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Review S15 EP32: Clash of the Connoisseurs!

Iteru

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BW80 - Clash of the Connoisseurs!

Official Pokémon Site said:
With another Gym badge in hand, Ash is ready to continue his journey—but then their adventures take off in a different direction when Cilan gets an invitation to a competition of his own! He’s up against another Connoisseur in a battle to pick the perfect Pokémon for the young daughter of a wealthy local. Which expert will prevail?
 
Fantastic episode. One of my favourites of all of BW.

Ricard was probably one of the best dubbed characters on the show and there were plenty of brilliant lines throughout. Burgundy (and Fauxgundy) was great as always as well and even Iris was good throughout.

The storyline isn't particularly brilliant, but it's good to finally see a bit more of the role of a connoisseur, something extremely lacking for Cilan. Though it's a bit ironic that Burgundy's sniffing probably would have figured it out just as well as Cilan, just she got the wrong smell the first time.

It's interesting that the Pokemon appearing here most obviously - Petilil and Whimsicott - just appeared in the recent Japanese episode, they filled pretty much the same role in both, the cute Pokemon on the side. I liked both of their voices as well.

Ash is a bit strange in this episode, with his general 'meh' response to the Gym being closed - but that doesn't really make any difference to the episode itself.

At a stretch I'll complain that Crustle's shell smash yet again came off with no downside to Cilan - which I think goes against the advice he'll give to others; but that's about all I can think of that annoyed me - besides that damn countdown clock for Ben 10.
 
Thoroughly disturbing episode. In all the RIGHT ways. :devil: Hope this isn't too long...

First off, the butler picks Cilan up and carries him like a baby or a newlywed? AND throws him and his traveling buddies in the car and drives off with them? I mean, yeah he explained where they were going, but if every kidnapper said "We need a connoisseur for... safe and legitimate connoisseur stuff, yeah..." do you think that makes them more trustworthy?

Always like hearing from Mike Pollock though. Too bad there was no room for him as main character in this episode. But with him AND Cilan together in the same episode, it's like the 4Kids studio is back doing the Sonic games. It was fun to pretend, at least.

Anyway, enter Ricard Nouveau, who shook/stuck his butt out two times too many in this episode. Between this and the train episode, I gotta conclude that there's some correlation between Pokémon connoisseurs and unnaturally round butts and sticking out said butts. When Ricard took Cilan's hand, I thought he was gonna kiss it, but instead, he smelled it. At first I didn't get it, but then I thought "Oh yeah, connoisseurs, they're smelling things like they smell food. And thus, evaluating said things."

I also liked that Burgundy, the connoisseuse got in, but it was obvious she was gonna, you don't waste a Burgundy appearance and not let her work that grade-A C-class episode material. She forged that S-class badge? If by "forged" you mean "put a sticker on it" then yeah, an intricately modeled facsimile, sure is. But a quick question, for all the money this Hattorli guy probably has, why didn't he just hire S-class connoisseurs instead of A-class? Doesn't he love his daughter? I guess a menagerie of Pokémon somehow still isn't worth S-class money...

Another quick question, during Cilan's (was it Cilan's? I forget) speech about Pokémon and how they bond with people and stuff, during the various images shown of people getting on with their Pokémon, that one groom outside of the church, was he MARRYING his Gothitelle? Because if that's legal now, I know a few people who'd like to make their Gardevoir or Lopunny the happiest Pokémon in the Unova region.

Anyway, back to smelling. Cilan, Ricard, and Burgundy/Fauxgundy were going smell crazy in this episode. It was weird enough that Fauxgundy decided to smell Marigold herself, but with Cilan smelled her swing seat I lost it. Leave us break from the madness and enjoy today's Pokémon battle.

Purrloin vs. Crustle. Crustle won, and he won in one shot, and some people might call that kinda cheap, like last episode's battle with Ash vs. Brycen. But A: Crustle is the highest evolution he can be. 2: He used the Rock-type equivalent of Hyper Beam. And finally, he was in Shell Smash mode. So that was probably enough firepower to OHKO a guy. But I like the use of Purrloin, it brought us Cilan in a knock-kneed state. And I also liked Burgundy watching the fight in secret. And the throwback to her old line about how she hopes both Cilan and his opponent lose. And speaking of throwbacks, Crustle's Rock Wrecker blasted off Burgundy. Like Team Rocket used to do. And Ash picked up on it. That's-a spicy nostalgia. And I can say "nostalgia" because a generation ago is far back enough to look on fondly.

In the end, Cilan picked Marigold's Pokémon companion, a Foongus. Which she had been friends with all along anyway. Call it a coincidence, but with the pink spore-like sparkles flying from her hair, I had a feeling it would be a spore-using Poison-type.

