Review BW108: Isshu League Conclusion! Pikachu VS Lucario!!

[TPrower]

While it is a shame that Ash lost, he did put up a great fight, and Virgil wasn't just cast aside. If anything, I think he deserved to win most of all, so I'm glad for that,

 

[Cybersai]

So Ash came in the Top 8 again. Not only is it the third damn league he came in the same Top 8 rank, but he regressed from Sinnoh's Top 4.

Pretty awful.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

Well, we all knew Ash was going to lose, seriously, why must the writers be so hard on Ash, at least it was a more honorable loss than with Tobias, so that's at least a step up, still, can they not give Ash at least ONE victory. Then again, the writers seem to be so biased about Ash overall, regardless of what he does. However, while everyone saw Ash's loss coming, that's not the thing about this episode that made me mad.

ENTERING RANT MODE

I really didn't like that Cameron lost to Virgil, SERIOUSLY, Lucario has a type advantage over Eevee's ty- oh wait, type advantages don't exist in the anime, but still, they made Lucario LOSE TO AN EEVEE just to market more of the Eeveelution franchise that's being released, and Lucario had it's own movie in the past, so I think Lucario deserves more respect than it was given in this episode. At least he retained his personality from Riolu though, that's always a good sign, but sadly, we're unlikely to see him and Cameron ever again, which is a shame, he may be an idiot, but I kinda liked the character in the end, and personally think he had a lot more potential than what was shown, but it made him rather pointless and into a basic "I only exist to beat Ash in the league" character.

It be understandable if it was to Flareon or Espeon, as both have advantages over Lucario's typing, but to a plain, vanilla Eevee is just plain ridiculous.

EXIT RANT MODE

Also, it looks like we won't be seeing any of the rival characters ever again after this, since they seemed to have written them all off, I at LEAST hope to see Bianca again, she deserves to make another appearance in the future, especially with Cheren making his first (albeit late) appearance in the coming future.

Overall, I'm giving this episode a 4/10, the writers know they can write better episodes, and more importantly, better league endings. Here's hoping that Episode N turns things around from what Best Wishes has been so far.

 

[Moe]

It be understandable if it was to Flareon or Espeon, as both have advantages over Lucario's typing, but to a plain, vanilla Eevee is just plain ridiculous.

Virgil switched to Flareon (from Espeon) to beat Lucario - Eevee beat Dino's Druddigon to win the overall league.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

It be understandable if it was to Flareon or Espeon, as both have advantages over Lucario's typing, but to a plain, vanilla Eevee is just plain ridiculous.

Virgil switched to Flareon (from Espeon) to beat Lucario - Eevee beat Dino's Druddigon to win the overall league.

I know not, and it makes me mad, they only did that to sell Eeveelution merchandise and nothing more.

 

[Karamazov]

I don't see why the Eeveelutions getting major wins is a bad thing. Yes, they were there to sell merch. The whole series is about selling merch. But Eevee and her team were shown to be very capable Pokemon since they debuted (sans Leafeon.) And we did have Meowth-and-boots in the Hoenn League.

 

[Gengarzilla]

As far as I'm concerned, Cameron deserved to lose. He should have actually been disqualified from his battle against Ash , since that was a Full Battle and he only took five with him.

Oh and Floatzel, Lucario lost to the FIRE TYPED Flareon. Why are you suprised?

 

[Adil]

The episode had bullshit written all over it.

 

[Joshawott]

Well, the Unova league was a pretty piss poor league. Hopefully Gen VI's is better. I lost all interest in the Unova series since shortly after the start of season 2, but have kept up with spoilers etc. Really bad.

If episode N doesn't impress me, I'll just stop watching the anime altogether.

 

[Adil]

From where did Kotetsu's Watchog come from?
Didn't he refer to Riolu as his last Pokemon in 107 and how he thought that a full battle means 5 VS 5, or did I misunderstand?

 

[Master Cyrus]

Let's be honest here. Did anyone expect Virgil not to win?

 

[Adil]

Let's be honest here. Did anyone expect Virgil not to win?

Virgil didn't bother me. Sure, it would have been better if it was Dino instead of Virgil, but that's still fine by me.
However, I sure as hell did not expect Ash to lose against Kotetsu.

 

[Gengarzilla]

From where did Kotetsu's Watchog come from?
Didn't he refer to Riolu as his last Pokemon in 107 and how he thought that a full battle means 5 VS 5, or did I misunderstand?

