Review BW122: Reshiram VS N! Beyond Truth and Ideals!!

[garrison-san]

BW122 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Animation: Team Kato
Screenplay: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Storyboard: Takenori Kawada
Assistant director: Yūji Asada
Animation director: Masaaki Iwane

 

[GurahkWeavile]

No Zekrom.....(flips a table) F*** THIS SHOW THEN!!! F*** THIS STUPID F***ING ARC TOO!!!!

 

[Crysta Blade]

So, uh, did Zekrom sleep in or something? Doesn't make sense for it to be no more than a Pikachu-weakening plot device.

At least Ghetsis and Colress don't get to simply walk away afterwards. I'm down with that.

 

[Tepig in a BBQ]

What a horrible way to end Episode N.

I don't care if Zekrom didn't come or not, this episode didn't feel right. Every scene seemed switched up at the very last second.

Oh and it was rushed.

The only good thing I can think of is Team Rocket, since in-character Team Rocket (well...atleast almost!) makes me happy.

 

[Winterdaze]

I really really enjoyed this episode, but not for the reasons the writers intended. Objectively speaking it could have been a lot better, but...

The whole ep was unintentionally hilarious, Ghetsis casually being put on ice at the end, N's weird Kaworu-esque faces and delivery and Colress'...everything. All the ridiculously overblown facial expressions made this episode.

Also the TRio were legit awesome in this, Meowth blowing the dust off his claws after destroying all those Liepard was adorable.

 

[ii kanji]

This is the first time I've watched an episode live in 2 or 3 years and I only really watched it with hope for the preview but, for all the wrong reasons (read: the TRio restored to their former glory!!!! II KANJIIIIII!!!! <3), I'm glad I did! :-D

(I haven't followed the story of Episode N at all but frankly the actual plot side of things seemed to suck... why even bother bringing in a legendary if its role in the episode is less than the size of a mosquito?! And trololololol the power of friendship wins as usual!)

 

[Araragi-hakase]

This episode has some of the best reaction faces.

But overall, it was pretty exciting to watch. I think if Zekrom was going to make an appearance it would have in an earlier episode? I mean yeah it would have been cool if ~Zekrom saved the day~ but then Achroma's science wouldn't have failed him and he and Ghetsis wouldn't have flipped out

also this

 

[Dogasu]

...so is the Rocket trio back to normal now? I'm too afraid to get my hopes up only to have them crushed a few episodes from now.

 

[Kairyu]

I really don't care that much for it, but lmao, Charizard wasn't even used in this episode, so it was brought back to help dig a tunnel? That's depressing.This must be its most useless return ever.

 

[GolfDude]

how nice of them to lie in the intro the entire time making it seem like a reshiram vs charizard showdown to save the day, only for it that not to happen at all..

 

[Eitarou]

how nice of them to lie in the intro the entire time making it seem like a reshiram vs charizard showdown to save the day, only for it that not to happen at all..

The intro promised nothing.

 

[捷克羅姆]

Sigh, I'm not surprised about Zekrom's absence. After all, it was never hinted in the posters or trailers. He's probably having coffee with Ho-Oh.

I was hoping there would be a showdown between Charizard and Reshiram. We ended up having Pikachu trying to get Reshiram into its senses. What I did like was Meowth trying to protect Pikachu and Team Rocket being their usual selves.

 

[Jukain]

So...what was up with Pika that it somehow was able to control being evil? And why exactly did TR turn back? This mystery aside, this seems underwhelming. Just Pika destroying the beam. The only conclusion I can come to is that this saga knows how to set stuff up, but then it fails to deliver. This is the most confused writing I've ever seen, and it doesn't reflect well on them. I need to compose my thoughts for a while, but even though this far from being the worst, it's not that good either.

 

[WatcherMark]

Why is everyone complaining about the lack of Zekrom? Was there ever a point where Zekrom's appearance in this episode was even hinted at... the whole lead-up to this arc was the fact the gang wanted to meet Reshiram. It's the fact there was no Charizard vs. Reshiram battle that I thought would tick people off.

So Episode N comes to an end... and man, once again it falls short of what came before. This episode doesn't even compare to the Dialga/Palkia episodes of DP... that plot were so well set-up throughout the series from the very first episode while this feels like a last minute thing thought up to try and win back viewers. N was dull, Team Plasma were a 'by-the-numbers' evil team... yet another misfire from the writers.

Well, guess it's time for the final arc (or, as I know it, the writers treading water until X&Y come out).

 

[Master Cyrus]

Well the writers sure knows how to promote their episodes, but not how to make them live up to the hype.

And like none of the epic scenes the opening made us look forward to with Ash's Pokemon happened.

 

[Karamazov]

I actually liked this episode very much, moreso than the last two episodes. I wasn't expecting anything truly amazing since this show usually can't set up good conclusions, and you can tell by the penultimate episode how rushed the final product will be. But with what we got, it didn't feel rushed at all.

It was great seeing Team Rocket (Meowth, especially) kick butt, and the scenene where Meowth talks to Ash was really adorable. Pikachu's speed factor was actually accounted for in this ep, for once. And it had a lot of balls to shock Reshiram like that. I may give Pikachu shit for a lot of things, but he was awesome in this episode. Plus, I like how Axew actually did something and the Pokemon giving each other high-touches. This was a great episode for the Pokemon.

Couple things, though
1) I'm with Winnie on the expressions; it's like the animators were struggling to find new emotions for faces that have only done generically evil expressions until now.
2) Ghetsis really felt tacked on in the long run. But then again, that's how he felt in the BW2 games, so hurrah for staying faithful to the game!
3) So why did Brad and Angie randomly hug Ghetsis? (his expression there was actual pretty good - it showed true fear.)
4) I really noticed how lame the Pokemon selection was. We had three dozen Coneldurr, Golurk and Timburr, fine. Okay. But did we need a litter of Liepard, too? Some variety would be nice.
5) Colress's iPad has a lot of pretty colors.
6) I burst out laughing when N looked up at Reshiram near the end of the episode. Oh my God the animators really do hate N.


In the end, I loved it. It was fun, cool, had a lot of tension, and the animation was great (most of the time.) It didn't have the stakes and power that the Galactic finale had, unfortunately. If this climax had just one more episode, then they could have used that time to raise the stakes and made everything feel more epic.

 

[ii kanji]

...so is the Rocket trio back to normal now? I'm too afraid to get my hopes up only to have them crushed a few episodes from now.

Did you see the episode? We got 2 reasonably solid moments of TRio normality (not to mention Nyasu having a couple more of his own) which gives me some hope! Not to mention the preview that was released today has this gem:

Spoiler

But I guess you can't count on anything yet

 

[Dogasu]

I saw the episode. But I also saw the Arti gym episode, and how it seemed like they were back to normal back then as well. And we all know how that turned out


So where was Reshiram during the entire middle part of the episode?

 

[WatcherMark]

What I'd like to know, looking at the pictures, is how the hell did Pikachu keep shaking off the mind control thing?

 

[Karamazov]

I don't have anything concrete, but I do think it was due to its heroic willpower, or Pikachu was becoming immune from the beam due to already being blasted, and any Pokemon would become immune if it was blasted enough times.