story. And the fact that they both go to her rescue when her madness puts her in danger and try to patch their relationship afterwards is pretty wholesome.

Yeah, Team Star is definitely refreshing. It's not like Team Skull from gen 7 or Team Yell from gen 8 where the entire gimmick about them was just that they're really stupid. Though, in the case of Team Skull, there was a narrative reason for it with them being used by the true mastermind. Which was Lusamine. Instead, they made them complex. Which is nice. I do appreciate the quality of life improvements in terms of maxing your evs, ivs, changing your ability and nature but I don't play competitive so that stuff is kind of a maybe I'll do it if I have the stuff, thing. Here's my thing about the level scaling, I like to keep the same party throughout the game. And it makes it difficult for me to do that when they end up way over-leveled. After playing through it once, I know to pull up a web page that tells me the recommended order when I do another playthrough but I didn't even think of that the first time through. Why would I when it's supposed to be an open world where you can go anywhere in any order? Yeah, the future paradox Pokémon are kind of boring. They're mostly fine if you like the mons they're based off of but they're basically just various Pokémon with a metallic coat of paint and better stats. I'll never use a Serperior. I really don't like its design. I don't even give a solitary shit how strong it is competitively. For me, the top two are gen 4, specifically the gen 2 remakes from gen 4. I never played Diamond that much. I think I played through it twice, thrice if you count the playthrough I did of the remakes. And you are correct. Gen 7 is the other one. I would round out my top three with gen 6 mainly for the gen 3 remakes. The only two Pokémon gens I really didn't enjoy were 5 and 8. 5 because it had almost no Pokémon I wanted to use and 8 for a lot of reasons that I mentioned in my review of it.

Yeah, it's unfortunate but there are legitimate bigots who consider any diversity to be "overly woke" or "harmful" or some other bullshit. And they're already complaining about X-men '97. Which is hilarious to me because X-men has always been the kind of franchise they complain about. I kind of hope they give Storm the girlfriend Chris Claremont wanted her to have in the comics way back in the day just so I can see the meltdown they have over it. I think it would be hilarious. You're right, Disney will only go as hard with LGBT inclusivity as is safe within the market. The closest they'll come to actually pushing boundaries is something like The Owl House. And they cancelled that prematurely because it went a little too hard to be in their comfort zone in spite of being extremely wholesome with how they handle the relationship betwixt Luz and Amity. I haven't seen Strange World so I'll have to take your word for it. But hey, at least it's better than Gargoyles where the one gay relationship got hidden in a tie-in comic. I always roll my eyes when the homophobic crowd refers to any representation of LGBT people, no matter how minor, as "indoctrination." It just makes no sense to the point of absurdity. Is it "indoctrination" when a cartoon for children includes a straight couple or a cis-gendered character? Of course not. So how is the same level of content involving trans, non-binary or non-straight characters indoctrination?

lol, I’m stealing this meme! I think a LOT of us identify with poor Ogre!

If we're being completely honest, there are a lot of fringe ideas that get popular in the US that don't take off in most places. Like the anti-vaccine sentiment or those weirdos who insist the Earth is flat. I'm not sure why Americans seem more prone to that brand of nonsense but I suspect they aren't shamed enough.

It's crazier than you can tell from just youtube videos. You get branching dialogue paths based on things like your class and your character's race and these aren't occasional options. My first playthrough I played as a drow ranger and I had specialised dialogue about 1 in every 8-10 conversations with NPCs. Larian really gave your choices far more impact than they needed to. Which does make the game far more immersive. And you are right. Your companions can leave your party. I actually had Gale sod off in that playthrough because I wouldn't give him magic items to absorb. Yeah, they get very creative with the wonder effects. There's one stage I vividly remember where you enter a very dark world and your character stretches and has glowing eyes. It was very bizarre. Yeah, people really wanted the Platinum improvements but the only major improvement over the original is that they got rid of HMs and they added some extra content to the underground area. I don't mind the art style either. It legitimately does look a lot like the Link's Awakening remake. I actually hadn't considered that the criticism might be linked to Sword and Shield but it would actually make sense. I have noticed that people have been more inclined to be critical of the franchise since Sword and Shield released mired in controversy and being absolute rubbish. I would love a Mother 2 remake. Frankly, I would love a collection style game where they have the whole trilogy.

