- Partners
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So, apologies for the late Catnip review, but now the cat has been nipped, here are my thoughts!
Firstly, I really like the set-up of this story. The descriptions of the different convenience store items, as well as the random customers that come into the store and Nami’s actions throughout the story, make this feel like a real, lived-in setting. It’s not just any convenience store either, the mentions of the frosted biscuit sticks and the claw machine gives it a lot of flavour as a Japanese-style konbini.
It is kind of funny that the camera POVs overlooking the gas pumps and the focus on specific cars gives it more of a grimy, dusty Americana backdrop. It’s not a knock against it since Pokemon settings often feel like a chimera of Japanese and American influences, just something I noticed.
It’s been a while since I last worked in retail, but of course, Nami is a very relatable character, caught up in the doldrums of running an empty store, and abusing her power in a way that gives her enough flaws while not turning me off from her perspective entirely. I mean, if I had some shadow Pokemon able to summon portals at my beck and call, I would totally use it to sneak some chips from behind the counter. But she also has her kind moments like using the portals to give the teenager trainer the claw machine toy, much to the Teddiursa’s befuddlement (they were adorable by the way!).
I feel her perspective grounds the story while not detracting from the detached POV of the security cameras, as well as adding to the intrigue and alienation when the supernatural stuff rears its head, especially the further it gets to its ending. Having this story told through timestamps and security camera footage is a novel approach and is mostly done really well, especially since it plants the idea in the reader’s head that we’re looking through this footage together along with the unidentified narrator and are left to our own devices to piece the story together.
I do admit that I don’t entirely understand what happened even after two reading sessions, but I don’t think that’s the story’s issue. If anything, that makes it a bit more memorable and gives me a lot more to chew on as opposed to having all the answers. Having said that, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the story and the sense of immersion more than the plot and characters itself.
I hope I’m not too off base, but my interpretation of the events is that there’s some sort of power play going on between Dialga, Palkia, disguised in human forms, and Giratina. I can’t tell whether Nami is the human form of Giratina or if Giratina is just dicking around with some random human, but considering they all disappear at the end, it feels like the story was just Giratina hanging around in Eterna City in some gas station for a while before getting escorted back with Dialga and Palkia, presumably to stop causing chaos and attracting unwanted attention from the police.
Feel free to correct me if you wrote the story with a complete answer in mind, or don’t if you want to keep it opaque. I didn’t want to read anyone else’s reviews since I wanted to make my own mind up about this story.
My only minor gripe is the story’s overuse of adverbs, like ‘hastily’, ‘puzzlingly’ and ‘accusingly’. Although the narrative device is cold and detached, you were able to get a lot of personality out of it by focusing on what’s unsaid (fittingly because of the title) rather than what’s stated in dialogue. That made the instances of repetitive language stick out more in certain segments, particularly in one paragraph where ‘hastily’ appeared more than a few times.
Other than that, I really don’t have much else to say. I enjoyed reading and re-reading this and it will probably linger in my head long after this review. Thanks for the story!
Firstly, I really like the set-up of this story. The descriptions of the different convenience store items, as well as the random customers that come into the store and Nami’s actions throughout the story, make this feel like a real, lived-in setting. It’s not just any convenience store either, the mentions of the frosted biscuit sticks and the claw machine gives it a lot of flavour as a Japanese-style konbini.
It is kind of funny that the camera POVs overlooking the gas pumps and the focus on specific cars gives it more of a grimy, dusty Americana backdrop. It’s not a knock against it since Pokemon settings often feel like a chimera of Japanese and American influences, just something I noticed.
It’s been a while since I last worked in retail, but of course, Nami is a very relatable character, caught up in the doldrums of running an empty store, and abusing her power in a way that gives her enough flaws while not turning me off from her perspective entirely. I mean, if I had some shadow Pokemon able to summon portals at my beck and call, I would totally use it to sneak some chips from behind the counter. But she also has her kind moments like using the portals to give the teenager trainer the claw machine toy, much to the Teddiursa’s befuddlement (they were adorable by the way!).
I feel her perspective grounds the story while not detracting from the detached POV of the security cameras, as well as adding to the intrigue and alienation when the supernatural stuff rears its head, especially the further it gets to its ending. Having this story told through timestamps and security camera footage is a novel approach and is mostly done really well, especially since it plants the idea in the reader’s head that we’re looking through this footage together along with the unidentified narrator and are left to our own devices to piece the story together.
I do admit that I don’t entirely understand what happened even after two reading sessions, but I don’t think that’s the story’s issue. If anything, that makes it a bit more memorable and gives me a lot more to chew on as opposed to having all the answers. Having said that, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the story and the sense of immersion more than the plot and characters itself.
I hope I’m not too off base, but my interpretation of the events is that there’s some sort of power play going on between Dialga, Palkia, disguised in human forms, and Giratina. I can’t tell whether Nami is the human form of Giratina or if Giratina is just dicking around with some random human, but considering they all disappear at the end, it feels like the story was just Giratina hanging around in Eterna City in some gas station for a while before getting escorted back with Dialga and Palkia, presumably to stop causing chaos and attracting unwanted attention from the police.
Feel free to correct me if you wrote the story with a complete answer in mind, or don’t if you want to keep it opaque. I didn’t want to read anyone else’s reviews since I wanted to make my own mind up about this story.
My only minor gripe is the story’s overuse of adverbs, like ‘hastily’, ‘puzzlingly’ and ‘accusingly’. Although the narrative device is cold and detached, you were able to get a lot of personality out of it by focusing on what’s unsaid (fittingly because of the title) rather than what’s stated in dialogue. That made the instances of repetitive language stick out more in certain segments, particularly in one paragraph where ‘hastily’ appeared more than a few times.
Other than that, I really don’t have much else to say. I enjoyed reading and re-reading this and it will probably linger in my head long after this review. Thanks for the story!