Review BW111: The New Gym Leader - Cheren!

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

It was a nice treat to see Cheren and SHINX <3 BUT WHAT THE FUCK WRITERS!! Can't you ever give Oshawott a SINGLE WIN!!!

no

Literally every unovan other than oshawott needs it more.

I liked the part where axew ran off again. It really shows off iris as a dragon master.

I don't care if you don't like Oshawott and seriously I don't like others going about and saying he doesn't deserve anything other than to be the Unova butt monkey and lose. Seriously Oshawott hasn't had a win since Clay's gym.

 

[Silktree]

It's funny that the opening will keep showing Cheren even though there was nothing important about this episode. The opening will serve as a constant reminder of Oshawott's loss, unless it is updated, that is.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

It's funny that the opening will keep showing Cheren even though there was nothing important about this episode. The opening will serve as a constant reminder of Oshawott's loss.

Maybe he'll reappear to help with Team Plasma? He does in the games right and we're looking at the BW2 Team Plasma

 

[Silktree]

Maybe he'll reappear to help with Team Plasma?

The fact that he won't even have a role in the next episode suggests otherwise.

 

[Satoshi_Pikachu]

Axew wasn't the only one that stuffed up though.

If you're talking about Pikachu, he was following Kibago to make sure he didn't mess up, but of course it's Togepi all over again and Pikachu always ends up as the accidental victim. But I don't find Kibago wandering off annoying, I find his stupid baby attitude annoying.

 

[Kairyu]

Oshawott isn't just for market purposes

you're wrong

 

[DynoStretch]

I know this is just a trivial thing about the otherwise alright episode, but Oshawott losing the way he did was bad. Him desperately running over to retrieve his scallop when he has moves like Aqua Jet and Hydro Pump he could had used in that situation shows how little he's learned from his frequent loses. If Ash had to the big loser of this episode to make Cheren look good, fine, but they really needed to pick another of Ash's Pokemon who wouldn't look as bad from another loss.

Oshawott isn't just for market purposes

Saying Oshawott isn't here just for marketing purposes is like saying the girls in the modern Ninja Gaiden games aren't just here to be half-dressed.

You know how sometimes the anime likes to emphasis that some Pokemon don't need to evolve to be good? Yeah, Oshawott isn't one of those. I knew things were going bad for him when they devoted an entire episode to him just trying to keep his eyes open under water. I used to be amused by his frequent loses due to his trouble-making and the hope that they showing he was going to need to evolve, but that never happened, and now I'm beginning to pity him.

 

[Master Cyrus]

Oshawott isn't just for market purposes

you're wrong

This guy is correct. But I think the plan is for oshawott to lose so they can sell pity plushies so kids can hug their oshawott and protect them from the bad doggie.

 

[YamiiDenryuu]

It looks like there are just more than 8 gyms in the anime, since we've seen all 8 gyms from the original games plus the 3 new gym leaders and Cameron was shown having some not-real badges.

There's always been extra badges floating around, but this is the first time we've actually seen gym leaders outside of the initial eight.

By the way, did we find out whether or not Cheren gives out the Basic Badge?

 

[Crysta Blade]

There's always been extra badges floating around, but this is the first time we've actually seen gym leaders outside of the initial eight.

By the way, did we find out whether or not Cheren gives out the Basic Badge?

Didn't come up, from my recollection. Which brings me to a pet peeve: what's the point of the animé-only Badges anyway? If Ash is only going get game Badges, why waste time designing ones that aren't relevant to him?

Onto my episode thoughts: aww, lookit Ash and Iris making their Pokémon apologise. Another cute moment with Herdier licking Oshawott. Silly otter, your overwhelming love for your Scalchop will stop you from being any sort of winner.

Dang, Cheren sure is tall. And pale. Also very endearing. Now we need Bianca in BW2 gear to match because dammit, I love me some consistency. Lost cause? Maybe, but I won't let that stop me from dreaming.

 

[Moe]

Why did they have a dozen of each of three Pokemon and then one Shinx? And why does no one know how to shut doors?

I have to wonder how much noise the Pokedex is supposed to make - earlier in the episode it seemed like Ash used it to deliberately startle the Sunflora - but then he used it when he was supposedly sneaking up on the kids/Shinx, yet scanned away - the Pokedex would surely have been loud enough to notice from across the room?

Cheren jumping on Shinx is interesting - it's disappointing to me that Ash and Pikachu didn't look at eachother and hint at how often Ash has done the same thing - instead he was like Iris/Cilan in being amazed that he'd do that. Which also made me think that I can't recall any time in BW where Iris/Cilan have seen Ash do that jumping on an attacking Pokemon thing, which previously seemed like a trademark considering how often he was doing that in DP.

Apart from wanting to see Oshawott actually win something, I didn't really mind the battle - it's perhaps telling that at this point Ash doesn't really seem to care about winning and losing that much, he was just happy to have a good battle. I suppose him having an attitude like that is about the only thing that can make his not immediately leaving Unova to go to XY-land seem in character. Oshawott was amusing enough (I still like that thing with putting the scalchop back, even if it's way overdone by now) - and Herdier licking Oshawott has to be one of the cutest things in ages.

I'm interested in what Cilan was saying about his Gym experiences, but it seemed to me like there was nothing made of Iris' future.

I'll continue to dislike those Axew wandering off scenes in theory, but like last week the execution was amusing enough. Like with Oshawott, the scenes showing their personalities would be nice combined with actual battles where they can show another side - they do that fairly well with Scraggy being able to battle fairly seriously, but to me it seems like once Iris got Dragonite, Axew lost any reason to be more than a hairpin.

 

[97SaturnSL1]

And i thought Ash battling Cameron was bad... I mean seriously... how did we not see that coming with oshawott getting defeated after two attacks? i know oshawott is water but no real effort was put into it. i did like how herdier spit oshawott out. and i do wished that they had axew play an obnoxious song or rickrolling the school instead of a scream. that would have fit better. i cant help but wonder if the one kid with Shinx has any relation to wario by any chance? I also cant help but wonder the part with ducklett with pansage will become memetic because well it looks like someone getting crap past the radar... oh well i give at 9/10 for comic efforts and a -29/10 for over predictablility. though i do wonder if this episode will change the Emolga eating joke to Minchinno now

 

[Dogasu]

For those of you still wondering...no, Aloe was not brought up at all. We also didn't find out whether or not Cheren gives out the Basic Badge.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Overall, I did not care for this episode. Cheren had a pretty cookie-cutter personality and interactions and actions and he seems like a character you could only really have enjoyed this episode if you're a huge fan of him for his design. His personality in the game isn't nearly as bland.

The battle was rushed, Mijumaru was made out to be a joke. I admit, maybe I jumped the gun a bit before on Mijumaru. It's not like he's been in favorable battling conditions when he loses, I mean he lost to Bel's Daddy's Hihidaruma which is a Pokemon he had since his youth, he lost to Baoppu just to show off how Pod had become more competent, he wasn't going to beat a fully-evolved Dragon in the Isshu League, and this episode he lost to show off that Cheren was a competent new Gym Leader. But, still, how does he go from tanking moves left and right in the League to being beaten by one Thunder Fang from a Haderia? Not to mention it seems like all the development he got to learn to battle without his hotachi has now gone to the gutter and he never actually utilized any of it. He has Aqua Jet, Hydro Pump, and Tackle too which would have more than sufficed. I'm a huge Mijumaru fan so it sucks to see him portrayed this way, losing in a comedic fashion no less. It seems like whenever he wants to battle or is cocky/confident he gets checked rather easily. I guess it's not the first time a Water-type has had a few loses in a row, like Buoysel back in DP. The writers went to the trouble of having this battle being in the opening and it was complete poo. I also think it's kinda weird we see Cheren and Satoshi battling in a cathedral with N in the group but that wasn't the case at all this episode.

Oh, well, at least Mijumaru being licked by Haderia was cute. Plus it's not like he won't ever win again.

 

[TeddiUrsa]

It really is no wonder to me that all of Mijumaru's development from one of the best training episodes in the anime ever gets ignored once again in BW...I probably should have seen it coming, but why make a whole episode about Mijumaru and the shell (or rather: how it shouldn't be so depentand of said shell) when it is reduced to the comedic loser within a battle that was boring thanks to the opposing Pokémon to begin with?

Episode N, you are not doing a good job at entertaining me....

 

[Cinderfella]

It's episodes like these that make me wonder why can't Best Wishes be over sooner? Seriously, iconic game characters can't even help this arc.

Let's kick Ash some more when he's down and have Oshawott lose. I'm even more pissed at the fact because I love the Otter personally but as said earlier, for all those who give Totodile crap just need to re-evaluate.

Cheren has a nice design, but meh...

I actually was hoping the writers may pull off one more tournament to wrap up things properly without any trickery or bias instead TBH. But in terms of the episode, it was ok....

But then again, this is Best Wishes and that is to be expected.

 

[fidjnr]

this gym battle didn't mean much because the League Conference is over and it's the 1st time ash had a battle after the region's Pokémon League

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

They wear shoes inside public buildings (just like people in Japan do), but not when they're in someone's home.

But people in the show do wear them in homes.

 

[Ampharos King]

Even though this was an unofficial exhibition match, it was expected that Ash would lose since he already owned the Basic Badge from his victory over Lenora. Oshawott is treated as a comic relief pokemon most of the time, so I was not surprised how he lost to Cheren's Herdier. The other aspects of this episode weren't that interesting.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Well, Ash loses, of course (why did I even think there was chance he could...?), knowing that there's no point to a victory here. At least it was a believable loss.

Overall, the episode was... meh. A little on the boring side, but not really THAT bad, either, even if we're, once again, treated to Axew getting into mischief and Ash losing another battle.