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Review S19 EP47: Till We Compete Again!

WatcherMark

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XY140 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.

So here we are, the final XY episode.

There were only two parts of this episode I was interested in seeing in regards to how the dub handled them... Serena's declaration and kiss, and the final extended montage. Serena's statements to Ash are a bit different from the original and are a lot less romantic (in the original, she outright tells Satoshi that she plans on getting together with him and will return to him a more mature woman whereas in the dub she just tells Ash she wants to be like him). The implied kiss is kept though.

As for extensive flashback I was prepared for a massive cut, expecting it to be around the place where the end credits kicked in during the Japanese airing and... no, there was no cut. Everything was kept, to the point the end credits played slowly over the second half of the montage. As for the music? Well, where the original had a replay of V (Volt) here we get all three XY dub themes playing in a medley. It works really well, and makes me think I started picking up the Bizarro-dub by mistake for a while.
 
Episode:

Serena definitely won the Ash right here, folks: no, seriously, I guess AmourShippers must be pleased with the results of this episode.

Ending was meh, why they always just show Ash rushing off to Pallet Town like this with no real episode to conclude it post-AG (except for BW) is baffling.

Dub:

Well, I can say I'm genuinely not a fan of Professor Oak or Delia's current English dub voices at all, so let's get that out of the way first- they just don't seem to fit, Oak sounds too young and nasal to me while Delia sounds overly masculine.

Moving on...

I'm disappointed that the dub (apparently) only kept 2 Japanese themes for the final episode of XY/Z here (title card, G6 leader theme), but that's par for the course these days, though I will say the dub music itself is hit-or-miss: the implied kiss scene's music honestly had me bursting out laughing at how unfittingly baroque-y it is, but I think Ed Goldfarb did reasonably well with the credits theme music and put some modicum of effort into his composition there to fit the mood.

Sarah Natochenny put some legitimate effort into her Ash performance, at least she emoted somewhat well unlike her Delia, even though I don't think it still works too much for the character myself.

Bonnie's VA...eh, still sounds too nasal, it never worked for me when it debuted and it still doesn't now: Clemont's VA actually emoted fairly well, even if he sounds a bit too old. Serena's...eh, I just didn't get much out of it, Paschall has a pretty voice, but she was miscast to me as a young girl.

Team Rocket...well, I wasn't a fan of Cathcart or Knotz's performances at all, nor do I like the scripting of TRio in the current dub, so my opinion on that matter should be fairly obvious.

And hey, they didn't cut anything out for once, unlike how they cut all those scenes out of the DP191 ending and BW142 ending, that's something I can give the dub of XY140 points for, much as I dislike most of it!
 
Ending was meh, why they always just show Ash rushing off to Pallet Town like this with no real episode to conclude it post-AG (except for BW) is baffling.

I'll take an off-screen reunion and time jump over what we got at the end of Best Wishes, where Ash could barely stand to be in the same house as his mom and left the very next day.
 
I'll take an off-screen reunion and time jump over what we got at the end of Best Wishes, where Ash could barely stand to be in the same house as his mom and left the very next day.
I agree Ash was being an inconsiderate jerk in BW142 to his mother, but I did appreciate that at least we got to see the Oak Lab & such for an episode.
 
I would have preferred the 10 minute flash back to be used in just about any other way. We can just re watch the series if we want to see the flashbacks. I think flashbacks in an episode can be powerful, but not when you make the entire last episode of a series a flashback and miss out on valuable time for new stuff. I personally would have preferred it to be some sort of interaction in Pallet Town, because we know SM 1 doesn't even start there. This episode was kind of lacking considering it was basically just a 10 minute episode.

The episode was making me pretty sad, especially every time they say they will see each other again and I just know it won't happen because the show is constantly trying to forget the past these days. Here's to hoping for a surprise in the future.
 
I think the flashback could have been cut back honestly, and they could have added more time in Pallet Town by cutting back, but I was fully satisfied by how they decided to end the XY series. There was a decent amount of emotion with the goodbyes and it was certainly more memorable than Iris and Cilan's send off. I'm glad my sons Chespin and Pancham got one last scene together and it was pretty cute seeing Pancham give Chespin a parting gift. I think the moment that really takes the cake though was Serena kissing Ash, and I like how they handled her dialogue in the dub. I kinda wish we saw Ash actually get more of a solid goodbye with Clemont and Bonnie also, but I have to say, this was a very solid ending for a pretty good series.
 
