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Review BW107: Satoshi VS Kotetsu! Secret Weapon Sazandora!!

My God that was terrible. Watching this battle was so cringe worthy. Rushed as fuck, just Attack Attack Attack. Stupid pokemon decisions by Kotetsu. Oh man, what an absolutely terrible way to end the league. Is this really how low the writers have gone.

also, did Unfezant even have a new move?
 
Did Unfezant even have a new move?

Nope, but we found out that Ferrothorn (ironically enough in its 30 second appearance) had its fourth move revealed: Mirror Shot.

The worst part is Kotetsu's stupidity is somehow managing to make Ash look even weaker. He's about to lose a 6-5 match, with two of the Pokemon being knocked out because Kotetsu forgot about type disadvantages. It's like the writers are trying to outdo themselves in making Ash a weakling.

Two of Ash's pokemon lost to Hydreigon, a pseudo-legendary pokemon. In past leagues, Ash has struggled to defeat pseudo-legendaries, and sometimes it took more than two pokemon to take them down. It is better that two non-fully evolved pokemon lost to a Hydreigon than to have two fully-evolved pokemon lose to something like Paul's Ursaring or Drapion, which were unbelievably overpowered. (Not even Barry was able to stop Ursaring with a type advantage.)

Another one of Ash's pokemon lost to a Samurott, with whom Pignite had a type disadvantage.

Two (probably three) of Ash's pokemon will lose to a pokemon that has been shown to be so powerful that it took down Bianca's Emboar all by itself. Riolu was built up as being the Pikachu of Kotetsu's team; it is a walking pokemon with as much experience and battling power as Pikachu. If Pikachu is able to defeat a Samurott with Iron Tail (a move that Samurott is supposed to resist due to her Water-typing), then Riolu should be more than capable of defeating Unfezant with a few Circle Throws and Vacuum Waves that Unfezant does not resist.
 
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Wow, so I was actually correct in my prediction that Kotetsu only has five pokemon on him?

Dang, I wish I'd flaunted it a bit more.
 
Since everything that I wanted to say is already said, just paint me purple and call me names!!! This battle was as bad and shity as fuck! No strategy...no rhythm no whatsoever!

What the hell did not Satoshi send Chaoboo against Sazandora after Ganlte?
What did shithead send Nutrey against Chaoboo?
What did Shithead send Swanna against Pika?
What did Sato keep Chaoboo against Daikenki?
What did not Kenhallow at least land 1 god damn hit on Riolu?

This is so frustrating! why can't they do this right? The god damn league is supposed to be the god damn climax of the saga!!!!!

this is by far the worst battle I've ever seen and this is by far the worst league ever! Jesus Christ!
I so hope that Kotetsu beats Pika now just out of spite!
 
@Ampharos King; You fail to realize my point. For starters, if Ash had opted Oshawott and Snivy for Palpitoad and Leavanny, he'd still have a diverse team. He'd still have a Water-type and a Grass-type. The difference is Palpitoad would also give him a Ground-type and Leavanny would give him a Bug-type as well.

Leavanny could grant him super-effective damage against two of Kotetsu's Pokemon (Samurott, Hydreigon) and a neutral damage against three (Swanna, Ferrothorn, Riolu). While, yes, Leavanny is weak to Swanna's Flying-type and Ferrothorn's Pin Missile, so is Snivy, but she can only tackle Samurott for super effective damage and neutral to only two (Swanna, Riolu). On top of that, Leavanny can resist Riolu's Fighting-type moves due to his Bug-type, something that Snivy can't do. While Snivy's Attract is useful, she hasn't used it since, I believe, "Evolution by Fire" (I might be wrong, as I haven't watched the anime in a while, but still), and she hasn't used it here. Attract could've helped Snivy a lot here, but Leavanny has the advantage, not to mention a slightly better record. Remember, in his debut Gym Battle, he took down both Dwebble and Whirlipede, despite a double type disadvantage, just as a Sewaddle and Swadloon. So Leavanny would've been a better choice over Snivy.

Likewise, Palpitoad has move variety in his moves than Oshawott. While Oshawott probably resists more, Palpitoad has proven to be a far better battler. Able to take hits and deliver even bigger ones. On top of that, Oshawott has not proven to be the most reliable in tough situations, while Palpitoad has proven to be more than able to do the job, even though he has been handed a few defeats. Palpitoad's Mud Shot could deal super effective damage against Lucario while neutral to Ferrothorn, while Sludge Wave could easily turn the tables on one of Kotetsu's non Steel-types with the Poison status ailment. He is also shown to be more physically tough than Oshawott, and a lot more confident, which his strength backs up, unlike Oshawott, who is boastful, but can't back it up. Palpitoad would've been a better choice over Oshawott, both with battling skill and raw power.

Now, Scraggy or Krookodile would've been better than Unfezant due to a number of reasons. Scraggy's Fighting-type moves could easily put a bad dent in Lucario, Hydreigon, and Ferrothorn, something that Unfezant can't do. While, yes, Riolu/Lucario could use its Fighting-type moves over Scraggy's Dark-type, Scraggy can still do a lot to his team in return. Now Krookodile is a real powerhouse to begin with. Even if his types against Kotetsu isn't the greatest, he does have a nice selection of moves to use, which can easily compensate for that. Dig could deal with Lucario and, to a lesser extent, Ferrothorn, Dragon Claw against Hydreigon, Aerial Ace can deal neutral damage to Lucario and Ferrothorn, and Stone Edge could shut down Swanna. Either Scraggy or Krookodile would've been better choices over Unfezant, who could only hit Riolu with super effective damage and Ferrothorn and Lucario for neutral.

That's my argument. Pignite, Boldore, and, of course, Pikachu were good choices (though Boldore is a toss up here), the rest were not good ideas. He'd still have a diverse team, using pretty much the same types, it's just his other four Pokemon (Leavanny, Scraggy, Palpitoad, Krookodile) would've done much better over Oshawott, Snivy, and Unfezant, especially since they got their clocks cleaned pretty easily in this battle (though Snivy did fare fairly well until Lucario came into play).
 
So the "secret weapon" all along was... the fact that Kotetsu only had five Pokemon all along!

Knowing him, this is probably what he seriously believes. And... wait, I remember someone saying the reason Kotetsu had only five is because he thought a full battle = 5-on-5. Is that true. If so my brain will probably implode upon itself.

It's true that it's not entirely fair to judge Kotetsu's handling since we only got to know him ten episodes before the league... at the same time, this is a really fucking terrible way of selling him when he does dumb bullshit like feed his Ferrothorn and Swanna to obvious double-weakness odds. On top of all the other way-extreme ways the writers have used to practically scream at us that Kotetsu is the dumbest trainer who's ever lived. Not exactly the kind of opponent you want for a climax battle in the League, you know?

At least type logic was not completely disregarded. By this point I'd half-expect Ferrothorn and Swanna to take like a dozen 4x-effective hits and not even break a sweat. :|

The only thing that keeps me from being legitimately angry about this is that I still feel Ash deserves to lose in a way that makes him out to look pathetic.

But I think it's safe to say now that this is the worst league since the Indigo League. :p
 
Despite having watched nearly all episodes over the years since I was a kid (god my afternoons after school were epic when the first season aired :D ) I'll only limit my disappointment to a fairly recent continuity/progress issue I have and local logic (or within-league logic):

How does he beat Trip, a clearly strong and skillful trainer, and still loses to a dude with 2 strong pokémon and, essentially, 3 slowpoke (let's be honest Kotetsu's Swanna and Ferrothorn were useless and his Samurott barely puts up a fight against Pikachu)?

I got the logic when he lost in the Johto league: more experienced trainer and even then he loses by a small margin (epic Charizard vs Blaziken); Hoenn league: Tyson is a tough opponent with strong pokémon all round and goes on to win the conference; Sinnoh: Tobias is a freaking god... almost made me scared he'd have an Entei or some other legendaries...; and here???? Unova: he battles a dude with 2 strong pokémon, which he could have defeated in my opinion, they are not made strong enough to deserve a win (like Tyson's Meowth or Harrisson's Keckleon, who are shown to clearly be far stronger than their species), and 3 jokes that barely stay in play long enough to spell out their names... I have been a fan of the anime and the games for well over 15 years now, but seriously, the writers don't even seem to try anymore... they could've built up the show more and have him evolve some pokémon on his team, train them harder and then lose in the final to a super-strong trainer or, why not, PAUL coming back for a rematch :D that'd have been fun.... but not this... the only way it could've been more humiliating is if they'd had Ash get beat by some dude with a team of 6 magikarp/dunsparce..

