Review BW090: The Junior Cup Gets Underway! Kairyu VS Tunbear!!

[Cinderfella]

Terrible episode. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Burgundy's loss, the lack of everyone's battle screentime but the final match, and the final match itself all pissed me off to no end. Let me just get this straight:

A Dragonite that can withstand attacks and break free shows no struggle to be captured and can be caught without being battled. Get the fuck out of here with that bull shit. I hereby declare that this is the worse tournament ever.

Trip did not phase me at all. I still don't care for him, and his facial expressions still are pointless to me. Alder was funny, but that exhibition match did not meet my expectations. Rushed, rushed, everything was fucking rushed.

Burgundy aww man, my heart really goes out to her, same with Dawn. This episode as well as the preview for next made me want Dawn to leave soon. Not that I don't like Dawn, but because she's being royally fucked by the power of plot, I feel if she stays, her character will continue to be made a joke out of.

I don't know about anyone else, but wouldn't a real world tournament be consisted of interesting characters who use pokemon from different regions and one's they've trained? No, not this tournament, not at all.

My girl Georgia got beyond screwed here, but thankfully I have a good feeling this isn't the last we've seen of her. I am actually happy that Kenyan and Bel weren't in this, for their characters don't deserve to get screwed over royally.

Here's hoping that Georgia and Burgundy would have left by now, because honestly who would want to stick around for this bull shit.

I can't believe Iris was made out to be the underdog in this thing, like damn.

 

[p96822]

I really do love Pokemon but I can agree with everyone this was a rushed episode and it was boring. I really don't care about Trip or his fanboying, I just care about Ash and his buddies kicking but together. The only thing in intress here was Dawn meeting the rivals of unova and the Garchomp battle and that all. I hope that in next time they show us this arc that the battles will not just zoom by like this episode.

Trip is still a boring charter ever in this episode

 

[PrinceGray]

As soon as I found out Burgundy was in the tournament, I knew she was gonna get owned.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Disappointing episode to say the least and the worst part is that a new one isn't out until the 23rd. You would think for a tournament opener the writers would make it especially good so that viewers would WANT to wait until the 23rd to see what happens next.

 

[TPrower]

Why do we even need so many tournament arcs? Are they really this necessary? Plus, this one is off to a disappointing start. Burgundy loses in her first battle, no surprise, all battles besides the ones between Caitlin and Cynthia and Iris and Georgia are glanced over, and Iris's Dragonite...Why do the writers insist on giving her Pokemon she has trouble handling? We had Axew having difficulty with Dragon Rage, Excadrill refusing to trust her, Emolga starting as a spoiled brat, and now we have a Dragonite that takes hits like a champ and attacks whenever it feels like it. This better come to a deserved payoff in the end, is all I can say.

 

[MizuTaipu]

This episode is a shining example of why the tournaments need to be longer than four episodes. The battles would have more depth to them and everything wouldn't be as rushed.

 

[Cinderfella]

Burgundy losing so much in the first round of these things reminds me of when Jessie used to lose contests back in AG. The writers really are using her as Rocket comedy fodder whenever they don't show and I must say it's getting very annoying and insulting.

Burgundy is worth much more, so here's hoping she does go the Jesselina route and changes for the better. It's painful to watch a fun character suffer.

 

[Ampharos King]

There was no surprise that this tournament was going to be as rushed as hell. How else would the writers get to the semis in the third episode without rushing all of the first round battles? None of the characters in the tournament received any proper battles yet. Trip's Serperior managed to defeat Burgundy's Darmanitan with just one attack. At least in the past two tournaments Burgundy managed to surprise her first round opponent and fought almost on even terms with him/her before losing. Here Burgundy used a pokemon with a type advantage and lost because Serperior used an attack that Darmanitan resisted, as powerful as Solarbeam was. Even if Darmanitan was paralyzed because of Glare, I felt that it still should have survived this attack.

The titular battle of the episode, Dragonite vs. Beartic, played out exactly as I saw it would. Beartic learned several powerful new attacks, like Blizzard and Focus Blast, which Dragonite easily shrugged off despite having a type disadvantage to Ice-type attacks and defeated Beartic with just one attack. Yawn. At least Georgia won't bitch that she didn't lose as a result of Iris not using a Dragon-type. Instead, she complained because she felt that Dragonite beat her and not Iris herself, which is surprisingly an appropriate statement.

That exhibition battle wasn't great, either. Neither pokemon got knocked out in the end, and it felt to me that Garchomp's strength diminished in this tournament than it had been in DP. Garchomp singlehandedly took down numerous ace pokemon belonging to Sinnoh E4 members in DP, but it struggled to take down Caitlin's Gothitelle. Of course, it was possible that neither trainer took the battle seriously because it was an exhibition match (i.e. Gothitelle used an electric-type attack on Garchomp, for example, to set up some fireworks).

