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Review XY074: Kunoe Gym Battle! The Beautiful Fairy Trap!!

I really did enjoy the Gym Battle. Ash really thought things through, although some people dislike the fact Hawlucha learned a new move off screen, we did know that he trained with Shota last episode right? Due to he did trained, its more like a move that Ash prepared for the Gym, so I think its OK.

If that's the case, then why would Ash teach Hawlucha X-Scissor of all moves, knowing that it's ineffective against Fairy-types? Not to mention that I doubt Hawlucha would be able to learn a completely new move just the night before... The fact that we got a short glimpse of Ash engaging in battle with Shota (with Pikachu nonetheless, who didn't even participate) does not justify the fact that Hawlucha pulled out a move out of nowhere that just so conviently happened to be super-effective against Trick Room.


Other than the fact that this was a 2 on 2 battle instead of 3 on 3, that was pretty much my only complaint for this episode. I can't stress enough how much I love the spectacular animations, the battles are so much more dynamic and much more fun to watch. Hell, even the field itself was gorgeous with the surrounding backgrounds.

I do think the Flame Charge spamming was kinda boring and risky... I wish he had tried to counter Trick Room in some other way other than waiting for it to cancel, but I still appreciate his cleverness with making sure that Fletchinder would be at full speed the second it'd disappear. While the fact that Hawlucha convientely happened to know X-Scissor in itself was bullshitty, I'm still glad to see another example of moves being able to cancel out other moves to which they are super-effective against.

Pretty enjoyable gym battle!
 
A bit surprised so many enjoyed this. IMO this is the worst gym battle of XY - the writing was lazy as shown by Hawlucha pulling winning moves out of its ass, the animation wasn't impressive as is usually the case for the gyms, only a 2v2 and Valerie even left out her (IMO) two most interesting pokemon - would much rather have seen Mawhile and Mime battle it out.
 
A bit surprised so many enjoyed this. IMO this is the worst gym battle of XY - the writing was lazy as shown by Hawlucha pulling winning moves out of its ass, the animation wasn't impressive as is usually the case for the gyms, only a 2v2 and Valerie even left out her (IMO) two most interesting pokemon - would much rather have seen Mawhile and Mime battle it out.

Whenever I say an episode is bad, I always give example on how to improve an episode. Judging by all your comments you seems to be too busy (or your Avatar suggested, lazy) for that.

Hawlucha pulling the winning move out of its ass? What a broad statement, the move isn't learned on screen. BUT! Ash did not go "Oh my Pokemon has learned *insert move name*" mid battle like he did in previous series. He is well aware Hawlucha has the move, and in fact, with the move being Not Very Effective to Fairy type, his strategy is to utilize the move in a totally different way.

If it was Mawile (oh or was it MawHile) and Mr.Mime, would this episode be any different? From my stand point of view, there is either no difference or it could be worse. Mawile will be the Sylveon substitute with the Fairy Wind and fall to Fletcheinder even faster due to weakness to Fire. For Mr.Mime its even funnier! What can a Mr.Mime pull off? Invisible walls? Like as if Hawlucha cannot drill it open with X-Scissors like how he drilled the Trick Room open. The change you suggested has nothing but negative impact on the writing. And Mr.Mime will go down to X-Scissors easier due to being neutral to it.

It being a 2 v 2 bothers you? In fact a 3 v 3 would be OK but I would totally oppose a 4 v 4 unless its a two episode Gym Battle. 4 v 4 will have Pokemon from both sides go down way too fast that it become so boring and tedious.

I do hope you can start giving some constructive suggestions instead of just consistently posting negative comments. I really bother me seeing so much negative energy while happily browsing the forum.
 
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A bit surprised so many enjoyed this. IMO this is the worst gym battle of XY - the writing was lazy as shown by Hawlucha pulling winning moves out of its ass, the animation wasn't impressive as is usually the case for the gyms, only a 2v2 and Valerie even left out her (IMO) two most interesting pokemon - would much rather have seen Mawhile and Mime battle it out.

When the Clemont gym battle was announced, you called the writers "lazy" because you assumed that Pikachu would win. He didn't. As far as I can tell, it's not their fault you assumed X and Y (no pun intended) would happen. In fact, I think assuming the worst will happen is lazy.
 
A bit surprised so many enjoyed this. IMO this is the worst gym battle of XY - the writing was lazy as shown by Hawlucha pulling winning moves out of its ass, the animation wasn't impressive as is usually the case for the gyms, only a 2v2 and Valerie even left out her (IMO) two most interesting pokemon - would much rather have seen Mawhile and Mime battle it out.

Sorry but I can't this seriously if people thought the gym battle with Viola or Grant was better, with all the needless Pikachu focus and wins.

And Hawlucha did NOT pull a move out of its ass, as Mareepy said, Ash called the move out knowing Hawlucha had it, which means it was learned off screen.

Animation? I really wish I could see this bad animation because it looks pretty good to me, probably of even quality to Grant and Viola. don't remember those looking fabulous, just normal.

It being a 2 vs 2 is a legitimate complaint, but unfortunately it barely causes this gym to suffer because the gym battle was still impressive and nice. This is the only gym so far that has displayed Ash the best illustrates his skill as a trainer. People will say Grant, but that was something he learned outside of the gym and then brought it in, and any other gyms it was just one moment, this was two moments of showing Ash's skill as a trainer.
 
The change in battle numbering is odd, I'll admit: I think the lack of Spritzee focus is probably the cause of it. To tell you the truth, I like to think it was handled well: most of the team alterations in XY are for understandable reasons: Onix replaced Amura because Amura had been focused on earlier, Lucario replaced Hawlucha because it was a simple streamlining of the game storyline, Magneton and Emolga were replaced by Bunnelby and Luxray because of who Clemont is, etc etc.

Plus, Ash is the one throwing Corphish and Bulbasaur at his foes, not bad seeing a Gym Leader with a similar tendency.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.

I honestly believe everything you said doesn't make any sense.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.

I honestly believe everything you said doesn't make any sense.

Look at the credits. Six animation supervisors and twenty-seven key animators. A high number of staff typically means two things: "oh shit, this episode is due to be aired in a month and we haven't started yet!" or "oh, shit, we don't have anyone available with any skill or speed! Quick, hire a bunch of slow and bad animators and animation supervisors to clean up their poor drawings!"

I can't think of a single cut in the episode that had interesting timing, line work or use of the camera. Things merely moved, they did not live. Oohashi's work during the previous gym battle incorporated all three in quick succession to breath intensity into the gym battle.
 
This episode was mixed for me, I did like some aspects of it like Hawlucha getting a starring win and Fletchinder doing rather well against both Valerie's Pokemon even with Trick Room for Spritzee. On the other hand, I don't like that it was shortened to a 2-on-2 when Valerie clearly has two others to choose from and Hawlucha getting X-Scizzor pretty much out of nowhere. I would've liked this a bit more if they handled those elements differently, but it's still a decent battle overall.

The change in battle numbering is odd, I'll admit: I think the lack of Spritzee focus is probably the cause of it. To tell you the truth, I like to think it was handled well: most of the team alterations in XY are for understandable reasons: Onix replaced Amura because Amura had been focused on earlier, Lucario replaced Hawlucha because it was a simple streamlining of the game storyline, Magneton and Emolga were replaced by Bunnelby and Luxray because of who Clemont is, etc etc.

Plus, Ash is the one throwing Corphish and Bulbasaur at his foes, not bad seeing a Gym Leader with a similar tendency.

