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Review XY077: The Pokémon Sky Relay Challenge! Fly, Onbat!!

Mareepy

Psycho Tsutarja fans
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Episode page here

I missed the first few minute, started watching when Ash was talking to the old man with Noctowl outdoors. That eyebrow of him.. totally Noctowl lol.

I freaking love Noibat! OMG I love him, he is doing so good in this episode, it got me in tears. <3 him.

Hawlucha on the Hot Air Balloon after finishing his run to support Noibat. THIS. THIS. IS. PURE. WIN. The feels of Snivy staying out of Pokeball to support Tepig in the episode Tepig evolves came right back. I love that. LOVE!

Team Rocket screwed up a bit, when they didn't finish their motto I nearly laughed, and then they flew all they way to blast off Meowth and Wobbuffet, I was so close to bursting out laughing, BUT! The final scene of the blast off is a stock animation? That turned me down, like totally. But I am happy they blasted off before Noibat's section.

There goes the streak of Ash winnig Flying competitions, but second place ain't bad. And I love Noibat! He is so adorable. <3 <3

Edit: How did I forgot to mention all the supports Noibat remembered when he struggled in the wind. That is so epic. And Hawlucha's thumb up is priceless.
 
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Here's my summary of the episode.

The episode starts with Hawlucha flying through the air with Noibat on his back.

Hawlucha leans forward and drops Noibat off of him.

Noibat then tries to fly.

Ash and co. are watching the Flying Type Pokemon.

Noibat isn't doing such a good job.

Fletchinder is also flying through the sky near Noibat.

A harsh wind ruins Noibat's attempt at flying.

Hawlucha rides the harsh wind easily, so then Noibat does the same thing.

Fletchinder, Hawlucha and Noibat then return to the ground near Ash and co.

Ash picks Noibat up and then Noibat starts crying and using Supersonic as it cries.

A Starly, Staravia and Staraptor fly above Ash, which Ash is excited about.

Ash and co. come across a Pokemon Competition.

An old man comes up to Ash and co. and he looks like a Noctowl.

The old man has a Noctowl by his side with him.

He tells Ash and co. about the Pokemon competition that is going on.

The competition is called the Pokemon Sky Relay Challenge.

The old man is called Oiseau.

Ash and co. see the same Starly, Staravia and Staraptor from before.

Oiseau tells Ash and co. that they belong to a trainer named Ornis.

Ash and co. watch Ornis with his Flying Type Pokemon.

Team Rocket are watching Ash and co. nearby, from behind some bushes.

They talk about getting Ash's Noibat again and getting it to evolve into a Noivern.

Ash and co. go with Oiseau into a cabin, to talk about how the Sky Relay Challenge works.

After that, they go back outside, where the Sky Relay Challenge is about to start.

Ash, Ornis and Team Rocket are all entered in the competition.

This means that they all get their own Hot Air Balloon to watch the race from.

All the other contestants are also in Hot Air Balloons.

All of the Pokemon who are participating in the first leg of the relay are all lined up straight on the starting line.

A screen counts down to the start of the competition and then the screen says "Go" to signal that the race has started.

All of the Pokemon then take off into the air for the first leg of the challenge.

The rest of Ash's group and Oiseau are all watching the race on the ground.

Ash's Pokemon for the first leg is his Fletchinder, which is in the lead so far.

Ornis's Pokemon for the first leg is his Staravia.

Pokemon Quiz: Starly.

A Hydreigon is crashing through some trees whilst flying in the first leg of the race.

Jessie's Pumpkaboo is in the race and it knocks into an Altaria, making it fall to the ground.

Ash's Fletchinder finishes the first leg and then Ash's Hawlucha takes over for the second leg.

Orni's next Pokemon for the second leg is his Staraptor.

Jessie's Pumpkaboo finishes for the first leg and Meowth takes over the second leg, in a Pelliper shape mecha that flies.

The outside of the Pelliper shaped Mecha that Meowth is in slowly disintegrates.

