Review BW086: Pochama VS Yanappu! The Magnificent Battle!!

[Cybersai]

Cynthia obviously expects Ash to enter the Champion league, that's why.

 

[John Understands]

That, or Cynthia is now an pedophile, like in many fanfics. How dare you writers.

Okay, with Dawn and Ash's high-five...okay, try not to get the shippers too excited.

 

[swampertuska]

It would be good to see Satoshi and Shirona together in the end... after several years when Ash will grow up.

 

[Shinneth]

Well, it's nice to see Cynthia's personality is one thing the BW series hasn't screwed around with. As obsessed as she was over the elements of Ash and Paul's rivalry, her having an invested interest in Ash & co.'s antics to a creepy degree makes perfect sense. Keeping the kiddies in her villa is just icing on the cake.

And of course, another misleading episode title! Love you, Japan. Dub, if you can't be bothered to make cheesy pun episode titles anymore, at least make a title that's a little bit more relevant to the episode.

I have to admit, though, Dawn coming all the way to Unova with the only excuse as far as we know being that she wants to sharpen up her coordinating skills is... fishy, at best. Mainly because it was established that Unova's a very lengthy trip from the past four regions, so Dawn going out of her way to make it there just for practicing (and the upcoming tournament, which I agree doesn't really fit Dawn's character or her role) just seems a little off. Not to mention there don't seem to be any Contests held in the Unova region (unless this episode said otherwise). May coming to Sinnoh in the middle of her Johto journey made sense at least because Wallace appearing is a draw and the prize she could have won would have been relevant to her goal. Not really sure what Dawn will gain other than some generic experience and seeing new Pokemon, but again, she could've gotten that just by making a more convenient trip to Kanto/Johto. Makes me suspect Dawn's lonely or something and just felt like tracking Ash down for the hell of it. Not that I oppose her coming back or anything, but if she wasn't lonely, then I just have to assume she's secretly hot enough for Elesa to be drawn to Unova, given the nature of those screencaps.

On one last note, as I expected, it both pleases me and depresses me to see Counter Shield referenced. If BW hadn't mangled Ash's character so badly this wouldn't have been a bad thing at all, but no such luck. Continuity is good, but this far into the series it just serves as a painful reminder as to how not-bad this show once was.

 

[nattfly]

It was good to see Dawn & co again! Piplup and Mijumaru's rivalry cracked me up, especially when Piplup was being all smuig over Meloetta dancing with him, and Miju being unable to do anything but seethe. So Piplup's got Icebeam, Bubblebeam, Peck/Drillpeck (was is peck with a twist or was it Drillpeck?) and in the intro he also uses Hydropump so he dropped Whirlpool then?

The battle against Dent made me all nostalgic for DP... Dawns seems to have gotten some training in because she seemed even more confident than in DP and was very accurate with her commands.
Also Dawn's and Piplup's reaction to Dent's "tasting time" was GOLD.
Counter-shield got a mention so maybe Ash can realize he really needs to do some training now? please?

Did Ash say he wanted to catch an Onix during the preview? Oh well, we'll see next time.

 

[breloom]

Can anyone tell me who the animation director is or not?

 

[Grave-E]

Tomohiro Koyama. Not one of the best ones, really.

(Honestly, these days the only ones I can recognise off the bat are Iwane, Tamagawa and Shimura and Natsume. All these new guys are kind of same-y.)

 

[Aestivate]

Well, it's nice to see Cynthia's personality is one thing the BW series hasn't screwed around with. As obsessed as she was over the elements of Ash and Paul's rivalry, her having an invested interest in Ash & co.'s antics to a creepy degree makes perfect sense. Keeping the kiddies in her villa is just icing on the cake.

And of course, another misleading episode title! Love you, Japan. Dub, if you can't be bothered to make cheesy pun episode titles anymore, at least make a title that's a little bit more relevant to the episode.