I honestly disagree with Amaura and Luxray. Amaura did have an earlier debut, but that's rarely changed Gym leader teams in the past (ex. Elesa's Emolga and Gardenia's Turtwig) and it didn't necessarily need to debut beforehand either. Plus, we've seen Onix so many times before in general and in Gym battles, so it's kind of dull to see it a third time on a Gym Leader's team without much variation when there was a completely unique Pokémon right there for the writers to use. Luxray, he did make for an interesting Pokémon for the battle, but I don't think it was necessary to sideline Heliolisk for him.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.

I honestly believe everything you said doesn't make any sense.

Look at the credits. Six animation supervisors and twenty-seven key animators. A high number of staff typically means two things: "oh shit, this episode is due to be aired in a month and we haven't started yet!" or "oh, shit, we don't have anyone available with any skill or speed! Quick, hire a bunch of slow and bad animators and animation supervisors to clean up their poor drawings!"

I can't think of a single cut in the episode that had interesting timing, line work or use of the camera. Things merely moved, they did not live. Oohashi's work during the previous gym battle incorporated all three in quick succession to breath intensity into the gym battle.

It could just mean that they got more people to make the animations look better...

That's just my opinion tbh.
 
Does anybody else think Valerie's Sylveon has the Pixilate ability?

Usually when a Pokemon uses Giga Impact in the anime, it is surrounded by a white-colored aura with yellow-colored streaks. But Sylveon's Giga Impact was pink-colored. In addition, when Sylveon did use Giga Impact, there was a sound effect that wasn't present for any other Pokemon that used the move before.

Am I the only one surprised this was a 2 on 2? But perhaps I missed something. She's 3 vs. 3 in the games, and I thought they would use Mawile or Mr. Mime, since they introduced them previous episode. I also think it's weird they went with Spritzee; I thought maybe it would evolve during the Valerie arc, but I guess not. It just seems odd, a fifth Gym Leader with an unevolved Pokémon as their strongest. The only reason I can think of is that they're using Aromatisse for a more important recurring character. Aria perhaps, but I doubt her Aromatisse will be that important.

It seems the writers wanted to give Valerie a Fairy-type Pokemon that wasn't seen often on screen and/or used by a major character.

Shauna has Flabebe, while a Floette and a Florges were recently featured just four episodes ago. Dedenne is already on the main cast. Mawile has been used in a battle by Mabel. Mr. Mime is owned by Delia. Klefki is Pierre's signature Pokemon. With Miette being confirmed as a recurring character, Slurpuff has also been taken. If you count the Diancie short as part of this series, Carbink has been seen as well.

It was either Spritzee or Swirlix, and Swirlix has, at the very least, had its own episode in this series. Prior to XY073, the last time Ash and co. saw a Spritzee on screen was in XY001, and as a small cameo no less.

There's a hole in that theory. Sylveon was already focused on pretty heavily in PK25 and XY013.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.

I still don't see this animation is bad thing.

For one thing, for Ash's Pokemon they were supposed to be slow in trick room, if Fletchinder's slow movement during flame charge was criticized.

But Hawlucha's spinning X-scissor was amazing to me, so yeah I don't see it. Then again when I watch episodes, I don't have what I would call a superior episode by animation side by side for comparison, so clearly I wouldn't notice the nuances that people pick up on apparently. Or I also don't pay so intently on the animation trying to find flaws in it.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.

And with the Gym having a way more impressive background, I don't see why they do not need more staff.

And by worse animation do you mean there is too little explosions? Clemont's Gym had a way bland background and all it had more than this Gym Battle are explosions. The special effects of the Gym itself and the shards when Trick Room shattered is very well done. And explosions don't make animation good.

As far as you argument goes, your only stand point is there are more staffs, which can be argued by they have a more complex background to handle.

So I don't really see a point that the animation is worse than most of the Gym Battles, care to enlighten me?
 
