Webcomic / Shinka: The Last Eevee

Shinka: The Last Eevee is a Pokémon webcomic written and drawn by SilverLunarwing.

The comic follows two friends, Nick the Eevee and Josie the Quilava, who live in a forest on the outskirts of Dynamon City, where they make a living doing various deliveries for other Pokémon in the area. Both of them have amnesia, which gave them a reason to bond after they met.

Meanwhile, a company known as Auranova Industries begins working towards a mysterious goal under the direction of Krypton the Lucario. Part of this scheme involves the seven Eeveelutions, six of which are already captive at Auranova Headquarters. Not all of Auranova's employees endorse this, however — two such dissenters are the partners Reece the Luxray and Syena the Gardevoir, both of whom have also had dealings with Josie in the past.

One day, Nick and Josie receive a letter from a Linoone offering a Lunar Wing as a reward, a mysterious artifact that is said to restore memories. They accept the request, not realizing that doing so would change their lives forever...

The original comic was discontinued on January 3, 2016 and lost in the Smack Jeeves shutdown, though some pages can still be retrieved from Web.Archive. The comic was rebooted on December 1, 2019, with the story being changed from before. As of January 28, 2024, it has been completed, and can be found here.

In the reboot Nick is an orphan who lives in Kyanite with his friends Grace and Josie and Grace's parents. One day at a festival the three friends visit a fortune teller, who reads Nick as having an affinity with the rare and somewhat troubling rune of shinka. Shortly after, they discover that the nearby forest is succumbing to an infection of toxic blackmoss and take it on themselves to retrieve a sample of healthy greenmoss from a distant town and cure the infection. But, a mysterious cult has Nick in its sights...

The original webcomic provides examples of the following tropes:

• All Deserts Have Cacti: According to Sparks the Raichu, they do.
  • However, SilverLunarwing is a geology major, so when an actual, non-imaginary desert shows up, this trope is neatly averted.
• Alpha Bitch: Miranda, a Zangoose in Dynamon Town. She and her posse of hangers-on have evidently harassed Josie for being an outcast for quite some time. Unfortunately, by the time we see her in-comic, Josie has just had her best friend kidnapped right in front of her and now realizes that Miranda and her cronies are several steps down the Sorting Algorithm of Evil.
• Alt Text: Starts appearing partway through chapter 2. First time here.
• Ambiguously Evil: Radon the Houndoom, second-in-command at Auranova Industries and Krypton's right-paw-Pokémon, who's shown visible distress over his job at least a couple of times. From what we've seen in flashbacks and during moments where he's alone, he'd probably be more cheerful if he ever had the opportunity.
• Art Evolution: SilverLunarwing has gotten considerably better at drawing since she started the comic. Compare page 13 with page 245.
• Beat Panel: Used a couple of times for the more comedic moments.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Syena will beat the tar out of you with her Psychic Powers if you mess with her friends.
• Berserk Button: In the same way, threatening Syena while her partner Reece the Luxray is around is rarely, if ever, a good idea.
  • Also, do not interrupt Josie and Nick when they're having a touchy-feely moment. Especially not if you're a Grass-type.
  • Do not refer to Krypton by his birth name, Lionel. Radon is probably the only person who could have done that and lived.
• Blatant Lies: Why, no, Reece doesn't know about the Lunar Wing. Not a thing. Nope. Move along.
• Brick Joke: That rock that Grace the Glameow trips over when she meets Nick and Josie? It makes a second appearance when Nick stumbles on it while chasing Niche the Ivysaur.
• Burning with Anger: Josie gets into this a couple of times, what with being a Fire-type and having naturally-occuring body flames and all.
  • Josie's ability means she actually gets stronger when she's ticked off.
• Chick Magnet: Nick shows elements of this. So far, he's gotten at least four girls interested in him. Of course, he's only interested in one of those four...
• Cooldown Hug: Attempted by Nick on Josie (really, it's more of a Cooldown Pat since they're both quadrupeds) when she's angry from talking about Reece and Syena. He gets burned in the process, which snaps her out of her funk.
• Cool Shades: Nick gets a pair on page 2... and then falls over because he can't see while wearing them. The glasses are later stolen along with Josie's old bag.
  • Those same sunglasses are later seen in the possession of Jacques, a Gengar bandit extorting stuff from the residents of Deepwood Forest. He's the boss of the guy who stole Josie's bag.
• Crash-Into Hello: How Nick met Grace the Glameow.
• Cue the Rain: Nick has been forced to evolve and kidnapped, Reece lost his fight with Rayle and has been permanently kicked out of Auranova Industries along with Syena, and Josie has been left unconscious and alone with the mother of all emotional traumas to work through. Cue the Rain indeed.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: After Krypton stops holding back, his duel with Syena quickly segues into this.
  • Also crops up when Laedan the Skarmory manages to lock Nick into single combat with Spikes.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Not so much "forbidden" as "really rare", but... After evolving, Nick has the Pure Power ability, which allows the user to bypass their physical limits for a short time, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom. The one time he's demonstrated the ability in-comic so far, it lasted about fifteen seconds before the Power-Strain Blackout kicked in (granted, he did kind of have a concussion at the time).
• Deadpan Snarker: Josie has her moments.
  (after finding a letter hidden in her home) "If this is some new form of advertising, I'm not buying it."
• Defector from Decadence: Reece and Syena, who eventually break from Auranova Industries because Krypton's... kind of a power-hungry megalomaniac.
• Determinator: Luna the Umbreon has made ten (failed) escape attempts from Auranova Industries so far. She has been stopped by none other than Krypton himself at least once. None of this has impacted her resolve to escape in the slightest.
• Distinguishing Mark: Luna's rings are diamond-shaped, while Shadow's are orange rather than yellow. And somehow the latter was reason enough for their clan to banish him.
• Dope Slap: Done by Syena to Reece here.
• Elemental Powers: This is a Pokémon webcomic, after all.
• Foil: Reece and Rayle. Both are large cat-like Pokémon, both work for Auranova Industries, and both consider the other The Rival, but while Reece is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Rayle's just a Jerkass.
• Foreshadowing: Goes as far back as page 1, which features a silhouette of something that looks rather like a Skarmory in one panel. As the story progresses, Nick continues to have nightmares about being chased by a Skarmory. Ultimately, a Skarmory named Laedan features rather prominently in the plot to force Nick to evolve.
• For the Evulz: Laedan the Skarmory's rationale for smashing Inez the Plusle's toy boat.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: SilverLunarwing has set up a Tumblr where people can ask questions and get answers in art form.
• Genki Girl: Grace the Glameow. She's basically a hyperactive, walking Wall of Text who's quite prone to Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Present, but with a twist. Krypton wants one of each Eeveelution because it's important to his plans. The author has mentioned that there are lots more Pokémon being held captive at Auranova Industries, though.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Right here, courtesy of Rayle.
• Heroic Bastard: The author refers to the Dynamic Duo, Sparks and Loups, as "bastard brothers", or half-brothers whose parents never married.
• Interspecies Romance: Reece (Luxray) and Syena (Gardevoir), who aren't even in the same egg group. And aside from all the Ship Tease Nick gets with Josie, Grace (Glameow) clearly has an unrequited crush on him. And it probably occurred with Sparks and Loups' father and at least one of their mothers, seeing how they're a Raichu and a Mightyena and Pokemon usually inherit their mother's base species.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Reece, who often acts like a jerk to people he doesn't genuinely care about. Even then, he's got a sense of justice and morality that ultimately leads to him turning on Auranova Industries.
• Just Friends: Nick and Josie.
