Amphibia Season 1 Review

So This is a type of blog I wrestled with whether or not I should do for a long time. I consider myself very well versed in cartoons, knowing all sorts of cartoon history and growing up with the various Animated Television shows of Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney from the 90s to the present. I am of course very nostalgic for the shows I grew up with, that said always love watching New franchises over any reboots of those as I highly value Creativity. That all being said I didn't want to do reviews just for the sake of it, as I felt that was a bit cliché, so I'm reserving this for ones that inspired me to do so. So I Just watched a new Show on Disney called Amphibia and it did just that.

So Amphibia is a brand new cartoon from Disney, so I should probably talk about my feel for the state of cartoons on that channel. Presently Amphibia is one of their only cartoons thats an original franchise, as opposed to the Ducktales reboot, Milo Murphy which takes place in the Phineas and Ferb series and several cartoons based on Disney Movies like Tangled, Big Hero 6 and Star Wars. Now none of those other shows I listed our Bad, in fact I know Ducktales at least is really good. But my point is if you look at the small amount of original series they had recently like Gravity Falls, Star VS The Forces of Evil and Wander over Yonder, you see 3 fantastic and popular cartoons which all sadly ended relatively early compared to most Cartoon Network shows for example. See this has me worried because Amphibia season 1, despite being 20 episodes long, was put out in only 5 weeks rather than 20, thats twice as fast a rate as the 4th season of Star was put out, which makes it feel like it isn't being treated as a big deal. Hence Forth, part of this review is going to be trying to show how truly good this show is.

So to give the general spoiler free description of this show, Amphibia is about a teenage girl named Anne who, after acquiring a mysterious wooden music box, gets sucked into an alternate dimension called Amphibia, a swamp like dimension inhabited by anthropomorphic amphibians. She then gets taken in by the Planter family and together they search for a way to get Anne back home, and go on some fun adventures along the way. 

So with that outta the way lets look at what this show really offers. So this show is really well executed in all regards in my opinion, there was not a single bad episode, character or plot, and the world building was very interesting and well done.

Speaking of the setting specifically, I LOVE the style this show is in, the backgrounds, architecture art and designs are all very reminiscent of classical american art from places like the Bayou or Everglades.

This is very fitting given the amphibious swampland setting and is actually kinda genius due to how it makes a marsh not only not look gross but beautiful. The Music on the other hand uses a lot of country style instruments and is beautiful and soothing yet still adventurous in a manner I have not seen done this well since Over the Garden Wall, and of course matches perfectly.

A lot of cool elements exist in this world ranging from the customs of the townsfolk to the way the government is set up, to real dangers of this world like giant insects, thieves, cannibals, mutants, magic and more. In fact I would say the way that this show is written is most similar to Gravity Falls, In that a lot of the episodes are these cool and fun adventures using various mystic elements of the show, having lots of really envelop pushing humor along the way, and the rest of the episodes are related to the main plot of unraveling the mysteries of the Music Box and trying to get Anne back home, these eps being filled with lots of mystery, twists, incorporation of past episodes that you didn't think were important, and some really good character moments, seriously the last episode of the season had me crying.

One thing in particular I want to praise this shows writing for is how, despite being about a girl who gets trapped in another dimension inhabited by beings who have a totally different culture and don't even know what a human is, it doesn't fall into relying on Fish Out Of Water stories. Anne adapts to this place pretty dang quickly, and a vast majority of the plots actually revolve around Anne setting new trends There which is much more fun and interesting.

So what about characters? Well there are 4 Main characters in this show known collectively as the Planters. Anne, our lead, is smart, adventurous and a bit of a rebel but unlike other characters like this is also largely responsible to the point she's very self aware when she's going too far, and even when she does end up doing so will assuredly own up to it which I think makes her feel much more real and the show overall never tedious. Sprig is Anne's best friend and the Wander too her Sylvia (If you get the reference you're awesome), he's very sweet, happy-go-lucky and loyal. Hop-Pop is Sprig's grandfather and is the wise old mentor figure for this show, and honestly he's the best execution on that trope I've seen in a Disney show. Lastly there is Polly who is Sprig's little sister, in fact so little she's still a tadpole, but she's also a super funny tomboyish snark who somewhat reminds me of Louise from Bob's Burgers if you're familiar with that.

Past that this show actually has a surprisingly strong supporting cast, a lot of fully fleshed out characters who end up having one episode dedicated to them and a lot of them teach really great lessons. Some standout Supporting characters to me were Maddie, Wally, Ivy & Mrs. Croaker. Also I can't really talk about the Villains without Spoiling stuff but MAN that was such a smart and clever take with them that this show does.

