Review JN036: Satoshi and Go, Crawl Up From the Sand Hell!

[Daren]

What do you mean by "localizer"?

If I remember right, in Japan this series is just called "Pocket Monsters" like the original (Kanto to Johto) one, with the English version calling it "Pokémon Journeys".

So the lack of an actual journey is an issue with what they chose to call the English version rather than the writing not matching the title.

 

[Dogasu]

Yeah, the show's not known as "Journeys" by any of the people who actually make the show in Japan.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Go teaching Ash about Ash was amusing, and it's a shame that such a good episode for Go is completely overshadowed by a reunion episode

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Well that's why I send a letter to studio about this....
サトシ＆ナックラー！砂の砂漠で失われた！

サトシとゴーがホーエンに到着。サトシがヌチュラーを捕まえた後、彼は砂の丘に落ちて道に迷いました。それで、サトシは彼の新たに捕らえられたナックラーと共に他を見つけなければなりませません。



(Transition: Satoshi & Nuckrar! Lost In The Sand Desert!

Satoshi and Go arrive at the Hoenn. After Satoshi have catches Nuchrar, he fell down the sandy hills and got lost. So Satoshi along with his newly captured Nuchrar have to find the others.)

...You do realize OLM only does the animating, nothing more?

They don't take direct creative direction from open submissions. Any similarities to your ideas are purely coincidental. If an audio drama company in the UK doesn't do open submissions there's no way the writing team of an anime that's been going for over twenty years will.

Besides, they probably don’t even open such letters due to the potential of a fan suing for copyright and IP if an episode with similarities is actually made. That’s why we don’t get stuff like fan made Pokémon.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Yeah, the show's not known as "Journeys" by any of the people who actually make the show in Japan.

I see what you mean now. I was a bit confused because here at bulbagarden review threads for Japanese episodes start with the prefix JN

 

[Kurolegacy]

Go teaching Ash about Ash was amusing, and it's a shame that such a good episode for Go is completely overshadowed by a reunion episode

Is it though? Even though it’s a reunion episode next Go battling Kiawe is an advertised highlight so it may further build on what he’s learned from Ash by implementing it in an actual trainer battle.

 

[Sheep]

- Poor Riolu. Ash, playing too defensively/carefully isn't your battle style at all!! please realizeee
- Ash's expressions in this episode are pretty good and I'm glad they managed to keep a lot of the expressiveness from SuMo! This was one of my favorites. Also those smirks when they all put on the goggles awww. And invisible Sobble's little "messo" while wearing them? that is extra cute
- Riolu walking and kicking the sand around was cute... I'm going to miss this baby when he evolves. ngl I hope Lucario will be cute like this too, even if it's only from time to time ;_;
- Flygon creating such a huge sandstorm and encasing a whole town is pretty crazy, but also awesome. Kind of puts into perspective why having Pokémon exist in real life wouldn't be a good idea.
- That entire battle against Flygon was great. Lots of different attacks/strategies used, and being able to see the battle with a proper background is always great. I've said it before but the less stock battle backgrounds, the better. I'm always much more invested in battles like these.
- Pikachu and Riolu plopping down next to Ash when he's lying down.. so sweet
- sees next ep preview again and screams

This was a better episode than I expected. Definitely a deserved capture for Go in Flygon, and I love seeing how close Pikachu and Riolu have gotten too. Wish we could've gotten more Galar Farfetch'd though!

 

[Kurolegacy]

You know, one thing that Journeys has made me realize. If we had had a character like Go from the beginning, every time that the problem of the episode was caused by a wild Pokémon, the conflict would have been resolved by capturing the troublemaker all the time rather than some of the time. Just some interesting food for thought.

 

[nickdt]

Flygon makes a giant sandstorm encasing Mauville City, two ten year olds need to deal with it, meanwhile, the Gym Leader Wattson is cowering in his gym instead of doing something to help his city.

 

[jbmasta]

Flygon makes a giant sandstorm encasing Mauville City, two ten year olds need to deal with it, meanwhile, the Gym Leader Wattson is cowering in his gym instead of doing something to help his city.