I have to admit, though, Dawn coming all the way to Unova with the only excuse as far as we know being that she wants to sharpen up her coordinating skills is... fishy, at best. Mainly because it was established that Unova's a very lengthy trip from the past four regions, so Dawn going out of her way to make it there just for practicing (and the upcoming tournament, which I agree doesn't really fit Dawn's character or her role) just seems a little off. Not to mention there don't seem to be any Contests held in the Unova region (unless this episode said otherwise). May coming to Sinnoh in the middle of her Johto journey made sense at least because Wallace appearing is a draw and the prize she could have won would have been relevant to her goal. Not really sure what Dawn will gain other than some generic experience and seeing new Pokemon, but again, she could've gotten that just by making a more convenient trip to Kanto/Johto. Makes me suspect Dawn's lonely or something and just felt like tracking Ash down for the hell of it. Not that I oppose her coming back or anything, but if she wasn't lonely, then I just have to assume she's secretly hot enough for Elesa to be drawn to Unova, given the nature of those screencaps.

On one last note, as I expected, it both pleases me and depresses me to see Counter Shield referenced. If BW hadn't mangled Ash's character so badly this wouldn't have been a bad thing at all, but no such luck. Continuity is good, but this far into the series it just serves as a painful reminder as to how not-bad this show once was.

Well, Hikari is also a fashion designer and it's not mind-boggling for her to want to come to Isshu specifically for Kamitsure. Although.... I have accepted the head-canon that Hikari has girlcrush on Kamitsure... yup..

 

[Cybersai]

The people who speculated that Dawn would come to Unova for the Musicals and fashion stuff were right after all. Good thing though that was all shown in a flashback rather than suffering through it normally.

God I hope Elesa comes back in that black leather outfit.

 

[breloom]

Tomohiro Koyama. Not one of the best ones, really.

(Honestly, these days the only ones I can recognise off the bat are Iwane, Tamagawa and Shimura and Natsume. All these new guys are kind of same-y.)

Thanks

I looked at the pictures, and this episode actually looked like it was animated by Izumi shimura, but I guess not

 

[97SaturnSL1]

Interestingly i just noticed today that the rear of cynthias limo looks exactly like the rear of a buick verano. i was expecting more of a lincoln or caddy style desighn to her limo.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I guess I rather liked this episode. It may have felt a little too... "generic" at times, but still a decent reunion. I certainly enjoyed the Pokemon interactions, and continuity references are always nice - something that BW could certainly use.

Man, it seems that Elesa can't even be shown in flashbacks without presenting fanservice.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Haven't seen this episode yet but, questions questions.

1.Has the Pokesheik(Sheik, Sheek?, Shiek?) magazine been released yet? How is Mimoru's Pokemon Stylist celebrity stuff going? Harmione said something about wanting Mimoru to come by for a magazine shoot, so I was curious what's up with that.

2.Are you guys sure that was the Counter-Shield? Not calling anyone out or the fandom bullshit but, the conclusions do seem to be jumped to very often. Did Hikari refer to it as the Counter-Shield specifically? If so then disregard my nonsense. It looks more like spinning to me than the actual Counter-Shield technique. There's a huge difference between "spinning" and "Counter-Shield". Counter-Shield looks like a Pokemon actually breakdancing and making a barrier that protects and causes damage, Pochama is simply executing what looks to be a simple spin. I really don't see why everyone is making a big deal out this one in particular. Mijumaru used spinning Water Gun to get rid of the Sandstorm in Yakon's Gym. Pikachu used a spinning Iron Tail to put the smack down on Doryuuzu. Pikachu used it against Hahakomori to get free himself from String Shot. This isn't the first time in BW we've seen it. I like the spinning move very much, I just don't get why everyone is going all googoo gaga over it like it's Satoshi's raison d'etre.

EDIT:Apparently Hikari did say Counter-Shield from what hear say I hear. Still looks like generic spinning instead of actual breakdancing and making a shield that functions as a offensive and defensive move.





Lastly...that picture.

Spoiler

Electric rats are cool, I like how they're both fanning over each other's rodents. "Emonga VS. Pachirisu! Electrifying World Tournament Battle!!" Make it happen writers! XD



.....I love how everyone predicted Hikari and Dento would totally be new BFFLs and would cover the world in sparkles together. lol,nope

Wow, Iris did a lot of fawning this episode.

