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

[Satoshi_Pikachu]

I didn't watch the episode (college apps D, but if it's as bad as everyone is making it sound, then the league has reached a whole new level of BS.

Really, Kotetsu only had 5 Pokémon? Why isn't he disqualified?

 

[Rajagopal90]

Crappiest episode in the anime history.. too many mistakes whats happening..????
To start with,, Hydreigon seems to take all hits but stil survive(hit by super effective brick break thrice to make it faint).. It can be pseudo-legendary but everything has weakness which is not shown much... next boldore doesnt resist much as it should have considering its type,, and oshawott did battle well but pitting it against hydreigon is such a waste. Would have been good to see snivy against hydreigon.. stil i would have gone for scraggy/krookodile in the team... Also pignite fighting upto samurott is disaster,, ferrothorn to pignite, swanna to pikachu are just an example of very horrible writing... Unfezant couldnt escape any of riolu's attacks but riolu dint even get hit on opposite which couldnt be understood.. and more than that copycat hits everyone everytime but not even the originals did hit... Snivy is fighting hard,,atleast it made riolu evolve..
More importantly kotetsu admitting that he has oly 5 pokes thinking its 5vs5 full battle is so so irritating,, no trainer hasnt been like this but this is league man!!!!
Expecting for a double-KO....

 

[Ping Ling]

Before this battle I made my peace with Kotetsu beating Ash, but after seeing this episode I'm pissed off again. Not only is he going to beat him (in spite of him making tons of God-awful decisions throughout the battle) he's going to do it with a handicap. Seriously writers, you have to be trolling -.-

What makes it worse is that judging by the fact that Kotetsu thought a full battle was a 5 on 5 heavily implies that this is his first ever full battle. Similarly, the fact that he thought he only needed 7 badges to compete in a regional league heavily implies that this is his first ever league. So, not only is Ash losing to an absolute numbskull, he's losing to a numbskull rookie with a handicap. This kid is about to reach the semi finals of a regional league tournament in his first try, something which took Ash 4 tries to do. Way to rub salt, vinegar and lemon juice into an already open wound, writers.

I'm expecting more trolling from the writers in the next episode. Lucario and Pikachu will probably tie and Ash, (being the goody two shoes that he is) will probably concede the battle. He will probably be like "I lost all of my Pokemon, if you had brought a sixth you would have won anyway" and then they'll shake hands. It fits Ash's character since he's the type of guy who puts friendship (with both humans and Pokemon alike) before anything else. Either that or Pikachu will beat Lucario and just before Ash and Pikachu celebrate their victory, Kotetsu scratches his head a Pidgey falls out and whirlwinds Pikachu, Ash, Cilan and Iris out of the stadium and back to Juniper's lab. Thus giving Kotetsu the victory.

 

[WatcherMark]

Ok, let's start with that I like about this episode...

- Riolu's evolution in Lucario is one of the best I've ever seen in the show, it had such great animation.
- Nice to see the animators trying something new with the scoreboard. It looks fantastic (although I was a little sad to hear the usual sound effects replaced).
- The crowd's reaction shots were altered to reflect what was happening in the battle. This was one of my few complaints during the Sinnoh League, with the crowd smiling gormlessly despite tense things happening in the main area.

Right, now I've paid the obligatory compliments:

- Kotetsu only has five Pokemon with him... the reasoning for this, I cannot possibly comprehend both character wise and writing wise. Kotetsu is so friggin' idiotic, I'm surprised he remembered to bring any Pokemon with him while the writers... ok, in the past a small part of me thought that maybe the writers hadn't made Satoshi so deliberately weak and that he was accidentally made that way due to their poor writing. Well, that small part of me is gone... the writers are purposefully setting Satoshi back a few steps so we can see him train and learn all over again! Best Wishes might not be a reboot in the strictest sense, but so far it has been for Satoshi's character. Using bad-types while having a 'heart of the cards' mentality, losing against weaker Pokemon, I even think he threw a Poke Ball at a 'mon without weakening it before and now not being able to win a 6-5 battle... this is not a character with years of experience. This is a rookie starting out. I can't imagine why the writers chose to shaft us an extra battle other than time... still, thank god we got that Kibago filler. Iris needs to be in our faces more (!)
- I always look forward to full battles, but this is easily the worst. Remember the battle with Shinji, how it employed constant strategy? Gone! Now we have 'Attack, attack, attack, knock-out, attack, attack'... no planning at all has gone into this battle, which is weird since the writers knew the majority of Kotetsu's Pokemon before this.
- I really hope that Satoshi decides to send the majority of his reserves to Okido when he reaches Araragi, given how badly they're used here. I'd rather they not get used as opposed to how they're constantly embarrassed like Gantle and Kenhallow are nowadays.

