• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Review JN077: Super Electromagnetic Hyper Class Battle!

At long last, we get a PWC battle, and at long last we get one that's not a 1v1 or 2v2. And it was pretty good too! I did have some problems with it, but the battle itself for the most part was fun and entertaining and full of strategy: I really like how Volkner immediately showed his chops as an Electric specialist by using an Electric Terrain+Rising Voltage combo, as well as how he countered Gengar's tricky battle style by using a Pokemon who could fight the same way, finally there's the fact that he took full advantage of status effects with Rotom's Hex. Ash himself, while he didn't use anywhere near as many strategies, also did quite well, as he quickly realized that Lucario would likely get overwhelmed by Luxray so he instead opted to switch to Gengar so its speed could counld get around Luxray's brute force, not to mention the use of Lucario's Double Team and Reversal.

Now for the negatives, let's just address the Copperajah in the room right away: the fact that Pikachu brute-forced his Z-Move to override Electivire's Motor Drive. This I don't think should have been done. Granted, it's perhaps less egregious of a gameplay violation than Thunder Armor or basically everything Pikachu pulled in the battle against Hapu's Mudsdale back in SM, but it's still a baffling writing decision. I mean, why the heck would they have Pikachu use this on Electivire when Luxray and Rotom (neither of whom have access to Abilities that negate Electric-type damage, mind) were right there? Heck, Luxray was the one who kicked Pikachu's butt back in Sinnoh, so it would have been a much more satisfying use of the Z-Move for Pikachu to use it to get even with the Pokemon who defeated him back in the day instead of scoring his second win against a Pokemon he'd defeated before. Also, I have very mixed feelings with the way Gengar was handled here. Sure, it put up a great fight, but it still sucks that they made it the fall guy yet again. Lastly, Electric Terrain was very weird here: the first time Luxray set it up it lasted for quite a while, but the second time it faded extremely quickly, which on top of being something of a double-take inducer, also feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity because if that second Electric Terrain had actually been allowed to stick around for longer it might have made Pikachu's Z-Move overriding Motor Drive a tad more believable, since Electric Terrain powers up Electric-type moves and 10.000.000 Volt Thunderbolt is already essentially an Electric-type Armaggedon Bomb with a high critical hit ratio to boot.

I have mixed feelings regarding how 10M Volt Thunderbolt was used in this battle.

On one hand, the anime has shown in the past that Electric-type Pokemon can get overloaded with electricity and get harmed in the process. We've seen this happen to Pikachu several times in past seasons, for example. Sure, we've never seen this happen to an Electric-type Pokemon that should be immune to Electric-type attacks before, but I'm guessing that just means a lot more electricity is needed to overload it. Like, y'know, maybe by using an Electric-type attack that's basically a nuke. Honestly, I don't think 10M Volt Thunderbolt breaking through Motor Drive is too dumb if we go by anime logic. It's less believable than the Soak thing that Ash did in his battle against Hapu, but it's still better than Thunder Armor.

On the other hand, this feels like a situation that could've been easily avoided in the first place. Why did Ash bring an Electric-type Z-crystal to a battle against an Electric-type specialist, especially one who he knows has an Electric-immune Pokemon? Why didn't he bring his Normalium-Z or Steelium-Z instead? Heck, if the writers really wanted to show off 10M Volt Thunderbolt, then why did they pit Ash against an Electric-type specialist to begin with? There's many other Sinnoh trainers that the writers could've brought back instead so that we wouldn't have to suspend our disbelief by watching Ash use a Z-move to brute force his way through an immunity.
Just watch: Z-Moves are gonna return for a future game, and 10.000.000 Volt Thunderbolt will be upgraded into ignoring Electric-absorbing Abilities and possibly also Ground-types' immunity, thus conveniently retconing this into being perfectly legitimate from a gameplay standpoint.
 
Lastly, Electric Terrain was very weird here: the first time Luxray set it up it lasted for quite a while, but the second time it faded extremely quickly, which on top of being something of a double-take inducer, also feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity because if that second Electric Terrain had actually been allowed to stick around for longer it might have made Pikachu's Z-Move overriding Motor Drive a tad more believable, since Electric Terrain powers up Electric-type moves and 10.000.000 Volt Thunderbolt is already essentially an Electric-type Armaggedon Bomb with a high critical hit ratio to boot.
This may be thanks to Luxray taking a lot of damage prior to the second one being activated, whilst the first was straight off the bat.
It could be like Overheat in the anime, where the stamina of the Pokemon determines the everlasting effect on the move.
 
This may be thanks to Luxray taking a lot of damage prior to the second one being activated, whilst the first was straight off the bat.
It could be like Overheat in the anime, where the stamina of the Pokemon determines the everlasting effect on the move.
I don't think that's a valid explanation, though, since not only is this not implied in any way by the show itself, but no other field-affecting moves have been shown to have this downside: Tierno's Blastoise and Ash's Goodra both had battles where they set up Rain Dance shortly before they were KO'd precisely for the purposes of assisting their teammates. And in both cases the rain lasted a decently long amount of time despite the Pokemon who set it up no longer being active.
 
Maybe Dances work differently than Terrains?

But I'd like if they addressed it in some way.
 
I don't think that's a valid explanation, though, since not only is this not implied in any way by the show itself, but no other field-affecting moves have been shown to have this downside: Tierno's Blastoise and Ash's Goodra both had battles where they set up Rain Dance shortly before they were KO'd precisely for the purposes of assisting their teammates. And in both cases the rain lasted a decently long amount of time despite the Pokemon who set it up no longer being active.
We’ve just seen the show completely acknowledge the existence of an ability, then completely disregard it the next second, hahaha. This show has never been consistent.
I dunno, the only thing I could think of to be honest.

Also, I remember Goodra’s rain assisting Greninja with Bisharp, but I thought Greninja took that out within a few seconds, and then it cleared up before Charizard came out. I don’t recall the Sawyer v Tierno match very well, but wasn’t Ludicolo using Rain Dance at the very start of the battle against Aegislash?

EDIT: Nevermind. It was Blastoise that fired it off. The fight ended pretty quickly after that was set-up, though, so it’s not a great indicator.
 
Last edited:
We’ve just seen the show completely acknowledge the existence of an ability, then completely disregard it the next second, hahaha.
I dunno, the only thing I could think of to be honest.
See, just because the show has this habit it doesn't mean it's something that it's a good thing nor should it be a recurring trend. It's actually rather annoying if anything, because altering the rules of how moves and Abilities work whenever it's convenient isn't really a good writing strategy (unless, I suppose, you're explicitly playing it for comedy). And like I said, Electric Terrain still being active would have actually helped add another layer of plausible explanation for why Pikachu's Z-Move was able to override Motor Drive, so it staying around instead of instantly fading away would have had far more benefits than downsides.
 
That's what made more upset, how they turned it off just because the plot said so.

Journey's writing can be so contrived, it's annoying.
 
The Z-move could've distracted Electivire (and Volkner) giving Pikachu an opportunity to launch a Quick Attack boosted Iron Tail into the preoccupied yeti.

...Or just change Electivire's ability to Vital Spirit :wynaut:?
 
Again, no ability should be able to "handle" the strongest Electric move in the series. That being said, outside of that, there are some valid points when talking about factors such as Abilities and Z-Moves. Generally, this was a very good fight, even with the end (even though this is how I wanted to see Motor Drive). Gengar got to flash personality, and didn't simply job, Lucario got to prove himself, and none of Volkner's Pokemon looked bad either. I saw people complaining about Ash/Volkner interacting "little" but I thought there was a fair amount of interaction, particularly for a battle episode. Which brings me to comparing this battle to Iris and Rinto battles. Unlike those, while there was significant Trainer interaction, it never really...stole the stage like the aforementioned battles, so I rank this battle above those, and this was probably the best battle (between Trainers) of the series.
 
Overall a fantastic battle. First off, hats off to Iwane for the amazing animation and to Tomioka for the brilliant writing: the switching, taking into account Pokemon's abilities, secondary affects and whatnot. So refreshing to see stuff like this utilized in battle, as the other writers on the OLM team usually don't make use of this nearly as much as they should.

The fact that the episode skips all the usual time-wasting and jumps straight to the stadium and the battle was such a good decision and really what set this episode up to be a great one. Previous WC matches suffered a lot from beginning half way in and then the pacing was all messed up, with mons going down way too easily and fast as there was no time for anything else. Thankfully, this battle was spared from this.

Was I the only one who thought it was so strange to see a Gym Leader make substitutions? Talk about something you aren't used to. I always thought that was a dumb rule the gym battles had.

The only thing I want to mention being a clear negative was the use of all the newly composed music that was played in the episode. To be honest, it was all pretty slow-paced, generic sounding stuff that felt totally out of place and did not fit a battle of this caliber at all. It just felt like it slowed down all the action and made the battles less exciting than they should've been. Where were all the fast paced battle themes that would make you be on the edge of your seat?
 
....Honestly from what I've seen on a few Discord threads that the episode's view rose quickly after some subs came out that don't merge Ash and Goh's intro or call Pikachu an Android.

....Still need to find them myself....but hey this place can be a hard critic of Journeys. Z-Move is an issue though.

(Wonder if JP fans have a similar opinion?)
 
Wasn't Satoshi a bit Ooc?

Wasn't this episode almost a rehash of the last time they battled?
 
Last edited:
Just wait for Pikachu using the Nuke to defeat Shirona's Gaburias in one hit.
This is my concern, if today's episode is an indication; but then again, Ash using his Z-Crystal here seemed more like a thematic choice given how the battle focused on electricity - so he may very well not bust it out for Cynthia. Hopefully they do something else like Dragonite vs. Garchomp instead.
 