All that's left is just the interior and Meowth who is still flying it.

Team Rocket are discovered, so Jessie and James recite their motto from inside their Hot Air Balloon.

Team Rocket end up attacked, which sends them flying into Wobbuffet and Inkay, sending them blasting off.

Hawlucha gives his sash for the competition to Noibat, since Noibat will be flying in the third and final leg.

Noibat flies off with the sash and so does Ornis's Pokemon for the final leg, Starly.

Noibat struggles to keep up with Starly.

Starly rides a harsh wind, allowing it to fly through the sky fast.

Noibat start falling, but it then remembers the encouraging words that Ash gave to it.

It then starts flying again and as it flies, it remembers the encouraging words that everyone has given it.

It start to fly faster and it is tied with Starly as they both come near the finishing line.

Noibat just manages to go over the line before Starly and ends up winning the race.

Ash and his Flying Pokemon have won the Sky Relay Challenge.

Hawlucha gives Noibat a "Good work" type gesture.

Ash and co. go into a building where Ash if officially crowned the winner of the Sky Relay Challenge.

To be continued.
 
Ash and co. go into a building where Ash if officially crowned the winner of the Sky Relay Challenge.
From screenshots, it looks like Ash came in second, and wasn't the winner.
 
Isn't it convenient that everyone happened to stumble upon an event that required three flying type Pokemon, just after Ash captured a third flying type Pokemon. It's almost like this is scripted...

I really like all the flying types this episode got to show off - any episode with Combee is an instant success, super serious starting line Combee is even better than that. Plus, seeing the Starly line again is really nice - rather than focusing on Taillow because Hoenn.

The Noctowl in this episode makes Ash's one look even smaller than it did previously - I know Ash's is supposed to be smaller, but it was 2/3rds the size of a 'normal' Noctowl last time around - there's no way this episode's Noctowl could sit on that branch.

Nothing really for me to complain about - I even like that Noibat came second - it wouldn't have been believable for a Pokemon that could barely fly at the start of the level to win a flying competition against a well trained Starly.
 
Isn't it convenient that everyone happened to stumble upon an event that required three flying type Pokemon, just after Ash captured a third flying type Pokemon. It's almost like this is scripted...

Well if I'm not mistaken they chose the location because of the wind to help Noibat learn how to fly in the beginning of the episode.

It's not that much of a stretch to believe that an event would take place in location where wind is frequent.
 
Cool episode.

I liked how Noibat was training with Fletchinder and Hawlucha again in the beginning of the episode. He's is really improving.Aw, I love how Noibat was riding Hawlucha and mimicked him when they introduced themselves to that Noctowl man. (And speaking of Noctowl, I love that thing's expressions.) I also like how, once again, Bonnie introduced Clemont.

I don't know why, but that Starly team dude looked familiar to me. Aw, Noibat hiding behind Hawlucha was cute. As was his shivering when Ash was discussing the order of the team for the competition. He's so damn adorable. I like how the group was stationed off into 3 groups for the competition, with Ash starting at the beginning, Clemont and Bonnie with Hawlucha and waiting for Fletchinder and Serena with Noibat waiting for Hawlucha (I also liked that Serena and Hawlucha later joined Ash in the balloon). Lol, Idk what was up with that Hydreigon, but seeing it knock itself out by slamming into a tree trunk was hilarious. Overall I think Fletch and Luch were awesome. Hawlucha was especially cool using the surrounding environments to progress further ahead.

Aw Noibat looked so sad that he didn't get first place. I like how they all cheered him up. I didn't mind Ash not winning. After all, Noibat only just hatched and learned how to fly. Ash getting first honestly would have seemed odd to me. And I wanted team Starly to win anyway:) Also, awesome TR blast off.

Overall, a good episode. 9/10.
 
It seems that TRio is still obsessed with stealing Ash's Noibat so they can evolve it into a Noivern, but they didn't even try to steal it in this episode. They were so focused on the race for some reason.

