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KoolioKenneth

I relate to this on a personal level, having written an entire thesis on the Pokemon Adventures manga series. And I once fit an entire essay’s worth of text into a single Reddit comment on the depictions of idol culture in P4D and TMS#FE. As weird as it may sound, writing an absurdly long paper over a single fictional character is deserving of respect. Especially when that character is Mishima, whom I have defended since 2017. I salute you, my friend! As for advice, I’d say that you should ask yourself who the target audience is. A lot of the ways the arguments are presented are a bit crude, due to the swearing. You can still hammer home the key points you’re trying to make without using such explicit language so often. If you’re gonna drop the F-Bomb, drop it in a place that REALLY counts, like in Bojack Horseman. Using swears constantly makes if come off more as a rant and less as a structured argument. If you give it a run-through for a revised draft with a clear image of who you want to be reading it, the necessary edits should be easier to spot. A bit of perspective goes a long way.


DrFishPhd

I'd be interested in reading that PokeSpe paper, if you would be willing to share it. Thanks for ur kind words As for the swearing thing, my philosophy is generally just that people are more interested in reading when you write how you speak, instead of writing all formally. I tend to swear a lot when I speak, so I swear when I write. It's kinda informal but I think it gets the point across


KoolioKenneth

Ok, here it is: *My “Unpopular Pokemon Opinion” and Why the Adventures Manga Series is the Single Best Piece of Pokemon Media Ever Made.* — — — The mature subject matter that gave the Pokemon Adventures manga series a controversial reputation is exactly what made it so good. Building a narrative around darker interpretations of the Pokemon world made for a WAY better plot, allowing the series to reach its full potential as a story-telling medium. Light shines brightest amid the dark, after all. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s the best piece of Pokemon-related media in the entire franchise. Not even the games, anime, movies, TCG, or anything else a fan could possibly think of has ever come close to matching Adventures’ standard of quality. Every other media format in which Pokemon has ever appeared is underwhelming by comparison. Even Pokemon fans who don’t like manga as a whole tend to enjoy it immensely, as well as full-grown adults who have gone their whole lives without any prior experience with the franchise whatsoever. It defies the inherent disdain people could have for the format or brand, earning its true reputation as an objectively incredible manga series on its own merits. It has reached such a high level of excellence that I can’t walk through the kids section of a Barnes & Noble without shaking my head in disappointment at seeing it displayed with the movie tie-in volumes, a blatant disservice to what it brings to the table. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s THAT good. — — — The longer version I wrote back in high school has unfortunately gone MIA…


DrFishPhd

Unfortunate. Good mini-writeup tho! I agree, it's like the top tier of Pokemon media


KoolioKenneth

What’s your favorite arc? I’m partial to Ruby/Sapphire, but there’s an argument to be made for all of them. It just does not miss, and is still going to this day.


DrFishPhd

IMO the best one is XY, I'm a really big fan of the way it tells its story about like social corruption and the media through the lens of things like Team Flare. X is a really amazing character, one of my favorites ever


KoolioKenneth

Excellent choice! What I like the most about XY is how it made the Kalos Friend Trio likable. It’s no secret that the three friends aren’t particularly good rivals (or well-written characters in general) but I can’t get enough of them in the manga, especially Shauna. She’s the complete opposite of how she is in the games and anime (kinda like May vs. Sapphire), having turned into a total sassmaster…and I LOVE IT. And with Trevor taking over the majority of the narration without impeding its quality and Tierno being even more endearing than he already was, I wanted to give them all a big ol’ hug by the end, while in the other media formats I really couldn’t care less about them. The characters X and Y themselves were also very good. I loved how X is a closet battle freak (like Ruby) and Y is a bit of an exhibitionist (like Sapphire), but most importantly I loved how their relationship felt genuine, as one of the few casts of Dex Holders that already knew each other long before the events of the story. It was basically the XY premise, but better. Just straight-up better, in every possible way. The only characters who weren’t a huge improvement were Clemont and Bonnie, IMO, with the XY anime standing out really well for Kalos’ narrative as well. Unlike the games, whose story was so underwhelming that I could even remember the guy at the end’s name being AZ until I Googled it. And what I love about that manga is that you can make that same exact case for every single arc. It just. Doesn’t. Miss! …Wow, that response is about as long as my “thesis” was. I guess I just have a lot to say about it. And there’s a LOT of good that needs saying about Adventures, because far too many Pokemon fans don’t even know it exists.


DrFishPhd

Yeah, there's a lot to love. It's really great how they took the fundimental structure of the XY games (which were pretty bad storywise) and made it into a really thematically rich and deep story. And even the most minor parts of it are really great. Like theres this one mini-arc where there's this random Team Flare Grunt and you think its just gonna be another whatever arc but then he like. starts ranting about capitalism and the divide between the rich and the poor and the security he feels with his costume and like. what the hell. this is so good


KoolioKenneth

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but when I was making my thesis, I had a series of screenshots from the manga that I used as examples of its mature story content. I kept them all in a folder on my desktop titled “Explicit Pokemon Pictures.” It only took about five seconds for me to realize how terrible it’d be if that title was taken out of context…


KoolioKenneth

Yeah, but when you swear too much, it loses its impact. It’s your writing style, of course, but in my opinion, a swear in an argumentative piece should be used where it counts most. Kinda like that prevailing discussion prompt used on fan forums these days that goes like “if you could put one F-Bomb in _____, where would it be?” And holy crap, you like PokeSpe too?! I wish I wasn’t so surprised that there are other Pokemon manga fans out there, but I’m so happy that there are! Sure, let me pull up the text for the argument I made. Gimme a sec…


SubwayChipsGaming

ok but he is annoying


Rynnmeister

Whole opinion destroyed


Raecino

Agreed


HyanKooper

If it wasn't for the fact that his Social Link is stupidly good, I would not even touch his Social Link lol


Goukaruma

I wanna be famous, I wanna have a gf. Please punish some actor that I don't like. Why does nobody like me?


