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Review SM133: Bird Battle! Brave Bird VS God Bird!!

Well, the Alola league is incompetence with little to no substance... Guzma vs Ilima was probably one of the few well written battles.
I was curious what is Ash meltman calling his family for? To evolved or make them watch Ash battles for fun or meltman is going to ask Ash to battle just like Rowlet did with his family
 
Hey y'all. It's ok to criticize the episode and all, but the Fujisaku bashing is kinda getting pretty nasty. Is not cool to target specific employees working on an episode just because you didn't like said episode.
I would agree if it wasn't a recurring theme with him. Jun'ichi has proven multiple times now that he's not good at writing battles. Criticizing him as a person would be wrong, but people here have just been criticizing his proven inability to screenwrite battles. Granted it's probably ultimately Matsui's fault for continuing to assign battle episodes to him despite the clear deficiency (especially when's he's quite proficient at writing slice of life as seen with several of his non-battle episodes), but at the end of the day it's difficult not to point out a definite pattern when it's there.
 
Now that might have actually been somewhat funny, provided Hau wasn't given long enough to let it sink in that he had won. Like if Rowlet flew back on to the field a second or two after Nanu declared Hau the winner. As it was however the whole thing was mean-spirited, cruel and overall a huge kick in the teeth for Hau, especially when it was his own grandfather who overturned his win. Let's face it, Rowlet had already taken more than enough damage from Decidueye for a legitimate KO anyway, even if it didn't canonically get one.

Which is a problematic theme throughout the anime, so really no surprise here.

I can't help but wonder if the fake out was just the writer of this episode saying that Nanu is a bad referee because he literally doesn't care about anything. And that perhaps a better referee wouldn't have made the call, and perhaps that was the real purpose of the fake out, I mean it was conveniently Nanu who was the referee. I have a hard time imagining it being Olivia if the same thing would've happen, let alone Hala.

But I guess there's no way to know for sure, we just have to assume simply Nanu just isn't a good referee.

I know that Rowlet is a sleeper but I just believe that the Pokémon league is not the place for gags, even his trainer was like wtf are you doing lol
Again not the fault of this writer, but the decision to give THIS type of Rowlet to Ash. Again as I said, it's completely forced if they were to cherry pick when Rowlet falls asleep and when it doesn't given the countless examples of it having to get roused from sleeping to fight.

They never bothered to have Ash train Rowlet so it wouldn't get so sleepy, such as shoving coffee down it's throat or energy drinks, there was never any story about Rowlet being able to stay awake long enough.

I hated the character trait the moment they gave it to Rowlet and Ash. Like Rowlet's personality was fine just enough, but yes let's have it constantly sleep all the time, and on top of that let's make sure it DOESN'T evolve.

As I said, I will always be more pissed about that than this battle. Quite frankly this battle was whatever. The whole fake out unnecessary or necessarily is irrelevant because its not like it was a surprise that Rowlet fell asleep, an annoying instance but that's just how it is.

What I will agree on, though I'm blaming more on this on Nanu than Hala, is that yeah it was wholly unnecessary to have Ash "fake lose" in the context that it happened, I do think that criticism is valid, because surely Hala could've stopped Nanu from declaring Hau the winner LONG before he actually did it.

"Rowlet is unable to battle therefore the winner is Hau-"
"OBJECTION!"

You know, come on, why did we need a super uncomfortable and awkward long pause before Hala needed to reveal Rowlet was merely sleeping. That is either the writers fault or the animator's fault (I honestly don't know how much explicit control a writer has in comparison to what an animator will do to pad out a scene. Does the writer write down every specific thing that happens, or is it a relatively condensed but simple sentence and the animator goes from there?

Was the writing a situation of:

Hau was declared the winner, but then Hala interrupted (insert dialogue)

OR

Hau was declared the winner, Ash, his classmates, Ash's Pokemon all stare in disbelief. Hau excitedly celebrates with his Decidueye. Suddenly Hau interrupts.