I found it interesting that the Trick Room barrier was both visible at all times, and with a checkers board design, and tangible, allowing Hawlucha to shatter it with a powerful blow, because that wasn't the case for Conway's Dusknoir's Trick Room in the Sinnoh League. But that's fine with me, really. Really good gym battle, all around, despite Hawlucha's learning a new move that it apparently learned off-screen. But Hawlucha at least has the battle experience to have earned that much.

I must also confess something: I did not realize this a 2 vs. 2 gym battle... until it was over. :sweatlol:
 
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For just a 2 on 2, I thought this was a pretty good battle. Certainly had to most surprises imo.

Fletchinder vs. Sylveon was pretty nice. I find it totally hilarious how Ash actually commanded Peck here when he didn't in the previous gyms Fletchinder was in where it would have been Super Effective. Regardless, seeing Sylveon spinning Fletchinder around with its feelers and trap him in a tornado of Fairy Wind was pretty cool. I also liked how Fletchinder used Flame Charge to burn the feelers and land a hit. I thought it was really interesting how the Furisode Girls were so shocked over Sylveon's loss and were reluctant to announce it with Valreie actually having to tell her to do it. I didn't expect that.

Fletchinder vs. Spritzee was certainly interesting. I thought Ash literally forgot what Trick Room did and thought using Flame Charge over and over would eventually speed him up. I never guessed he was preparing to attack for when the Trick Room ended. The only thing that bothered me with that was Fletchinder getting hit by and knocked out by Moonblast immediately after. With all the speed boosts I would have expected him to be fast enough to dodge any and everything Spritzee threw at him.

Hawlucha vs. Spritzee was probably the most surprising match imo. First of all, let me just say that I loved how Hawlucha's started posing after he was sent out. I never expected Hawlucha to show off a new move here. Especially X-Scissor of all things. I do find it a bit funny, that his 4th move also isn't very effective on Fairy-types. I loved how Ash used Spritzee's Gyro Ball to give Hawlucha some speed to not only break through her attack with X-Scissor, but also to break the Trick Room. And damn I LOVED Valerie's expression when the Trick Room broke. Same with Hawlucha's following pose. Damn, dat High Jump Kick to the face was bad-ass. And even more cool poses:)

A few other things I liked in this episode were Scottie constantly taking notes during the gym battle and, once again, the Furisode Girls reactions during the battle and afterward. I especially liked how the referee girl looked almost sad over Valreie having to give Ash the badge.

Overall, I thought this was an okay gym match and episode. Not sure how it ranks up with the other gyms yet, but it was ok. 8/10.
 
Nah, the animation wasn't impressive. Just because this shit moves a little it doesn't make it good. There was no particularly good timing as the characters moved. After Oohashi Aito's performance during the previous gym battle there was definitely a step down. Looking at the credits it's clear this was a rushed episode. There were six animation supervisors, for God's sake. Six! Typically only one is necessary if an episode is produced by talented staff on a more reasonable schedule. My guess is that the production assistants couldn't secure any talented staff in time thanks to all of the other projects happening across the industry. That or it was decided to cannibalize this episode for the next episode. Hopefully Oohashi is working on the rival battle, hence why he didn't work on this episode.

And with the Gym having a way more impressive background, I don't see why they do not need more staff.

And by worse animation do you mean there is too little explosions? Clemont's Gym had a way bland background and all it had more than this Gym Battle are explosions. The special effects of the Gym itself and the shards when Trick Room shattered is very well done. And explosions don't make animation good.

As far as you argument goes, your only stand point is there are more staffs, which can be argued by they have a more complex background to handle.

So I don't really see a point that the animation is worse than most of the Gym Battles, care to enlighten me?

