Review S07 EP24: True Blue Swablu

[Dogasu]

Japanese Episode AG 63: "The Sky of Swablu! The Spirit of May!"
American Episode 335: "True Blue Swablu"

Kids' WB!, 10:00am ET
On their way back to Petalburg, Ash and his friends come across a Swablu that was injured in a storm the previous night. As May tends to the pokemon, Team Rocket appears to capture the small bird pokemon. Can Ash and his friends protect the pokemon and return it to its herd?

This episode also features a brief cameo from two old faces.

Post your thoughts about the episodes here. Please mark any spoilers for episodes not that have yet to air in America in spoiler tags.

 

[Dogasu]

My thoughts:

-Was that new music I heard? When May was taking care of Swablu, and again when she let it go, I swear the music I heard was different from what you usually hear in the dub.

-LOL moments include everybody going "Say WHAAAAT!?!?!" and when Ash was trying to use Beautifly's "Magic Powder" to make himself fly. I also loved seeing Butch and Cassidy again.

By the way, does anyone know what Swablu's Japanese name (Chirutto) is supposed to be? I've seen it romanized as Tyltto (and Altaria as Tyltalis), but I have no idea where those spellings come from.

 

[Zhen Lin]

GameFreak's internal romanisations

IIRC, these particular ones are a play on French words.

 

[Caseydia]

That would have been a perfect pokemon for May to keep, it was actually perfect for her.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Isn't Morita a surname? The only time I've ever heard it was on Pat Morita, the actor from the Karate Kid series.

I'm rather impressed that they managed to remember that Sing *does* always have the same tune to it, because I'm certain they've violated that some time in the past.

I can't be the only one who was mildly disturbed by Ash's mention of "the Flying Game", can I?

Now, I expect Ash to fall for something like the 'magic powder', but Pikachu should be smarter than that.

Is this the first time they've ever mentioned the Boss directly in the motto? Not to mention telling the Twerps that they intend to take pokemon-of-the-day to him.

...my tape spontaniously rewound itself during this episode. And it was a new tape, too--only last week's ep was on it!

 

[Argy]

-Was that new music I heard? When May was taking care of Swablu, and again when she let it go, I swear the music I heard was different from what you usually hear in the dub.

I don't remember what was playing when she was taking care of it, but I did notice that the music playing when she let it go has been played before, and I am almost 100% positive it is Japanese-composed. Right now the only other time I can think of it being played (I know it has been played more, but I can't recall the exact scenes or episodes) is at the end of "Meowth Rules" when Jessie and James appear and convince Meowth to return to them.

GameFreak's internal romanisations

"Frygon." (laughs)
That site also has Celebi's romanization as "Cerebi," which we know isn't correct thanks to the fourth movie poster.

 

[Dogasu]

"Frygon." (laughs)
That site also has Celebi's romanization as "Cerebi," which we know isn't correct thanks to the fourth movie poster.

They also have Plusle romanized as "Prasle." That's why I tend not to rely too heavily on GameFreak's romanizations--while they make sense most of the time, there are a few times when I disagree with the way they spell the names. That's why I asked about Tyltto's name...I don't want to commit to that romanization until I know where the name comes from.

 

[Kthleen]

A (kind of) quick Google reveals that Tyl is a star, also known as Epsilon Draconis, in the constellation Draco. (I'm not sure, but there's the possibility that it may be named after the Pennsylvanian astrologer Noel Jan Tyl. Or it's pure coincidence.) Tyltto evolves into the dragon-type Tyltalis.

It was a fun episode; I liked it. There was a lot of drama, which I like. As a semi-omniscient observer, the fear of flying was predictable (Them: "It forgot how to fly?!" Me: "It's afraid of flying, isn't it.

" Brock: "It seems to be afraid of flying!" ), but it was good anyway. Max's idea of "using magic" was nice, too. (Whoa, is Pokémon advocating lying?!

) I found Ash and Pikachu wanting to use the magic powder to fly hilarious! I also expected/hoped that May would catch Tyltto, even though I knew that she wouldn't. I give it an 8.5/10.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Originally posted by Dogasu
-Was that new music I heard? When May was taking care of Swablu, and again when she let it go, I swear the music I heard was different from what you usually hear in the dub.

Well, I think the music that was playing when May was taking care of the Swablu was new, because I don't remember having heard that song in any of the episodes (although, I might have to double check my tape on that, cause I'm not sure).

And as for the music that was playing when May let Swablu go, which song are you talking about, Dogasu?

I mean, they play two songs at that part.

The first song plays as soon as the flock comes back and ends when Swablu goes back to them.

And the second song starts right after that.

Anyway, if you were referring to the first song, that song's only been used once in the show before, and it was in the Pokemon Advanced episode "A Poached Ego". And I think the name of that song is called "Tears Of Life", and it's from Pokemon The First Movie (it's also on the Pokemon The First Movie BGM CD, which I have). Although, they didn't play all of that song in "True Blue Swablu", just a little bit of it.

If you were talking about the second song though, Argy's right about that one, and it was played in "Meowth Rules" and a lot of other episodes too.


And by the way everyone, here's my review of this episode:

I loved this episode! I thought it was really good! And it was really funny how they were lost again, in the beginning. LOL. XD Anyway, I loved the part when Ash and Pikachu played The Flying Game! And I thought it was great how they were showing Swablu how to fly by running, and then jumping up to get high. That was really funny! And I also liked the part when Max said he was gonna help Swablu fly with magic. Then everyone said something like, "What?". LOL. Anyway, I thought it was really cool how they made it look like the only way Taillow could fly was because of that magic powder (the flour). And I really loved the part when Ash and Pikachu wanted some of the magic powder too! That was so funny! And then, Ash said something to Max like, "Aww, but I thought it would really work!". LOL. XD Oh, and I also liked all the parts in the episode when May was taking care of Swablu. That was cool! And I was glad that Swablu's wing got better too! That was really cool! And I also liked the part when Max said something to May about one of her boyfriends! That was hilarious! LOL. Oh, and of course, one of the other parts I liked was when Swablu got away from Team Rocket and it really learned to fly again. That was awesome! And I also liked how they played the instrumental version of Advance Adventure in that part. That was so cool! Oh, and after Team Rocket blasted off, I thought it was funny when that one guy (what was that one guy's name, who was the forest ranger or something?) said something like, "I'd say that's conflicted". LOL. And I loved the part at the end when it looked like the Swablu's flock wasn't coming back, so May was gonna catch it. That was cool! But, when the flock came back I knew that May was gonna have to say goodbye to it. And that part was really sad! In fact, that part seemed even sadder, especially because they played some of the song called "Tears Of Life" from Pokemon The First Movie. Anyway, I really loved it when Swablu went back to its flock. That was really cool! And when the announcer started talking at the end, I noticed that Max was crying. That was interesting, because, when May was letting it go, he wanted her catch it. So, I thought it was kinda funny how he was crying. And overall, this was a really good episode, and it had a lot of character development for May, a lot of funny parts, and it was really emotional too.

Rating: 10 out of 10

 

[Nekusagi]

This one was a *big* improvement. I love how they spared nothing during Meowth's little fantasy... nearly one straight minute of chibi Gio goodness.... Yep, pretty funny.

 

[Edward Elric]

Shame that Ready Go! wasn't played while Satoshi trying teaching Chiruto how to fly (at least use the friggen lyric-less one, 4Kids..we KNOW you guys have plenty of money to be able to buy the track x_X). Really didn't have the same mood as the original. :\

 

[Roxy_Parkington]

This was definitely one of the more sentimental episodes since Misty's return, in my opinion. I loved the different scenes with May was taking care of Swablu and I was thoroughly expecting her to capture it. The goodbye that was shared between them was sweet, sentimental, and made you feel May's emotion during that scene. I felt really bad for Max when he was crying at the end, but it was cute just the same. On the lighter side, Meowth's fantasy was amusing...

*Chibi Rocket Army appears with Giovanni in the lead*

Me: It's the Chibi Rocket Army! Hungry for world domination since 1995!

This episode was very well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Roxy's Rating: 10/10

~Roxy~

 

[Nekusagi]

This was definitely one of the more sentimental episodes since Misty's return, in my opinion. I loved the different scenes with May was taking care of Swablu and I was thoroughly expecting her to capture it. The goodbye that was shared between them was sweet, sentimental, and made you feel May's emotion during that scene. I felt really bad for Max when he was crying at the end, but it was cute just the same. On the lighter side, Meowth's fantasy was amusing...

*Chibi Rocket Army appears with Giovanni in the lead*

Me: It's the Chibi Rocket Army! Hungry for world domination since 1995!

This episode was very well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Roxy's Rating: 10/10

~Roxy~

You know, Chibi Rocket Army would make for a great band name.