Review JN006: Catch a Lot of Pokémon! The Path to Mew!!

[Beatsy Ray]

I don't know if we should worry too much about the Pokemon Go references. It's occured to me that episodes 4 and 5 were just an obligatory SwSh plug, and likewise this episode was the obligatory GO plug. I also think that the first six episodes were mostly meant to establish Gou and his goals, which is why Ash got sidelined, but now they both shared their goals with each other so I think Ash will step back into the forefront starting next week. That's also why I likened these episode to basically a six episode prologue. Gou has been established, SwSh and GO have both been promoted, the series can finally begin properly next week.

Or so I'm hoping...

When do we think we'll get the next batch of episode titles? I assume the next three episodes will cover the other regions, but I'm very curious what will happen after that.

 

[Daenerys]

I don't know whether I liked or hated this episode. On one hand Go going around and meeting so many Bug Pokemon and catching them all in one episode felt really cool because ain't no way Ash would ever do something that proactive. But on the opposite hand I didn't like the Pokemon GO! style of captures that happened here with Go getting almost all those Pokemon without any kind of fight back from them. Also Koharu is still barely getting cameos like wtf.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Let me be straight: This was not a good episode. Or should I call it the first really bad one of the new series?

What I'm also wondering about is the fact that there isn't much more protest from older fans like me about the very irritating message that was conveyed this week: Catching Pokemon as if they were wild flowers and then just dumping them somewhere in a laboratory that still seems like a big cage to me. After all, they could live in freedom somewhere in a forest instead....
Yes I know, Pokemon's motto has always been "Gotta catch them all". But this only applies to the games. In the Anime the message has always been that you may only catch a Pokemon if it really wants to comes with you and even then, you care about them and don't just catch them as if they were trophies to just complete some electronic encyclopedia.

Now guys, let me ask you one sincere question: What differentiates Go from a Pokemon poacher like Hunter J or villains like Team Rocket in this episode? Those guys also walk around and take the next best Pokemon they meet without giving a damn about what the Pokemon wants. To be honest, I can't see any difference! Those guys have always been presented as the bad ones and here we have Go acting exactly the same way.

And another very important question, especially to those of you who've been fans since the very episode just like me: It's been such a long time now and still, I haven't made up me mind how to reconcile the idea of catching as many Pokemon as possible on the one hand and loving your Pokemon partners and caring about them as much as you possibly can on the other (meaning that you only catch as many of them as you can reasonably take care of).
I guess this week's episode showed that unresolved conflict pretty directly and I wonder if the writers are actually aware of that problem.
But I'm really curious what you think about it.
(And yes , I'm also opposed to the idea of Ash constantly dumping his old Pokemon at somebody's lab at the end of a series.)

So no, I didn't like this episode simply because it contradicts the core principles and messages that have always been conveyed in the Anime. I hope a plot like today won't be repeated again....
And I also hope next week's episode in Hoenn won't be rushed again and that the Battle Frontier will get the attention it deserves. Hopefully, they haven't forgotten Ash could have become a Frontier Brain. But for some strange reason I think Ash's background will just be forgotten and he'll just be an ordinary contestant in that competition

Not a good episode at all.... You would have expected something really nice right before Christmas!

 

[DynamicFusion]

I don't know if we should worry too much about the Pokemon Go references. It's occured to me that episodes 4 and 5 were just an obligatory SwSh plug, and likewise this episode was the obligatory GO plug. I also think that the first six episodes were mostly meant to establish Gou and his goals, which is why Ash got sidelined, but now they both shared their goals with each other so I think Ash will step back into the forefront starting next week. That's also why I likened these episode to basically a six episode prologue. Gou has been established, SwSh and GO have both been promoted, the series can finally begin properly next week.

Or so I'm hoping...

When do we think we'll get the next batch of episode titles? I assume the next three episodes will cover the other regions, but I'm very curious what will happen after that.

They'll probably go to Galar for another 2 Episodes and then continue the region-hopping. Look at the Poster, there are plenty of Pokemon that haven't appeared yet in there specific regions (by the episodes that have aired and future episode titles) that are yet to be featured.

ポケットモンスター　テレビ東京アニメ公式

“ポケモンマスター”という見果てぬ夢を追い、風の吹くまま、気の向くまま、冒険を続けるサトシとピカチュウ。　ポケットモンスターのテレビ東京アニメ公式サイトです。最新情報やストーリー、キャラクター紹介や次回予告などを掲載しています。

www.tv-tokyo.co.jp

 

[LeonMagnus]

Go and Koharu's dynamic from episode 1 was good. The way they're treating Ash and Koharu right now screams to me that they should have just bitten the bullet and turned Ash into a recurring character at best if not retired him entirely and made Go and Koharu the main characters.