The only good part about this episode was that two trainers with pokemon species that debuted in this episode - Akihiro (Cinccino) and Hirokazu (Reuniclus)- advanced to the quarterfinals.

 

[DynoStretch]

So let's see what we got out of this tournament so far... Battles that last about as long as it takes to eat a potato chip, Trip glaring at everyone like they just farted, genuinely likeable characters like Burgundy and Langley being tossed aside like CoTD fodder, and Iris winning with her newly obtained, disobedient Dragonite.

....this a great tournament already! :V

I think what ticked me off the most about Iris winning her battle with Langley was how Iris didn't even give a hoot about the fact that Dragonite didn't listen to her or anything. Langey even calls her out on it, but Iris doesn't care and gives us a face like "Who cares what you think? You're just comic relief!"

The best part of this episode had to be the battle of the blondes. Cynthia vs Caitlin. I loved their introductions, and the battle was easily the best match this series has done in a while, granted it would had been nice if the battle actually had a conclusion... or if after Cynthia and Caitlin shook hands they'd start making ou-

I mean waitwhat?

Overall a very drab and yawn episode. Well, maybe next week's episode will be dece-

Next in Japan - Episode #752, Airdate - 23/8/2012

The hell? Three weeks from now?? What's going on, is Japan too busy playing Persona 4 Arena?

 

[sunyshore]

i am surprised nobody is mentioning how many cryptic references cynthia and caitlin made to caitlin's past, including cynthia mentioning how caitlin had lots to overcome herself (her out of control psychic powers?) then caitlin pausing to remember (to herself, not out loud) she has "you" to thank for her being able to grow up, with a soft flashbacky feel, what i thought was an obvious reference to darach.

basically 90% of their dialogue was cryptic references to caitlin's youth at the sinnoh battle frontier.

 

[Cybersai]

I'm feeling both Dawn and Burgundy had no real reason to be in this tournament. So Dawn's only win is going to be a 3 second battle with Piplup?

Dawn's whole role in BW2 has been rather lackluster so far, and seeing her being swept under the rug for this tournament isn't helping. Burgundy has officially become a lost cause and a joke rival.

I can't say that the next episodes won't be better, but this ep left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[Idon'tcare]

First part was uninteresting. No episode until 23rd August will make me impatient for this Junior Cup to go by.

I never really cared how Iris's character was handled, but this is the first time I have been disappointed in her. I mean her cheering over 'her victory' against Langley even though she didn't do anything. As Langley quite rightly pointed out it was Kairyu who beat her, not Iris. Iris should have shown concern despite winning it, Kairyu didn't listen to her throughout the battle and thus making this whole thing pure luck. But nope, Iris only worried during the battle and after she won no fretting at all, Iris is just happy over a win her disobedient Kairyu did by it itself.

What I enjoyed here include; The Dent and Cabernet interaction remaining entertaining even when it's short, I also loved it when Cabernet told Hikari to be careful of Dent. And Dent feeling nervous towards seeing his muscle-bound opponent was funny, also of course Adeku would hit on Shirona of course. There was decent entertainment at least.

 

[HumanDawn]

i am surprised nobody is mentioning how many cryptic references cynthia and caitlin made to caitlin's past, including cynthia mentioning how caitlin had lots to overcome herself (her out of control psychic powers?) then caitlin pausing to remember (to herself, not out loud) she has "you" to thank for her being able to grow up, with a soft flashbacky feel, what i thought was an obvious reference to darach.

basically 90% of their dialogue was cryptic references to caitlin's youth at the sinnoh battle frontier.

Oh wow. THE WASTED POTENTIAL. We have like, a year left worth of episodes assuming that Generation Six comes out in September 2013. Surely she's going to show up again so we could flesh out her plot, right? RIGHT? </3

If she's not, then I say DAMN this tournament for focusing on Trip's love affair with Alder and Iris' Dragon Satan. I'm pretty sure that Caitlin, one of the most complex, interesting and compelling characters in the games, could be more entertaining to watch. sleeps only my ass

I'm giving this episode major bonus points for ticking off one of my wishes for Best Wishes. Now GET DARACH HERE. Like, LIKE, THIS MUST HAVE BEEN FORESHADOWING FOR A FUTURE EVENT THAT HAS HER TAKE PART IN RIGHT? They wouldn't make them say something out of the blue with no exploration on the subject right?

