Anime Central 2011 program guide

The best place to start is with the important things that occurred before the con even started. I have to say, I was not impressed with ACen’s organization regarding pre-con information this year. This was the first year that I got my badge mailed, and the experience was nerve-wracking. I was one of the first people in my group to order my badge, and I was one of the last people to receive it. Now, I know that the way ACen does badge mailing is in randomized batches, but when I was one of the first people to order my badge out of my group, and my friends were getting theirs as early as the end of February, but mine didn’t arrive until mid-April? Yeah I was freaked out and not happy at all. It did arrive on time, but I was really worried that it wouldn’t. ACen? That wasn’t okay. Mid-April is pushing it way too close.

This Deadmaster cosplayer was incredibly good.

Another issue that occurred directly involved my friends, and I was also caught up in it because I had to mediate the issues between two separate parties. One of my friends won the Got Soap? tee shirt slogan contest. Winning that contest means you get two free badges. Normally, the winner is able to apply that to their own badge and get a refund if they already paid, but for some reason the staff in charge told my friend that she wasn’t allowed to do that this year. All of her group had already paid, so she asked all of her friends if they knew anyone that wanted a badge for ACen and hadn’t paid yet. Two of my friends were possibly going, but hard up for money and a free badge would push them from maybes to definite. I let my friend who won the contest know and she agreed to give her prize badges to them.

Unfortunately, while in the end it worked out, that was one of the most disorganized experiences I’ve ever been involved with. My friend needed my other friends’ info for their badges to submit to registration, according to the person in charge of this. So I was the middleman who got that contact info. Okay, that should be everything needed since that’s all they asked for, right? Nope. So some time goes by and we hear nothing. My friend is getting concerned, so she asks the person in charge of this what’s up. Apparently they lost my other friends’ contact info. What? That is absolutely ridiculous. So I have to get it again because my friend didn’t think to keep it. This happened three or four times total throughout the course of this ordeal. After a while of that nonsense, we got word that my friends needed to put their info into the badge ordering system but leave it unpaid. Wow, how about just telling us that from the start? At one point my friend was asked why she didn’t just use the free badges for herself and someone else in her group, too. Um…how about because you guys told her that she couldn’t when this all started?

Excellent cosplayers of the Nyotalia versions of Spain, Prussia, and France

In the end, one of my friends got her badge in the mail, but my other friend didn’t get his, so he had to go with the friend that won the contest down to a special room for badge issues. Everything worked out fine in the end, but all that hassle was incredibly unprofessional and it didn’t make me happy.

Despite that and the aforementioned nerve-wracking experience with badge mailing, I went into ACen 2011 with a positive attitude. The organization on Thursday was surprisingly well-handled. I was able to pick up my program guide without any issue, as well as pick one up for a friend who had opted to stay in the hotel room, and the proceedings for getting my friend’s free badge picked up went smoothly, including a staffer helping us find the room that we were supposed to go to.

However, I had a few qualms with the program book itself. The primary issue I had with it was that it didn’t list times and locations for photoshoots. It has in the past, but didn’t this year for some reason. That’s quite a pain for anyone who wants to go to them, since quite a few congoers don’t exactly have internet access while at con to check on these things. If the information wasn’t finalized before the book was printed, fine, but how about a loose sheet, or even a sign in the hotel or something? Also, the program guide’s organization in listing panels in the panel summary section made no sense. I think it was alphabetical by day? So first it was all of Friday’s panels, but in alphabetical order rather than chronological, then Saturday’s, same thing, then Sunday’s. It was very confusing and annoying.

Oda Nobunaga and Nohime from Sengoku Basara

On the topic of panels, something else regarding panels themselves bothered me significantly. Now, ACen always claims its main hotel is the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, and it always has been. The majority of events happen in the Hyatt, with a few things in the convention center. For the past couple years, we’ve had some panels get put into some of the overflow hotels, namely the Embassy, Doubletree, and Hilton. That’s fine with me, though, since the majority was still always in the Hyatt. Until this year. When the panel schedule work in progress was released to the general public, a lot of us noticed something odd; little to nothing was occurring in the Hyatt. Most of the industry and guest panels were in the Hyatt, along with the usual main programming stuff, but that was it. All of the fan panels were in the overflow hotels.

This bothered me for a few reasons. We were never given any prior notice to this change. The con continued to act as though the Hyatt was the main hotel, when in truth there was very little happening in the Hyatt, especially when you consider how sparse and disappointing the guest list was. A staffer said that it was impossible to give prior notice on this since it depends on what’s available any given year and they can’t know in advance, but that doesn’t sit right with me. It’s not fair to attendees who are out of shape or have disabilities. I myself am rather out of shape. Usually I miss at least one event every year that I wanted to attend because I’m just too worn out from all the walking to leave my hotel room. I was seriously concerned that I would miss the majority of the programming that I wanted to attend because I’d have to walk to a different hotel from the one I was staying in to get to any panel. In the end I was able to manage it with a lot more ease than I’d expected, but I’m sure there are attendees who are in much worse shape than I am that had more trouble with this than I did.