The Trapinch line are ground type, so Wattson would be the least fit to take them on. Since Ash and Go have to travel to Hoenn I'd expect Glacia, Wallace or Juan to tackle the sandstorm. Glacia's team all have a 4x type effectiveness on Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon. Even Winnona would be a logical choice to counter the sandstorm.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Flygon makes a giant sandstorm encasing Mauville City, two ten year olds need to deal with it, meanwhile, the Gym Leader Wattson is cowering in his gym instead of doing something to help his city.

An Electric-type Gym Leader isn't really the best choice to fight a bunch of Ground Pokémon.

 

[jbmasta]

An Electric-type Gym Leader isn't really the best choice to fight a bunch of Ground Pokémon.

The Trapinch line is weak to water and ice, of which there are three gym leaders and Elite Four members who have those specialties. If a meek Sobble can dilute Flygon's Sandstorm then imagine what Wallace or Juan could do.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

The Trapinch line is weak to water and ice, of which there are three gym leaders and Elite Four members who have those specialties. If a meek Sobble can dilute Flygon's Sandstorm then imagine what Wallace or Juan could do.

But they're nowhere near the location.

 

[jbmasta]

But they're nowhere near the location.

The sandstorm has had long enough to almost bury Mauville, make the news in Kanto, and Ash and Go had time to travel there (granted, the Feebas episode did show fast travel from Kanto to Hoenn). Juan could easily have traveled over from Sootopolis City in that time, or Winona flown over from Fortree. To think there was no on the ground support or crisis management, and no one even intercepting a couple of ten year olds wanting to gain entry.

 

[Kurolegacy]

The sandstorm has had long enough to almost bury Mauville, make the news in Kanto, and Ash and Go had time to travel there (granted, the Feebas episode did show fast travel from Kanto to Hoenn). Juan could easily have traveled over from Sootopolis City in that time, or Winona flown over from Fortree. To think there was no on the ground support or crisis management, and no one even intercepting a couple of ten year olds wanting to gain entry.

Between this and the whole Ultra Guardians thing, it really makes you wonder what the Pokémon world would do without these 10 year olds around. Adults are useless indeed.

 

[Max1996]

The sandstorm has had long enough to almost bury Mauville, make the news in Kanto, and Ash and Go had time to travel there (granted, the Feebas episode did show fast travel from Kanto to Hoenn). Juan could easily have traveled over from Sootopolis City in that time, or Winona flown over from Fortree. To think there was no on the ground support or crisis management, and no one even intercepting a couple of ten year olds wanting to gain entry.

This reminds me of something else that puzzled me during the episode. Those three adults who went into the sandstorm were apparently only just getting caught in Trapinch's quicksand-esque trap when Ash and Goh got there.

 

[nickdt]

The Trapinch line are ground type, so Wattson would be the least fit to take them on. Since Ash and Go have to travel to Hoenn I'd expect Glacia, Wallace or Juan to tackle the sandstorm. Glacia's team all have a 4x type effectiveness on Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon. Even Winnona would be a logical choice to counter the sandstorm.

Grant's Tyrunt is a Dragon/Ground type, still didn't stop him from aiding the other gym leaders in the Kalos crisis. Even Team Rocket was more useful against Team Flare than Grant and he went anyways and you can technically say the same for Grant and Valerie, because Poison and Flying types.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

An Electric-type Gym Leader isn't really the best choice to fight a bunch of Ground Pokémon.

Aren't gym leaders supposed to be able to deal with any Pokemon type they're facing?

The users complaing about the absence of helpers do have a point here: If such a major crisis occurs, you'd expect at least half of the gym leaders and the Elite Four to be there to help. But there was nobody there except those three helpless guys.
So, yes I'd call this a major weakness of the episode (fortunately the only one).

 

[jbmasta]

Between this and the whole Ultra Guardians thing, it really makes you wonder what the Pokémon world would do without these 10 year olds around. Adults are useless indeed.

A whole force of Officer Jenny's can't catch the TRio. Look how many of the evil team crises were defeated in large part thanks to Ash and his friends. A young girl singing was what ended the Zygarde crisis.

 

[R1ke]

Between this and the whole Ultra Guardians thing, it really makes you wonder what the Pokémon world would do without these 10 year olds around. Adults are useless indeed.

At least Aether developed beast balls so the Ultra Guardians could actually catch the UBs and release them. They would be pretty screwed otherwise.

Even without them, I'm sure that the Tapus would battle UBs anyway like they did in the games (well maybe not Bulu lol).