Review SM137: Undefeated Emperor Guzma!

[BigDocFan]

SM137 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Discuss the episode here.

 

[Panky..]

Let's see if I can do a summary on my thoughts:

It was great to see this battle having more competency involved and felt like an actual high-stakes battles. Clever of Ash to have Torracat latch onto Golisopod to prevent it from using its arms properly. On top of that, having Pikachu use Electroweb as an extended area defensive move followed by swiping Golisopod's small legs to throw its large frame off balance.

We get to see more of Guzma's faltering facade as well as a decent amount of backstory. Glad to see that he doesn't really hate Golisopod for what happened with Scizor, just merely annoyed and later heading over to check on Golisopod and thanking him. Not to mention that infamous "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU" moment.

Problems I had with the episode though were the quick conclusion to Torracat's battle. I feel like he fainted way too easily just so that they could get on with the battle, not to mention that Torracat didn't have swirly eyes yet Nanu called it straight away. And the overuse of the 'two Pokemon slash each other, one falls' trope at the end. Another issue I had was with the lower/choppy framerate, though this has been a problem throughout the SM series.

It does seem like the finals will feature a lot in the next episode so here's hoping it doesn't encompass the entire thing especially given Fuji's disappointing history. Hopefully Melmetal and pre-final build-up takes half the episode. Irritated about that 'announcement' at the end.

I'll give it 8/10.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I thought this episode was dang near perfect. Too much emotions and sakuga to list after just one watching.

 

[Singaporean]

Very dreadful episode as I only can feel bad about Guzma past of losing to Kukui during in his prime, before forming the Team Skull. Nonetheless, the battle is very underwhelming.

Overall: B-

 

[BigDocFan]

Wow, wow, wow. And here was me thinking SM134 was a great episode (which it was), this one out does it

Wish Ash had recalled Torracat and sent Pikachu out to battle straight away, Torracat might have proved useful

Love the way Plumeria was concerned for Guzma

Might have missed some of the episode, left during Dare Da and came back to find Braviary attacking Golisopod

Was rather hoping for Kukui's Torracat and Guzma's Wimpod to be seen in flashback

Why couldn't Yuji Asada work on every league battle, the Alola league might have proved more enjoyable

 

[Alola]

Ya know, Guzma's anguish would be a lot more impacting if he was an established, recurring character in the series (rather than being introduced fairly late). It made his "development" hard to care about, for me, especially since it seemed to be neatly addressed in this episode, without any involvement from Kukui or Hala.

Hopefully he can return to deliver his other, iconic catchphrase.

 

[BigDocFan]

Ya know, Guzma's anguish would be a lot more impacting if he was an established, recurring character in the series (rather than being introduced fairly late). It made his "development" hard to care about, for me, especially since it seemed to be neatly addressed in this episode, without any involvement from Kukui or Hala.

Hopefully he can return to deliver his other, iconic catchphrase.

Agreed, it would have been nice if he was introduced, SM115 (23 episodes ago) didn't give him much time to establish himself

 

[radek.tadajewski.7]

Wow, wow, wow. And here was me thinking SM134 was a great episode (which it was), this one out does it

Wish Ash had recalled Torracat and sent Pikachu out to battle straight away, Torracat might have proved useful

Love the way Plumeria was concerned for Guzma

Might have missed some of the episode, left during Dare Da and came back to find Braviary attacking Golisopod

Was rather hoping for Kukui's Torracat and Guzma's Wimpod to be seen in flashback

Why couldn't Yuji Asada work on every league battle, the Alola league might have proved more enjoyable

It was a great battle, but for some reason they skipped Dare Da during the first airing and replaced with a Pokemon Go segment with the photos of kids encounting Pokemon which started since SM129 and onward. I wonder what Poekmon Dare Da could feature for this episode.

 

[BigDocFan]

They mentioned some announcement would take place this episode, did I miss something or was the announcement not related to Sword and Shield?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

They mentioned some announcement would take place this episode, did I miss something or was the announcement not related to Sword and Shield?

It was basically an announcement of an announcement. They showed anime artwork of all of the starter trios and then the date of September 29th.

 

[P_S_B]

Ya know, Guzma's anguish would be a lot more impacting if he was an established, recurring character in the series (rather than being introduced fairly late). It made his "development" hard to care about, for me, especially since it seemed to be neatly addressed in this episode, without any involvement from Kukui or Hala.

Hopefully he can return to deliver his other, iconic catchphrase.

Hapu had the same problem, where in the games her becoming the Kahuna was this big thing since you'd been encountering her throughout the game, whereas in the anime it was like 5 episodes after we first met her. It's one of the Sun and Moon anime's flaws; they don't know how to build characters and only introduce them within a few episodes of they character moment.

 

[KyseL]

Hapu had the same problem, where in the games her becoming the Kahuna was this big thing since you'd been encountering her throughout the game, whereas in the anime it was like 5 episodes after we first met her. It's one of the Sun and Moon anime's flaws; they don't know how to build characters and only introduce them within a few episodes of they character moment.