Austria and Hungary's Sheep Counting CD designs from Axis Powers Hetalia

Also, the guest list was incredibly disappointing this year. I don’t mean to insult any of the guests, as they were all wonderful, but it was a very lacking list when you consider ACen’s size. Anime Central is one of the top 10 largest anime conventions in North America. As of the past couple years, the only cons that have more attendees are Anime Expo, Otakon, and New York Anime Fest. So, when the main guests of interest are the musical guest, three Japanese production company guests, a couple fashion guests, and one offbeat Japanese guest are more or less all of the major draw, there is a problem. I was very excited for Hideko Tamura Snider and rather disappointed that I missed her panels. I was happy to see Bob Shirohata, Mika Nomura, and Saki, although I really wish one of the Hetalia seiyuu had been present and I am incredibly jealous that Otakon got Akira Sasunuma. The musical guest and fashion guests did nothing for me personally but I recognize their importance and that they are a big deal. But the problem is that it just simply wasn’t enough major guests. There are smaller cons that regularly bring in directors, seiyuu, et cetera, and I find it a bit sad that ACen can’t muster more and has historically been so weak in the guest department. On top of that, we didn’t have any guests announced before late March. Note, the con itself is in late May. We didn’t even have American voice actors announced sooner. People were afraid that there wouldn’t be guests. The announcements being made that late is just unacceptable.

Now, I do cut ACen a little bit of slack for this year because of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in mid-March. That was undeniably a horrible tragedy, and it surely didn’t help the guest situation since many of the potential guests out there could have felt obligated to stay at home and help instead, or had injured or dead family, et cetera. I can’t say for sure on that since I don’t even know who all ACen was attempting to get, being just a basic attendee, but it’s a fair reason for this year’s guest list to be a bit sparse. However, I will still criticize ACen for this because ACen has had a sparse guest list in every year that I’ve attended, which has been 2007-2011. The guest list probably wouldn’t have been much different without the earthquake if you look at ACen’s guest list in the past few years.

However, I did actually leave Anime Central 2011 with a positive impression. This was primarily due to one factor; fan panels. The panels that I attended this year were all highly enjoyable, and I commend the panelists. They are an important part of any convention. The first panel that I attended was the Type Moon panel. It was quite enjoyable since, unlike a lot of series or franchise-specific fan panels, the panelists sought to make it an educational and intellectual discussion rather than a room full of collective squee. The main panelist was an English major and did quite a bit of discussing literary themes, especially themes that commonly show up in most of Type Moon’s works. The panel was heavy on audience participation and I joined in a fair amount when I felt as though I had something to add.

Scanty and Kneesocks from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

On Saturday I attended the World Folklore in Anime panel. I went to this panel last ACen as well and, while it was mostly unchanged, it was still highly entertaining. The panelists go over various legends and mythical beings and briefly discuss how they have been portrayed in anime. They start it off with the original shinigami story, which was German in origin and came to Japan via a stage play. It’s overall a very fascinating panel, and, while it goes into pretty obscure topics, it’s still only barely scratching the surface since this topic is so broad. I do hope the panelists will expand it in the future.

The Americans in Anime panel was excellent. The panel mostly consisted of clips from various anime of American characters doing their thing. It’s really interesting to see a whole bunch of those characters at once. It really drives home just how over the top they are. The panel also went over the various archetypes of American characters. It was highly entertaining, and even somewhat informative.

Dorian Red Gloria from From Eroica With Love

The last panel that I attended on Saturday was the Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt fan panel. It was highly enjoyable, and served the purpose that a Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt panel should; lots of entertainment and sexual/bathroom humor. The head panelist was very charismatic and presented the panel in an entertaining way. It was even informative in a way…well, if pointing out innuendo that a Western audience may have missed counts as informative. It was far from an intellectual panel, but it was highly entertaining and did what it sought to do.

The last panel that I attended at Anime Central 2011 was the Axis Powers Hetalia fan panel. Two of the panelists are friends of mine, but either way this is an excellent panel. It’s in a similar vein to the Panty and Stocking panel in that it is in no way trying to provide serious analysis of anything, but simply be entertaining and enjoyable to fans of the series. It starts with a matching game in which a few people are picked from the audience and are read a sentence related to the series. They fill in the blank on a dry erase board and hope to match the panelists’ answers. It’s quite the fun game. After that the panel mostly just turns into an open discussion, which suits the nature of the series and fandom quite well and is very enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to any other panels. There were others that I wanted to attend but didn’t make for whatever reason. I’m still sad that a panel on Takurazuka ended up being a no show from the panelists.

That about sums up what there is to say about Anime Central 2011. The dealer’s room was the same as ever; plenty to find, a fair amount of variety but still some of the dealer booths that looked the same in what they were selling, occasional bootlegs, etc. The elevators were as crowded as ever and attendees were stupidly cramming them past capacity like always. ACen is a good con and I love it dearly, but it has a lot of room for improvement.

