Review BW101: Soryu Gym! Iris VS Shaga!!

[Sweet Veil]

As expected, this turned out to be a very short gym battle, but I am still surprised and upset that Excadrill got a f'ing tie against Drayden's Haxorus. With the exception of him learning Focus Blast and being more in synch with Iris, Excadrill did not really improve over the course of this series. Very little has been suggested that Iris's Excadrill is particularly more powerful than any of the other pokemon on the main cast, and Excadrill has lost numerous times as well; most notably against Montgomery's Throh. Excadrill tied against Georgia's Beartic after it lost once, although Beartic's strength was more around Excadrill's level. Excadrill also barely won his battle against Burgundy's Dewott back at the Clubsplosion.

Meanwhile, Haxorus had been established as Drayden's most powerful and signature pokemon in the anime, had enough durability to resist Excadrill's Drill Run attack during their first battle (which is ironically the attack that Excadrill used to win here), and completely annihilated Excadrill with just one attack. Haxorus was the type of opponent that one could not have defeated with just power alone, and realistically it would have taken more than one of Iris's pokemon to win against it. It was a shame that Haxorus had been taken down so easily here by a pokemon that barely improved in this series. I felt that Haxorus should have overpowered Excadrill at the end, but once again Iris seems to get the glory treatment here.

BW isn't nearly as long as DP, Iris doesn't get as many battles as others, not to mention she has a Dento to compete with for screentime, unlike Takeshi. The thing about BW is most of the training clearly happens off-screen, it's not like DP which devoted many episodes to Pokemon training regularly. We see small scenes of Satoshi and Iris training before episodes or at the end of episodes, that's all we need to see. We, as the viewers, can early surmise that it happens off-screen because the episode canon says that Satoshi has trained hard. At the end of the Don Battle Tournament Iris is all like, "These are the fruit of my training!" and Satoshi is all like in various episodes "All our hard training has paid off!", even Homika says "Wow, your Pokemon must all be in mad good shape!". The writers are telling us it happens off-screen.


Ononokusu is not Gaburias, Shaga is not Shirona. He is defeatable. Doryuuzu and Ononokusu tied, Doryuuzu didn't win. Iris certainly wasn't glorified since this whole episode was about teaching her a lesson and seeing the relationship she's built with her Pokemon, specifically Kairyu and Doryuuzu. The battle was rushed very very true, but overall Shaga won since Crimgan completely sponged Kairyu's Ice Beam for some reason.(Powered up Mold Breaker, maybe?) Since Shaga won this time, I could easily see Iris returning in the filler saga and facing off against Shaga and winning. Shaga got serious when Kairyu came out and really kicked into full gear and won with ease.



This episode told us Iris isn't ready to be a Gym Leader, that's probably gonna be her main focus goal during the filler arc. with becoming a Dragon Master being the second banana goal. Which is weird since she wants to be a Dragon Master not a Gym Leader, hopefully Kibago evolves, battles more, and gets more focus after this experience with Shaga. They can toss a marketable Dragon like Fukamaru or a 6th Gen Dragon her way in his place.

 

[Hurricane Kishore]

So Does Iris becoming a Gym Leader or She considering herself to be a Gym Leader ?
Is She going to be in the Filler saga ?
Is the filler Saga going to take Place in Unova ?
Does Ash really going to leave Unova without achieving anything ?
Those are the question this episode has created !!!!

 

[jman21]

I'm just glad she lost

 

[weeaboo_girl84]

I'm just glad she lost

Not a fan of Iris, eh? I actually don't blame you, but do you have a reason why you're glad she lost?

 

[Chiss]

Was it just me, or did she get a new, slightly less annoying voice actor?

 

[Ishida]

What was she crying about when she was younger?

 

[p96822]

That she can't make friend easily and the lost of that battle

 

[Hellwarden]

I think it's putting it lightly when I say that Iris's development has divided people. That said...


...I think you gotta be pretty cold-hearted to not feel something when watching Iris's childhood this ep.

But onto the quality of said episode, I thought it was a solid episode that did a decent job of showing Iris's character, and not going overboard.

 

[Chiss]

I loved the Oran & Pecha berries on a stick that were so "Natsukashii" to her.
Great episode.

 

[Paulisthebest]

Just watched the battle between Iris and Drayden and I must say that I liked it. Not because Iris lost mind you, I mean I’ve never been an Iris mascot but I’m just saying that it was a good battle. Yes, it was rushed like most BW battles but still it was something to watch.

Of course round 1 was the long awaited match or should I say rematch that was based on Excadrill’s relationship with Iris. The reason I liked this one was because you get to see how much stronger these two had become. Even though it blocked Excadrill’s attacks, seeing Haxorus being pushed back for that Metal Claw for example was a surprise and shows the improvement that Excadrill and Iris developed since their first match.

Not so fond of it ending in a tie but oh well. Like most people in BW, I really wanted to see more of Haxorus’ attacks but like Head Charge being the only move we see from Alder’s signature Pokemon it’s easy to expect the same from Drayden’s.

Round 2, the reason I liked it was because of the realism like Dragonite taking damage from Dragon Claw. That Dragon Tail was badass though wish it was that powerful in the games. Being held in midair after that failed Dragon Rush will be one of the highlights of that battle for me.

Overall, the battle should have been longer but it was one of my favorites in BW.

 

[L-05308]

I have a lot of respect for Iris after this episode, I think it was quite special how, though the episode hardley focused on Iris and Excadrill's relationship, they managed to note it so wonderfully, I don't think anything was said, just the way she looked at that drawing of him. <3

 

[Rajagopal90]

A good episode afterall.. first half better than second.. again rushed gym battles being quite frequent in BW.. nevertheless Excadrill was able to score its revenge eventhough Haxorus was underplayed.. Druddigon defence seems to be high enough to block ice beam nd dragon rush(midway) and defeat Dragonite(taste of its own medicine).. fitting end to Iris saga being counted as future gym leader of Opelucid(fair enuf but needs to train her dragons more).. Hope that fraxure becomes one of Iris's pokes

 

[AlphaMouse]

So, that's Iris sidelined after the saga. But with two Dragon types? Really?

 

[Yamadora]

Really nice episode. The first half with Iris' problems living in society was really nice and quite amusing as well. I laughed when she climbed that tower to make herself calm down about upcoming battle against Shaga and when Junsar was after her.

Soryu Gym was really cool with all those Dragon/Crimgan/Ononokus/Sazandora statues. The battle didn't last really long, but I'm just happy to see some Doryuzu battle screentime so I won't complain. I was also really surprised that Doryuzu vs Ononokus was first, I was expecting to see it last. Kairyu vs Crimgan was really nice battle also in animation-wise, and the music (Black & White Ending Theme) was perfect. Too bad it'll be probably replaced in the dub.
And some great example about what we who don't know Japanese will miss: I didn't know about Iris becoming a Gym Leader before reading it from here.

 

[lalalei2001]

Iris is a Gym Leader in the first set of games =\

 

[Karamazov]

Iris is a Gym Leader in the first set of games =\

Technically, she's only a Gym Leader in White. But the games and anime are in a different canon, so

 

[Rentorar]

I really hope we see Kibago evolve soon.

 

[Caseydia]

I think it's putting it lightly when I say that Iris's development has divided people. That said...


...I think you gotta be pretty cold-hearted to not feel something when watching Iris's childhood this ep.

But onto the quality of said episode, I thought it was a solid episode that did a decent job of showing Iris's character, and not going overboard.

I don't think people are divided but a bit confused at the most that's going on. To me it feels that the attention and the devotion that Excadrill is getting is what Axew should be getting but since it was her first Pokemon, it of course make sense. I wonder why the writers didn't want her to have other dragon Pokemon other than her having a Excadrill when she was first introduced? I would have loved to have seen her with a Crimgan abit earlier but nevermind.

 

[Adil]

TV ratings for this episode - 5.1%

 

[Master Cyrus]

TV ratings for this episode - 5.1%

Is that good or bad?