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Review JN118: Satoshi Goes into Battle! VS Daigo!!

I didn't think the battle was that great honestly. I mean it didn't really start to improve until Pikachu came out. Dracovish went down way too quickly and I don't like that it seems Aggron was taken down by taking so much damage from burns rather than direct attacks from Gengar. For Ash facing a Champion this strong, it could have been so much better. I seriously question what happened to the quality of battles in this series. The cameos were nice, but you mean to tell me characters like Katie, Morrison, and Tyson got cameos before May? Here we go though. Its Ash vs. Champion Cynthia.
Agreed about Dracovish too, BTW. Went down waaaay too quickly.) I have an immense problem with the quality of the battles in this series. The writing is laughably bad for the most part, and the pacing is all over the place. Honestly, and I'm not just singing its praises here, but the quality of the battles in XY (and even SM, sometimes,) not to mention the writing, cinematography, and coreography just make these battles in Journeys look as Paul would say, "pathetic." (Have I mentioned the animation sucks compared to XY? :()

Honestly, Ash vs Leon better be nothing short of spectacular, because lord knows Journeys could use a proper spectacle.
 
What an utter dissapointment, they somehow managed to make Ash's debut battle less exciting than Iris vs. Cynthia. The build-up towards 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt was so terrible it almost felt like a deus ex machina. Props to them for using Mezase Pokémon Master and not having the Z-Move instantly KO'ing Metagross, at the very least. But ugh.
 
People should be glad Dracovish went down, the way it survived so many attacks in Drasna's battle was disliked and now it's handled realistically. It got one attack on Metagross before going down. Also Aggron took other attacks besides fire damage
What an utter dissapointment, they somehow managed to make Ash's debut battle less exciting than Iris vs. Cynthia. The build-up towards 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt was so terrible it almost felt like a deus ex machina. Props to them for using Mezase Pokémon Master and not having the Z-Move instantly KO'ing Metagross, at the very least. But ugh.
What made the build up to the Z move disappointing? There was really no other way to foreshadow it, Pikachu had gotten hit twice and couldn't shock it out-of the air. Ash using it and Metagross actually dodging half the beams (it only got hit by 4) and surviving was also nice because it wasn't a one hit KO. Then finished off with Iron Tail.
 
People should be glad Dracovish went down, the way it survived so many attacks in Drasna's battle was disliked and now it's handled realistically.
It’s more just the inconsistency and bad powerscallig. Pokémon aren’t as strong as they should naturally be but as strong as the writers need them to be for that particular battle with no acknowledgement for what came before. They needed Dracovish to take a million hits with Drasna because it was the star of said battle but because it wasn’t in the Steven match it had to go down quickly so Pikachu has more time so shine.

It all feels so artificial and forced, the absolute crap pacing nearly all JN’s battles are plagued with to the point I believe it’s now intentional certainly doesn’t help
 
I didn't think the battle was that great honestly. I mean it didn't really start to improve until Pikachu came out. Dracovish went down way too quickly and I don't like that it seems Aggron was taken down by taking so much damage from burns rather than direct attacks from Gengar. For Ash facing a Champion this strong, it could have been so much better. I seriously question what happened to the quality of battles in this series. The cameos were nice, but you mean to tell me characters like Katie, Morrison, and Tyson got cameos before May? Here we go though. Its Ash vs. Champion Cynthia.
It’s super weird that they had May’s rivals as cameos watching this. Sure, Steven is their region’s champion but they’re all Coordinators and never had any kind of relationship with Steven or Pokémon battling.
 
People should be glad Dracovish went down, the way it survived so many attacks in Drasna's battle was disliked and now it's handled realistically. It got one attack on Metagross before going down. Also Aggron took other attacks besides fire damage
There’s a big middle ground between tanking infinite hits and going down in two, one of which being ineffective.

Also, Aggron took a Dazzling Gleam and a half blocked Dragon Rush, both also ineffective moves.
 
What made the build up to the Z move disappointing? There was really no other way to foreshadow it, Pikachu had gotten hit twice and couldn't shock it out-of the air. Ash using it and Metagross actually dodging half the beams (it only got hit by 4) and surviving was also nice because it wasn't a one hit KO. Then finished off with Iron Tail.
The battle had very subpar momentum especially during that moment. Ash was very passive in having Pikachu continuously take damage so when he turns it around it feels out of nowhere. If the battles were faster-paced (or Ash was actively telling Pikachu to dodge, keep up speed with Quick Attack or whatever, even if he failed) it probably wouldn't have felt awkward.

It’s super weird that they had May’s rivals as cameos watching this. Sure, Steven is their region’s champion but they’re all Coordinators and never had any kind of relationship with Steven or Pokémon battling.
I'm not complaining but it's especially weird considering they likely omitted Burgundy in the previous episode because Cilan wasn't there.
 
I'll have to watch the battle again when subs come but wasn't Pikachu only hit by Metagross twice? The rest was just Metagross dodging the Thunderbolts. The Z move turnaround just barely helped Ash win as Metagross not only avoided half the attack but also survived it. Iron Tail finishing it off along with the attack from Dracovish earlier was fitting.

