Review S17 EP35: The Forest Champion!

[G50]

XY035 - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Please keep all discussion pertaining to future episodes inside spoiler tags.

 

[Beth Pavell]

It's nice to be watching the anime again after waiting for all those damn Lucario episodes to go by. I quite enjoyed this one - Hawlucha is delightfully hammy, and it's nice to see an episode where the pokémon actually takes centre stage. Liked the dynamic battle at the end - hopefully now Hawlucha's on the team we won't be seeing bubble frog all the time

 

[Johtohfiller]

They got rid of Hawlucha's theme music. What a load.

 

[Alola]

They got rid of Hawlucha's theme music. What a load.

Of course they did. TCPi have issues. That theme was central to the episode, the battles, and Hawlucha's interactions/character development.

 

[Moe]

I like how thoughtful about battle strategy this episode makes Ash seem - obviously it's one of those things that gets turned on and off as the plot dictates - but to watch a move and identify a weak point in the execution of it shows quite a lot of skill as a trainer.

I always like episodes which are set with Pokemon in the wild interacting rather than trainer centric episodes - though I wish more occasionally came of wild Pokemon that are outright bad. The forest ranger guy should just catch Ursaring and ship it off elsewhere, not have to have a Pokemon that scouts around defending others from clearly dangerous ones. The anime has long since gone away from a notion that no Pokemon is inherently bad, so perhaps they could do something about the cause of the problem in this episode, and not just pass it back to Machamp.

Nice to actually see an episode with a wild Machamp, it's not really a line that gets much attention, at least not any episodes that come to mind. Though you'd hate to have a title belt as part of your design and then lose a title fight.

Hopefully in the future they touch a bit on both Froakie and Hawlucha's past - because Ash now has two Pokemon with quite involved backstories prior to when he caught them - with Froakie having left previous trainers, and Hawlucha having a particular battling style - that hopefully Ash will respect and develop, rather than just assimilating into 'dodge that and then hit them'. That and figure out how to make those grass masks.

Just the episode I needed after all those Lucario ones.

 

[Nomekop]

This episode was a big much needed improvement after the whole Korrina Arc which seemed to take forever, i am so glad Hawlucha has joined Ash team since he is one of my faves gen 6 pokemon, now i want to know when is we ever going to see fletchling again, i hate that it is getting put in the backburner.

 

[Psalmist]

I actually liked the Lucario ones...cause, well, it's my favorite Poke. As such, I really didn't feel like it took that long. Maybe I'm just biased lol.

Anyway...
This episode really gave me more respect for Hawlucha. In-game, it's okay, but here...all those graceful yet powerful attacks were something to admire. And yeah, it has a pretty unique personality and battle style. It reminds me of Dawn's Togekiss, come to think of it.

 

[Sakuraa]

This episode was so awesome. Hawlucha is so cool!

Okay, ignoring the clichéd beginning of an Ursaring stealing food from smaller Pokémon, I thought it was great that Bonnie was the one who went to scold it first. Hawlucha is such a badass. Not sure about that mask though, but it did help with the wrestler theme. I love how he slammed Ursaring to the ground with his f*cking legs! Am, I the only one who thought it was weird that Ursaring tried to defeat Hawlucha with a rock as opposed to...an actual move?! Whatever.

Okay, am I also the only one who thinks this Ursaring is a wimp. He needs to go round up a Conkeldurr and lie to a Machamp to fight Hawlucha for him. What the hell? Anyway, the training session between Ash and Hawlucha was cool. I love how Ash was all like, "Hawlucha is proud of its battling style", and I'm like, "Hawlucha's a showoff". He honestly reminds me of Dawn's Togekiss Like seriously, he likes posing before finishing off an opponent and it always ends up with them having time to dodge. You'd think he'd realize that and stop the damn posing, but whatever.

Hawlucha's battle against Machamp was awesome. He was was holding him off with one hand. Though, I'm really confused about this whole altercation and why Ursaring and Conkeldurr all of a sudden began attacking Hawlucha and then Machamp had to stop them. Did they just want Machamp to weaken him, cuz he really didn't do that much. The way they were hammering him, you'd think they could handle him themselves.

I loved the battle between Froakie and Hawlucha. It looks like Froakie was using those techniques he learned with Frogadier. I think he was running up that waterfall, but I'm not sure. Either way, it was cool. I was a bit disappointed that Fraokie got knocked out too, but at least Hawlucha mastered Flying Press. And man did it look badass. But seriously, I LOVED when Ash told Hawlucha to aim for his opponent's chest with his Flying Press. Like, damn Ash, you really mean business! Ya know, until you have to battle a tiny little Joltik or some chest-less Pokemon, but hey. I'm glad we finally have a new team addition after like 25 episodes.

