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Review BW070: The Donamite Gets Underway! Zuruggu VS Yanakkie!!

Dogasu

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The Donamite Gets Underway! Zuruggu VS Yanakkie!!



Animation - Team Kato
Screenplay - Yukiyoshi Ōhashi
Storyboard - Kazuomi Koga
Assistant director - Kazuomi Koga
Animation director - Kunihiko Natsume



In To'aru Town ("Any Town"), Satoshi and his friends enter the Donamite. Their rivals Kenyan, Bel, Shooty, and Langley have all joined as well! In the first match of the tournament, Satoshi's Zurug is in a pinch until suddenly...
 
I'm really loving the Kenyan focus in this episode XD

Also I'm I the only one who thought of Shikamaru when Yanakie did that Shadow Move?
 
I loved Scraggy being all kick ass! it was a nice battle! Simisage was pretty strong! and had some great moves!
Stephan and Sawk were good as well! Nice fight and use of swim swift! :D

Does anyone knows why Pansage eyes glow yellow in one moment!??
 
Scraggy's Leer actually working was definitely the highlight of this episode. Well, that and the Yanakkie trainer's awesome greaser switchcomb.
 
Does anyone knows why Pansage eyes glow yellow in one moment!??

Because Azazel got stuck in the wrong universe.

----

Seriously, I think it was just showing, that Pansage wasn't down and out, and could still continue, or it could be because Pansage knew solarbeam was coming. This is of course is assuming that Cilan's words didn't explain the glowing eyes.
 
I looooooooooved the Zuruggu v Yanakkie battle. First of all, Zuruggu showed some major personality on and off the field. I liked is how the writing of the battle took into account the specificities of the species, the shedded skin, but also that the battle felt really organic based on where Zuruggu's at. The beginning showed him able to hold his own, which his picking up where BW043 left off, he was going toe to toe with Yanakkie, his gambling move actually cost him and then he learns the move, said move not being a be all end all move, since Zuruggu needed Leer and Headbutt to finish Yanakkie off. I really like where this is going and the progress that they're doing with Zuruggu. I liked that Kibago was soooo crushing on Zuruggu. :p

Bel was hilarious, just great from start to finish, and she's apparantly a creeping on Dageki and fasgasming about its muscles... XD The Comedy Squad was complete with Dent and Cabernet whose interactions were just deliciously entertaining. Speaking of rivals, some nice Shooti moments, both when Bel is pissed at him and when he's creeping on Satoshi's match. Hello tension, you finally arrived!

On the less good part, The CotD were really underwhelming given how great their designs were (for the most part, cause Dent's opponent... ew...) and for all the Kenyan focus, I just couldn't find myself caring about him, nor about is impromptu pissing contest with Masaomi.
 
Is it me or are the writers trying to make up for the bad Don Tournament?
 
Scraggy is like, one of Ash's greatest Pokemon ever. I really liked it's battle.

Also, Bianca...just Bianca. She's such a fun character.
 
Aww... Yanakii's voice was very cute, way better than I expected. A+

DO IT!
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It sucks that Scraggy's development has fallen short when the writer of this episode decided to just allow the pokemon to "perfect" his first two attacks - Headbutt and Leer - off-screen. Scraggy may have learned a new attack in this episode, and he currently does not have control over it, but this does not excuse the lazy writing that surrounded Scraggy's win in this episode. I remember less than a year ago when Scraggy couldn't even harm Pikachu when he Headbutted the latter numerous times. And now Scraggy is suddenly able to knock Bianca out with just ONE Headbutt, as seen in the next episode's preview? Ridiculous. I swear, this entire series is surrounded with lazy and inconsistent character development.

Other than this, the rest of the battles in this episode were great. I particularly liked Sawk vs. Seismitoad. Seismitoad abused its own Swift Swim ability to try to get an upper hand on its opponent, while Sawk attempted to fend off all of Seismitoad's attacks through brute force alone. Pansage vs. Gothorita may have been short, and I expected it to be a very quick battle, but it was interesting to see a Gothorita smack Pansage.

The real highlight of this episode was the rivalry between Stephan's Sawk and Masaomi's Throh. That seems to be a lot more interesting than any of the current "rivalries" between the human characters, who are little more than glorified COTDs.

Decent episode, but it wasn't great. The tournament had a rocky start, so let's hope that the next few episodes, which should be a lot more battle-oriented, can compensate for this first episode's shortcomings.
 
