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Review BW087: Survival on the Island of Iwark!

Dogasu

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Survival on the Island of Iwark!



Animation - Team Kato
Screenplay - Shōji Yonemura
Storyboard - Kazuomi Koga
Assistant director - Kazuomi Koga
Animation director - Tatsuya Annoura



Satoshi and his friends go to an uninhabited island to find a rare Iwaku.
 
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NEW MOVE! ABOUT TIME!

And... TAKESHI TAKESHI TAKESHI TAKESHI TAKESHI TAKESHI TAKESHI!

Oh my God! What a fun episode, WAY better than I expected... You know, typical Iwark filler but I was wrong.

And DOUBLE KODOMO NE? Dawn, seriously? Poor Ash. Miju/Pocha rivalry is simply hillarious, girls' hangout moments were simply awesome :D

LOVED IT!!!
 
Would have been kinda meh episode without that Takeshi reference.
 
Dawn mentioned Brock (with a flashback to him) after seeing that Cilan also cooks... she also mentioned Brock wants to be a doctor now
Also, Dawn actually agreed with Iris' "kodomo ne" and even said it together with Iris later in the ep
 
I am kinda happy to see the Brock reference in the episode too. :)

And the Iris and Dawn moments looked cool too,
 
Dawn has picked up Iris' catchphrase, and both direct it at Ash...dear god.

Anyway this was a pretty fun episode, interactions and all. Nice to see the group actually training their Pokemon too. Nice Brock reference too.
 
The cancer that is Iris' catchphrase now infected Hikari as well? She really destroys everything she...wait, what? No, I actually quite liked Hikari's and Iris' interaction this episode. I only saw the second half of it but the episodes looks like a good one.
Too bad I missed the Takeshi cameo. I was one of the view people who actually liked him till the very end.

Miju learned Hydro Pump so sudden and without prior training of said move...that damn Gary Stu...
Pochama learned something new as well I think but I overheard Iris' comment after Pochama used the attack so I'm not sure.
Miju & Pocha, it was expected but the writers will really milk the shit out of these two guys won't they?
 
I hate that Satoshi's been traveling around with Iris and Dent all this time without so much as mentioning Takeshi's name. I mean, you only traveled with him through four regions (five if you count the Battle Frontier, for some reason), you could have mentioned him at *some* point.

I guess this also means he never bothered to bring up Kenji, Haruka, or Masato, either.
 
HYDRO PUMP! I'm lovin it! I mentiond it in the preview thread! And it was about time.

Brock! I <3 him, and it's good they don't act like he never was in the group!

Piplup's Bubble move looked for me like Water pulse, the way it was used by Trip's Frilish! Or am I wrong!_ and that headbut looked like a AQUAJET gone WRONG! _
 
The Takeshi cameo was probably the highlight of the episode for me as well, to be honest! XD Even though he wasn't my favorite character I love it when the anime acknowledges its past (NOW WE NEED TAKESHI TO APPEAR FOR REAL!).

Otherwise, it was a decent episode I suppose. It was great to see Meloetta do something as opposed to just sitting around looking pretty. And of course it's always nice to see Hikari and Iris get along well. Sure, I suppose Miju's learning of Hydro Pump was a bit sudden but I think it works well, given his whole rivalry with Pochama.
 
I didn't think the Takeshi reference would get me as excited as it did. XD

Hikari picking up "Kodome ne" too? Really writers?

Was the stuff at the end with the TRio anything important? And I guess that helicopter flies them back and forth between the anime and the radio show.
 
Finally, Takeshi mentioned. But I agree with Dogasu, he should've mentioned him by now. He traveled with him for years (in our time)! Nice friend you are, Satoshi!

Anyway, I actually liked Hikari annoying Satoshi with the "kodomo ne" thing. I'm not a huge fan of Iris, but her interactions with just about any character are really entertaining. And Meloetta doing something for a change was great, but I hate the way she sings.

And another pointless TR scene, what fun.
 
This episode reminded me a lot of DP046. Friends being separated and being chased by Onix. Yeah. But I loved the first mentioning of Brock in nearly 100 episodes. At least it was more than Tracey got back in BW047. I did not like how Dawn agreed with Iris about Ash being a kid though. I was hoping she'd be the one to defend him. I mean she's more of a kid than he is. But I guess the writers just love for the girls to agree with each other on everything. Also, is the anime going back to Pokemon knowing more than four moves at a time now or what? XD Piplup has used five of them in a span of a couple episodes.
 
Holy Crap, with all these brand new moves Piplup is showing off, Buneary better have received some brand new move.

Not going to lie, I like Oshawott's hydro pump, one of the most unique animations for the move, using the Scalchops.
 
I hate that Satoshi's been traveling around with Iris and Dent all this time without so much as mentioning Takeshi's name. I mean, you only traveled with him through four regions (five if you count the Battle Frontier, for some reason), you could have mentioned him at *some* point.
Yet supposedly Ash did mention Dawn at some point for Iris/Cilan to know about her in the previous episode.

The minimal training thing annoyed me, why would Ash be just training Oshawott? He's trained in groups on a beach before, yet suddenly now he decides to just train Oshawott. It would have been fine having them all out of their Pokeballs training, then recall everyone before leaving, setting up a scene where Oshawott pops back out of his ball to stay with Meloetta. Does the same job as just training Oshawott, but makes Ash look far less pathetic.

Another annoyance was Ash having no response over seeing a Kingler - it wouldn't be too hard to have Ash interrupt Dawn's scan of Krabby to then scan it himself mentioning that he has one of them.

As nice as the animation and music for the forme is, I really hope it never gets shown in full again - but otherwise Meloetta added quite a bit here beyond just being a side of the Oshawott/Piplup plot. Actually being shown as capable of fighting is a nice change from the usual Pokemon in distress situations and hopefully that carries through to the Team Rocket plot.

Brock's mention is interesting - it means that more of his goals have been mentioned than Dawn's. On the other hand, it would be better if he had just popped up in a Pokemon Centre one day with Chansey as an intern or something (or researching regional variations in Nurse Joy).

Dawn not being interested in training at all is strange in the context of her supposedly coming for the tournament. Though it made less sense for Axew to be suddenly fighting Excadrill - physically no less.

Plot wise, why exactly were they all surprised by the fact that the Island of Onix had Onix on it? What did they expect when walking in that tunnel? Or the next tunnel? Or the path? Besides, Ash saw a shiny Onix in the episode where that kid polished his - that's better than a green one.

So apart from the storyline, plot and structure, the episode was good. Kinda disappointed the movie is on next week.

Main redeeming factor though:
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