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Review S16 EP14: There's a New Gym Leader in Town!

This episode was okay, but not completly interesting.

We have Ash and co. going to the Aspertia Gym for a gym battle. Cheren's voice seemed rather...feminine to me. It wasn't that bad, but I prefered his voice in the BW2 trailer. Anyway, I loved Ash calling Iris a kid in the same tone she says to him all the time.

Axew. Seriously, Iris needs to put him in a Pokeball until he matures. I'm sick of seeing him go off and get into some form of trouble that causes a problem for the group. And just like always he's barely scolded. "Axew, say you're sorry and don't do this again." And then he does it again. It's getting annoying, especially this far into the series.

The searching for the Pokemon scence was rather boring. Ash and Iris weren't entertaining in the least to me while Cilan was hilarious. Using Pansage rather than Stunfisk to retrieve the Ducklett seemed rather odd, but I guess it worked out in the end. I don't know why, but the Shinx scene with the crying kids just seemed uneccessary.

Then comes the gym battle. Oshawott poping out of his Pokeball into battles is just as annoying a Axew's immaturity, especially when most of the times he does this he ends up losing. This battle didn't even seem like an exhibition match; it seemed like just plain comic relief. Oshawott still being dependent on his scalchop is so annoying when he supposedly learned to fight without it in Stephan's debut episode. It just makes it seem like Oshawott hasn't really progessed.

So in all, this episide seemed rather lackluster. I still don't understand why Ash was so eager to have a gym battle when he's already lost the league. Maybe if Iris had had a training battle with Axew so he could grow up and have more purpose than being a plot device it would have been a bit more interesting. Anyway, I'll give it a 6/10.
 
More proof that TPTB love that reset button: Ash's surprise that a Pokémon Gym can also be a school. (*cough*Rustboro*cough*) They do know that some of us viewers have been around for a while, right?

Ash using his Pokedex to scan for an otherwise hidden Pokémon was actually clever, even though that Sunflora wasn't really that inconspicuous. Still, I kinda wish they'd used a better roundup method than force.

To me, the best part of this ep was Ash finally giving Iris a taste of her "What a kid!" medicine. See, I guess the problem I have with characters who are/act petty (Iris' "What a kid!" line, Georgia's private war with Dragon trainers, etc.) is when nobody calls them out on their pettiness. For contrast, I started thinking about Weevil and Rex, the Beavis and Butthead of Yu-Gi-Oh! Weevil throws Yugi's Exodia cards in the drink and immediately gets marked for elimination in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Then they both betray the world to Dartz in exchange for the power to win a children's card game, and Joey calls Rex out on it. (And they still lose, Weevil especially so.) Why can't this show have more of that?

Somehow, Cheren's sudden confidence boost at the end didn't really gel for me, particularly because he really hadn't done anything too spectacular. And too bad he wasn't introduced until this late in the game.
 
So we now see Cheren appear in the anime. Finally.

Well, Cheren is pretty different that he is in the games, but I like him, here. I also really liked his voice~ I thought it was pretty fitting.

As we all know, I just LOVE it when Axew runs off and does something stupid. Touching things he isn't supposed to and messing crap up. YES, it's SO GREAT! Damn you, Axew! I can't take this anymore, it's getting to be too much. You know, with how often this happens, you'd think they'd pay a bit more attention to him.

"You're such a kid" -Ash (to Iris); OMZ!! That really made my day. It's about time! I wasn't even really expecting him to say it. It was the perfect opportunity for him to take and he did! Cool points for you, Ash.

Back to the episode, Cheren's debut got screwed over by Axew messing stuff up again. That said, the whole "round-up the Pokemon" didn't really interest me. Except Cilan. Took a Water Gun to the face and started laughing like that. I thought he was about to go crazy or something. So I'll have to give Cilan some points, too.

I really liked the scene with Cheren being shocked by the Shinx. It was cool, seeing someone other than Ash getting electrocuted and being able to withstand it. Plus, it was good for his character so he could gain some confidence. So because of that, he's getting some cool points, too.

The battle wasn't that exciting for me. Just Oshawott being Oshawott. This battle could have been much cooler if Ash hadn't let Oshawott battle. I feel bad for Cheren; getting screwed over twice.

Overall...it was okay. It was only interesting to me because we got to see Cheren, though. So with that, I'll give it a 4/10.
 
Not even the fact that this episode had Cheren or some cute lil Shinx could redeem this episode. Ash not knowing gyms could be schools and UGH! Oshawott's battle was just ridiculous! I hate how they write him to only be a comic relief character and seriously he knows Hydro Pump and Aqua Jet! Why do they not let him use those moves. Terrible episode!
 
I was a bit surprised that Ash would be that excited about having a gym battle, despite having already competed in the Unova League. Sure, it might seem a bit OOC for him to not be, but for him to be THAT pumped for what would be a useless badge... I suppose he just likes to collect them, regardless.

Well, while I guess I still thought this was an okay episode, I still pretty much agree with what has already been said. It seems the writers have no intention of properly developing Axew and he will retain his childish behavior throughout the rest of BW. *sigh*

It was nice for Ash to finally call Iris a kid for getting excited about something, just the way she always does with him. It took longer for him to use her catchphrase than it did for Dawn's and now it's gone full circle.
 
It was nice for Ash to finally call Iris a kid for getting excited about something.

In the dub at least.

