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Review JN099: Mary of Spike Town!

I was thinking before the battle a poison type move could help Gengar in this battle. And suddenly, he used one.

It was a nice battle. A lot of the good points about it are already said. I also agree with the way the Dynamax portion was handled.

Gengar got a new win. :)

So those 3 goons did give Ash and Goh misdirections so Marnie would win by forfeit... Tsk. :p

Although, I thought how higher Ash was ranked how slower the climb would become, but he jumped from place 36 to 15 with 1 battle. It's a huge jump in my opinion. Percentagewise it is huge.

Wait! What!

From 36 to 15 in one battle. More evidence towards gen 9 coming late 2022 (Since else, why all the rushing).
 
Finally! Finally Gengar gets a nice clean win! The battle was actually decent. It never felt too one sided like some battles, and I'm glad they're treating Dynamax/Gigantamax as a more strategic move. Neither side won with a max move. I really wish we could get more of Marnie and Piers though. I am surprised that this didn't push Ash to the masters. Wonder which character he'll have to defeat before we get to the big battles against Raihan, Lance, and our queen Champion Cynthia. Overall pretty solid of an episode.
 
As many people have pointed out, Max Moves weren't a deciding factor here, even when used against a regular-sized opponent. I'm personally satisfied with that too, especially when comparing it to Pokémon Adventures, where several Galar Gym battles were finished with a Max Move being used on an opponent whose Dynamax state had just ended. That kind of win just doesn't feel right or even fair to me, even if it's perfectly legal in the games.
 
Wait! What!

From 36 to 15 in one battle. More evidence towards gen 9 coming late 2022 (Since else, why all the rushing).
There's no evidence Gen 9 is coming this year. The Master Class matches are probably not going to be back to back eps and separated by fillers or other arcs like now.

With Arceus DLC likely for the Fall I don't know how Gamefreak can do another full 3D game in the same span as that and the original game
 
There's no evidence Gen 9 is coming this year. The Master Class matches are probably not going to be back to back eps and separated by fillers or other arcs like now.

With Arceus DLC likely for the Fall I don't know how Gamefreak can do another full 3D game in the same span as that and the original game

Ash ranking 15th is evidence.
Rica Matusmoto singing the new opening is evidence, since she also sang the last one for XY and SUMO.

Also, there is no way they are gonna wait 8/9 months for Legends DLC if we get it. We get them in March on the earliest and April on the latest, which leaves enough time for gen 9 to release in November this year.
 
Ash ranking 15th is evidence.
Rica Matusmoto singing the new opening is evidence, since she also sang the last one for XY and SUMO.
That doesn't mean the rest of the rankings will be done by November. We have no idea if Master Class will be structured differently or not back to back episodes.

In terms of the games Legends Arceus DLC is probably happening this fall, I'm not sure why you think Gamefreak would have that and all new gen at the same time. Also remember they were working on the Crown Tundra DLC and Arceus at the same time, I don't think they would be able to complete a whole Gen 9 game on top of that.
 
The pacing of the episode as a whole wasn't as awful as I thought it would be, things actually flowed quite well. That said, as is usually the case with gmax/dmax battles in the anime: they are really damn awful. Literally two mons taking turns firing of ranged attacks at each other making it look like something from the turn-based Pokemon games. There's no intensity to the action, no fluid or dynamic movements to any of the fighting. It's boring, and I wasn't the least bit excited by of any of it. Only good thing about the battle was the end result and Gengar getting a W.

Also, the animation was actually... pretty good, for not being an Iwane episode. I had no issues with it, which surprised me.
 
That said, as is usually the case with gmax/dmax battles in the anime: they are really damn awful. Literally two mons taking turns firing of ranged attacks at each other making it look like something from the turn-based Pokemon games. There's no intensity to the action, no fluid or dynamic movements to any of the fighting. It's boring, and I wasn't the least bit excited by of any of it. Only good thing about the battle was the end result and Gengar getting a W.
I personally liked it. The moves were grand, impactful, and imposing, as were the Pokémon.
 
