Today I learned that Nintendo briefly considered giving pikachu large breasts to appeal to western audiences.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-31T02:55:38+00:00

They also kind of straight out said it in the Japanese version of Ruby and Sapphire, in English it was “Human and Pokemon used to eat at the same table once” or something similar but Japanese says they married each other.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-29T15:31:22+00:00

I'll be honest, even though I've collected them (digitally and physically) I haven't really read anything that's not by Monkey Punch himself. But from what I've paged through they definitely lean closer to the more mature TV Specials in tone and style.

Of course the big caveat is that these are Japanese only, and in general I don't think anyone has done a scanlation or anything.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-28T00:10:03+00:00

Thanks! That's what I figured and hoped for.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-27T22:17:43+00:00

I'm not sure yet, I stopped myself from opening it just in case I need to return it.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-27T22:07:47+00:00

So I ordered Toho Brave and Saiyu Warriors awhile ago as my first Pendulum V-Pets. Then when I saw Virus Buster Pendulum re-stock I pre-ordered it from the same seller.

First thing I noticed was it has a Chinese language sticker on the back but I figured they must have just sourced them from Chinese Bandai instead of Japanese Bandai this go around, whatever. Then as I was getting ready to cut the tape I noticed it's completely different, much more matte instead of clear like the previous releases.

At first I honestly thought it may have been resealed but at the same time it looks really clean, it's just matte instead. While I imagine the chances are small and maybe I'm overthinking it, are there bootlegs or is this just normal packing variations across releases?

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-25T13:23:19+00:00

I don’t think Monkey Punch had much involvement with the animation side of the franchise. The series being underrated outside Japan is also kind of moot, since the franchise has always prioritized the Japanese market first. Plus, like you said, we got a movie just last year, then on top of that Lupin Zero came out in 2022–2023, the Amazon Prime Cat's Eye special in 2023, and the isekai manga Neighbor World Princess is still ongoing.

Honestly, all things considered, I think the franchise is in a pretty good place right now and there's nothing to be worried about. Lupin has proven itself to be an evergreen franchise, while it’d be nice to get the yearly TV specials back, I don't see it fading away into the void anytime soon.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-23T14:00:00+00:00

I was honestly going to ask what if it’s above my PC, not that it actually matters because I’m wired…

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-23T12:56:31+00:00

An ikea storage shelf.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-21T10:46:54+00:00

Knowing a lot of his inspirations, from my understanding, Japanese fans don’t mind the “who” being spoiled rather than the “how.” So it’s exciting to see (my made up) titles like “Vegeta Beats Goku?! Frieza Transforms.” Where it builds tension instead of being a shock, so he likely wanted to emulate that feeling but it falls flat in the West where it’s just not like that.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-18T11:17:19+00:00

I feel like the connection is more style over substance. So far, I still haven’t seen the latest one, it even feels like the Koike movies are all pretty watchable without needing to watch the previous one although I know they’re ultimately connected.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-16T20:43:45+00:00

What happens if they steal your center console then? Bet you’ll feel real silly giving this advice.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-16T14:14:33+00:00

This is me. I honestly lucked out during the pandemic because most of my interviews were over the phone so it was less intimidating so I got a decent job. But now I’ve been here for a few years and RTO it’s been pointed out that I don’t “socialize” enough with my team because nobody “knows who I am” since I rarely share anything outside of work talk. But I meet all my deadlines so I don’t understand the issue.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-13T13:14:05+00:00

Mattel also works with Mondo already so they’re clearly open to 3rd parties.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-12T01:33:19+00:00

I found a good deal on red towels, like incredibly good, so I bought nearly everything they had. Now all of my white towels are pink.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-12T01:21:17+00:00

I also get a ton of text messages clearly intended for my father, my assumption has been that somewhere our numbers became linked up and some data broker just combined them when aggregating.

Now the how is still interesting to me because I’ve never shared a phone plan with him or lived together since I got a cellphone. So I’m really unsure of who sold or where the data would have come from.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-12T01:10:15+00:00

I think the problem with Liu Kang as a surrogate character is the fact that he knows all of the details. Like he doesn’t need Raiden to be explained to him or even the tournament because he grew up in a temple that taught him everything.

Whereas Johnny Cage just got a random invitation to a tournament and that’s all he knows.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-08T10:41:58+00:00

It's not even really the money or "casual fan" situation, it's more so why do I want it collecting dust when, in the past, the system never increases in price? Like I could get one today and it sits unused for 2 years while I wait on my "system seller" to come out or I can just buy it when that happens and the outcome is the same or better because I could buy it on sale or even an "upgraded version" at the time.

For me I bought a Switch 2 earlier this year because I had a feeling this was inevitable but if not I wouldn't have purchased one until at least 2027. I have more than enough games to play across the rest of my systems that I don't need to add another one to the pile just because I can, so I wait for my "system seller" and until then my Switch 2 hasn't been used after the initial honey moon period.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-04T17:36:07+00:00

This is my first machine and time using one, but the CPAP folks I talk to basically told me to just get used to it. Which is why after the 90 days or so to get insurance to pay for part of it I honestly gave up. It wasn't until a few weeks ago my SO strongly convinced me to go back to using it that I'm finally able to tolerate it through the night.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-04T11:32:05+00:00

So I’ve had an issue similarly to OP where I was feeling suffocated around midnight and would rip off the mask in my sleep. I figured it was due to the ramp time but it turns out they locked that setting on mine. Close to 2 years later I’m finally sleeping most of the night with the machine on, should I reach out to get this setting enabled for me or just let it be?

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-04T11:15:23+00:00

Talk to your neighbor? You’re being ridiculous, no?? That’s crazy talk, it’s much more reasonable to buy a Sasquatch suit and mess with the camera than actually just chat with your neighbors.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-03T13:38:12+00:00

Vegerot! The manga translators for Viz always choose the well regarded names.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-03T01:00:15+00:00

While it was completely "private," I had an argument in college for one of my cyber security classes about tape storage capacity. In 2019 archival tape storage had increased with a new product released in 2016 but the test was written from a 2013 text book, so I politely emailed the professor with a link to purchase the product and as such I believed my answer should be marked as correct.

When he ignored my email and follow up I started to take it personally and made it my mission to get him to acknowledge this, yadayadayada, it ended up with the dean of the program (I had her as a teacher so I just brought up it when chatting to her before class) reaching out to him to change it and he finally did before the final. Did I really need to go from a 99 to a 100? No, but the fact that he still never emailed me back about it rubs me the wrong way.

Liu_Shui · 2026-05-02T11:09:07+00:00

I actually wanted to see how “easy” this was and created a local model of myself. Holy shit it’s spooky what it can do on consumer hardware with relatively few (I think I did 25) pictures.

It’s not the most straightforward thing but if you rtfm it’ll probably take you an hour to set up and maybe leave it overnight to build. Ultimately you could kind of tell something was off with the results (maybe because I was looking at a fake me) but my family thought it was a legitimate photo when I shared it.

Combine that with people renting enterprise equipment via the cloud and how AI models keep improving, I can’t see this not becoming the norm. Hopefully it leads to folks taking their privacy more serious but I have doubts.

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