Illy's Blog of Random

So I heard this season will only have 13 episodes. If it intends to finish the whole series based on the manga, and the first episode alone contained Seido vs. Norikane, then I guess only one or two serious matches will get 2 episodes max. The pacing is fast.

The art seems grainy or sketchy as opposed to the previous seasons (the previous ones have much cleaner outlines and more vibrant colours). I'll get used to it.

There are some slideshow moments, but a particular bird eye view shot when Sawamura threw a pitch was interesting to watch. I dunno, I quite like that scene. I don't think I've seen something similar throughout the series. Or maybe I have amnesia lol

Last year was pretty good. Had fun times and also depressing and stressful times. Mostly because of work.

Too much work last year. Ugh.

I tried to go back to hobbies I used to love, like drawing and writing. Hadn't even touched my laptop after fixing it, and writing was mostly reactions from reading Facebook and Reddit posts. I did have a fanfic idea, but writing is uuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

I also stopped buying doujinshi. I wanted more but with increasing commitments (not debt, just helping my family) I had to pick one.

The single achievement I had last year: Paying off one of the 2 debts I have! 💃🕺 Now I only have car loan. I set the monthly payments of the cleared debt for the car loan, just collecting them so I could either pay off a big chunk, or use it for other purposes.

Yesterday in an attempt to regain joy in my life, I bought a set of kiddie nail polish. Lol

I have never used nail polish so my painting skill is terrible. Hahaha

I feel cute using these things. My fave colour is purple (whether it suits me or not is a different story).

I also saw a fidget keyboard keychain. I wanted to buy one. I don't know, I just have a really bad buying impulse tbh. Already bought nail polish, foundation compact powder (rarely use this), perfume, stickers (a lot of these because I do love them), marker pens, colourful pens.....

I don't watch many anime, the ones I'm following are Who Made Me a Princess? and Digimon Beatbreak.

Daiya no Ace will return this year, will I be interested enough to watch? That, I don't know. I hope it will spark my love towards the series again.

Unresolved plot points I want to see post-series:

1. Solitas' romance story. AFAIK he's the only person whose contract with Lloyd hasn't been fulfilled yet - he's been learning crafting and still yet to find a female dragon interested in him. Lloyd had "promised" that Solitas will get married within 10 years, but 5 years are already wasted when Lloyd exited the novel world. Will Solitas find true love in the remaining 5 years (or less)?

2. Helkaros' reincarnation. In the final battle between King of Hell Helkaros and Frontera estate, Lloyd threw both himself and Helkaros into the Gate of Reincarnation. But what will Helkaros be reborn as? I'm curious to know!

3. Lloyd's descendant. In the series Apothecary Prince / The Prince who Sells Medicine, the main character Rakiel Adria Magentano (if I got his name correct) has silver hair (like Javier) and knows of Asrahan Core Technique. His father and brother also have silver hair. Either Lloyd taught Asrahan Core Technique to his children, or the next Magentano heir married a child of Asrahan family (Javier's children).

There are theories that Lloyd's child has silver hair, but I don't like that idea. I want the silver hair to be the Asrahan family's trait, let the kid marry one of Javier's instead lol (like, both Lloyd and Javier are best friends. I want these best friends' families to be closer yeah)

4. The fate of Lacona estate. Not sure what will happen to them if the Lacona family went bankrupt, or will Lloyd eventually give water for free and claim the Lacona estate as Frontera's? Hahahaha there's high chances Lloyd will do that now that he's become the Royal Consort.

Anyway, time for another re-read!

ETA: Adding some more questions.

5. How did Suho's parents end up as his personal System Window? They shared the same fate with OG Lloyd's parents in the Iron-Blooded Knight novel (double suicide due to debt). What was their wish, did their wish also interconnected with Lloyd's / Suho's?

First of all I'd like to say that I've been following the manhwa every week. I have never read a lick of the web novel; only snippets. And I had super low expectation for the movie, simply because (elite) fans were outraged by the content and changes, wanting everyone else to boycott it.

As if there'd be another producer willing to make another movie for this series, given the lashout lol

But really, who am I to say about the movie when even the manhwa got Kim Dokja's 4th Wall concept wrong? We still called it a masterpiece ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

So instead of telling the whole plot, I'll point out changes I'm aware of and what I think of them.