Episode N, you're the final chance I'm giving this show. If is continues to get worse, I'm giving up on the show completely. Best Wishes has been one mis-step after another.

 

[Idon'tcare]

Okay my opinions on Kotetsu using five Pokémon against Satoshi's six (and the former possibly beating the latter) is this- So what? It's only one Pokémon less. Yes it was a silly mistake to make- thinking a full battle requires five Pokémon - but Kotetsu isn't being stupid for the sake of being stupid, he's a scatterbrain so he can't help it. Kotetsu shouldn't blamed for it, if anything it is how is mind works that should get blame. I mean at least Kotetsu's Pokémon are a match for Satoshi's.

Besides I don't even care for any battle tournament arcs anyway. Whoever wins or loses I won't care, I'll simply accept it.

 

[Zexy]

Well, that battle was awful.

Since Kotetsu's debut, I was waiting for this battle and had really high expectations from it.
In fact, I even liked Kotetsu as a charaacter before the league.

But this is unacceptable:
1) Everything you have already said. (I don't want to be repetitive)
2) Hydreigon looked weak. it had a terrible moveset, like Double Hit, and was taking hits he shouldn't have taken (due to the rushed nature of the battle)
3) While Kotetsu was shown to be a nice battler in its previous battles, this time he was shown to be even worse than Kanto Ash. (highlighted by the way he handled his <insert all 5 of Kotetsu's Pokemon names (probably minus Lucario)>
4) Samurott was awful...

The writers have just ruined a probably great Battle in favor of episode N. Nice job, guys

The only thing I really liked in this episode was Ash's friends reactions to Kotetsu only having 5 Pokemon.....

 

[Ven]

Battle was lame. It also proved that all of Ash's pokemon except pikachu and pignite are also lame. Ash has regressed. Pikachu tied with LATIOS.....

Can we have some of Ash's older pokemon now? kthx

 

[Gengarzilla]

This episode can't hold a candle to the three part Ash vs Paul battle back in Sinnoh. Kotetsu went in with only five?! He should be fucking disqualified! Even Trollbias had a second Pokemon in the extremely rare case of his Darkrai losing, but not this idiot. I've pretty much had it with this guy, Trip was bad enough... Just fade away into obscurity and never grace our screens again!

 

[Ampharos King]

Hydreigon looked weak. it had a terrible moveset, like Double Hit, and was taking hits he shouldn't have taken (due to the rushed nature of the battle)

Hydreigon managed to dodge most of Oshawott and Boldore's attacks since it was levitating midair. The pokemon even dodged Pignite's Flamethrower and Fire Pledge. If you are referring to Hydreigon taking some damage from moves that it resisted, then its eventual defeat was justifiable by all of the damage it accumulated prior to Pignite using his Brick Break, which dealt super-effective damage and knocked Hydreigon out.

I didn't think all of Hydreigon's moves were terrible. It had a long-range three-pronged attack that got the better of Oshawott; prior to the Tri Attack, Oshawott actually did fairly well against Hydreigon. Hydreigon also had two very powerful Dragon-type moves: one was a projectile, and the other a close-range move. Hydreigon also had the fourth move, Double Hit, as a close range physical attack.