Even for the kids who just discover Pokémon now, this is not good television, this battle is a joke, the whole BW series isn't compelling one bit. Compare this to the kids who discovered pokémon with the DP saga, and the Lilly of the Valley Conference and gym leaders like Volkner... Now THAT's something!
 
Wow. And I thought the writers from the newer episodes of Spongebob Squarepants were worser than this.
 
Two of Ash's pokemon lost to Hydreigon, a pseudo-legendary pokemon. In past leagues, Ash has struggled to defeat pseudo-legendaries, and sometimes it took more than two pokemon to take them down. It is better that two non-fully evolved pokemon lost to a Hydreigon than to have two fully-evolved pokemon lose to something like Paul's Ursaring or Drapion, which were unbelievably overpowered. (Not even Barry was able to stop Ursaring with a type advantage.)

And yet when he battled those pseudo legendarys, he was able to win, or at least take out four other capable Pokemon before he lost. Pseudo on Kotetsu's team or not, he's incredibly weak if he couldn't win even with an extra Pokemon then his opponent. The only reason he's made as much progress as he did in this fight was due to Kotetsu's idiocy in picking 4x weak stuff like Ferrothorn and Swanna. Ash picked his team horribly and used them in the fight horribly.

Any accomplishment he gets out of this fight will only be because his opponent only had five Pokemon, and two of which fell within seconds thanks to type disadvantage forgetfulness. The whole experience will be even worse if Ash loses.
 
The battle is ''okay'' as of yet, just about what I'd expect from a 6 on 6 (or rather, 6 on 5) battle. Nearly each and everyone of them has been rushed as hell, except for the oneAsh fought against Paul, so naturally this one would be no exepction. However, it was kinda boring with there mostly only being exchanges of attacks, like in the games, and the battle between Pignite and Hydreigon was a perfect example of that. Having Pikachu and Pignite shine while all of the others were fall guys was awful, but that's also a common thing in 6 on 6 battles. Oshawott and Snivy were the ones who definitely deserved at least one victory each, but that doesn't seem to be the case unfortunately.

Shame really. The battle Ash fought with Stephan was great, and it is IMO definitely the best 3 on 3 battle that I've seen in a League, but this battle was nothing compared to it. But even though it seems highly implausible, I definitely want to see Ash win this battle. Having him lose to Kotetsu when he even has an advantage of having one more Pokémon would be awful, and I'd rather see him win this battle and then see him lose a quick battle to Virgil than having him lose here. :/

I did enjoy the last 5 minutes of the episode. Once Riolu entered, the battles suddenly become much better, despite the much to repeated use of SonicBoom or whatever it was. Both Unfezant and Snivy put up good battle, especially Snivy. Her motivation was clearly visable as Riolu at first completely dominated the battle, but then she got back at track and picked up her whip to put him back in place. Ugh... Riolu is my favorite Pokémon and all, but I really want it to lose... BUT OMG IT'S AN ACROBAT <3333
 
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On a side note, I think Kotetsu may actually have a sixth Pokemon. According to the next episode, there is a Druddigon listed, but has no trainer (yet), so I'm guessing that it belongs to him. But I could be wrong on that.
Kotetsu's Lucario falls to Pikachu, and Kotetsu is devastated that he lost the League. Suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, the crowd sees a twinkling star in the middle of the sun. (yes, they are all looking directly at the sun.) The star dims and grows, revealing Crimgan! The Crimgan comes to greet Kotetsu, and the latter promptly proceeds to accidentally breathe fire onto Crimgan's face to show its affection. (wait... what?!) The higher-ups in the League then decide that Kotetsu be allowed to use his Crimgan as a 6th Pokemon. It is then revealed that Crimgan's moveset is Bubblebeam, Peck, and Fly. (Kotetsu wasn't aware that Crimgan were capable of having more than 3 moves.)

Edit: Pikachu then loses to Crimgan in a battle lasting less than a minute.
 
I like to think that Kotetsu threw in Swanna and Nattorei out to throw Ash a bone, as a way to repay him for saving his ass. And he "forgot" the 5th Pokemon to either challenge himself, or to go easy on Ash.