Like what happened here, script wise vs animation?

Why does it make any more sense than being overwhelmed and fainting?
Because it's Ash's Rowlet not any other Pokemon.

By that logic any Pokemon could take a nap instead of fainting and remain in the field infinitely.
Really? So you're just going to ignore that it's Rowlet's character trait to be constantly sleepy? Outside of Snorlax and Rowlet which Pokemon of Ash's has an inclination to sleep, which MIGHT affect its battling? None of them. Even Snorlax, as I said has this weird only unofficial battles will it fall asleep but will always be viable when the writers deem it. Rowlet on the other hand fell asleep immediately after defeating Crabrawler.

For all Rowlet knew, it probably thought it already knocked out Decidueye and wanted some good justified sleep. But of course it didn't knock out Decidueye.

And Rowlet wanted to prove itself and requested Ash to choose it, so it made sense that Rowlet would take this battle seriously and not fall asleep.

Which would be more understanding if Ash had an entirely different Rowlet that wasn't prone to sleeping all the time, and THEY pulled THIS same stunt, then I would be MORE than understanding of people's displeasure of this SPECIFIC battle.

But instead of complaining about Rowlet as a character and how detrimental it was to give it to Ash, it makes more sense to criticize this battle, when as far as I can see, the LITERALLY only thing wrong with it, was Hau being declared the winner, and it was a fake out the whole time?

People are calling this the worst episode ever. To me that feels like a fine movie being labelled the worst just because there was an unfortunate cut of someone crapping on a toilet for an uncomfortable length of time. It's like OKAY, yeah sure, you could complain about that, but how does that justify it being the worst movie?

Or in this case, CUT OUT the Hau winning "fake out" how does is it the worst episode, or a bad battle? How is it so "worst" because of simply one major yet predictable problem?
 
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Eh, everything other than the Ash loses fake out was good. Actually seeing Hala intervene, and Nanu apologising to Ash was great too.

If it didn’t happen, it wouldn’t have meant more battling- it would have been more character interaction between the two battles.

Rowlett may have narcolepsy, ever think about that- you’re degrading the poor bid for a potential mental illness :LOL: shame on you all!
 
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Didn't I say on one post that Fujisaku may effect my whole impression on the league... haha and you all decided to laugh at me.

But on a side note, Why does everybody really seem to hate this episode? Sure it wasn't good, far from good in fact. But it wasn't really that bad. SM's battles were never based on pure power or strategy, It's more about the storytelling. Sure you would think it's the league and expect the anime to go back to its pre-Gen 7 roots make the anime suddenly serious and bring back 3d Cameras and all that cool stuff... but why? Why change? Whenever you're writing an episode you should always keep in your mind of your target audience, there's no need to change it, that's just inconsistency. I liked the drama of Ash thinking he's lost, it had me feel intense but other than that I just feel it was meh so I'd give it a 4 or 5 out of 10. But it isn't as bad as other fujisaku episodes.

EDIT: Also on a side note it's the Director, in this case Tomiyasu who assigns episodes to writers and animators not Matsui. And that too, Tomiyasu just says "Ash wins and Hau loses" "Make a situation that catches the fanbase off guard" and Fujisaku writes the whole episode.
 
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Well, the Alola league is incompetence with little to no substance... Guzma vs Ilima was probably one of the few well written battles.
Both Mallow vs. Lana and Lillie vs. Gladion were very emotionally charged battles. Ilima vs. Guzma showcased how nasty Guzma's strategies can get. The Battle Royale was filled to the brim with character moments (that could have been weaved together a bit better, tbh). The battles between Mamane and Mina, and Kaki and Acerola both pushed the characters to extents we hadn't seen before, and by the looks of it Kaki vs. Mamane will push them even further. And honestly, aside from the fake out and the battle between Hau and Ash wasn't half bad imo.
 
