Review S06 EP10: Johto Photo Finish

[Dogasu]

Japanese Episode 274: "To the End of the Full Battle! Each One's Way!!"
American Episode 270: "Johto Photo Finish"

The battle between Satoshi and Hazuki (Ash and Harrison) continues with Kanto's biggest fire pokemon against Houen's biggest fire pokemon. Who will come out on top? Will we see a great battle or a lame KO that would be impossible to do in the actual games? And will Blaziken's voice ever get any better?

Post your thoughts about the episode here. Also, please avoid posting spoilers for events that happen in future episodes since this isn't the Anime Spoilers forum.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Jon Dickson. Jon Dickson? Do you realize that this is the first character we've gotten with that name? (well, besides Giovanni anyway) And it's an off-spelling too. Coupled with the last name, I have to ask--is that the name of some sort of contest winner?

"Those aren't ghosts." Actually, buddy, Misdrevious *are* ghosts. Solid ghosts, but still...

And since *when* has Gary shown *ANY* interest in research? He's going to get bored and leave. I give him three months. Either that or his interest will shift to the bizarre love triangle (or square, if you count Mimie's crush on Delia) in Pallet, and he'll stay out of sheer morbid curiosity.

Ah yes, Delia continues to demonstrate her 'hands-off' approach to parenting. Personally, I think she has an anal-retentave obsession with having a clean house. Someone should have her tested, for she has some deep-seated issues.

Hey, didn't the ref count Blaziken out? He said "Blaziken is unable to battle," right? I guess they have to say the *full* phrase...

And so the Rockets' grand plan fails. WHO caused the shipment to be late? They could have cleaned up! But of course, seeing Pikachu is what *really* caused them to fail. Just once, I'd love to see them go on some grand, Lupin the IIIrd-esque heist and actually succeed...

 

[Pokemon Fan]

This episode may well have had the best battle in the Silver Conference (the one against Jackson being the closest competition) in terms of looks and intensity. The animation was great and thankfully the Pokemon moved around a lot while performing their moves, although Charizard's Seismic Toss still doesn't look as good as it did when it used it on Magmar (then again, holding onto your opponent until the last moment does help keep them from breaking their fall).

Blaziken was an incredible fighter, a real ninja chicken. It and Charizard showed once again what a battle is like when performed between two final evolutions at an evenly matched high level. The premiere of Blaziken's unique attack Blaze Kick was animated very well. Blaziken also was very good at aiming for vulnerable points on Charizard for maximun damage (that Blaze Kick in the head had to have done twice the damage it would have otherwise). Blaziken managing to soften the Seismic Toss to decrease damage also showed how skilled it is.

Charizard was also incredible as it showed off its own great speed and power. It also illustrated again how Pokemon don't always use their attacks at full strength as Ash had to command it to use Dragon Rage at full power.

As for why Charizard lost (aside from Blaziken being several years more experienced than it) I'd link it to two main reasons:

1. Aside from Fly, Ash's Charizard hasn't learned any Flying type moves. If it had it may have been able to take advantage of Blaziken's Fighting type aspect.
2. Blaziken's smaller size and leaner, lighter built enabled it to be slightly more maneueverable than Charizard (who is incredibly agile for his size). Because of this it was able to dodge one or two more moves than Charizard, and get in a few more attacks than Charizard could in the same amount of time. Blaziken's agility was simply incredible, as when it dodged a Dragon Rage in a split second, and as Charizard doged one of its attacks it was able to turn on a dime and strike again with a Fire Punch. When it all was said and done, Charizard simply took a bit more damage than Blaziken, as Oak said.

However, there is the consolation that Blaziken was so weakened by its battle with Charizard that it couldn't participate in the next match, leading to Harrison's loss.

*Blaziken running* "BlazikenblazikenBLAZIKEN!!!"

 

[AJW73]

And since *when* has Gary shown *ANY* interest in research? He's going to get bored and leave. I give him three months

It's called "character Development" figure it out.

 

[Arizima]

Hear hear!

.... personally I liked it..... 'cept Sam wasn't in it, not that I saw! :-(

*recieves stares*

What? He's my favorite character!

 

[TRF-chan]

I liked this episode. Not as well as last week's, I must confess, but still very well. 'Twas a truly kickass battle.

Oh, and Team Rocket should have run over those evil bill collectors -_-'.

BTW: I agree that Gary will get bored of Pokemon research, or at least maybe want to do it differently then Prof. Oak and doing something different: IE, going to Hoenn basically as he would if he were a trainer, but also researching things and making observations. (Oh, and WW, I think Jirarudan KNOWS what "character development" is. Personally, I think your post was a bit rude, but maybe I'm just overprotective of people I think of as friends).

 

[A Concerned Solomon]

Well, let's try to get everything in. She's notedly upset that Gary lost, because he was supposed to be a symbol of Shiguero Miyamoto always being greater than Satoshi Tajiri. Of course, Gary was quite a jerk about his greatness, which I doubt Shiggy was. I can't see him at business meetings throwing Metroid and Mario in Tajiri's face...with all his yes-men joining the jeers.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

No, the reason he lost is because his voice actress quit the show. As I said when that ep aired.

Development has to come from somewhere. His interest in being a researcher didn't do that. It was a plot contrivance to write him out.

And Ariz, Sam was in it. But you said you missed the first ten minutes. So you'll have to catch this Friday.

 

[AJW73]

Originally posted by James's Saiyan Stalker
(Oh, and WW, I think Jirarudan KNOWS what "character development" is. Personally, I think your post was a bit rude, but maybe I'm just overprotective of people I think of as friends).

I apologize. I said that only because I was getting sick of people complaining about how the character has changed.

Again, I'm sorry.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

I liked this episode too. And yeah, I didn't like it as much I liked last week's, but it was stilll a good episode. Mainly, it was the continuation of a great match between Ash and Harrison with Charizard and Blaziken. I also think Ash should've won the match because Blaziken was basicly unable to battle when it went down like that. But, oh well....I really liked how hard Charizard was trying to stay in the match when it was so weak like that though. I mean, you can tell the match really could have gone either way, especially if you consider that Charizard probably would've won if Blaziken hadn't saved itself from the impact of that Seismic Toss. And also, if Charizard wasn't hit in the head with that Blaze Kick, that would've helped it win too. Although, after the match was over, and they all went over to help the Misdrevious, I don't know why the writers had to have that happen................I mean, I'm sure if they hadn't of done that, then they definitely could've let Gary explain more about why he wants to become a professor. But, I guess since Delia and Professor Oak alreadly left they needed to throw something else in before they let everyone know. Well, anyway, it was interesting how Gary said that the Misdrevious was there because it must've been distracted by all the excitement of the Silver Conference, or whatever it was that he said. I liked that, and I also liked Ash's expression when he told them he wanted to be a Pokemon professor. You could tell he was really surprised by Gary's sudden decision. Overall, I give this episode a 10 out of 10, because of the end of the full battle, which was really exciting, and also because of Gary's interesting character development (or plot contrivance as Jirarudan called it).

 

[Venasaur89]

pretty good episode, short battle. Too much stuff in it.

7/10.

 

[GeneralStar]

Charizard's original voice was back. That odd, irritating roar that I've been bitching about for several episodes now has once again been replaced by the better one we're more familiar with (and just curious, but was that alternate voice just a dub problem, or something that plagued the Japanese series as well?).

I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned that already, unless I'm the only one who either noticed or cared enough to gripe about it (but then again, I probably would have griped even if I didn't care...).

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Even though it repeated Indigo's finishing act, this was a great episode.