Aggron being worn down by the fire damage and other attacks while Gengar survived long enough against Cradily including that beam struggle was nice too. And as I mentioned using Pikachu to electro web Cradily's tentacles and run up to it to slam it in the end was a typical classic Ash strategy.
 
It’s super weird that they had May’s rivals as cameos watching this. Sure, Steven is their region’s champion but they’re all Coordinators and never had any kind of relationship with Steven or Pokémon battling.
They were just there for us older fans as fanservice I think.
 
They were just there for us older fans as fanservice I think.
Yea but of the ones we’ve seen eating the tournament in cameos, they make the least sense. Now if Wallace was there, you could at least argue that he’s also a Top Coordinator but with Steven, it’s just random.
 
Yea but of the ones we’ve seen eating the tournament in cameos, they make the least sense. Now if Wallace was there, you could at least argue that he’s also a Top Coordinator but with Steven, it’s just random.
Yeah, they were pretty random. Still nice to see them though. Especially since this may or may not :ROFLMAO: confirm May's return to cheer for Ash, possibly even in Wyndon.
 
This... was a bit of a mixed bag for me, not gonna lie.

Aggron's battles are definitely the weakest part of the whole thing by a mile: seriosuly, you're telling me that a highly defensive Pokemon like Aggron was taken out with just two not very effective hits (one of which didn't even seem to deal any damage whatsoever)? Even with the burn status's additional damage that feels like a pretty big stretch, though at least the base idea (using a status move to weaken the opponent's offense and defense) was actually really solid. It's just a shame that it was executed so poorly.

Cradily fought really well, and I loved how it made up for its lack of mobility with a healing move and an attack that could compromise its opponents' movements. Btw, Electroweb once again demonstrates why it's the best of Pikachu's secondary Electric attacks by allowing the mouse to get around Power Whip.

Finally, Metagross's KO isn't actually that bad, since it did take a Fishious Rend from Dracovish previously, so it actually survived not one but two very powerful attacks, so it does make sense that Pikachu's Iron Tail was able to finish it off. That said, this part of the battle did still feel a bit heavy on the "scrappy underdog takes a billion hits and still gets back up only to come back from the brink with an OP move" that is so common in Ash's battles, and that did make it a bit ridiculous. Not just because Ash obviously wouldn't lose in the first round, but because like it's been memed to kingdom come, Pikachu has a long history of defeating nearly every Metagross he's battled (literally the only exception is Anabel's Metagross), so it doesn't feel as impressive as it should have. Sure, the Mega Evolution itself is new territory for Pikachu, but as we all saw, his special unique Z-Move (which by the way has a 100% success rate) more than evened out the playing field. All in all, not a bad fight, just a bit heavy-handed.

Overall, the first round of the Masters 8 was a bit of a mixed bag, though I did find it overall more enjoyable than not. Hopefully once we come back to it after Chloe's two-parter we get a string of homerun hits.
 
Steven saying he's sure Ash and Pikachu can win against Cynthia is a strange line if Pikachu isn't used. Now I'm anticipating at least a 4v4.

Other notables from subs:
  • They really tried to emphasize how much damage Fishious Rend did in dialogue. Animation didn't cooperate.
  • Gengar set up Pikachu's win over Cradily. So, if you thought its performance was underwhelming, you're wrong.
  • The announcer points out Metagross "predicting" Pikachu's moves (presumably with its supercomputer brains). Steven says pretty much exactly the same thing within seconds.
 
Rewatching I also noticed Pikachu didn't take a single hit from Cradily, so it went into the Metagross fight fresh. It also only took two attacks from Metagross, so people claiming Pikachu somehow survived endless attacks were wrong (and the battle damage it had was nice). Metagross got hit by Dracovish, 4 of the Z-move beams hit it, and then Iron tail.

I do now notice Aggron went down after only 1 attack and about two rounds of fire damage, but eh whatever. The Cradily segment with Gengar and Pikachu was great the whole way.
 
Fun facts from the subbed version: not only was Fishious Rend's secondary effect of powering up if the user moves first acknowledged, but it was also mentioned that Dracovish has Strong Jaw.
I just watched the subbed version and I noticed that too! Nice to see that little detail mentioned, and now Dracovish's ability has finally been officially confirmed too! :D
 
Would've loved to see the episode where Pikachu learned how to manipulate Z-Energy so it could use 10MV defensively rather than yet again having it do whatever the plot needs of it

Also hey, props to Metagross for being the first pokemon to dodge (most of) it

Which means Charizard is gonna dodge the whole thing, doesn't it
 
The Z move homing in on Metagross was a nice touch I thought, I don't think it ever did that before. Now it's like homing missiles that tracks it's target. The good thing is Metagross didn't just stand there and take it all, only 3 shots hit it while it deflected one with its attacks and dodged the rest. You can say Metagross took roughly 50% of the Z-move, and Iron Tail finished it off (along with Dracovish attack from earlier). Again if people complained about pokemon not dodging in the Lance battle, we got plenty here (Gengar and Pikachu were also dodging most attacks).
 
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