If you are upset that Hydreigon has a lack of type variety to its moves, that it had Double Hit or Tri Attack instead of the likes of Flamethrower or Dark Pulse, then I can understand your situation. I felt that it could have had known a Fire-type move so it could counter Ice-types. Even if the writers had decided to give Hydreigon a different moveset, keep in mind that there were certain moves that Hydreigon is capable of using, like Surf or Earth Power, that the anime will never show no matter what due to their connections with natural disasters in the past.

While Kotetsu was shown to be a nice battler in its previous battles, this time he was shown to be even worse than Kanto Ash. (highlighted by the way he handled his <insert all 5 of Kotetsu's Pokemon names (probably minus Lucario).

The only mistake that I saw Kotetsu ever making in this battle was his decision to send out pokemon with type disadvantages against Ash's pokemon (i.e. Ferrothorn against Pignite), but that is just his lack of common sense. Kotetsu doesn't think things through, even when he has an idea in his head. That's just who Kotetsu is, and if the writers are to be given credit for anything in this match it'd be their decision to keep him in character. Like Ash, Kotetsu keeps on attacking no matter what his opponent has in store and doesn't really care much about type compatibility.. Hell, he sent out his Samurott in his battle against Marlon just because she would have battled well underwater, with absolutely no regard to pokemon types or moves.

Kotetsu had a few good battling strategies here, such as using Riolu's Copycat to mimic the opponent's attacks and having Riolu jump on Unfezant in an effort to paralyze it with its moves.

If Kotetsu can be compared to "Kanto Ash" (Ash hasn't changed much in personality from back then), the only similarity I see between them is their shared attack head-on battling style.

Samurott was awful...

Samurott got a victory over Pignite with just two Water-type moves. She was also able to repel two of Pikachu's electric attacks with its Razor Shell. I can understand why you would think Samurott was a terrible battler, since it lost to Pikachu's Iron Tail attacks that the pokemon should have resisted because of its type, but she wasn't completely useless.

At least Samurott ended up with a win, unlike Swanna. At least Samurott wasn't treated like a gag pokemon, like Ferrothorn was when it was barely able to win against Eelektross in the first round.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

It seems my worst fears became reality. From moment i heard Trip is dropping in first round i predicted Unova league will be full of anticlimactic generic battles, terrible strategies and forced humor and boy was i right.

Clash between Ash and Kotetsu could easily contender for some of most ridiculous battles in entire series. From illogical, thrown out of window pokemon selections such as Ferrothorn and Swanna being sent against Pignite and Pikachu just to be not defeated, but destroyed. To Ash poor selection of counter moves not knowing how to use opponent strength against himself putting him in bad spot.
I remember how creative and smart strategy we saw in Ash battles from previous leagues such as Charizard heating ground against Blastoise catching him on surprise, Buizel using Gastrodon ice ream against himself against Paul etc. But in Unova its like writers aren't even trying with majority of battles between Ash and Kotetsu consisting of spamming attacks one after another, very little strategy involved and pure rely on pokemon will, power of heart and similar overused things to justify victory.

Interactions between characters were pretty aggravating too with Ash not acting like same experienced character who had ton of leagues and achievements behind himself, but like an excited greenhorn not thinking much through mimicking his opponent quite well. Like this is his first major competition.

I guess only bright moment in whole battle was Snivy which showed some trait of dignity and competence and putting aside disappointing battle from Riolu side evolution was performed in sparkly, kinda unique manner.

In other news we hard overplay of Kotetsu dumbness and absentmindedness taking away from appeal of character. Making someone a bit scatterbrained and disperse can only have grounds for creation of interesting character if you don't exaggerate with it. But just like you can add too much condiment in dish, you can exaggerate with character quirks too with Kotetsu reaching whole new level of idiocy by bringing only 5 pokemon in full 6 on 6 battle. While his reckless, carefree attitude not costing him anything in process winning through luck. That's not material for character to who you can relate, care and be interested in it.

All i all im very disappointed with whole league so far and battle with Kotetsu was just icing on cake full of poor writing this league, but on large part series as well showed.
I miss days when writers put effort making you root, care for characters trying to make story and battles actually engaging.

For record i feel this is worst league to this date, even worse than Kanto. At least Ash performance there was justified going in correlation of story from rookie which competes in first big competition. And we had natural, endearing humor Misty and Brock provided than forced comedy we get from Kotetsu, Bianca and similar likes.