I never played Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald or Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, but I can definitely say that I like the direction that the Pokemon franchise is going with Black and White. This is the first time I’ve ever really cared about the in-game characters. This is the first time that I ever felt like I could say I was interested in the plot in a Pokemon game. I had my reservations at first, but I loved the pokemon this gen. All in all I really loved Black and I’m glad I played it.

When I arrived at Opelucid City, Team Plasma was giving yet another demonstration. Ugh, why? Why do they think anyone wants to listen to them? I hate them. I’ll show them.

Also upon arrival at Opelucid City I was greeted by Iris and the gym leader, Drayden. I remembered Iris, she had helped Bianca back in Castelia City. I guess she’s Drayden’s daughter? That’d explain why she’s so tough. They’re both hoping I can handle N and are looking forward to my gym challenge. To be truthful, I was a bit worried about facing N. I had the Light Stone, but it hadn’t reacted to me at all…But right now, my main concern is taking on Drayden.

I trained up before taking him on. He proved to be a challenge, but fell easily enough. With the Legend Badge in my possession, I was prepared to make my way to Victory Road. Once I got up to the route leading to Victory Road, Cheren and Bianca came to greet me. Cheren and I battled one last time. He’s gotten quite strong, and he’s finally figured out what he wants to do with his strength. He wants to protect this world. He promised me that, if for whatever reason I should fail, he would take on N himself, though he thinks that right now only I could. So he’ll continue to train in the mean time. Bianca gave me a gift; max revives. Those will come in handy, that much is certain. I love my friends. They’ve always been there for me throughout this journey and I am just as thankful for them as I am for my pokemon. I think I needed them both all along just as much as I needed my pokemon.

From there, I bid them farewell and crossed the gates into Victory Road. Not gonna lie, the gate crossing gave me chills. That scene was just so badass. I knew I would have to train before taking on the Elite Four, so I spent plenty of time battling the trainers and wild pokemon that were there. Oh my god you guys you know what I hate a lot? Durant. I really really  loathe and detest Durant. Ugh. While there, I captured a new pokemon to add to my team.

Mulan, female - what? I had to. It was obligatory.

Training was long and grueling and when I finally felt like I was ready to take on the Elite Four I couldn’t even remember how long I’d been on Victory Road. But now was the time to finish what I’d started.

First I took on Marshal. He went down easily thanks to Mulan knowing Bounce. Next was Shauntal. She was cute and her pokemon were strong, I wish I could’ve hung around to flirt a bit, but getting through these guys to defeat N was more important. Luckily Hunde and Strauss’s Crunch attack and Kyoko’s Night Slash cut through Shauntal’s ghosts in rapid succession.

Grimsley was a bit tougher. In the end that battle was only won due to my team’s endurance. I had to raid my stock of healing items after that. Caitlin was another easy victory again due to Hunde, Strauss, and Kyoko’s powerful dark type moves and Hunde and Kyoko’s speed. The Elite Four down, I had to challenge the Champion. Or at least, I hoped that would be how it went. Surely Alder could handle N and I wouldn’t have to deal with his pompous attitude anymore, right?

Wrong. The sight that greeted me when I reached the arena for the Champion was rather depressing. N had just defeated Alder. How? Ugh I am so tired of N. He thinks he’s special. He’s not. He’s crazy. And as if to emphasize his craziness, he erected an enormous castle in the Champion’s arena. Or something. Well, whatever. It was time to do what I promised Cheren I would do; take N out for good.

I traveled throughout the halls of the castle. I was given the chance to rest my pokemon, thankfully. I was also led by the Shadow Triad to what was apparently N’s room as a child. It was a bit…eerie. I got a strange sense in there that maybe there was more to this guy than I initially thought. Odd.

But battling him was the most important thing now. I admit, I was beginning to get nervous; the Light Stone hadn’t reacted at all. I believed in my team no matter what, but the idea of facing Zekrom without Reshiram on my side was a bit scary still.

I found N. He started his pompous dialogue about how he thought I was special but apparently I wasn’t because the Light Stone hadn’t reacted blah blah. Does he ever shut up? Well, he did, actually, when he summoned Zekrom and finally the Light Stone reacted. There it was; Reshiram. It expected me to challenge and capture it, and so I did.

Sieglinde - yes, I'm ridiculous, I know

N healed my pokemon and our battle commenced. Reshiram took Strauss’s place; Strauss is a powerful fighter, but with three electric moves and one dark, he was too unbalanced to stay on.

The battle between the dragons was magnificent. Reshiram was ultimately victorious, as was I once the entire battle had gone on. In the end, it came down to just me and Serperior. It was a bit of a funny coincidence, I think, that the pokemon that I first embarked on my journey with when he was a tiny Snivy is the one that ultimately dealt the final blow to N’s last pokemon.

…And then shit got real. Ghetsis is a total creep, I learned, and apparently I’d misjudged N all along. The poor guy wasn’t pompous or arrogant; simply misguided by the pathetic excuse for a mentor that was Ghetsis. I learned this by listening to him berate N. And then challenge me. Great. N was so kind as to heal my pokemon before I battled Ghetsis. The jerk used a lot of poison moves, which got old fast. Yet again it came down to Serperior and yet again Serperior dealt the final blow. I’ve never been more proud of my entire team than was during those two battles.

