From a Serebii post about a week ago, I was led to believe the next batch of Pokémon Sun and Moon information was to be released on July 1st. That’s why I was surprised when I heard about a collection of new potential Pokémon leaked onto the internet early (and I mean early) this morning when I was up probably too late for my own good. Some part of me believed it was potentially someone trying to capitalize on new information hype, so I decided not to talk about the Pokémon when I first saw them just in case they turned out to be fake.
But then, an official trailer was put out here with the new Pokémon as a headlining focus. Sure, it’s in Japanese, but Serebii does fill me in on some of the more important details, as far as things I could only vaguely grasp by looking at things like colors and animations.
So, let’s talk about this collection of… Admittedly strange Pokémon.
I’m not sure I’ve talked about it here yet, but I’ve been working for close to a month now with Boom magazine, a journal of California (which you can check out here, I’d highly recommend you do) as an Editorial Assistant. One professor I had over the Fall 2015 semester brought me along when he was invited to put together the next three or so issues, and I’ve been really grateful to have the extra work to keep me busy! Mostly it’s been things that I’m pretty used to thanks to my newspaper experience: Researching information, fact checking and section editing academic essays, writing bios, that sort of thing.
However, one thing I’ve had to do with Boom that I’m not totally used to is image research. With my journalism experience, most of the time getting an image boils down to asking the photo editor to get something that’ll relate to a particular story we might be running. In this case, I’ve been asked to actually look around and try to find possible images that we could use to supplement the essays that are going in the magazine.
The upcoming issue that I’ve been working on is focused on the prison system in California. Let me tell you, finding good images related to prisons that aren’t just pictures of drab prison architecture is a tough job. Mostly I’ve been searching around for artwork done by prisoners, which have brought me some cool finds. I figured I’d share one of them here, since I think it’s pretty worth looking at!
This piece, and most of this artist’s work at that, is not only really gorgeous to look at, it’s also a pretty impressive feat of creativity under restriction. Ramirez is being held in a Security Housing Unit (SHU), which is essentially a really high security isolation containment used in California – Though I’d read more about it here, since I’m not necessarily an expert on the subject. SHU’s are one of the focuses of the piece I read that inspired me to go out and find this piece of artwork, and according to the site where I pulled it from, “The colors on these drawings were developed by scraping paper pulp out of old magazines. Utilizing a rolled up piece of toilet paper dipped in the pulp, the scrapings are transferred onto the drawing paper.” Awesome to think about, if you ask me!
If you want to learn more about the California prison system in various facets through articles written by prominent figures in modern Californian writing, or if you want to potentially see more cool artwork done by prisoners, be sure to check out the next issue of Boom! I personally don’t know when exactly it’s to be released yet because we’re still working on it, but I know it’ll be relatively soon, so I’ll keep you all updated on when you can get your hands on it.
E3 has been going on for the past few days, and unfortunately enough not a lot of the reveals have interested me thus far. A lot of the games talked about have been sequels for games I haven’t played or games on available on consoles I don’t own – and probably won’t own due to monetary concerns. One of my favorite games talked about so far was Halo Wars 2 actually, since I loved the first game way more than I probably should have given how generally unpopular it was. I played that to death with some of my friends, even months after the general fanbase dropped off and left the multiplayer barren. Plus, it’s available for the PC as well as the Xbox One, so I’ll actually potentially have the chance to play it!
But that’s a different story, and one you can see more about here while you check out the beautiful trailer here. After all, today was the Nintendo Treehouse Live, and there were at least two massive things talked about during the presentation.
Now that I’m a year into college, I feel I finally have enough of a gap between now and high school to reflect on my experiences there with a bit more substance to my thoughts. Today my friend Tiana and I visited my alma mater, Redondo Union High School, and I got to see a bunch of teachers that I haven’t visited in probably close to a year – more due to constraints on my time rather than interest in going, as I would have loved to visit more often.