1. The movie spans across about 4 scenarios for now. 1st scenario when people have to kill at least one living organism, 2nd scenario where people have to regroup to escape poison gas and take shelter, Dokja's secret scenario where he has to save himself from Ichtyosaur, and 3rd scenario the green zone event.

The movie ends at the announcement of 4th scenario, Capture the Flag. Whether the movie will continue I can't say, I'm not the producer and fans will further riot lol

The entire plot for now is quite fast-paced. There are jumpscares (or it's probably just me who jumps at all sudden monster reveals lol) and there are rage-baiting scenes. So there's no time to be bored.

But... this also means a lot of novel & manhwa scenes were removed to fit movie duration lol

2. Dokkaebis' 3-D designs are lolwtf. Why did I expect them to be close to the manhwa version, I don't even know. They look like transparent, cute little monsters with shiny gacha balls inside their stomach pocket. Looks aside, I think I quite like Bihyung there.

Now I don't want to imagine how movie!Paul would look like when he appears lol

3. Manhwa!Dokja (maybe even his novel counterpart) seemed to have 4th Wall skill at the start of the 1st scenario. This includes Bookmark skill where he can save and use skills of characters he has met. Movie!Dokja doesn't have that skill, which could cause major riot by the fans lol

However, Dokja can use his TWSA knowledge to solve the scenarios, which is pretty OP for someone WITHOUT a skill and supporting constellation, because here it seems only people with a supporting constellation will receive skills. Not very clear about that, my memory is quite weak.

Not being able to access other people's info right away might be a good thing for potential new fans. Because it's like an infodump if it is. (Not to mention non-Korean watchers won't understand anything written in the system boxes.)

4. Movie!YJH uses dual wielding - swords and guns. Manhwa!YJH sticks to only using a sword. Who is better? While manhwa!YJH is already an entertaining character, I admit that movie!YJH seems like a badass. Not only he has LOTS of swords and guns, he also has magical storage that appears when summoned!

Imagine a hero walking around summoning magical storage with lots of swords and guns in it, and he picks one of both weapons on each hand and start running while slashing and shooting at enemies. (Acting skill wise, though, pretty ok.)

Considering TWSA is set during modern apocalypse, it's kinda outdated (while still being cool) if characters only use swords in a world with modern weapons like guns and other trajectory weapons lol

5. Movie!Jihye is given a sniper rifle instead of a sword. Fans were like, "NOOOOOOO" even from the teaser trailer, but I find this change a good one. YJH already uses swords, Dokja also uses a sword, so a minor character wielding yet another sword is redundant.

Besides, giving a sniper rifle to Jihye actually makes her shine in the movie! She used her rifle to help destroy the only green zone Dokja was trying to destroy.

6. Movie!Huiwon is given a pair of daggers (iirc) instead of a sword, which again is redundant. She looks super cool fighting and jumping and spinning to slash enemies.

7. Movie!Gilyeong is given a helmet for communicating with insects. Which looks funny as hell. Before he received the helmet he put his fingers up like antennaes. I prefer manhwa!Gilyeong because he doesn't need those, but I guess the producer wants to convey how his ability works, so...

8. Movie!Pildu uses trajectiles(?) a.k.a. heavy machineguns like his manhwa counterpart. Good on this part and this part alone lol

9. Movie!Hyunsung has holographic shield. Cool af. Manhwa!Hyunsung has physical shield.

10. And yeah, Dokja gets a broken sword which he repairs with Faith something I forgot. He's the main character aside of YJH, so he deserves a sword.

11. Dokja does have flashback of his childhood in the movie, but it's more of a bullying that happened to him during middle school. So there's no further spoiler on how his mom was a murderer yet. Good, we don't need that much infodump for now.

12. The fight with Flame Dragon is done differently in the movie than the manhwa. So do most other scenes but eh.

That's all about it I guess. Is the movie good? Not really, but I did enjoy what I saw.