Ghetsis fled. He seemed to expect his Seven Sages to take me out, but he had another thing coming. Bianca really came through! She’d rounded up all of the gym leaders (except from the three from Striaton; she couldn’t get there fast enough). Leonora, Burgh, Elesa, Clay, Skyla, Brycen, Drayden, and Iris all were there to take the Sages down. It was absolutely beautiful. It really was. This may well have been my favorite scene in the entire game.

Before leaving, I spoke with N. He was feeling bad for the things he’d done due to his improper guidance. He told me that Ghetsis had only exposed him to pokemon who had been abused, so he didn’t realize that there were plenty of pokemon who loved their trainers and were happy and would be sad if they were forced to be separated. That was why he’d been so surprised when he talked to my pokemon back in Accumula Town; she told him that she liked me a lot. He told me that he was going to go then and rethink his life. He also told me that it was clear that I had a dream, and he wanted me to do everything I could to make that dream come true.

In the end, I think I can actually consider N to be a friend. He was a good guy after all, and I’m glad to have met him. My journey has ended, so now i’s time to return home to see my mom. I’m sure Cheren and Bianca are going to do the same.

Okay for starters let me just address what a miracle it is that I watched the whole thing straight through as it came out and never got more than two episodes behind.  This review is going to contain spoilers, by the way, so if you haven’t seen the whole thing, proceed with caution and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

When I first started watching Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, I really wasn’t entirely sure what to think. My impression from the first episode, which I did a post about, was a positive one, but I still really wasn’t sure what I was in for. This is probably a good time for me to make a confession: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is the first GAINAX series I’ve watched. I caught an episode of FLCL and didn’t really care for it (but it wasn’t the first episode and I was young at the time, so I may revisit this one since it’s short), Evangelion just never caught my interest, and, while I plan on watching Gurren Lagann, I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Let’s keep this lack of GAINAX in my life in mind while reading this review, since that probably had some bearing on my reaction to PSG.

Back to the whole unsure what to think thing. One of my biggest concerns was that the series was setting out to do nothing more than mirror the flavor of Western cartoons. Now, this wouldn’t have been bad, persay, but it wouldn’t have been as entertaining as the potential it has was. I could just watch Danny Phantom and South Park back to back and have the same basic experience. Not to mention a lot of times, if the only goal a piece of entertainment has is to mimic the style of another form of entertainment, it ends up feeling stale. Except this is NOT what PSG was. Yes, there was a lot of mirroring of Western cartoons taking place. However, GAINAX mixed in their own flavor and turned it into something a bit different. This became apparent in episode 6 when Scanty and Kneesocks appeared.

best characters

While the majority of the episodes followed the Western cartoon-esque formula, there were enough mold-breakers, including the Scanty and Kneesocks intro, to make it feel unique. Much as it put me off by being the first segment that legitimately grossed me out, the vomit segment was an unusual contrast in tone to the rest of the series. The segments like the D-City Rock music video and Chuck to the Future came out of nowhere to shake things up.

D-City Rock made me very happy on many levels

The way the series gave us Garterbelt’s past was one hell of an entertaining method. Of course, you also can’t talk about the unusual aspects of Panty and Stocking without mentioning the ending. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Stocking changes sides. I do hope this will lead to a season 2, because so many of the speculations as to what that means are fascinating. A lot of people are confused as to how Stocking can be a demon if she’s Panty’s sister, but I think it’s pretty clearly out of personal decision. After all, demons often are Fallen Angels. The series was able to deliver itself in a variety of different styles, though it maintained the same basic flavor.

That said, I think the Western cartoon influence was actually a big factor in my enjoyment of the series. I’m sure I’ll be burnt at the stake for saying this, but I enjoy Western cartoons quite a bit, and the throwback in storytelling style to cartoons like the Powerpuff Girls made me happy inside. It’s also a very friendly format for weekly following, and considering my previous track record with watching new shows, that was a blessing.

No really best characters

Something that’s a bit unusual in how it was pulled off is how incredibly likable and interesting the characters were despite being rather flat. Typically a show with such basic characters fails, it’s carried by its plot or some other element, or the fans flesh out the characters’ personalities more. In Panty and Stocking none of the above are true. The characters are lovable on their own despite not having much to them. It’s hard to explain how I got so attached to a blonde whose life goal was to sleep with 1000 men and a gothic lolita whose sweet tooth rivals that of just about anyone, but I really did. Let alone Scanty and Kneesocks. Those two stole the show and I’m still not entirely sure how. Okay, so fans’ attraction to Kneesocks was kind of inevitable, what with the glasses and the, well, knee socks. But I honestly don’t understand it myself how much I got attached to these characters.