Though the visit was admittedly a little repetitive in that I was telling the same stories to each different person over and over when asked how college has been going so far, just the fact that I was asked so often really made me realize something. As a student who really cares about school, both the general experience and the actual learning it entails, I found that I really made a lot of friends among the teachers and administrators at my high school. The journalism facet of my life helped in this too, as I often found more reasons to ask about the diverse interests of those higher-ups, which helped me break a lot of barriers and find out a lot more about people than I would have otherwise.
In retrospect, this decision to try to get closer to my teachers and admins was really one of my best decisions I’ve made. Having friends with those in higher positions of authority not only helped me do my job as a journalist, it also helped me find opportunities and get encouragement in my college-hunting endeavors and more. Plus, now that I’ve graduated, these friendships have blossomed with even more benefits.
Today I sat with my AP Government teacher for close to an hour talking about my year in college, about his year teaching the class I once was a part of (which, by the way, sounded pretty exciting given the state of this year’s presidential election) and trading stories about how our college experiences have related to each other. I talked with my old AP Psychology teacher – who recently mailed me a letter commemorating my first year of her class and out of school I might add – about my experiences and got some pieces of advise I never would have gotten as a student wholly ignorant to the college world. My old art teacher, who still has a story I wrote in the school paper about her pinned on the wall, was very eager to take time out of her third period class to talk with me. My old journalism advisor was extremely impressed and proud to hear that I managed to clinch an editor position on the Daily Titan as a second year student there. I even talked with my Principal, who was actually my Principal throughout middle school and followed my class to high school as well. We talked pretty often due to this long-term proximity and her general eagerness to talk with me whenever I needed an administrative perspective for a news story on the paper. The list goes on and on.
Many of these people shaped my life for a long time, four years at least. If not for them, I likely wouldn’t be where I am today. Their classes made me more well-balanced and prepared for realistically intense workloads, their personalities made me happy to practice my interpersonal skills, and their friendliness helped me feel like I could always do more, always push myself to be better. Even now that I’m objectively totally out of their lives, it’s obvious that I’m definitely not out of their minds when I visit them. The fact that they all cared how my life was progressing on top of being more than eager to get more personal about their own lives and thoughts now that I’m not a student honestly feels wonderful, like I always have other family members to return to in a way.
Teachers are incredibly important. I’ve always felt that way, but really I’ve come to appreciate that fact more than ever recently. Some professors I’ve had in college so far have been amazing, others have made promising classes a really trying experience to endure. They make or break not only individual classes, but interests in various subjects as a whole. If there’s any advice I’d give to anyone who asks in relation to school, I’ll always tell them to connect to their teachers on a stronger level than they usually would with a “one year and done” mentality. They can serve as more than just the cornerstones of learning and as sources of advice or expertise, they can serve as really phenomenal friends too.
Oh boy, guess who’s late on this information? Honestly, you’d think someone so obsessed with the new Pokémon games would do better at being on top of the information.
But I digress.
Some new information was leaked from the July 2016 edition of CoroCoro, including information that happens to be very pertinent to my interests. Namely:
Daww, just look at these cuties! They definitely both fit the ‘first few Route encounters’ bill, and I certainly don’t have a problem with that! Let’s address these guys one at a time, shall we?
Nekkoala looks like a really cute Pokémon, and it’s normal-typing pretty much brands it as the Rattata/Sentret/Zigzagoon/You-get-the-point of this generation as far as I can tell at this point in time. However, there’s something that really helps this particular iteration stand out pretty well. A new ability known as “Definite Sleep” seems like it could make Nekkoala a very unparalleled threat if it’s cards are played right. The ability ensures that the only status ailment Nekkoala (and whoever else receives it) can be afflicted with is sleep. Therefore burn, paralysis and poison are all off the table with this little guy. Seriously, if it evolves into something with a monstrous attack or speed stat and can’t have either cut by burn or paralysis… Well… I could see it having a hell of a time in the Sun and Moon metagame.
