Goodnight, Nintendo Network. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*☆

4/8/24

Selamat pagi!! Today is the day of the eclipse — and the sundowning of the 3DS online service…

I wasn’t concerned until I realized it was finally upon us!! (ꐦ°᷄罒°᷅) My dearest friend Mio and her bf (my dearest friend Kir) had been wonder trading while they still could, so I wanted to do it too…

I started thinking about a song I heard a lot back when Flipnote Hatena was ending — Goodbye So Soon, I think from that mouse movie … people used that song a lot on their final flipnotes, most notably the one with the frog with a top hat singing!! It just makes me so emotional.. ( ･᷄ὢ･᷅ ) When night came, though, I really started to panic about the servers going down, since it was starting to set in…
Over 10 years ago I lost Flipnote Hatena, and then I hibernated — I come to, and now the 3DS servers as we know it are going down forever? No more Spotpass or anything? The 3DS was a novelty when I was last around.. ( ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ ) The thought of it really began to make me panic.

Let’s go back a decade or so!!

When I was in elementary school, I had Netflix on my Wii in my room. There were lots of new cartoons I couldn’t see on TV, so I was really into it — and one was Sgt. Frog — or Keroro Gunsou!

Here’s a video of me watching it on the Wii’s YouTube channel at the time — sorry, I think there’s obnoxious gum chewing. ( ⌯᷄ ·̫ ⌯᷅ก )

Keroro Gunsou quickly became one of my strongest hyperfixations ever. It may have even been my first one? I was very into it as well as Invader Zim.. maybe it says a lot about me loving shows about aliens trying to fit in on Earth, I sympathized way too much! Having ADHD AND autism, I never fit in as a kid (unless it was with equally ‘weird’ kids). I didn’t understand why, and neither did anyone else, I bet. I actually told people I was an alien like Keroro, and since we were kids and I was strange enough they believed me.. ( ´-ω- ) Did it help my case? Not at all!! but a pair of boys would give me offerings in the form of Silly Bandz sleeves!! That made me a little popular for a bit…

(I miss seeing stray Silly Bandz on the ground… you never see that anymore, do you?)

Anyhow.. while I didn’t realize WHY I was upset just then, I was often stressed or indifferent about school because I was always left out. But I found a lot of solace in Sgt. Frog!! No one ever knew what it was when I asked or looked in manga stores (all except my mom who supported me so much.. I love you mom!)
When I was burnt out afterschool I’d go and watch Flipnotes on my DSi. I wasn’t old enough to have my own account, so I could never interact with people, or make my art known, or reach out to my favorite creators — no one knew I even existed. But I felt so, so connected to Flipnote Hatena and its users so much! I started using it at 5. The average user was in their early teens — over twice my age! But they were weird, like me!! They liked drawing, they liked Skrillex, they liked wolves and cats and animating insane music videos of them. There was a thin film keeping me from interacting with everyone else there — but I think it’s best things were like that. I don’t think I have a single bad memory of Flipnote Hatena..Well, aside from getting frustrated that older children were better at art than I was. I’d get so frustrated and pout about it to anyone who would listen on the bus home from school.

I liked Hatena a lot, but there were things I loved even more! I was pretty sure I was alone in watching this strange little frog show on my crt afterschool…

That was, until, I saw a flipnote about it one day on the front page of Hatena.

It just felt like something clicked in my brain!! I was so so ecstatic!!! Even if I couldn’t speak to this person, it made me SO happy knowing there were people out there who liked Keroro the same ways I did.. and being that talented on top of that!! I was so happy.. I jumped around and yelled and stimmed like crazy and showed it to my mom that night. ╲(ОДО♯)

Whenever I’d remember it while I was at school, I’d get super excited too.. I distinctly remember one day at school while we were lined up silently in the hall to go to lunch (bubbles and ducktails!), we were going through a wing of the school I’d never been in before. I thought about that Flipnote again and couldn’t help but smile and get excited.. it was cemented as an important memory for me then. (; 𖦹‎ ∀ 𖦹 ）

There was a LOT more Sgt. Frog on Hatena than I thought — Invader Zim and Nichijou, too! Some time later they added a Sgt. Frog channel (a topic you can post a flipnote to) and I remember I’d skim through it for hours.. quite literally until it was time for bed! You could download them too — it took a while to load, but I’d feverishly download the ones I especially loved. Ahh.. Flipnote Hatena was such a safe haven for me.