That is one pretty CD cover

Another obvious plus was the music. Most people cite this show’s soundtrack as one of their favorite things about it, at least if they really like electronic music. And well. I really like electronic music. I really like the variety in the soundtrack. It has soft and gentle pieces like Chocolat as well as adrenaline building dance songs like D-City Rock, and it delivers quite well on both ends of the spectrum. Songs like Chocolat usually don’t catch my attention, but it’s one of my favorite tracks. It’s the rare subdued and gentle song that has a hook that keeps me listening to it, not just using it as a song to sleep to.

I have a bias towards the songs with proper vocals, I must confess, but the pure techno dance beat tracks that make up the majority of the soundtrack are also enjoyable to me. I believe it’s safe to say that the best way to judge that kind of music is on how much it makes you want to get up and dance. Most of the techno songs on this soundtrack have me dancing in my chair at the very least, if not up and making a fool of myself in my bedroom.

And then of course there is Juice, which is. Um. A category all to itself.

But that’s not to say there aren’t flaws in Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. It certainly has its shortcomings as well. For one thing, it really doesn’t succeed as a comedy. I think everyone was under the impression from the start that Panty and Stocking was supposed to be a comedy. I think that’s exactly what it was trying to be. But, while the show is enjoyable and easy to get into for other reasons, as a comedy it utterly failed. I don’t think I laughed even once. The series is certainly enjoyable for other reasons, but when a show is aiming to be a comedy but fails to deliver laughs, that really has to be taken as a point against it.

Another fault I found with the series was the obvious preference for Panty over Stocking that GAINAX displayed. I wasn’t one of the fans who vastly preferred Stocking; I liked the Anarchy sisters about equally, but I have to say it was frustrating that Panty pretty much always hogged the spotlight. I somehow get the feeling that this is exactly what caused Stocking to do what she did at the end of the final episode, though, and I hope that’s the case and it results in more screentime for Stocking if we do in fact get our season 2 (hey everyone go buy PSG merchandise so GAINAX will consider making season 2!). Also of course there was not enough of the Daemon sisters. But then again, is there ever enough of the Daemon sisters?

No. No there is not.

All in all, I considered Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt to be a highly enjoyable use of my time, but certainly not anything moving or groundbreaking. It’s the type of show you watch when you want to watch something entertaining and high energy but doesn’t make you think too hard. I’d recommend it so long as you go in realizing that there will be grossout humor and nothing particularly meaningful to be said.

See? The nendos are pretty!

Winter has arrived! Once I got back up to Mistralton City and got my team healed again, I was ready to charge up to Icirrus City and take on Brycen. But first I had to navigate Twist Mountain. At a certain point in one of the caves Cheren and I ran into Team Plasma. Again. Why don’t they just stop. Cheren and I defeated them, and Cheren decided to stay back and train in Twist Mountain while he was there. I was itching to get to the next gym, so on I went.

I challenged the gym as soon as I got into town. …Okay fine I played on the ice a bit first. It was fun, don’t look at me like that! Also Cedric had shown up to tell me about Dragonspiral Tower and how Professor Juniper was eager to explore it.

Brycen’s gym was another easy one. Mytho had gotten pretty tough in the training we did between Driftveil City and Icirrus City, so even he held his own against Brycen, despite being the lowest leveled pokemon on my team.

When I went to exit the gym, Bianca and Cheren greeted Brycen and I at the door. But so did someone else. The Shadow Triad. Team Plasma is seriously starting to piss me off. They told me to meet Ghetsis at the Dragonspiral Tower. This is getting old, but all of us headed that way. Brycen and Cheren went in, as well as myself, while Bianca stayed back with Cedric. Bianca is tougher than she gives herself credit for, but guarding Cedric is a good thing for her to do.

When I entered the tower, it shook, as if something was going on a rampage at the top of the tower. Scary. While in there I was accosted by a wild Druddigon. I decided I wanted to capture her. She took several different kinds of pokeballs being thrown at her before she finally stayed put in one.

Ruffnut, female - I hope I got the right twin from HTTYD, I always mix up which is which

After healing my team from the damage Ruffnut did to them and returning to the tower, I made my way back up, running from any other wild pokemon. Once I got high enough, I found Brycen and Cheren surrounded by Team Plasma grunts but holding their own just fine. They told me to head on up, so I did, taking down any grunt who dared stand in my way.

Once I reached the top, I found what had been shaking the tower…oh God. N, that crazy jerk, had decided to resurrect Zekrom. How is beyond me, but he’s planning to use it to defeat the Elite Four and become the Champion and force everyone to release their pokemon. I hate him so much my blood is boiling. He told me that my only hope was to find the Light Stone and resurrect Reshiram, and that the stone is in Relic Castle. You know what? Fine. I’ll play his little game. I’ll find Reshiram and I’ll tear N apart, once and for all. Note; I personally actually rather like N. He’s probably the most interesting villain in a Pokemon game so far, and he’s a charismatic derp. I can’t really picture Mieze here thinking he’s anything short of a creep, though.

Why can't this actually happen?

Upon scouring the Relic Castle, I was greeted by another of Team Plasma’s sages who told me the stone wasn’t there. Argh. I hate Team Plasma so so much ARGH. But upon exiting the castle, I got an Xtranciever call from Professor Juniper! Hey there, sexy lady, it’s about time I get to see your beautiful face again~ She told me to go to the museum in Nacrene City immediately. She sounded excited! OhmyGod she’s so cute adjakl she and Fennel are so perfect for each other. So of course I hurried to the museum as quickly as I could.