Iwanko doesn’t have a special ability to call its own like Nekkoala does, boasting keen eye or vital spirit, but it does have something else potentially interesting going for it. It’s a rock-type Pokémon. Yeah that’s right, despite looking like a normal-type akin to Unova’s native Lillipup line, this little guy gets to be a rock-type. And potentially an early rock-type to own at that. Plus… Let’s be honest… Iwanko is freaking adorable and I want to own 20 of them. Especially since the different typing makes it seem a little more viable and interesting than the generally vanilla normal types are. Not that normal types are a bad thing – I certainly love a lot of them, including Stoutland. Then again, Sand Rush with access to moves like Play Rough really does set that Pokémon’s family apart on a gimmicky sandstorm team. I do love me some weather-based teams.
Now, these Pokémon being revealed weren’t the only bits of information unveiled in this leak, but unfortunately I can’t read Japanese and so I can’t exactly translate whatever I found on Serebii to be able to provide more information. What I can say is, supposedly Iwanko is small but holds some sort of secret (along with the starter Pokémon) according to the information they provided, there’s some more information about the QR Code reading system coming down the pipeline, and some new information for the Volcanion and Magearna movie was unveiled. I’m not much of a fan of the anime or the movies anymore I’m afraid, but Magearna will have a new attack called Fleur Cannon and an ability called Soul Heart. Don’t know what either of those do yet, but any new information is great information.
This is a bit of a shorter update, but what do you guys think of everything we’ve found out about Sun and Moon so far? Do you have any favorite new reveal so far? Anything you want to see more of soon? Personally, I’m enjoying watching the cast of new Pokémon grow myself, so I’m hoping we get to see more of them arrive!
As an added bonus that I hadn’t seen when making this post originally, there’s been a new video released showcasing Zygarde’s other forms in action on the Sun and Moon game engine! You can check the video out here to see the 10% dog-like form and the 100% Power Rangers Megazord form doing their thing.
Honestly, when the multiple forms of Zygarde were first announced some time ago I wasn’t all that impressed. I was excited to learn more about the lore behind X and Y’s third major legend, but their forms just didn’t seem all that impressive at the time. Now however, seeing that they have at least 3 special attacks all to themselves and the potential to transform in the middle of a battle somehow… It’s going to be pretty interesting to see.
Plus the way 100% Zygarde’s special technique cuts a Z shape into the ground with a core laser is just a really cool detail in my opinion.
Since this is something of a personal blog, I figure I can get a bit personal with the whole silly milestone kind of stuff.
California’s presidential primary for the 2016 election is today, and it’s the first primary I’m old enough to vote in. So, it’s pretty exciting! Especially considering just how much of a wild ride it’s been watching the veritable circus this election has been so far. I still remember when things were just kicking off and the Republican side had 17+ candidates with their hats in the ring at once. I also remember when Donald Trump decided to try out and everyone believed he would leave after a month or two with some boosted publicity.
Man, that sure took a way different turn, didn’t it.
Not that his ticket concerns me very much, as I voted Democrat – though I figure that much should be obvious after my slyly inserted roast against Trump in my Merchants of Doubt post.
Here’s the full pay-off. Honestly, it’s objectively not a lot from a physical perspective. A filled out pamphlet, a ballot stub and a sticker. Subjectively, however, I feel pretty patriotic and satisfied just looking at it all together. The feeling of having my voice heard is a wonderful one, especially since California is getting so much more attention in this election than it really ever does. Plus, my family made voting a collective outing this morning before my Dad had to go to work and my sister to school, so it was a pretty fun way to get through my civic duty.
In other not quite so political news, I’m moving up the chain of command on the Daily Titan. Earlier I did my interview with the new Editor in Chief and he already offered me the News Desk Editor position on the paper for this upcoming Fall 2016 semester. So, expect to see a lot more news in my Journalism experience faction of the blog as the summer eventually winds down and school picks back up again!
Man, nothing wakes up my interest in posting my opinions and thoughts on stuff like new Pokémon information.
After all, it’s June 2nd, and we have a Sun and Moon trailer to talk about. Are they still considered trailers? Probably not, but it’s the easiest thing I can think to call the videos at least. Semantics aren’t what I’m here to argue about however, so let’s get into the nitty gritty shall we? It’ll be all under the read more as usual to take up less space, so click on if you want to see some thoughts and opinions!
Jason's Blog - Work in Progress 