I’d have to assume its because they aren’t sure how people will receive Gou, so they keep Ash around as a worse version of Brock as insurance in case this doesn’t work out, so they can have a fall back plan. If people fully embrace Gou and this new concept they’ll probably ease him out somehow.

It was almost painful to watch the end where they ask Ash what his goal is after hearing Gou explain something more tangible and concrete. On top of giving the vague “Pokemon Master” answer, they ask him what that means and he fails to give an adequate answer. So considering Ash is not showing proactive interest in doing any battling or leagues, or doing actual Pokemon research, he’s kind of just this Poke-hippy-bum that is just there for the experience of being there.

Furthermore, Ash has really devolved into this hyperactive cookie cutter caricature of a Shonen protag. At this point I’d be more than happy if they dumped him, it would just be hard to keep Team Rocket as eternal stalkers with him gone, though I guess now that they get rentals they could broaden their horizons and goals beyond stalking Ash.

 

[Gabo2oo]

I kinda liked this episode, but not as something that should be repeated. Spending half of the time seeing Poké Balls wobbling isn't really fun, but I do think it establishes what's to come for Go during the series. The pacing was the problem, really. I think a B-plot would've worked here, and I know both a newly-introduced girl and a certain trio that definetly need more screentime. Ash could have had more of a "mentor" role , but I did like some details such as how he instructs Go to battle Scyther in a very Ash-like way.

I see no problem in Go catching Pokémon without bonding with them. I did worry about it while watching the episode, but the final scenes in Sakuragi's home quickly proved me wrong. Sakuragi explicitly said it's good to interact with them rather than just catching them, and they have a huge home to live in. The next episode preview shows them playing together too, so at the very least it'll be implicit that Go won't just dump his Pokémon without caring about them afterwards.

My one problem is that the catches themselves seem kinda shallow: the Pokémon is minding its own business, then boom, it gets caught, forgets about its pals, and tags along with the Trainer. This kinda looks like the Poké Ball brainwashes the Pokémon and it's how it was done very early in the franchise. I was glad they deviated from it over the years, but here we are again.

By the way, while I still miss Miyazaki, I think the new composer's music is okay when it's not country-styled. But I loathe it when it is.

Oh and also, the Pidgeot scene is kinda sketchy, but as is, I have no reason to believe that's Ash's. This series definetly won't be a reference-fest, even though I still believe it's too early to tell there won't be any. To me it really depends on how the upcoming Battle Frontier and Ho-Oh episodes go, really. I can't believe I miss the Best Wishes! Season 2 days.

I wish they had taken thes time to show Gou's seventh Pokémon being automatically teleported to Dr. Sakuragi's lab like they did back when Satoshi caught his Crab 20 years ago.

If anything, that was retconned to the Poké Ball just being locked back in BW.

 

[sc190191]

Wow, I've tried to be as positive about this series as I can so far, and it honestly hadn't been all that bad, but HOLY SHIT that episode pissed me off more than just about any I can think of. Although I hated SM, I never really strongly considered quitting the series, but if this keeps up, I may be out.

This episode doesn't even belong in the same universe as the other Pokemon series. Go should not be able to catch all these Pokemon so easily. He should not be applauded as "a pro" for throwing balls. The second half of the episode at least had some minor redeeming qualities, but for the first half of the episode it was just Pokemon Go on ultra easy mode, the only thing Scorbunny did was help throw a freaking Poke ball, was told not to battle, and eventually only battled twice to catch 12 Pokemon. This episode is just full of contradictions, hypocrisy, and total nonsense.

Go is starting to really bother me as a character, he comes across as super arrogant. After last week, not apologizing to Scorbunny after shunning it and then later being like "okay, you're cool, I want you now", then that scene where he picks his Kakuna, the one he "accepts" to be his, as he steals it from its home, at least he apologized to Scorbunny in this episode, but it was so brief it didn't feel like anything. Go's reasoning to catch Pokemon at the beginning was because it lights up a freaking log in his phone. Are you kidding me? Imagine equating that to the real world. I'm going to go kidnap hundreds of animals and put them in a greenhouse so my phone records a list of them. Now if he was taking photos of them, that would be completely different, but this living dex nonsense is just so awful and unjustifiable its not even funny. There are some game mechanics that just don't have a place in a world building type anime, stuff we just kind of looked past because games have limitations and don't act like real life, like having tons of Pokemon in a PC, its a game thing, its not realistic. The anime has always been really good in this regard, and now they do a total 180 and we get this garbage just so they can promote a really annoying game (that isn't even supposed to be its own universe or be realistic) that doesn't really need promotion as it is. The living dex aspect really bothers me too, what if his Caterpie wants to evolve, is he going to stop it, since its his Caterpie? Of course, the answer is that it won't because they aren't going to bother giving any of his Pokemon personalities, hopes or dreams, they are basically downgrading Pokemon in this series from beings with their own hopes and dreams to just collector's toys. This is just all kinds of hypocritical bullshit.

