Some Interesting Developments

Toy Story was shown as a preview for Kingdom Hearts 3 - releasing in 2018! Now, they've given a year but not a month/day or even a season, so I'm willing to bet late 2018 with the possibility that it gets pushed to early 2019 if delays happen again like with 2.8. With Toy Story 4 in the works, I hope they can get Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, (John Ratzenberger goes without saying) and everyone to reprise their roles for the game. It also occurs to me that Disney owns the Muppets that they could have a Muppets world in this or a future game. Obviously, Whitmire would not be a part of it (was he really that difficult to work with?), but maybe Frank Oz (not to mention when/if they do Star Wars). Muppet Sora and friends would be hilarious (whereas Young Xehanort looks like something out of Small Soldiers in that cutscene). Remember, it's all to protect the world order. :P Since Buzz and Woody already had their data in a game, maybe they will include Jungle Book this time around too (not the live action one, though). And since the CG of the game is close to that of Pixar, the Toy Story characters look exactly how they should. If they ever end up doing anime, KH Chibi would probably be funny (but would never happen). A bunch of new KH Funko figures have been leaked, but as many as there are, there still aren't figures for all of the characters. MST3K's Tom and Crow are getting figures, too, and that's pretty cool.

Now on to Appmon. Unryuuji's backstory is that he basically invented texting, and people eventually used it for cyberbullying, but he got the blame for making the app in the first place. The people in the Appmon universe are even dumber than reality. Yuujin and Offmon were rescued offscreen, and next time they look into where Rei's brother Hajime actually is. Leviathan declares itself CEO in Unryuuji's place, and Eri decides to quit Appliyama because of it, but Rei says she can't quit without helping him. Posing as a manager doesn't go well for him, but it turns out all right in the end...assuming letting them rescue Hajime (who is now a Sleepmon - how many other kids got kidnapped if they are all Sleepmon?) wasn't a trap of some kind.

I finished Little Witch Academia, including the special (which claims to be a sequel but is really an early-on midquel). Main character Akko gets worse before she gets better (except in the special where she's at her absolute worst), but by the end she's tolerable to me. Let's talk more about that special. It combines ideas from a few different episodes, and certain characters act out-of-character or at least accentuate their worst traits - including the townspeople. The townspeople are horrible, and while Diana is acting more arrogant than she ever has, she has a point about the parade being demoralizing. Akko is the bitchiest she's ever been, telling off her two teammates and abandoning them for Amanda's team (which is worse than what she does to her mentor in the main series, as she's being rude and dismissive to two people instead of one and didn't have to be tricked into doing so). As for the finale of the series, the antagonist harnessing the rage of soccer hooligans was kind of an ingenious plan (it is England, after all). Why do the villains always want to harness the power of anger for energy? Overall I'd say it had some good ideas, and I didn't hate it enough to stop watching.

What the Hell?

Steve Whitmire was fired as Kermit for no [disclosed] reason?! Now he feels like he failed us all and Jim Henson. He didn't fail! The Elmo guy fucked up (and I am disappointed because he was also Master Splinter in the live action TMNT movies), but he didn't. While he's not Jim Henson, he is a national treasure (and the voice that people in my generation grew up with). He's been doing this since he was 19. What's he going to do now?

They brought back coffee Oreos! And it's even better because it's all the filling instead of just half, and I feel like there's more of it. It's Dunkin Donuts' doing again, but that doesn't matter. It's still delicious and specifically mocha this time. I used to eat these as an after-school snack in high school along with the mint ones. It's only here for a limited time, though.

A friend had me watch Little Witch Academia. I've gotten about halfway through it, and it's okay, but it's not as good as Soul Eater NOT! (or regular Soul Eater for that matter). I don't like the main character, or any of them really. Diana is like a palette-swapped Sunset Shimmer, and I feel like this should really be her story since she's not a bad person. whereas the main is kind of bratty and "accidently's" herself into everything. So far episodes seven and eight are my favorites, but "favorite" is too strong a term. And don't think I didn't see Rita Repulsa's headdress as one of the nine witch mantles.

I've decided on what to do for a holiday video this year, and it's turning out pretty well. I'm still sorting out what stills to use, but the musical mashup is all set. It's going to be awesome.