In Summary I think this is my Favorite show currently on Disney, its funny, its got a unique setting the characters are interesting and likable and the plot is getting really really good, leaving me genuinely excited to see where they take it. I Highly recommend this cartoon to anyone looking for a new one, the whole first season is out and I think watching it would be a treat.

Skullgirls VS Strategy Guide

Welp, decided to take another note from fellow blogger, Imp, and make my first one of these. And what better way to start it than with my favorite series of all time, Skullgirls. So the goal of this type of blog is to find out what counter strategies are most effective in the tiers of a verse. To do this you must find characters whose powers best allow them to counter the verses strong suits while capitalizing on their shortcomings. Most importantly characters you choose must have physical stats equal to or less than the characters of the tier, as having greater stats is not a strategy. So without further ado, here's how to be OP in Skullgirls.

City Scale Threat:

So this is the most common tier of the verse, almost all the playable characters and a large amount of the NPCs fall into this category. Characters in this tier are Small City Level and Hypersonic in speed so That is the hard limit for counters.

Now the big problem when facing off with characters in this tier is how disproportionately haxy the verse is for its power. Numerous characters can manipulate Spacetime, able to stop time, time travel, create portals, teleport and even spatially separate beings. These are diverse powers that would allow characters to counteract speed, among other things.

The tier also has numerous offensive hax, several characters have soul manipulation, characters like Brain Drain have mind control, Double can copy other peoples powers and trap people in her pocket dimension, Peacock can erase beings from existence and Cerebella can reflect attacks and manipulate matter on the molecular level. As far as defensive powers goes, numerous characters have regeneration abilities, Ms. Fortune of which even down to the cellular level, and characters like Squigly can become intangible.

So what are some popular strategies that can affect this verse? Well that in itself is tricky due to the verse itself having a lot of counter strategies. Due to the Spacetime manipulation, one would think Stealth would be a good counter, BUT numerous characters also have super senses, Peacock’s of which has some SO potent that only the absolute highest tiers of stealth have any chance.

Numerous of the characters can be manipulated, so an intelligent/manipulator strategy could be effective, but in term, numerous other characters are manipulators and geniuses, so that's not gonna be very effective either. 

Another big problem is characters like Peacock and Marie who's powers also let them vastly increase the amount of foes you have to fight, which will again be major trouble.

All this said every series has its weaknesses and this is no exception. One major weakness I notice in Skullgirls is the verse having an over reliance on Technology. Science and Technology are deeply rooted into the verse's offense and defense, with over half the playable cast having some and a large portion of those going as far as being full on Cyborgs or even Androids. Which brings me to my First Counter Pick.

Royal Pain:

Surprisingly enough Royal Pain from the Sky High series would be a pretty dangerous villain for the verse. She has massive technopathy abilities that would let her psychically dismantle, take control of or even copy the weapons, armor or even Bodies of numerous of the characters and incorporate it into her own arsenal. With this over half the roster would be down almost immediately, and the other half would have a hell of a time dealing with her newly acquired armory of attacks. Her suit already allows her to fly and blast lightning, as well as go toe to toe with characters like Will Stronghold, who could fly over 9000 M/S and catch a school falling with the kinetic energy of 4 Megatons. And all this isn’t even counting her most powerful weapon, The Pacifier, a specialized Rifle that reverts its target into a baby, a hax no one in the verse has resistance to.

All this being said, Royal Pain is not resistant to Mind control, Existence Erasure, BFR or Soul Hax, while she’s more than got the power to deal with those that have that quickly, this only makes her challenging, not broken. A broken character would be able to resist all their hax AND offer new ones not seen in the verse.

Zasalamel:

This Brings me to Zasalamel from the Soulcalibur series. Zasalamel has the same Hypersonic small city stats of the verse but backs it up by being a very powerful sorcerer. The Main obstacle with taking on Zasalamel is his curse that resulted in him having an inability to Die, through this curse he can regenerate from being blown to bits, as well as resist all kinds of Soul and Mind manipulation. With that alone the verse is already running low on things that could stop him, but then you consider that in the event Zasalamel IS slain, he will simply be reincarnated with all the same memories and an identical body, making permanently killing him Actually impossible. In addition to that, Zasalamel in all his centuries of life has acquired Numerous helpful magic abilities that really round out his arsenal to take this verse down. He’s got numerous of this verse’s best powers like Time Stops, Dimensional BFR, Super senses, summoning, telekinesis and multiple forms of mental manipulation, as well as a bunch of abilities Not seen in the verse like Absorption, and Poison manipulation.

All this being said, it is possible for Zasalamel to lose fights, while his reincarnation ability means he’s gonna win eventually, it could potentially take a long time to do so if he has to use it, because at the end of the day its very hard to not put yourself in harms way in a verse this hax so long as you have a physical body, thus I’m brought to my last and best pick.

