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The Shark House - Chapter 7 - Cat's Eye

Popuri started her 2nd shift at Quarter Brothers and immediately she was inundated with requests to play with all the customers prompting Dawn to step in and break up the crowd.
Later on lunch break, Dawn was able to talk properly to Poppy.
"Popuri Meadows, daughter of former Gracies model Michelle Meadows, half Canadian, half American, has represented Canada as a marathon runner at both the Rio and Tokyo games finishing top ten in both, you hold the record for youngest olympic marathon runner. So what is a marathon runner doing in a place like this?" Dawn's research had been thorough, when Popuri could finally talk she explained her debt problems and how much she owes in University tuition fees.
"Yikes, no wonder you ended up in the Shark House, well I can make this easier for you" Dawn pushed forward a card for her gaming team "Polygon Express" asking her to join her pro team, Popuri says she'll think about it with Dawn saying she'll need an answer before the first major in March.
After lunch, the subject came up about Poppy's eyes.
Popuri at the age of four once got lost at the cat shelter during the night, she was scared and didn't know where the house was, she was pounced on by one of the elder cats and batted in the face, she doesn't remember much after as she found herself in front of the house when she woke up, from there her stamina and reactions were significantly higher than before, in fact it wasn't until she stood up to a high school bully that she realised her blue eyes changed colour, almost like activating a superpower. Popuri then asked how Dawn got her yellow eyes?
"I had major eye surgery when I was a child, had to replace both eyes, it saved my vision but the side effect of the donor eyes gave me this unique ability to heighten my senses when under pressure, I found out later that the eyes I have were completely bionic, I still need glasses to adjust my vision like adjusting a camera lense" Popuri was fascinated by Dawn's story and even felt a bit of a kin ship with her, Popuri agreed to join Polygon Express on the condition that it doesn't interfere with her part time jobs.
"Trust me Poppy, you'll be out of Shark House by Christmas"

The Shark House - Chapter 6 - The Undying Golden Girl

The arena at Quarter Bros was shining like a Coachella concert, Smash Zone existed as an arena fighter where home made avatars battle in the arena using a headset to control the characters, the blonde woman revealed to be Firestorm, a pro gamer had sent in her character, a swordswoman shining with a gold aura wielding a large sword sparking off fire, Popuri having never played the game was scrambling to make a character settling for a basic design resembling her real life build.
"Has she really never played this game? She aced Witch Hunt without trouble yet, that build is something a ten year old would make" the blonde girl confused as to how someone with such inhuman reactions could look so amateur.
Poppy was ready to go and the match began, Firestorm attacked but Poppy avoided the attacks, it took several attempts to even get a strike on her when Firestorm finally forced her back with her sword.
"Now it makes sense, this system picks up on athletic ability during the character build, she has good evasion and decent speed, she's also working out the game as she's playing, see if I can push her buttons" Firestorm immediately split her character into several clones and launched a storm of fire surrounding Poppy, Poppy's character finally got a lightning punch in which does heavy damage, Firestorm's body just glows more golden in response; in one slice of her brilliant sword she unleashed a shower of rose petals which all ignited and exploded which finally scored a heavy hit on Popuri.
Popuri struck Firestorm in several places but each time Firestorm glowed a more intense gold.
"She's so fast but she has no clue how I operate, guess I overestimated her ability" Firestorm prepared her sword with a large wave of fire and unleashed her attack on Popuri with one impressive swipe of her Golden Blade leading to an explosion of fire, when the dust settled Firestorm found that Popuri had catched her sword, Popuri's eyes opened and they were glowing yellow like a ferocious tiger. Popuri then thunder punched Firestorm so hard, she almost ringed out.
"Her eyes, so that's her secret, now it's fun!" Firestorm shined perfect gold as her eyes turned yellow like Popuri's, Popuri was shocked to see someone else with yellow eyes both characters disappeared into an epic speed battle neither one wanting to yield, the crowd were in awe of the battle and even the system was finding it hard to keep up with the two fighters.
"What's your name cat eyes?" Firestorm asked.
"Popuri Meadows" Poppy replied.
"The Olympic Marathon runner from Stardust Meadows, that gift of yours is powerful, I'm Dawn Shriners" Dawn spoke as both characters were KO'd, the crowd cheered the battle as they both got out the booth.
Dawn enthusiastically throws up Popuri's arm in triumph.
Popuri was exhausted, it was only her first day.

Defeat Script - Say What You Want, Famous Games are Usually Fun

This anime gave me so much to talk about right from the start as we look at Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki episode 1 - Say What You Want, Famous Games are Usually Fun.