The match itself is pretty shitty.
 
On a side note, I think Kotetsu may actually have a sixth Pokemon. According to the next episode, there is a Druddigon listed, but has no trainer (yet), so I'm guessing that it belongs to him. But I could be wrong on that.
Kotetsu's Lucario falls to Pikachu, and Kotetsu is devastated that he lost the League. Suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, the crowd sees a twinkling star in the middle of the sun. (yes, they are all looking directly at the sun.) The star dims and grows, revealing Crimgan! The Crimgan comes to greet Kotetsu, and the latter promptly proceeds to accidentally breathe fire onto Crimgan's face to show its affection. (wait... what?!) The higher-ups in the League then decide that Kotetsu be allowed to use his Crimgan as a 6th Pokemon. It is then revealed that Crimgan's moveset is Bubblebeam, Peck, and Fly. (Kotetsu wasn't aware that Crimgan were capable of having more than 3 moves.)

Edit: Pikachu then loses to Crimgan in a battle lasting less than a minute.


If this turns out to be true, I will never watch pokémon again... between that and Ash needing 6 poké's to beat what's-her-face poison lover in virbank. This show is losing everything good about it.
 
God that was mediocre to okay-ish, this battle is well past the point of salvation unfortunately. Why the hell did they just not have like three battles this episode and spend the next episode on the other battles? Unless N interrupts the league next episode or something happens to end the league and Kotetsu and Satoshi have another full battle later, this will be the inevitable conclusion.

Oh, Kotetsu, I love your personality. But what the hell where you thinking throwing Natorrei and Swanna out there only to be, rightfully so, knocked-out in less than a minute by those dual-powered attacks? ._. He does his headband(Focus Band?) thing to come up with cool ideas. It's a shame because Kenyan VS. Satoshi was a very good battle. What happened? Tsutarja and Mijumaru definitely deserved wins, but Chaobu and Pikachu, ugh. The straight-up "game" style battling got on my nerves, Pokemon exchanging attacks over and over. I really wish Waruvial and Hahakomori could have been used over Gantle and Kenharou, they are the best reserves of the whole team and I would have loved seeing Hahakomori trashing that Dragon.

Ugh, a God damn Natorrei against a Chaobu? There is no reason!

Sanzandora and Riolu were cool and cute, when Tsutarja took the stage the battle became much better though. She was getting battled aside by Riolu all day, although I don't think Tsutarja has really become stronger or is that strong. Everyone was starstruck by her in the beginning due to her being the most experienced Isshu Pokemon, but that's gradually worn off and Tsutarja has hit a threshold where she's not anything impressive. Though she managed to turn things around like a pro and Satoshi pulled a cool Vine Whip + Leaf Storm combo out of his ass and Tsutarja used those vines as a mode of dodging and she seemed to have Riolu done for until the evolution came into play.

I really loved Riolu, the acrobatics and overall animation for his battles were amazing. Vacuum Wave is still pretty bland due to the overuse, but man Copy Cat looked so badass along with Circle Throw. I understand the writers wanna advertise Riolu and Lucario along with the Eevees, but is that really the right way to do things at the expense of a rushed battle and Satoshi's female Pokemon, plus a tired Pikachu who dealt with Swanna and Daikenki previously being bitch slapped?

Riolu, Sanzandora, and Tsutarja were the high-lights and the evolution was badass and the animation and Pikachu's battling at times, otherwise rushed and okay-ish to mediocre overall. Kotetsu forgetting his 6th Pokemon, ugh.

Next episode looks like nothing but solely Lucario focus and high intense battling, all this just to advertise him? Really? It looks well-paced and cool, but what the hell? Lucario doesn't need this much advertisement and focus.

I hope this is the last bird Satoshi gets, if you're a fully evolved bird and can't do shit against an unevolved Fighting-type....you fail at life.

The writers make a Pokemon as powerful as they want, Kenharou, Gantle, and Mijumaru got the short end of the stick for the sake of advertising the over hyped Lucario family.
 
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What I want to know is how the writers - who haven't changed since DP - looked at their league battles from then and said "what we've written now is some good shit, people will love this!"

And ferrothorn vs Pignite was a genius idea on Kotetsu's part. He snapped his headband, caught a brain blast and realized that "this is BW! The bigger the disadvantage, the higher the chance for victory!"
 
There was one part of the episode that was probably unintentionally funny. When Samurott hit Pikachu with that shell-blade and yelled "DIIIIIIIIIIIEEE!!!"
 
And yet when he battled those pseudo legendarys, he was able to win, or at least take out four other capable Pokemon before he lost.

The only difference between this battle and other battles in the past with pseudo-legendaries was that Ash's opponent sent it out firsthand, so Ash's pokemon were at full strength when they fought it. Nevertheless, it took a great deal of sacrifices for Ash's pokemon just to take one pseudo-legendary down in each battle.

The only reason he's made as much progress as he did in this fight was due to Kotetsu's idiocy in picking 4x weak stuff like Ferrothorn and Swanna. Ash picked his team horribly and used them in the fight horribly.

Personally, I felt that his team was very diverse here, and all of them have won battles one way or another. Two of those pokemon won over two Unova gym leaders' strongest pokemon after they evolved. The real issue is not that Ash chose a horrible team. Rather, the writers decided to make Ash's team weak here so they could lose. The writers can make a pokemon as powerful as they want it to be to make a battle more interesting. Were Unfezant and Boldore any weaker than Staraptor or Torterra were during the battle against Paul just because they never got any victories then? Nope, Ash chose a team with diverse and powerful pokemon that the writers decided to treat as fall guys for the time being so they could make certain pokemon win here. Nothing has changed with Ash's battling style from DP.

If Ash is a weakling here, then Bianca and Trip are equally weak for the same reasons mentioned above.

I do agree with you, however, that Kotetsu's decision to send out pokemon with type disadvantages against Ash's was a stupid move on his part. The writers really rushed this battle, so something had to give.
 
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11 hits to take out Sazandora (Rock Smash, Aqua Jet, Shell Blade, Hydro Pump, Tackle, Brick Break X 3, Flamethrower X 2, Nitro Charge)
Natorrei-2(Flamethrower, Nitro Charge)
Daikenki-3 (Quick Attack, Iron Tail X 2(Electric-type moves were deflected)
Swanna-1(ElekiBall)

Riolu- 3 (Leaf Blade, Vine Whip(Slams to ground three times), Leaf Storm, and counting)

20 hits all together for Kotetsu's five Pokemon this episode.



Gantle-5(Tri Attack X 2, Dragon Pulse X 2, Dragon Dive)
Mijumaru-4(Dragon Pulse(hotachi isn't too good at weathering the attack), Tri Attack(Can't block three moves at once), Double Attack, Dragon Dive)
Chaobu-6 (Dragon Pulse, Tri Attack, Dragon Dive, Pin Missle, Hydro Cannon, Aqua Jet)
Kenharou-4(Force Palm, Copycat!Air Cutter, Vacuum Wave, Circle Throw)

Tsutarja- 4(Copycat!Leaf Blade, Force Palm, Circle Throw, Vacuum Wave, and counting)
Pikachu-3 (Shell Blade, Hydro Cannon, Wing Attack and counting)

26 hits all together for Satoshi's six Pokemon.



Some Pokemon survived longer than I though, some inflicted more damage than I thought. Kotetsu's Sanzandora and Riolu are ridiculous though 0_o Mijumaru inflicted more damage than Gantle.
 
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And here I thought the league couldn't get any worse after the shoehorned Axew subplot. After that last battle - which was about as good as a DP battle - we get this facepalm-worthy disaster. It's really hard to believe that Ash is going to lose this battle after all his performances in previous series.

This isn't the worst league since Indigo; this is the worst league PERIOD.
 
You know what really bugs me (apart from what everyone else has been saying)? We still don't get to see a full 6 v 6 battle in Unova. This is the closest we've come, a 6 v 5, and holy fuckbags has it been awful. We had a 6 v 3, which was also god awful, and a 5 v 3, which was also awful. What the fuck happened?

Considering the last battle was probably the best battle we've seen in unova, its hard to understand how the writers can go from a really well written battle to this complete garbage.

Worst league ever, even worse than kanto. Why? because it should be better. There is no excuse for a league being this bad. Kanto was understandable. It was the first league, ash was a complete novice, it was over 10 years ago, The writing has improved a lot since then. But now this? this shit is unforgivable
 
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