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

"Clear deficiency"...to the small minority of fans who post on message boards or who tweet about it, maybe. But why would the showrunners have any reason think they have a problem big enough to shake things up? Does Mr. Fujisaku constantly miss deadlines? Do his scripts require multiple rewrites? Does he not do the assignment?

How about the fact that his scripts are terribly written? Shouldn't quality of a story also matter when it comes to a script? Shouldn't a writer actually aim to make a story that is as well-written and as coherent as possible, instead of just writing a messy pile of trash as quickly as possible and with as little revisions as possible? Or should standards just not exist when it comes to fictional stories (be it Pokémon's or any other franchise's) and instead should be praised, even if they're the equivalent of a turd, because it has the name "Pokémon" on it and Pokémon is just "a franchise about cute animals intended for children"?

Also, what is wrong with rewriting a script? Doing that show that the writer actually cares about their story and its quality and are willing to revise it in order to make it as great as it can be. I'd have more of an issue with a writer if, say, they decided to go with the first draft of their script instead of rewriting and revising it, since that would make them seem like they are either disinterested in their own story or highly arrogant.
 
They couldn't have Satoshi lose, the biggest set up for the Alola Leauge is for Satoshi to fight Guzma in hopes to defeat him and stop him from ruining everyone's fun. If Satoshi lost this fight, then that entire build up to Satoshi vs Guzma would have been a huge waste of time.

Ash could’ve won without Hau facing this fate.
 
Also, Rowlet wasted a lot of time playing fetch for the everstone. And why did it even have to get hit with Spirit Shackle a second time? All because it couldn’t bear to stay away from that wretched everstone for ONE second. You silly bird, you’re too lazy to evolve even without that thing!

If Rowlet actually stopped playing fetch it could’ve gotten hit less and the pseudo-fainting situation needn’t have happened. Ash could’ve also maybe used seed bomb to his advantage, but he literally never learnt that Hau just deflected it with a leaf blade when Decidueye was free. In literally any other battle, hitting Decidueye without Seed Bomb simply deflecting back would have been overcome with strategy, but they just ignored it this time in favour of a Fujisaku classic.
 
Also, Rowlet wasted a lot of time playing fetch for the everstone. And why did it even have to get hit with Spirit Shackle a second time? All because it couldn’t bear to stay away from that wretched everstone for ONE second. You silly bird, you’re too lazy to evolve even without that thing!

If Rowlet actually stopped playing fetch it could’ve gotten hit less and the pseudo-fainting situation needn’t have happened. Ash could’ve also maybe used seed bomb to his advantage, but he literally never learnt that Hau just deflected it with a leaf blade when Decidueye was free. In literally any other battle, hitting Decidueye without Seed Bomb simply deflecting back would have been overcome with strategy, but they just ignored it this time in favour of a Fujisaku classic.
Literally everything about their use of the Everstone with Rowlett just pulls down the quality of everything connected to it. It would have been more impressive if the situation of Rowlett having to constantly search for the stone had been what made it stop using it as a crutch and realize it no longer needed it. But no, Rowlett’s gotta be stupid, getting itself hit unnecessarily just to fetch that damn stone.
 
And idk why but this entire episode Rowlet’s sleep looked uncontrollable, when we know for a fact that the bird has enough sleep to last the day...

Seriously, instead of angry I felt concerned for Rowlet that it should consult a Pokemon’s Center/some famous Poké-Doctor, since narcolepsy is no joke even outside battles.

It just looked very sick to me.
 
:eek: He's on Twitter OH GOD I hope the League stans don't troll him the way the shippers harassed Akemi Omode during XY...

Oh dear....got a translation.....

(Also is there any BBTND tags under him?)
 
It was nice to see Serena in Alola again

Don't blame her for avoiding Ash though

He has never suffered so badly. Even his loss at Kanto was his own fault to an extent, if he had bothered to train Charizard. There’s literally nothing Hau could’ve done to win.
That's because he didn't need to

Decidueye was utterly dominating Rowlet during the actual fight and Rowlet only won because its running gag resurfaced rather than actual skill or guile
 

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This guy had 17 minutes to do an 1vs1 match...and he chose to spend 2 minutes on a Bewear gag and 7 minutes on a dramedy about Rowlet's sleeping. :bulbaFacepalm:

Feather Dance's use was even worse than I thought. Not only it was an unbreakable shield that Rowlet fully mastered, it also was a technique that the enemy literally can't see coming and that managed to avoid two very strong moves completely. I'm all for Pokemon having their own twists to moves, and I'm all for status moves having different effects in the anime, but why SM always has to introduce those tactics in the last second? It feels like the antithesis of DP. It's even worse when those tactics come from the Pokemon themselves and not from Ash being creative like in this case. That makes me afraid for the apparently imminent Melmetal introduction.

