Review S16 EP24: Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony!

[Karamazov]

BW121 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Please remember to keep all spoilers pertaining to future episodes in spoiler tags.

 

[Sakuraa]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Now this was a good episode. Everyone was so awesome for the most part. The beginning with Dragonite and Crustle was okay, but it was better when it got to Ash and N underground.

First of all, Pikachu trying to dig their way out of that cave was totally adorable. But did Ash really say that he forgot to get his other pokemon to help. Really? Anyway, for some reason I just loved seeing the different size comparisons between Ash’s Pokemon. Charizard’s little spinning Dragon Tail was really cool. Krookodile, Pignite, and even Oshawott were okay for the most part, but Snivy just seemed so…not needed. At least for that part. Krookodile popping his head up, seeing all off the controlled Pokemon, and then going back in to hole in fear was so hilarious.

Seeing Charizard take all those Shadow Balls and have Pignite to help him was kind of disappointing. I’m not even really a fan of the Charizard/Pignite friendship, but that double Flamethrower was cool. And Krookodile, just doesn’t like being out staged. Also (not really related), but I thought he looked kind of weird standing up straight like that. Then Oshawott and Snivy help out. And then there’s Pikachu.

Now this is one of those moments were Pikachu really gets on my nerves. Something happens to him that easily could have been avoided if he got inside of his Poke Ball. And then he didn’t even try to get out of the way; he literally just stood there. I’m just so glad that he didn’t snap out of it on his own with Ash’s talk about their friendship. Not to mention that N sacrificed the Light Stone for Colress to free Pikachu. That was nice. And finally, we have Ghetsis show up to summon Reshiram.

Overall, a really great episode. 9/10.

 

[Team Gaara]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Wow, this episode, guys~ I don’t know how many times I’ll say it, but Episode N is just what this series needed.

So it looks like Looker still got that pipe because he is a G.

The battle with the Team Plamsa Pokémon was okay, but the stock footage kinda lessened it, if you ask me.

I love how Cilan, Iris, and Cedric are hiding behind a tree. And LOL at Axew trying to be tough and stuff. Like…shut up.

So Team Plasma doesn’t just handcuff people, they use body cuffs cause they go hard or go home.

I don’t know what Looker was talking about; he could have clearly piped everyone to death! And it would have been awesome.

Okay, seriously, N is REALLY creepy! His eyes just look so empty and lacking of a soul.

Something about when Ash was talking to N seemed…weird. Like his voice was deeper and for some reason the word swag just seemed to describe him at that moment. I have no idea what I’m saying. Moving on…

These guys are pretty resourceful diggers. And Pikachu is just the cutest little digger~ ^w^

OMZ! THE HAT WENT BACKWARDS!! This episode gets 6000 cool points.

Back outside, we see that Team Plasma are morons because: “Who puts Shadow Ball on Golurk?”

Okay, these controlled Pokémon are pretty damn intimidating. I don’t blame you Krookadile, but Charzard is a badass mofo.

And apparently Charizard takes N’s place as a meat shield. Also, when did Pignite and Charizard become so close? Did I miss something in that awful filler?

So everyone got out and it was so good to see everyone working together and crap. Warms mi corazon. And that hasn’t happened much this series so they get points.

What was up with Ash looking like a derp when Iris was warning him?

LOL! Looker is not kidding with that Pipe, this man is a badass! I wish he would’ve smashed some stuff! DX

So Ash returns everyone except…Pikachu? You know? Remember him? The one who HATES HIS POKE BALL?!?!? Y’know, why
couldn’t he get out of the way? Pikachu seems to do a lot of standing still when things come at him this series.

On the bright side, mad Pikachu is awesome!! And it figures Ash finally got shocked by him in that from.

That scene with Ash and Pikachu was just so sad. Like, Ash, I feel you, bro. I’m sorry for hating you this series. :’(

And then N is like: “I WILL DESTROY EVERYONE WITH THE LIGHT STONE!” Or just himself, but whatever, it was still awesome.

Oh! Hey Ash, we thought you were dead! :3 Pikachu better have been tired, cause he didn’t seem to care so much that he killed Ash when he was crying all over the place when Mew and Mewtwo did.

And finally, Ghetsis. WHY THE HELL WERE YOU LOOKING FOR N SO MUCH? WHAT DID YOU WANT WITH HIM?

Well, forget him, the episode was great. 10/10

 

[Ambipom666]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

I found it pretty funny how the recap of last episode was longer than usual. I can imagine the animators going "We spent good money animating that battle sequence [e.g. Golurk crawling on the ground after Dragonite] and we're gonna milk it for all it's worth!"

