Stabby Samurai Friendship

Welcome to The Pickle and Daweeb Show, where we redefine “random” and “news” with irreverent abandon. And, oh boy, do we have some random news for you. Let’s dig into some stabby samurai friendship.

Space Samurai Proves Star Wars is Space Samurai

It’s no secret that George Lucas borrowed heavily from Japanese cinema and samurai movies when creating Star Wars. Lightsabre-katanas, smuggler-ronin, and Darth Vader’s helmet are all the proof we need, but here’s more. The Jedi way is bushido, and Jar Jar Binks is basically an annoying yuru kyara. Irrefutable proof!

The circle is now complete with Star Wars Visions, Disney’s series of one-shot episodes animated by different Japanese anime production houses.

Of the three episodes we’ve seen so far, the first one, The Duel, animated by Kamikaze Douga, was by far the best. Is it any surprise that the strong samurai links and rotoscoping made this a winner over the lame Tatooine Rhapsody that follows it? Pickle?

Totally agree. Give me space samurai or give me death. Actually, just give me space samurai.

Are pickles technically immortal?

Technically!? We’re basically zombified veggies.

Bill Gets Your Social Anxiety

Here’s something filed under “random things we stumbled on as we wondered the wonderful Internet”. Here’s Bill Fisher singing “People Should be Friendly”. I honestly thought this was a song about lockdown but it turns out that social anxiety is universal. Contains swears, but you’re an adult, right?

Sharp Things and Samurai Manga

Back to samurai. Humble Bundle has a manga collection featuring Lone Wolf and Cub and Lady Snowblood. It’s unfortunate that HB doesn’t offer print bundles too, but for the money and a good cause, this is a huge collection of virtual sharp objects well worth grabbing for your personal library.

You have a collection of sharp objects?

Katanas are sharp.

I’ll bet yours are made in China.

Pokemon TGC Shoots Stars (We Assume Pikachu Killed a Celeb)

The Pokémon Company International is releasing a new set for their popular trading card game (TCG). Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars will release in February 2022, on the 25th.

A new expansion means new, exciting mechanics. The set will feature Pokémon VSTAR, which evolve from Pokémon V and have their own, single use, VSTAR power.

Sounds like a boss fight to me.

Yeah, they have high HP and stronger attacks. There are only three of them in the set though.

Card crack!

Indeed. Read more on ICv2.

Tomb Raider RPG Won’t Let You Play with Lara

So, you know how there’s a tabletop roleplaying game for every great IP these days?

Yes, like the Lupin the Third and Cowboy Bebop TTRPGs we recently covered?

Exactly. So now Lara Croft is getting her turn. But here’s the kicker; you play her assistants. It makes sense for a TTRPG, where you have more than one player, that someone’s playing the lackey. But I’d feel short-changed if I bought the game and couldn’t play Lara.

You just want to do naughty things with the camera! And you know it’s a tabletop game, right?

But who cares about the red shirts? Tell me the name of any one of her assistants, in any of the games. Go on, I bet you can’t. Anyway, you can find out more about the game on Square Enix’s Tomb Raider 25th anniversary celebration page.

Fullmetal Alchemist and Final Fantasy go Analogue

Yay, actual anime news!

Well, sort of. Fullmetal Alchemist is getting a board game entitled Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: The Promised Day. If all goes well, that’ll see a release in April of next year.

More news from Square Enix is that Final Fantasy will get a TCG called Final Fantasy TCG: Opus 16. That has a tentative release date of March 25th, 2022.

Is there a Final Fantasy TTRPG yet?

Yeah, I believe it’s called Dungeons & Dragons.