Compare this pile of horse shit to other first capture attempts, remember how hard Dawn had to try to get a Buneary? Remember May was unable to get even an Azurill? Yet Go just tosses a ball at Venomoth, Butterfree, Beedrill and gets them all first try, fairly strong, evolved Pokemon. And they even had to throw in the Pokemon Go throw quality bullshit. Ash acted like it was pretty normal too, he did throw in a suggestion to battle, but it was just a token suggestion. This whole episode just disgusted me, as it relates to the anime universe they have previously set up, how it relates to common sense and reasonableness, and just in general how Go acted.

Beyond that, its just downright boring as hell. There is no tension at all, the captures are almost all guaranteed, they tried to manufacture a tiny bit of tension with it being his last ball, but even then there was no question he would get Scyther. Even the searching was just nonsense, oh heres Caterpie, I want Metapod next, oh look its right here, and there's a Butterfree, oh I bet Venonat would be in a hole, and its in the first hole he checks. Scorbunny, don't battle it, why would you do that, I can just make an "excellent" toss, that's a lot more fun and exciting for an audience to watch. Wow if we continue to have episodes like this, people complained about fillers, but this is the ultimate in boring, heartless, crap.

Also the bullshit "oh look he's bonding with his Pokemon". Bullshit. They show a 20 second scene of some playing, and off to the garden. This is instead of having legitimate friendship and bonds made over time with Pokemon like we have been blessed to see in the past. Instead, we have to "imagine" Go is bonding with his Pokemon, not that there would even be enough time for him to do so, with so many and frequent travel. The anime touched on jealousy issues back when Ash had nine Pokemon, they have touched on obedience issues, bonding issues, etc now they just pretend everything's fine, all these Pokemon Go threw balls at automatically love him now that his hypnotic balls turned them into his slaves. Like I said before, the most disgusting part is how they are just downgrading Pokemon in general, after the anime has pushed so hard for so long (even in OS early installment weirdness) to treat Pokemon as equals, that they have their own personalities, their own dreams, etc, and now we're just downgrading them to collectibles, something that has been shown as wrong so many times in the past. "You've got it all wrong, look they have so much personality, Go plays with them in his room and he'll visit the garden", bullshit. They have token, bare minimum personalities, they aren't going to go through any legitimate level of bonding, yet they'll just decide they have a certain relationship based on what the plot demands, instead of showing and developing that relationship like they have so many times in the better written series. Go's going to battle with Scyther next week, and watch, he'll have no trouble commanding it and his battles will go fine, even though he's not a trainer, didn't train or bond with his Pokemon, and it will be all kinds of hypocritical to better trainers who actually went through reasonable struggles. As the plot demands in the future, random Pokemon will show up and Go will have a manufactured, stale relationship with them and they will do what the plot demands and then return to soulless Sakuragi purgatory. This series is starting to look extremely shallow, which in and of itself is extremely boring.

After seeing this crap, I actually kind of wish the series was a reboot, not because I like the idea of a reboot, but just because it would be easier for me to quit watching it. I don't want this garbage to be reflective on the universe that had been built for this series over the past 20+ years. Sure there was always little contradictions, but this is just a heaping pile of contradiction and hypocrisy. I remember when Pokemon Go came out, I never wanted to play it, but I thought "this is going to be really good, a lot of people are thinking about Pokemon again, it can only be good for Pokemon to be more popular, even if I don't care for the game". I never would have imagined that such a shallow game would replace the in-depth incredible, full-scale games as the basis for the anime, hence making the anime a shallow, bizarrely twisted universe, filled with selfish, boring characters and boring as hell episodes. Is this an overreaction? I sure hope so, but I'm just so pissed right now, and what's a forum for it if isn't for posting over the top complaints about an unimportant children's show.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I don't know if we should worry too much about the Pokemon Go references.

and likewise this episode was the obligatory GO plug.

I wouldn’t be sure on GO plugs being few, looking at the name of the new protagonist and his goal.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The amount of negativity this episode has received on this thread really surprised me, and is also making me feel a bit uncomfortable for being in the minority who liked it.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

and is also making me feel a bit uncomfortable for being in the minority who liked it.

No one's really harassing you for liking it, is anyone? You’re free to share that you liked the episode on here without harassment or disrespect. People can have different opinions.