X.A.N.A.:

X.A.N.A. from the Code Lyoko series would be unstoppable in the Skullgirls series. This powerful, hyper intelligent A.I. is a digital being and therefore has no physical form to risk, and is immune to all the series’s Hax due to flatout not having a mind or soul to attack. Combat wise X.A.N.A. is the best at both worlds, it can possess not only any form of machinery, but also going as far as inanimate objects and sentient organic beings. In addition to that X.A.N.A. can rewind time, copy powers, amass armies of robots, turn beings to stone, manipulate sound allowing it to attack Squigly’s intangible sound form, erase beings from existence stopping any of their regeneration, and he can digitize people, something no one in SG has shown resistance to. And even if they did find a way to somehow attack him, X.A.N.A.’s own Regen is able to come back from deletion. There is nothing the verse could do to stop this thing. 

Country Scale Threat:

This is the tier of a few of the most powerful characters to ever walk the Skullgirls Earth, including Queen Nancy Renoir after she became a full fledged Skullgirl, as well as Eliza’s true form The Crimson Scourge. Characters in this tier are country level and gain speed boosts putting them roughly in the Massively Hypersonic range. Powers include power absorption, creating armies of the dead, life draining, flight, Umbrakinesis, Hemokinesis, high end regeneration and soul hax. Characters in this tier also do not rely on Technology, so that can no longer be relied on to score an advantage. But what Are some weaknesses one could exploit?

Well due to there being less characters In this tier there are actually far less hax one has to deal with. One could theoretically just bring a lot more versatility than them and become overpowered that way.

Grimnir:

This brings me to my first pick, Grimnir from Magicka. Grimnir has insanely high versatility able to summon force fields that can block up to planet level attacks, Summon Zombie Armies to combat the Skullgirls own, as well as blast the Skullgirl with raw Life energy which should be able to harm her as an undead. Similarly he can take down the Logia Crimson Scourge with raw Entropy. Grimnir would likely not even need to do these however as he can also trap them in an endless string of mental battles, brainwash people, slow down time, teleport, turn invisible and cancel out opposing magic.

Past that however, Grimnir is slower than them, only able to keep up via massively hypersonic reaction speed, and couldn’t survive being hit by them. While he is extremely clever and likely would succeed in playing keep away until he wins, he’s still in immediate danger from their abilities. A better option would be to have comparable power as well as situationally overpowered abilities to stop them, such as.

Gray Fullbuster:

Gray is One of the more powerful members of the Fairy Tail Guild, being just as fast as characters in this tier and while he's not quite as raw powerful, his abilities are very geared towards fighting them. Gray has multiple forms of extremely powerful Ice Manipulation which can easily coat whole cities and mountains in Ice, Allowing him to fight armies of zombies and large kaiju sized entities. Not only is Ice a Great weapon to use on the logia Crimson Scourge, but Gray’s Lost Ice Shell which allows him to Freeze anything solid, including those Heavily resistant to Ice attacks should more than guarantee he could freeze her solid, either defeating her, or reducing her to Sekhmet, who could not contend with Gray directly. Against the Full Powered Skullgirls, Gray has something perfect, Ice Demon Slayer Magic. This magic grants Gray Super senses, Resistance to the attacks of beings created from dark magic, the ability to negate the durability of beings made from dark magic, and the ability to freeze beings mind and soul. 

Gray with all this is extremely well equipped to take on these characters, and it would be extremely difficult for them to beat him in a fight for sure, but him losing is still a possibility due to the inability to remove the threat they pose to him. For that you’d need to go with my best pick.

Mew Mew’s:

Literally Any of the Mew Mew’s from the Tokyo Mew Mew series would be totally broken not only in this tier but skullgirls as a whole, seriously if they were just a little slower I easily would have put them in the last tier but here we are. Despite this tier now largely outclassing them in power, it matters approximately 0% due to the Mew Mew’s primary ability, Mew Power. Mew Power is a hax that regresses living things on a genetic level back into their natural state. This ability removes any form of artificial enhancement to beings and can even heal past injuries and resurrect the dead. In a verse like skullgirls where almost all the characters were normal humans who merged with a parasite or got cybernetic implants or drank a super serum or something, this would basically just be a massive Undo button that would take away all of their powers, leaving them helpless and doomed. Mew Power should easily revert a Skullgirl, either back to a normal girl or at least a pile of bones. Against Eliza this wouldn’t be perfect as, though it would separate Sekhmet from her and remove her acquired power, Sekhmet is one of the few parasites that CAN fight without a host. That being said her power is reduced to the Mew Mew’s level, and given the Mew Mew’s have a few other awesome powers to use, I see little reason they wouldn’t beat her. If I had to pick a particular Mew Mew to use it would either be Zakuro due to being the most skilled fighter, or Pudding for her handy immobilization powers.