Plot: fast-paced, doesn't take a long time to explain things, also removes a lot of side quests between Scenarios 1 to 3 (understandable). Has a few jumpscares too 🤣😂🤣😂 (I'm easily startled). 7/10

Characters: instead of giving a lot of them traditional and redundant weapons i.e. swords, we have a variety of weapons that make each character shine (albeit some has ridiculous stuff e.g. Gilyoung's transmitter helmet). YJH uses swords and guns which makes him look badass while fighting. Jihye gets sniper rifle that gives great support when needed (albeit only for one scene lol). Hyunsung has holographic shield. Sangah becomes non-sexy Spiderwoman (for now?). Dokja can stick to his one sword (no pun intended). 8/10 only because the dokkaebis' designs are terribad 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 (without dokkaebi's terrible designs I'd give 10/10)

OST: sadly forgettable, no clear main theme, sometimes too loud esp. during jumpscares. 4/10

What else? Choreography is kinda ok la except that one scene when YJH pushed Dokja into Ichtyosaur's mouth. What kind of hand flailing is that, Dokja?? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣 5/10

Overall 6/10 movie, enjoyable if - and only if - you don't sweat the missing details. I did have fun watching and laughing and screaming at some scenes. And like I said, I do like the movie.

Ever since 02TB I started taking notes on Tri. I used to hate Tri, but the actual reason was the treatment for the 02 kids. So watching 02TB gave me ideas on what could have happened to them in Tri.

Among the findings that I learned in Tri is that, in episode 1 or 2 I don't remember, Koshiro pointed out 8 odd things about the Kuwagamon attack on real world. One of them is that, "Digital gates had been closed for over a year".

This point should not be something weird, because (1) the year was 2005, doesn't it mean it was closed since 2004 or sometime before that? How could they not notice? (2) taken into consideration the last battle before Tri started was Diaboromon Strikes Back in 2003, did all Digidestined stop actively going to Digital World after that? (3) The only known Digivice to be able to open gates now that the D-2 that the Adventure 8 have kinda malfunctioned idek, is the D-3 Digivice.

And there's also the fact that nobody seemed to care why the 02 kids were not in the picture at all. Too many people theorized that the reason could be the result of a higher being tampering with memories of the people around the 02 kids.

I find this idea odd.

However high a deity in Digimon World is, I don't think it's possible for them to tamper the memories of the Adventure 8 in real life, because ultimately Digital World is the result of human invention - computers, digital programs and digital network. So there must be another reason why the Adventure 8 acted like the 02 kids' disappearance was something normal until Digimon Kaiser appeared. Something that is easier to explain, but have the same devastating result when it turned out the 02 kids were kidnapped.

My idea: the 02 kids went to an international student exchange program of some sort, a fake one to isolate them from the Adventure 8. The "Digital World investigation mission" was a deliberate trap by whoever behind this "exchange program" (among them are Himekawa and maybe also Nishijima). Original duration for this isolation was for about 1 year, but whoever worked there made efforts to let the parents and friends know of their "well-being" via fake letters or emails (unsure of Japanese communication trends between 2003-2005). So the Adventure 8 did not suspect anything bad happening to them until Digimon Kaiser attacked. This could also explain how only Himekawa & Nishijima knew of the 02 kids going MIA and not tell the Adventure 8.

That's the basic idea I had. What's important is the fact that the Digital Gates were closed for over a year. And since the Tri epilogue told us that the 02 kids took about 3 months to recover from their induced coma and go back to school (which is a long time including rehab), meaning they could have been there for a long time too. Like, say, a year or two.

These years they were gone, they missed school. So.

(notes copypasta'd below)

Timeline, age, and school grades:

2002 (Digimon 02): Daisuke, Ken, Hikari, Takeru (11, 5th grade), Miyako (12, 6th grade), Iori (9, 3rd grade)

2003 (Diaboromon Strikes Back): Daisuke, Ken, Hikari, Takeru (12, 6th grade), Miyako (13, middle 1st grade), Iori (10, 4th grade)

2004: let's say the 02 kids are gone here. Daisuke, Ken (13, supposed to be middle 1st grade, missing), Hikari & Takeru (13, middle 1st grade), Miyako (14, supposed to be middle 2nd grade, missing), Iori (11, supposed to be 5th grade, missing)

The 02 kids didn't have to go missing at the start of the year, but they could have been gone sometime before June 2004, a year before Tri events started.

