• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Review BW067: Fukiyose Gym Air Battle! Challenger Dent!?

Nice episode. I agree that it was there more to set up Skyla as a character, and the battle with Cilan was a bit of an afterthought. Skyla was still likable, and I have to give the animators credit for, well, not giving into temptation to actually make her outfit come off not as....you know.
 
Oh crap...I forgot that...8.0123456789/10 for Crustle's god modding still being semi-active, then...
 
This gym battle had to be one of the worst in history, even for one that takes place in this region. The entire match between Cilan and Skyla was resolved in less than seven minutes, and even then around two minutes of this allotted time had been spent on Cilan giving his monologues about how he feels gym leaders should battle their challengers (which we've all heard before). The pacing in this entire match was horrible; there were several pokemon that were KO'd in a matter of seconds by only one or two attacks. If there was ever the case of "glass cannon" syndrome in any battle that takes place in this anime, this one has to be the most extreme instance of it by far.

This is basically how the match went, for those who were interested:

Pansage VS Swoobat- Swoobat harms Pansage with its Air Cutter. Pansage tries to use a Bite attack on Swoobat, but the latter pokemon dodged in time. Swoobat KOs Pansage with a second Air Cutter. Less than 30 seconds.

Crustle VS Swoobat- Crustle uses ONE Rock Wrecker to KO Swoobat. Swoobat didn't do anything to dodge the attack. 10-15 seconds.

Crustle VS Unfezant- Crustle lands another Rock Wrecker attack on Unfezant, who continues to fight back. Unfezant uses Air Slash on Crustle, who survives the attack by hiding in its shell. Crustle uses Shell Smash and X Scissor to KO Unfezant. The actual match lasted around 20-30 seconds, but the pokemon were out longer because the fight had been interrupted by Cilan's "evaluating time" moment.

Crustle VS Swanna- Swanna uses Bubblebeam on Crustle, who gets pushed back. Crustle tries to use Rock Wrecker but Swanna dodges it. Swanna uses Brave Bird. Crustle dodges in time and uses its Shell Smash + X-Scissor combo again. Swanna collides with the pokemon with its Brave Bird. Crustle loses. 35-40 seconds.

Stunfisk VS Swanna- Stunfisk uses Thundershock. Swanna endures the move, and then uses Hurricane. Stunfisk gets engulfed in the attack, but Cilan uses that moment to have Stunfisk use a wide-ranged Scald attack. Swanna endured a burn and pretended to be in pain. Skyla laughed it off and had Swanna use Aqua Ring. Stunfisk tries to use its Mud Bomb (even though Swanna is a flying-type pokemon). Swanna defeats Stunfisk with Brave Bird. 1 minute.

Obviously the matches near the end of the battle lasted longer and were more entertaining than the ones that took place near the beginning of the fight. Certainly I didn't expect this battle to be so well written that it would be on the level of DP gym battles, but I was astonished that this gym battle was so rushed that it made the other gym battles in BW feel and look amazing by comparison. There was absolutely no level of strategy in this battle and we simply saw the pokemon using the same moves to defeat their opponents (Crustle and Swanna, especially).

I am also disappointed that Pansage was the true fall guy of this match, even though he is clearly Cilan's signature pokemon in the series. Yes, Pansage did have a type disadvantage against Flying-type pokemon, but it had access to powerful attacks and belonged to one of the most brilliant and innovative battlers in the entire anime. I felt that Pansage could have won against Swoobat if it combined Cilan's flexibility as a battler with the pokemon's access to a wide variety of attacking type moves.

For that matter, why didn't Pansage use Rock Tomb in this match? The only move that Pansage used in this entire battle was its "relearned" Bite attack (which I assumed was the move that it foregone usage of in order to learn the former attack). Considering that Pansage had defeated numerous pokemon with type advantages over it in the past, it was disappointing to see that it only lasted a few seconds against this opponent without even landing a hit. It seems that the writers felt that Cilan should have won this match with an evolved pokemon like his Crustle.

There was a sense of contrast between the two character's battling styles, and that had been utilized throughout the entire episode in order to create tension and to lead into the actual confrontation between Cilan and Skyla. However, the match had failed to deliver the entertainment value that I had anticipated it would. Perhaps I set my expectations for this particular gym battle too high because I assumed that Cilan would have been as flexible in this match as he was in some of his battles in the past, but I consistently felt disappointed in the writing of this entire episode.

Some may argue that some of the other gym matches in the series, such as Bianca VS Elesa, were also resolved fairly quickly and had no real element of strategy behind them. However, it is important to remember that Bianca had been established as an inept battler with weak pokemon when this episode aired. Cilan, on the other hand, is a gym leader and he was paired up with another gym leader of equal status. Certainly I cannot be blaimed for expecting more out of a battle between two gym leaders.

With that said, I have absolutely no doubts now that Ash's battle against Skyla in the next episode will be handled a lot better. The battle in this episode certainly lowered the standard of how gym battles are constructed in this series, and I don't think that the results can be any more disappointing than this.
 
Last edited:
I'm kind of annoyed how the anime ignores the fact that moves like Rock Wrecker and Hyper Beam have a recharge turn after using, resulting in things like Crustle smacking shit around with no risks what so ever.

Having that said, I loved this episode, even more so in the comparison to the last one, which was almost unwatchable. For some reason I didn't feel the battle was rushed at all. Maybe because I still have that 30 second Seismitoad and Scolipede double battle in mind, idk. At any rate, I liked how Cilan's entire team was being showcased, as his team is easily my favourite in the "Best Wishes". It's a shame Stunfisk didn't win against Swanna, but he did put an amazing (and fierce) fight, so I don't really mind. As it was shown, he simply needs a better electric move. That weak-ass Thundershock won't cut it anymore, even against 4x weaks. Crustle was godly as always, and while Pansage didn't impress me, he's been taking the spotlight from the other two for a while now so I honestly didn't care.
 
There was something off about Skyla's design in the anime. Aside from her huge hands, her face looked too, "kiddish" or something like that? Its like she had the face of a child but the body of an adult.
 
There was something off about Skyla's design in the anime. Aside from her huge hands, her face looked too, "kiddish" or something like that? Its like she had the face of a child but the body of an adult.

1. It's look same as her game artwork.

2. Dent is taller than her. So, probably teenager.
 
First episode I've watched in weeks /terrible Anime mod.

I thought it was good and that some improvements could have been made but overall enjoyable and something that I'd go back and watch again.

I really enjoyed the scene with Satoshi and Dent becoming angry at Fuuro, and I especially liked the aftermatch of the battle where Fuuro's confidence was showing against Satoshi's angry demeanor.

The OHKO's were a little jarring in my opinion, and I did really hope that Maggyo would last a bit longer. The Boiling Water spin thing was pretty cool and I liked how they showed that it could cause burns.

The other things that I found jarring was Fuuro's hands and oddly her voice. I dunno why but it slightly bugged me all the way through xD
 
Even though Crustle obtained 2 wins- it seems so disappointed in itself at its first loss, I guess a Pokemon would be- but it was just quite cute and upsetting.
Skyla's nature seems slightly younger than I thought it would be, but it's still pleasant. Skyla's tactics of how she deals with the trainers is interesting, sly, and slightly cowardly- it's actually a tactic I wouldn't have expected a Gym Leader to have, as normally, I'd think they'd root more in out on the field than stick to the manual. Still, it was a very fascinating dimension to have, all the same. I enjoyed how angry Ash and Dento became at her, and how nonchalant was she against it.
I would have loved Stunfish to win, but at the same time, I didn't mind him losing. I don't know why, though.


Overall, yes, I enjoyed this episode.
 
This eppy was mediocre in my opinion.

-I realize the point of giving Dento so much screen time and focus is get him to be liked more and loved more. But, overall it's just not doing it for me especially since he has had no development in any of his episodes, no long term plot, or established struggles for him and his Pokemon. Just pretty uncompelling, comedy and nothing else will only get you so far in my opinion. I did like the scene where he got ultra-pissed since I thought it would lead to his after losing reconsidering his ways of battling or some type of reflection but, oh well it just seemed like some fanservice like that art scene of getting sad. It was nice to see him tell Fuuro he's a gym leader. I did like Maggyo's spinning Boiling Water.

-Fuuro was good, she was a nice interesting character. Air Battles were an interesting concept and different way of handling her gym. I liked the flashstory on her and why she does Air Battles that her Grampys talked about. I liked the whole plane motif really cute, brings me back to my kindergarten days. Too bad about the writers making her into a jerk while portraying Dento as being right all the time since I felt related and saw where she was coming from.

-Animation and Moves for the win. Air Cutter looked fierce, and was nice to see. It was nice to see the writer's remembered Boiling Water's side effect, and the animation with the Boiling Water Foutine was nice. Brave Bird was really cool also, annoyed the writers forgot the aftershock of the attack and also annoyed at Aqua Ring healing a supposed burn when that's not the move's purpose. But, I guess it healed Brave bird and the Burn. I really liked seeing Hurricane in the anime.

-Battles, pretty below-average to mediocre in my opinion. Suffered heavily from being extremely short, lack of dodging got on my nerves. I also noticed Dento did a lot of talking, I'm pretty sure he did more between battling moe moe fangirl Pretty Boy Bishie SPARKLez speeches than actual battling. What was up with Yanappu VS. Kokoromori? Why didn't Yanappu use its super awesome Rock Tomb it "had" against Baoppu and just send Kokoromori into orbit? Iwaperesu's battles were boring, seeing it Rock Wreckering Kokoromori to death because apparently it seemed to have gained paralysis or mental trauma to not dodge it was boring. Getting real tired of the standard "Shell Smash + Watch everything die" crap too, it was fun at first because it showed actual powering up a common trait in game but, I'm genuinely getting bored of it. Iwaperesu VS. Kenharou was boring as well, I kinda thought it was weird Iwaperesu could take Air Slash like that and survive even though it hadn't used Protect but, I just went with it being a Rock hard shell. But, seeing the generic Shell Smash and die tactic bored me once again. Next, when it battled Swanna it really bothered me that a Water Type Bubblebeam had no effect on that rock, it seemed really forced for my taste. And the battle was just bland ending with the ambiguous Brave Bird and X-Scissors collision. Maggyo VS. Swanna was the slightest entertaining. Because of the Boiling Water Foutine thing and the burn, but ended on a boring note.

-The Pokemon. I liked the scene where Yanappu tries to attack Kokoromori only to have it fly away and laugh. Swanna's little heart to heart scene with Fuuro was nice, with it having the burn and sitting there hurting. Fuuro sees this and Swanna looks up and grins to its trainer and quacks with a face of happiness and refusing to fall to a burn really suspenseful scene.

So, yeah one of the worst gym battles ever, maybe better than Bel VS. Kamitsure. No doubt in my mind the writers will do better next week.
 
Last edited:
I haven't watched the episode and probably won't do anytime soon(only reason I could post here freely this week was because I had cold, and since I procrastinated through my cold, I have lots of homeworks left). But;

61730d1329994689-bw-067-fukiyose-gym-air-battle-challenger-dent-review-thread-1329992494130.jpg

harleyveryhappy.jpg


:p.
 
I'm glad we finally get to see that Cilan's not "perfect". I mean, I'm sorry he lost, but frankly, it was about time. XD

I don't really see why people think Cilan needed to be humbled..if that's what you're implying. Honestly, if there is anyone in the trio that needs to show more active struggling or development it's Iris. But that's for another topic.

Some people want to see Cilan lose for the same reason some people want to see Iris lose. For dissatisfaction with their development, some would argue {correctly in my opinion} that Dent's development hasn't really been shown either, with his personality or Pokes, but, you're right, that's for another thread.

But I digress, it's gonna seem weird how next episode all of Skyla's pokes are gonna seem 10 times stronger because Iwane is animating, but eh, it's okay.
 
I'll admit that I kinda wanted Cilan to win, but, oh well; I guess it'll be up to Ash to show her the error of her methods. And speaking of which, I can say that I quite enjoyed that way of thinking in a gym leader if for no other reason then because it was a fresh concept.

I also couldn't help but notice that Orchid's Pokemon Lecture featured a Pokemon that was show in clips from an episode that happens to be the next episode to debut in the States in the same week (tomorow morning from when I post this message). What an odd coincidence.
 
Having that victory music play when Fuuro managed to turn the tables and gain the upper hand at the end was really off for me. That kind of music only works when the 'hero' character, aka the character you're supposed to root for (like Satoshi) is gaining the upper hand. Nothing against Fuuro, it's just she wasn't the character who's side the audience was supposed to take.

Damn Dent's voice when he was starting to lose his composure at Fuuro, I swear he was close to murdering her. Beware the nice ones (and maybe cute and psycho)- that's all I could think of when watching the episode. Keep Dent away from any kind of weapon when he starts to become enraged and unhinged, seriously, he gets close to losing it. Pissed-off Dent was the main icing on the cake for me from this episode.

I felt really sorry for Dent in this episode. Poor guy was so sure that he would beat Fuuro and be able her change her views on Gym battles- he didn't have any doubts about it. Sometimes Dent being just way too passionate over something which can lead to overconfidence can end up costing him. Badly. And one of these days it may not just be this Dent will end up failing at and it could lead to a full-on depression mode and perhaps re-thinking his ways.

At least Satoshi won't get overconfident he'll beat Fuuro in the next episode (in fact he's probably going to be a bit nervous now). He will just be determined to win and have Fuuro re-think her methods. I wonder if Dent will be feeling depressed in the next episode due to his failure but then perks up when Satoshi starts gaining the upper hand, fully recovering when he wins and succeeds to have Fuuro treat Gym battles the right way, or if Dent will be so determined for Satoshi to win, constantly rooting for him.