No you didn't. He went in with just five then, thinking that full battles were 5v5. He had figured it out by the time he battled Virgil. Not that it helped much anyway...

 

[Karpi]

It annoys me slightly that the best possible team one could have come to the Unova League with was apparently... team Eeveelution. Should have given the win to someone with a more diverse team, like Dino.

 

[GreatLiver]

That Watchog is just the cherry on the fucking cake of a terrific episode. BW's had a huge huge problem with showing us jack shit when it comes to rivals' teams. We've seen like 3 pokemon from pretty much everyone other than Shooti. They only gave us 5 from Cameron in his battle, sure cool whatever. He's an idiot, we get it. But then, when they're just showing his knocked out pokemon on the scoreboard, they could have given him absolutely any pokemon as his 6th. Anything. And they gave him the evolution of the rat. How clever and exciting. Give the kid something half decent. Sure it would have sucked to have not seen a pokemon of his battle if it was something cool, and I'm sure not many people care they missed out on seeing a Watchog fight a bit more, but it's just so lame. There are tons of cool pokemon in Unova, they could have given him something half decent even though we'd never see it.

Unless he only ever had 5 pokemon thinking that was a full team all along, and just went out the night before his battle with Virgil and caught the first shitty pokemon he could find.

 

[DynoStretch]

And so we finally draw to a close the Unova league arc.

And good effing riddance.

So they couldn't even give Ash the dignity to tie with Lucario? Someone give the writers an Emmy for the title of "Outstanding Failure in Writing for an Animated Series", assuming Captain N The Game Master doesn't win it every year by default.

I couldn't figure out what the heck everyone is saying, but does Ash ever acknowledge he only placed in the Top 8 this time? It's one thing to lose to a couple of legenderies or to a full team of six Pokemon used by an established skilled trainer. But this time, he and his six Pokemon lost to a spazzy, incompetent kid's five. And since it didn't end with a tie, the whole "Cameron only had five Pokemon" thing had no real significance to it. I was expecting the two of them to tie, then Ash forfeits because all six of his were knocked out. Yeah it would still suck, but at least it would give a reason for it. But nope, Lucario wins. I don't know if the writers were deliberately trying to make Ash look bad or if they were so busy trying to throw in jokes about Cameron's goldfish memory that they didn't realize it, but all it served was to show just how bad Ash did in this region and how much he's regressed. Ash and Pikachu started this league failures and came out of it failures.

Virgil continues to show just how much of a super-omnipotent Marty-Stu he is, then just hops into his jet as if to say "Oh I'm now the league champion of this tournament? Okay, well back to work!" then returns to his life of destroying underground Neo-Nazi groups, protecting endangered wildlife from Ross Allen, patching up holes in the O-Zone layer, and separating the glass recyclables from the plastics.

*sniff* Goodbye Bianca, you'll be missed by everyone who likes enjoyable characters.

On the plus side, I like that Lucario's personality didn't become super-duper-maxi-serious after evolving (hey Ash, take a hint), and it was well animated... ... ... yeah that's about it.

I can only hope the Plasma arc will make up for this.

 

[Joshpho]

I enjoyed the collage at the end quite a bit. It was nice to see Georgia and Burgundy in there too.

I really think the writers handled Ash's loss like they did to be unpredictable and honestly more logical. Everyone was thinking from 107 that Kotetsu would indeed be victor over Ash, but only by 1 Pokemon or so. The fact that he KOd both of Ash's was a little more unpredictable. Honestly, I think it makes more sense - of course someone who has been training long enough to fully evolve their team in Unova is going to have higher leveled Pokemon than someone like Ash who just pounded through the Gyms in a short amount of time without much training in between.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Now I just wish that Ash had left Cameron outside and miss the signing off point. He helped the guy who would defeat him sign up. Nice work Ash, really fucking nice...

 

[Ashs Battle Coach]

lol with all the hype behind Episode N and generation 6, I had forgot the Unova league was still going. Just watched it. Worst league ever. Can that even be denied? We get the closest thing to a 6 v 6 and it was a piece of shit. Then a bunch of montage battles where Cameron can only beat half of Virgil's team, which kinda makes Ash look even worse.

 

[Mikuri]

I loved Ash's regression, loved. It was only fair for him to finish in a lower position, since he barely trained his Pokémon in this saga.
I'm also glad Riolu kept its personality after evolving. I was thinking it would become super serious like every other Lucario, so that was a nice surprise.
Virgil's victory was expected. I'm totally fine with him winning, if only because it showed once again that someone can win the League with first stage Pokémon.