Review HZ016: As Long as I'm With Kuwassu, I Can Do It

[Alola]

So about as many as Team Galactic or Flare? Seems pretty normal to me.

Plus, Hamber hasn't been portrayed as anything more than a butler/secretary, so he probably won't be too important.

The amount of notable Explorers near double that of Team Galactic’s admins/Cyrus. Team Flare would be a more apt comparison, but if you consider the defections of Malva and Alain, then Team Flare is also smaller.

Those two organizations had nameless Grunts though, that the Explorers have yet to show (and may not have). But, again, the collective whole of the organization wasn’t my point. Even still, just because the anime has done a large villainous organization before doesn’t mean that the concern of character development and characterization isn’t still valid nor was it a problem before. There’s a reason I believe Team Galatic’s characters were a bit more fleshed out than Team Flare’s.

Hamber is the second in command of the Explorers. Even if he’s been primarily shown doing butler things, he’s still notable. And if they only show him doing butler things, then I feel like that only adds to my concern of some characters inevitably suffering from significant screen time in favor of others. It would be a waste to leave the second in command to just pour tea and serve crumpets every time he appears.

 

[Nicolas721]

The presentation and animation were superb, they made the attacks look flashy and amazing (it would be hard to guess they barely have 40 BP in the games lol) and Liko, Roy and Dot had great chemistry has a trio and carried the episode. However I missed more drama, Liko and Dot didn't overcome any hard challenge (it could be argued that happened in the previous episode but...do jump off a ledge and asking a friend for help really count?) and everything was solved too easily with Arboliva just appearing and scaring Spinel away. I did like the reveal at the end, hopefullly we know its impact soon.

 

[VetProf]

Yeah, I'm getting a bit worried that many of the conflicts with the Explorers have been conveniently solved by Liko's pendant/the ancient Pokeballs activating on a whim. It does negate some of the tension knowing that the group can rely on these artifacts coming in clutch whenever they're in trouble. I'm hoping we will eventually get an explanation on when/how these artifacts can activate as well as their limitations so that they're not a completely free get-out-of-jail card.

As for the growing numbers among the Explorers, I'm fine with it, though I do hope we'll get more exposition on what exactly the Explorers are doing and what their end goal is, because the organization's getting too big to just be a bunch of goons chasing after a girl's pendant. Like, what exactly are the other members doing whenever one of them is chasing after the pendant?

 

[SamurottMan]

There's a sleeping legendary in the pendant that seems to wake up whenever Liko's in trouble. She's probably connected to the pendant somehow as a likely descendant of Lucious and is activating it without realising. Which means that the pendant saves the day plot will likely continue, unless Liko learns how to turn on the pendant and summon an ancient hero whenever she wants to. Maybe grandma can help.

 

[Kurolegacy]

There's a sleeping legendary in the pendant that seems to wake up whenever Liko's in trouble. She's probably connected to the pendant somehow as a likely descendant of Lucious and is activating it without realising. Which means that the pendant saves the day plot will likely continue, unless Liko learns how to turn on the pendant and summon an ancient hero whenever she wants to. Maybe grandma can help.

Problem there is that that becomes exceptionally boring considering that it’s not victory obtained by the protagonist’s own skill or merit and instead is basically a “chosen one“ status that constantly doing the heavy lifting. Not only does it remove any urgency from Liko but it’s not remotely compelling to watch.

 

[Sakuraa]

Really? I feel like Roy has been getting quite a bit of focus and development as of late, particularly with his capture and efforts at bonding with Wattrel. Plus we have the training arc next week. If anything, Liko and Sprigatito are in desperate need of some development outside of bonding with Dot or looking for her pendant. I feel like she really needs some focus episodes on her as a trainer.

I disagree. I feel like Roy is sadly in the background the majority of the time. Heck even his "focus" episodes often wind up giving lots of screen time to the Volt Tacklers, Explorers, and everyone else. Meanwhile Liko has gotten plenty of sole focus to herself.

 

[Mr. MoonStone]

I disagree. I feel like Roy is sadly in the background the majority of the time. Heck even his "focus" episodes often wind up giving lots of screen time to the Volt Tacklers, Explorers, and everyone else. Meanwhile Liko has gotten plenty of sole focus to herself.

Yeah…we’re going to have to agree to disagree I guess lol.

 

[Eitarou]

There is no hard rule stating a focus episode has to be devoted purely to one individual. And even when someone else does get screentime, it is almost always far less than who the episode is focusing on.

 

[Alola]

Given that Roy has battled a Gym Leader, caught a Pokémon, and now is getting an episode (after this one beginning the event) dedicated to handling the dynamics of his current party, I would say he's been given more focus than Liko has at best and more focus where it matters at worst. He's acting more like a Trainer than his co-lead, which is frustrating as someone who wants to see more from Liko.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

A PokeGirl getting the shaft in favor of a male character who likes to eat, is an idiot, and befriends pokemon before catching them?

Gee, where have we seen this before for the past 27 years

 

[vivian20]

I like the episode, and i liked the character development dot got, but unlike many people here, i dont like that the 3 begginer trainers defeated a beeheyem and a magneton that were causing trouble to friedes charizard. I liked the more realistic aproach they were having in this anime. An explanation for this might be that spinel didnt heal his pokemon after his last battle, since he thought it would be too easy to defeat the begginer trainers. Arboliva is not unbeatable, even sprigatito and fuecoco managed to make her fall on the ground. They had some work to earn Arboliva´s trust, so I woldnt call her a deus ex machina. They have a powerful pokemon that only apears when they really need. I just hope the explorers will start to actually fight Arboliva and terapagos, instead of just giving up when they apear. They may even join forces at some point, and this would give them more character development.

 

[LittleNutbrownHare]

Sprigatito Retrieving The Pendant is the Act of Revenge of Being Held Hostage at the end of Episode 2 and Half of Episode 3