Apparently Leonora had possession of the Light Stone! You go, girl! Leonora is my favorite gym leader this gen so far akdujajdc hngh so badass. I agreed to take it, and the responsibility that comes with it. The question, though, was how to turn it into Reshiram. I was advised to go to Opelucid City, because the gym leader there is a dragon trainer and may know how to revive the stone. I flew back to Icirrus City with the aid of Turul, planning on heading to Opelucid City next.

this is the coolest Litwick gijinka ever.

When I went into Mistralton City, I was met by two people. One of them was Professor Juniper’s dad and the other was Skyla, Mistralton City’s gym leader. I was incredibly surprised to find out that I’ve made a name for myself already! When I left Nuvema Town I was just a girl doing the local pokemon professor a favor and helping her complete the Pokedex. Well, I’d gladly do that beauty any favor she asked to get in good graces with her, so I don’t blame you at all, Mieze. Now I have a reputation as a skilled pokemon trainer! Shocking as it is, I can’t say I’m not enjoying it.

Skyla was incredibly excited for me to challenge her gym, but informed me that first she had another matter to tend to. When she was flying one of her cargo planes, she spotted what she was certain was a sick pokemon at the top of the Celestial Tower, and she had to go help it. I decided to follow her, just out of curiosity, and to see all the cute Litwick in the tower.

Litwick is so cute, seriously ;3;

Once I got there Skyla had already taken care of the sick pokemon and it had flown away. I wish I’d gotten there soon enough to see what it was, I was so curious…but no matter, it was time to challenge the gym now!

Skyla went down easily, but this was because I’d overleveled myself. Playing with all those Litwick was just too fun, it seems! But no matter, I had my badge and now it was time to set out on Route 7 for good.

When I got up to the entrance to Twist Mountain, Cheren greeted me for our obligatory post-badge earning battle. He lost again…and it turned out the Champion, Alder, was watching! I felt a bit embarrassed, being watched by the region’s Champion in the middle of a friendly battle with Cheren, but I suppose I DO have that weird reputation now. He told us that our battle had been a delightful one, but Cheren again went and got huffy about losing and power. Alder gave him another speech on the purpose of power; I do wish Cheren would listen! It’s not all about winning, after all…but it seems like Cheren may be thinking about it more this time.

Alder gave both of us the HM Surf! I got so excited that I taught it to Hunde immediately and backtracked to Driftveil City; there was a water pokemon that I wanted. Badly.

Mytho - it seemed fitting

Rue - after having Mytho, this was necessary

I was so excited to get a hold of a Frillish that I caught two! After catching them I started back up to Mistralton City and back to Route 7.

Another friend of mine, Ell, contacted me today! She had a delightful offer. She’d caught a Zorua and bred it, and asked if I wanted one. Of course I did! Zorua are extremely rare!  I caught a wild Deerling to trade her for it. Okay, this time ‘Ell’ isn’t actually a personal friend of mine, she was someone doing a giveaway on the pokemon LJ comm lol.

Faust, male - I am a dork okay

He’s so cute! After the trade was completed, I taught Fly to my Tranquill and flew back to Nuvema Town to check in with Professor Juniper. She had a couple TMs for me, which I happily accepted. From there I took Faust all the way through the routes from Nuvema Town back to Nimbasa City, where I changed my team back up since he was close to level 30 and I don’t have an everstone. I really don’t want him evolving into Zoroark.

Once I got back to Route 6 I went all the way through up to Chargestone Cave where Clay met me and gave a short but inspiring speech. When I went in, Professor Juniper and Bianca followed. The Professor was doing research on how to seduce Fennel I hope and Bianca was acting as her bodyguard so cute. Bianca told me that the floating stones that were in my way could be pushed. Good info! Somewhere along the line, however, I ran into the Shadow Triad, who work for Team Plasma. What is with them why can’t they go away? Apparently N wanted to talk to me. Again. Oh my God he is creepy. And so I got dragged down to the basement of this cave where I had to beat up more Plasma jerks, then battle N.

In the battle, Hunde evolved into Stoutland. I’m so proud of her. Once I defeated him and he ran off after spewing more idealistic blather, I continued exploring the cave. While in there I ran into a wild Tynamo and caught it.

Strauss, male - Yes, I am utterly ridiculous.

Once I made it out of Chargestone Cave and into Mistralton City, it was pouring rain. Interesting.

When I continued onto Route 5, I came to a drawbridge and Elesa showed back up to the person running it. It seems they’re friends and she needed to ask him to lower it for me and Cheren, who was also waiting at the end of the route. I thanked them both and headed on my way. Someone on the bridge told me that feathers fall from the sky here, so I decided to try catching them. I got quite a few! But the coolest thing about this is that one of the spots where feathers fall ended up attracting a wild pokemon! It was a cute one, too. Ducklett are just plain adorable. So of course I had to catch it!