2006: Daisuke & Ken (15, back to school, middle 1st grade), Hikari & Takeru (15, middle 3rd grade), Miyako (16, back to school, middle 2nd grade), Iori (13, back to school, gets to continue to middle 1st grade? Or maybe he'd insist to finish elementary at 5th grade).

2005 (Tri): Daisuke & Ken (14, missing), Hikari & Takeru (14, middle 2nd grade), Miyako (15, missing), Iori (12, missing)

They were found after the Tri events (still haven't finished rewatching to pinpoint the time), and took 3 months to recover.

2007: Daisuke & Ken (16, middle 2nd grade), Hikari & Takeru (16, high 1st year), Miyako (17, middle 3rd grade), Iori (14, middle 2nd grade or elementary 6th grade)

2008: Daisuke & Ken (17, middle 3rd year), Hikari & Takeru (17, high 2nd year), Miyako (18, high 1st year), Iori (15, middle 3rd grade / middle 1st grade)

2009: Daisuke & Ken (18, high 1st year), Hikari & Takeru (18, high 3rd year), Miyako (19, high 2nd year), Iori (16, high 1st year / middle 2nd grade)

2010 (Kizuna): Daisuke & Ken (19, high 2nd year), Hikari & Takeru (19, college), Miyako (20, high 3rd year), Iori (17, high 2nd year / middle 3rd year)

Something is odd in here. In some Kizuna merchandises Iori wore school uniform, while Daisuke, Ken, and Miyako did not despite them supposed to be still in high school. Did Kizuna event happen during school holiday? Was Iori wearing uniform because of tuition / extra classes / cram school? Hmm. Need to rewatch Kizuna.

2011: Daisuke & Ken (20, high 3rd year), Hikari & Takeru (20, college), Miyako (21, college?), Iori (18, high 3rd year / high 1st year)

2012 (02TB): Daisuke & Ken (21, college?), Hikari & Takeru (21, work?), Miyako (22, college / work?), Iori (19, work? / high 2nd year). (02TB events happened in February, while Japanese school year starts in April. This means during 02TB Iori is probably either in final months in high school 1st year, or last leg of high school 3rd year. If he's busy af in February while still in high school 1st year, it seems like he's an active member of the school committee / club.)

In Beyond PV, Iori says he's a high schooler. But at this point Daisuke & Ken have grown more and have more developed jawlines. Ken even grew his hair - hair that long from his 02TB cut should take about 1 year to grow. So if we take Iori's claim at face value, it's very possible that Iori is in his 3rd year, and the year is 2013.

This must mean that Iori continued school after the kidnapping in Tri at 5th grade.

Koshiro! He was supposed to be in Part 2 before Miyako and Daisuke but I skipped because I was in an event while posting so I kinda missed it lol

Where are you going? Patamon? Takeru?

Aaaaaaannddd the final part. The most ridiculous of all.

Yep. The woman. Ken Ichijouji and his most outrageous, disastrous fashion choices. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

I do understand that this hairstyle is supposed to resemble the one he will have in the epilogue, which looks a lot like middle schooler Joe. But I don't want the transition hair style to be this. The Kizuna & The Beginning hairstyle suited him better, so just tweak that out so he maintains beautiful yet manly! Wait, this hair is what happens when that one was tweaked out. Arghhhhh

But of course, it's Ken and he's cursed ever since he donned the girly hair style. Sorry Ken, I love you but I'll just stick to The Beginning style.

No, please help me love this person. 😂😂😂😂😂

Sora the rebellious makcik. Rebellious because she went from wearing kimono and doing ikebana to wearing hip hop outfits. At age approaching 30. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

I consider Joe normal. Thank you for being normal.

Jun is a nurse, wow!

What's this Digimon? At first I thought it was Ukkomon, but looks like not.

More Hikari and Sora.

Taichi & Yamato, and their Digimons. Yamato looks mature, but Taichi...

Miyako-saaaaaannnnnn wait, is she wearing Mimi's 1999 outfit? It looks like that, sans the cowboy hat.

