Review SM004: It's Mokuroh! Catching Pokémon in Alola!!

[Jaye]

Speaking of the TRio-induced conflict (and also about how much of a bitch Musashi is), I'm surprised no one (especially me!) has mentioned yet about them going to rescue the fruit/start a fight to repay Kiteruguma for feeding them.

I thought about it but it's pretty standard by this point for Team Rocket to be treated as the bad guys even when they aren't actually doing anything wrong. Bar the nets, I guess.

 

[ii kanji]

I thought about it but it's pretty standard by this point for Team Rocket to be treated as the bad guys even when they aren't actually doing anything wrong. Bar the nets, I guess.

Tbf if you go at a bunch of birds with nets you are going to be treated as the villains of the piece. I was just glad that they were allowed to start off in this series ALREADY showing humanity, friendship and depth to their characters/relationships which was a little lacking in XY. Hopefully signals good things for them in SM (at least from my POV anyway).

 

[NeoMiniTails]

Yeah now that you mention it, I'm surprised that I didn't even hint to it. Lol. I loved that TRio decided to go after the food due to it being stolen from Bewear, who was "nice" enough to feed them though I have a bit of trust issues towards a Pokemon that keeps saying, "It's time to eat" and had fed them enough for Wubbofet's stomach to carry over. Lol.

Anyways, I loved that it showed their humanity so early in the game. I've never looked at TR as bad guys, per se. They're more like Ekans and Koffing when they said they weren't bad Pokemon, but they're masters are bad (despite their love for them.) I feel the same logic can be applied to those three, just three friends who all stumbled on a bad path that led them to Team Rocket.

That being said, they're so loyal to everyone and everything. They're loyal to Pikachu, loyal to a bear that showed them kindness, loyal to their boss... and I love that it causes conflict. If they hadn't gone after Pikachu, it would be just them doing a good deed... but their loyalty to wanting the mouse Pokemon and loyalty to Sakaki made their battle inevitable. Lol.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Decent episode. Better than the last three, but still not inspiring confidence in the show's performance in my eyes.

Good points:
1) Cute, ditzy Rowlet, making me warm up to the species a bit more, especially when it was a baby. (Note that I don't hate the species, it's just so-so to me). Hopefully this means Ash will finally get his first official Ghost-type.
2) Not as much over-the-top expressions, exaggerations, and slapstick.
3) TRio being humane enough to try to repay Bewear's for feeding them.
4) The show remembering that other types of Poke Balls besides the standard model exist.
5) Rotom-Dex being a rather efficient helper, with decent personality to boot, not to mention Mallow seems like a good enough character.

Bad points:
1) Ash failing to catch Grubbin and subsequently having Pika getting beaten by it, further making me feel that Pika got a reset again.
2) Still enough over-the-top expressions and such to annoy me.
3) Animation is still horrid.
4) TRio look absolutely horrible in this new style, making them extremely painful to watch. They don't look like people anymore.
5) Mimikyu being pretty rotten in terms of personality, being the exact opposite I was expecting, and that James didn't catch it, instead having his Luxury Ball pinched by Jessie to use for herself.
6) Toucannon still looking like a Pokemon version of Angry Birds with its always angry expression, making me like the species less.
7) TRio's current motto being the worst of them all.
8) Still too much slice-of-life nonsense, further souring my view of the show.

Above all, the show is still going down the wrong road in my opinion (and I know certain people will chew me out for it). Ash doesn't even remotely feel like Ash anymore, TRio are just too painful in this new style, and most of the characters seem a bit wasted. 6/10 at best to me, but better than the last three.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Above all, the show is still going down the wrong road in my opinion (and I know certain people will chew me out for it). Ash doesn't even remotely feel like Ash anymore, TRio are just too painful in this new style, and most of the characters seem a bit wasted. 6/10 at best to me, but better than the last three.

The show has being going down for a while now. Whether or not SM would pull the show back from this slumber is yet to be seen.

 

[jonathan keller]

Also, we could have a nice little comeback story for pikachu.

In episode 3&4 mimikyu kicked pikachu's ass. And in the preview of episode 5 it looks like he will again, leaving pikachu hanging off a building. Now that mimikyu is offically jessie's,it's TR's strongest pokemon basically ever. So jessie is actually a challenge to ash.