On another hand there is not much redemption about Unova league with writers just trying something different for sake of it.

 

[Ping Ling]

It seems my worst fears became reality. From moment i heard Trip is dropping in first round i predicted Unova league will be full of anticlimactic generic battles, terrible strategies and forced humor and boy was i right.

Clash between Ash and Kotetsu could easily contender for some of most ridiculous battles in entire series. From illogical, thrown out of window pokemon selections such as Ferrothorn and Swanna being sent against Pignite and Pikachu just to be not defeated, but destroyed. To Ash poor selection of counter moves not knowing how to use opponent strength against himself putting him in bad spot.
I remember how creative and smart strategy we saw in Ash battles from previous leagues such as Charizard heating ground against Blastoise catching him on surprise, Buizel using Gastrodon ice ream against himself against Paul etc. But in Unova its like writers aren't even trying with majority of battles between Ash and Kotetsu consisting of spamming attacks one after another, very little strategy involved and pure rely on pokemon will, power of heart and similar overused things to justify victory.

Interactions between characters were pretty aggravating too with Ash not acting like same experienced character who had ton of leagues and achievements behind himself, but like an excited greenhorn not thinking much through mimicking his opponent quite well. Like this is his first major competition.

I guess only bright moment in whole battle was Snivy which showed some trait of dignity and competence and putting aside disappointing battle from Riolu side evolution was performed in sparkly, kinda unique manner.

In other news we hard overplay of Kotetsu dumbness and absentmindedness taking away from appeal of character. Making someone a bit scatterbrained and disperse can only have grounds for creation of interesting character if you don't exaggerate with it. But just like you can add too much condiment in dish, you can exaggerate with character quirks too with Kotetsu reaching whole new level of idiocy by bringing only 5 pokemon in full 6 on 6 battle. While his reckless, carefree attitude not costing him anything in process winning through luck. That's not material for character to who you can relate, care and be interested in it.

All i all im very disappointed with whole league so far and battle with Kotetsu was just icing on cake full of poor writing this league, but on large part series as well showed.
I miss days when writers put effort making you root, care for characters trying to make story and battles actually engaging.

For record i feel this is worst league to this date, even worse than Kanto. At least Ash performance there was justified going in correlation of story from rookie which competes in first big competition. And we had natural, endearing humor Misty and Brock provided than forced comedy we get from Kotetsu, Bianca and similar likes.

On another hand there is not much redemption about Unova league with writers just trying something different for sake of it.

I couldn't agree more. We all know Trip uses his brain when he fights, take his full battle (if you can call it that) with Ash for example;he made full use of his Pokemon's abilities and movesets. The writers probably knew that if they made Trip and Ash face off in a full battle that they would have to actually put some thought and effort into the battle, so they took the easy way out and made Ash fight a retard. That way they could get away with a battle that was just about yelling "use move x!", a battle with absolutely zero strategy whatsoever. If this episode was a fighting game it would be one the Ninja storm games- no skill involved, it's just a case of who's using the stronger character and who can button bash faster. e_e

 

[Zweilous]

I agree with everything that's been said about this battle. There's little that I found to really enjoy about this battle, it lacked strategy, had terrible matchups especially from Kotetsu/Cameron and too many fall guys from both sides. Also, I've reached the end of my patience for Cameron, as been mentioned before, being a bit scatterbrained is fine but he shown a new level of stupidity in this episode with the aforementioned terrible matchups and only bringing 5 pokemon with him into the match.

At least with the other trainers that knocked Ash out of the league they shown that they were smart and capable of doing it and I don't see that from Cameron. A part of me actually wants to see Ash lose to a rushed battle with Virgil right now because at least then he'll be losing to someone who has shown competence, but since that's very unlikely right now I'm very disappointed in these turn of events.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Just realized something, we never saw Circle Throw's side effect. It knocked out Kenharou and then Tsutarja came out and didn't switch out from Circle Throw because Pikachu was the only Pokemon left and he's an out-of-the-ball Pokemon.