Daisukeeeeeeee

Ok I did not realize the video drops today until Reddit people shared some images. My feelings? It's a mix of OMG and WTF lol

First of all, the thing that was undo'ed since Last Evo Kizuna. Yes, Agumon and Gabumon returned. From what I've read from many Digimon fans, they were happy they're back, but they also ended up cheering - "Yay, this basically means Last Evo didn't exist!" Yeah no. I stick to theories by hardcore Digimon fans like Shiha, who told us that Digimon can return to their owner as long as they fulfilled certain criteria. Case in point: Ken and Wormmon in 02.

I still want some good fanfics that use this theory. But oh well.

The second thing that was undo'ed was the Digivice. Yes. The Digivice that disappeared in The Beginning, the one thing that was no longer needed to symbolize connection between a human and a Digimon, comes back like it's still needed. lolwtf

The funny thing is that we see Lui's legs in a split second scene. Is it his (and Ukkomon's) doing? I wonder.

Third is the cast's appearances. Outrageous 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 Some of them wear outfits that are not quite appropriate for their age (what are their ages in here? Should be close to 30) - they wear funky teenagers' wear lol

Namely, Taichi, Sora, Mimi, Koshiro, and Daisuke.

Joe wears his doctor's coat which is ok. Hikari wears some kind of rain coat? Maybe long coat? Idek. Miyako... I didn't watch with full focus to see what she was wearing. Takeru is ok with his adult-ish suits. Yamato is also ok with his suit.

Iori seems to dress ok, but his haircut. I can't even 🤣😂🤣😂 it took me a while to realize that THAT is Iori.

And then there's Ken. WHO TF ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU WEARING BLACK SUITS cut your hair and you will look like Yato, pls do that instead of keeping THAT hair style 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 like come on, I love you but your fashion sense is outrageous 😭😭😭😭😭

Ok now that I've screenshot things, let me show you them and cringe laugh whatever be excited with me.

The person on the left is Iori. Yes. Iori Hida. He, Taichi and Yamato are accompanying a seemingly troubled kid with a Digimon, who are chased by a scary Digimon.

This guy stole Kizuna/Beginning Ken's hair style wtf 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Digivices return! Now what's the reason for their return, and why the Originals still have D-2 instead of D-3 or more modern Digivices? A question to ponder.

Digivolutions now come with this shiny network light thingy. Beautiful. (Incomplete due to video duration)

Lui's legs makes a 1/100th-second cameo. No Ukkomon in sight.

Meiko also makes a 1/100th-second cameo. Not sure why the gloomy-looking framing choice. No Meicoomon in sight.

Hikari is attacked by darkness. I guess even as a full-fledged adult that thing can still disturb you eh. Darkness really hates to go away for good.

Mimi. Now she looks like she's approaching 30 so idek why her fashion choice.

So last year was pretty calm first half, then went chaotic last half. Got some medical issues (had a free medical checkup only to find I got diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels), which wrecked my finance. There's also me being transferred to a different office and having to learn new things from zero, which took a toll on my mental health.

By the end of the year, my anxiety level went really high. This month is a calm month but I already have made some blunders. Not sure how long I can keep mistakes down to a minimum...

I've been registering for classes related to my new job, so I hope they will help. Although from the one I have attended so far, it only touched the early parts but not the end parts, which I'm heavily involved in. Hm.

One of my loans might be settled this year, I hope. That will mean extra money to go to the other loan. I want all of them settled ASAP.

On fandom stuff, I had watched Digimon Ghost Game. It was fun despite its poor attempt on episodic series. I have also just finished watching and reading Kimetsu no Yaiba, a series I had been holding off for years lol. The anime is approaching its final arc, with the last ended with a bang (literal explosion). That was why I picked up the manga, to read what happened next lol

Oh. Other anime I watched last year were (not full title though):

- Solo Leveling

- I Parry Everything (personal favourite)

- Failure Frame (it has terrible CG but I quite like the plot)

- Wisteria ~Wand & Sword~ (reading the manga I figured out that the actual title should be "Wis to Ria" - Wis is this anime's term for sword, so Ria should refer to wand, Wis & Ria. Well, just a guess)

- Bastard's Akashic Records

- Horimiya (both 1st season and Piece)

Looking forward to watching more anime this year. As for movies, well...

- Gundam Seed Freedom

- Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Didn't really watch many movies last year.