Review BW022: Hiun City! Fushide Panic!!

[Chosen of Mana]

Why are people excited about Pidove evolving?

Because with all the hate she was getting, it felt good to root for the underdog? :|

We won't know how the writers are going to handle Team Unova until the series is halfway over at best. Yeah, chances are that Tranquill will be handled the same way Pidgeot and the like have, but what's so criminal about being a little cautiously optimistic?

Hell, since the TRio stopped dropping by Ash every other episode, Tranquill doesn't have to be relegated to balloon-popping duty. That's half the job description right there.

 

[Masurao]

Given how much Trip is bad-mouthing Kanto, it's pretty obvious he'll be visiting that as his next region after the Isshu League.

Now that I've seen the episode, Arti is fun as always. Trip had okay interaction with Ash in this episode. I'm glad two of Ash's Pokemon are evolving in close proximity to each other. Though I do wonder when Sewadle is going to evolve.

 

[Ashfangirl22]

I like how much things the professor is getting to do things here, any ways pretty fun episode I enjoyed it myself. I to liked Ash/Shooty's interactions here, keep that up and there rivalry could start to be fun. I liked Iris having a role here and Dento did things too, I like thiked trio really. Poor Ash though, he got hurt twice here ouch, good thing he has Dento here to take care of him.

 

[Eitarou]

Looks like Pidove has...wait for it.....Big Pecks.

That is the most disturbing thing I've ever seen..

Besides, she has Super Luck

Why are people excited about Pidove evolving? Starly evolving in the 14th ep of DP. This is generic bird #5 that's a re-skinned version of the previous.

Pidove should have never been captured as its a waste of a slot.

Because some people actually like her

I.e. Me

 

[Hellwarden]

Heh, Pidove looked pretty funny when it started to evolve. Good episode. Liked how Burgh/Arti led the Venipede out of town.


Question though, what move/moves was Audino using?

 

[WildGamer]

I wonder what Arti was saying to Shooty to make him stop attacking the fushide, and what Shooty said to Ash before he left. Anyone know?

 

[Iteru]

Question though, what move/moves was Audino using?

The Joi says the word "hadou" in her command so I think it was Healing Pulse.

 

[Spindae2]

I loved the scene when Pidove fall into Ash's hands! So cute!

It was a solid episode and i think they showed a little more aabout Trip understanding Ash more and getting to know him!
I hoped to see some of burgh's pokemon and some of their moves bu okay! A little suprise for Ash!

 

[JennaJayfeather]

:-D Yay! Pidove evolved!!! I kept wanting to ship Ash's and Tranquill together...Why is all of their Pokemon like the opposite genders?! I say when Shooti one day goes to his favorite region Kanto, he will catch a female Pikachu.
I actually really liked this episode, despite watching it mirrored and cleaning my room at the same time XDDD
*_* I thought Shooti was cool in this epi...he reminded me of Drew!! NOT PAUL!!! :-D

 

[Elite Four Will]

Great episode. Those Venipedes make me regret Ash catching Sewaddle but nevertheless both are nice Pokemon to have. Pidove really was cute here and her facial expressions are hilarious, especially when she was about to evolve. Trip is entertaining to watch and I like his team. Iris is also another fun character, she and Kiba doing the fist was adorable. I could see Ash and Iris having a tag battle someday. The scenes to the near end really helped build the hype for next week's episode. I will never get bored of watching Giovanni drink coffee all day. The only downside to this episode is Castelia city looking generic but thats only in the day.

 

[Iteru]

Oh I have a question about this episode. Does anybody know if the BGM that plays just after Shooty's Hatoboh uses Air Cutter is an adaption from one of the tracks from Black and White? It plays up to when there are split screens of Shooty and Satoshi.

 

[Hellion]

Watched the episode and I quite liked it!

Good points

+ Mamepato/Hatoboh. Finally, a bit of comedy and a bit of personality from the bird! I was really glad it evolved, though I wished we had seen more out of it beforehand, and in previous episodes to really feel that this was the result of something...But that doesn't happen when Kurumiru's eating screen time.
+ Fushide. Here's what I don't understand. If giving Ash a caterpillar is so important, why Kurumiru when the writers had Fushide build a rapport with Ash, has an interesting personality, is shown to be younger and less experienced, in need of a trainer, instead of already strong and fine being wild? WHY? I liked Fushide ( though I still think neither it nor Sewaddle should be on Ash's team )
+ Trip. We saw some good personality from him this episode. I liked that the Kanto thing was touched upon and that the rivalry between the two was a bit more fleshed out by showing how different they are from one another, yet without feeling like a Paul rehash. The shippy scenes didn't hurt either...
+ Arti. Gym Leader being fleshed out and showing personality always adds to a gym battle (too bad Ash's team will contain the blandness personified that are Pikachu and Tepig...)
+ Joy, Jenny, Audino. Though I had hoped they could have felt a bit more like individual characters with unique distinct personality than bland Joy/Jenny, I liked that we saw them doing stuff and helping out.
+ Dento. We didn't see a lot of him but I liked that he used Pansage's bullet seed in a different way, showing his versatility and his ability to improvise. It felt fresh and the result was funny.

Bad points

- Iris. Unlike Dento who's contribution felt fresh and interesting, the writers are just pulling the same crap with Iris, and it's blah. Stop showing me Dragon Sneeze, and show me Iris actually trying stuff to correct the problem. We've seen it before...
- Kibago. Stop trying to be Gible, you're just embarrasing yourself. You'll never reach those heights of coolness and comedy.
- Huin City. I don't know but I was sorta expecting more from Huin City... here it looked a bit generic. I didn't get the sense of height and grandeur. It looked like... regular big city number 324.

Overall, very enjoyable, interesting, Mamepato evolves, TR/TP is being set up, nothing really to say against this episode.

 

[Ampharos King]

When I first looked at this episode, I can tell the writers are trying so hard to tie a "filler" in with the canon. In this case, Team Rocket's activities in the Desert Resort are causing the Venipede to evacuate their home and start trouble in Castelia City.

What I loved about this episode the most is that several supporting characters are actually doing a lot here. Nurse Joy using her Audino's Healing Pulse to calm the Venipede down, Officer Jenny's Herderier controlling the Venipede stampede, Trip and several other fire-type trainers ordering their pokemon to attack the Venipede, Burgh pleading with Trip to not attack the Venipede, etc.

There was a lot going on in so many angles. It is clear to me that this episode sets up for the inevitable Team Rocket VS Team Plasma showdown. The Venipede are still in Castelia City by the end of the episode; Ash and co. are going with Professor Juniper in the first place precisely to get these pokemon back home safely. Some people were complaining that the Venipede Ash encountered in the sewer "should" have been caught. Maybe it will choose to go along with Ash? It's possible.

Pidove's evolution seems forced, to say the least. I'd like to think that the writers were planning on handling this bird differently. I hope now that Pidove evolved, we can finally see her for what she truly is; a powerhouse. Hopefully she is used in the future and not recycled back for Sewaddle.

Based on what we have seen in this episode, Trip is not as harsh as Paul but not as helpful as Gary either. He is sort in the middle. It didn't take much for Trip to stop attacking the pokemon (in Paul's situation back in DP, all he cared about was catching a Gliscor and would attack anything in his way). However, Trip didn't warm up to Ash near the end of the episode like Gary did, or begin to respect him as a trainer.

That said, it is nice to see one more of Trip's pokemon.

The writers actually surprised me with their decision. Here I thought this would be an ordinary filler that had no connection whatsoever with anything else in the present/future, and Trip only appears here because of the writers' lack of innovation. I'm glad the writers have proven me wrong by showing that even a plotline as recycled as this one (pokemon attacking city, evacuation) can still be very entertaining to watch.

 

[Karamazov]

Venipede. SOCUTESOCUTESOCUTESOCUTESOCUTE.

Oh, and, uh, the other crap was nice, too. But damn, the Bug-types are really getting adorable in the anime. I found it hard to take the invasion seriously because I just wanted to hug each and every one of those poisonous monstrosities cuddle bugs.

 

[Masurao]

I am curious as to what Trip said to Ash at the end. If it was something, like "it wouldn't be worth my time." I would think that would have angered Ash, not seemingly disturb him like it did.

Trip also doesn't really seem to hate Ash like Paul used to. So there's no real tensity to their conflict yet. He does give off more Drew/Gary vibes now. If anything he's seemingly trying to ignore Ash's friendliness, even if it surprised him at that one instance.

 

[Hellion]

He does give off more Drew

Trip so needs to start giving roses to Ash

 

[Grave-E]

This episode makes me regret not keeping a Venipede around during my current White version playthrough. As is the animé's way, it's made me appreciate how freaking adorable the species is, and I'll definately be using one in a future game.

As an episode, it was an enjoyable one, but it's kind of hard to talk about it without just listing a bunch of the cute little details that went down. The Castelia Cone being closed and the inevitable facefault. Ash's interaction with the cute, cute Venipede, and managing to get himself sick in the process. Kibago's Dragon Sneeze being effective at scaring of the Venipede despite failing, following by that bro-fist moment with Iris. Yanap losing it's marb- using it's Bullet Seed as marbles to trip up the bugs.

Though on the negative side, this episode made me dislike Shooty a whole lot more. I mean, he's not funny like Barry or Gary were, and he's not interesting or mysterious like Paul was. That's been evident for a while now. But here, he's...well...pretty much cemented himself as just an arrogant, know-it-all asshat in my eyes :/ I love characters like that when they're played for laughs, but since he's not? Yeah. I'm gonna be one of those "piss off and give us more Bel" types for the duration, I fear ^^;

 

[Garren]

I kind of agree with everyone's assessment on Shooty...he's not a character you like, nor is he a character you like to hate, he's just a punk. And the whole camera gimmick is pretty lame as well, considering he really isn't a Pokemon Photographer like Todd...he's just a dude snapping pictures with his cell-hone basically.

Probably uploading it to his Facebook page later too, I bet, after spending a bit of time playing Farmville and taking the "Which Friends Character Are You" personality test.

Also, funny story time: As I was looking at the pictures on Filb, I saw a picture of Pidove being attacked, and then the next picture there was a Tranquil and I was like "Oh, it evolved?". But then I saw Trip and was like "Oh, it's just Trip's", but then I scrolled down and I saw Pidove get attacked again and actually evolve, and I was like "Oh...it evolved...maybe?". So, yeah, lol. I was actually more focused on the whole thing going down with Venipede, wondering if Ash was going to get it (all the Bug Pokemon rock this Gen, so I wouldn't mind that), so the Pidove evolution was kind of meh. But then again, we all knew it would happen eventually, plus it was shoved in this episode which is a bit of a pity, since Starly's evolution episode was all about it, so I pretty much agree with Scott's point he made earlier. It was a pretty ho-hum evolution overall, although I do like Tranquil's design.

 

[anonymous920314]

The biggest thing about this episode for me was how stark of a difference backgrounds have come from the original series to the Best Wishes series. While I really love the backgrounds when they're just standing in a forest or an open field, I realize how much I miss the old cities. These blocky colors just don't cut it for me.

Compare the largest city in Johto to the largest city in Isshu (and apparently, the known regions):

Spoiler

It just really is pretty lackluster. I was expecting a sprawling metropolis and we got this mundane, average, almost cookie-cutter city for the most energetic and biggest city in the game. Although I will say I was happy how they seem to be keeping true to locations in the anime (Anime Goldenrod does not look like Game Goldenrod, Anime Hiun looks a lot like Game Hiun).

On other points, I was also expecting Satoshi to capture that Fushide... it was really cute, but I'm glad he didn't as he's already got that Sewaddle, whose personality in his debut episode I enjoyed more.

Mamepato evolving was nice, but felt thrown in. Partly because it was, but I'm glad that she's no longer a Mamepato because I feel like it hasn't really looked good in any appearance it's made, animation wise. Hatoboh has always been animated great on the other hand, so I'm looking forward for her future scenes.

The animation was solid in some parts, but mostly shaky overall. I felt like Ogata didn't really understand how to animate Arti, he looked awkward in almost every scene he was in.

Finally, Shooti at this point I couldn't care less about, I really just want to see more Bel! He's frankly annoying, uninteresting, and an all around unsympathetic character that's difficult to relate to.

 

[Yankees4life]

Another flying type evolves first, and the running gag continues...