  • ...at least, for now. Things might change later.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Both Nick and Josie suffer from this, though Josie has lived with hers for a bit longer than Nick. Neither of them can remember much about their past apart from a vague feeling that something is wrong. They've kinda bonded over their mutual lack of memories/friends/etc.
  • To be more precise, they both suffer from Identity Amnesia, which is why they both jumped at the chance to get hold of a Lunar Wing, an artifact said to be able to restore memories. Too bad the whole thing was a trap.
• Lady of Black Magic: Syena comes across as this, though she uses Psychic Powers instead of magic.
• Lightning Bruiser: Krypton, yet again. If it isn't obvious by now, Krypton is not the kind of guy you want to mess with.
• Logical Weakness: Being a Fire-type, Josie is understandably somewhat wary of large bodies of water.
• Mama Bear: In a literal example, the Ursaring from this flashback. Sadly, those were Nick's parents on the receiving end of her wrath. Emphasis on the past tense.
• The Mole: Reece and Syena, who eventually turn against Auranova.
• Neck Lift: Xenon the Charizard does one to Nick here. It helps that he's about three times Nick's size and that Nick has fur to grab onto.
• Non-Indicative Name: Grace the Glameow, who is pretty much anything but graceful. See Crash-Into Hello above.
• Official Couple: Reece and Syena, or as SilverLunarWing put it, "Shipping your own characters... Making your ship canon because you're the damn author."
• Oh, Crap!: Niche the Ivysaur stole Josie's new bag. The one that Nick gave her. And he did this while she was hugging Nick. Unstoppable Rage ensues. Oh, and he's a Grass-type, too.
  • Nick remembers that he spent all his money.
• Omniscient Morality License: Sol used his psychic powers to move Auranova towards kidnapping Nick, because his Future Sight indicated that unlike the other three candidates he could help break them out. Luna doesn't agree though, and Nick calls him out when he first hears of this.
• Personality Powers: In a rather more literal example than most, Josie's Emotional Flame ability means the intensity of her flames (both on her body and in her attacks) is determined by her emotional state. It's rather unwise to mess with her when she's angry.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Nick has nightmares about being chased by a Skarmory. They occasionally segue into odd dreams where a voice gives him vague warnings and such. Turns out those odd dreams were actually telepathic communication from Sol the Espeon, who believes Nick can help rescue the other captive Eeveelutions.
• Psychic Teleportation: The Teleport move, which Syena knows. Comes in handy for rapid travel, even with multiple people tagging along.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Radon, Krypton's second-in-command. He'd be a decent guy if his boss wasn't so set on being a megalomaniacal jerk.
• Quest for Identity: Nick and Josie, since they can't remember much about their respective pasts.
• Scientific and Technological Theme Naming: Various employees of Auranova Industries are code-named after elements on the periodic table. The higher-ups are all named after noble gases, i.e. Krypton, Radon, Xenon, etc.
• Seers: Eclipse has prophetic dreams that she says come from the moon. While Sol makes extensive use of Future Sight while meditating, though he also uses his telepathy to manipulate people into following the futures he wants.
• Self-Made Orphan: Shadow the Umbreon, who quite unrepentantly lead an army from Auranova to murder his entire clan, save for his sister, Luna, who was imprisoned as the first of the Eeveelution test subjects. Granted, he was the subject of some nasty clan-wide prejudice and hatred because of his orange-colored rings, but still...
• Shown Their Work: As explained by the Alt Text on this page, the desert cave Reece and Syena are hiding in is made out of reddish-brown stone instead of dark grey stone (which would be more appropriate near volcanoes). This particular detail is mostly present because SilverLunarwing's a geology major.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: In the Shinka-verse, the Psychic move results in a weapon formed from psychokinetic energy. Syena's version manifests as whip-like tendrils on her arms.
• A Storm Is Coming: A thunderstorm builds gradually all throughout chapters 11 and 12. The storm finally breaks at the end of chapter 13 just after everything all goes south.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: When Nick and Josie run into Reece and Syena in chapter 1, Syena destroys a job offer on a message board. Chapter 3 follows Reece and Syena after that event and starts exploring their side of things.
• Take Over the World: Krypton's ultimate goal.
• Tap on the Head: Used to knock Josie unconscious after Nick is forcibly evolved and kidnapped.
• Technicolor Fire: Josie's Emotional Flame ability means her body flames change color depending on her mood (blue for sad, yellow for happy, red for angry, etc.) They also turn green when she's about to launch a SolarBeam.
• Tempting Fate: Happens a couple of times, from Luna taunting Krypton while he's got her at his mercy to Niche messing with Pokémon that have type advantages over him.
• Tentacle Rope: Krypton can manipulate a substance called Aura-Fire to create this. He can make it feel cold or hot to the touch, though it can't actually freeze or burn the victim. Mostly the temperature control is there to discourage struggling.
  • In addition, the towns of Aezala are all named for gemstones commonly found nearby, i.e. Dynamon=Diamond, Perinet=Peridot, etc.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: Necessary when most of the cast members are fuzzy.
  • Comet the Flareon shows a variation: she has a tattoo on her hind legs that is still (somehow) visible through her fur.
    • Apparently it's permanent fur dye.
• Throw It In!: The subplot involving Josie losing her bag got started because the author realized she'd been forgetting to draw it for the last several pages.
• Took a Level in Badass: Syena finally decides to stick up for herself more and ends up challenging Krypton to a duel in chapter 11. She loses the fight, but since Krypton's a Genius Lightning Bruiser whose Asskicking Leads to Leadership, it's only to be expected.
• The Unintelligible: Phi the Porygon-Z of Auranova Industries, who speaks only in Webdings. Serves as a bit of an Easter Egg for anyone who takes the time to transliterate what he's saying.
• Wall of Text: Grace has a habit of doing these, lampshaded in the Alt Text here.
• Webcomic Time: About a week has passed in universe and it started in 2009.
• Word of God: The author will often answer questions posted in the comments section — so long as doing so won't give away any spoilers, of course.
• You Are Number 6: Krypton refers to Luna (and presumably the other captive Eeveelutions) by number. Luna is number 197, which happens to be Umbreon's number in the National Pokédex.
  • Confirmed to apply to all the captive Eeveelutions. Now including Nick, who is number 470.

