Review S17 EP28: The Bonds of Evolution!

[Neo Blaze]

XY028 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

This dub episode has been officially aired in the UK.

Please keep all discussion pertaining to future episodes inside spoiler tags.

 

[Lluksonak]

Episode was cool, that manager's voice sounded kind of like Max .-.
"Eat it all by myself" - Serena, is it just me? Or is the dub trying to make us hate Serena? I don't think she said that in the original....did she? o.o

 

[Sakuraa]

Hm, this was okay. I can't say I disliked it, but it wasn't extremely interesting.

First of all, I love how Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena were fangirling over Diantha at the beginning. Especially, Serena in particular because it reminded me of how that last chick was in awe of Cynthia. Also nice to see her being really interested in something else. I wonder why those guys expected Ash to know who Diantha was. They know he’s not from Kalos. And how did Ash’s idea of battling Diantha get Bonnie to decide to ask her to take care of Clemont? Whatever, anyway I really liked how Sycamore secretly let our gang in the room while everyone else had to wait outside. Special privileges for knowing the professor I see. And what the hell? Why was Sycamore flirting with that obnoxious manager? The battle against Absol was actually pretty cool for showing off how quick and evasive Gardevoir is. I'm glad we go to see more of the Fairy-type side from Gardevoir today than the Psychic-type and Fairy's super effectiveness against the Dark-type. Ok, I’m sick of Jessie and this whole acting thing. Why are they contantly making a big deal out of this as if they have any sort of talent?

Lol at Serena and Bonnie rushing over for some cake. Ash and Clemont's reactions were hilarious. That must be some damn good cake. Wow Serena would have eaten the cake by herself? At least share with Bonnie. Damn Diantha is over exaggerating. Not getting a piece of cake is not the end of the world. OMG Clemont's invention was so cool today. I didn't expect him to cut the cake with a laser. And thank goodness the invention didn't blow up. Bonnie's proposal was great. The change to black and white and old movie sound effect on her voice was a nice way of tying into the fact that Diantha is an actress.

Wow, Diantha only battles Ash cuz he shared some cake. Ash's battle...was pretty damn lame. Pikachu spams attacks and nearly gets knocked out with a Shadow Ball. Not even Moonblast, but Shadow Ball. I knew he wouldn't win of course, but...I don't know, I just hoped for more. And what was Diantha talking about? “He really cares for his Pokemon. Ash is a very passionate trainer.” Where did she get that? Because he caught Pikachu? Really? Is that really a big deal? Or maybe it’s because I’ve seen him do it for so long that I don’t consider it a big deal. But still, I’m sure way more trainers other than Ash would have done that if they had been in that predicament. Anyway, Gardevoir gets kidnapped, then rescued, Mega Evolves, and easily defeats TR, the end. And man are they dramatic with Megalution.

Anyway, it was nice for the most part, but like I said, rather weak in some areas. I wanted to see if the dub would change my opinion. Honestly it didn’t. I mean, did anyone else think Gardevoir had the most unenthusiastic, emotionless voice ever. I’m still on 6.5/10 for this one.

 

[Darth Darkrai]

Ok, ALL RIGHT, I've Wanted to Review this Episode for the English DUB for a while now and I'm Happy to do my Review for this Episode

So Ash and Comp. Notice a Battle is happening and then Serena Notices that it's ACTUALLY Diancie and Serena, Bonnie, Clemont, and Dedenne FREAK OUT ( HOW DOES Dedenne know who this is? Probably just Agreed with Bonnie's Excitement) and Ash thinks this is Cool, BUT OF COARSE, he DOESN'T Know who she is and Everyone Facefaults and we have an Explanation of who she is and we also see that she is an Actress and Ash then Wants to Battle her.

So they go to the Stadium and the Girl Aide is TRYING to tell people that Diantha CAN'T see or Interview them. Ash and Comp get called Over by Professor Sycamore and they actually get to Meet Diantha and they are Shocked. So then the Battle between Diantha and Magniss begins and Absol VS. Gardivoir happens and well as expected, Diantha Wins but the Battle was just for me an entertaining 1 minute Battle this I DID NOT Mind really. So after the Battle, everyone is told Diantha has Left.

So Ash goes to a Restaurant and go for some Chocolate and they actually run into Diantha there in Disguise and they share the one piece of Chocolate and well Ash Challenges her to a Battle and she does Agree to it. And a Battle happens and Ash does have some TROUBLE here but I think he was trying his BEST against her.

