Generation V Commences!

So, due to pre-orders being sent out early a the flood-gates have opened and all of the new info on Black/White has just come pouring in. It was still forthcoming when I left for class at 2pm today, and when I got home about half an hour ago, apparently the entire new pokedex has been revealed.

Bulbapedia seems to be down but Serebii.net has a full timeline of leaked info. I have to say, from what I can see of the new Elite Four, I love them. I'm not 100% on all of the pokemon, but there's enough that I like in order for me to build a good team, and the rest I don't need to worry about.

From what it looks like, this game is just as good as expectations lead us to believe, and I am looking forward to picking up my copy in the spring. Until then, I just need to keep training my SoulSilver team. Which reminds me, I should do that tonight since I"m meeting up with friends tomorrow and we've decided to have a battle or two!

Blogging about everything today.

Yeahhh.... I've been slacking off this week guys. Sorry. I've been out doing things pretty much every other day, so it's understandable right? But while I've been at ti I've watched more K-On, some clips from Hetalia, listening to the soundtrack from "The Road to El Dorado", and started reading "Yankee-kun to Megane-chan", which is absolutely hilarious. I'm still a long way from caught up, but it's fantastic, so far so I'd recommend taking a look at it if you've got some time to kill. I also went to a family reunion in there somewhere.

In pokemon news, we got another new pokemon revealed -- Yanappu.



A grass-type monkey is a weird combination to me, and I'm not totally sold on the broccoli growing out of his head, but I suppose he could be an interesting grass-type to work with if you're into that sort of thing. However, he's probably not going to be on my B/W team.

This pokemon isn't actually a reveal so much as a confirmation. We got a picture of a figure of this pokemon back in July, but up until now it wasn't confirmed as an actual pokemon in the games.

I've been playing SoulSilver again, finishing up some things that I've left hanging, such as chasing down roaming legendaries and doing the spiky-eared Pichu event. Suri's been helping me shuffle pokemon over from my copies of Platinum and Diamond to help me finish my pokedex. I also got a Japanese Wigglytuff over the GTS that has pokerus, so I've been infecting my pokemon with that slowly but surely. This is the first time I've ever had pokemon with it, so that's kind of exciting for me.

On a complete shift of subject, this week's "Bakuman" reminded me just who the team working on this was -- The pair who did "Death Note".

Mashiro and Takagi are currently planning a five-chapter story are in "Perfect Crime Party" that involves a rival trying to expose the club. Listening to them plan it out, it sounded a lot like the rivalry between Light and L, but with a lot less murder. Not that this is a bad thing. "Death Note" was written very well, even though I never finished it. I'm really excited to see how the next chapters play out and if "Perfect Crime Party" can beat Iwase and Eiji's crossover between "Crow" and "+Natural".

Image via Wikipedia

If you're not reading Bakuman yet, now is the perfect time to start. VIZ's translation has just hit stores, so the first volume is available. Go pick it up, and then catch up to the scans. then in November we can all go out an pick up volume 2. Especially if you're into the process of making comics, the physical volumes are worth picking up because VIZ has thrown in a little something extra for us -- Ohba and Obata's thumbnails for some of the pages! Getting that little something extra between chapters really sealed the deal for me. With how important the thumbnails are for Mashiro and Takagi within the story, getting to see Ohba and Obata's made it all the better.

Ahaha, I guess I managed to write a decent blog entry after all. I'm pretty impressed, since I didn't intend to. I'll try and do another update soon. It will probably be about Scott Pilgrim since I need to finish reading that and go see the movie.

SoulSilver Is Where It's At, Kids.

It's pokemon time kids.

It seems that regardless of getting it the day it came out and playing obsessively for three days, I've fallen behind everyone else since I had to take a break to go to class. I'm currently training my party up to level 25 (they're at 22 right now) in order to get my fourth gym badge. I have friends who are already fighting the Elite Four for the first time. Hopefully devoting my weekend to pokemon will catch me up.

But guys, this game is just as glorious as I anticipated.



Suri and I preordered. I got SoulSilver because it is the best and I have a massive crush on Lugia (and have since I was little) and Suri got HeartGold because it's required of us to have opposite versions. I kind of expected him to buy both, but I guess not. Either way, I really had to fight him on this because SoulSilver is where all the fun is and Ho-Oh is a jerk. Tru fax.

Pre-ordering came with a spectaaaacular bonus -- Lugia and Ho-Oh figures, depending on which version you bought. The only reason I bothered pre-ordering is because this Lugia figure is SO GLORIOUS.



