Review BW104: Fierce Fighting! Win Out in the Rival Battle!!

[Dogasu]

Fierce Fighting! Win Out in the Rival Battle!



Animation - Team Kato
Screenplay - Junki Takegami
Storyboard - Yoshitaka Makino
Assistant director - Fumihiro Yoshimura
Animation director - Takashi Shinohara

Satoshi and Shooty's battle rages on! Can Satoshi defeat his rival and proceed through the Higaki Conference? Meanwhile, Bel and Kotetsu face off in the League's second round!

 

[Musashi]

The Shooty battle was a lot better than the comic made it out to be. Pikachu's finishing move was right out of something you'd see in DP.

Not much to say about the rest, though I'm glad we're finally done with Shooty.

 

[Dogasu]

The "Satoshi loses to Shooty, constantly" montage made me laugh more than it should have

 

[Musashi]

And just as I say that I forget about all the fan service in this episode! I'm sure the sauna scene will have many people squeeing. XD (There's some Mustard just for you @Yoshi-san;!)

 

[WatcherMark]

So Shooty is gone... man, it was like the writers decided "Right, as soon as he loses let's get him the hell out of there". Total write-off of a character and a failure as a rival. Guess they set the bar too high with Shinji.

As for the battle... meh, it was ok. I mean, I guess I kinda have an issue with Jalorda nearly frickin' killing Pikachu but I do like the Iron Tail/Electro Ball combo that finished it off.

Also, seems Riolu knows Copycat. Always nice to see an old move debut in the anime.

 

[Boson]

I'm not sure about you, but Mero-Mero Enbuoh totally cracked me up.

 

[3Dchu]

Ash's battle with Trip ended pretty well. Glad Trip's outta here.

There was nothing wrong with the episode itself though, except one thing I would've wished they kept: Emboar's fling.

How cool would it be if Emboar would fight with Samurott's swords?

 

[Jukain]

I'm sorry, people, but...Ash should not have won. This is one of the lamest excuses for a win I've seen on this show. So the kid's Samurott was female, go figure. Ok, you've convinced me that the Riolu is going to be a pretty tough opponent, and the Samurott is to be reckoned with. The kid is still too dumb to live, though.

 

[Chaosblazer]

The "Satoshi loses to Shooty, constantly" montage made me laugh more than it should have

Trip's face when he realised he lost made me laugh even harder.

I'm sorry, people, but...Ash should not have won. This is one of the lamest excuses for a win I've seen on this show.

Not really, Serperior clearly could not take much damage from being raised to be so freaking evasive.

 

[Shinneth]

So, I gotta ask, how did they handle Trip's "exit" from the series? They already had him rip off part of Paul's swan song in DP as far back as the first Don Battle after he lost. I gotta know if they tried to make it out like Trip mattered at all in this series, or if the writers decided to stop trying to bullshit themselves and the audience and just had him GTFO, CotD style.

 

[Jukain]

I wasn't talking about that. I don't think Pika should've survived being constricted.

 

[TokoWH]

Bleh, it's nice to see Trip finally leave, albeit rather anti-climaticly. Pretty much sums up how lack-luster of a rivial he was. I still feel like you could have removed him from the series and nothing would have changed. I hope the writiers use this as an example that not every series needs to have a rivial for Ash. (Although I did laugh pretty hard at Trips face when he lost. XD)

Other than that, with Riolu being my favorite Pokemon, I loved finally seeing it in a battle. *Is still sore over the DP special with Ash not getting one* I even don't mind that Bianca lost. Seeing it beat an Emboar was bada**.

 

[Cybersai]

Trip is FINALLY gone forever! WOOOHOOO!

Considering both Gary and Paul were written out as soon as Ash beat them in the league, its safe to assume this will be the end of Trip. I also knew he wouldn't stick around to watch the league, they want to get rid of him as soon as possible and sweep him under the rug with other "mistake" characters like Richie and Kenny.

Anyway the battle itself was pretty decent for what it was. Pikachu made up to its two losses to Serperior's unevolved forms and Ash won despite a type disadvantage. Kind of a shame Pignite won't get a revenge match against Serperior though, but oh well.

Goodbye, Trip, you will not be missed, (or even remembered?)

 

[Silktree]

they want to get rid of him as soon as possible and sweep him under the rug with other "mistake" characters like Richie and Kenny.

The Ritchie example really doesn't help your argument. He came back for three episodes in Johto, as well as three Hoso specials.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Phew, I'm glad we will never have to see Trip and his overpowered garden hose again, even if his leave was anti-climatic, I mean, I found Trip to be such a bland character, and I don't think Best Wishes would be any different had he never appeared in the show on the first place.

The battle itself was pretty decent, but could have been done better, especially since Ash won with yet another deus-ex-machina, at least it was nice to see Kotetsu win, but sad to see Bianca lose again, I'm starting to think the writers don't like Bianca at all...

This episode receives a 7/10 from me

 

[Shinneth]

Okay, I gotta ask for a pic of Trip's "I LOST???" expression now since it's been mentioned more than once. XD

 

[Idon'tcare]

I was hoping Kotetsu's Daikenki would be female seeing as the other two fully evolved Isshu starters belonging to Satoshi's rivals are male. Bel's only win against Kotetsu wasn't so impressive compared to how Kotetsu beats her.

Okay, I gotta ask for a pic of Trip's "I LOST???" expression now since it's been mentioned more than once. XD

Spoiler

His expression is just priceless, it's clearly full of disbelief and shock.

 

[Shinneth]

... That is amazing. I'm saving that pic so hard.

For all the mistakes Best Wishes makes, they sure do mop 'em up in a beautiful way. :')

SANKYUU~ ♥

 

[Moe]

I really enjoyed this episode - while sure it's a bit annoying Pikachu could withstand so many hits, he more than made up for that with the extreme joy upon knocking Serperior out - that was great. I don't know what iron electroball is supposed to achieve, but at least it's finally a combination move again.

Kotetsu's Ferrothorn's Pin Missile (?) into the mouth of that Eelektross is probably the oddest battle win in a while.

I also liked the scene with Pikachu, Oshawott and Riolu - firstly because it's nice to see Pokemon interacting without their trainers, but moreso for the rapid escalation from kicking water to a Thunderbolt. This is a good episode for Pikachu. Another plus point for the Moo Moo Milk reference. Johto arc confirmed

Bianca's reaction to Riolu is great, along with her telling herself to be serious about it - I really wished Bianca could have gone further but hopefully she'll be good in the remaining episodes of the league. I really dislike relying on Attract - especially when Gen V is so devoid of gender differences to make it anything less than a coin toss as to its success. But at least she got Escavalier under control.

Did Trip have to wave like that. At least he wasn't walking down a staircase...

 

[Shinneth]

Did Trip have to wave like that. At least he wasn't walking down a staircase...

Trip's been riffing off Paul's exit gestures since the end of the first Don Battle. So somehow, I'm not surprised by this. Not that this excuses it, but at least we got the best expression from Trip that we've gotten in the entire show from him.

Slightly off-topic, I do find the timing hilarious. Not only do they get rid of Trip first AND boot him out immediately after, but it's only after they write Trip out of the series that they confirmed N appearing in the show. It's like the staff is saying "SORRY WE WASTED YOUR TIME THE LAST TWO YEARS WITH THIS LOSER, HERE - HAVE N AS OUR APOLOGY".

This is so much better than how they sent of Kenny. XD