Review XY128: Decisive Rival Battle! Satoshi Gekkouga VS Mega Jukain!!

[Yuri3221]

This is probably the most positive thread i've ever seen here

Shh don't jinx it! Lol

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Am I the only one who is just realzing that Ash-Greninja's cut now resembles a kunai? I think that's what it is at least.

 

[Xyzash]

Man, that battle was so intense that Shota was in TEARS at the end.

 

[Alola]

Whale now, Ash-Greninja vs Mega Sceptile is now my favorite battle of the entire anime.

 

[Ghurlag]

Sawyer sends out a Fairy-type, so obviously Ash sends out a Dragon-type to face it. Is he ever going to actually fight better than his opponents?

The pacing and tension improved a bit from earlier, but they really did make this episode about Greninja and Sceptile, with everyone else getting out of the way. Their battle was a neat enough visual, but it wasn't very interesting tactically, they just wailed on each other. The best part came at the beginning, between Pikachu and Aegislash with their magic floating logs.

 

[King Robert]

I'm not holding my breath if he wins or not. Given his loss streak (not counting the filler-based Orange Islands), he's gonna lose in the finals, and somehow NOT get depressed and go to another region, train for a few years, go to another league, lose, rinse and repeat.

I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but I'm tired of this cycle.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Greninja vs Sceptile was admittedly cool, but my personal favorite matchup here was Pikachu vs Aegislash.

Seriously, getting a piece of that wood stuck in Aegislash's shield to stop it from blocking? Brilliant. That's what I want to see from Ash, ridiculous on-the-fly improvisation that actually works. Pikachu's the true MVP here.

 

[L-05308]

Sawyer sends out a Fairy-type, so obviously Ash sends out a Dragon-type to face it. Is he ever going to actually fight better than his opponents?

The pacing and tension improved a bit from earlier, but they really did make this episode about Greninja and Sceptile, with everyone else getting out of the way. Their battle was a neat enough visual, but it wasn't very interesting tactically, they just wailed on each other. The best part came at the beginning, between Pikachu and Aegislash with their magic floating logs.

Both Goodra and Greninja are weak to the Fairy type...

 

[Karamazov]

Tbh I thought it was a pretty shitty match. On the plus side, this was one of the best battle of the Kalos League.

• The way to counter Aegishlash was genius, but the floating wood was just so stupid. Took me out of the ep and made me roll my eyes.
• Noivern vs Salamence was quick and boring.
• Ash sent out a Dragon type against a Fairy, and it didn't really have the moves to counter the type disadvantage. It ended in a double-KO immediately after another double-KO. Why not use Pikachu? He's packing Iron Tail. Shota's strategy was really cool here, though.

Shota in general's been on fire lately, and I almost wish he won. It was really sad seeing him with tears in his eyes during the fight. I'm still pretty mad that they introduced him so late into the series, because he's one of my favorite rivals ever.

 

[Tyrannozilla]

Don't you guys realize that Ash always battles better when he has a handicap.

 

[Zweilous]

Positives:
-The counterstrategy on Aegislash was pretty clever.
-The aerial battle between Noivern and Salamence was what I was hoping for with X vs. Y before that became a glorification fest.
-The animation with Ash-Greninja vs. Mega Sceptile was great.

Negatives:
-Double ties was bland, Noivern's I'm tempted to forgive since the poor little guy is struggling to stand out as is and I wasn't expecting too much going into this, but Goodra also getting it made it feel dull.
-Slurpuff vs. Goodra was dull, I really don't like the strategy that Goodra uses in its matches as they're pretty slow and arduous.
-I really wish there was more counterplay and strategy with the final match-up, Mega battles usually just comes down to overpowering the opponent and this battle was no different.
-I wish they spread out the focus between Pokémon better, this was Goodra's return match and Noivern's first league match, and yet both left with ties rather then wins. Pikachu on the other hand got two impressive wins and Greninja got a good battle out of Mega Sceptile. The former two I feel could've done better here, and since we only have one more battle, I'm a bit disappointed that their big debut in the league is not as strong as it could've been.

Overall, definitely the best episode of the league right now, hopefully the next battle is an improvement though.

 

[WatcherMark]

Sawyer sends out a Fairy-type, so obviously Ash sends out a Dragon-type to face it. Is he ever going to actually fight better than his opponents?

Consider the fact that, out of the three Pokemon Satoshi had left, Pikachu had taken a lot of damage earlier and Gekkouga was not only also at a disadvantage too but was being saved for Jukain. Out of those and Numelgon's high endurance, I can totally understand his choice.

But goddamn, that battle was awesome. Double knockouts always suck, since it indicates the writers couldn't be bothered to work out who deserved to win, but the others made up for that. Satoshi's strategy against Gillguard was superb and caught me completely by surprise. Gekkouga vs Jukain... that battle was just something else. The animation was the best this show has ever put out, and if double knockouts are the price we pay to give us the time and budget for something like that then it's an acceptable sacrifice. Man, I am so pumped for the finals. If it's even half as good as this battle we're in for a treat.

 

[TyphoonStrom]

Tbh I thought it was a pretty shitty match. On the plus side, this was one of the best battle of the Kalos League.

• The way to counter Aegishlash was genius, but the floating wood was just so stupid. Took me out of the ep and made me roll my eyes.
• Noivern vs Salamence was quick and boring.
• Ash sent out a Dragon type against a Fairy, and it didn't really have the moves to counter the type disadvantage. It ended in a double-KO immediately after another double-KO. Why not use Pikachu? He's packing Iron Tail. Shota's strategy was really cool here, though.

Shota in general's been on fire lately, and I almost wish he won. It was really sad seeing him with tears in his eyes during the fight. I'm still pretty mad that they introduced him so late into the series, because he's one of my favorite rivals ever.

1. I don't think you understand just how fast the pokemon are at this point, their practically bullet timers. Hell I don't even think ash had time to give pikachu his command to beat kings shield, so he just had to trust him.

Pikachu was worn out after battling Aegislash, he wouldn't have lasted very long, and probably wouldn't even have gotten a hit in.

Ash also couldn't risk weakening greninja against a Fairy type, so he wasn't a option, and pikachu was able to get in one good hit before getting OKed.

 

[felichar]

any1 knows what was the move salamence used agains noivern? the fire balls one

 

[Sakuraa]

Damn, that was just epic.

I was wondering what happened to Pikachu after hitting the King's Shield. I forgot that it lowered a stat. Anyway, Ash's strategy on preventing the sword from using it's shield to protect itself was great.

Alright, finally Salamence is in the building. I though for sure Ash would use Goodra against him to put Ice Beam to good use, but I didn't expect Ash to send out his Pokemon first. I'm actually surprised that Noivern managed to do enough to Salamence to knock him out. He's barely gotten any battles and Salamence was just hammering him with SE attacks. Regardless, I'm glad the match ended in a tie. Noivern needed to get a K.O. and Salamence is my absolute favorite Pokemon, so I definitely wanted him to get a win as well. So it was truly the best result for me.

I'm quite shocked that Ash chose to send Goodra out against Slurpuff. I would have thought he'd use Pikachu to get in some damage before sending out the dragon. Oh well. I did like that Sawyer took the time to boost Slurpuff's defenses while he was using the first Bide instead of the typical attack spam. I also loved how he had Slurpuff use her sense of smell to find Goodra in the smoke. Now what I didn't like was how Ash didn't have Goodra use Rain Dance at all. Slurpuff's main method of attacking was blasting Flamethrower (why Sawyer didn't command more Fairy moves idk) and all he did was counter back with Ice Beam. Why not use Rain Dance to weaken the already not very effective fire attack even further; not to mention power up Greninja's moves for when he came out? Regardless, I'm probably the only person happy that this battle ended in a draw. Slurpuff has been nothing but a punching bag since her debut and I'm glad she finally defeated a Pokemon, and one of Ash's strongest at that. She deserved it.