Then Team Rocket Appears and we get a Chase seen and a Battle happens and Team Rocket Looses LOL.

So they want to Meet again sometime there.

Overall VERY GOOD Episode IMO, 8.8

NOW, one thing I did NOT Mention in the Review is this, Diantha Mentioned this place, the Lapodiran Highlands, in Japanese this was called Guipna, and Professor Sycamore says it's one of the Last Unexplored Regions in the World?! HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, now this is ONLY SPECULATION HERE, but could they have Hinted Gen 7's Region at all? I think this could be Open to Debation maybe? I was JUST REALLY Curious about this when I First heard it.

 

[Team Gaara]

So we’re already going to meet Diantha. I’m quite surprised that Clemont admires her as much as Serena does. Finally it makes a bit more sense for Bonnie to want to propose to an adult for Clemont, but she’s still…an adult…

Creepy Professor Sycamore hiding is creepy but I don’t care because he’s hot~ And he’s a flirt. I love the guy~

Diantha is pretty cool. And I may be the only one, but I love her assistant’s voice!

So there’s a battle thing going on and OMG SWIRLIX IN THE BACKGROUND! But Serena’s big-ass head would be blocking it. -_- Dedenne looks cute laying on Bonnie’s head like that. He looks like a little kid~

Skitty in the background, too! All this Tauroscrap talk about deep bonds and Mega Evolution, yet somehow I can Mega Evolve the first random Mawile I catch. Can someone at GAME FREAK fix that for ORAS, otherwise, I don’t get the point of repeating it so much.

Well, I guess Team Rocket’s spy gear is working today and they hear the most important tidbit of information this time.

Dude didn’t get the memo that Gardevoir is Fairy now and sent out an Absol. And his Absol doesn’t even have the Absolite! And Sycamore has some weird big-ass gun! What is this?

Hell yeah, look at that strong-ass bond. Using Teleport…so powerful. I wish I could make eye contact will my little Pokémon things and then they just move.

This man also didn’t get the memo that Gardevoir was even Psychic to begin with, because he uses Psycho Cut. And his Absol doesn’t know that he resists Ghost. Seriously, what is this battle? It’s not bad by any means; it’s actually pretty awesome...but it is kinda “what?”.

My favorite of Absol’s attacks, Perish Song! But…it did nothing because at least Diantha knows type match-ups. And was that not just the biggest insult ever? She didn’t even need to Mega Evolve - she was just playing with Magnus and Absol.

Well…they transition from wanting to talk to Diantha to wanting Chocolate Cake. On one hand, I like that a lot, as it is pretty realistic for a normal person, but not very realistic for this group. Which is why, on the other hand, it just seemed odd that they’d give up so easily.

And more crowds. So I guess Serena decides to get determined when it comes to eating fancy foods…what a girl. Makes sense for Bonnie, tho. They better have only allowed for one piece of cake at a time. Otherwise, Serena's a moron for just getting a single piece! And Serena’s such an ass. If they don’t split it in fourths SHE gets the whole thing? What the f*ck for? Not even Bonnie, who waited in line with her gets any? What a dick.

I can sort of see how Clemont thought they might encounter a situation like this, for once, but out of all the things he thinks they might encounter, THIS is the thing he invents first?! Surely something more important may happen in the future that he could have invented instead...

So Disguised Diantha also showed up to get cake…and then Ash only offered her a bite! That’s hilarious. I thought out of the goodness of their hearts, they’d at least offer all of it, even without knowing it was her.

That Gardevoir “Who’s That Pokémon?” music…I have no words for how glorious…it was aoegdglzigfluysa…

And they all end up getting a single bite’s worth of cake. Well, Whoop-Dee-Doo-De-La~ It also looks like this invention actually worked. O_O To be honest, I didn’t really expect it to fail, this time. Still weird how they all admire Diantha so much and only give her a bite. Good job, Pokemon. Celebrities are regular people, too (as if I'd give her all my damn cake I waited hours for).

SUGDUGLIWDgiulsa! SO it’s PERFECTLY FINE when Serena wants to talk to Diantha, but when Ash requests a battle, it’s bothering her? Well, whatever, since she said yes because she got cake. Well if that’s not the exact same reasoning I would have given, I don’t know what would be.