Godly Scale Threat:

Lastly following a MASSIVE jump in power we have the Trinity, the three goddesses of the Skullgirl series, and some of the most powerful beings in all fighting games. The Trinity are the embodiment of abstract concepts of the multiverse, they exist in a realm not contained in any universe and craft Avatars of themselves to enter the universes around them. The Skullgirls cosmology has always been described as a Multiverse, Issac in particular stated it contains infinite universes and timelines, and these gods manipulate all of that like puppeteers. They created the Skull Heart a sentient, self regenerative artifact that Warps Reality, and did so so casually they literally made infinite of these things across the multiverse. Venus, the goddess of Space is all space that exists, her true form is stated to be so large it defies comprehension and if one sees it they have already been engulfed, there is no safe place to fight her as the very fabric of the universe unravels around her. She can attack omnidirectionally, control all of space and warp reality itself. Her sister Aeon, is the goddess of time, she literally IS all the time in the multiverse, she knows everything that ever was or will be. She can destroy timelines with a thought, manipulate time in numerous incomprehensible ways, pull alternate versions of whomever shes fighting to battle for her, and manipulate sand which is coarse rough, irritating and gets everyWAIT…

And worst of all we haven’t even mentioned Their mother. Mother Trinity is the queen of all reality and god of the Skullgirls verse, almost nothing is known about how truly powerful she is, and in a way that is even more frightening.

Sooooooo, what could POSSIBLY stop these beings? Well one would need to have High Universal/Low Multiversal power to say the least, extremely high speed to deal with the inescapable nature of the trinity and some hyper advanced Spacetime and reality warping resistance. And that’s just to be on their level, past that you would need to have something to kill them with. So what is something that can resist heavy space time manipulation, and take on multiversal gods?

The One Being:

The One Being is the most powerful character in the Mortal Kombat series, as well as the Actual most powerful character in fighting games. The One Being eats universes and Elder gods that make and maintain them for breakfast and was only ever stopped when the Elder Gods managed to seal him in ancient powerful relics and separate him into multiple vast universes. Even after that however he was not truly stopped as even in that state was able to manipulate powerful villains across the MK series to merge these universes into one so he would be set free. The One Being is resistant to massive amounts of hax, even being above the Titan Kronika, keeper of time, and mother of gods, who has much of the Trinity’s same abilities. In addition to that, The One Being has absorption powers on the Trinity’s level, which there is Not evidence they could resist.

This is all well and good, however the Trinity are even more powerful than the elder gods who, to be fair took a lot of time and planning, managed to seal him away. It Is still theoretically possible for the Trinity to win, what we want is someone they would have no way to defeat.

Yukari Yakumo:

Hailing from Touhou Project, Yukari is one of the most powerful and dangerous Yokai in the entire series. While she isn’t as Raw Powerful as the Goddesses, she has heavy amounts of control and resistance over the Spacetime continuum due to her primary power, Border Manipulation. Border manipulation is an astonishingly diverse hax in the series that lets its user switch the borders of anything, including vague concepts. In the Touhou series, conceptual borders are the fundamental boundaries between everything, space and time, night and day, life and death, without these borders the universe would exist as one singular thing, and did before the gods separated everything with names and concepts, and THIS is what she is manipulating. Through both this and her insane super genius mind, Yukari could make the Gods fictional to her, Seal them away, replace their minds, turn them into antimatter, or even Erase them from Existence. She can even manipulate the boarder of possibility and impossibility to completely take away all their abilities. Yukari cannot be destroyed by Venus’s sheer size due to her ability to come back from death or even being erased down to a concept and just to top that off, she can turn intangible. She can see into the future to counter Aeons own precog, and she can make other versions of herself to counter Aeon trying that as well.

All that said, even she isn’t the best character in this situation.

Entropy:

Entropy is an almighty villainess from the Freedom Force series and easily the best possible character I can think of to Stop these Goddesses. Being the now literal abstract embodiment of Entropy, she is a powerful reality warper capable of deleting entire timelines, making her a match for the trinity stat wise. First and foremost, she has INSANE resistance to spacetime manipulation, to the point she was able to battle against Time Master, a multiversal entity who controls all of spacetime and has every ability Aeon and Venus do, and not only held her own but matched him completely in power. And to top that off she has all of the most dangerous abilities these Gods dread, she has an active defense that absorbs all attacks that come her way, even including mental attacks, the ability to seal enemies into stasis, Godly Regeneration, Flight, the ability to gain resistance to new attacks once they are used on her and reality warping that can let her completely turn the tide of a fight by swapping possibility with impossibility. And then there's the Icing on the cake that really sold me on this pick, Entropy, true to her name, can drain the energy of beings down to nothing on such a scale that the Trinity couldn’t hope to resist it. She would literally make the gods of this multiverse, suffer a true Heat Death.