So this is the true end to the X&Y series, it was a fun ride here, now for the wait for the Sun and Moon dub airing, wonder what will change from the sneak peak
 
The line in the original wasn't more "romantic", it was gross and reductive of her character. She was basically saying her main drive is to impress Ash and become more attractive for him. That's not exactly a great message to send to a young audience. I much preferred how it was worded in the dub.

And hey they kept the flashback in-tact! I was thinking they'd cut it before the credits but they actually put effort into the dub for once. I knew they were gonna cut V Volt but I'm glad they used the first XY dub opening instead of random garbage like they usually do, and I think they mixed it with the second XY dub opening? I wish they would have kept in the vocals though, it was kind of weird having no dialogue for most of it.

Anyways overall the XY series had a pretty bad dub, I'd say it was only better than Diamond and Pearl's dub (though that's a pretty low bar). Too many unnecessary edits and the voice performances were really bad, plus they started messing up the movie soundtracks again for the first time in over ten years. I have low, low expectations for the Sun/Moon dub, but maybe if they fire Cathcart I'll start watching regularly again.
 
The line in the original wasn't more "romantic", it was gross and reductive of her character. She was basically saying her main drive is to impress Ash and become more attractive for him. That's not exactly a great message to send to a young audience. I much preferred how it was worded in the dub.
I have low, low expectations for the Sun/Moon dub, but maybe if they fire Cathcart I'll start watching regularly again.
>Prefers Cathcart's dialogue changes/rewrites
>Wants him fired
???
I'm not his fan at all, either, and I think his handling of Team Rocket in terms of the scripting is dreadful along with some lines from the protagonists (especially Ash's slang), but I fail to entirely see your logic on these particular points.
 
Hello everyone! Logging into the forums after almost 4 years, just for this thread. Ah all the memories!. I do refer to bulbapedia wiki quite frequently though.

So about the episode...Few weeks ago I read somewhere that Clemont and Bonnie will continue with Ash's journey in next region, so I got super happy, since I love little Bonnie (never had a younger sister or brother myself). I decided to read some spoilers and read about last few episodes' summary on bulbapedia (since japanese dub was already much ahead). Turns out it was just a rumor and Bonnie isn't staying in the series, that got me really sad cause I didn't want her to leave (It would be nice if they showed Ash contacting his old friends over internet/phone on-screen from time to time). So I was refrained from watching last 3 episodes as soon as they were aired, so I don't feel sad every week. Rather, I just saved them and watched them all yesterday (and also Side Story 37. The Strongest Duo! Clemont and Cilan!!) And then I started from XY001 episode to feel less sad, haha. These are just imaginary anime characters; and we have internet so we can watch them anytime we want...or atleast that's what I want to tell myself. Although I'm really sad that we won't be able to see Bonnie grow up, become Pokémon trainer, and get back together with Squishy (don't think she would get to "capture" Zygarde in her pokemon ball though, that would make her overpowered since he's a legendary and protector of Kalos). I like how they end it with Ash battling Clemont and Bonnie being referee, and Pikachu vs Bunnelby...exactly how it began in the very first episode. I also liked how they used a variation of Gym Theme during the battle (not Gym Battle Theme). That's my favorite theme from the Original series in Kanto region, but lately they don't use it anymore. About this XY series, I think this was really great overall...much better than the AG/DP/BW. The mystery around Zygarde was well scripted. I liked how Team Rocket was more serious and evil in the beginning of this series though, rather than them being back to their normal goofyness.

The new Sun & Moon series has different artwork that I don't like all that much. It makes the anime feel even more like a kids' show. Not sure I'll continue watching it or not. Think I'll just keep all the XY series episode with me and watch them randomly from time to time. Haha!
 
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I liked all the flashbacks, which we didn't see in the past.
I also like it that Ash isn't going to spend only one night with his mother.
And of course, there was the usual empty promises that they will all meet again, and we know how the writers don't care about Ash's friends and older Pokémon (except Pikachu).
Somehow, Jessie, James, and Meowth are more important to the writers than Dawn, Serena, Clement, Bonnie, etc...

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
 
Best finale ever! The best for me in this episode was the recap scenes and that awesome end credits sequence with 2 of my fave theme songs from the Dub as of recent was just the best ever to a fan like me. I was expecting the kiss scene to be cut, but hey they kept the scene in:D and in the end everyone got a proper conclusion. XYZ has been an amazing series and just gen 6 in general was awesome! Now sun and moon is next and expect me to keep on supporting this show to the fullest:)
 
I have to agree on how Serena's lines, before leaving, were handled here. She basically says in the dub "I wanna be like you and you're gonna like the person I've become next time we meet!" over "You're my goal and I'll be more attractive for you." That was going overboard and it did kind of give the wrong message in the original, so I'm glad they changed this in the dub.
 