The Noctowl in this episode makes Ash's one look even smaller than it did previously - I know Ash's is supposed to be smaller, but it was 2/3rds the size of a 'normal' Noctowl last time around - there's no way this episode's Noctowl could sit on that branch.

Noctowl is 5'03" in the games, so it should be around Ash's height but the one in this episode is still a bit smaller.
 
It seems that TRio is still obsessed with stealing Ash's Noibat so they can evolve it into a Noivern, but they didn't even try to steal it in this episode. They were so focused on the race for some reason.

The Noctowl in this episode makes Ash's one look even smaller than it did previously - I know Ash's is supposed to be smaller, but it was 2/3rds the size of a 'normal' Noctowl last time around - there's no way this episode's Noctowl could sit on that branch.

Noctowl is 5'03" in the games, so it should be around Ash's height but the one in this episode is still a bit smaller.

A 5 foot 3 Owl.......yikes!
 
It seems that TRio is still obsessed with stealing Ash's Noibat so they can evolve it into a Noivern, but they didn't even try to steal it in this episode. They were so focused on the race for some reason.

The Noctowl in this episode makes Ash's one look even smaller than it did previously - I know Ash's is supposed to be smaller, but it was 2/3rds the size of a 'normal' Noctowl last time around - there's no way this episode's Noctowl could sit on that branch.

Noctowl is 5'03" in the games, so it should be around Ash's height but the one in this episode is still a bit smaller.

A 5 foot 3 Owl.......yikes!

A lot of Pokemon have discrepancies with their actual sizes in the anime. Just like Noctowl, Golbat is right up there in the 5 foot range. And Roselia is actually supposed to be a foot tall.
 
Aw, Noibat is so cute, I could just hug it!

Ahem, excuse me for gushing. This was a pretty decent episode, the race was nice and it was fun to watch. I also love the relationship between Noibat and Hawlucha, it's like a little brother that idolizes the older sibling and wants to be more like him while the older one clearly looks out for his younger sibling. It's a really unique relationship that we haven't seen much of and I like having that between these two, especially as the former grows over the course of the series.
 
I can't be the only loving the screen time all of Ash's flyers are getting right?

Hawlucha as a big brother to Noibat is quite fitting. I wonder if it will still look up to Hawlucha when it evolves to a Noivern in the future?

It's a shame Ash didn't win the race. Although I'm quite fine with that since Noibat just hatched, it still can't fly perfectly yet.

Overall a 9/10 episode.
 
This was a fantastic, classic episode of Pokemon. I frickin love race episodes!!!!! I am also in the camp who is not unhappy that Satoshi has 3 fliers (why not?!) so it was great to see all of them shine, and Onbat is actually extremely cute! Mind you seeing all those flying pokes together made me realise just how many Satoshi has owned over the years! Between the old man and Nyasu as Pelipper the humour factor was more than adequately covered.
 
Near the beginning, when the old man was explaining the rules and the course and everything, he said something that caused everyone to faceplant. I think they were assuming he was a sky relay veteran, so they asked him if he was entering too, and he said he can't because he doesn't have three Pokemon. Did I interpret that correctly?

edit: Turns out I did. Couple things I didn't notice the first time I watched this episode:
-The name of guy with the Starly line is Ornis. He was probably named after ornithology, which is the study of birds. I know it's an English word but they use English words (and words from other languages) in the Japanese version all the time.
-The old man's name is Oiseau, which means "bird" in French. So that's yet another French reference in the XY series.
 
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The music when Hawlucha and Fletchinder were teaching Noibat how to fly was so good. And that whole scene was really cute. It is like they are Noibat's parents :D Their relationship is really adorable. I love how Noibat stays on Hawlucha's head, like Pikachu in Ash's. I wonder if Hawlucha will stay in Noivern's head when it evolves ^^

The episode was okay. For some reason, I was expecting Fletchinder to evolve into Talonflame, maybe it's because Taillow and Staravia evolved in similar episodes.
 
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