Ahiru, male - who cares about gender it had to be named Ahiru

When Cheren and I arrived in Driftveil City, we were approached by Clay, the town’s gym leader. He appeared to be upset with us. It seems us crossing the drawbridge somehow gave some Team Plasma grunts an escape route. Argh. WHY DO THEY INSIST UPON RUINING MY DAY AT EVERY POSSIBLE CHANCE. Excuse me. So I asked around and apparently they’re hiding in the cold storage area south of town. Cheren and I knew what it was time to do.

On the way there I had to pass through some tall grass, where I ran into a wild Vanillite, which I caught.  Why are there wild ice cream cones? I’m sad it doesn’t evolve into an ice cream sundae.

Aisu, female (IIRC) - aisuuuu aisuuuuuuu aisuuuuuuuuu

After that diversion, I got back down to business to defeat the Huns. No wait Team Plasma isn’t that cool. I heard from a worker at the storage place that Clay was trying to test us to see if we were worthy of battling him. Makes sense, he seemed kinda sly like that.

Those creeps were holed up in a storage case inside the building. Cheren was (understandably) pissed off about the cold. They were rather high and mighty in how they talked to me, as always, but they went down hard. As always. Clay and the police rounded the jerks up.

…Aaaaand when I got back out and headed to the gym, that Ghetsis guy was there to pick up their grunts. Damn, they should all be locked up. But it wasn’t my place to say anything. Clay let them go. I’m sure they’ll get put in their place sooner or later. Challenging the gym was the next step for me.

Clay was surprisingly easy to defeat. The only pokemon on my team that got involved were Einigkeit, who has recently evolved into a Zebstrika did I already mention that? I forget, Yume, who was only level 26, and Calypso. So I got my badge.

When I started onto Route 6 Bianca showed up wanting to battle. She’s getting so much stronger, I wish she’d stop feeling bad about me defeating her. It’s never good to measure your own ability against someone else…but she didn’t get too down this time. She gave me an HM — fly.

When I started exploring the grass, I ran into a wild Foongus and caught it. That isn’t as bad as it sounds, seriously.

Herpderp, I forget what gender it was - I think these things are cute, haters gonna hate

Today started off on an exciting note! A dear friend of mine who’s further along on her journey gave me a call today. She knew I was anxious to get my hands on a Litwick, so she caught an extra in the Celestial Tower for me and wanted to know if I wanted her. Okay the real story here is that Stringed? is fucking obsessed with Litwick. I have wanted a Litwick since the pokemon for this gen were revealed. So I was rather disappoint that the Celestial Tower is so far into the game. A friend of mine on LJ who was already there had spares she was offering to her friends, so I jumped on the chance and caught a spare Panpour in a luckily timed ground shake spot for a trade. Of course I did! I ran out into the Pinwheel Forest to catch something for her real quick, and had the good luck of running into a Panpour which I captured before heading to the Pokemon Center to make the trade.

Sayaka, female - it took me forever to think of a good name to ask for, but I think this is fitting

I was so excited to get her, she’s just adorable!

Now it was time to stop fooling around and go to Nimbasa City! I charged from Nacrene City to Castelia City, then onto Route 5. I went straight through; I was weary of the desert. When I arrived in Nimbasa City, my “favorite” people were there. Sigh. What does Team Plasma gain from annoying the crap out of me? They were harassing the poor Daycare Man, who was just here sightseeing. I beat Team Plasma as usual, but they ran away into the local amusement park. I chased them down. Enough is enough.

But guess who showed up? That weirdo N. He gives me bad vibes even if he is kinda hot but I put up with him since he offered to help. He took me onto the ferris wheel to see if we could see Team Plasma from there…then told me he was Team Plasma’s king. Okay yeah I definitely don’t like this guy. On and on about his dream world or whatever. Okay then. Your dream is for everyone to be miserable. No thank you. When we got down the grunts showed up and he offered to help them escape by battling me. Ugh! So I battled him and beat him, but he and the grunts escaped. Why even. Ugh go away Team PETA.

Later I ran into Bianca. She seemed much more cheerful than last time I met with her, thankfully. We went to check out the Pokemon Musical, then she left to wander town some more. I entered Snoderich in it, he was so cute on stage dancing around in a little tophat~! ajdjsdhn Why is the Pokemon Musical so adorable?!

When I left, though…Bianca was outside. As was her father. I froze. Intruding on this would be bad. But…Bianca’s dad wanted her to go back home. She didn’t want to. She wants to see the world and learn things for herself! And it’s only fair. But…I couldn’t intrude on this.

Thankfully someone else could. Out of nowhere, the local gym leader appeared. She spoke to Bianca’s father. She worded her argument so eloquently! It was amazing! And she even got Bianca’s father to agree with her. Bianca was impressed, and I don’t blame her. I was too. Floored, even. Her name is Elesa and she’s amazing. I was so excited to challenge her!

