Review DP093: Dancing Gym Leader! Enter Melissa!!

[Jorah]

So in Japanese, Fantina is English? Her name, of course, is English (Melissa), I noticed it was much easier to distinguish her words (meaning she probably isn't as good at pronouncing Japanese words...), spoke a LOT of English ("happy", "I see", "many, many", "let's battle" "OK" "but" "good", "miracle" etc etc...) and, the thing that made me think she is English rather than American: taking part in the national sport of sipping tea (and forcing everyone else to...er, well they were all drinking tea too).

Edit: Oh wait, other people noticed XD

 

[Hyatt]

Dang! Shimura did this episode, right? It showed. It was one of her worse episodes. Ash and Melissa looked deformed, with Melissa suffering it the most. It's bad enough she has a weird design.

I'd have enjoyed the episode if it had better animation.

Nevermind, it was Kinoshita.

 

[Pikapi]

It was Kinoshita actually.

 

[Yash]

Jesus, Satoshi got his ass beaten. I hope this isn't indicative of the actual gym battle.

And there's seriously no love for Naetle, Glion, or Mukubird.

Spoiler

Hopefully when Naetle evolves it'll actually do something...

 

[Cybersai]

Bleh, Turtwig got enough screentime during early DP, I don't want to see that thing anymore. I never understood how the writers could give us a grass type with absolutely no personality, which is a shame since the previous three Ash had were so much fun.

I do wish Chimchar (even nowadays) got some love though, it feels like its whole story has been sidelined for a while.

 

[pixies and fairies]

Awesome continuity is awesome.

Although I don't really care about Atsuo that much, but that's just me talking here. :x

at least now they'll be able to somehow manage a one-parter assuming no one else shows up (but at the same time, I wouldn't really mind seeing Kenny or Nando.)

 

[Candy Christina]

I saw this episode not too long ago and it was amazing! Fantina is freakishly tall. o.o

She seems cool though. Her Drifloon really showed off; well, Drifblim now. I can't wait to see how this episode will turn out in the dub.

 

[Casual_Furi]

It sounded like Drifloon kept saying "Fuckfuckfuckfuck!" I bet it and Drifblim will be dubbed.

I predict Ash's team for the actual battle will be Staravia, Gliscor and Chimchar/Monferno.

 

[Rocketshipper]

So she was battling Nozomi at the beginning? Who won? Was there any "gyms versus contests" wanking from Nozomi??

 

[Amazed4587]

I saw the episode, and right now I want to smack Ash with a bat for getting beaten by a freakin balloon. Omg, I didn't like it and it seems embarassing for Ash to lose to a little Driflim, and for sure Ash can do better.

Melissa scares me. She seems very bumlupicious to me, and so tall.

But the episode had it funny moments like Jessie smacking Ash out the way and Dawn making a funny face, those little moments.

 

[Cybersai]

I'm really surprised they brought up Juan. You would think he would be brought up back in the Wallace episodes though, considering they're from the same Gym.

Yet another throwback to the AG series, along with all the Kanto flashbacks/references. I say again, the D/P series has a lot of continuity to both the current season and Kanto as well as AG episodes. I can't remember the last time we had a Johto reference.

 

[Dogasu]

All those Marina references?

We also got to see glimpses of Harley and Shuu during the Mikuri Cup; even though they're Houen characters, they were in Jouto at the time.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

*looks at pictures*

Fantina's not THAT tall. She's tall yes, but not freakishly so.

 

[FabuVinny]

- Nyaruma sees little Achamo over its head when it gets dizzy, just like Potchama (?) did earlier in the series.

They also did that with Spinda way back in AG. That seems to be a standard animation for it now.

- Melissa definitely talks like a foreigner speaking Japanese the way she overpronounces everything...it actually reminds me of the way Musashi spoke English in the episode where Takeshi got Gureggru.

Her voice is basically Jodie from Detective Conan when she's pretending to be less than fluent in Japanese. Except Jodie is intentially overacting and eventually stops that while here the voice is just going to get on my nerves. At least she isn't "correcting" Brock's English...

- And now Takeshi's holding Pinpuku, for no reason.

He probably noticed Dawn holding Piplup for no reason again and didn't want to feel left out. (It could be worse. He might steal Ash's egg again. )

- Satoshi forfeits the match even though all his pokemon aren't KO'ed. But he vows to beat her back at the Yosuga Gym.

We have been told many times that a good trainer has to know when to forfeit, so this is supposed to show a strength of his character. That said, he does need to learn to counter status effects. In the past, he's responded to sleep by returning the Pokémon to its Poké Ball but that isn't an option with Pikachu. Best case scenario, we get an episode that addresses Pikachu's phobia.

 

[$aturn¥oshi]

*looks at pictures*

Fantina's not THAT tall. She's tall yes, but not freakishly so.

She's probably tall to show that she's a foreigner and that perhaps most of the cast really is Japanese.

 

[QuietDragon]

Her voice is basically Jodie from Detective Conan when she's pretending to be less than fluent in Japanese.

Yes, totally. xD

(Conan reference ftw!)

She's probably tall to show that she's a foreigner and that perhaps most of the cast really is Japanese.

We had doubts? xD

 

[Dogasu]

We have been told many times that a good trainer has to know when to forfeit, so this is supposed to show a strength of his character. That said, he does need to learn to counter status effects. In the past, he's responded to sleep by returning the Pokémon to its Poké Ball but that isn't an option with Pikachu. Best case scenario, we get an episode that addresses Pikachu's phobia.

I don't think Pikachu really has a fear of going inside its Monster Ball...it just doesn't like to.

Also, Takeshi did bring up the fact that Sleep doesn't go away just because the pokemon's recalled to its Monster Ball. So the characters are at least aware that the status effect is one that lasts.

We had doubts? xD

There are quite a few fans who would strongly argue that the cast isn't meant to be Japanese, actually.

 

[PDL]

There are quite a few fans who would strongly argue that the cast isn't meant to be Japanese, actually.

Still, we can summirize that where Melissa/Fantina come from, people grow taller then where Ash and his friends come from.

Same thing could be said for Surge. Although in his case, his size is exaggerated.

 

[Quagbert]

So...much...continuity...
- I don't remember so many Korean names being in the credits before...

Indeed, [bp=Anime staff by episode (DP091-DP100)#DP093]this episode had a few Korean animators[/bp] working under Kinoshita's direction, [bp=Anime staff by episode (DP081-DP090)#DP087]as was the case with The Koduck Roadblock![/bp], which also had Kinoshita as its animation director.

 

[Geodude]

Hopefully Fantina's French from the games makes it to the dub to take the place of her English in Japanese. They did that with Harley a few times, so it's been done before. It'd be awesome if they could find a VA for her who could pull off a good French accent.