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Review SM129: The Great Fray! Battle Royal 151!!

Great opening for the league that starts. Wish, most of the Ash's Classmate can make it in finals round.

Overall rating: B+
 
Ok that was honestly a bit weak. We simply saw too few challenges to the main cast. The fact that all 6 of them have made it through also emphasises how low-stakes the whole Battle Royal setup was. Of the qualifiers, I don't think we ever even saw Kojiro, Matsurika, Hau, Ookido, Acerola or even Guzma battle a single Pokemon!!

I did like the scene between Satoshi and Gladio though, that was a stirring moment - one of the very few in the whole episode.
 
Episode looked a bit messy overall, I feel like this preliminary stage would have worked a lot better if it was split into two episodes tbh, but I kinda get why they didn't go for something like that, because damn are the first round matches packed! I can hardly see them skipping any.
 
I'm just wondering about those people freaking out about the 'character based on a staff member' taking up screen time, seeing as he was the first KO.
 
I knew it, the writers/animators couldn't handle the sheer scope of the Battle Royale, which ended up looking too tame. There just wasn't a realistic sense of scale or chaos, which makes me wish that there hadn't even been a Battle Royale at all.
Aside from what I mentioned early (making the battle royale 2 episodes instead of 1) I think the biggest weakness this episode wasn't the writing or animation themselves, but the direction, I feel like with a couple of match cuts and some better transitions from battle to battle the whole thing could have felt way more cohesive, I don't think the episode was necessarily bad, but compared to the potential it had it does feel kinda mediocre in comparison.
 
Too bad the opening theme wasn't updated to include Hau's Decidueye in place of Dartrix. Decidueye still appears as Dartrix no matter how many updates they add.
 
I liked this episode, it was fun and exciting but I have a few complaints:

Every league needs a narrow down the contestants to a proper tournament number (Ironic that the two best leagues- Sinnoh and Kalos- both magically started with a tournament friendly 64) for realism if anything. It just makes sense. The battle Royale did that but I’m not sure I liked that we went straight to 16. I’d have been able to accept all the classmates getting to the top 32, but not the top 16.

I’m not sure I like that the contestants were able to help and spare each other. I know this league is meant to be a bit of fun compared with others but that doesn’t sit well with me.

Sandy and Shaymin- the two Pokemon we complain haven’t done anything- are barely shown. Worse because we’ve never seen Shaymin battle or so much as use an offensive move. They yadder yaddered that a bit.

So many characters were not seen battling at all- Oak, Hau, Mina, Acerola, or barely seen battling- Guzma. Which is fine I guess because they are progressing in the league.

Their were characters however that didn’t go through to the next round her appeared for splits seconds with no battle action- Kahili, Oulu, DJ Leo. Characters like the master fisherman and photobombing hiker- I’m not convinced appeared at all.

I’m still not satisfied. Araquanid has not made a proper major appearance yet!

Their are way more characters they could’ve put here- I’d only just for a small cameo: Horacio, Ida, Ryuki, Alolan Ninetails girl, the revenges...

But I did like this episode- it was nice seeing Ilima getting a chance to shine and seeing a lot from Plumeria: their battle being potentially the best part! Oh and Turtonator was great in this episode too!

Like the episode, but when I look back on this in years to come- I’ll wish some things were done differently.
 
It is actually makes sense that all of the classmates make it through: they all got each others' backs, while other challengers were alone in the field. As they say:
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Friendship is magic! :enzap:
 
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Omg forgot to say a key thing - Satoshi twigged that it was Musashi's Mimikyu, and seemed to join up the dots when he saw Musashi. I think this is the first ever time HE has recognised the TRio in disguise without prompting!! I'm so proud of my little twerp :bulbaLove:

Something tells me he will remain clueless about it
 
All complaints about Mao's using Shaymin is turned out to be pointless, as we didn't even see its fighting anybody.
Yeah, this is truly disappointing. I just wanted to see Shaymin in action using some moves. Anyway, for some reason Dare Da was skipped for this episode and instead, they show pics and fan-arts made by Pokemon fans. I wonder if Dare Da will be included in Hulu version or reruns.
 
Yeah, this is truly disappointing. I just wanted to see Shaymin in action using some moves. Anyway, for some reason Dare Da was skipped for this episode and instead, they show pics and fan-arts made by Pokemon fans. I wonder if Dare Da will be included in Hulu version or reruns.
Someone posted pictures of it in twitter.
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Felt rushed. Liked Magicarp. Would be good to get 3vs3 now after that. Would Shedinja(Guzma) vs mega Kangaskhan not be better?
 
I thought it was great sadly Shaymin wasn’t shown battle

I was happy to see Togpdomorgo battle with new move or move she knew never been used lol

I wish it was 256 trainers that way to be part 2 episode to see more battles honestly 151 was a lot but I think two parts be great

Ash vs Gladion will happen

I wonder who has ideas who going to win top 16, top 8 top 4 top 2 then battle royal mask
 
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