Review BW050: Raimon Gym! Magnificent Electric Shock Battle!!

[Hellwarden]

To be fair, if Pikachu was the fall guy in this ep, wouldn't people have complained about his power being reset?

Just a thought.

 

[Iteru]

...that was the entire point. He was attempting to do things differently (and more "intelligently"), panicked when his plans got countered and he was unable to come up with a replacement strategy, and lost. Twice. Eventually he went back to his standard "go with the flow and improvise" style, and won.

Deliberately trying to do things differently, failing, then succeeding when doing things your own way is not being out of character.

Honestly, the above is what made me quite like the episode, because it reinforces that Satoshi has his own style and that he tried to use a different one. I think it will have a big impact on the upcoming Adeku episode with Shooty, who tried to use Satoshi's style back in their 3 vs 3 but lost with it.

 

[DracoMan]

So Ash tries to battle "smart," screws it up, and goes back to his old instincts, huh? Does that remind anyone else of when Jaden Yuki dueled Zane Truesdale at the end of Season 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX?

 

[Ampharos King]

The battle played out as I expected it would. Palpitoad would defeat Zebstrika in a few hits, only to get knocked out by Emolga's Aerial Ace. Snivy would also be defeated by Emolga's Aerial Ace and Acrobatics due to a type disadvantage.

Either way, Pikachu was meant to be the star of this gym. I believe that Pikachu's victories over the Electric-type pokemon in this gym were utterly ridiculous. Pikachu was able to defeat Emolga, who was able to use Attract successfully on Pikachu, with just a single Quick Attack. At the start of BW, Pikachu was unable to defeat Trip's Snivy with just one Quick Attack. Emolga did not receive any damage from battling Ash's Snivy so it is a wonder how Pikachu was able to OHKO Emolga.

Pikachu's victory over Tynamo was a result of using Iron Tail on it over and over again after electrifying the field with his Thunderbolt. A little ridiculous at how Pikachu was overpowered throughout this entire match, but whatever. Palpitoad got its first gym battle so it wasn't entirely a waste of time.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Okay Elesa is such an enjoyable(and sexy) character, but this gym battle was just ridiculous. I'm so sick of Pikachu! He's had his time to shine for YEARS now! Give someone like Snivy the time to shine!

 

[Adil]

To begin with, it wasn't a bad episode but still, highly disappointed in Tsutarja, she could have done better than that. Gamagaru and Pikachu did an splendid job though.
After this episode, I really felt that it's the right time for Satoshi to evolve his babies. Tsutarja is dead strong but.... A Janovy won't hurt anyone.
Not to mention, that Hikari-twin fangirl was in this episode as well, just like she was cheering for Kamiture in BW049. :-D

 

[TPrower]

I'll admit, the battle could have been better. How could Ash have forgotten Attract wouldn't work if Elesa's Emolga had Attracted his Palpitoad? Snivy should've faired better, and Pikachu dominating the rest of the match was kinda ridiculous. Still, I like Elesa and the match could have been much worse, but I dunno if I can forgive Ash screwing up his strategy like that when he's done better before.

Why was Pikachu sulky, though? Had Ash given a reason why he didn't want to use him?

 

[LightningKimba]

Why was Pikachu sulky, though? Had Ash given a reason why he didn't want to use him?

From what I can infer, I think it's because he knows Ash is going against the grain of his usual tactics, and would much rather have Ash go with his gut, rather than try to use strategy? That's what I believe, from what people say about the ep.

 

[TPrower]

From what I can infer, I think it's because he knows Ash is going against the grain of his usual tactics, and would much rather have Ash go with his gut, rather than try to use strategy? That's what I believe, from what people say about the ep.

That would make sense, since everyone's saying Ash was trying to battle "intelligently", and we can see how that screwed him up.

 

[WatcherMark]

...that was the entire point. He was attempting to do things differently (and more "intelligently"), panicked when his plans got countered and he was unable to come up with a replacement strategy, and lost. Twice. Eventually he went back to his standard "go with the flow and improvise" style, and won.

But we've seen Satoshi think intelligently about his battles before, and we've never seen him act so crazy when he plans have gone badly. Remember his battle in the Kanto League against Kaoruko and brought along his Betbeton knowing he might have problems. Or the Gym Battle against Aloe. When she screwed up his plans through the Roar/Mean Look combo, Satoshi didn't go all crazy and start sitting down to think things through. Instead he just went with it anyway (yeah, he lost then but still...)

And there's been plenty of times during the leagues when he's looked up his opponents, seen what Pokemon they're using and made a strategy against them. This is nothing new.

As I've said, I think the only reason for all this is that Junki Takegami couldn't stretch the battle to fill the whole episode without having Team Rocket around to give a comedy sub-plot to.

But even if you do accept Satoshi's attitude in this episode, surely people have a problem with the fact that the referee allows him to leave the Gym to change his Pokemon line-up. Doesn't that technically count as abandoning the match?

 

[blufair]

So Ash finally starts thinking ahead... and it's only so the episode can deliver a moral about how overthinking is bad. Hmm.

Ash's strong points in battle have always been thinking on his feet and using the power of friendship--but over the course of the series prior to BW, he was becoming increasingly skilled at planning ahead and coming up with strategies while still being able to adapt to his opponents. When BW started, he seemed to drop the strategy aspect almost entirely.