The Ho-Oh? not quite so much. Lugia is doing this magnificent "rising from he sea" kind of thing. He's got water flying everywhere, dripping off the spines on his back, generally being a total badass. Ho-Oh is in a fairly typical pose for him, with some fire around his butt. Not that impressive. It would be disappointing if it was any other set of legendaries and I thought of them on equal terms, but I've never been that into Ho-Oh so I don't really care.

Playing has been a lot of fun. I've loved having one of my pokemon trailing along behind me at all times. Turning around to talk to them produces ADORABLE results, except in pokemon centers when they just get really lazy.



It's amazing how attached a person can get to some programmed pixels. My quilava (named Rayearth because I am a dork) got angry at me for trying to take an item from it and just kept making angry faces at me every time I talked to it. It was fairly upsetting.

The pokewalker has also been a lot of fun. Simple little battles, item finding... I like earning new routes and connecting with friends. I haven't done a whole lot of it but it's been a pretty good time so far.

For the record, I decided to play as a male trainer.



I could claim it was for the sake of nostalgia, since because I never played Crystal I never played a female trainer in Gen II. But really, it's because I didn't want to play as Strawberry Shortcake.



I don't really like her hat, even if the overalls are adorable. And the male trainer has a black and yellow hat, and that's enough to sell me. Either way, I'm playing as a dude, and I am loving it.

The one thing that I do truly miss is Sinnoh's Underground.



The Underground was my favorite part of Gen IV. I loved this place. It was my favorite thing to do. Item hunting became a passion of mine. It's how I made all of my money. It was my favorite thing about Gen IV and made up for the HORRIBLE FAILURE that is the battle frontier. I wish there was some way to include it in SoulSilver, but i suppose I understand why it wasn't.

So I guess I'll makee another post on the subject once I've played more. Take care, kids.

Pokemon - Old Memories & New Excitement

I was in fifth grade when Pokemon first came out. I saved up for weeks for the $25-ish that the game cost. (I didn't get an allowance as a kid. I have no idea how I did this.) I got Pokemon Blue at first. I started with Charmander I think, because I wanted to be a badass and Charmander was supposedly the hardest to start with. None the less, I was hooked right away.

I was part of the in crowd as far as pokemon went, back when it was at the very height of it's popularity. I had Blue, Red, and Yellow (again, with a lack of an allowance, I don't have the slightest idea how this happened), had Pokemon Pinball, and Stadium, played the TCG, watched the anime religiously, and even had one of those pocket pikachu things.

I would kill to have one of these again.

And just like any other pokemon fan at the time, I was totally stoked over the release of Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver. My dad got me both for christmas that year, because he's pretty much the greatest dad ever. I pretty much abandoned Gold in favor of Silver, because I had (and still have) a crush on Lugia.

After that, I stopped buying the games. I ended up being a little bit of a purist and was a little frustrated by the Generation 3 pokemon for some reason I really can't explain. Pokemon took a back seat to other interests until 2007 when I heard news of a Mew giveaway to celebrate the American release of the 9th or so movie, "Lucario & The Mystery of Mew". It was only available to the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald versions. Suri offered me a copy of one of his, and thus I ended up with my own copy of Pokemon Ruby.

Let me say, I was not impressed. I mean yeah, graphics and all had vastly improved, but it just was nothing compared to Gold and Silver. I still have the game somewhere, with like 5 totally legitimate Mews on it, but I can't find the thing for the life of me.

I picked up Pokemon Diamond when it came out, and got Pokemon Pearl for Suri. A year later, when Platinum came out, Suri got it for me for my birthday. They were all fun, even if Platinum didn't have nearly as much nuclear winter as anticipated, but still, I missed Gold and Silver.

But then the rumors started to fly. Generation 4 would have remakes of Generation 2, just like Generation 3 did for Generation 1. Nothing was ever confirmed, so I just ignored it and was annoyed that they even tried to get my hopes up.

Then back in December '08, it was confirmed. HeartGold and SoulSilver were happening. I was stoked. I've been watching release information like a hawk, marveling at the updated graphics, the additions and restorations. I made the happiest noise imaginable at the prospect of my beloved raichu, Amphy, being able to follow me on my journey. I've proclaimed more than once that these games will likely be perfect and they will never need to make another one.

It's a Christmas miracle.

And just yesterday we got a North American release date. March 14, 2010, just five days after my birthday, HG/SS is going to arrive in the states. I've been keeping myself excited by raising my team in Platinum and looking at Lugia merchandise that I can't afford because at the moment I'm broke. 

But hopefully I won't have to scrimp and save every penny like I did back when I bought Blue Version back in the fifth grade. Oh the advantages of have a boyfriend and a release date close to my birthday.