The fight between Ash and the brainwashed Pokémon was more of a stock footage fest than an actual fight, but that's par for the course I guess.

Why did Team Plasma stop controlling Pikachu to get the Light Stone? They're the villains, they don't need honor, they have an army of brainwashed Pokémon and should be more than capable of taking it by force.

I'm gonna take a page from the user Kairyu

For any dub viewers who are curious and want to be spoiled on what Ghetsis will do next episode after reviving Reshiram

Spoiler

absolutely nothing

 

[Team Gaara]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Why did Team Plasma stop controlling Pikachu to get the Light Stone? They're the villains, they don't need honor, they have an army of brainwashed Pokémon and should be more than capable of taking it by force.

N was going to destroy it, and himself, right there. They wouldn't have been able to stop him.

 

[Ambipom666]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

By smashing it? I'd assume the Light Stone is more durable than that I'm willing to accept otherwise so that N's threat isn't totally empty. I would imagine that the Liepard Team Plasma have would be fast enough to jump down and snatch the Light Stone from N but since N is apparently supposed to be a ninja according to the previous episode I suppose not.

Not really related, but from the time Ash recalls all his Pokémon to the time N furiously confronts Team Plasma, N is basically standing there with the Light Stone with no form of resistance, so I might as well ask why Team Plasma didn't try to steal it then, especially with this talk of how they only care about the Light Stone.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

As many people mentioned "stock footage" this is what made watching this episode seem like I was watching one of the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger episodes as a kid watching the reused stock footage from the Sentai version of the show

To me there were 5 things that made me smile;
1. Ash's digging crew!! Such an adorable scene and how innovative the Pokemon were digging
2. Krookodile's expression when it came out of the ground seeing the army of brainwashed Pokemon
3. Charizard looking bad-ass flying up from the hole
4. Pignite showing concern for his "big bro" getting hurt
5. Looker being a boss swinging around that pipe man I wish he could have busted some heads with that!

I'm going to be honest this is the first episode that I've watched since Charizard's return to Ash's team.

Is Professor Juniper's dad voiced by the same person who voices Professor Oak/Gary?!?!

Here is what I disliked; Ash and Pikachu scene...

I don't know if the writers were trying to get a emotional reaction from viewers about friendship and all because if that was the case they failed with me. That was one of the DUMBEST things I've ever seen Ash do and with Ash doing/saying something stupid nearly every episode this is saying a lot . Yeah I know, we've seen Ash pull off the miracle of friendship with his Pokemon in order get them to snap out of mind control or get out of a nearly impossible jam; Multiple times getting his fire monkey Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape to snap out of its "rage mode" when Blaze is activated, getting Charizard/Bulbasaur to snap out of the effects of Confuse Ray during the battle with Brandon in the Battle Frontier, Pikachu's electrical build up "rage mode" at the start of the Hoenn Region series, etc.

This was different than the above cases because Pikachu was hit by a blast from a machine not only designed to control a Pokemon's mind but if I remember correctly also raise them to their up-most power/level (A.K.A Level 100 if you wanna put it that way reminds me of the Dark Balls from movie 4).

How many times has Pikachu been in a bad situation that could have been avoided if it had just went into its Pokeball?? MORE times than I can count...

Not to mention it just stood there! Like a damn deer in the headlights instead of running over to Ash. They've seen what that machine does to Pokemon but this...

I can't even find the words to describe how stupid this was. I don't know who was dumber Ash or N; in this episode it was Ash and a few episodes ago with the Haxorus was N who jumped in front of mind controlled Pokemon only to get attacked. This was AFTER they both knew about the machine's effects.

Seriously, Ash and Pikachu have to come to grips that certain situations involve it going inside of the Pokeball whether it wants to or not.

I don't feel sad that Ash got shocked twice that was his own stupidity.

 

[DracoMan]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Is Professor Juniper's dad voiced by the same person who voices Professor Oak/Gary?!?!

He's voiced by Stan Hart, the guy who used to voice Professor Oak. Gary's voiced by Carter Cathcart (aka Billy Beach, Jimmy Zoppi), who now voices Prof. Oak.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Is Professor Juniper's dad voiced by the same person who voices Professor Oak/Gary?!?!

He's voiced by Stan Hart, the guy who used to voice Professor Oak. Gary's voiced by Carter Cathcart (aka Billy Beach, Jimmy Zoppi), who now voices Prof. Oak.

While it's nice to see Stan Hart (his real name is actually Stuart Zagnit, but in the 4Kids dub one of his alias(es) was Stan Hart) back as Cedric Juniper, I'm very disappointed that Carter Cathcart is still playing Professor Oak.