What an emotional roller coaster ride this episode was! Wow!
First, an almost perfect battle and second, even much much more important, SHE is here again: Cynthia, The QUEEN, the ANGEL, the GODDESS! :notworthy: And at the same time, believe it or not, I still can't decide what to think of it.

But first things first:
This has been one of the greatest battles for a long time and definitely the greatest battle in Journeys. We had an ectremely powerful opponent in Volkner who used his Pokemon both tactically and skilfully by switching in Pokemon exactly at that point of time when he could make the best of their abilities and moves. Great! But Ash also showed a lot of courage and while Volkner clearly overpowered Ash from a tactical standpoint , Ash could hold his own with stamina and willpower in the end. This battle was pure intensity and kept you at the edge of your seat. A worthy Hyper Class battle without any doubt!
Only one strange aspect I'm surprised nobody has mentioned so far: Regardless of whether 10.000.000 Volt Thunderbolt can overpower Motor Engine, aren't Z-moves supposed to only work in Alola? If I remember correctly, it was clearly mentioned in SM those moves only worked in Alola because of the special bond with nature on those islands. So if there was a logical mistake in this battle, it was a Z-move working in another region.


And then there was the most emotional moment of the episode: Her Majesty returned and was confirmed to be part of the Master Class. This is why I called it an emotional roller coaster ride at the beginning. It goes without saying I was completely hyped and speechless when the QUEEN was mentioned and shown again. And while writing this, I'm still excited and find it hard to ca.m down. At the same time, I have always been hoping that Cynthia was not part of the PWC and would later be revealed to be in a (much stronger) tournament of her own.:confused_emoji: Now that Her Majesty has been officially confirmed to be one of the strongest trainers in the world, I'm hyped and sad at the same time and this feels kind of crazy. Given Cynthia's extremely high popularity and the fact that she's always been considered the strongest trainer in the world by many many fans, it's CYNTHIA who also should officially be the Master of the PMC. There would have been no need at all to introduce that pointless character Leon who can't even battle properly and needs to rely on cheap Gigantamax tricks and illogical, seemingly invincible moves (that only work in certain places by the way).
Cynthia, and she only(!) should rightfully stand at the top because there is no other character who deserves that title more than this glorious angel. Now you can probably understand what I'm going through emotionally: While I'm totally excited and blissfully happy to see the greatest Cynthia again, I also want the writers to make HER stand at the top, and not just a bland trainer who needed to be introduced just because the new games demanded it.

Cynthia, no matter what the writers will come up with, you will always be our Queen and eternal Pokemon Master! :giggle:
 
Regardless of whether 10.000.000 Volt Thunderbolt can overpower Motor Engine, aren't Z-moves supposed to only work in Alola? If I remember correctly, it was clearly mentioned in SM those moves only worked in Alola because of the special bond with nature on those islands. So if there was a logical mistake in this battle, it was a Z-move working in another region.
Back in S&M, when the Alola gang went to Kanto to visit Brock and Misty’s gym, they used Z-Moves during their fights.
Honestly, it feels as though it shouldn’t be able to, but it happened in Kanto, so I guess it’s not an issue.

I think, and I mean “I think”, the Z-Moves work from the light passed down from Necrozma, and therefore the light is somewhat encaged into the Z-Ring; the Aura is conversed into energy to fuel the attack, and can be transported to any set location. So, I don’t think it matters where the action takes place…I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve never fully understood it.
Twilight-Kun explains it better than I can below.
 
Last edited:
Back in S&M, when the Alola gang went to Kanto to visit Brock and Misty’s gym, they used Z-Moves during their fights.
Honestly, it feels as though it shouldn’t be able to, but it happened in Kanto, so I guess it’s not an issue.
The Z-Rings are pieces of Necrozma, which is why they're able to use Z-Moves in other regions, since they emit the same radiation that's native to Alola
 
(Ok, that last one’s obviously a joke, but seriously, have there been any episodes which are universally considered great in this series?)
The Eating Contest seems to be very well liked and appears to be on the top fav JN eps for a surprisingly large part of the fandom. It's one of my favs, honestly. I literally can't remember the last time I had that much fun watching an Pokémon ep and I genuinely burst out laughing at some points.

Idk, for the ''standart filler'' that one was surprisingly good and well-written.
 
The Z-Rings are pieces of Necrozma, which is why they're able to use Z-Moves in other regions, since they emit the same radiation that's native to Alola
I see what you mean. Probably I confused the Japanese translation. Still, I see another problem then: Why use Z-Rings while you're in Alola in the first place if that region "automatically" emits that radiation anyways? In my eyes Z-Rings would only make sense if you wanted to take that energy from Necrozma with you to other places.
 
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom