Finished playing Pokemon Sun

Finished playing Pokemon Sun (2017, Gamefreak, Nintendo 3DS) on 10/17/2017.

Gameplay Hours: 130

The Alola region is teeming with exotic new Pokemon to be found and a new type of challenge for young Pokemon trainers! Embark on another 'Gotta catch'em all!' adventure as you travel through the various islands of Alola in search of new species and even old ones with an Alolan twist! And with those new friends take on the Island Challenge, unique to this new region!

Human characters in the Pokemon games have always been represented in tiny sprites and eventually evolved to child-like 3D models in the 6th generation of core games. Those models have evolved yet again this time around to more closely resemble actual human anatomy, forgoing the traditional "chibi" style. This is a very welcome change to keep things fresh.

And as the franchise evolves to freshen up itself, so do its traditions. Sun and Moon have switched from the usual 8-badge challenge to the unique new Island Challenge, where a Pokemon trainer must undergo different Pokemon trials throughout the islands of Alola. These trials, maintained by trainers known as Trial Captains range from search-and-defeat goals to puzzle-solving objectives which ultimately lead to a battle against a Totem Pokemon, an alpha-leader guarding each trials' locations. And once those trials have been cleared, a chief Pokemon trainer known as an Island Kahuna must test out the trainer's abilities in battle, rewarding them with a stamp on their Trainer Passport as proof.

And along with a more complex storyline and many other new features, those are only some of the more significant tradition-breaking changes that this generation has brought to its fans.

9/10 - Pokemon Sun and Moon go down as a very important step forward for the franchise and I was glad to experience it.

Finished watching Dragon Ball

Finished watching Dragon Ball (1986, Toei Animation, 153 epi.) on 10/10/2017.

Goku is a young child with unbelieavable strenght and agility who's always lived up in the mountains, away from civilization. Bulma is a feisty, high-tech, city girl on a quest to find the seven legendary Dragon Balls using the Dragon Ball Radar she built. When all seven balls are gathered, the great Shen Lon dragon can be summoned to grant any one wish. And Goku just so happens to have one of them, thus bringing the two characters together for an adventure of a lifetime.

8.5/10 - I've actually never watched Dragon Ball back-to-back. As a kid I only watched a couple of episodes whenever I could as I was always stuck doing homework when it came on TV. Having it finally watched it all properly, I came to realize that watching the show as opposed to reading the manga it's based on can be a bit of a different experience. Y'see, one of the things this show is well-known for is the ridiculous prolonging of scenes by doing things like having characters stare at eachother for unnecesarily long amounts of time or even adding filler episodes or small parts and skits into a scene all for the sake of prolonguing the series' number of episodes. Whereas in the manga the pacing of the story is much quicker than the show, in a good way. That prolonguement of the episodes was a significant factor in my rating of the series. The next one might've been Goku's voice not changing very much with his age, hahah! That kinda bothers me. But maybe not so much. I don't know, maybe I was just used to the western dubs where his voice matures. Other than that it was still an enjoyable show. I'm just really left wondering what it would've felt like if the episodes weren't so long with all that filler content in the way. Well, I guess I might get an inkling when I watch Dragon Ball Z Kai next.

Finished watching Space Guardian Angel Links

Finished watching Space Guardian Angel Links (1999, Sunrise, 13 epi.) on 10/5/2017.

Li Meifon is the captain of a beautiful, white spaceship appropriately named Angel Links. Her and her crew run a free space escort service, providing protection from space-pirates and other threats to those traveling or transporting their goods through space. 

7/10 - Hmm... this one's tough. I feel like it deserves a better score. It was an entertaining series for sure, but the final episode didn't do the story much justice and is probably the biggest reason for the score it got from me. Up until then I was always intrigued to watch the next episode. The characters were pretty cool, Meifon's backstory seemed pretty interesting, the pacing was good and so I was really getting excited to see what the final episode was going to be like. Well, maybe the show had to end prematurely, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to read the manga that it's based on one day to see how it compares.

Finished watching Outlaw Star

Finished watching Outlaw Star (1998, Sunrise, 24 epi.) on 09/14/2017.

Somewhere out there in outer space is a fabled treasure trove know as the Galactic Leyline. Somewhere out there in space there is also a man lost in the pleasures of alcohol and women, who carries a special firearm with magical attributes known as a Caster. That man, is none other than Gene Starwind. Whom with his crew of few and very diverse characters, are off to find the treasure of the Galactic Leyline. One of his crewmates however, isn't looking for the riches promised in the legends... but is actually in search of herself and her reason of being. That would be Melfina, an android whom Gene made a promise to help find the answers she seeks.

Man! Gene mutherf**kin' Starwind! I'll tell you what! Alright, Outlaw Star is an amazing show, almost on the same level as Cowboy Bebop, just not as classy. More spunky. Half of the show unfortunately are episodes that could be skipped, but some of those do offer a couple of plot hints and pieces that build up for the ending. Fortunately, all these episodes in the show are VERY entertaining and funny and amazing! Not one episode bored me out or necessarily made me feel like it was trying to prolong things. But the pacing is a bit wonky after the first few episodes. But most importantly I think the show knows to not take itself too seriously, maybe that's why it's very entertaining. The animation is really good, but sometimes the character's faces look a bit strange... but that could just be from the art style. The soundtrack is really cool too! Sometimes it really adds to the excitement of the scenes.

8.5/10 - Definitely a great show all around! Definitely worth a rewatch in a couple years.