It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for Crossroads Comics!

This week we’re taking a look at Champion’s Mercy. This comic is a Pokémon Moon Gijinka Nuzlocke, and y’all all know how much I love gijinkas. It follows the Brave and Strong Willed Rowlet Gijinka, Axel, as he journeys through the Alola Region to take on their trials. He meets many other characters along with the way including Jasper the Gastly and Okalani the Popplio, some of which join his team as they further their journey through the various trials. But what at first seems like a simple trial is so much more, as a mysterious Minior gijinka named Lulu has a lot more to their story than one might initially think.
There’s a lot to this comic that I really like. The first main thing is the character designs. One item that can make or break a gijinka comic is how strong the character designs are. How easy is it to tell what Pokémon the gijinka is? Every artist also designs their gijinkas differently so it’s always really interesting to see how different artists interpret Pokémon designs. Some like to emphasize the animalistic traits, others do it solely through clothing, etc. Spacesriot, the author, does a bit of everything and blends it all together really well into some unique and creative designs. One thing that I really like that we’re starting to see as characters evolve as that the animalistic traits become more visible as they grow. Both Axel and Okalani didn’t have many (if any) animalistic traits to them in their first stages, but they appear to have more as they grow. Axel, for example, gets more feathery ears after evolving and Okalani’s ears become bigger and she grows a tail. It’s a very neat touch that we don’t see with every species (like the Rattata and Meowth lines already have very visible animalistic features) but I like the concept behind it and I think it’s a really creative way to design gijinkas.
I especially love Jasper’s design too, since as more recent updates have revealed, one of the core aspects of his design actually plays into the structure of the world itself. It was a really neat way to explain how magic works in this particular world and I really like that! It shows a great understanding of your world itself as well as great forethought on the part of the author to be able to plan out living examples of how magic interacts with the world, both the good and the bad. So I absolutely love that Spacesriot pulled this off so well because Jasper’s design and the story behind it are both great. And there’s more examples of these really great designs in some of the other characters that show up later but I don’t want to spoil too many so you’ll just have to take more word for it. The incorporation of Pokémon’s designs into the character’s clothing choices, skin tones, and more are just very well done and easily one of my favorite aspects of the comic.
The other main things are the worldbuilding and the story. We’ve gotten bits and pieces of it so far and how it plays into the overall story and I am loving it. I won’t go into too much detail here because it is spoilers for the comic as a whole, but just understand that the way everything is setting up, especially at the end of Chapter 1 and during Chapter 2 thus far, it makes me excited for what’s to comic. It’s a really unique and interesting take on Pokémon Moon’s lore and pre-existing worldbuilding. It also puts a large emphasis on evolution and how magic plays into that, which isn’t something you see in a lot of comics. I like it when stories based on video games put a real emphasis on the mechanics itself, so that stuff like evolution is more than just a quick power-up. It shapes the characters and the world around them, thus moving the story forward. That’s one of those things that I really like about Champion’s Mercy. It’s got very creative designs, storytelling, and worldbuilding, all of which blend together into a really enjoyable experience.
As previously mentioned, Champion’s Mercy is authored by Spacesriot. You can find their content on Twitter, ComicFury, Deviantart, and Instagram. You can also learn more about them on their Carrd. So be sure to support them in any of these places! You can also read Champion’s Mercy on ComicFury and Deviantart.
And without further ado, be sure to check out the rest of this week’s comic lineup!
Crossroads Comics
PMD: Lotus Items! Items! Items!
PMD: Rangers of Sky All this worldbuilding is delicious.
Pokémon: Shadow of the Sun How’s he going to handle this?
Pokémon: Team Buckshot Hopefully they’ll both enlighten us.
Pokémon X Adventures Wonder who that might be.
Renegade’s Redemption Looks like he might be out of luck there.
Shinka: The Last Eevee All prepped and ready to go!
The Shaymin Café Glad to see Vetle is comfortable sharing that kind of information.
The Spaced Out Rangers Let’s hope not.
ComicFury Comics
Champion’s Mercy Uh oh Axel seems to have caught the feelings.
Eenea Looks like they’ll have to teach her how to hunt.
Gamer Café Tag yourself, I’m level 0.
Pure Light Perhaps this Golem has a purpose yet.
PMD: Alliance Negotiations have begun! Can they rescue the Poochyena?
PMD: Team Rowanberry Oh come on, you can’t say no to that face!
PMD: The Search for Shaymin Who are all these voices?
The Legend of Incineroar Did they do it?
Deviantart Comics
Aezae’s Tales Uh oh! That’s a really powerful attack!
Burn Away I wonder what dancing will achieve.
PMD: Guardians of the Universe Perhaps there is something more to that dream.
Tame Whoops. Should’ve brought a map.
That Familiar Sound I wonder what “the thing” is.
The Caretaker Wonder what he has planned.
Trick of the Night Poor kid has been through a lot.
Until Then Yeah I don’t see this ending well.
Off-site Comics
Ask the Psychic Duo Well it seems like you need to make some plans.
Ask a Voltorb Polly is just so precious!!!
Ask Backpack Hypno What an adorable Shuppet.
Daily Croissant Looks like the festival has some new arrivals.
Daily Hoppip No Hoppip no!
Hungry-Fire Hopefully they can find a place to warmup.
Neverland Faerai Seems they thought Oscar was someone or something else.
The post Crossroads Comics #127-Champion’s Mercy appeared first on Pokémon Crossroads.


Read more or post a comment.