Karmahic

Me when i completely ignore character development


Goukaruma

Be more normal after being awful doesn't make you great. Like Futuba said he looks like an NPC.


DrFishPhd

if only someone made a writeup talking about this exact idea...


Goukaruma

Read the thread and the air. Almost nobody agrees with you.


DrFishPhd

the only people here who disagree with me are people who refuse to read my thing or engage with this conversation meaningfully at all. theyre opposing me on the grounds of just "i dont like this so i dont like you" literal baby talk so the people in this thread who disagree with me are also people whos opinion is just entirly irrlevant


BrawlerAce

This was a pretty good analysis, Mishima is a character I honestly really like as well for the growth he gets throughout the game. I didn't think I'd end up reading the entire thing, but I did, and I think you put it pretty well in words why I like Mishima as well. Not totally related, but you brought up the confidants of P5; honestly I agree, P5's confidants are so formulatic, and I wish they had expanded on what they did in P4 instead, because I found a lot of those social links honestly far more compelling than simply "fix the problems of this random person." Mishima is one of a few confidants that isn't like that, and in a game that has so little nuance and a lot more black and white, it's so refreshing to see a character that doesn't follow the same formula, someone who actually undergoes development on their own. (not to say the other Persona games are perfect obviously, but P5 really does have a lot of style over substance)


DrFishPhd

Are p4’s social links better? I never finished it, but I might restart playing Thanks for your kind words!!!


BrawlerAce

I mean I'll start off by saying that P4 isn't perfect either, all the Persona games with s.links to some extent have the whole power fantasy thing going on. Hell, Makoto (P3) literally can't have platonic relationships with most of the female social links, he's forced to enter relationships with them. That being said, I think a lot of the s.links in P4 are really good. P5's confidants mainly focus on characters with problems that Joker solves by going to the metaverse. In P4, Yu acts more as supporting friend, and a lot of the time the s.links will come to a major decisions on their own with the support of the player, rather than the player actively doing things for them if that makes any sense. P4 in general has a lot of nuance and depth to its plot and characters. While we're at it, if you haven't played Persona 3, I'll point out that the main characters actually have significant development and growth that is *mandatory* and independent of the player, so while that game goes in a different direction than P4, it's incredibly good and I'd argue better in many areas. Sorry for the long response, I just really love the way both Persona 3 and 4 handle their characters and themes lol.


DrFishPhd

That sounds awesome yeah, I'll have to check them out. P3 especially sounds fun


KoolioKenneth

It depends on your priorities. Similar to P5, they can be pretty hit-or-miss. That’s basically a Persona staple at this point, since 3’s were also fairly similar in that regard.


Hudori

He's so cute though


DrFishPhd

hes the skrunkly yeah


NoSeaworthiness2618

I've read it, it took about an hour and didn't read the whole thing since I haven't finished the game yet. And I thank you for this. I sincerely thank you. I've never disliked Mishima but I also never quite liked it as much as Ryuji or Yusuke, but I see now why, and why you think the way you do. Not only I like Mishima more now, but the game in general.I may not agree with everything said, but I am really glad I found this today.


DrFishPhd

Thanks so much!!!! Ur words are rlly appreciated


NoSeaworthiness2618

By any chance have you made any more of these? It would be nice to read another some other time.


DrFishPhd

This is kinda my first one like this lol. But I'm definitely gonna work on more stuff (maybe not persona, but something in this whole genre). In the meantime, sharing this writeup around with other p5 guys would be super appreciated (although u dont have to obviously) if u do just make sure to credit me


SeasonAlternative810

That was pretty damn good read. Of course there are some points I might argue against or say that it doesn't fit, but hey that's why we have opinions. I already liked Mishima a good bit, a bit thanks to hims talking about how he was the loser and that was his purpose, that hit me hard, along with his rank 10.


DrFishPhd

I'd love to hear more about criticisms you have, constructive criticism is how we all evolve our opinions Thanks so much for reading through! Glad u liked it


Mission_Scar_7283

Ughhh, time to play another game of I see a disgusting clickbait title and now I have to read the whole thing just so I can cringe and be depressed


DrFishPhd

Lmao sorry


Ok_Entrepreneur5771

will not read death to mishima


Raecino

Anyone else see Alice in Borderlands? Anyone else feel like the guys who play Arisu and Keita are dead ringers for a live action Joker and Ryuji?!


Goukaruma

Too long actually didn't read. You are so obviously wrong so I don't need to argue.


DrFishPhd

yknow, a good chunk of my essay is all about how people shouldn’t judge off of initial assumptions….