At least the first minutes of the battle were watchable. I also liked that Ash was going to cry in his cap like he used to do, it's refreshing after his inhuman reactions to losing the league in BW and XY, and the interactions between Kiawe and Sophocles.
 
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I really think you kids should be tempering your expectations a bit :rolleyes: 133 episodes into the Sun and Moon series, it’s unrealistic to expect Kalos league level battles.

This is still some of the best stuff we’ve had out of this series.
It's a Pokémon league if there is a time for good battles it's now
 
:eek: He's on Twitter OH GOD I hope the League stans don't troll him the way the shippers harassed Akemi Omode during XY...
He's actually one of the most vocal Anipoke Staff on Twitter. What I'm worried for Galar is that none of the other staff seem to think his battles are shit like they actually are. In fact Masafumi Mima said that Ash vs Hapu was once in a lifetime battle that you must not miss and we all know how that turned out to be.
How about the fact that his scripts are terribly written? Shouldn't quality of a story also matter when it comes to a script? Shouldn't a writer actually aim to make a story that is as well-written and as coherent as possible, instead of just writing a messy pile of trash as quickly as possible and with as little revisions as possible? Or should standards just not exist when it comes to fictional stories (be it Pokémon's or any other franchise's) and instead should be praised, even if they're the equivalent of a turd, because it has the name "Pokémon" on it and Pokémon is just "a franchise about cute animals intended for children"?

Also, what is wrong with rewriting a script? Doing that show that the writer actually cares about their story and its quality and are willing to revise it in order to make it as great as it can be. I'd have more of an issue with a writer if, say, they decided to go with the first draft of their script instead of rewriting and revising it, since that would make them seem like they are either disinterested in their own story or highly arrogant.

The way they seem to think is way different from the way we as a fanbase think. I wouldn't say that they are highly arrogant or anything but they are satisfied with the script unless if the Director pushes and tells them to make changes. The thing is the Pokemon Anime doesn't need to have a good script, we complain now but we'll still watch next week and the next coming weeks, because Pokemon has already impacted us in an earlier age so we are just attached to it. Heck, the ratings are in an all time low but TV Tokyo themselves came put out and said they don't give a crap most likely because of the selling merchandise. Unlike other Anime who need to make an impression right off the bat when the start, because they have the Original Writer ( Manga ) pushing them and we, the audience, know nothing about it. The Pokemon Anime doesn't have anything like that, in fact it is being treated and always has been treated like the Laughingstock of the Franchise and exists just to promote the games and introduce people to Pokemon. Do you see regularly trailers for the SwSh Anime as you see for other animes which have a trailer 5-6 Months before they air? Tell a casual Pokemon Fan that you watch the Anime and their typical response would be "What you still watch that crap?", "Ash sucks lol"...
 
Everything before Rowlet falling asleep was pretty good, and if you look at Hau crying after his loss without looking at what led to that loss, that was also really good. HOWEVER, everything that occurred between Rowlet falling asleep and Hau crying could’ve and should’ve been done 10 times better. Rowlet should’ve shown that he was fine before Nanu called the match off, whether that’s due to him getting back up from the ground extremely determined, revealing that he had used Substitute as a fake out, or some other way. It would’ve shown that Rowlet had grown and matured, but instead it showed that hadn’t learned anything, and arguably regressed.