The 2019 reboot has examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Backstory Change: Nick and Josie remember their pasts in the reboot. Nick was raised by his mother until she got sick and died when he was five, then Grace's parents took him in. While Josie had some kind of disagreement with her parents and ran away from home.
• Adaptational Heroism: Reece, Syena, and Radon have no affiliation with the villains of the reboot. Reece and Syena are innocent apothecaries who find themselves targeted by the Mystics. While Radon is a kind forest ranger who helps Nick after he escapes from the Mystics.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • Grace had an unrequited crush on Nick in the original but in the reboot she's his adoptive sister of sorts, and a lesbian.
  • The half-brothers Loup and Sparks aren't in the reboot but their designs were re-used for Lu and Sammy, who are a romantic couple.
• Apocalypse Cult: The Mystics believe the world to be hopelessly corrupted and intend to use the blackmoss to kill everyone else but themselves.
• Dead Person Conversation: Nick sees visions of his dead mother Laurel, and talks to her, often enough that his friends sometimes doubt his sanity. Luna confirms that it actually is her ghost, haunting the everstone pendant Nick inherited from her.
• Death by Adaptation: Pisces, Sol, Shadow, Crystal, and Blitz appear in a mosaic of the Mystics' past sacrifices.
• Defector from Decadence: Callie and Aera were born and raised in the Mystics, but have second thoughts as their plans near fruition. When the High Emperor orders Callie to murder Reece and Syena for finding her godbone talisman, she can't bring herself to do it. While Aera goes so far as to help Nick escape getting sacrificed.
• Disappeared Dad: Nick lived alone with his mother before she died, with no mention of a father. He meets his father, Bryant, in Clearspring, and learns that his parents only split up to keep him safe from the Mystics.
• Family Theme Naming: Callisto ("Callie") and her mother Io were both named after Jupiter's moons. While Io's mother Eclipse was named for a lunar phenomenon.
• God Is Dead: One of the Mystics' core tenants is that the gods are dead, and they are the only ones worthy to replace them. They have the bones of three legendary Pokemon as evidence and carve them into their talismans.
• Gotta Catch Them All: There are eighteen runes corresponding to the eighteen Pokemon types and each sapient Pokemon has an affinity for one of the runes, but not necessarily the one corresponding to their species' type. The Mystics' magic circle to protect themselves from the blackmoss requires them to capture and sacrifice one Eevolution for each rune, and they've already sacrificed seventeen. All but shinka.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: The High Emperor is eaten by their own blackmoss.
• Interspecies Adoption:
  • Io, an Absol, adopted Aera (Pigeot) as well as raising her biological daughter Callie.
  • Anastasia and Otter (Purugly and Floatzel) unofficially adopted Nick (Eevee) after his mother's death and have been caring for Josie since she ran away from home.
  • Radon (Houndoom) is enough of a father figure to Luna (Umbreon) to refer to her as his daughter.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Reece (Luxray) and Syena (Gardevoir).
  • Grace's parents Anastasia (Purugly) and Otter (Floatzel).
  • Allister (Infernape) and Eclipse (Absol). Though they broke up after their daughter joined the Mystics.
  • Nick's mother Laurel was an Eevee like him, but his father Bryant is a Lycanroc.
• Mercy Kill: By the time Eclipse allows an apothecary to see her, her blackmoss poisoning has progressed to the point where it can't be treated and all she wants is a clean death. Which Syena reluctantly grants her.
• Missing Mom: Nick's mom died when he was five years old, he was unofficially adopted by her friends Anastasia and Otter afterwards.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the sense of never getting kidnapped by the villains, who are much more murderous than the original comic's. Comet runs a general store in Goldvalley with her wife, a Vaporeon named Kari. While Luna is a witch who lives in a cabin in the woods with her adoptive father.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Nick uses his new Leafeon powers to communicate with the blackmoss but it remains determined to fulfill its purpose of consuming the world until he asks And Then What?
• Tragic Keepsake: Laurel's everstone pendant, worn by Nick after her death. While wearing it, he sometimes still sees her. It turns out to really be haunted by her ghost. And after reuniting with Bryant, Nick gives him the pendant so he can see her too.