Anyway back to my point. It seems mimkyu is going to smack pikachu around for a little bit, then it seems pikachu is going to beat mimikyu

 

[dman_dustin]

I actually didn't enjoy this episode as much as the other three, mostly because it didn't feel like much happened even though things did happen. Or maybe it'd be more accurate to say it wasn't satisfying. Rowlett's capture was contrived, in as much that it spent about two minutes with Ash yet we're supposed to believe that was enough for it to want to leave its family. Ash didn't have to work for the capture at all.

I have to disagree here, maybe it would feel contrived if Rowlet was another Pokemon and the same thing, a normal Pokemon like say with Grubbin that we saw, maybe I can understand.

But what we know about Rowlet, it makes a lot of sense for why it quickly bonded with Ash. Rowlet is very much like Gligar back in Diamond and Pearl, seemingly young, naive Pokemon that are on the side of "idiot" the thing with Gligar is that the only thing Ash really did was interact with it and then save it.

Same with Rowlet, not to mention Ash actually fed Rowlet and petted it, so it makes sense that Rowlet would've bonded so quickly with Ash since, there was no reason to, it was probably the first human that Rowlet ever really interacted with or payed attention to, so its Rowlet's personality alone which allowed it to connect to Ash so quickly because of protecting and feeding it. It's basically all Rowlet could do within its personality is have a deep connection with Ash, since it wouldn't have a reason to take time to bond with Ash.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Same with Rowlet, not to mention Ash actually fed Rowlet and petted it, so it makes sense that Rowlet would've bonded so quickly with Ash since, there was no reason to, it was probably the first human that Rowlet ever really interacted with or payed attention to, so its Rowlet's personality alone which allowed it to connect to Ash so quickly because of protecting and feeding it. It's basically all Rowlet could do within its personality is have a deep connection with Ash, since it wouldn't have a reason to take time to bond with Ash.

I would like to add to some of your points. I watched the episode without subs (and I dob't even understand Japanese), and it appeared as if what Rowlet needed most was- Refreshment, and something (edible) to take to Toucannon. And Ash satisfied both needs, by offering Rowlet food, and letting him/her take a watermelon to Toucannon.

And to all those who feel Toucannon was badly animated/like angry birds- it was just Toucannon's personality, which clearly showed through. Toucannon was like a grumpy daddy (though it looked female), who looks angry, but this is for the overall good of the child (rowlet). So, I liked Toucannon' character in this episode.

 

[NeoMiniTails]

Oh Toucannon was female? It seemed like a father... though most bird species has the female take care of the babies outside of penguins. I assumed the one that kept patting Rowlet on the back was the mother who was proud of her son.

I thought the episode did a fantastic job characterizing everyone. I don't know if Rowlet was adopted because when you play the games, the two Pokemon breeding can create another Pokemon completely... though that may not apply in the anime world.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Oh Toucannon was female? It seemed like a father... though most bird species has the female take care of the babies outside of penguins. I assumed the one that kept patting Rowlet on the back was the mother who was proud of her son.

I thought the episode did a fantastic job characterizing everyone. I don't know if Rowlet was adopted because when you play the games, the two Pokemon breeding can create another Pokemon completely... though that may not apply in the anime world.

I'm not entirely sure that it was female. But, as you said, the female hatches eggs and so on. The trumbeak (which patted/scolded Rowlet throughout the episode), looked like the leader of the Pikipek group.

It looked like Toucannon (can be compared to Prime Minister/Queen/King) > Trumbeak (Advisor/Chief Minister) > Pikipek (Citizens).

 

[NeoMiniTails]

I'm not entirely sure that it was female. But, as you said, the female hatches eggs and so on. The trumbeak (which patted/scolded Rowlet throughout the episode), looked like the leader of the Pikipek group. If looked like Toucannon (can be compared to Prime Minister/Queen/King) > Trumbeak (Advisor/Chief Minister) > Pikipek (Citizens).

Interestingly, both the male and female toucan incubate the eggs for 16-20 days, according to Toco Toucan Facts for Kids so it's possible to be either gender since Pokemon tends to base their creatures heavily off the real thing.

I agree about the Trumbeak when I look back at it. Haha. I like the imagery/hierachy you came up with.

 

[Jaye]

1) Ash failing to catch Grubbin and subsequently having Pika getting beaten by it, further making me feel that Pika got a reset again.

Pikachu hasn't been reset. Lillie accidentally got in the way of his Quick Attack, which unbalanced him enough for Grubbin to get a shot in before it escaped. Lillie even apologised for it after the battle.

I have to disagree here, maybe it would feel contrived if Rowlet was another Pokemon and the same thing, a normal Pokemon like say with Grubbin that we saw, maybe I can understand.