Ash has actually been pretty competent this series as a trainer, with the only big low points before this match being his battle vs Nanu, the cheating thing in episode 24, and his first fight against Hau. However, I was willing to forgive those moments, as every series has had situations like that, including DP and XY. He also had so many good moments this series, such as helping out Dia, teaching Rockruff a move when it wasn’t even his Pokémon at the time, and his battles against Hala, the Totem Gumshoos, Misty, Olivia and Gladion. That’s another reason why this episode was so bad, as Ash regressed in competence from the DP/XY levels he had been hovering around during the majority of this series to BW/Kanto levels of incompetence. I was perfectly fine with him winning this league before this battle, even with the gag battle against Faba, as I believed that the rest of his battles would be more serious. As of right now though, Ash needs to have some really strong battles against Guzma and Gladion, where he demonstrates the level of skill and knowledge that he’s had for the majority of this series in order for me to be satisfied if he does win. And unlike a lot of other people right now, I DO have faith in the writers to make up for this episode, as they’ve made lots of good episodes before. Hopefully that trust doesn’t get misplaced.

Listen; I like this series a lot, I honestly believe it’s better than XY, and I think that it has had very good animation and writing most of the time, with very little truly terrible episodes. However, what happened in this episode showcases all the worst qualities of the Sun and Moon series, and people are going to look back on this moment and think the entire series is as bad as this, which is a damn shame.

Edit: I know what would’ve made this battle better; right before Nanu would call Hau the winner, Hala does the objection, and Ash goes to check to see if Rowlet was actually knocked out. The “Rowlet” becomes a bunch of feathers, and the actual Rowlet comes out from the sky or somewhere. When the battle then resumes, Ash commands Rowlet to use Seed Bomb, using it as a bait to lure Decidueye in. Decidueye comes at Rowlet with Sky Attack, Ash calls for Rowlet to use Substitute right before Sky Attack hits, and in Hau’s surprise Decidueye gets knocked out by Rowlet’s Brave Bird. Everything before and after the fakeout was fine and didn’t need to be changed. These changes would’ve kept the fake out and Hala’s objection intact, made Rowlet show growth, and would’ve shown Ash to be a competent trainer like he was the majority of this series. I honestly think something like this would’ve happened too if the writer for this episode was someone else.
 
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The way they seem to think is way different from the way we as a fanbase think. I wouldn't say that they are highly arrogant or anything but they are satisfied with the script unless if the Director pushes and tells them to make changes. The thing is the Pokemon Anime doesn't need to have a good script, we complain now but we'll still watch next week and the next coming weeks, because Pokemon has already impacted us in an earlier age so we are just attached to it. Heck, the ratings are in an all time low but TV Tokyo themselves came put out and said they don't give a crap most likely because of the selling merchandise. Unlike other Anime who need to make an impression right off the bat when the start, because they have the Original Writer ( Manga ) pushing them and we, the audience, know nothing about it. The Pokemon Anime doesn't have anything like that, in fact it is being treated and always has been treated like the Laughingstock of the Franchise and exists just to promote the games and introduce people to Pokemon. Do you see regularly trailers for the SwSh Anime as you see for other animes which have a trailer 5-6 Months before they air? Tell a casual Pokemon Fan that you watch the Anime and their typical response would be "What you still watch that crap?", "Ash sucks lol"...
Well, it used to be aimed at the 8-12 crowd during its first ten years. Now it's target audience is basically the preschooler demographic, because normal 8-12 year olds would see the anime as rubbish because of poor writing, nothing changing in 22 years, and having a static and unrootable protagonist with Peter Pan syndrome. In fact, when it comes to merchandise here in Australia, anime-based merchandise sells poorly, mainly being found in bargain bins in K-mart or Coles. And we're a country who loves anime and merchandise.

Just go to TV Tropes. Lots of entries relating to the anime are about the bad writing, Ash's lack-of-character, or how the series is unwilling to appeal to long-time fans and children above the age of 5.
 
Well, it used to be aimed at the 8-12 crowd during its first ten years. Now it's target audience is basically the preschooler demographic, because normal 8-12 year olds would see the anime as rubbish because of poor writing, nothing changing in 22 years, and having a static and unrootable protagonist with Peter Pan syndrome. In fact, when it comes to merchandise here in Australia, anime-based merchandise sells poorly, mainly being found in bargain bins in K-mart or Coles. And we're a country who loves anime and merchandise.

Just go to TV Tropes. Lots of entries relating to the anime are about the bad writing, Ash's lack-of-character, or how the series is unwilling to appeal to long-time fans and children above the age of 5.
Well I was mostly talking about in-Japan but yeah I agree.
 
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