It's weird, you'd think Grookey would've at least have shown an interest in seeing Rillaboom considering he'll be bonding with a wild Thwacky in 2 weeks

If it doesn't involve being an annoying little shit, Grookey don't pay attention.

Also... Allister/Onion makes a cameo appearance in the episode. Kinda sad that he's huddled alone in his empty gym, though.
 
I really liked this episode! The battle between Ash and Marnie was a lot better than I was expecting, and both Pokemon used really cool moves: I especially liked that Grimmsnarl used both of his species' signature moves here (also lol @ my "ideal anime Gengar moveset" actually becoming true). I still do wish this had been a 3v3, though. As others have said, Pikachu vs Morpeko could have been an interesting matchup, and Marnie's third Pokemon could have been a Thievul (as I think it's the only fully evolved Gen 8 Dark-type that hasn't been showcased yet), while Ash's could've been Sirfetch'd to make up for it never getting a win against Bea.
 
So I've got some actual subs, let's see what this turns into .

  • The subs give Marnie a yellin': she have the equiv of that sort of accent in Japan or something else?
  • ..I know it is probably for pacing reasons but is having 'Team Yell' pulling the boys naivety a bit too far? IDK....hard to tell how genre savvy Ash should be at any given time. At the very least I know this isn't going to end in a Ritchie like situation.
  • I like the band bit, not a bad way to introduce your team. Kind of like how he does in game when his team comes out, but outside of song lyrics. Honestly I kind of wanted to have see if you could have given their Pokedex entires in the same way, though Ash's staring was a good gag.
  • Piers's reaction....I hope Yell doesn't do that too often. That cannot be good for Marnie's reputation and self worth. Hopefully she gets a lot of battles outside of Galar.
  • Oshawott cameo
  • I do like the Motorbike gag, though unless I see it mentioned otherwise later I'm going to assume that Piers called ahead and said that Ash was given the wrong directions and that as he took full responsibility it was fine.
  • Could Ash have flown Dragonite to get there faster? I can see that he was panicing so I could see that not applying because Ash is not a hundred percent rational even when he is in the right mind.
  • The lines imply that Piers isn't in the WCS. A pity, but eh what it is. Also I kind of like how one could consider Marnie the 'Pride of Spike Town' the way Ash is called 'the Pride of Pallet Town' once or twice in the movies and a ton in fanfics. Would it be something else with Marnie though? 'Marnie, the Shining Star of Spike Town?' 'Marnie, the Spike Town Supernova?' Etc etc.
  • Okay....nothing saying that Piers did go 'hey this happened again, sorry', and who wants their fav to win by default? Eh, Yell are kind of dumb. Though note to self, if I ever write something around this episode Piers does call ahead. Also 'shut your gob!'
  • ...So random thought. In the old Shudo novels, Pallet Town's basically a dying town. In the games and anime Spike Town is a dying town. If someone wrote a fanfic where the former is applied, does that mean they'd be fighting for the same thing? IDK...a thought. Also given the buzz of battles in Galar and Piers own mention he should be doing more...honestly the Ultra Class battles themselves should be enough. But eh...that's a complicated topic. Though would that influence the name of Ash x Marnie ships? DyingTownShip? .....Actually that's kind of a good one.
  • Not the worst way of implementing the Air Taxi
  • Technically Ash would be on a winning streak since well before Bea. Also the guy's surely able to give a more fancy intro than that: you talked about his Z-Move before Bea, why not talk about his Mega Evo? Heck, why not go 'hey he's using a third mechanic this time!?' Honesty that should either be noted at some point or just show that Ash isn't in a two man club of using multiple mechanics
  • So IMO either the WCS has a random battle size rule or it is depending on how many Pokemon both sides have. Like, especially in earlier rounds, I could see it either way
  • Dusk Ball effects! Did the other ball alternates have the effects?
  • Honestly Goh's words could mean either the G-Max or the new moves. I choose the latter myself
  • Grimmsnarl's jaw is bothering me....it stays open too much.
  • 'Marnie specializes in Dynamax Battles'. You know, I like that idea for the siblings differences.
  • That is a good use of Dazzling Gleam, a nice utility attack that might actually work better than Psychic. Kind of in spirit of using Dragon Dance to deflect attacks.
  • I like that Sludge Bomb/Max Quake bit. That made Dynamax feel imposing and played to Gengar's strengths as an evasive fellow.
  • The way Marnie reacted to Ash's Dynamax is certainly playin to that 'specializes in Dynamax Battles' bit, though I would probably also say this is Ash's weakest of the three mechanics.
  • Also hey, Gible Tech.
My personal takeaway is actually a lot like my takeaway of the Legends Arcues story. Calling the storyflow of either half-baked is wrong, it is honestly something more two-thirds to three-fourth's baked. It just had that little bit absent that is noticeable, but the overall element isn't bad. Just missing that final round or three of Varnish after many layers were added.
 
Hi Mary

Bye Mary

At least your morpeko wasn't an abusive [heavily redacted] to its trainer and was far more cute and adorable than its [even more heavily redacted] counterpart
Huge missed opportunity that we didn’t get to have it interact with TRio’s or really get to see it having much of a personality at all especially when Morpeko is Marnie’s companion Pokémo.

And speaking of missed opportunities, given that Marnie is a dark type specialist, the fact that this was a 1 v 1 was a missed opportunity to allow Sirfetch’d to get some battle time and a win or 2 given that it has type advantage.
 
Putting aside the part where this is a 1v1 battle at a point where official 1v1 battles shouldn't really be a thing anymore, this was a great battle. Excellent use of Dynamax, wide variety of moves shown, and tactical strategies employed by both sides make this one of the best PWC battles I've seen so far. A lot of peeps here already elaborated on why this battle was so amazing, so I won't talk much about that. Instead, I wanna point out one minor issue I have with this battle that's also present in some of the past PWC battles.

I'm not sure if this has also been an issue before Journeys or not, but there seems to be a trend in the PWC where Ash's opponents pull out a power-up towards the end of the battle, only for Ash's Pokemon to just brute force their way through it.
  • When Rinto's Gallade activated its Justified ability towards the end of its battle, Ash's Sirfetch'd just brute forced its way through it and won anyway, rendering the power-up seemingly pointless. This could be explained by Sirfetch'd getting significantly stronger after evolving in that battle, allowing it to overpower Gallade even with Justified activated.
  • When Bea's Machamp gained a power boost after using its G-Max attack, Ash's Mega Lucario just brute forced its way through it by spontaneously learning Steel Beam. While Lucario learning a new move in that exact moment felt a bit too convenient, it did help make its victory feel much more believable, so I guess it's fine here.
  • And now, when Marnie's Grimmsnarl tried using a boosted Stomping Tantrum, Ash's Gengar effortlessly breaks through the attack with a regular Shadow Ball, knocking out Grimmsnarl. This is probably the worst example of this issue, since we have a boosted attack being completely thwarted by an unboosted attack, which kinda made the battle's conclusion feel a bit anticlimactic despite the rest of the episode being spectacular.
It's a very small issue that didn't ruin my enjoyment of the battle, but I feel like they definitely could've wrapped up the battle much more nicely by having Gengar deal with the boosted Stomping Tantrum more tactically.
 
What I really liked about this battle was the fact that Gigantamax was just one part of it and not the inevitable conclusion. We saw that even regular Pokemon can hold their own against gigantamaxed forms and, what's even better, that Pokemon go back to their regular forms after three rounds. I've never been a fan of Gigantamax anyways and so, I'm glad the battle was decided "the normal way".

What I didn't like was how rushed it felt. It has probably been the least emotional and intense Hyper Call battle so far and the most rushed one. Thus, it definitely should have been a two-parter at least!
Also, Ash climbing from rank 36 to 15 by defeating a trainer who's ranked 29th neither feels logical nor justified. I'd really like to know what the calculations of the Pokemon Worlds Championships are based on.

Our Queen Cynthia being shown in the last scene saved the episode for me :giggle:
 
I don't like the -max mechanic, but both the Bea and Marnie battles have actually shown off some potential in it well (though still the "slowness" and the turn-based things limit that). Obviously, this shouldn't have been a Hyper Class battle, but other than that, it was good, and the episode was good in general.
 
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