Oh well, better than nothing, right? Least he can actually work on the show again.

Anyway, about the actual episode, Bill Rogers has definitely improved as Ghetsis. He sounds much more intimidating and believable in the role.

My favorite part of this episode is why N was getting pissed about the Light Stone. XD.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Is Professor Juniper's dad voiced by the same person who voices Professor Oak/Gary?!?!

He's voiced by Stan Hart, the guy who used to voice Professor Oak. Gary's voiced by Carter Cathcart (aka Billy Beach, Jimmy Zoppi), who now voices Prof. Oak.

Thanks! I knew those voices sounded familiar I just couldn't put my finger on it until half of the episode was over.

I'll give N points for going through with his word, I mean they lifted the mind control over Pikachu BEFORE he even began to make his was up the cliff to them. If Ash hadn't gotten needlessly hurt, he could have scooped up Pikachu and ran from the machine or even attacked the people controlling it BUT that would make too much sense...

I don't mean to hate on Ash but let's say when the Fire/Dragon is "resurrected" or whatever, something bad happens that could have a negative effect on the Unova Region...yeah because the score record for villain organizations that FULLY realize their desires is dangerously high...unless you count Galactic :/

You know what would make up for this episode? The one thing we got "teased" with during the opening of this "saga" in the theme song, the reason Charizard comes back, why it was needed for Ash to have an extreme powerhouse in his team of 6...

Drum roll please!!!

*drum roll*

YOU'VE THOUGHT ABOUT IT, I'VE THOUGHT ABOUT IT, WE'VE ALL THOUGHT ABOUT IT; CHARIZARD VS. RESHIRAM!!!!!!

But will it be something that happens? Is it something that we'll actually get to see next Saturday?

Answer;

Spoiler

HELL NO!!

 

[PockyAddict]

I enjoyed this episode. I found it sorta exciting.

 

[Gabo2oo]

I'm kind of in love with that one-minute recap at the start of the episode, it always thrills me so I liked the dub version except the fact that the intro theme appears too fast and doesn't allow the background music to finnish/fade-out. That's a problem in almost every dub episode, though.

First BGM removed. Okay, we started bad, TPCi.
A little silence during the underground scenes, well, we're getting better.
Keeping that BGM when Ash's Pokémon help? That's making it a good dub episode! Just keep To Each Future and I'll be happy!
Adding music sometimes can ruin comical scenes, like the Krookodile one...
No To Each Future? You scewed it up again, idiots!

Anyway, about voice acting, it was really good. I liked N's angry yelling to Team Plasma about destroying the Light Stone, and Jason Griffith actually did better than before as Looker (the "NO YOU DON'T!" got me). Even Sarah put on a great acting when Ash is being attacked by Pikachu, excluding one particular scene. When Ash is trying to hold his Pokémon the original, he starts taking really calm only to end up screaming in pain when Pikachu attacks, leading him to say "Pika--chuu-aaah!!". The dub didn't emulate this at all.

Another thing I liked is that the actors remained completely shut during the ceremony. It's common for a dub to add every possible sound to the characters when they aren't saying anything in the original, leading to expressions like "Hhmmm..." if their mouth is closed or "Uuuuhh..." if their mouth is opened, but they prevented themselves to do it this time, and it worked really well.

 

[Darth Darkrai]

Stan Hart as Cedric Juniper is just great and I Love him as him as well. This was a 10/10 here and pretty good and also my bBig Speech here is: THE RISE OF TEAM PLASMA IS HERE AND TEAM PLASMA IS ON THE VERGE OF VICTORY AND NOTHING WILL STOP THEM FROM WHAT THEIR GOALS ARE AND WILL GET RID OF ANYONE THAT GETS IN THEIR WAY OF POWER. Also thing I thought was funny and that was when N and Ghestis were talking and Ghestis said I Have No Need For You Anymore, I f you had no use for him than why did you want him Captured so badly than alright Man.

 

[Moe]

Having the dub doesn't change much from my review of the original episode, I can only really add that N is again inconsistent - he's watching Ash attack other Pokemon and just being happy about the friendship that Ash brings - not mentioning that he's making no effort to prevent harm to the Pokemon that are controlled against their will into doing bad things. I was slightly hopeful they were taking this approach when Iris and Cilan teamed up to build the ice-wall, but they were just standing behind there waiting to fight some more, instead of working on extra defences or organising a strategy to knock out the machine.

Just to make another dub complaint - this week in the promo for Pokemon at the end of Beyblade they had to revoice it to fit in an ad for some other non-Pokemon programming, yet still they have the same line about being on a journey to the Unova League! For a positive, the long ad break at the start meant they weren't trying to find a gap in the action when there really wasn't any to fit the second ad in.