Now about Fuuro- She seems like am innocent girl who just couldn't see anything wrong with what she's doing so it was hard to be angry at her. It was just the way she treats Gym matches that was the problem. However at the same time what did bother me about Fuuro was her thinking that type advantage= win type disadvantage= lose (something Dent tried to show her wasn't everything but failed at it) and the overall way of how she treated Gym battles. I would love to know just what Fuuro said to Dent that infuriated him when he was down to his last Pokémon.

Fuuro's Swanna was such an amazing jerk, laughing and smiling sneakily like that- I love it when Gym Leader's Pokémon have/show personality. Magyo using Boiling Water while spinning was a great tactic from Dent, getting drenched in a tidal wave of steaming hot water had to be painful for Swanna. I don't know why, but I just found something evil about Dent seemingly taking pleasure at Swanna being badly burnt because it looks like he was enjoying that Swanna was suffering. But then it turns out Swanna was just trolling there. I'm really loving Fuuro's Swanna, hoping to see more personality like that from it in the next episode.

Basically I did like this episode- Seeing Dent's angry outbursts are what mainly did it for me as I've always wanted to see it happen and be part of a plot and not just played for laughs like previously. Ah but the way Dent's battle went felt pretty depressing. He always never cares whenever he wins or loses because he always puts up a good fight either way (making up great tactics and all that). But Dent's frustration and overconfidence got the better of him and it led to him making mistakes and failing to prove things to Fuuro like type-advantages don't mean everything in a battle. The only time Dent actually used a great strategy was when he had Magyo take advantage of being spun in the air and had it use Boiling Water to drench Swanna and badly burn it- that would have guaranteed Dent a win, but then came Aqua Ring. Oh no I'm not saying Dent should have won, I mean by losing it makes Satoshi's challenge even tougher after witnessing Fuuro's strength.
 
Last edited:
This episode was absolutely fantastic. :) It was great to see the generally cheerful Dent (literally) explode on Fuuro for shirking on her Gym Leader duties. Seeing Satoshi avoiding a freebie badge like he would have done if he had his Kanto way of doing things was nice too. Fuuro's way of doing Gym Battles was interesting with the "take a slip and wait" method; it really makes the show much more realistic than the games. The Dent vs. Fuuro fight was managed pretty well considering the time constraints. I'm pretty glad Dent did his Sommelier stuff in the battle since it shows he's still trying to reach his goal. I'd much rather take characterization in a battle over the length of a battle.

So this episode was very well-written as expected from my favorite writer, Tomioka. :-D
 
I personally found this one rather mediocre, especially the actual battle between Skyla and Cilan (though the anime does a good job of making me actually like Swanna lol). I really liked their little interaction towards the beginning where they shook hands though, that was cute :3

I gotta agree with Don though that some of the music (especially the victory music, as stated) felt a bit out of place here.
 
You want to know what these "Air Battles" remind me of? Those simulation battles that were featured in that Pokemon School episode in early Kanto. In other words, Skyla simply compared pokemon with type advantages or disadvantages and decided that the pokemon with the type advantage will automatically win regardless of anything else, including differences in pokemon experience and movesets.

It's also like that kid from Johto, with the Scizor and laptop, who used his data to predict that he could beat anyone (until Ash and Heracross served him a slice of humble pie a la mode).
 
I'm very annoyed at the fact Ash randomly "forgot" what an Air Battle is - it's, like, the whole reason you gave away your Gliscor about 100 eps ago?
Also, how the Johto Skyla's battle with Cilan was an "Air Battle"? Isn't an Air Battle supposed to be a battle between two Poké who can fly (none of Cilan's can, just Skyla's) that takes place in an area with strong winds that the Pokémon use to their advantage during the battle?...
And like always, I don't like Gym Leaders that act like how Skyla does... though I did get a laugh of her crazy imaginations and the random "I won"/"I lost" XD and of course no one cares at all except for the twerps... it's always like the twerps are the only ones who care about anything and everyone else just accepts everything...
Big LOL at how they made a big deal of not showing us who Ash's Pokémon are for this battle, yet in the preview they show all of his 3 choices + show that one of them will evolve (who's evolution was also already spoiled in the ending theme)
When I saw how they didn't show who Ash chose for the battle, I already told to myself "lol they'll probably spoil it in the preview anyway" and how right I was... it's really ridiculous...
 
I'm very annoyed at the fact Ash randomly "forgot" what an Air Battle is - it's, like, the whole reason you gave away your Gliscor about 100 eps ago?

An Air Battle, in this context, is when the two trainers reveal all of the Pokémon they'll use in the battle beforehand.
 
Please note: The thread is from 12 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom