Title: To be a Master
Author: Red Flag
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure / drama
Status: In-Progress
Words: around 350k
Summary:
Link: spacebattles

Credit goes to @EsperJones for mentioning this quest in this post here.

Your Name is a movie that came out in 2016 in which a boy and girl, who live in different cities find themselves switching bodies for some reason from time to time, where they then have to live the day of the other until it's time to sleep again, when they are back in their own bodies. They communicate by leaving messages for the other, summing up what happened and what they did. It's without a doubt, one of the better movies of recent years, so while you certainly don't absolutely need to have seen the movie first to enjoy this story, as it does explain the mechanics and explore its characters well enough on its own, it's nonetheless one of the must-see movies and this will spoil it for you, to a degree at least.

So, if you haven't seen it, do so.

Now back to the quest. Two trainers in two different regions both start their pokemon journeys, and those two are Taki and Mitsuha. The quest is basically a fusion, with the characters and their families of the movie set inside the pokemon world, with the same thing happening. Mitsuha takes her exam and starts her journey with her starter Turtwig but after she goes to sleep, she suddenly finds herself in the body of Taki, at the day where he was going to do his exam as well.

This goes on as they collect badges and come into contact with a criminal plot or two and meet interesting characters.

It's a really fun and charming pokemon story. The quest aspects are neat and while it is a bit too mechanical for me to truly get invested into the details, I still enjoy reading this as I would any other story. The pokemon teams they build are pretty good choices, the battles are fun and engaging and the character interaction is compelling. Arguably, the pokemon themselves are a bit shallow for the most part and there isn't much to their personalities, but it still works.

Overall, it's a really fun pokemon adventure and the Your Name gimmick really works for this. Was charmed from beginning to end and it made me want to delve into pokemon again. The main characters are true to their movie selves and really fun to follow, their interactions are charming, both with each other through the messages they leave behind and with others and the way they view the world and tackle each others problems with their different personalities is just a delight.

Spoiler: Your Name Spoiler

I don't know if the big twist of the movie applies to the story, haven't read the discussions but it seems to me that it both, could and could not so not sure yet. Still, it makes for an interesting element, imo, something that you will lose if you read this quest without having seen the movie.

So, if you're up for a fun pokemon story, this is worth your time. This is still getting regular updates, as far as I can tell and seems to have a pretty active following, if you're interested in the discussing and team building part.

4.5/5