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Review BW111: The New Gym Leader - Cheren!

Even though this was an unofficial exhibition match, it was expected that Ash would lose since he already owned the Basic Badge from his victory over Lenora. Oshawott is treated as a comic relief pokemon most of the time, so I was not surprised how he lost to Cheren's Herdier. The other aspects of this episode weren't that interesting.

That's two battles on the trot for ash but on the wrong side of the legder
 
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This episode was quite good. Better than BW110, for sure

Pros:

1) Team Rocket won't appear in every episode!
2) Unfezant doesn't appear in this episode! (That bird just got too much screentime since BW107)
3) Sunflora, Ducklett and Mincinno scenes were amazing...
4) At least we got a battle shown in full and with an outcome in Episode N. (more comments about the battle are listed below...)

Cons:

In one word.... Oshawott. I hate that little Otter. Epsecially in battle. I loved how it had nearly zero battling throughout Best Wishes season 2 (the Oshawott/Piplup fighting for Meloetta was nice, I mainly dislike that thing battling). The only battle he got was vs Cameron's Hydreigon, and that's arguably the best battle it ever got, despite its loss. It looked like another Pokemon was battling.
But today, good ol' Oshawott comes back...

Though, I took the whole battle as an Oshawott funny scene. From that aspect, the episode was great.
 
Why do You hate the Otter so much don't you get that he is the Region Comedian like pretty much there has been one in every Region like Team Rocket was until Unova and Piplup was for Sinnoh.
 
I thought this episode was great; I really enjoyed it. I was very happy with the way they portrayed Cheren... slightly different from the games, but that's okay. He cares about the students and the pokemon, qualities that a gym leader should possess.

And I love Shinx, so it was fun to see one!
 
I really liked the episode because I really love Cheren and he was really adorable in this episode.

Also I don't think Oshawott deserves the hate it gets. It's cute and tries hard. It shouldn't be berated just for being weaker than the others. Ash needs more Pokemon that don't bend the plot to their will every time they fight. It got old 10+ years ago and they're still doing it. I'm happy that Ash lost.

The episode was full of cuteness.
 
Good to know Rocket Dan isn't showing up all the time. With their horrible new selves, the longer they stay out, the better.
But Kibago wanders off again...? I think he's trying too hard to be Togepi 2.0. Implying that little thing wasn't already annoying in its time.

This is funny. 70 or so episodes ago I was sure Pokabu would be an eternal loser and thought Mijumaru was Satoshi's best new Pokémon.
Fast-forward to this day and it's the exact opposite. Oh well... it's okay Mijumaru. You can be a loser, I'll still like you for your out-of-battle scenes.
 
If Ash had to lose to Cheren, why not against Stoutland? That'd be better IMO since Stoutland is one of Cheren's powerhouses as opposed to his weakened gym leader team, in the games anyway.

Well, Oshawott only battled Lenora's Lillipup briefly and never battled her Herdier, so at least the matchup isn't a total repeat.

Kinda going off-topic here, I guess Ash has to lose sometimes, but the way he's losing in Best Wishes really kind of pushes him into [Boring] Failure Hero territory for me,. I mean, other than the obligatory badge quest and league rounds [which are kinda dubious themselves], he hasn't really had any significant wins lately.

Now Ash is the protagonist, I want to see him win, and do it well. I really wish all of Ash's losses were part of some bigger plot of him loosing his groove, but that won't happen.

I wonder, is Ash losing to a gym leader made better or worse because it's not long after a dismal league? The adventure continues, I guess.
 
Now Ash is the protagonist, I want to see him win, and do it well. I really wish all of Ash's losses were part of some bigger plot of him loosing his groove, but that won't happen.
This is a plot I would like to see. Not only would be interesting to see Ash getting mad for losing match after match, but also how would he react against and how it would finish, but I think the writers didn't get this point.
 
I love how this super Japanese school exists in what's supposed to be this franchise's version of New York City.

Is it really that hard to do a Google image search to see what American schools look like?

That would require effort.

Time to take this show out back and shoot it. Completely pathetic lately, this episode included. Was there a major staff overhaul or something after DP?
 
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I love how this super Japanese school exists in what's supposed to be this franchise's version of New York City.

Is it really that hard to do a Google image search to see what American schools look like?

Just pull a Silent Hill and rip-off the school from Kindergarten Cop.
 
Haaderia licking Mijumaru after his loss...I dunno, that was kinda cute. Liked the episode overall, but I can't wait for the next week's.
 
On a second thought this wasn't a bad episode.
Kibago's Togepi moment lasted for a short while and I liked how it wasn't just a useless scene in the end.

I didn't care for the game's Cheren but the anime Cheren is indeed kinda bland and "off" here...
 
This is an episode about CHEREN - I don't see why Oshawott losing the batte is something to fuss over. The battle could've been done with anyone - heck, even Pikachu could've battle Cheren's Herdier, but in the end Cheren would've won anyways. Maybe the writers had shuffled up the cards to choose which of Ash's pokemon would lose to Cheren and ta-daa - Oshawott was picked.

I'm getting mixed feelings here. While I understand Cheren being portrayed as his B2W2 self, they missed out on Cheren's sharpness and intellectual side. I had highly expected that since he was going to appear as a teacher as well, but it wasn't well depicted. As a main support character in the games against Team Plasma, I have hopes of him making a return sometime later in the Plasma arc.
 
I liked the whole episode, it had a very good pace compared to others... The think that scared me is that it made me think about how the anime Bianca is the BW one, but the anime Cheren is the BW2 one... The world will explode if those both meet? Now, I know that they are just anime counterparts, but it still got me thinking...
 
Very ordinary episode frankly speaking.. How many times did we see a pokemon shocking a trainer/caretaker(here Cheren). Good debut for him. And what is with Oshawott?? Its enthusiastic and wants to fight,,agreed but how much time can it rely on its scalchop for defense.. Somethi else has to done.. Writers need to develop this pokemon else its screentime would just be filled with failures..
 
I don't see the point of this episode sure Ash likes his battles. But did he really have to make the trip cause of one gym leader when he could just battle normal gym leaders with multiple badges (which would make them out rank gym leaders) what about all the damn non game gym leaders Ash didn't battle. What's the point of Cheren when he's basically a generic teacher character here not that BW2 Cheren gave them anything to work with but damn I was bored. Just a filler with a game character even if Cheren reappears this episode would be pointless
 
So less than 5 episodes ago, Oshawott was able to take repeated blows from a Hydreigon, yet was quickly defeated by a Herdier? I appreciate what Cheren winning did to his character and really, there was only one possible result as for as the story was going but still...seriously?
 
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