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Review SM088: Lunala VS UB:BLACK! A Full Moon Battle!!

I know this episode isnt perfect. Lunala didnt battle that much. I find it sad that Solgaleo got again all the focus. Dont get me wrong. I found it also stupid that Team Rocket tried to catch Legendary Pokémon with an electric net. And the adults get their energy back after Necrozma left, but before it appeared in Alola the adults were already feeling down. I dont get it. I didnt felt the hype tbh. 6/10
That's because Necrozma was draining Ultra Aura from Alola before it even got there in order to heal itself
 
Was it ever explained why this phenomenon only affected adults? I haven't been keeping up with this stuff lately.
 
The whole scene at the school basement looks so clean... shows how much the SM artstyle would improve if it only had some decent shading.

It's great to see Matori in action for a change (getting her own TR branch and everything!), but I was dissapointed by their plot to simply use a net? I mean they were weary, but it doesn't look like they had another plan anyway. And all it took was a couple of attacks to make them retreat. I'm glad something bigger is coming for Team Rocket next week, specially since Gozu hasn't done much for now.

Also "Matori Matorix"... there couldn't be a better name. With all this there's no way for the English dub to avoid revealing her name this time.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if they call it the Secretary Sector just to see how we react.
That'd actually be hilarious LOL

In all honestly though, I think they'll give her a name with M to match the symbol. Something like Mathilde or Mallory, assuming they just don't keep it as-is.
 
Not a bad episode but wish we'd seen a lot more action, quite a bit of speaking if I'm honest here

Was cute seeing Kukui and Samson sleeping together like that
i was weird, not cute , and i believe it was full of action...

I know this episode isnt perfect. Lunala didnt battle that much. I find it sad that Solgaleo got again all the focus. Dont get me wrong. I found it also stupid that Team Rocket tried to catch Legendary Pokémon with an electric net. And the adults get their energy back after Necrozma left, but before it appeared in Alola the adults were already feeling down. I dont get it. I didnt felt the hype tbh. 6/10

yeah, i was waiting for a more apocaliptic battle. more epic. maybe it come later. with ultra necrozma and all the guardians, maybe other legendarie.

I enjoyed this episode. It was nice seeing Lunala beating Necrozma up before getting captured and turned into Dawn Wings Necrozma. Also, I have to say that I find it funny that the drained TR unit was able to capture Lunala and Nebby, but the Trio can't even catch Pikachu normally.

The only thing I disliked was Nebby showing up here. I was under the impression that this arc would be solely on Lunala and Necrozma. Solgaleo already had his time, imo this arc should be dedicated to Lunala and Necrozma only. But oh well, we'll see what happens next. Hopefully Lunala will still be the one saving everyone from Dusk Mane Necrozma later on.

7.5/10. I'm hoping Lunala gets the focus she deserves in the next episode.
it was amazing having 3 legendaries in the same scene. now i want more. maybe this 3 against giovanni and mewtwo. or rayquaza
 
So watched the episode and here are my thoughts on it... The placement of the Necrozma theme could be better. It would have had a better effect when Lunala was being possessed by Necrozma.

It still gave me the feeling of a set up episode, in spite of us being halfway in the arc.

Team Rocket (all branches) being tired was funny. 'Matori Detox' was an unexpected joke.

It felt strange how any Ultra Guardian not named Ash or Gladion (and Kiawe occasionally) just watched as Lunala struggled against Necrozma.

It was strange to see Necrozma dismantling itself to fuse itself with Lunala. Necrozma's star-marked back going inserting itself into Lunala was rather strange.

An electromagnetic net? Seriously team Rocket? TRIO has shown you thousands of times it doesn’t work.

Solgaleo appears to save the day! So everything required to break the fusion was a Sunsteel Strike? It felt a bit unconvincing that the fusion broke so easily.
So Necrozma decides to fuse with Solgaleo instead. They didn’t bother to animate this as closely as they did Lunala's. Some people mentioned a Lunala-Necrozma ship but I personally feel aligned with Solgaleo-Necrozma ship instead since the way Necrozma 'hugged' to fuse with Solgaleo looked rather affectionate (?) when it wasn’t meant to be.

LoL’d at Kukui tearing his shirt.

A minor nitpick: I feel sad that they stopped calling Nebby by its name and now call it Solgaleo. It should be always called Nebby.
 
Did anyone else feel Lillie's connection to Lunala a bit random? It isn’t random in the games' storyline but here it feeled tacked on.
It’d have been better if Lillie had shown some fascination with Lunala earlier.
 
Did anyone else feel Lillie's connection to Lunala a bit random? It isn’t random in the games' storyline but here it feeled tacked on.
It’d have been better if Lillie had shown some fascination with Lunala earlier.
But Lunala hasn't even properly appeared before this. I think it's kind of a parallel to Ash's connection with Solgaleo.
 
But Lunala hasn't even properly appeared before this. I think it's kind of a parallel to Ash's connection with Solgaleo.

Ash did raise Nebby so there was decent development for the connection (another reason I feel bummed Ash ditched Nebby's nickname).

Yeah, there was no really good way they could develop Lillie's connection to Lunala without it looking random. Hopefully we get more Lillie-Lunala moments from this arc (and if we're taking optimism to its highest degree- have Lillie get a Z-ring and perform Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom to deal with Necrozma).
 
Some unanswered questions:

If this is Nebby, what happened to the other Solgaleo?
Was the Solgaleo from the previous episode Nebby too?
Why didn't UB:BLACK affect children and pokemon?
Bebenom doesn't know Necrozma's UB:BLACK form, other than its symbol?
What is the link between eclipse and Necrozma's attack?
 
Ash did raise Nebby so there was decent development for the connection (another reason I feel bummed Ash ditched Nebby's nickname).

Yeah, there was no really good way they could develop Lillie's connection to Lunala without it looking random. Hopefully we get more Lillie-Lunala moments from this arc (and if we're taking optimism to its highest degree- have Lillie get a Z-ring and perform Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom to deal with Necrozma).
Given how Z-rings are formed from Necrozma's shattered body, (I liked that little detail when Lunala absorbed the Ultra Aura from the Z-rings) maybe Lillie will get a shard of it to make into her own Z-ring at the end of all this

And there was no connection between Lillie and Lunala - all Lillie did was note its body was warm, just like Solgaleo's had been

As for not calling Solgaleo Nebby: you don't see characters calling pokemon by their pre-evolved names, do you? It simply grew out of being called Nebby since it was no longer applicable

Although I have to wonder since I don't recall: was Cosmog's name ever uttered as such during its time as one?
 
Just like last episode, I find the concept of only the adults being drained of their energy rather unnecessary, especially since they didn't do anything with it except for some cheap laughs and because of a lack of an explanation. I mean, I would've bought it if it were only the people of Alola, since that's where the Necrozma lore happened, but when it affected adults who weren't indigenous to Alola, then it pushed too far. Speaking of which, why did that guy need an eyepatch when he had 2 functional eyes?
 
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