Tomozaki is the best player in Japan of the game Attack Families of whom he refers to as a god tier game, upon playing against classmate Shuji, he beats him pretty easily, a frustrated Shuji blames the game for his failure which Tomozaki scolds him for, most of the first half of the episode has Tomozaki calling real life a trash tier game as he monologues how his classmates were given the best builds to begin with while he's stuck in the bottom tier with his social bankruptcy.
The only person he thinks might understand is the second best player in Japan, dubbed no name on the leaderboard next to Tomozaki's name Nanashi, when No Name wants to meet up, Tomozaki is shocked to find out that not only is No Name a girl but is Aoi Hinami from his class, someone who excels at everything.
Hinami feels cheated that Nanashi is Tomozaki, the two fight as Tomozaki calls out Hinami for having perfect stats for real life while bemoaning his own stats but Hinami calls Tomozaki out for blaming the game of life for his failure, essentially calling him a hypocrite seeing as he used the same quote on Shuji.
Not wanting to feel shame, Tomozaki reluctantly agrees to let Hinami teach him the game of life, at her house she immediately proves her point by taking off her make up and switching to lounge wear, she shows Tomozaki the basics of playing the game that it requires commitment and effort starting with character presentation, she even makes Tomozaki wear a mask so he could practise smiling without freaking people out.
The following day in school Hinami sets out the goal for Tomozaki saying he's got to date a girl successfully by the end of high school, the opening theme plays revealing that the anime is going to be a harem.
Four takeaways from this episode.
1. Attack Families is an expy of Smash Bros with the Family part referring to Nintendo's Nes and Snes being called the Famicom and Super Famicom, Famicom being short for Family Computer.
2. Nanashi also translates to No Name so both Hinami and Tomozaki use the same name.
3. Hinami has kinda missed the point.
To start with, she thinks that Nanashi is someone who has the effort to make anything happen, considering she can't beat him no matter what she tries, anyone who has been best in the world at any video game knows full well that the person at the top is there because of the amount of effort he puts into the game, the life they lead outside is never going to have the same dynamic and Hinami's mind set comes across as being selfish.
4. The fact that this is a harem just robs this anime of any dignity because you know that Tomozaki is never going to earn his position regardless of what he's meant to learn.

Next time on Victory Script
Sailor Moon

Victory Script - February 13: Heart and Body

Been a while since I've done one of these episode reviews as we cover Hidamari Sketch Episode 5 - February 13: Heart and Body.

Yuno awakens to find she is not feeling well, she's running a high fever and her friends suggest she stays at her apartment instead of school, what begins is a sequence of dreams where Yuno finds herself doing chores at the school in her teacher's cosplay dress, the first sequence broken up when Miyako changes Yuno's clothes and towel.
The second dream sequence starts in a factory as her temperature starts improving where she walks down familiar places she normally goes, she's awakened by her cellphone where her friends ask how she is and ask about Valentine's day, when she starts moving around to grab a drink, she gets baffled over the rabbit made from an apple next to her table.
Yuno's friends discover their art teacher in the nurse's office as Ms Yoshinoya laments having to work with a mild cold.
Yuno falls asleep remembering her mother taking care of her as Yuno's friends deliver medicine to her and cook for her.
Yuno explains her dreams as her friends tell the story of Yoshinoya, Miyako even doing a dead on impression of the principal, the girls discuss Valentine's day but Yuno says she's normally sick so often misses the day.
After Yuno returns to sleep her friends each check on her one more time, the episode ends with Yuno eating before a brief state of awakeness before sleeping.
Three takeaways from this episode.
1. The style of animation gets to shine here as a mixture of rough animation and frequent photography really makes Hidamari Sketch a unique work of art much like the premise of being an art school.
2. Ms Yoshinoya is very relatable as the amount of times I power through colds and still work is too many to count, I've had three sick days in my near 20 year working career and one of those was for collapsing at my desk, the other was two days off to a bad infection that needed antibiotics.
3. When you are ill and run down, Yuno's dreams are very much what it's like when you are trying to sleep whether you can or not.

Next time on Victory Script
Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki

The Shark House - Chapter 5 - Quarter Bros Arcade

Bayside has a unique history in that it's addicted to competition, everything from the arcades to the rampant speed races on the surrounding highways, Bayside will always find something worth competing for, Popuri arrived at the Quarter Bros Arcade expecting to see the quirky little arcade from her youth, now it's a multi-story technology park run by pro gamers and influencers, a little intimidated by the loud noises and constant flashing lights, Popuri went to the staff area to prepare for her first shift, her only job is to assist tech support and make sure customer pay cards are working properly and maybe give out the occasional prize.
When Popuri finally got on her break, she looked through her bag to find her original Quarter Bros Arcade ID but it looked so tattered she had to go get it changed, luckily another Shark House resident worked here, his name was Freddy and he worked technical support.
"Sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you Poppy, I was busy with team drafts this month so I've had to work late" Freddy looked as scruffy as Quint except Quint grew up in the 70s, Freddy looked like he barely tries.
"Thankfully your fingerprint still works, everything is on your new card, give it a try on a game" Freddy handed back Poppy's card.
Popuri looked for a game and found one she used to play, booting up her card, her username "Popful Kitty" appeared and quickly got started, she was playing an old bullet hell shoot-em-up called Witch Hunt, as she played, all her memories of the game came back as the movement of the joystick got faster and faster with each stage, her performance was starting to attract attention from nearby gamers, some were whispering loudly, many pointing out that Poppy hadn't been hit by a single bullet.
A blonde woman not much older than Popuri in a black long coat and sunglasses was also taking notice.
"I never seen anyone no hit clear Witch Hunt before, hey helpdesk, what's her username?" The blonde woman startled Freddy who was in awe of Poppy's skills.
"Um, Popful Kitty, she hasn't played in 18 years but her records are incredible, I've only ever seen Razzmatazz with such high score history" Freddy went deeper into Poppy's history.
The crowd cheered when Poppy cleared the game and nailed the best score by a country mile.
The blonde woman walked up to Poppy and declared "I challenge you to a Smash Zone Battle"
Popuri startled by the request.
"I should probably get back to work my break is over" Popuri was about to leave when the main stage lit up with Popful Kitty vs Firestorm.
"Looks like the boss approves, I'll give you a few minutes to set up your fighter" The blonde woman walked over to her booth.
Popuri baffled by how fast things were going struggled to understand the situation but since the boss approved it, she must go through with it.