Spoiler

Just gonna take a moment to say. This picture is hilarious also.


Kamitsure in that girl biker style outfit, that image is permanently burned into my dirty young mind. I'm almost 100% sure that's gonna get cut out in the dub.

 

[Idon'tcare]

This rivalry will always be entertaining me every single time:

Spoiler

Spoiler

I was hoping that these two would have something going on.

Kamitsure in that girl biker style outfit, that image is permanently burned into my dirty young mind. I'm almost 100% sure that's gonna get cut out in the dub.

I doubt TPCI will cut it. If 4kids still dubbed the show, maybe or they might keep it and just edit out her cleavage.

I like the contrast between Iris not knowing much about Pokémon from other the regions and Dent knowing plenty about them. I guess this makes sense seeing as Dent is older than Iris and so is more prone to knowing Pokémon outside Isshu. Also being a Pokémon Sommelier means he has to learn of the different types of Pokémon.The kind of Pokémon Iris is most likely to know more about from all the regions are Dragon-types; she knows about Kairyu.

 

[Piplup]

1.Has the Pokesheik(Sheik, Sheek?, Shiek?) magazine been released yet? How is Mimoru's Pokemon Stylist celebrity stuff going? Harmione said something about wanting Mimoru to come by for a magazine shoot, so I was curious what's up with that.

Pokéchic
They should have referenced the events of Buneary's modelling for Pokéchic in that "special" episode Dawn got, but they chose to ignore it... we can assume it happened off screen between DP's last ep to that "special"
It wasn't mentioned at all in this ep and will probably never be mentioned again
We can assume Dawn just went to Hearthome, possibly together with Zoey as she said, had some guys take photos of her bunny and went back home... so I guess we didn't lose much, but it could nice if they'd at least mention it in the beginning of that "special"... but what can you do...

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Just like wonderful Cynthia, I'm on vacation right now, too. To be precise, I'm in Miami Beach so I can't write that much. But even here I want to get the news about Cynthia and seeing that she even has got her own villa (not just a friend's house like in BW) with her own limo and butler is so incredibly awesome, I'm totally happy. It's exactly what I've always expected of the Queen of Pokemon because what else could be worthier of the true Champion than an amazing villa on a cliff overlooking the sea, a luxurious car and a butler?
I'm absolutely sure this is the final evidence that the writers want to portray Cynthia as the greatest of all.
All the scenarios I've been playing through in my mind, have finally been confirmed. What a fantastic day!

 

[Hellwarden]

Koyama may not exactly be the best director, animation wise, but I did think he/she did really well with the art. The scenes felt alive, nicely detailed, both those with Pokemon in them, and those without.

 

[Adil]

TV Tokyo:
Pocket Monsters Best Wishes!: 5.8% (June 28; BW086; down from last week's 6.6%)

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Front_page/News_snippets

 

[Srebak]

I should have asked this a while ago, but what exactly was the conversation within Cynthia's Villa? I saw pictures of Dawn looking worried for some reason. Also, was the subject of Ash's travels in Sinnoh brought up? And if it was, i ask again, did they make sound like Iris and Cilan already knew about that?

 

[Chiplet]

I should have asked this a while ago, but what exactly was the conversation within Cynthia's Villa? I saw pictures of Dawn looking worried for some reason. Also, was the subject of Ash's travels in Sinnoh brought up? And if it was, i ask again, did they make sound like Iris and Cilan already knew about that?

If I recall correctly they were mostly talking about the Co-ordinator as well as Sommelier goals. Iris was a bit unfamiliar with it and was really curious to hear what differences there were between being a regular trainer and being a Co-ordinator. Iris did also ask Dawn to make sure that she was indeed the one that Ash traveled with through the Sinnoh Region, so it'd seem that the two of them already knew about it, although absolutely nothing about their rivals or adventures they had in the Sinnoh Region were brought up in the conversation, unfortunately.