Kim's match reviews and pop culture emporium

this match is good but an odd viewing experience for a match still within the boom period. This match is really decided by a battle for control of distance Hotta is able to get a flurry off to start with but Chigusa answers back with a singular power that over the course of the match Hotta just can't match. the bodypart work portion comes mainly in the form of Chigusa targeting Hotta's legs and Hotta going after Chigusa's abdomen which is smart given Hotta is kind of the young powerhouse. the match eventually ends via a top rope wheel kick for the win by Chigusa. The inputs for this match are really fun but the clip in the middle makes me downgrade it to a flat 7/10 just cause of the inherent disconnect between pre and post clip.  I found myself asking a question that i would've thought ludicrous watching the 85-86 stuff am i kind of done with dump or more specifically has she terminally peaked and is there no where else for her to go. It feels odd cause the crowd is st...

We start off hot after a handshake followed by german suplex. Kai rolls to the outside immediately and when she reenters she gets blasted by a barrage of kicks by Chigusa. there's sneaky kick to chigusa's leg getting her off her feet and stopping the barrage. Kai attempts a northern lights variant holding onto the hands but fails and shoves Chigusa to the ground instead pivoting to working on Chigusa's legs. the nature of the matwork is multifaceted which is well executed but a part of me wishes Chigusa's bad knees had a bit more centrality. Kai pivots to the arm and body of chigusa as her main target with Chigusa targeting her arm in return. Chigusa's main target is Kai's head and the main dynamic of the match is Kai getting an edge on the mat but having to survive the explosive impact of Chigusa's kicks. eventually Kai resorts to using brass knuckles with both ladies ending up bleeding and Chigusa getting the pin. pre the use of the knucks this match was a...

 So the plan is to do a big block for all the social links leading up to the first arcana. Yes i know about the arcana cause i have vague memories of playing fes on emulator last decade sue me. but also i don't have preexisting thoughts on the characters cause it's been so long. First of all the disciplinary club member the vibes feel off in a lawful evil way like he kinda vibes like a character who has entirely too much faith in preexisting systems of rules but in a way that's compelling if i'm right with regards to his trajectory cause i think a lot east asian americans including myself when i was younger had a similar complex and it might to be interesting to see a self critical mirror into the way we put trust in systems cause we need what our parents told us to hold up to some degree like the text probably won't go there cause the specifics of the east asian american experience would not necessarily occur to a japanese dev team.  Now i move onto the beginnings ...

Straight off the block this block is too many damn floors plus a bit overtutorialized. I've been struggling to voice why i find the combat of atlus games so satisfying in contrast to trails. I think the way persona utilizes weaknesses hits a pokemon nerve that i didn't realize actively still mattered to me until this playthrough though I do appreciate the initiative design after in trails after starting rogue trader(ponders getting a switch.) onto the characters first of all Kazushi up until the very end of rank two i was betting on this being about interpersonal dynamics between athletes. The pivot into a story about injury and the way boys are presumably socialized to deal with pain under toxic masculinity has me hyped. Yuko might be a frustrating one for me but I think if she is it would be because of the expectations that come with one of the only non white passing characters in the cast afaik. my mind did also go to that interview between Aja Kong and Darius lockhart on be...

I'm finding this match at a weird moment in my joshi viewing life. I'll be honest the match dissolves into brawling and fighting over the scissors so often it's a match that's hard to write about in a structured fashion. If the match is defined by something strategically it's which side can isolate the others weakest member in the form of Condor or Mika Suzuki respectively. It's always fun to see crush girls vs dump even if i was battling a bit of personal cynicsim in terms of there being any followup of note just cause of how far the feud has already gone. It was fun seeing Omori and dump interact as one of very few faces on the roster who could straight up outmuscle dump which was fun to see. on the whole 7.5/10

First defense for Uno and Hotta as far as what we have on the set. The challengers start off hot with jumping spin kicks to the back leading to multiple irish whips into the rails at ringside. The body of the first fall is mostly based around the challenger's targeting Uno's previously bad knee viciously. The champions counter mostly via Hotta's size. The finish comes via top rope tombstone. The second fall is a great mirror of the first with the champion's establishing a foothold with Hotta's strikes and eventually begin targeting Ogura's leg. The finish comes via top rope gutbuster. The third fall  breaks down quickly. If there is a throughline it's the challengers isolating hotta and eventually piling on enough damage for the win. Really fun interesting how the internal dynamics for Ogura and Nagahori have shifted especially in that first fall feels like Ogura's trying to find herself a bit. 7.9/10