Ash's story in this episode was interesting, but I think it would have worked a lot better if it occurred at the very start of BW. His sudden obsession with planning ahead would have made at least a little sense as a continuation of his development in DP: strategizing and using type advantages were working well for him, so he could have started to take it too far and forget that those aren't the only things that matter (it still would have been a stretch, I think, but at least it would have been less of one). Then he gets smacked down and decides to go back to his roots of going entirely by his gut and making things up as he goes along. That would have gone a long way towards explaining his apparent regression as a trainer.

But since it instead occurred after dozens of episodes of largely mindless battling on Ash's part, his behavior here kind of seems to come out of nowhere.


I'm also a little disappointed that Palpitoad was confirmed male. It's not like I actually expected it to be female prior to this episode, but the writers got my hopes up when Ash thought Snivy's attract would work on Emolga. The "male by default" stance on this show has always bugged me. We've had a few gender-ambiguous Pokemon that turned out to be female, but it's pretty rare. Most of the time, Pokemon are only female if their personalities are overtly cutesy or feminine, which just doesn't sit right with me.

 

[Itsuki]

I'm gonna contribute next to nothing to any serious business discussion and say that in this ep? Cilan without the vest is more than a little adorable. Highlight of the episode for me, really. I am not an Elesa fan.

 

[Karamazov]

The same music Arti had (a remix of Cheren's theme) is used when we see Elesa. CLEARLY this means that Arti and Kamitsure are the same person. Prove me wrong.

Also, I like how there are no men in Kamitsure's audience.

 

[LightningKimba]

I'm also a little disappointed that Palpitoad was confirmed male. It's not like I actually expected it to be female prior to this episode, but the writers got my hopes up when Ash thought Snivy's attract would work on Emolga. The "male by default" stance on this show has always bugged me. We've had a few gender-ambiguous Pokemon that turned out to be female, but it's pretty rare. Most of the time, Pokemon are only female if their personalities are overtly cutesy or feminine, which just doesn't sit right with me.

I don't find it too big of a deal, if you don't mind me sayin'. I think it's just a trend that is even continued in the games, where guys have male mons, and girls have female mons, with the rare chance of a trainer having a token mon of their opposite gender. I don't mean to say it should or shouldn't change, just pointing out a trend that simply exists.

The same music Arti had (a remix of Cheren's theme) is used when we see Elesa. CLEARLY this means that Arti and Kamitsure are the same person. Prove me wrong.

Or it's that Burgh and Elesa should be shipped together, oh-ho-ho.

 

[Itsuki]

......Elesa is Burgh in a wig and contacts. EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW. He designs clothes....for himself. O_O

 

[Spindae2]

Truly disappointing! not only the way Tynamo is so weak(only tackle come on!) just the way everything come to an end! The way Zebstrikka, Palpitoad, Snivy and Tynamo were knocked out!
And the worst part how Pikachu behave! It's like 20 years old and behaves like half year Scraggy! And Ash come on! Roggenrola so strong could kick it easily for him and he uses Pikachu! Okay he "probably wanted to use Swadloon but come onnnnnnnnnn!
Disappointed! by the writing by the animation by the way they treated Elesa! And no VoltSwitch mess up! (((((((((((

 

[Baron Dante]

@Karamazov: Also explains what was up with the battle being... whatever that was.

Seriously... Zebstrika was KO'd to the wall, Emolga was KO'd to the wall, Pikachu was hit to the wall and Tynamo was, as a surprise twist, KO'd to the wall. Wut.

 

[Masurao]

Considering how much Ash switched around in Sinnoh, it's a bit weird to see him not swtiching for the past two gyms. Of course, he probably didn't feel the need to here given the fact he was so confident in Palpitoad...but still. I guess that time will eventually come, since the rule does seem still in place. There probably were gyms where Ash didn't switch that I'm completely forgetting from the past two sagas.

 

[Aestivate]

The irony of Satoshi of saying "I tried to use strategy and use my head this time..."


WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THIS EPISODE?

Like, since when does the anime treat gym battle episodes like joke episodes?

The battles themselves weren't terrible, and I love Kamitsure even more now but... Seriously? The entire gym battle was so disgustingly, awfully bad.

And since when has Pikachu been such a brat about not battling for a gym? He's been sidelined before. Also, since when has Satoshi only had one (technically two counting Pikachu) Pokemon on hand? Since when has Satoshi been so derp?

Pikachu using Shibishirasu as a baseball and his tail as a baseball bat was the only good thing "strategy-wise" but it was stll sub-par.

The only thing that saved this battle from being one of Satoshi's most fail gym battles (even though he won) Was Kamitsure's personality. The rest of the episode was appallingly bad.

 

[pharaohyami5000]

The only thing "magnificent" about this episode was Elesa. The battle itself wasn't very magnificent or electric. Also, there was no thought of Snivy using her Vine Whip to evade attacks? Or Leaf Blade to counter out those Aerial Aces/Acrobatics? My goodness, they're overusing the Critical Hit factor in this episode out of Pikachu, mostly against Emonga. When was it okay to leave in the middle of the gym battle? Plus, why wasn't a plan B been thought of if Palpitoad got KOed?

BW seem to be dumping senseless comedy on Ash for some reason, possibly in exchange to mostly serious Team Rocket. Guess I won't be looking forward to outstanding battles no more if all they can ever do are decent ones as their highest.