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Review SM104: Poni Island Research Project! Search for the Island King!!

Why is it that the more I hear the words “radish thieves”, the more I think of that really old Homestar cartoon where Strong Bad tries to steal the reddest radish from Marzipan?

“With Marzipan’s radish we’re gonna win the competition!”

Seriously though, I liked seeing Golurk in action again, as it’s an underrated Pokémon IMO and yeah, come to think of it, it hasn’t been seen since Best Wishes despite being in the Kalos Dex. I’ve always thought the animation of it using Fly in the games is hilarious.

But who wants to bet that when it comes time for Ash to battle Kahuna Hapu, Pikachu will win handedly against Golurk, and will somehow manage to in essence deal super effective damage to it with Electric type attacks?

Other than that, not bad for an arc opening episode. I like that Ash’s classmates are actually coming along and exploring Poni Island on their own, unlike Ula’ula Island. But we all know the real fun starts next week...
 
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But who wants to bet that when it comes time for Ash to battle Kahuna Hapu, Pikachu will win handedly against Golurk, and will somehow manage to in essence deal super effective damage to it with Electric type attacks?/
Pikachu can't beat golurk with one attack ( lron tail is also not effective) in Grand trial..
I think 2 vs 2 grand trial. I wonder which Pokemon can defeat mudsdale with high defense...
 
But who wants to bet that when it comes time for Ash to battle Kahuna Hapu, Pikachu will win handedly against Golurk, and will somehow manage to in essence deal super effective damage to it with Electric type attacks?
That hasn't happened since Advanced Generation. I guarantee that Electric moves won't do a thing against Hapu's Pokémon.
 
Screenshot_2019-01-13-23-26-23-1.png
How old is she?
 
They did a really good job with Hapu, she is a very nuanced character already, with her personality of being a rude girl because everyone is older than her. Also, her dynamics with Ash were interesting, specially the way she took interest in Ash. Her Golurk and Mudsdale were awesome.
Team Skull wasn't threatening at all as usual, but at least they got their first plot development since SM065 (where other grunts where shown to exist outside flashbacks) or SM001 if you're exigent.
Like SM031 or SM074 this episode would've benefited from a quick showcase of the island's landmarks and what the culture is like.

7/10
 
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Hapu, at least let Ash and the others speak before calling them thieves

No?

We're just gonna let everyone be stupid because Alola actively drains intelligence from its human inhabitants?

...Really don't expect anything less from SM at this point


I also like that the opening finally confirmed Kukui and Royal aren't the same person, because Kukui was watching Ash's battle against Royal at the League...

:p
 
Misunderstandings like that seemed pretty common in other regions Ash has journeyed in. In previous regions Ash and his friends have been wrongfully accused of thievery and poaching by just random characters of the day or any less than competent Jennys who wouldn't even bother getting their side of the story.
 
I don't know how to feel about this episode.

On one hand, the writers changing the backstory of Poni's Kahuna from "he's dead" to "he retired because he's old" felt like it was done just to have that stupid 1 minute skit and it really undermined Hapu's story. Speaking of Hapu, she was the most annoying character in this episode; she felt like she was entitled and sassy and stupid. And the way she kept acting like Ash is the thief (even when seeing the daikons on Team Skull's side of the beach) really made me hate her. I mean, I would understand if they (the writers) would have stuck with her backstory from the games (while expanding on it, of course) and they kept her grandfather was dead, since maybe the reason she was overprotective of her daikon farm was because that was the way she was dealing with the pain of loosing someone dear to her and seeing someone ruin the farm that belonged to her and her grandfather would cause her to be angry and quick to jump to conclusions. But in the context of the episode, it just feels like she acts the way she does for no other reason than "we need plot & conflict".

On the other hand, it was nice to see the classmates finally involved in an island arc since the Akala arc (which happened almost 2 years ago, soooo good job I guess?) and that they are being set up to be developed (well, most of them anyways), I liked that they included Golruk in this episode and the way he interacts with his owner, nice to finally see Plumeria (to bad they don't do much with her) and, as a setup episode, it did its job pretty well. Also, I really loved that scene at the end of the episode, where Lana looks so amazed at that fork, like she's never seen one before. It was short, funny and not in your face with silly facial expressions like the rest of Sun & Moon's comedy and it got a genuine laugh out of me (really feels weird that, out of everything in this episode, this was the highlight for me).

I guess that the best way I can describe this is episode is: it exists. Its a Pokémon episode. It does some good stuff, it has some bad stuff. Nothing outstanding or infuriating. Overall, its there if you wanna watch it.
Misunderstandings like that seemed pretty common in other regions Ash has journeyed in. In previous regions Ash and his friends have been wrongfully accused of thievery and poaching by just random characters of the day or any less than competent Jennys who wouldn't even bother getting their side of the story.

True, misunderstandings happened in the past series, but in the past they felt kinda justified. In DP, Marble mistakes Ash and company for thieves, but that's because that's her characters. She often jumps to conclusions without thinking in order to impress the other officers and prove herself. In in XY, the reason Ash and the gang were mistaken as troublemakers by Jenny was because the TRio was masquerading as them throughout the city (and yes, I know that's a stupid excuse and that anyone with half a brain should tell that those were the TRio and not the cast, but it's still an explanation). Not sure about Best Wishes, the original series and Advanced Generations (since I don't remember and/or haven't watched those episodes). This time, however, it doesn't feel like Hapu is justified to jump to conclusions like that, since she doesn't feel like the type to accuse others. Unless she is, in which case WHAT THE **** ARE YOU DOING SM WRITERS!!!!
 
Was so busy zooming in on the ending to see whether the Pokemon on Torracat was Togedemaru or Jangmo-o lol, Guess it is Togedemaru after all. About this episode, I think it was a Great Introduction Episode, the Interactions were well done, I'm not busy focusing on little, minor stupid things like others are like Hapu's Grandfather's story or the "misunderstanding", you know none of that is gonna add to the long-term nor is it going to matter. The Episode itself was a Great Introduction Episode and a Decent Episode overall. Plumeria's appearance gave me chills even though it was short. Episode was enjoyable just like your typical SM Episode. Kukui leaving the gang shows how far they have come since Akala. A 9/10 for an Introduction Episode, A 7/10 for the overall episode. Also LOVED that Pablo Picasso reference...
 
On one hand, the writers changing the backstory of Poni's Kahuna from "he's dead" to "he retired because he's old" felt like it was done just to have that stupid 1 minute skit and it really undermined Hapu's story.
He's dead

Hapu lives alone in the farm he used to own

The reason Hapu acts like Kanto-era Ash is because she was the youngest around and felt like she had something to prove, so she became stronger so people would stop making fun of her
 
On one hand, the writers changing the backstory of Poni's Kahuna from "he's dead" to "he retired because he's old" felt like it was done just to have that stupid 1 minute skit and it really undermined Hapu's story. Speaking of Hapu, she was the most annoying character in this episode; she felt like she was entitled and sassy and stupid. And the way she kept acting like Ash is the thief (even when seeing the daikons on Team Skull's side of the beach) really made me hate her. I mean, I would understand if they (the writers) would have stuck with her backstory from the games (while expanding on it, of course) and they kept her grandfather was dead, since maybe the reason she was overprotective of her daikon farm was because that was the way she was dealing with the pain of loosing someone dear to her and seeing someone ruin the farm that belonged to her and her grandfather would cause her to be angry and quick to jump to conclusions. But in the context of the episode, it just feels like she acts the way she does for no other reason than "we need plot & conflict".
The retired Kahuna wasn't related to Hapu. Hapu's grandfather was the Kahuna before the retired one. His current condition wasn't mentioned, as far as I recall.
He's dead

Hapu lives alone in the farm he used to own
We don't know if Hapu's grandfather is dead in the anime or not.
 
And the most disappointed thing is that Mina didn't appear in this episode, which is a sad thing. The writer wanted to make Hapu as a loner rather than someone assisted her. But we've shall see how after episode 108 comes.
 
Kiawe and Joy spoke of him in the past tense

Joy: That field is where Hapu used to live with Sofu
Kiawe: Sofu? The same Sofu who was my grandfather's best friend and the Island King before the last one?
We can be pretty sure that Kiawe's grandfather is dead (he was pretty old in the flashbacks already), so the "was" in Kiawe's sentence could just mean that his grandfather was friends with Sofu while being still alive. We can't rule out any possibility at this point.
 
Please note: The thread is from 5 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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