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Review JN037: I'm Back, Nice to Meet You, Alola!

I'm a bit disappointed to say the least. It's a perfectly fine episode, but it fails to live up to its full potential. It would've been better if this was a two parter, as I felt like everyone was there just to say "hey we exist". I may like the episode more depending on the subs.

The baby is really cute, and was the best part of the episode for me.
 
What a wonderful episode and Ash's being the Big Brother for his Alola family is just heart touching and the letter from Lillie that she and her family haven't found her father. It just, I can't describe. Also, only disappointed is that the battle was called off after the Z-Move from Kiawe, where his Alolan Marowak save them at the last second before get hit. Other than that, it is a so excitied for the reunion of Ash's Alola friends.

Overall rating: A+
 
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I hate to be negative but I'm a bit disappointed... For an episode that was supposed to be about Ash going back to Alola and seeing the region and his friends again there was far too much Gou focus in it.

It wasn't an inherently bad episode as episodes go, but as the first reunion since Sun and Moon ended it was pretty underwhelming thanks to its massive focus on Gou instead of Ash. If they had done this properly they would have paired it up with the Tokio episode and had just Ash in Alola so we could get a full-episode reunion and have basically a Sun and Moon catch-up episode instead of having like 2 scenes of that and a bunch of Gou for the rest of it, then have him go back with Gou later in another episode so he could meet the cast and battle Kiawe etc. Hell, if they'd done Ash's post-loss depression the right way Gou could have thought back to how happy Ash was when he got back from that proposed first Alola episode and suggested going there with him to cheer him up, and have that be when Gou meets the cast and battles Kiawe etc. It seems likely that this is a casualty of the self-contained requirement which I hope is given the boot when they move to Fridays because it is really holding the series back in many ways.

I enjoyed the stuff with Ash, but there just wasn't enough of it to wet my appetite. Seeing Burnett's baby was good and the scene with Lana reading Lillie's letter to Ash were all good, but they made up a microscopic fraction of the episode and the rest of it was just introducing Gou to the SM cast, not really what I wanted from a first reunion episode.

As for positives, I liked the scene with Burnett's baby and it was nice to see the Sun and Moon cast again as well as seeing some of Ash's old Pokémon 37 episodes in, and I really liked hearing so many of the Sun and Moon musical tracks again. Seeing Gou battle and catch the Alolan Exeggutor properly was good too even if the Pyukumyuku catch wasn't.

Going to have to give it a solid B-, losing most of the points for giving too much focus to Gou instead of the character I actually wanted to see interacting with the Sun and Moon cast. There was a lot of good stuff in there, but it didn't live up to what I personally wanted from a first reunion episode.
 
An enjoyable and lively episode, that's the charm of Alola. The episode was not perfect imo, some scenes were rushed such as the reunion with Ash's pokemon. Then again, it could be because of Covid they put everything into one episode. Fortunately we will see more Alola episodes in the future.

The music in this episode was phenomanal, Miyazaki and Hayashi put together makes an amazing ost! I wish they do this more often and not only because of Alola.

The conversation between Go and Kiawe has me intrigued, it felt very intense so I am curious what they were saying. Go felt like Deku for a moment. Go setting up as a rival for Ash would be very interesting.

8/10 for now. An typical Alolan episode, bursting with live, energy and emotion. The fact that they spoiled almost everything important beforehand will impact people's perspective I think. We would be mindblown if we saw al those moments in the episode itself.
 
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This episode was music to my ears. Such great fun returning to Alola with plenty of returns, fun moments, continuity and cameos up the wazoo.

Only major criticism I have is that some bits felt a little rushed (but then again this episode was kind of packed anyway) and this might just be me but I really, REALLY wish that this was also a two parter so that they could spend more time there but welcome to the world of Journeys where you can't win em all.

Other than that, really liked this one a lot. Even Gou's stuff didn't bother or bore me either. I wonder how the returning visits will fare.
 
So around 9+ months pass, yet the writers will most likely say Ash is still 10 next time. Does that mean Burnett's child will grow up and one day become older than Ash because of the latter's Peter Pan syndrome?
 
So around 9+ months pass, yet the writers will most likely say Ash is still 10 next time. Does that mean Burnett's child will grow up and one day become older than Ash because of the latter's Peter Pan syndrome?

To be fair, we have no indication that pregnancies in the world of the Pokemon anime lasts 9+ months :sneaky:

(Except for the one line from Delia in Shudo's novelisation)
 
This episode had me squealing.

All the reunions were great, meeting the baby, the letter from Lillie... WE SAW TEAM ROCKET’S POKÉMON that’s all I wanted!

Goh’s character development here was really clever - he feels like a very real character- and I like that the episode never really acted like Goh had a chance of beating Kiawe - it all felt very realistic and true to these characters that I love so much.

And they have that photo up in the classroom, it’s beautiful!

I know it’s only one episode, but I think it’s clear any and all episodes in Alola are going to be like this - basically continuations of the Sun and Moon series.

I’m just so happy about this episode.

Also, anyone notice how Rotom Pokédex has free will but Rotom Phone is literally imprisoned and enslaved?
 
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