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I have to agree on how Serena's lines, before leaving, were handled here. She basically says in the dub "I wanna be like you and you're gonna like the person I've become next time we meet!" over "You're my goal and I'll be more attractive for you." That was going overboard and it did kind of give the wrong message in the original, so I'm glad they changed this in the dub.
Same here. I saw only a bit of the original episode but tried to avoid spoilers when watching the Dub version, that was one of the things that did kind of catch me off guard and man for me they did not let me down(y)
 
Awesome end to an awesome series! I was surprised how credits started to roll during the flashbacks. The flashbacks were just great and Serena did it! Did anyone else also notice how most of Ash's memories were with Serena? Ash's flashbacks even include him falling on Serena's chest! The way he bid goodbye to her, the way Serena was involved in his memories and the way the XY producer said that those 2 will get along , it all points towards Ash also liking her. He didn't make any awkward faces after the kiss, he was confused for a bit and then that smile boy!
As someone who is leaving the anime here, this was the best thing I could get! The way the credits rolled with flashbacks and and how there was 'no to be continued', this was the epic ending to the anime. Everything after this is non canon, FOR ME(don't attack me for this, I clearly said 'FOR ME').
Btw, anyone else notice that they actually didn't show greninja losing at the finals, I think they originally intended for Ash to win but the weren't allowed to do so.
And to our own way!
 
The line in the original wasn't more "romantic", it was gross and reductive of her character. She was basically saying her main drive is to impress Ash and become more attractive for him. That's not exactly a great message to send to a young audience. I much preferred how it was worded in the dub.

How so? "You are my goal" is basically her confession to him. Without it there is no confession, which means Serena never confessed her feelings to him. And there is no difference between "I'll become a more charming woman" and "you'll gonna like the person I've grow into".
 
>Prefers Cathcart's dialogue changes/rewrites
>Wants him fired
???
I'm not his fan at all, either, and I think his handling of Team Rocket in terms of the scripting is dreadful along with some lines from the protagonists (especially Ash's slang), but I fail to entirely see your logic on these particular points.

Just because I liked how he handled *one* line doesn't undo all of the crap he's done for years-- if I could choose between having a watchable dubbed Team Rocket (and natural-sounding dialogue in general) or one line in one episode changed to sound less-terrible I'd absolutely pick the former. And on top of that a lot of my problems with him come from his voice acting, his Meowth voice in particular is so grating I can't stand to listen to him enough to even know what he's saying (not like I'd want to hear that terrible dialogue anyways).

How so? "You are my goal" is basically her confession to him. Without it there is no confession, which means Serena never confessed her feelings to him. And there is no difference between "I'll become a more charming woman" and "you'll gonna like the person I've grow into".

Tbh I might be a bit biased here because I absolutely do not care about Ash/Serena as a couple (unless it reduces Serena's character, then I get annoyed with it) because hey, they're ten years old and adults obsessing over the romance between children has and always will be beyond me. But I feel like the kiss is enough to convey her feelings to him, it doesn't come off as out-of-place following the dub dialogue. And while those two lines generally mean the same thing, there absolutely is a difference between how they're worded. The first implies her goal is to become much more "dateable" for Ash so he'll find her more appealing and attractive while the second implies that she just wants to grow as a person and he'll be impressed with it. Now I'm from America so maybe the line from the original has a different connotation in Japan, but from my view it was pretty gross.
 
Just because I liked how he handled *one* line doesn't undo all of the crap he's done for years-- if I could choose between having a watchable dubbed Team Rocket (and natural-sounding dialogue in general) or one line in one episode changed to sound less-terrible I'd absolutely pick the former. And on top of that a lot of my problems with him come from his voice acting, his Meowth voice in particular is so grating I can't stand to listen to him enough to even know what he's saying (not like I'd want to hear that terrible dialogue anyways).
I get that, and for the most part, I agree, but I dislike his dialogue for Ash and a lot of others as well: for example, no 10 year old says stuff like "Let 'er rip" or "Full throttle" like he makes him talk. However, I also dislike his TR dialogue like you, so I can understand what you're saying. I can't stand the dub's voice acting in general for the most part, not just him, but Meowth is also my least favorite performance from him. I still don't think his change to Serena's dialogue was good in any form, though, myself.
 
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