I guess whenever Diantha says “Checkmate” her opponents become stupidly unable to dodge? Because Pikachu was moving hella fast to do all those attacks before in pretty rapid succession. But now, all of a sudden, he can’t dodge a Shadow Ball from across the field? And now, Gardevoir apparently can’t Teleport at the speed of sound unless Diantha tells it to. So you mean to tell me this Kickass Gardevoir couldn’t sense that thing coming? Also, that was probably the worst Team Rocket motto ever. It was so off and unfitting considering the fact that there was no actual acting from our actress here.

That was pretty touching when Gardevoir and Diantha reunited like it was some big deal. I mean, it’s not like someone like Diantha was at risk of being lost forever. Anyway, not only was that the worst motto ever, that was the worst group laugh ever! DX

Finally, the damn thing Mega Evolves. I guess it’ll probably look cooler when it airs in the US since it seems to just be that the UK version of the episode has that ridiculous dimmed screen whenever something bright happens.

See? Diantha’s never at risk of being gone for too long when she has helicopters on deck that she didn’t even call for! I guess we’ll look forward to seeing Ash get curbstomped by Mega Gardevoir in the future.

Well, that was a good episode overall. The Anime succeeded in Diantha’s character and fame as a Movie Star where the games fell short. Great to see Sycamore back again and the battles in this episode were both good and weird at the same time~ Only cons would be the fact that Team Rocket was pretty bad in this episode. Last epsidoe they kicked ass and now the plot calls for them to suck again, so the inconsistency is way too noticeable. Also…they were just annoying. Jesse attributed everything about Diantha to being an actress when they clearly focused on the Champion side of her this episode. It also made the motto make next to no sense, as it was completely out of place, and it just felt like they were trying too damn hard. But overall, a nice 8/10.

So Ash and Comp. Notice a Battle is happening and then Serena Notices that it's ACTUALLY Diancie and Serena, Bonnie, Clemont, and Dedenne FREAK OUT ( HOW DOES Dedenne know who this is?

I think you mean Diantha~

NOW, one thing I did NOT Mention in the Review is this, Diantha Mentioned this place, the Lapodiran Highlands, in Japanese this was called Guipna, and Professor Sycamore says it's one of the Last Unexplored Regions in the World?! HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, now this is ONLY SPECULATION HERE, but could they have Hinted Gen 7's Region at all? I think this could be Open to Debation maybe? I was JUST REALLY Curious about this when I First heard it.

When they said region, I'm willing to bet they were referring to a region of Kalos or perhaps some other place, rather than an actual full Region like Kalos or Hoenn. Because it just seemed to be a mountainous place, it just seems like a geographical region, rather than what we consider full Regions. Of course, it's possible that this region could be in a Region we don't know about.

 

[Redtutel]

Pretty good episode. I'm glad Mega Evolution is getting further explored (when will Mega evolution special 2 come out?) I think I like Diantha a bit more in the show then I do in the game, Gardevoir is as lovely as always, and I really hope Ash makes it to the Elite Four and Champion this time. I always get my hopes up, even though they always come crashing down.

 

[EvilChameleon]

At least Diantha isn't as boring as she is in the games. Worst champion ever.

 

[Muur]

That Gardevoir is a cheat

the challenge should've been against an E4 or something

and shame his Absol is no longer SE on it

 

[Beth Pavell]

Finally managed to catch up with this episode and - not bad. I kind of liked Diantha's manager, and her reaction to Sycamore. That's right girl, you clobber him. I did laugh out loud at Bonnie's proposal (The change to black and white clinched it). Rather suspect that Diantha would be the Kiera Knightly of the pokémon world (In other words, never acts).

I'm getting fed up of the stupid catch-the-injured-pokémon bit. It's supposed to be all selfless and bonding and whatever, but it makes no sense. Pikachu regularly takes harder hits than it would from hitting ground, even if catching it would soften the impact. But overall, not a bad episode at all

 

[Lugia trainer]

I don't feel like writing a full review but want to say 1 thing: Diantha's manager seems to be a bit of an ass.

 

[fireflight775]

The main thing I don't like when they introduce a champion as a character in the anime is that they don't allow for someone to take their place when a new one is introduced in the games. I like Diantha but she is no Cynthia she is also better then the anime Alder but that's not saying much. There is potential here though and it will be nice to see Dianthas star quality play out in the series/