I'm disappointed we didn't get to see Cabernet battle, but at the same time I'm happy it'll be the first thing to happen next episode. It'll have more time to itself. Just so long as it isn't like Ash vs. Dino. :p (I know it won't. I'm being sarcastic.) Also after almost a year, I finally change my avatar. This is what he has been sleeping for all this time. He's finally awoken.

Oh, and Bel totally having the hots for Dageki was hilarious. First she gropes his trainer, then she gropes Dageki. <.<
 
Looking at the screenshots- Dent drying off Pikachu, so cute.

I have really gotten tried of seeing that one Tasting Time animation of Dent's. Animation always gets reused, but this one has been reused way too much. Come on, when are we going to see a new one? I mean has even been a new one after that one? I would even prefer to see some of Dent's older Tasting Time sequences.

It was so obviously the depressed atmosphere around Edmond which caused it to rain. Edmond looks like he would have been an interesting recurring character, it's a shame he's most likely just a one-off. What's with Bst Wishes and giving random characters who we may never see again stand-out and/or unique personalities?
 
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Is it me or are the writers trying to make up for the bad Don Tournament?

Bad? Your opinion.

It sucks that Scraggy's development has fallen short when the writer of this episode decided to just allow the pokemon to "perfect" his first two attacks - Headbutt and Leer - off-screen. Scraggy may have learned a new attack in this episode, and he currently does not have control over it, but this does not excuse the lazy writing that surrounded Scraggy's win in this episode. I remember less than a year ago when Scraggy couldn't even harm Pikachu when he Headbutted the latter numerous times. And now Scraggy is suddenly able to knock Bianca out with just ONE Headbutt, as seen in the next episode's preview? Ridiculous. I swear, this entire series is surrounded with lazy and inconsistent character development.

Perfected offscreen?

1. Leer scared Axew once.

2. Scraggy smashed a rock to pieces with Headbutt in the same episode it learnt Hi Jump Kick

So yeah, it wasn't cheap or Lazy writing, Scraggy has grown over time and it is very noticeable.

Anyway, I loved the episode, the only thing I didn't like about it was the lack of interactions between Cilan and Burgundy and maybe Georgia and Iris.
 
This is shaping up to be just like the previous Don battle arc, but I honestly should've expected that. Even though I know who is going to be eliminated, I don't know how or when, but at least Scraggy finally got to have a win. Trip continues to be a level grinder, although this far into the saga, I probably should expect full evos. (even though Conkeldurr is a trade evo, but I digress) I didn't mind the previous tournament arc, but I still think it's silly of them to recycle this idea, especially given what's going to happen. We'll see if there's any more to garner from this arc.
 
The first opponent to Stephan... He did that Conway glasses thing. :< But this looked like a good episode though, and despite me not being a fan of Scraggy, his battle looked pretty decent.
 
I just want to take Simisage's trainer home and give him hugs and hair gel. Akkie, it's a shame this will probably be the last time we see you, you fabulous greaser you. :c

But....why Aura Sphere for Scraggy? :c My boyfriend and I were talking about that and it just doesn't seem right to give Aura Sphere to a Scraggy or a Scrafty. Why not something like Crunch? I know games =/= anime but I can't shake the 'SCRAGGY HAS BAD SPECIAL ATTACK' out of my head.
 
Is there something between Sawk and Throh? They seemed to know each other...in a special way...

Good ep, but I hope we'll get more focus on Cabernet and Langley.
 
So Trip's Gurdurr's now a Conkeldurr, Bianca has a fondness for Bulked Up Sawk, and Scraggy now knows Focus Blast. This is shaping up to be an interesting tournament.
 
But....why Aura Sphere for Scraggy? :c My boyfriend and I were talking about that and it just doesn't seem right to give Aura Sphere to a Scraggy or a Scrafty. Why not something like Crunch? I know games =/= anime but I can't shake the 'SCRAGGY HAS BAD SPECIAL ATTACK' out of my head.

It's Focus Blast. Scraggy can't learn Aura Sphere.

And like you said, games =/= anime. Bad stats in the games doesn't translate to bad stats in the anime. Ash's Turtwig was a bleeping speed demon before it evolved.

And I can't believe they didn't go for a scenario where Ash and Trip trade Boldore and Gurdurr to evolve them.
 
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