In May 2013, Flipnote Hatena was sundowned, and most Flipnotes were lost forever. I actually don’t remember a lot leading up to this point.. I remember it made me too upset to watch, and I started to become very distant and ambivalent at school. I think at the time, I would just call myself ‘feeling neutral/nothing’.. but looking back, it was a far cry from my usual hyperenergetic, peppy self!! I was definitely getting depressed. I felt I was ‘growing up’ in a way, too, but losing the part of me that felt supported and safe. I hated it a lot.
It’s no wonder I went dormant shortly after! (ꐦ°᷄罒°᷅) I still had online games I played, but the hard truth of life is, kids not even 12 yet are super obnoxious online. I got myself hurt a lot even just being enthusiastic about things I liked, because they were stupid or niche. I obviously didn’t fit in much with teens, either!! I realized quickly that it way easier when I could just observe, and maybe draw along with them or take inspiration… The Internet is a vicious place! Hatena would’ve treated me the same had I actually had an account.. (๑˃̶͈̀ ᗨ ˂̶͈́)

But Pokémon’s online features? It’s kind of hard (if not impossible) to get hurt on Pokémon! Well, this is coming from someone who never traded or battled, and only liked to go to the Wi-Fi Plaza to draw and play games and ‘talk’ to people..  (Lately I tried the Wi-Fi plaza on HG/SS with Mio and it’s actually way less interactive than it seems from the user’s POV!) So, I enjoyed Pokémon a lot afterschool, too. When I woke up, I was sad, but not surprised that the DS servers were down.. it’s not super hard to emulate but there’s no one ever in the plaza, so it feels very cold and empty.

I realized then last night that this would happen with the 3DS too and I felt so, so empty.. ( ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ ) So, what did I do..? I opened up Pokemon .. i think it's called sun or moon. One of those.. WELL I opened it up and I was in a snow field at the end of the game, so I caught a bunch of Vulpixes and had named them nice things and goodbyes in one final effort to communicate with the world I loved so much. The DSi is gone, the Wii is gone, and the 3DS is on its way out.. it was the last chance I'd ever have. So I took it. I did that for a couple of hours, listening to that song i mentioned... I didn't get many things but I had run into a person repeatedly that said ‘Let’s build a friendship. I love you!' as their message. Their name was こうき, from Hyogo. Many of my friends had also run into this person, and it made us all really emotional.. I love you too, kouki!! So much!

It was a really emotional night for everyone. 

When I started to write this - the servers were still up.. they went down rather slowly, actually. I didn't get to finish this blog entry as fast as I wanted to, because there was so much I wanted to say and so much to do in the final hours! Currently, there are a few stragglers left on the 3DS, but once you disconnect, that's it.. game over. (´-ω-`) Right now I'm installing Pretendo, so if you guys can do that too.. i can give you my friend code! Maybe we can even play together again.. I'M EXCITED FOR MIIVERSE! I never got to have an account for that either! This is so exciting!!

Animal Jam, I think, is the last surviving Internet Global plaza that exists for me. Everything else is gone now… I know Sudomemo exists, but it doesn't have the charm Flipnote does. And it never will be! Because it's not 2010 anymore! I also just don't understand a lot of the fandoms or memes people animate about.. (-ω-、) It's confusing to me. I hope I can meet lots of friends via Pretendo.. and I hope I can convince you to join, too. It's not as scary as it sounds to mod a 3DS!!! I was so paranoid, I bought a whole new 3ds to do it on.. it was an older model as well, but everything went perfectly fine! I would totally feel safe doing it on my old 3DS. I may be an OKAY coder but I don't understand hacking at all so if anyone is capable of bricking a 3DS, it's definitely me. And hey!! It's still here!! it was nice to get a fresh start on a new 3DS, though.. my old 3DS has lots of memories.. and I just use my new one for actually gaming and watching things HAHA.. 

Spotpass and friends still work, but all else has been sundowned.. it's kind of incredibly sad to see.. but dumping my Spotpass data, getting help from many different hacking servers, watching with everyone as the horizon closed in, it was really nice.. It was sad but for the last time I felt unity like I did for the first time Christmas 2009 and it was the strongest it ever was. It was an all-embracing hug that crushed my ribs and left me tired and sad and happy.. I was happy to spend time with everyone. I was sad when the servers went down and live chats began to grow quiet some hours later.. but it was a fun day. I cried a lot though!

Goodnight Nintendo Online, my first friend … we had lots of fun together! here's me playing Animal Crossing Wild World over Wi-Fi with my aunt…visiting towns was so much fun..

P.S. — I wonder if I could ever gather enough people to emulate HGSS and come to the Wi-Fi plaza at once…? That would be fun! A party with all my friends! I worry I’d end up like the Vice Principal in Nichijou though. ( ･᷄ὢ･᷅ )

Currently listening to: Wii Fit Plus PLATINUM SOUNDTRACK (2011)

Current mood: I had fun with my friends today..