…So I charged right into her gym. I probably should’ve trained more, my team wasn’t leveled up enough to really hammer her in battle. I got by in the end, but only barely. Without Hunde’s strength I would’ve been done for. I gave her so many super potions and fresh waters to keep going, but once Elesa’s Zebstrika was out, I knew I had it. Barely, but victory was so sweet.

After the battle, Elesa told me to meet her at  Route 5. When I got there, so was Cheren. He’d defeated her too! Once again he wanted a battle with me, which I won once again. He keeps getting stronger too, but somehow I luck out and beat him each time. After that Elesa met us, and told us there was someone out here she wanted us to meet. Turns out it was the region’s Champion! Wow…being in his presence was really cool. He said some interesting things to Cheren about strength and having fun…he made good points, I’ll have to keep them in mind, too. He told us to play with these two kids. We had a double battle that I have to say way very fun! But why the FUCK did two preschool kids have level 26 Herdiers?! I think Cheren and I both learned something…

Finally, I caught a couple pokemon on Route 5; a Minccino and a Gothita.

Gilbert, male - cuteness made me think Prussia

Peppo, male - I desperately wanted my Gothita to be a trap, so I searched for a boy.

Today was a good day. I’d found a Liberty Pass not too long ago and I decided to use it to check out the Liberty Gardens. The boat ride was fun, but when I got there, guess who decided they wanted to ruin my day again? Yep. Team Plasma. This time they were terrorizing a rare pokemon called Victini. I have seriously had enough of them. Of course I couldn’t let them have Victini, so I went ahead and caught it myself. I really lucked out, actually. I got it on the first try with a Great Ball, its health was in the red but still pretty high, and it wasn’t asleep or paralyzed.

Siegfried - okay how long before I start seriously abusing Wagner names?

I was surprised when Professor Juniper was outside the lighthouse to greet me and tell me more about Victini. Everyone was happy that Team Plasma hadn’t gotten to the poor thing. I hope I can make it very happy traveling with me!

...It's nice to see you again, Professor Sexy--er--Juniper!

I took the boat back to Castelia City and then decided to head on to Route 4. I also decided I like my Panpour enough to change its name to something better. Its name is Yong Soo now. The desert is big and hard to get through, but the Desert Resort made for a good place to train, and I found the Relic Castle, where I caught a new pokemon and obtained a fossil from a girl in the castle.

Isis, female - well duh Egyptian names are needed here!

I’d heard rumor that the museum portion of the Nacrene City gym had someone who could revive fossils into pokemon so I thought I’d take a detour on my travels and head back there to see if that was the case. Turns out it was. I talked to one of the museum attendants and she took the fossil, which seems to be a shell, and revived it into an ancient pokemon called Tirtouga. I really like her, she seems like she’ll be a good partner.

Calypso, female - the pokemon's name gave me that kind of feel, since it's similar to Tortuga.

I went through the Pinwheel Forest and on to Castelia City. The Skyarrow Bridge was amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it! Cutting out of trainer character-mode to flail over DAT BRIDGE. The graphics there were just glorious. Breathtaking. I’m impressed, Pokemon, I’m impressed. Upon arrival in Castelia City I was blown away. It’s HUGE! Another cutout to flail about graphics. CASTELIA CITY IS SO COOL. I started exploring right away. The first thing I did was meet a dancer named Mickey. He was really good at it. He challenged me to a pokemon battle that I won, then asked me to do him a favor. He wanted to start a dance team but needed to find other dancers and asked for my help. I agreed, he was such a nice guy after all. I found two other dancers that agreed to join. They were all so happy!

But there wasn’t much time for playing around. I headed to the gym and ran into Cheren, who had just challenged Burgh and won. But there was no time for me to challenge him; Team Plasma was in town. After that, Bianca met with me with bad news. Team Plasma is continuing to top their jerk moves one after the other; they stole Bianca’s Munna! She’d met a nice girl named Iris who was helping take care of her hello, another yuri ship, so meanwhile Burgh and I went to chase down those insufferable jerks and get Bianca’s Munna back. They’d made a hideout right across from the gym, conceited dolts. Burgh and I defeated them and got Bianca’s Munna back. They were so glad to be reunited, I was happy I could help.

I challenged Burgh after that. His gym layout was…weird. The battle was pretty rough, what with all the moves his team had that are super effective against my pokemon. In the end Einigkeit’s knowing Flame Charge saved us. Victorious, I healed my team and decided to do some more exploring.

I wasn’t quite ready to leave town yet, but I decided to explore Route 4 a tiny bit. Bianca challenged me to a battle in the gatehouse, which I won, but…she seemed pretty upset that she lost. I felt kind of bad about it. She’s not a bad trainer! It’s just that she happened to pick a starter that’s weaker against mine. Maybe she’d have better luck challenging Cheren. Speaking of him, he also challenged me on Route 4. I defeated him, and thankfully he didn’t take it so hard. I didn’t need another guilt trip. While exploring the route a wild Darumaka showed up and Kyoko evolved into Liepard after defeating it. I went back into town to heal my team and got a group call from Professor Juniper, but Bianca didn’t pick up…I hope she’s alright, I’m worried now.