Review JN128: Climax! The Night Before the Decisive Battle! Satoshi VS Dande!!

[FinnishPokéFan92]

JN128 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

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The fourth Journeys recap episode has aired, revealing some new information about the upcoming Ash vs Leon match. Feel my free to discuss it here.

 

[BigDocFan]

It was nice to get some new footage of upcoming episodes at least, confirmation of Leon's team which doesn't include Eternatus

 

[UxieLover1994]

So, this "big announcement" is just showcasing clips for the upcoming battle? To be honest, I was expecting (at best) a teaser for the SV series after this clip episode.

I doubt this will be the final clip episode for Journeys.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

This was an absolute waste of time. Put all this hype in, but still no SV series reveal. Horrible.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

It was a recap and they did a lot of recap things like recapping previous episodes and even recapping the recaps like all recaps do.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Here’s some tidbits from the news someone on 4chan translated:

Pikachu is the smallest Pokémon to ever be in the Masters 8
Pikachu likes to go around the local shops searching for the best food
Pikachu’s favorite food is milk bread with ketchup

When Lucario was a Riolu he spent most of his time training with Raboot and Mr. Mime
Lucario watches videos of Ash’s previous League battles at Sakuragi Institute
Lucario was both proud and moist when it defeated Garchomp

Sirfetch’d was trained by Wikstrom of the Elite Four
Sirfetch’d protects Ash and his friends outside of battle
Sirfetch’d got in a fight with the press after a post-battle interview

Things that sway catch Dracovish’s attention
Dracovish fell in love with Cynthia’s Milotic because of its tail
Garchomp stops Dracovish from making any advances on it

Gengar loves to surprise people and Pokémon
Gengar performed a lot of pranks on everyone in the waiting room
Gengar scared Cynthia’s Spiritomb and it got mad and they ended up getting into a fight

Dragonite loves hugs
Dragonite’s hugs give a tranquil feeling
Dragonite gave Iris’ Dragonite a hug and it smiled

Leon’s Charizard’s nickname is Mr. Daimonji, which literally means Mr. Great Blaze

Just a shame we had to be told it rather than shown it because these would’ve been great.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Pikachu’s favorite food is milk bread with ketchup

Ah, the good old ketchup love. Still active all these years later.

Leon’s Charizard’s nickname is Mr. Daimonji, which literally means Mr. Great Blaze

Or Mr. Fire Blast.

 

[Daren]

Dracovish fell in love with Cynthia’s Milotic because of its tail

Here's your assignment for the week, fanfic writers.

 

[JinksChow]

Lucario was both proud and moist when it defeated Garchomp

Excuse me but what in the actual f***?

 

[Daren]

Excuse me but what in the actual f***?

I assume it means they teared up.
But the phrasing was kind of awkward.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Excuse me but what in the actual f***?

Considering it came from 4chan, I’d take that with a bag of salt.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Lucario was both proud and moist when it defeated Garchomp

Spoiler

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Here’s some tidbits from the news someone on 4chan translated:

Pikachu is the smallest Pokémon to ever be in the Masters 8
Pikachu likes to go around the local shops searching for the best food
Pikachu’s favorite food is milk bread with ketchup

When Lucario was a Riolu he spent most of his time training with Raboot and Mr. Mime
Lucario watches videos of Ash’s previous League battles at Sakuragi Institute
Lucario was both proud and moist when it defeated Garchomp

Sirfetch’d was trained by Wikstrom of the Elite Four
Sirfetch’d protects Ash and his friends outside of battle
Sirfetch’d got in a fight with the press after a post-battle interview

Things that sway catch Dracovish’s attention
Dracovish fell in love with Cynthia’s Milotic because of its tail
Garchomp stops Dracovish from making any advances on it

Gengar loves to surprise people and Pokémon
Gengar performed a lot of pranks on everyone in the waiting room
Gengar scared Cynthia’s Spiritomb and it got mad and they ended up getting into a fight

Dragonite loves hugs
Dragonite’s hugs give a tranquil feeling
Dragonite gave Iris’ Dragonite a hug and it smiled

Leon’s Charizard’s nickname is Mr. Daimonji, which literally means Mr. Great Blaze

Just a shame we had to be told it rather than shown it because these would’ve been great.

Yeah, this has been another big issue with the series. We should have gotten the chance to see these interactions. A typical case of tell, don't show.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Yeah, this has been another big issue with the series. We should have gotten the chance to see these interactions. A typical case of tell, don't show.

By this point they may as well tell us how Uber awesome Charizard smacked that hillbilly and his six non-Charizard losers back to the ranch with one hit a piece

 

[Daren]

Yeah, this has been another big issue with the series. We should have gotten the chance to see these interactions. A typical case of tell, don't show.

I wonder if the now-confirmed production issues could be responsible for this.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I wonder if the now-confirmed production issues could be responsible for this.

I'd say in this case possibly, but this has been prevalent through the whole series.

 

[Daren]

I'd say in this case possibly, but this has been prevalent through the whole series.

Yeah, but it sounds like they started losing employees before JN even started, making me wonder if there's been problems the whole time and the recent rash of skips and clip shows is because they want the Leon battle to have top-tier animation and are saving everything they can for it.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Why Dawn -_- I need Serena there and Amourshipping moments plz

 

[Audino1008]

The Cli- Alright I won't say it
Anyway yeah another boring recap and I also hate when they spoil stuff I wish they did more stuff like the Serena episode where it wasn't confirmed she was in it until the episode was released.
At this point I just don't really care anymore. I can't be upset with anyone because of the production issues and also I'm not gonna be upset because the overworked and underpaid wage slaves aren't making a cartoon fast enough for our convenience. I think that even besides Pokemon I realized that having strong feelings about production issues is just not worth it.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Well, yet another clipshow.
What I really found hard for the international audience was the fact there was way too much text on the screen. Not being able to understand Japanese, I personally found it impossible to both read all that text and watch the episode at the same time, so I ended up pausing the video countless times which was annoying

However, I thought it wasn't the worst clipshow after all. What made me go into raptures was the commentator's praise for Cynthia: Her meticulous planning, great strategies and extremely clever thinking ahead.
Then, he even called her an "angel", which, of course, was the absolute highlight of the episode
And finally, that "breaking news" part where the audience was reminded that the Queen is retiring from battles after all was great, too. I agree with the commentator it was in fact a great relief.

To sum up: The Cynthia-part of this episode was just wonderful while the rest was nothing special to comment on.