As a side point - the Team Galactic grunts clearly show everything they are holding - how is it they can hide enough of those metal body restraints and Looker had to search around for a pole? Too bad this isn't XY and Looker couldn't randomly pick up a Honedge off the ground.

 

[Almonds]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

By smashing it? I'd assume the Light Stone is more durable than that I'm willing to accept otherwise so that N's threat isn't totally empty. I would imagine that the Liepard Team Plasma have would be fast enough to jump down and snatch the Light Stone from N but since N is apparently supposed to be a ninja according to the previous episode I suppose not.

Not really related, but from the time Ash recalls all his Pokémon to the time N furiously confronts Team Plasma, N is basically standing there with the Light Stone with no form of resistance, so I might as well ask why Team Plasma didn't try to steal it then, especially with this talk of how they only care about the Light Stone.

It sort of shows up in the next episode,

Spoiler

but N is actually pretty strong physically and I assume Team Plasma knows that

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Another very good episode and a great continuation of the Team Plasma/ Reshiram-plot!

I particularly liked three things: First, the intensity of this action-packed episode right from the beginning until the end. Second, the extremely intense atmosphere that was created by that silence when the ceremony started. Very nicely done indeed! I wish they came up with things like that more often. And last but not least, that bond and cooperation between Ash and his Pokemon while digging their way out and battling Team Plasma. It sure was a pleasure to watch because after all, that's what Pokemon is all about, isn't it?

Nevertheless, there are a few things I have to criticize:
- Why did nobody, neither Iris nor Cilan nor Ash, attempt to attack the "Pokemon Control Device" directly? For example, while confronting the controlled Pokemon, Ash could have had Charizard fly up and attack that machine. There were no controlled Pokemon up there where Colress was standing, so he wouldn't have stood a chance against a raging Charizard. And as we saw in a previous episode, the device seems to be very sensitive to physical damage whatsoever. So, a simple Flamethrower would probably have shattered all of Team Plasma's dreams (because obviously, the success of whole operation depends on that device)
- Also, why did Pikachu JUST stand there and not attempt to move at all? After all, he is intelligent enough to realize the potential danger coming from that machine.
- And finally, I thought it wasn't really clever of Looker to cry like that when attacking Colress. I mean, guys, shouldn't it be clear to everyone that if you attack people from behind who are, by the way, in the majority, you shouldn't actually warn them that you're about to attack ? ... Come on Looker, I guess you didn't learn that at the International Police Academy, did you? Your attack could have been more effective than that.

But the few negative aspects apart, it was still a great, intense episode that kept you at the edge of your seat at some points. Looking forward to next week!

 

[Darth Darkrai]

THE BEST PART OF THE WHOLE EPISODE IS REALY Krookodile COMING UP FROM UNDERGROUND AND THINKING "Uhh LET'S See AmI in the Right Place and Holy Crap this Not Good I Am Surrounded by Liepard, Timburr, Conkeldurr, And Huge Golurk Run Awaaaaaaaay"! THAT WAS REALLY FUNNY I THINK OF THIS EPISODE.

 

[UnovaCastaway]

More action and less stupidity, I like it! Again, all parties delivered.

Charizard was pretty epic here. Actually, all of Ash's team was for once.

This episode was pretty much all about N introspecting. The writers kept pushing themselves and once again made N step out of his comfort zone by making him threaten to destroy the Light Stone. And Ash recited that cheesy adventure rule while N stared dumbfoundedly. (I wanted to facepalm too, honestly.)

The voice acting was really great. Looker, N, and Pikachu especially. (Ohtani sounded rabid!)

 

[Hellwarden]

Episode N is radical. Sad to say, it's only got...ONE EPISODE LEFT, GODDAMMIT! BUT N ADDS SO MUCH EPIC TO THIS SERIES!

Gotta say, one thing surprised me, usually when Pokemon are under someone's control, Ash usually tries to reason with him. Here, he just flatout crushed both Team Plasma and the Scientist's controlled pokes. Not complaining, but I thought it was interesting to note.

I really like how Pikachu actually acted confused and distressed before attacking Ash, like a real animal.

 

[MrMeowPuss]

Re: S16 EP24 "Team Plasma and the Awakening Ceremony! "

Now this is one of those moments were Pikachu really gets on my nerves. Something happens to him that easily could have been avoided if he got inside of his Poke Ball. And then he didn’t even try to get out of the way; he literally just stood there.

I DEFINITELY agree with this, Pikachu has to be smart enough to know the difference between Ash doing it to protect or control him!!! I really enjoyed this episode though, the standard has definitely rose compared to the start of BW.