Review XY028: Champion Carnet Appears! Mega Sirnight in the Mist!!

[Neo Blaze]

XY028 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

 

[Moe]

I don't like how Diantha has been portrayed as particularly untouchable by other trainers in this episode, it just goes to make Ash's claim at the end of winning the league to battle her even more farfetch'd. I didn't catch who the opponent in the stadium was, but if Diantha was going to go all that way and stage something, couldn't they find someone vaguely capable like the other demonstration battles with Champions have generally been? That said, I liked her assistant.

Ash is annoyingly dumb here - I can't say I expected him to land a shot, let alone put up a fight - but he just watched the battle won by total evasiveness and then proceeded to start with a direct attack? Sort that out, he's better than that battle showed.

So is Serena. If you have one slice of cake and pretty much every single invention from Clemont has exploded, don't let him cut the cake with an invention! Though yay for one of his inventions correctly functioning, though the cake wasn't exactly cut into even fifths - and what happened to the icing?

Of course all that pales compared to my frustration at the need for short battles to make way for Team Rocket failing to steal a Pokemon. Again.

 

[zhixun]

Citron's invention stopped in the half way such that it did not explode which is out of my expectation. Sonans did not appear in the motto which is kind of strange to me. It is always nice to see Platane in the episode again and I hope to see him in the near future. He can give Citron and Serena the Kanto starters like what is in the games. I could not believe that Eureka will ask for Carnet the champion for a wife for Citron which is another surprise to me.

 

[Sakuraa]

Hm, this was okay. I can't say I disliked it, but it wasn't extremely interesting.

First of all, I love how Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena were fangirling over Diantha at the beginning. Especially, Serena in particular because it reminded me of how that last chick was in awe of Cynthia. Also nice to see her being really interested in something else. I really liked how Sycamore secretly let our gang in the room while everyone else had to wait outside. Special privileges for knowing the professor I see. The battle against Absol was actually pretty cool for showing off how quick and evasive Gardevoir is. I'm glad we go to see more of the Fairy-type side from Gardevoir today than the Psychic-type and Fairy's super effectiveness against the Dark-type.

Lol at Serena and Bonnie rushing over for some cake with Ash and Clemont's reactions being hilarious. That must be some damn good cake. OMG Clemont's invention was so cool today. I didn't expect him to cut the cake with a laser. And thank goodness the invention didn't blow up. Bonnie's proposal was great. The change to black and white and old movie sound effect on her voice was a nice way of tying into the fact that Diantha is an actress.

Ash's battle...was pretty damn lame. Pikachu spams attacks and nearly gets knocked out with a Shadow Ball. Not even Moonblast, but Shadow Ball. I knew he wouldn't win of course, but...I don't know, I just hoped for more. Anyway, Gardevoir gets kidnapped, then rescued, Mega Evolves, and easily defeats TR, the end. And man are they dramatic with Megalution.

Anyway, it was nice for the most part, but like I said, rather weak in some areas. I guess I'll have to wait for the dub to see if it'll change my opinion. Hopefully it does, but as for now, 6.5/10.

 

[p96822]

I'm okay with this episode

 

[R!ck]

Great episode, one of my favorite so far in XY, Diantha proved to be an interesting character, in terms of champion episodes first appearances: Cynthia > Diantha >>>>>>>> Alder.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I actually liked the episode! Diantha really seemed far more interesting than she was in the games, though I'm a little disappointed the battle didn't last too long. Pikachu could've gone on but NOPE! Team Rocket HAD to interrupt the battle and kidnap Gardevior! In the end it was a good episode and it did give Ash and co the exposure they needed to mega evolution. It seems like the next few episodes will be focusing on that with Korrina.

Anyone know also if Diantha's theme was used at any point during the episode?

 

[Alola]

Hmmm, well it was a nice episode I thought.

~Diantha! The anime really does her justice as I found myself really liking her this episode. See, why couldn't the games of XY implement what we saw today? Sheesh. Anyway, great animation and I really liked the whole undercover scene she had halfway through. Makes her famous status a lot more believable versus the zero crowd surfing we get in the games. Her assistant is a real pain, seriously. I thought it was pretty rude how she interrupted Diantha and the Prof earlier like that. Also, still not feeling Diantha's outfit...I would prefer if she would just stay in her undercover one.

~Gardevoir! Yay, it was featured in a role where it generally isn't a stationery mon. I was happy to see it battle, especially to witness its evasiveness. However I had a major biff with how it only presented two moves. Ugh. Mega Gardevoir was cool to see though.

~TR. You dun messed up. Seriously they were on the point of succeeding...and just stopped. Literally stopped and landed their extremely noticeable balloon in the forest. For no reason. It's moments like this...
Also very surprised that Wobbuffet didn't make an appearance, especially given how well it did in the last episode.

~Just like I predicted earlier, Pikachu landed no hits. Which is pretty sad given all the experience, all the battles, all the regions, and Legendaries it has been through... Anyway, I will be expecting my $10 sometime later. And what was up with Ash catching it mid-battle? For Pete's sake show some freaking class. Once the battle is over, then go tend to it.

~I thought the whole cake scene with the group was well done. Serena & Bonnie did what they said they would...but only got a slice. Way to go Clemont for having an invention with no initial setbacks or explosions! And it's a great invention! I need one like that! Wish I had one in high school when my friends and I would always share food/break off pieces of food with each other.

 

[Gard81]

Now that I think about it, this is probably the closest Ash has ever gotten to an actual battle with a Champion. There was practically no fight between Ash and Alder since Pikachu was the only one doing any attacking; the only attack Bouffalant made was against his own trainer. And Ash never battled Cynthia, Steven, Wallace or Lance. Gary doesn't count for obvious reasons.

All other times, it was usually an Elite Four that was shown as OP in a battle against Ash.

 

[fireflight775]

This is not a bad episode I mean Paul one of Ash's greatest rivals got owned by Cynthia, honestly his whole team even Torterra got beat badly, to the point where he actually looked heavily depressed Ash should be glad he got a real battle and that Diantha fought like a champion is spposed to. Also Absol put up a good fight, and Gardevoir and Diantha were awesome, they reminded me of the psychic type frontier brain in the battle frontier anime, can't think of her name. Again glad that Diantha fought like a champion should, tough, ferocious, and unyeilding. I also like the fact her fame was realistic, people desperately wanted to meet her, not just cause she was a champion but a major star outside that role. Finally, I am impressed by James and his new tech, it was powerful enough to stop a champions pokemon, at least for a little while.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

Judging from the pictures of this episode, Diantha seems to be better than Alder but is certainly nowhere near as extraordinary as Cynthia is. Her design, especially her haircut is ugly, she lacks Cynthia's grace and her battling style is pretty much standard and doesn't really knock your socks off.

And finally, she let her strongest Pokemon be captured by Team rocket. Seriously??? What a pushover!

As opposed to Diantha, Cynthia would never ever have let that happen. Besidesy ou can count on Garchomp to be strong enough to destroy any of Team Rocket's traps/ cages.

To sum it up: Diantha will never be a rival for Cynthia. The one and onla queen will continue reigning!

 

[Master Cyrus]

When I heard sirknight, i thought it was going to debut mega gallade. Then it turns out that the most feminine pokemon in the game has sir and knight in its name...

I wasn't expecting anything more from any battles since a champion in the anime has pokemon that mere mortals cannot ever hope to touch, but seeing a random absol and TR getting demolished by an invincible force doesn't really net the same sense of satisfaction as some of the other champion debuts.

 

[Johtohfiller]

Good episode, a few things kept it from being as awesome as it could have been, but I still liked it.

The first half I thought was near perfect. I loved the intro with everyone but Ash superfanning over Diantha, and all of the interactions with Diantha and Prof. Sycamore were great. The cake scene was hilarious; Serena slapping Ash away from the cake, Bonnie doing her funniest proposal yet with the old movie look, and Clemont's invention actually not backfiring for a change. Diantha going incognito was cool too. I liked the Gardevoir vs. Absol battle even though it was an easy win for Diantha. Absol looks so cool animated, something about the way it's drawn reminds me of 80s anime. I'm still hoping Serena catches one.

The second half was weaker than the first. Ash's battle with Diantha was the low point IMO. I was expecting him to get his ass kicked, but it seemed like he was barely trying - just having Pikachu use each of his moves and hoping something hits. Ash uses a lot of evasive tactics himself; you'd think he'd have at least some idea of how to counter them. The other weak point was Team Rocket's involvement. I think they should have either left them out of this episode, or else done something more interesting than the typical chasing TR through the woods. I did like Diantha's flashback and seeing Gardevoir mega evolve though.

Overall a good one, and if Ash's battle and the TR stuff were better it would be in the top tier of episodes. I like Diantha and I hope she'll be a recurring character like Cynthia.

 

[Almonds]

The good points:

1. Sycamore appearing outside of the lab
2. They touched more on Diantha's relationship with Gardevoir
3. Bonnie's proposal changing the screen black and white like a movie
4. Sycamore trying to charm Diantha's manager XD
5. Citron's invention not exploding
6. Serena fangirling over Diantha
7. Gardevoir's mega evolution
8. Sycamore appearing in this episode

 

[SerenaKetchum]

Loved this episode. D is awesome and cooler than her game counterpart in my opinion. Loved the admiration Bonnie, Serena and Clemont had for her.

 

[Dogasu]

It's episodes like this that make me upset that the Rocket trio's motto is just stock footage these days. They actually had a new movie-themed motto but I'll bet a lot of people didn't notice because they used the same old animation they always use.

Anyone know also if Diantha's theme was used at any point during the episode?

If you mean the music that plays when you battle her in the games then yes, it was used during the scene where Sirnight Mega Evolved.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

It's episodes like this that make me upset that the Rocket trio's motto is just stock footage these days. They actually had a new movie-themed motto but I'll bet a lot of people didn't notice because they used the same old animation they always use.

Anyone know also if Diantha's theme was used at any point during the episode?

If you mean the music that plays when you battle her in the games then yes, it was used during the scene where Sirnight Mega Evolved.

Yes! That's the exact piece I'm talking about!

 

[xrockerboy]

It's episodes like this that make me upset that the Rocket trio's motto is just stock footage these days. They actually had a new movie-themed motto but I'll bet a lot of people didn't notice because they used the same old animation they always use.

Anyone know also if Diantha's theme was used at any point during the episode?

If you mean the music that plays when you battle her in the games then yes, it was used during the scene where Sirnight Mega Evolved.

That was the legendary pokemon music.

Anyone else noticed the Battle Spot music?

 

[JacobYBM]

Interesting credits for this episode. Two animation supervisors and outsourcing to Shanghai Sankaton. These two pieces of information make me wonder if the skipping of Episode #24 required some outsourcing to a new studio?

 

[Steel_Justice]

I like how they showcased Diantha's battling skills and shed more light on what a celebrity she is as well as a badass mega gardevoir. What I didn't like was how Ash and Pikachu lasted like what 20 seconds? And was finished with like one attack. I obviously don't expect him to win but show some dignity for Arceus' sake and actually put up some semblance of a battle.