 

[Idon'tcare]

First let me reveal that "Gotta Catch 'Em All!" is a Western only slogan, it doesn't exist in Japan, their one is "Get Pokémon!", that being said, catching every Pokémon and filling up the Pokédex is one of the goals a player will set up for themselves when playing the Pokémon games and so I find it great that they now have a character in the anime who will be focusing on that.

So yeah, I look forward to seeing if Gou can actually do something which is, well, a task that might come off as being impossible. I mean what about certain Legendary Pokémon? But the bigger question is this: Kadabra and the Porygon line, all these Pokémon have been banned from appearing the show. Will the ban be lifted on them for Gou's goal to get every Pokémon or will it remain and if so, does that mean Abra would just evolve straight into Alakazam if Kadabra no longer exists?

Go is starting to really bother me as a character, he comes across as super arrogant. After last week, not apologizing to Scorbunny after shunning it and then later being like "okay, you're cool, I want you now",

Um, Gou did apologize to Scorbunny. Gou said "I'm sorry" twice and even told Scorbunny he was honoured it followed him.

 

[BigDocFan]

I have mixed views on this episode, some bits I liked, especially the animation but there were things I wasn't too keen on like Ash not catching anything on-screen despite saying he had plans to, Go catching some strong Pokemon rather too easily for my liking

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Have we really sank this low, to the point that escaping from a regular Poké Ball at "full health" is now considered noteworthy?

Did you think hard before posting this non sequitur?

 

[DynamicFusion]

Someone sent me this good thread on Twitter and I agree. This episode was seriously lacking for an Iwane Episode.


View: https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/1209451600076558338


View: https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/1209452256782884867

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Someone sent me this good thread on Twitter and I agree. This episode was seriously lacking for an Iwane Episode.


View: https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/1209451600076558338


View: https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/1209452256782884867

I love me some good ol Iwane but something just felt... I dunno… off with this one.

Characters looked really wonky in places (as if they came out of a Izumi Shimura episode which speaking of her, it was just Iwane alone for this one compared to all his Sun & Moon episodes which had Shimura helping out too) and it's as if everything art wise is clashing in some sort of battle royale with each other: the character designs, the way they look, the way Iwane normally makes them look, the backgrounds. None of it feels like it gels well together.

Animation wise it's typical fine stuff from him but this just felt weirdly odd though I'm sure that overtime he'll probably get used to how everything looks in this series like he did with his first Sun & Moon episode (ooosh, that was a super rough one).

In fact this is pretty much to this series what that episode was to Sun & Moon: a testing ground for him.

Oh and speaking of animation so far it's been a pretty big downgrade from Sun & Moon. Episode 1 and 2 showed us just how promising the series can be with it's flashy, action packed goodness but so far all of the episodes afterwards have been barely giving us anything memorable (asides from the occasional appearance of someone like Iwane or Yong Ce-tu) and next week's ep doesn't look to be faring any better.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Can't believe Ash and Go died six episodes into the new series, eaten by bug-types

Guess Sakuragi's gotta break out the cloning tubes again

Pay no attention to the notes labeled "mew" on the table

 

[Pulsaro23]

Did you think hard before posting this non sequitur?

Mind going into detail and actually tell me why that's a non sequitur, rather than take a potshot at me?

 

[Flynn]

Characters looked really wonky in places (as if they came out of a Izumi Shimura episode which speaking of her, it was just Iwane alone for this one compared to all his Sun & Moon episodes which had Shimura helping out too) and it's as if everything art wise is clashing in some sort of battle royale with each other: the character designs, the way they look, the way Iwane normally makes them look, the backgrounds. None of it feels like it gels well together.

Your instincts are correct as Shimura was also an animation directer on this episode. Took me by surprise since she wasn't on the early staff lists for this episode iirc.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Mind going into detail and actually tell me why that's a non sequitur, rather than take a potshot at me?

1. The entire episode is can basically be summed up as Go successfully catching all the Kanto Bug Pokémon while barely breaking a sweat, with Scyther being the only one that actually gives him some trouble.
2. Venonat exists.
3. Non sequitur joke answer about pokéballs.

 

[Pulsaro23]

1. The entire episode is can basically be summed up as Go successfully catching all the Kanto Bug Pokémon while barely breaking a sweat, with Scyther being the only one that actually gives him some trouble.
2. Venonat exists.

I've already made a post in which I counter each of your arguments towards Venonat representing a challenge for Go, with my conclusion being that the difficulty it posed is the equivalent of a bump in the road, at best. A post whose arguments you seemingly ignored for the most part, as you only focused on the first part of my response, which you decided to label a non sequitur (which, by the way, you still have failed to explain why it is a non sequitur), while disregarding the rest.