What Could've Been

Two things I forgot to mention about Appmon: Haru's grandpa being a Super Mario (or "Hyper Mari-" before both Haru and Astra get cut off hilariously by Grandpa and Rei respectively) and the fact that the rest of their Appmon army were forgotten in favor of the buddy system. What happened to their chips? Only the buddy chips disintegrated, but since the ultimate Appmon Digivolution thing there hasn't really been a need to use the rest of the army Appmons. The Appmon cemetary was worse than the Deep Web where all the Appmon wore cloaks. The outmodes were desperate to be relevant again, but then it reminded me of that one Perorimon who almost faded from existence. She probably would've ended up there. Then there were the ghosts of CG villains past plus that one Appmon no one knew. The one with the hat wasn't even there.

I had a dream that in a future Kingdom Hearts game you would be able to customize and name your Keyblade (after the character you were playing had an epiphany about something - it could be any one of the playable characters we've had so far). In the dream, you went to Moana's world, and there was one world that had the protagonists of FFXV. Speaking of, that game was something else. The first part of it was Sidequests: The Game while the rest of it was rushed. I would've expected Luna (who looks a lot like Namine) to have been killed off at the second-to-last Summon, not the third. The rest of the three were thrown in there haphazardly and felt less like a hero's quest and more like Plot Convenience: The Game. I can see why they want to take their time with KH3 now so it doesn't become a mess like that one. As for the 2018 calendar coming out at D23, it probably doesn't have a special meaning like a release date; it's probably just a treat for the fans. I'm surprised there weren't already KH calendars, unless there were and they weren't as special for some reason.

The last FNAF game was cancelled so Scott could have more time with his family. That's understandable, though I wonder if there was anything about it hinted at in The Freddy Files book that's coming out. Of course he will continue to write for the novel series and new mini-games (or spin-off games) for FNAF World.

I didn't like the trailer for the MLP movie. It was made for a general audience, and that's selling out. It didn't explain a damn thing. Stuff just randomly happens and yay friendship.

Cute but Baffling

The episode about Applejack's parents is a Romeo and Juliet story (though not much of a surprise after the Hatfield/McCoy episode). We still don't know how they died (unlike Romeo and Juliet), and they will probably never get into that, but the episode had some good world-building in it. I thought Mrs. Cake's name was Cupcake, but she says she used to be called Chiffon Swirl. I suppose it could be a nickname, like how AJ's dad called her mom Buttercup, but Chiffon Cake as a married name makes sense too. The recent comics have included plot points from recent episodes, like the yaks and Dash's parents. The episode about Discord's and Fluttershy's relationship felt like it could've been an issue of Friends Forever if that was still a thing. Equestria Girls Dance Magic wasn't as good, but it reminded me a little of the episode Rarity Takes Manehattan. Movie Magic was better because it was a Daring Do movie, but I'm a little disappointed that human A.K. Yearling didn't appear in it (though that would probably mean she's off being Daring Do in her real life). It was also an easy mystery to solve, much like Rarity Investigates. They also worked Power Ponies into it, with Sunset dressed as Mane-iac. Mirror Magic tied both of them together and was probably the best one because it features what we've wanted to see - Sunset going back to Equestria and meeting Starlight (and bringing her back with her). Human Starlight reminds me of the dog from Littlest Pet Shop with her purple hair and hat.

The kids from Appli Monsters don't know what a phone booth is, which is fitting of today's youth. I can't help but think of the phone booths from season 1. Speaking of Adventure, now the Buddy Appmons have amnesia like in Tri and their personalities have shifted as well (whereas most of the season 1 Digimon were acting pretty much the same). Leviathan hasn't destroyed Yuujin yet, and we haven't seen Offmon. Maybe it will be explained in the coming episodes what Yuujin actually is.

The translated light novels for KH2 are being released through the end of this year. By the time they get to the Birth By Sleep ones, KH3 will probably be out.

The Best and the Worst

So I failed to mention this before, but Yandere's phone says "Saikou" on it, which means the brand name is "Best." However, it's also pronounced like "psycho." Nice touch.

Special mention goes out to a recent episode of TTG for teasing their origin stories. Robin starts to tell his but the others stop him because it's too depressing. They tell theirs but steal other heroes' origin stories instead. It's usually funny when they troll Robin this way, but not this time. Raven didn't even pick someone from the Justice League or the DCU - she stole Spider-Man's origin. Starfire shouldn't have even tried to steal Batman's; as expected, Robin calls her on it. Starfire's story even had her wearing Adam West's costume; that was some timing. The ending was dumb, with Beast Boy stealing Hal Jordan's Green Lantern origin with the twist that he himself was a projection from John Stewart's Green Lantern ring. Then there was another recent episode, in which they play the Jinx game and say it has nothing to do with Jinx...at least until Robin loses his voice Ariel-style and they say that Jinx herself has it. While it was funny that Jinx had to remind Robin how to beat her, it wasn't funny that Robin had to use violence against his friends in order to get them to fight her. Starfire and Raven even asked her to do another girls night, which she didn't respond positively to. And then there was the most recent episode, which was about Beast Boy being dumb. *sigh* Add it to the list, especially since it touches on the usual cliche of added intelligence making a person mean. At first making fun of Robin was no big deal because, knowing these writers, he or someone else would've said it anyway. What he said to Raven was cruel (especially if he's supposed to like her), and what he said to Starfire didn't make sense because she isn't the only alien on Earth if the Justice League exists.