HERE'S DIALOGUE IN CYNTHIA'S VILLA IN THE GAMES:

Cynthia's villa
"Having everything go your way is the road to disillusionment. Knowing the difference between what's impossible and what's possible... I used to know someone who talked about that a lot."
"No matter how hard I try, I cannot defeat Cynthia. Before, I would have exploded with rage. Now, I have the tranquility to reflect on my performance to see how I can improve."
"Tell me something. Are you familiar with Battle Castles? You can find them in Johto and Sinnoh, so challenge them to improve yourself."
"This is my villa. I have villas all over the world, and I allow Cynthia to use them. You are welcome to come and play whenever you wish."
"Having no psychic powers at all is better than having psychic powers you can't control."

They did Flint and Volkner's, surely they can do Cynthia and Caitlin's?

 

[WatcherMark]

Yeah, judging by the pictures of Filb this episode seems to be a massive disappointment. Chillaccino and Lanculus's debuts turn out to be pointless cameos, Cabernet is knocked out of the tournament with her Hihidaruma not getting to use a single move (what's the point of her being there, except to make snarky remarks about Dent), Satoshi's Hahakomori made a rare appearance that was nothing more than stock footage and Iris's Kairyu walked over Tunbear despite the fact it doesn't obey or like her... and if the thing doesn't like her why did it let itself be captured anyway?

 

[Signas]

Not much that can be said that hasn't been already. Very disappointing, and rushed. Alder was pretty amusing, and Caitlin/Cynthia's battle was fun. Other than that though, it felt more like a montage than an actual episode. The real cherry on the shit sundae though was Dragonite taking no damage from any Ice moves, and just beating the living piss out of Beartic. I know the anime rarely follows the game logic, but seriously. Come on. I'm supposed to believe that a Dragon type can shrug off x4 super effective moves, but an Ice type falls to one normally super effective move?

 

[Silktree]

I'm supposed to believe that a Dragon type can shrug off x4 super effective moves, but an Ice type falls to one normally super effective move?

Yes. Quadruple type advantages have never been properly referenced in the anime. Neither has STAB, for that matter.

 

[Ash6K]

I really liked seeing Cynthia vs. Caitlin. Makes me hope that we'll see both of them after the tournament. Trip seems pretty determined to go up against Alder so it's nice to see that come up. As for the battles, I'm actually not that surprised that it was mostly rushed besides the end battle. Between the exhibition match and the final first round match, they couldn't have put some detailed matches all into one episode. Maybe an extra episode would've helped but overall, it wasn't too bad imo. Pretty decent with my favorite part being Cynthia vs. Caitlin.

 

[wind]

I felt like I was watching an episode of Dragonball Z at times. Most of those fights were decided by differences in power, and that's pretty much this episode.

I'm only saying this for BW2 (as I haven't seen much of BW), but so far I feel like the show is struggling with the way it's pairing confidence and excitement into everything. There's so much respect for everyone's "specialness," if that's a word, that losing to anybody is okay, and beating anybody is fine too. Nothing really has any meaning or urgency. I really wouldn't have blinked at all if Ash had lost in this episode, or if any of the main characters had lost. This tournament could have served as a real connection to the league with it being so close, but I don't think Ash or anyone is really emphasizing this tournament as being a really important indicator for that (of course, Dawn, Iris, Cilan wouldn't have a reason to compete then). Instead, the atmosphere is like that you see at maybe kid's competitions, I think, where you're supposed to applaud the good from winners and losers. Losers tried their best; winners were just a little more special or lucky (and that goes back to the valid complaints about Dragonite and its Iris that have already been made). And so, the meaningful competitiveness of the battles just isn't there at all. Battles are being decided by the demeanor of the characters rather than the actual battling-or, battles are won as soon as the character is stepping onto the battling field. There definitely is a huge prize involved here, but (again with this reference) I'm not taking it anymore seriously right now than the exhibition bout against Hercule granted to Trunks for winning the junior division back in Dragonball Z. The fact that Adeku seemed like a flirt doesn't really help either; I don't think this episode, the way it was constructed, was the right time for that scene. :> Hercule was famous for stomach cramps; maybe Adeku will get poison jabbed by a random Croagunk or something so he can't compete. right now, I really don't care either way who battles him or whether he battles or not. Some posts have called for 4 episodes for this arc, but I actually think fewer would have been better. The tournament to battle Palmer was done pretty well in an episode, and I think both tournaments have a similar level of tension to them right now (I personally am not intrigued by Shooti's anger, but I also didn't watch the episode where this all started from; I have seen the way Shinji's resentment for Brandon was done though, and I get the feeling that story arc was a good deal more complex than this one here is-certainly involved Ash more, I think).

 

[Driller678]

How can some of you call this the worst tournament ever when that one with Jesse borrowing Aipom happened? or the one where they all battled to get Togepi (even though it was hilarious)?

 

[p96822]

I'll put this on the top ten worst Pokemon episode list