Oh, and after the last episode, I mentioned how Brycen "suggested" that Ash go to the Opelucid gym for his eighth and final Gym Badge, and how if there are only eight gyms, how can that be possible, unless there are more than eight official gyms in the Unova region? Turns out, yeah, there are. At least 9. Because it was suggested to Ash that instead of Opelucid, he go to the Virbank gym. And so eager was Cilan to see it, that now that's where they're going. But here's the thing, Ash's badge case is fitted for specific badges, right? Am I wrong? I could've sworn I saw it that way. Regardless, Ash can't go to Opelucid. Not yet. And I think I know why, but I'm not sayin' nothin' about it yet.

Ricard said he hopes to see Cilan again. And I hope he does too. This whole connoisseurs and connoisseuses rivalry thing, with just Cilan and Burgundy, was way one sided. With just Cilan and Burgundy, we have a boring ol' regular learning experience for Burgundy or something. With Ricard thrown in the mix, now someone's busting Cilan's chops too, not just Burgundy's. Now we've got a fight. That's what I'm looking forward to. And I'm also looking forward to what comes after Ash's either gym badge. Because this went by fast. I'm sure a new story is coming soon.

Ricard was probably one of the best dubbed characters on the show and there were plenty of brilliant lines throughout. Burgundy (and Fauxgundy) was great as always as well and even Iris was good throughout.

All the focus on Cilan and Ricard, I don't really remember Iris or even Ash appearing that much at all.
 
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I everyone else I love this episode dub wise. It was awesome work by everyone.

I love the buttler just picking up Clian like a rag doll and thowning him, Iris and Ash into the limo. Maragold had a good voice actress too but I didn't like the look at her eyes. It like staring into your soul and ripping it out at the same time.

I love that they made some about the dub made a reffence to Team Rocket when Ash said "could've sworn he heard that before" that was an awesome thing they can reffence from the dub to date. Burgundy was funny in this episode, she made me laugh every time I saw her trying to get into the mansion. When the epic Buttler kicked her out of the mansion it was too funny along with the Lilipup bit.

The Battle was awesome because it had Crustle kicking butt agian and it was awesome to see Shell Smash agian with that beautiful crison glow. Purloin didn't stand no chance agianst it and Crustle is mostly like a Chuck Norris combined with a crab. And Rock Weacker was awesome too.

Richard had a good voice in this dub that I enjoy most with Clian as will. The one thing that I don't like about the guy is the butt wiggle. That was the creppiest thing I ever saw in this episode. No butt wiggle please. 'face palm my desk to forget that happen.' I like him to be Clian's rival then Burgunay, for running jokes Burgeny could work.

Clian wasn't Like himself in this episode, it was like seeing a whole different person. He was calm and prove that he was a Connicor of the A class varite. And aloud Ash and Iris to help him mostly at the very end of the episode. I like how they did that for Iris and Ash to help Clian then just standing around doing nothing at all.

So I give this episode a 5/5 for epic dubbing.
 
It was an alright episode, nothing to great but it wasn't bad too. 7/10
 
The dub said that Ash heard Burgundy blasting off somewhere before i.e. Team Rocket

What was in the original?

I believe it was something like "Did you hear something too?". No references or anything.
 
Ricard said Connoisseurs need to be expressive, which would explain why Cilan is so...Cilan. And apparently sniffing another Connoisseur is normal? If so, it was very rude of Cilan to not sniff Burgundy's hand. Cilan also mentions that he prides himself on knowing all the Pokemon Connoisseurs, but he didn't seem to know about Ricard. Yeah okay, Cilan. No, I totally believe you.

Shame Cilan didn't ask the butler to let Burgundy stay around. She would have benefited from watching the A-Classes work. At least she was ingenious enough to sneak in and watch the match. Also, it seems like Burgundy is a Cilan/Ricard shipper, saying they were creeps who "were made for each other."

I like how Cilan said Marigold needed a Pokemon that fit her character. Naturally, this Pokemon is sort of ugly and smells weird.

In terms of voices, I really liked Ricard and Marigold's voices. Both fit really well, and the actors knew how to emote. The same can't be said for Burgundy, who sounded really subdued this time around. Mr. Hatterly's voice just didn't fit - it was the stereotypical snobby rich man voice, but he was way too sympathetic to pull it off.

All in all, it was a pretty good episode. The only problem I really had with it was that Ash and Iris were pointless. All they did was find Foongus, and even then their job could have just as easily been done by Cilan after the match.
 
I loved this episode too! One of the best Cilan episodes yet! ^^

I also like that he has another rival besides Burgundy. :D

That Ricard guy rather creeps me out though. Still, the only thing I'd actually improve was Cilan's battle with him. As said earlier, the use of Purrloin was brilliant. It just should've been fleshed out more. Cilan's fear should've gotten to him a little more and caused him to start losing. But then Ash and Iris give him an encouragement speech and that gets him to step up and knock that Purrloin around in oblivion. This is how I would've done it.

Otherwise, great episode and excellent display of Cilan's amazing skills. <3
 
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