I can't say there was much I disliked about this episode. I'm also pleasantly surprised by Hawlucha's dubbed voice, which seems pretty close to the original. I expected the dubbers to just give him a generic squawking bird voice. Glad to see I was wrong. I also believe I did hear a bit of the original theme Hawlucha had in the original. Or if it was new music, it still sounded fitting. 9.9/10.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

It was a good episode. Although I still haven't decided whether or not I like Hawlucha's design (probably because I don't like feathers ), I think it's a highly determined and impressively strong Pokemon. I really like that!
What I didn't quite understand though, was Ash's advice to Hawlucha how it could perfect its Flying Press. I really don't get what it did differently after Ash had trained it! The little spin? Honestly, I don't see how that would do the trick.

Nevertheless, after the perfect Lucario episodes, this one was also a very good and exciting episode. Keep it up, writers!

 

[Lluksonak]

It was a good episode. Although I still haven't decided whether or not I like Hawlucha's design (probably because I don't like feathers ), I think it's a highly determined and impressively strong Pokemon. I really like that!
What I didn't quite understand though, was Ash's advice to Hawlucha how it could perfect its Flying Press. I really don't get what it did differently after Ash had trained it! The little spin? Honestly, I don't see how that would do the trick.

Nevertheless, after the perfect Lucario episodes, this one was also a very good and exciting episode. Keep it up, writers!

It's like a dive while Hawlucha keeps its battling style, the spin is just his flair

 

[EvilChameleon]

Well, that's one Pokemon I never thought Ash would get by the end of this region.

 

[CynthiaLover]

While I'm a bit miffed that they got rid of Hawlucha's super-awesome theme in the dub, I did detected a similar, subtle theme in the dub, so I'm willing to leave it be (though it would've been so much cooler if they had left it alone). And I'm glad that Hawlucha got a good voice, so I won't complain about that. Aside from that, this was one of my favorite XY episodes to date. I'm glad I watched both versions, as I got the full experience that way. While it does seem to take Hawlucha time to actually smile (I think it smiles for the first time three episodes later), I'm glad to see that it and Ash got off to an awesome start. But man, was that battle between Froakie and Hawlucha something else. When wrestling meets ninjutsu, quite the performance. Looks like Ash will have a really strong team this time around, like he did in Sinnoh, as he's got some real contenders this time. Now if Froakie evolves all the way to Greninja, then that'll be the icing on the cake of awesomeness. *crosses fingers*

So, overall, I give it a solid 9.5/10, the lower score due to them removing Hawlucha's theme. But overall I'm satisfied.

 

[Team Gaara]

So apparently Ash and goons are on their way to Shalor, through a forest…even though Korrina left for the same place and didn’t go through a forest…ok then…

D’awww, what a cute little Pachirisu! It’s been too long since we’ve seen one of them! It sounds just like Kirby.

I love how Bonnie was the first to get mad at Ursarang, even before Ash. She’s so frickin’ awesome.

I don’t get the point of Meta Knight’s Hawlucha’s grass mask. I mean, he only wore it for a second. Also, who could blame Ricochet’s Hawlucha’s opponents for moving at the last second? He goes to the top of the tallest tree. My gosh, I would’ve moved before Ursarang did.

So Hawlucha just one day showed up and decided to beat the sh*t out of all the Fighting-types? Seems legit. And Machamp loses so he decides to become a douchebag? Makes sense. And there’s a random douchebag Conkeldurr? Wat?

Ash is so cute in this episode. I love it so much. And I like Hawlucha, as well, which is something I will never say about the species itself. He just seems so unique. He doesn't have too much emotion, though, it seems.

“Of course. When Hawlucha poses like it does, it’s easy to dodge.” NO SH*T. CLEMONT! We already established this.

What the fudge? Serena sensed Ursarang was coming?! The hell? Since when can she do that?

I’m highly upset Randy Savage Hawlucha didn’t have cool Mexican Maricachi music for its theme, but I guess that they gave him was fine.

What’s Conkeldurr have to do with any of this? Why’s he just a random dickhead? Can we get some of his and Ursarang's backstory?

Machamp is strong as hell! How did he lose to Hawlucha? Hawlucha can get smacked around by Ursarang and Conkeldurr, who both lose to Machamp. WTF?

Oh cool, so Ash wants to use a ninja VS a luchador? Nice, if I do say so myself. Though…Fletching is still just sitting around waiting for his time to shine…

There Ash goes making cool contest strategies again. And it worked. Though, Froakie must have the most powerful Pound in the world to make the attack a double KO.

LOL, Machamp was like “You better go with him so I can be Champ again. Got the belt and everything.” But that was quite a wonderful final scene of adding Hawlucha’s to the team, only ruined by whoever drew Bonnie’s eyes for that scene.

Well that was a pretty good episode coming off of the last arc, which just felt a bit too short for me. But this is a nice way to continue it, in a way, certainly better than a filler. Now that we've seen Korrina train, it's Ash's turn. He's got a new, cool Pokémon in Hawlucha and did some more of his good old DP style training. Speaking of, there’s now finally a Hawlucha I don’t hate. Another bonus was no Team Rocket just for the sake of having them. Pretty much a solid 9.5/10 from me, losing the full 10/10 just because I don’t really understand some of Ursarang’s and mainly Conkeldurr’s actions.

 

[Darth Darkrai]

This Episode is REALLY AWESOME and AMAZING IMO! LOL Cute Patrat, Sentret, and Pachirisu (LOL First Pachirisu that's NOT Dawn's LOL) Gathering Berries, but of course for the Sake of Old Gags, we have the Ursaring Cliché of it being a Bully. Funny how Bonnie's the one to go scold it, then Ash RIGHT on her Tail, telling Pikachu to be Ready. But then.......... Insert some Spanish Luchador Music, Hawlucha Comes. And then REALLY GREATG *hit goes down. Hawlucha with the Grass Mask was Cool. Hawlucha being a BADASS beating up the Grizzly Bear. The Bear DIDN'T EVEN PUT UP A Fight.

Then Random Dude shows up to tell Ash and Comp. about Hawlucha's Posing Thing, Ursaring Moves out of the way because Hawlucha took too long. Patrat and the others have time to Snag their Berries and Run. Ok, does this Grizzly Bear have ANY MOVES??????!! Because instead of using Hyper Beam or Hammer Arm, it goes to get a Rock and Smash it on Hawlucha, Ash comes and Saves Hawlucha with Pikachu. Grizzly Bear Runs Away like a Coward. Ash helps Luchador get up. Hawlucha then Leaves.

So we get a Short Story from Keaton of how Hawlucha came and the Forrest was Inhabited by A LOT OF Fighting Types. LOVED seeing the Croagunk, Sawk, and Throh there. Especially LOVED Mienfoo and Miensho cameo. Also Funny to see Bunnelby tho when it DOESNT Belong to Clemont LOL. Ash wants to see Hawlucha's Training Grounds. The Ursaring has now somehow gotten a Conkeldurr to Join him and Decieve a Machamp that Hawlucha has been Stealing Food.

We go to Hawlucha's Wrestling Grounds (Pun Intended) and Ash is amazed at the Area where Hawlucha Trains and we see our friend up atop a Waterfall Posing and then using Flying Press. Ash helps Hawlucha back up on its feet and says he will help him with Hawlucha's Special Battling Style. Ash grabs some dead Tree Trunk and uses it to Train with Hawlucha and after a few attempts, Hawlucha is getting there and Ash realizies a Solution.

It Appears now that Serena can Use the Force and is like a Lucario sensing something and then we get the Forrest Bullies being Ursaring the Grizzly Bear, Conkeldurr the Construction Worker, and Machamp a Heavyweight Champion with his 4 Arms. Also anyone notice that for the first time and ONLY time that Keaton's Eyes Open. The Who's That Pokemon Music was REALLY AMAZING!! Probably my Favorite WTP Segment Music.

So Machamp wants to Fight to Hawlucha alone to see who's better and the Battle is REALLY GOOD!! Machamp taking the Karate Chops like a BOSS and a Champ (Pun Intended again LOL) the battle is going well until the Forrest Bullies come in and Beat Up Hawlucha like he's NOTHING! Machamp who is NOT HAPPY then goes to Beat the Grizzly Bear and Construction Worker by............... Jumping in the Air and touches their Necks and then are Defeated LOL. Then Machamp carries the 2 like they are Yesterday's Garbage.

Ash asks for a Battle with Hawlucha and we get Froakie VS. Hawlucha which is VERY COOL!! Double Team by the Frog REALLY COOL. Hawlucha takes Ash's Advice from earlier and deals damage to Froakie then we get a Collision and both the Frog and the Luchador are Defeated.

Keaton knows that Hawlucha would like to go with Ash, so then Ash asks if Hawlucha would like to go with him, Machamp appears over the Waterfall and says "Go with him, I will watch out for EVERYONE here!" Gave a Thumbs Up. Cool Capture by Ash Hawlucha Fist Bumps the Ball and he is Captured.

Overall, LOVE LOVED this Episode. It is Personally my Favorite XY Episode even beating the Malamar Episode from earlier this Year. It FOR SURE gets a 10/10

 

[Muur]

Amazed we're onto this episode already, wasn't that long ago I was reading about it coming out in Japan. Shouldn't that mean we get the movie soon?

Anyway moving on

Would've been hilar if all three threw Pokeballs to catch those three mid berry harvesting.

Nice leaf mask. Hawlucha has a cool voice.

I like how that 'finishing move' was like wrestling. Lol oh shit a Pokemon about to kill another with a rock, I'm actually amazed. Iron Tail super effective on the rock (Dwayne Johnson ;o) el o el.

Dat Mexican music.

All dem evil Pokemen.

So Ash wants to die then, taking a fly press off a waterfall or whatever. ...aw a tree, wanted to see Ash badass it and no sell. (wrestling term to ignore it happened)

So who did that Machamp and Conkellder get traded to?

Machamp with the no selling and... interference! DQ Ursaring! the fuck did Machamp do? was that even a move?

*uses Froakie because... the other two are super effective and Ash is back to Unova?*

no way do you dodge so many pound and lol Hawlucha fainted to Froakie.

Hawlucha is cool tbh, looking forward to seeing it more.