The dub of DB Super is pretty entertaining. Jaco and Freeza both have some funny dialog, especially in the one I just saw (episode 22). It seems as though Alexis Tipton has replaced Laura Bailey as Trunks. You can hardly tell, but I'm still a little disappointed. Also, was there an actors strike going on? That's the explanation they gave for Chloe having a different voice actress in the Life Is Strange prequel.

Five Nights at Yandere's

Scott Cawthon is coming out with a book called "The Freddy Files," detailing gameplay and lore that we know up to this point - and maybe a bit beyond. It comes out at the end of August (probably around the time Matt Mercer's Tal'Dorei book drops too), but it already has a rating of 4.7 out of 5. Published by Scholastic, its cover is reminiscent of that of Goosebumps; I love it. Hopefully it does not disappoint; I'm considering pre-ordering it as well as Matt's book. This may be a good gauge of the fan base, seeing how many people are looking forward to the movie and perhaps another game.

Another project still in the works is Yandere Simulator, which has progessed much further than the last time I had checked in on it (which was probably around the time Random Encounters did their Senpai Notice Me video). While it was obvious that the developer drew inspiration from Hitman, he made a Mission Mode where you get jobs from Info-chan to kill certain people in certain ways, just like in Hitman. He also likes Persona and recently drew a lot of inspiration from Persona 5 in regard to world-building and mechanics (and it wasn't lost on me that Shiho resembles the titular Yandere by sheer coincidence). If he continues to breathe new life into this project, more people will take notice. There are definitely still fans out there who ask him questions and send him things. I'm a fan of Kuudere myself.

Speaking of the title of this blog...maybe that could be an idea for the game, or at least a spoof video like he did with Yanderetale (an Undertale-style boss battle versus the Occult Club leader Oka). Yandere does have the option of torturing people (or at least holding them hostage) in her basement. I don't know how that would work (and he probably wouldn't do it), but it's something to think about. Although he reminds us at the end of or during several of his update videos, Yandere isn't a good person. However, the cutscene where she decides not to kill Kokona and resolves things peacefully instead (in that she asks her not to pursue Senpai and she reluctantly agrees, as Yandere has saved her family from debt) was really awesome. Pacifist run, yes.

Getting Caught Up

I'm really enjoying the fact that there are female Super Saiyans now, even if they're in Universe 6. Caulifla and Kale are definitely a dominant and a submissive pair, and that's why Kale is the female version of Broly, as MasakoX explained. Her reason isn't as stupid, though. The Buu arc Kai dub is coming along, and it seems funnier or stranger than before, especially Buu himself. At least, I don't think Krillin called Yajirobe useless in the first version. I almost expected him to follow it up with, "And I know Yamcha!" like the abridged series would. Speaking of useless, the Supreme Kai. MasakoX also mentioned how Shin (as well as Beerus) is the fucking worst at his job, and it really shows in the Buu arc. I can't believe Piccolo had to back down from their fight in the tournament. DBZ Kai is supposed to be the condensed version, but the Buu arc still seems long and pointless.

I find it weird that Appmon latched onto the idea of cyberterrorism when everything at LCorp's AI-run city went nuts. It was no different than what the monster of the day does (because that's what it was), and yet even the main characters called it cyberterrorism. It's still a publicity stunt since Leviathan is what L stands for, and LCorp's AI was credited for stopping the attack rather than the Appmon (which the protagonists never address since they let people think the problems sort themselves out). The show also shows its hand too much. The audience already knows about LCorp and its new CEO being evil, so showing "Cloud's" helmet behind Knight had no dramatic power behind it. I'd say the same was true of us knowing that Ken was the Digimon Emperor, but the difference is that we were given a reason to care about Ken (not that everyone did).

I got some time off work, so I was able to finish both Yu-Gi-Oh! D&D videos. Part 2 is up, and part 3 is scheduled to go up at the end of the month. I'm still deciding what to do for a holiday video.