Finally, the last two take the stage. Greninja vs. Sceptile. Obviously the best match of the entire battle. I mean, everything was just amazing. It was fast paced and I loved everything, from Greninja using water Kunai knives to use Cut and elements like Ash "spiritually" being on the battlefield with Greninja. The best thing is that Greninja didn't struggle at all. He cut through and ran across Sceptile's Frenzy Plant like it was nothing and counter-attacked perfectly each time. This was a truly amazing battle.

Overall, I'd rate this with a 9/10. The only real issue I had was Ash not using Rain Dance against Slurpuff, but even that wasn't a big deal.

 

[Karamazov]

1. I don't think you understand just how fast the pokemon are at this point, their practically bullet timers. Hell I don't even think ash had time to give pikachu his command to beat kings shield, so he just had to trust him.

Pikachu was worn out after battling Aegislash, he wouldn't have lasted very long, and probably wouldn't even have gotten a hit in.

Ash also couldn't risk weakening greninja against a Fairy type, so he wasn't a option, and pikachu was able to get in one good hit before getting OKed.

I doubt the Pokemon would be going that fast, while keeping up momentum for a somewhat lengthy period. Pikachu was moving insanely fast, but Aegislash wasn't. And if they really were going that fast, I call super-bullshit.

Even if Pikachu was tired, Sawyer's last Pokemon would have been (Mega) Sceptile, which is a terrible match-up. At least Pikachu still had speed, a super-effective attack, and long-range moves. Goodra should have been saved for Mega Sceptile - it packed Ice Beam and Dragon Pulse.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

So Pikachu defeated Aegislash and lost to Sceptile, Noivern tied with Salamence and Goodra tied with Slurpuff. Pretty good battle and Greninja got revenge on Sceptile from the last battle they had.

 

[Alola]

So Pikachu defeated Aegislash and lost to Slurpuff, Noivern tied with Salamence and Goodra tied with Slurpuff. Pretty good battle and Greninja got revenge on Sceptile from the last battle they had.

Pikachu never battled Slurpuff. It lost to Sceptile.

 

[Necrozma]

Things I liked

- Good animation.

- Ash’s ingenious thinking when he realized how he can stop Aegislash before it uses King’s Shield again. Using a wood splinter to prevent Aegislash from settling into its shield was simply brilliant thinking.

- Ash withdrawing Pikachu. FINALLY!

- Noivern managing to knock out Salamence, it’s impressive when you consider how few battles it’s had on-screen. I also liked the aerial battle, the animation was on point during that sequence.

- Goodra managing to knock out Slurpuff.

- Ash-Greninja vs Mega Sceptile was simply glorious. The music, the animation, the dynamic camera movements, everything was on point.

- I like that they didn’t conveniently forget that Ash and Greninja are still synchronized. When Greninja was struck by Sceptile’s tail, Ash felt it. Also Ash collapsed at the end due to exhaustion he felt.


Things I disliked

- Goodra vs Slurpuff battle. I’m sorry, but two Pokemon standing at a distance, barely moving and simply launching attacks at one another does not make for an engaging or a thrilling battle.

- Ash sending out Pikachu to fight Sceptile and using an Electric move on it fully aware that Sceptile can Mega Evolve and gain the Lightning Rod ability. Not quite sure what he was thinking there unless he somehow knew Sawyer wasn’t going to Mega Evolve yet.

OVERALL: a solid conclusion to a two-parter battle. Best battle of the League, though not without its flaws and definitely has a long way to go before it can match up to Ash vs Paul in the League. Here's hoping the battle with Alain surpasses this one.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Pikachu never battled Slurpuff. It lost to Sceptile.

Sorry about that. Corrected the error. Glad to see Ash making it to top 2.