I don't really mind this as much, tbh. Introducing Hapu earlier would have been nice, but I don't feel it was necessary or that it would offer much more in terms of characterization. With Guzma I honestly feel that given the backstory they gave him, he was introduced at the perfect time. The only way I could have seen him introduced earlier would be if the official/public league announcement happened earlier. However, I do think Plumeri could have been introduced way earlier and would have added more contrast to the Team Skull Grunts' dynamics, she could have also been a vehicle to introduce/hint at Guzma indirectly by mentioning their "boss" every now and then, but that's pretty much it.

 

[BigDocFan]

It was basically an announcement of an announcement. They showed anime artwork of all of the starter trios and then the date of September 29th.

Guessing Sword and Shield will start that day, thanks for clarifying

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Guessing Sword and Shield will start that day, thanks for clarifying

I think we'll just get a trailer then. It's too early.

 

[JeoDude]

My full review might come when the subs are out, because this was an episode with a lot of dialogue. For now, some things that took my attention from this episode:

• The first half of the episode felt very slow to me, short battle scenes were followed by a lot of padding
• If Ash battles Masked Royal, there is no way I can see Torracat beat a pokemon who is stronger than Golisopod. It did a good job with defeating Scizor and having a good fight against Golisopod tho.
• Great second half of the episode, when ''Notebook to my Heart'' played, the animation and action were amazing. It looked like Guzma was proud of Golisopod after tanking Gigavolt Havoc. Guzma seemed to enjoy the battle he had with Ash, after he screamed ''What is wrong with you''.
• Talking about Gigavolt Havoc, I was expecting to have the Pikashinium-Z here, Maybe we will see it in the final being used on Zoroark

 

[BigDocFan]

My full review might come when the subs are out, because this was an episode with a lot of dialogue. For now, some things that took my attention from this episode:

• The first half of the episode felt very slow to me, short battle scenes were followed by a lot of padding
• If Ash battles Masked Royal, there is no way I can see Torracat beat a pokemon who is stronger than Golisopod. It did a good job with defeating Scizor and having a good fight against Golisopod tho.
• Great second half of the episode, when ''Notebook to my Heart'' played, the animation and action were amazing. It looked like Guzma was proud of Golisopod after tanking Gigavolt Havoc. Guzma seemed to enjoy the battle he had with Ash, after he screamed ''What is wrong with you''.
• Talking about Gigavolt Havoc, I was expecting to have the Pikashinium-Z here, Maybe we will see it in the final being used on Zoroark

They certainly defied expectations with Pikashinium-Z, I just wish they'd given Torracat the chance to use Inferno Overdrive

Loved the music during the second half

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Can I just shout out how great the animation was in this episode? There was just so many great moments in this episode that it would be too difficult to count them all.

 

[BigDocFan]

Can I just shout out how great the animation was in this episode? There was just so many great moments in this episode that it would be too difficult to count them all.

All thanks to the animation dream team of Yūji Asada, Masaaki Iwane and Izumi Shimura

They've done brilliant episodes before, long may they continue

 

[WatcherMark]

You know what I just realised? This is the first league battle (minus 1v1 battles obviously) since Satoshi defeated the Orange Crew where Pikachu isn't knocked out.

Anyway, this was a pretty good episode boosted by some fantastic animation and backstory. I loved the shot of Pikachu using Iron Tail while running to sweep Gusokumusha's leg (speaking of which, I bet if Guzma had swept a leg and attacked from behind it'd be considered a dirty trick but since our golden child Satoshi did it...).

 

[MegaGreninga]

Let's see if I can do a summary on my thoughts:

It was great to see this battle having more competency involved and felt like an actual high-stakes battles. Clever of Ash to have Torracat latch onto Golisopod to prevent it from using its arms properly. On top of that, having Pikachu use Electroweb as an extended area defensive move followed by swiping Golisopod's small legs to throw its large frame off balance.

We get to see more of Guzma's faltering facade as well as a decent amount of backstory. Glad to see that he doesn't really hate Golisopod for what happened with Scizor, just merely annoyed and later heading over to check on Golisopod and thanking him. Not to mention that infamous "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU" moment.

Problems I had with the episode though were the quick conclusion to Torracat's battle. I feel like he fainted way too easily just so that they could get on with the battle, not to mention that Torracat didn't have swirly eyes yet Nanu called it straight away. And the overuse of the 'two Pokemon slash each other, one falls' trope at the end. Another issue I had was with the lower/choppy framerate, though this has been a problem throughout the SM series.

It does seem like the finals will feature a lot in the next episode so here's hoping it doesn't encompass the entire thing especially given Fuji's disappointing history. Hopefully Melmetal and pre-final build-up takes half the episode. Irritated about that 'announcement' at the end.

Well
Torrkat gotten poison too