TPCi or w/e has just been placing "What a kid" in some places they weren't even in the original lol. Like Iris saying "Little kid time" when Cameron was revealed to have forgotten his Pokemon, when in the original she just said something along the lines of "Oh boy...". I'm pretty sure Ash just gave an amused "Airisu.." in the Japanese version. Mouth syllabes I guess.
 
I like how Herdier is licking Oshawott after it was knocked out. Like it's thinking if Oshawott makes a good lunch.

Otherwise a meh episode.
 
Man, the voice acting was probily the worst since 4kids... CHeren was the worst... he had a bit of a rasp in his voice but he was all MONOTONE for the entire episode... from him saying pikachu was forgiven to scolding him, Cherens voice didnt change tone at all. CIlan was a bit annoying with his Reminisnig about the old days. Oh and YA DONT NEED AN OFFICAL STADIUM FOR A GYM BATTLE!!!!! Skyla had her battles on an AIRCRAFT LANDING STRIP! Herdier, the Ducklett and Minchinno are the only saving graces for this episode. Waiting for the Exibition battle the only thing going through my mind was "GET ON WITH IT". I think that poor Shinx is going to be scared for life after having to deal with the two kids. I knew Cheren was one of my favorite characters to Poke fun at with signs and this episode just inspired me to kick that into overtime... 3/10
 
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cheren is supposed to be that "plain" type.. of course he would be a monotone the entire way
 
I didn't mind Cheren's voice, mainly because it was Todd Haberkorn (he does a lot of Funimation dubs and his voice for Cheren is the voice he typically uses for his roles) and I'm a big fan of his XD

But yeah, Cheren getting an anime debut (why it had to be in a filler I'll never know) is pretty much what saved this episode. It was also cool to see Cilan relating to what Cheren was going through as being a gym leader. I also liked how the dub threw in Ash calling Iris a kid. It's about time someone called her out on that.

From what I've seen of Episode N so far, it's like every other episode is a boring filler and then we get the good stuff XD
 
An ok episode.

I always wonder about these schools for kids teaching them about pokemon though. Do the kids already know how to read and write or do they learn only about pokemon and go into the real world as a knowledgeable pokemon trainer with no real world sense (aka cameron).

Oshawott again mega failed. Another example of why I rate it Ashs least useful water type ever.....tackle.....seriously. Its basically a worse comedy version of piplup.

Cheren seemed ok but just standard gym leader character development nothing special.
 
Ash calling Iris a kid - good
Everything else - back to "wtf" state, specifically Oshawott (Axew screwing everything up is... umm... well, it happens so often that I got used to it already. Tired of it, yes, but still)
Basically, despite Cheren's debut, it's essentially just another filler. 4/10
 
Yay! Another host club dub VA appears on the pokemon dub as charen. I'm sorta excited about that for some reason. But yeah the episode was meh to me.
 
This was an okay episode. Not amazing, but not terrible.

At least Cheren FINALLY got to show up in the anime. He played such a huge part in the games that it would have been a giant letdown if he didn't. Although, this time around I thought his voice in the BW2 trailer was a TINY bit better than in the series. I just wish the anime writers gave him more time to develop a little more like in the games. They did make him seem tougher with that Shinx.

I always get a kick out of the "what a kid" lines, and it was funny to hear Ash say it. Cilan also got some good spotlight in this episode.

Was it just me, or was there only one commercial break?
 
I actually liked this episode. Then again, most of that is because of Cheren. :I
His voice was good, too, though, I felt.

Also: THANK YOU, Ash, for your "What a kid!" comment.
I was kind of waiting for something like that to happen.

....and Iris, really. Keep that Axew on a leash. OR SOMETHING.

...well, I'm looking forward to next week's episode. (Colress debuts in that episode, right?)

@UnovaCastaway: actually, yeah, I think there WAS only one commercial break.
 
Todd Haberkorn!! I knew Cheren's voice sounded familiar! He plays Death the Kid in Soul Eater and Sgt Keroro in Sgt.Frog. I love his roles and think he did a good job playing Cheren. Although I much prefer the Cheren's voice in the B2W2 trailer , I do like Cheren's voice in the anime as well. It's sounds like of geeky which I say fits him.

The episode was pretty good ,but far from the best episode so average. Ash FINALLY told Iris that she's also a kid. That was the highlight for the me, cause I thought it would never happen.

Iris needs to learn to control and look after Axew that guy gets lost way too much and causes a lot of trouble. But it was at least pretty funny this time around, though.

@Spiderbush Yup Corless does appear in the next episode along with Ghetsis as a hologram.
 
Todd Haberkorn!! I knew Cheren's voice sounded familiar! He plays Death the Kid in Soul Eater and Sgt Keroro in Sgt.Frog. I love his roles and think he did a good job playing Cheren. Although I much prefer the Cheren's voice in the B2W2 trailer , I do like Cheren's voice in the anime as well. It's sounds like of geeky which I say fits him.

I KNEW I KNEW THAT VOICE FROM SOMEWHERE! TODD HABERKORN IS SUCH A RAD VOICE ACTOR!

Anyway, it was a surprisingly strongly animated episode for a slow moving one. Everyone moved with a certain fluidity. I thought it was a bit too light on action at times, but it was a fine breather for what's about to come.

Also, Ducklett are the biggest assholes in the Pokemon universe.
 
Kinda wish they'd made this a two parter. Part 1 could've been about the loose Pokémon & getting to know Cheren & part 2 could've been about the battle.

Though Cilan, you shouldn't be so surprised about the gym doubling as a school...

And lo, an episode with little kids whose voices didn't suck!
 
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