I actually like the story of gen 7 Sun and Moon quite a lot too. I thought the trials were interesting and everything about the Aether foundation was really good but it is true that most Pokemon games have kind of underwhelming story-telling. Scarlet/ Violet definitely take that aspect to new heights. I do think that makes the wasted open world and performance issues all the more disappointing because without those I legitimately think gen 9 could have been in the top 3 generations of the franchise, easily. A lot of Pokemon can get insanely buffed with the Tera mechanic. Dragonite with multi-scale, normal typing and extreme speed is one example. Tera ground Gyarados with Earthquake is another good one. There's also Tera Electric on any levitate Pokemon or Tera water on a sap sipper Pokemon. You can basically eliminate any Pokemon's normal weakness, get rid of a 4x weakness or come up with some insane strategy that really takes advantage of the type change. Tear Electric on levitate Pokemon in particular is kind of broken since you end up with zero weaknesses. I do think the PS2 FF titles get a worse reception than they generally deserve because the PS1 titles, except 8 which is absolute trash, were so good. XII and XIII aren't bad games. XII takes a lot of shit because Vaan is a really pointless character and doesn't need to be there while XIII takes shit for being linear even though there's nothing inherently wrong with an RPG being linear it's just unusual for a FF title. I would say Disgaea is at its best with the original three titles.

Yeah, I watched it because I was curious based on the reception. And one of the complaints I kept reading was that it "tried too hard to be inclusive" which is almost always a bullshit complaint and it was in this case as well. It just wasn't a good film overall. I kind of feel the same way about it that I felt about Raya. Interesting premise but lacklustre execution.

Both of those are really good games! I also enjoyed Beastars S2! I'm sorry to hear you've been having some rough times, but hopefully 2024 will really turn things around for the better! I've mostly just been chilling with friends this holiday since my brother and parents are currently living in a different state. I actually spent Christmas day with my aunt and uncle who live way out in the country, so that was nice! I binged my way through some retro games over the holiday season: Contra, Castlevania 1 and 3, Contra Hard Corps, Vectorman 2, and The Legend of Zelda. I'm also rewatching Samurai Champloo which I'm really enjoying! In terms of reading, I just finished my audiobook of Wuthering Heights, so I need to start a novel called "How Do You Live?" for a book club I belong to on Discord. Overall, I've been feeling pretty good about things lately. Which background did you go with in Dragon Age? I did Dwarf noble, which was a fun route.

Happy New Year man! I hope you and your family are doing well!

My mum is a bit nutty. I think she blamed secularism for the fact that my dad left her alone with four kids and she very much over-reacted to it. Interestingly enough she didn't have an issue with Pokémon. She saw the evolution mechanic as them basically growing up and we didn't have the same moral panic that seemed to happen over in NA about those games.

Yeah, the Megadrive/SNES ones were the ones I played. I know there are later titles for the GBA and PC but I've never gotten around to trying them.

There's something about Moomin that just appeals to Japanese audiences.

I would say 6 is around on par with 4. It's not the absolute best of the franchise but it's still a great entry. The first two are good games but III absolutely blows them away. It has so many interesting features. The number of dialogue options and branching paths is pretty insane. Which includes unique options for you based on your character's race and class. Wonder does have a lot of creativity. Those segments of levels where you're going after a Star Seed and you go into an other worldly vortex can get crazy. Everyone knows about the singing Piranha Plants on Parade at this point but it can get even weirder than that. Nintendo has been really good at that. Which got them into trouble with BDSP because fans wanted an experience like Platinum and they got one like Diamond and Pearl. I actually did a review of Scarlet/Violet though I didn't include the DLC which is where the Synchro machine comes into play. I think a lot of the disappointment in more recent Disgaea titles comes from people expecting them to be as amazing as the best titles in the franchise and instead they're 7/8 out of 10 experiences. Which doesn't make them bad games just not the best in the franchise.
https://ktulusreviews.wordpress.com/2023/12/17/december-bonus-review-2-pokemon-scarlet-violet/

Marvel and DC comics, at least the big ones, were readily available translated. So were Disney comics like Donald Duck but I was never a big fan of those. I also got into comics at a bit of an older age. If you'll remember, I had a very strict conservative religious upbringing and I wasn't allowed to read/ listen to/ watch much that wasn't Christian.

There are a lot of Asterix & Obelix games out there. I can't claim to have played all of them but I have played several of the platformers and they've always been enjoyable.

I wouldn't say that Moomin is hugely popular in Deutschland but it's not obscure either. It's one of those things where most people have heard the name but a lot of people haven't actually read it.

Fire Emblem Engage is pretty solid. Definitely not as good as Three Houses. Well, I have played a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 and Armored Core 6 came out which is another worthwhile title. Scarlet and Violet also got their DLC. There was also Mario Wonder and Octopath Traveller II. And you can't forget the recent Mario RPG remake. I also want to play Disgaea 7 but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I would say the classic European comics are Asterix & Obelix (which also has some amazing video games) and Moomin. Though I've admittedly always been more into American comics and Japanese manga. Persepolis is a good one though. I actually have a copy of it sitting on one of my bookshelves.

I also found it amusing how almost every character in FF4 who dies (besides Tellah) immediately come back. FF4 is a little messy by the storytelling standards of later games but was a HUGE step forward for its time. I'm fairly sure that Tellah was the first named party member to ever die in a video game. At least that I can find. Cecil starts out the game feeling depressed for having been tricked into committing a war crime, which is pretty dark for a kids game in 1991! I know that Cecil and Rosa was the first wedding in a video game because that actually got into the Guiness Book of World Records. I actually still need to play FF5. It's one of the only FF games I've not beaten yet along with 1, 2, 3, and 16.

Since you asked about Joyce earlier, Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist are both pretty accessible and great starting points. Ulysses is HARD. The Wikipedia page is surprisingly detailed and has a helpful chapter summary for some of the more abstract chapters along with which portion of The Odyssey each chapter was meant to correspond to and it explains some of the more esoteric references. There are also a bunch of Joyce fan sites that are helpful. However, part of tackling Ulysses is accepting that you're not going to understand everything the first time you read it. You have to sort of accept that and read it anyways. Then if you like it, you can go back and read it again. Finnegan's Wake is...yeah. I don't like that one. lol

As far as 16-bit retro gaming is concerned, I've gone through several phases. I grew up with the Genesis since my dad bought it for the sports games, but I always envied my neighbor who had a SNES. For a long time, I would say that the SNES library is just flat out better. Now I've been able to play a lot of games on both libraries thanks to the Sega mini and adding games with Hackchi. The SNES library is still better, but I've grown to appreciate that each console kind of does its own thing. It's almost an apples to oranges comparison sometimes.

My top 10 SNES games in no particular order are: FF6, FF4, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Mario RPG, Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Super Castlevania 4, Turtles in Time, and Super Mario World. Honorable mentions: Secret of Mana, DK Country, and Yoshi's Island.

Top 10 Genesis in no order: Rocket Knight Adventures, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Streets of Rage 2, Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Splatterhouse 3, M.U.S.H.A, Castlevania Bloodlines, and Vectorman. Honorable mentions, Mean Bean Machine, Warsong, Alyssa Dragoon

Also Alex Kidd SUCKS! Hate those games. I actually own and have beaten all 3 Shenmue games, but I wouldn't say they're good in a conventional sense. They're my guilty pleasure games. I'm especially fond of the awful voice acting, silly gimmicks, hilarious time wasting, and the fact that such a major figure of the early gaming industry could make something that at times feels close to outsider art.

I really enjoyed "Sisyphus". It reminded me a lot of JD Salinger. Even though I didn't like Catcher when I first read it, I ended up by chance reading ""A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in a collection of short stories and completely reevaluated my feelings towards the man!

BTW, I was looking through our previous conversations just because it had been quite a while. In the last 4 years, I've finally played Suikoden 2 (It was amazing) read more James Joyce (He's great when not going TOO overboard. Damn you Finnegan!) and I still haven't played Death Stranding yet unfortunately. I do plan on playing Metal Gear 1 and 2 early next year since the MSX ports are included in the version of MGS3 that comes with the PS3 legacy collection.

Oh and I also must apologize for feeding you what turned out to be some misinformation! It turns out that the Phantasy Star and Shining Force games on the Genesis CAN save and don't need to use a password system. It was one of those things where I hadn't played those games and didn't know anyone personally who had, but I heard from someone who heard from someone. That kind of thing. Fortunately, we live in a day and age where it's easy to look stuff up.

Thanks so much for the feedback! This was all very helpful! Like I mentioned, I'm VERY new to writing fiction so I really appreciate it man!

1. Elfen Lied is an anime that was super impactful for me personally but is just very messy overall and the anime suffers from both not having enough episodes and being based on a frankly AWFUL manga which has all the flaws of the anime amplified by 100 times. This actually made it ideal to write fanfiction about. I can try give a feeling of closure and satisfaction to people like me who love the series but are well aware of its shortcomings. Even if I mess up...it's Elfen Lied. It's not like I've desecrated this flawless work of art with my own amateur writing.

2. I definitely went a little far with overexplaining character emotions. I should have more faith in the reader. Nobody likes reading something that feels like it's talking down to them. That's an example of me just being very green.

3. Breaking up dialogue with character actions is something I definitely need to do. I've combed over it a couple times since the first draft, but there are still some huge chunks of back-to-back dialogue and that can be tiring to read. This was an especially helpful piece of feedback and something I'd actually like to try patch up over the next couple weeks when I get a chance.

4. I've had one other person read this fanfiction and I think everyone is on the same page. The pacing is pretty damn rushed. Kouta has forgiven Nyuu for unspeakable crimes by the 4th freaking chapter. The sheer absurdity of this is not lost on me. For some reason, I decided in my head that the fanfiction should be 13 episodes and a few bonus episodes taking place during the time jump between episodes 5 and 6. My thought process was that in some alternate timeline in which the anime did well enough in Japan to get a sequel, it would probably be another 13 episodes and not a long running series. Even though one of the BIGGEST problems with the anime is that it's way too rushed, I deliberately handcuffed myself by limiting it to 13 episodes. I don't know what I was smoking to be honest. If I were ever to polish this enough to submit to some fanfic contest, I'd definitely have to add more episodes.

5. Other than being a contrast to Lucy who has 100% given in to hatred and destructive nihilism, there is nothing really to Akuma as a character. I'm kind of a mushy guy, so I really struggle writing decent villains. Akuma doesn't exactly have a lot of moral complexity, nuance, or reasonable motivations. To be fair, the Kakuzawas in the anime were both shitty villains to begin with, but that isn't an excuse for not trying. lol

6. In the final battle, I had a couple ideas that I wanted to implement, but I hate writing action scenes. I'm sure you guessed that one! I really dislike the DBZ trope where one character is just "stronger" so it doesn't matter how bad their technique is or if they have relevant fighting experience. They just win automatically because their number is bigger. Nyuu is 13 years older. She's fought Mariko and Nana before. She's still in contact with Nana and within the fanfiction has practiced sparring with her in case another rogue mutant were to emerge. Akuma has never actually fought another diclonius, so he has raw power but doesn't know how to use it effectively. I also really wanted to give Kouta a moment to be conventionally heroic for once. He's a loveable goofball, but he gets SO much criticism for being a wussy and pathetic male protagonist within the anime fandom and this felt like a nice opportunity to give him something.

7. I also could work a little harder on describing pain, injuries, etc. I think that's part of my natural mushy tendency rearing its head again. Kind of ironic that I chose to write a fanfiction for a notorious edgy anime when I'm really not very edgy at all.

Anyways, Thanks a lot for all that! I hope you found it enjoyable, even if the anime isn't your favorite. I'd love to check out some of your writing! What you described sounds very interesting so I'm eager to check it out!

You actually read the fanfic? That's awesome! Any feedback is very much appreciated. Even if it was something simple like "put more details in your action scenes!"

I would like to write a comedic short story at some point, but I don't have any sort of a timeline yet. I'm also thinking about writing a few more reviews before the end of the year. My good buddy from high school actually wrote a musical last year and got it published! He's still trying to find a local theater to perform it, but Nashville doesn't exactly have the live theater scene of a New York City or a London.

What are some short stories that you've written? Do you prefer to write drama, comedy, romance?