Alternate Universe: She's One of a Kind, Kine ~ Pages 90 - 100
Oy, this story... this one was a long time coming due to general
disinterest. Not because of the story itself, but because of the
contents within and that I'd have to redraw them. That's right, I'm
talking about none other than... a Pokemon Battle. If you recall Royally Screwed(that's the Nidoqueen debut story with the Dream Land Tourney), I
stalled a bit between updates for that one, too. Thing is, I hate
drawing Pokemon battles. I don't even like Pokemon battles in the games,
and they're mildly amusing in the anime, especially knowing I wasn't
the unfortunate soul who had to animate them. Pokemon are so much more
fun to draw when they're just living life.
Additionally, I'm not keen on drawing Pokemon I don't feel like drawing just for the sake of variety and story, especially when they're large and have too many parts. It was easier the first time around because I could get away with drawing by memory, and only two of us ever really saw the comic so who cared about being way off model? These days? Not so much and there's no excuse with image searches. Ugh. This story alone took years to complete, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that this is the last Pokemon battle in the entire collection, and eventually I powered through it. If it's any consolation, some of the art here is pretty neat.
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Also worth mentioning, in case you haven't noticed, this comic is done digitally instead of with pencils and inks on paper. I'm experimenting here, but I may switch it up between digital and paper after this story.
For the record, Kine's physically strongest Pokemon are Nidoqueen, Miltank, Nidorino, Nidorina and the seldom seen Lapras, with Nidorina sitting on the bottom end and Lapras at the top for obvious reasons. However, whereas Nidorino and Miltank are about brute force and throwing their weight around, Nidorina and Nidoqueen are tactical fighters.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first use of "Nido-san". It didn't mean anything yet. Heh, it doesn't mean anything now.
I love it when Nidorina is scaled next to anyone taller than she is. I dunno, it makes her appear cuter when you realize she only looks tall next to a bunch of kids and ball shaped aliens. Also, trivia time: In the original, Nidorina pauses Hitmonchan to use Lovely Kiss to OHKO him, considering that Lovely Kiss (or Demon's Kiss in Japan) is a move that actually faints the user (based on it's "realistic" effect, not the in-game work around). It goes along with Nidorina's usual method of charming her way up the ladder to save time and energy.
When sketching out the thumbnail draft, I had her holding her hand out to stop Hitmonchan like you see here, and while I was ready to proceed as usual, I noticed that she was in the prime position to blast out a Blizzard attack. The pose really lended itself to the action (or inaction in Nidorina's nonchalance), so the new method of Hitmonchan's surprise KO wrote, or rather, drew itself.