Seems like it.
Thank u for replying Truly I mean it
I was waiting for whole for response by anyone :) it makes feel happy

I’m curious is meltman took the idea of his closest friend to being his family to cheer him on to battle stronger or evolving as he will ask Ash to battle next match
 
Both Mallow vs. Lana
That was emotionally charged, I agree, but in hindsight it made me feel that the league really wasn’t for Mallow, and Tsareena had been let down by its trainer. I just felt sorry for Tsareena at the end of the battle and not Mallow herself.

It's more about the storytelling.
What story is this episode supposed to tell? Hau’s extreme humiliation? I’m waiting for the subs before watching, but I don’t really feel that even the ‘storyline’ of this episode is really likeable.

Even if one considers the drama of Ash losing, Rowlet being asleep just feels anticlimactic. Contrast it with Infernape almost fainting against Electrivire- that provided the same drama and possiblity of Ash losing, but that was subverted in a much better way.

And Rowlet really urgently needs to see a doctor- chronic narcolepsy isn’t anything to scoff at. Is it an attempt at representation of Pokemon with illnesses?
 
That was emotionally charged, I agree, but in hindsight it made me feel that the league really wasn’t for Mallow, and Tsareena had been let down by its trainer. I just felt sorry for Tsareena at the end of the battle and not Mallow herself.
At least Mallow grew as a person, and maybe even a little bit as a battler, thanks to that match.
 
And honestly, aside from the fake out and the battle between Hau and Ash wasn't half bad imo.
Well, I haven’t seen this episode, but the previous one had already crossed my wtf threshold, with Ash using the Z-Move right at the beginning, and Rowlet escaping the move it shouldn’t have.
Even the substitute explanation doesn’t make sense when you look at it again.

At least Mallow grew as a person, and maybe even a little bit as a battler, thanks to that match.
Well, I didn’t get the impression Mallow would ever battle again. That episode just cemented for me that battles aren’t really Mallow’s thing.
Tsareena is the only character in the battle my sympathies go to.

The battle felt sad whichever side you were rooting for to me. It was emotionally charged, but emotionally charged =/= good always.
 
My issue with the battle is not the outcome or even the fakeout, the latter of which may even have been predicated by the execs. Even before that the pacing was off and the interest just wasn’t there.

I actually think Fujisaku is a great writer; he’s written some of my favourite SM episodes. But, as Takegami before him, battles are not his forte. Why do the powers that be insist on giving him these episodes? Whereas, I bet anything he’d have done a better job with some of the dullest filler outlines SM had. I hope he sticks around for SwSh but that the assignment of writers to episodes is a little better thought out.
 
This was considerable more hype then the league episodes before it!

Rowlett vs Decidueye was really great in the end, the fake out loss was meh but it’s true to Rowlett’s character and the comedic nature of the series.

Did Rowlett actually use FeatherDance or was it Substitute?

Vikavolt vs Charizard is already an exciting battle! Nice touch to show Kiawe taking the PokeRide gear of Charizard. These may only be one on ones but the quarterfinal battles are getting lots of attention!

Melmetal is coming...
Seems we share the same opinion. I thought this episode was pretty great overall. Different strokes for different folks I guess:wynaut:

Oh and btw...
122337
Reaction: #1
 
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What story is this episode supposed to tell? Hau’s extreme humiliation? I’m waiting for the subs before watching, but I don’t really feel that even the ‘storyline’ of this episode is really likeable.

Even if one considers the drama of Ash losing, Rowlet being asleep just feels anticlimactic. Contrast it with Infernape almost fainting against Electrivire- that provided the same drama and possiblity of Ash losing, but that was subverted in a much better way.

And Rowlet really urgently needs to see a doctor- chronic narcolepsy isn’t anything to scoff at. Is it an attempt at representation of Pokemon with illnesses?
Ash rowlet learned Subsitue not feather dance???

He made clone of himself to escape
 
Did anyone notice a trainer's Chikorita next to Azumarill during the scene when Hau was declared the winner before Hala interrupted it?
 
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