I swear, I'm enamored with that Riolu. I totally wouldn't mind Kotetsu winning the whole Isshu League, but only if he uses Lucario the whole time.

 

[Metan]

I totally wouldn't mind Kotetsu winning the whole Isshu League, but only if he uses Lucario the whole time.

God, I wouldn't know where to start facepalming if that happened. Actually, I started at the moment this battle started.

As much as I hate to admit it, a Trip x Ash full battle would have better results than... this. I don't know what else to talk about, because there's five pages filled of my thoughts by other's posts. This league was simply ridiculous, aside from Kenyan battle.

 

[Cybersai]

It almost seems as if the writers purposely sabotaged this league in every way possible. Trip and Bianca lost way too quickly and fast, (although Trip is a bad character so nobody cares there), and Kotetsu has become the Unova version of Richie...which is really disturbing.

Ash Vs. Stephen was the only good battle of the league, that match honestly reminded me of a lot of AG battles to be honest. You know, like the battles that seemed to be decently well scripted but not as good as DP ones? Sorta like a lot of the AG battles? I guess that's why I liked it.

This league was the breaking point, I think its now obvious the writers no longer care for the show.

 

[Masurao]

This league was the breaking point, I think its now obvious the writers no longer care for the show.

Or at least this particular league, and the strong trainer Ash was becoming before BW. This league probably didn't have a lot of thought put behind it...hence why it's been nothing but "attack, attack, attack, lol attack."

 

[Yamadora]

I don't care ho much most of you guys seems to hate Best Wishes or this league specially, I've enjoyed every ep so far and so this one too. This episode included some really cool and intense battles, like Chaobuu vs Sazandora which is my favorite from here. I was pretty surprised by that Chaobuu just had learned that Brick Break just like that, but it pretty much happened with Gamagaru/Hahakomori/Waruvial already so whatever.

Gantle and Mijumaru, even though they didn't got any win they battled really well against Sazandora. Well, I'm just happy to see that pile of rock doing something instead of losing or quick battle.

And I'm probably only one here who doesn't hate Kotetsu because he's...little dumb. No, I like him, even he didn't know that Isshu league is in Isshu or about full battles. He's like Satoshi, retarded but really good with Pokémon.

Can't wait for the next ep, the preview looks awesome (nothing less expected from Iwane).

 

[Metan]

And I'm probably only one here who doesn't hate Kotetsu because he's...little dumb.

I also like him, but he reached his dumbness into a new level.

 

[Sweet Veil]

And I'm probably only one here who doesn't hate Kotetsu because he's...little dumb. No, I like him, even he didn't know that Isshu league is in Isshu or about full battles. He's like Satoshi, retarded but really good with Pokémon.

I'm actually perfectly fine with Kotetsu and find him to be pretty cute and endearing, sure he can do idiotic things but that's one of the traits that makes him so much fun for me. Reminds me of how he made Satoshi spaz out at the beginning of the league.

 

[SatoshiKun]

I don't care ho much most of you guys seems to hate Best Wishes or this league specially, I've enjoyed every ep so far and so this one too. This episode included some really cool and intense battles, like Chaobuu vs Sazandora which is my favorite from here. I was pretty surprised by that Chaobuu just had learned that Brick Break just like that, but it pretty much happened with Gamagaru/Hahakomori/Waruvial already so whatever.

Gantle and Mijumaru, even though they didn't got any win they battled really well against Sazandora. Well, I'm just happy to see that pile of rock doing something instead of losing or quick battle.

And I'm probably only one here who doesn't hate Kotetsu because he's...little dumb. No, I like him, even he didn't know that Isshu league is in Isshu or about full battles. He's like Satoshi, retarded but really good with Pokémon.

Can't wait for the next ep, the preview looks awesome (nothing less expected from Iwane).

I also don't mind his stupidity (although having so many stupid yet successful characters really annoys me sometimes). What I think most people have a problem with is that Satoshi is losing to someone much more stupid then him. While his team may be powerful, I think that only shows how lackluster the team that Satoshi is using against him is compared to some of his older teams.