Backgrounds are not drawn by animators unless they are moving. In this clip from Pocket Monster: Diamond & Pearl Episode #189 the grass is moving along with the explosions and Darkrai, right? That is background animation, when the key animator also draws the surrounding environment to help generate a sense of motion. Pocket Monster doesn't do that much anymore and relies heavily on CG. When Numelgon is sent flying by Elezard's Dragon Tail the gym field is animated through CG, rather than drawn by Oohashi Aito. The backgrounds (trees, buildings, interiors) looked quite good in this episode, but they're not what the key animators are drawing. The key animators draw the characters and the occasional effect, especially in Pocket Monster. Here is an example of everything on the screen being drawn by the key animator and in-between animator from Yuu Yuu Hakusho Episode #23 .

The timing and layouts used for this gym match were not very interesting. Timing is what gives life to motion. The exact millisecond that a drawing is used is very important. If it is off the motion is bland or awkward. To reuse an example, the way Elezard sped around the field is thanks to the timing of the animation. Each drawing is carefully timed to run on the screen at a certain moment. Our media players typically only catch hours, minutes and seconds. Timing in animation breaks down even further beyond seconds into milliseconds. When Elezard runs into the Dragon Pulse you'll notice a slight slowdown and then speed up. That's Oohashi timing his drawings to create the effect of Elezard shifting gears as it dodges the blast. Notice how afterward Elezard sneaks up behind Numelgon. This is depicted by having Numelgon in the background and Elezard running into the foreground from the southwestern corner of the screen. The viewer gets the effect of Elezard being closer to them creating a slight sense of tangibility. Afterward Citron makes a gesture with his hands. Characters don't typically move like that, right? That's Oohashi's timing at play.

The light glistens off of Citron's glasses with interesting effects animation, too. A few of the frames even has the glistening effect spread across the entire screen. Citron has the upper hand at that point so he is depicted with a cool effect animation to accentuate to the audience Citron's awesomeness.

Notice how in the next shot Elezard enters the shot from above the camera. The first thing we see of him is his bottom and tail as he dashes at his foe. The next shot is just as cool as we catch the low-hanging head of Elezard entering from the northeastern corner of the screen. From just that alone we can tell Elezard is crouched low to the ground. The kicked-up cubes of debris also add a nice sense of weight to the shot as Elezard is moving just as fast if not faster than those little bits of debris caught up in gravity. When Elezard swings down his Dragon Tail attack it actually looks heavy, as if it is slicing through the air as it cracks into its foe.

Oohashi Aito actually did the drawings of the gym field's ground in this shot. Notice how it has a slightly un-textured look compared to normal static shots of the field. Also take note of the lines, they're different from what the field looks like in this shot.

The Rentora stuff is just as good, too. The key animator for those cuts depict the character's fighting spirit very vividly and abstract. So passionate and charge for battle is he that the electric-type Pokemon seems to become a jagged sketch. The intensity is so high that it feels like Rentora might burn away at any second. Even the inside of his mouth is intensely drawn!

Episode #77 doesn't really have any of that. The battle isn't intensely drawn and the key animators don't really feel engaged in adding something to the conversation. Episode #70 has a somewhat similarly large number of key animators but the level of polish was definitely higher. About the only interesting thing Episode #77 has going for it is the backgrounds and the layouts. The key animators were great with timing but they could at least translate the storyboard into a few interesting layouts, at least.
 
Backgrounds are not drawn by animators unless they are moving. In this clip from Pocket Monster: Diamond & Pearl Episode #189 the grass is moving along with the explosions and Darkrai, right? That is background animation, when the key animator also draws the surrounding environment to help generate a sense of motion. Pocket Monster doesn't do that much anymore and relies heavily on CG. When Numelgon is sent flying by Elezard's Dragon Tail the gym field is animated through CG, rather than drawn by Oohashi Aito. The backgrounds (trees, buildings, interiors) looked quite good in this episode, but they're not what the key animators are drawing. The key animators draw the characters and the occasional effect, especially in Pocket Monster. Here is an example of everything on the screen being drawn by the key animator and in-between animator from Yuu Yuu Hakusho Episode #23 .

The timing and layouts used for this gym match were not very interesting. Timing is what gives life to motion. The exact millisecond that a drawing is used is very important. If it is off the motion is bland or awkward. To reuse an example, the way Elezard sped around the field is thanks to the timing of the animation. Each drawing is carefully timed to run on the screen at a certain moment. Our media players typically only catch hours, minutes and seconds. Timing in animation breaks down even further beyond seconds into milliseconds. When Elezard runs into the Dragon Pulse you'll notice a slight slowdown and then speed up. That's Oohashi timing his drawings to create the effect of Elezard shifting gears as it dodges the blast. Notice how afterward Elezard sneaks up behind Numelgon. This is depicted by having Numelgon in the background and Elezard running into the foreground from the southwestern corner of the screen. The viewer gets the effect of Elezard being closer to them creating a slight sense of tangibility. Afterward Citron makes a gesture with his hands. Characters don't typically move like that, right? That's Oohashi's timing at play.

The light glistens off of Citron's glasses with interesting effects animation, too. A few of the frames even has the glistening effect spread across the entire screen. Citron has the upper hand at that point so he is depicted with a cool effect animation to accentuate to the audience Citron's awesomeness.

Notice how in the next shot Elezard enters the shot from above the camera. The first thing we see of him is his bottom and tail as he dashes at his foe. The next shot is just as cool as we catch the low-hanging head of Elezard entering from the northeastern corner of the screen. From just that alone we can tell Elezard is crouched low to the ground. The kicked-up cubes of debris also add a nice sense of weight to the shot as Elezard is moving just as fast if not faster than those little bits of debris caught up in gravity. When Elezard swings down his Dragon Tail attack it actually looks heavy, as if it is slicing through the air as it cracks into its foe.

Oohashi Aito actually did the drawings of the gym field's ground in this shot. Notice how it has a slightly un-textured look compared to normal static shots of the field. Also take note of the lines, they're different from what the field looks like in this shot.

The Rentora stuff is just as good, too. The key animator for those cuts depict the character's fighting spirit very vividly and abstract. So passionate and charge for battle is he that the electric-type Pokemon seems to become a jagged sketch. The intensity is so high that it feels like Rentora might burn away at any second. Even the inside of his mouth is intensely drawn!

Episode #77 doesn't really have any of that. The battle isn't intensely drawn and the key animators don't really feel engaged in adding something to the conversation. Episode #70 has a somewhat similarly large number of key animators but the level of polish was definitely higher. About the only interesting thing Episode #77 has going for it is the backgrounds and the layouts. The key animators were great with timing but they could at least translate the storyboard into a few interesting layouts, at least.

Oh thanks for the images, I appreciate all of those! It does show the animators put more effort in XY70 than this episode. I certainly misunderstood the fact that Background are not done by animators.

This Gym Battle indeed has a rather static background while the battle was going on, the lack of switching camera angles indeed makes the battle's excitement not at its maximum potential, but I feel its still good. I do agree they should have made Ash's dialogue with Valerie more interesting but they really never spoke before this Gym Battle. I don't think they know each other enough to talk more but I do think they should have make the dialogue better anyways.

I can't blame them for unable to utilize some effect you described about Heliolisk though, this Gym Battle is slow due to Valerie's Pokemon are relatively slow and most of the battle is in a Trick Room, this does limit their ability to animate the episode.

And that shot with Luxray's mouth. WOW, it was fantastic! I loved that scene but never really paused to look at the art work in it. I certainly do hope they made Valerie's Ace (Spritzee) better considering that! Spritzee is not frightening, BUT! It should have portrayed in a way that it was more majestic, like with some close up shot with some colourful fairy moves. Fairy Wind animation was disappointing like it was just a Whirlwind but we already seen that move in the Mega Mawile episode so I kinda got used to it.

Overall, I think the animation indeed have ground for improvement, but it was still good. And it does have some good points like the shards after Trick Room shattered and when they entered the Gym. Also its not really the worst in the series.
 
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