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Review JN147: The Rainbow and the Pokémon Master!

"We can't have a disappointing ending if there is no ending"

Tomioka, you traitor, where is Hikari's Top Coordinatorship? :cry: Surprisingly no Ho-Oh, but we got Kenji and Pidgeot instead, which is better actually.
 
So it's over.

It's actually legitimately over after countless years of adventures.

Today's a day that's very hard for me to comprehend, to realise that Ash and Pikachu are no longer the main characters of the series.

But even still it's been a wonderful ride and this episode was somewhat emotional to watch with the return of Gary, Tracey (who HALLEJULAH, speaks for the first and sadly last time since dog years) and even Pidgeot drops by for one more appearance.

It's not all perfect - Ho-Oh not showing up at all was kind of a bummer since it was one of the very things that helped kick off Ash's journey. It just felt somewhat wrong.

It'd be kind of like if I redid Spider-Man's origin story but randomly removed Uncle Ben.

But still just one minor gripe isn't enough to bring the episode down and this was a pretty good ending.

I think I'm going to be taking quite a big break from the anime for now.

Maybe I'll come back to the series one day and see how Riko and Roy fare but for now, it's time for me to move onto other things.
 
So the final team/party change of all the original main characters is Tracey. Who's Venonat evolved into a venomoth? I love it. It has a little irony in it. The person which party remained the same for the longest time.

And not that I really doubted it, but there was confirmation the not-Wobbuffet pokémon also reunited with Jessie and James.

Nice to see Pidgeot again. Too bad there was no room for Primeape in those 11 episodes. :(

I'll miss them all. The human and pokémon characters.

Goodbye, funny how that's such a hard thing to say...
 
It's finally over... Farewell old friend. :bulbaLove:

Seems like Ash doesn't want to be a champion and take on challengers. I suppose we already knew that since he turned down the offer to be a Frontier Brain.

My favorite part was oddly enough Tracey's Venonat evolving. It shows the bittersweet passage of time even if we will never get to see Ash grow up and become an adult.

It's always a shame when an anime end and they don't tell you what happened afterwards. I think we deserved to know since we have watched Ash's journey for so long!
 
...that's how it ends? I'm usually not one to criticize a show too harshly for it's conclusion, but for one that ran for over 25 years, I expected more from Pokémon's ending. But at the end of the day, this series isn't the best when it comes to writing so I shouldn't be surprised by this.

But on an optimistic note, I'm looking forward to the new series and what they end up doing with a clean slate.
 
I did suspect they might do this, the final episode with nothing really being final - Ash going on another Journey and Team Rocket following…

It’s kind of underwhelming but perhaps chasing our most epic fantasies would have been unwise.
 
I can't believe it's over already.

The good things:
Pidgeot returning, Kenji finally having a speaking role, Kenji's Venonat having evolved, Team Rocket's motto was animated beautifully, a few call-backs here and there.

The not so good things:
No conclusion for anyone ever, TR coming back together and sticking to their old ways felt really lame, the open ending bothers me a lot and it feels like they're just being cautious in case the new series flops.

I wouldn't say the episode was bad, it had its great moments, but... It was a very MEH way to end things. Neither Satoshi, TR or any of the other characters deserved this. :cry:
 
to be a cliche: not with a bang, but with a whimper

I knew it wasn't going to be some over-the-top sendoff like Endgame, but I was still really surprised at how low-key it was. I knew it'd be bittersweet, but not in this way. It's bitter because they just left the door open instead of anything final.

I don't mind how low-key it is, it feels kinda Ghibli. Not for whimsy, violence, or animation, more like that there's this emphasis on living between moments. It really does feel like those periods of life where you know something's around the corner, but you can't do much but wait.
 
I liked the EP, esp. Pidgeot's and Tracey's highlights, but... it felt a little too open ended for me. If they don't announce a movie or something soon I'll be kinda underwhelmed lol.

I really think those new pair of sneakers will mean something in the future!
 
It is just as I anticipated: an open-ended status-quo friendly finale that serves as a fail-safe so writers could hastily bring Ash, Pikachu, and Team Rocket back in case the SV series provides to be a failure or just plain controversial. And the rainbow in the previews? One last baiting that Journeys has become well-known for, and not a cameo by Ho-Oh or a "Rainbow Connection Finale" mass gathering by everyone who joined Ash and Pikachu over the past 25 years.
 
This series and finale could've been way better. I wish it was more conclusive for everyone. I wish Ash saw Primeape, Goodra, Naganadel. I wish Ash met everyone for once..I wish we had big finale for TR and Ash( Giovanni to die/get arrested) So many missed points, also no Ash's dad etc.
Honestly, I just hope as of next year we get to see more episodes about Ash to cover those things via movies or new mini series, they don't even need to be produced by main team. Give them to Netflix or something. Or make side stories of Ash's adventures like 1-2 episodes per year.
 
Can’t believe that this is really it and after all these years that Ash’s story has come to a close. It was certainly nice to not only see Ash keep his promise to Pidgeot after all these years but it to go with him. While the open ending feels a bit inconclusive, it does make sense for the endless summer theme of the anime and leaves the door open for them to make use of Ash in the future whether it be for specials, movies or even crossovers. While it’s the end of an era, I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of Ash.
 
snowmint said:
Lots of you have insane expectations for the finale. I thought it was perfect.
Click to expand...
Talk about hyperbole. Usually a finale has some kind of conclusion, this is literally how every between region episode plays out formulaically. It is perfectly reasonable to expect a series running over 25 years to have something better than whatever this was.

Its very clear that this episode was designed mainly because they don’t have complete faith in retiring Ash and Team Rocket. Heck, they couldn’t even give up Pikachu being a part of the main cast in the new series. The episode was serviceable in a vacuum, not as the conclusion to a show that spanned generations of Pokemon fans.
 
Kasumi said:
I can't believe it's over already.

The good things:
Pidgeot returning, Kenji finally having a speaking role, Kenji's Venonat having evolved, Team Rocket's motto was animated beautifully, a few call-backs here and there.

The not so good things:
No conclusion for anyone ever, TR coming back together and sticking to their old ways felt really lame, the open ending bothers me a lot and it feels like they're just being cautious in case the new series flops.

I wouldn't say the episode was bad, it had its great moments, but... It was a very MEH way to end things. Neither Satoshi, TR or any of the other characters deserved this. :cry:
Click to expand...
That's because the new series will flop. There is no metric that says the new series will be as popular as what it was under Ash. If that were the case, Dragon Ball would have no need for Goku. It depends on how steep the downward spiral will be with the new series. If it's only a minor one, then that really would be the best case scenario.
 
Six months ago when the mini arc was announced, the creators spelled it out clearly that Ash will always be on an adventure and this episode shows exactly what their plan was. Maybe it is a fail-safe to bring Ash and TR back one day, maybe it isn't.

The reveals of Pidgeot/Tracy/Venomoth were a bit lackluster for someone who doesn't hold the OS too close to their heart, so those being the big events of the episode felt lame.

I liked the running shoes - adventure detail
 
Please note: The thread is from 10 months ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.

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