But what we know about Rowlet, it makes a lot of sense for why it quickly bonded with Ash. Rowlet is very much like Gligar back in Diamond and Pearl, seemingly young, naive Pokemon that are on the side of "idiot" the thing with Gligar is that the only thing Ash really did was interact with it and then save it.

Same with Rowlet, not to mention Ash actually fed Rowlet and petted it, so it makes sense that Rowlet would've bonded so quickly with Ash since, there was no reason to, it was probably the first human that Rowlet ever really interacted with or payed attention to, so its Rowlet's personality alone which allowed it to connect to Ash so quickly because of protecting and feeding it. It's basically all Rowlet could do within its personality is have a deep connection with Ash, since it wouldn't have a reason to take time to bond with Ash.

Even then, it still feels like the show is reaching. I don't think it gave a strong enough reason for me to believe that Rowlet's bond with Ash became stronger than its bond with the Pikipek flock in such a short period of time.

At the very least, having Toucannon give Ash a test to see if he's trustworthy and whatnot would have improved the scene. Not only would it have made sense in the context (he's the head of the flock, raised and took care of Rowlet, etc.) it would have made Ash work for it.

Otherwise, it just comes off as lazy to me.

 

[ii kanji]

I thought the episode did a fantastic job characterizing everyone.

Ditto.
So far I think every episode has been bang on with the characterisation. I know some people are frustrated that Satoshi's friends were all quite passive in these two episodes (it's a fair complaint) but tbh they were focussed on 1. TRio 2. Rotomdex 3. Satoshi 4. Mokuroh and these two episodes did a fab job with them. And from a character POV, they might not have done much, but even some of the little bits they did get demonstrated more character than the passive-main-characters-of-the-week (or even sometimes the MAIN main character of the week!) in XY IMO.

I have a bit of trust issues towards a Pokemon that keeps saying, "It's time to eat" and had fed them enough for Wubbofet's stomach to carry over.

What's the opposite of trust issues? Trust? That's what I feel towards anyone who keeps saying "It's time to eat" - my kinda fella, and, let's be honest, the TRio's too!

 

[Kagami]

Oh my goodness! Kagami spies a sexual innuendo this episode and I don't see many people mentioning it elsewhere (granted I am new here so can't speak for these forums).

The scene wear that (I call it sexualbear) went to feed Jesse? That angle, shape of the food, what came out, and what Jesse said: Clearly an adult joke in the shape of di*k and c*m.

Great episode though. Next episode will be a blast. <3

 

[JacobYBM]

Oh my goodness! Kagami spies a sexual innuendo this episode and I don't see many people mentioning it elsewhere (granted I am new here so can't speak for these forums).

The scene wear that (I call it sexualbear) went to feed Jesse? That angle, shape of the food, what came out, and what Jesse said: Clearly an adult joke in the shape of di*k and c*m.

Great episode though. Next episode will be a blast. <3

I noticed. Kiteruguma wanted to give Musashi some of his honey. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Sweet, sweet honey...

 

[SonansuMan]

Hm... it seems they're pulling XY03 where both Ash and TRio get a new Pokémon in the same episode..

Rowlet was certaintly adorable in this episode, it was great!

I noticed Ash's companions barely did anything in this episode either.. they were really only there at the start and disappeared. That's about it.

Mimikyu getting caught was great! I'm rather upset James still has no Pokémon on his team so far... Matbe next time!

The Toucannon in this episode seemed to be a male in this episode for me, with not only it's deep voice, but its appearance and personality makes it all the more certain. On the contrary, it may be female due to the eggs hatched. Hm.

Lack of Samson Oak (and his imitation/Pokèpuns). -2

7.5/10

 

[Kagami]

I noticed. Kiteruguma wanted to give Musashi some of his honey. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Sweet, sweet honey...

Need to wonder if Disney XD will edit that scene and make it less lewd? Wouldn't be the first time America edits a kids anime!

 

[GoldenUmi]

I noticed that scene for sure but chose not to comment on it since I didn't want to offend anyone. But yes, that was awkwardly hilarious.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I love how Meowth was so traumatized by the things Mimikyu was saying. Its so hilarious that he won't even tell Jessie and James because of how disturbing this Mimikyu is.

 

[Kagami]

I love how Meowth was so traumatized by the things Mimikyu was saying. Its so hilarious that he won't even tell Jessie and James because of how disturbing this Mimikyu is.

Gotta wonder what Mimikyu was saying? Maybe he was saying disturbing things like how he wanted to murder Pikachu? We will never know, but it leaves me curious!